TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Across the United States Join Worker Campaigns for Justice Teamster.org ...Teamsters across the United States participated in actions today to support workers who are waging courageous battles for fair wages, decent benefits and improved working conditions. Nationally, workers from different industries and occupations walked off the job in 270 cities and rallied outside city halls in support of the “Fight for $15” movement. Teamsters at scores of locations handed out leaflets near FedEx Freight terminals...
Hoffa: TPP a punch to the gut of U.S. workers The Detroit News ...The much-awaited text of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was finally released for public consumption last week. But sunshine and scrutiny of the pact isn’t making the deal look any brighter for workers in Michigan or around the country. As the Teamsters and others long suspected, the TPP text contains many of the most controversial items included in past lousy trade agreements...
Teamsters Applaud Senate Motion to Keep Double 33-Foot Trailers Off the Road Teamster.org ...The Senate today scored a victory for highway safety by passing a motion by a 56-31 margin which instructs Senate negotiators of a long-term highway bill to oppose any federal mandate that would force states to allow an increase in length of tractor trailers at this time. “On behalf of our more than 700,000 members who turn a key for a living I would like to thank the 56 senators that took a stand today for highway safety,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa...
Allstate Power Vac Workers Join Teamsters Teamster.org ...On Monday, November 9, employees at Allstate Power Vac, Inc. in New York City voted by an overwhelming margin of nearly 98 percent to join Teamsters Local 813 in an election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board. The 61 environmental waste removal workers are looking forward to improving their working conditions, including gaining fairness and respect from their employer...
Teamsters claim victory in push to unionize city’s private carting industry Capital New York ...The Teamsters have notched their first official New York City win in an ongoing battle to unionize the city's private carting and waste management industry. Employees at Allstate Power Vac, a New Jersey-based company with a shop in Brooklyn, voted by a 98-percent margin to join Teamsters Local 813 after complaints of low wages, lack of benefits and poor treatment, union officials said...
Teamsters Shine Light On Veterans' Health Care, Protest High Costs To Workers Morning Star ...On Wed., Nov. 11, Teamsters will protest outside Florida VA hospitals in the afternoon on behalf of McKesson distribution workers in Lakeland, Fla., including Army veteran Claude Hickerson, who cannot afford health coverage for his family. McKesson has been the prime vendor for the VA since 2004, bringing in about $4 billion a year. "America's veterans should not have to struggle for health care," said Ken Wood, Teamsters International Vice President and President of Teamsters Local 79, and a veteran...
Voting Underway for EVSC Teamsters Contract Talks TriState Homepage ...Teamsters president Chuck Whobrey says four of five employee groups have voted on the contract. No word on how the votes are falling. There is still one more group to go -- that will take place Thursday. Nearly 680 EVSC employees -- represented by Teamsters-- have been without a contract since June 30th...
Kentucky EMS workers renew push for line of duty death benefits WDRB ...Emergency Medical Technician Arthur Cash, with members of Teamsters Local Union No. 783, are pushing to change that with a bill in Frankfort -- currently known as BR 91. “This will cover every EMT who works for a government or non-profit agency. Also, rescue squad members,” said Arthur Cash, Chief Steward for Teamsters Local Union No. 783...
Crow Wing County Board: Board withdraws from CMCC, approves probation integration Brainerd Dispatch ...A probation partnership spanning more than four decades will soon come to an end. The Crow Wing County Board Tuesday unanimously voted to withdraw from Central Minnesota Community Corrections. Erik Skoog, business agent with the Teamsters Local No. 320, interrupted and began addressing the board. The Local No. 320 represent CMCC probation officers along with all employees in community services except management...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Striking Greeks take to tension-filled streets in austerity protest Reuters ...Striking Greeks took to the streets on Thursday to protest austerity measures, setting Alexis Tsipras' government its biggest domestic challenge since he was re-elected in September promising to cushion the impact of economic hardship. Flights were grounded, hospitals ran on skeleton staff, ships were docked at port and public offices stayed shut across the country...
Quebec's Strike Wave Rolls Toward a Showdown Truthout ...Workers in the Canadian province of Quebec are mobilizing the largest struggle against austerity in North America. Public-sector workers across Quebec have hit the picket lines for a wave of strikes to defend jobs, wages, working conditions and public services. In the first round of rotating regional strikes from October 26-29, more than 400,000 unionists organized in the Common Front shut down schools, hospitals and government offices...
Pacific trade deal could limit affordable drugs Malaysian Insider ...A massive trade pact between 12 Pacific rim countries could limit the availability of affordable medicines, the head of the World Health Organisation said Thursday, joining a heated debate on the impact of the deal. Margaret Chan told a conference there were "some very serious concerns" about the Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Why Obama says TPP is historic for workers — and why US labor unions hate it Vox ...The Obama administration is crowing about the labor protections in the Trans-Pacific Partnership — the full text of which were finally released last week. But skeptics aren't convinced. First, they say, the labor protections are similar to those in previous trade agreements, rather than truly game changing. And second, they argue that though the commitments sound nice on paper, they may not make much of a difference in the real world...
Currency manipulation plan gets key endorsement The Hill ...A currency manipulation plan connected to a far-reaching Pacific Rim trade pact received a key endorsement from the architects of a widely cited proposal to crack down on the practice. Critics of the currency provisions argue that while the side agreement requires more data from countries such as Malaysia, the deal won't force violating nations to change policies they have already agreed to follow...
US farm lobby group campaigning against the Trans Pacific Partnership ABC ...One of the largest farm groups in the United States is stepping up its campaign against the Trans Pacific Partnership. The 12-country deal seeks to make it cheaper, and easier, to trade throughout the Pacific rim. But the National Farmers' Union fears currency manipulation threatens to wipe out all the gains the deal might make...
How the secret TTIP trade deal could enable companies to sue countries The Conversation ...One of the most controversial elements of TPP is the “investor-state dispute settlement” clause (or ISDS) – and the inclusion of intellectual property under its remit. Should a similar clause be included in the TTIP, companies could use it within the EU to usurp the will of both national and EU courts. And this could be very costly indeed...
Portugal Rejoices as Anti-Austerity Left Coalition Forms to Oust Right Wing Common Dreams ...In a surprising development for Europe's anti-austerity movement, Portugal's three reigning leftist parties on Tuesday formed an unexpected coalition to oust the country's center-right government from power and end years of punishing cuts and economic hardship. The moderate Socialist Party forged what is being called "an unprecedented alliance"...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Cuomo to Raise Minimum Wage to $15 for All New York State Employees New York Times ...Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Tuesday that he would unilaterally establish a $15 minimum wage for all state workers, making New York the first state to set such a high wage for its public employees. The increase will place the pay of New York’s state employees far ahead of the current minimum wage in other states, and positions Mr. Cuomo at the vanguard of a national movement to address stagnant pay...
Almost Half of All American Workers Make Less Than $15 an Hour The Nation ...We’ve come a long way since that crisp November day three years ago when a small group of New York City fast-food workers launched a strike with the slogan “Fast Food Forward.” Today, the movement continues its forward march with the viral hashtag #FightFor15. On November 10, workers in hundreds of cities again went on strike and rallied, this time with an especially militant overtone...
Virginia Is The First State In The Country To End Veteran Homelessness Think Progress ...On Veterans Day, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) and President Obama announced that the state is the first in the country to end veteran homelessness. That means that every veteran who wants housing has been offered a place after the state says it has helped more than 1,400 veterans get into permanent housing in the last year...
ALEC's Fingerprints on Harsh New North Carolina Immigration Law Truthout ...At the end of October, North Carolina joined the ranks of states with harsh immigration policies when Gov. Pat McCrory (R) signed into law HB 318. North Carolina's law was passed amidst a conservative backlash against community trust initiatives nationwide sparked by this summer's murder of Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco. But language in North Carolina's sanctuary city ban predates Steinle's death: It comes from a model bill, titled "No Sanctuary Cities for Illegal Immigrants," crafted in 2009 by the American Legislative Exchange Council...
City of Pittsburgh workers' minimum wage going up to $15 WTAE ...Mayor Bill Peduto issued an executive order Tuesday raising all city employees' minimum wage to $15 an hour by the year 2021, a move that comes as a handful of large U.S. cities have enacted or moved toward a $15 minimum wage. Peduto's order doesn't raise the minimum wage of non-city employees who work in Pittsburgh, though it does call for City Council to draft legislation next year...
Donald Trump thinks you make too much money Fusion ...Donald Trump kicked off the fourth GOP debate by boldly proclaiming that “wages [are] too high.” The comment went relatively unnoted by moderators as several other candidates proceeded to critique federal minimum wage policy. Yet, Trump’s position is far outside even Republican mainstream thinking on the topic...
Ben Carson Is As Wrong About Wage Hikes As He Was About the Pyramids The Nation ... Of course Dr. Ben Carson was wrong when he claimed in the fourth Republican presidential debate that “Every time we raise the minimum wage, the number of jobless people increases.” Minimum-wage hikes are not always associated with immediate spikes in employment; especially in recessionary moments. But PolitiFact notes that “[of the] five minimum wage hikes that occurred when a recovery was under way, joblessness declined four of those times”...
U.S. LABOR
Voting begins Thursday on UAW-Ford contract MLive ..The some 52,000 rank-and-file UAW workers at Ford Motor Co.'s U.S. facilities begin voting Thursday on a new, four-year contract agreement. Voting is expected to last through next week. Struck last Friday, the proposed agreement includes $9 billion in U.S. product commitments and 8,500 jobs created or retained...
Unions Push to Establish Bloc of Low-Wage Voters Wall Street Journal ...The Fight for $15 movement is seeking not just to influence Americans’ paychecks, but also the country’s upcoming elections. Fast-food workers and other supporters are protesting in many cities on Tuesday, demanding a $15 an hour minimum wage and the right to form a union without retaliation. The rallies are organized by the Service Employees International Union and other labor organizations...
Fast Food Strikes Hit Cities Throughout The Country Huffington Post ...Nearly three years after launching its first worker strike, the Fight for 15 was reaping the fruits of its labor on Tuesday. The union-backed campaign aimed at boosting the minimum wage held what organizers described as its largest mass demonstration yet, with fast-food and other service-sector workers taking part in strikes and protests in scores of cities around the country...
Fight For $15: Nationwide Protests Aim To Inject Minimum Wage Hikes Into Presidential Campaign IBTimes ...Protesters hit the streets Tuesday -- a full year before Election Day 2016 -- in a move designed to pressure presidential candidates to embrace the movement’s twin demands of $15 and union representation. The early-morning march in Brooklyn kicked off the latest round of nationwide demonstrations held by the so-called Fight for 15...
