TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Applaud Introduction of Pension Accountability Act By Sen. Portman Teamster.org ...The Teamsters Union applauds the efforts of Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) to pass legislation that would guarantee thousands of retirees and workers threatened by deep cuts to their pensions a meaningful voice in deciding their own future, without the threat of the Treasury Department nullifying their decision if it judges that the insolvency of the fund would be "systemically important" by causing a liability of more than $1 billion to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)...
Tenatative Agreement Reached With Sysco Over Food Service Contract Local 117 ...Teamsters Local 117 has achieved a fully-recommended tentative agreement with Sysco over a contract involving 220 drivers and warehouse workers employed at the company’s food service distribution center in Kent. The union and the company reached the agreement late Wednesday night at the Teamsters Union Hall in Tukwila...
Union pay increases slowly at U Minnesota Daily ...For the past six years, administrators, faculty and staff have had wages increase by more than 2 percent, while members of the Teamsters Local 320 have had their pay increase by about 1 percent, according to University data. Since 2014, administrators, faculty and civil service staff have seen a 2.33 percent average wage bump. If current negotiations between Teamsters and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3800, 3937 and 3801 stand the unions would experience an average pay increase of .875 percent...
Teamsters reach tentative agreement with SoCal chains Supermarket News ...The Teamsters Union said Wednesday it will recommend approval of new contracts with three Southern California chains. Voting is scheduled for Oct. 16 through Oct. 18, the union said. The contracts cover drivers and employees at the warehouses, dairies and manufacturing plants of Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons. Vons is now owned by Albertsons and Ralphs is a division of Kroger Co...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
After Years of Backroom Secrecy, Public Will Finally Get to See Full TPP Text Common Dreams ...After being shrouded in secrecy for years, the full contents of the 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) will soon be brought into the sunlight. According to Kevin Collier at Daily Dot, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman has said the text will be made available to the public at large in approximately 30 days—on or around November 7...
TPP Treaty Full Text: WikiLeaks Releases Trans-Pacific Partnership Intellectual Property Rights Chapter IBTimes ...WikiLeaks claims it has obtained the final negotiated text of the Obama administration's Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that covers intellectual property rights. It addresses internet services, medicines, publishers, civil liberties and biological patents. The agreement between 12 Pacific Rim countries has been called the biggest global trade deal in decades...
Japan's Amari says not willing to renegotiate TPP trade pact Reuters ...Japanese Economics Minister Akira Amari said on Friday he is not willing to renegotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) after U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said she opposed the free trade pact. Amari, speaking to reporters, urged U.S. lawmakers to back TPP and said going back on the deal now could hurt U.S. credibility...
Hillary Clinton's TPP deal disapproval is 'a critical turning point' The Guardian ...From the start, the Trans-Pacific trade pact that Barack Obama is trumpeting faced rough going on Capitol Hill, not least because some of Congress’s most powerful Republicans – among them the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell – were complaining about it. But the pact’s chances of winning ratification in Congress diminished on Wednesday when Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, said: “Based on what I know so far, I can’t support this agreement”...
China’s Heft Gives It Ammunition Against the Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Deal Wall Street Journal ...On the surface, China appears a clear loser by its exclusion from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which aims to deepen economic ties and lower or eliminate tariffs in the 12-member bloc led by the U.S. and Japan. But company executives and economists say that despite China’s slowing growth, at least in the near term it is well armed against harm from TPP...
No End to Austerity for Serbian Seniors Balkan Insight ...Public debate on the issue has raged since last November, when the government imposed its cuts on the public sector ranging from 10 per cent off salaries to as much as 25 per cent off pensions. The measures sparked a national outcry, with education and pensioners’ trade unions being among the first to protest against the cutbacks. But a group of pensioners’ trade unions went a step further...
Tunisia Labor Movement Shares Nobel Peace Prize Solidarity Center ...For its role in brokering a peaceful path to democracy, Tunisia’s labor movement today was named a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Committee recognized the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet—comprised of longtime Solidarity Center ally the Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT), the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts, the Tunisian Human Rights League and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers—for establishing “an alternative, peaceful political process"...
Breaking Ground: Mexico’s Miners Push for Worker Rights Solidarity Center ...Mine workers in Mexico labor in difficult and sometimes deadly working conditions. But through their union, the National Union of Mine, Metal, Steel and Similar Workers of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMSSRM, known as “Los Mineros”), they are winning collective bargaining pacts. The union is breaking ground by raising the visibility of the work and activism of women members...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
New York's $15 minimum wage hike ignites national interest CBS ...New York's plan to give fast-food workers a $15 minimum wage is spurring similar efforts in states around the country - even as Gov. Andrew Cuomo's push to enact an across-the-board $15 wage faces vocal opposition at home. In a campaign modeled after the successful push by fast-food workers in New York, groups in 18 states are creating citizen "wage boards" to pressure elected officials to raise the minimum wage...
Hearing on Voter ID Will Take Place This Month WFDD ...State attorneys want a federal judge to dismiss a legal challenge to North Carolina’s voter-identification law before the presidential primary in March. It’s a controversial issue that’s been on hold while a related court case is being considered. When the voting rights trial happened this summer, voter ID wasn’t part of the case...
Struggling Phoenix Workers Demand $15 Minimum wage New Times ...Arizona workers shared their stories with a panel of government and business leaders Thursday at a community meeting about raising the minimum wage. Workers across the country have rallied under Fight for $15's banner since 2012 to raise the minimum wage. In response, several cities, including Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, have bumped pay to $15 an hour...
Jeb Bush Is Completely Wrong About the Voting Rights Act The Nation ...Bush says the VRA is no longer necessary, but his home state of Florida has been a hotbed of voter suppression since 2000. It’s a fallacy to assert that the VRA was important in 1965 but no longer needed. In 2011, Bush’s home state of Florida passed a severe law shutting down voter-registration drives—which was later blocked in court—and cutting early-voting days, which led to seven-hour lines during the 2012 election...
The Fight for $15 Is Making Significant Progress on Wages. Now It’s Time for Step 2: Unions. In These Times ...It’s a safe bet that most working people would like a pay raise. They are also often reluctant to ask for one, let alone demand a doubling of their hourly rates. Low-wage Americans—the 42 percent of workers making less than $15 an hour—know all too well that they don’t just want more; they need more simply to survive at the lowliest version of the American standard of living. Increasingly, they are pressing their demands more forcefully, possibly inventing a new form of unionism as they persevere...
U.S. LABOR
33 Workers Dead After U.S. Cargo Ship Lost at Sea. Could It Have Been Prevented? In These Times ...Search and rescue teams officially gave up hope yesterday after a failed five-day effort to locate 33 cargo ship workers lost at sea in the waters near the Bahamas. The sailors and other shipboard workers are presumed dead in the wreck of the U.S.-flagged commercial vessel El Faro, which disappeared October 1 in the high winds and heavy seas of Hurricane Joaquin. The last voyage of the El Faro has already taken on the air of maritime mystery...
New UAW-FCA deal gives Tier 2 workers path to top pay Detroit Free Press ...Fiat Chrysler entry-level workers could reach a new wage of $29 an hour over eight years, putting them at par with senior colleagues and effectively eliminating the much-hated two-tier pay scale under a new proposed deal between the UAW and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. The proposal was reached just prior to the Wednesday night deadline of 11:59 p.m., averting a potential midnight strike by 40,000 unionized workers...
Union campaign targeting Boeing South Carolina moves online with NLRB ruling Post and Courier ...The International Association of Machinists is using a new method to recruit Boeing South Carolina workers, taking advantage of a recent ruling that lets labor unions collect electronic signatures on election authorization cards. The National Labor Relations Board rule went into effect Sept. 1. It allows workers to log onto a website and submit such cards via the Internet...
Are Bosses Necessary? The Atlantic ...A radical experiment at Zappos may herald the emergence of a new, more democratic kind of organization. The company abolished managers, eliminated job titles, denounced its own organizational hierarchy, and vested all authority in a 10,000-word constitution that spells out a radical new system of self-governance. Freed from direct supervision, employees are expected to join various impermanent democratic assemblies called “circles” (headed, but not run, by a “lead link”)...
Right-Wing Urban Outfitters Now Asking Employees to Work for Free Alternet ...Urban Outfitters has become known for three things: 1) Offending every possible marginalized group under the sun with apparel that features really tasteless messages; 2) allegedly stealing designs from up-and-coming artists and selling them as their own; and 3) having a president and CEO, Richard Hayne, who has given money to anti-gay marriage crusader Rick Santorum and other Republican politicians. Now the company is making news for its boldest action yet: asking employees to work for free!...
Jobless claims fall to near a 42-year low Reuters ...While businesses appear to have little reason to let workers go these days, in recent months they have not shown much gusto in adding new hires. U.S. employers added just 142,000 jobs to their payrolls in September and 136,000 in August, which was well below the averages in prior months of about 200,000 new jobs added every month. The slowdown in hiring has boosted expectations the Fed will wait until early next year to raise interest rates for the first time in a decade...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Partisan Divide Widens Over Immigration Policy NPR ...It probably won't surprise you that there's a growing polarization among Americans over how to deal with several immigration policy proposals. Whether it's Donald Trump's idea for a massive border fence or the proposal to change the Constitution so that babies of unauthorized residents aren't automatically made citizens, Republicans and Democrats are hardening their views, according to a new national survey issued by the Washington, D.C.-based Pew Research Center...
Obama Won't Support Extending Deadline for Rail Safety Equipment Bloomberg ...President Barack Obama plans to enforce a deadline for rail operators to install safety technology by the end of the year, despite warnings from railroads including Union Pacific Corp. and Amtrak that they can’t meet the mandate and would have to suspend some service without an extension. Railroads have had seven years to install positive train control technology, which can slow or stop trains to avoid crashes...
Courts Are Striking Back Against The Criminalization Of Homelessness Think Progress ...For the third time in as many months, a federal court has struck down a city’s panhandling ban for violating the First Amendment’s free speech protections. The most recent case concerned an anti-panhandling ordinance in Grand Junction, Colorado, which outlawed “aggressive panhandling”...
Autopsy Shows Oklahoma Used Wrong Drug to Kill Man Who Said His Body Was 'On Fire' Common Dreams ...Oklahoma correctional officials in January used the wrong drug to execute Charles Warner, who said his body was "on fire" after the injection was administered, according to his autopsy report released Thursday. Oklahoma correctional officers received the same incorrect drug on September 30 ahead of the scheduled execution of Richard Glossip, who received a stay from Governor Mary Fallin after she was made aware of the erroneous delivery...
Showing posts with label japan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label japan. Show all posts
Friday, October 9, 2015
Monday, September 21, 2015
Today's Teamster News 09.21.15
Teamsters
Teamsters to FedEx: ‘Stop Paying Executives' Personal Taxes' Teamster.org ...Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), the nation’s leading proxy voting advisor, recommends FedEx shareholders vote for a Teamster-sponsored shareholder proposal aimed at reforming the company’s executive compensation. The proposal urges the company to stop paying the personal taxes on behalf of the senior executive officers...
