Today's Teamster News 08.21.15

Teamsters
Labor, Community And Environmental Advocates Call On McDonald's To Protect Workers In Its Supply Chain  Teamster.org   ...Advocates from labor, community and environmental organizations joined together to today at a rally outside a McDonald’s in downtown San Francisco, to demand that the company adhere to its own supplier code of conduct and protect workers’ rights throughout supply chain...
Teamsters Break Strike Record, Plan To Rally  Arizona Daily Star   ...The strike has passed the record for the longest ever. In 2001, the workers were on strike for 12 days. Teamsters Local 104 is holding a rally at 4 p.m. today, at Ronstadt Transit Center, 215 E. Congress St...
EVSC, Teamsters Plan To Meet Again In Late August  Evansville Courier & Press   ...Teamsters Local 215 and the Evansville Vanderburgh School Board negotiating teams have scheduled a collective bargaining session for Aug. 29 to further discuss contract proposals exchanged a week ago...
Carriage Horse Drivers Hesitate To Declare Victory Over Animal Rights Advocates On Proposed Ban  New York Daily News   ...Round one of the carriage horse wars goes to the Teamsters union — but drivers are skittish about declaring a runaway victory over animal rights activists...
Teamsters Win Union Recognition For Fuelers At Newark Airport  Patch   ...In a decision announced on Wednesday, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ordered Allied Aviation Service Company of New Jersey to recognize and bargain with Local 553, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, AFL–CIO, which represents a group of about 40 workers at the airport...
Support Staff, Board Agree On Contract After Eight Years  Akron Leader   ...For the first time in eight years, support staff in the Copley-Fairlawn City School District will be working under a contract. The district’s Board of Education approved the contract with support staff represented by Teamsters Local 348 at a special Aug. 13 meeting and board retreat. The contract was presented to the union in May and union members voted Aug. 8 to accept it, said Treasurer John Wheadon...
Driver Drug Testing: Teamsters, Other Labor Groups Ask House To Reject Senate Changes  Overdrive   ...17 workers’ advocate associations, including the Teamsters and a branch of the AFL-CIO, have asked those in the House tasked with crafting the lower chamber’s version of the DRIVE Act to nix the provision that would make hair testing a regulator-recognized option. The House has not yet taken up the Senate’s version of the legislation, and House lawmakers have not indicated whether the lower chamber will in its upcoming fall session...

Global Labor & Trade
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras Calls For New Elections  New York Times   ...Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of Greece called Thursday for new national elections in a bid to consolidate his power and press ahead with the 86 billion euro bailout plan he agreed to with European creditors...
Macedonia Troops Fire Stun Grenades At Crowds Of Migrants On Border  Huffington Post   ...Macedonian special police forces fired stun grenades Friday to disperse thousands of migrants stuck on a no-man's land with Greece, a day after declaring a state of emergency on its border to deal with a massive influx of migrants heading north to the European Union...
Congress Is Sick of the Secrecy Around the TPP  The Nation   ...This has consistently irritated members of Congress, especially those already suspicious of the wide-reaching pact. Their aggravation is especially sharp now that the deal is nearing completion—this is the period in which legislators can actually influence the shape of the document. Once the deal is signed, Congress will not be able to amend the TPP, as per the rules of the fast-track legislation passed earlier this summer, and the deal will only need a simple majority in the Senate...

State & Living Wage Battles
Roseville Rep. Chirkun Seeks To Repeal Right-To-Work Laws  Macomb Daily   ...John Chirkun, a Roseville Democrat, announced Wednesday he is introducing a pair of bills that would overturn the right-to-work legislation that eliminated compulsory dues for unions in many workplaces. In a release, he said the pair of House bills “would return Michigan to a ‘free bargaining’ state, where unions are better positioned to negotiate for pay, benefits and working conditions on behalf of their members.”...
Minimum Wage Petition Is Approved For KC’s November Ballot, But It Could Get Withdrawn  Kansas City Star   ...The Kansas City Council agreed Thursday to place a citizens petition initiative on the November ballot that seeks a local minimum wage increase to $15 per hour by 2020. But the council also said the petition may get withdrawn from the ballot if the Missouri General Assembly acts in September to prevent a higher minimum wage...
Court Says Minimum Wage Increase Applies To Airport Workers  ABC News   ...A divided Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a first-in-the nation initiative to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour in the city of SeaTac should apply to thousands of workers at the airport. In its 5-4 ruling, the majority upheld the entirety of Proposition 1, writing that there was no indication that the law would interfere with airport operations. SeaTac's minimum wage was raised to $15 an hour in 2014 and increased again to $15.24 this January because it is tied to the consumer price index...
The Housing Crisis Is More Complex Than A Few People Paying Too Little In Rent  Washington Post   ...Affordable housing programs need more money to revamp old units, build new ones for mixed-income use and provide vouchers generous enough to get people out of bad neighborhoods and into better ones. Otherwise, wait lists will not go down, and those on them will have no chance to make their way up...

