TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Support House Introduction of Pension Accountability Act Teamster.org ...The Teamsters Union expressed its support today of the introduction of the House companion bill for Sen. Rob Portman’s (R-Ohio) Pension Accountability Act. The bill (HR 4029), which was introduced in the House by Reps. David Joyce (R-Ohio) and Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), would guarantee that the votes of thousands of retirees and participants would not be nullified as part of the process included in the Multi-employer Pension Reform Act (MPRA)...
Teamsters Applaud SFMTA Vote Ensuring Labor Harmony for Commuter Shuttles Teamster.org ...Today, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) voted to make the city’s commuter shuttle pilot program permanent, while also ensuring labor harmony for workers employed by commuter shuttle operators. The commuter shuttle program pertains to buses primarily serving Silicon Valley’s high tech industry, including Apple, Google, Facebook, and others. Consistent efforts by commuter shuttle drivers, Teamsters and community members to keep public attention on the critical labor harmony resolution resulted in final passage...
Miami Transfer Ratifies New 3 Year Contract Local 769 ...On Monday November 16, 2015, Teamsters Local 769 members from Miami Transfer ratified a new 3 year contract. Miami Transfer has been in business since 1896 and along with Florida Rigging they do a lot of work for Florida Power and Light. They also do a lot of rigging work for Pike and other utility pole companies throughout the Miami, Broward, and Palm Beach county areas...
Teamsters, Carhaul Employer Group to Reconvene Teamster.org ...The Teamsters National Automobile Transporters Negotiating Committee (TNATINC) will reconvene with the carhaul employer group this week to negotiate on the members’ behalf after carhaulers overwhelmingly voted to reject the national agreement and two supplemental agreements. The negotiations come after local unions held meetings over the past few weeks with the carhaul members to discuss the recently rejected tentative agreement...
Workers protest poverty wages at the U of MN Fight Back News ...More than 350 workers on the Twin Cities and Duluth campuses of the University of Minnesota braved the rain, Nov. 17, to rally and picket for raises and respect for unionized staff at the U of MN. Members of U of MN AFSCME and Teamsters Local 320, which collectively represent over 4000 university workers, are currently in contract negotiations...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Obama presses Canada for quick TPP approval Globe and Mail ...U.S. President Barack Obama is pressuring Canada and the other members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership to approve the trade deal as quickly as possible. The 12 leaders of TPP nations met Wednesday for the first time since they announced the deal in October and released the text on Nov. 5. The closed-door meeting was also the first opportunity for Canada’s new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to meet with TPP leaders...
Protests Continue as Obama Praises TPP at APEC Summit TeleSUR ...Activists protesting against the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit (APEC) in Manila, Philippines, clashed with police on Wednesday in attempts to take their demonstration to the site of the the APEC meetings, where world leaders also met to discuss the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership. Social movements including labor unions, women’s groups, students, Indigenous people, farmer organizations, and international activists have protested the negative impacts of APEC’s free trade model...
TPP activists storm Morgan Stanley office in Washington RT ...Activists united against the Trans Pacific Partnership deal disrupted the Washington, DC offices of investment firm Morgan Stanley. Protesters pushed by the company’s security as they charged their way into the building. Morgan Stanley is one of many US companies supporting the TPP and has spent almost $10m on lobbying over the past three years...
The Trans-Pacific Partnership could end US-made clothing New York Post ...The deal would eliminate tariffs between the US, Canada, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. A key NYC industry, clothing and apparel, is more divided in its take on TPP. “They’re not encouraging the consumer to buy more American-made products,” says Ramdat Harihar, CEO of R&C Apparel. “If they’re cutting tariffs, they will manufacture more overseas”...
Greece, Lenders Reach Deal over Austerity Reforms; Aid Unlocked TeleSUR ...The Greek Finance Ministry said a payment of 2 billion euros will be made by creditors on Friday after reforms are ratified by parliament. Greece has reached an agreement with its European creditors Tuesday over financial reforms and austerity measures, allowing the country to receive bailout loans that were blocked because of disagreements over the reforms...
Honduran Union Leader, Family Leave Home after Threats Solidarity Center ...Honduran union leader Nelson Geovanni Nuñez Chavez was forced to leave his home with his family last week after repeatedly being followed and harassed, according to the Honduras-based nonprofit ACI-Participa. Nuñez Chavez is technical adviser to the Honduran agricultural workers’ union, Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Agroindustria y Similares (STAS), and host of the radio program, “The Unionist, Live”...
India cbank workers' strike on Thursday likely to disrupt settlements Reuters ...Nov 18 About 17,000 employees of the Reserve Bank of India are set to go on strike on Thursday for better retirement benefits and to oppose reforms to the central bank, raising the prospect of disruptions to banks and markets. The four unions that have called the strike say the reforms will reduce the RBI's regulatory powers and take away debt management operations away from the central bank...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Right To Work Is Debated in West Virginia The Intelligencer ...West Virginia Senate President Bill Cole said it is time to join the 25 other states that have passed right-to-work laws, but labor leaders Mike Caputo and Kenny Perdue said this is merely a Republican attempt to reduce wages for workers in an already poor state. State law currently allows companies to require membership in a union as a condition of employment. That practice is forbidden in right-to-work states...
Is "Right to Work" Right for W.Va.? WV Public ...Dozens of union members attended a joint committee meeting Sunday making their opposition for Right to Work legislation clear. For two hours, the Joint Committee on the Judiciary met to discuss possible Right to Work legislation and how it might affect West Virginia. Right to Work laws prohibit certain types of agreements between labor unions and employers...
Bills introduced by Simon address sexual orientation, campaign funds, paid sick leave WTVR ...HB07 wants full time employees to get a reasonable number of sick days. “Hard working Virginians shouldn’t have to choose between getting paid and going to work with a fever, the flu or worse,” Simon said. “It is essential to the health of Virginia’s workplaces that we provide a reasonable number of paid sick days for full time employees"...
L.A. County sets up wage enforcement program to police new minimum wage rules LA Times ...In the wake of this summer's decision to hike the minimum wage in unincorporated areas to $15 by 2020, Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to set up a new division to go after employers who violate the wage law. Details of how the enforcement program will work and what penalties will apply to offending employers remain to be worked out...
U.S. LABOR
Sonoma County SEIU workers strike amid contract talks Press Democrat ...About 1,500 Sonoma County government employees joined picket lines Tuesday for the first day of a planned three-day strike by the county’s largest group of unionized workers. The demonstrations, clustered mainly outside county offices in Santa Rosa, escalated a standoff between local government officials and rank-and-file employees about the rising cost of health care and other living expenses...
Ford-UAW contract passage in doubt as voting nears end Reuters ...Workers at two large Ford Motor Co (F.N) plants in Louisville, Kentucky, rejected a proposed four-year labor contract by 2-to-1 margin, putting its passage in doubt as voting at Ford plants factories nears an end. Of 7,408 votes cast at Louisville Assembly and Kentucky Truck plants, 65.5 percent voted against the contract, according to a UAW official...
Papa John's Franchisee Gets Jail Time For Failing To Pay Full Wages Huffington Post ...The owner of several Papa John's franchises in New York City will serve 60 days in jail for failing to pay his workers the minimum wage and overtime, New York's attorney general announced Monday. Two months isn't a particularly long time in the hoosegow, but any jail time at all is notable in a wage theft case...
McDonald's franchises must comply with NLRB subpoenas, judge says Reuters ...A U.S. judge has ordered 10 McDonald's franchisees in New York City to comply with subpoenas from the National Labor Relations Board seeking information on their relationship with McDonald's Corp, as the agency tries to prove that the fast food giant is a joint employer of franchise workers...
Airlines Do Fixes on the Cheap by Sending Planes Abroad to Unlicensed Mechanics Alternet ...Like outsourcing in every other industry, aviation outsourcing comes down to money. After 9/11, when America’s airline industry found itself in financial dire straits, commercial fliers introduced a number of cost-cutting measures. We’re now far too familiar with these practices, most of which remain with us. Less widely known is the fact that airlines also looked for ways to slash repair costs, a solution that required looking abroad...
The Lowest End Of The Income Spectrum Is A Dangerous Place For Mothers To Be Think Progress ...In a new research paper from Kristin S. Seefeldt and Heather Sandstrom published by the Russell Sage Foundation, the authors note that about 12 percent of all low-income mothers had neither a job nor welfare benefits in 2004, which jumped to about 20 percent by 2008. “The number of families with children who are without work and without cash welfare benefits has been growing over time since the implementation of welfare reform in 1996,” said Seefeldt...
U.S. Economy Increasingly Dominated by Monopolies as 2015 Corporate Mergers Continue Alternet ...There’s more evidence that corporate America is becoming ever more monopolistic and that’s not good for small businesses or consumers. This year is on track to see the most corporate mergers and takeovers since the Great Recession of 2008, according to many business page reports that said October was the fifth biggest month ever for mergers...
SEIU endorses Clinton Politico ...The powerful union behind the fast food workers' wage movement endorsed Hillary Clinton for president Tuesday. The 2-million-member Service Employees International Union approved the endorsement through a vote by its executive board. “Hillary Clinton has proven she will fight, deliver and win for working families,” said SEIU President Mary Kay Henry in a statement...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Poll shows support for reversing highway bill safety changes The Hill ...Safety advocates are touting a poll showing public support for reversing a host of regulatory changes that are included in a highway funding bill that is being negotiated by lawmakers. 77 percent of U.S. residents oppose a controversial proposal to increase a current limit on the length of double-trailer truck rigs from 28 feet to 33 feet. Only 22 percent of the poll's respondents said they support the longer truck proposal...
Koch brothers hijack historic criminal justice reform to make it tougher to go after corporate criminals Salon ...Not one Wall Street executive was criminally charged following the 2008 global financial collapse, and if the Koch brothers and House Republicans have their way, it’ll be harder to hold white collar criminals accountable for their future malfeasance. In an age when even acts of terror fail to lessen the tense political divisions in Washington, D.C. a rare beacon of bipartisanship comprise has taken root among elected federal officials working on criminal justice reform...
Paris attacks reshape U.S. debate on immigration, security Reuters ...U.S. lawmakers called on Tuesday for even tighter scrutiny of Syrian refugees fleeing to the United States as last week's deadly Paris attacks recast America's debate over immigration and national security, prompting a sharp rebuke from President Barack Obama, who said attempts to block entry were "offensive and contrary to American values"...
France Rejects Fear, Renews Commitment To Take In 30,000 Syrian Refugees Think Progress ...French President Francois Hollande promised to honor his commitment to take in tens of thousands of refugees on Wednesday. He said France would do so despite concerns raised by ultra-right nationalist leaders that refugees might pose a security threat to the country. Many immigration experts and political leaders noted that such humanitarian measures undermine ISIS’ argument that the West is at odds with Muslims...
"A Disturbing Increase in Islamophobia": U.S. Mosques Threatened, Canadian Mosque Set on Fire Democracy Now ...There are growing reports of Islamophobic attacks since Friday’s massacre in Paris. Just hours after the Paris assault, a caller left a voicemail laced with racial slurs for the Islamic Society of Pinellas County in St. Petersburg, Florida. The caller left his full name and threatened to "firebomb you, shoot whoever’s there on sight in the head." Meanwhile in Pflugerville, Texas, residents found a torn Qur’an covered in feces...
Latest Incidents Show Police Brutality Persists Despite Elevated Awareness Common Dreams ...Separate incidents in two U.S. cities over recent days reveal that tensions remain elevated over police brutality and use of excessive force in the United States. Captured last week on tape, the beating of a man in San Francisco has been likened to the infamous assault on Rodney King by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1991...
Showing posts with label highway safety. Show all posts
Showing posts with label highway safety. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Friday, November 13, 2015
Today's Teamster News 11.13.15
TEAMSTERS
Linde Gas Workers in Texas Join Teamsters Local 745 Teamster.org ...On November 4, 2015, workers at Linde Gas in Farmers Branch, Texas voted to join Teamsters Local 745 in Dallas. The drivers and warehouse workers voted 11 to 6 to become Teamsters. There are 17 workers in the bargaining unit. Linde manufactures and supplies industrial, specialty and medical gases and related equipment...