Local 727 Tackles Unjust Treatment of Beverage Industry Members Local 727 ...Since Teamsters Local 727 began representing more than 1,500 beverage industry members earlier this year, the union has won dozens of grievances relating to discipline and terminations, holiday pay, attendance, overtime, seniority and other issues. In total, Local 727 representatives have filed nearly 150 grievances for members at Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper Snapple, Hinckley Springs and Home Juice over the past five months...
Sun Tran, Teamsters release agreement details Tucson News Now ...Both sides originally did not want to talk about it, but now Tucson News Now has learned new details about the agreement between Sun Tran and the Teamsters Local 104 Union. City of Tucson officials said they used savings from the 42-day strike to come up with $1.5 million to settle it, so taxpayers are not out any extra money. Under the terms of the new agreement, each Teamsters striker will get a one-time lump sum payment of $3,303.37...
Will aggrieved workers get their day in court? OC Register ...In response to the successful complaints, trucking companies that employ hundreds of drivers are now insisting the drivers sign arbitration contracts waiving their right to file complaints, according to Julie Gutman Dickinson, a Teamsters union attorney who has been representing them. “Many drivers are monolingual Spanish speakers,” she said. “They are not given copies of the arbitration agreements they are forced to sign in any language other than English"...
Global Labor & Trade
Japan, U.S., Canada, Mexico to restart auto TPP talks Monday Japan News ...Japan, the United States, Canada and Mexico will hold working-level talks on Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations in San Francisco on Monday and Tuesday, focusing on automobile trade, according to the Japanese government. The upcoming talks are aimed at narrowing their gap over rules of origin, prior to a ministerial meeting that 12 countries joining TPP negotiations plan to hold in Atlanta in late September...
Stephen Harper Says Concessions Likely for Auto Industry in Pacific Trade Pact Wall Street Journal ...Canadian leader Stephen Harper signaled in an election debate late Thursday that he will make a concession on protections for the auto industry to conclude the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, a suggestion that is triggering protest from the Canadian units of the big Detroit-based auto makers...
Harper’s TPP remarks draw ire of Ontario, union leader Globe and Mail ...Stephen Harper is being accused of sacrificing Canada’s 80,000-job auto-parts industry in his eagerness to sign on to a massive Pacific Rim trade deal – one his government is negotiating in the middle of the federal election campaign. The Conservative Leader made waves Thursday when he signaled that he’s determined to be part of a Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement even over the objections of the auto sector, whose members fear it will lead to a flood of foreign parts, produced by cheaper labour, killing their industry...
International agreement could hurt Saskatchewan dairy producers Global News ...Many Saskatchewan dairy producers are concerned their domestic market may shrink due to a possible trade agreement, according to their provincial advocacy group. SaskMilk’s policy manager Joy Smith says producers will have their eyes on upcoming Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement talks planned in Atlanta. The trade pact includes 12 North American and Asian countries, including Canada, the U.S. and Japan...
No deal at next TPP talks to extend negotiations for years: minister Mainichi ...The Japanese minister in charge of negotiations for a Pacific Rim free trade initiative said Friday that talks on the free trade deal will not be concluded anytime soon if the 12 member countries fail to strike an accord at an upcoming meeting starting late September. "There is a risk that an agreement will be put off for years" if no deal is reached at the next session, Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Akira Amari said at a press conference...
More Austerity Awaits Greeks in Election Aftermath Greek Reporter ...Greeks are bracing to face a series of austerity measures and harsh reforms in the aftermath of the election that brought to power the previous coalition of SYRIZA and ANEL. About fifty measures and reforms have to be implemented by December as required by the bailout program Athens signed in July. Also a series of pension cuts will be implemented depending on how high each pension is...
Sierra Leone workers strike at Shandong's iron ore mine Reuters ...Hundreds of Sierra Leonean workers at Shandong Steel's iron ore mine declared an unlimited strike on Saturday, alleging unfair treatment, a union leader said. The Chinese firm, formerly a minority partner of African Minerals in the African Minerals-run project, acquired full ownership earlier this year and resumed operations in May...
Workers Strike at Chinese Shipyard, Demand Three Months' Back-Pay RFA ...More than 1,000 workers at a shipbuilding yard in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu are on strike over unpaid wages, workers told RFA on Friday, as the industrial action entered its third day. Around one-fifth of the 5,000-strong workforce at the Sinopacific-owned shipyard in Jiangsu's Dayang city walked out on Wednesday...
State & Living Wages Battles
Scott Walker's Partisans Poised to Raze Nonpartisan Government Accountability Board Huffington Post ...Stung by the campaign finance probe into potentially illegal coordination between Governor Scott Walker and independent campaign finance groups, the Wisconsin GOP is on the warpath. Governor Walker called for "dismantling" of the Government Accountability Board (GAB), the nonpartisan, independent agency that oversees Wisconsin elections, campaign finance and ethics laws that gave the go-ahead to the investigation...
Scott Walker Was Coward During 2011 Wisconsin Protests Alternet ...According to a stunning, detailed new statement by a former top Republican legislative aide, it turns out that Walker isolated himself and hid in tightly controlled, heavily-guarded environments during the conflict covering six intense weeks in early 2011—which directly contradicts his tall tale of courageously facing his adversaries...
NJ minimum wage to remain at $8.38 an hour in 2016 North Jersey ...New Jersey's minimum wage will remain $8.38 an hour in 2016, the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development said Monday. The wage has been tied to the inflation rate since January 2014. In November 2013, New Jersey voters approved a constitutional amendment that increased the minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.25 an hour...
Osceola mulls $11.66-an-hour living wage proposal Orlando Sentinel ...Osceola County's newly Democratic-controlled commission has wasted little time taking on controversial issues since January, passing anti-discrimination protections for gay and transgender residents while raising the local gas tax to pay for roads and other infrastructure projects. Now the board is preparing to vote on an ordinance Monday that would set one of the highest minimum wages for county contracts in the state, at $11.66 an hour for the first year...
U.S. Labor
United Farm Workers claims victory in labor battle Californian ...Organized labor claimed a victory in a decades-long fight with one of the nation's largest fruit growers when a judge ruled that the company interfered with its employees' vote on whether to reject union representation. A decision issued Thursday sets aside an election held nearly two years ago by workers at Gerawan Farming Inc., which hires thousands of people annually to harvest nectarines, peaches and grapes in the Central Valley...
Shifting work to Mexico now up for UAW vote Detroit Free Press ...Building more cars in Mexico. It's a flash point for about 40,000 UAW workers preparing to vote on a tentative agreement with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, knowing the new four-year pact includes pay increases, profit sharing and bonuses but also shifts car production to plants south of the border...
Tile, marble union workers preparing to strike statewide Khon ...Members of the Hawaii Masons Union, specifically ceramic tile and marble setters are planning a statewide strike Monday. “Nobody wants a strike, nobody wins but this is like a last resort,” said Todd Saito, a business representative for Local #1 of Hawaii. He says contract negotiations with the Tile Contractors Association of Hawaii have been going on for over a year. “We just want a package that represents industry standards,” said Saito...
HCA, nurses reach collective bargaining agreement in 5 states Tennessean ...HCA reached tentative collective bargaining agreements with National Nurses United that would cover almost 8,000 nurses in five states if ratified. Nurses at the 17 hospitals will vote Monday whether to accept the agreements that cover a range of work conditions, including staffing, scheduling and workplace safety...
IBEW Local 125 authorizes strike at Pacific Power NW Labor Press ...Workers across Northern Oregon and Southeastern Washington voted overwhelmingly Sept. 1 to reject a contract offer and authorize the union bargaining committee to call a strike at Pacific Power. BEW Local 125 represents 320 linemen, meter readers, substation wiremen and other workers at the electric utility, in a service area that extends from Astoria to Bend to Walla Walla...
Judge’s Ruling Awards $600,000 to Exploited Workers New York Times ...More than six years after their rescue from virtual servitude, in which they worked for little pay in a turkey processing plant while living in a decrepit Iowa schoolhouse, more than two dozen men with intellectual disabilities will share nearly $600,000 owed to them, after a federal court order issued Thursday in Dallas...
American Slavery, Reinvented The Atlantic ...Given the scope and scale of prison labor in the modern era, one could reasonably expect some degree of compliance with modern labor standards. However, despite the hard-won protections secured by the labor movement over the past 100 years, incarcerated workers do not enjoy most of these protections...
Social Justice & Other News
New Report Shows How Women of Color Bear the Costs of Mass Incarceration Truthout ...As the report emphasizes, it is overwhelming women - particularly low-income women of color, given the race and class bias of our criminal justice system - who shoulder these burdens. A recent study found that 44 percent of Black women and 12 percent of white women have a family member imprisoned...
Are Student Debt Forgiveness Scams The Next Mortgage Meltdown? Think Progress ...With student loan defaults on the rise, regulatory agencies are increasingly concerned about borrowers being preyed upon by student debt relief scammers. These scammers, which promise students they can cut their student loan payments by 50 percent or more, take advantage of students’ lack of knowledge about repayment options...
Pope Francis in Cuba: "The World Needs Reconciliation in This Atmosphere of a Third World War" Democracy Now ...Ahead of his first U.S. visit, Pope Francis celebrated mass in Cuba Sunday before hundreds of thousands of worshipers in Havana’s Revolution Square. Born in Argentina, Francis is the first Latin American pope. The pope’s homily in Havana included no direct political message besides urging the successful conclusion of Colombia peace talks that have been taking place in Cuba for nearly three years...
The Media Can No Longer Pretend That Trump’s Racist Birtherism Is Old News The Nation ... Until last night, Trump has successfully built a great big wall to keep his ugly birther narrative from crossing into his current presidential run. His candidacy now turns on his racist immigrant-bashing. It’s not that the press has completely forgotten the birther storm, which peaked in 2011...
Hedge Fund Manager Buys Rights To Critical Drug, Hikes Price By 5000% Alternet ...The drug, called Daraprim, was acquired in August by Turing Pharmaceuticals, a start-up run by a former hedge fund manager. Turing immediately raised the price to $750 a tablet from $13.50, bringing the annual cost of treatment for some patients to hundreds of thousands of dollars...
Teamsters to FedEx: ‘Stop Paying Executives' Personal Taxes' Teamster.org ...Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), the nation’s leading proxy voting advisor, recommends FedEx shareholders vote for a Teamster-sponsored shareholder proposal aimed at reforming the company’s executive compensation. The proposal urges the company to stop paying the personal taxes on behalf of the senior executive officers...
Local 727 Tackles Unjust Treatment of Beverage Industry Members Local 727 ...Since Teamsters Local 727 began representing more than 1,500 beverage industry members earlier this year, the union has won dozens of grievances relating to discipline and terminations, holiday pay, attendance, overtime, seniority and other issues. In total, Local 727 representatives have filed nearly 150 grievances for members at Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper Snapple, Hinckley Springs and Home Juice over the past five months...
