Hoffa says highway safety more important than higher profits

Hoffa talks about the danger of 'twin 33s' at Hill press conference.

Longer double-trailers on the nation's roadway would jeopardize the safety of truck drivers and motorists, Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa and a bipartisan collection of lawmakers and truck safety advocates said during a Capitol Hill press conference this morning.

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.

Teamsters demand Congress, feds save pensions

Teamsters President Hoffa and Sen. Sanders talked pensions on the Hill today.

Hundreds of Teamster members and retirees came to Washington today to voice outrage over proposed rules governing pension cuts and support for legislation that would bolster multi-employer plans at the center of the dispute.

They gathered at both a Capitol Hill rally this afternoon and a hearing earlier in the day hosted by the U.S. Treasury Department to share how legislation proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) is needed and how they would be adversely affected by potential cuts to their retirements.

Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa told workers during the Hill event that the federal government guaranteed pensions would be there for workers when they enacted the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) more than 40 years ago and must not go back on it now:

You played by the books and they pulled out the rug. It is devastating. We've been fighting it. There was a promise made, and we've got to keep it. 

Sen. Sanders, a Democratic presidential candidate, said the legislation is key because it would protect retirees who could suffer from pension changes imposed by Congress late last year
through no fault of their own. He said it would be a travesty to implement cuts that could reduce benefits by as much as 60 percent:

Tens of thousands of retirees in the middle class today, who intended to retire in the middle class, could slip into poverty. That is unconscionable and we cannot allow that. We have got to send a very loud message.

Teamsters rally against pension changes.

Earlier in the day, Teamsters International Vice President John Murphy and others testified before a panel of federal officials representing the Treasury and Labor departments as well as the International Revenue Service and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. They urged members to do everything they can to protect retirees in failing pension plans.

If cuts are ultimately necessary, Murphy said they should be phased in to minimize the burden on retirees and should be as low as possible to keep a given pension solvent:

The final regulations should not provide methods for plans to make larger cuts than necessary. A phase-in will ease the shock of the reduction. Maybe, instead of $100, you reduce $50 and then two years later, $25. That way it's not an open cut.

Retirees and workers also offered their own suggestions. They noted it is ridiculous that they are getting punished for decisions made by others and said there are better ways to keep pensions afloat, such as cutting the large investment fees paid by pensions.

Paul Flacke, a former president of Local 661 in Cincinnati who worked for 32 years before getting injured and forced to retire, said he knows workers paid their fair share into pensions because he helped negotiate many contracts. He urged the board to consider new pension rules to look at financial fees as a potential way to bolster retirement funds:

We are talking about millions of dollars being charged for moving our money. Why are they moving our money around?

Congressional GOP takes aim at NLRB reforms that speed union elections

The Republican-dominated Congress is set to overturn a new National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rule to make it harder for employers to thwart union elections.

On March 4, the Senate voted 53-46 along party lines on a resolution to kill the new NLRB rule. The House of Representatives will likely do the same before it takes effect on April 14, 2015.

The NLRB rule requires employers to share email addresses and phone numbers with a union seeking an election and ends the 25-day delay between the time employees file an election petition and the election itself.

The Teamsters strongly support the changes because they will make elections fairer. In a formal statement to the NLRB, Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa called the current election rules "unfair, confusing, outdated and susceptible to abuse by unscrupulous employers seeking to prevent their workers from exercising their right to organize by obstructing and delaying the process."

President Obama has not said he will veto the resolution. The White House, however, stated its strong opposition to an attempt in 2012 to overturn the rule, saying the NLRB had adopted "commonsense measures."

According to Blooomberg BNA,

The White House said that if the 2012 measure reached the president's desk, “senior advisers” would have recommended that he veto it.

Ross Eisenbrey, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, attended a House committee hearing on the issue. He reported that a nurse was the only person allowed to testify in favor of the new rule. Wrote Eisenbrey:

Brenda Crawford, the registered nurse who testified, said her employer bombarded employees with e-mails and texts in the weeks before the election, in addition to daily anti-union messages at work, including captive audience meetings where nurses were called away from patient care to hear anti-union harangues. When she tried to put out union literature in the employee break room, it was removed. She testified that the company’s ability to campaign throughout the workday, and electronically when the workday ended, overwhelmed the nurses and their union, who had no way to respond.

Eisenbrey reported that Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., defended the NLRB rules during the hearing:

... delay in holding elections is associated with increases in unfair labor practices, which can be vicious and intimidating, and for which there is no effective remedy under the law—no fines or penalties, no criminal prosecution, just partial back pay for employees who endure years of litigation to get their jobs back after being fired.

The Senate resolution says:

Congress disapproves the rule submitted by the National Labor Relations Board relating to representation case procedures (published at 79 Fed. Reg. 74308 (December 15, 2014)), and such rule shall have no force or effect.