Protecting truckers’ rest breaks makes highways safer: James P. Hoffa LA Daily News ...Driving a truck can be an arduous job. The hours are long and road congestion and bad weather can make travel grueling. Thankfully, the state of California recognized this long ago and enacted meal and rest break rules that help keep truckers alert behind the wheel. The provisions are not burdensome. In fact, they apply to most of the state’s workforce...
Chicago TV Series Keep Teamsters Working Year-Round Local 727 ...Teamsters Local 727 members are having their busiest television season ever with four network shows filming concurrently in Chicago. More than 100 Teamsters are hard at work on Fox’s ratings juggernaut “Empire” and the NBC franchise of “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago PD” and “Chicago Med” — both on set at Cinespace Chicago Film Studios and on location throughout the city...
EVSC/Teamsters Contracts Ratified TriState Homepage ...Contracts between the EVSC an a local union that have been in the works since June are one step closer to approval. Teamsters Local 215 President Chuck Whobrey says all five employee contracts have been ratified. EVSC School Board President Mike Duckworth tells Eyewitness News the board will choose to accept or decline the approved proposals at their next meeting...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Greece paralyzed by austerity strikes DW.com ...A massive general strike brought Greece to a standstill on Thursday, as tens of thousands of people protested spending cuts pushed through by the country's leftist government in exchange for European bailout money. Feeling betrayed by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who was elected on an anti-austerity ticket, Greek unions launched a 24-hour strike...
Obama Faces a Tough Road with TPP Trade Deal Fortune ...In an election year, the knives are out for Obama’s signature trade pact. The mammoth Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal is by far the biggest thing left on President Barack Obama’s legislative agenda. But Obama has Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, labor unions, and even the tobacco industry standing in his way...
White House to work with Congress on TPP vote timing Reuters ...The Obama administration will work with Congress on the best time to bring a 12-nation Pacific trade pact before lawmakers for a vote, the top U.S. trade official said on Thursday. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said the administration, which gave 90 days notice last week of its intent to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), was doing everything within its power to move the deal along...
Obama Enlists Former Diplomats Albright, Baker in TPP Push Bloomberg ...President Barack Obama, hoping to kick off a new phase of selling the Trans-Pacific Partnership at home while enhancing its prospects overseas, has enlisted some of the nation’s top current and former diplomatic and national security officials to give testimonials. Obama is meeting Friday at the White House with a group that includes Madeleine Albright...
WHO chief raises ‘serious concerns’ over TPP impact on vital drug prices RT ...The head of the World Health Organization has voiced concern over the impact the newly formed 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership will have on vital drug prices, as it could limit the availability of cheaper generic medicines in favour of patent holders...
"A Very Big Mistake": Joseph Stiglitz Slams Obama for Pushing the TPP Democracy Now ...As Congress debates the Trans-Pacific Partnership, we speak to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz about the trade deal. "The irony is that the president came out and said, 'This is about who makes the trade rules—China or the United States?'" Stiglitz said. "But I think the big issue is, this is about who makes the rules of trade—the American people, our democratic process, or the corporations?"...
Germany Protests to United States Over Secrecy in Huge TTIP Trade Deal Sputnik News ...The German Government has filed an official note of protest to the US over the lack of access that its country's lawmakers have to documents associated with the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. The controversial TTIP agreement, under negotiation between the European Union (EU) and the United States could lead to the world's largest free-trade area...
United Steel Workers in Liberia to Support Firestone Workers Ahead of New CBA Bush Chicken ...A two-man delegation from the United Steel Workers, a North American workers union, is in the country to visit the Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia, FAWUL. USW International Vice President Fred Raymond and Director for Strategic Campaigns Mark Zalinski told The Bush Chicken that they were here to strengthen the partnership with FAWUL and assist in negotiating a collective bargaining agreement with Firestone...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
New California Law Gives Farmworkers Right To Back Pay KCPR ...The law says workers who weren’t paid accurately from July 2012 to December 2015 have the right to back pay for rest periods and unproductive time. This includes time for training, traveling, and moving from and to fields. The United Farm Workers union is currently reaching out to farm laborers to let them know about the law before it goes into effect January 1st...
Scott Walker's Legacy of Double-Dealing for Friends and Donors Revealed in New John Doe Emails PR Watch ...In 2011, prosecutors in the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office suspected that Scott Walker committed felony misconduct while serving as Milwaukee County Executive due to his direct involvement in a multi-million dollar lease renewal for county offices at a privately held building called the Reuss Federal Plaza. Newly-released emails, made public as part of a federal lawsuit, reveal crucial details about these bid-rigging allegations...
Walmart Workers Escalate Thanksgiving Wage Protests With Weeks Of Fasting Think Progress ...Tired of being left to rely on the charity of others to feed their families, Walmart workers around the country are launching two weeks of fasting in the run-up to Thanksgiving to demand livable wages and full-time schedules. “I’ve had to forgo meals so my boys would have enough to eat,” Walmart associate Jasmine Dixon said Thursday...
L.A. County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl backs statewide minimum wage measure LA Times ...The elected official who led Los Angeles County's adoption of a $15 minimum wage has endorsed one of two proposed 2016 ballot initiatives that would extend the same base pay rate statewide. L.A. County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl on Thursday threw her support behind the so-called Fair Wage Act...
In classic battle, minimum wage movement pits labor against business Open Secrets ..Fast food and other low-wage workers took to the streets of cities across the country this week to demand a minimum wage of $15, earning the support of liberal mayors, governors and even presidential candidates. In New York, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo stood with the “Fight for $15” crusade, announcing he would take executive action to establish a $15-per-hour floor for state employees...
Donald Trump wants the U.S. to 'compete with other countries' on minimum wage. But which countries? Daily Kos ...Donald Trump is not backing down from his assertion that "our wages are too high" during the most recent Republican presidential debate. Exactly which other countries does Trump think we need to compete with by keeping the minimum wage low? Because if you’re looking at other advanced countries, the United States lags behind Australia, Luxembourg, France, Belgium, Ireland, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Austria...
U.S. LABOR
Kaiser mental health workers to go on strike Monday Press Democrat ...The union representing Kaiser Permanente mental health care workers in Sonoma County said its members will go on strike Monday, walking off the job for the second time in 10 months. Unlike a January strike that lasted five days, next week’s National Union of Health Care Workers strike has no ending date...
UAW members voting on Ford contract that would bring $1.1B to Chicago area Chicago Tribune ...Union workers at Ford's Chicago Heights body panel plant began voting Thursday on a national labor deal that would see $1.1 billion invested in Ford's two Chicago-area plants. The deal — tentatively agreed to by national negotiators last week — would see $900 million invested and about 200 more workers hired at the Torrence Avenue assembly plant, where 4,100 United Auto Workers members are currently employed...
Access-a-Ride-workers threaten strike over labor conditions AM New York ...The transit union that represents many MTA workers threatened a strike Thursday at the Access-a-Ride call center. The company Global Contact Services has about 500 workers at the call center who set up Access-a-Ride trips, a service used by passengers who need wheelchair-accessible cars. Workers have made complaints to the MTA's board and Inspector General about their labor conditions...
How Apple And eBay Have Been Benefiting From Wage Theft Think Progress ...The Department of Labor (DOL) banned two Silicon Valley contracting firms used by Apple, eBay, and Cisco from hiring immigrant workers with high-skilled visas for underpaying employees nearly $1,000 a month. Sunnyvale, California-based contractors Orian Engineers and Scopus Consulting Group improperly classified immigrant employees with H-1B visas as entry level despite them having significant work experience or graduate-level degrees...
Postal Workers Endorse Austerity-Foe Bernie Sanders The Nation ... The APWU endorsement recalls the historic “reward our friends” calculus, as Sanders has for years been an ardent congressional advocate for postal workers and the United States Postal Service. Long before he considered presidential politics, the senator from Vermont was arguing against the austerity economics that seeks to balance the books by cutting public services...
US weekly jobless claims total 276,000 vs 270,000 estimate CNBC ...New U.S. applications for unemployment benefits last week held steady at levels consistent with sustained labor market strength that could encourage the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates next month. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits were unchanged at a seasonally adjusted 276,000 for the week ended Nov. 7, the Labor Department said on Thursday...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Report: Neglected Railways Increase Risk of Exploding Oil "Bomb Trains" Truthout ...According to a new report out this week from Waterkeeper Alliance, ForestEthics and Riverkeeper, since 2008, oil train traffic has increased more than 5,000 percent along routes "leading from oil fields in central Canada, the Great Plains and the Rockies to refineries and crude oil hubs along our nation's coasts." The report describes the significant threat posed by explosive crude oil "bomb trains" traveling across aging and neglected US rail infrastructure...
Leading Powers to Double Renewable Energy Supply by 2030 Common Dreams ...Eight of the world’s leading economies will double their renewable energy supply by 2030 if they live up to their pledges to contribute to curbing global warming, which will be included in the new climate treaty. A study published this month by the World Resources Institute (WRI) analysed the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) of the 10 largest greenhouse gas emitters...
Students across U.S. march over debt, free public college Reuters ...Students held demonstrations on university campuses across the United States on Thursday to protest ballooning student loan debt for higher education and rally for tuition-free public colleges. The demonstrations, dubbed the Million Student March, were planned just two days after thousands of fast-food workers took to the streets in a nationwide day of action pushing for a $15-an-hour minimum wage and union rights for the industry...
In Nationwide Student Revolt over Campus Racism, NY's Ithaca College is Latest School to Erupt Democracy Now ...In a week that began with a victorious revolt by African-American students at the University of Missouri and brought solidarity rallies to campuses around the country, a similar protest has erupted at Ithaca College in upstate New York. On Wednesday, thousands of faculty, students and staff staged a walkout to call for the resignation of President Tom Rochon...
Yet Another Report Excuses Police in Tamir Rice's Death The Atlantic ...A report commissioned by the Cuyahoga County prosecutor has found that officers acted reasonably in the shooting of Tamir Rice, an unarmed 12-year-old boy whose death was captured on surveillance camera. The report is the third independent report Prosecutor Timothy McGinty has released. Activists and Rice’s relatives have charged that the reports are being released in an attempt to justify a decision not to charge Loehmann for Rice’s death...
Linde Gas Workers in Texas Join Teamsters Local 745 Teamster.org ...On November 4, 2015, workers at Linde Gas in Farmers Branch, Texas voted to join Teamsters Local 745 in Dallas. The drivers and warehouse workers voted 11 to 6 to become Teamsters. There are 17 workers in the bargaining unit. Linde manufactures and supplies industrial, specialty and medical gases and related equipment...
Protecting truckers’ rest breaks makes highways safer: James P. Hoffa LA Daily News ...Driving a truck can be an arduous job. The hours are long and road congestion and bad weather can make travel grueling. Thankfully, the state of California recognized this long ago and enacted meal and rest break rules that help keep truckers alert behind the wheel. The provisions are not burdensome. In fact, they apply to most of the state’s workforce...
Chicago TV Series Keep Teamsters Working Year-Round Local 727 ...Teamsters Local 727 members are having their busiest television season ever with four network shows filming concurrently in Chicago. More than 100 Teamsters are hard at work on Fox’s ratings juggernaut “Empire” and the NBC franchise of “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago PD” and “Chicago Med” — both on set at Cinespace Chicago Film Studios and on location throughout the city...
EVSC/Teamsters Contracts Ratified TriState Homepage ...Contracts between the EVSC an a local union that have been in the works since June are one step closer to approval. Teamsters Local 215 President Chuck Whobrey says all five employee contracts have been ratified. EVSC School Board President Mike Duckworth tells Eyewitness News the board will choose to accept or decline the approved proposals at their next meeting...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Greece paralyzed by austerity strikes DW.com ...A massive general strike brought Greece to a standstill on Thursday, as tens of thousands of people protested spending cuts pushed through by the country's leftist government in exchange for European bailout money. Feeling betrayed by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who was elected on an anti-austerity ticket, Greek unions launched a 24-hour strike...
Obama Faces a Tough Road with TPP Trade Deal Fortune ...In an election year, the knives are out for Obama’s signature trade pact. The mammoth Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal is by far the biggest thing left on President Barack Obama’s legislative agenda. But Obama has Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, labor unions, and even the tobacco industry standing in his way...