U.S. Labor
U.S. Factories Still Haven’t Recovered From The Recession  Washington Post   ...It took less than a year for America's factory output to rebound from the 1991 recession. It took 3½ years to bounce back from the 2001 recession. Now, six years clear of the Great Recession, manufacturing output still hasn't returned to the pre-crisis levels it reached in 2007, according to revised economic data from the Federal Reserve...

Social Justice & Other News
Consumers Are Cutting The Cord To Gain Choices And Pay Less  New York Times   ...On the whole, cutting the cord with cable should benefit consumers. It will help people save money and gain more control over their entertainment by allowing them to pay only for what they want to watch. Many Americans chafe at having to pay about $67 a month for dozens of TV channels they never use so they can watch a handful of shows. The price of cable and satellite TV service has roughly doubled over the last 20 years, rising about twice as fast as inflation, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics...
Can Our Transit System Get Any Worse?  New York Times   ...Of course, we must find money to repair and expand our subway systems, and we must sort out the interstate political rivalries at the Port Authority. But it’s our crisis-driven approach to infrastructure that most needs to change...
FAA Records Detail Hundreds Of Close Calls Between Airplanes And Drones  Washington Post   ...Before last year, close encounters with rogue drones were unheard of. But as a result of a sales boom, small, largely unregulated remote-control aircraft are clogging U.S. airspace, snarling air traffic and giving the FAA fits...
“People Know Next To Nothing About Reconstruction”: The Pernicious Civil War Revisionism Poisoning American History Students  Salon.com   ...Yes, slavery got washed out of the writing on the war. But it didn’t happen in a straight line. When it comes to the Civil War, what historians write is a reflection of the world they are living in at the moment...
The Largest Movie-Theater Chain In America Is Going To Start Searching Your Bags  Think Progress   ...Regal Cinemas, the biggest movie-theater chain in the United States, will start to search ticket-buyers’ bags before they enter any of its movie theaters...

Today's Teamster News 01.15.14

Teamsters Laud Rep. Miller's Dedication To Workers  teamster.org   ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters today issued its thanks to Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., for the work he's done on behalf of working Americans throughout his 40-year career in the House. Miller announced Monday that he will retire after his current term ends early next year...
Teamsters Support Military Veterans  teamster.org   ...the Teamsters Military Assistance Program (TMAP) provides disability assistance for all military veterans and job placement opportunities for veterans in the construction industry...
Teamsters Applaud California Governor's High Speed Rail Support  teamster.org   ...The Teamsters Union is praising the significant commitment to continued funding for high speed and local commuter rail systems in California that are part of the state budget recently proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown...
City settles with Teamsters; one "no" vote  GazetteXtra   ...Councilman Matt Kealy was the sole “no” vote when the Janesville City Council on Monday OK'd a labor agreement with Teamsters Local Number 695...
The Koch Boys set their sights on Pennsylvania to Break Labor & Democrats  dailykos   ...Word has just leaked out of the State Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa that the Koch Boys are talking to severely wounded Republican Governor Corbett to move legislation this winter and spring to outlaw union dues deduction for all state and local public employees...
Has the developed world hit 'peak car use'?  Macrobusiness   ...at the height of the housing bubble, there were just over two registered cars on the road per household, whereas as at 2011, there were just under two...
In 15 states, deeply underwater foreclosures still reign  Washington Post   ...The states with the highest percentage of deeply underwater foreclosures were: Nevada (65 percent of foreclosures were deeply underwater), Florida (61 percent), Illinois (61 percent), Michigan (55 percent), and Ohio (48 percent)...
Five Housing Headwinds; Mortgage Originations Lowest Since 2010; Refinancible Loan Percentage Collapses; Payment Shock  MISH's Global Economic Trend Analysis   ...Mortgage originations are at the lowest levels in almost four years...
Burns Lake families support NDP's call for probe of 'bungled' mill blast investigation  Vancouver Sun   ...The union representing workers at the Burns Lake mill also said Monday the province needs to bring a criminal lens to fatality investigations...
Chicago Horse Carriage Operator Slams Proposed NYC Ban  CBS Local   ...He says his horses are well treated, better than in the wild and actually seem to enjoy what they’re doing. He says they have occasionally left to go to work without the driver...
Senate blocks jobless aid  Politico   ...The Senate blocked two separate proposals to revive emergency unemployment benefits that expired in December, all but killing the prospects of reviving jobless aid for now...
Judge Reinstates Some Federal Oversight of Voting Practices for an Alabama City  New York Times   ...A federal judge in Alabama on Monday reinstated federal oversight over the voting practices of a city there, in what election law specialists said was the first such move since the Supreme Court struck down part of the Voting Rights Act in June...
The Coalition for a Prosperous America and Liberty Groups Petition Congress Against Fast Track  Coalition for a Prosperous America   ...The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) and fifty seven liberty organizations have notified Congress that they oppose Fast Track trade authority...
Fast Track to Poverty  Huffington Post   ...trade reduced wages for workers without college educations by 5.5 percent in 2011, costing the average worker $1,800...