Today's Teamster News 03.13.15

Teamsters
Teamsters Praise Lt. Governor Stack For Supporting Working Families  IBT   ...Teamsters across the state are praising Lt. Governor Mike Stack for standing strong and striking down an attempt by some lawmakers to place a stranglehold on unions...
Could The Gogama Derailment Have Been Prevented?  NewsWire   ...The Teamsters Union once again raises concerns following the third train derailment in Northern Ontario in less than a month. For years, the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC)—which represents more than 12,000 railway workers—have continually stressed the need for more inspectors to be hired to see to the optimal operation of the equipment and the integrity of the tracks...
Facebook approves shuttle drivers contract  USA Today   ...Facebook and the contractor that supplies the shuttle drivers who transport the social networking giant's employees have agreed to a union-negotiated contract...
Google Shuttle Drivers To See Pay Hike, Better Benefits  San Jose Mercury News   ...The overtures come amid a growing Silicon Valley labor movement that has unionized some companies' shuttle drivers and also sought to lift up janitors, cooks, security guards and other service workers who buttress the high-tech economy. Shuttle drivers for Yahoo, Apple, Genentech, eBay and Zynga voted to join the Teamsters last month, following the lead of Facebook drivers, who joined the union in November...
Ryder Drivers In California Unionize  Materials Management and Distribution   ...Drivers with Ryder Integrated Logistics at three California locations have voted to join the Teamsters Union, gaining representation for 105 workers in one week. Eight-four drivers in Riverside and nine drivers in Fontana are now members of Teamsters Local 166 in Bloomington, California, and 12 drivers in Orange, have joined Teamsters Local 952, also located in Orange...
Time to Celebrate with Some Union Wine  Beeson Tayer & Bodine   ...Nearly 50 workers at the Constellation Brands Woodbridge Winery have joined the ranks of Teamsters Local 601. Constellation Brands is one of the largest wineries in the United States and produces some of the finest wines in California, including Ravens Wood, Toasted Head and Robert Mondavi wines...
Trade
AFL-CIO head on Obama’s trade push: ‘We are going all out to oppose it’  Washington Post   ...The head of the nation's largest labor organization on Tuesday slammed President Obama's trade push and vowed to block efforts in Congress to help the administration finalize a major free trade pact in the Asia Pacific...
Saving Obama from a Bad Trade Deal  American Prospect   ...lans to rush fast-track authority for two trade deals for a quick House and Senate vote abruptly broke down on Tuesday. The White House was hoping to put the vote to Congress as early as this week...
Elizabeth Warren Says Trade Deal May Force U.S. Payouts to Overseas Firms  Bloomberg   ...A nearly completed trade agreement among 12 Pacific Rim nations may require U.S. taxpayers to finance settlements to multinational corporations that say U.S. regulations hurt their companies, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren said Wednesday...
Major U.S. Unions Step Up Battle Against TPP  Japan Times   ...The largest American labor federation says it and its affiliated unions are freezing political contributions to federal candidates “until further notice” to channel funds into labor’s intensifying battle to stop or at least help shape a proposed free trade agreement being negotiated by the U.S. and other nations that border the Pacific Ocean...
State Battles
Bill would curtail bargaining power of public sector unions in Kansas  Wichita Eagle   ...Senate Bill 179, which had a hearing in the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday, would define “conditions of employment” to exclusively mean salaries and wages in future contract negotiations between state and local governments and employees. That would mean that sick leave, insurance benefits and retirement benefits, for example, would no longer be included in negotiations between municipalities and police and firefighters’ unions...
Wages Are Lower in States With These Laws  New York Times   ...Where unions are strong, compensation increases even for workers not covered by any union contract, as nonunion employers face competitive pressure to match union standards...
House Narrowly Approves Right-To-Work Bill  New Hampshire Union Leader   ...A measure prohibiting labor unions from collecting agency fees to pay for negotiating and administering collective bargaining agreements was approved by the House on a 149-146 vote Wednesday. However, the bill faces a near-certain death in the Senate, which is evenly split 12-12 on the issue...
NY Assembly Democrats Propose State Budget Increasing Minimum Wage, School Aid  Syracuse Post Standard   ...Assembly Democrats on Tuesday proposed a $150.7 billion state budget they say will put families first, proposing larger increases in the minimum wage and public school aid than Gov. Andrew Cuomo did...
War on Workers
Wall Street's Yearly Bonuses Could Double the Pay for All of America's Minimum Wage Workers  New Republic   ...So how much are the wolves of Wall Street cashing in? Collectively, the report found, the employees received $28.5 billion in bonuses last year, a 3 percent jump, despite a decline in industry profits...
Union signals possible proposal coming to end U.S. refinery strike  Reuters  ...The United Steelworkers union signaled that lead refinery owner representative Shell Oil Co. may offer a possible settlement in the coming days that could end the largest refinery strike in 35 years...
Juries To Decide Landmark Cases Against Uber and Lyft  Forbes   ...Two landmark lawsuits that claim that drivers for ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft should be considered employees rather than contractors will both go to jury trial, two U.S. judges ruled Wednesday. The decisions could have a ripple effect on the business models of the burgeoning on-demand and sharing economies...
1 Worker Killed, 1 Hurt in New Mexico Oil Field Explosion  Associated Press   ...
An explosion at a New Mexico oil field site has killed one worker and injured another. Authorities say preliminary information indicates the workers were loading material into perforated pipe being installed into a drilling pipe in southern Lea County when the blast occurred Wednesday...
Why Salaries Don’t Rise (opinion)  Washington Post   ...At the root of our great pay stagnation is the appropriation by major investors of the funds that used to go to businesses’ research, modernization, expansion and workers. Full employment will certainly boost workers’ wages, but unless the power shift from workers to investors is reversed, the stagnant middle class we will always have with us...

Today's Teamster News 02.12.15

Teamsters
Ken Hall: Right to work is wrong for West Virginia  Charleston Gazette   ...West Virginia citizens are correct to be skeptical of politicians proposing a right-to-work law...
Outcome of Teamsters’ bid to represent CCSD workers pending  Las Vegas Review-Journal   …Dozens of Clark County School District’s bus drivers, janitors, cooks and other support staff hoped to learn late Wednesday what union would be representing the 11,263 workers at the bargaining table. But that decision was postponed until Thursday morning when the Nevada Local Government Employee-Management Relations Board will rule on the validity of Teamsters Local 14’s bid to take over as the workers’ union...
San Bernardino County labor union to vote on joining Teamsters  The Sun   …San Bernardino County’s largest labor union announced Wednesday that its board will vote this month on whether to become a chartered, independent local of the Teamsters...
CP faces weekend strike deadline  The Sun   …Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. is bracing for a possible strike this weekend by the Teamsters union that threatens to damp profit at the country’s second-biggest carrier...
Study Finds UC Workers Are Underpaid  Daily Nexus   ...According to initial reports from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) released two weeks ago, sponsored by Teamsters Local 2010, a majority of University of California union workers receive wages less than the basic one-adult, one-child family’s yearly budget...
Hoffa: Walking Man’ Not Alone In His Struggles  Detroit News   ...Sometimes real life can seem like a movie. Such is the case with James Robertson, the 56-year-old Detroit man who walked 21 miles round trip to his factory job in Rochester Hills each day after his car died and his job moved further into the suburbs...
US Regulators Skeptical Of Huge Food Merger Ahead Of Vote  New York Post   ...Regulators are set to vote in the afternoon on the controversial $3.5 billion merger of the top two distributors of food to schools, restaurants and hospitals that critics charge will lead to higher foods costs across the country, The Post has learned...
Trade
NAFTA shadows Obama's efforts to seek clout for trade deals  Ledger-Enquirer   …A 21-year-old ghost haunts President Barack Obama and his allies as he presses Congress for enhanced powers to make trade deals with Japan and other nations. Obama says new trade deals will avoid the shortcomings of NAFTA, the 1994 North America Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada, which many Americans blame for big job losses, especially in manufacturing...
Currency Warriors Get Boost At G-20 Meeting  Wall Street Journal   ...The world’s top finance leaders on Tuesday in effect backed currency depreciation as a tool for promoting growth by signaling strong support for aggressive easy-money policies aimed at boosting the fragile global economy...
Agricultural Reforms in Japan Pave the Way for TPP  The Diplomat   ...Last October, Japan’s powerful farm lobby, the Japan Agriculture Cooperative (JA), still had the clout to stall Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) ministerial negotiations between Japan and the U.S. over tariffs on sensitive farm products. However, recent reforms tip the balance of power firmly in favor of the government, accelerating JA’s slow demise and paving the way for greater market liberalization and deregulation in Japanese agriculture...
State Battles
Missouri takes a step toward becoming ‘right-to-work’ state  Associated Press   …Missouri took a step toward joining 24 other states with right-to-work laws when its House voted Wednesday to bar the collection of fees from workers who choose not to join a union...
New Mexico House Judiciary Postpones Vote On 'Right-To-Work' Bill  Santa Fe Daily Times   ...Opponents and backers of a highly divisive "right-to-work" bill that would prohibit union membership as a condition for employment in New Mexico testified for five hours before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday evening. After hearing public comments on the legislation, the committee decided to hold off on a vote until Friday afternoon...
Butler County OKs Right-To-Work Ordinance  Bowling Green Daily News   ...Butler County Fiscal Court Monday approved the first reading of a right-to-work ordinance. The ordinance was approved with a vote of 4-1, Deputy Judge-Executive Kim West said. District 4 Magistrate David Whittinghill voted against the measure...
Special Election, Right-To-Work Discussed At Fiscal Court  Maysville Ledger Independent   ...During the meeting, Judge-Executive Larry Foxworthy told the court he would like to wait until the right-to-work law is sorted out in the court system before it is discussed any further in Fleming County...
Minimum Wage Bill Passes Ky. House  Louisville Courier Journal   ...A bill to raise Kentucky's minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by 2017 passed the House in a largely party-line vote on Tuesday, but the bill again faces an uphill battle in the Senate...
Compromise Crafted On Prevailing Wage  MetroNews   ...Under the compromise reached Wednesday, the task of determining the prevailing wage would be turned over to the state’s Workforce Development office, which would consult with economists at WVU and Marshall to determine the formula for what the pay should be. That formula would still need to be approved by the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Government and Finance...
War on Workers
Congress and President Obama Cannot Sit Idly By While Companies Use H-1B Guestworkers to Replace American Workers  Economic Policy Institute   …A recent investigation by Computerworld revealed that hundreds of information technology (IT) workers were laid off by Southern California Edison (SCE) and replaced with temporary foreign workers through the H-1B guestworker visa program, which allows employers to hire temporary foreign workers for up to six years if they have at least a college degree (most work in IT)…it doesn’t look like any action will be taken to reverse it…
Bernie Sanders: Keeping US From Becoming Oligarchy 'A Struggle We Must Win'  Common Dreams   ...senator says growing wealth gap, high poverty rates, health care crisis signs of country slipping into control of small billionaire class...
Judge Rules For NSA In Warrantless Search Case  Reuters   ...A U.S. judge on Tuesday ruled in favor of the National Security Agency in a lawsuit challenging the interception of Internet communications without a warrant, according to a court filing...
Justice Department Is Seeking Felony Pleas By Big Banks In Foreign Currency Inquiry  New York Times   ...The Justice Department is pushing some of the biggest banks on Wall Street — including, for the first time in decades, American institutions — to plead guilty to criminal charges that they manipulated the prices of foreign currencies...