Sun Tran, Teamsters release agreement details Tucson News Now ...Both sides originally did not want to talk about it, but now Tucson News Now has learned new details about the agreement between Sun Tran and the Teamsters Local 104 Union. City of Tucson officials said they used savings from the 42-day strike to come up with $1.5 million to settle it, so taxpayers are not out any extra money. Under the terms of the new agreement, each Teamsters striker will get a one-time lump sum payment of $3,303.37...
Will aggrieved workers get their day in court? OC Register ...In response to the successful complaints, trucking companies that employ hundreds of drivers are now insisting the drivers sign arbitration contracts waiving their right to file complaints, according to Julie Gutman Dickinson, a Teamsters union attorney who has been representing them. “Many drivers are monolingual Spanish speakers,” she said. “They are not given copies of the arbitration agreements they are forced to sign in any language other than English"...
Global Labor & Trade
Japan, U.S., Canada, Mexico to restart auto TPP talks Monday Japan News ...Japan, the United States, Canada and Mexico will hold working-level talks on Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations in San Francisco on Monday and Tuesday, focusing on automobile trade, according to the Japanese government. The upcoming talks are aimed at narrowing their gap over rules of origin, prior to a ministerial meeting that 12 countries joining TPP negotiations plan to hold in Atlanta in late September...
Stephen Harper Says Concessions Likely for Auto Industry in Pacific Trade Pact Wall Street Journal ...Canadian leader Stephen Harper signaled in an election debate late Thursday that he will make a concession on protections for the auto industry to conclude the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, a suggestion that is triggering protest from the Canadian units of the big Detroit-based auto makers...
Harper’s TPP remarks draw ire of Ontario, union leader Globe and Mail ...Stephen Harper is being accused of sacrificing Canada’s 80,000-job auto-parts industry in his eagerness to sign on to a massive Pacific Rim trade deal – one his government is negotiating in the middle of the federal election campaign. The Conservative Leader made waves Thursday when he signaled that he’s determined to be part of a Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement even over the objections of the auto sector, whose members fear it will lead to a flood of foreign parts, produced by cheaper labour, killing their industry...
International agreement could hurt Saskatchewan dairy producers Global News ...Many Saskatchewan dairy producers are concerned their domestic market may shrink due to a possible trade agreement, according to their provincial advocacy group. SaskMilk’s policy manager Joy Smith says producers will have their eyes on upcoming Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement talks planned in Atlanta. The trade pact includes 12 North American and Asian countries, including Canada, the U.S. and Japan...
No deal at next TPP talks to extend negotiations for years: minister Mainichi ...The Japanese minister in charge of negotiations for a Pacific Rim free trade initiative said Friday that talks on the free trade deal will not be concluded anytime soon if the 12 member countries fail to strike an accord at an upcoming meeting starting late September. "There is a risk that an agreement will be put off for years" if no deal is reached at the next session, Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Akira Amari said at a press conference...
More Austerity Awaits Greeks in Election Aftermath Greek Reporter ...Greeks are bracing to face a series of austerity measures and harsh reforms in the aftermath of the election that brought to power the previous coalition of SYRIZA and ANEL. About fifty measures and reforms have to be implemented by December as required by the bailout program Athens signed in July. Also a series of pension cuts will be implemented depending on how high each pension is...
Sierra Leone workers strike at Shandong's iron ore mine Reuters ...Hundreds of Sierra Leonean workers at Shandong Steel's iron ore mine declared an unlimited strike on Saturday, alleging unfair treatment, a union leader said. The Chinese firm, formerly a minority partner of African Minerals in the African Minerals-run project, acquired full ownership earlier this year and resumed operations in May...
Workers Strike at Chinese Shipyard, Demand Three Months' Back-Pay RFA ...More than 1,000 workers at a shipbuilding yard in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu are on strike over unpaid wages, workers told RFA on Friday, as the industrial action entered its third day. Around one-fifth of the 5,000-strong workforce at the Sinopacific-owned shipyard in Jiangsu's Dayang city walked out on Wednesday...
State & Living Wages Battles
Scott Walker's Partisans Poised to Raze Nonpartisan Government Accountability Board Huffington Post ...Stung by the campaign finance probe into potentially illegal coordination between Governor Scott Walker and independent campaign finance groups, the Wisconsin GOP is on the warpath. Governor Walker called for "dismantling" of the Government Accountability Board (GAB), the nonpartisan, independent agency that oversees Wisconsin elections, campaign finance and ethics laws that gave the go-ahead to the investigation...
Scott Walker Was Coward During 2011 Wisconsin Protests Alternet ...According to a stunning, detailed new statement by a former top Republican legislative aide, it turns out that Walker isolated himself and hid in tightly controlled, heavily-guarded environments during the conflict covering six intense weeks in early 2011—which directly contradicts his tall tale of courageously facing his adversaries...
NJ minimum wage to remain at $8.38 an hour in 2016 North Jersey ...New Jersey's minimum wage will remain $8.38 an hour in 2016, the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development said Monday. The wage has been tied to the inflation rate since January 2014. In November 2013, New Jersey voters approved a constitutional amendment that increased the minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.25 an hour...
Osceola mulls $11.66-an-hour living wage proposal Orlando Sentinel ...Osceola County's newly Democratic-controlled commission has wasted little time taking on controversial issues since January, passing anti-discrimination protections for gay and transgender residents while raising the local gas tax to pay for roads and other infrastructure projects. Now the board is preparing to vote on an ordinance Monday that would set one of the highest minimum wages for county contracts in the state, at $11.66 an hour for the first year...
U.S. Labor
United Farm Workers claims victory in labor battle Californian ...Organized labor claimed a victory in a decades-long fight with one of the nation's largest fruit growers when a judge ruled that the company interfered with its employees' vote on whether to reject union representation. A decision issued Thursday sets aside an election held nearly two years ago by workers at Gerawan Farming Inc., which hires thousands of people annually to harvest nectarines, peaches and grapes in the Central Valley...
Shifting work to Mexico now up for UAW vote Detroit Free Press ...Building more cars in Mexico. It's a flash point for about 40,000 UAW workers preparing to vote on a tentative agreement with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, knowing the new four-year pact includes pay increases, profit sharing and bonuses but also shifts car production to plants south of the border...
Tile, marble union workers preparing to strike statewide Khon ...Members of the Hawaii Masons Union, specifically ceramic tile and marble setters are planning a statewide strike Monday. “Nobody wants a strike, nobody wins but this is like a last resort,” said Todd Saito, a business representative for Local #1 of Hawaii. He says contract negotiations with the Tile Contractors Association of Hawaii have been going on for over a year. “We just want a package that represents industry standards,” said Saito...
HCA, nurses reach collective bargaining agreement in 5 states Tennessean ...HCA reached tentative collective bargaining agreements with National Nurses United that would cover almost 8,000 nurses in five states if ratified. Nurses at the 17 hospitals will vote Monday whether to accept the agreements that cover a range of work conditions, including staffing, scheduling and workplace safety...
IBEW Local 125 authorizes strike at Pacific Power NW Labor Press ...Workers across Northern Oregon and Southeastern Washington voted overwhelmingly Sept. 1 to reject a contract offer and authorize the union bargaining committee to call a strike at Pacific Power. BEW Local 125 represents 320 linemen, meter readers, substation wiremen and other workers at the electric utility, in a service area that extends from Astoria to Bend to Walla Walla...
Judge’s Ruling Awards $600,000 to Exploited Workers New York Times ...More than six years after their rescue from virtual servitude, in which they worked for little pay in a turkey processing plant while living in a decrepit Iowa schoolhouse, more than two dozen men with intellectual disabilities will share nearly $600,000 owed to them, after a federal court order issued Thursday in Dallas...
American Slavery, Reinvented The Atlantic ...Given the scope and scale of prison labor in the modern era, one could reasonably expect some degree of compliance with modern labor standards. However, despite the hard-won protections secured by the labor movement over the past 100 years, incarcerated workers do not enjoy most of these protections...
Social Justice & Other News
New Report Shows How Women of Color Bear the Costs of Mass Incarceration Truthout ...As the report emphasizes, it is overwhelming women - particularly low-income women of color, given the race and class bias of our criminal justice system - who shoulder these burdens. A recent study found that 44 percent of Black women and 12 percent of white women have a family member imprisoned...
Are Student Debt Forgiveness Scams The Next Mortgage Meltdown? Think Progress ...With student loan defaults on the rise, regulatory agencies are increasingly concerned about borrowers being preyed upon by student debt relief scammers. These scammers, which promise students they can cut their student loan payments by 50 percent or more, take advantage of students’ lack of knowledge about repayment options...
Pope Francis in Cuba: "The World Needs Reconciliation in This Atmosphere of a Third World War" Democracy Now ...Ahead of his first U.S. visit, Pope Francis celebrated mass in Cuba Sunday before hundreds of thousands of worshipers in Havana’s Revolution Square. Born in Argentina, Francis is the first Latin American pope. The pope’s homily in Havana included no direct political message besides urging the successful conclusion of Colombia peace talks that have been taking place in Cuba for nearly three years...
The Media Can No Longer Pretend That Trump’s Racist Birtherism Is Old News The Nation ... Until last night, Trump has successfully built a great big wall to keep his ugly birther narrative from crossing into his current presidential run. His candidacy now turns on his racist immigrant-bashing. It’s not that the press has completely forgotten the birther storm, which peaked in 2011...
Hedge Fund Manager Buys Rights To Critical Drug, Hikes Price By 5000% Alternet ...The drug, called Daraprim, was acquired in August by Turing Pharmaceuticals, a start-up run by a former hedge fund manager. Turing immediately raised the price to $750 a tablet from $13.50, bringing the annual cost of treatment for some patients to hundreds of thousands of dollars...
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Today's Teamster New 09.09.15
Teamsters
Hoffa: Let’s get America working again The Detroit News ...Everyday Americans are facing increased challenges at work and at home. The outsourcing of millions of good-paying jobs overseas has led to lower paychecks here in the U.S. That, in turn, has made it more difficult for many workers to provide for their families. The Teamsters, however, have a plan to help turn the tide. Called “Let’s Get America Working,” it will encourage both Democratic and Republican lawmakers to endorse a pro-worker platform. At the center of the campaign is the need for this country to invest in infrastructure...
Possible bus strike looms in Middle Country district Long Island News 12 ...A potential bus strike in the Middle Country School District has parents worrying about possible transportation disruptions this week. Timothy Lynch, the president of the Teamsters union that represents bus company workers, says they have been trying for months to come to an agreement with the Baumann and Sons bus company, which includes ACME buses...
School bus strike could affect dozens of LI districts Newsday ...A labor dispute between one of Long Island's largest school bus operators and its drivers has some parents worried about a potential strike if the parties fail to reach a resolution at a federal mediation meeting Wednesday. Timothy Lynch is president of Teamsters Local 1205, which represents bus drivers who work for Ronkonkoma-based Baumann & Sons Buses Inc. and its affiliate, ACME Buses...