Bernie Sanders picks up his biggest union endorsement yet: U.S. postal workers are feeling the Bern Salon ...“Politics as usual has not worked. It’s time for a political revolution,” the president of the American Postal Workers’ Union declared when he announced the 200,000-member strong organization’s endorsement of Bernie Sanders. Sanders’ largest union endorsement yet is welcome news as a New York Times/CBS News released on Thursday shows rival Hillary Clinton maintaining her substantial national lead...
After Video of Calif. Police Breaking Up Teachers Union Meeting Goes Viral, School Apologizes In These Times ...In a video widely circulated on social media, Alameda County sheriff’s deputies can be seen interrupting a lunchtime union meeting held at San Lorenzo High on October 20 for local teachers in the midst of a contract bargaining dispute with their employer, the San Lorenzo Unified School District (SLUSD)...
County reaches tentative pact with AFSCME NC New Online ...A Lawrence County courthouse union has reached a tentative agreement with the county for a three-year contract. County administrator James Gagliano told the commissioners yesterday that the prospective contract is in the hands of the representative for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2902. The bargaining unit includes 63 employees...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Wall Street is finally getting its comeuppance: Why new global regulations are a vital step in the right direction Salon ...Public outrage has gradually driven a more robust post-crisis response as we get further and further away from the event, an unusual and encouraging scenario. The latest action, from the global banking regulator known as the Financial Stability Board (FSB), would force the world’s 30 biggest banks to raise over $1 trillion in additional funds that can be used to absorb losses in a downturn...
Beyond Mizzou: Fight for Racial Justice Spreads to Campuses Nationwide Common Dreams ...Empowered by successful campus organizing at the University of Missouri, where protests over racial tensions culminated Monday in the resignation of University president Tim Wolfe, students and faculty at schools across the country are seizing their moment to amplify the call for racial justice...
Immigration advocates aren’t letting a court ruling on deportations get in their way Washington Post ...President Obama’s plan to shield millions of illegal immigrants from deportation may be in legal limbo, but that’s not stopping advocates for the undocumented, who are planning a new wave of events celebrating the initiative’s one-year anniversary. Even as a federal appeals court ruled this week against Obama’s program, advocates were stepping up their preparations and finalizing plans to hold vigils, news conferences and “naturalization workshops”...
Showing posts with label fast food strikes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fast food strikes. Show all posts
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Today's Teamster News 04.16.15
Teamsters
Big San Bernardino County union now Teamsters Local 1932 San Bernardino Sun ...The San Bernardino Public Employees Association, which for more than 75 years has independently represented county, city and state employees across the Inland Empire, is now a chapter affiliate of Teamsters Local 1932. Results of the vote were announced Tuesday by SBPEA General Manager Deidre Rodriguez, with 3,143 members voting for Teamsters affiliation...
UPS driver saves choking woman Fox Atlanta ...Bryant got out of his delivery truck and performed the Heimlich maneuver while the woman's daughter called 911. Luckily, the 83-year-old victim was able to dislodge that piece of food. Paramedics then took her to a local hospital...
Teamsters take stand against fast track Teamster Nation ...The Teamsters joined some 1,200 fellow union members and fair trade advocates at a Capitol Hill rally today to call on Congress to stop pushing for fast track trade promotion authority that would allow a quick up-or-down vote on bad trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Global Labor & Trade
The populists capture the Democratic Party Washington Post ...A quartet of senators and a dozen members of the House took the stage in a park across from the Capitol midday Wednesday to join hundreds of steelworkers, union faithful and environmentalists in denouncing President Obama’s bid for fast-track approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal...
‘Fast track’ trade authority is a mistake for most businesses The Hill ...When it comes to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the devil is in the details. As we understand it, the TPP will be terrible for the majority of U.S. businesses, and could prove devastating for American innovation...
Why President Obama's trade agenda just turned into a food fight Vox ...UFCW hasn’t opposed all trade deals in the past. As the group’s chief, Marc Perrone, points out in the op-ed, the union supported the US-Korea free-trade agreement — at a time when major labor groups were divided on it. So UFCW’s defection signals an erosion of Obama’s trade coalition...
Progressives Take Stand as Fast Track Fight Kicks into High Gear on Capitol Hill Common Dreams ...With legislation to speed up congressional approval of the Trans Pacific Partnership and other corporate-friendly trade deals on the verge of being introduced in Congress, a coalition of elected officials, labor unions, and environmental groups gathered outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday to voice their vehement opposition to such a bill...
AFL-CIO seeks to turn Dems against Obama on trade CNN ...Labor unions are launching a new advertising campaign prodding Democratic lawmakers to break with President Barack Obama on free trade. The AFL-CIO will meet the introduction of a bill to fast-track Pacific Rim and European pacts with a six-figure online and radio advertising campaign targeting 16 Democrats in the Senate and 36 in the House, the group told CNN...
Special courts for foreign investors The Hill ...On the precipice of the biggest congressional trade debate in decades, a once-arcane investment provision has become a lightning rod of controversy in the intensifying battle over whether Congress should revive Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), also known as “fast track,” for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) calls this provision a system of “rigged, pseudo-courts”...
MEPs Want Health Excluded From TTIP Talks EurActiv ...Members of the Parliament's Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) on Tuesday (14 April) voted in favour of an opinion which calls for five health-related areas to be excluded from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment partnership (TTIP) negotiations between the EU and the United States...
State & Living Wage Battles
Largest-Ever Strike Hits Fast Food Industry In 230 Cities Think Progress ...On Wednesday, fast food workers walked off the job in 230 cities, staging the largest-ever strike in their movement aimed at a $15 minimum wage and the right to form a union. The movement began with a single strike in New York City at the end of 2012 but has grown increasingly larger as the Fight for 15 movement has staged nine other days of coordinated strikes since then...
Hotel Industry Spins Wage Hikes as Extreme While CEOs Rake in Millions Truthout.org ...Omni Hotel CEO Robert Rowling is one of the richest people in the world, says Forbes, with a net worth of some $5.8 billion. Rowling has given huge contributions to Karl Rove’s American Crossroads and the Koch Brother’s Freedom Partners, which contribute to politicians across the nation working to block higher wages, paid sick days and union representation...
Fight for $15: Tens of Thousands Rally as Labor, Civil Rights & Social Justice Movements Join Forces Democracy Now ...Low-wage workers in the United States have staged their largest action to date to demand a $15-an-hour minimum wage, with some 60,000 workers walking off the job in more than 200 cities. The "Fight for $15" campaign brought together fast-food workers, home-care aides, child-care providers, Wal-Mart clerks, adjunct professors, airport workers and other low-wage workers...
Big San Bernardino County union now Teamsters Local 1932 San Bernardino Sun ...The San Bernardino Public Employees Association, which for more than 75 years has independently represented county, city and state employees across the Inland Empire, is now a chapter affiliate of Teamsters Local 1932. Results of the vote were announced Tuesday by SBPEA General Manager Deidre Rodriguez, with 3,143 members voting for Teamsters affiliation...
UPS driver saves choking woman Fox Atlanta ...Bryant got out of his delivery truck and performed the Heimlich maneuver while the woman's daughter called 911. Luckily, the 83-year-old victim was able to dislodge that piece of food. Paramedics then took her to a local hospital...
Teamsters take stand against fast track Teamster Nation ...The Teamsters joined some 1,200 fellow union members and fair trade advocates at a Capitol Hill rally today to call on Congress to stop pushing for fast track trade promotion authority that would allow a quick up-or-down vote on bad trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Global Labor & Trade
The populists capture the Democratic Party Washington Post ...A quartet of senators and a dozen members of the House took the stage in a park across from the Capitol midday Wednesday to join hundreds of steelworkers, union faithful and environmentalists in denouncing President Obama’s bid for fast-track approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal...
‘Fast track’ trade authority is a mistake for most businesses The Hill ...When it comes to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the devil is in the details. As we understand it, the TPP will be terrible for the majority of U.S. businesses, and could prove devastating for American innovation...
Why President Obama's trade agenda just turned into a food fight Vox ...UFCW hasn’t opposed all trade deals in the past. As the group’s chief, Marc Perrone, points out in the op-ed, the union supported the US-Korea free-trade agreement — at a time when major labor groups were divided on it. So UFCW’s defection signals an erosion of Obama’s trade coalition...
Progressives Take Stand as Fast Track Fight Kicks into High Gear on Capitol Hill Common Dreams ...With legislation to speed up congressional approval of the Trans Pacific Partnership and other corporate-friendly trade deals on the verge of being introduced in Congress, a coalition of elected officials, labor unions, and environmental groups gathered outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday to voice their vehement opposition to such a bill...
AFL-CIO seeks to turn Dems against Obama on trade CNN ...Labor unions are launching a new advertising campaign prodding Democratic lawmakers to break with President Barack Obama on free trade. The AFL-CIO will meet the introduction of a bill to fast-track Pacific Rim and European pacts with a six-figure online and radio advertising campaign targeting 16 Democrats in the Senate and 36 in the House, the group told CNN...
Special courts for foreign investors The Hill ...On the precipice of the biggest congressional trade debate in decades, a once-arcane investment provision has become a lightning rod of controversy in the intensifying battle over whether Congress should revive Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), also known as “fast track,” for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) calls this provision a system of “rigged, pseudo-courts”...
MEPs Want Health Excluded From TTIP Talks EurActiv ...Members of the Parliament's Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) on Tuesday (14 April) voted in favour of an opinion which calls for five health-related areas to be excluded from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment partnership (TTIP) negotiations between the EU and the United States...
State & Living Wage Battles
Largest-Ever Strike Hits Fast Food Industry In 230 Cities Think Progress ...On Wednesday, fast food workers walked off the job in 230 cities, staging the largest-ever strike in their movement aimed at a $15 minimum wage and the right to form a union. The movement began with a single strike in New York City at the end of 2012 but has grown increasingly larger as the Fight for 15 movement has staged nine other days of coordinated strikes since then...
Hotel Industry Spins Wage Hikes as Extreme While CEOs Rake in Millions Truthout.org ...Omni Hotel CEO Robert Rowling is one of the richest people in the world, says Forbes, with a net worth of some $5.8 billion. Rowling has given huge contributions to Karl Rove’s American Crossroads and the Koch Brother’s Freedom Partners, which contribute to politicians across the nation working to block higher wages, paid sick days and union representation...