Today's Teamster News 01.16.15

Teamsters
Hoffa: Teamsters Put Corruption In Its Past  USA Today   ...The Teamsters Union and the U.S. Attorney for the southern district of New York filed an application with Chief Judge Loretta Preska requesting that she approve an agreement to end decades of government oversight of our union. We anticipate that the court will approve the agreement...
Allegiant Airline Pilots Picket For Better Pay  WKMG   ...Teamsters Local 1224, which represents roughly 500 pilots for Allegiant Airlines, said it's been in negotiations with the company since 2012, but those talks have yielded little to no progress. "We seek average wages and job protections, which are standard in the airline industry," said Teamsters Local 1224 President Dan Wells...
Hunts Point Workers Postpone Strike Until Sunday at Request of Federal Mediator  Teamsters Joint Council 16   ...Teamsters Local 202 has postponed its strike at Hunts Point Market until 4 p.m. Sunday, at the request of the Acting Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service...
Bronx Produce Company Workers Threaten Strike Over Daily $5 Raise Request  New York Daily News   ...The Hunts Point Produce Market workers are threatening to go on strike unless a deal is reached by after midnight Friday — raising the specter of New Yorkers having to forego their kale salads and blueberry smoothies. “This is a story about people that work really hard and want to be compensated for it,” said Daniel Kane, president of Teamsters Local 202...
Teamsters To Meet With Producers In Hope of Averting Commercials Strike  Deadline Hollywood   ...Teamster leaders say that the new meeting, set for January 24, is being called “in anticipation of a revised offer” from producers. The first offer was rejected overwhelmingly by the local’s members on January 11, which put the union on a strike footing...
Teamsters Blast Green Light Allowing Mexican Trucks Roll Nationwide  People's World   ...An "outraged" union President James Hoffa called DOT's ruling "rash" and in defiance of facts about un-inspected and unsafe Mexican trucks and lack of U.S. inspectors that the agency's own Inspector General uncovered...
Trade
Japan TPP negotiator: felt US intends to wrap up talks in few months  Reuters   ...But Oe also said more work needed to be done and it was not yet a situation in which a "political decision" could be arranged...
State Battles
Labor Groups File Suit To Stop Kentucky County Right-To-Work Law  Reuters   ...Nine labor unions filed suit in a Kentucky federal court late on Wednesday to stop a county from enacting right-to-work legislation they say violates the National Labor Relations Act...
Barren County Fiscal Court magistrates tackle ‘right-to-work’  Glasgow Daily Times   ...A committee of the Barren County Fiscal Court will be considering Tuesday whether to take a “right-to-work” ordinance to the full court...
Michigan Republicans making new push for prevailing wage repeal in state Legislature  Michigan Live   ...Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof on Thursday announced plans to sponsor Senate Bill 1, which will seek repeal the 50-year old law that requires union wages and benefits for workers on government-funded construction projects...
Thrasher nixes meeting with students on Koch funding  Tallahassee Democrat   ...Florida State University President John Thrasher abruptly canceled a meeting Wednesday with students who believe FSU sold its academic integrity for funding of some economics teaching positions by the conservative Koch brothers...
The Koch Foundation funds a lecture series at Penn  Daily Pennsylvanian   ...The industrialist siblings contributed more than $12.7 million to 163 colleges and universities in 2012. According to the Koch Family Foundations website, Penn is one of those recipient schools, having received a one-time grant of $5,000...
Sinquefield Is Top Missouri Campaign Donor in 2014; McCaskill Leads Democrats  St. Louis Public Radio   ...During 2014, wealthy financier Rex Sinquefield cemented his place as Missouri’s top political donor — by far — by distributing close to $10 million to candidates and political groups...
N.J. unions back in court today fighting Christie's pension cuts  NJ.com   ...Seven months after a state Superior Court judge excused Gov. Chris Christie from making a full pension contribution in the last fiscal year, New Jersey unions return to court this morning to fight for the $1.57 billion still in play...
War on Workers
Judge Overturns Home Health Care Wage, Overtime Rules  Associated Press   ...A federal judge on Wednesday overturned Labor Department regulations requiring overtime and minimum wage protection for 2 million home health care workers...
Trying To Solve The Great Wage Slowdown  New York Times   ...While wages and incomes have stagnated in the United States (as well as in Japan and large parts of Europe), they have not done so everywhere. In Canada, a broad measure of incomes has risen about 10 percent since 2000, even as it’s fallen here. In Australia, it’s up 30 percent...
What your bank owes you: clarity opinion  Los Angeles Times   ...many who attend college do not understand their student loans, and 14% of students with federal loans believe they have no student loan debt at all...
Republicans should join in scuttling Citizens United (opinion)  The Hill   ...Poll after poll shows that the majority of voters of all political stripes are alarmed at the record amounts of money pouring into elections. Voters feel they are being drowned out...
Woman, EMS Worker Killed In Separate Accidents As Wrecks Reported On Icy Patches On NC Roads  The Republic   ...An emergency worker and a 22-year-old woman were killed in separate accidents Wednesday related to the icy weather that struck portions of North Carolina...
Super Bowl Setup Worker Killed In Fall From Tower  KPHO   ...A worker on a Super Bowl setup crew died after falling from a tower outside University of Phoenix Stadium. It happened Wednesday shortly after noon in a parking lot where the NFL Tailgate Party will take place...
Georgia Factory Worker Killed By Falling Tons Of Marble  New York Daily News   ...Falling tons of marble crushed a Georgia factory worker to death Tuesday, authorities said...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Retail Sales Reflect Consumer Caution Despite Lower Gas Prices  Wall Street Journal   ...Steady job growth and relatively strong confidence supported an upward trend in consumer spending through most of 2014, before the December easing. Most economists expect those factors, beyond just lower energy prices, to support household spending—and overall economic growth—this year despite headwinds from small wage gains and overseas turmoil...

