TEAMSTERS
Strike Ends as Chicago Teamsters Reach Tentative Agreement with Coca-Cola Teamster.org ...Teamsters Local 727 ended its unfair labor practice strike against Coca-Cola Refreshments late on Tuesday, Dec. 29, after reaching tentative agreement on a fair three-year contract for 319 production and warehouse workers. Upon ratification, the tentative agreement will transfer Local 727 members into a new health and welfare plan previously available to Coca-Cola management...
Teamsters reach tentative pact with Coca-Cola, end strike Chicago Tribune ...Coca-Cola workers who have been on strike for nearly a month are heading back to work after their union reached a tentative three-year contract with the company. Teamsters Local 727, which says it represents 319 production workers at Coca-Cola plants in Niles and Alsip, announced late Tuesday that the bargaining committee recommended ratification of what it called a "fair" contract offer by Coke...
Teamsters: Port Drivers Win Nearly $7 Million in Wages, End Misclassification Teamster.org ...On Dec. 14, the California Labor Commissioner determined that 38 drivers at leading port trucking company Pacific 9 Transportation, which hauls containers from the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach for some of America’s premiere brands – including Costco, Goodyear Tires, Ugg Boots, and Microsoft – are in fact employees, not independent contractors, and ordered Pac 9 to pay them nearly $6.9 million in stolen wages...
Port drivers win millions in back pay from trucking firm LA Times ...A port trucking firm in Carson has been ordered to turn over nearly $7 million in back pay to 38 drivers, the latest in a series of recent wins for port drivers and the Teamsters union that has been trying to organize them. The state Labor Commissioner's Office ruled this month that the drivers at Pacific 9 Transportation were improperly treated as independent contractors rather than as employees...
NYC horse carriage industry thanks supporters for help Daily News ...Horse carriages — which for the past two years have operated under a cloud of uncertainty — are starting 2016 on a positive note. The industry, which Mayor de Blasio threatened to ban on his first day in office, bought a full page ad in Friday’s Daily News thanking its supporters for helping them stay around for the past two years...
American Red Cross Workers Vote To Join Teamsters In Maine PR Newswire ...Workers at the American Red Cross' Portland donation center have voted to join Teamsters Local 340. The blood donation center's 57 employees will now form a bargaining unit that includes collections technicians, collections specialists and mobile unit assistants of various classifications. These employees are responsible for setting up and administering blood drives across the southern half of the state...
Beer hauler moves to bust Teamsters union NW Labor Press ...Teamsters Local 162 is facing what more and more looks like a union-busting effort by General Distributors Inc. When truck drivers, warehouse workers, and sales employees learned that the profitable company would seek $1.5 million a year in concessions from them in their next union contract, they voted 59 to 5 to strike, and about 80 members of Teamsters Local 162 walked off the job Nov. 17. In response, the company threatened to permanently replace them...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Zimbabwe: Public workers threaten strike over delayed pay Africa Report ...The year is opening on a tense note for the Zimbabwean government, as tens of thousands of public workers have threatened to go on strike over delayed salaries. Civil servants in the southern African nation are yet to be paid their December salaries, with the government promising to pay them by Tuesday, but this has not been enough to calm the restive workers...
Jerusalem sanitation workers strike after 170 fired Times of Israel ...Jerusalem sanitation workers went on strike Thursday, after the city sent termination letters to 170 employees in the department. The municipality also warned that the move was the first of many necessary cutbacks to come — with up to 2,000 more firings — if the Finance Ministry does not transfer to the city the funds needed to keep a balanced budget in 2016...
U.S. Election Debate Complicates Passage of Pacific Trade Pact Wall Street Journal ...An international trade agreement embraced by President Barack Obama and the Republican-controlled Congress is drawing fire from many presidential candidates, illustrating the populist shift of both parties in the age of Donald Trump. Contenders ranging from Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas have spoken out against the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership...
TPP nations arranging to sign free-trade deal in early February Japan Times ...Japan, the United States and 10 other nations that reached a broad agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade pact in October are arranging to sign the deal in early February, an official from one of the nations has said. Following the broad agreement after more than five years of negotiations, the 12 nations released the text of the landmark trade deal in November...
TPP trade deal pits Pittsburgh against Philadelphia Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ...Pittsburgh manufactures the products. Philadelphia ships them around the world. One city stands to gain from expanding trade into the Pacific Rim while the other has much to lose, their mayors say. That’s why Philadelphia’s outgoing mayor, Michael Nutter, has been helping the White House stump for the Trans-Pacific Partnership while Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto stands opposed...
The Corporate-Friendly Trade Deals Threatening Ordinary People in 2016 Common Dreams ...Corporate media failed to cover the dangers of business-friendly trade deals in 2015, despite growing grassroots opposition to such pacts—and increasing public awareness about their contents. Will 2016 be the year looming toxic trade policies catapult into the mainstream? Sierra Club trade representative Ilana Solomon hopes so...
Greece Not to Agree to Creditors Unreasonable Austerity Demands - Tsipras Sputnik News ...Athens will follow the memorandum signed with its international creditors, but will not agree to unreasonable austerity demands, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said, as quoted by the local media on Sunday. According to Tsipras, 2016 will be a pivotal year, after several years of crisis for the country. The Greek economy has been severely strained because of the country’s multibillion debt accumulated after the 2008 world economic crisis...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Minimum wage rises in 14 states and several cities Al Jazeera ...As the United States marks more than six years without an increase in the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, 14 states and several cities are moving forward with their own increases, with most having taken effect Jan. 1. California and Massachusetts are highest among the states, both increasing from $9 to $10 an hour, according to an analysis by the National Conference of State Legislatures...
American workers see progress on paid sick leave, no thanks to Congress Daily Kos ...Paid sick days have gained a lot of ground in the last few years, and continued to do so in 2015. Oregon became the fourth state to require paid sick leave for most workers, following Connecticut, California, and Massachusetts. The cities of Tacoma, Washington, and Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, also passed paid sick leave laws...
Missouri speaker sounds doubtful over 'right to work' STL Today ...When it comes to a GOP-led charge to make Missouri a “right to work” state, a top Republican is throwing cold water on one of the hot-button issues of the last legislative session. In an interview with the Post-Dispatch, House Speaker Todd Richardson sounded doubtful that right to work would be a top goal for Republicans when the House and Senate return Wednesday...
Wages in NH expected to increase in 2016 Union Leader ...Wal-Mart, the state's largest retail employer, plans to raise wages for its 7,785 New Hampshire employees in 2016, in one of several signs that the year ahead could finally see meaningful improvement in earnings for hourly workers after years of wage stagnation...
Chris Christie Refuses To Help Unemployed New Jersey Residents Hold Onto Food Stamps Think Progress ...About 11,000 New Jersey residents are set to lose their food stamps after Gov. Chris Christie (R)’s administration said it won’t seek any waivers from the program’s work requirements. Since 2009, state governors have been encouraged to get waivers from the federal government for the requirement that able-bodied, childless adults work at least 20 hours a week to enroll in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)...
Judge's ruling a mixed bag for those challenging voter ID law Journal Sentinel ...A federal judge has thrown out portions of a challenge to Wisconsin's voting laws but is allowing a key part of the lawsuit to proceed that could allow more types of identification to be used under the voter ID law. In his ruling last month, U.S. District Judge James Peterson in Madison also found the liberal One Wisconsin Institute could pursue its argument that recent restrictions on early voting violate the U.S. Constitution...
U.S. LABOR
Tentative agreement prevents custodial workers strike Bristol Press ...Just one day before a strike could have begun, a bargaining committee representing more than 2,100 janitors in Hartford, New Haven and other Connecticut cities and towns reached a tentative agreement with the Hartford County Cleaning Contractors Association. The four-year contract agreed to Wednesday — subject to ratification — includes incremental wage increases...
Labor board hands Whole Foods workers a victory CBS ...Whole Foods Market (WFM) can no longer forbid its employees from taking photographs or recording conversations at work, according to a recent federal ruling. "Smartphone pics and videos in this day and age are particularly 'essential' to proving an employee's rights have been violated," said the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in a decision issued late last week...
150 Muslims Fired For Protesting Their Workplace’s Prayer Policies Think Progress ...About 150 Muslim workers at a meat processing plant have been fired for refusing to show up for work during an ongoing dispute over prayer accommodations. The controversy began on December 18, when 11 Somali Muslim workers at the Cargill Meat Solutions plant in Fort Morgan, Colorado requested to visit the building’s prayer room at the same time...
Ten of the Best Things That Happened to American Workers in 2015 Huffington Post ...Historians may remember 2015 as the year of the minimum wage -- and for good reason. Twenty-one states and multiple cities raised the minimum wage in the past 12 months, scarcely two years after the "Fight for $15" was dismissed as a pipe dream by some observers. The past year also saw other major advances for working Americans...
The End Of Unions? Upcoming Supreme Court Case Could Overturn Power To Collect Fees IBTimes ...A Supreme Court case beginning Jan. 11 has union members wondering if a ruling could sound a death knell on labor organizations that have grown accustomed to heightened limitations and declining memberships in recent years. Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association will determine whether mandatory union dues violate workers' freedom of speech, and experts say a ruling could dictate the future of unions' ability to collect fees...
Workers' Comp Industrial Complex: The Middlemen Silencing Injured Workers Truthout ...Workers' comp is supposed to be simple. If you're injured on the job, your employer pays your medical bills and part of your wages while you recover. But over the past two decades, a cottage industry of middlemen has emerged, which some have dubbed the "workers' comp industrial complex." Even private equity firms have bought in, seeing profit opportunities in employers' and insurers' quest to contain spending...
Adjuncts at Loyola University Chicago Want a Union. Will the Jesuit University Respect Their Demands? The Nation ...Loyola University Chicago now faces the challenge of putting its Jesuit principles into practice as frustrated professors push for a union. The administration argues a union would interfere with the university’s “mission.” But according to Loyola’s struggling non-tenured faculty members, their poverty wages and exhausting working conditions prove that it is the administration’s corporate greed that is flouting the Jesuit tradition of social justice...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Happy New Year. You’re Deported. The Nation ...This is how the Department of Homeland Security says happy holidays: The federal government will reportedly begin raids to deport families who’ve arrived in the country in the last two years, according to The Washington Post. The enforcement operation could begin in a matter of weeks, and was first reported on Christmas Eve. The raids would target hundreds of adults and children who have a standing order of deportation against them...
Hundreds Demand Prosecutor In Tamir Rice Case Resign Think Progress ...Protests continued on Friday following a grand jury’s recent decision not to indict the two white police officers who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice. More than 100 activists marched to the home of the prosecutor who handled Rice’s case, Timothy McGinty, on New Year’s Day and demanded his resignation. Chanting “New year, no more!”...
Media Coverage of Oregon Militia Standoff Raises Eyebrows — and Ire Common Dreams ...After members of a rightwing militia seized the headquarters of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon on Saturday afternoon, observers questioned the corporate media's treatment of the event, pointing to a double standard in coverage compared to other recent protests. Watchdog site Media Matters pointed out that while Fox's coverage of campus protests against racial discrimination was dismissive, its reporting "looked drastically different when those protesting have aligned with the network's conservative agenda"...
They’d be killed if they were black: The racial double standard at the heart of the new Bundy family standoff Salon ...At least 150 armed white men have seized control of a federal building outside of Burns, Oregon. The actions taken by Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy, and their supporters in Oregon are the very definition of terrorism and armed insurrection. If Muslims took up arms, occupied a federal building, recorded martyrdom videos, and threatened to kill police and other authorities, they would be called “terrorists”...
Showing posts with label food stamps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food stamps. Show all posts
Monday, January 4, 2016
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Today's Teamster News 12.15.15
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters: Seattle Drivers Win a Voice With Historic City Council Vote Teamster.org ...Drivers in Seattle’s for-hire industry won the right to collectively bargain over their wages and working conditions through an initiative passed by the City Council today. The Mike O’Brien-sponsored bill will now move to the mayor’s desk for his signature. Drivers and community supporters celebrated the bill’s passage...
Seattle first U.S. city to let Uber drivers unionize Detroit News ...Seattle on Monday became the first city in the nation to allow drivers of ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft to unionize over pay and working conditions. Supporters erupted into cheers after the City Council voted 8-0 in favor of the legislation, which is seen as a test case for the changing 21st century workforce. The Teamsters Union Local 117 also celebrated the vote, while the National Right To Work Legal Foundation criticized it as a violation of drivers’ rights...
Teamsters Make Progress at Carhaul Talks, More Negotiations to be Scheduled Teamster.org ...The Teamsters Union and carhaul employer representatives continue to discuss and exchange proposals for a new national contract that are responsive to the concerns of the membership. Based on the talks just concluded last week, we can report some tentative progress. Many of the contract proposals have been resolved, but both sides still need to focus on the economic issues. The parties have decided to suspend talks over the holidays...
AFSCME and University reach tentative contract agreement Workday Minnesota ...AFSCME will brief clerical and technical workers this week on a tentative contract settlement with the University of Minnesota that the union said "begins to close the gap between the haves and have-nots at the University." The union credited solidarity among its local unions and with Teamsters Local 320 for leading to a breakthrough in the six-month negotiations...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Hundreds of Myanmar Garment Workers Mark Seventh Day of Labor Strike Radio Free Asia ...More than 200 garment workers in Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon Monday marked the seventh day of a strike demanding full salary for November after the owner of the factory that employs them docked their pay for failing to meet production targets. The workers have been protesting since Dec. 7...
Steelworkers union calls on Canada, U.S. to reject TPP Canadian Manufacturing ...The executive board of the United Steelworkers have adopted a formal resolution urging Ottawa and Washington to reject the tentative Trans-Pacific Partnership. The union says the resolution is the precursor for a “fully engaged” TPP rejection campaign that will get underway in both Canada and the U.S. “The TPP will only continue the failed trade policies of the past"...
Major Summit Could Put World's Poorest Inhabitants on Corporate Chopping Block Alternet ...Last week, 453 civil society groups including trade unions, farmers, environmentalists, public interest groups and development advocates from over 150 countries wrote an urgent letter to members of the WTO to “express extreme alarm about the current situation of the negotiations in the WTO.” The 10th Ministerial meeting of the WTO is occurring against a backdrop of accelerated “mega-regional” comprehensive pro-corporate “trade” deals...
TPP trade agreement undercuts biologic patents Washington Examiner ...An important part of the deal is protection of intellectual property — including copyright, trademarks and patents — which are necessary for commercial and scientific innovation. The biggest obstacle to congressional approval, however, appears to be the deal's inadequate protection of intellectual property in "biologic" medicines...
Trans-Pacific Partnership Takes a Hit Hoosier Ag Today ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal recently suffered a huge setback after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in an interview Congress should not take up the trade deal before the November elections. McConnell told the Washington Post that President Obama would be making a big mistake by pushing for a vote on TPP during the election cycle...
