New Year brings new laws to help workers

New Year's Day brought new pro-worker state and local laws into effect, as past worker activism at those levels provided an alternative to gridlock and anti-worker attitudes in the GOP-run Congress in Washington.

And it wasn't just minimum wage laws, either. Data compiled by the National Partnership for Women and Families show a wide range of family-friendly and pro-worker legislation either took effect on New Year's Day or will take effect this year, on top of a host of new laws that began in 2015.

National Partnership Executive Director Debra Ness called 2015 a year filled with tremendous victories for America’s working families:

We expect the progress to continue, but our nation still has a long way to go to ensure that hardworking people aren’t left struggling when illness strikes or new children arrive, or because we have failed to eradicate pay and pregnancy discrimination. 

Not counting a carload of family-friendly laws that took effect last year, or state minimum wage hikes on Jan. 1, other state and local family-friendly laws that will start in 2016 included:

• Paid parental leave laws in Oregon (statewide), New York City (city workers), California (teachers), New Brunswick, N.J. (citywide), Seattle and King County public workers, all on Jan. 1, Tacoma (citywide, Feb. 1), Kansas City, Mo.(for city workers on May 1), Elizabeth, N.J. (March 2, citywide) and Montgomery County, Md. (countywide), on Oct. 1.
  
• California's paid sick leave law had its one-year anniversary on Jan. 1. It was the second such statewide law, and Massachusetts became the third on July 1, 2015. Many laws outlawing pregnancy discrimination took effect in a wide range of states last year.
  
• A strong equal pay law in California, the nation's most-populous state and home to one of every eight people in the U.S., took effect this Jan. 1.  Stronger statewide equal pay laws started in Oregon this Jan. 1 and will start in New York on Jan. 19. North Dakota’s stronger equal pay law started this past Aug. 1.
  
• With the GOP-run Congress refusing to strengthen the 53-year-old federal Equal Pay Act, California's legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown (D), backed by state unions, closed that law's loopholes -- at least in the Golden State.

While not in NPWF's chart, the Fight for 15 movement produced legislative and bargaining successes for low-wage workers in New York State and New York City, Massachusetts, Minnesota and elsewhere.

The union-backed movement campaigns for $15 an hour as a living wage and the right to unionize without employer harassment, intimidation, spying, firing and labor law-breaking. Some 42 percent of all U.S. workers earn less than $15 hourly, data shows.

• Press Associates, Inc., contributed to this report.

Today's Teamster News 09.02.15

Teamsters
New platform makes unions strong, America stronger  The Hill   ...Today, more than 1.4 million members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters are compensated for their skills and hard work with salaries and benefits that give them dignity and allow them to live a middle-class lifestyle. If this were true of more American workers, our economy and our country would be better off. This is a message the Teamsters intend to bring to the entire American workforce as part of the union’s new “Let’s Get America Working” campaign...
Labor readies fall highway blitz  The Hill  ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) union is gearing up for an aggressive fall push to convince lawmakers to approve a long-term highway bill that has eluded transportation advocates for the better part of a decade.  Federal funding for road and transit programs is set to expire on Oct. 29. The Teamsters union is planning to greet Congress upon its return to Washington next week...
Chicago Skyway Toll Workers Plan Labor Day Weekend Strike  NBC  ...Traffic may be moving smoothly along Chicago’s Skyway for the start of September, but it could come to a halt during the busy Labor Day travel weekend. A group of toll collectors may hold a strike over contract negotiations with the Skyway Concession Company, according to Teamsters Local 727, the union that represents them. The 30 workers are on the job without a contract – which expired at midnight – and the members are set to hold a strike vote on September 2...
U employees protest salary talks and administrative pay  Star Tribune  ...University of Minnesota workers gathered at a busy intersection on campus Monday to protest the current state of contract negotiations. The U has offered a 0.75 percent salary increase to employees who are represented by Teamsters Local 320. Among those affected by the proposal are food service, custodial and clerical workers throughout the university system...
Sun Tran's strike position doesn't tell the whole story  Arizona Daily Star  ...Two issues that are also extremely important and have contributed greatly to this strike, which Riley fails to mention, are the 22 assaults of drivers that have taken place over the past 22 months, one of which was a multiple stabbing. The other is the ongoing mold contamination of the Northwest Maintenance and Operations Facility and the buses themselves. Both are major health and safety issues...
Seattle might try something crazy to let Uber drivers unionize  Washington Post  ...Over the past few years, taxi drivers have affiliated with unions in cities across the country. So far, that’s worked out alright for taxi drivers, who’ve worked with the Teamsters in Washington State to make their case in Olympia — especially when they’ve banded together with taxi companies to keep rates high...
State of Illinois, Teamsters Reach New Labor Contract Deal  Progress Illinois  ...A new four-year collective bargaining agreement has been reached between state-employed Teamsters and the Rauner administration, the governor's office announced Monday. "The state previously announced an agreement with Teamsters Local 700, which covered 300 state workers in Cook County," the administration said in a news release...

Global Labor & Trade
Labor Leader Urges Clinton to Reject Pacific Trade Agreement  Newsweek   ...Labor leader Richard Trumka has an idea for Hillary Clinton to energize her presidential campaign after a listless summer: take a position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Specifically, the head of the AFL-CIO suggested that coming out against the 12-country trade deal would help generate excitement for the Democratic front-runner...
Could Tobacco Carveout Kill TPP?  Roll Call  ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership’s rocky road in Congress faces a fresh threat from tobacco-state senators. Reuters reported the administration had been considering allowing tobacco to be carved out of the investor-state dispute settlement, which, among other things, would give tobacco companies little protection against stiff regulation by trade partners...
Canada’s auto towns have huge stake in Pacific trade talks  Edmonton Journal  ...Windsor’s auto industry would suffer if Canadian negotiators at Trans-Pacific Partnership talks succumb to pressure from Japan and the U.S. for an “unreasonably” low content limit for auto parts and new vehicles, Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, warned Monday...
Austerity Economics is Fraying Europe’s Social Contract  (opinion) Fair Observer  ...Austerity as an economic strategy is about more than just throwing a scare into countries that, exhausted by years of cutbacks and high unemployment, are thinking of changing course. It’s also about laying the groundwork for the triumph of multinational corporate capitalism and undermining the social contract between labor and capital that’s characterized much of Europe for the past two generations...
Indian workers strike over Modi labour reforms  BBC  ...Workers across India are staging a day-long strike to protest at the economic policies of the government. They say the "pro-business" policies of the Narendra Modi-led BJP government will put their jobs at risk and hurt ordinary people. The unions are demanding the government drop plans to sell off stakes in state-run companies and change labour laws...
Everyday People Put Solidarity Into Action Helping Refugees in Greece  Truthout  ...As Greece replaces Italy as the main European gateway for refugees fleeing their war-torn homelands, the country is battling to cope with the huge influx of souls at a time when it doesn't have much to give. Nevertheless, the deus ex machina in this case is not the government, but local residents and activists from near and far who are gathering food, medicine, clothes, toys and other equipment for the refugees...