Fight for $15: Tens of Thousands Rally as Labor, Civil Rights & Social Justice Movements Join Forces Democracy Now ...Low-wage workers in the United States have staged their largest action to date to demand a $15-an-hour minimum wage, with some 60,000 workers walking off the job in more than 200 cities. The "Fight for $15" campaign brought together fast-food workers, home-care aides, child-care providers, Wal-Mart clerks, adjunct professors, airport workers and other low-wage workers...
Emanuel calls for City Council hearings on Rauner's 'right-to-work' zones Chicago Sun Times ...The public rift between Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his pal, Gov. Bruce Rauner, got wider Wednesday over Rauner’s provocative proposal to create local “right-to-work” zones. At a City Council meeting, Emanuel introduced a resolution declaring opposition to the governor’s plan...
Taxation Without Representation Huffington Post ...For the vast majority of Americans, "taxation without representation" isn't just a relic of high school social studies -- it's a perfect description of their relationship with a political system that's been thoroughly corrupted by money. A 2014 Princeton University study comparing 1,779 policy outcomes to more than 20 years of public opinion data found that "the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy"...
FEMA Is Preparing For The “Very Real Possibility” Of Urban Oil Train Disasters Salon.com ...The Federal Emergency Management Agency has begun to take on the task of sketching out scenarios for oil train derailments in densely populated urban areas, the Wall Street Journal reports. Last month, this took the form of an exercise involving New Jersey firefighters and emergency workers...
Repeal Of Estate Tax Rewards Billionaires, Punishes Working Americans Huffington Post ...Who deserves a break more these days: a struggling working family, or the heir to a billion-dollar fortune? According to the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, it's the billion-dollar baby. Recently, the House voted for a budget that would end tax credits for many working families that put $1,000 a year in their pockets, on average...
Wage Gains Won’t Last, Unless Fight for 15 Builds Worker Power (opinion) Counterpunch ...Fight for 15 has been remarkably successful on wages, but unless it is trying to increase worker’s power on the job, any wage and benefit improvements won through public pressure, negative publicity, and community-based protest activity will be hard to sustain in the absence of ongoing workplace organization or networks of some sort...
U.S. Labor
Alabama Whistleblower Fired and Sued After Protesting Conditions NBC News ...Selma, Alabama, factory worker who was fired, sued and slapped with a restraining order after leading a protest march is in court Wednesday to demand she be allowed to continue her fight for safer working conditions at the auto parts plant...
USW Rejects LyondellBasell's 'Last, Best and Final' Offer Houston Press ...After two days of voting, the final count came in late Tuesday night. Despite the fact that USW 227 members have been on strike since February 1, walking away from their jobs, paychecks and health insurance, the union members voted to continue the local strike...
Today’s Personality Tests Raise The Bar For Job Seekers Wall Street Journal ...In 2001, 26% of large U.S. employers used pre-hire assessments. By 2013, the number had climbed to 57%, reflecting a sea change in hiring practices that some economists suspect is making it tougher for people, especially young adults and the long-term unemployed, to get on the payroll...
The Insidious Way Corporate Thieves Are Stealing Workman's Comp Alternet ...The infamous anti-labor bully, Wal-Mart, is among the leaders, but so are such prestigious chains as Macy's and Nordstrom, along with Lowe's, Kohl's and Safeway. Their goal is to gut our nation's workers compensation program, freeing corporate giants to injure or even kill employees in the workplace without having to cover all (or, in many cases, any) of the lost wages, medical care or burial expenses of those harmed...
Miscellaneous
Warren Blasts Government for Ignoring 'Blatantly Criminal Activity' on Wall Street Common Dreams ...In remarks on Wednesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren criticized the failure of both federal regulators and Justice Department officials to prosecute or otherwise hold to account Wall Street banks and financial institutions despite their long and steady pattern of "blatantly criminal activity"...
U.S. Consumers Open Their Wallets, Cautiously Wall Street Journal ...Sales at retailers and restaurants increased 0.9% last month to a seasonally adjusted $441.4 billion, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. That was the biggest monthly gain in a year, but it was still down from November, when retail sales reached their highest level since the end of the recession...
Don’t Be So Happy About That Tax Refund FiveThirtyEight ...Most Americans don’t seem to have much problem with lending their money to the Treasury interest-free. The Bankrate survey found that 57 percent of respondents wanted to receive a refund, versus 27 percent who hoped to neither owe money nor get any back. That isn’t too surprising. Getting a government check in the mail (or direct-deposited into your bank account) feels like a windfall...
Taxation Without Representation Huffington Post ...For the vast majority of Americans, "taxation without representation" isn't just a relic of high school social studies -- it's a perfect description of their relationship with a political system that's been thoroughly corrupted by money. A 2014 Princeton University study comparing 1,779 policy outcomes to more than 20 years of public opinion data found that "the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy"...
FEMA Is Preparing For The “Very Real Possibility” Of Urban Oil Train Disasters Salon.com ...The Federal Emergency Management Agency has begun to take on the task of sketching out scenarios for oil train derailments in densely populated urban areas, the Wall Street Journal reports. Last month, this took the form of an exercise involving New Jersey firefighters and emergency workers...
Repeal Of Estate Tax Rewards Billionaires, Punishes Working Americans Huffington Post ...Who deserves a break more these days: a struggling working family, or the heir to a billion-dollar fortune? According to the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, it's the billion-dollar baby. Recently, the House voted for a budget that would end tax credits for many working families that put $1,000 a year in their pockets, on average...
Wage Gains Won’t Last, Unless Fight for 15 Builds Worker Power (opinion) Counterpunch ...Fight for 15 has been remarkably successful on wages, but unless it is trying to increase worker’s power on the job, any wage and benefit improvements won through public pressure, negative publicity, and community-based protest activity will be hard to sustain in the absence of ongoing workplace organization or networks of some sort...
U.S. Labor
Alabama Whistleblower Fired and Sued After Protesting Conditions NBC News ...Selma, Alabama, factory worker who was fired, sued and slapped with a restraining order after leading a protest march is in court Wednesday to demand she be allowed to continue her fight for safer working conditions at the auto parts plant...
USW Rejects LyondellBasell's 'Last, Best and Final' Offer Houston Press ...After two days of voting, the final count came in late Tuesday night. Despite the fact that USW 227 members have been on strike since February 1, walking away from their jobs, paychecks and health insurance, the union members voted to continue the local strike...
Today’s Personality Tests Raise The Bar For Job Seekers Wall Street Journal ...In 2001, 26% of large U.S. employers used pre-hire assessments. By 2013, the number had climbed to 57%, reflecting a sea change in hiring practices that some economists suspect is making it tougher for people, especially young adults and the long-term unemployed, to get on the payroll...
The Insidious Way Corporate Thieves Are Stealing Workman's Comp Alternet ...The infamous anti-labor bully, Wal-Mart, is among the leaders, but so are such prestigious chains as Macy's and Nordstrom, along with Lowe's, Kohl's and Safeway. Their goal is to gut our nation's workers compensation program, freeing corporate giants to injure or even kill employees in the workplace without having to cover all (or, in many cases, any) of the lost wages, medical care or burial expenses of those harmed...
Miscellaneous
Warren Blasts Government for Ignoring 'Blatantly Criminal Activity' on Wall Street Common Dreams ...In remarks on Wednesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren criticized the failure of both federal regulators and Justice Department officials to prosecute or otherwise hold to account Wall Street banks and financial institutions despite their long and steady pattern of "blatantly criminal activity"...
U.S. Consumers Open Their Wallets, Cautiously Wall Street Journal ...Sales at retailers and restaurants increased 0.9% last month to a seasonally adjusted $441.4 billion, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. That was the biggest monthly gain in a year, but it was still down from November, when retail sales reached their highest level since the end of the recession...
Don’t Be So Happy About That Tax Refund FiveThirtyEight ...Most Americans don’t seem to have much problem with lending their money to the Treasury interest-free. The Bankrate survey found that 57 percent of respondents wanted to receive a refund, versus 27 percent who hoped to neither owe money nor get any back. That isn’t too surprising. Getting a government check in the mail (or direct-deposited into your bank account) feels like a windfall...
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Today's Teamster News 09.09.14
Teamster News
Vote On County Pay Raises In The Offing St. Petersburg Tribune ...The Teamsters has asked for a $15 per hour minimum. Sholtes said the request has nothing to do with a national movement among fast-food workers for a $15 minimum wage. The union used data from the living wage calculator, which sets the minimum hourly wage at $15 to support two adults and $9.63 for one adult...
EVSC board votes to accept Teamsters contract 14 News ...Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corporation board members voted Monday night to accept the contracts of several employee groups, including the Teamsters Union. Members of Teamsters Local 215 includes custodians, bus drivers, bus aids, and secretaries...
Teamsters Port Division Assisting Truck Drivers Fired By TTSI teamster.org ...On Wednesday evening, Sept. 3, 2014, at least thirty-three (33) port truck drivers who participated in recent unfair labor practice strikes and filed “wage and hour” claims with the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) were fired by their employer, Total Transportation Services Inc. (TTSI), when they refused to acquiesce to the company’s illegal demand to withdraw their claims for wage theft as misclassified “independent contractors.”...
Trade
The Transatlantic Trade And Investment Partnership: Getting The Criticism Right The Journal ...As an investment agreement, the TTIP is probably bad for everyone whose name does not end in Ltd, Plc, or something similar...
China’s Runaway Steel Industry Trade Reform ...production capacity for China’s steel industry has grown by an astonishing 200 million tons since late 2012, to 1.1 billion tons today. (By contrast, the entire U.S. steel industry produced only 87 million tons in 2013.) Yet first half domestic consumption of steel stands at 376.1 million tons, up an anemic 0.4 percent over the same period last year. Steel exports are growing but at the expense of “increasing trade conflicts and constant trade remedy investigations.”...
State Battles
The shortfall that wouldn't die Uppity Wisconsin ...Today's news that the budget shortfall is nearly 2 billion dollars and apparently rising leads one to believe that maybe too little cash is sticking in Madison. Other recent news makes it clear that the administration has been helping put more cash in the pockets of some taxpayers (and out-of-staters) than others...
As lawyers prep for John Doe hearing, legal tab tops $672,000 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...The cost to taxpayers for defending the state against lawsuits over an investigation into Gov. Scott Walker and his allies has quickly escalated to more than $672,000...
Voter ID On Trial in Texas (opinion) New York Times ...Laws like these used to be blocked by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which required that the federal government preapprove any voting rules enacted by states and localities with a history of discriminatory voting practices. But in a destructive ruling last year, the Supreme Court struck down Section 5 as unconstitutional. Only hours after that ruling, Texas resurrected its voter-ID law, which had been stopped by Section 5...