Don’t Be Misled; The TPP Is Still Coming Full Steam (opinion) OurFuture.org ...Recently there have been news reports that Republicans are going to delay TPP until after the 2016 elections. Do not be misled; this is a bargaining ploy. They want the Obama administration to make “side agreements” that give corporations even more. We have to keep up the fight, and keep getting the word out. People opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) “trade” agreement have recently had their hopes lifted...
India's October tea output drops 7% as workers strike Economic Times ...India's tea production in key October month dropped 7 per cent from a year earlier to 158.06 million kg, the state-run Tea Board said in a statement, as a strike called by plantation workers in southern India hit plucking. Production in the southern state of Kerala, where plantation workers went on strike demanding higher wages, dropped 60 percent...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Right-Wing GOP Governor Succeeds in Making More People Go Hungry Alternet ...Maine's Gov. Paul LePage can now claim the proud policy achievement of making more needy people go hungry. David Farmer reports in Daily Bangor News that during LePage's administration, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, which administers SNAP benefits, has been so badly mismanaged it risks losing federal funding. The USDA also admonished the organization for failing to process applications in a timely way...
Amid $15 debate, tipped workers call for one minimum wage Times Union ...If state lawmakers approve a raise for all workers during the next legislative session, those earning tips say it’s time to dismantle the state’s two-tiered wage system. In a letter sent to Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United Co-Founder and Co-Director Saru Jayaraman called on the governor to move to abolish the separate tipped minimum wage for certain workers in the restaurant and hospitality industries...
New state laws address gender pay gap, child care, disability leave SF Chronicle ...About three dozen employment laws take effect in California next year, including ones that bolster equal-pay protections, help workers with chronic health conditions and give parents unpaid time off to research schools and deal with child care emergencies. The most significant law on an annual list put out by the California Chamber of Commerce is SB358, the widely publicized Fair Pay Act...
Senate’s Motives At Issue As Redistricting Trial Starts CBS ...The decisions prompting state Senate leaders to choose a redistricting plan they recommended to a Leon County judge took center stage Monday, the first day of a trial to determine whether that map should go to the Florida Supreme Court. Circuit Judge George Reynolds has the task of recommending to the Supreme Court either the Senate’s redistricting proposal or one of several plans offered by a coalition of voting-rights groups...
Lincolnshire creates right-to-work zone that unions oppose Daily Herald ...Lincolnshire has become the first town in the Chicago area to establish itself as a right-to-work zone, a move critics have assailed as anti-union. t's also a move experts say is sure to face a legal challenge. To create the zone, the village board approved an ordinance preventing local employers from requiring workers to pay union dues with payroll deductions...
U.S. LABOR
Detroit casino workers ratify new contract Detroit Free Press ...Workers at Detroit's three casinos ratified a new five-year contract Sunday — ending months of contentious and complicated negotiations and providing relief to thousands of workers. Joe Daugherty, president of Unite Here Local 24 and head of the bargaining committee for a group of unions, said in an e-mail that a majority of workers at all three casinos approved the contract...
UAW-Nexteer workers to vote on second deal Detroit News ...UAW Local 699 President Rick Burzynski believes a second tentative agreement reached with Nexteer Automotive addresses concerns that led to a 20-hour strike and 97 percent of membership rejecting a first deal. “We pretty much addressed everything that our workers wanted,” he said Monday morning, a week after workers walked off their jobs and picketed the Chinese-owned auto supplier...
NLRB certifies VW Chattanooga election results Times Free Press ...The National Labor Relations Board has certified the results of the United Auto Workers election held at Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant on Dec. 3 and 4. Maintenance, or skilled trades, workers at the plant agreed to be represented by the UAW for collective bargaining purposes by a margin of 108 to 44...
Progress made in UAW, Kohler talks Sheboygan Press ...The Kohler Co. strike has entered its fifth week, with more talks scheduled for today between the company and the United Auto Workers Local 833. Union officials weren’t immediately available for comment Monday morning but posted on the UAW Local 833 Facebook page on Friday, Dec. 11, that there was “good movement in talks with the company today”...
IBEW 125 members ratify contract at Pacificorp NW Labor Press ...In votes counted Dec. 14, members of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 125 approved a new four-year contract with Pacific Power by a 72 percent margin. Local 125’s previous collective bargaining agreement with Pacific Power expired Jan. 26, 2015. In June and again in August, members voted down company proposals by overwhelming margins, and on Sept. 1, 2015, they authorized the union to call a strike...
Chicago Teachers Union’s Overwhelming Approval of Strike Shows Power of Bottom-up Organizing In These Times ...The numbers are in from the Chicago Teachers Union's strike authorization vote, and it's not even close. After three days of voting last week, 22,678 of the union's 24,752 eligible members cast ballots, and 96.05 percent of them voted “yes”—88 percent of all CTU members. The nation's third-largest — and arguably most important — teachers union has sent a clear message that they are willing to walk off the job amid their current round of contract negotiations...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
New rule: Truck drivers must electronically record hours Newsday ...An estimated 3 million commercial truck and bus drivers must electronically record their hours behind the wheel under a new government rule aimed at enforcing regulations designed to prevent fatigue. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration released the long-awaited rule on Thursday. Drivers have been required to keep paper logs of their hours dating back to 1938...
After Paris, There Is Some Room for Hope The Nation ... it will undoubtedly be many years before renewable forms of energy—wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, and others still in development—replace fossil fuels as the world’s leading energy providers. Nonetheless, 2015 can be viewed as the year in which the epochal transition from one set of fuels to another took off, with renewables making such significant strides...
On policing, the national mood turns toward reform Washington Post ...In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired his police chief and faces a growing clamor for his resignation. In Baltimore, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake fired her police chief and abandoned plans to seek reelection. And in San Francisco, protesters are demanding the head of yet another police chief, prompting Mayor Edwin Lee to vow last week to overhaul police procedures regarding deadly force...
A Tense Baltimore Braces for A Verdict The Atlantic ...As the jury prepares to deliver a verdict in the trial of the first of six police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray, the Baltimore police department is taking pains to reach out to the community and signal that it is ready to respond to any outcome, including protest. Community activists, meanwhile, say that distrust of the police still runs deep...
Robert Reich: Why the Middle Class Is in Revolt and Susceptible to a Dangerous 'Strongman' Alternet ...Now someone comes along who’s even more of a bully than those who for years have bullied them economically, politically, and even violently. The attraction is understandable, even though misguided. If not Donald Trump, then it will be someone else posing as a strongman. If not this election cycle, it will be the next one. The revolt of the anxious class has just begun...
Flood of Anti-Muslim Violence Driving Record Year for Crimes of Hate Common Dreams ...2015 is shaping up to be "one of the most intensely anti-Muslim periods in American history," according to reports, as increasing xenophobia and hateful rhetoric has propelled a record number of attacks on mosques and Islamic centers across the U.S...
Teamsters: Seattle Drivers Win a Voice With Historic City Council Vote Teamster.org ...Drivers in Seattle’s for-hire industry won the right to collectively bargain over their wages and working conditions through an initiative passed by the City Council today. The Mike O’Brien-sponsored bill will now move to the mayor’s desk for his signature. Drivers and community supporters celebrated the bill’s passage...
Seattle first U.S. city to let Uber drivers unionize Detroit News ...Seattle on Monday became the first city in the nation to allow drivers of ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft to unionize over pay and working conditions. Supporters erupted into cheers after the City Council voted 8-0 in favor of the legislation, which is seen as a test case for the changing 21st century workforce. The Teamsters Union Local 117 also celebrated the vote, while the National Right To Work Legal Foundation criticized it as a violation of drivers’ rights...
Teamsters Make Progress at Carhaul Talks, More Negotiations to be Scheduled Teamster.org ...The Teamsters Union and carhaul employer representatives continue to discuss and exchange proposals for a new national contract that are responsive to the concerns of the membership. Based on the talks just concluded last week, we can report some tentative progress. Many of the contract proposals have been resolved, but both sides still need to focus on the economic issues. The parties have decided to suspend talks over the holidays...
AFSCME and University reach tentative contract agreement Workday Minnesota ...AFSCME will brief clerical and technical workers this week on a tentative contract settlement with the University of Minnesota that the union said "begins to close the gap between the haves and have-nots at the University." The union credited solidarity among its local unions and with Teamsters Local 320 for leading to a breakthrough in the six-month negotiations...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Hundreds of Myanmar Garment Workers Mark Seventh Day of Labor Strike Radio Free Asia ...More than 200 garment workers in Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon Monday marked the seventh day of a strike demanding full salary for November after the owner of the factory that employs them docked their pay for failing to meet production targets. The workers have been protesting since Dec. 7...
Steelworkers union calls on Canada, U.S. to reject TPP Canadian Manufacturing ...The executive board of the United Steelworkers have adopted a formal resolution urging Ottawa and Washington to reject the tentative Trans-Pacific Partnership. The union says the resolution is the precursor for a “fully engaged” TPP rejection campaign that will get underway in both Canada and the U.S. “The TPP will only continue the failed trade policies of the past"...
Major Summit Could Put World's Poorest Inhabitants on Corporate Chopping Block Alternet ...Last week, 453 civil society groups including trade unions, farmers, environmentalists, public interest groups and development advocates from over 150 countries wrote an urgent letter to members of the WTO to “express extreme alarm about the current situation of the negotiations in the WTO.” The 10th Ministerial meeting of the WTO is occurring against a backdrop of accelerated “mega-regional” comprehensive pro-corporate “trade” deals...
TPP trade agreement undercuts biologic patents Washington Examiner ...An important part of the deal is protection of intellectual property — including copyright, trademarks and patents — which are necessary for commercial and scientific innovation. The biggest obstacle to congressional approval, however, appears to be the deal's inadequate protection of intellectual property in "biologic" medicines...
Trans-Pacific Partnership Takes a Hit Hoosier Ag Today ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal recently suffered a huge setback after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in an interview Congress should not take up the trade deal before the November elections. McConnell told the Washington Post that President Obama would be making a big mistake by pushing for a vote on TPP during the election cycle...
Don’t Be Misled; The TPP Is Still Coming Full Steam (opinion) OurFuture.org ...Recently there have been news reports that Republicans are going to delay TPP until after the 2016 elections. Do not be misled; this is a bargaining ploy. They want the Obama administration to make “side agreements” that give corporations even more. We have to keep up the fight, and keep getting the word out. People opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) “trade” agreement have recently had their hopes lifted...
India's October tea output drops 7% as workers strike Economic Times ...India's tea production in key October month dropped 7 per cent from a year earlier to 158.06 million kg, the state-run Tea Board said in a statement, as a strike called by plantation workers in southern India hit plucking. Production in the southern state of Kerala, where plantation workers went on strike demanding higher wages, dropped 60 percent...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Right-Wing GOP Governor Succeeds in Making More People Go Hungry Alternet ...Maine's Gov. Paul LePage can now claim the proud policy achievement of making more needy people go hungry. David Farmer reports in Daily Bangor News that during LePage's administration, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, which administers SNAP benefits, has been so badly mismanaged it risks losing federal funding. The USDA also admonished the organization for failing to process applications in a timely way...
Amid $15 debate, tipped workers call for one minimum wage Times Union ...If state lawmakers approve a raise for all workers during the next legislative session, those earning tips say it’s time to dismantle the state’s two-tiered wage system. In a letter sent to Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United Co-Founder and Co-Director Saru Jayaraman called on the governor to move to abolish the separate tipped minimum wage for certain workers in the restaurant and hospitality industries...
New state laws address gender pay gap, child care, disability leave SF Chronicle ...About three dozen employment laws take effect in California next year, including ones that bolster equal-pay protections, help workers with chronic health conditions and give parents unpaid time off to research schools and deal with child care emergencies. The most significant law on an annual list put out by the California Chamber of Commerce is SB358, the widely publicized Fair Pay Act...
Senate’s Motives At Issue As Redistricting Trial Starts CBS ...The decisions prompting state Senate leaders to choose a redistricting plan they recommended to a Leon County judge took center stage Monday, the first day of a trial to determine whether that map should go to the Florida Supreme Court. Circuit Judge George Reynolds has the task of recommending to the Supreme Court either the Senate’s redistricting proposal or one of several plans offered by a coalition of voting-rights groups...
Lincolnshire creates right-to-work zone that unions oppose Daily Herald ...Lincolnshire has become the first town in the Chicago area to establish itself as a right-to-work zone, a move critics have assailed as anti-union. t's also a move experts say is sure to face a legal challenge. To create the zone, the village board approved an ordinance preventing local employers from requiring workers to pay union dues with payroll deductions...
U.S. LABOR
Detroit casino workers ratify new contract Detroit Free Press ...Workers at Detroit's three casinos ratified a new five-year contract Sunday — ending months of contentious and complicated negotiations and providing relief to thousands of workers. Joe Daugherty, president of Unite Here Local 24 and head of the bargaining committee for a group of unions, said in an e-mail that a majority of workers at all three casinos approved the contract...
UAW-Nexteer workers to vote on second deal Detroit News ...UAW Local 699 President Rick Burzynski believes a second tentative agreement reached with Nexteer Automotive addresses concerns that led to a 20-hour strike and 97 percent of membership rejecting a first deal. “We pretty much addressed everything that our workers wanted,” he said Monday morning, a week after workers walked off their jobs and picketed the Chinese-owned auto supplier...
NLRB certifies VW Chattanooga election results Times Free Press ...The National Labor Relations Board has certified the results of the United Auto Workers election held at Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant on Dec. 3 and 4. Maintenance, or skilled trades, workers at the plant agreed to be represented by the UAW for collective bargaining purposes by a margin of 108 to 44...
Progress made in UAW, Kohler talks Sheboygan Press ...The Kohler Co. strike has entered its fifth week, with more talks scheduled for today between the company and the United Auto Workers Local 833. Union officials weren’t immediately available for comment Monday morning but posted on the UAW Local 833 Facebook page on Friday, Dec. 11, that there was “good movement in talks with the company today”...
IBEW 125 members ratify contract at Pacificorp NW Labor Press ...In votes counted Dec. 14, members of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 125 approved a new four-year contract with Pacific Power by a 72 percent margin. Local 125’s previous collective bargaining agreement with Pacific Power expired Jan. 26, 2015. In June and again in August, members voted down company proposals by overwhelming margins, and on Sept. 1, 2015, they authorized the union to call a strike...