State & Living Wage Battles
New California Law Is A Big Step Forward For Working Women  Think Progress  ...On Monday, the California Senate unanimously passed an equal pay bill with the strongest measures aimed at closing the gender wage gap in the country. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) has said that he’ll sign it into law. The bill has a number of provisions, but the piece that stands out the most is one that requires employers to pay men and women the same for “substantially similar work”...
Group: Minimum wage hike needed in state  Bradford Era  ...A Harrisburg think-tank says it’s getting harder for rural Pennsylvanians to make ends meet and that a minimum wage increase is needed to bridge the gap. But some area politicians remain skeptical of the claims as well as the group behind them.   A new report issued by the Keystone Research Center (KRC) says the annual cost of living in rural Pennsylvania — places like McKean, Elk, Cameron and Potter counties — is $27,357 for a single person...
‘Prevailing wage’ protects workers, taxpayers  (opinion) SC Times  ...The Times recently published a letter authored by a special interest group arguing that Minnesota should follow Wisconsin in repealing our prevailing wage law. Unfortunately, the letter displayed a shocking ignorance of both the mechanics of prevailing wage and the public policy underpinning this long-standing component of our public works bidding process...
Paid leave makes sense  (editorial) Philly.com   ...Only New Jersey, California, Rhode Island, and a handful of U.S. cities have caught up with other parts of the modern world by requiring some form of paid leave for employees who need to care for sick or disabled family members or a new child. It's time for that to change. U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez noted in a recent interview with the Inquirer Editorial Board, "We are the only civilized nation on the planet which doesn't have it"...
One Simple Change Could Drastically Improve Voter Turnout In California  Think Progress  ...As soon as this week, the California Senate could pass a bill to address its dismally low voter turnout by making registration automatic for the millions of residents with drivers licenses. Copying a landmark law passed by Oregon earlier this year, the policy would connect DMV records with voter registration rolls, putting the burden on the voter to opt-out rather than opt-in...

U.S. Labor
Airport contract workers protest for union, higher wages  Sun Sentinel  ...Chanting and holding up signs in the sweltering midday heat, contract employees from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport brought their fight for the right to unionize and earn higher wages to downtown Fort Lauderdale. The Service Employees International Union, which is helping to organize the airport contract workers, accuse G2 and Eulen of thwarting their employees' efforts to unionize to improve their wages and working conditions...
With contract expiring, USW workers gather for rally  Chicago Tribune  ...out 2,000 steelworkers, their families and supporters arrived at a Tuesday afternoon rally in Burns Harbor by shuttle bus, cars and on motorcycles, some traveling from as far away as Nebraska, reiterating their resolve to fight for a fair contract for steelworkers across the country. The rally and march was held hours before the United Steelworkers contract with ArcelorMittal and U.S. Steel was set to expire, at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, and with some optimism...
Judge In California Delivers Uber’s Worst Nightmare  Think Progress  ...Uber’s business model is on the rocks late Tuesday after a federal judge granted class-action status to a lawsuit targeting the company’s treatment of drivers as independent contractors. The case is one of several high-profile suits brought by drivers against the technology start-up that has displaced traditional taxis in many markets...
UAW Workers, BU Reach Contract Accord  BU Today  ...Almost 600 clerical, technical, and service employees on the Charles River Campus will get annual raises of between 2.0 and 2.5 percent over the next five years under the terms of a new contract agreement with United Auto Workers Local 2324. The agreement, which took effect July 1, the start of the University’s fiscal year, incorporates previously announced University-wide changes to BU’s health insurance and long-term disability plan...
UE Becomes First National Union in U.S. To Endorse BDS Against Israel  In These Times  ...On August 20 in Baltimore, the last day of its 74th national convention, United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE) became the first national union in the United States to heed the 2005 call made by Palestinian civil society groups for a global Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) movement to protest Israeli violations of international law...

Social Justice & Other News
Donald Trump’s Shaky Grasp on Immigration  New York Times  ...Since the housing bubble burst and construction jobs dried up, more unauthorized immigrants have left the United States than have come in. Careful estimates by the Pew Research Center show that the number of undocumented Mexicans living in the United States shrank by roughly 1.1 million by 2012, from its peak in 2007. Illegal immigration could rebound as the American economy recovers further. But Mr. Massey and others argue that a more powerful force is pulling in the other direction...
Koch Brother Claims He Is a Libertarian, but He Wants to Control a Lot of Our Choices  Truthout  ...David Koch’s claim that he is socially liberal is belied by the fact that his political entities have funneled millions of dollars to Christian Right organizations. PR Watch reported that, “Kochs' Freedom Partners helped funnel at least $3 million as of May 2014 to groups that actively attack marriage equality...
As 'Muslim-Free Zones' Flourish, Groups Demand DOJ Probe  Common Dreams  ...A coalition of 82 civil liberties and human rights organizations, as well as faith-based groups and immigrant rights advocates, on Tuesday called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the growing number of businesses around the country declaring themselves 'Muslim-free zones.' Doing so violates the constitutional rights of American Muslims, particularly under Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964...
"Mr. Smith Goes to Prison": After Year in Jail, Former State Senator Condemns Mass Incarceration  Democracy Now  ...Smith was elected state senator in 2006 and served until 2009, when he pleaded guilty to conspiracy for an election law violation tied to the 2004 campaign. Smith was sentenced to one year and a day in a Kentucky federal prison. He chronicles his experience in his new book, "Mr. Smith Goes to Prison: What My Year Behind Bars Taught Me About America’s Prison Crisis"...
Robert Reich: Economic redistribution isn’t enough  Salon  ...Keynes may be proven right about technological progress. But he overlooked one big question: How to redistribute the profits from these marvelous labor-saving inventions, so we’ll have the money to buy the free time they provide? Without such a mechanism, most of us are condemned to work ever harder in order to compensate for lost earnings due to the labor-replacing technologies...

Today's Teamster News 04.15.15

Teamsters
San Bernardino Public Employees Vote To Become Teamsters  Teamster.org   ...San Bernardino County public employees have voted to affiliate with the Teamsters Union, paving the way for more than 13,500 workers to have a more secure future, Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa announced today. About 61 percent voted in favor of Teamster representation. The workers had been solely represented by the San Bernardino Public Employees Association (SBPEA), but now they have the added benefits of Teamster representation...
Air Canada Teamsters Ratify New Contract  TeamsterAir.org   ...A new contract covering more than 500 U.S.-based Air Canada employees was ratified by Teamster members who voted 200-to-101 in favor of the agreement. The seven-year contract includes wage increase, job security and improved benefits...
Hoffa: When ‘open skies’ means unfair advantage  Detroit News   ...Unfair labor practices are once again hurting U.S. workers and threatening jobs here in Michigan and across America. This time, the threat is coming from overseas, as three airlines from the Middle East — Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways and Emirates — are embracing shady financial practices and anti-worker policies to undercut U.S. companies...
Maryland Teamsters Endorse Chris Van Hollen  Washington Post   ...Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) has scored the first union endorsement in the race to replace Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), winning support from a Maryland branch of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The Baltimore-based union represents about 10,000 families in the state...
Helen Gym Receives Three More Labor Endorsements  Politics PA   ...Helen Gym, candidate for Philadelphia City Council At-Large, today announced the endorsements of three new labor groups. The former teacher scored endorsements from the Teamsters Local 502 - the Commonwealth Association of School Administrators; AFT Local 2026 - the Faculty and Staff Federation of Community College of Philadelphia; and the AFSCME District Council 47...
Judge Supports Sandpiper Pipeline In Northern Minnesota  Minneapolis Star Tribune   ...Enbridge Energy’s plans for a new pipeline to carry North Dakota crude oil across northern Minnesota got a major boost Monday when an administrative judge concluded that the Sandpiper project is needed — and that other proposed routes are not as good...
Conductor Dies On The Job At Saskatchewan Rail Yard  Occupational Health & Safety Canada   ...The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) sent a team of investigators to the scene of the incident, according to a press release. The release noted that the incident had involved the death of a Canadian National Rail (CN) employee, but no other information was available from the TSB as of press time...

