Teamster News
Passavant Workers Take Strike Vote New Castle News ...Members of Teamsters Local 538 voted Thursday to give a 10-day strike notice to Passavant Health and Retirement Center in Zelienople. Betty Fischer, Teamsters Local 538 secretary/treasurer, said the vote was “overwhelming.”...
Environmental Activist To Address Bridgeton Landfill Concerns St. Louis Public Radio ...Environmental activist Lois Gibbs will be in St. Louis this weekend for a “teach-in” to address problems at the adjoining Bridgeton and West Lake landfills, located in Bridgeton a few miles from Lambert Airport...
Rev. Brian Jordan Blesses Horses With Holy Water, Praises City's Carriage Industry New York Daily News ...The veteran clergyman, an ardent supporter of the industry, delivered some kind words for the carriage horse owners as well. “These horses are cared for like children,” said Jordan, wearing cargo shorts and running shoes beneath his robe.
Assembly's Gary Pretlow: Veterinarians Say Carriage Horses 'Healthy, Happy, Well-Fed' New York Daily News ...State Assemblyman Gary Pretlow says the city's horse carriage industry should live on -- doctor's orders. The Westchester County Democrat, who sponsored legislation this spring to save the jobs of the drivers, is upping the ante by sending the City Council and mayor's office a testimonial from the state Veterinary Medical Society in support of keeping the horses on the job...
35 Port Truck Drivers Fired After Strike AFL-CIO ...The drivers, supported by the Teamsters, are some of the lowest paid workers in our communities. Because of their misclassification as “independent contractors,” some even take home negative paychecks. The 35 port drivers were fired from Total Transportation Services (TTSI). They include Jose Rosales, a port driver for over 10 years, husband and father of three children...
Trade
TTIP - Four Letters That Spell Rising Poverty (opinion) Huffington Post ...Cheap labour may be good for investors and shareholders, but at the societal level at which governments operate, it creates a whole new set of problems...
Trade Deals Worsen Immigration Pressures (opinion) Baltimore Sun ...These trade agreements failed to achieve the promised increases in employment and wages and actually caused so much economic disruption and hardship in those countries that pressures for workers to emigrate actually increased instead of decreasing...
State Battles
New Temp Worker Bill Could Have Large Impact Monterey Herald ...A bill that used Taylor Farms as its rallying cry is likely to have a major affect across the state. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the "Temp Worker Protection Bill" on Sunday, which holds businesses liable when subcontractors violate wage or safety laws...
GOP Candidate Busted For Potential Voter Fraud! The Story Of Leslie Rutledge Salon.com ...Leslie Rutledge, the Republican candidate for Attorney General in Arkansas, has been discovered to have been registered to vote in multiple states in addition to Arkansas, and even voted by absentee ballot in Arkansas’ general election in November of 2008 –after she had registered to vote in Washington D.C. in July of the same year...
Christie defends Koch Brothers, calls questions about anonymous donors 'silliness' in Arizona NJ.com ...Questioning the lack of transparency about who has been funneling millions of dollars in negative campaign ads into the Arizona governor's race is "silliness" and "sophistry," Gov. Chris Christie said Thursday night while stumping for Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Ducey...
Early voting hours unlikely to change before Election Day cleveland.com ... the statewide early, in-person voting hours set Monday by Secretary of State Jon Husted will hold throughout Election Day on Nov. 4. That schedule includes early, in-person voting on the two Saturdays prior to Election Day, Sunday before Election Day and Monday before Election Day...
Michigan Legislature Approves Anti-Human Trafficking Bills Associated Press ...The bills now headed to Gov. Rick Snyder would let victims clear their criminal records. Minors under age 18 suspected of prostitution would be presumed to be trafficking victims, and “Johns” soliciting sex from minors would face stiffer criminal penalties...
Club for Growth won't disclose source of money for local ad buy Columbia Daily Tribune ...the Tribune reported Thursday that the ads were purchased with funds from the Missouri Club for Growth PAC, a political fund that has received $3.6 million, more than 99 percent of its funding in the past three years, from wealthy conservative activist Rex Sinquefield...
U.S. Supreme Court is asked to block Wisconsin's voter ID law Associated Press ...Opponents of Wisconsin's photo ID requirement for voters took their case to the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday, seeking an emergency halt to the state's implementation of the law before the fast approaching Nov. 4 election...
Group sues state over campaign coordination Associated Press ...A conservative group and ally of Gov. Scott Walker filed a federal lawsuit Thursday asking that a Wisconsin law limiting coordination between third-party organizations and political candidates be declared unconstitutional...
War On Workers
The Missing Trio in Today's Jobs Report Bloomberg ...At 3 million, the number of long-term unemployed hardly budged. Youth unemployment rose somewhat to 20 percent, giving up half the gains of the prior month. And joblessness among those lacking a college education is still too high...
‘We Can’t Haul’: Rebounding Economy Reveals Shortage Of Truck Drivers Bangor Daily News ...In 1980, Vieth said, the average trucker earned four times the wage of a food service worker. But the $40,940 the average truck driver makes today is just 1.8 times that of food service workers...
Labor Participation Rate Drops To 36 Year Low; Record 92.6 Million Americans Not In Labor Force zero hedge ...while according to the Household Survey, 232,000 people found jobs, what is more disturbing is that the people not in the labor force, rose to a new record high, increasing by 315,000 to 92.6 million!...
Hackers’ Attack Cracked 10 Companies in Major Assault New York Times ...The breadth of the attacks — and the lack of clarity about whether it was an effort to steal from accounts or to demonstrate that the hackers could penetrate even the best-protected American financial institutions — has left Washington intelligence officials and policy makers far more concerned than they have let on publicly...
Huh? Walmart Foundation Battles Hunger As Walmart Workers Turn to Food Stamps Inside Philanthropy ...Last month, the foundation launched a new campaign, "Fight Hunger, Spark Change," that asks people to vote for which local food banks it should donate funds to. All this is ironic to say the least, given the food security challenges of Walmart's own huge labor force, many of whom don't earn much more than the minimum wage...
EXCLUSIVE AUDIO: How the Koch Brothers Are Molding the Next Scott Walkers The Nation ...Walker has, since his 2010 gubernatorial run, been a top recipient of campaign contributions from the Kochs, and a beneficiary of the “independent” campaigns of Koch-fueled groups such as Americans for Prosperity...
Koch-backed group plans direct attacks in Senate races USA Today ...Americans for Prosperity's decision to move to pointed attacks is significant because it shifts the group into more direct political activity — something tax-exempt organizations are required to limit. It also means the group must disclose its election-related activity — though not its donors — to federal regulators...
Worker Dies Valdosta Today ...Officials say that 61-year old Isabel Gomez died after a piece of heavy equipment fell and crushed him. Sheriff Andy Hester of Turner County reports that Gomez and his brother were working on a fork lift...
Worker dies after truck with gravel tips over WOKV ...the man was unloading gravel from a truck which had an apparatus raised up. That caused the truck to get unsteady and ultimately tip on to the man who was crouched next to it working...
High-Speed Trader Accused Of Commodity Market ‘Spoofing’ Bloomberg News ...A high-frequency trader was indicted for “spoofing” -- placing and immediate canceling orders as a way to manipulate commodities markets -- in what the U.S. Justice Department says is the first criminal case of its kind...
Man Shoots Down Drone, Lawyers Scratch Their Heads Popular Science ...A man in New Jersey fired a shotgun at his neighbor's drone, and as the quadcopter crashed to the ground, the incident raised new legal challenges about when and if it’s okay to shoot a robot...
Miscellaneous
Showing posts with label nj. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nj. Show all posts
Saturday, October 4, 2014
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Today's Teamster News 10.02.14
Teamster News
City Sanitation Workers Get In The Pink For Breast Cancer Awareness Month New York Daily News ...The 6,300 members of the Sanitation Department will be wearing pink ribbons on their green uniforms for the next 31 days in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. “This has touched a lot of us throughout the department,” said sanitation worker Brian Tullo, whose mother battled breast cancer. ..
BLET Members Convene 3rd National Convention teamster.org ...BLET National President Dennis R. Pierce delivered his state of the union speech during the opening session of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen's Third National Convention...
New Legislation Aimed At Curbing Ridesharing Controversy In DC WUSA ...The Teamsters Local 922, which has formed an association with more than one thousand independent Washington taxi drivers, also issued a statement criticizing Cheh's bill. The legislation "does not do enough to provide for public safety, industry stability, or equity for taxi drivers," the Teamsters statement said...
Trade
The vulnerability of being ill informed: the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and Global Public Health Journal of Public Health ...the TPPA poses serious risks to global public health, particularly chronic, non-communicable diseases. At greatest risk are national tobacco regulations, regulations governing the emergence of generic drugs and controls over food imports by transnational corporations...
State Battles
Kansas: Continued Budget Hemorrhaging Econbrowser ...Tax collections by Kansas state government in September fell a sobering $21 million below projections to mark the fourth time in the past six months revenue failed to match targets, officials said Tuesday...
Wisconsin Has 3rd-Lowest Business Start-Up Rate In Country, According To Census Data Wisconsin Public Radio ...According to the data, about 5,700 businesses with employees were created in Wisconsin in 2012, which constitutes less than 6 percent of all Wisconsin firms. Only Iowa and West Virginia had lower rates for the year...
In Wisconsin, A Push For Voter ID Law, But Not Voter IDs Center for Media and Democracy ...The Advancement Project and ACLU have noted that the state would need to issue 6,000 IDs per day to protect the right to vote. Yet two-thirds of the state's Department of Motor Vehicles offices are only open part-time, and just one is open on Saturday, making it exceptionally difficult for working people to get an ID or to drive a friend or family member who doesn't have one...
Report: Fla. voters had country’s longest waits to cast ballots Miami Herald ...Voters in Florida waited far longer than those in other states to cast their votes in the 2012 election, hampered by long ballots and cutbacks in early voting options, according to a new report by congressional auditors...
National union leader visits Maine to back Michaud, condemn LePage ‘right to work’ push Bangor Daily News ...The president of the nation’s largest unionized labor organization came to Maine on Wednesday to boost Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud’s campaign for governor, calling the congressman “a friend of the working people, whether they’re union or not.”...
NJ’s minimum wage rising in January by 13 cents Asbury Park Press ...The 1.59 percent increase, from $8.25 an hour to $8.38, is required under a constitutional amendment approved by 61 percent of voters last November that raised the mimimum wage by $1 and provided for automatic yearly increases to keep pace with inflation...
Minimum wage to rise to $8.10 for Ohio workers in 2015, up 15 cents cleveland.com ...The increase, announced Tuesday by the Ohio Department of Commerce, will benefit workers employed by companies with annual gross receipts greater than $297,000 a year...
Court Blocks Part of New North Carolina Voting Law Associated Press ...Parts of North Carolina's new voting law, considered one of the toughest in the nation, were set aside for next month's elections because they were likely to disenfranchise black voters, a federal appeals court panel ruled Wednesday...