Ruling In Nebraska Could Have Big Overall Impact On Keystone XL Nebraska Radio Network ...A ruling by the state Supreme Court on the law that authorized the Keystone XL route through Nebraska could have ramifications well beyond this state. Attorney General Jon Bruning is confident the Supreme Court will uphold the law that set the route...
War On Workers
The Fast Food Strikes Have Been A Stunning Success For Organized Labor Slate ...at this early date, it’s more useful to think of them as the spearhead of a broader living wage movement that has also seen retail workers at stores such as Walmart protest for better pay. Framed that way, the effort has been startlingly effective. For the cost of a few Super Bowl ads, the SEIU and some dedicated fast food workers have managed to completely rewire how the public and politicians thinks about wages...
STILL 1.4 Million Fewer Full-Time Jobs Than in 2008 naked capitalism ...It’s still 1.4 million below 2008? In 2008, the economy was in full collapse mode. The Fed has expanded its balance sheet by $3.7 trillion since August 2008 and there are fewer full-time jobs now than then? Remind me again what that $3.7 trillion has bought!...
Koch 101 Slate ...The Koch brothers are paying millions to inject libertarian ideas into high school curriculums...
Koch Industries adopts new public posture to neutralize opponents, recast image Washington Post ...Koch Industries, which produces goods ranging from Angel Soft toilet paper to iPhone parts, is adopting a more visible strategy to neutralize critics on the left and promote a warm, patriotic image of its multinational empire...
Evidence Says That Students Do Better In Schools With Strong Teachers’ Unions Addicting Info ... Collective bargaining provides a legal, structured process in which local unions and management can develop reforms, such as peer review or performance-based pay...
Senate moves forward with amendment to the Constitution on elections The Hill ...The Senate on Monday advanced a constitutional amendment meant to reverse two recent Supreme Court decisions on campaign spending...
Some Uber Drivers Say Company’s Promise Of Big Pay Day Doesn’t Match Reality Washington Post ...The lure of taking home 80 percent of the fares he collected as a driver for Uber was a sweet incentive for Demek Dagnachew to sign up with the ride-sharing service in April. But soon after he started ferrying passengers around the District in his 2012 Toyota Camry, he said he noticed his earnings didn’t quite reflect the 80/20 split he’d been promised...
Sources: Taj To File For Bankruptcy, Close In November CBS News ...A source confirms to CBS 3 Eyewitness News that the Taj Mahal has already begun the process for bankruptcy and layoff notices could go out to workers next week. As of August, the casino hotel had more than 2,800 employees...
State Consultant Says Bridgeton Landfill Fire Spreading North St. Louis Post Dispatch ...The consultant hired by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources says the “subsurface fire” at the Bridgeton Landfill is expanding and moving closer to the radioactive West Lake Landfill...
Miscellaneous
Exclusive: Safety concerns dog Boeing 787 Aljazeera ...Using a concealed camera, the worker films inside the Boeing South Carolina plant, recording his discussions with colleagues. He randomly asks 15 of his co-workers who assemble the 787 "Dreamliner" if they would fly on the plane. Ten say they would not...
Vote On County Pay Raises In The Offing St. Petersburg Tribune ...The Teamsters has asked for a $15 per hour minimum. Sholtes said the request has nothing to do with a national movement among fast-food workers for a $15 minimum wage. The union used data from the living wage calculator, which sets the minimum hourly wage at $15 to support two adults and $9.63 for one adult...
EVSC board votes to accept Teamsters contract 14 News ...Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corporation board members voted Monday night to accept the contracts of several employee groups, including the Teamsters Union. Members of Teamsters Local 215 includes custodians, bus drivers, bus aids, and secretaries...
Teamsters Port Division Assisting Truck Drivers Fired By TTSI teamster.org ...On Wednesday evening, Sept. 3, 2014, at least thirty-three (33) port truck drivers who participated in recent unfair labor practice strikes and filed “wage and hour” claims with the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) were fired by their employer, Total Transportation Services Inc. (TTSI), when they refused to acquiesce to the company’s illegal demand to withdraw their claims for wage theft as misclassified “independent contractors.”...
Trade
The Transatlantic Trade And Investment Partnership: Getting The Criticism Right The Journal ...As an investment agreement, the TTIP is probably bad for everyone whose name does not end in Ltd, Plc, or something similar...
China’s Runaway Steel Industry Trade Reform ...production capacity for China’s steel industry has grown by an astonishing 200 million tons since late 2012, to 1.1 billion tons today. (By contrast, the entire U.S. steel industry produced only 87 million tons in 2013.) Yet first half domestic consumption of steel stands at 376.1 million tons, up an anemic 0.4 percent over the same period last year. Steel exports are growing but at the expense of “increasing trade conflicts and constant trade remedy investigations.”...
State Battles
The shortfall that wouldn't die Uppity Wisconsin ...Today's news that the budget shortfall is nearly 2 billion dollars and apparently rising leads one to believe that maybe too little cash is sticking in Madison. Other recent news makes it clear that the administration has been helping put more cash in the pockets of some taxpayers (and out-of-staters) than others...
As lawyers prep for John Doe hearing, legal tab tops $672,000 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...The cost to taxpayers for defending the state against lawsuits over an investigation into Gov. Scott Walker and his allies has quickly escalated to more than $672,000...
Voter ID On Trial in Texas (opinion) New York Times ...Laws like these used to be blocked by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which required that the federal government preapprove any voting rules enacted by states and localities with a history of discriminatory voting practices. But in a destructive ruling last year, the Supreme Court struck down Section 5 as unconstitutional. Only hours after that ruling, Texas resurrected its voter-ID law, which had been stopped by Section 5...
Ruling In Nebraska Could Have Big Overall Impact On Keystone XL Nebraska Radio Network ...A ruling by the state Supreme Court on the law that authorized the Keystone XL route through Nebraska could have ramifications well beyond this state. Attorney General Jon Bruning is confident the Supreme Court will uphold the law that set the route...
War On Workers
The Fast Food Strikes Have Been A Stunning Success For Organized Labor Slate ...at this early date, it’s more useful to think of them as the spearhead of a broader living wage movement that has also seen retail workers at stores such as Walmart protest for better pay. Framed that way, the effort has been startlingly effective. For the cost of a few Super Bowl ads, the SEIU and some dedicated fast food workers have managed to completely rewire how the public and politicians thinks about wages...
STILL 1.4 Million Fewer Full-Time Jobs Than in 2008 naked capitalism ...It’s still 1.4 million below 2008? In 2008, the economy was in full collapse mode. The Fed has expanded its balance sheet by $3.7 trillion since August 2008 and there are fewer full-time jobs now than then? Remind me again what that $3.7 trillion has bought!...
Koch 101 Slate ...The Koch brothers are paying millions to inject libertarian ideas into high school curriculums...
Koch Industries adopts new public posture to neutralize opponents, recast image Washington Post ...Koch Industries, which produces goods ranging from Angel Soft toilet paper to iPhone parts, is adopting a more visible strategy to neutralize critics on the left and promote a warm, patriotic image of its multinational empire...
Evidence Says That Students Do Better In Schools With Strong Teachers’ Unions Addicting Info ... Collective bargaining provides a legal, structured process in which local unions and management can develop reforms, such as peer review or performance-based pay...
Senate moves forward with amendment to the Constitution on elections The Hill ...The Senate on Monday advanced a constitutional amendment meant to reverse two recent Supreme Court decisions on campaign spending...
Some Uber Drivers Say Company’s Promise Of Big Pay Day Doesn’t Match Reality Washington Post ...The lure of taking home 80 percent of the fares he collected as a driver for Uber was a sweet incentive for Demek Dagnachew to sign up with the ride-sharing service in April. But soon after he started ferrying passengers around the District in his 2012 Toyota Camry, he said he noticed his earnings didn’t quite reflect the 80/20 split he’d been promised...
Sources: Taj To File For Bankruptcy, Close In November CBS News ...A source confirms to CBS 3 Eyewitness News that the Taj Mahal has already begun the process for bankruptcy and layoff notices could go out to workers next week. As of August, the casino hotel had more than 2,800 employees...
State Consultant Says Bridgeton Landfill Fire Spreading North St. Louis Post Dispatch ...The consultant hired by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources says the “subsurface fire” at the Bridgeton Landfill is expanding and moving closer to the radioactive West Lake Landfill...
Miscellaneous
Exclusive: Safety concerns dog Boeing 787 Aljazeera ...Using a concealed camera, the worker films inside the Boeing South Carolina plant, recording his discussions with colleagues. He randomly asks 15 of his co-workers who assemble the 787 "Dreamliner" if they would fly on the plane. Ten say they would not...
Friday, September 5, 2014
Today's Teamster News 09.05.14
Teamster News
'My Horse For A Kingdom:' Mayor de Blasio And The Tyranny Of Denial Huffington Post ...After 10 months of filming New York's Greatest Living Icons, the gentle carriage horses, those who love them... and those who hate them, I can say, without equivocation, there is no abuse, no cruelty of any kind, only love...and lots of carrots...
Public Works Employees in Florida Join Teamsters Local 385 teamster.org ...Casselberry, Florida Public Works employees have unanimously voted to join Teamsters Local 385 in Orlando…. Thirty-one ballots were returned and the vote was 31-0 to join Local 385. There are 44 workers in the bargaining unit...
Trade
Trade deficit with China sets new record Trade Reform ...Our deficit with China — People’s Republic of China/Chinese Communist Party/People’s Liberation Army — is an all-time record...
State Battles
Indiana Supreme Court To Hear Right-To-Work Arguments Today Indianapolis Star ...The Indiana Supreme Court will hear oral arguments this morning on the state’s right-to-work law that brought thousands of union protesters to the Statehouse in 2012 when it was passed...
Minimum wage debate returns to Indianapolis WISHTV.com ...A nationwide push to raise the minimum wage returns to Indianapolis Thursday with more local protests. It’s a hot button issue from the nation’s capital to the fast food counter. Fast food workers have protested a handful of times over the last year...
Pension Tax Bites Michigan’s Snyder in Re-Election Bid Bloomberg ...Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s 2011 tax increase on retirement income from pensions is haunting the Republican as he runs for a second term in a graying state still recovering from the recession...
Tax The Big Businesses That Won’t Pay Connecticut Workers A Living Wage (opinion) The CT Mirror ...If companies with 500 or more employees decide they don’t want to pay a fair wage, then they must repay Connecticut taxpayers for supporting their corporate bottom line...
Alabama's Voter ID Law Blamed For At Least 282 Ballots Uncounted In Primary Birmingham News ...The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund is alleging that at least 282 ballots in the state's June 3 primary election were not counted due to Alabama's law requiring voters to show a valid photo identification card...