Global Labor & Trade
Inside The White House’s War On The Left Over Trade   Buzzfeed   ...The story is just one of many from recent weeks as the White House executes an aggressive, furious, localized effort to break progressive opposition to one of its top priorities: President Obama’s trade agenda. Unions, activists, and progressive lawmakers have united against the “fast track” authority Obama seeks to put back into place...
Battle for Oregon highlights Obama's free-trade challenge  Reuters  ...With 44 percent of Oregon's exports already heading to the Trans Pacific Partnership countries and an estimated one in five jobs dependent on trade, local businesses are lobbying for the 12-nation pact. Yet scars from two decades of globalization and fears that big business will hijack the agenda make even many of those who may benefit from more trade apprehensive...
Leading House Democrat Will Oppose TPP Fast Track  The Nation  ...As legislation to fast-track congressional approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership gets ready to finally make its debut in Congress this week, Representative Chris Van Hollen, the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, wrote in a letter to the ranking member of the House Ways & Means Committee that he would oppose fast-track authority...
As Bills Advance, Will Grassroots Resistance Finally Overcome Fast Track Push?  Common Dreams  ...Signaling that loud grassroots resistance may be working, congressional Democrats are failing to get behind the White House's push for unilateral authority over the secretive 12-nation trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), according to news reports on Tuesday...
TTIP: MEPs Differ On Safeguards For Data, Services, Environment And Investment  European Parliment News   ...Eight hundred and ninety-eight amendments to a draft resolution on progress in talks with the US on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) were debated by the International Trade Committee on Monday...
The Worst Deal You’ve Never Heard Of – Outrage, Please!  (opinion) Ben & Jerry's   ...Hey, what is the global economy for, anyway? Creating profits for a few, or prosperity for everyone? We don’t like the looks of the two trade agreements currently being negotiated in secret by corporations and governments around the world. And this week Congress may make a BIG mistake – putting these agreements on the ‘Fast Track’ to becoming a reality...

State & Living Wage Battles
Nevada Minimum Wage Change Bills Dead In Legislature  KRNV   ...Two proposed constitutional changes to Nevada's minimum wage will not go forward. SJR 6 and SJR 8 would have changed Nevada's constitutionally required minimum wage but both resolutions didn't receive a committee vote by Friday's deadline...
Reeling from Gov. Pence's 'religious freedom' debacle, Indiana hires global PR firm to repair image  Daily Kos  ...Here's something Indiana lawmakers probably didn't account for in their annual budget -- spending $2 million on a global public relations firm to stanch the bleeding from the "right to discriminate" bill they enacted...
Campaign to begin for a $15 minimum wage in D.C.   Washington Post  ...A coalition of labor and social justice groups plan to kick off a ballot-measure campaign Wednesday for a $15 minimum wage in the nation’s capital, an hourly rate more than twice the federal minimum that could make D.C. ground zero in a growing national debate over income inequality...
NH voter ID law imperils privacy  (opinion) The Telegraph  ...What hasn’t received much attention is an ill-conceived policy change that would place new financial and logistical hardships on already overburdened election officials, violate the privacy rights of voters and all but guarantee a patchwork, unequal application of our election laws from one polling place to another...
Fast-food strikes widen into social-justice movement  USA Today  ...Organizers are calling it the largest-ever mobilization of U.S. workers seeking higher pay. That's yet to be determined. But what began on Tuesday with several low-wage worker protests and marches in Boston and Detroit started seriously expanding nationwide on Wednesday beginning shortly after 6 a.m. at a McDonald's in New York City...
The Courage of Low-Wage Workers On Strike  In These Times   ...Hedges, the fired Delta worker, put it another way: “a lot of the better paid workers also understand that the bottom has to be raised otherwise the top is going to fall as well.” If for no other reason than self-interest, join the gutsy minimum-wage workers at a Fight for $15 event Wednesday...
Women Still Earn A Lot Less Than Men (opinion)  New York Times   ...In 1963, when President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, a woman working full time year-round typically made 59 cents for every dollar paid to her male counterpart. By 2013, the latest year of available census data, it was 78 cents on the dollar. Another measure of the wage gap, computed by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, shows that, in 2014, the ratio of female-to-male weekly earnings was 82.5 percent...

U.S. Labor
DoubleTree Hotel Workers Approve Unionization  The Harvard Crimson   ...Following a campaign of more than two years that included demonstrations, a strike, and a boycott, workers at the Soldiers Field Road DoubleTree Hotel, a Hilton Hotels enterprise housed in a building owned by Harvard, have organized with the UNITE HERE! Local 26 union, according to workers and union representatives...
One Year Later, NLRB Still Hasn't Ruled On Appeal Of Whether College Football Players May Unionize  Forbes   ...More than one year after the National Labor Relations Board’s 13th Region ruled that college athletes are employees and thus may unionize,  Northwestern University’s appeal of the regional board decision remains unresolved.  Although the full National Labor Relations Board has decided numerous more recent disputes,  there is still no word on when a decision can be expected in this very important case...
USW Members Voting on LyondellBasell Contract Today  Houston Press  ...More than two months in, the United Steelworkers oil refinery strike still isn't technically over, but things could wrap up soon for the USW District 227 workers at LyondellBasell in Pasadena. By putting down this last, best and final offer, the company is calling on USW 227 members to actually vote on the contract. If the majority votes yes, then company officials and union reps will start working out a return-to-work agreement...
One Company’s New Minimum Wage: $70,000 A Year  New York Times   ...If it’s a publicity stunt, it’s a costly one. Mr. Price, who started the Seattle-based credit-card payment processing firm in 2004 at the age of 19, said he would pay for the wage increases by cutting his own salary from nearly $1 million to $70,000 and using 75 to 80 percent of the company’s anticipated $2.2 million in profit this year...
Chris Christie Pitches Social Security Cuts That Would Help Wall Street Take Over Retirement System  Think Progress   ...Christie has a track record in New Jersey of making big promises to retirees and then walking away from them. And this newest, national promise isn’t even a particularly effective one. Opponents of benefit cuts denounced the governor’s approach as the first stage in a gradual assault on an immensely popular program...

Miscellaneous
The Numbers Are Staggering: U.S. Is 'World Leader' in Child Poverty  Alternet   ...America's wealth grew by 60 percent in the past six years, by over $30 trillion. In approximately the same time, the number of homeless children has also grown by 60 percent. Over half of public school students are poor enough to qualify for lunch subsidies, and almost half of black children under the age of six are living in poverty...
U.S. Budget Deficit Widens, Ending Run Of Shrinkage  Wall Street Journal   ...The U.S. budget deficit widened slightly during the first half of the 2015 fiscal year, ending a streak of sustained declines. The Treasury ran a deficit of $439 billion during the first half of the fiscal year begun Oct. 1, up 6% from a year earlier, the Treasury Department said Monday in its monthly report...

Inequity is still an issue on Equal Pay Day

Women lawmakers took center stage today on Capitol Hill to demand fair pay for female workers in honor of Equal Pay Day. And the Teamsters are standing with them.

Teamster women receive equal pay. But many others don't.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), a repeated sponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act, led the charge in urging Congress to take up and pass the legislation. The measure would help close the wage gap between women and men working equivalent jobs. The pay disparity costs women and their families $434,000 over the length of their careers.