War On Workers
Two years after college, too many grads are still 'adrift' The Hill ... Two years after graduation, 24 percent of graduates have been forced to move back home with their parents. No less shocking, 74 percent of college graduates "are receiving financial support from their families." Moreover, 23 percent of graduates who are "in the labor market are unemployed or underemployed," that is, they find themselves in jobs in which they work fewer than "20 hours per week" or where the majority of peer employees "have not completed even a year of college." Finally, a mere 47 percent of working graduates enjoy full-time jobs that "pay $30,000 or more annually," and this at a time when the average debt load for students who borrowed to attend college stands at $29,400...
Wal-Mart’s New Scheme To Prey On America’s Poor Salon.com ...to open an account, you have to buy a $2.95 “starter kit” from Walmart. There’s also a minimum deposit of $20 required. A visit to an out-of-network ATM will get you a $2.50 charge, and customers who do not keep a balance of $500 a month will get hit with a fee of $8.95. This last bit is especially worrying: if you suddenly lose your job, you can quickly rack up burdensome fees...
Worker Killed in Valley Forklift Accident WOWT ...Valley police say George Young was using a standing forklift Monday night while working at Midwest Manufacturing. At some point, the machine backed into a shelving unit and pinned him...
Miscellaneous
September U.S. Consumer Confidence Unexpectedly Drops Wall Street Journal ...U.S. consumers unexpectedly pulled back on their economic optimism in September, according to a report released Tuesday. The Conference Board, a private research group, said its index of consumer confidence fell to 86.0 in September from a revised 93.4 in August, first reported as 92.4...
City Sanitation Workers Get In The Pink For Breast Cancer Awareness Month New York Daily News ...The 6,300 members of the Sanitation Department will be wearing pink ribbons on their green uniforms for the next 31 days in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. “This has touched a lot of us throughout the department,” said sanitation worker Brian Tullo, whose mother battled breast cancer. ..
BLET Members Convene 3rd National Convention teamster.org ...BLET National President Dennis R. Pierce delivered his state of the union speech during the opening session of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen's Third National Convention...
New Legislation Aimed At Curbing Ridesharing Controversy In DC WUSA ...The Teamsters Local 922, which has formed an association with more than one thousand independent Washington taxi drivers, also issued a statement criticizing Cheh's bill. The legislation "does not do enough to provide for public safety, industry stability, or equity for taxi drivers," the Teamsters statement said...
Trade
The vulnerability of being ill informed: the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and Global Public Health Journal of Public Health ...the TPPA poses serious risks to global public health, particularly chronic, non-communicable diseases. At greatest risk are national tobacco regulations, regulations governing the emergence of generic drugs and controls over food imports by transnational corporations...
State Battles
Kansas: Continued Budget Hemorrhaging Econbrowser ...Tax collections by Kansas state government in September fell a sobering $21 million below projections to mark the fourth time in the past six months revenue failed to match targets, officials said Tuesday...
Wisconsin Has 3rd-Lowest Business Start-Up Rate In Country, According To Census Data Wisconsin Public Radio ...According to the data, about 5,700 businesses with employees were created in Wisconsin in 2012, which constitutes less than 6 percent of all Wisconsin firms. Only Iowa and West Virginia had lower rates for the year...
In Wisconsin, A Push For Voter ID Law, But Not Voter IDs Center for Media and Democracy ...The Advancement Project and ACLU have noted that the state would need to issue 6,000 IDs per day to protect the right to vote. Yet two-thirds of the state's Department of Motor Vehicles offices are only open part-time, and just one is open on Saturday, making it exceptionally difficult for working people to get an ID or to drive a friend or family member who doesn't have one...
Report: Fla. voters had country’s longest waits to cast ballots Miami Herald ...Voters in Florida waited far longer than those in other states to cast their votes in the 2012 election, hampered by long ballots and cutbacks in early voting options, according to a new report by congressional auditors...
National union leader visits Maine to back Michaud, condemn LePage ‘right to work’ push Bangor Daily News ...The president of the nation’s largest unionized labor organization came to Maine on Wednesday to boost Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud’s campaign for governor, calling the congressman “a friend of the working people, whether they’re union or not.”...
NJ’s minimum wage rising in January by 13 cents Asbury Park Press ...The 1.59 percent increase, from $8.25 an hour to $8.38, is required under a constitutional amendment approved by 61 percent of voters last November that raised the mimimum wage by $1 and provided for automatic yearly increases to keep pace with inflation...
Minimum wage to rise to $8.10 for Ohio workers in 2015, up 15 cents cleveland.com ...The increase, announced Tuesday by the Ohio Department of Commerce, will benefit workers employed by companies with annual gross receipts greater than $297,000 a year...
Court Blocks Part of New North Carolina Voting Law Associated Press ...Parts of North Carolina's new voting law, considered one of the toughest in the nation, were set aside for next month's elections because they were likely to disenfranchise black voters, a federal appeals court panel ruled Wednesday...
War On Workers
Two years after college, too many grads are still 'adrift' The Hill ... Two years after graduation, 24 percent of graduates have been forced to move back home with their parents. No less shocking, 74 percent of college graduates "are receiving financial support from their families." Moreover, 23 percent of graduates who are "in the labor market are unemployed or underemployed," that is, they find themselves in jobs in which they work fewer than "20 hours per week" or where the majority of peer employees "have not completed even a year of college." Finally, a mere 47 percent of working graduates enjoy full-time jobs that "pay $30,000 or more annually," and this at a time when the average debt load for students who borrowed to attend college stands at $29,400...
Wal-Mart’s New Scheme To Prey On America’s Poor Salon.com ...to open an account, you have to buy a $2.95 “starter kit” from Walmart. There’s also a minimum deposit of $20 required. A visit to an out-of-network ATM will get you a $2.50 charge, and customers who do not keep a balance of $500 a month will get hit with a fee of $8.95. This last bit is especially worrying: if you suddenly lose your job, you can quickly rack up burdensome fees...
Worker Killed in Valley Forklift Accident WOWT ...Valley police say George Young was using a standing forklift Monday night while working at Midwest Manufacturing. At some point, the machine backed into a shelving unit and pinned him...
Miscellaneous
September U.S. Consumer Confidence Unexpectedly Drops Wall Street Journal ...U.S. consumers unexpectedly pulled back on their economic optimism in September, according to a report released Tuesday. The Conference Board, a private research group, said its index of consumer confidence fell to 86.0 in September from a revised 93.4 in August, first reported as 92.4...
Monday, September 15, 2014
Today's Teamster News 09.15.14
Teamster News
Con-Way Freight Workers in Texas Join Teamsters Local 657 teamster.org ...On September 12, 2014, drivers and dockworkers at Con-Way Freight in Laredo, Texas voted to join Teamsters Local 657...
Gov. Brown Signs Teamster-Supported Bill to Stop Workplace Abuse teamster.org ...Teamsters celebrated as California Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB2053, a Local 2010-sponsored bill addressing workplace abuse, into law on this week, following months of Local 2010 members testifying and meeting with legislators...
Hoffa: Pass Paycheck Fairness teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa urges Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act...
Trade
The TTIP deal hands British sovereignty to multinationals The Guardian ...The actual aim is to strip away obstacles to large corporations making profits – such as regulations that protect our privacy, the environment, food safety and the economy from a rapacious financial sector. And – crucially – TTIP further opens up public services to private companies motivated primarily by profit rather than people’s needs...
Transparency and the TPP (opinion) The Daily Camera ...Fast Track should be off the table, here, for one reason alone: The entire process has been shrouded in secrecy, making debate nearly impossible...
State Battles
Gov. Chris Christie Economic Numbers Don't Add Up International Business Times ...The discrepancy surfaces amid intensifying criticism of the Christie administration's decision to triple the amount of pension money invested in high-fee private equity, venture capital, hedge fund, real estate and other "alternative investment" firms -- many of whose employees have made financial contributions to Republican organizations backing Christie's election campaigns...
War on Workers
Chevron Shuts Gas Pipeline After Accident Wall Street Journal ...A contract worker performing routine maintenance on an offshore gas pipeline was killed Saturday and two other workers were injured, the company said. The accident occurred 6 miles south of Timbalier Bay off the southeast coast of Louisiana, according to the U.S. Coast Guard...
California Home Sales Dive, Prices Hit Wall, Millennials Blamed naked capitalism ...92% of millennials who don’t already own a home do not plan on buying one in the future. Ever...
Letting the Rich Take All The Money (opinion) firedoglake ..."The current world situation is not nearly so dire, but there are parallels, particularly to 1937. Now, as then, people have been disappointed for a long time, and many are despairing. They are becoming more fearful for their long-term economic future...
Workers in Maine Buy Out Their Jobs, Set an Example for the Nation truthout ...More than 60 employees of three retail businesses - Burnt Cove Market, V&S Variety and Pharmacy, and The Galley - banded together to buy the stores and create the largest worker cooperative in Maine and the second largest in New England...
Miscellaneous
Google Driverless Future Vision at Odds With Automakers Bloomberg ...Google is sweeping up top talent and research, powered by an almost $400 billion stock-market value that tops those of Toyota Motor Corp., Volkswagen AG and General Motors Co. combined. It’s also keeping a tight grip on its mapping data and potential marketing plans for cars while helping to create what many in the auto industry consider unrealistic expectations for how quickly cars can safely become wholly driverless...
Should Oil Barons Like David Koch Be Funding Our Museums? Vice ..."You have more of these donors from the 1 percent who are embedding themselves in our cultural institutions and yet turning around and lobbying for the sequester and budget cuts for those same institutions..."
Con-Way Freight Workers in Texas Join Teamsters Local 657 teamster.org ...On September 12, 2014, drivers and dockworkers at Con-Way Freight in Laredo, Texas voted to join Teamsters Local 657...
Gov. Brown Signs Teamster-Supported Bill to Stop Workplace Abuse teamster.org ...Teamsters celebrated as California Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB2053, a Local 2010-sponsored bill addressing workplace abuse, into law on this week, following months of Local 2010 members testifying and meeting with legislators...
Hoffa: Pass Paycheck Fairness teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa urges Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act...
Trade
The TTIP deal hands British sovereignty to multinationals The Guardian ...The actual aim is to strip away obstacles to large corporations making profits – such as regulations that protect our privacy, the environment, food safety and the economy from a rapacious financial sector. And – crucially – TTIP further opens up public services to private companies motivated primarily by profit rather than people’s needs...
Transparency and the TPP (opinion) The Daily Camera ...Fast Track should be off the table, here, for one reason alone: The entire process has been shrouded in secrecy, making debate nearly impossible...
State Battles
Gov. Chris Christie Economic Numbers Don't Add Up International Business Times ...The discrepancy surfaces amid intensifying criticism of the Christie administration's decision to triple the amount of pension money invested in high-fee private equity, venture capital, hedge fund, real estate and other "alternative investment" firms -- many of whose employees have made financial contributions to Republican organizations backing Christie's election campaigns...
War on Workers
Chevron Shuts Gas Pipeline After Accident Wall Street Journal ...A contract worker performing routine maintenance on an offshore gas pipeline was killed Saturday and two other workers were injured, the company said. The accident occurred 6 miles south of Timbalier Bay off the southeast coast of Louisiana, according to the U.S. Coast Guard...
California Home Sales Dive, Prices Hit Wall, Millennials Blamed naked capitalism ...92% of millennials who don’t already own a home do not plan on buying one in the future. Ever...