Strike update: Sun Tran and Teamsters resume talks Arizona Daily Star ...The Teamsters and Professional Transit Management, which operates Sun Tran, met with a federal mediator Tuesday. Neither side would discuss the talks. They did not meet for three days during the Labor Day weekend. The Tucson City Council will get a report on the strike and Sun Tran management and operations at its 1:30 p.m. meeting Wednesday at City Hall, 255 W. Alameda...
Alton Agreements with AFSCME, Teamsters Pending RiverBender.com ...New agreements between the City of Alton and two of its collective bargaining units will be up for final approval at tonight’s City Council meeting. The Alton City Council Committee of the Whole gave preliminary approval to contracts with the Teamsters and AFSCME last night. Both bargaining units have already ratified the contracts...
Global Labor & Trade
Japan PM: One more round of TPP ministers' talks to lead to agreement Reuters ...Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the 12 Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) nations are at a stage where one more round of ministerial talks will lead to an agreement on remaining issues, according to the text of a message presented at an event organized by Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Tokyo. Japan and the United States will hold working-level bilateral talks on auto issues from Wednesday in Washington. Japan also plans to meet negotiators from Canada and Mexico...
Mitch McConnell Fights For Tobacco Interests In Trans-Pacific Trade Deal Forbes ...There is nothing good about tobacco. It’s addictive, poisonous and lethal. And it can damage the health of people who don’t use it. For those reasons, governments worldwide treat tobacco differently from other agricultural commodities. For example, the 12 governments negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership don’t want the agreement to give the American tobacco industry the same privileges it gives other industries...
Dem pans Obama's new trade liaison The Hill ...A House Democrat is calling on the Obama administration to provide more details about global trade agreements and dismissing efforts to create a special liaison to Congress. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) on Friday called Tim Reif’s appointment as the U.S. Trade Representative's (USTR) chief transparency officer this week "a meaningless response to my demands for greater congressional and public access”...
NAFTA auto parts makers mount drive to sweeten terms of TPP deal Globe and Mail ...The North American auto industry is increasing the pressure on Canada, the U.S. and Mexico to extract a better deal for NAFTA car makers from a proposed Pacific Rim trade pact. For the first time, auto parts makers in all three countries are speaking publicly with a united voice on the matter – with industry leaders urging Ottawa, Washington and Mexico City to resist Japan’s efforts to water down domestic content rules...
EC President Juncker Calls for Maximum Transparency in TTIP Deal Sputnik ...Negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the European Union and the United States, criticized for their confidentiality, should be transparent to the limit, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Wednesday. TIP’s stated goal is to ease the flow of goods and services across the Atlantic. The pact seeks to create the world's largest free trade zone...
Melbourne tram workers to go on strike on Thursday as pay negotiations stall The Guardian ...Melbourne’s tram workers will go on strike again on Thursday, with neither the public transport union nor Yarra Trams willing to compromise over a pay dispute that has dragged on for months.
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) is holding a four-hour stoppage between 10am and 2pm.
Yarra Trams held unsuccessful eleventh-hour talks with the union on Wednesday aimed at averting the industrial action...
State & Living Wage Battles
Ballot measure could rekindle right-to-work debate Argus Leader ...A proposed constitutional amendment could reignite a decades-cooled debate over South Dakota’s right-to-work law, a union representative said Tuesday. The measure, if signed by enough South Dakotans and approved by a majority of voters in 2016, could “give certain organizations the right to charge fees,” despite the state’s nearly 70-year-old right-to-work law...
Paid Sick Leave Is Fast Becoming A Right -- Not A Privilege Huffington Post ...It’s getting harder for your boss to get away with not offering paid sick leave. That’s of course good news for the many workers, mostly hourly and low-paid, who either lose money when they’re ill or wind up coming to work sick. On Labor Day, President Barack Obama announced that starting in 2017, federal contractors must provide workers with paid sick time. Three states and 15 municipalities passed sick leave laws this year and last year, including Massachusetts, California, Oregon, Philadelphia and Newark...
Can Scott Walker Save Himself? The Atlantic ...Scott Walker was in Wisconsin for one day last week, but—curiously for a governor who’s been criticized for being away from his home state—he did not show his face publicly. The Wisconsin governor’s presidential campaign is in free fall—a development that puzzles the state he has dominated...
It’s officially impossible to afford NYC rents on the minimum wage Daily News ...New York City has closed the door on minimum-wage workers. A study found there is not one Big Apple neighborhood where a worker earning the state minimum can afford the median rent. In fact, a New Yorker would need to make at least $38.80 an hour — or more than four times the $8.75 minimum wage — to afford the city’s median asking rent of $2,690...
More unions ask U.S. Supreme Court to hear pension payment case NJ.com ...Another 16 New Jersey public worker unions are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider whether the state's highest court erred by declaring a pension funding agreement between the state and employees unenforceable. In a petition filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, lawyers for 16 labor groups argued that the New Jersey Supreme Court should have applied the protections of the federal Contract Clause to the deal...
Hoffa: Let’s get America working again The Detroit News ...Everyday Americans are facing increased challenges at work and at home. The outsourcing of millions of good-paying jobs overseas has led to lower paychecks here in the U.S. That, in turn, has made it more difficult for many workers to provide for their families. The Teamsters, however, have a plan to help turn the tide. Called “Let’s Get America Working,” it will encourage both Democratic and Republican lawmakers to endorse a pro-worker platform. At the center of the campaign is the need for this country to invest in infrastructure...
Possible bus strike looms in Middle Country district Long Island News 12 ...A potential bus strike in the Middle Country School District has parents worrying about possible transportation disruptions this week. Timothy Lynch, the president of the Teamsters union that represents bus company workers, says they have been trying for months to come to an agreement with the Baumann and Sons bus company, which includes ACME buses...
School bus strike could affect dozens of LI districts Newsday ...A labor dispute between one of Long Island's largest school bus operators and its drivers has some parents worried about a potential strike if the parties fail to reach a resolution at a federal mediation meeting Wednesday. Timothy Lynch is president of Teamsters Local 1205, which represents bus drivers who work for Ronkonkoma-based Baumann & Sons Buses Inc. and its affiliate, ACME Buses...
Strike update: Sun Tran and Teamsters resume talks Arizona Daily Star ...The Teamsters and Professional Transit Management, which operates Sun Tran, met with a federal mediator Tuesday. Neither side would discuss the talks. They did not meet for three days during the Labor Day weekend. The Tucson City Council will get a report on the strike and Sun Tran management and operations at its 1:30 p.m. meeting Wednesday at City Hall, 255 W. Alameda...
Alton Agreements with AFSCME, Teamsters Pending RiverBender.com ...New agreements between the City of Alton and two of its collective bargaining units will be up for final approval at tonight’s City Council meeting. The Alton City Council Committee of the Whole gave preliminary approval to contracts with the Teamsters and AFSCME last night. Both bargaining units have already ratified the contracts...
Global Labor & Trade
Japan PM: One more round of TPP ministers' talks to lead to agreement Reuters ...Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the 12 Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) nations are at a stage where one more round of ministerial talks will lead to an agreement on remaining issues, according to the text of a message presented at an event organized by Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Tokyo. Japan and the United States will hold working-level bilateral talks on auto issues from Wednesday in Washington. Japan also plans to meet negotiators from Canada and Mexico...
Mitch McConnell Fights For Tobacco Interests In Trans-Pacific Trade Deal Forbes ...There is nothing good about tobacco. It’s addictive, poisonous and lethal. And it can damage the health of people who don’t use it. For those reasons, governments worldwide treat tobacco differently from other agricultural commodities. For example, the 12 governments negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership don’t want the agreement to give the American tobacco industry the same privileges it gives other industries...
Dem pans Obama's new trade liaison The Hill ...A House Democrat is calling on the Obama administration to provide more details about global trade agreements and dismissing efforts to create a special liaison to Congress. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) on Friday called Tim Reif’s appointment as the U.S. Trade Representative's (USTR) chief transparency officer this week "a meaningless response to my demands for greater congressional and public access”...
NAFTA auto parts makers mount drive to sweeten terms of TPP deal Globe and Mail ...The North American auto industry is increasing the pressure on Canada, the U.S. and Mexico to extract a better deal for NAFTA car makers from a proposed Pacific Rim trade pact. For the first time, auto parts makers in all three countries are speaking publicly with a united voice on the matter – with industry leaders urging Ottawa, Washington and Mexico City to resist Japan’s efforts to water down domestic content rules...
EC President Juncker Calls for Maximum Transparency in TTIP Deal Sputnik ...Negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the European Union and the United States, criticized for their confidentiality, should be transparent to the limit, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Wednesday. TIP’s stated goal is to ease the flow of goods and services across the Atlantic. The pact seeks to create the world's largest free trade zone...
Melbourne tram workers to go on strike on Thursday as pay negotiations stall The Guardian ...Melbourne’s tram workers will go on strike again on Thursday, with neither the public transport union nor Yarra Trams willing to compromise over a pay dispute that has dragged on for months.
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) is holding a four-hour stoppage between 10am and 2pm.
Yarra Trams held unsuccessful eleventh-hour talks with the union on Wednesday aimed at averting the industrial action...
State & Living Wage Battles
Ballot measure could rekindle right-to-work debate Argus Leader ...A proposed constitutional amendment could reignite a decades-cooled debate over South Dakota’s right-to-work law, a union representative said Tuesday. The measure, if signed by enough South Dakotans and approved by a majority of voters in 2016, could “give certain organizations the right to charge fees,” despite the state’s nearly 70-year-old right-to-work law...
Paid Sick Leave Is Fast Becoming A Right -- Not A Privilege Huffington Post ...It’s getting harder for your boss to get away with not offering paid sick leave. That’s of course good news for the many workers, mostly hourly and low-paid, who either lose money when they’re ill or wind up coming to work sick. On Labor Day, President Barack Obama announced that starting in 2017, federal contractors must provide workers with paid sick time. Three states and 15 municipalities passed sick leave laws this year and last year, including Massachusetts, California, Oregon, Philadelphia and Newark...
Can Scott Walker Save Himself? The Atlantic ...Scott Walker was in Wisconsin for one day last week, but—curiously for a governor who’s been criticized for being away from his home state—he did not show his face publicly. The Wisconsin governor’s presidential campaign is in free fall—a development that puzzles the state he has dominated...
It’s officially impossible to afford NYC rents on the minimum wage Daily News ...New York City has closed the door on minimum-wage workers. A study found there is not one Big Apple neighborhood where a worker earning the state minimum can afford the median rent. In fact, a New Yorker would need to make at least $38.80 an hour — or more than four times the $8.75 minimum wage — to afford the city’s median asking rent of $2,690...
More unions ask U.S. Supreme Court to hear pension payment case NJ.com ...Another 16 New Jersey public worker unions are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider whether the state's highest court erred by declaring a pension funding agreement between the state and employees unenforceable. In a petition filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, lawyers for 16 labor groups argued that the New Jersey Supreme Court should have applied the protections of the federal Contract Clause to the deal...