Husted’s suppression efforts have costs taxpayers over $400,000 Ohio Democratic Party ...In 2013, the State of Ohio paid the Wiley Rein law firm $285,902.50 to unsuccessfully defend Jon Husted’s attempt to cut early voting in Ohio before the 2012 general election alone...
Bad Labor News for Wisconsin Center for Media and Democracy ... the state still falls 21,900 jobs short of where it was seven years ago--and about 58,000 jobs short of where it would be if it had kept pace with the national recovery rate...
Former Va. Gov. Bob McDonnell Found Guilty In Corruption Case DCist ...Former Va. Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen were found guilty today on several charges in the corruption case stemming from gifts, including an engraved Rolex and lavish vacations, and thousands of dollars in loans they accepted from a businessman in exchange for political favor...
War On Workers
Fast Food Strikes Hit 150 US Cities MSNBC ...Police arrested at least 19 people outside of a McDonald’s in New York City early Thursday morning as thousands of fast food workers across the country walked off the job...
Congresswoman Gwen Moore arrested during minimum wage protest CBS News ...U.S. Congresswoman Gwen Moore was arrested by West Milwaukee police during a minimum wage protest on Miller Park Way...
The United States Leads in Low-Wage Work and the Lowest Wages for Low-Wage Workers Economic Policy Institute ...the wages of low-wage workers (the 10th percentile of wage earners) declined by five percent over the 1979-2013 period, despite a generation of productivity gains (64.9 percent)...
Groups Accuse Apple Supplier in China of Labor Violations New York Times ...The employees are made to work excessive overtime and handle toxic chemicals without proper protective clothing, according to a report released Thursday by Green America, an environmental nonprofit group, and China Labor Watch, a workers’ rights group based in New York...
Voting Restrictions Are Key Variable In Midterm Elections New York Times ...Voting in midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress, ends this fall. But it starts in North Carolina this week...
Worker Killed on the Job: Four Wheeler Accident News4JAX ...A man was killed on the job after the four wheeler he was riding flipped and landed in a near by lake. The vehicle pinned the man beneath the water...
McMansions not only survive, they’re getting bigger Washington Post ...In 1973, the median newly-completed single-family house was 1,525 square feet; forty years later, in 2013, it was 2,384 square feet. That is a record high...
The Koch Brothers have funded 44,000 ads in the 2014 election Washington Post ...Americans for Prosperity alone has run more than 27,000 ads, which is significantly more than groups like American Crossroads/Crossroads GPS -- groups with close ties to former Bush White House political svengali Karl Rove...
Miscellaneous
Large US Tech Firms Plan 'Go Slow' Day In Protest Over Net Neutrality Rules The Guardian ...Some of the world’s largest tech firms are planning a “go slow” day next week in protest of proposals that could create fast lanes on the internet for some companies...
'My Horse For A Kingdom:' Mayor de Blasio And The Tyranny Of Denial Huffington Post ...After 10 months of filming New York's Greatest Living Icons, the gentle carriage horses, those who love them... and those who hate them, I can say, without equivocation, there is no abuse, no cruelty of any kind, only love...and lots of carrots...
Public Works Employees in Florida Join Teamsters Local 385 teamster.org ...Casselberry, Florida Public Works employees have unanimously voted to join Teamsters Local 385 in Orlando…. Thirty-one ballots were returned and the vote was 31-0 to join Local 385. There are 44 workers in the bargaining unit...
Trade
Trade deficit with China sets new record Trade Reform ...Our deficit with China — People’s Republic of China/Chinese Communist Party/People’s Liberation Army — is an all-time record...
State Battles
Indiana Supreme Court To Hear Right-To-Work Arguments Today Indianapolis Star ...The Indiana Supreme Court will hear oral arguments this morning on the state’s right-to-work law that brought thousands of union protesters to the Statehouse in 2012 when it was passed...
Minimum wage debate returns to Indianapolis WISHTV.com ...A nationwide push to raise the minimum wage returns to Indianapolis Thursday with more local protests. It’s a hot button issue from the nation’s capital to the fast food counter. Fast food workers have protested a handful of times over the last year...
Pension Tax Bites Michigan’s Snyder in Re-Election Bid Bloomberg ...Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s 2011 tax increase on retirement income from pensions is haunting the Republican as he runs for a second term in a graying state still recovering from the recession...
Tax The Big Businesses That Won’t Pay Connecticut Workers A Living Wage (opinion) The CT Mirror ...If companies with 500 or more employees decide they don’t want to pay a fair wage, then they must repay Connecticut taxpayers for supporting their corporate bottom line...
Alabama's Voter ID Law Blamed For At Least 282 Ballots Uncounted In Primary Birmingham News ...The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund is alleging that at least 282 ballots in the state's June 3 primary election were not counted due to Alabama's law requiring voters to show a valid photo identification card...
Husted’s suppression efforts have costs taxpayers over $400,000 Ohio Democratic Party ...In 2013, the State of Ohio paid the Wiley Rein law firm $285,902.50 to unsuccessfully defend Jon Husted’s attempt to cut early voting in Ohio before the 2012 general election alone...
Bad Labor News for Wisconsin Center for Media and Democracy ... the state still falls 21,900 jobs short of where it was seven years ago--and about 58,000 jobs short of where it would be if it had kept pace with the national recovery rate...
Former Va. Gov. Bob McDonnell Found Guilty In Corruption Case DCist ...Former Va. Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen were found guilty today on several charges in the corruption case stemming from gifts, including an engraved Rolex and lavish vacations, and thousands of dollars in loans they accepted from a businessman in exchange for political favor...
War On Workers
Fast Food Strikes Hit 150 US Cities MSNBC ...Police arrested at least 19 people outside of a McDonald’s in New York City early Thursday morning as thousands of fast food workers across the country walked off the job...
Congresswoman Gwen Moore arrested during minimum wage protest CBS News ...U.S. Congresswoman Gwen Moore was arrested by West Milwaukee police during a minimum wage protest on Miller Park Way...
The United States Leads in Low-Wage Work and the Lowest Wages for Low-Wage Workers Economic Policy Institute ...the wages of low-wage workers (the 10th percentile of wage earners) declined by five percent over the 1979-2013 period, despite a generation of productivity gains (64.9 percent)...
Groups Accuse Apple Supplier in China of Labor Violations New York Times ...The employees are made to work excessive overtime and handle toxic chemicals without proper protective clothing, according to a report released Thursday by Green America, an environmental nonprofit group, and China Labor Watch, a workers’ rights group based in New York...
Voting Restrictions Are Key Variable In Midterm Elections New York Times ...Voting in midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress, ends this fall. But it starts in North Carolina this week...
Worker Killed on the Job: Four Wheeler Accident News4JAX ...A man was killed on the job after the four wheeler he was riding flipped and landed in a near by lake. The vehicle pinned the man beneath the water...
McMansions not only survive, they’re getting bigger Washington Post ...In 1973, the median newly-completed single-family house was 1,525 square feet; forty years later, in 2013, it was 2,384 square feet. That is a record high...
The Koch Brothers have funded 44,000 ads in the 2014 election Washington Post ...Americans for Prosperity alone has run more than 27,000 ads, which is significantly more than groups like American Crossroads/Crossroads GPS -- groups with close ties to former Bush White House political svengali Karl Rove...
Miscellaneous
Large US Tech Firms Plan 'Go Slow' Day In Protest Over Net Neutrality Rules The Guardian ...Some of the world’s largest tech firms are planning a “go slow” day next week in protest of proposals that could create fast lanes on the internet for some companies...
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Today's Teamster News 05.22.14
Teamster News
Teamsters Strike Averted Pekin Daily Times ...After about five hours of mediation between the city of Pekin and Teamsters Local 627 officials the two sides reached a tentative agreement Tuesday to keep city services operational...
International Brotherhood Of Teamsters Reports Taylor Farms Workers' Rights Violations Insurance News Net ...Taylor Farms workers and Teamster members gathered with state and community leaders at a forum on May 15 evening to investigate workers' rights violations at the company's facilities in Tracy, California, according to a release from International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
ACTR Drivers To Vote On Union The Eagle ...Bus drivers of ACTR, Addison County Transit Resources, will vote to unionize June 11, according to driver Craig Bingham. Bingham says the drivers will decide to join the Teamsters Local 597...
Drivers Physicals Must Now Be Performed by Certified Medical Examiners Trucking Info ...The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is reminding the trucking industry Wednesday marks the start of new regulations requiring that all U.S. DOT physicals must be performed by a qualified health professional listed on the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners.
The new program sets baseline training and testing standards for medical professionals who perform commercial driver physicals and for tracking of driver medical certificates...
Teamsters Local 727 Defends Funeral Workers at SCI Shareholders Meeting Teamsters Local 727 ...Teamsters Local 727 President John Coli Jr. on May 14 publicly denounced funeral giant Service Corporation International at its annual shareholders meeting in Houston for the company’s mistreatment of Chicago-area workers...
Trade
Surprise, US media fails to cover talks on big 'trade' deal with Europe TeamsterNation ...The European media came out for a press conference today against TAFTA, the latest power grab by big corporations and the 1%. The American media wasn't interested in the so-called trade deal with Europe...
Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks To Intensify As Key Players Remain Divided Raw Story ...Asia-Pacific trade ministers said Tuesday they would intensify talks on a vast trans-Pacific free trade agreement, but offered no clue on when a final accord would be reached. At the end of a two-day meeting in Singapore, ministers and chief negotiators of the 12 putative member economies of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) remained divided on key issues...
State Battles
Christie's pension payment reduction plan sparks lawsuit from CWA NJ.com ...Another prominent labor union, the Communications Workers of America, says it will file a lawsuit in an effort to stop Gov. Chris Christie's plans to grab $2.43 billion meant for the pension system to balance the state budget...
Minnesota vs. Wisconsin, and More Econbrowser ... No turnaround for Wisconsin — it continues to lag Minnesota and the Nation...
War On Workers
U.S. Fast Food Protests Go Global The Hill ...Last Thursday, fast food workers in over 30 countries participated in protests over poverty wages, a lack of full-time positions, poor working conditions and management retaliation against union activism. U.S. workers protested in over 160 cities...
McDonald's Vacates Headquarters Ahead Of Massive Protest Business Insider ...McDonald's executives vacated the company headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois, on Wednesday ahead of a massive protest involving thousands of workers and supporters...