Today's Teamster News 01.15.15

Teamsters
Hoffa To Members: A New Day For Our Great Union  teamster.org   ...Today, the United States of America represented by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York entered into an agreement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters whereby in consideration of its terms and conditions the United States of America upon order from the court will dismiss its action against the International Brotherhood of Teamsters sounding in provisions of the Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, 18 U.S.C. Section 1964 and will thereby extinguish the consent order of March 14, 1989...
Hoffa: Obama Should Bend On Keystone Pipeline  Detroit News   ...It is time for Obama to change his positions on trade and the pipeline. To do otherwise risks hobbling thousands of middle-class workers just trying to support their families and potentially taking the shine off his admirable job-growth legacy. No one wants that to happen...
Teamsters Seek To Organize More Tech-Shuttle Drivers  Wall Street Journal   ...The union hopes to make Facebook and Loop a model for the other companies. It is pressuring the brand-name companies, even though they don’t employ the bus drivers, in the hope that they will support unionization and agree to pay more to the bus operators, so that they in turn can raise wages. The union says the drivers now make $18 to $20 per hour, but typically are forced to work separate morning and evening shifts that extend their workday to 12 hours or more...
Trade
Japan and US Resume TPP Talks Today  MarketPulse   ...The fresh round of bilateral negotiations come after the Trans-Pacific Partnership countries failed to see major progress at their leaders’ summit held in November in Beijing, with Japan and the United States, the largest economies in the framework, struggling to fill gaps over the contentious issues...
Espey: US deserves better transparency from TPP (opinion)  The Des Moines Register   …The American people and those we elect to represent us deserve more than the thin promise of job creation and increased economic activity. If the TPP is so good for America and our economy, then its backers would have no need to hide behind a curtain like the Wizard of Oz, pulling whatever lever is within reach...
Idea For Tackling Inequality #27,653: Stop Subsidizing It (opinion)  Huffington Post   ...It isn't hard to identify these policies. A trade policy that is intended to put U.S. manufacturing workers in direct competition with low-paid workers in countries like Mexico and China has the predicted and actual effect of lowering their wages. It also lowers the wages of non-college educated workers more generally, as displaced manufacturing workers crowd into other sectors of the economy...
State Battles
Michigan Supreme Court Presses Both Sides On Right-To-Work  Detroit Free Press   ...Considering if the state's right-to-work law applies to state workers, Michigan Supreme Court justices this morning pressed attorneys for both sides to establish whether collective bargaining is a working condition or merely a process to establish those conditions...
Hardin Fiscal Court approves right-to-work ordinance  The News-Enterprise   …Hardin County became the fifth Kentucky county to join the right-to-work movement with adoption of a local ordinance Tuesday afternoon...
Legislative Preview  Santa Fe Reporter   …While we’re already bracing for important debates on spending for education, increasing the state’s minimum wage, economic development, hemp farming, right-to-work and other issues, New Mexicans can also expect some lightweight fare and doomed-to-failure ideas to surface...
Right-to-work booster Diane Hendricks gave $1 million to Wisconsin Republicans in 2014  The Cap Times   …Now with some GOP legislators pushing a right-to-work bill in the upcoming session, a watchdog group is reporting that Hendricks donated $1 million to the Republican Party of Wisconsin in advance of the 2014 election...
Evenly Divided 7th Circuit Rejects En Banc Review of Indiana's Right to Work Act  The National Law Review   …The even split means the three-judge panel’s decision from September, 2014 upholding the statute under the United States Constitution stands...
War on Workers
Want To Be Happy? Join A Union (opinion)  New York Times   ...The study authors, Patrick Flavin, an assistant professor at Baylor University, and Gregory Shufeldt, an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, used data from five different years between the early 1980s and mid-2000s, conducted in the United States, of the World Values Survey, a research project focusing on people’s beliefs. As they write in the report, they found that “union members are more satisfied with their lives than those who are not members and that the substantive effect of union membership on life satisfaction is large and rivals other common predictors of quality of life.”...
First Step in Republican Campaign Against Bank Reform: HR 37 Passed in House  naked capitalism   …Dodd-Frank supporters fear Republicans will try to tack Wednesday’s bill and others on to larger pieces of legislation that it will be harder for the president to reject...
How Expanding the 1964 Civil Rights Act Can Save America's Dying Labor Movement  Alternet   …In July 2014, U.S. Representatives Keith Ellison and John Lewis, stalwarts for civil rights and labor, introduced the Employee Empowerment Act to extend civil rights remedies to labor organizers, and reinforce the connection between civil rights and worker rights...
Rep. Chris Van Hollen's Bold Attack on Inequality  Huffington Post   …Another potential revenue raiser would disallow corporations from deducting bonuses above $1 million if they're cutting the jobs and pay of their workforce. Note that the plan doesn't restrict "performance pay" above $1 million. It just says you can't deduct it from your taxes unless you're also providing raises to employees (or more directly sharing profits)...
More Evidence That Public Beats Private in Education  truthout   …except for the debilitating effects of poverty, our public school system may be the best in the world. The most recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reveal that the U.S. ranked high, relative to other OECD countries, in reading, math, and science (especially in reading, and in all areas better in 4th grade than in 8th grade)…
Why Wages Won't Rise (opinion)  Huffington Post   ...The growing use of outsourcing abroad and of labor-replacing technologies, the large reserve of hidden unemployed, the mounting economic insecurities, and the demise of labor unions have been actively pursued by corporations and encouraged by Wall Street. Payrolls are the single biggest cost of business. Lower payrolls mean higher profits...
Worker Dies After Fall At Citgo Corpus Christi Refinery  Yahoo News   ...A worker has died from injuries sustained in a fall on Monday night at Citgo Petroleum Corp's Corpus Christi, Texas, refinery, said sources familiar with the plant's operations...
Miscellaneous
Yep, Gasoline Lead Explains the Crime Decline in Canada Too  Mother Jones   …Canada saw a substantial decrease in violent crime that started about 20 years after lead emissions began to drop, which is exactly what you'd expect...
U.S. Racks Up Smallest Deficit Since 2007  Wall Street Journal   ...The U.S. last year racked up its smallest budget deficit since 2007, marking an economic shift of fortunes as President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans prepare to face off over legislative priorities this year...