U.S. Labor
The Six-State Steelworker Fight Back Against Corporate Lockouts and Exploitation In These Times ...Instead of picnicking, Steelworkers in six states spent this Labor Day picketing the gates of a dozen Allegheny Technologies Inc. (ATI) specialty mills. These 2,200 Steelworkers are not on strike. They never even took a strike vote to threaten a walkout. ATI locked them out of their jobs. ATI threw them out of the mills on Aug. 15...
UAW VPs stress patience as contract deadline looms The Detroit News ...The United Auto Workers will not release details of contract discussions with the Detroit automakers until tentative agreements are reached. That’s according to two separate messages directed at union workers Tuesday from UAW Vice President Norwood Jewell, who is overseeing talks with Fiat Chrysler, and UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada, head of the union’s General Motors department...
A Teacher's Strike in Seattle The Atlantic ...Seattle teachers voted to go on strike Wednesday, the first day of school, over stalled contract negotiations with the city’s school district. “After bargaining until midnight Monday and for most of the day Tuesday, it was clear that a settlement wasn’t close,” the Seattle Education Association, the union that represents about 5,000 teachers, said in a statement...
UAW workers for Ford approve strike authorization MLive ...UAW workers for Ford became the last of the Big Three auto workers to give leadership permission to strike. The UAW's National Ford Department said more than 98 percent of its members approved the strike authorization, according to a statement. "I am pleased with both the high margin of support and high turnout as nearly 80 percent of our membership took part in the voting process," said Jimmy Settles, UAW vice president...
The Unionization of Digital Media The Nation ...The digital news team at Al Jazeera America announced last week that it wants to go union, following a string of similar campaigns in recent weeks by web-based journalists who have moved toward or formally voted to establish unions at The Guardian US, Vice, Salon, and Gawker. The organizing bump suggests that, while journalism faces a troubled future, on the labor front, there’s good news to tell...
Social Justice & Other News
ICE Program Focused On ‘National Security’ Detains Immigrants With Zero Criminal Convictions Think Progress ...Even as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Jeh Johnson has pledged to focus on undocumented immigrants who pose a “demonstrable risk to national security,” a new report shows that federal immigration officials continue to detain people with no criminal record at all. At least two-thirds of targets detained in April by local or state police departments on behalf of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency “had no criminal conviction of any type”...
Scaring Up the Vote Slate ...GOP presidential contenders are blaming Black Lives Matter for crime. It’s a desperate attempt to frighten white voters into supporting them. National rates of violent crime are down to their lowest levels in a generation, with steep drops in gun homicide among all groups. And while violence is still a problem for isolated, low-income black Americans, the overall portrait is good...
The Six-State Steelworker Fight Back Against Corporate Lockouts and Exploitation In These Times ...Instead of picnicking, Steelworkers in six states spent this Labor Day picketing the gates of a dozen Allegheny Technologies Inc. (ATI) specialty mills. These 2,200 Steelworkers are not on strike. They never even took a strike vote to threaten a walkout. ATI locked them out of their jobs. ATI threw them out of the mills on Aug. 15...
UAW VPs stress patience as contract deadline looms The Detroit News ...The United Auto Workers will not release details of contract discussions with the Detroit automakers until tentative agreements are reached. That’s according to two separate messages directed at union workers Tuesday from UAW Vice President Norwood Jewell, who is overseeing talks with Fiat Chrysler, and UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada, head of the union’s General Motors department...
A Teacher's Strike in Seattle The Atlantic ...Seattle teachers voted to go on strike Wednesday, the first day of school, over stalled contract negotiations with the city’s school district. “After bargaining until midnight Monday and for most of the day Tuesday, it was clear that a settlement wasn’t close,” the Seattle Education Association, the union that represents about 5,000 teachers, said in a statement...
UAW workers for Ford approve strike authorization MLive ...UAW workers for Ford became the last of the Big Three auto workers to give leadership permission to strike. The UAW's National Ford Department said more than 98 percent of its members approved the strike authorization, according to a statement. "I am pleased with both the high margin of support and high turnout as nearly 80 percent of our membership took part in the voting process," said Jimmy Settles, UAW vice president...
The Unionization of Digital Media The Nation ...The digital news team at Al Jazeera America announced last week that it wants to go union, following a string of similar campaigns in recent weeks by web-based journalists who have moved toward or formally voted to establish unions at The Guardian US, Vice, Salon, and Gawker. The organizing bump suggests that, while journalism faces a troubled future, on the labor front, there’s good news to tell...
Social Justice & Other News
ICE Program Focused On ‘National Security’ Detains Immigrants With Zero Criminal Convictions Think Progress ...Even as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Jeh Johnson has pledged to focus on undocumented immigrants who pose a “demonstrable risk to national security,” a new report shows that federal immigration officials continue to detain people with no criminal record at all. At least two-thirds of targets detained in April by local or state police departments on behalf of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency “had no criminal conviction of any type”...
Scaring Up the Vote Slate ...GOP presidential contenders are blaming Black Lives Matter for crime. It’s a desperate attempt to frighten white voters into supporting them. National rates of violent crime are down to their lowest levels in a generation, with steep drops in gun homicide among all groups. And while violence is still a problem for isolated, low-income black Americans, the overall portrait is good...
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Today's Teamster News 04.21.15
Teamsters
Longtime Union Activist Rodney Smith Helps Organize Facebook Shuttle Drivers Contra Costa Times ...As a union organizer for Teamsters Local 853 based in San Leandro, Smith played a key role in winning the drivers their first union contract. In the process, the father of two helped pull off a precedent-setting vote that targets the growing income gap in Silicon Valley...
Pilots Fault Allegiant on Safety as Talks Stall New York Times ...But Allegiant’s scrappy success is now being questioned by its pilots, who say they are worried about repeated mechanical problems with the airline’s fleet of older planes, poor maintenance operations and a culture where profits come before safety. All the claims were reported by the pilots and compiled by the Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition on behalf of the pilots’ union, the Airline Professionals Association Teamsters Local 1224...
PCC unions question change on carpenters, Teamsters Philly.com ...Marino wrote a letter saying he would dismiss complaints - primarily on technical grounds - by the Metropolitan Council of Regional Carpenters and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which said they had been improperly shut out of work last May at the Convention Center. On Thursday, Marino reversed course, saying he would hear arguments in the case...
Global Labor & Trade
‘Fast Track’ Trade Bill Taps Tension In Ohio Wall Street Journal ...Rep. Tim Ryan doesn’t need to travel far from home to see the damage he ascribes to bad trade deals. “You can see how it’s hollowed out,” said the Democratic lawmaker, pointing to empty or underutilized steel plants on a recent tour of his district in northeast Ohio. “Global trade regimes aren’t fairly written if this is the end result.”...
Japan says trade talks with US are close to deal The Hill ...Abe said he and Obama must play a leadership role to wrap a deal and “ultimately, what needs to happen is for both countries to make a political decision” to tackle difficult remaining issues. A U.S.-Japan bilateral agreement is a major step toward completing the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Progressive Coalition Tells Lawmakers: 'Don't Trade Away Our Future' with Fast Track Common Dreams ...With members of Congress set to debate Fast Track authority this week, hundreds of environmentalists, consumer advocates, nurses, labor leaders, and elected officials stood shoulder-to-shoulder at a Washington, D.C. rally on Monday, pleading with lawmakers: 'Don't Trade Away Our Future!'
AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka explains why labor unions hate Obama’s trade deal Vox ...The TPP has created some strange bedfellows: the Obama administration has found itself with many GOP allies in promoting the trade deal, while unions and liberals like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders staunchly oppose it. Vox spoke with Trumka recently about why he opposes the pact...
Don't Let TPP Gut State Laws (opinion) Politico ...State laws and regulators are increasingly important as gridlock in Washington makes broad federal action on important issues an increasingly rare event. From environmental protection to civil rights to the minimum wage, the action is at the state level. Ironically, one thing that may get done soon in Washington is a trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which has the potential to undermine a wide range of state and local laws...
Fast Tracking Democracy To Hell (opinion) Huffington Post ...The Congressional free traders want to Fast Track authorization of the TPP. Fast Track enables Congress to abdicate its constitutionally mandated duty to regulate international trade. Instead of scrutinizing, amending and improving proposed trade deals, lawmakers use Fast Track to gloss over the specifics and simply vote yea or nay on the entire package as presented...
State & Living Wage Battles
Workers Allege Walmart Closes Stores To Retaliate Against Strikes Think Progress ...Over the weekend, the AFL-CIO and United Food & Commercial Workers International Union filed an injunction on their behalf with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Walmart. “The Board should seek injunctive relief compelling Walmart to rehire every one of the 2200 Associates who have been terminated in all 5 stores,” it says...
David Koch on 2016 GOP Nominee: ‘It Should be Scott Walker.’ But... The Nation ...According to several reports from a New York State Republican Party fund-raising event on Monday, David Koch told the big donors: “We will support whoever the candidate is. But it should be Scott Walker.” That sounded like an endorsement. So did what Koch said outside the Manhattan event, at which Walker also spoke. Koch hailed the governor of Wisconsin “a tremendous candidate.”...
TWMP talks Right-to-Work, the budget, and 2016 The Missouri Times ...Senate Pro Tem Tom Dempsey joined This Week In Missouri Politics to discuss the coming budget fight and his decision to put Right-to-Work legislation on the Senate calendar for debate...
Little Momentum for National Right-to-Work, Despite Support by White House Contestants Bloomberg News ...Despite the backing of at least two of the three current Republican presidential candidates and similar laws in place in half the states, right-to-work legislation remains highly unlikely to move at the federal level any time soon, lawmakers and other observers told Bloomberg BNA...
Not just fast food: Full-service restaurant chains pay poverty wages, too Daily Kos ...Fast food isn't the only part of the restaurant industry where workers are seriously underpaid. A recent report from the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United shows that many workers in full-service restaurants are also paid so little that they need and get nearly $9.5 billion in public assistance each year...
How a $15 Minimum Wage Helps All Workers Counterpunch ...Regardless of their reasoning, the anti-$15 workers are arguing against their own best interest, since a $15 minimum wage would benefit the overwhelming majority of people who make over $15 an hour. This is because a $15 minimum wage would transform the labor market in favor of all working people. Economists have even given a term for this phenomenon, called “compression,” which describes the effects of how rising lower wages puts pressure on employers to raise wages for higher paid workers...
New York City Just Outlawed Running Credit Checks on Job Applicants The Nation ...The legislation, which passed last Thursday following an extensive grassroots campaign by local and national labor and community groups, restricts a boss, prospective employer or agency from “us[ing] an individual’s consumer credit history in making employment decisions.”...
U.S. Labor
Safety Regulations Issued For Trains Carrying Oil New York Times ...Responding to public pressure to act more quickly after a series of fiery train derailments involving oil shipments, the Transportation Department on Friday issued a series of emergency orders, including a 40-mile-an-hour speed limit for hazardous materials moving through urban areas. The emergency rules also require railroads to provide detailed information about a shipment within 90 minutes of any derailment...