Chicago Teachers Union’s Overwhelming Approval of Strike Shows Power of Bottom-up Organizing In These Times ...The numbers are in from the Chicago Teachers Union's strike authorization vote, and it's not even close. After three days of voting last week, 22,678 of the union's 24,752 eligible members cast ballots, and 96.05 percent of them voted “yes”—88 percent of all CTU members. The nation's third-largest — and arguably most important — teachers union has sent a clear message that they are willing to walk off the job amid their current round of contract negotiations...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
New rule: Truck drivers must electronically record hours Newsday ...An estimated 3 million commercial truck and bus drivers must electronically record their hours behind the wheel under a new government rule aimed at enforcing regulations designed to prevent fatigue. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration released the long-awaited rule on Thursday. Drivers have been required to keep paper logs of their hours dating back to 1938...
After Paris, There Is Some Room for Hope The Nation ... it will undoubtedly be many years before renewable forms of energy—wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, and others still in development—replace fossil fuels as the world’s leading energy providers. Nonetheless, 2015 can be viewed as the year in which the epochal transition from one set of fuels to another took off, with renewables making such significant strides...
On policing, the national mood turns toward reform Washington Post ...In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired his police chief and faces a growing clamor for his resignation. In Baltimore, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake fired her police chief and abandoned plans to seek reelection. And in San Francisco, protesters are demanding the head of yet another police chief, prompting Mayor Edwin Lee to vow last week to overhaul police procedures regarding deadly force...
A Tense Baltimore Braces for A Verdict The Atlantic ...As the jury prepares to deliver a verdict in the trial of the first of six police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray, the Baltimore police department is taking pains to reach out to the community and signal that it is ready to respond to any outcome, including protest. Community activists, meanwhile, say that distrust of the police still runs deep...
Robert Reich: Why the Middle Class Is in Revolt and Susceptible to a Dangerous 'Strongman' Alternet ...Now someone comes along who’s even more of a bully than those who for years have bullied them economically, politically, and even violently. The attraction is understandable, even though misguided. If not Donald Trump, then it will be someone else posing as a strongman. If not this election cycle, it will be the next one. The revolt of the anxious class has just begun...
Flood of Anti-Muslim Violence Driving Record Year for Crimes of Hate Common Dreams ...2015 is shaping up to be "one of the most intensely anti-Muslim periods in American history," according to reports, as increasing xenophobia and hateful rhetoric has propelled a record number of attacks on mosques and Islamic centers across the U.S...
Monday, November 9, 2015
Today's Teamster News 11.09.15
TEAMSTERS
Waste Workers in Tennessee Join Teamsters Local 667 Teamster.org ...Drivers at Waste Management, Inc., in Memphis, Tenn., have voted to join Teamsters Local 667 seeking improved wages and benefits. The 37-worker unit remained strong and united as the company waged a vicious anti-worker campaign. During the campaign, the workers were joined in support by students and campus workers...
Workers Speak Up After Being Told To Go Back To Work After Chemical Spill Think Progress ...A group of immigrant workers and community members rallied on Thursday at Taylor Farms in California, the largest producer of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, asking for safer work conditions nearly one month after managers failed to evacuate the plant after a chemical spill. At the Taylor Farms’ Tracy plant, about 900 workers have been trying to organize a union with the Teamsters over the past two years...
Labor and Climate Groups Blast TPP as Full Text is Released American Prospect ...Within hours of the text’s release, leading environmental, labor, and civil liberties groups blasted the deal for its lackluster provisions on workers rights, climate change, and human rights. On Twitter, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters noted that the TPP includes no penalties for human trafficking...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Lufthansa cabin crew strike affects 113,000 passengers AP ...Some 113,000 Lufthansa passengers were facing domestic and international cancellations Monday due to all-day walkouts at three German airports staged by a cabin crew union protesting cost cuts. The UFO flight attendant union says it will rotate its strike action to different airports as it presses its demands regarding early retirement payments...
Finance chair: Trade deal may need to be renegotiated The Hill ...The top Republican overseeing trade in the Senate on Friday suggested inadequate intellectual property protections may halt the passage of a sweeping Asia-Pacific trade agreement. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said he is most concerned about a provision in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that provides pharmaceutical companies with up to eight years of exclusive rights to their clinical trial data, instead of the 12-year standard set by Congress six years ago...
How the five most contentious issues in Obama’s big trade deal turned out Washington Post ...The full text of the Trans Pacific Partnership became public Thursday, and there's a lot we still don't know about it. This deal isn't really about lowering tariffs, after all — much more importantly, it's the rulebook for trade across a giant region. While advocacy groups acknowledged some improvements from previous drafts, they're still worried that even the best provisions won't be enforced...
Trans-Pacific Partnership Text Released, Waving Green Flag for Debate New York Times ...The release on Thursday of the full text of President Obama’s trade accord with 11 Pacific Rim nations brought out opponents and supporters and officially opened what may be the last big battle of the president’s tenure: winning congressional approval of the largest regional trade deal in history. The opposition mainly came from the left, as an array of unions, environmental groups and public advocacy organizations that typically resist global trade agreements registered their dismay...
Historic Trade Deal Confirms Critics' Worst Fears Huffington Post ...The United States government released the final text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership on Thursday, and a wide array of advocacy groups did not like what they saw. Organizations promoting climate change action and global health have long argued that the 12-nation trade deal would undermine participating countries’ freedom to set and preserve their own economic and social policies...
TPP revealed: Pact details ignite debate over privacy, internet freedom, whistleblowers RT ...With the release of the full text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a sharpening of arguments on both sides outline a debate about privacy, corporatism, internet freedom and intellectual property, and even the plight of whistleblowers. The world got its first look at the international agreement between 12 Pacific Rim countries on Thursday, exactly one month after it was finalized on October 5...
Chris Hedges: TPP Is the Most Brazen Corporate Power Grab in American History (opinion) Alternet ...The release Thursday of the 5,544-page text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership—a trade and investment agreement involving 12 countries comprising nearly 40 percent of global output—confirms what even its most apocalyptic critics feared. “The TPP, along with the WTO [World Trade Organization] and NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement], is the most brazen corporate power grab in American history,” Ralph Nader told me...
Over three million Europeans sign anti-TTIP petition DW.com ...A European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) called "Stop TTIP" on Monday handed over an updated list of 3.28 million signatures from people opposed to the planned free trade agreement between the EU and the US. The list was given to the head of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, in Berlin, with the campaigners demanding a parliamentary hearing...
1 Worker Dies, 18 Faint at Cambodian Garment Factory AP ...One worker died and 18 others fainted at a garment factory in eastern Cambodia that has been closed pending an investigation, authorities said Friday. They were sent to a hospital, where a 21-year-old worker later died, he said. On Friday, 14 more workers fell ill with similar symptoms...
Rising Left Bloc in Portugal Could Threaten Austerity Drive New York Times ...Last month’s elections in Portugal were meant to deliver a clear verdict on the center-right coalition of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, whose austerity program has been held up as a model by creditors and countries like Germany that have advocated belt-tightening in Europe. Instead, it yielded a vexing muddle, allowing both left and right to claim victory...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Right-to-Work weighed heavily in Kentucky race for governor PR News ...Right-to-Work may not have been a front-and-center issue in the highly competitive race for governor in Kentucky, but it was a major issue behind the scenes. Those on both sides of the divisive Right-to-Work issue knew that whoever won the governor’s race in Kentucky might play a critical–if not pivotal–role on whether the state becomes the next to fall to Right-to-Work...
Fight for $15 rallies and strikes Tuesday supporting minimum wage hike Cleveland.com ...Demonstrations are planned throughout Ohio, including Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown, according to the labor-backed Fight for $15 movement, which is organizing the day of action. The locations of these rallies and the day on which they are being held is not by happenstance. Fight for $15, intends to send a political message by rallying on the steps of City Halls throughout the country...
Childcare Workers Make 40% Less Than the Nationwide Median Wage The Nation .... Tuesday’s protests in Atlanta and hundreds of other cities will launch the Fight for $15’s yearlong campaign leading up to Election Day. The SEIU-backed movement to press nationwide demands for a living wage and a union, now includes their demand as voters, that politicians commit to raising pay and working conditions. With hourly wages averaging about $10.30, childcare workers earn some 40 percent less than the nationwide median wage...
How Corrupt Is Your State? Mother Jones ...In Missouri, a lawmaker who pushed through a bill that prohibited cities from banning plastic bags in supermarkets also happened to be the director of the state's Grocer's Association. New Mexico lawmakers passed a resolution that exempted their emails from public scrutiny...
Wisconsin Begins Drug Testing Applicants For Food Stamps And Unemployment Benefits Today Think Progress ...On Monday, many Wisconsin residents who apply for food stamps, unemployment benefits, jobs training, or benefits and training from a handful of other state programs will have to be screened and potentially tested for drug use. Applicants will have to fill out a questionnaire about drug use, and depending on their answers, may have to submit to an actual test...
U.S. LABOR
Ford UAW leaders meet to approve proposed agreement Detroit Free Press ...The UAW's top elected Ford leaders from around the country are in Detroit today to review a tentative agreement reached last week between the automaker and the union that would deliver $10,000 in signing bonuses and $9 billion in new U.S. product investments, retaining or creating 8,500 jobs...
UAW deals with Ford, GM enter critical week The Detroit News ...Monday marks the beginning of a critical week for labor negotiations between the United Auto Workers and two of Detroit’s Big Three automakers. Labor leaders at Ford Motor Co. will convene at 10 a.m. Monday at the UAW-Ford National Programs Center on Jefferson in downtown Detroit to accept or reject a proposed tentative deal that the union and Dearborn automaker agreed to Friday afternoon...
AFSCME withdraws petition for OU call center union election Athens News ...A major public employees union, citing an alleged “aggressive” campaign undertaken by “hired union busters,” has withdrawn its petition for an election for student workers employed at Ohio University’s call center in Athens. The university and Wilson-Bennett Technology – the subcontractor OU pays to manage the alumni fundraising call center – have denied hiring the alleged union busting group...
Why Childcare Workers Are So Poor, Even Though Childcare Costs So Much The Atlantic ...Childcare is really expensive. In some states the costs can top 15 percent of the median income for a married couple. And when looking at single-family households, that burden can easily pass 40 percent of the median income. One place all that money is not going: the pockets of the workers doing all that childcare...
Rutgers group documents Trump Taj Mahal casino workers' fight for benefits NJ.com ...NJ Spark, a social justice journalism lab at Rutgers University, is chronicling the fight of workers at Trump Taj Mahal Casino Hotels to have their health insurance and pension benefits restored. The union is demanding the restoration of the workers' health insurance and pension benefits, which were stripped away by the casino's previous owner, Trump Entertainment Resorts, as part of a $14.6 million cost cutting campaign...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
With Mass Civil Disobedience, Young Activists March Against 'Broken System' Common Dreams ...Roughly 1,000 young activists are marching through the streets of Washington, D.C. on Monday in what they hope will be the largest-ever planned civil disobedience action to demand racial, immigration, and climate justice reform for a "broken" political system. Under the banner Our Generation, Our Choice, millenials from a range of grassroots advocacy organizations...
University of Missouri president resigns amid protests Daily Kos ...Today, faculty, students, graduate students, and student-athletes at the University of Missouri will be engaged in protests as the Board of Curators calls a special meeting to address a long-simmering racial tension and protest surrounding racial incidents on campus. The #ConcernedStudent1950 protests center around the hunger strike of Jonathan Butler, a graduate student who began the strike in response to several unaddressed incidents of bigotry...
Paul Krugman just made perfect sense of Donald Trump, Ben Carson and angry white Republican voters Salon ...Some people who feel left behind by the American story turn self-destructive; others turn on the elites they feel have betrayed them. No, deporting immigrants and wearing baseball caps bearing slogans won’t solve their problems, but neither will cutting taxes on capital gains. So you can understand why some voters have rallied around politicians who at least seem to feel their pain...
Waste Workers in Tennessee Join Teamsters Local 667 Teamster.org ...Drivers at Waste Management, Inc., in Memphis, Tenn., have voted to join Teamsters Local 667 seeking improved wages and benefits. The 37-worker unit remained strong and united as the company waged a vicious anti-worker campaign. During the campaign, the workers were joined in support by students and campus workers...
Workers Speak Up After Being Told To Go Back To Work After Chemical Spill Think Progress ...A group of immigrant workers and community members rallied on Thursday at Taylor Farms in California, the largest producer of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, asking for safer work conditions nearly one month after managers failed to evacuate the plant after a chemical spill. At the Taylor Farms’ Tracy plant, about 900 workers have been trying to organize a union with the Teamsters over the past two years...
Labor and Climate Groups Blast TPP as Full Text is Released American Prospect ...Within hours of the text’s release, leading environmental, labor, and civil liberties groups blasted the deal for its lackluster provisions on workers rights, climate change, and human rights. On Twitter, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters noted that the TPP includes no penalties for human trafficking...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Lufthansa cabin crew strike affects 113,000 passengers AP ...Some 113,000 Lufthansa passengers were facing domestic and international cancellations Monday due to all-day walkouts at three German airports staged by a cabin crew union protesting cost cuts. The UFO flight attendant union says it will rotate its strike action to different airports as it presses its demands regarding early retirement payments...
Finance chair: Trade deal may need to be renegotiated The Hill ...The top Republican overseeing trade in the Senate on Friday suggested inadequate intellectual property protections may halt the passage of a sweeping Asia-Pacific trade agreement. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said he is most concerned about a provision in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that provides pharmaceutical companies with up to eight years of exclusive rights to their clinical trial data, instead of the 12-year standard set by Congress six years ago...
How the five most contentious issues in Obama’s big trade deal turned out Washington Post ...The full text of the Trans Pacific Partnership became public Thursday, and there's a lot we still don't know about it. This deal isn't really about lowering tariffs, after all — much more importantly, it's the rulebook for trade across a giant region. While advocacy groups acknowledged some improvements from previous drafts, they're still worried that even the best provisions won't be enforced...
Trans-Pacific Partnership Text Released, Waving Green Flag for Debate New York Times ...The release on Thursday of the full text of President Obama’s trade accord with 11 Pacific Rim nations brought out opponents and supporters and officially opened what may be the last big battle of the president’s tenure: winning congressional approval of the largest regional trade deal in history. The opposition mainly came from the left, as an array of unions, environmental groups and public advocacy organizations that typically resist global trade agreements registered their dismay...
Historic Trade Deal Confirms Critics' Worst Fears Huffington Post ...The United States government released the final text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership on Thursday, and a wide array of advocacy groups did not like what they saw. Organizations promoting climate change action and global health have long argued that the 12-nation trade deal would undermine participating countries’ freedom to set and preserve their own economic and social policies...
TPP revealed: Pact details ignite debate over privacy, internet freedom, whistleblowers RT ...With the release of the full text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a sharpening of arguments on both sides outline a debate about privacy, corporatism, internet freedom and intellectual property, and even the plight of whistleblowers. The world got its first look at the international agreement between 12 Pacific Rim countries on Thursday, exactly one month after it was finalized on October 5...