Why Is Credit Suisse Still Allowed to Do Business in the United States? The Atlantic ...Credit Suisse, the gigantic Swiss bank, is clearly a criminal organization. In its guilty plea yesterday, Credit Suisse admitted that it has been actively helping Americans (and no doubt people from all around the world) evade taxes for years...
Is Credit Suisse Really in Jail? Baseline Scenario ...no one will go to jail because of the conviction...
Hubris at the Top: The Imperial and Tone Deaf CEO Wall Street on Parade ...Yesterday, at the JPMorgan shareholders’ meeting, which has been held in Tampa, Florida for the past three years, more than 1,000 miles from the JPMorgan headquarters in New York (ostensibly to avoid mass protests), CEO Jamie Dimon’s pay package was rubber stamped by shareholders at $20 million for 2013. Over the past 18 months, the bank has been charged with ever alarming amounts of crimes, including the unprecedented two-felony count charge for aiding and abetting the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme which devastated financial lives across America...
Miscellaneous
TransCanada Considers Keystone XL Pipeline Alternative, Oil By Rail Reuters ...TransCanada Corp is in talks with customers about shipping Canadian crude to the United States by rail as an alternative route as its Keystone XL pipeline project that has been mired in political delays, Chief Executive Russ Girling said on Wednesday...
Couple Fined $750, Threatened With Jail for Feeding Homeless People Alternet ...A Florida couple who fed more than 100 homeless people each week have been accused of breaking the law for their good deed...
Saudi Arabia: Filipino Maid Disfigured with Boiling Water for not Bringing Coffee on Time IBT ...The maid, who is from Pikit, North Cotabato, said she had been working for the Arab family in Riyadh for two months. She was not given her salary or provided with proper meals...
Teamsters Strike Averted Pekin Daily Times ...After about five hours of mediation between the city of Pekin and Teamsters Local 627 officials the two sides reached a tentative agreement Tuesday to keep city services operational...
International Brotherhood Of Teamsters Reports Taylor Farms Workers' Rights Violations Insurance News Net ...Taylor Farms workers and Teamster members gathered with state and community leaders at a forum on May 15 evening to investigate workers' rights violations at the company's facilities in Tracy, California, according to a release from International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
ACTR Drivers To Vote On Union The Eagle ...Bus drivers of ACTR, Addison County Transit Resources, will vote to unionize June 11, according to driver Craig Bingham. Bingham says the drivers will decide to join the Teamsters Local 597...
Drivers Physicals Must Now Be Performed by Certified Medical Examiners Trucking Info ...The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is reminding the trucking industry Wednesday marks the start of new regulations requiring that all U.S. DOT physicals must be performed by a qualified health professional listed on the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners.
The new program sets baseline training and testing standards for medical professionals who perform commercial driver physicals and for tracking of driver medical certificates...
Teamsters Local 727 Defends Funeral Workers at SCI Shareholders Meeting Teamsters Local 727 ...Teamsters Local 727 President John Coli Jr. on May 14 publicly denounced funeral giant Service Corporation International at its annual shareholders meeting in Houston for the company’s mistreatment of Chicago-area workers...
Trade
Surprise, US media fails to cover talks on big 'trade' deal with Europe TeamsterNation ...The European media came out for a press conference today against TAFTA, the latest power grab by big corporations and the 1%. The American media wasn't interested in the so-called trade deal with Europe...
Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks To Intensify As Key Players Remain Divided Raw Story ...Asia-Pacific trade ministers said Tuesday they would intensify talks on a vast trans-Pacific free trade agreement, but offered no clue on when a final accord would be reached. At the end of a two-day meeting in Singapore, ministers and chief negotiators of the 12 putative member economies of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) remained divided on key issues...
State Battles
Christie's pension payment reduction plan sparks lawsuit from CWA NJ.com ...Another prominent labor union, the Communications Workers of America, says it will file a lawsuit in an effort to stop Gov. Chris Christie's plans to grab $2.43 billion meant for the pension system to balance the state budget...
Minnesota vs. Wisconsin, and More Econbrowser ... No turnaround for Wisconsin — it continues to lag Minnesota and the Nation...
War On Workers
U.S. Fast Food Protests Go Global The Hill ...Last Thursday, fast food workers in over 30 countries participated in protests over poverty wages, a lack of full-time positions, poor working conditions and management retaliation against union activism. U.S. workers protested in over 160 cities...
McDonald's Vacates Headquarters Ahead Of Massive Protest Business Insider ...McDonald's executives vacated the company headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois, on Wednesday ahead of a massive protest involving thousands of workers and supporters...
Why Is Credit Suisse Still Allowed to Do Business in the United States? The Atlantic ...Credit Suisse, the gigantic Swiss bank, is clearly a criminal organization. In its guilty plea yesterday, Credit Suisse admitted that it has been actively helping Americans (and no doubt people from all around the world) evade taxes for years...
Is Credit Suisse Really in Jail? Baseline Scenario ...no one will go to jail because of the conviction...
Hubris at the Top: The Imperial and Tone Deaf CEO Wall Street on Parade ...Yesterday, at the JPMorgan shareholders’ meeting, which has been held in Tampa, Florida for the past three years, more than 1,000 miles from the JPMorgan headquarters in New York (ostensibly to avoid mass protests), CEO Jamie Dimon’s pay package was rubber stamped by shareholders at $20 million for 2013. Over the past 18 months, the bank has been charged with ever alarming amounts of crimes, including the unprecedented two-felony count charge for aiding and abetting the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme which devastated financial lives across America...
Miscellaneous
TransCanada Considers Keystone XL Pipeline Alternative, Oil By Rail Reuters ...TransCanada Corp is in talks with customers about shipping Canadian crude to the United States by rail as an alternative route as its Keystone XL pipeline project that has been mired in political delays, Chief Executive Russ Girling said on Wednesday...
Couple Fined $750, Threatened With Jail for Feeding Homeless People Alternet ...A Florida couple who fed more than 100 homeless people each week have been accused of breaking the law for their good deed...
Saudi Arabia: Filipino Maid Disfigured with Boiling Water for not Bringing Coffee on Time IBT ...The maid, who is from Pikit, North Cotabato, said she had been working for the Arab family in Riyadh for two months. She was not given her salary or provided with proper meals...
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Today's Teamster News 05.17.14
Teamster News
Exclusive: City, Teamsters Entering Mediation Pekin Daily Times ...The City of Pekin and the Teamsters Local 627 have scheduled a mediation session for May 20 in an effort to settle some sticking points in the labor negotiations...
State, Community Leaders Hold Investigative Forum On Workers’ Rights Violations At Taylor Farms teamster.org ...Taylor Farms workers and Teamster members gathered with state and community leaders at a forum on Thursday evening to investigate workers’ rights violations at the company’s facilities in Tracy, Calif...
Teamsters Unite With U.K. Unions To Demand National Express End War On North American Workers teamster.org ...The Teamsters Wednesday took their battle for bus driver labor rights to National Express Group’s shareholders meeting in England, where the union was part of a larger labor delegation...
Local 330 Circuit Court Members Receive Big Economic Gains Teamsters Local 330 ...Members of Teamsters Local 330 working for Illinois’ 16th Judicial Circuit Court have secured the highest wage increases of any organized public employees in Kane County...
Uber Drivers To Form Association After Arbitrary Shift Cuts Seattle Times ...Drivers for the ride services Uber and Uber X plan to form an association to protect their rights and improve safety as the City of Seattle negotiates with taxi and ride-service organizations over proposed new regulations...
Port Of Poulsbo Employees Move To Unionize North Kitsap Herald ...Employees of the Port of Poulsbo have begun the process of unionizing. The state's Public Employment Relations Commission received a representation petition on April 1 that was submitted by attorney Thomas Leahy of Seattle...
Clifton Steel Co. workers on strike to keep pension and benefits should company be sold cleveland.com ...At issue is the successor clause in the contract between the company, which treats steel for abrasion, impact and wear resistance, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 507...
Teamsters Rip Scott Brown For Preventing Vote On Keystone XL Huffington Post ...Scott Brown can't win for losing. After helping torpedo Sen. Jeanne Shaheen's (D-N.H.) energy efficiency legislation, he is now being hit by backers of Keystone XL, who saw her bill as the vehicle to get a vote on the controversial pipeline...
Trade
Police arrest 240 at Belgian anti free-trade protest EU Business ...Belgian police arrested some 240 people, including three Green politicians, during a protest Thursday against a massive EU-US free trade accord in central Brussels...
Second Anniversary of Colombia Pact Spotlights Administration's Failed Promise of Labor Rights Improvements, Now Recycled to Defend TPP Negotiations with Vietnam amid Worker Riots Public Citizen ...Today, as foreign-owned factories in Vietnam lie smoldering after protesting Vietnamese workers burnt them to the ground, Obama administration officials are in Vietnam negotiating a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact that would place U.S. workers in direct competition with their Vietnamese counterparts...
Will The Fight For Gay Rights Stop The Trans Pacific Partnership? PQ Monthly ...You may have heard that wealthy Hollywood types are boycotting the Beverly Hills Hotel (assuming you follow news about places only rich Hollywood types can afford to stay). This is because the hotel is owned by an investment firm that is owned by the Sultan of Brunei...
Congressman Enyart Demands Action To End Growing Steel Crisis at #SOSJobs Rally manufacture this ...Following more chants of “Got to do somethin’, stop that dumpin’,” Congressman William Enyart (D-IL) took the stage at today's AAM-sponsored #SOSJobs Rally in Granite City, IL...
State Battles
Missouri lawmakers end session without RTW, Paycheck Deception on ballot TeamsterNation ...n a big victory for workers, the Missouri Legislature ended its session this evening without putting right-to-work or Paycheck Deception on the ballot...
Anti-Labor Bills Defeated in Missouri in 2014 The St. Louis Powercast ...Though a number of bills that were not good for Missouri’s working families passed in this legislative session, the Missouri House adjourned without passing right-to-work and the Missouri Senate adjourned without passing paycheck deception!...
Show This To The Next Person Who Says High Minimum Wages Kill Jobs Huffington Post ...If you need more evidence that a higher minimum wage won't kill the economy, consider this: the city with one of the highest minimum wages in the country has faster job growth than any other big city over the past 10 years...
After Huge Tax Cuts For The Rich, Kansas' Economy Is Floundering Think Progress ...In a time of slack economic growth and high unemployment around the country, Kansas lawmakers thought they had the solution: massive tax cuts for the wealthy would lure economic activity and jump-start the state's economy...
War On Workers
Fast Food Workers Across The World Protest Pay Time Magazine ...Fast food workers demanding higher wages staged strikes in dozens of cities across as many as 30 countries Thursday, alongside 150 similar protests planned in the United States...