Why Can't America Have Great Trains? National Journal ...Along with PBS and the United States Postal Service, Amtrak is perpetual fodder for libertarian think-tankers and Republican office-seekers on the prowl for government profligacy. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush repeatedly tried to eliminate its subsidy, while Mitt Romney promised to do the same. Democrats, for their part, aren't interested in slaying Amtrak, but mostly you get the sense they just feel bad for it...
One-day teacher strikes planned this week King5.com ...Teachers in eight school districts, from Arlington to Blaine, announced one-day strikes this week to protest the lack of funding for public schools. They look at their act of civil disobedience as an opportunity to demand that lawmakers to fully fund public schools as mandated by a state supreme court decision, and reduce class size according to the voter approved Initiative 1351...
NLRB Upholds Howard University Docs' Union Vote Union City ...Resident physicians at Howard University Hospital and community leaders are calling on hospital officials to come to the table to negotiate a first contract with the residents’ union in the wake of a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling upholding the union election held earlier this year, in which a majority of the 263 Howard resident physicians voted in favor of representation...
Miscellaneous
Corporate Giants Often Get Huge Tax Breaks, While Poor, Undocumented Immigrants Have Paid Billions In State Taxes New York Daily News ...The truth is that for corporate giants like General Electric, Verizon, Citigroup, FedEx and others, the only certainty in terms of taxes is that they contribute as little to the country’s coffers as possible. Ironically, while many of these corporate behemoths pay zero taxes, the eternally vilified undocumented immigrants in New York paid $1.1 billion in state taxes in 2012...
Senate Races In 2016 Look Poised To Set Spending Records Washington Post ...Yes, the 2016 presidential race will be the most expensive in history. But the battle for control of the U.S. Senate in November 2016 also looks likely to smash spending records...
How Corporate Lobbyists Conquered American Democracy The Atlantic ...Today, the biggest companies have upwards of 100 lobbyists representing them, allowing them to be everywhere, all the time. For every dollar spent on lobbying by labor unions and public-interest groups together, large corporations and their associations now spend $34. Of the 100 organizations that spend the most on lobbying, 95 consistently represent business...
Longtime Union Activist Rodney Smith Helps Organize Facebook Shuttle Drivers Contra Costa Times ...As a union organizer for Teamsters Local 853 based in San Leandro, Smith played a key role in winning the drivers their first union contract. In the process, the father of two helped pull off a precedent-setting vote that targets the growing income gap in Silicon Valley...
Pilots Fault Allegiant on Safety as Talks Stall New York Times ...But Allegiant’s scrappy success is now being questioned by its pilots, who say they are worried about repeated mechanical problems with the airline’s fleet of older planes, poor maintenance operations and a culture where profits come before safety. All the claims were reported by the pilots and compiled by the Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition on behalf of the pilots’ union, the Airline Professionals Association Teamsters Local 1224...
PCC unions question change on carpenters, Teamsters Philly.com ...Marino wrote a letter saying he would dismiss complaints - primarily on technical grounds - by the Metropolitan Council of Regional Carpenters and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which said they had been improperly shut out of work last May at the Convention Center. On Thursday, Marino reversed course, saying he would hear arguments in the case...
Global Labor & Trade
‘Fast Track’ Trade Bill Taps Tension In Ohio Wall Street Journal ...Rep. Tim Ryan doesn’t need to travel far from home to see the damage he ascribes to bad trade deals. “You can see how it’s hollowed out,” said the Democratic lawmaker, pointing to empty or underutilized steel plants on a recent tour of his district in northeast Ohio. “Global trade regimes aren’t fairly written if this is the end result.”...
Japan says trade talks with US are close to deal The Hill ...Abe said he and Obama must play a leadership role to wrap a deal and “ultimately, what needs to happen is for both countries to make a political decision” to tackle difficult remaining issues. A U.S.-Japan bilateral agreement is a major step toward completing the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Progressive Coalition Tells Lawmakers: 'Don't Trade Away Our Future' with Fast Track Common Dreams ...With members of Congress set to debate Fast Track authority this week, hundreds of environmentalists, consumer advocates, nurses, labor leaders, and elected officials stood shoulder-to-shoulder at a Washington, D.C. rally on Monday, pleading with lawmakers: 'Don't Trade Away Our Future!'
AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka explains why labor unions hate Obama’s trade deal Vox ...The TPP has created some strange bedfellows: the Obama administration has found itself with many GOP allies in promoting the trade deal, while unions and liberals like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders staunchly oppose it. Vox spoke with Trumka recently about why he opposes the pact...
Don't Let TPP Gut State Laws (opinion) Politico ...State laws and regulators are increasingly important as gridlock in Washington makes broad federal action on important issues an increasingly rare event. From environmental protection to civil rights to the minimum wage, the action is at the state level. Ironically, one thing that may get done soon in Washington is a trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which has the potential to undermine a wide range of state and local laws...
Fast Tracking Democracy To Hell (opinion) Huffington Post ...The Congressional free traders want to Fast Track authorization of the TPP. Fast Track enables Congress to abdicate its constitutionally mandated duty to regulate international trade. Instead of scrutinizing, amending and improving proposed trade deals, lawmakers use Fast Track to gloss over the specifics and simply vote yea or nay on the entire package as presented...
State & Living Wage Battles
Workers Allege Walmart Closes Stores To Retaliate Against Strikes Think Progress ...Over the weekend, the AFL-CIO and United Food & Commercial Workers International Union filed an injunction on their behalf with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Walmart. “The Board should seek injunctive relief compelling Walmart to rehire every one of the 2200 Associates who have been terminated in all 5 stores,” it says...
David Koch on 2016 GOP Nominee: ‘It Should be Scott Walker.’ But... The Nation ...According to several reports from a New York State Republican Party fund-raising event on Monday, David Koch told the big donors: “We will support whoever the candidate is. But it should be Scott Walker.” That sounded like an endorsement. So did what Koch said outside the Manhattan event, at which Walker also spoke. Koch hailed the governor of Wisconsin “a tremendous candidate.”...
TWMP talks Right-to-Work, the budget, and 2016 The Missouri Times ...Senate Pro Tem Tom Dempsey joined This Week In Missouri Politics to discuss the coming budget fight and his decision to put Right-to-Work legislation on the Senate calendar for debate...
Little Momentum for National Right-to-Work, Despite Support by White House Contestants Bloomberg News ...Despite the backing of at least two of the three current Republican presidential candidates and similar laws in place in half the states, right-to-work legislation remains highly unlikely to move at the federal level any time soon, lawmakers and other observers told Bloomberg BNA...
Not just fast food: Full-service restaurant chains pay poverty wages, too Daily Kos ...Fast food isn't the only part of the restaurant industry where workers are seriously underpaid. A recent report from the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United shows that many workers in full-service restaurants are also paid so little that they need and get nearly $9.5 billion in public assistance each year...
How a $15 Minimum Wage Helps All Workers Counterpunch ...Regardless of their reasoning, the anti-$15 workers are arguing against their own best interest, since a $15 minimum wage would benefit the overwhelming majority of people who make over $15 an hour. This is because a $15 minimum wage would transform the labor market in favor of all working people. Economists have even given a term for this phenomenon, called “compression,” which describes the effects of how rising lower wages puts pressure on employers to raise wages for higher paid workers...
New York City Just Outlawed Running Credit Checks on Job Applicants The Nation ...The legislation, which passed last Thursday following an extensive grassroots campaign by local and national labor and community groups, restricts a boss, prospective employer or agency from “us[ing] an individual’s consumer credit history in making employment decisions.”...
U.S. Labor
Safety Regulations Issued For Trains Carrying Oil New York Times ...Responding to public pressure to act more quickly after a series of fiery train derailments involving oil shipments, the Transportation Department on Friday issued a series of emergency orders, including a 40-mile-an-hour speed limit for hazardous materials moving through urban areas. The emergency rules also require railroads to provide detailed information about a shipment within 90 minutes of any derailment...
Why Can't America Have Great Trains? National Journal ...Along with PBS and the United States Postal Service, Amtrak is perpetual fodder for libertarian think-tankers and Republican office-seekers on the prowl for government profligacy. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush repeatedly tried to eliminate its subsidy, while Mitt Romney promised to do the same. Democrats, for their part, aren't interested in slaying Amtrak, but mostly you get the sense they just feel bad for it...
One-day teacher strikes planned this week King5.com ...Teachers in eight school districts, from Arlington to Blaine, announced one-day strikes this week to protest the lack of funding for public schools. They look at their act of civil disobedience as an opportunity to demand that lawmakers to fully fund public schools as mandated by a state supreme court decision, and reduce class size according to the voter approved Initiative 1351...
NLRB Upholds Howard University Docs' Union Vote Union City ...Resident physicians at Howard University Hospital and community leaders are calling on hospital officials to come to the table to negotiate a first contract with the residents’ union in the wake of a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling upholding the union election held earlier this year, in which a majority of the 263 Howard resident physicians voted in favor of representation...
Miscellaneous
Corporate Giants Often Get Huge Tax Breaks, While Poor, Undocumented Immigrants Have Paid Billions In State Taxes New York Daily News ...The truth is that for corporate giants like General Electric, Verizon, Citigroup, FedEx and others, the only certainty in terms of taxes is that they contribute as little to the country’s coffers as possible. Ironically, while many of these corporate behemoths pay zero taxes, the eternally vilified undocumented immigrants in New York paid $1.1 billion in state taxes in 2012...
Senate Races In 2016 Look Poised To Set Spending Records Washington Post ...Yes, the 2016 presidential race will be the most expensive in history. But the battle for control of the U.S. Senate in November 2016 also looks likely to smash spending records...
How Corporate Lobbyists Conquered American Democracy The Atlantic ...Today, the biggest companies have upwards of 100 lobbyists representing them, allowing them to be everywhere, all the time. For every dollar spent on lobbying by labor unions and public-interest groups together, large corporations and their associations now spend $34. Of the 100 organizations that spend the most on lobbying, 95 consistently represent business...
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Today's Teamster News 04.14.15
Teamsters
Hoffa: Sharon Block Appointment A 'Victory For The Middle Class' Teamster.org ...James P. Hoffa, General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on the announcement of Sharon Block’s appointment: "With the announcement of Sharon Block’s installation as Senior Advisor for Labor and Working Families in the White House Office of Public Engagement, the administration has made a real commitment to focusing on the issues that concern middle class Americans"...
Global Labor & Trade
Japan, U.S. aim for Pacific trade pact progress before summit Reuters ...Japanese and U.S. officials will meet from Wednesday in a bid to strike a two-way deal giving momentum to a pan-Pacific free-trade pact, the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership. Success, however, depends on whether the U.S. Congress, which returns from recess this week, approves measures to ease passage of trade deals, or trade promotion authority (TPA)...