White House to work with Congress on TPP vote timing Reuters ...The Obama administration will work with Congress on the best time to bring a 12-nation Pacific trade pact before lawmakers for a vote, the top U.S. trade official said on Thursday. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said the administration, which gave 90 days notice last week of its intent to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), was doing everything within its power to move the deal along...
Obama Enlists Former Diplomats Albright, Baker in TPP Push Bloomberg ...President Barack Obama, hoping to kick off a new phase of selling the Trans-Pacific Partnership at home while enhancing its prospects overseas, has enlisted some of the nation’s top current and former diplomatic and national security officials to give testimonials. Obama is meeting Friday at the White House with a group that includes Madeleine Albright...
WHO chief raises ‘serious concerns’ over TPP impact on vital drug prices RT ...The head of the World Health Organization has voiced concern over the impact the newly formed 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership will have on vital drug prices, as it could limit the availability of cheaper generic medicines in favour of patent holders...
"A Very Big Mistake": Joseph Stiglitz Slams Obama for Pushing the TPP Democracy Now ...As Congress debates the Trans-Pacific Partnership, we speak to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz about the trade deal. "The irony is that the president came out and said, 'This is about who makes the trade rules—China or the United States?'" Stiglitz said. "But I think the big issue is, this is about who makes the rules of trade—the American people, our democratic process, or the corporations?"...
Germany Protests to United States Over Secrecy in Huge TTIP Trade Deal Sputnik News ...The German Government has filed an official note of protest to the US over the lack of access that its country's lawmakers have to documents associated with the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. The controversial TTIP agreement, under negotiation between the European Union (EU) and the United States could lead to the world's largest free-trade area...
United Steel Workers in Liberia to Support Firestone Workers Ahead of New CBA Bush Chicken ...A two-man delegation from the United Steel Workers, a North American workers union, is in the country to visit the Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia, FAWUL. USW International Vice President Fred Raymond and Director for Strategic Campaigns Mark Zalinski told The Bush Chicken that they were here to strengthen the partnership with FAWUL and assist in negotiating a collective bargaining agreement with Firestone...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
New California Law Gives Farmworkers Right To Back Pay KCPR ...The law says workers who weren’t paid accurately from July 2012 to December 2015 have the right to back pay for rest periods and unproductive time. This includes time for training, traveling, and moving from and to fields. The United Farm Workers union is currently reaching out to farm laborers to let them know about the law before it goes into effect January 1st...
Scott Walker's Legacy of Double-Dealing for Friends and Donors Revealed in New John Doe Emails PR Watch ...In 2011, prosecutors in the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office suspected that Scott Walker committed felony misconduct while serving as Milwaukee County Executive due to his direct involvement in a multi-million dollar lease renewal for county offices at a privately held building called the Reuss Federal Plaza. Newly-released emails, made public as part of a federal lawsuit, reveal crucial details about these bid-rigging allegations...
Walmart Workers Escalate Thanksgiving Wage Protests With Weeks Of Fasting Think Progress ...Tired of being left to rely on the charity of others to feed their families, Walmart workers around the country are launching two weeks of fasting in the run-up to Thanksgiving to demand livable wages and full-time schedules. “I’ve had to forgo meals so my boys would have enough to eat,” Walmart associate Jasmine Dixon said Thursday...
L.A. County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl backs statewide minimum wage measure LA Times ...The elected official who led Los Angeles County's adoption of a $15 minimum wage has endorsed one of two proposed 2016 ballot initiatives that would extend the same base pay rate statewide. L.A. County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl on Thursday threw her support behind the so-called Fair Wage Act...
In classic battle, minimum wage movement pits labor against business Open Secrets ..Fast food and other low-wage workers took to the streets of cities across the country this week to demand a minimum wage of $15, earning the support of liberal mayors, governors and even presidential candidates. In New York, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo stood with the “Fight for $15” crusade, announcing he would take executive action to establish a $15-per-hour floor for state employees...
Donald Trump wants the U.S. to 'compete with other countries' on minimum wage. But which countries? Daily Kos ...Donald Trump is not backing down from his assertion that "our wages are too high" during the most recent Republican presidential debate. Exactly which other countries does Trump think we need to compete with by keeping the minimum wage low? Because if you’re looking at other advanced countries, the United States lags behind Australia, Luxembourg, France, Belgium, Ireland, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Austria...
U.S. LABOR
Kaiser mental health workers to go on strike Monday Press Democrat ...The union representing Kaiser Permanente mental health care workers in Sonoma County said its members will go on strike Monday, walking off the job for the second time in 10 months. Unlike a January strike that lasted five days, next week’s National Union of Health Care Workers strike has no ending date...
UAW members voting on Ford contract that would bring $1.1B to Chicago area Chicago Tribune ...Union workers at Ford's Chicago Heights body panel plant began voting Thursday on a national labor deal that would see $1.1 billion invested in Ford's two Chicago-area plants. The deal — tentatively agreed to by national negotiators last week — would see $900 million invested and about 200 more workers hired at the Torrence Avenue assembly plant, where 4,100 United Auto Workers members are currently employed...
Access-a-Ride-workers threaten strike over labor conditions AM New York ...The transit union that represents many MTA workers threatened a strike Thursday at the Access-a-Ride call center. The company Global Contact Services has about 500 workers at the call center who set up Access-a-Ride trips, a service used by passengers who need wheelchair-accessible cars. Workers have made complaints to the MTA's board and Inspector General about their labor conditions...
How Apple And eBay Have Been Benefiting From Wage Theft Think Progress ...The Department of Labor (DOL) banned two Silicon Valley contracting firms used by Apple, eBay, and Cisco from hiring immigrant workers with high-skilled visas for underpaying employees nearly $1,000 a month. Sunnyvale, California-based contractors Orian Engineers and Scopus Consulting Group improperly classified immigrant employees with H-1B visas as entry level despite them having significant work experience or graduate-level degrees...
Postal Workers Endorse Austerity-Foe Bernie Sanders The Nation ... The APWU endorsement recalls the historic “reward our friends” calculus, as Sanders has for years been an ardent congressional advocate for postal workers and the United States Postal Service. Long before he considered presidential politics, the senator from Vermont was arguing against the austerity economics that seeks to balance the books by cutting public services...
US weekly jobless claims total 276,000 vs 270,000 estimate CNBC ...New U.S. applications for unemployment benefits last week held steady at levels consistent with sustained labor market strength that could encourage the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates next month. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits were unchanged at a seasonally adjusted 276,000 for the week ended Nov. 7, the Labor Department said on Thursday...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Report: Neglected Railways Increase Risk of Exploding Oil "Bomb Trains" Truthout ...According to a new report out this week from Waterkeeper Alliance, ForestEthics and Riverkeeper, since 2008, oil train traffic has increased more than 5,000 percent along routes "leading from oil fields in central Canada, the Great Plains and the Rockies to refineries and crude oil hubs along our nation's coasts." The report describes the significant threat posed by explosive crude oil "bomb trains" traveling across aging and neglected US rail infrastructure...
Leading Powers to Double Renewable Energy Supply by 2030 Common Dreams ...Eight of the world’s leading economies will double their renewable energy supply by 2030 if they live up to their pledges to contribute to curbing global warming, which will be included in the new climate treaty. A study published this month by the World Resources Institute (WRI) analysed the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) of the 10 largest greenhouse gas emitters...
Students across U.S. march over debt, free public college Reuters ...Students held demonstrations on university campuses across the United States on Thursday to protest ballooning student loan debt for higher education and rally for tuition-free public colleges. The demonstrations, dubbed the Million Student March, were planned just two days after thousands of fast-food workers took to the streets in a nationwide day of action pushing for a $15-an-hour minimum wage and union rights for the industry...
In Nationwide Student Revolt over Campus Racism, NY's Ithaca College is Latest School to Erupt Democracy Now ...In a week that began with a victorious revolt by African-American students at the University of Missouri and brought solidarity rallies to campuses around the country, a similar protest has erupted at Ithaca College in upstate New York. On Wednesday, thousands of faculty, students and staff staged a walkout to call for the resignation of President Tom Rochon...
Yet Another Report Excuses Police in Tamir Rice's Death The Atlantic ...A report commissioned by the Cuyahoga County prosecutor has found that officers acted reasonably in the shooting of Tamir Rice, an unarmed 12-year-old boy whose death was captured on surveillance camera. The report is the third independent report Prosecutor Timothy McGinty has released. Activists and Rice’s relatives have charged that the reports are being released in an attempt to justify a decision not to charge Loehmann for Rice’s death...
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Hoffa says highway safety more important than higher profits
 |
| Hoffa talks about the danger of 'twin 33s' at Hill press conference. |
Allowing trucks to pull 33-foot trailers would add an additional 10 feet to the length of existing double trailers, making it harder to pass these trucks and harder for truck drivers to see who’s beside them. Longer trucks also need greater stopping distances, and already over-capacity thoroughfares leave little room for driver reaction times when it comes to changing lanes and reduced speeds.While some on Capitol Hill support the move, the Department of Transportation is recommending lawmakers make no changes to truck size rules at this time.
Hoffa told lawmakers they need to be vigilant to make sure language is not slipped into larger "must pass" legislation that Congress then feels obliged to support. Pointing to a tractor-trailer with twin 33-foot trailers behind him, he said:
Can you imagine pulling that rig on an off-ramp built 30 years ago? It's not designed for that. Drivers tell me how dangerous this is. It's a safety issue. It's an infrastructure issue.Several legislators issue similar concerns. Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) said highway safety is at stake if trailer size is expanded nationwide:
Mr. Hoffa hit this issue right on the head. This issue can never make it in the light of day. It can only be added in massive legislation like the transportation bill.Representatives from the trucking industry also spoke about the dangers to truck drivers resulting from operating with twin 33-foot trailers, and said double trailers take a lot more time to load and unload because of the repeated coupling and uncoupling of trailers.
More than 4,000 lives are claimed each year on U.S. highways in accidents involving tractor trailers. And that will almost certainly increase if the 39 states that currently don’t allow “twin 33s” on their roads are forced by Congress to open their highways to these up to 91-foot behemoths. Currently, the federal standard is 28 feet for double trailers.
The debate over trailer length comes at the same time as elected officials grapple with a host of transportation-related issues, many of which could affect motorist safety. They include allowing teenage truckers to drive in interstate commerce; trying to dismantle the ability of states to create meal and rest breaks for their drivers; and making it harder for regulators to improve safety rules. Several of these issues could be included in legislation set to be considered by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Thursday.
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Congress must tackle driver fatigue head on
The Teamsters and highway safety advocates for years have talked about the real problem of fatigued truck drivers on the nation's roadways. But in many ways that message did not register among the public until an accident on the New Jersey Turnpike last year that left actor Tracy Morgan seriously injured and killed fellow comic James McMillan.
Earlier this week, the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed what many already believed to be true -- that a Walmart truck driver was suffering from severe fatigue when he plowed into a limo van carrying the two men and others. That said, despite the efforts of some lawmakers, no action has been taken to try and address the issue that jeopardizes tens of millions who travel along the nation's highways each year.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who has stood as a leader on Capitol Hill, said Congress continues to err on the matter in favor of the trucking industry:
As Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa wrote in a letter sent to Congress earlier this year:
 |
| The Teamsters stand at the forefront of truck driver safety. |
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who has stood as a leader on Capitol Hill, said Congress continues to err on the matter in favor of the trucking industry:
Despite my efforts to make our roads safer and ensure that truckers get adequate rest, the Senate last month permanently exempted many truck drivers from fatigue rules. Then, in one of its last acts before leaving Washington, the Senate passed a transportation bill full of special interest gifts to the trucking industry – most troubling of which would allow 18 year olds to drive these monster trucks on little rest. We can and must do better. Lives depend on it.It is imperative that lawmakers don't make the same grave error going forward. Congress will again be dealing with the issue this fall, as it needs to come up with a long-term transportation funding bill. An increase in the hours-of-service provision would endanger not only truck drivers, but all of us who use U.S. roadways.
As Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa wrote in a letter sent to Congress earlier this year:
Not all motor carries run their drivers to the limit of their hours-of-service, but it does happen, Drivers feel pressure from their employers to drive more than 60-70 hours a week with insufficient rest. Without a strong voice in the workplace like the Teamsters Union, these drivers are left with no recourse and the resulting fatigue leads to accidents.Elected officials, however, could make a difference here. It is an opportunity they cannot miss again.
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Teamsters, allies voice outrage at attempts to gut truck safety laws
Teamsters joined forces today with safety advocates, crash victims, and law enforcement allies for a press event on Capitol Hill to speak out against proposed rollbacks of major truck safety regulations.
The event was held as the Appropriations Committee considers the House Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations Bill for 2016, which includes "riders" that will force truck drivers to work longer hours and drive larger, heavier trucks.
LaMont Byrd, Director of the Teamsters Safety and Health Department, spoke to press this morning along with highway safety advocates and the colleagues and families of those killed in truck crashes:
As the joint-press advisory that went out before the event argues, this is no time for Congress to be loosening safety rules for trucks:
With truck crash fatalities up 17 percent and injuries up 28 percent in last four years, Congress is contemplating changes to make a bad situation worse. Trucking industry profits might be served by these deadly changes, by workers and the driving public certainly are not.
Added Lamont at today's press event:
The event was held as the Appropriations Committee considers the House Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations Bill for 2016, which includes "riders" that will force truck drivers to work longer hours and drive larger, heavier trucks.
LaMont Byrd, Director of the Teamsters Safety and Health Department, spoke to press this morning along with highway safety advocates and the colleagues and families of those killed in truck crashes:
I join with other safety-minded groups and these brave families who have suffered such personal loss, to lend the Teamsters voice in denouncing the roll back of critical safety measures through the actions of the House Appropriations Committee and call upon the Senate to not go down this same dangerous path.
Over 600,000 of our 1.4 million members start their workday by turning a key in a vehicle; and whether they drive a school bus, a UPS van, or an 18-wheeler, our nation’s highways and local roads serve as their workplace.Others who spoke at the D.C. event this morning included Jackie Gillan, president of the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety; Capt. Robert Kneer, a NJ police officer whose colleague was killed in an truck accident; former NHTSA Administrator Joan Claybrook; and Lisa Shrum, whose mother and step-father lost their lives in a crash involving a FedEx double trailer truck.
As the joint-press advisory that went out before the event argues, this is no time for Congress to be loosening safety rules for trucks:
Truck crash deaths and injuries are up dramatically, yet at the same time Congress is considering major anti-truck safety changes which will make our streets and highways more dangerous and deadly. These safety assaults being pushed in Congress by special trucking interests will overturn the law in 39 states to benefit select corporations like FedEx to allow the use of double 33’ trailers throughout the country.
[The changes will] increase working and driving hours up to 82 hours per week and eliminate the “weekend” off for long haul truck drivers despite clear evidence that it results in overworked and fatigued truck drivers. The bill will make permanent the egregious safety rollback sponsored by Sen. Collins (R-ME), with the support of special trucking interests that was tucked into the major government spending bill passed by Congress last December.
Bigger trucks mean bigger safety problems, bigger damage to roads and bridges and bigger costs to taxpayers.Last year truck safety and the dangers posed by having tired truck drivers on the highway was thrust into the limelight when comedian/actor Tracy Morgan was nearly killed on the NJ turnpike by a Walmart truck operated by a driver who hadn't slept in 24 hours. Just two day later, Sen. Collins quietly slipped an amendment into the Omnibus spending bill to eliminate the two-day rest period requirement for truckers.
With truck crash fatalities up 17 percent and injuries up 28 percent in last four years, Congress is contemplating changes to make a bad situation worse. Trucking industry profits might be served by these deadly changes, by workers and the driving public certainly are not.
Added Lamont at today's press event:
There is no justification for increasing 28 foot double trailers to 33 feet. Unless, that is, you take seriously a report written by the trucking industry that is pushing for this change. These longer configurations mean greater stopping distances. Our merging lanes aren’t designed for these longer trucks to get up to the speed they need to safely merge, and most of our off-ramps aren’t designed for longer heavier trucks.
Including provisions in an appropriations bill that would effectively continue the suspension of the use of the once-a-week 34 hour restart and the two 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. rest periods will only worsen driver fatigue, as some employers will push their drivers to work over 80 hours per week – twice the normal workweek for most people!
As we make the necessary investments and improvements in our infrastructure to build the transportation capacity needed to compete in the global economy, we cannot afford to let highway safety be a second thought. These end-around attacks through the appropriations process are a bow to special interests at the expense of everyday people who share the roads and highways with commercial drivers.
Monday, January 19, 2015
Today's Teamster News 01.19.15
Trade
TPP negotiations to resume in late January 2015 Vietnamnet …The next round of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations will take place in New York in late January, taking up outstanding issues that were not solved at the previous talks in Washington in December 2014...
American Manufacturing Just Can’t Compete Economy in Crisis … “Free trade,” as it is practiced by China, Japan, Mexico and some others, translates to unrestricted access to buy, sell, undercut, or put out of business any company we own (which has been happening at an accelerated rate)...
War on Workers
Six Days on Fumes: A Trucker's Search for Starbucks and Sleep Bloomberg …[Tracy] Livingston is among the nation’s 2 million truckers, who endure back-to-back 14-hour days to deliver everything from aluminum cans to clothing to Christmas cookies. They practice an occupation that kills more of its practitioners than any other, with 525 dying on the road last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Truckers pushed to their physical limits contribute to accidents in which almost 4,000 Americans die each year...
Paid Leave is Vital to Families’ Economic Security Economic Policy Institute …Mandatory paid sick time would mean that the many employers that already provide paid sick days would have a level playing field with their competitors, and all employers would be able to more easily maintain healthy workplaces. While any new labor standard generates concerns about the business climate and job creation, the evidence from jurisdictions that require paid sick days has all been positive...
The Key to $10 Billion in U.S. Human Smuggling: Big Banks Bloomberg ...Major banks, including Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo, have been used as financial conduits for the smuggling industry, according to evidence in a federal criminal case against a gang of 15 human smugglers and warrants from prosecutors in Arizona, Maryland and Texas...
Richest 1% to own more than rest of world, Oxfam says BBC News …The charity's research shows that the share of the world's wealth owned by the richest 1% increased from 44% in 2009 to 48% last year. On current trends, Oxfam says it expects the wealthiest 1% to own more than 50% of the world's wealth by 2016...
Five Causes of Wage Stagnation in the United States AFL-CIO … "Since the late 1970s, wages for the bottom 70 percent of earners have been essentially stagnant, and between 2009 and 2013, real wages fell for the entire bottom 90 percent of the wage distribution."...
The Van Hollen Plan Takes on Soaring CEO Pay: A Debate We Need to Have Next New Deal …The CEO-Employee Paycheck Fairness Act stops corporations from claiming tax deductions for “performance pay” for executives – e.g. stock options and stock grants – “unless their workers are getting paycheck increases that reflect increases in worker productivity and the cost of living.”...
Miscellaneous
Icezilla: Ice storm leads to hundreds of accidents from Philly to New York and Connecticut CNN ...After crashing into at least 20 cars piled up on Interstate 76, one person was killed after getting out of a car and being hit by an oncoming vehicle, authorities said...
TPP negotiations to resume in late January 2015 Vietnamnet …The next round of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations will take place in New York in late January, taking up outstanding issues that were not solved at the previous talks in Washington in December 2014...
American Manufacturing Just Can’t Compete Economy in Crisis … “Free trade,” as it is practiced by China, Japan, Mexico and some others, translates to unrestricted access to buy, sell, undercut, or put out of business any company we own (which has been happening at an accelerated rate)...
War on Workers
Six Days on Fumes: A Trucker's Search for Starbucks and Sleep Bloomberg …[Tracy] Livingston is among the nation’s 2 million truckers, who endure back-to-back 14-hour days to deliver everything from aluminum cans to clothing to Christmas cookies. They practice an occupation that kills more of its practitioners than any other, with 525 dying on the road last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Truckers pushed to their physical limits contribute to accidents in which almost 4,000 Americans die each year...
Paid Leave is Vital to Families’ Economic Security Economic Policy Institute …Mandatory paid sick time would mean that the many employers that already provide paid sick days would have a level playing field with their competitors, and all employers would be able to more easily maintain healthy workplaces. While any new labor standard generates concerns about the business climate and job creation, the evidence from jurisdictions that require paid sick days has all been positive...
The Key to $10 Billion in U.S. Human Smuggling: Big Banks Bloomberg ...Major banks, including Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo, have been used as financial conduits for the smuggling industry, according to evidence in a federal criminal case against a gang of 15 human smugglers and warrants from prosecutors in Arizona, Maryland and Texas...
Richest 1% to own more than rest of world, Oxfam says BBC News …The charity's research shows that the share of the world's wealth owned by the richest 1% increased from 44% in 2009 to 48% last year. On current trends, Oxfam says it expects the wealthiest 1% to own more than 50% of the world's wealth by 2016...
Five Causes of Wage Stagnation in the United States AFL-CIO … "Since the late 1970s, wages for the bottom 70 percent of earners have been essentially stagnant, and between 2009 and 2013, real wages fell for the entire bottom 90 percent of the wage distribution."...
The Van Hollen Plan Takes on Soaring CEO Pay: A Debate We Need to Have Next New Deal …The CEO-Employee Paycheck Fairness Act stops corporations from claiming tax deductions for “performance pay” for executives – e.g. stock options and stock grants – “unless their workers are getting paycheck increases that reflect increases in worker productivity and the cost of living.”...
Miscellaneous
Icezilla: Ice storm leads to hundreds of accidents from Philly to New York and Connecticut CNN ...After crashing into at least 20 cars piled up on Interstate 76, one person was killed after getting out of a car and being hit by an oncoming vehicle, authorities said...
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Friday deadline looms in behind-the-scenes battle over truck safety
More people will die if Congress weakens truck safety to make the trucking industry happy. And Congress may just do that as it races to meet the Dec. 12 deadline to pass a budget bill.
Teamsters are joined with safety advocates to fight an effort to let truck drivers work 82 hours a week. Fred McLuckie, director of Federal Legislation and Regulation, said at a press conference yesterday:
And stay tuned.
Teamsters are joined with safety advocates to fight an effort to let truck drivers work 82 hours a week. Fred McLuckie, director of Federal Legislation and Regulation, said at a press conference yesterday:
We’re standing here trying to stop a proposal that can put truck drivers on the road for more than 80 hours a week. That’s twice the normal 40-hour work week!
And we’re already asking drivers to reset their clock after only 34-hours of rest. That’s 12 hours short of a weekend. How many of us would want to, or be ready, to go back to work for the week on Sunday afternoon? That’s essentially what we ask truck drivers to do, week in and week out, and they’re already working 60-70 hours a week.The New York Times denounced the push to endanger drivers in a stinging editorial:
As Congress scrambles this week to reach a year-end budget deal, powerful special interests and their lawmaker-enablers on Capitol Hill are busy inserting favored provisions in the omnibus spending bill with scant regard for potential public harms.
An egregious case in point is the rider that Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, is pushing on behalf of trucking interests. This atrocious giveaway would suspend existing Department of Transportation truck safety regulations put in place in 2012 following a lengthy, transparent and data-driven process to make sure truck drivers get sufficient rest when operating on the nation’s highways.
Unless Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid acts quickly to block inclusion of the Collins rider in the final bill, the maximum allowable work limits for truck drivers would rise from an average of 70 hours per week to over 82. That would rashly put lives at risk for the sake of boosting industry profits.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx warned against the Collins rider on the DOT website,
This rider will have the effect of once again allowing a segment of the trucking industry to operate an average of as many as 82 hours per week. The best science tells us that’s unsafe and will put lives at risk. Our responsibility to the traveling public requires us to warn Congress of these risks and urge reconsideration.U.S. Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Ralph Blumenthal (D-Conn.) are leading the fight in the Senate to keep the current safety rules. Read about it here.
And stay tuned.