Today's Teamster News 10.09.14

Teamster News
The Teamsters launch a television ad campaign on rail safety  Teamsters Canada   ..."We want to send a clear message to the federal government: we need more inspectors on the track," explains Robert Bouvier, president of Teamsters Canada...
Drivers Say Two-Tier System Will Give Uber, Others Unfair Advantage  teamster.org   ...Thousands of D.C. cab drivers affiliated with the Teamsters Union participated in a second “Fairness NOW!” caravan today throughout the city to demand equal regulatory treatment with private sedan services by the D.C. City Council...
A Clear Choice In November (opinion)  Detroit News   ...When you don't fight to close loopholes that encourage companies to ship their jobs overseas, you're not doing what's best for Michigan...
The Antique Car That Might Replace Horse-Drawn Carriages In NYC  Yahoo News   ...The eCarriage is the proposed replacement for all that animal-powered transportation capacity for tourists...
Trade
A New U.S. Tobacco Proposal in TPP?  Politico   ...U.S. trade officials have denied they plan to offer a new tobacco proposal in the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks in Australia later this month. The pushback comes amid growing industry concerns that the United States is discussing the idea of prohibiting tobacco companies from bringing lawsuits against TPP governments under an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) clause...
Union Boss Len McCluskey Slams Vince Cable Over TTIP Threat To NHS  The Independent   ...unions and a plethora of NGOs are concerned about an element in the agreement which they say could pave the way for US multinationals to sue future British governments if they try to reverse the recent privatization of large parts of the NHS...
State Battles
Fla. Gov. Scott sued over finances by AG candidate  Associated Press   ..."The people of Florida don't really care whether Gov. Scott is worth $3 million or $300 million," said Sheldon. "What they care about is being able to determine whether he has a personal financial stake in the decisions he makes as a public official..."
AFL-CIO leaders decry Johnson's opposition to minimum wage increase  Minneapolis Star Tribune   ...AFL-CIO leaders on Tuesday decried what they say is Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeff Johnson’s opposition to increasing Minnesota’s minimum wage...
Philadelphia’s school reform debacle: Despised governor crosses the line  Salon   ...Parents, teachers and students have resisted full privatization, New Orleans-style, and have found themselves punished for resistance as Gov. Tom Corbett, who controls the schools after a 2001 takeover by the state, slashes school budgets, wipes out thousands of jobs, and shutters dozens of schools. The latest move by Corbett and the Philadelphia School Reform Commission (SRC), which replaced an elected school board after the 2001 takeover, is to unilaterally cancel the city’s contract with the 15,000 members of the Philadelphia Federation of teachers...
L.A. Lawmakers Lay Out Path To $15.25 Minimum Wage By 2019  Los Angeles Times   ...Six members of the Los Angeles City Council launched an effort Tuesday to take the city's minimum wage to $15.25 by 2019, a move that would be more aggressive than the pay strategy backed by Mayor Eric Garcetti several weeks ago...
Mailers Sent By Koch Group Appear Designed To Misdirect Voters In Key U.S. Senate Race  The American Prospect   ...The North Carolina State Board of Elections announced this week that it is investigating a controversial mailer the conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFPF) sent to thousands of state residents that contained inaccurate information about voter registration...
Court Decisions On Voting Rules Sow Confusion In State Races  New York Times   ...Just weeks before elections that will decide control of the Senate and crucial governors’ races, a cascade of court rulings about voting rules, issued by judges with an increasingly partisan edge, are sowing confusion and changing voting procedures with the potential to affect outcomes in some states...
Anti-ALEC Activists Pressure eBay to Drop Conservative Group  National Journal   ...More than 80 organizations are asking the e-commerce company to follow the lead of Google and other tech giants and divorce itself from the American Legislative Exchange Council...
Rightwing Groups Try to Stamp Out Local Union Contracts  The Progressive   ...A rightwing legal group is suing the school district, school board, and teacher’s union in Madison, Wisconsin, for honoring a labor contract negotiated before the state supreme court upheld Governor Scott Walker’s divisive Act 10 law, ending most collective bargaining rights for most public employees...
War on Workers
Union blocks traffic to protest casino givebacks  Associated Press   ...Casino workers blocked traffic on a highway Wednesday night to protest demands for contract givebacks being made to keep the Trump Taj Mahal casino open...24 protesters who sat down in the intersection and refused to move when ordered by officers were arrested and charged with obstructing a highway and failure to move...
Republicans Are Trying to Make Sure Minorities and Young People Don't Vote This November  Mother Jones   ...In 15 states, this year's midterms will mark the first federal election with a host of these new voting restrictions in action...
There Were Two Unemployed Persons Per Job Opening in August 2014  Economic Populist   ...If one takes the U-6 broader measure of unemployment that includes people who are forced into part-time work and the marginally attached, the ratio is 3.9 people needing a job to each actual job opening....
Union Miners Rally At EPA To Protest New Emissions Standards  Huffington Post   ...Organizers said about 700 people made it to Washington for the protest, and another 50 or so were on a bus that arrived late. They carried signs that read "EPA Rules Destroy Good Jobs" and "EPA Rules Put Seniors At Risk," and some wore shirts that said "Stop The War On Coal."...
Burdened With Record Amount Of Debt, Graduates Delay Marriage  NBC News   ...Student loans have hit a record high of $1.2 trillion, putting a crimp in The American Dream of owning a home and starting a family. And it’s affecting the broader economy too...
Uber Skimps On Driver Training, Then Charges Drivers $65 For Basic Driver Skills Course  Forbes   ...Uber puts some drivers out on the road with no vehicle inspections and barely any training — and Uber makes them pay out of pocket if they want basic driver training, drivers say...
Worker killed at West Point Kia plant  turnto10.com   ...The worker who died during an industrial accident at the Kia production plant in West Point has been identified as 57-year-old John Edd Dunnivant, of Lanett, the West Point Police Department has announced...
Highway worker dies in Tilden, NE accident  Associated Press   ...55-year-old man has been killed while working on a highway project in northeast Nebraska...