Letting the Rich Take All The Money (opinion) firedoglake ..."The current world situation is not nearly so dire, but there are parallels, particularly to 1937. Now, as then, people have been disappointed for a long time, and many are despairing. They are becoming more fearful for their long-term economic future...
Workers in Maine Buy Out Their Jobs, Set an Example for the Nation truthout ...More than 60 employees of three retail businesses - Burnt Cove Market, V&S Variety and Pharmacy, and The Galley - banded together to buy the stores and create the largest worker cooperative in Maine and the second largest in New England...
Miscellaneous
Google Driverless Future Vision at Odds With Automakers Bloomberg ...Google is sweeping up top talent and research, powered by an almost $400 billion stock-market value that tops those of Toyota Motor Corp., Volkswagen AG and General Motors Co. combined. It’s also keeping a tight grip on its mapping data and potential marketing plans for cars while helping to create what many in the auto industry consider unrealistic expectations for how quickly cars can safely become wholly driverless...
Should Oil Barons Like David Koch Be Funding Our Museums? Vice ..."You have more of these donors from the 1 percent who are embedding themselves in our cultural institutions and yet turning around and lobbying for the sequester and budget cuts for those same institutions..."
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Today's Teamster News 09.13.14
Teamster News
Con-Way Freight Workers in Texas Join Teamsters Local 657 teamster.org ...On September 12, 2014, drivers and dockworkers at Con-Way Freight in Laredo, Texas voted to join Teamsters Local 657...There are 113 workers in the bargaining unit...
Teamsters file lawsuit to halt Quinn layoffs Chicago Tribune ...The Teamsters filed a lawsuit today to block the layoffs of dozens of workers Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration decided to let go...
Teamsters Push For FedEx Freight Union Vote In Indianapolis Memphis Business Journal ...The Teamsters union, as part of a national push to unionize FedEx Corp. employees, could soon ask for a secret vote in Indianapolis, Indiana...
Reading Of LRB Ruling Differs Richmond News ...Anita Dawson, who represents the 300 or so workers belonging to Teamsters Local 213, said talks resumed with the Swedish furniture giant Monday, and bargaining is expected to carry over into next week...
Teamsters Local 371 Endorse Anderson Aledo Times Record ...State Senate Candidate Neil Anderson (Rock Island) is honored to announce that the Teamsters Local 371 has endorsed his candidacy for the 36th District...
Trade
Outrage as EU blocks democratic challenge to US trade deal (opinion) politics.co.uk ...There is something rotten in the state of Europe when an unelected, unaccountable EU body can glibly inform millions of us that we no longer have the right to question its most dangerous and unpopular policies...
Sachs on TPP: "This is a NAFTA Treaty Writ Large" Public Citizen ..."These (trade deals) are largely industry- and lobby-driven activities. They are not yet in any way proved to be in the interest of American people, and this is a matter of significant concern...
State Battles
Federal appeals court reinstates voter ID law Wisconsin State Journal ...In a stunningly fast decision, a federal appeals court in Chicago reinstated Wisconsin’s voter photo identification law on Friday — just hours after three Republican-appointed judges heard arguments on reactivating the hotly debated law in time for the November election...
Uber Ride-Share Service Hits D.M. Today; Officials Balk Des Moines Register ...A popular ride-sharing service will debut today in Des Moines despite opposition from officials who say the company is not welcome unless it goes through the city's permitting process...
In The South, Workers Choosing To Unite And Triumph (opinion) Raleigh News Observer ...According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the five states last year with the most growth in union membership were all in the South...
NJ AFL-CIO files ethics complaint alleging pay-to-play in pension investment decisions by Christie Administration NJ Politicker ...New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech highlighted reports exposing what he sees as a disturbing pattern of big contributions to Christie for Governor or Republican organizations by firms handpicked to manage hundreds of millions in state pension funds...
War On Workers
Employers Are Stealing Billions Of Dollars A Year From Their Workers New Republic ...If wage theft is as prevalent in the rest of the United States as it is in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, then it costs workers more than $50 billion a year...
This Chart Shows How Meager U.S. Minimum Wage Truly Is New Republic ...minimum wage workers can buy much less with their wages than minimum wage workers in other developed countries...
A Showdown on the Pay Gap (opinion) New York Times ...The key vote, which will decide whether the Paycheck Fairness Act is allowed an up-or-down vote on the floor, is expected to occur on Monday....
Temporary foreign worker dies in freak accident, leaves chilling testimony CBC News ...A video uncovered by Radio-Canada paints a grim picture of the working conditions one temporary foreign worker allegedly experienced on an Ormstown, Que., farm...
Markets and Morality: Koch brothers foundation bankrolls Hope College student group MLive ...The Charles Koch Foundation supports more than 300 colleges and universities across the U.S., ranging from large public research institutions like Ohio State University to small private religious schools...
America's Poor, Deeper in Debt Than Ever Bloomberg ...More ominous is a steady increase in installment debt, a category that includes both student and auto loans -- areas that have recently seen a lot of questionable lending to lower-income borrowers...
It’s disgusting, and it’s still about race: Southern Republicans simply don’t want minorities to vote Salon ...the Republicans are actually creating the machinery for a carefully organized campaign to intimidate voters and to frighten members of minority groups from casting their ballots on November 3rd...
Miscellaneous
Wash. State Eyes WHL Teams Over Child Labor Laws USA Today ...Matt Erlich, a spokesman for the Washington Department of Labor and Industries, said that a 2013 complaint to the department pointed to how much money the players were paid in relation to time worked. The allegation hinted that it might be below the state's minimum wage...
Con-Way Freight Workers in Texas Join Teamsters Local 657 teamster.org ...On September 12, 2014, drivers and dockworkers at Con-Way Freight in Laredo, Texas voted to join Teamsters Local 657...There are 113 workers in the bargaining unit...
Teamsters file lawsuit to halt Quinn layoffs Chicago Tribune ...The Teamsters filed a lawsuit today to block the layoffs of dozens of workers Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration decided to let go...
Teamsters Push For FedEx Freight Union Vote In Indianapolis Memphis Business Journal ...The Teamsters union, as part of a national push to unionize FedEx Corp. employees, could soon ask for a secret vote in Indianapolis, Indiana...
Reading Of LRB Ruling Differs Richmond News ...Anita Dawson, who represents the 300 or so workers belonging to Teamsters Local 213, said talks resumed with the Swedish furniture giant Monday, and bargaining is expected to carry over into next week...
Teamsters Local 371 Endorse Anderson Aledo Times Record ...State Senate Candidate Neil Anderson (Rock Island) is honored to announce that the Teamsters Local 371 has endorsed his candidacy for the 36th District...
Trade
Outrage as EU blocks democratic challenge to US trade deal (opinion) politics.co.uk ...There is something rotten in the state of Europe when an unelected, unaccountable EU body can glibly inform millions of us that we no longer have the right to question its most dangerous and unpopular policies...
Sachs on TPP: "This is a NAFTA Treaty Writ Large" Public Citizen ..."These (trade deals) are largely industry- and lobby-driven activities. They are not yet in any way proved to be in the interest of American people, and this is a matter of significant concern...
State Battles
Federal appeals court reinstates voter ID law Wisconsin State Journal ...In a stunningly fast decision, a federal appeals court in Chicago reinstated Wisconsin’s voter photo identification law on Friday — just hours after three Republican-appointed judges heard arguments on reactivating the hotly debated law in time for the November election...
Uber Ride-Share Service Hits D.M. Today; Officials Balk Des Moines Register ...A popular ride-sharing service will debut today in Des Moines despite opposition from officials who say the company is not welcome unless it goes through the city's permitting process...
In The South, Workers Choosing To Unite And Triumph (opinion) Raleigh News Observer ...According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the five states last year with the most growth in union membership were all in the South...
NJ AFL-CIO files ethics complaint alleging pay-to-play in pension investment decisions by Christie Administration NJ Politicker ...New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech highlighted reports exposing what he sees as a disturbing pattern of big contributions to Christie for Governor or Republican organizations by firms handpicked to manage hundreds of millions in state pension funds...
War On Workers
Employers Are Stealing Billions Of Dollars A Year From Their Workers New Republic ...If wage theft is as prevalent in the rest of the United States as it is in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, then it costs workers more than $50 billion a year...
This Chart Shows How Meager U.S. Minimum Wage Truly Is New Republic ...minimum wage workers can buy much less with their wages than minimum wage workers in other developed countries...
A Showdown on the Pay Gap (opinion) New York Times ...The key vote, which will decide whether the Paycheck Fairness Act is allowed an up-or-down vote on the floor, is expected to occur on Monday....
Temporary foreign worker dies in freak accident, leaves chilling testimony CBC News ...A video uncovered by Radio-Canada paints a grim picture of the working conditions one temporary foreign worker allegedly experienced on an Ormstown, Que., farm...
Markets and Morality: Koch brothers foundation bankrolls Hope College student group MLive ...The Charles Koch Foundation supports more than 300 colleges and universities across the U.S., ranging from large public research institutions like Ohio State University to small private religious schools...
America's Poor, Deeper in Debt Than Ever Bloomberg ...More ominous is a steady increase in installment debt, a category that includes both student and auto loans -- areas that have recently seen a lot of questionable lending to lower-income borrowers...
It’s disgusting, and it’s still about race: Southern Republicans simply don’t want minorities to vote Salon ...the Republicans are actually creating the machinery for a carefully organized campaign to intimidate voters and to frighten members of minority groups from casting their ballots on November 3rd...
Miscellaneous
Wash. State Eyes WHL Teams Over Child Labor Laws USA Today ...Matt Erlich, a spokesman for the Washington Department of Labor and Industries, said that a 2013 complaint to the department pointed to how much money the players were paid in relation to time worked. The allegation hinted that it might be below the state's minimum wage...
Friday, September 12, 2014
Today's Teamster News 09.12.14
Teamster News
Possible Teamster strike could hit Fred Meyer Puget Sound Business Journal ...According to the union, contract talks between its 400 warehouse workers and Fred Meyer broke off last night, with no more talks scheduled. The contract expired on July 12...
Bargaining Between Teamsters And Fred Meyer Breaks Off In Seattle teamster.org ...Key issues in bargaining are health care and Fred Meyer’s insistence on language that would allow the company to outsource the workers’ jobs to a third-party subcontractor...
The Link Between Tracy Morgan's Tragic Accident And Trucker Pay Think Progress ...International Brotherhood of Teamsters Legislative Director Fred McLuckie explained in an interview. “In a lot of cases compensation isn’t that good, it’s fairly low, so they need their hours behind the wheel to make a living,” he said...
City Council Wavers On De Blasio's Horse-Carriage Ban Wall Street Journal ...Demos Demopoulos, secretary-treasurer for Teamsters Local 553, the union that represents the drivers, said the job losses would be severe. "It's 300 hundred people, 300 families will lose their livelihoods," he said...
The Teamsters of New York Are Speaking Out About Climate Change Huffington Post ... Drought, rising sea levels, and superstorms like Hurricane Sandy have shown us that climate change is here, and the people hit hardest are workers...
