Today's Teamster News 05.22.15

Teamsters
Hoffa Statement on Senate Fast Track Cloture Vote  Teamster.org  ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in response to the Senate’s decision to invoke cloture and cut off debate on the fast track trade bill currently being considered by the chamber: “For years, the Teamsters and our fair trade allies have stood up for workers and all Americans by fighting to stop fast track. Unfortunately, too many lawmakers in the Senate today decided to side with the big business agenda instead"...
Teamsters organize strike at SLS Hotel and Casino  8 News Now  ...Teamsters Local 986 say they have launched a strike against SLS Hotel and Casino Wednesday. The labor union group said they launched the strike because SLS management is preventing its valet parking attendants from exercising their right to form a union. The group also said management fired three workers for supporting the union organizing campaign...
From delivery to discovery UPS driver reconnects child with family  Valley News Live  ...While making his daily rounds a UPS driver found a 5-year-old girl sitting alone outside her daycare. We spoke to this delivery man who stopped everything he was doing to get this girl to safety. Skala told us the young girl's father dropped her off at daycare earlier in the day, unaware the daycare was closed for the day...

Global Labor & Trade
This Time, Senate Votes to Advance Trade Pact  New York Times  ...A flurry of last-minute deal-making on the Senate floor Thursday rescued President Obama’s ambitious trade agenda from defeat, advancing legislation that would empower the president to complete a sweeping, 12-nation Pacific trade accord. The bill, the first to grant a president trade promotion authority since 2002, still must weather a bunch of amendment votes on Friday...
Trans-Pacific Partnership won't improve workers' rights in Asia, critics warn  The Guardian   ...Congressional Democrats and labor unions have in recent days vigorously attacked one of President Obama’s main arguments for the proposed Pacific trade deal – that it will increase worker protections in Vietnam and several other Asian countries. These critics question Obama’s assertion that the pact will get Vietnam to grant real freedom of association to labor unions, despite a pattern of repression by the country’s communist government...
Obama thanks Senate for advancing trade bill  The Hill  ...The vote was close, and the result was only apparent after Sen. Maria Cantwell (Wash.) was assured that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would allow a vote next month on renewing the charter of the Export-Import Bank. The White House has made an aggressive lobbying effort to convince Democrats in Congress to back his trade agenda...
Obama’s trade bill narrowly clears a key Senate hurdle  Washington Post  ...In a triumph for President Barack Obama, sweeping legislation to strengthen the administration’s hand in global trade talks advanced toward Senate passage Thursday after a showdown vote that remained in doubt until the final moment. The 62-38 vote, two more than the 60 needed, came from a solid phalanx of Republicans and more than a dozen Democrats...
Farm Groups Are Failing in the Free-Trade Fight  National Journal  ...The Senate vote last week on proceeding with debate on Trade Promotion Authority demonstrated the limited power that agriculture groups now have with Democrats in Congress. The National Farmers Union is the only major farm group in opposition. The Democratic-leaning NFU acknowledges that trade is good for the family farmers it represents but says it will lead to an increase in the trade deficit and not deal with currency manipulation...
Growing Global Inequality Gap 'Has Reached a Tipping Point'  Common Dreams  ...With the gap between the rich and poor growing worldwide, a new study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published Thursday suggests that the only way to reverse such rampant inequality is by implementing government measures aimed at balancing the playing field. Chief among those measures: Tax the rich and push for gender equality...

Two Years After Rana Plaza, Are Bangladesh’s Workers Still at Risk?  The Nation   ...Two years ago, on April 24, 2013, the collapse of the eight-story Rana Plaza in Dhaka killed 1,100 workers in the world’s worst garment-factory disaster. Now the difficult phase of fixing the problems is under way. Who will ensure that garment factories are safe after international pacts expire and media scrutiny and consumer outrage fades? To make safety truly sustainable, the workers themselves must have a voice...

State & Living Wage Battles
Petition drive for prevailing wage repeal legislation could bypass Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder  MLive  ...A group fighting to repeal Michigan's prevailing wage law is looking to launch a petition drive for citizen-initiated legislation, a move that could allow it to bypass Republican Gov. Rick Snyder. Protecting Michigan Taxpayers, a ballot committee last active in the 2012 election cycle, announced Thursday it has filed proposed language with the Michigan Secretary of State...
Missouri secretary of state candidate files voter ID measure  Associated Press  ...A Republican candidate for Missouri secretary of state on Thursday filed an initiative petition that would allow the Legislature to require voters to present photo identification at the polls. St. Louis attorney Jay Ashcroft filed the proposed constitutional amendment with the secretary of state's office to permit a photo ID requirement...
Fast Food Workers Take Their Fight to McDonald’s Shareholders Meeting  In These Times  ...The men and women who, in the words of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc, “grind out” the burgers and fries that have made the company with the familiar golden arches the second largest private employer in the world dramatically displayed their discontent on Wednesday, returning again early Thursday as shareholders arrived in suburban Chicago for the company’s annual meeting. Over the last two years, the focus of their “Fight for $15 and a union” movement has stayed constant...
'We Will Win': McDonald's Worker Protests Stretch Into Second Day  Common Dreams  ...Less than 24 hours after 5,000 workers marched on McDonald's corporate headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois, the fast food giant's cooks and cashiers returned on Thursday morning to bring their call for $15 an hour and union rights directly to the company's shareholders at their annual meeting. Chanting "We believe that we will win" and "We want change and we don't mean pennies," an estimated 3,000 workers gathered for the second day of protests...
A Fascinating Minimum-Wage Experiment Is About to Unfold  The New Yorker  ...This week’s decision by the Los Angeles City Council to raise the local minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour by 2020 is part of an intriguing development in urban politics and social policy. Reacting to grassroots campaigns carried out by labor unions and other progressive groups, some of the biggest cities in America are now defying several decades of economic orthodoxy, as well as challenging a set of social norms that regarded low-wage jobs as unavoidable and acceptable...