Obama’s trade pitch falling flat with Dems The Hill ...An aggressive effort by the administration to win support for President Obama’s trade agenda appears to be stuck. As few as 15 House Democrats might vote to give the president fast-track authority, according to dozens of Democratic lawmakers, business group representatives and activists on both sides of the trade fight interviewed by The Hill...
How We Can Hold American Companies that Use Sweatshop Labor Accountable In These Times ...Without granting workers of the world legal power in American or international courts, union jobs will continue leaving the United States and they will leave Guatemala or Vietnam if workers unionize there. That legal framework isn’t happening tomorrow and it isn’t happening in the next election cycle. But this is the long-term change to labor law we need if we are to give workers around the world a chance to live dignified lives...
U.S. Government Starts Investigation Of Alleged Subsidies To Gulf Airlines Dallas Morning News ...Three federal departments said they’ll review charges by the three biggest U.S. airlines, including American Airlines Group, that three Persian Gulf carriers receive $42 billion in unfair subsidies from their governments...
Fast Track a Bad Deal for Farmers and Our Food System, 110+ groups say IATP ...Over 110 farm, food and consumer groups urged members of Congress in a letter today to oppose trade promotion authority or “fast track” legislation that would pave the way for trade agreements detrimental to farmers, ranchers and food systems, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Fast Track To Lost Jobs And Lower Wages (opinion) Huffington Post ...Claims that trade and investment deals would support domestic job creation have proven to be empty promises. Expanding exports alone is not enough to ensure that trade adds jobs to the economy. Increases in U.S. exports tend to create jobs in the United States, but increases in imports lead to job loss--by destroying existing jobs and preventing new job creation...
The Public Deserves to Know Exactly What’s in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (opinion) Slate ...In the next few weeks, Congress may give special status to a massive “free trade” treaty that you are not allowed to read. Based on leaks of portions of the deal, however, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) appears to be at least partly a grab bag of special favors for corporate interests—among them the entertainment and pharmaceutical industries—and an end-run around domestic law...
State & Living Wage Battles
Unions, angry Republican voters rally in support of Indiana's wage law News and Tribune ...Frank Marshall calls himself a lifelong Republican, but on Monday he stood on the steps of the Statehouse and denounced GOP leaders for their efforts to kill Indiana’s 80-year-old common construction wage. He told about 8,000 protesters that he regretted donations to Republicans who want end the system that sets wages for workers on public projects...
Charleston OKs Support Of Right-To-Work Zones Journal Gazette and Times-Courier ...Charleston joined a list of several cities including Clinton and Makanda on Tuesday when it endorsed some governmental reforms proposed by Gov. Bruce Rauner, including right-to-work zones...
Oregon minimum wage hike debated The State-Register ...Proponents of a big increase in Oregon’s minimum wage — potentially raising it to as much as $15 an hour — got the chance to make their case to state lawmakers on Monday. During a packed evening hearing that followed a brief rally inside the Capitol’s rotunda, low-income workers from throughout the state shared stories of struggling to make ends meet...
Legislator Takes Aim At Automated Union Dues Houston Chronicle ...A Senate panel on Monday is expected to vote on a bill that would keep most state employees from paying union and other association dues through payroll deductions...
Rally Backs Fines For Employers Paying Less Than $15 An Hour Hartford Courant ...Mayors and legislators on Thursday rallied support for a bill that would fine large employers who pay their employees less than $15 an hour to reimburse the cost to the state for social services those employees are using...
Report: US Taxpayers Bear 'Hidden Cost' of Poverty Wages Common Dreams ...Stagnant wages and declining employer-provided benefits mean that low-wage workers in the United States are increasingly reliant on federal and state-run public assistance programs...
McMugging The Middle Class: How Corporate Welfare Conquered The American Economy Salon.com ...A telling fact: Of the more than 47 million Americans currently receiving food stamps, tens of millions work full time. This is because their jobs at fast food chains such as McDonalds, Dominos and Taco Bell — or at major retailers like Walmart, Target and Rite-Aid — simply don’t pay them enough to support themselves...
U.S. Labor
State AG Probing ‘On-Call’ Shifts’ Impact On Workers Buffalo News ...The state Attorney General’s Office is looking into retailers’ use of “on-call shifts,” in which employees are required to check in the night before or even just a few hours ahead of a shift to see if they are needed – and receive no pay if they are told not to show up...
Where The Presidential Candidates Stand On Equal Pay Think Progress ...Tuesday is Equal Pay Day, the symbolic day by which women’s earnings catch up to what men earned in a single year last year, given that the gender wage gap means that women who work full-time, year-round made 78 percent of what men make. It also comes as presidential hopefuls are announcing campaigns for 2016, so where do they all stand on this particular issue?...
Can Labor Bring Wall Street Back to Main Street? The Nation ...Seven years since Wall Street imploded, it seems the banking sector has rebounded far faster than the communities it has devastated, according to a report published by Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), which builds on a global campaign to advocate for fair labor and corporate accountability in Big Banks...
Bonanza for the Super-Rich: The Fund Managers' Tax Break (opinion) Truthout.org ...The reason most of us have seen little gain from economic growth over the last three decades is that the rich have rigged the rules to ensure that money flows upward. Through their control of trade policy, Federal Reserve Board policy, and other key levers of government, they have structured the market to weaken the bargaining power of ordinary workers and benefit the CEOs and Wall Street crew...
1199 Postpones Nursing Home Strike Hartford Courant ...One of the state's largest unions has postponed a nursing home strike at the request of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. District 1199 of the Service Employees International Union had voted for a strike against 27 nursing homes, but they have called off the walkout after discussions with Malloy's office...
Hoffa: Sharon Block Appointment A 'Victory For The Middle Class' Teamster.org ...James P. Hoffa, General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on the announcement of Sharon Block’s appointment: "With the announcement of Sharon Block’s installation as Senior Advisor for Labor and Working Families in the White House Office of Public Engagement, the administration has made a real commitment to focusing on the issues that concern middle class Americans"...
Global Labor & Trade
Japan, U.S. aim for Pacific trade pact progress before summit Reuters ...Japanese and U.S. officials will meet from Wednesday in a bid to strike a two-way deal giving momentum to a pan-Pacific free-trade pact, the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership. Success, however, depends on whether the U.S. Congress, which returns from recess this week, approves measures to ease passage of trade deals, or trade promotion authority (TPA)...
Obama’s trade pitch falling flat with Dems The Hill ...An aggressive effort by the administration to win support for President Obama’s trade agenda appears to be stuck. As few as 15 House Democrats might vote to give the president fast-track authority, according to dozens of Democratic lawmakers, business group representatives and activists on both sides of the trade fight interviewed by The Hill...
How We Can Hold American Companies that Use Sweatshop Labor Accountable In These Times ...Without granting workers of the world legal power in American or international courts, union jobs will continue leaving the United States and they will leave Guatemala or Vietnam if workers unionize there. That legal framework isn’t happening tomorrow and it isn’t happening in the next election cycle. But this is the long-term change to labor law we need if we are to give workers around the world a chance to live dignified lives...
U.S. Government Starts Investigation Of Alleged Subsidies To Gulf Airlines Dallas Morning News ...Three federal departments said they’ll review charges by the three biggest U.S. airlines, including American Airlines Group, that three Persian Gulf carriers receive $42 billion in unfair subsidies from their governments...
Fast Track a Bad Deal for Farmers and Our Food System, 110+ groups say IATP ...Over 110 farm, food and consumer groups urged members of Congress in a letter today to oppose trade promotion authority or “fast track” legislation that would pave the way for trade agreements detrimental to farmers, ranchers and food systems, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Fast Track To Lost Jobs And Lower Wages (opinion) Huffington Post ...Claims that trade and investment deals would support domestic job creation have proven to be empty promises. Expanding exports alone is not enough to ensure that trade adds jobs to the economy. Increases in U.S. exports tend to create jobs in the United States, but increases in imports lead to job loss--by destroying existing jobs and preventing new job creation...
The Public Deserves to Know Exactly What’s in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (opinion) Slate ...In the next few weeks, Congress may give special status to a massive “free trade” treaty that you are not allowed to read. Based on leaks of portions of the deal, however, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) appears to be at least partly a grab bag of special favors for corporate interests—among them the entertainment and pharmaceutical industries—and an end-run around domestic law...
State & Living Wage Battles
Unions, angry Republican voters rally in support of Indiana's wage law News and Tribune ...Frank Marshall calls himself a lifelong Republican, but on Monday he stood on the steps of the Statehouse and denounced GOP leaders for their efforts to kill Indiana’s 80-year-old common construction wage. He told about 8,000 protesters that he regretted donations to Republicans who want end the system that sets wages for workers on public projects...
Charleston OKs Support Of Right-To-Work Zones Journal Gazette and Times-Courier ...Charleston joined a list of several cities including Clinton and Makanda on Tuesday when it endorsed some governmental reforms proposed by Gov. Bruce Rauner, including right-to-work zones...
Oregon minimum wage hike debated The State-Register ...Proponents of a big increase in Oregon’s minimum wage — potentially raising it to as much as $15 an hour — got the chance to make their case to state lawmakers on Monday. During a packed evening hearing that followed a brief rally inside the Capitol’s rotunda, low-income workers from throughout the state shared stories of struggling to make ends meet...
Legislator Takes Aim At Automated Union Dues Houston Chronicle ...A Senate panel on Monday is expected to vote on a bill that would keep most state employees from paying union and other association dues through payroll deductions...
Rally Backs Fines For Employers Paying Less Than $15 An Hour Hartford Courant ...Mayors and legislators on Thursday rallied support for a bill that would fine large employers who pay their employees less than $15 an hour to reimburse the cost to the state for social services those employees are using...
Report: US Taxpayers Bear 'Hidden Cost' of Poverty Wages Common Dreams ...Stagnant wages and declining employer-provided benefits mean that low-wage workers in the United States are increasingly reliant on federal and state-run public assistance programs...
McMugging The Middle Class: How Corporate Welfare Conquered The American Economy Salon.com ...A telling fact: Of the more than 47 million Americans currently receiving food stamps, tens of millions work full time. This is because their jobs at fast food chains such as McDonalds, Dominos and Taco Bell — or at major retailers like Walmart, Target and Rite-Aid — simply don’t pay them enough to support themselves...
U.S. Labor
State AG Probing ‘On-Call’ Shifts’ Impact On Workers Buffalo News ...The state Attorney General’s Office is looking into retailers’ use of “on-call shifts,” in which employees are required to check in the night before or even just a few hours ahead of a shift to see if they are needed – and receive no pay if they are told not to show up...
Where The Presidential Candidates Stand On Equal Pay Think Progress ...Tuesday is Equal Pay Day, the symbolic day by which women’s earnings catch up to what men earned in a single year last year, given that the gender wage gap means that women who work full-time, year-round made 78 percent of what men make. It also comes as presidential hopefuls are announcing campaigns for 2016, so where do they all stand on this particular issue?...