Today's Teamster News 08.28.14

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

Today's Teamster News 08.21.14

Teamster News
Labor Voices: Debbie Stabenow Pushes To Bring Jobs Home (opinion)  Detroit News   ...Speak with any elected official, and inevitably he or she will stress the need to create more U.S. jobs. But given the opportunity to do so just before Congress went on its annual August recess, Senate Republicans decided they would rather do nothing instead...
Trade
Michael Froman’s PR Blitzkrieg  Trade Reform   ...Ambassador Michael Froman is blitzing the country trying to push the economy-killing, sovereignty-outsourcing Trans-Pacific Partnership...
State Battles
Microsoft Ditches ALEC In Latest Blow To Conservative Group  Talking Points Memo   ..."In 2014 Microsoft decided to no longer participate in the American Legislative Exchange Council's Communications and Technology Task Force, which had been our only previous involvement with ALEC," the software company said in a statement, per CNET...
Fresno Business Groups Vow To Fight Bill On Labor Violations  Fresno Bee   ...A bill that would punish California employers for labor violations committed by their subcontractors is being called unnecessary by Fresno business groups. Assembly Member Roger Hernandez, D-West Covina, introduced Assembly Bill 1897 as a way to hold employers accountable for serious worker's rights violations such as wage theft...
(Not) The Leader of the Pack: Wisconsin and Her Neighbors  Econbrowser   ...Only the disastrous trajectory of Kansas’s economy makes Wisconsin’s performance look tolerable...
OPINION: Hoosier workers not gaining on the nation  Indiana Economic Digest   ...From May 2003 to the same month in 2013, Hoosier wages rose by 19 percent, while median wages rose by 25 percent nationally...
Change In State House Could Put Right To Work Back On Table, McClure Says  Albuquerque Business First   ...This year, the New Mexico House of Representatives could be in line for a change this fall, and if that happens, some major initiatives – including right-to-work – could be on the table...
Want To Raise The Minimum Wage? Take It To The Ballot.  Fortune   ...“A higher minimum wage is incredibly poplar,’ says David Cooper, an economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute. “If legislature is not being responsive to the public’s desires, advocates are going the ballot measure route because it’s been successful.”...
Labor Organizing Underway At Boeing, MUSC Despite Anti-Union Climate In S.C.  Charleston City Paper   ...It is famously difficult to start a union in South Carolina. The state has the third-lowest union participation rate in the country, with just 4.7 percent of workers represented by unions. Part of the reason has to do with the Palmetto State's right-to-work laws, which prevent an employer from making an agreement with a union to only hire unionized workers...
War On Workers
Hoxie Crash Highlights Railroad Safety Issues  Arkansasmatters.com   ...A railroad crash investigator says the most recent head-on crash in northeast Arkansas is symptomatic of an industry struggling to adapt new safety regulations...
Whose Presidential Campaign Will Your Pension Finance?  Nation of Change   ...last week, the GOP filed a federal lawsuit aimed at overturning the pay-to-play law that bars those governors from raising campaign money from Wall Street executives who manage their states’ pension funds...
How Starbucks Grinds Its Workers  New York Magazine   ...If Starbucks employees like Navarro could quit, or could refuse to work insane shifts on short notice, or could demand more accommodation of their needs, they would. They can’t. So they don’t...
New report details depth of hunger crisis in the United States  wsws.org   ...about one in seven in the US, 46 million people, rely on food banks in order to feed themselves and their families. The number includes 12 million children and 7 million senior citizens...
National Group Tries To Halt Union Election Of Personal Home Care Providers In Minnesota  Minneapolis Star Tribune   ...U.S. District Judge Michael Davis ... said at a hearing Tuesday that he’ll decide by noon whether to issue a temporary injunction that would halt an election, now in progress, to determine if nearly 27,000 personal home health care workers will be represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The injunction is being sought by the National Right to Work Foundation...
Miscellaneous
More than 50 UPS Stores across the US hit by cyber attack  Business Technology   ...UPS Store said credit and debit card details, names, addresses, and email addresses may have been stolen from payments between January 20th and August 11th this year...
We Just Witnessed A Historic Month For Commercial Aircraft Orders  Business Insider   ...People ordered a ton of airplanes in July...