U.S. Labor
UAW gearing up for 24th Ride for Freedom  Southwest Times  ...Hundreds of motorcycle enthusiasts, veterans and citizens will gather Saturday at the United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2069 Union to take part in the Veterans Ride for Freedom Memorial Ceremony and Run to the Wall. This is the 24th year the UAW has sponsored the event, designed to honor veterans, prisoners of war and those still missing in action...
USW Stands for Order in Chaos Created by Century Aluminum  PR Newswire  ...The United Steelworkers (USW) today disputed allegations of picket line misconduct made by Century Aluminum, which locked out the 565 members of Local 9423 from their jobs at the company's Hawesville, Ky. smelter on May 12, 2015. The union further repeated its call for Century to end the lockout and reinstate the USW workforce to their rightful jobs while negotiations for a new labor agreement proceed...
AFSCME 3299 & CLF Call on UC to Support Equal Pay for its Subcontractors  IndyBay  ...As State and Federal lawmakers struggle to address the growing problems of poverty and income inequality, AFSCME 3299 President Kathryn Lybarger, California Labor Federation Secretary-Treasurer Art Pulaski and others today publicly called upon UC President Janet Napolitano to support SB 376 (Lara)—a measure that would guarantee that the employees of private firms providing contract services to the University are paid commensurate wages as career UC employees performing the same jobs...
NLRB Reiterates Its Position That Undocumented Workers Are Entitled to “Conditional Reinstatement” in Unfair Labor Practice Cases  National Law Review   ...The National Labor Relations Board continues to focus on issues concerning the rights of undocumented workers whose rights under the National Labor Relations Act are interfered with for engaging in union activity and other forms of protected, concerted activity covered by the Act...

Miscellaneous
Megabanks Fined $2 Billion For Criminal Activity, Will Be Able To Continue Business As Usual  Think Progress  ...Despite a slate of criminal fines with eye-popping dollar figures announced on Wednesday, five banks that conspired to rig foreign currency exchange rates in recent years face only minor real-world consequences that are more a cost of doing business than a significant punishment for breaking the law...
In Guatemala, Indigenous Woman Sues Multinational Company for Husband's Murder  Truthout ...Choc's husband of 30 years, Adolfo Ich Chamán, was a respected community leader, schoolteacher and outspoken critic of the violation of human rights by mining activities in Guatemala. But on September 27, 2009, Chamán was shot and hacked to death by private security forces of Guatemalan Nickel Company (CGN), the Guatemalan subsidiary of the Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals...

Today's Teamster News 05.06.15

Teamsters
Teamsters, Former NLRB Chair and Community Leaders Lead Symposium on National Express Teamster.org   ...At a symposium held Tuesday night, the former chair of the U.S. National Labor Relations Board, academics, community and faith leaders discussed the benefits of introducing independent monitoring programs at multinationals, including National Express Group. The resolution was submitted by the Teamsters General Fund, members of the Local Authorities Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF) and 100 individual National Express shareholders...
App-Based Drivers Expand Association, Demand Fairness and Respect  Teamsters Local 117 ...Limousine and app-based drivers packed the Teamsters Union hall on Sunday to demand fairness and a level playing field in Seattle’s personal transportation industry. The event comes just under a year after the founding of the App-Based Drivers’ Association last May...

Global Labor & Trade
Obama Laces Up To Tout Asian Trade Deal At Nike  NPR  ...Obama has chosen a curious setting to make his pitch for the trade agreement this week. He'll be speaking Friday at the Beaverton, Ore., headquarters of the Nike Corporation. "All of their footwear, all of their clothing is produced in contract factories in places like Vietnam and Indonesia and China," said Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, a watchdog group that monitors overseas factories...
Elizabeth Warren: Trade bill could “tear down” Wall Street oversight  Politico  ...The Massachusetts Democrat said late Tuesday that giving the president greater leeway to negotiate trade deals for years to come is a dangerous proposition because of the chance that a Republican who wants to roll back Dodd-Frank, like Sen. Ted Cruz, could win the White House in 2016...
Who Is Really Trying to Rewrite the Rules for Trade?  Wall Street Journal  ...President Barack Obama regularly warns that if Congress doesn’t approve fast-track legislation to grease the way for his ambitious Asian trade agenda, then China would wind up writing trade rules in the region to the disadvantage of U.S. workers and businesses. Trouble is, there’s little evidence that China has any interest—or ability—to write such rules and have any other countries adopt them. For the most part, China follows the U.S. lead on trade policy...
Third Year of Korea FTA Data Released, Show Failure of Obama’s Last ‘More Exports, More Jobs’ Trade Pact Promises, Further Burdening Fast Track Prospects  Public Citizen  ...Today’s release of U.S. government trade data covering the full first three years of the U.S.-Korea free trade agreement (FTA) reveals that the U.S. goods trade deficit with Korea has more than doubled. In addition, today’s U.S. Census Bureau data show Korea FTA outcomes that are the opposite of the Obama administration’s “more exports, more jobs” promise for that pact...
Reid: Don't forget about highway funding, surveillance reform  The Hill  ...Although Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) didn’t repeat the threat he made Monday to block contentious trade promotion authority, or fast-track, legislation until the Senate passes the other two measures, he made clear that the bills must get done...
Sen. Sherrod Brown: Trade pacts cost millions of jobs  (opinion) USA Today   ...It's true that export opportunities through trade deals have created jobs. But trade pacts have also cost millions of jobs. Lauding gains from exports while ignoring a flood of imports — and skyrocketing trade deficits — amounts to reporting half of the score of a baseball game. The Cleveland Indians scoring six runs doesn't help if the Yankees scored eight...
The Barrier to Trade Ignored by the Pacific Proposal  (opinion) Wall Street Journal  ...The U.S. recovery remains constrained by a shortfall of demand, and no fiscal stimulus is likely in the coming years. So ending currency management and reducing the U.S. trade deficit is by far the most economically plausible path to full recovery...

State & Living Wage Battles
In Congress, Income Inequality Fact of Life for Food Servers  Associated Press  ...Many of the Capitol's food servers, who make the meals, bus the tables and run the cash registers in the restaurants and carryouts that serve lawmakers, earn less than $11 an hour. Some make nothing at all when Congress is in recess...
IL Governor Rauner's Pal Made $625,000 Per Hour Last Year and Then Gave $10 Million to Rauner Campaign to Attack Unions and Cut Worker Pay  Huff Post   ...The New York Times reported yesterday that Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner's chief political backer, Ken Griffin, made $1.3 billion last year as manager of the hedge fund Citadel Capital. And he contributed $10 million that Rauner plans to use to run opponents against members of the legislature who dare to oppose his policies that are aimed at destroying unions and cutting worker wages and pensions...
Wisconsin lawmakers try to persuade committee to repeal prevailing wage law  Star Tribune   ...Lawmakers, construction companies and local government leaders sparred Tuesday over a Republican bill that would repeal Wisconsin's prevailing wage law, with supporters saying the measure would save money and opponents arguing the law guarantees quality construction and wage equality...
Maine Democrats block bill to require voters to show photo ID  Portlant Press Herald  ...The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives voted Tuesday to block a bill that would require Maine voters to show photo identification before casting a ballot. Republicans have argued that a voter ID law will protect against voter fraud. Democrats countered that there has been little to no evidence of election fraud in Maine and that voter ID laws are political tools designed to suppress certain voters from participating in elections...
Senators consider proposal to raise the state’s minimum wage  Fox 43  ...Low-wage workers and some business owners urged state lawmakers Monday to increase the state’s minimum wage. Those workers told legislators their ability to live or raise a family is next to impossible on the current wage. “To rent an apartment is at least 600 to 800 dollars a month, so anyone on minimum wage making 40 hours can barely afford an apartment,” Andre Butler, a low-wage worker from Philadelphia, said...
What the Debate on Inequality Is Missing  (opinion) New York Times   ...Over the last four decades the debate in Washington about poverty and inequality has been bogged down in a somewhat pointless, often surreal debate about the size of government and the amount spent on behalf of the poor. Over that same period, the earnings of workers in the bottom half of the income pile have progressed little...