Trade
TISA, the newest bad trade deal, threatens US public and commercial services workers TeamsterNation ... TISA is a mega-deal involving many countries. It could lower wages and working conditions for workers who provide services, such as locomotive engineers, airline pilots, bus drivers, truck drivers and warehouse workers. Worse, the TISA could take away their jobs...
Millions (including 67 Teamster affiliates) tell Sen. Wyden to say 'no' to Fast Track TeamsterNation ... Congress should not rubber stamp trade deals negotiated in secret, a key U.S. senator was told today in a letter signed by 600 organizations (including 67 Teamsters affiliates and the IBT, of course) representing tens of millions of Americans...
Chances Of A TPP Agreement By Year’s End Fading The Diplomat ...As negotiations stand right now there is little chance of the TPP being finalized by the end of the year, and quite possibly for much longer...
US Military Bans 'Made In China' American Flags Business Insider ...California Rep. Mike Thompson, a Vietnam War veteran and Purple Heart recipient, wrote the legislation that requires any flag purchased by the Defense Department to be 100-percent made in America...
State Battles
Atlanta Taxi Drivers File Lawsuit Against Uber WXIA ...A group of Atlanta taxi drivers is lashing out in a lawsuit naming specific Uber drivers and the company as a whole...
Maine Hard Hit As Stagnant Wages Leave Average Workers Behind (opinion) Portland Press Herald ...The recovery, though, is not universal, not yet. Even if the overall signs trend positive, the average worker, particularly here in Maine, is being left behind...
N.J. Rating Cut by S&P as Christie Gets Record Downgrade Bloomberg ...New Jersey had its credit rating cut one step by Standard & Poor’s, handing Chris Christie his eighth downgrade, the most ever for a Garden State governor...
Michigan's 'Foreclosure King' Is Trying to Win a Seat in Congress New Republic ...The ad dubbed Trott the “foreclosure king,” and criticized him for evicting 101-year-old Texana Hollis, throwing her out into rainy streets at night and tossing her medication in a dumpster...
Executive behind voter fraud billboards sought Scott Walker advice Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ..."As we've seen throughout the criminal investigation of Scott Walker's administration and campaign, he is front and center and directing the operations," Ross said. "The email shows Scott Walker was involved from the start in the voter intimidation billboard effort financed by his campaign co-chair..."
War On Workers
Senate Republicans Quash Citizens United Amendment Progress Illinois ...Republicans in the Senate stopped a constitutional amendment on Thursday that would have effectively overturned the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision on political spending...
Conservatives want taxpayers to subsidize low-wage employers The Hill ...The EITC is a tax-payer financed subsidy that enables some employers to pay wages so low that workers are forced into poverty. In fact, the EITC helps employers who pay low wages in another way as well. The supplement to workers’ pay acts as an incentive for more workers to be willing to take low wage jobs. That increases the labor supply and drives down the wages of low-paid workers...
House collapse that killed 19-year-old worker involved underpinning Toronto Star ...The house was undergoing a type of basement renovation called “underpinning” that has caused other downtown houses to tumble down in recent years...
Switching Sides East Bay Express ...California Deputy Attorney General Benjamin Diehl's job was to prosecute banks for defrauding the public. Now he works for them...
Some Retail Workers Find Better Deals With Unions New York Times ...So what makes this Macy’s store so different? Its employees are represented by a union, which has insisted on stability in scheduling for its members. (Union workers enjoy similar scheduling arrangements at the Bloomingdale’s, H&M and Modell’s Sporting Goods stores in Manhattan.)...
Walmart Imposes New Employee Dress Code, Suggests Where To Shop For It Al Jazeera America ...Effective September 29, Walmart retail workers, or sales "associates," will have to put some of their meager hourly pay toward new clothes...
Chipotle Workers Shut Down Store Over 'Borderline Sweatshop Conditions' Huffington Post ...A Chipotle near Pennsylvania State University shut down on Wednesday after managers reportedly quit over brutal work hours and understaffing. A sign posted on the door to the eatery said that most employees resigned in protest of their "borderline sweatshop conditions." Below the message read: “People over profits.”...
U.S. threatened massive fine to force Yahoo to release data Washington Post ...The U.S. government threatened to fine Yahoo $250,000 a day in 2008 if it failed to comply with a broad demand to hand over user communications — a request the company believed was unconstitutional — according to court documents unsealed Thursday that illuminate how federal officials forced American tech companies to participate in the National Security Agency’s controversial PRISM program...
Possible Teamster strike could hit Fred Meyer Puget Sound Business Journal ...According to the union, contract talks between its 400 warehouse workers and Fred Meyer broke off last night, with no more talks scheduled. The contract expired on July 12...
Bargaining Between Teamsters And Fred Meyer Breaks Off In Seattle teamster.org ...Key issues in bargaining are health care and Fred Meyer’s insistence on language that would allow the company to outsource the workers’ jobs to a third-party subcontractor...
The Link Between Tracy Morgan's Tragic Accident And Trucker Pay Think Progress ...International Brotherhood of Teamsters Legislative Director Fred McLuckie explained in an interview. “In a lot of cases compensation isn’t that good, it’s fairly low, so they need their hours behind the wheel to make a living,” he said...
City Council Wavers On De Blasio's Horse-Carriage Ban Wall Street Journal ...Demos Demopoulos, secretary-treasurer for Teamsters Local 553, the union that represents the drivers, said the job losses would be severe. "It's 300 hundred people, 300 families will lose their livelihoods," he said...
The Teamsters of New York Are Speaking Out About Climate Change Huffington Post ... Drought, rising sea levels, and superstorms like Hurricane Sandy have shown us that climate change is here, and the people hit hardest are workers...
Trade
TISA, the newest bad trade deal, threatens US public and commercial services workers TeamsterNation ... TISA is a mega-deal involving many countries. It could lower wages and working conditions for workers who provide services, such as locomotive engineers, airline pilots, bus drivers, truck drivers and warehouse workers. Worse, the TISA could take away their jobs...
Millions (including 67 Teamster affiliates) tell Sen. Wyden to say 'no' to Fast Track TeamsterNation ... Congress should not rubber stamp trade deals negotiated in secret, a key U.S. senator was told today in a letter signed by 600 organizations (including 67 Teamsters affiliates and the IBT, of course) representing tens of millions of Americans...
Chances Of A TPP Agreement By Year’s End Fading The Diplomat ...As negotiations stand right now there is little chance of the TPP being finalized by the end of the year, and quite possibly for much longer...
US Military Bans 'Made In China' American Flags Business Insider ...California Rep. Mike Thompson, a Vietnam War veteran and Purple Heart recipient, wrote the legislation that requires any flag purchased by the Defense Department to be 100-percent made in America...
State Battles
Atlanta Taxi Drivers File Lawsuit Against Uber WXIA ...A group of Atlanta taxi drivers is lashing out in a lawsuit naming specific Uber drivers and the company as a whole...
Maine Hard Hit As Stagnant Wages Leave Average Workers Behind (opinion) Portland Press Herald ...The recovery, though, is not universal, not yet. Even if the overall signs trend positive, the average worker, particularly here in Maine, is being left behind...
N.J. Rating Cut by S&P as Christie Gets Record Downgrade Bloomberg ...New Jersey had its credit rating cut one step by Standard & Poor’s, handing Chris Christie his eighth downgrade, the most ever for a Garden State governor...
Michigan's 'Foreclosure King' Is Trying to Win a Seat in Congress New Republic ...The ad dubbed Trott the “foreclosure king,” and criticized him for evicting 101-year-old Texana Hollis, throwing her out into rainy streets at night and tossing her medication in a dumpster...
Executive behind voter fraud billboards sought Scott Walker advice Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ..."As we've seen throughout the criminal investigation of Scott Walker's administration and campaign, he is front and center and directing the operations," Ross said. "The email shows Scott Walker was involved from the start in the voter intimidation billboard effort financed by his campaign co-chair..."
War On Workers
Senate Republicans Quash Citizens United Amendment Progress Illinois ...Republicans in the Senate stopped a constitutional amendment on Thursday that would have effectively overturned the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision on political spending...
Conservatives want taxpayers to subsidize low-wage employers The Hill ...The EITC is a tax-payer financed subsidy that enables some employers to pay wages so low that workers are forced into poverty. In fact, the EITC helps employers who pay low wages in another way as well. The supplement to workers’ pay acts as an incentive for more workers to be willing to take low wage jobs. That increases the labor supply and drives down the wages of low-paid workers...
House collapse that killed 19-year-old worker involved underpinning Toronto Star ...The house was undergoing a type of basement renovation called “underpinning” that has caused other downtown houses to tumble down in recent years...
Switching Sides East Bay Express ...California Deputy Attorney General Benjamin Diehl's job was to prosecute banks for defrauding the public. Now he works for them...
Some Retail Workers Find Better Deals With Unions New York Times ...So what makes this Macy’s store so different? Its employees are represented by a union, which has insisted on stability in scheduling for its members. (Union workers enjoy similar scheduling arrangements at the Bloomingdale’s, H&M and Modell’s Sporting Goods stores in Manhattan.)...
Walmart Imposes New Employee Dress Code, Suggests Where To Shop For It Al Jazeera America ...Effective September 29, Walmart retail workers, or sales "associates," will have to put some of their meager hourly pay toward new clothes...
Chipotle Workers Shut Down Store Over 'Borderline Sweatshop Conditions' Huffington Post ...A Chipotle near Pennsylvania State University shut down on Wednesday after managers reportedly quit over brutal work hours and understaffing. A sign posted on the door to the eatery said that most employees resigned in protest of their "borderline sweatshop conditions." Below the message read: “People over profits.”...
U.S. threatened massive fine to force Yahoo to release data Washington Post ...The U.S. government threatened to fine Yahoo $250,000 a day in 2008 if it failed to comply with a broad demand to hand over user communications — a request the company believed was unconstitutional — according to court documents unsealed Thursday that illuminate how federal officials forced American tech companies to participate in the National Security Agency’s controversial PRISM program...
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Today's Teamster News 09.10.14
Teamster News
Teamster Endorsements Announced For Santa Monica City Council Race Santa Monica Mirror ...The City of Santa Monica Trades & Maintenance Teamsters Local 911 have announced its endorsements of Kevin McKeown, Michael Feinstein, and Pam O’Connor for the Nov. 4 Santa Monica City Council election...
Animal Rights Activists Protested A Fashion Show Starring A ‘Breaking Amish’ Star Vice ...Throughout the day, Stoltz spends hours at a ballroom applying makeup and trying on clothes and her wig, but when I arrive at Central Park, I only see dozens of activists screaming at middle-age men driving horse carriages. “VICTOR D’SOUZA! ANIMAL ABUSER!” they scream as street performers dance to Papa Roach-like music...
Outdoor Flea Market Coming to Teamsters Parking Lot in Court Square DNA Info ..."I went ahead and spoke with the Teamsters and they were really excited about it — they want to support local vendors and the arts," she said...
Teamsters Claim Racial Wage Discriminiation by Republic; Firm Denies waste360 ...The Teamsters union has filed a claim with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that in Atlanta Republic Services Inc. offers overtime to white employees but not black employees. ..