Chris Hedges: TPP Is the Most Brazen Corporate Power Grab in American History (opinion) Alternet ...The release Thursday of the 5,544-page text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership—a trade and investment agreement involving 12 countries comprising nearly 40 percent of global output—confirms what even its most apocalyptic critics feared. “The TPP, along with the WTO [World Trade Organization] and NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement], is the most brazen corporate power grab in American history,” Ralph Nader told me...
Over three million Europeans sign anti-TTIP petition DW.com ...A European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) called "Stop TTIP" on Monday handed over an updated list of 3.28 million signatures from people opposed to the planned free trade agreement between the EU and the US. The list was given to the head of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, in Berlin, with the campaigners demanding a parliamentary hearing...
1 Worker Dies, 18 Faint at Cambodian Garment Factory AP ...One worker died and 18 others fainted at a garment factory in eastern Cambodia that has been closed pending an investigation, authorities said Friday. They were sent to a hospital, where a 21-year-old worker later died, he said. On Friday, 14 more workers fell ill with similar symptoms...
Rising Left Bloc in Portugal Could Threaten Austerity Drive New York Times ...Last month’s elections in Portugal were meant to deliver a clear verdict on the center-right coalition of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, whose austerity program has been held up as a model by creditors and countries like Germany that have advocated belt-tightening in Europe. Instead, it yielded a vexing muddle, allowing both left and right to claim victory...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Right-to-Work weighed heavily in Kentucky race for governor PR News ...Right-to-Work may not have been a front-and-center issue in the highly competitive race for governor in Kentucky, but it was a major issue behind the scenes. Those on both sides of the divisive Right-to-Work issue knew that whoever won the governor’s race in Kentucky might play a critical–if not pivotal–role on whether the state becomes the next to fall to Right-to-Work...
Fight for $15 rallies and strikes Tuesday supporting minimum wage hike Cleveland.com ...Demonstrations are planned throughout Ohio, including Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown, according to the labor-backed Fight for $15 movement, which is organizing the day of action. The locations of these rallies and the day on which they are being held is not by happenstance. Fight for $15, intends to send a political message by rallying on the steps of City Halls throughout the country...
Childcare Workers Make 40% Less Than the Nationwide Median Wage The Nation .... Tuesday’s protests in Atlanta and hundreds of other cities will launch the Fight for $15’s yearlong campaign leading up to Election Day. The SEIU-backed movement to press nationwide demands for a living wage and a union, now includes their demand as voters, that politicians commit to raising pay and working conditions. With hourly wages averaging about $10.30, childcare workers earn some 40 percent less than the nationwide median wage...
How Corrupt Is Your State? Mother Jones ...In Missouri, a lawmaker who pushed through a bill that prohibited cities from banning plastic bags in supermarkets also happened to be the director of the state's Grocer's Association. New Mexico lawmakers passed a resolution that exempted their emails from public scrutiny...
Wisconsin Begins Drug Testing Applicants For Food Stamps And Unemployment Benefits Today Think Progress ...On Monday, many Wisconsin residents who apply for food stamps, unemployment benefits, jobs training, or benefits and training from a handful of other state programs will have to be screened and potentially tested for drug use. Applicants will have to fill out a questionnaire about drug use, and depending on their answers, may have to submit to an actual test...
U.S. LABOR
Ford UAW leaders meet to approve proposed agreement Detroit Free Press ...The UAW's top elected Ford leaders from around the country are in Detroit today to review a tentative agreement reached last week between the automaker and the union that would deliver $10,000 in signing bonuses and $9 billion in new U.S. product investments, retaining or creating 8,500 jobs...
UAW deals with Ford, GM enter critical week The Detroit News ...Monday marks the beginning of a critical week for labor negotiations between the United Auto Workers and two of Detroit’s Big Three automakers. Labor leaders at Ford Motor Co. will convene at 10 a.m. Monday at the UAW-Ford National Programs Center on Jefferson in downtown Detroit to accept or reject a proposed tentative deal that the union and Dearborn automaker agreed to Friday afternoon...
AFSCME withdraws petition for OU call center union election Athens News ...A major public employees union, citing an alleged “aggressive” campaign undertaken by “hired union busters,” has withdrawn its petition for an election for student workers employed at Ohio University’s call center in Athens. The university and Wilson-Bennett Technology – the subcontractor OU pays to manage the alumni fundraising call center – have denied hiring the alleged union busting group...
Why Childcare Workers Are So Poor, Even Though Childcare Costs So Much The Atlantic ...Childcare is really expensive. In some states the costs can top 15 percent of the median income for a married couple. And when looking at single-family households, that burden can easily pass 40 percent of the median income. One place all that money is not going: the pockets of the workers doing all that childcare...
Rutgers group documents Trump Taj Mahal casino workers' fight for benefits NJ.com ...NJ Spark, a social justice journalism lab at Rutgers University, is chronicling the fight of workers at Trump Taj Mahal Casino Hotels to have their health insurance and pension benefits restored. The union is demanding the restoration of the workers' health insurance and pension benefits, which were stripped away by the casino's previous owner, Trump Entertainment Resorts, as part of a $14.6 million cost cutting campaign...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
With Mass Civil Disobedience, Young Activists March Against 'Broken System' Common Dreams ...Roughly 1,000 young activists are marching through the streets of Washington, D.C. on Monday in what they hope will be the largest-ever planned civil disobedience action to demand racial, immigration, and climate justice reform for a "broken" political system. Under the banner Our Generation, Our Choice, millenials from a range of grassroots advocacy organizations...
University of Missouri president resigns amid protests Daily Kos ...Today, faculty, students, graduate students, and student-athletes at the University of Missouri will be engaged in protests as the Board of Curators calls a special meeting to address a long-simmering racial tension and protest surrounding racial incidents on campus. The #ConcernedStudent1950 protests center around the hunger strike of Jonathan Butler, a graduate student who began the strike in response to several unaddressed incidents of bigotry...
Paul Krugman just made perfect sense of Donald Trump, Ben Carson and angry white Republican voters Salon ...Some people who feel left behind by the American story turn self-destructive; others turn on the elites they feel have betrayed them. No, deporting immigrants and wearing baseball caps bearing slogans won’t solve their problems, but neither will cutting taxes on capital gains. So you can understand why some voters have rallied around politicians who at least seem to feel their pain...
"Racism Isn't Funny": Trump's SNL Gig Draws Outrage, Calls to Disrupt Show Common Dreams ...From civil rights groups to lawmakers to Hollywood A-listers, members of the public are furious that the popular comedy program Saturday Night Live (SNL) has invited 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump—whose rhetoric demonizing immigrants has reportedly inspired hate crimes—to host its November 7th show...
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Today's Teamster News 10.06.15
TEAMSTERS
Hoffa: Despite Deal, Resistance to TPP Grows in All Corners Huffington Post ...We know a bad deal when we see one and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) just announced in Atlanta sure looks like one. Hundreds of Teamsters were joined in the streets of Atlanta this past week by other fair trade advocates sticking up for everyday Americans who could be damaged by the TPP. Unfortunately, negotiators from the U.S. and the other involved nations did not listen...
Shuttle Drivers with Dollar Thrifty Choose Teamsters Local 299 Teamster.org ...Detroit shuttle drivers with Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, a subsidiary of Hertz Global Holdings, have voted to join the Teamsters. The 15 shuttle drivers transport passengers to and from Detroit Metropolitan Airport and the rental car facility. They united seeking respect and the protections of a union contract...
Tentative Agreement Reached for Teamster Flight Attendants at NetJets Teamster.org ...In a message to Teamster flight attendants at NetJets Aviation (NJA) this week, Teamsters Local 284 President Paul Suffoletto announced that a tentative agreement covering NJA’s 278 flight attendants had been reached. As with any tentative agreement, there’s still work to be done to finalize the definitions, develop implementation timelines and transition agreements, create explanatory materials, and proof and clean up the language before it is submitted to the flight attendants for a ratification...
Illinois Training Center Goes Extra Mile Teamster.org ...Talking with Mike Borjas, the director of the Illinois Teamsters Joint Council No. 25 Employers Apprenticeship and Training Fund in Joliet, Illinois, you’d think that he was drawing up a lesson plan for training military personnel. But, his goal is providing the best training for Teamsters working in the construction trades as he can. Fortunately for the union, he is accomplishing this every day...
Bid to unionize Uber, Lyft advances Seattle Times ...Seattle City Council members voted 7-0 in a committee Friday to move ahead with a bill that would help independent-contractor drivers for companies like Uber to unionize. The bill, championed by Councilmember Mike O’Brien in partnership with the Teamsters Local 117, is a new approach by labor organizers to unionize workers who lack certain rights because they’re not classified as employees...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Pacific Rim trade pact gets skeptical greeting in U.S. Congress Reuters ...A 12-nation Pacific Rim trade pact hammered out over the weekend in Atlanta got a rocky response in Washington on Monday from U.S. lawmakers, indicating it has a long, difficult road ahead as Congress considers whether or not to approve it. Even influential Republicans, who had championed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), initially criticized the result but didn't pinpoint specific concerns...
Republicans Sour on Obama's Trade Pact The Atlantic ...Having secured a landmark trade agreement with 11 Pacific Rim nations, President Obama is now relying on trade-loving Republicans to ratify it in Congress. But as details of the pact emerge, the chances of widespread GOP support are dicier than they once were. Senior Republicans have long been the loudest cheerleaders for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Yet on Monday those same Republicans criticized the very deal that they gave Obama the power to strike...
Sanders Condemns 'Disastrous' TPP as Ministers Seal Deal for Corporate Elite Common Dreams ...Amid a last minute scramble, leaders from the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries announced Monday that they had reached agreement on a sweeping trade deal, one that critics, including US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, say will slash standards and protections for both consumers and workers—with impacts to be felt across the globe...
Will Hillary Clinton flip on trade? Politico ...As much as she might want it, Hillary Clinton won’t get a free pass on free trade. Clinton has presented herself as a skeptic of the biggest trade deal in recent history, saying this summer that “we should be prepared to walk away” from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership unless it boosts Americans’ wages and national security. But with a deal announced Monday after months of backstage wrangling, she will be under intense pressure to take a stance...
Trade Officials Announce Conclusion of TPP—Now the Real Fight Begins (opinion) EFF ...Trade officials have announced today that they have reached a final deal on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Their announcement came after a drawn out round of negotiation in Atlanta, Georgia, which was mainly held up around disagreements over medicine patent rules and tariffs over autos and dairy. We have no reason to believe that the TPP has improved much at all from the last leaked version released in August...
Air France Workers Rip Shirts From Top Managers in Jobs Protest Bloomberg ...Air France executives were forced to flee with their clothes in tatters after workers stormed a meeting at Charles de Gaulle airport in protest at 2,900 planned job cuts. Violence erupted Monday as Air France told its works council that 300 pilots, 900 flight attendants and 1,700 ground staff might have to go after failed productivity talks with flight crew...
Outrage Stirred as Police Deploy Snipers to 'Observe' Anti-Austerity March in UK Common Dreams ...As the national Conservative Party in the U.K. held its annual meeting in Manchester over the weekend, an anti-austerity demonstration against the ruling party's economic policies attracted not only tens of thousands of people to march peacefully... but a few police snipers to keep "watch" over those who oppose the government's gutting of the public sector...
South Africa: 30,000 Miners Strike Over Pay Demand Morning Star ...Some 30,000 South African coalminers downed tools on Sunday night after cross-sector pay talks broke down. Conciliation came to an abrupt end last week when parties could not reach an agreement over demands by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) demand for a 1,000 rand (£48) rise for the lowest paid workers and 14 per cent for artisans, miners and officials...
Indigenous Communities Seek Autonomous Development Projects in Guatemala Truthout ...As Guatemala faces its greatest political crisis since the 1980s, behind the scenes, plans for the United States' Alliance for Prosperity continue to move along. The expansion of hydroelectric construction projects and the further integration of electric grids are central to the plan, yet these projects threaten indigenous communities' land rights...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Maine Governor Revives Old Rule To Punish Poor People For Saving Money Think Progress ...Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) has already knocked tens of thousands of people of his state’s food stamps rolls through a variety of stringent new rules for the program, but he’s not done. At a hearing Tuesday, state officials will lay out a new barrier to entry for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) applicants that most other states have abandoned in recent years...
Opponents ask court to relax Wisconsin voter ID requirements Journal Sentinel ...Opponents of Wisconsin's voter identification law argued in federal court Monday that the legislation is improperly restrictive and should be expanded to allow people to use more forms of ID. The case represents the latest push from the American Civil Liberties Union against a law that has been the focus of a string of legal battles since it was passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Gov. Scott Walker four years ago...
Hearing set on Voter ID legal challenge Winston-Salem Journal ...The voter ID law will be back in federal court later this month. U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Schroeder plans to hold a hearing Oct. 23 to get an update on efforts to settle the legal claims against the photo ID requirement. The N.C. NAACP, the U.S. Department of Justice and others filed a lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s Voter Information Verification Act...
These Lawmakers Want D.C. To Be The First City To Guarantee Paid Family Leave Think Progress ...On Tuesday, seven city councilmembers in the District of Columbia will introduce a paid family leave bill that would create the most progressive system in the country and serve as a model for other cities that might be interested in paid leave. If it eventually gets passed and signed into law, it would be the first city-level program in the country...
Alabama ‘clarifies’ voter ID confusion (opinion) Boston Globe ...If anyone still doubts that the Republican push for voter identification is really about limiting the franchise of Democratic voters — and in particular African-American voters — the state of Alabama has helpfully cleared up the confusion. In 2014, Alabama passed a law that required all of its citizens have a photo ID in order to vote...
U.S. LABOR
Adjuncts Win Union Contract at Maryland Institute College of Art In These Times ...The national movement to unionize part-time faculty at U.S. colleges and universities has secured an initial beachhead in the Baltimore area with ratification of a first contract between Service Employees International Union Local 500 and the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Voting on the ratification concluded in mid-September and a formal signing ceremony for the pact is set for October 8, labor representatives report...
We must despise our kids: Our ugly war on teachers must end now Salon ...With September’s data in, we can see how many teachers went back to school this year. And Gould finds that the tremendous gap that opened up when local budgets crashed during the recession has not come close to being filled. At the peak, we had 8.1 million public K-12 education teachers and staff in July 2008. Seven years later, we have far less, 7.8 million, despite a larger population of students that need to be served...
Contra Costa County Nurses Begin Two-Day Strike Tues. Oct 6 IndyBay ...Nurses who work at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center and clinics across the County will officially begin a two-day strike Tuesday, October 6, after what nurses say is the County’s continued failure to address serious patient care concerns. The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, which represents almost 1,000 County registered nurses, nurse practitioners and public health nurses, called on the County to immediately improve working conditions...