Today's Teamster News 11.25.13

IKEA Lockout - Coquitlam Rally Nov. 23, 2013  Teamsters Local 213   ...It was a fantastic turnout today at the IKEA Rally held at the Coquitlam location with strong representation from many Unions including Teamsters Canada, Unifor, Unite Here, BCTF, ITF, ILWU, PSAC, BCFL. CUPE, COPE and many more...
France Investigating Ikea on Spying Allegations  New York Times   ...Prosecutors have placed three senior Ikea executives in France under investigation amid allegations that they authorized illegal spying on employees and customers...
$13 Billion, Yes, but What Took So Long?  New York Times   ...although it took the Justice Department more than five years to pursue a major bank for its role in the mortgage mania, the investigation seems to have unearthed material that, by and large, could have been dug up with a spoon...
Failure To Punish Wall St Weighs on Economy  Big Picture   ...enforcing the rule of law – i.e. prosecuting white collar fraud – is necessary for a healthy economy...
FCC: Airlines Will Be the Ones Deciding Whether to Allow In-Flight Calls  Slate   ...Shortly after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said that it was time to review “our outdated and restrictive rules” on the use of mobile phones on airplanes, the outrage was immediate...
Deficit of Trade Information (updated)  TradeReform   ...Fast Track combined with the TPP was not so much a mechanism for getting things through the Congress quickly and efficiently as it was a mechanism for getting around the Congress...
Swiss voters reject plan to cap top managers' pay  CBC   ...Swiss voters soundly rejected on Sunday a proposal to limit the pay of companies' highest-paid managers to 12 times that of their lowest-paid workers, a plan that business leaders had warned could weaken the prosperous nation's economy...
German union plans further strikes at Amazon  Reuters   ...Union Verdi is preparing more strikes to step up pressure on Amazon in Germany, its biggest market outside the United States, in a dispute over pay and conditions...
Nonprofit that flipped homes to investors faces scrutiny  Reuters   ...A U.S. housing regulator has been investigating the activities of a small California not-for-profit that bought hundreds of foreclosed homes through a federally backed program intended to help local communities hurt by the housing bust...
Electric vs hydrogen: China is battleground for auto giants  Reuters   ...While the Europeans were heralding the all-electric vehicle at the Guangzhou auto show this week, Toyota Motor and Honda Motor were unveiling hydrogen fuel cell cars at shows in Tokyo and Los Angeles...
Bloomberg News Suspends Reporter Whose Article on China Was Not Published   New York Times   ...top editors, led by Matthew Winkler, the editor in chief, decided in late October not to publish an investigative article because of fears that Bloomberg would be expelled from China. The article (was) about a Chinese tycoon and his ties to families of Communist Party leaders...
Reform the New York Times! Media must stop protecting companies tied to Chinese corruption  Salon   ...The story is that America and most of its people are heavily dependent upon, if not addicted to, the very system of suffocating control and exploitation they profess to regret...
ALEC Mulls Assault On Constitution’s 17th Amendment — The Direct Election Of Senators  ThinkProgress   ...one of the items up for review is language for a bill, called the Equal State’s Enfranchisement Act, that would allow state legislatures to add a candidate’s name to the ballot for a U.S. senate seat, along with the names of those nominated by voters...
5 Reasons Millennials Should Support Strengthening, Not Cutting, Social Security  AFL-CIO Now  ...Millennials will likely rely on Social Security even more than generations before...