Workers Apprehensive About Sysco Acquisition of US Foods Workers Independent Radio ...A merger between the country’s two largest food distribution companies has raised concerns that thousands of good-paying, good-benefit union jobs are at risk. Food giant Sysco has provided no assurances about what will happen after they finish their acquisition of US Foods however they claim the merger will result in 600 million dollars in savings from what they call “synergies”...
Trade
Farmers Union Opposing Trans Pacific Partnership WNAX ...250 Farmers Union members from across the country are in the nation’s Capital this week telling Congress to vote against the Trans Pacific Partnership...
Farm minister seeks U.S. concessions in TPP talks Japan News ...Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Koya Nishikawa on Tuesday requested the United States to make concessions at bilateral talks on an envisioned Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement...
State Battles
Sam Brownback Has Bankrupted State So Much He Trails Democrat Paul Davis by 10 Points in Deep Red Kansas Grunge ...“Governor Sam Brownback and the Republican legislature were so confident that slashing safety nets, cutting education, and spending a budget surplus on tax cuts for the rich would produce an economic bonanza, they gave the wealthy well over a billion dollars in unfunded tax cuts that has the state’s economy starved of revenue. … Kansas is lagging behind the rest of the nation in creating jobs besides facing a revenue shortfall of massive proportions.”...
Plexus has net job loss in Wisconsin according to WEDC memo WKOW ...An internal memo from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) shows Plexus Corp. has cut more than 300 jobs in the state since agreeing to add more jobs as part of an enterprise zone tax credit contract...
Federal Court To Hear WI Voter ID Lawsuit This Week WKOW ...Multiple lawsuits have been filed since the state Legislature passed the measure in 2012. The state Supreme Court ruled it constitutional earlier this summer. The three-judge panel will be asked this week to reinstate Wisconsin's voter ID law in time for the November elections...
Lawsuit Over Scott Walker Recall Election Probe To Be Argued In Appeals Court Huffington Post ...Prosecutors investigating Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's recall election campaign hope to convince a federal appeals court to eventually allow them to resume a probe of possible illegal fundraising and coordination with conservative groups...
DeVos family donates $1M to Michigan Republicans; Dems trail in fund-raising Detroit Free Press ...Members of western Michigan’s DeVos family donated nearly $1 million to the Michigan Republican Party in the latest reporting period, bringing the total amount the family has donated to the party for this election cycle to about $1.4 million, newly filed campaign finance reports show...
Founder of 2 short-lived Columbus charter schools indicted on theft counts Columbus Dispatch ...Andre Rasheen Tucker, who founded the two Talented Tenth Leadership Academies, was indicted by a Franklin County grand jury on Friday on two counts of theft. Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said Tucker stole checks made out to the school totaling about $7,500...
Georgia GOPer Complains About Early Voting, Excessive Black Voting Talking Points Memo ...A Republican state senator in Georgia has vowed to end Sunday balloting in DeKalb County due to the fact that the area is "dominated by African American shoppers and it is near several large African American mega churches."...
Chris Christie’s downgrades start to pile up MSNBC ...Wall Street analysts at Fitch Ratings today downgraded New Jersey’s bond rating for the second time this year, citing the state’s poor economic performance, Gov. Chris Christie’s rosy revenue forecasts – which failed to materialize – and his decision to plug the resulting budget gap by cutting $2.4 billion in funding for the state’s strained pension system...
Common Cause and More Than 50 Other Groups Call on Google to Quit the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Common Cause ...Common Cause and 54 other organizations joined Wednesday in asking Google to drop its membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a secretive corporate lobbying group...
NJ Leaders Seek A New Course For Atlantic City CBS News ...Unable to wait for any ultimate solution, officials in Atlantic City are scrambling to help displaced casino workers get government assistance and maybe even new jobs...
Microsoft Deletes ALEC Membership Minneapolis Star Tribune ...ALEC and its allies demonize school teachers as the major cause of poor student performance while remaining silently complicit on the most serious causes—a lack of early childhood development, unsafe homes and high mobility in school districts due to poverty, drugs and alcohol. It is a perverse joke that ALEC has a long history of bitterly opposing initiatives that address these very social ills...
Council Members Aim To Boost Local Min Wage Louisville Courier Journal ...A long-discussed measure to raise the local minimum wage to $10.10 over three years is scheduled for a first reading by the Louisville Metro Council this week...
States move to ensure pregnant workers get fair chance to stay on job Washington Post ...Delaware is the latest in a growing number of states and localities to pass what lawmakers call “common sense” legislation to keep pregnant women working with certain accommodations, if warranted, as long as they don’t pose undue hardship on businesses. In the past 18 months, measures to ensure such accommodations have passed unanimously in New York City, Philadelphia, Providence, R.I., and in West Virginia. Bipartisan efforts have resulted in laws in Maryland, Minnesota and New Jersey – where only one lawmaker voted against the bill…
War On Workers
Big-Money Radical Right Groups Help Huge Grower to Avoid Paying Millions Already Owed Its Farm Workers Huffington Post ...Well-financed anti-labor groups related to America's radical right are coming to the aid of giant Fresno, Calif.-based Gerawan Farming to avoid implementing a union contract under which it already owes millions of dollars to thousands of its grape and tree fruit workers...
Big Tobacco’s Child Workers: Young Laborers Endure Health Risks, Harsh Conditions On U.S. Farms Democracy Now ...Even as tobacco companies are legally barred from selling cigarettes to children, they are reportedly profiting from child labor. Investigations by The New York Times and Human Rights Watch reveal hundreds, if not thousands, of children are working on tobacco farms in the United States...
Low Wage Growth, High Long-Term Unemployment Recognized as International Problem naked capitalism ...Workers not sharing in productivity gains has become normal...
Road commission worker killed by motor grader Better Roads ...A Kent County, Michigan, road commission worker has been killed after being hit by a motor grader...
Worker killed in industrial accident at Bridgeton refrigeration equipment factory St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...Federal safety inspectors and union leaders are investigating the death of an employee Saturday at the Hussman factory here...
American Apparel to Pay $1M After Worker 'Mangled and Killed' NBC News ...Clothing manufacturer and retailer American Apparel has agreed to pay out more than $1 million after a factory worker was killed by an industrial knitting machine at a company facility in southern California...
Miscellaneous
Raiders To Pay $1.25 Million To Cheerleaders Over Wage Theft Lawsuit Huffington Post ...The Oakland Raiders have agreed to pay $1.25 million to settle a lawsuit brought by 90 members of the team's cheerleading squad who alleged they were underpaid or faced lengthy delays in receiving their wages in violation of California labor law...
Teamster Endorsements Announced For Santa Monica City Council Race Santa Monica Mirror ...The City of Santa Monica Trades & Maintenance Teamsters Local 911 have announced its endorsements of Kevin McKeown, Michael Feinstein, and Pam O’Connor for the Nov. 4 Santa Monica City Council election...
Animal Rights Activists Protested A Fashion Show Starring A ‘Breaking Amish’ Star Vice ...Throughout the day, Stoltz spends hours at a ballroom applying makeup and trying on clothes and her wig, but when I arrive at Central Park, I only see dozens of activists screaming at middle-age men driving horse carriages. “VICTOR D’SOUZA! ANIMAL ABUSER!” they scream as street performers dance to Papa Roach-like music...
Outdoor Flea Market Coming to Teamsters Parking Lot in Court Square DNA Info ..."I went ahead and spoke with the Teamsters and they were really excited about it — they want to support local vendors and the arts," she said...
Teamsters Claim Racial Wage Discriminiation by Republic; Firm Denies waste360 ...The Teamsters union has filed a claim with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that in Atlanta Republic Services Inc. offers overtime to white employees but not black employees. ..
Workers Apprehensive About Sysco Acquisition of US Foods Workers Independent Radio ...A merger between the country’s two largest food distribution companies has raised concerns that thousands of good-paying, good-benefit union jobs are at risk. Food giant Sysco has provided no assurances about what will happen after they finish their acquisition of US Foods however they claim the merger will result in 600 million dollars in savings from what they call “synergies”...
Trade
Farmers Union Opposing Trans Pacific Partnership WNAX ...250 Farmers Union members from across the country are in the nation’s Capital this week telling Congress to vote against the Trans Pacific Partnership...
Farm minister seeks U.S. concessions in TPP talks Japan News ...Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Koya Nishikawa on Tuesday requested the United States to make concessions at bilateral talks on an envisioned Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement...
State Battles
Sam Brownback Has Bankrupted State So Much He Trails Democrat Paul Davis by 10 Points in Deep Red Kansas Grunge ...“Governor Sam Brownback and the Republican legislature were so confident that slashing safety nets, cutting education, and spending a budget surplus on tax cuts for the rich would produce an economic bonanza, they gave the wealthy well over a billion dollars in unfunded tax cuts that has the state’s economy starved of revenue. … Kansas is lagging behind the rest of the nation in creating jobs besides facing a revenue shortfall of massive proportions.”...
Plexus has net job loss in Wisconsin according to WEDC memo WKOW ...An internal memo from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) shows Plexus Corp. has cut more than 300 jobs in the state since agreeing to add more jobs as part of an enterprise zone tax credit contract...
Federal Court To Hear WI Voter ID Lawsuit This Week WKOW ...Multiple lawsuits have been filed since the state Legislature passed the measure in 2012. The state Supreme Court ruled it constitutional earlier this summer. The three-judge panel will be asked this week to reinstate Wisconsin's voter ID law in time for the November elections...
Lawsuit Over Scott Walker Recall Election Probe To Be Argued In Appeals Court Huffington Post ...Prosecutors investigating Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's recall election campaign hope to convince a federal appeals court to eventually allow them to resume a probe of possible illegal fundraising and coordination with conservative groups...
DeVos family donates $1M to Michigan Republicans; Dems trail in fund-raising Detroit Free Press ...Members of western Michigan’s DeVos family donated nearly $1 million to the Michigan Republican Party in the latest reporting period, bringing the total amount the family has donated to the party for this election cycle to about $1.4 million, newly filed campaign finance reports show...
Founder of 2 short-lived Columbus charter schools indicted on theft counts Columbus Dispatch ...Andre Rasheen Tucker, who founded the two Talented Tenth Leadership Academies, was indicted by a Franklin County grand jury on Friday on two counts of theft. Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said Tucker stole checks made out to the school totaling about $7,500...
Georgia GOPer Complains About Early Voting, Excessive Black Voting Talking Points Memo ...A Republican state senator in Georgia has vowed to end Sunday balloting in DeKalb County due to the fact that the area is "dominated by African American shoppers and it is near several large African American mega churches."...
Chris Christie’s downgrades start to pile up MSNBC ...Wall Street analysts at Fitch Ratings today downgraded New Jersey’s bond rating for the second time this year, citing the state’s poor economic performance, Gov. Chris Christie’s rosy revenue forecasts – which failed to materialize – and his decision to plug the resulting budget gap by cutting $2.4 billion in funding for the state’s strained pension system...
Common Cause and More Than 50 Other Groups Call on Google to Quit the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Common Cause ...Common Cause and 54 other organizations joined Wednesday in asking Google to drop its membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a secretive corporate lobbying group...
NJ Leaders Seek A New Course For Atlantic City CBS News ...Unable to wait for any ultimate solution, officials in Atlantic City are scrambling to help displaced casino workers get government assistance and maybe even new jobs...