Supreme Court ‘right-to-work’ case could speed decline of unions Al Jazeera ...The Supreme Court will soon take up a case that could impose a de facto “right-to-work” rule across the public sector, eliminating public employee unions’ ability to require fees from nonmembers and, labor leaders say, threatening the unions’ survival. Labor officials often complain that right-to-work rules create a “free rider” problem...
UAW pledges new approach to members for FCA deal Detroit News ...United Auto Workers leaders are promising to handle a second round of contract talks with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV differently than the first discussions that culminated with membership overwhelmingly voting down a tentative four-year deal. In separate messages published online Monday, UAW President Dennis Williams and Vice President Norwood Jewell said they will not only address members’ issues with the contract itself, but communicate better...
Deere deal: Did UAW workers come out ahead? Des Moines Register ...United Auto Workers voted Sunday to ratify a six-year contract with Deere & Co., deciding that a modest pay bump and increased job security outweighed increases in their medical costs. The Moline, Ill.-based maker of iconic farm and construction equipment said the United Auto Workers union notified the company...
A Union Leader Who Always Knew Which Side He Was On The Nation ...Marty Beil knew which side he was on. He was a union man. Indeed, as Congressman Mark Pocan noted after Beil’s death last week at age 68, “Marty embodied the longstanding Wisconsin tradition of fighting for workers’ rights and protections.” Beil’s commitment to trade unionism was old-school and unequivocal. He was ready to bargain; but if the deal was no good, he took the fight to the streets...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
As Infrastructure Creaks, Congress Dithers Wall Street Journal ...Back in July, Congress failed, once again, to pass a long-term highway bill to make improvements in the nation’s transportation system. Instead of funding big infrastructure needs with a multiyear plan, as once was the norm in Washington, lawmakers passed a bill covering a grand total of three months—the 34th time since 2009 Congress has passed a temporary Band-Aid...
'Once-In-A-Millenium' Flooding Creates 'Otherworldly Scenes' in South Carolina Common Dreams ...South Carolina's once-in-a-millennium flooding this weekend left at least seven people dead and much of the state paralyzed—and as rains continued into Monday morning, officials warned that the deluge is likely to worsen. Climate scientists have linked South Carolina's catastrophic rains to climate change. "Joaquin has been traveling over a record-warm ocean surface and undoubtedly that has contributed to its rapid intensification," Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, told The Huffington Post...
War Crime in Afghanistan?: Outrage After U.S. Airstrike on Hospital Kills 22 Patients & Staff Democracy Now ...Doctors Without Borders is demanding an independent international inquiry into a U.S. airstrike Saturday on an Afghan hospital in the city of Kunduz that killed 22 people, including 12 staff members and 10 patients, three of them children. At least three dozen people were injured. The attack continued for 30 minutes after the U.S. and Afghan militaries were informed by telephone that the hospital was being bombed...
Hoffa: Despite Deal, Resistance to TPP Grows in All Corners Huffington Post ...We know a bad deal when we see one and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) just announced in Atlanta sure looks like one. Hundreds of Teamsters were joined in the streets of Atlanta this past week by other fair trade advocates sticking up for everyday Americans who could be damaged by the TPP. Unfortunately, negotiators from the U.S. and the other involved nations did not listen...
Shuttle Drivers with Dollar Thrifty Choose Teamsters Local 299 Teamster.org ...Detroit shuttle drivers with Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, a subsidiary of Hertz Global Holdings, have voted to join the Teamsters. The 15 shuttle drivers transport passengers to and from Detroit Metropolitan Airport and the rental car facility. They united seeking respect and the protections of a union contract...
Tentative Agreement Reached for Teamster Flight Attendants at NetJets Teamster.org ...In a message to Teamster flight attendants at NetJets Aviation (NJA) this week, Teamsters Local 284 President Paul Suffoletto announced that a tentative agreement covering NJA’s 278 flight attendants had been reached. As with any tentative agreement, there’s still work to be done to finalize the definitions, develop implementation timelines and transition agreements, create explanatory materials, and proof and clean up the language before it is submitted to the flight attendants for a ratification...
Illinois Training Center Goes Extra Mile Teamster.org ...Talking with Mike Borjas, the director of the Illinois Teamsters Joint Council No. 25 Employers Apprenticeship and Training Fund in Joliet, Illinois, you’d think that he was drawing up a lesson plan for training military personnel. But, his goal is providing the best training for Teamsters working in the construction trades as he can. Fortunately for the union, he is accomplishing this every day...
Bid to unionize Uber, Lyft advances Seattle Times ...Seattle City Council members voted 7-0 in a committee Friday to move ahead with a bill that would help independent-contractor drivers for companies like Uber to unionize. The bill, championed by Councilmember Mike O’Brien in partnership with the Teamsters Local 117, is a new approach by labor organizers to unionize workers who lack certain rights because they’re not classified as employees...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Pacific Rim trade pact gets skeptical greeting in U.S. Congress Reuters ...A 12-nation Pacific Rim trade pact hammered out over the weekend in Atlanta got a rocky response in Washington on Monday from U.S. lawmakers, indicating it has a long, difficult road ahead as Congress considers whether or not to approve it. Even influential Republicans, who had championed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), initially criticized the result but didn't pinpoint specific concerns...
Republicans Sour on Obama's Trade Pact The Atlantic ...Having secured a landmark trade agreement with 11 Pacific Rim nations, President Obama is now relying on trade-loving Republicans to ratify it in Congress. But as details of the pact emerge, the chances of widespread GOP support are dicier than they once were. Senior Republicans have long been the loudest cheerleaders for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Yet on Monday those same Republicans criticized the very deal that they gave Obama the power to strike...
Sanders Condemns 'Disastrous' TPP as Ministers Seal Deal for Corporate Elite Common Dreams ...Amid a last minute scramble, leaders from the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries announced Monday that they had reached agreement on a sweeping trade deal, one that critics, including US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, say will slash standards and protections for both consumers and workers—with impacts to be felt across the globe...
Will Hillary Clinton flip on trade? Politico ...As much as she might want it, Hillary Clinton won’t get a free pass on free trade. Clinton has presented herself as a skeptic of the biggest trade deal in recent history, saying this summer that “we should be prepared to walk away” from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership unless it boosts Americans’ wages and national security. But with a deal announced Monday after months of backstage wrangling, she will be under intense pressure to take a stance...
Trade Officials Announce Conclusion of TPP—Now the Real Fight Begins (opinion) EFF ...Trade officials have announced today that they have reached a final deal on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Their announcement came after a drawn out round of negotiation in Atlanta, Georgia, which was mainly held up around disagreements over medicine patent rules and tariffs over autos and dairy. We have no reason to believe that the TPP has improved much at all from the last leaked version released in August...
Air France Workers Rip Shirts From Top Managers in Jobs Protest Bloomberg ...Air France executives were forced to flee with their clothes in tatters after workers stormed a meeting at Charles de Gaulle airport in protest at 2,900 planned job cuts. Violence erupted Monday as Air France told its works council that 300 pilots, 900 flight attendants and 1,700 ground staff might have to go after failed productivity talks with flight crew...
Outrage Stirred as Police Deploy Snipers to 'Observe' Anti-Austerity March in UK Common Dreams ...As the national Conservative Party in the U.K. held its annual meeting in Manchester over the weekend, an anti-austerity demonstration against the ruling party's economic policies attracted not only tens of thousands of people to march peacefully... but a few police snipers to keep "watch" over those who oppose the government's gutting of the public sector...
South Africa: 30,000 Miners Strike Over Pay Demand Morning Star ...Some 30,000 South African coalminers downed tools on Sunday night after cross-sector pay talks broke down. Conciliation came to an abrupt end last week when parties could not reach an agreement over demands by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) demand for a 1,000 rand (£48) rise for the lowest paid workers and 14 per cent for artisans, miners and officials...
Indigenous Communities Seek Autonomous Development Projects in Guatemala Truthout ...As Guatemala faces its greatest political crisis since the 1980s, behind the scenes, plans for the United States' Alliance for Prosperity continue to move along. The expansion of hydroelectric construction projects and the further integration of electric grids are central to the plan, yet these projects threaten indigenous communities' land rights...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Maine Governor Revives Old Rule To Punish Poor People For Saving Money Think Progress ...Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) has already knocked tens of thousands of people of his state’s food stamps rolls through a variety of stringent new rules for the program, but he’s not done. At a hearing Tuesday, state officials will lay out a new barrier to entry for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) applicants that most other states have abandoned in recent years...
Opponents ask court to relax Wisconsin voter ID requirements Journal Sentinel ...Opponents of Wisconsin's voter identification law argued in federal court Monday that the legislation is improperly restrictive and should be expanded to allow people to use more forms of ID. The case represents the latest push from the American Civil Liberties Union against a law that has been the focus of a string of legal battles since it was passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Gov. Scott Walker four years ago...
Hearing set on Voter ID legal challenge Winston-Salem Journal ...The voter ID law will be back in federal court later this month. U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Schroeder plans to hold a hearing Oct. 23 to get an update on efforts to settle the legal claims against the photo ID requirement. The N.C. NAACP, the U.S. Department of Justice and others filed a lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s Voter Information Verification Act...
These Lawmakers Want D.C. To Be The First City To Guarantee Paid Family Leave Think Progress ...On Tuesday, seven city councilmembers in the District of Columbia will introduce a paid family leave bill that would create the most progressive system in the country and serve as a model for other cities that might be interested in paid leave. If it eventually gets passed and signed into law, it would be the first city-level program in the country...
Alabama ‘clarifies’ voter ID confusion (opinion) Boston Globe ...If anyone still doubts that the Republican push for voter identification is really about limiting the franchise of Democratic voters — and in particular African-American voters — the state of Alabama has helpfully cleared up the confusion. In 2014, Alabama passed a law that required all of its citizens have a photo ID in order to vote...
U.S. LABOR
Adjuncts Win Union Contract at Maryland Institute College of Art In These Times ...The national movement to unionize part-time faculty at U.S. colleges and universities has secured an initial beachhead in the Baltimore area with ratification of a first contract between Service Employees International Union Local 500 and the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Voting on the ratification concluded in mid-September and a formal signing ceremony for the pact is set for October 8, labor representatives report...
We must despise our kids: Our ugly war on teachers must end now Salon ...With September’s data in, we can see how many teachers went back to school this year. And Gould finds that the tremendous gap that opened up when local budgets crashed during the recession has not come close to being filled. At the peak, we had 8.1 million public K-12 education teachers and staff in July 2008. Seven years later, we have far less, 7.8 million, despite a larger population of students that need to be served...
Contra Costa County Nurses Begin Two-Day Strike Tues. Oct 6 IndyBay ...Nurses who work at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center and clinics across the County will officially begin a two-day strike Tuesday, October 6, after what nurses say is the County’s continued failure to address serious patient care concerns. The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, which represents almost 1,000 County registered nurses, nurse practitioners and public health nurses, called on the County to immediately improve working conditions...
Supreme Court ‘right-to-work’ case could speed decline of unions Al Jazeera ...The Supreme Court will soon take up a case that could impose a de facto “right-to-work” rule across the public sector, eliminating public employee unions’ ability to require fees from nonmembers and, labor leaders say, threatening the unions’ survival. Labor officials often complain that right-to-work rules create a “free rider” problem...
UAW pledges new approach to members for FCA deal Detroit News ...United Auto Workers leaders are promising to handle a second round of contract talks with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV differently than the first discussions that culminated with membership overwhelmingly voting down a tentative four-year deal. In separate messages published online Monday, UAW President Dennis Williams and Vice President Norwood Jewell said they will not only address members’ issues with the contract itself, but communicate better...
Deere deal: Did UAW workers come out ahead? Des Moines Register ...United Auto Workers voted Sunday to ratify a six-year contract with Deere & Co., deciding that a modest pay bump and increased job security outweighed increases in their medical costs. The Moline, Ill.-based maker of iconic farm and construction equipment said the United Auto Workers union notified the company...
A Union Leader Who Always Knew Which Side He Was On The Nation ...Marty Beil knew which side he was on. He was a union man. Indeed, as Congressman Mark Pocan noted after Beil’s death last week at age 68, “Marty embodied the longstanding Wisconsin tradition of fighting for workers’ rights and protections.” Beil’s commitment to trade unionism was old-school and unequivocal. He was ready to bargain; but if the deal was no good, he took the fight to the streets...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
As Infrastructure Creaks, Congress Dithers Wall Street Journal ...Back in July, Congress failed, once again, to pass a long-term highway bill to make improvements in the nation’s transportation system. Instead of funding big infrastructure needs with a multiyear plan, as once was the norm in Washington, lawmakers passed a bill covering a grand total of three months—the 34th time since 2009 Congress has passed a temporary Band-Aid...
'Once-In-A-Millenium' Flooding Creates 'Otherworldly Scenes' in South Carolina Common Dreams ...South Carolina's once-in-a-millennium flooding this weekend left at least seven people dead and much of the state paralyzed—and as rains continued into Monday morning, officials warned that the deluge is likely to worsen. Climate scientists have linked South Carolina's catastrophic rains to climate change. "Joaquin has been traveling over a record-warm ocean surface and undoubtedly that has contributed to its rapid intensification," Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, told The Huffington Post...
War Crime in Afghanistan?: Outrage After U.S. Airstrike on Hospital Kills 22 Patients & Staff Democracy Now ...Doctors Without Borders is demanding an independent international inquiry into a U.S. airstrike Saturday on an Afghan hospital in the city of Kunduz that killed 22 people, including 12 staff members and 10 patients, three of them children. At least three dozen people were injured. The attack continued for 30 minutes after the U.S. and Afghan militaries were informed by telephone that the hospital was being bombed...
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Today's Teamster News 07.14.15
Teamsters
McKesson Executive Compensation Under Fire, Again Teamster.org ...The country’s leading proxy voting advisor, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), recommends that McKesson shareholders vote for Item #7 on the company’s ballot -- a Teamster-sponsored shareholder proposal to address the automatic accelerated vesting of equity awards for top executives in the event of a change of control...
Teamsters Union Files Lawsuit Against Republic Airways Calling On Fair Contracts AvStop.com ...Teamsters Local 357 in Plainfield, Ind., filed a lawsuit against Republic Airways for unilaterally changing pilots’ working conditions regarding “open time” flying without first agreeing with the union about those changes. More than 2,200 Republic pilots are members of Local 357 and have been seeking a fair contract from the company since 2007...
Global Labor & Trade
Obama Urged To Toss Canada Out Of TPP Trade Talks Over Dairy Supply Management Huffington Post ...U.S. politicians are pressuring the Obama administration to leave Canada out of a major and controversial trade deal, if Canada doesn't agree to deregulate its dairy and poultry industries and open them up to foreign competition. Reuters news service cites “two sources” close to the issue as saying the U.S. may go forward with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) without Canada...