U.S. Labor
Senate blocks NLRB veto override vote  The Hill   ...Senators on Tuesday blocked any future attempts to override President Obama's veto of a union election law. Obama vetoed the union election legislation in March, after Congress passed a resolution of disapproval on a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rule that would have sped up union elections...
Even Conservative Millennials Support Unions  New Republic  ...First, young people of both parties are more amenable to labor unions than their older peers. Fifty-five percent of people between 18 and 29 view unions favorably, while only 29 percent view them unfavorably. Younger self-identified Republicans are evenly split on labor...
Century Aluminum braces for Kentucky lockout as USW reject deal  Reuters  ...Unionized workers at Century Aluminum's Hawesville, Kentucky smelter rejected the company's proposed labor agreement late on Monday, taking one of the biggest U.S. aluminum plants a step closer to industrial action, the first for the sector in years. Following the news, Century issued a legal notice on Tuesday confirming plans to lock out union-represented staff on May 11...
Local CWA group pickets AT&T  Lee's Summit Journal  ...Since April 13, more than 17,500 AT&T employees nationwide have been working without a contract, with more than 420 of those employees living in the Kansas City area. Members of CWA Local 6450 hosted an information picket May 1 near AT&T’s call center...
After Freddie Gray Protests, Baltimore Unions Demand End to “Trickle-down” Neighborhood Development  In These Times   ...The Laborers union has joined with some of the most prominent labor organizations in the city to back the One Baltimore coalition. Formed late last year, the group includes local and regional AFL-CIO bodies, 1199SEIU heath care workers union, UNITE HERE Local 7, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1300 and the City Union of Baltimore...

Miscellaneous
'Too Big to Exist': Sanders Introduces Bill to Break Up Big Banks  Common Dreams  ...Under the proposal, called the Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist Act, regulators on the Financial Stability Oversight Council would compile a list of institutions which say they are so large that their collapse could trigger an economic crisis—otherwise known as "too big to fail." The Treasury Secretary would then have a year from the bill's passing to break them up...

Today's Teamster News 06.19.14

Teamster News
Carpenters, Teamsters Join Forces To Protest At PA Convention Center  Philadelphia Business Journal   ...After being shut out of work for not signing a new customer satisfaction agreement, the Metropolitan Regional Council of Carpenters and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 107 will join forces Wednesday morning to protest their joint lockout...
Workers At AGY In Aiken Remain Idle After Seven Weeks Of Unemployment  Augusta Chronicle   ...More than 500 employees at AGY glass fiber manufacturing in Aiken are entering their seventh week without jobs after contract negotiations between the company and their union proved fruitless this spring...
Trade
Report: Chinese Smartphone Comes Preloaded With Spyware  Trade Reform   ...G Data Software said it found malicious code hidden deep in the propriety software of the Star N9500 when it ordered the handset from a website late last month. The find is the latest in a series of incidents where smartphones have appeared preloaded with malicious software...
State Battles
Since 2010, New Laws in 22 States Restrict Right to Vote  AFL-CIO   ...Since Republicans gained control of many state legislatures in the 2010 elections, 22 states(see map above)—nearly all of them in the South and the Midwest—have rolled out new restrictions on the right to vote...
Unions Taking Fight To The People  Fort Wayne Journal Gazette   ...Union members fighting the end of collective bargaining for many city employees are holding a picnic Saturday and you’re invited...
War On Workers
Hospital Uses Executive Bonus Money To Give Its Workers A Raise  Think Progress   ...Parkland Health & Hospital System in Dallas will raise its own minimum wage to $10.25 an hour next month, paying for the increase with money originally devoted to executive bonuses...
Senators question closing of Social Security field offices  Tallahassee Democrat   ...In addition to shuttering field offices, the agency has cut thousands of field workers, eliminated hundreds of mobile stations, and reduced hours and services at hundreds of satellite offices over the past four years...
Income Gap Widens As American Factories Shut Down  Associated Press   ...In Reading and other American factory towns, manufacturing's decline is a key factor in the widening income gap between the rich and everyone else, as people like the Ludwigs have been forced into far lower-paying work...
Obesity Linked to Long-Term Unemployment in U.S.  Gallup   ...High blood pressure, cholesterol also more common among long-term unemployed...
Citigroup’s Dark Pools: Here’s Why the Public Doesn’t Trust Wall Street  Wall Street on Parade   ...while stock markets are setting new highs, stock ownership among U.S. adults is at a 16-year low, trending down from 65 percent participation in 2007 to a reading of 52 percent today, according to a Gallup poll released in May...
Wal-Mart's "Sham Transaction": How Giant Corporations Are Quietly Dodging U.S. Taxes  Salon.com   ...even when they’re not technically breaking the law, major corporations like Apple, Wal-Mart, Starbucks and more are systematically flouting its spirit and keeping profits they earned as part of the American community all to themselves...
Silicon Valley's Minimum Wage Success Story  Al-Jazeera   ...the San Jose City Council passed the living wage ordinance, raising the minimum hourly wage on projects that received public support to $9.50 with benefits and $10.75 without, at a time when the federal minimum wage was only $5.15 an hour. ... business over the next three years continued growing at a breakneck pace...
Miscellaneous
How To Tell If Your Member Of Congress Is A Crony Capitalist  Huffington Post   ...To win in 2012, U.S. senators had to raise an average of $14,351 a day, every single day of the week....
Obama: US must ‘strengthen unions’  The Hill   ..."Weekends and overtime and benefits — things that now, non-union workers take for granted — well, you got those because unions were out there fighting for you for a very long time," Obama said...