She said:

We need to get equal pay in our law books and equal pay in our checkbooks, and to finally get rid of the harassment and intimidation women face in the marketplace when they even ask about how much pay they make or try to identify how much pay they should make. 

As it stands, women on average earn only 78 cents to every dollar made by a male. The Paycheck Fairness Act builds on the promise of the Equal Pay Act passed in 1963. It would empower women to negotiate for fair pay, close loopholes courts have created in the law, create incentives for companies to obey laws and bolster enforcement efforts.

The Teamsters are a strong supporter of the legislation. General President Jim Hoffa sent a letter to senators last fall telling them it was well past time for them to back efforts to equalize pay so that workers can better support their families.

The pay gap has barely budged in more than a decade. It hits nearly every occupation and is even worse for women of color. This not just a low-income problem. It is an every women problem. It is an American families problem.

It may be the 21st century, but for too many women it might as well be the Dark Ages. It is time for all of Congress to take a stand against this blatant inequity.

Today's Teamster News 04.14.15

Teamsters
Hoffa: Sharon Block Appointment A 'Victory For The Middle Class'  Teamster.org   ...James P. Hoffa, General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on the announcement of Sharon Block’s appointment: "With the announcement of Sharon Block’s installation as Senior Advisor for Labor and Working Families in the White House Office of Public Engagement, the administration has made a real commitment to focusing on the issues that concern middle class Americans"...

Global Labor & Trade
Japan, U.S. aim for Pacific trade pact progress before summit  Reuters   ...Japanese and U.S. officials will meet from Wednesday in a bid to strike a two-way deal giving momentum to a pan-Pacific free-trade pact, the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership. Success, however, depends on whether the U.S. Congress, which returns from recess this week, approves measures to ease passage of trade deals, or trade promotion authority (TPA)...
Obama’s trade pitch falling flat with Dems  The Hill   ...An aggressive effort by the administration to win support for President Obama’s trade agenda appears to be stuck. As few as 15 House Democrats might vote to give the president fast-track authority, according to dozens of Democratic lawmakers, business group representatives and activists on both sides of the trade fight interviewed by The Hill...
How We Can Hold American Companies that Use Sweatshop Labor Accountable  In These Times   ...Without granting workers of the world legal power in American or international courts, union jobs will continue leaving the United States and they will leave Guatemala or Vietnam if workers unionize there. That legal framework isn’t happening tomorrow and it isn’t happening in the next election cycle. But this is the long-term change to labor law we need if we are to give workers around the world a chance to live dignified lives...
U.S. Government Starts Investigation Of Alleged Subsidies To Gulf Airlines  Dallas Morning News   ...Three federal departments said they’ll review charges by the three biggest U.S. airlines, including American Airlines Group, that three Persian Gulf carriers receive $42 billion in unfair subsidies from their governments...
Fast Track a Bad Deal for Farmers and Our Food System, 110+ groups say  IATP   ...Over 110 farm, food and consumer groups urged members of Congress in a letter today to oppose trade promotion authority or “fast track” legislation that would pave the way for trade agreements detrimental to farmers, ranchers and food systems, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Fast Track To Lost Jobs And Lower Wages  (opinion)  Huffington Post   ...Claims that trade and investment deals would support domestic job creation have proven to be empty promises. Expanding exports alone is not enough to ensure that trade adds jobs to the economy. Increases in U.S. exports tend to create jobs in the United States, but increases in imports lead to job loss--by destroying existing jobs and preventing new job creation...
The Public Deserves to Know Exactly What’s in the Trans-Pacific Partnership  (opinion) Slate  ...In the next few weeks, Congress may give special status to a massive “free trade” treaty that you are not allowed to read. Based on leaks of portions of the deal, however, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) appears to be at least partly a grab bag of special favors for corporate interests—among them the entertainment and pharmaceutical industries—and an end-run around domestic law...

State & Living Wage Battles
Unions, angry Republican voters rally in support of Indiana's wage law  News and Tribune   ...Frank Marshall calls himself a lifelong Republican, but on Monday he stood on the steps of the Statehouse and denounced GOP leaders for their efforts to kill Indiana’s 80-year-old common construction wage. He told about 8,000 protesters that he regretted donations to Republicans who want end the system that sets wages for workers on public projects...
Charleston OKs Support Of Right-To-Work Zones  Journal Gazette and Times-Courier   ...Charleston joined a list of several cities including Clinton and Makanda on Tuesday when it endorsed some governmental reforms proposed by Gov. Bruce Rauner, including right-to-work zones...
Oregon minimum wage hike debated  The State-Register   ...Proponents of a big increase in Oregon’s minimum wage — potentially raising it to as much as $15 an hour — got the chance to make their case to state lawmakers on Monday. During a packed evening hearing that followed a brief rally inside the Capitol’s rotunda, low-income workers from throughout the state shared stories of struggling to make ends meet...
Legislator Takes Aim At Automated Union Dues  Houston Chronicle   ...A Senate panel on Monday is expected to vote on a bill that would keep most state employees from paying union and other association dues through payroll deductions...
Rally Backs Fines For Employers Paying Less Than $15 An Hour  Hartford Courant   ...Mayors and legislators on Thursday rallied support for a bill that would fine large employers who pay their employees less than $15 an hour to reimburse the cost to the state for social services those employees are using...
Report: US Taxpayers Bear 'Hidden Cost' of Poverty Wages  Common Dreams   ...Stagnant wages and declining employer-provided benefits mean that low-wage workers in the United States are increasingly reliant on federal and state-run public assistance programs...
McMugging The Middle Class: How Corporate Welfare Conquered The American Economy  Salon.com   ...A telling fact: Of the more than 47 million Americans currently receiving food stamps, tens of millions work full time. This is because their jobs at fast food chains such as McDonalds, Dominos and Taco Bell — or at major retailers like Walmart, Target and Rite-Aid — simply don’t pay them enough to support themselves...

U.S. Labor
State AG Probing ‘On-Call’ Shifts’ Impact On Workers  Buffalo News   ...The state Attorney General’s Office is looking into retailers’ use of “on-call shifts,” in which employees are required to check in the night before or even just a few hours ahead of a shift to see if they are needed – and receive no pay if they are told not to show up...
Where The Presidential Candidates Stand On Equal Pay  Think Progress  ...Tuesday is Equal Pay Day, the symbolic day by which women’s earnings catch up to what men earned in a single year last year, given that the gender wage gap means that women who work full-time, year-round made 78 percent of what men make. It also comes as presidential hopefuls are announcing campaigns for 2016, so where do they all stand on this particular issue?...
Can Labor Bring Wall Street Back to Main Street?  The Nation  ...Seven years since Wall Street imploded, it seems the banking sector has rebounded far faster than the communities it has devastated, according to a report published by Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), which builds on a global campaign to advocate for fair labor and corporate accountability in Big Banks...
Bonanza for the Super-Rich: The Fund Managers' Tax Break  (opinion) Truthout.org   ...The reason most of us have seen little gain from economic growth over the last three decades is that the rich have rigged the rules to ensure that money flows upward. Through their control of trade policy, Federal Reserve Board policy, and other key levers of government, they have structured the market to weaken the bargaining power of ordinary workers and benefit the CEOs and Wall Street crew...
1199 Postpones Nursing Home Strike  Hartford Courant  ...One of the state's largest unions has postponed a nursing home strike at the request of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. District 1199 of the Service Employees International Union had voted for a strike against 27 nursing homes, but they have called off the walkout after discussions with Malloy's office...