Monday, October 6, 2014
Today's Teamster News 10.06.14
Teamsters
Facebook’s Bus Drivers Seek Union New York Times ...they start work around 6 a.m. and do not finish until 9 p.m., 15 hours later. Now, some of these shuttle bus drivers, who get Facebook employees to work, are seeking representation by the Teamsters union...
Facebook workers 'like noblemen driven by servants' claims union The Telegraph ...Some of the drivers who ferry staff to the social network's headquarters in Menlo Park, California want to be part of the Teamsters union in order to get better conditions from the outside contractor they work for...
Uber Drivers Across The Country Are Organizing Their Largest Protest Yet Buzzfeed ...The California App-Based Drivers Association (CADA) – a non-profit dedicated to protecting fairness and transparency in the app-based car service industry – is mobilizing Uber drivers across the country and in some parts of the world to participate in what may be the largest coordinated Uber protest yet.
CADA, which is tied to the Teamsters Local 986 in L.A. , will be protesting at Uber’s L.A. offices on October 22 at noon and has encouraged all Uber drivers to gather at their local Uber offices...
Schakowsky walks picket line with Golan’s workers Skokie Review ... U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-9, and 7th District Cook County Commissioner Jesus Chuy Garcia joined dozens of striking workers Friday on the picket line outside Golan’s Moving & Storage in Skokie. The workers are entering their third month on strike after voting convincingly to unionize and join Teamsters Local 705. But the workers say the company has refused to bargain with them in good faith over a first contract...
Trade
Japan-U.S. accord still seen as key to TPP deal Japan Times ...An agreement between Japan and the United States is still a key element before the envisioned Trans-Pacific Partnership can become a reality, according to informed sources...
TISA, Yet Another Secret “Trade” Threat New American ...The four-day TISA event took place September 22-25 at the Geneva, Switzerland, headquarters of the World Trade Organization. It was held in secret, behind closed doors, of course, the same as with the ongoing talks for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)…. the drafters intend for the text of the agreement to remain secret for five years after the proposed TISA rules take effect!...
Make no mistake - the TTIP is a move in the wrong direction (opinion) Ecologist ...A huge EU-US trade and investment deal may not be quite so dangerous as its opponents portray it, writes Gabriel Siles-Brügge - but it still represents a serious threat to governments' ability to regulate for the benefit of citizens and environment, and would entrench 'competitive' markets in public service provision...
State Battles
Scott Walker is not running for governor The Cap Times ...The remarkable thing about Gov. Scott Walker’s re-election campaign is that Walker makes little effort to hide the fact that he is not running for governor in 2014. He is running for president in 2016...
Governor Walker dismisses need for extended DMV hours Wisconsin Radio Network ...“We know that 300,000 registered voters in Wisconsin lack the ID cards now necessary. Without better DMV service hours and more convenient DMV locations, I’m convinced many of these people will be shut out of the November election.”...
ALEC has huge influence in Indiana (LTE) Indianapolis Star ...By ALEC's own account, recurring controversies have caused the organization to lose almost 400 state legislators as members in the last three years. However, ALEC highlights Indiana as having a 40 percent gain in legislative members, with many members in the Indiana General Assembly...
War on Workers
Income Inequality Has Regressed to 1820 Levels, Will Likely Keep Regressing Motherboard ...Globalization, the study finds, has the curious effect of making nations more equal relative to each other, but making the residents of the nations less equal relative to each other...
Shift to Bad Retirement Plans Threatens Retirees With Privation truthdig ...The United States’ largest employers are increasingly pushing their workers into inadequate retirement plans—and they acknowledge doing so...
Oil, rail industries want time to fix cars Associated Press ...The oil and railroad industries are urging federal regulators to allow them as long as seven years to upgrade existing tank cars that transport highly volatile crude oil, a top oil industry official said. The cars have ruptured and spilled oil during collisions, leading to intense fires...
Two injured as freight train derails in north Louisiana Reuters ...The conductor of a Union Pacific freight train and an engineer on board were injured on Sunday when it crashed into a tractor-trailer that was stuck on tracks in northern Louisiana, a spokesman for Union Pacific said...
1 Dead In NJ Crash Involving Tanker Truck, SUV myfoxphilly.com ...One person is dead after a crash involving a tanker truck and an SUV in Westville...
Mexico massacre victims feared to be missing students Reuters ...Bodies found in mass graves in southwestern Mexico are feared to be those of students who went missing last month after they clashed with corrupt local police, authorities said on Sunday...
A grand design for greater gridlock at National Labor Relations Board Los Angeles Times ...Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee thinks he has the solution to perceived problems at the National Labor Relations Board: Make the five-member body just as deadlocked as Congress...
Big Pharma Ripoffs on Cancer Patients Makes 60 Minutes Economic Populist ... In 2012 alone, of the 12 cancer drugs approved by the FDA, 11 cost over $100,000...
Facebook’s Bus Drivers Seek Union New York Times ...they start work around 6 a.m. and do not finish until 9 p.m., 15 hours later. Now, some of these shuttle bus drivers, who get Facebook employees to work, are seeking representation by the Teamsters union...
Facebook workers 'like noblemen driven by servants' claims union The Telegraph ...Some of the drivers who ferry staff to the social network's headquarters in Menlo Park, California want to be part of the Teamsters union in order to get better conditions from the outside contractor they work for...
Uber Drivers Across The Country Are Organizing Their Largest Protest Yet Buzzfeed ...The California App-Based Drivers Association (CADA) – a non-profit dedicated to protecting fairness and transparency in the app-based car service industry – is mobilizing Uber drivers across the country and in some parts of the world to participate in what may be the largest coordinated Uber protest yet.
CADA, which is tied to the Teamsters Local 986 in L.A. , will be protesting at Uber’s L.A. offices on October 22 at noon and has encouraged all Uber drivers to gather at their local Uber offices...
Schakowsky walks picket line with Golan’s workers Skokie Review ... U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-9, and 7th District Cook County Commissioner Jesus Chuy Garcia joined dozens of striking workers Friday on the picket line outside Golan’s Moving & Storage in Skokie. The workers are entering their third month on strike after voting convincingly to unionize and join Teamsters Local 705. But the workers say the company has refused to bargain with them in good faith over a first contract...
Trade
Japan-U.S. accord still seen as key to TPP deal Japan Times ...An agreement between Japan and the United States is still a key element before the envisioned Trans-Pacific Partnership can become a reality, according to informed sources...
TISA, Yet Another Secret “Trade” Threat New American ...The four-day TISA event took place September 22-25 at the Geneva, Switzerland, headquarters of the World Trade Organization. It was held in secret, behind closed doors, of course, the same as with the ongoing talks for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)…. the drafters intend for the text of the agreement to remain secret for five years after the proposed TISA rules take effect!...
Make no mistake - the TTIP is a move in the wrong direction (opinion) Ecologist ...A huge EU-US trade and investment deal may not be quite so dangerous as its opponents portray it, writes Gabriel Siles-Brügge - but it still represents a serious threat to governments' ability to regulate for the benefit of citizens and environment, and would entrench 'competitive' markets in public service provision...
State Battles
Scott Walker is not running for governor The Cap Times ...The remarkable thing about Gov. Scott Walker’s re-election campaign is that Walker makes little effort to hide the fact that he is not running for governor in 2014. He is running for president in 2016...
Governor Walker dismisses need for extended DMV hours Wisconsin Radio Network ...“We know that 300,000 registered voters in Wisconsin lack the ID cards now necessary. Without better DMV service hours and more convenient DMV locations, I’m convinced many of these people will be shut out of the November election.”...
ALEC has huge influence in Indiana (LTE) Indianapolis Star ...By ALEC's own account, recurring controversies have caused the organization to lose almost 400 state legislators as members in the last three years. However, ALEC highlights Indiana as having a 40 percent gain in legislative members, with many members in the Indiana General Assembly...
War on Workers
Income Inequality Has Regressed to 1820 Levels, Will Likely Keep Regressing Motherboard ...Globalization, the study finds, has the curious effect of making nations more equal relative to each other, but making the residents of the nations less equal relative to each other...
Shift to Bad Retirement Plans Threatens Retirees With Privation truthdig ...The United States’ largest employers are increasingly pushing their workers into inadequate retirement plans—and they acknowledge doing so...
Oil, rail industries want time to fix cars Associated Press ...The oil and railroad industries are urging federal regulators to allow them as long as seven years to upgrade existing tank cars that transport highly volatile crude oil, a top oil industry official said. The cars have ruptured and spilled oil during collisions, leading to intense fires...
Two injured as freight train derails in north Louisiana Reuters ...The conductor of a Union Pacific freight train and an engineer on board were injured on Sunday when it crashed into a tractor-trailer that was stuck on tracks in northern Louisiana, a spokesman for Union Pacific said...
1 Dead In NJ Crash Involving Tanker Truck, SUV myfoxphilly.com ...One person is dead after a crash involving a tanker truck and an SUV in Westville...
Mexico massacre victims feared to be missing students Reuters ...Bodies found in mass graves in southwestern Mexico are feared to be those of students who went missing last month after they clashed with corrupt local police, authorities said on Sunday...
A grand design for greater gridlock at National Labor Relations Board Los Angeles Times ...Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee thinks he has the solution to perceived problems at the National Labor Relations Board: Make the five-member body just as deadlocked as Congress...
Big Pharma Ripoffs on Cancer Patients Makes 60 Minutes Economic Populist ... In 2012 alone, of the 12 cancer drugs approved by the FDA, 11 cost over $100,000...
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Today's Teamster News 10.01.14
Teamster News
New Orleans Union Membership Set to Double After Hotel and Casino Workers Win In These Times ...The hospitality and gaming union Unite Here and Teamsters Local 270 are in contract negotiations with Harrah’s Hotel and Casino after winning a card check election among 900 hotel and food workers...
NY Pol Legislates Against Carriage Horse Ban Yonkers Hamlet Hub ...The battle to save New York City’s city’s carriage horse industry has reached the state Capitol. NYS State Assemblyman, J. Gary Pretlow has introduced legislation that would countermand New York Mayor, Bill de Blasio's vow to ban the iconic horse drawn carriages in New York City...
Ports Of Los Angeles, Long Beach Truck Drivers Fast, Pray To Raise Awareness Long Beach Press Telegram ...A handful of truck drivers, who carry goods from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach took part Monday in a day of prayer and fasting to raise awareness of three area trucking firms they say misclassify drivers as independent contractors to skirt labor laws...
Trade
TTIP Threatens EU's Transparency On Clinical Trials (opinion) The Parliament Magazine ...positive progress on transparency is already being threatened by the transatlantic trade and investment partnership (TTIP) negotiations. Huge economic interests are at stake and medical companies on both sides of the Atlantic ocean are doing their best to limit data disclosure, a fact brought to daylight in the leaked BigPharma wish list...
State Battles
Governor Scott Weighs In On Troubles Surrounding Florida Prisons WUSF News ...“The Secretary of the Department of Corrections is taking it seriously. He’s traveled the state, he’s made sure there’s new training programs, he’s made sure now there’s more transparency, and if there’s going to be investigations, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement—which has a great reputation—will be involved in those investigations..."
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder defends education funding, right-to-work law in first town hall MLive ...An audience member contrasted the governor's 2010 pledge for government transparency with his use of the tax-exempt NERD Fund. He also noted Snyder's decision to sign a right-to-work law after originally saying the issue was not on his agenda. "Why would any voter believe you?" he asked...
Koch group faces investigation in N.C. over bogus voting info MSNBC ...Last week, the public learned that the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity created quite a mess sending out incorrect voting materials to many North Carolina voters. This week, the group finds itself under investigation...
Emanuel Prods Sister Agencies To Mandate $13-An-Hour Minimum Wage Chicago Sun Times ...Emanuel is pressuring all local government agencies under his control — CTA, CHA, Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Park District, City Colleges and Public Building Commission — to follow his lead. That would mean a pay raise for roughly 2,400 contract employees working as custodians, landscapers and bus drivers...
De Blasio’s Executive Order Will Expand Living Wage Law To Thousands More New York Times ...Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to sign an executive order on Tuesday significantly expanding New York City’s living wage law, covering thousands of previously exempt workers and raising the hourly wage itself, to $13.13 from $11.90, for workers who do not receive benefits...