Microsoft Deletes ALEC Membership Minneapolis Star Tribune ...ALEC and its allies demonize school teachers as the major cause of poor student performance while remaining silently complicit on the most serious causes—a lack of early childhood development, unsafe homes and high mobility in school districts due to poverty, drugs and alcohol. It is a perverse joke that ALEC has a long history of bitterly opposing initiatives that address these very social ills...
Council Members Aim To Boost Local Min Wage Louisville Courier Journal ...A long-discussed measure to raise the local minimum wage to $10.10 over three years is scheduled for a first reading by the Louisville Metro Council this week...
States move to ensure pregnant workers get fair chance to stay on job Washington Post ...Delaware is the latest in a growing number of states and localities to pass what lawmakers call “common sense” legislation to keep pregnant women working with certain accommodations, if warranted, as long as they don’t pose undue hardship on businesses. In the past 18 months, measures to ensure such accommodations have passed unanimously in New York City, Philadelphia, Providence, R.I., and in West Virginia. Bipartisan efforts have resulted in laws in Maryland, Minnesota and New Jersey – where only one lawmaker voted against the bill…
War On Workers
Big-Money Radical Right Groups Help Huge Grower to Avoid Paying Millions Already Owed Its Farm Workers Huffington Post ...Well-financed anti-labor groups related to America's radical right are coming to the aid of giant Fresno, Calif.-based Gerawan Farming to avoid implementing a union contract under which it already owes millions of dollars to thousands of its grape and tree fruit workers...
Big Tobacco’s Child Workers: Young Laborers Endure Health Risks, Harsh Conditions On U.S. Farms Democracy Now ...Even as tobacco companies are legally barred from selling cigarettes to children, they are reportedly profiting from child labor. Investigations by The New York Times and Human Rights Watch reveal hundreds, if not thousands, of children are working on tobacco farms in the United States...
Low Wage Growth, High Long-Term Unemployment Recognized as International Problem naked capitalism ...Workers not sharing in productivity gains has become normal...
Road commission worker killed by motor grader Better Roads ...A Kent County, Michigan, road commission worker has been killed after being hit by a motor grader...
Worker killed in industrial accident at Bridgeton refrigeration equipment factory St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...Federal safety inspectors and union leaders are investigating the death of an employee Saturday at the Hussman factory here...
American Apparel to Pay $1M After Worker 'Mangled and Killed' NBC News ...Clothing manufacturer and retailer American Apparel has agreed to pay out more than $1 million after a factory worker was killed by an industrial knitting machine at a company facility in southern California...
Miscellaneous
Raiders To Pay $1.25 Million To Cheerleaders Over Wage Theft Lawsuit Huffington Post ...The Oakland Raiders have agreed to pay $1.25 million to settle a lawsuit brought by 90 members of the team's cheerleading squad who alleged they were underpaid or faced lengthy delays in receiving their wages in violation of California labor law...
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Today's Teamster News 08.14.14
Teamster News
BLET organizes Illinois Railway short line workers teamster.org ...The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) scored a short line organizing victory last week as a majority of workers at Illinois Railway voted to make the BLET their designated collective bargaining representative...
Teamster at US Foods Seeks Information About Merger teamster.org ...Frank Rinetti, a Teamster member and employee of US Foods, recently sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) seeking information about the proposed Sysco-US Foods merger and he also outlines his concerns about the merger's impact on jobs...
Union teamsters met Wednesday, will vote Thursday KERO Bakersfield ...GET union employees met Wednesday to discuss the proposal from GET...
Trade
Five Tests Walmart Must Pass to Show its 'Made In America' Street Cred manufacture this ...If Walmart is truly serious about its pledge to help American manufacturers, the corporation will slash its imports into the U.S...
Country-Of-Origin-Labeling Dispute Threatens U.S. Exports, Jobs The Hill ...A long list of U.S.-manufactured goods and agricultural products are being threatened by a trade dispute about whether U.S. Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) requirements discriminate against our bordering countries’ meat products. Absent quick action to settle the dispute, the governments of Canada and Mexico—currently the two largest markets for U.S. exports—could impose $2 billion in retaliatory tariffs that would endanger thousands of American jobs...
State Battles
Corporate front groups pushing laughable “National Employee Freedom Week” and other anti-union effort eclectablog ... “National Employee Freedom Week”... encourages union members to become freeloaders by leaving their unions while the unions continue to bargain for on their behalf for better wages, better working conditions, and better benefits...
Floridians tried to stop gerrymandering, and Republicans gerrymandered anyways. We’re about to see who wins. Washington Post ...If it passes muster with the courts in anything like its present form, it will have been a pretty major victory for the GOP in overcoming the so-called Fair Districts amendments -- and an equally large setback for redistricting reformers seeking to rein in partisan gerrymandering...
Christie: GOP governors to spend millions in Maine Associated Press ...New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie returned to Maine on Tuesday to help raise money for Gov. Paul LePage and predicted that the Republican Governors Association would spend millions of dollars in the state this fall to help LePage win a second term...
Record number of labor candidates prep to run for public office at New Jersey State AFL-CIO Labor Candidates School Politicker NJ ...A record-sized class of rank-and-file union members representing 23 local unions from across all sectors of the labor movement took part in the New Jersey State AFL-CIO Labor Candidates School August 9-10, 2014, at the Rutgers University Inn and Conference Center in New Brunswick...
The Big Money Behind Walker’s Campaign Express Milwaukee ...Walker returned to the deep pockets of his recall mega-contributors, including Las Vegas gambling billionaire Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam. Adelson donated $250,000 to Walker in 2012...
Labor and small businesses team up on California franchising law MSNBC ...the theory appears to be that protecting franchisors against the threat of closure will make it easier for them to do things like raise workers’ wages...
War On Workers
Electric Worker Hit By Train, Killed In Edmond KWTV ...The train was traveling southbound when it hit and killed Edmond Electric Worker, Bob Waterson Tuesday evening. Edmond city officials say Waterson was with the company for more than 34 years...
Rail CEOs to Investors: "Bomb Trains" Safe At Almost Any Speed DeSmog Blog ...Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) recently said it would proceed with plans to increase speeds for oil-by-rail unit trains in Devil’s Lake, N.D. to 60 MPH from 30 MPH, despite opposition from local officials...
What’s Lost in the Market Basket Stories Economic Policy Institute ...they have succeeded by taking a distinctly high-road approach: the company takes care of its workers, paying decent wages, offering benefits to full- and part-time staff, and providing employees with a profit-sharing plan. At the same time, Market Basket still offers prices lower than its competitors, Walmart included...
Union Workers In Maine Join Protest Of FairPoint Outsourcing Plans Portland Press Herald ...Hundreds of unionized FairPoint Communications Inc. workers in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire staged “informational protests” Tuesday to educate customers about the negative impact of company plans to boost outsourcing, union representatives said...
For Largest U.S. Companies, Jobs Growth Has Lagged Profits, Revenues Reuters ...From 2001 to 2013, inflation-adjusted revenue at 100 of the largest publicly traded companies grew 71 percent and inflation-adjusted operating profit rose 150 percent. Global headcount reported in company financial filings rose 31 percent...
Los Angeles To Vote On Killing Major Wall Street Deal As City Drowns In Financial Fees International Business Times ...Los Angeles lawmakers were expected to vote Wednesday on a proposal to renegotiate or terminate an interest rate swap deal from the mid-2000s that critics say now costs the city millions of dollars a year in fees. If successful, the initiative could make the city the nation's largest to challenge ballooning Wall Street levies that accompany similar interest rate swap deals throughout the nation...
Front and center: Amendment 3 pushes teacher tenure into the spotlight Southeast Missourian ...if teachers have been teaching in the same district for five years, they're granted due process rights by statute. "Before that, they're at-will," Meyer said. Five years, she said, is probably the longest probationary period used around the country...
Miscellaneous
Does Your Boss Know You’re Reading This? Surveillance Technology Boosts Efficiency But Creates Workplace Issues Atlanta Journal-Constitution ...There are few laws and court cases to help companies or workers understand the limits, leaving some gray areas for protection of employees’ privacy...
BLET organizes Illinois Railway short line workers teamster.org ...The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) scored a short line organizing victory last week as a majority of workers at Illinois Railway voted to make the BLET their designated collective bargaining representative...
Teamster at US Foods Seeks Information About Merger teamster.org ...Frank Rinetti, a Teamster member and employee of US Foods, recently sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) seeking information about the proposed Sysco-US Foods merger and he also outlines his concerns about the merger's impact on jobs...
Union teamsters met Wednesday, will vote Thursday KERO Bakersfield ...GET union employees met Wednesday to discuss the proposal from GET...
Trade
Five Tests Walmart Must Pass to Show its 'Made In America' Street Cred manufacture this ...If Walmart is truly serious about its pledge to help American manufacturers, the corporation will slash its imports into the U.S...
Country-Of-Origin-Labeling Dispute Threatens U.S. Exports, Jobs The Hill ...A long list of U.S.-manufactured goods and agricultural products are being threatened by a trade dispute about whether U.S. Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) requirements discriminate against our bordering countries’ meat products. Absent quick action to settle the dispute, the governments of Canada and Mexico—currently the two largest markets for U.S. exports—could impose $2 billion in retaliatory tariffs that would endanger thousands of American jobs...
State Battles
Corporate front groups pushing laughable “National Employee Freedom Week” and other anti-union effort eclectablog ... “National Employee Freedom Week”... encourages union members to become freeloaders by leaving their unions while the unions continue to bargain for on their behalf for better wages, better working conditions, and better benefits...
Floridians tried to stop gerrymandering, and Republicans gerrymandered anyways. We’re about to see who wins. Washington Post ...If it passes muster with the courts in anything like its present form, it will have been a pretty major victory for the GOP in overcoming the so-called Fair Districts amendments -- and an equally large setback for redistricting reformers seeking to rein in partisan gerrymandering...
Christie: GOP governors to spend millions in Maine Associated Press ...New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie returned to Maine on Tuesday to help raise money for Gov. Paul LePage and predicted that the Republican Governors Association would spend millions of dollars in the state this fall to help LePage win a second term...
Record number of labor candidates prep to run for public office at New Jersey State AFL-CIO Labor Candidates School Politicker NJ ...A record-sized class of rank-and-file union members representing 23 local unions from across all sectors of the labor movement took part in the New Jersey State AFL-CIO Labor Candidates School August 9-10, 2014, at the Rutgers University Inn and Conference Center in New Brunswick...
The Big Money Behind Walker’s Campaign Express Milwaukee ...Walker returned to the deep pockets of his recall mega-contributors, including Las Vegas gambling billionaire Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam. Adelson donated $250,000 to Walker in 2012...
Labor and small businesses team up on California franchising law MSNBC ...the theory appears to be that protecting franchisors against the threat of closure will make it easier for them to do things like raise workers’ wages...
War On Workers
Electric Worker Hit By Train, Killed In Edmond KWTV ...The train was traveling southbound when it hit and killed Edmond Electric Worker, Bob Waterson Tuesday evening. Edmond city officials say Waterson was with the company for more than 34 years...