Today's Teamster News 05.13.14

Teamster News
Teamsters End Strike At PepsiCo Plant  Indianapolis Star   ...A 10-day strike involving about 350 Teamsters who work at a PepsiCo bottling plant on the Northwest side ended after they approved a new five-year contract...
National Labor Relations Board Rules In Favor Of Teamsters Against Durham  teamster.org   ...School bus drivers and monitors in Santa Rosa County, Fla., who are members of Teamsters Local 991 in Mobile, Ala., have won a major victory in a decision handed down by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Washington, D.C...
AGY, Union Leaders Remain Mum As 'Lock Out' Continues  Aiken Standard   ...Employees aren't the only ones being "locked out" after Aiken's AGY plant reportedly deactivated the access badges of all it's workers more than a week ago...
Trade
The Free-Trade Regime: Oligarchy In Action  Asia Times   ...The United States is not really a democracy. That's the (simplified) conclusion of a recent study from Princeton University. Instead, economic elites and special interest groups enjoy tremendous sway in Washington, while "the preferences of the average American...
Trade accord carries health warning  Stuff   ...a trade deal is interfering with New Zealand doing the right thing to control cigarettes...
State Battles
Missouri Senate Republicans send two priorities back to House after late-night deal is struck  St. Louis Post-Dispatch   ...Democrats agreed to stand down on a constitutional amendment to allow some early voting in Missouri and a measure to extend the waiting period before an abortion. In exchange, Senate Republicans agreed not to push for voter photo identification or the paycheck deduction bill...
Florida Couple Fined $746 For Crime Of Feeding Homeless People  Think Progress   ...After feeding the hungry in a Daytona Beach park every weekend for more than a year, it's just as easy to imagine Chico and Debbie Jiminez given a ticker-tape parade as what they actually got: a slew of citations and a permanent ban from the park...
GOP Vote Scheme Finally Imploding: Why The End May Be Here  Salon.com   ...it seems that the recent landmark court ruling in WI, followed by last week’s towel toss in Pennsylvania and embarrassing revelations in Iowa, may be seen in the not-too-distant future as the moment that the GOP “voter fraud” fraud finally began to permanently unravel...
For State Workers, a Thaw in Frozen Wages  Stateline   ...Government workers across the U.S. are expected to get raises this year, many of them for the first time since the Great Recession spurred states to freeze wages, furlough employees and slash workforces...
War On Workers
Looting The Pension Funds  Rolling Stone Magazine   ...In the final months of 2011, almost two years before the city of Detroit would shock America by declaring bankruptcy in the face of what it claimed were insurmountable pension costs, the state of Rhode Island took action to avert what it called its own looming pension crisis...
A Deal to Dodge the Tax Man in America  New York Times   ...Pfizer’s pursuit of AstraZeneca raises a huge public policy red flag. It plans to move its holding company to Britain from the United States so it can achieve a much lower tax rate and use cash that it has held abroad to avoid paying United States taxes...
ALEC Fires Back, But Proves Its 'Pro-Business' State Index Is Bogus  Los Angeles Times   ...Plainly stung by the chorus of ridicule that has greeted their latest attempt to paint anti-union policies and tax cuts for the rich as pathways to economic nirvana, the folks at the American Legislative Exchange Council have struck back with a "response to the critics"...
Despite Falling Revenues, Walmart Increases Pay for Top Execs  firedoglake   ...despite falling revenues, and despite only reluctantly paying minimum wage to its workers, Walmart increased the pay for its top executives...
Making Ends Meet At Walmart  New York Times   ...This has not been a good year for Walmart shareholders. Amid a torrid market over the last 12 months, this giant retailer's stock has flat lined, reflecting a slowdown in sales growth...
The Minimum Wage Loophole That's Screwing Over Waiters And Waitresses  Mother Jones   ...As Republicans stonewall President Obama's initiative to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour by 2016, some state lawmakers have taken the matter into their own hands...
Players Union Has Been Beneficial For Baseball  Philadelphia Inquirer   ...A prominent plaque at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum contains this familiar quotation from French-born historian Jacques Barzun: "Whoever wants to learn the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball"...

Today's Teamster News 05.07.14

Teamster News
AGY Seeks 'Collective Bargaining Agreement'  Aiken Standard   ...AGY released a statement in response to a demonstration by employees that was initially called a strike, but is now being called a "lockout". Employees of the plant began standing outside the plant entrances on Wagener Road and U.S. 78 on Friday...
Teamsters back cutting Swift CEO voting power with stock structure changes  Overdrive   ...The Teamsters union is pushing a plan to change Swift Transportation’s dual-class stock structure in order to give stockholders equal voting power...
Jeff Klein Snags Teamsters Endorsement  New York Observer   ...State Senator Jeff Klein, who is facing a Democratic primary challenge, is set to snag the endorsement of the teamsters union later this morning–marking one of his largest union nods so far...
Convention Center: Teamsters, Carpenters could be out by weekend  Philly.com   ...THE TEAMSTERS and carpenters who set up exhibits at the Pennsylvania Convention Center could find themselves out of work by Saturday, after refusing yesterday to sign a labor agreement that changes their work rules...
Trade
U.S. Trade Deficit Drops 3.6 Percent In March  ABC News   ...The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in March as exports rebounded to the second highest level on record, led by strong gains in sales of aircraft, autos and farm goods...
State Battles
Missouri Senate Looks To Curb Union Fee Collection  The Missourian   ...The Missouri Senate is expected to debate legislation this week that would curb the ability of public employee unions to collect fees from workers' paychecks...
Surprise! 'Pro-business' policies hurt state economic growth (opinion)  Los Angeles Times   ...What's worst about these ALEC policies, Chinn reports, is that the relentless budget-cutting they require leave crucial state services, particularly education, gasping for breath. That's a formula for long-term decline, not growth...
Tax Breaks Abound in Wisconsin, but Job Growth Remains Slow  Wisconsin Budget Project   ...Wisconsin lawmakers have cut taxes 43 times since 2011, reducing revenue by $1.9 billion over that period and limiting investments in Wisconsin’s schools, workforce, and transportation networks. Despite – or because of – the substantial tax cuts, private sector job growth in Wisconsin has been slower than the national average...
Companies Ramp Up Fight Against $10.10 Wage  CNN Money   ...Businesses are pulling out all the stops to fight a federal minimum wage increase to $10.10 from $7.25 an hour. A new commercial went up on cable news channels last week from the Employment Policies Institute...
War On Workers
Even Millionaires Think The Rich Should Pay Higher Taxes  Huffington Post   ...In the heated debate of inequality, the wealthy are usually portrayed as the cause rather than the solution. But CNBC's first-ever Millionaire Survey reveals that 51 percent of American millionaires believe inequality is a "major problem" for the U.S. and nearly two-thirds support higher taxes on the wealthy...
Billionaires try to convince Americans it’s good to import foreign workers, increase immigration  Bangor Daily News   ...Since 2007, political lobbies spent a whopping $1.5 billion to expand immigration, according to the watchdog Sunlight Foundation...
Jungle Jack Frustrated With The Koch Brothers Involvement In Columbus Zoo Levy  WBNS   ...One of the most recognized faces in Central Ohio - Jack Hanna, Director Emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium - says he is frustrated by the involvement of a Washington, DC based group and it's efforts to defeat the Columbus Zoo levy...
Koch Group Tries To Sink Ohio Zoo’s Tax Proposal: ‘There Is No Issue We Won’t Get Involved In’  Think Progress   ...a proposal for a modest tax increase to fund the zoo’s programs has attracted the attention of Americans for Prosperity, a national group funded by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch...
Bombshell Report: $100 Million in Taxpayer $$ Wasted or Stolen by Deregulated Charter Industry  Diane Ravitch's Blog   ...A new report reveals massive waste, fraud, and corruption in the charter industry, where private corporations control public funds with minimal oversight or accountability...
Oregon Woman Wins 3-Year Fight Against Wells Fargo Foreclosure  ABC News   ... her mortgage payments have been deposited by Wells Fargo. Despite efforts to clear up the mistake and paying more than $12,000 in attorney fees, her home went into judicial foreclosure...
Miscellaneous
The World Will Have Its First Trillionaire Within 25 Years  Think Progress   ...Billionaires will finally have someone to envy by 2040. The world will mint its first trillionaire within 25 years as the wealthiest people's investment gains push global inequality wider and wider...
How the Middle Class Lifestyle Became Unaffordable  oftwominds.com   ...As the real economy stagnated, the state (which includes the Federal Reserve) incentivized financialization and speculative credit bubbles to keep the money flowing to feed its own spending...
Oh, Good: More Sports Teams Asking Taxpayers To Pay For Their Stadiums  Mother Jones   ...Cleveland's professional sports teams have poured more than a million dollars into a fight they're hoping will end in victory on Tuesday. The end goal isn't a championship, though--it's a municipal tax extension...