Soaring Earnings of Chipotle’s 2 Bosses Raise Investor Unease New York Times ...Chipotle paid its founder and co-chief executive, Steve Ells, $25.1 million in cash and stock last year. It paid Montgomery F. Moran, the company’s other co-chief executive, $24.4 million. ..
The State Of America's Deadly Jobs, In 9 Charts Huffington Post ...Earlier this week, an explosion at a coal mine in West Virginia killed two, a somber reminder that for too many people, going to work still means risking death. Workplace deaths have fallen dramatically since safety laws were implemented in the 1970s...
UK Survey Finds High Levels of Depression and Desperation Among the Young naked capitalism ...The report found 40% of jobless young people had faced symptoms of mental illness, including suicidal thoughts, feelings of self-loathing and panic attacks, as a direct result of unemployment...
Exclusive: City, Teamsters Entering Mediation Pekin Daily Times ...The City of Pekin and the Teamsters Local 627 have scheduled a mediation session for May 20 in an effort to settle some sticking points in the labor negotiations...
State, Community Leaders Hold Investigative Forum On Workers’ Rights Violations At Taylor Farms teamster.org ...Taylor Farms workers and Teamster members gathered with state and community leaders at a forum on Thursday evening to investigate workers’ rights violations at the company’s facilities in Tracy, Calif...
Teamsters Unite With U.K. Unions To Demand National Express End War On North American Workers teamster.org ...The Teamsters Wednesday took their battle for bus driver labor rights to National Express Group’s shareholders meeting in England, where the union was part of a larger labor delegation...
Local 330 Circuit Court Members Receive Big Economic Gains Teamsters Local 330 ...Members of Teamsters Local 330 working for Illinois’ 16th Judicial Circuit Court have secured the highest wage increases of any organized public employees in Kane County...
Uber Drivers To Form Association After Arbitrary Shift Cuts Seattle Times ...Drivers for the ride services Uber and Uber X plan to form an association to protect their rights and improve safety as the City of Seattle negotiates with taxi and ride-service organizations over proposed new regulations...
Port Of Poulsbo Employees Move To Unionize North Kitsap Herald ...Employees of the Port of Poulsbo have begun the process of unionizing. The state's Public Employment Relations Commission received a representation petition on April 1 that was submitted by attorney Thomas Leahy of Seattle...
Clifton Steel Co. workers on strike to keep pension and benefits should company be sold cleveland.com ...At issue is the successor clause in the contract between the company, which treats steel for abrasion, impact and wear resistance, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 507...
Teamsters Rip Scott Brown For Preventing Vote On Keystone XL Huffington Post ...Scott Brown can't win for losing. After helping torpedo Sen. Jeanne Shaheen's (D-N.H.) energy efficiency legislation, he is now being hit by backers of Keystone XL, who saw her bill as the vehicle to get a vote on the controversial pipeline...
Trade
Police arrest 240 at Belgian anti free-trade protest EU Business ...Belgian police arrested some 240 people, including three Green politicians, during a protest Thursday against a massive EU-US free trade accord in central Brussels...
Second Anniversary of Colombia Pact Spotlights Administration's Failed Promise of Labor Rights Improvements, Now Recycled to Defend TPP Negotiations with Vietnam amid Worker Riots Public Citizen ...Today, as foreign-owned factories in Vietnam lie smoldering after protesting Vietnamese workers burnt them to the ground, Obama administration officials are in Vietnam negotiating a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact that would place U.S. workers in direct competition with their Vietnamese counterparts...
Will The Fight For Gay Rights Stop The Trans Pacific Partnership? PQ Monthly ...You may have heard that wealthy Hollywood types are boycotting the Beverly Hills Hotel (assuming you follow news about places only rich Hollywood types can afford to stay). This is because the hotel is owned by an investment firm that is owned by the Sultan of Brunei...
Congressman Enyart Demands Action To End Growing Steel Crisis at #SOSJobs Rally manufacture this ...Following more chants of “Got to do somethin’, stop that dumpin’,” Congressman William Enyart (D-IL) took the stage at today's AAM-sponsored #SOSJobs Rally in Granite City, IL...
State Battles
Missouri lawmakers end session without RTW, Paycheck Deception on ballot TeamsterNation ...n a big victory for workers, the Missouri Legislature ended its session this evening without putting right-to-work or Paycheck Deception on the ballot...
Anti-Labor Bills Defeated in Missouri in 2014 The St. Louis Powercast ...Though a number of bills that were not good for Missouri’s working families passed in this legislative session, the Missouri House adjourned without passing right-to-work and the Missouri Senate adjourned without passing paycheck deception!...
Show This To The Next Person Who Says High Minimum Wages Kill Jobs Huffington Post ...If you need more evidence that a higher minimum wage won't kill the economy, consider this: the city with one of the highest minimum wages in the country has faster job growth than any other big city over the past 10 years...
After Huge Tax Cuts For The Rich, Kansas' Economy Is Floundering Think Progress ...In a time of slack economic growth and high unemployment around the country, Kansas lawmakers thought they had the solution: massive tax cuts for the wealthy would lure economic activity and jump-start the state's economy...
War On Workers
Fast Food Workers Across The World Protest Pay Time Magazine ...Fast food workers demanding higher wages staged strikes in dozens of cities across as many as 30 countries Thursday, alongside 150 similar protests planned in the United States...
Soaring Earnings of Chipotle’s 2 Bosses Raise Investor Unease New York Times ...Chipotle paid its founder and co-chief executive, Steve Ells, $25.1 million in cash and stock last year. It paid Montgomery F. Moran, the company’s other co-chief executive, $24.4 million. ..
The State Of America's Deadly Jobs, In 9 Charts Huffington Post ...Earlier this week, an explosion at a coal mine in West Virginia killed two, a somber reminder that for too many people, going to work still means risking death. Workplace deaths have fallen dramatically since safety laws were implemented in the 1970s...
UK Survey Finds High Levels of Depression and Desperation Among the Young naked capitalism ...The report found 40% of jobless young people had faced symptoms of mental illness, including suicidal thoughts, feelings of self-loathing and panic attacks, as a direct result of unemployment...
Friday, May 16, 2014
Today's Teamster News 05.16.14
Teamster News
Teamsters say Scott Brown lied to their face Manchester Union Leader ...The local Teamsters chapter is accusing Republican U.S. Senate candidate Scott Brown of lying to their face over his support of the Keystone XL pipeline...
Teamsters 'out & looking militant' support supersized global fast food strike TeamsterNation ...Teamsters took to the streets along with striking fast food workers today, escalating the global movement for fair wages for all workers and the right to join a union...
Teamster presence felt at 9/11 Memorial Museum TeamsterNation ...Teamster Local 282 member Manny Rodriguez donated his Teamsters jacket to the 9/11 Memorial Museum, the hard hat he wore at Ground Zero and a sculpture of the twin towers burned from World Trade Center steel...
Newburgh PBA, Teamsters, Slam Police Administration Mid Hudson News ...The City of Newburgh's PBA claims there is a turf war among crime factions in the city, with bullets flying day and night and the city administration, including Police Chief Michael Ferrera, is doing nothing about it...
Teamsters Reveal What's Really Happening at National Express teamster.org ...Evelina Moultrie, a Durham driver in Charleston, S.C., and a member of Teamsters Local 509 in West Columbia, S.C., told the Board about issues with overcrowding, as well as insects and mold on the buses...
Airgas Drivers Join Teamsters Local 25 teamster.org ...Local 25 in Boston recently organized a group of 17 tankhaul workers who deliver air cylinders to commercial entities in the area...
Trade
Elizabeth Warren Reveals Inside Details of Trade Talks The Nation ... “I actually have had supporters of the deal say to me ‘They have to be secret, because if the American people knew what was actually in them, they would be opposed.’”...
Second Anniversary of Colombia Pact Spotlights Administration's Failed Promise of Labor Rights Improvements, Now Recycled to Defend TPP Negotiations with Vietnam amid Worker Riots Public Citizen ...Undeterred by the ongoing repression of Colombian workers, U.S. trade negotiators are in Vietnam at this very moment in attempt to negotiate via the TPP an expansion of the FTA model to Vietnam, despite the country’s widespread labor abuses...
State Battles
Report indicates Wisconsin added 28,000 jobs last year Wisconsin Radio Network ...Figures submitted by the state to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show Wisconsin added just over 28,000 private sector jobs in 2013. It’s the lowest rate of growth for the state since Walker took office, bringing the total number of job created during the governor’s first three years in office to just under 92,000. That’s less than half of the 250,000 private sector jobs Walker promised to help create...
North Carolina Voters Want To End Partisan Gerrymandering Think Progress ...By a wide margin, North Carolina voters say they want to replace their state's current system of political gerrymandering with a non-partisan redistricting option, according to a new poll...
I Attended An ALEC Convention And Found An Alternate Universe Bill Moyers ...Last week I traveled to Missouri to attend my second American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) conference. As a state legislator from Wisconsin, I joined ALEC last year...
America's Most Gerrymandered Congressional Districts Washington Post ...This election year, we can expect to hear a lot about Congressional district gerrymandering, which is when political parties redraw district boundaries to give themselves an electoral advantage...
War On Workers
Biggest fast food strike ever attracts global support MSNBC ...A year and a half ago, it was 200 striking workers in a single city. As of this week, it’s a global movement. On Thursday, thousands of fast food workers across the United States initiated the latest in a series of day-long strikes against their employers...
Boeing conducted unfair practices against U.S. engineers: labor board Reuters ...The U.S. National Labor Relations Board said on Thursday that Boeing Co (BA.N) committed unfair labor practices against its unionized engineers near Seattle and in Portland, Oregon, when it photographed and videotaped workplace marches in 2012...
Median Net Worth Of Grads Under 40 With Student Debt Is Only $8,700 Los Angeles Times ...The financial travails of people under 40 with student loan debt extend far beyond the college loans themselves, according to a new study...
Miscellaneous
FCC Votes For Plan To Kill Net Neutrality Huffington Post ...On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission voted in favor of a proposal that would rewrite the rules that govern how traffic flows on the internet, issuing a blow to the principle of net neutrality...
Teamsters say Scott Brown lied to their face Manchester Union Leader ...The local Teamsters chapter is accusing Republican U.S. Senate candidate Scott Brown of lying to their face over his support of the Keystone XL pipeline...
Teamsters 'out & looking militant' support supersized global fast food strike TeamsterNation ...Teamsters took to the streets along with striking fast food workers today, escalating the global movement for fair wages for all workers and the right to join a union...