New trade fight brews for Obama, Dems The Hill ...A new trade fight is brewing between the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress. Sen. Bob Menendez (N.J.) and other Democrats opposed to President Obama’s trade agenda are worried the State Department will upgrade Malaysia’s ranking in a human trafficking report to be released this week to ensure the country can be included in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal...
Canada Trade Minister Says Supply Management Won’t Kill TPP Deal Bloomberg ...“I am confident that at the end of the day Canada will be part of the TPP,” Fast said. “We have some market access issues left to resolve. They’re always the toughest ones that remain to the end. This is no different than any other negotiation.” Fast will join other negotiators and ministers in Hawaii later this month as TPP talks reach the final stage. The 12 countries involved are entering “the end-game in these negotiations”...
US lawmakers, activists alarmed at upgrade in Malaysia’s human trafficking rating Malaysia Insider ...The New York Times (NYT) newspaper and Huffington Post website reported that US Senator Robert Menendez will call for an investigation if the US government upgrades Malaysia’s rating. A Reuters report on July 8 quoted sources as saying that the US government was upgrading Malaysia’s status, thus paving the way for it to sign on to the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA)...
Has US desire for Asia trade deal trumped slavery with Malaysia's ranking? Christian Science Monitor ...President Obama says he wants the United States at the forefront of efforts to end the global scourge of slavery and human trafficking. But at the same time, Mr. Obama is keen to advance international trade and America’s leadership role in the global trading system – particularly by concluding as early as this year a vast free-trade agreement with Asian-Pacific countries known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Premier of Greece, Alexis Tsipras, Accepts Creditors’ Austerity Deal New York Times ...Forced by his nation’s creditors into broad new concessions to avert financial collapse, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of Greece returned home on Monday with just days to sell the deal to fractured lawmakers and a dazed electorate. The agreement he struck with other European leaders early Monday after a contentious all-night bargaining session would give Greece the chance to receive its third international bailout...
Greek Debt Crisis: European Ministers Want Greece To Limit Ability Of Workers To Strike International Business Times ...For Greek workers, it’s a painful cornerstone of the first two bailouts: Labor market reform. Now it’s part of a third rescue package, according to the most recent last-ditch agreement to keep Greece in the eurozone. The text released by European leaders on Monday is vague, but it suggests the following: Greece will keep in place existing restrictions on workers’ bargaining rights that creditors have successfully demanded in the past...
#ThisIsACoup: Greeks Denounce Bailout Deal That Calls for New Round of Austerity Democracy Now ...Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is facing protests from members of his own Syriza party after accepting harsh austerity measures in exchange for a new international bailout. In order for the deal to move forward, the Greek Parliament must accept pension cuts and other reforms by Wednesday, 10 days after voters rejected similar reforms in a referendum...
Osun Workers End Strike as Govt Commences Payment of Salaries This Day Live ...Osun State workers monday ended their six weeks strike after a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with the state government to put an end to the industrial crisis in the state. Also, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joint Public Service Negotiating Councils (JPSNC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in the state have dissociated the unions from the protests embarked upon by a ‘group of people’ in the state which the group claimed was over unpaid salaries...
State & Living Wage Battles
The Austerity Candidate? Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Launches Presidential Bid on Anti-Union Record Democracy Now ...Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has become the 15th Republican candidate to formally announce he’s running for president. On Monday, Walker launched his campaign by touting his successful efforts to eviscerate public employee unions in his home state and later defeat a recall effort against him. He also extolled his record reducing taxes, cutting the size of the federal government and passing voter restrictions...
Wisconsin’s Construction Industry Is In For A Rough Ride — And So Are Its Taxpayers Think Progress ...About 24 hours before announcing his official White House candidacy, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) made life a lot harder for people who sweat for a living. “We may end up having to lay some people off,” Chris Martinez, owner of Dairyland Energy Solutions in Butler, WI, told ThinkProgress. Martinez was referring to Walker’s repeal of the state’s 80-year-old prevailing wage law...
Scott Walker Campaigns Against Unions, Wages, and Weekends The Nation ...Scott Walker has gone Bush one better. The governor of Wisconsin and Bush rival for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination just codified the concept. The state budget that Walker signed on Sunday as Wisconsin’s governor includes a provision that eliminates a historic guarantee that factory and retail employees “must get at least 24 consecutive hours of rest for every seven-day stretch” of work...
Missouri 'Right to Work' legislation hopes to gain supporters Heartland Connection ...Missouri lawmakers may be on summer break, but that hasn't stopped one grassroots organization from traveling around the state and educating citizens on 'Right to Work' legislation. That legislation would have allowed workers who choose not to join a labor union to avoid paying the equivalent of dues...
Paid sick days would be mandatory under ballot initiative MLive ...Michiganders soon may be asked to sign for sick days as a new group pushes for all workers to have access to that benefit. The Time to Care Coalition will lead a legislative ballot initiative and plans to collect more than 300,000 signatures. The group's proposal would allow workers to earn one hour of paid sick time for every 40 hours worked...
Oklahoma GOP Makes Case Against Food Stamps: ‘Don’t Feed The Animals’ Think Progress ...The Oklahoma Republican Party is making the case against food stamps by comparing poor people to animals, reviving a stereotype that’s often deployed against Americans who rely on government benefits to feed their families. In a Facebook post published Monday night, the Oklahoma GOP suggested that the millions of Americans receiving food stamps this year should not be enrolled in the program because “the animals will grow dependent"...
States Battle Cities Over Minimum Wage Huffington Post ...Kansas City is caught in the middle of a national fight that pits labor against business and increasingly, cities against states. As city after city has voted to give low-wage workers a raise in recent years, state after state has passed laws limiting local governments’ power to do so...
Scott Walker calls minimum wage one of many ‘lame idea’ from Democrats Washington Post ...Scott Walker appeared to take aim at the national minimum wage on Monday evening, referring to it as one of many "lame ideas" pushed by Democrats. Walker's comment came in a lengthy interview with Fox News's Sean Hannity immediately following a speech formally announcing his entrance into the 2016 presidential race...
Protests greet start of voter ID trial in Winston-Salem WNCN ...The outcome of a trial that began Monday could have a major impact on voting rights in North Carolina, and the start of the trial drew a large protest in Winston-Salem. The issue is whether voting law changes approved by the Republican-led General Assembly weakens the ability of minor voters to influence elections. That question is now being debated before a federal judge...
If This Amendment Passes, Several States Would Lose Millions in Federal Education Funding Think Progress ...Today the U.S. Senate will convene to debate amendments to the bipartisan No Child Left Behind rewrite. The House passed its rewrite to No Child Left Behind, or the Student Success Act, last week in a 218 to 213 vote. Democrats and civil rights groups opposed it, arguing that the bill would hurt low-income students, disabled students and students of color. The president has threatened to veto it...
U.S. Labor
Congress Is Debating Whether or Not To Make It Easier for Bosses to Cheat Guestworkers In These Times ...In June, In These Times reported that industry groups have filed a lawsuit against new government-issued worker protections for H-2B guestworkers. That’s not their only strategy, however: new proposed riders on a Senate appropriations bill could block some of the new protections—and some old ones—no matter the outcome of the lawsuit. Many employers were outraged when the Obama administration passed new rules regulating the H-2B visa program...
Facing 'Retirement Crisis,' Sanders Leads Charge for Social Security Expansion Common Dreams ...On the eve of a once-in-a-decade White House Conference on Aging (WHCOA)—and in the face of what they describe as the "impending retirement savings crisis facing this nation"—a group of 70 Democratic lawmakers led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) on Sunday called on President Barack Obama to expand Social Security benefits...
Richard Trumka on Gov. Scott Walker’s Presidential Run: “Walker is a national disgrace” In These Times ...“Scott Walker is a national disgrace,” says Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, the United States’ largest union alliance, in response to Governor Scott Walker’s announcement of his presidential ambitions. His statement, composed of only six words, was released shortly before Walker’s announcement. Trumka’s expression of disgust should come as no surprise to those familiar with Walker’s union-busting policies...
UAW president: Contract talks with GM will not be easy USA Today ...Top officials from the UAW and General Motors were all smiles Monday as they kicked off contract talks and promised to work together even as sharp differences percolate just beneath the surface. This year, the union wants to win wage increases for autoworkers after years of rising sales and profits among U.S. automakers while the manufacturers will want to hold down labor costs...
KapStone millworkers to vote on 'unfair labor practice strike' TDN.com ...KapStone’s millworkers will be back to the polls this week to decide whether to go on an unfair labor practice strike, even as company and union officials continue federal mediation. Union members overwhelming approved of a measure in December that lends their bargaining board the power to call a strike if necessary. It’s been a month since Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers Local 153 provided the company with a 10-day strike notice...
Council approves 3-year pact with AFSCME Coshocton Tribune ...City Council has unanimously approved a new three-year contract with non-uniformed workers that matches the 2.5 percent annual raises granted firefighters last month. Mayor Steve Mercer said the new pact with Local 2551 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees will take effect Aug. 1. The current contract expires July 31...
Food Cart Vendors Are Getting Kicked to the Curb The Nation ...One of the strongest pillars of Los Angeles’s retail landscape isn’t a mom-and-pop storefront or a strip mall; in fact, it doesn’t even have a fixed address. The city is peppered with about 50,000 mobile food vendors, Old World startups on wheels, catering to high- and low-brow tastes ranging from grandma’s tamales to fresh tropical fruits to rolling shaved ice pops. But this vital layer of the urban foodie firmament has long operated essentially outside the law. And now controversy is swirling over a proposal to provide a formal permitting scheme to legalize their “microbusinesses”...
Miscellaneous
Wall Street’s sinister disappearing act: How it still endangers America — while Washington looks the other way Salon ...A common denominator bridges this gaping partisan chasm: Both sides ignore the role of Wall Street as a driver of inequality. In one sense, this is curious. If there is one group that is consistently among the least trusted and most disliked, it is the banks. Linking the core economic issue, inequality, to Wall Street makes for obvious populist appeal...
Hillary Clinton Lays Out Unexpectedly Tough Agenda On Wall Street Think Progress ...In the first major economic policy speech of her campaign, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton outlined her plan to crack down on major financial institutions and other players on Wall Street that have benefited from rising corporate profits while the middle class lags behind. “Over the course of this campaign, I will offer plans to reign in excessive risks on Wall Street and ensure that stock markets work for everyday investors, not just high-frequency traders or those with the best or fastest connections"...
Migrant Mothers and Children Being Freed From Detention Truthout ...Federal officials have begun releasing hundreds of detained mothers and children from the nation's family detention centers as part of plans to end long-term detention of migrant families. Nearly two hundred detained parents and children were released over the weekend, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials...
Opening Historic 'Possibility of Peace,' World Powers Clinch Iran Deal Common Dreams ...Following years of arduous negotiations, and decades of hostile relations, Iran and world powers on Tuesday announced a nuclear agreement that proponents say provides a historic opening for military deescalation, relief from devastating sanctions, and ultimately, peace. "This deal is a huge victory for diplomacy over war," Phyllis Bennis, senior fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies...
McKesson Executive Compensation Under Fire, Again Teamster.org ...The country’s leading proxy voting advisor, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), recommends that McKesson shareholders vote for Item #7 on the company’s ballot -- a Teamster-sponsored shareholder proposal to address the automatic accelerated vesting of equity awards for top executives in the event of a change of control...
Teamsters Union Files Lawsuit Against Republic Airways Calling On Fair Contracts AvStop.com ...Teamsters Local 357 in Plainfield, Ind., filed a lawsuit against Republic Airways for unilaterally changing pilots’ working conditions regarding “open time” flying without first agreeing with the union about those changes. More than 2,200 Republic pilots are members of Local 357 and have been seeking a fair contract from the company since 2007...
Global Labor & Trade
Obama Urged To Toss Canada Out Of TPP Trade Talks Over Dairy Supply Management Huffington Post ...U.S. politicians are pressuring the Obama administration to leave Canada out of a major and controversial trade deal, if Canada doesn't agree to deregulate its dairy and poultry industries and open them up to foreign competition. Reuters news service cites “two sources” close to the issue as saying the U.S. may go forward with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) without Canada...
New trade fight brews for Obama, Dems The Hill ...A new trade fight is brewing between the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress. Sen. Bob Menendez (N.J.) and other Democrats opposed to President Obama’s trade agenda are worried the State Department will upgrade Malaysia’s ranking in a human trafficking report to be released this week to ensure the country can be included in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal...
Canada Trade Minister Says Supply Management Won’t Kill TPP Deal Bloomberg ...“I am confident that at the end of the day Canada will be part of the TPP,” Fast said. “We have some market access issues left to resolve. They’re always the toughest ones that remain to the end. This is no different than any other negotiation.” Fast will join other negotiators and ministers in Hawaii later this month as TPP talks reach the final stage. The 12 countries involved are entering “the end-game in these negotiations”...
US lawmakers, activists alarmed at upgrade in Malaysia’s human trafficking rating Malaysia Insider ...The New York Times (NYT) newspaper and Huffington Post website reported that US Senator Robert Menendez will call for an investigation if the US government upgrades Malaysia’s rating. A Reuters report on July 8 quoted sources as saying that the US government was upgrading Malaysia’s status, thus paving the way for it to sign on to the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA)...
Has US desire for Asia trade deal trumped slavery with Malaysia's ranking? Christian Science Monitor ...President Obama says he wants the United States at the forefront of efforts to end the global scourge of slavery and human trafficking. But at the same time, Mr. Obama is keen to advance international trade and America’s leadership role in the global trading system – particularly by concluding as early as this year a vast free-trade agreement with Asian-Pacific countries known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Premier of Greece, Alexis Tsipras, Accepts Creditors’ Austerity Deal New York Times ...Forced by his nation’s creditors into broad new concessions to avert financial collapse, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of Greece returned home on Monday with just days to sell the deal to fractured lawmakers and a dazed electorate. The agreement he struck with other European leaders early Monday after a contentious all-night bargaining session would give Greece the chance to receive its third international bailout...
Greek Debt Crisis: European Ministers Want Greece To Limit Ability Of Workers To Strike International Business Times ...For Greek workers, it’s a painful cornerstone of the first two bailouts: Labor market reform. Now it’s part of a third rescue package, according to the most recent last-ditch agreement to keep Greece in the eurozone. The text released by European leaders on Monday is vague, but it suggests the following: Greece will keep in place existing restrictions on workers’ bargaining rights that creditors have successfully demanded in the past...