Today's Teamster News 06.13.14

Teamster News
House Sides with Teamsters on HOS  GoByTruck   ...The transportation funding bill passed this week by the U.S. House of Representatives does not include a provision to suspend the hours of service restart provision. Some legislative insiders expected the House to add an amendment similar to the Senate amendment to defund enforcement for the restart, but the lower chamber instead seemed to side with the Teamsters union, which sent a letter asking Congressmen to oppose such an initiative...
AM Alert: Hernández, Hoffa push workplace protections for temps  Sacramento Bee   ...Assemblyman Roger Hernández, D-West Covina, and Teamsters President Jim Hoffa ... discuss legislation that would make companies fully responsible for temporary employees brought in by a labor contractor...
It's Time To Terminate Temp Abuse, Pass California Bill AB 1897  Huffington Post   ...Cecilia Ceron has worked at the Tracy, California, plant of the world's biggest salad processor Taylor Farms for the past 11 years. But she doesn't work for the company. Instead, she is a long-term temporary employee trying to raise two daughters who has no health insurance...
Abuses At World’s Largest Salad Processing Co. Illustrate Need For Temp Worker Legislation In California  IBT   ...“This shell game is a significant contributor to the crisis in our economy today,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa...
Trade
How The Trans-Pacific Partnership Affects Jobs, Trade, And Regulation  IVN   ...tariffs among a majority of the countries are already quite low. Indeed, once “most favored nation” (MFN) status is extended to include Malaysia, New Zealand, Vietnam, and Brunei, U.S. exporters will hardly enjoy expanded access to markets: these four countries have a combined purchasing power equivalent to that of Pennsylvania...
Lawmakers, LGBT groups urge U.S. trade action on Brunei criminal laws  Reuters   ...Brunei, the first East Asian country to introduce Islamic criminal law, has announced laws that will impose fines or jail terms for offenses such as pregnancy outside marriage and failure to perform Friday prayers. The laws will ultimately punish sodomy and adultery with the death penalty, including by stoning...
Bipartisan Call To Crack Down On Currency, Restore 5.8 Million Jobs  Trade Reform   ...Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) issued an appeal Tuesday to President Obama to crack down on currency manipulation, which has cost 5.8 million U.S. jobs and increased the federal budget deficit by $266 billion...
State Battles
Booming Business, But Falling Wages, in California Grocery Stores  In These Times   ...the median hourly wage (measured in 2010 dollars) of grocery store workers fell from $12.97 in 1999 to $11.33 in 2010, a decline of 12.6 percent...
War On Workers
CEOs Earn Nearly 300 Times What Their Workers Make  Think Progress   ...The ratio of CEO pay to workers’ pay was 295.9-to-1 last year according to a new analysis from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).That ratio is down from a peak of 383.4-to-1 in 2000 but is far higher than the historical norm. The ratio was just 20-to-1 in 1965 and 29.9-to-1 in 1978...
U.S. retail sales miss expectations, jobless claims rise  Reuters   ...U.S. retail sales rose less than expected in May and first-time applications for jobless benefits increased last week, but the data did little to alter views the economy is regaining steam...
Eric Cantor Loses: Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, Citigroup & NYU Board Weep  Wall Street on Parade   ...With the House Majority leader now soundly defeated in Tuesday’s primary in Virginia by an upstart economics professor supported by the Tea Party, David Brat, who took 56 percent of the vote and sprinkled his speeches with the phrase “crony capitalism,” Wall Street money may not be able to travel from Gotham across state lines as effectively as it once did...
The Places That Most Desperately Need A Higher Minimum Wage  Huffington Post   ...The Southest and Southwest are home to a disproportionate number of workers who would benefit from raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, according to a new report from the global poverty-fighting group Oxfam America...
Former Managers Allege Pervasive Inventory Fraud At Walmart. How Deep Does The Rot Go?  The Nation   ...Inventory results that “should have raised red flags” were actually lauded by those significantly higher in Walmart’s regional chain of command. One recently departed senior vice president, for instance, would send her handwritten notes commending such numbers, she said...
How ordinary Americans can influence policy – no super PAC required  AlJazeera America   ...voters are best represented in Montana, Minnesota and Oregon and poorly represented in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. ... states with stringent lobbying regulations better weigh the interests of citizens across the income spectrum...
Mother Of Seven Dies in Jail While Serving Sentence For The Truancy Of Her Children  Jonathan Turley   ...Eileen DiNino, 55, of Reading, Pennsylvania has died while serving one of these ridiculous sentences. The mother of seven died in jail after serving half of her 48-hour sentence. The 48-hour sentence was in lieu of a $2,000 — a choice that many impoverished parents have to make...
Six Supreme Court Decisions To Watch For This Month  Newsweek   ...For millions of public employees, constitutional scholar Garrett Epps wrote after oral arguments in January, “Their collective-bargaining rights are hanging by a thread...
Fusion Centers Approached 2011 Black Friday Consumer Boycott Like a Terrorist Threat  The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund   ..."It is outrageous that counter-terrorism officials used their anti-terrorism authority and funding to "protect" corporate America from a consumer boycott. It is well past time that the vast flow of tax-payer money to the Fusion Centers be ended..."
Miscellaneous
Tesla Making Patents ‘Open Source’ to Boost Electric Cars  Bloomberg   ...Elon Musk, Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA)’s outspoken co-founder, said patents for the maker of Model S electric cars will be “open source” and available at no charge as it seeks to expand adoption of battery-powered autos...

Today's Teamster News 06.12.14

Teamster News
Teamsters: THUD Amendments Will Weaken Highway Safety Standards  TheTrucker.com   ...Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa Monday denounced two potential floor amendments to the Transportation Housing and Urban Development (THUD) FY ’15 Appropriations bill that the Teamsters say will weaken highway safety standards by putting fatigued drivers on the road in bigger, heavier trucks...
Teamsters come out against hours changes, ATA still supportive  Overdrive   ...The Teamsters Union has voiced its opposition to recent Congressional action to roll back the 2013 changes to federal hours-of-service restart provisions, but American Trucking Associations head Bill Graves is holding strong on the group’s support for suspending the changes...
Official Statement of the Teamsters Union on the Worldwide Taxi Drivers' Protests Against Uber  teamster.org   ..."I express our solidarity with today’s protests by taxi drivers in city after city across Europe. The drivers are calling for fairness and asking that if the private sedan services are allowed to operate that they do so on a level playing field. Uber is currently operating without having to comply with the same rules and regulations that taxi drivers do..."
Teamsters Local 142 Wants To Bid On Chesterton Police Officers' Health Care  Chesterton Tribune   ...The officers of the Chesterton Police Department and their brothers in Teamsters Local 142 filled the meeting room of the town hall on Monday night, to hear a union attorney accuse the Town Council of fiduciary irresponsibility. At issue: the Teamsters is interested in bidding its healthcare plan to CPD officers...
Teamsters Against HoS Restart Charges  Truck News   ...The accident involving a Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. driver and comedian Tracy Morgan’s entourage has yet another industry organization weighing in about potential hours of service changes. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters sent an open letter to the US House of Representatives saying any steps to “delay, revise or replace the current hours of service 34-hour restart provision” or allow increases in truck size and weight, “especially they size of double trailers from the current 28-ft. to 33-ft.” should be opposed...
Coral Gables Employees To Get One Time Bonus  Miami Herald   ...The Coral Gables City Commission approved a two-year contract with the city’s general employees union Tuesday that includes a one-time bonus and lower pension contributions from employees during the first year...

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/06/10/4169720/coral-gables-employees-to-get.html#storylink=cpy