Local UAW-GM Tiff May Herald Fractious Contract Talks  Wards Auto  ...General Motors and the United Auto Workers resolve a shop-floor dispute at the automaker’s Wentzville, MO, assembly plant, but the underlying tensions that erupted are symptomatic of a rising tide of discontent among workers at GM, Ford and FCA US that will play out during contract negotiations this year...
Kroger Ratifies Agreement with UFCW 227  MarketWatch   ...The Kroger Co. associates working at Kroger in the Louisville division have ratified a new labor agreement with UFCW Local 227. The contract covers nearly 14,000 associates working in 89 stores in the Louisville and Southern Indiana areas...

Miscellaneous
The New Segregation (opinion)  Huffington Post   ...50 years ago, President Lyndon Johnson passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as part of his War on Poverty. The law recognized the power of an education to lift any student, regardless of background, out of poverty. But what I and the authors of the ESEA also recognized was that not every student is the same. Low-income, immigrant, or disabled students often require additional supports...
The NSA Wants Tech Companies To Give It 'Front Door' Access To Encrypted Data  The Verge   ...The National Security Agency is embroiled in a battle with tech companies over access to encrypted data that would allow it to spy (more easily) on millions of Americans and international citizens. Last month, companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple urged the Obama administration to put an end to the NSA's bulk collection of metadata...

Today's Teamster News 11.02.14

Trade
Secret Negotiations Hide the TPP’s Most Damaging Provisions  Economy in Crisis   ...Under the proposed agreement, American laws regarding labor, environmental or financial issues would apply to companies based in America, but foreign companies operating in the U.S. could challenge these laws in a secret international tribunal if they felt these laws affected their ability to do business. ..
WTO in Seattle - 15 Years Ago  Huffington Post   ...it's clear that the WTO and NAFTA-style trade deals were never about economics or shared prosperity. They are really about power relationships. Who will have the power to claim any new gains created through work?...
State Battles
Voter ID Laws Are Now In 17 More States Than They Were In 2000  Five Thirty Eight   ...It's gotten a lot harder to vote...
Scott Walker Runs Ad Supporting Equal Pay After Repealing Wisconsin's Equal Pay Law  Huffington Post   ...Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) released an ad on Tuesday in which his female lieutenant governor applauds his support for equal pay for women -- just two years after the governor signed a bill repealing the state's equal pay law...
New York State Allows Water Grab  Natural Resources News Service   ...Painted Post siphons water from a shallow, rain-dependent aquifer it shares with several neighboring communities, including the town of Corning. In 2012 the village signed a five-year deal reportedly worth up to $20 million with a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell to sell up to 1 million gallons a day used to frack Shell’s natural gas wells in Pennsylvania. The village has called the sale a routine disposal of “surplus property.”...
Has privatization failed Texas utility customers?  Electric Light & Power   ...Relative to U.S. electricity prices, Texas electricity prices during the deregulation and privatization period (2002-2011) rise four times faster than increases in Texas electricity prices before deregulation (1970-2001). The Texas electricity market is much less efficient now as a result of deregulation...
Minority Voter Suppression In North Carolina Witnessed Firsthand  Politicususa   ...on Thursday, October 23rd [] I voted in Winston-Salem at the Forsyth County Government Center. Several African-American voters told me they were told by people outside the polling place that it would take two hours to vote. I, a clearly upper-middle-class white man, was told forty-five minutes to an hour; it took fifty-five minutes...
War on Workers
$17.27 an Hour, With Benefits, While Training? Welcome to Union Apprenticeship in Indiana  We Party Patriots   ... Lee Culver of United Association (Plumbers) Local 210 said there was plenty of opportunity in his union and claimed they “struggled to get good applicants.”  The five-year apprenticeship does not cost the students a dime. Rather, they earn $17.27 with benefits while they train....
Workers at Amazon.com logistics centers in Germany on strike again in wage dispute  Associated Press   ...The ver.di union said Monday workers at Amazon's logistics centers in Bad Hersfeld, Leipzig, Rheinberg and Graben will be off the job through the end of Wednesday's late shift, while those at Werne through Tuesday's late shift...
One worker killed, 3 injured when facade falls from building  WGN-TV   ...This morning, the building is barricaded and its owner is facing citations for having work performed by unlicensed contractors without permits...
Branson spaceship explosion: The 'missed' warnings  The Telegraph   ...Sir Richard Branson’s company and US authorities were repeatedly warned about safety issues surrounding Virgin Galactic’s rocket engine system...

Today's Teamster News 08.28.14

Teamster News
Teamsters At Fred Meyer Warehouse Vote To OK Strike  The Stand   ...Teamster warehouse workers employed at the Fred Meyer grocery distribution center in Puyallup voted overwhelmingly over the weekend to authorize a strike. The final vote was 241-2. Voting took place at the Teamsters Union hall in Tukwila...
Safety Agents and de Blasio Administration Reach Labor Deal  New York Times   ...Mayor Bill de Blasio and Teamsters Local 237, the municipal union representing school safety agents and special officers, announced a tentative contract and the proposed settlement of a pay equity lawsuit on Tuesday that would distribute $38 million in back pay to current and former school safety agents who are overwhelmingly female...
City Pays $38M To Settle Equal Pay Lawsuit From Female Safety Agents Being Paid Far Less Than Male Counterparts  New York Daily News   ...In a move timed to Women’s Equality Day, the city announced Monday it had settled a four-year-old lawsuit from a group of safety agents who were paid far less than their male counterparts. The suit was settled for $38 million as part of a new labor agreement with Teamsters Local 237...
Mayor’s Office: Union Contract Means Pay Equity For Largely Female School Safety Agents  CBS News   ...The deal with Teamsters Local 237, which represents both the largely female school safety agents and special officers, was reached Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office announced...
Union Employees Air Contract Dispute On MDI  Bangor Daily News   ...Municipal employees of three Mount Desert Island towns who are members of the Teamsters labor union are airing their grievances as they try to reach a new labor contract with the towns...
Contract Disputes Lead To Demonstrations On Mount Desert Island  Maine Public Broadcasting   ...Members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters are demonstrating on Mount Desert Island this afternoon to draw attention to ongoing contract disputes with three area towns...
Weary U.S. Workers Are Still Experiencing Hard Times (opinion)  Huffington Post   ...Despite a dip in unemployment during the past few years, low pay continues to plague many employees while their corporate bosses rake in record profits...
Trade
TPP: Expansive Rights for Big Pharma, Expensive Medicines for U.S. Consumers  Public Citizen   ...Leaked draft intellectual property texts for the TPP reveal broad monopoly protections for pharmaceutical corporations, which elevate the costs of medicines and medical procedures...
Turkish Firms Hit By Anti-Dumping Duties On Steel Pipes To US  Todays Zaman   ...The US International Trade Commission (USITC) decided to impose anti-dumping duties on Turkish steel pipes last week following an investigation into export prices, a development that is likely to hurt Turkish pipe exporters to this country...
State Battles
Minimum Wage Bump Would Help Close Wealth Gap For 23% In S.F.  San Francisco Chronicle   ...If San Francisco voters approve raising the minimum wage law in November, 142,000 workers - or 23 percent of the city's workforce - would get a raise by the time it fully kicks in to $15 an hour by 2018...
Scott Walker, J.B. Van Hollen Again Ask Court To Reinstate Voter ID  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...Gov. Scott Walker and Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen are asking a federal court to reinstate Wisconsin's voter ID law, but they have not finalized a plan to comply with a different court's decision requiring the state to provide IDs to people who don't have birth certificates...
War On Workers
Market Basket Revolt Ends as Arthur T. Demoulas Wins Bid  Bloomberg   ...Arthur T. Demoulas, the ousted chief executive officer of the Market Basket supermarket chain whose employees gained national attention in a revolt to get him back, won his bid to buy the company...
Why America’s Workers Need Faster Wage Growth—And What We Can Do About It  Economic Policy Institute   ...Comparing the first half of 2014 with the first half of 2013, real (inflation-adjusted) hourly wages fell for workers in nearly every decile—even for those with a bachelor’s or advanced degree...
The Expanding World of Poverty Capitalism (opinion)  New York Times   ...Sentinel Offender Services … oversees case management, including breath alcohol and drug-testing services, “all at no cost to county taxpayers.”…Sentinel is a part of the expanding universe of poverty capitalism. In this unique sector of the economy, costs of essential government services are shifted to the poor...
Caught on Tape: What Mitch McConnell Complained About to a Roomful of Billionaires (Exclusive)  The Nation   ...At a secret meeting of elite donors convened by the Koch brothers, McConnell laid out his plan for shrinking the federal government and whined about having to vote on minimum wage bills...
At Koch Retreat, Top GOP Senate Candidates Credited Koch Network For Their Rise  Huffington Post   ...Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst and Arkansas Rep. Tom Cotton directly credited donors present at the June 16 retreat in Dana Point, California, for propelling them forward. Colorado Rep. Cory Gardner told attendees that his race would likely be decided by the presence of "third party" money -- an obvious pitch for generosity from the well-heeled crowd...
Argentina Set for Second National Strike as Economic Woes Deepen  Bloomberg   ...Argentina is bracing for a day of road blocks and disruption as labor unions stage a second national strike in less than five months while July’s bond default threatens to fuel inflation and undermine growth...
40 Percent of Restaurant Workers Live In Near-Poverty  Mother Jones   ...The industry's wages have stagnated at an extremely low level. Restaurant workers' median wage stands at $10 per hour, tips included—and hasn't budged, in inflation-adjusted terms, since 2000...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Budget Gap Narrows to Smallest Since 2007, CBO Says  Bloomberg   ...The projected shortfall will be $506 billion in the 12 months ending Sept. 30, compared with an April prediction for $492 billion and a $680 billion gap posted last year, the nonpartisan CBO said today in a report. In 2015 it’s projected to shrink for a sixth straight year, to $469 billion, capping the longest stretch of fiscal improvement since 2000, near the end of an era of surpluses...