#ThisIsACoup: Greeks Denounce Bailout Deal That Calls for New Round of Austerity Democracy Now ...Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is facing protests from members of his own Syriza party after accepting harsh austerity measures in exchange for a new international bailout. In order for the deal to move forward, the Greek Parliament must accept pension cuts and other reforms by Wednesday, 10 days after voters rejected similar reforms in a referendum...
Osun Workers End Strike as Govt Commences Payment of Salaries This Day Live ...Osun State workers monday ended their six weeks strike after a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with the state government to put an end to the industrial crisis in the state. Also, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joint Public Service Negotiating Councils (JPSNC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in the state have dissociated the unions from the protests embarked upon by a ‘group of people’ in the state which the group claimed was over unpaid salaries...
State & Living Wage Battles
The Austerity Candidate? Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Launches Presidential Bid on Anti-Union Record Democracy Now ...Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has become the 15th Republican candidate to formally announce he’s running for president. On Monday, Walker launched his campaign by touting his successful efforts to eviscerate public employee unions in his home state and later defeat a recall effort against him. He also extolled his record reducing taxes, cutting the size of the federal government and passing voter restrictions...
Wisconsin’s Construction Industry Is In For A Rough Ride — And So Are Its Taxpayers Think Progress ...About 24 hours before announcing his official White House candidacy, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) made life a lot harder for people who sweat for a living. “We may end up having to lay some people off,” Chris Martinez, owner of Dairyland Energy Solutions in Butler, WI, told ThinkProgress. Martinez was referring to Walker’s repeal of the state’s 80-year-old prevailing wage law...
Scott Walker Campaigns Against Unions, Wages, and Weekends The Nation ...Scott Walker has gone Bush one better. The governor of Wisconsin and Bush rival for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination just codified the concept. The state budget that Walker signed on Sunday as Wisconsin’s governor includes a provision that eliminates a historic guarantee that factory and retail employees “must get at least 24 consecutive hours of rest for every seven-day stretch” of work...
Missouri 'Right to Work' legislation hopes to gain supporters Heartland Connection ...Missouri lawmakers may be on summer break, but that hasn't stopped one grassroots organization from traveling around the state and educating citizens on 'Right to Work' legislation. That legislation would have allowed workers who choose not to join a labor union to avoid paying the equivalent of dues...
Paid sick days would be mandatory under ballot initiative MLive ...Michiganders soon may be asked to sign for sick days as a new group pushes for all workers to have access to that benefit. The Time to Care Coalition will lead a legislative ballot initiative and plans to collect more than 300,000 signatures. The group's proposal would allow workers to earn one hour of paid sick time for every 40 hours worked...
Oklahoma GOP Makes Case Against Food Stamps: ‘Don’t Feed The Animals’ Think Progress ...The Oklahoma Republican Party is making the case against food stamps by comparing poor people to animals, reviving a stereotype that’s often deployed against Americans who rely on government benefits to feed their families. In a Facebook post published Monday night, the Oklahoma GOP suggested that the millions of Americans receiving food stamps this year should not be enrolled in the program because “the animals will grow dependent"...
States Battle Cities Over Minimum Wage Huffington Post ...Kansas City is caught in the middle of a national fight that pits labor against business and increasingly, cities against states. As city after city has voted to give low-wage workers a raise in recent years, state after state has passed laws limiting local governments’ power to do so...
Scott Walker calls minimum wage one of many ‘lame idea’ from Democrats Washington Post ...Scott Walker appeared to take aim at the national minimum wage on Monday evening, referring to it as one of many "lame ideas" pushed by Democrats. Walker's comment came in a lengthy interview with Fox News's Sean Hannity immediately following a speech formally announcing his entrance into the 2016 presidential race...
Protests greet start of voter ID trial in Winston-Salem WNCN ...The outcome of a trial that began Monday could have a major impact on voting rights in North Carolina, and the start of the trial drew a large protest in Winston-Salem. The issue is whether voting law changes approved by the Republican-led General Assembly weakens the ability of minor voters to influence elections. That question is now being debated before a federal judge...
If This Amendment Passes, Several States Would Lose Millions in Federal Education Funding Think Progress ...Today the U.S. Senate will convene to debate amendments to the bipartisan No Child Left Behind rewrite. The House passed its rewrite to No Child Left Behind, or the Student Success Act, last week in a 218 to 213 vote. Democrats and civil rights groups opposed it, arguing that the bill would hurt low-income students, disabled students and students of color. The president has threatened to veto it...
U.S. Labor
Congress Is Debating Whether or Not To Make It Easier for Bosses to Cheat Guestworkers In These Times ...In June, In These Times reported that industry groups have filed a lawsuit against new government-issued worker protections for H-2B guestworkers. That’s not their only strategy, however: new proposed riders on a Senate appropriations bill could block some of the new protections—and some old ones—no matter the outcome of the lawsuit. Many employers were outraged when the Obama administration passed new rules regulating the H-2B visa program...
Facing 'Retirement Crisis,' Sanders Leads Charge for Social Security Expansion Common Dreams ...On the eve of a once-in-a-decade White House Conference on Aging (WHCOA)—and in the face of what they describe as the "impending retirement savings crisis facing this nation"—a group of 70 Democratic lawmakers led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) on Sunday called on President Barack Obama to expand Social Security benefits...
Richard Trumka on Gov. Scott Walker’s Presidential Run: “Walker is a national disgrace” In These Times ...“Scott Walker is a national disgrace,” says Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, the United States’ largest union alliance, in response to Governor Scott Walker’s announcement of his presidential ambitions. His statement, composed of only six words, was released shortly before Walker’s announcement. Trumka’s expression of disgust should come as no surprise to those familiar with Walker’s union-busting policies...
UAW president: Contract talks with GM will not be easy USA Today ...Top officials from the UAW and General Motors were all smiles Monday as they kicked off contract talks and promised to work together even as sharp differences percolate just beneath the surface. This year, the union wants to win wage increases for autoworkers after years of rising sales and profits among U.S. automakers while the manufacturers will want to hold down labor costs...
KapStone millworkers to vote on 'unfair labor practice strike' TDN.com ...KapStone’s millworkers will be back to the polls this week to decide whether to go on an unfair labor practice strike, even as company and union officials continue federal mediation. Union members overwhelming approved of a measure in December that lends their bargaining board the power to call a strike if necessary. It’s been a month since Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers Local 153 provided the company with a 10-day strike notice...
Council approves 3-year pact with AFSCME Coshocton Tribune ...City Council has unanimously approved a new three-year contract with non-uniformed workers that matches the 2.5 percent annual raises granted firefighters last month. Mayor Steve Mercer said the new pact with Local 2551 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees will take effect Aug. 1. The current contract expires July 31...
Food Cart Vendors Are Getting Kicked to the Curb The Nation ...One of the strongest pillars of Los Angeles’s retail landscape isn’t a mom-and-pop storefront or a strip mall; in fact, it doesn’t even have a fixed address. The city is peppered with about 50,000 mobile food vendors, Old World startups on wheels, catering to high- and low-brow tastes ranging from grandma’s tamales to fresh tropical fruits to rolling shaved ice pops. But this vital layer of the urban foodie firmament has long operated essentially outside the law. And now controversy is swirling over a proposal to provide a formal permitting scheme to legalize their “microbusinesses”...
Miscellaneous
Wall Street’s sinister disappearing act: How it still endangers America — while Washington looks the other way Salon ...A common denominator bridges this gaping partisan chasm: Both sides ignore the role of Wall Street as a driver of inequality. In one sense, this is curious. If there is one group that is consistently among the least trusted and most disliked, it is the banks. Linking the core economic issue, inequality, to Wall Street makes for obvious populist appeal...
Hillary Clinton Lays Out Unexpectedly Tough Agenda On Wall Street Think Progress ...In the first major economic policy speech of her campaign, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton outlined her plan to crack down on major financial institutions and other players on Wall Street that have benefited from rising corporate profits while the middle class lags behind. “Over the course of this campaign, I will offer plans to reign in excessive risks on Wall Street and ensure that stock markets work for everyday investors, not just high-frequency traders or those with the best or fastest connections"...
Migrant Mothers and Children Being Freed From Detention Truthout ...Federal officials have begun releasing hundreds of detained mothers and children from the nation's family detention centers as part of plans to end long-term detention of migrant families. Nearly two hundred detained parents and children were released over the weekend, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials...
Opening Historic 'Possibility of Peace,' World Powers Clinch Iran Deal Common Dreams ...Following years of arduous negotiations, and decades of hostile relations, Iran and world powers on Tuesday announced a nuclear agreement that proponents say provides a historic opening for military deescalation, relief from devastating sanctions, and ultimately, peace. "This deal is a huge victory for diplomacy over war," Phyllis Bennis, senior fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies...
Friday, June 26, 2015
Today Teamster News 06.26.15
Teamsters
SEIRPC board OKs Teamsters contract The Hawk Eye ...The Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commissions approved a three-year contract with the Chauffeurs, Teamsters and Helpers Local Union No. 238, affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, at Wednesday's executive board meeting in West Burlington. The contract will need final approval by the full board at its July meeting. The contract includes a 3 percent increase in wages for each of the next three years for SEIBUS drivers and a maintenance manager...
GOP measure would permit longer tandem trucks Associated Press ...Over the objections of safety advocates, the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved a trucking industry bid to allow longer tandem trucks on the nation's highways. Pushing the measure were large trucking operations that stand to profit from lower costs. In opposition were unions such as the Teamsters, many states and local governments, and safety advocates. Many smaller trucking companies were against it as well...
Teamster Officers Training Being Held in Missouri Teamster.org ...A Teamsters officers’ training is being held today and Friday, June 26, at the Teamsters Complex in Kansas City, Mo. More than 50 Teamster officers are gathered to take part in the program that is hosted by Teamsters Joint Council 56 and Joint Council 56 President Jim Kabell and coordinated by the IBT Training and Development Department...
Global Labor & Trade
House completes Obama’s trade items as Pacific pact looms Washington Post ...The Republican-led Congress rounded out President Barack Obama’s trade package Thursday, overwhelmingly passing a worker training program just weeks after it was stymied. The House voted 286 to 138 to renew the program for workers displaced by international trade. Obama had said he wanted to sign that bill alongside the “fast track” negotiating authority that Congress approved a day earlier...
Congress approves assistance for workers who lose jobs to trade LA Times ...Congress gave final approval Thursday to a program that provides funds for retraining workers who lose their jobs to overseas trade, a key component of President Obama's trade agenda. The Trade Adjustment Assistance bill, which is now on its way to the White House, became tangled in a political debate over giving the administration fast-track authority to negotiate trade deals...
Obama Bolsters His Leverage With Trade Victory, but at a Cost New York Times ...President Obama’s success in rescuing his high-priority trade legislation from a rebellion by fellow Democrats strengthens his hand internationally and paves the way for completion of the most expansive economic agreement in generations. While the turbulent process was embarrassing for the president and deeply confusing for foreign negotiating partners, Mr. Obama now has the leverage he sought to force the final concessions needed to wrap up a free-trade pact...
Democrats Mend Fences After Bloody Trade Fight National Journal ...After weeks of all-out fighting over President Obama's trade agenda—and a bitter defeat for its Democratic opponents—the combatants in the House Democratic Caucus are ready to bury the hatchet. That doesn't mean Democrats are done fighting over trade. TPA prevents Congress from amending the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership, but members will still get an up-or-down vote when the 12-nation trade deal is completed...
Sen. Stabenow Calls for Voluntary Country-of-Origin Labels on Meat Wall Street Journal ...U.S. lawmakers are weighing the fate of country-of-origin labels, known as COOL, after the World Trade Organization said in May that the existing requirement discriminates against animals from Canada and Mexico. Following their win at the WTO, both Canada and Mexico are now threatening retaliatory measures totaling more than a combined $3 billion. Canada has threatened trade restrictions on a range of U.S. products...
The Fight for Fair Trade: How Far We've Come, How Much Further We Will Go (opinion) Huffington Post ...After a long, arduous fight, Congress passed legislation that will put harmful trade pacts on the fast track. Now our job is to put aside this momentary loss, build on the incredible momentum we have created in the fight for fair and responsible trade, and shift focus to the even bigger fights ahead. We must now focus on defeating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
In China, Walmart Is Unionized, But Workers Have No Power on the Job In These Times ...Walmart has succeeded in meeting the Chinese government’s demands that the company allow unions to be formally established, but this has not translated into any effective collective bargaining power for some 107,000 workers at the company’s 411 Chinese stores, says Han Dongfang, Executive Director of the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin...
State & Living Wage Battles
New Mexico Will Make It Even Harder To Get Food Stamps Think Progress ...With an unemployment rate well above the national average and more than one in four of its children on the brink of hunger, New Mexico is poised to make it harder to get food stamps. Like most other states, New Mexico has waived federal work requirements tied to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) since about 2009. The work rules are designed to lapse when the unemployment is severe, since requiring people to find work or starve makes little sense when there’s no work to be had...
Connecticut Just Passed a Law Requiring Bosses Who Steal Workers’ Wages to Pay Them Back Double In These Times ...For many employers, wage theft makes good business sense. The probability of getting caught refusing to pay a worker overtime, shaving hours off their check or paying less than the minimum wage is low. This Wednesday, Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy signed into law Senate Bill 914, a measure that will allow victims of wage theft to collect double the amount due them...
W.Va. governor: No prevailing wage July 1 due to lawmakers Herald-Dispatch ...Blaming inaction by state lawmakers, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's administration says the state's prevailing wage will disappear July 1 for a short-term lapse that is creating uncertainty for the construction industry. On Thursday, the Democratic governor's spokesman, Chris Stadelman, said WorkForce West Virginia couldn't calculate the rate for public construction projects by July 1...
Lawsuit aims to declare Nevada minimum wage unconstitutional Las Vegas Review-Journal ...Several Nevada businesses are asking a federal judge to declare the state’s minimum wage law unconstitutional. According to a recent fact sheet prepared by a Legislative Counsel Bureau researcher, an amendment to the Nevada Constitution to raise the minimum wage paid to employees was approved by voters in 2004 and was reaffirmed in 2006. The 2006 voter-approved amendment requires the minimum wage to be recalculated each year...
Maine House members launching push to impeach LePage Bangor Daily News ...Six lawmakers said Thursday they will attempt to launch impeachment proceedings against Republican Gov. Paul LePage for his alleged role in pushing Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves out of a new job at Good Will-Hinckley School. The House of Representatives has “sole power of impeachment” according to Article 4 of the Maine Constitution...
U.S. Labor
Truckers end protest over terminal wait time at Port of New Orleans NOLA.com The independent truck drivers who protested outside the Port of New Orleans this week returned to work Thursday morning (June 25) after reaching an agreement with terminal operators and local trucking companies that satisfied part of their demands. As part of the deal, drivers said the local trucking companies that hire them have agreed to pay them $40 to transport each damaged shipping container to a repair facility...