Can Labor Bring Wall Street Back to Main Street? The Nation ...Seven years since Wall Street imploded, it seems the banking sector has rebounded far faster than the communities it has devastated, according to a report published by Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), which builds on a global campaign to advocate for fair labor and corporate accountability in Big Banks...
Bonanza for the Super-Rich: The Fund Managers' Tax Break (opinion) Truthout.org ...The reason most of us have seen little gain from economic growth over the last three decades is that the rich have rigged the rules to ensure that money flows upward. Through their control of trade policy, Federal Reserve Board policy, and other key levers of government, they have structured the market to weaken the bargaining power of ordinary workers and benefit the CEOs and Wall Street crew...
1199 Postpones Nursing Home Strike Hartford Courant ...One of the state's largest unions has postponed a nursing home strike at the request of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. District 1199 of the Service Employees International Union had voted for a strike against 27 nursing homes, but they have called off the walkout after discussions with Malloy's office...
Local UAW-GM Tiff May Herald Fractious Contract Talks Wards Auto ...General Motors and the United Auto Workers resolve a shop-floor dispute at the automaker’s Wentzville, MO, assembly plant, but the underlying tensions that erupted are symptomatic of a rising tide of discontent among workers at GM, Ford and FCA US that will play out during contract negotiations this year...
Kroger Ratifies Agreement with UFCW 227 MarketWatch ...The Kroger Co. associates working at Kroger in the Louisville division have ratified a new labor agreement with UFCW Local 227. The contract covers nearly 14,000 associates working in 89 stores in the Louisville and Southern Indiana areas...
Miscellaneous
The New Segregation (opinion) Huffington Post ...50 years ago, President Lyndon Johnson passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as part of his War on Poverty. The law recognized the power of an education to lift any student, regardless of background, out of poverty. But what I and the authors of the ESEA also recognized was that not every student is the same. Low-income, immigrant, or disabled students often require additional supports...
The NSA Wants Tech Companies To Give It 'Front Door' Access To Encrypted Data The Verge ...The National Security Agency is embroiled in a battle with tech companies over access to encrypted data that would allow it to spy (more easily) on millions of Americans and international citizens. Last month, companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple urged the Obama administration to put an end to the NSA's bulk collection of metadata...
Kroger Ratifies Agreement with UFCW 227 MarketWatch ...The Kroger Co. associates working at Kroger in the Louisville division have ratified a new labor agreement with UFCW Local 227. The contract covers nearly 14,000 associates working in 89 stores in the Louisville and Southern Indiana areas...
Miscellaneous
The New Segregation (opinion) Huffington Post ...50 years ago, President Lyndon Johnson passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as part of his War on Poverty. The law recognized the power of an education to lift any student, regardless of background, out of poverty. But what I and the authors of the ESEA also recognized was that not every student is the same. Low-income, immigrant, or disabled students often require additional supports...
The NSA Wants Tech Companies To Give It 'Front Door' Access To Encrypted Data The Verge ...The National Security Agency is embroiled in a battle with tech companies over access to encrypted data that would allow it to spy (more easily) on millions of Americans and international citizens. Last month, companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple urged the Obama administration to put an end to the NSA's bulk collection of metadata...
Monday, March 18, 2013
Pity. Japan's entry to TPP talks may foil deal
The TPP (Trans-Atlantic Partnership) is the NAFTA-on-steroids trade deal that's currently being negotiated. Japan last week became the 12th country to join the talks, along with the U.S. and other Pacific Rim nations.
If the TPP is approved, American dairy farmers, workers and consumers may be harmed. New Zealand's powerful dairy industry may well dump milk, cheese and butter onto the U.S. market.
Japanese farmers may fear the same outcome and hold up the deal. According to the New Zealand Herald, they have good reason:
The Dairy Companies Association welcomed the announcement "cautiously".
"Japan is a significant dairy market and its entry into the TPP provides an opportunity for New Zealand to negotiate improved access for its dairy products," said DCANZ chairman Malcolm Bailey.
However, Mr Bailey hoped Japan's entry "won't delay the conclusion of negotiations beyond the October 2013 timeline."Teamsters, who represent 30,000 dairy workers, are working with dairy farmers and processors to alert Congress to the danger of the TPP.
The Citizens Trade Campaign also cautions on the deal. CTC says there are two reasons for the deal, neither of them good:
- Making it easier for corporations to shift jobs throughout the world to wherever labor is the most exploited and regulations are the weakest; and
- Putting checks on democracy at home and abroad by constraining governments’ ability to regulate in the public interest.
Friday, March 15, 2013
Japan to enter TPP talks, more US jobs likely to be killed
The United States' trade gap with Japan is second only to China, $76.3 billion for 2012. Two-thirds of that is due to automotive products.
U.S. lawmakers who represent manufacturing districts sent a letter to President Obama objecting to Japan's entry into the talks. CQ today reported:
Dozens of Democrats in the House and Senate on Thursday lacerated Japan over long-standing barriers that have kept U.S. cars out of the Japanese market, warning that a slowly recovering American auto industry would suffer even more economic pain if Tokyo is allowed to join an Asia-Pacific free-trade agreement.
In a letter to President Barack Obama, 35 Democratic House members, many of them members of the Ways and Means Committee, and eight senators, including Michigan’s Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, noted that Japan’s web of regulations that effectively blocks U.S. automakers from selling their cars and trucks in Japan is too deeply rooted to be resolved by the trade agreement, known as the Trans Pacific Partnership (TTP), an initiative launched by Obama in 2010.
“These long-standing, economically harmful practices are not susceptible to cursory negotiation at this stage, three years into the U.S. involvement in the TPP negotiations and close to the administration’s target date of concluding talks by the end of this year,” the letter said.Today is also the first year anniversary of the South Korean job-killing trade deal. Public Citizen reminds us that U.S. exports to South Korea are down 9 percent, while imports are up 30 percent:
The actual outcomes of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that took effect one year ago, March 15, have been exactly the opposite of what the Obama administration promised, Public Citizen said today. Despite government data once again demonstrating the damage caused by yet another “trade” agreement based on the model of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Obama administration is trying to sell massive Trans-Pacific and European agreements based on the same model with the same false promises.Rob Scott at the Economic Policy Institute piles on, telling us Japan is practically closed to foreign auto imports. The trade deficit with Japan costs millions of good-paying manufacturing jobs in the U.S., he writes:
The U.S. trade deficit with Japan has increased steadily over the past four years, reaching $79.9 billion in 2012, an increase of $13.4 billion (20.2 percent) over the 2011 bilateral deficit of $66.5 billion. Two of the most important causes of persistent U.S.-Japan trade deficits are currency manipulation and Japan’s vast and impenetrable network of non-tariff trade barriers... Unless Japan is willing to end its currency manipulation and informal trade barriers once and for all, it should not even be allowed to participate in the TPP negotiations.Stay tuned.
Friday, January 4, 2013
Today's Teamster News 01.04.13
The Walmart Revolt In These Times ...at a time of growing unrest among low-paid workers, the Walmart campaign could help the labor movement take a giant leap forward...
2012 ends strongly for manufacturing sector manufacture this ...Despite hitting a 40-month low in November, manufacturing activity not only rose, but expanded in December, concluding the year with a positive sign of growth...
An Eyes Wide Open Look at U.S. Manufacturing Trade Reform ...“The fate of the U.S. economy will be decided in the next four to five years. The question is: Do we continue on the course to becoming a third-world country, importing finished goods and exporting raw materials, or will we rebuild our manufacturing base and once again become the premier industrial leader?”...
Japan plans 'nationalisation' of factories to save industry The Telegraph ...Japan's government is to take the unprecedented step of buying factories and machinery directly with taxpayer funds, the latest in a series of radical steps to lift the country out of its deep slump...
Small business recession explains poor sentiment Sober Look ...after a gradual recovery since 2009, US small business revenues have been consistently declining for most of 2012. Recent declines have lasted for 9 consecutive months … and are visible across all major industries...
The Big Fiscal Cliff Deal Winners: Hedge Fund And Private Equity Moguls Forbes ...hedge fund and private equity moguls will continue to be taxed relatively lightly after the new fiscal cliff legislation...
At $250B, costs of occupational injury and illness exceed costs of cancer Economic Policy Institute ...Occupational injuries and illnesses are overlooked contributors to the overall national costs of all diseases, injuries, and deaths...
Lost day: NHL, union don't meet Thursday for full bargaining session The Republic ...Any momentum gained from a long night of negotiations between the NHL and the players' association seemed to have been lost Thursday when the sides remained mostly apart...
State inks deal to privatize S. Fla. inmate health care Tampa Bay Times ...Gov. Rick Scott's administration announced Thursday the state has signed a contract with a Pennsylvania based company, Wexford Health Sources, to outsource all medical care to more than 15,000 inmates in several South Florida prisons...
United Natural Foods, Teamsters to hold dispute talks just-food.com ...United Natural Foods and the Teamsters trade union will hold fresh talks as customers voice disquiet over the ongoing worker strike in Washington state...
2012 ends strongly for manufacturing sector manufacture this ...Despite hitting a 40-month low in November, manufacturing activity not only rose, but expanded in December, concluding the year with a positive sign of growth...
An Eyes Wide Open Look at U.S. Manufacturing Trade Reform ...“The fate of the U.S. economy will be decided in the next four to five years. The question is: Do we continue on the course to becoming a third-world country, importing finished goods and exporting raw materials, or will we rebuild our manufacturing base and once again become the premier industrial leader?”...
Japan plans 'nationalisation' of factories to save industry The Telegraph ...Japan's government is to take the unprecedented step of buying factories and machinery directly with taxpayer funds, the latest in a series of radical steps to lift the country out of its deep slump...
Small business recession explains poor sentiment Sober Look ...after a gradual recovery since 2009, US small business revenues have been consistently declining for most of 2012. Recent declines have lasted for 9 consecutive months … and are visible across all major industries...
The Big Fiscal Cliff Deal Winners: Hedge Fund And Private Equity Moguls Forbes ...hedge fund and private equity moguls will continue to be taxed relatively lightly after the new fiscal cliff legislation...
At $250B, costs of occupational injury and illness exceed costs of cancer Economic Policy Institute ...Occupational injuries and illnesses are overlooked contributors to the overall national costs of all diseases, injuries, and deaths...
Lost day: NHL, union don't meet Thursday for full bargaining session The Republic ...Any momentum gained from a long night of negotiations between the NHL and the players' association seemed to have been lost Thursday when the sides remained mostly apart...
State inks deal to privatize S. Fla. inmate health care Tampa Bay Times ...Gov. Rick Scott's administration announced Thursday the state has signed a contract with a Pennsylvania based company, Wexford Health Sources, to outsource all medical care to more than 15,000 inmates in several South Florida prisons...
United Natural Foods, Teamsters to hold dispute talks just-food.com ...United Natural Foods and the Teamsters trade union will hold fresh talks as customers voice disquiet over the ongoing worker strike in Washington state...
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