Trade
Comment: Shrouded in secrecy, opposition to TPP mounts  SBS   ...They want to reassure us that we don’t need to worry about spiralling drug costs or curtailed internet freedom, but they’re not willing to let us see the text of the deal to back up their claims...
Livestock Groups Show Concern for TPP During D.C. Hearing  Farm Futures   ...Japan's TPP requests to exempt certain "sensitive" products – including pork and beef, dairy, sugar, wheat and barley, and rice and starch – from tariff elimination has big impacts on future trade deals and the ag industry's ability to benefit from the agreement, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association said during a hearing before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee...
Anger by US farmers threatens ambitious Pacific trade pact  Reuters   ...U.S. farmers are in an uproar over signs Japan will maintain some barriers to agricultural exports under a Pacific trade pact, which threatens to unravel a deal that is central to U.S. efforts to retain economic and security influence in the region...
State Battles
Repeal the pension tax on Michigan seniors  Detroit News   ...a retired couple born after 1952 with more than $50,000 in income, including $48,000 in pension benefits, paid $1,930 more in taxes than they would have if pensions weren’t taxed...
New Jersey's soaring subsidy program doing little to boost struggling economy  The Guardian   ...Study says New Jersey badly trailing other states' economic recovery despite corporate credits rising sevenfold under Christie...
Council Votes Again To End Collective Bargaining  Fort Wayne Journal Gazette   ...City Council members again voted along party lines Tuesday to end collective bargaining for all city workers except police and firefighters...
San Francisco Voters Will Weigh In On A $15 Minimum Wage  Think Progress   ...A question on San Francisco’s November ballot will ask city residents whether they want to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by July 2018...
Why that ruling against teacher tenure won't help your schoolchildren (opinion)  Los Angeles Times   ... one should be "suspicious of wealthy and powerful individuals and groups whose advocacy for children leads to 'reforms' that won’t cost a cent, but will weaken labor."...
Numbers put lie to state growth strategy (opinion)  Journal Gazette   ...Light taxation and regulation haven’t raised living standard (in Indiana)...
War On Workers
Walmart Associate: 'Give The Workers Dignity And Respect We Deserve'  WBUR   ...Charmaine Givens-Thomas ... is a sales associate who has worked at Walmart for eight years. She makes $23,000 a year and has trouble paying rent and putting food on the table. She says Walmart should pay its employees a living wage...
Cantor’s Loss a Triumph for Anti-Corporate Right-Wing Populism  naked capitalism   ...conservative economics professor David Brat succeeded in channeling a strain of right-wing populism to target Cantor, and plausibly so, as a corporate stooge and progenitor of crony capitalism...
Clauses That Hurt Workers  New York Times   ...Many businesses have long required that executives and other important employees agree not to work for a competitor for a year or two after they leave. Now some employers are unfairly imposing that requirement on all kinds of workers, including lower-wage employees like camp counselors, interns and yoga instructors...
Here's Why Amazon Is More Brutal Than Walmart  Time   ...The recent dustup between Amazon and publisher Hachette reminds us that retail is a brutal business — tough on employees, really hard on suppliers. Walmart, the largest physical retailer, and Amazon, the largest retailer online, illustrate the pain produced in the effort to make consumers’ prices as low as possible...
Miscellaneous
Occupy Wall Street Protesters Win Lawsuit Over Arrests  Washington Post   ...New York City has agreed to pay nearly $600,000 to settle allegations that police wrongfully arrested a group of Occupy Wall Street protesters, marking what their lawyers Tuesday called the largest settlement to date in a single Occupy-related civil rights case...

Today's Teamster News 05.15.14

Teamster News
Teamsters and California Hauling Company Reach Settlement through NLRB – Back Wages and New Bargaining Agreement Result  Beeson, Tayer & Bodine   ...Dispatch Transportation, the operating name for Commodity Trucking Acquisition, LLC, is paying $262,000 in back pay to the former employees of the predecessor to Dispatch, Valley Aggregate Transport, Inc.  Even better, perhaps, is that Dispatch has entered into a three-year collective bargaining agreement with Local 137 that includes a generous wage and benefit package in line with what other Union contractors provide in the industry...
Teamsters Take On National Express Group At Annual General Meeting  teamster.org   ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa led a powerful delegation of Teamsters, including North American school bus workers, in calling on the National Express Group PLC (NEX: LN) Board of Directors to address the company's poor worker rights record at its North American subsidiaries...
Road Bills Could Lead To Taxpayer Rage  Detroit News   ...Michigan's roads are in dire need of repair. But a House-passed package of bills in Lansing that would allocate upwards of $500 million a year to fix streets and bridges is a far cry from a permanent solution...
Adams County Board Approves Union Contracts  Quincy Journal   ...The Adams County Board unanimously passed three year contracts with most of its bargaining units....
Savannah-Chatham school bus drivers demand year-round pay  Savannah Now   ...Local school bus drivers are demanding new contracts and year-round pay in response to new legislation that bars them from claiming unemployment during the summer break. They protested at the First Student school bus transportation offices Wednesday and last week at the Savannah-Chatham public school board meeting...
Swift Transportation Shareholders Give Mandate: Eliminate Dual Class Structure  teamster.org   ... A Teamster shareholder proposal to address Swift Transportation’s dual class stock structure received 79.2 percent support by shareholders of the company’s Class A, publicly traded shares, based on results disclosed by the company in its 8-K dated May 13, 2014 and filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC)...
IBEW, BLET joint statement regarding SEPTA negotiations  teamster.org   ...SEPTA’s decision on May 9 to decline the proffer of binding arbitration from the National Mediation Board (NMB) is regrettable. We continue to maintain that binding arbitration is a reasonable and expeditious method of resolving the dispute between the labor unions and SEPTA...
Teamsters Announce UPS Will Add Thousands Of New Union Package Jobs  teamster.org   ...Hiring has already started, and the new jobs will be in addition to the regular filling of jobs through attrition...
Trade
Is The Trans-Pacific Partnership An Environmental Disaster Waiting To Happen?  TreeHugger   ...President Obama's environmental legacy is in deep trouble and in large part will hinge on a trade deal that his administration is discussing in Vietnam the week of May 12...
State Battles
Governor Brown Signs SB 27 – Sheds Light on Dark Money  Common Cause   ...Today Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 27, reforming the Political Reform Act of 1974 to further regulate campaign financing, adding the requirement that committees disclose donors of $100 or more where those donations were solicited for the purpose of making contributions or expenditures in California. This essential campaign disclosure bill will go a long way toward improving California’s campaign disclosure laws by closing the nonprofit reporting loophole...
War On Workers
Walmart Warehouse Contractor To Pay $21 Million To Settle Wage Theft Allegations  Huffington Post   ...A Walmart contractor that operates many of the retailer's distribution centers has agreed to pay $21 million in back pay to warehouse workers in California who claim they were systematically shorted on pay for years...
Walmart US CEO Gets A $1.5 Million Bonus For Missing Expectations While A Worker Gets $0  Think Progress   ...Walmart US CEO William Simon's contract gave him the opportunity to earn a $1.5 million bonus on top of $10 million in salary and stock awards if the company's American net sales grew by 2 percent...
Nurses Launch New Campaign to Alert Public to Dangers of Medical Technology and Erosion of Care Standards  National Nurses United   ...An unchecked proliferation of unproven medical technology and sharp erosion of care standards are rapidly spreading through the health care system, far outside the media spotlight but frighteningly apparent to nurses and patients, says National Nurses United...
How Student Debt Keeps Young People From Buying Houses  Slate   ...It seems obvious that owing a lot of student debt should make it difficult to buy a house. After all, if you're stuck paying interest on college loans, it's hard to save up for a 20 percent down payment...
Big Tobacco's Secret Workforce: Child Farm Workers  Think Progress   ...Hundreds of children too young to buy cigarettes are working 60 hours a week on tobacco farms across the South, a new report from Human Rights Watch finds...
Spying Is Meant to Crush Citizens’ Dissent, Not Catch Terrorists  Washington's Blog   ...The record is suffused with examples of groups and individuals being placed under government surveillance by virtue of their dissenting views and activism – Martin Luther King, the civil rights movement, anti-war activists, environmentalists...