Today's Teamsters News 12.30.13

Refinery news: Minnesota Northern Tier workers may strike Dec. 31 on wages, safety issues: Teamsters  Platts   ...Minnesota's Northern Tier refinery is facing a potential strike that could shut its refinery in Saint Paul Park, Minnesota, as soon as December 31, according to Teamsters Local 120, which represents about 200 workers at the plant...
Service Corporation International : Teamsters Local 727 Updates on Service Corp. International Refuses Interest Arbitration  Teamsters Local 727   ...Teamsters Local 727 announced Service Corp. International refused an interest arbitration offer made by the Teamsters to end a five- month lockout of Chicago funeral directors and drivers...
Antiques to replace NYC horse carriages  CNN   ...If activists have their way, horse-drawn carriages in New York City may soon be replaced by antique electric cars...
Charts: The Worst Long-Term Unemployment Crisis Since the Depression  Mother Jones   ...the economic downturn remains in full effect for millions of Americans, particularly the nearly 40 percent of the unemployed who have been looking for work for six months or more...
Where the 1.3 million people losing unemployment aid this week live  Washington Post   ...every state but one — North Dakota — has added more people than jobs since the recession began...
Elizabeth Warren: It's the Right of Every American to Retire with Dignity -- Why We Must Expand Social Security  Alternet   ...If we do nothing, Social Security will be safe for the next 20 years and even after that will continue to pay most benefits through the end of the century. With some modest adjustments, we can keep the system solvent for many more years, and could even increase benefits...
Wis. teachers refuses award from Paul Ryan during MLK ceremony: 'Lackey for the 1%'  The Blaze   ... A Wisconsin teacher refused to accept an award from Rep. Paul Ryan during a ceremony last week, saying he couldn’t do so “in good conscience” because of the Republican congressman’s politics...
As critics gain, ALEC gives ground  Politico   ...The American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative group of state lawmakers and corporations that, among other things, drafts model legislation, saw an exodus of members and a sharp decline in fundraising after it was tied to controversial “stand your ground laws” like the one made infamous following the shooting death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin...
“Honey, I Shrunk Killed the Middle Class”  naked capitalism   ... even as the stock market roars ahead, more investors are coming to recognize the shoddy foundations of this so-called recovery and perhaps more important, that the legitimacy of the ruling classes erodes quickly when ordinary citizens recognize how badly the deck is stacked against them...
'Military-Style' Raid on California Power Station Spooks U.S.  Foreign Policy   ...Around 1:00 AM on April 16, at least one individual (possibly two) entered two different manholes at the PG&E Metcalf power substation, southeast of San Jose, and cut fiber cables in the area around the substation. That knocked out some local 911 services, landline service to the substation, and cell phone service in the area, a senior U.S. intelligence official told Foreign Policy. The intruder(s) then fired more than 100 rounds from what two officials described as a high-powered rifle at several transformers in the facility. Ten transformers were damaged in one area of the facility, and three transformer banks -- or groups of transformers -- were hit in another...
Home Prices Back at Peaks in Some Areas  Wall Street Journal   ...Home prices have zipped back into record territory in a handful of American cities, a milestone that comes seven years after the housing bust ravaged the market and the broader economy. Values are up more than 13% from their 2007 high in Oklahoma City and by more than 6% in the Denver metro area. Prices are back to all-time highs in 10 of the nation's 50 largest metropolitan areas...
This Trade Fight Is Against ‘Global Apartheid’ (opinion)  Campaign for America's Future   ...organizations ... (should) step up against is what she calls “this global apartheid phenomenon” in which “international elites, some of whom don’t have a allegiance to any country,” are creating conditions that are worsening economic inequality and racial inequities around the world, including the United States...
Why China is stepping up its presence in Detroit auto industry  TradeReform   ...Encouraged by the low price of real estate and the high level of advanced engineering talent, dozens of Chinese auto companies and suppliers are opening plants and offices in and around the Motor City, where they hope to one day sell cars to US buyers...
‘Safe Harbor’ in Bankruptcy Is Upended in Detroit Case  New York Times   ...“When you’re in a municipal bankruptcy, where the debtor is a municipality, there are very strong public-interest considerations that ought to be balanced,” Mr. Schwarcz said. He and other specialists said there had not been any such discussion in Detroit’s case...
France’s Hollande Gets Court Approval for 75% Millionaire Tax  Bloomberg   ...French President Francois Hollande received approval from the country’s constitutional court to proceed with his plan to tax salaries above 1 million euros at 75 percent for this year and next....
Setback for Scalia in Attempt to Curtail Labor Rights  truthout   ...the Supreme Court decided against ruling on a legal decision from a lower court which, if broadly applied, could have undermined some of the few remaining effective union organizing techniques: neutrality and card check agreements...

Dockworkers in 10 countries rally for locked-out IKEA Teamsters

Dockworkers in Norway support locked-out IKEA Teamsters

Dockworkers at 10 ports around the world are rallying today to support IKEA Teamsters who've been locked out of their jobs for seven months by IKEA in Richmond, Canada.