Teamsters settle pay equity case with NYC. Woot!

Local 237 President Greg Floyd in 2013, demanding a settlement. 

Teamsters Local 237 reached a settlement of its lawsuit with the City of New York for underpaying women who work as school safety agents -- a terrific Teamster victory for Women's Equality Day!!

The settlement covers more than 5,000 Teamster school safety agents, who brought the largest pay discrimination suit in the United States against New York four years ago, when Michael Bloomberg was mayor.

The school safety agents, mostly women, receive $7,000 less pay a year than male-dominated peace officers in the city. The new mayor, Bill de Blasio, intervened in the class action suit (as he said he would) to fix the problem.

Sister Kangela Moore, who worked as a school safety agent for over 22 years, said:

I'm ecstatic—we've made history! I'm thankful for the Mayor's commitment to ensuring full pay equity for all employees, and for Local 237 and President Floyd's critical work to ensure we're getting the same pay as other special officers around the city. This means so much to me, my family, and the over 5,000 school safety agents employed by the City.

The agreement, which must be approved by a judge, would put school safety agents on an accelerated schedule to achieve equal pay by March 2018. According to a press statement from the mayor's office,

In addition to equalization of salary, today's agreement creates a new seven-year step pay plan for both new school safety agents and new special officers, to take effect on September 1, 2014, making permanent the equalization of school safety agent and special officer salaries. 

Incumbent school safety agents will be put on an accelerated schedule in order to achieve full pay equity by March 2018. The City will provide retroactive pay for wages in the amount of approximately $7,000 for each active school safety agent employed for at least three years as of September 1, 2014, and for school safety agents who retired between March 5, 2010 and August 31, 2014. The City will also provide retroactive pay for wages of up to $3,000, pro-rated for time served, for school safety agents who have left service and did not retire and were not discharged for cause. 

Members of the bargaining unit will vote on the contract.

Said Greg Floyd, president of Teamsters Local 237:

Today, we celebrate a fair contract for our school safety agents that provides them and their families with the security they need and deserve.

Today's Teamster News 05.06.14

Teamster News
2014 Teamsters Unity Conference Convenes  teamster.org   ...The 2014 Teamsters Unity Conference convened Sunday, May 4, with General President Jim Hoffa welcoming more than 1,400 Teamsters who learned about several key challenges facing the union...
Lilly Ledbetter joins Teamsters and others in support of pay equality for city's 5,000 school safety agents  teamster.org   ...Lilly Ledbetter, the tireless advocate for equal pay, whose historic Supreme Court case led the way to the Fair Pay Act of 2009—which bears her name—will join Teamsters Local 237 President Gregory Floyd; Sonia Ossorio, President of the New York City Chapter of National Organization for Women; and Mary Lou Urban, Co-President of the League of Women Voters, at a rally in support of resolving the pay disparity of school safety agents...
Trade
Trans Pacific Partnership Still Stalled  The Register   ...In spite of optimistic official rhetoric from the White House, Japan seems to be the latest speed bump on the road to the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership trade treaty...
Is Another Aspect Of The TPP They Hid From Us, Legally Stoning Gays?  Down With Tyranny   ...The dictator (of Brunei) is an hereditary sultan and this one is a homophobic psychotic who has just mandated the death penalty (by stoning) for gays. He's one our our esteemed partners in the TPP...
Oscars 'Night Before' Party Pulled From Beverly Hills Hotel Over Sultan of Brunei Ownership (Exclusive)  Hollywood Reporter   ...The Night Before the Oscars, Hollywood's starriest annual charity event, will not be held at the Beverly Hills Hotel because of the hotel’s ties to Brunei, where Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah instituted a severe new anti-gay penal code based on Sharia law last week...
State Battles
The drive to ban mandated sick days  America Al-Jazeera   ...the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) ... and the National Restaurant Association ... are pushing legislatures and governors to enact pre-emption (or kill-shot) laws to bar cities and counties from passing paid sick day mandates...
Outside Spending Enters Arena of Judicial Races  New York Times   ...The primary race for Justice Hudson’s Supreme Court seat alone has drawn more than $1 million — the bulk of it by independent groups including the Republican committee and an arm of the state Chamber of Commerce, which has spent $250,000 to promote both of her opponents with money from companies including Reynolds American, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Koch Industries.
The costly and fierce primary shows how the revolution in financing political campaigns, with the surging role of “super PACs” and other groups financed by corporations, unions and other interests, has entered what was the quieter arena of judicial elections...
War On Workers
Enron 2.0: Goldman-Linked Investors Set to Manipulate East Coast Electricity Prices  naked capitalism   ...With Brayton Point closed, New England consumers and businesses will spend as much as $2.6 billion more per year for electricity, critics of the deal suggest in documents filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission...
There's no evidence that privatisation works, but it marches on (opinion)   ...Governments will always need to deal with markets for procurement and regulation – but that needs a strong, experienced civil service with equal cunning, not one cut by 30%, losing memory of past errors...
Bonuses For Federal Workers Cut In Half, Figures Show  USA Today   ...Bonus pay for 1.3 million federal workers fell of a proverbial fiscal cliff last year, dropping nearly 50% as a result of draconian budget cuts tied to a partial government shutdown and recent caps on employee awards...
Why Is This Farm Using Guest Workers As Strike Breakers?  The Nation   ...By law, a company can’t hire H-2A guest workers if it is in a labor dispute with its US workforce. But that is exactly what this Washington State berry grower is trying to do....
The Recession Made Income Inequality Even Worse  Think Progress   ...The gap between the rich and the poor has grown faster since the financial crisis than it did the entire decade before it, according to a new report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)...
Your Paycheck Proves There Was No Recovery  Huffington Post   ...Stock prices and corporate profits are setting records, jobs are growing and yet most Americans think the recession never ended. How can this be? Because in the one place it counts--your paycheck--the recovery never happened...
Miscellaneous
Declining Business Dynamism in the United States: A Look at States and Metros  Brookings Institute   ...dynamism is slowing down. Business churning and new firm formations have been on a persistent decline during the last few decades, and the pace of net job creation has been subdued. This decline has been documented across a broad range of sectors in the U.S. economy, even in high-tech...