This Is What's The Matter With Kansas New Republic ...By June of 2014, the results of Brownback’s economic reforms began to come in, and they weren’t pretty. During the first fiscal year that his plan was in operation, which ended in June, the tax cuts had produced a staggering loss in revenue $687.9 million, or 10.84 percent...
A Fiscal Tale of Two States: Minnesota vs. Wisconsin Econbrowser ...The two neighboring states of Wisconsin and Minnesota share a similar economic structure and size; and yet their fortunes have diverged over the past three years. One correlate of Wisconsin’s growth deficit is state and local government spending...
War On Workers
Iceland: Bankers convicted, unemployment down Angry Bear ...While Iceland suffered a great deal from the crisis and is by no means out of the woods, it looks like the country made the right call by not bailing out the banks. The economy is growing and unemployment is down to less than half of its peak crisis level...
Your medical record is worth more to hackers than your credit card Reuters ...Last month, the FBI warned healthcare providers to guard against cyber attacks after one of the largest U.S. hospital operators, Community Health Systems Inc, said Chinese hackers had broken into its computer network and stolen the personal information of 4.5 million patients...
Prison bankers cash in on captive customers Center for Public Integrity ...JPay and other prison bankers collect tens of millions of dollars every year from inmates’ families in fees for basic financial services. To make payments, some forego medical care, skip utility bills and limit contact with their imprisoned relatives...
The Ugly Face of Shareholder Value Exposed By Inversions Economic Populist ...Burger King has become Canadian, Pfizer seems to be trying to be British, and Walgreens has backed away from becoming Swiss only because of the outcry over their plan for a new nationality. Seeing what our companies are willing to do to escape paying income tax, people are beginning to wonder about how American our American companies are...
Worker killed at plant in north Charlotte Charlotte Observer ...state officials were told by Charlotte firefighters that the death took place at Source Recycling. She said state officials were told an employee was struck by a forklift...
Port worker dies after metal collapses on him The Monitor ...A San Benito man has died after he was pinned Monday under metal at a recycling center in the Port of Brownsville, authorities confirmed...
Worker dies after East Idaho spud harvest accident Capital Press ...Madrid-Rivera was working on a tarp covering his load at the side of his truck when another truck backed up and crushed him...
For A Worker With Little Time Between 3 Jobs, A Nap Has Fatal Consequences New York Times ...Emergency responders found the gas can open and overturned in the cargo hold and the S.U.V. filled with fumes, in what police said appeared to have been an accident. As commuters streamed by her counter in Newark, Ms. Fernandes was pronounced dead at 5:56 p.m. She was still in her uniform...
Miscellaneous
Driver in Fatal Oklahoma Crash Tells Police He Was Distracted Bloomberg ...The driver of a tractor-trailer that crashed into a bus and killed four college students on Interstate 35 in southern Oklahoma told investigators he was distracted...
Trucker in Massive Rig Destroys Two Families in His Sleep Bloomberg ...Safety advocates say the rate is far higher and claim trucker fatigue kills hundreds each year. In a 2006 federal survey of truckers cited in congressional testimony this July, 47.6 percent said they had fallen asleep while driving in the previous year. Yet unlike drugs or alcohol, there’s no test for fatigue after a crash...
Tracy Morgan hits back at Walmart USA Today ..."After I heard what Walmart said in court I felt I had to speak out. I can't believe Walmart is blaming me for an accident that they caused...
Senators Ask For More Oil Train Notifications Bismark Tribune ...The letter, sent Monday to U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, says railroads should supply states with advanced notification of all high-hazard flammable liquid transports — including crude from outside the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana, as well as ethanol and 71 other liquids...
Police Want to Get Rid of Their Pentagon-Issued Combat Gear. Here's Why They Can't. Mother Jones ...Even before police militarization made the news, hundreds of police departments were finding that grenade launchers, military firearms, and armored vehicles aren't very useful to community policing...
New Orleans Union Membership Set to Double After Hotel and Casino Workers Win In These Times ...The hospitality and gaming union Unite Here and Teamsters Local 270 are in contract negotiations with Harrah’s Hotel and Casino after winning a card check election among 900 hotel and food workers...
NY Pol Legislates Against Carriage Horse Ban Yonkers Hamlet Hub ...The battle to save New York City’s city’s carriage horse industry has reached the state Capitol. NYS State Assemblyman, J. Gary Pretlow has introduced legislation that would countermand New York Mayor, Bill de Blasio's vow to ban the iconic horse drawn carriages in New York City...
Ports Of Los Angeles, Long Beach Truck Drivers Fast, Pray To Raise Awareness Long Beach Press Telegram ...A handful of truck drivers, who carry goods from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach took part Monday in a day of prayer and fasting to raise awareness of three area trucking firms they say misclassify drivers as independent contractors to skirt labor laws...
Trade
TTIP Threatens EU's Transparency On Clinical Trials (opinion) The Parliament Magazine ...positive progress on transparency is already being threatened by the transatlantic trade and investment partnership (TTIP) negotiations. Huge economic interests are at stake and medical companies on both sides of the Atlantic ocean are doing their best to limit data disclosure, a fact brought to daylight in the leaked BigPharma wish list...
State Battles
Governor Scott Weighs In On Troubles Surrounding Florida Prisons WUSF News ...“The Secretary of the Department of Corrections is taking it seriously. He’s traveled the state, he’s made sure there’s new training programs, he’s made sure now there’s more transparency, and if there’s going to be investigations, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement—which has a great reputation—will be involved in those investigations..."
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder defends education funding, right-to-work law in first town hall MLive ...An audience member contrasted the governor's 2010 pledge for government transparency with his use of the tax-exempt NERD Fund. He also noted Snyder's decision to sign a right-to-work law after originally saying the issue was not on his agenda. "Why would any voter believe you?" he asked...
Koch group faces investigation in N.C. over bogus voting info MSNBC ...Last week, the public learned that the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity created quite a mess sending out incorrect voting materials to many North Carolina voters. This week, the group finds itself under investigation...
Emanuel Prods Sister Agencies To Mandate $13-An-Hour Minimum Wage Chicago Sun Times ...Emanuel is pressuring all local government agencies under his control — CTA, CHA, Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Park District, City Colleges and Public Building Commission — to follow his lead. That would mean a pay raise for roughly 2,400 contract employees working as custodians, landscapers and bus drivers...
De Blasio’s Executive Order Will Expand Living Wage Law To Thousands More New York Times ...Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to sign an executive order on Tuesday significantly expanding New York City’s living wage law, covering thousands of previously exempt workers and raising the hourly wage itself, to $13.13 from $11.90, for workers who do not receive benefits...
This Is What's The Matter With Kansas New Republic ...By June of 2014, the results of Brownback’s economic reforms began to come in, and they weren’t pretty. During the first fiscal year that his plan was in operation, which ended in June, the tax cuts had produced a staggering loss in revenue $687.9 million, or 10.84 percent...
A Fiscal Tale of Two States: Minnesota vs. Wisconsin Econbrowser ...The two neighboring states of Wisconsin and Minnesota share a similar economic structure and size; and yet their fortunes have diverged over the past three years. One correlate of Wisconsin’s growth deficit is state and local government spending...
War On Workers
Iceland: Bankers convicted, unemployment down Angry Bear ...While Iceland suffered a great deal from the crisis and is by no means out of the woods, it looks like the country made the right call by not bailing out the banks. The economy is growing and unemployment is down to less than half of its peak crisis level...
Your medical record is worth more to hackers than your credit card Reuters ...Last month, the FBI warned healthcare providers to guard against cyber attacks after one of the largest U.S. hospital operators, Community Health Systems Inc, said Chinese hackers had broken into its computer network and stolen the personal information of 4.5 million patients...
Prison bankers cash in on captive customers Center for Public Integrity ...JPay and other prison bankers collect tens of millions of dollars every year from inmates’ families in fees for basic financial services. To make payments, some forego medical care, skip utility bills and limit contact with their imprisoned relatives...
The Ugly Face of Shareholder Value Exposed By Inversions Economic Populist ...Burger King has become Canadian, Pfizer seems to be trying to be British, and Walgreens has backed away from becoming Swiss only because of the outcry over their plan for a new nationality. Seeing what our companies are willing to do to escape paying income tax, people are beginning to wonder about how American our American companies are...
Worker killed at plant in north Charlotte Charlotte Observer ...state officials were told by Charlotte firefighters that the death took place at Source Recycling. She said state officials were told an employee was struck by a forklift...
Port worker dies after metal collapses on him The Monitor ...A San Benito man has died after he was pinned Monday under metal at a recycling center in the Port of Brownsville, authorities confirmed...
Worker dies after East Idaho spud harvest accident Capital Press ...Madrid-Rivera was working on a tarp covering his load at the side of his truck when another truck backed up and crushed him...
For A Worker With Little Time Between 3 Jobs, A Nap Has Fatal Consequences New York Times ...Emergency responders found the gas can open and overturned in the cargo hold and the S.U.V. filled with fumes, in what police said appeared to have been an accident. As commuters streamed by her counter in Newark, Ms. Fernandes was pronounced dead at 5:56 p.m. She was still in her uniform...
Miscellaneous
Driver in Fatal Oklahoma Crash Tells Police He Was Distracted Bloomberg ...The driver of a tractor-trailer that crashed into a bus and killed four college students on Interstate 35 in southern Oklahoma told investigators he was distracted...
Trucker in Massive Rig Destroys Two Families in His Sleep Bloomberg ...Safety advocates say the rate is far higher and claim trucker fatigue kills hundreds each year. In a 2006 federal survey of truckers cited in congressional testimony this July, 47.6 percent said they had fallen asleep while driving in the previous year. Yet unlike drugs or alcohol, there’s no test for fatigue after a crash...
Tracy Morgan hits back at Walmart USA Today ..."After I heard what Walmart said in court I felt I had to speak out. I can't believe Walmart is blaming me for an accident that they caused...
Senators Ask For More Oil Train Notifications Bismark Tribune ...The letter, sent Monday to U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, says railroads should supply states with advanced notification of all high-hazard flammable liquid transports — including crude from outside the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana, as well as ethanol and 71 other liquids...
Police Want to Get Rid of Their Pentagon-Issued Combat Gear. Here's Why They Can't. Mother Jones ...Even before police militarization made the news, hundreds of police departments were finding that grenade launchers, military firearms, and armored vehicles aren't very useful to community policing...
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Today's Teamster News 09.30.14
Teamster News
Gov. Brown Signs Protections For Temp Workers Into Law teamster.org ...Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 1897 into law Sunday. The new law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2015, will hold companies accountable for serious violations of the rights of workers on their premises that are committed by their own labor suppliers...
Teach-in this weekend about Bill Gates' burning, radioactive landfill in Missouri TeamsterNation ...There's only one place in the country where a landfill fire smolders hundreds of away a nuclear dump site, and there are hundreds of Teamsters families living near it...
Parents, Health Officials Search For Answers About Sick Kids St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...Kirbi Pemberton pulled her 7-year-old daughter out of Rose Acres Elementary School in Maryland Heights this year over her concerns about potential health risks from the nearby radioactive West Lake Landfill...
Woot! Local 117 Teamsters ratify Fred Meyer contract! TeamsterNation ...Great news from Washington State, where our brothers and sisters from Teamsters Local 117 voted on Saturday to ratify a contract with Fred Meyer, a subsidiary of Kroger, Inc. They stood together and bargained a contract that maintains affordable health care and protects members against subcontracting...
Teamsters win arbitration award giving Corrections’ employees 9.8% raises over two years The News Tribune ...The ruling in favor of the Teamsters provides pay raises of 5.5 percent in July 2015 and another 4.3 percent in 2016 — with additional raises of 2.5 percent for select positions. About 6,000 employees at the Department of Corrections are covered by the Teamsters contract...
Trade
History’s largest trade agreements are being negotiated in secret Aljazeera America ...For the past four years, Froman and Selig have headed the U.S. team of unelected representatives secretly negotiating history’s two biggest trade agreements. If both treaties — drafted on behalf of 1.6 billion people — are approved, they will regulate almost three-quarters of all trade and investment in the world. The deals would void national legislation on environmental policy, labor rights, financial regulation and intellectual property...