Rail CEOs to Investors: "Bomb Trains" Safe At Almost Any Speed DeSmog Blog ...Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) recently said it would proceed with plans to increase speeds for oil-by-rail unit trains in Devil’s Lake, N.D. to 60 MPH from 30 MPH, despite opposition from local officials...
What’s Lost in the Market Basket Stories Economic Policy Institute ...they have succeeded by taking a distinctly high-road approach: the company takes care of its workers, paying decent wages, offering benefits to full- and part-time staff, and providing employees with a profit-sharing plan. At the same time, Market Basket still offers prices lower than its competitors, Walmart included...
Union Workers In Maine Join Protest Of FairPoint Outsourcing Plans Portland Press Herald ...Hundreds of unionized FairPoint Communications Inc. workers in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire staged “informational protests” Tuesday to educate customers about the negative impact of company plans to boost outsourcing, union representatives said...
For Largest U.S. Companies, Jobs Growth Has Lagged Profits, Revenues Reuters ...From 2001 to 2013, inflation-adjusted revenue at 100 of the largest publicly traded companies grew 71 percent and inflation-adjusted operating profit rose 150 percent. Global headcount reported in company financial filings rose 31 percent...
Los Angeles To Vote On Killing Major Wall Street Deal As City Drowns In Financial Fees International Business Times ...Los Angeles lawmakers were expected to vote Wednesday on a proposal to renegotiate or terminate an interest rate swap deal from the mid-2000s that critics say now costs the city millions of dollars a year in fees. If successful, the initiative could make the city the nation's largest to challenge ballooning Wall Street levies that accompany similar interest rate swap deals throughout the nation...
Front and center: Amendment 3 pushes teacher tenure into the spotlight Southeast Missourian ...if teachers have been teaching in the same district for five years, they're granted due process rights by statute. "Before that, they're at-will," Meyer said. Five years, she said, is probably the longest probationary period used around the country...
Miscellaneous
Does Your Boss Know You’re Reading This? Surveillance Technology Boosts Efficiency But Creates Workplace Issues Atlanta Journal-Constitution ...There are few laws and court cases to help companies or workers understand the limits, leaving some gray areas for protection of employees’ privacy...
Monday, July 14, 2014
Today's Teamster News 07.14.14
Teamsters
Teamsters Nominate Bob Davidson To YRCW Board Of Directors teamster.org ...After thorough consideration, TNFINC has nominated William R. “Bob” Davidson to serve on YRC Worldwide’s Board of Directors to fill a seat that was vacated earlier this year...
'Revolutionary Teamsters: The Minneapolis Truckers' Strike of 1934,' by Bryan D. Palmer Minneapolis Star-Tribune ...This cadre of drivers steered the city’s truckers through three strikes between February and July 1934...
Events to commemorate 80th anniversary of 1934 strike Workday Minnesota ...Events planned for four days July 17-20 will commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Minneapolis Teamsters strikes of 1934. considered the most significant single labor event in Minnesota history...
Trade
TPP-ing over? New Straits Times ...TRADE negotiators from a dozen countries, including Malaysia, are gathering for their 20th official meeting in Ottawa, Canada, but all signs are that talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) won’t get very far, if anywhere at all...
TPP: A Thoroughly Predatory Pact Dissident Voice ...U.S. transnational corporations are working behind the scenes to change the rules governing them. You may say ‘big deal, this doesn’t affect me’. However if you use the internet, view movies, take pharmaceuticals, want a clean and safe environment, believe in democracy, etc., you likely will be negatively impacted...
State Battles
New Jersey law would bar donations from recipients of subsidies The Guardian ...A new law to prevent political contributions by corporations that receive multi-million dollar public subsidies in New Jersey has been proposed in the state senate, following reports by the Guardian on awards made by governor Chris Christie’s administration...
War on Workers
Samsung suspends factory in China after finding evidence that it used child labor Quartz ...Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone maker, has temporarily closed one of its factories in China after finding evidence that its supplier, Dongguan Shinyang Electronics, was using child labor. The moves comes after China Labor Watch (CLW) accused Dongguan of hiring underage workers, forcing them to work as long as 11 hours a day, and denying all overtime pay...
How property tax lenders prey on the state’s most vulnerable homeowners. Texas Observer ...These high-interest loans are part of a multibillion-dollar industry native only to Texas and Nevada. ... But there’s growing concern that homeowners take on unnecessary risk with property tax loans. And while demand is apparently high, their usefulness may be limited, especially after a recent change in the law that requires counties to offer payment plans to homeowners with delinquent taxes...
Companies That Offer Help With Student Loans Often Predatory, Officials Say New York Times ...federal and state regulators are spotting new instances of abuse as the companies shift away from their traditional targets — credit card and mortgage debt — to zero in on student loans. The companies are coming under fire for potentially questionable tactics...
Home, hacked home The Economist ... “If my PC is hit by a cyber-attack, it is a nuisance; if my car is attacked, it could kill me...”
Teamsters Nominate Bob Davidson To YRCW Board Of Directors teamster.org ...After thorough consideration, TNFINC has nominated William R. “Bob” Davidson to serve on YRC Worldwide’s Board of Directors to fill a seat that was vacated earlier this year...
'Revolutionary Teamsters: The Minneapolis Truckers' Strike of 1934,' by Bryan D. Palmer Minneapolis Star-Tribune ...This cadre of drivers steered the city’s truckers through three strikes between February and July 1934...
Events to commemorate 80th anniversary of 1934 strike Workday Minnesota ...Events planned for four days July 17-20 will commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Minneapolis Teamsters strikes of 1934. considered the most significant single labor event in Minnesota history...
Trade
TPP-ing over? New Straits Times ...TRADE negotiators from a dozen countries, including Malaysia, are gathering for their 20th official meeting in Ottawa, Canada, but all signs are that talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) won’t get very far, if anywhere at all...
TPP: A Thoroughly Predatory Pact Dissident Voice ...U.S. transnational corporations are working behind the scenes to change the rules governing them. You may say ‘big deal, this doesn’t affect me’. However if you use the internet, view movies, take pharmaceuticals, want a clean and safe environment, believe in democracy, etc., you likely will be negatively impacted...
State Battles
New Jersey law would bar donations from recipients of subsidies The Guardian ...A new law to prevent political contributions by corporations that receive multi-million dollar public subsidies in New Jersey has been proposed in the state senate, following reports by the Guardian on awards made by governor Chris Christie’s administration...
War on Workers
Samsung suspends factory in China after finding evidence that it used child labor Quartz ...Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone maker, has temporarily closed one of its factories in China after finding evidence that its supplier, Dongguan Shinyang Electronics, was using child labor. The moves comes after China Labor Watch (CLW) accused Dongguan of hiring underage workers, forcing them to work as long as 11 hours a day, and denying all overtime pay...
How property tax lenders prey on the state’s most vulnerable homeowners. Texas Observer ...These high-interest loans are part of a multibillion-dollar industry native only to Texas and Nevada. ... But there’s growing concern that homeowners take on unnecessary risk with property tax loans. And while demand is apparently high, their usefulness may be limited, especially after a recent change in the law that requires counties to offer payment plans to homeowners with delinquent taxes...
Companies That Offer Help With Student Loans Often Predatory, Officials Say New York Times ...federal and state regulators are spotting new instances of abuse as the companies shift away from their traditional targets — credit card and mortgage debt — to zero in on student loans. The companies are coming under fire for potentially questionable tactics...
Home, hacked home The Economist ... “If my PC is hit by a cyber-attack, it is a nuisance; if my car is attacked, it could kill me...”
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Today's Teamster News 06.12.14
Teamster News
Teamsters: THUD Amendments Will Weaken Highway Safety Standards TheTrucker.com ...Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa Monday denounced two potential floor amendments to the Transportation Housing and Urban Development (THUD) FY ’15 Appropriations bill that the Teamsters say will weaken highway safety standards by putting fatigued drivers on the road in bigger, heavier trucks...
Teamsters come out against hours changes, ATA still supportive Overdrive ...The Teamsters Union has voiced its opposition to recent Congressional action to roll back the 2013 changes to federal hours-of-service restart provisions, but American Trucking Associations head Bill Graves is holding strong on the group’s support for suspending the changes...
Official Statement of the Teamsters Union on the Worldwide Taxi Drivers' Protests Against Uber teamster.org ..."I express our solidarity with today’s protests by taxi drivers in city after city across Europe. The drivers are calling for fairness and asking that if the private sedan services are allowed to operate that they do so on a level playing field. Uber is currently operating without having to comply with the same rules and regulations that taxi drivers do..."
Teamsters Local 142 Wants To Bid On Chesterton Police Officers' Health Care Chesterton Tribune ...The officers of the Chesterton Police Department and their brothers in Teamsters Local 142 filled the meeting room of the town hall on Monday night, to hear a union attorney accuse the Town Council of fiduciary irresponsibility. At issue: the Teamsters is interested in bidding its healthcare plan to CPD officers...
Teamsters Against HoS Restart Charges Truck News ...The accident involving a Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. driver and comedian Tracy Morgan’s entourage has yet another industry organization weighing in about potential hours of service changes. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters sent an open letter to the US House of Representatives saying any steps to “delay, revise or replace the current hours of service 34-hour restart provision” or allow increases in truck size and weight, “especially they size of double trailers from the current 28-ft. to 33-ft.” should be opposed...
Coral Gables Employees To Get One Time Bonus Miami Herald ...The Coral Gables City Commission approved a two-year contract with the city’s general employees union Tuesday that includes a one-time bonus and lower pension contributions from employees during the first year...
Trade
Comment: Shrouded in secrecy, opposition to TPP mounts SBS ...They want to reassure us that we don’t need to worry about spiralling drug costs or curtailed internet freedom, but they’re not willing to let us see the text of the deal to back up their claims...
Livestock Groups Show Concern for TPP During D.C. Hearing Farm Futures ...Japan's TPP requests to exempt certain "sensitive" products – including pork and beef, dairy, sugar, wheat and barley, and rice and starch – from tariff elimination has big impacts on future trade deals and the ag industry's ability to benefit from the agreement, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association said during a hearing before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee...
Anger by US farmers threatens ambitious Pacific trade pact Reuters ...U.S. farmers are in an uproar over signs Japan will maintain some barriers to agricultural exports under a Pacific trade pact, which threatens to unravel a deal that is central to U.S. efforts to retain economic and security influence in the region...
State Battles
Repeal the pension tax on Michigan seniors Detroit News ...a retired couple born after 1952 with more than $50,000 in income, including $48,000 in pension benefits, paid $1,930 more in taxes than they would have if pensions weren’t taxed...
New Jersey's soaring subsidy program doing little to boost struggling economy The Guardian ...Study says New Jersey badly trailing other states' economic recovery despite corporate credits rising sevenfold under Christie...
Council Votes Again To End Collective Bargaining Fort Wayne Journal Gazette ...City Council members again voted along party lines Tuesday to end collective bargaining for all city workers except police and firefighters...
San Francisco Voters Will Weigh In On A $15 Minimum Wage Think Progress ...A question on San Francisco’s November ballot will ask city residents whether they want to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by July 2018...
Why that ruling against teacher tenure won't help your schoolchildren (opinion) Los Angeles Times ... one should be "suspicious of wealthy and powerful individuals and groups whose advocacy for children leads to 'reforms' that won’t cost a cent, but will weaken labor."...