Today's Teamster News 08.14.13

Teamsters, St. James heading to mediation  Billings Gazette   ...The Teamsters Union and St. James Healthcare will start labor contract mediation on Aug. 20. Members of the union, one of three at the hospital, have been working without a contract for over a year, according to Dan Doogan, secretary-treasurer for the Teamsters regional district...
37.5-hour work week proposed for union members  Times Leader   ...With six union contracts expiring at the end of the year, Luzerne County Council members in Pennsylvania are trying to set pay and benefit goals they want negotiated into new collective bargaining agreements for workers, including members represented by Teamsters Local 401...
Justice Dept, states challenge proposed airline merger between US Airways, American  Associated Press   ...The federal government is challenging the proposed merger of US Airways and American Airlines, a deal between two of the largest airlines that it says would result in “substantial harm to consumers” in the form of higher fares and fees...
Police arrest 20 protesters at Wisconsin Capitol  WBAY   ...Police have arrested more protesters in the Wisconsin Capitol rotunda. Protesters have been showing up in the rotunda almost every noon hour for more than two years to sing songs against Republican Governor Scott Walker...
At March on Washington, organized labor gave MLK a hand  The Republic   ...Fifty years ago this month, Hank Lacayo, an up-and-coming labor leader in Southern California, received a call instructing him to come to Washington, D.C. Something big was in the works. The phone call was placed at the direction of Walter Reuther, the legendary national president of the UAW. The big thing on the horizon was a planned March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom planned Aug. 28...
Inequality is hindering economic growth  Baltimore Sun   ...Our economy has grown at roughly the same rate as other advanced industrial economies. But unlike other countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, our growth has overwhelmingly benefited the well off...
Higher wages won’t increase unemployment!  Salon   ...Conservatives on the right contend that higher salaries mean fewer jobs. A wealth of research suggests otherwise...
5 Reasons Congress Should Be Deeply Ashamed About Jobs  AlterNet   ...Congress has not only made the job search more difficult for average Americans, but has also impeded the process...
New Jersey Republicans Nominate Koch Brothers Operative For Senate  Think Progress   ...The New Jersey Republicans voted Tuesday — in a low-turnout primary — to nominate Steve Lonegan for the remainder of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s (D) term. Lonegan, the former New Jersey head for the Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity, will face Newark Mayor Corey Booker (D) in an October 16 special election...
U.S. automakers praise G-20 for opposing currency manipulation  Detroit News   ...U.S. automakers on Sunday praised a group of 20 major nations for recognizing the harm caused to the global trading system by countries like Japan, who are manipulating their currencies to gain a competitive advantage for their exporters...
Two Minnesota public employee unions ratify new contracts   Star Tribune   ...About 32,000 unionized state employees have ratified contracts that call for pay hikes of 3 percent per year, the biggest increases they’ve received since the national economy nosedived in 2007-08...
Minimum wage in CT will increase to $9 an hour  The Shelton Herald   ...The minimum wage in Connecticut will increase by 75 cents during the next year and a half. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed legislation that hikes the minimum wage in two stages — from the current $8.25 an hour to $8.70 on Jan. 1, 2014, and then to $9 on Jan. 1, 2015...
BART, unions resume talks as senators add pressure  Associated Press   ...Bay Area Rapid Transit's management and employee unions resumed contract negotiations Thursday as California's two senators urged the parties resolve the labor dispute and head off a crippling transit strike...
Hillary Clinton: NC Voter ID Bill 'Reads Like The Greatest Hits Of Voter Suppression' (Video) Huffington Post   ...Hillary Clinton denounced recent voter identification legislation in a speech at the American Bar Association's annual conference on Monday.  Clinton criticized the Supreme Court decision that she believes "stripped out the pre-clearance formula that made [the Voting Rights Act] so effective..."
'Disney Princesses For Equal Pay' Is Brilliant, Hilarious And Informative   Huffington Post   ...All women want equal pay -- even Disney princesses. Jenny Joslin and Annette Mia Flores of the production company Texpats came up with a hilarious and creative way to raise awareness about the wage gap. Because who doesn't like Disney?...
State must pay $500,000 to end court fight over overtime pay for prison guards  Patriot News   ...A federal judge has approved a settlement requiring the state to pay $500,000 to end a class-action lawsuit filed by 247 Pennsylvania state prison corrections officers who claimed they were illegally denied overtime pay...
Billions in federal transportation funds riding on California's new pension law  Sacramento Bee   ...Less than a year after California lawmakers mandated sweeping changes for state and local government pensions, federal officials are poised to cut off billions of dollars in transportation funding because of the new laws. The Teamsters and two other unions have backed a measure that would exclude 20,000 mass transit workers statewide from the pension-change law...