According to the Teamsters press statement,

The dock workers, members of 11 unions that belong to the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), carried banners that read “Dockers Solidarity with IKEA Workers/ITF.” 

Dock workers held rallies at ports in Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia, Japan, Norway, Finland, Belgium, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Canada. To view photos from the rallies, visit www.IKEAHurtsFamilies.com. 

Dockworkers in Belgium support locked-out
IKEA Teamsters

“IKEA’s actions are inexcusable,” said ITF representative Peter Lahay. “IKEA has put its workers on the street for seven months purely for retaliation. These workers exercised their legal right to vote down IKEA’s demands for a discriminatory wage system and cuts to family health care benefits. Now, IKEA is holding the workers hostage while they stand outside in the winter, at Christmas time.”

IKEA's abuse of its Teamster workers and their families is receiving global press attention. An international delegation traveled to Richmond to assess the situation and has reported its findings in Sweden. The company, which purports to be family friendly, cannot be happy with the attention.

The Tyee in Canada recently reported, for example,

"IKEA management at their store in Richmond has adopted a radical anti-worker

agenda that opposes unionization campaigns and encourages union decertification." 

Solidarity from dockworkers in Japan 

That's how a union-sponsored, European-based fact-finding commission describes the lengthy, ongoing dispute between IKEA management and unionized workers at the iconic Swedish furniture retailer's Richmond, B.C. location. 

The commission, which held B.C. hearings on the dispute in early November, issued its scathing final report this week, titled "How IKEA Is Hurting Families."

Let's hope our brothers and sisters can go back to work soon. Solidarity!

Teamsters take IKEA fight to Sweden

Teamster Keith Austin in Sweden.

Teamsters and members of four other international labor unions are getting plenty of media attention in Sweden as they expose IKEA's abuse of its workers in Canada.

They came armed with a report that describes how far IKEA departed from its original Swedish values. The company locked out more than 300 workers at its Richmond store without pay for more than six months. Now IKEA is trying to smear them because they exercised their legal right to vote down IKEA’s demand they accept a discriminatory two-tiered wage system and cut-off of health care benefits.

The report calls on IKEA to end its lockout and end its use of anti-union lawyers at the bargaining table.
The media coverage is all in Swedish, naturally, but we have a translation of one item from TT News, which reports:

Employees at an Ikea store in Vancouver has been without a job and salary for seven months.

The delegation to Sweden included: 

Keith Austin, a locked-out IKEA Richmond store worker;

Grant Coleman, Teamsters Canada;

Peter Lövkvist, Nordic Transport Federation;

Erin van der Maas, International Transport Workers’ Federation;

Tim Beaty, International Brotherhood of Teamsters; and

Mathias Bolton, UNI Global Union

Follow their struggle at the ikeahurtsfamilies.org website.

IKEA lockout of Teamsters drawing international concern

Our locked-out Teamster sisters in front of
Richmond IKEA.

The world is starting to watch IKEA's 6-month lockout of 350 of our Teamster brothers and sisters in Richmond, British Columbia. The Swedish furniture retailer claims to be pro-family and pro-worker. But its brutal treatment of Teamster Local 213 members is raising concerns about IKEA's attacks on workers at stores throughout the world.

A new website, www.ikeahurtsfamilies.org, tells the story. On May 15, Teamsters rejected a company offer that included the imposition of a tiered wage structure. IKEA locked them out without pay to force them to accept pay and benefit cuts. Three weeks later, Canadian labor officials found IKEA guilty of using scab workers to keep the Richmond store open.

The lockout dragged on, and on Nov. 7 an international fact-finding mission visited locked-out IKEA workers in Richmond. What they found concerned them deeply. The international labor leaders proclaimed the ongoing dispute was now under the gaze of the wider labor movement.  The Tyee reported,

The increasingly-fractious, six month labour dispute at IKEA's big box store in Richmond may be on the verge of a dramatic escalation -- all the way to Europe.

Today, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced the launch of the new website in a statement.

"The company I have grown up to love and admire has become one big corporate machine, at least in North America," said IKEA Richmond employee Julia Buczek. "It is upsetting to see that the original Swedish values that we have all looked up to and regarded in such a positive way are just going down the drain."

Left Labor Reporter tells us the IKEA in Canada is busting the union -- and it isn't the only bad behavior by IKEA management.

The lockout, which has lasted longer than any other labor dispute with IKEA anywhere else in the world, the company’s take it or leave it attitude, and its efforts to coax union members to cross the picket line and return to work all suggest that IKEA in Richmond wants to be union free. 

In Turkey, after workers voted to form a union, IKEA went of its way not to recognize the workers’ union. 

In France, police are questioning two IKEA executives about illegally spying on IKEA workers and customers. According to rt.com, the former head of risk management at IKEA France has already been charged with bribing police to obtain “car registration numbers and names connected with a list of mobile phone numbers” of union members who work for IKEA in France.

You can help locked-out IKEA Teamsters in several ways:

• Visit www.ikeahurtsfamilies.org website.
• Post a supportive comment on the IKEA workers' Facebook page. 
• Attend a rally tomorrow. Here are the details: 

TO BRING PUBLIC AWARENESS TO IKEA’S TREATMENT OF WORKERS

DATE: SATURDAY November 23rd, 2013

TIME: 1PM

PLACE: Very close to the IKEA Coquitlam store,(1000 Lougheed Hwy).

PLEASE BRING YOUR IKEA CATALOGUE TO THE RALLY!

Contact Info: Anita Dawson 604-876-5213

Or anita@teamsters213.org

Locked-out IKEA Teamsters get help from European labor leaders

An international fact-finding coalition of labor leaders pledged to help locked-out IKEA Teamsters in Richmond, British Columbia, after visiting workers and local leaders last Thursday.

For over 180 days, more than 350 of our brothers and sisters from Teamsters Local 213 in Richmond, British Colombia, have been locked out by management at their warehouse after they refused to accept draconian wage and benefit cuts.

The IKEA workers were locked out after they twice refused to accept the furniture store's wage cuts by over 80 percent and voted for a strike mandate.  Instead of actually negotiating, the store locked workers out.  Local 213 business agent Anita Dawson, a former IKEA employee says the company just isn't interested in working to a solution:

The company has showed little interest in dealing with our issues at the bargaining table.  They seem intent on following their agenda, which involve cutbacks.  Our members are not interested  in going backwards.