Voters Will Oppose Politicians Who Support “NAFTA-Style” Trade Deals Trade Reform ...the polling overwhelmingly shows that the public “gets it” that these “trade” agreements have been used to send jobs out of the country and force wages down...
China's Tech Factories Turn To Student Labor Wall Street Journal ...Schools send thousands of teenagers here to put together electronic devices for some of the world's largest brands. Many students say they are given no choice. "I was suddenly told I had to spend the summer making computers or I couldn't graduate," said a 16-year-old girl surnamed Xiao...
State Battles
Early voting in Ohio blocked (UPDATED) SCOTUS Blog ...With just sixteen hours before polling stations were to open in Ohio, the Supreme Court on Monday afternoon blocked voters from beginning tomorrow to cast their ballots in this year’s general election...
Large Oil Company Bolts From ALEC National Journal ...Occidental Petroleum sent a letter Friday to an investment-management company indicating its intention to sever ties with ALEC, a conservative coalition of state legislators and major corporations that actively opposes environmental regulations...
Expedia under fire over membership to rightwing lobby group Alec Guardian ...Expedia, the world’s largest online travel company, has declined to follow the lead of other big internet firms, instead choosing to remain a member of a controversial rightwing lobby group that works against climate change legislation...
Silicon Valley's Done With American Legislative Exchange Council U.S. News ...ALEC takes a conservative, national political approach down to the state level through model bills that do the bidding of big, corporate interests which provide the funding. ALEC bills are generally promoted word for word at the state level by GOP legislators on issues ranging from information technology to renewable energy...
45 Million Americans Still Stuck Below Poverty Line: Census Huffington Post ...Median household income barely budged last year, edging up to $51,939 from $51,759 in 2012, the Census Bureau noted separately. Median income is still far from the $56,436 in 2007 and the all-time high of $56,895 in 1999...
Taxis In Washington DC Losing Their Identity With Modern Makeover As Drivers Compete With Car-Sharing App Uber ABC News ...The car-sharing service launched in San Francisco in 2010 has since gone global, invariably causing a chorus of complaint and sparking legal challenges from local cab industries...
Arguments Set This Week In Arkansas Voter ID Case Times Record ...Arkansas’ highest court is set to take up a case this week that could decide whether the state’s voters will be required to show photo identification at the polls in the November election...
War On Workers
FAA Approves Drone Use For Hollywood Productions, Sets Guidelines – Update Deadline Hollywood ...The FAA has approved the limited use of drones as camera platforms for film and TV productions, opening the skies to swarms of small, camera-mounted planes and mini-helicopters over film locations across the country. Unmanned aerial cameras are legal elsewhere in the world, but have been prohibited for commercial use in the U.S. until now...
Finally, the Truth About the A.I.G. Bailout (opinion) New York Times ...the government has never provided a plausible explanation for why the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which had enormous leverage over banks like Goldman thanks to its role as their regulator, didn’t lean on them to accept less than 100 cents on the dollar in their payouts from A.I.G...
Almost Three-Quarters Of Big Companies To Increase Outsourcing Computer Weekly ...Almost three quarters of global businesses will increase their investment in outsourced services, according to research by KPMG. The research also indicates that more firms are taking advantage of global delivery models including functions such as finance, procurement and HR delivered centrally, often offshore...
Philadelphia zoo worker killed after being pinned under golf cart, report says South Jersey Times ...The 57-year-old employee became trapped under the cart around 11 a.m. at the zoo, located on West Girdard Avenue. He was then taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he died, according to the report...
Trump Seeks Pact To End Union Pension To Save Atlantic City Casino Reuters ...Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc is seeking to impose a new contract on its unionized workers and end pension contributions as part of a plan backed by billionaire Carl Icahn to save the Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey...
Miscellaneous
NTSB: Truck showed no signs of trying to avoid North Texas softball team's bus Dallas Morning News ...National Transportation Safety Board investigators said Sunday that the truck drove through the median for 820 feet on a shallow angle before colliding with the bus. It did not brake or appear to take any action to avoid the crash. They found no apparent problems with the truck’s brakes...
Walmart Faults Tracy Morgan for Not Wearing Seatbelt During Car Accident (Exclusive) Hollywood Reporter ...Among nine affirmative defenses, Walmart says that injuries "were caused, in whole or in part, by plaintiffs' failure to properly wear an appropriate available seatbelt restraint device."...
Will More Coal, Oil Trains Rumble Through Northwest? Public News Service ...About two dozen projects have been proposed in the past two years to move the Northwest toward becoming a transportation hub for coal, oil and gas to Asia...
Gov. Brown Signs Protections For Temp Workers Into Law teamster.org ...Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 1897 into law Sunday. The new law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2015, will hold companies accountable for serious violations of the rights of workers on their premises that are committed by their own labor suppliers...
Teach-in this weekend about Bill Gates' burning, radioactive landfill in Missouri TeamsterNation ...There's only one place in the country where a landfill fire smolders hundreds of away a nuclear dump site, and there are hundreds of Teamsters families living near it...
Parents, Health Officials Search For Answers About Sick Kids St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...Kirbi Pemberton pulled her 7-year-old daughter out of Rose Acres Elementary School in Maryland Heights this year over her concerns about potential health risks from the nearby radioactive West Lake Landfill...
Woot! Local 117 Teamsters ratify Fred Meyer contract! TeamsterNation ...Great news from Washington State, where our brothers and sisters from Teamsters Local 117 voted on Saturday to ratify a contract with Fred Meyer, a subsidiary of Kroger, Inc. They stood together and bargained a contract that maintains affordable health care and protects members against subcontracting...
Teamsters win arbitration award giving Corrections’ employees 9.8% raises over two years The News Tribune ...The ruling in favor of the Teamsters provides pay raises of 5.5 percent in July 2015 and another 4.3 percent in 2016 — with additional raises of 2.5 percent for select positions. About 6,000 employees at the Department of Corrections are covered by the Teamsters contract...
Trade
History’s largest trade agreements are being negotiated in secret Aljazeera America ...For the past four years, Froman and Selig have headed the U.S. team of unelected representatives secretly negotiating history’s two biggest trade agreements. If both treaties — drafted on behalf of 1.6 billion people — are approved, they will regulate almost three-quarters of all trade and investment in the world. The deals would void national legislation on environmental policy, labor rights, financial regulation and intellectual property...
Voters Will Oppose Politicians Who Support “NAFTA-Style” Trade Deals Trade Reform ...the polling overwhelmingly shows that the public “gets it” that these “trade” agreements have been used to send jobs out of the country and force wages down...
China's Tech Factories Turn To Student Labor Wall Street Journal ...Schools send thousands of teenagers here to put together electronic devices for some of the world's largest brands. Many students say they are given no choice. "I was suddenly told I had to spend the summer making computers or I couldn't graduate," said a 16-year-old girl surnamed Xiao...
State Battles
Early voting in Ohio blocked (UPDATED) SCOTUS Blog ...With just sixteen hours before polling stations were to open in Ohio, the Supreme Court on Monday afternoon blocked voters from beginning tomorrow to cast their ballots in this year’s general election...
Large Oil Company Bolts From ALEC National Journal ...Occidental Petroleum sent a letter Friday to an investment-management company indicating its intention to sever ties with ALEC, a conservative coalition of state legislators and major corporations that actively opposes environmental regulations...
Expedia under fire over membership to rightwing lobby group Alec Guardian ...Expedia, the world’s largest online travel company, has declined to follow the lead of other big internet firms, instead choosing to remain a member of a controversial rightwing lobby group that works against climate change legislation...
Silicon Valley's Done With American Legislative Exchange Council U.S. News ...ALEC takes a conservative, national political approach down to the state level through model bills that do the bidding of big, corporate interests which provide the funding. ALEC bills are generally promoted word for word at the state level by GOP legislators on issues ranging from information technology to renewable energy...
45 Million Americans Still Stuck Below Poverty Line: Census Huffington Post ...Median household income barely budged last year, edging up to $51,939 from $51,759 in 2012, the Census Bureau noted separately. Median income is still far from the $56,436 in 2007 and the all-time high of $56,895 in 1999...
Taxis In Washington DC Losing Their Identity With Modern Makeover As Drivers Compete With Car-Sharing App Uber ABC News ...The car-sharing service launched in San Francisco in 2010 has since gone global, invariably causing a chorus of complaint and sparking legal challenges from local cab industries...
Arguments Set This Week In Arkansas Voter ID Case Times Record ...Arkansas’ highest court is set to take up a case this week that could decide whether the state’s voters will be required to show photo identification at the polls in the November election...
War On Workers
FAA Approves Drone Use For Hollywood Productions, Sets Guidelines – Update Deadline Hollywood ...The FAA has approved the limited use of drones as camera platforms for film and TV productions, opening the skies to swarms of small, camera-mounted planes and mini-helicopters over film locations across the country. Unmanned aerial cameras are legal elsewhere in the world, but have been prohibited for commercial use in the U.S. until now...
Finally, the Truth About the A.I.G. Bailout (opinion) New York Times ...the government has never provided a plausible explanation for why the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which had enormous leverage over banks like Goldman thanks to its role as their regulator, didn’t lean on them to accept less than 100 cents on the dollar in their payouts from A.I.G...
Almost Three-Quarters Of Big Companies To Increase Outsourcing Computer Weekly ...Almost three quarters of global businesses will increase their investment in outsourced services, according to research by KPMG. The research also indicates that more firms are taking advantage of global delivery models including functions such as finance, procurement and HR delivered centrally, often offshore...
Philadelphia zoo worker killed after being pinned under golf cart, report says South Jersey Times ...The 57-year-old employee became trapped under the cart around 11 a.m. at the zoo, located on West Girdard Avenue. He was then taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he died, according to the report...
Trump Seeks Pact To End Union Pension To Save Atlantic City Casino Reuters ...Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc is seeking to impose a new contract on its unionized workers and end pension contributions as part of a plan backed by billionaire Carl Icahn to save the Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey...
Miscellaneous
NTSB: Truck showed no signs of trying to avoid North Texas softball team's bus Dallas Morning News ...National Transportation Safety Board investigators said Sunday that the truck drove through the median for 820 feet on a shallow angle before colliding with the bus. It did not brake or appear to take any action to avoid the crash. They found no apparent problems with the truck’s brakes...
Walmart Faults Tracy Morgan for Not Wearing Seatbelt During Car Accident (Exclusive) Hollywood Reporter ...Among nine affirmative defenses, Walmart says that injuries "were caused, in whole or in part, by plaintiffs' failure to properly wear an appropriate available seatbelt restraint device."...
Will More Coal, Oil Trains Rumble Through Northwest? Public News Service ...About two dozen projects have been proposed in the past two years to move the Northwest toward becoming a transportation hub for coal, oil and gas to Asia...
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Today's Teamster News 09.28.14
Teamsters
East Bridgewater DPW workers align with Teamsters The Enterprise ... Fourteen members of the town’s Department of Public Works have secured their first three-year contract with Teamsters Local 653, after changing union affiliations last year...
Trade
Despite Bold Japan Trade Pledges, U.S. Still Wonders: ‘Where’s the Beef?’ Wall Street Journal ...Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe began and ended a trip to New York this week with bold pledges to help advance stalled talks on an ambitious pan-Pacific free-trade pact. But mid-week, his chief negotiator walked out of a Washington session with his American counterpart, after U.S. officials accused Tokyo of moving too timidly on opening up Japan’s agriculture market, leaving the agreement’s fate as uncertain as ever...
Want To Find Out Where Your Fruit Was Grown? Good Luck. Trade Reform ...What’s required by law in terms of transparency in produce sourcing is minimal: Only country of origin need be shared. Any information shared publicly beyond that is entirely voluntary...
State Battles
5 Tech Companies That Surprisingly STILL Fund ALEC Common Cause ...eBay remains a member and funder of ALEC; its biggest competitor, Amazon, cut ties with the organization in 2012...
Court urged to let Ohioans vote early SCOTUS Blog ...Arguing that early voting is necessary to continue to deal with the “unprecedented disaster” at the polls in Ohio in 2004, several civil rights advocacy groups urged the Supreme Court on Saturday to permit Ohioans to start casting their ballots next Tuesday for this year’s general election...