Today's Teamster News 08.08.13

Federal Mediator Arrive To Teamsters Strike Against Gold Cross Ambulance  Imperial Valley Press   ...Federal mediators arrived Tuesday to assist with negotiations between Gold Cross Ambulance employees on strike and the company...
Teamsters Local 2010 Signs Up 333 New Members  Teamsters Local 2010   ...Employees at the University of California’s state-wide campuses stepped up and joined Local 2010 as a result of a union-building blitz recently...
MM&A files for creditor protection after Lac-Mégantic rail disaster  Globe and Mail   ...The U.S.-based railway whose train crashed in Lac-Mégantic, Que., last month has filed for creditor protection in Canada and the United States, saying it is unable to deal with mounting bills arising from the disaster...
What's on ALEC's Agenda for its 40th Anniversary Meeting in Chicago?  Center for Media and Democracy   ...The "Employee Secret Ballot Protection Act" will be amended "to call for [union certification by] a majority of members in the bargaining unit, rather than a majority of those voting." This was the same certification policy pushed by Scott Walker in Wisconsin, and creates an almost insurmountable burden...
Worker wages: Wendy's vs. Wal-Mart vs. Costco  CNNMoney   ...Hundreds of dissatisfied workers at major companies like Wal-Mart, McDonald's and Wendy's have joined protests nationwide, demanding higher wages and better benefits. One company hasn't had to deal with such strikes. Costco pays its hourly workers an average of just over $20 an hour, compared to just under $13 at competitor Wal-Mart. Even President Obama praised Costco in a recent speech about helping the middle class...
Wage Gap Between CEOs, Workers Shows Costly Disregard (opinion) The Reporter …U.S. workers are tired of being the last ones considered when wealth is being made in America. While the average CEO pay has climbed to over 300 times the average worker’s, those making the legal minimum of $7.25—only $15,000 a year—have gone without a legally required raise for four years...
Fast food worker: 'We go hungry'  MSNBC   ...In a major speech on the economy Wednesday, President Obama declared that it is “time for the minimum wage to go up.” While more people are employed as the country continues to climb out of a deep recession, many full-time workers making the minimum wage are still living in poverty…
A hard landing for the middle class (opinion)  Washington Post   ...It’s August, and Americans by the millions are cramming themselves into coach-class seats as they embark on their summer vacations. Airline seating may be the best concrete expression of what’s happened to the economy. The joys of air travel have been redistributed upward and are now reserved for the well-heeled few...
Michigan's auto companies, workers pay price when economic rivals rig the market  Michigan Live   ...U.S. automakers, only a few years out of their deathbeds, are back in the black, despite their prewritten obituaries in 2009. But despite their turnaround, the Big Three still face significant hurdles in getting their goods into Japan, and face import competition subsidized by currency manipulation...
Free-trade deal with Korea is costing American jobs, report says  Denver Post   ...Although the Korea-US FTA has been in effect for little more than a year, it is already drawing vehement condemnation. It wasn't supposed to be this way. The International Trade Commission estimated the pact would kick-start some $10 billion in US exports to Korea. But it's not clear that the agreement is living up to its promise...
The Three Biggest Lies About Why Corporate Taxes Should Be Lowered (opinion)   Huffington Post   ...Instead of spending August on the beach, corporate lobbyists are readying arguments for when Congress returns in September about why corporate taxes should be lowered. But they're lies. You need to know why so you can spread the truth...
Cameron the worst PM for living standards in history  Liberal Conspiracy   ...An analysis of figures from the Office for National Statistics out today show that David Cameron has been in Downing Street for 36 months of falling real wages – more than any Prime Minister on record...
JPMorgan Sued With Goldman in Aluminum Antitrust Case  Bloomberg   ...JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), the biggest U.S. bank, was sued with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Glencore Xstrata Plc (GLEN) over claims they restrained aluminum supplies and drove up prices...
Perry Vetoed Texas Equal Pay Bill Under Pressure From Macy's, Kroger Huffington Post   ...Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) vetoed a bill to help prevent wage discrimination after receiving letters against the measure from retailers like Macy's and Kroger Food Stores, according to newly obtained documents. The bill would have brought Texas state law in line with the federal Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which makes it easier for women to sue employers over wage discrimination...
Eminent domain proposal for mortgages gains traction in California  Los Angeles Times   ...Cities in the Golden State are once again testing a controversial mortgage relief plan that could use local eminent domain powers to help residents stung by the last housing crisis...
Cuomo administration cracks down on illegal payday lenders   Legislative Gazette   ...Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced his administration is actively issuing cease and desist orders to online loan companies providing illegal payday loans to New York residents following an investigation that revealed that some lenders were offering online loans with interest rates as high as 1,095 percent...
Veto Decision Looms for DC Retail Living Wage Bill  The Nation   ...Four weeks after the Washington, D.C. City Council passed a bill to hike some retail workers’ wages, D.C. Mayor Vince Gray has not yet indicated whether he will let it become law...

Today's Teamster News 06.21.13

One million march across Brazil in biggest protests yet  Reuters   ...An estimated 1 million people took to the streets in cities across Brazil on Thursday as the country's biggest protests in two decades intensified despite government concessions meant to quell the demonstrations...
Warren on Trans-Pacific Partnership: If people knew what was going on, they would stop it  Raw Story   ..."If transparency would lead to widespread public opposition to a trade agreement, then that trade agreement should not be the policy of the United States...”
Emails show Detroit emergency manager enjoys perks while taxpayers foot bill   Click On Detroit   ...Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr is promised a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week security team staffed by Michigan State Police officers...
Illinois state workers to see pay raises, but no backpay  Associated Press   ...Gov. Pat Quinn's administration on July 1 will start paying the wage rate that was promised to thousands of unionized government workers in 2011 and 2012, although Illinois lawmakers didn't approve extra funding for back wages owed, officials said Wednesday...
Scaled-back 'Equal Pay for Women Act' to cover Louisiana state workers  Times-Picayune   ...Gov. Bobby Jindal has signed into law a version of the Equal Pay for Women Act that applies only to state workers. While provisions in Louisiana's Constitution already prohibit discrimination based on gender for government employees, state workers are nonetheless welcoming the effort to reiterate the need to ensure equal pay for equal work...
Who's Getting All Those Tax Breaks?  Courthouse News Services   ...Gov. Jerry Brown urged lawmakers to overhaul California's 27-year-old business incentive program, which he says has cost taxpayers $4.8 billion and is shrouded in secrecy...
Nevada attorney general says report shows more work required by mortgage servicers   Las Vegas Review-Journal   ...Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto said a recent report shows that more work needs to be done by the largest U.S. mortgage servicers, who are failing to comply with several key aspects designed to regulate how struggling homeowners are treated.

Rhode Island: Disabled students forced to work in sweatshop conditions   World Socialist Web Site   ...The US Department of Justice, the State of Rhode Island, and the city of Providence reached an interim settlement regarding a school for developmentally disabled students who had been forced to work for as little as 14 cents per hour...
Wisconsin justice's spouse head of union-busting law firm  Center for Public Integrity ...A Wisconsin Supreme Court justice is preparing to hear the appeal of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Gov. Scott Walker’s union-busting law, despite the fact that her husband is the president of a law firm that helps employers keep their workplaces “union-free.”...
Arizona Gov. Brewer signs election overhaul bill  Associated Press   ...Gov. Jan Brewer signed a sweeping election bill Wednesday that will overhaul the early voting process in Arizona and make it more difficult for third-party candidates to get on the ballot...
Teamsters Local 237 Endorses Bill Thompson  Capital New York   ...After endorsing Mayor Michael Bloomberg four years earlier, Teamsters Local 237, which represents public housing and other municipal workers, endorsed Democratic mayoral candidate Bill Thompson Thursday…
Mobilize, Energize and WIN! Program Scheduled August 13-15   IBT ...Teamsters Local 667 in Memphis, Tennessee, is hosting a Mobilize, Energize and WIN! Program on August 13-15, 2013. This three-day intensive training will go beyond the basic internal organizing model and focus on developing an action plan that will engage members in activities, such as organizing, preparing for contract negotiations, fighting anti-worker legislation, and building support for grievances...
Vote Count For UPS, UPS Freight Contracts Set To Begin  IBT   ...Ballots for the UPS and UPS Freight contracts were picked up from the post office yesterday and are currently being sorted...
Saluting the “Solid Six”  IBT   ...They call themselves the “Solid Six.” These six Teamster school bus drivers at Durham School Services’ Milton yard in Santa Rosa County, Fla., wear their pride on their backs. Their shirts say, “Solid Six,” because they are six organizing committee members who stood strong during a very difficult anti-union campaign...
Australian Transport Giant Toll Group Re-Launches Anti-Union Crusade On Its American Workforce On The East Coast   IBT   ...U.S. workers responsible for safely hauling loads out of Toll Group’s New Jersey facilities filed charges with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), alleging that their Australian-based employer Toll Group is interfering with their right to form their union...