The international panel, headed by Peter Lövkvist of Sweden, visited Vancouver and Richmond to determine whether IKEA's confrontational approach in Canada indicates a change for the entire company. B.C. Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair explained:

Whether legitimate or not, IKEA has developed and nurtured a reputation worldwide as being a good employer. There is growing concern globally, however, that IKEA’s confrontational approach to labour relations at its Richmond store is a testing ground for the entire chain. This is what the panel will examine. 

The Tyree reported the fact-finders were troubled by what they found:

The increasingly-fractious, six month labour dispute at IKEA's big box store in Richmond may be on the verge of a dramatic escalation -- all the way to Europe. 

After listening to a wealth of emotional testimony from embittered IKEA employees during a hearing in Vancouver, international trade union representatives are pledging overseas action on behalf of the Richmond store workers, if the prolonged conflict continues. 

"We will do everything we can that's in our power," declared Peter Lövkvist, secretary of the Nordic Transport Workers' Federation, which represents 400,000 union members across all five Nordic countries, including IKEA's home base of Sweden. "We're not ruling anything out." 

Asked for specifics, Lövkvist mentioned measures such as publicizing the dispute in Scandinavia, demanding a "friendly" meeting with the worldwide company's top brass at its Swedish headquarters, and union members refusing to handle IKEA products. "That could include seafarers, dockworkers, longshoremen, truck drivers, warehouse workers," he said in an interview. "It depends. We could do a lot."

IKEA has been illegally replacing workers and is still trying to cut wages.  Although workers have said that they would reauthorize their current contract with a few small tweaks, IKEA refuses to listen.

Though the fight has dragged on for over six months, the locked-out workers remain strong.  One member of the fact-finding team, Erin Van Der Maas from the International Transport Workers’ Federation, wrote to Local 213 after the visit:

Your togetherness and support for each other has left a massive impression on me. It was a real honour to meet so many great brothers and sisters facing this lockout together with dignity and respect. I hope you all get the outcome you deserve - and we will be following up on this as soon as we get back to Europe.

Show some solidarity!  Let Local 213 know you stand with them as well on their Facebook page.

Today's Teamster News 10.12.12

Teamsters' Contract With DHL Express Fully Ratified After Last Local Rider Approved  teamster.org   ...The remaining contract rider between the Teamsters Union and DHL Express was approved on Wednesday, October 9, paving the way for the national contract between the parties to take effect...
Teamsters Support SEC on Rule to Expose Gap Between Worker, CEO Pay  teamster.org   ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters supports the SEC’s proposal to require corporations to reveal the difference between the pay of their CEO and their average workers...
Vote Results Announced For 7 UPS Local Supplements, Riders  teamster.org   ...Five of seven UPS Local supplements and riders were approved by UPS Teamsters covered under them. The supplements and riders that passed were the Central Region, Local 243, Local 804, Metro Philadelphia and Michigan. The Ohio Rider and Local 623 Supplement did not pass. Complete results can be viewed here...
SCI Funeral Directors Rally After 100 Days on Picket Line  teamster.org   ...After 100 days on the picket line, locked out funeral directors and drivers in Chicago aren’t giving up the fight for workers’ rights...
Donna LeMay: 'We All Deserve Respect'  driveupstandards.org   ...I am a driver with Local 633 out of Manchester, N.H. We have been Teamsters in Salem since 1998. It has not been easy to get where we are today, but it was well worth the wait. I am a steward who to this day still learns new things as I go along...
School bus strike avoided  Ottumwa Courier   ...Teamsters Local 238 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has reached a tentative agreement with Southern Iowa Transit, averting a strike by the school bus drivers for the Ottumwa school district...
Ballots Mailed in Tentative BLET, Terminal Railroad-Alabama State Docks Agreement  BLET   ...The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) has reached a tentative contract agreement with the Terminal Railroad-Alabama State Docks (TR-ASD). Ballots were mailed October 10 to active members of the BLET employed by TR-ASD who are eligible to vote...
Who said phone banking for your favorite Teamster candidates isn't fun? Teamsters Local 117   ...Phone banking gets a bum rap, often for good reason. The term conjures up images of stressed telemarketers squeezed into cubicles selling Aruba timeshares to unsuspecting retirees. But phone banking can actually be a lot of fun, especially when you’re a Teamster...
Corporations Ask to Write their Own Regulations via "Trade" Deal  Public Citizen   ...European government officials have been taking pains to entertain corporations' deregulatory demands for theTrans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA)...
43 Workers Win $664,000 Judgment Against Sacramento Landscaping Business JusticeNewsFlash   ...43 workers of a Sacramento landscaping firm were recently awarded more than $664,000 when a California Labor Commissioner determined the company cheated them out of their wages by misclassifying them as independent contractors instead of employees...
Google: Doing Evil with ALEC  Huffington Post   ...Quietly, Google has joined ALEC -- the American Legislative Exchange Council -- the shadowy corporate alliance that pushes odious laws through state legislatures...
States can open National Parks — ­­if they pay   Associated Press   ...The Obama administration has said it will allow states to use their own money to open some National Parks, but the states must pay to keep the parks open...
Financial Regulator Shutdown, Halts Investigations of Wall Street Crimes  The Real News   ...The main U.S. regulatory agency responsible for monitoring commodity markets has ceased most of its operations during the government shutdown...
JPMorgan’s Dimon Posts First Loss on $7.2 Billion Legal Cost  Bloomberg   ...JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported its first loss under Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon after taking a $7.2 billion charge to cover the cost of mounting litigation and regulatory probes...
Lawsuit claims NY Fed fired regulator who raised questions about Goldman Sachs  Washington Post   ...In a wrongful termination lawsuit, a senior examiner with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York says she was fired by the Fed after she refused to change a finding that Goldman Sachs had inadequate controls over conflicts of interest...
OUTRAGEOUS! Intern Can’t Bring Sexual Harassment Suit Because She's Not an ‘Employee,' Judge Says  AlterNet   ...Federal Court in NY rules that an intern doesn’t deserve human rights protection as an employee because she’s unpaid...
Judge nixes Nissan's $1B New York City taxi plan  USA TODAY   ...Plans to flood New York's streets with the Taxi of Tomorrow hit a roadblock Tuesday when a judge ruled that the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission went too far when it ordered operators to buy a only a single brand of vehicle...
Lost in Germany: Spanish Jobseekers Lured on False Pretenses  Der Spiegel   ...far worse for the Spanish jobseekers was finding out that there weren't jobs waiting for them after all. Hardly any of them received the job contracts they were promised...
Brown signs California immigration bills, wins activists’ kudos in pressing for reform  Washington Post   ...Brown (D) signed eight bills Saturday, including one prohibiting local law enforcement officials from detaining immigrants longer than necessary for minor crimes so that federal immigration authorities can take custody of them...
Ohio senator introduces legislation to protect correctional officers   CorrectionsOne   ...New bill would provide safeguards for correctional officers who are assaulted in youth correctional facilities...
Michigan contract for cigarette stamps questioned  Associated Press   ...Michigan wants to award a $9.6 million contract to Xerox to help make sure taxes are paid on cigarettes, despite allegations of bias in the selection process and an offer from a competitor to do the work for at least $1.7 million less...