Blame Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax cuts for revenue woes in Kansas (opinion) Kansas City Star ...the excessive, Brownback-supported tax cuts were to blame for much of the state’s lower-than-predicted revenues...
War on Workers
Miss a Payment? Good Luck Moving That Car New York Times ...Ms. Bolender was three days behind on her monthly car payment. Her lender, C.A.G. Acceptance of Mesa, Ariz., remotely activated a device in her car's dashboard that prevented her car from starting...
Walmart Targets The Poor With New Checking Accounts Huffington Post ...Walmart needs that money. Sales at U.S. stores open a year, an important retail metric, have been flat or negative for six straight quarters. Food stamp cuts in November hurt the company's bottom line, executives said...
Worker dies at Moncure wood products company The State ...Authorities with the Chatham County Sheriff's Office say a worker at a wood products company died when a piece of machinery fell on him...
Miscellaneous
Team bus/truck collision leaves 4 dead and more than 15 injured NewsOK ...Four members of a Texas college softball team are dead after a tractor-trailer crossed over the center median on Interstate 35 and collided with the team’s van Friday night just south of Turner Falls...
East Bridgewater DPW workers align with Teamsters The Enterprise ... Fourteen members of the town’s Department of Public Works have secured their first three-year contract with Teamsters Local 653, after changing union affiliations last year...
Trade
Despite Bold Japan Trade Pledges, U.S. Still Wonders: ‘Where’s the Beef?’ Wall Street Journal ...Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe began and ended a trip to New York this week with bold pledges to help advance stalled talks on an ambitious pan-Pacific free-trade pact. But mid-week, his chief negotiator walked out of a Washington session with his American counterpart, after U.S. officials accused Tokyo of moving too timidly on opening up Japan’s agriculture market, leaving the agreement’s fate as uncertain as ever...
Want To Find Out Where Your Fruit Was Grown? Good Luck. Trade Reform ...What’s required by law in terms of transparency in produce sourcing is minimal: Only country of origin need be shared. Any information shared publicly beyond that is entirely voluntary...
State Battles
5 Tech Companies That Surprisingly STILL Fund ALEC Common Cause ...eBay remains a member and funder of ALEC; its biggest competitor, Amazon, cut ties with the organization in 2012...
Court urged to let Ohioans vote early SCOTUS Blog ...Arguing that early voting is necessary to continue to deal with the “unprecedented disaster” at the polls in Ohio in 2004, several civil rights advocacy groups urged the Supreme Court on Saturday to permit Ohioans to start casting their ballots next Tuesday for this year’s general election...
Blame Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax cuts for revenue woes in Kansas (opinion) Kansas City Star ...the excessive, Brownback-supported tax cuts were to blame for much of the state’s lower-than-predicted revenues...
War on Workers
Miss a Payment? Good Luck Moving That Car New York Times ...Ms. Bolender was three days behind on her monthly car payment. Her lender, C.A.G. Acceptance of Mesa, Ariz., remotely activated a device in her car's dashboard that prevented her car from starting...
Walmart Targets The Poor With New Checking Accounts Huffington Post ...Walmart needs that money. Sales at U.S. stores open a year, an important retail metric, have been flat or negative for six straight quarters. Food stamp cuts in November hurt the company's bottom line, executives said...
Worker dies at Moncure wood products company The State ...Authorities with the Chatham County Sheriff's Office say a worker at a wood products company died when a piece of machinery fell on him...
Miscellaneous
Team bus/truck collision leaves 4 dead and more than 15 injured NewsOK ...Four members of a Texas college softball team are dead after a tractor-trailer crossed over the center median on Interstate 35 and collided with the team’s van Friday night just south of Turner Falls...
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Teamsters: 20 years is too long to wait for a safety rule
 |
| Not for novices. |
In 1993, Congress ordered the transportation department to issue a rule setting training standards for entry-level drivers. Twenty years later, inexperienced drivers are still hitting the road with no behind-the-wheel training.
To get a commercial driver's license, people only need to take 10 hours of classroom lectures and to pass a test.
The Teamsters, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety and Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH) filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia against the DOT and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Public Citizen is representing the groups.
Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said,
Proper training is absolutely necessary for new drivers to operate their rigs safely. The agency is shirking its responsibility by not issuing this long-overdue rule.A Public Citizen press statement described how an inexperienced driver killed a 35-year trucker:
Dorothy Wert’s husband, David Wert, Sr., was killed in 2011 in a truck crash caused by an inexperienced truck driver who left his broken-down truck parked in the middle of a dark Pennsylvania highway at 3 a.m. with no lights on and no warning signals or flares. After the crash, David, a truck driver with 35 years of experience, managed to drive his truck safely onto the side of the road in spite of suffering fatal injuries.
“We have waited far too long for a requirement to ensure that truck drivers know what they are doing and have been tested before we allow them behind the wheel of an 80,000 pound truck,” said Wert, a CRASH volunteer advocate who lives in Montrose, Pa. “Truck drivers should not be allowed to drive without a required understanding of the regulations and a minimum number of training hours behind the wheel. I know that my husband would be alive today if the driver that caused Dave’s crash had been better trained, had more experience and had taken the proper precautions.”About 4,000 people a year die in truck crashes. Another 100,000 are injured.
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Today's Teamster News 09.14.14
Trade
Vietnam Rights Still Obstacle to TPP Membership Voice of America ...Vietnam is still facing challenges in its bid to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), despite optimism following 10 days of multi-national trade talks in Hanoi...
Chinese firms closing gap on US tech giants like Google South China Morning Post ...No Chinese company has wide international brand recognition, but e-commerce giant Alibaba may change that. Its initial public offering in New York on Friday, tipped to be the largest ever in the United States, has understandably gained global attention. If, as expected, US$21 billion is raised, the previous record flotation by Facebook and Visa will have been bested and its valuation could be almost as much as Amazon's. The listing will be a watershed moment for China's technology firms...
State Battles
Who’s Wrecking Michigan’s Public Education? Democracy Tree ...Judging by their actions, Republican lawmakers must think that the problem is too much money spent on education, given their unrelenting efforts to divert resources away from the School Aid Fund...
Ohio Has Lost 4,648 State Union Jobs Since John Kasich Took Office Plunderbund ...Some of these losses came when the Kasich administration privatized Ohio’s prison food service. Kasich pitched the idea as a way to save the state money, but the contract with Aramark to provide meals to Ohio’s inmates has ended up causing nothing but problems as the company’s low-paid, poorly-trained workers have failed to show up for work, been caught having sex with the inmates and, again and again, can’t keep maggots out of the food...
“Job Destruction” Rising Under Kasich, Top Economic Analyst Finds Plunderbund ...“July was the 21st consecutive month when Ohio’s job growth was below the USA national average,” Zeller, who resides in Cleveland, told ONB. “Ohio’s year over year job growth rate for July was 1.00%. The USA job growth for July was 1.92%. This was not just a one month fluke for July. It is a continual problem that has been ongoing for 21 straight months...
War on Workers
FedEx worker dies after being pinned by his delivery vehicle Kansas City Star ...the worker was outside of his delivery vehicle at a residence when it rolled and struck him. Authorities arrived and found the worker pinned between the vehicle and a house...
State Police Officer Dies in Pennsylvania Ambush New York Times ...Law enforcement officers from three states were searching on Saturday for a suspect or suspects who ambushed two troopers at a state police barracks in northeastern Pennsylvania, killing one and wounding the other...
7 women working tirelessly to attack equal rights for women Salon ...Here is a list of nine women who have made a career out of opposing women’s struggle for social, political and economic equality...
Student Loan Debt Burdens More Than Just Young People New York Times ...the number of aging Americans with outstanding student loans had almost tripled from about 700,000 in 2005, whether from long-ago loans for their own educations or more recent borrowing to pay for college degrees for family members...
Young Households Are Losing Ground in Income, Despite Education New York Times ...the median family headed by someone under 35 years of age earned $35,509 in 2013 dollars. Adjusted for inflation, that is 6 percent less than similar families reported in the first such survey, in 1989...
Miscellaneous
Spy court renews NSA metadata program The Hill ...With a surveillance reform bill stuck in the Senate, the federal court overseeing spy agencies on Friday reauthorized the National Security Agency’s controversial bulk collection of Americans' phone records...
France is a mess, and Europe is worried Salon ...Despite the pharaonic scale of the building work for the new railroad, the French economy has run out of steam...
Trying to Hit the Brake on Texting While Driving New York Times ...A chemical engineer who built a company that made motors and docking stations for NASA, Mr. Tibbitts, 57, spent the last five years coming up with a novel way to block incoming and outgoing texts and to prevent phone calls from reaching a driver...
Vietnam Rights Still Obstacle to TPP Membership Voice of America ...Vietnam is still facing challenges in its bid to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), despite optimism following 10 days of multi-national trade talks in Hanoi...
Chinese firms closing gap on US tech giants like Google South China Morning Post ...No Chinese company has wide international brand recognition, but e-commerce giant Alibaba may change that. Its initial public offering in New York on Friday, tipped to be the largest ever in the United States, has understandably gained global attention. If, as expected, US$21 billion is raised, the previous record flotation by Facebook and Visa will have been bested and its valuation could be almost as much as Amazon's. The listing will be a watershed moment for China's technology firms...
State Battles
Who’s Wrecking Michigan’s Public Education? Democracy Tree ...Judging by their actions, Republican lawmakers must think that the problem is too much money spent on education, given their unrelenting efforts to divert resources away from the School Aid Fund...
Ohio Has Lost 4,648 State Union Jobs Since John Kasich Took Office Plunderbund ...Some of these losses came when the Kasich administration privatized Ohio’s prison food service. Kasich pitched the idea as a way to save the state money, but the contract with Aramark to provide meals to Ohio’s inmates has ended up causing nothing but problems as the company’s low-paid, poorly-trained workers have failed to show up for work, been caught having sex with the inmates and, again and again, can’t keep maggots out of the food...
“Job Destruction” Rising Under Kasich, Top Economic Analyst Finds Plunderbund ...“July was the 21st consecutive month when Ohio’s job growth was below the USA national average,” Zeller, who resides in Cleveland, told ONB. “Ohio’s year over year job growth rate for July was 1.00%. The USA job growth for July was 1.92%. This was not just a one month fluke for July. It is a continual problem that has been ongoing for 21 straight months...
War on Workers
FedEx worker dies after being pinned by his delivery vehicle Kansas City Star ...the worker was outside of his delivery vehicle at a residence when it rolled and struck him. Authorities arrived and found the worker pinned between the vehicle and a house...
State Police Officer Dies in Pennsylvania Ambush New York Times ...Law enforcement officers from three states were searching on Saturday for a suspect or suspects who ambushed two troopers at a state police barracks in northeastern Pennsylvania, killing one and wounding the other...
7 women working tirelessly to attack equal rights for women Salon ...Here is a list of nine women who have made a career out of opposing women’s struggle for social, political and economic equality...
Student Loan Debt Burdens More Than Just Young People New York Times ...the number of aging Americans with outstanding student loans had almost tripled from about 700,000 in 2005, whether from long-ago loans for their own educations or more recent borrowing to pay for college degrees for family members...
Young Households Are Losing Ground in Income, Despite Education New York Times ...the median family headed by someone under 35 years of age earned $35,509 in 2013 dollars. Adjusted for inflation, that is 6 percent less than similar families reported in the first such survey, in 1989...
Miscellaneous
Spy court renews NSA metadata program The Hill ...With a surveillance reform bill stuck in the Senate, the federal court overseeing spy agencies on Friday reauthorized the National Security Agency’s controversial bulk collection of Americans' phone records...
France is a mess, and Europe is worried Salon ...Despite the pharaonic scale of the building work for the new railroad, the French economy has run out of steam...
Trying to Hit the Brake on Texting While Driving New York Times ...A chemical engineer who built a company that made motors and docking stations for NASA, Mr. Tibbitts, 57, spent the last five years coming up with a novel way to block incoming and outgoing texts and to prevent phone calls from reaching a driver...
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