More Than 9,000 Santa Clara County SEIU Union Workers Vote to Strike Over "Unfair Labor" Practices NBC ...More than 9,000 Santa Clara County union workers voted on Wednesday to authorize a strike next week over what they say are unfair labor practices – the first time in more than four decades. SEIU 521 spokeswoman Khanh Weinberg said that 97 percent of the union members comprising of 911 dispatchers, janitors, librarians and nurses, voted to authorize the strike on Tuesday. Workers voted to hold an "open-ended" strike with no end date...
Ford, UAW talking in advance of contract talks NWI Times ...Ford and the United Auto Workers union have been talking before upcoming contract negotiations, which should officially start next month. The UAW represents about 5,000 workers locally at the Chicago Assembly Plant in Hegewisch and the Chicago Stamping Plant in Chicago Heights. The union hopes to boost pay and eliminate a two-tier system where newer workers make less to do the same job as more senior employees...
State, AFSCME OK ongoing talks without lockout or strike News & Observer ...Negotiations on a contract with Illinois' largest public employee union will continue without the possibility of a strike or lockout for one month after the contract expires next week. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's office and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 31, released a statement Thursday about the agreement. The idea is to let both sides negotiate in July without the threat of disruption of public services. The statement says "all legal and contractual" rights will be preserved...
Miscellaneous
Senate Recommends $1.7 Billion In Education Cuts Think Progress ...The Senate Appropriations Committee advanced a labor, health and education bill for the next fiscal year out of committee Thursday. The U.S. Department of Education would lose $1.7 billion in the Senate spending bill compared to its current funding levels. Those cuts were significantly less than the House Appropriations Committee, which cut the department by $2.8 billion...
In Surprise Decision, SCOTUS Rules Against Discriminatory Housing Practices Common Dreams ...In a decision applauded by housing and civil rights groups on Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Fair Housing Act (FHA) allows people to pursue lawsuits when a housing practice has a discriminatory effect, even if that practice wasn't intended to discriminate—an effect known as "disparate impact"...
Gay marriage declared legal across the US in historic supreme court ruling The Guardian ...Same-sex marriages are now legal across the entirety of the United States after a historic supreme court ruling that declared attempts by conservative states to ban them unconstitutional. In what may prove the most important civil rights case in a generation, five of the nine court justices determined that the right to marriage equality was enshrined under the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment...
"Slavery Deeply Embedded" in South Carolina: Emanuel AME Church on Street Named for Racist Lawmaker Democracy Now ...When Rev. Clementa Pinckney lay in state at the Capitol this week, his body had to be brought past the Confederate flag that still flies there and is the symbol embraced by his killer, Dylann Roof. The Emanuel AME Church in Charleston is located on Calhoun Street, named for one of the most prominent pro-slavery figures in history, the late Senator and Vice President John C. Calhoun, who argued slavery was a "positive good" rather than a "necessary evil"...
Separate Attacks Leave One Dead in France and Dozens Killed in Tunisia Common Dreams ...Violence was making global news headlines in two countries on Friday as an earlier attack on a U.S.-owned gas plant in France was later overshadowed by an attack on a hotel in Sousse, Tunisia, where nearly thirty people are reported dead. The Associated Press reports on the attacks in Tunisia: "Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has confirmed that one of the two beachside hotels where tourists were shot in Tunisia, killing at least 27 people, is owned by a Spanish company"...
SEIRPC board OKs Teamsters contract The Hawk Eye ...The Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commissions approved a three-year contract with the Chauffeurs, Teamsters and Helpers Local Union No. 238, affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, at Wednesday's executive board meeting in West Burlington. The contract will need final approval by the full board at its July meeting. The contract includes a 3 percent increase in wages for each of the next three years for SEIBUS drivers and a maintenance manager...
GOP measure would permit longer tandem trucks Associated Press ...Over the objections of safety advocates, the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved a trucking industry bid to allow longer tandem trucks on the nation's highways. Pushing the measure were large trucking operations that stand to profit from lower costs. In opposition were unions such as the Teamsters, many states and local governments, and safety advocates. Many smaller trucking companies were against it as well...
Teamster Officers Training Being Held in Missouri Teamster.org ...A Teamsters officers’ training is being held today and Friday, June 26, at the Teamsters Complex in Kansas City, Mo. More than 50 Teamster officers are gathered to take part in the program that is hosted by Teamsters Joint Council 56 and Joint Council 56 President Jim Kabell and coordinated by the IBT Training and Development Department...
Global Labor & Trade
House completes Obama’s trade items as Pacific pact looms Washington Post ...The Republican-led Congress rounded out President Barack Obama’s trade package Thursday, overwhelmingly passing a worker training program just weeks after it was stymied. The House voted 286 to 138 to renew the program for workers displaced by international trade. Obama had said he wanted to sign that bill alongside the “fast track” negotiating authority that Congress approved a day earlier...
Congress approves assistance for workers who lose jobs to trade LA Times ...Congress gave final approval Thursday to a program that provides funds for retraining workers who lose their jobs to overseas trade, a key component of President Obama's trade agenda. The Trade Adjustment Assistance bill, which is now on its way to the White House, became tangled in a political debate over giving the administration fast-track authority to negotiate trade deals...
Obama Bolsters His Leverage With Trade Victory, but at a Cost New York Times ...President Obama’s success in rescuing his high-priority trade legislation from a rebellion by fellow Democrats strengthens his hand internationally and paves the way for completion of the most expansive economic agreement in generations. While the turbulent process was embarrassing for the president and deeply confusing for foreign negotiating partners, Mr. Obama now has the leverage he sought to force the final concessions needed to wrap up a free-trade pact...
Democrats Mend Fences After Bloody Trade Fight National Journal ...After weeks of all-out fighting over President Obama's trade agenda—and a bitter defeat for its Democratic opponents—the combatants in the House Democratic Caucus are ready to bury the hatchet. That doesn't mean Democrats are done fighting over trade. TPA prevents Congress from amending the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership, but members will still get an up-or-down vote when the 12-nation trade deal is completed...
Sen. Stabenow Calls for Voluntary Country-of-Origin Labels on Meat Wall Street Journal ...U.S. lawmakers are weighing the fate of country-of-origin labels, known as COOL, after the World Trade Organization said in May that the existing requirement discriminates against animals from Canada and Mexico. Following their win at the WTO, both Canada and Mexico are now threatening retaliatory measures totaling more than a combined $3 billion. Canada has threatened trade restrictions on a range of U.S. products...
The Fight for Fair Trade: How Far We've Come, How Much Further We Will Go (opinion) Huffington Post ...After a long, arduous fight, Congress passed legislation that will put harmful trade pacts on the fast track. Now our job is to put aside this momentary loss, build on the incredible momentum we have created in the fight for fair and responsible trade, and shift focus to the even bigger fights ahead. We must now focus on defeating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
In China, Walmart Is Unionized, But Workers Have No Power on the Job In These Times ...Walmart has succeeded in meeting the Chinese government’s demands that the company allow unions to be formally established, but this has not translated into any effective collective bargaining power for some 107,000 workers at the company’s 411 Chinese stores, says Han Dongfang, Executive Director of the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin...
State & Living Wage Battles
New Mexico Will Make It Even Harder To Get Food Stamps Think Progress ...With an unemployment rate well above the national average and more than one in four of its children on the brink of hunger, New Mexico is poised to make it harder to get food stamps. Like most other states, New Mexico has waived federal work requirements tied to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) since about 2009. The work rules are designed to lapse when the unemployment is severe, since requiring people to find work or starve makes little sense when there’s no work to be had...
Connecticut Just Passed a Law Requiring Bosses Who Steal Workers’ Wages to Pay Them Back Double In These Times ...For many employers, wage theft makes good business sense. The probability of getting caught refusing to pay a worker overtime, shaving hours off their check or paying less than the minimum wage is low. This Wednesday, Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy signed into law Senate Bill 914, a measure that will allow victims of wage theft to collect double the amount due them...
W.Va. governor: No prevailing wage July 1 due to lawmakers Herald-Dispatch ...Blaming inaction by state lawmakers, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's administration says the state's prevailing wage will disappear July 1 for a short-term lapse that is creating uncertainty for the construction industry. On Thursday, the Democratic governor's spokesman, Chris Stadelman, said WorkForce West Virginia couldn't calculate the rate for public construction projects by July 1...
Lawsuit aims to declare Nevada minimum wage unconstitutional Las Vegas Review-Journal ...Several Nevada businesses are asking a federal judge to declare the state’s minimum wage law unconstitutional. According to a recent fact sheet prepared by a Legislative Counsel Bureau researcher, an amendment to the Nevada Constitution to raise the minimum wage paid to employees was approved by voters in 2004 and was reaffirmed in 2006. The 2006 voter-approved amendment requires the minimum wage to be recalculated each year...
Maine House members launching push to impeach LePage Bangor Daily News ...Six lawmakers said Thursday they will attempt to launch impeachment proceedings against Republican Gov. Paul LePage for his alleged role in pushing Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves out of a new job at Good Will-Hinckley School. The House of Representatives has “sole power of impeachment” according to Article 4 of the Maine Constitution...
U.S. Labor
Truckers end protest over terminal wait time at Port of New Orleans NOLA.com The independent truck drivers who protested outside the Port of New Orleans this week returned to work Thursday morning (June 25) after reaching an agreement with terminal operators and local trucking companies that satisfied part of their demands. As part of the deal, drivers said the local trucking companies that hire them have agreed to pay them $40 to transport each damaged shipping container to a repair facility...
More Than 9,000 Santa Clara County SEIU Union Workers Vote to Strike Over "Unfair Labor" Practices NBC ...More than 9,000 Santa Clara County union workers voted on Wednesday to authorize a strike next week over what they say are unfair labor practices – the first time in more than four decades. SEIU 521 spokeswoman Khanh Weinberg said that 97 percent of the union members comprising of 911 dispatchers, janitors, librarians and nurses, voted to authorize the strike on Tuesday. Workers voted to hold an "open-ended" strike with no end date...
Ford, UAW talking in advance of contract talks NWI Times ...Ford and the United Auto Workers union have been talking before upcoming contract negotiations, which should officially start next month. The UAW represents about 5,000 workers locally at the Chicago Assembly Plant in Hegewisch and the Chicago Stamping Plant in Chicago Heights. The union hopes to boost pay and eliminate a two-tier system where newer workers make less to do the same job as more senior employees...
State, AFSCME OK ongoing talks without lockout or strike News & Observer ...Negotiations on a contract with Illinois' largest public employee union will continue without the possibility of a strike or lockout for one month after the contract expires next week. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's office and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 31, released a statement Thursday about the agreement. The idea is to let both sides negotiate in July without the threat of disruption of public services. The statement says "all legal and contractual" rights will be preserved...
Showing Solidarity with Ink Master Workers AFL-CIO ...Workers at "Ink Master" voted overwhelmingly for a union last year. Since then, Original Media, the master behind "Ink Master," has refused to bargain in good faith with the Writers Guild of America, East, AFL-CIO. Original Media is being investigated currently by the National Labor Relations Board for failing to bargain in good faith...
Inside the Growing Movement to Unionize Charter Schools The American Prospect ...The labor struggle happening in Los Angeles mirrors a growing number of efforts taking place at charter schools around the country, where most teachers work with no job security on year-to-year contracts. For teachers, unions, and charter school advocates, the moment is fraught with challenges. Traditional unions are grappling with how they can both organize charter teachers and still work politically to curb charter expansion...
Diversifying labor ‘one way or the other’ St. Louis American ...Attendees gave a nod to union members at the Communications Workers of America (CWA), who passed a “Black Lives Matter” resolution at their national convention on June 10 to address the issues of “systematic racism” in the United States. “Part of our goal in passing the resolution is to start active members of CWA talking about these issues,” said Bradley Harmon, president of the CWA Local 6355. “That has already started. I think it deepened our commitment towards working for racial justice”...
Inside the Growing Movement to Unionize Charter Schools The American Prospect ...The labor struggle happening in Los Angeles mirrors a growing number of efforts taking place at charter schools around the country, where most teachers work with no job security on year-to-year contracts. For teachers, unions, and charter school advocates, the moment is fraught with challenges. Traditional unions are grappling with how they can both organize charter teachers and still work politically to curb charter expansion...
Diversifying labor ‘one way or the other’ St. Louis American ...Attendees gave a nod to union members at the Communications Workers of America (CWA), who passed a “Black Lives Matter” resolution at their national convention on June 10 to address the issues of “systematic racism” in the United States. “Part of our goal in passing the resolution is to start active members of CWA talking about these issues,” said Bradley Harmon, president of the CWA Local 6355. “That has already started. I think it deepened our commitment towards working for racial justice”...
Miscellaneous
Senate Recommends $1.7 Billion In Education Cuts Think Progress ...The Senate Appropriations Committee advanced a labor, health and education bill for the next fiscal year out of committee Thursday. The U.S. Department of Education would lose $1.7 billion in the Senate spending bill compared to its current funding levels. Those cuts were significantly less than the House Appropriations Committee, which cut the department by $2.8 billion...
In Surprise Decision, SCOTUS Rules Against Discriminatory Housing Practices Common Dreams ...In a decision applauded by housing and civil rights groups on Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Fair Housing Act (FHA) allows people to pursue lawsuits when a housing practice has a discriminatory effect, even if that practice wasn't intended to discriminate—an effect known as "disparate impact"...
Gay marriage declared legal across the US in historic supreme court ruling The Guardian ...Same-sex marriages are now legal across the entirety of the United States after a historic supreme court ruling that declared attempts by conservative states to ban them unconstitutional. In what may prove the most important civil rights case in a generation, five of the nine court justices determined that the right to marriage equality was enshrined under the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment...
"Slavery Deeply Embedded" in South Carolina: Emanuel AME Church on Street Named for Racist Lawmaker Democracy Now ...When Rev. Clementa Pinckney lay in state at the Capitol this week, his body had to be brought past the Confederate flag that still flies there and is the symbol embraced by his killer, Dylann Roof. The Emanuel AME Church in Charleston is located on Calhoun Street, named for one of the most prominent pro-slavery figures in history, the late Senator and Vice President John C. Calhoun, who argued slavery was a "positive good" rather than a "necessary evil"...
Separate Attacks Leave One Dead in France and Dozens Killed in Tunisia Common Dreams ...Violence was making global news headlines in two countries on Friday as an earlier attack on a U.S.-owned gas plant in France was later overshadowed by an attack on a hotel in Sousse, Tunisia, where nearly thirty people are reported dead. The Associated Press reports on the attacks in Tunisia: "Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has confirmed that one of the two beachside hotels where tourists were shot in Tunisia, killing at least 27 people, is owned by a Spanish company"...
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