Teamster presence felt at 9/11 Memorial Museum TeamsterNation ...Teamster Local 282 member Manny Rodriguez donated his Teamsters jacket to the 9/11 Memorial Museum, the hard hat he wore at Ground Zero and a sculpture of the twin towers burned from World Trade Center steel...
Newburgh PBA, Teamsters, Slam Police Administration Mid Hudson News ...The City of Newburgh's PBA claims there is a turf war among crime factions in the city, with bullets flying day and night and the city administration, including Police Chief Michael Ferrera, is doing nothing about it...
Teamsters Reveal What's Really Happening at National Express teamster.org ...Evelina Moultrie, a Durham driver in Charleston, S.C., and a member of Teamsters Local 509 in West Columbia, S.C., told the Board about issues with overcrowding, as well as insects and mold on the buses...
Airgas Drivers Join Teamsters Local 25 teamster.org ...Local 25 in Boston recently organized a group of 17 tankhaul workers who deliver air cylinders to commercial entities in the area...
Trade
Elizabeth Warren Reveals Inside Details of Trade Talks The Nation ... “I actually have had supporters of the deal say to me ‘They have to be secret, because if the American people knew what was actually in them, they would be opposed.’”...
Second Anniversary of Colombia Pact Spotlights Administration's Failed Promise of Labor Rights Improvements, Now Recycled to Defend TPP Negotiations with Vietnam amid Worker Riots Public Citizen ...Undeterred by the ongoing repression of Colombian workers, U.S. trade negotiators are in Vietnam at this very moment in attempt to negotiate via the TPP an expansion of the FTA model to Vietnam, despite the country’s widespread labor abuses...
State Battles
Report indicates Wisconsin added 28,000 jobs last year Wisconsin Radio Network ...Figures submitted by the state to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show Wisconsin added just over 28,000 private sector jobs in 2013. It’s the lowest rate of growth for the state since Walker took office, bringing the total number of job created during the governor’s first three years in office to just under 92,000. That’s less than half of the 250,000 private sector jobs Walker promised to help create...
North Carolina Voters Want To End Partisan Gerrymandering Think Progress ...By a wide margin, North Carolina voters say they want to replace their state's current system of political gerrymandering with a non-partisan redistricting option, according to a new poll...
I Attended An ALEC Convention And Found An Alternate Universe Bill Moyers ...Last week I traveled to Missouri to attend my second American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) conference. As a state legislator from Wisconsin, I joined ALEC last year...
America's Most Gerrymandered Congressional Districts Washington Post ...This election year, we can expect to hear a lot about Congressional district gerrymandering, which is when political parties redraw district boundaries to give themselves an electoral advantage...
War On Workers
Biggest fast food strike ever attracts global support MSNBC ...A year and a half ago, it was 200 striking workers in a single city. As of this week, it’s a global movement. On Thursday, thousands of fast food workers across the United States initiated the latest in a series of day-long strikes against their employers...
Boeing conducted unfair practices against U.S. engineers: labor board Reuters ...The U.S. National Labor Relations Board said on Thursday that Boeing Co (BA.N) committed unfair labor practices against its unionized engineers near Seattle and in Portland, Oregon, when it photographed and videotaped workplace marches in 2012...
Median Net Worth Of Grads Under 40 With Student Debt Is Only $8,700 Los Angeles Times ...The financial travails of people under 40 with student loan debt extend far beyond the college loans themselves, according to a new study...
Miscellaneous
FCC Votes For Plan To Kill Net Neutrality Huffington Post ...On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission voted in favor of a proposal that would rewrite the rules that govern how traffic flows on the internet, issuing a blow to the principle of net neutrality...
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Super-sized fast food worker strike to start tomorrow as movement goes global
Short, sudden strikes began in late 2012 against fast-food employers, but they have since grown to include a spectrum of low-wage workers joining together in job actions. Walmart workers, longshoremen and Teamsters held picket lines for striking port drivers recently, and a McDonald's worker and UFCW member recently joined Teamsters and Taylor Farms workers in California's state capital to push for a bill protecting temporary workers.
Decades of union-busting in this country lowered wages to the point where half the workers in America earn wages at or near the poverty level. Now tens of thousands of workers at a time are taking to the street to demand a fair day's wage for a day's work.
The movement is spreading across the world as fast food workers plan to protest tomorrow from Karachi to Casablanca. A flash mob is planned for the Philippines, a strike for Italy. And it goes beyond fast food workers overseas: Even today, British bus drivers are joining U.S. Teamsters who work for National Express at the company's annual meeting to demand better treatment for its workers in America.
Digital Journal covered the announcement of tomorrow's strike:
This latest showdown between the embattled fast food workers labor movement and the fast food industry is an escalation of a movement that started after the Great Recession of 2007-2009. The prevalence of low-paying jobs in the fast food industry became the main factor in the dissension shown by employees in many companies, especially those with international connections.
At a press conference in New York last week, the actions of the movement were made known after a gathering of union leaders and fast food workers from dozens of countries, called by the global union federation IUF (International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations) met to discuss the May 15 protest.Though they dismiss the walkouts publicly, fast food employers are very, very concerned about the unrest among their workers. According to leaked documents, Josh Eidelson at Salon reports,
...(National Restaurant Association) President and CEO,Dawn Sweeney pledging “active engagement in responding to reputational attacks on our industry and the organized wage protests that have gained such traction in the last few months.”Eidelson told Bill Moyers the fast food industry views the strikes as an unprecedented challenge:
These documents certainly have a different tone than the positions the industry has taken in public, where they have not only dismissed the merits of demands that include paying people $15 per hour and allowing workers to organize without intimidation, but they have also dismissed the relevance and the significance of these protests.
In private — in messaging to their members — we see them talking about the protests’ growing traction, we see them talking about the campaign becoming more coordinated, and we see them talking about how they’re going to push back. So it becomes very clear that the industry is aware that this is an unprecedented challenge.Let's hope.
Friday, December 6, 2013
Today's Teamster News 12.06.13
Bristol Twp., bus driver's union begin negotiations Bucks County Courier Times ...Negotiations have begun between officials of the Bristol Township School District and a union that now represents 32 district bus drivers...
ABF Closing 30 Terminals Truckinginfo ...Less-than-truckload carrier, ABF Freight System, is cutting its number of terminals from 277 to 247...
US fast-food workers strike over low wages in nationwide protests The Guardian ...Thousands of fast food and retail workers went on strike across the US on Thursday in a signal of the growing clamour for action on income equality...
Big Banks Don't Pay A Third Of Tellers Enough To Live On Huffington Post ...A staggering number of bank tellers in New York City use public assistance to get by, according to a report released Wednesday...
The Real People Whose Lives Will Be Turned Upside Down If Congress Doesn’t Act In The Next Three Weeks ThinkProgress ...Millions of people who have been out of work for 27 weeks or more will be cut off unless Congress acts by the end of the year...
New Study Confirms that Lower Corporate Tax Rates Don’t Create Jobs Naked Capitalism ...Corporate executives love to peddle the notion that they need to have their low tax payments reduced even further, even as the share of company profits is at unprecedentedly high levels...
The Fight Continues to Prevent Billions in International Money Laundering and Tax Shelters Center for Public Integrity ...Offshore havens are under attack again, but the tricky part is getting past toothless pronouncements...
Congress' Cushy Jobs: 239 Days Off While Workers Guaranteed Zero AlterNet ...In contrast to the rest of the developed world, American workers are not guaranteed paid holiday or vacation days...
Nelson Calls Florida Absentee Ballot Directive Voter Suppression Talking Points Memo ...Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) said Tuesday that a new directive in Florida that limits where voters can drop off their absentee ballots is a form of voter suppression...
County social workers strike over pay, high caseloads Los Angeles Times ...Los Angeles County social workers took to the picket lines on Thursday, the first county strike in more than a decade and a sharp escalation of a labor dispute between the county and its biggest employee union...
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Fast food workers to strike in 100 cities tomorrow
Organizers say widespread walkouts targeting fast-food chains will hit up to 100 cities tomorrow. This latest round of strikes follows last week’s Black Friday strikes against Walmart that saw worker protests at up to 1,500 Walmart stores and resulted in over 100 arrests. It also follows the 36-hour strike by port truck drivers who haul Walmart goods at the Port of Los Angeles starting Nov. 18.
Fast-food workers are hoping Thursday’s strikes will be the largest ever, doubling the reach of mass strikes in August that spread to more than 50 cities.
TIME magazine reports on the upcoming strikes:
An organized labor movement that began at a single New York McDonald’s about a year ago is planned to spread to around 100 cities this week. Fast-food workers nationwide are redoubling their efforts to earn higher wages with a more aggressive set of one-day strikes that organizers say will hit every region of the U.S.
Over the course of the last year, the fast-food protests, which are being backed by union groups such as the Service Employees International Union, have expanded greatly in scope.Retail and fast-food corporations are raking in billions of dollar while their workers scrape by on poverty wages. Multibillion dollar fast-food giants like McDonald’s cost taxpayers $7 billion a year in public assistance because they pay their workers so little. Meanwhile, a new study released yesterday exposed a tax loophole that allowed fast food chains to reap an extra $64 million over the last two years, feeding more bloated executive pay.
These corporate welfare queens do more than give crumbs to workers – they directly push their employees onto welfare, give them demeaning tips about how to survive on low pay, and ask low-wage workers to donate to other low-wage workers instead of paying them a living wage.
The rising movement of low-wage workers is growing – and it’s bigger than retail and fast food. Workers in other low-wage industries such as warehouse workers, port truck drivers and government contract workers have been staging protests and strikes, too.
Tomorrow’s fast-food strikes promise to keep the momentum going in the fight against corporate America’s sweatshop economy.
According to the Low Pay Is Not Okay website:
We’ve got their attention, and the fast food giants we work for are going to hear us Thursday. Over the last couple of weeks there has been an amazing – and inspiring – outpouring of support for workers like us who don’t get paid enough to make ends meet.
On Thursday, supporters will be protesting and rallying in solidarity with us across the country!Mary Coleman, a 59 year-old worker at Popeye’s who relies on food stamps, was quoted in The Nation saying,
I'm tired of working for $7.25. I can't take care of my household; I can't even take care of myself. Everyday struggles are being able to keep food on the table, being able to get the necessities that are needed for everyday living…And then if you need to go to the doctor, you can't afford that either…
I'm very excited about [Thursday’s strikes], and it lets me know people can come together and do what's right.Teamsters are encouraged to come out tomorrow and stand in solidarity with low-wage workers in the fast-food industry. Click here to find a protest near you!
ALL American workers deserve living wages – not McWages!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)