Locked-out Teamster funeral directors rally against SCI

Funeral home workers rally on 100th day of lockout.

Locked-out Teamster funeral home employees marked their 100th day on the picket line with a rally before a Chicago-area funeral home yesterday. The rally was attended by political, religious and labor leaders who support the Teamsters' fight to preserve health care and retirement benefits. Their employer, funeral giant Service Corporation International, wants to strip those away.

SCI locked out 59 funeral directors and drivers from 16 of the 59 funeral homes it owns in the Chicago area. As Teamster Angela Anello explained to Inside Booster:

All we are asking for are salaries and benefits that are commensurate with those at the other funeral homes in the Chicago areas.... 

(We) agreed to a pay cut. The next deal, we took a pay freeze for three years. Now, they want to tout a generous pay increase but also decrease our benefits. 

John T. Coli.

The event featured guest speakers, including Teamsters Joint Council 25 President John T. Coli, state Sen. Bill Cunningham, state Rep. Kelly Burke, Chicago Fire Department chaplain Fr. Thomas Mulcrone, state Sen. Tom Cullerton, Teamsters Central Region Vice President Becky Strzechowski and Chicago Alderman Nick Sposato.

Teamsters Local 727, which represents the workers, explains:

With more than 1,400 funeral facilities, SCI is valued at approximately $4 billion and has seen its stock price rise 94 percent in just two years. 

Local 727 urges all Chicago-area residents to support community-owned funeral homes. Recommended funeral home alternatives can be found at www.IntegrityInIllinois.com.

Anello said SCI's business model relies on the local funeral directors, who are part of the community:

Becky Strzechowski

We know the families. We pride ourselves on following up on all the details for the families we serve. We also have strong relationships with all the area churches and clergy... 

The replacements are not from here. They don't even know the simple things such as how to get from point A to point B.... 

While our work is physically demanding and we work very long hours, it's very rewarding work. We all do it because we want to. Our job is to ease the transition from life to death and to make it easier to bear. There are hundreds of details to get it right. Hiring scabs is like turning this into a factory.

Locked-out union workers rally against government shutdown

Today on Capitol Hill. 

The gloom of the government shutdown and a cold rainy day didn't stop a thousand locked-out federal workers from rallying outside the Capitol in Washington, D.C., this morning.

With the shutdown now in its tenth day, the huge crowd of furloughed union workers -- including members of the American Federation of Government Employees, the National Treasury Employees Union and AFSCME -- gathered to express their outrage and demand that extremist Republicans stop holding the country hostage. Other workers from SEIU, the Teamsters and Good Jobs Nation came out to support their union brothers and sisters.

Rain pounded down on a furloughed aviation inspector who spoke to protesters:

I'm a little damp right now, but that's nothing compared to the way American workers are getting soaked by House Republicans.

Rev. Jesse Jackson, union leaders and dozens of members of Congress also rallied the crowd. Like a similar protest held last week, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) of the Progressive Caucus led the demonstration, joined by Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) and Nancy Pelosi.

Workers chanted "Let us work," holding umbrellas and signs that said "Stop the lockout" and "Stop holding America hostage."

One AFGE leader set the record straight on what American workers are willing to negotiate on with anti-worker Republicans:

Half of our members are out of work and the other half are being forced to work without a paycheck. And despite what John Boehner and tea party extremists are saying, we are willing to negotiate. We want to negotiate an end to sequestration and a fairer tax system so that the rich and corporations pay their fair share.

We have all kinds of ideas to end the plight of the working class and improve federal government. But we don't shut down the government to make a political point.

As always, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called out the extremists in Congress and put their latest attack on the middle class in context:

This shutdown started with tea party hostage-takers wanting to stop health care reform. But let's be clear: destroying health care is just the tip of the iceberg for right-wing extremists. They want to destroy Social Security and Medicare. They want to end regulations on Wall Street. They want to go after the whole social safety net that keeps millions of Americans from falling into extreme poverty. They want an oligarchic society ruled by the rich.

And they say they are willing to negotiate -- it's time to compromise. We have already compromised! The budget we passed is their budget. We don't like it. And still they want to take more from the American people.

Today the shutdown hit 3,600 employees at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- the people who make sure a Fukushima-like nuclear disaster doesn't happen in America. Meanwhile the clock is ticking on the deadline to increase the debt ceiling.

The shutdown has hurt hundreds of thousands of workers, families and small businesses, but millions more will face a deep economic crisis if Congress drives the government to default.

Some locked-out government workers said they will return to the Capitol tomorrow -- rain or shine -- to keep the pressure on politicians and stop Republicans' war on working families.

Hundreds of union workers protest government shutdown

Union workers protest shutdown today.

Locked-out federal workers gathered in front of the Capitol in Washington D.C. this morning to protest Republican extremists in Congress who shut down the government.

Members of the American Federation of Government Employees, the National Treasury Employees Union and other unions spoke for thousands of union workers employed by the government, calling the shutdown what it is: a lockout.

Led by Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and union leaders, the crowd of workers chanted "Let us work" and "Shut down the shutdown." Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said the jobs of dedicated public servants should not be held hostage by tea party fanatics:

Two weeks ago a shooting took place not too far from here at the Navy Yard. Hundreds of brave federal police officers responded to stop the carnage and restore security. Today those dedicated officers are not being paid. That's outrageous.

Sanders noted the budget that Republican extremists refuse to pass is already a very conservative one. He said there's no reason for them to shut down the government over a budget that is more to the right-wing's liking than anyone else's.

As the crowd grew, furloughed federal employees talked about the uncertainty and hardship their families are facing during the shutdown. An aviation safety inspector said he can't do his job to make sure planes are safe to fly. And a worker from Good Jobs Nation who works at a McDonald's at the Smithsonian described how  the shutdown harms low-wage federal contract workers.

Workers at the rally said they should get back pay for the days they are furloughed. Some members of Congress have proposed legislation to do just that.

The pain from the shutdown is not just being felt by government employees. Speakers railed against right-wing lawmakers who put veterans' families and other vulnerable people at risk, just to score political points and to gut a law they don't like.

As for Republicans' proposal to reopen some parts of the government with piecemeal funding, workers at the rally said they want all of their coworkers to get back to work, not just some of them.

Rep. Ellison said locked out federal workers were prepared to come back and protest every day for as long as extremists in Congress keep holding the government hostage.