Numbers put lie to state growth strategy (opinion) Journal Gazette ...Light taxation and regulation haven’t raised living standard (in Indiana)...
War On Workers
Walmart Associate: 'Give The Workers Dignity And Respect We Deserve' WBUR ...Charmaine Givens-Thomas ... is a sales associate who has worked at Walmart for eight years. She makes $23,000 a year and has trouble paying rent and putting food on the table. She says Walmart should pay its employees a living wage...
Cantor’s Loss a Triumph for Anti-Corporate Right-Wing Populism naked capitalism ...conservative economics professor David Brat succeeded in channeling a strain of right-wing populism to target Cantor, and plausibly so, as a corporate stooge and progenitor of crony capitalism...
Clauses That Hurt Workers New York Times ...Many businesses have long required that executives and other important employees agree not to work for a competitor for a year or two after they leave. Now some employers are unfairly imposing that requirement on all kinds of workers, including lower-wage employees like camp counselors, interns and yoga instructors...
Here's Why Amazon Is More Brutal Than Walmart Time ...The recent dustup between Amazon and publisher Hachette reminds us that retail is a brutal business — tough on employees, really hard on suppliers. Walmart, the largest physical retailer, and Amazon, the largest retailer online, illustrate the pain produced in the effort to make consumers’ prices as low as possible...
Miscellaneous
Occupy Wall Street Protesters Win Lawsuit Over Arrests Washington Post ...New York City has agreed to pay nearly $600,000 to settle allegations that police wrongfully arrested a group of Occupy Wall Street protesters, marking what their lawyers Tuesday called the largest settlement to date in a single Occupy-related civil rights case...
Teamsters: THUD Amendments Will Weaken Highway Safety Standards TheTrucker.com ...Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa Monday denounced two potential floor amendments to the Transportation Housing and Urban Development (THUD) FY ’15 Appropriations bill that the Teamsters say will weaken highway safety standards by putting fatigued drivers on the road in bigger, heavier trucks...
Teamsters come out against hours changes, ATA still supportive Overdrive ...The Teamsters Union has voiced its opposition to recent Congressional action to roll back the 2013 changes to federal hours-of-service restart provisions, but American Trucking Associations head Bill Graves is holding strong on the group’s support for suspending the changes...
Official Statement of the Teamsters Union on the Worldwide Taxi Drivers' Protests Against Uber teamster.org ..."I express our solidarity with today’s protests by taxi drivers in city after city across Europe. The drivers are calling for fairness and asking that if the private sedan services are allowed to operate that they do so on a level playing field. Uber is currently operating without having to comply with the same rules and regulations that taxi drivers do..."
Teamsters Local 142 Wants To Bid On Chesterton Police Officers' Health Care Chesterton Tribune ...The officers of the Chesterton Police Department and their brothers in Teamsters Local 142 filled the meeting room of the town hall on Monday night, to hear a union attorney accuse the Town Council of fiduciary irresponsibility. At issue: the Teamsters is interested in bidding its healthcare plan to CPD officers...
Teamsters Against HoS Restart Charges Truck News ...The accident involving a Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. driver and comedian Tracy Morgan’s entourage has yet another industry organization weighing in about potential hours of service changes. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters sent an open letter to the US House of Representatives saying any steps to “delay, revise or replace the current hours of service 34-hour restart provision” or allow increases in truck size and weight, “especially they size of double trailers from the current 28-ft. to 33-ft.” should be opposed...
Coral Gables Employees To Get One Time Bonus Miami Herald ...The Coral Gables City Commission approved a two-year contract with the city’s general employees union Tuesday that includes a one-time bonus and lower pension contributions from employees during the first year...
Trade
Comment: Shrouded in secrecy, opposition to TPP mounts SBS ...They want to reassure us that we don’t need to worry about spiralling drug costs or curtailed internet freedom, but they’re not willing to let us see the text of the deal to back up their claims...
Livestock Groups Show Concern for TPP During D.C. Hearing Farm Futures ...Japan's TPP requests to exempt certain "sensitive" products – including pork and beef, dairy, sugar, wheat and barley, and rice and starch – from tariff elimination has big impacts on future trade deals and the ag industry's ability to benefit from the agreement, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association said during a hearing before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee...
Anger by US farmers threatens ambitious Pacific trade pact Reuters ...U.S. farmers are in an uproar over signs Japan will maintain some barriers to agricultural exports under a Pacific trade pact, which threatens to unravel a deal that is central to U.S. efforts to retain economic and security influence in the region...
State Battles
Repeal the pension tax on Michigan seniors Detroit News ...a retired couple born after 1952 with more than $50,000 in income, including $48,000 in pension benefits, paid $1,930 more in taxes than they would have if pensions weren’t taxed...
New Jersey's soaring subsidy program doing little to boost struggling economy The Guardian ...Study says New Jersey badly trailing other states' economic recovery despite corporate credits rising sevenfold under Christie...
Council Votes Again To End Collective Bargaining Fort Wayne Journal Gazette ...City Council members again voted along party lines Tuesday to end collective bargaining for all city workers except police and firefighters...
San Francisco Voters Will Weigh In On A $15 Minimum Wage Think Progress ...A question on San Francisco’s November ballot will ask city residents whether they want to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by July 2018...
Why that ruling against teacher tenure won't help your schoolchildren (opinion) Los Angeles Times ... one should be "suspicious of wealthy and powerful individuals and groups whose advocacy for children leads to 'reforms' that won’t cost a cent, but will weaken labor."...
Numbers put lie to state growth strategy (opinion) Journal Gazette ...Light taxation and regulation haven’t raised living standard (in Indiana)...
War On Workers
Walmart Associate: 'Give The Workers Dignity And Respect We Deserve' WBUR ...Charmaine Givens-Thomas ... is a sales associate who has worked at Walmart for eight years. She makes $23,000 a year and has trouble paying rent and putting food on the table. She says Walmart should pay its employees a living wage...
Cantor’s Loss a Triumph for Anti-Corporate Right-Wing Populism naked capitalism ...conservative economics professor David Brat succeeded in channeling a strain of right-wing populism to target Cantor, and plausibly so, as a corporate stooge and progenitor of crony capitalism...
Clauses That Hurt Workers New York Times ...Many businesses have long required that executives and other important employees agree not to work for a competitor for a year or two after they leave. Now some employers are unfairly imposing that requirement on all kinds of workers, including lower-wage employees like camp counselors, interns and yoga instructors...
Here's Why Amazon Is More Brutal Than Walmart Time ...The recent dustup between Amazon and publisher Hachette reminds us that retail is a brutal business — tough on employees, really hard on suppliers. Walmart, the largest physical retailer, and Amazon, the largest retailer online, illustrate the pain produced in the effort to make consumers’ prices as low as possible...
Miscellaneous
Occupy Wall Street Protesters Win Lawsuit Over Arrests Washington Post ...New York City has agreed to pay nearly $600,000 to settle allegations that police wrongfully arrested a group of Occupy Wall Street protesters, marking what their lawyers Tuesday called the largest settlement to date in a single Occupy-related civil rights case...
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Today's Teamster News 05.22.14
Teamster News
Teamsters Strike Averted Pekin Daily Times ...After about five hours of mediation between the city of Pekin and Teamsters Local 627 officials the two sides reached a tentative agreement Tuesday to keep city services operational...
International Brotherhood Of Teamsters Reports Taylor Farms Workers' Rights Violations Insurance News Net ...Taylor Farms workers and Teamster members gathered with state and community leaders at a forum on May 15 evening to investigate workers' rights violations at the company's facilities in Tracy, California, according to a release from International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
ACTR Drivers To Vote On Union The Eagle ...Bus drivers of ACTR, Addison County Transit Resources, will vote to unionize June 11, according to driver Craig Bingham. Bingham says the drivers will decide to join the Teamsters Local 597...
Drivers Physicals Must Now Be Performed by Certified Medical Examiners Trucking Info ...The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is reminding the trucking industry Wednesday marks the start of new regulations requiring that all U.S. DOT physicals must be performed by a qualified health professional listed on the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners.
The new program sets baseline training and testing standards for medical professionals who perform commercial driver physicals and for tracking of driver medical certificates...
Teamsters Local 727 Defends Funeral Workers at SCI Shareholders Meeting Teamsters Local 727 ...Teamsters Local 727 President John Coli Jr. on May 14 publicly denounced funeral giant Service Corporation International at its annual shareholders meeting in Houston for the company’s mistreatment of Chicago-area workers...
Trade
Surprise, US media fails to cover talks on big 'trade' deal with Europe TeamsterNation ...The European media came out for a press conference today against TAFTA, the latest power grab by big corporations and the 1%. The American media wasn't interested in the so-called trade deal with Europe...
Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks To Intensify As Key Players Remain Divided Raw Story ...Asia-Pacific trade ministers said Tuesday they would intensify talks on a vast trans-Pacific free trade agreement, but offered no clue on when a final accord would be reached. At the end of a two-day meeting in Singapore, ministers and chief negotiators of the 12 putative member economies of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) remained divided on key issues...
State Battles
Christie's pension payment reduction plan sparks lawsuit from CWA NJ.com ...Another prominent labor union, the Communications Workers of America, says it will file a lawsuit in an effort to stop Gov. Chris Christie's plans to grab $2.43 billion meant for the pension system to balance the state budget...
Minnesota vs. Wisconsin, and More Econbrowser ... No turnaround for Wisconsin — it continues to lag Minnesota and the Nation...
War On Workers
U.S. Fast Food Protests Go Global The Hill ...Last Thursday, fast food workers in over 30 countries participated in protests over poverty wages, a lack of full-time positions, poor working conditions and management retaliation against union activism. U.S. workers protested in over 160 cities...
McDonald's Vacates Headquarters Ahead Of Massive Protest Business Insider ...McDonald's executives vacated the company headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois, on Wednesday ahead of a massive protest involving thousands of workers and supporters...
Why Is Credit Suisse Still Allowed to Do Business in the United States? The Atlantic ...Credit Suisse, the gigantic Swiss bank, is clearly a criminal organization. In its guilty plea yesterday, Credit Suisse admitted that it has been actively helping Americans (and no doubt people from all around the world) evade taxes for years...
Is Credit Suisse Really in Jail? Baseline Scenario ...no one will go to jail because of the conviction...
Hubris at the Top: The Imperial and Tone Deaf CEO Wall Street on Parade ...Yesterday, at the JPMorgan shareholders’ meeting, which has been held in Tampa, Florida for the past three years, more than 1,000 miles from the JPMorgan headquarters in New York (ostensibly to avoid mass protests), CEO Jamie Dimon’s pay package was rubber stamped by shareholders at $20 million for 2013. Over the past 18 months, the bank has been charged with ever alarming amounts of crimes, including the unprecedented two-felony count charge for aiding and abetting the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme which devastated financial lives across America...
Miscellaneous
TransCanada Considers Keystone XL Pipeline Alternative, Oil By Rail Reuters ...TransCanada Corp is in talks with customers about shipping Canadian crude to the United States by rail as an alternative route as its Keystone XL pipeline project that has been mired in political delays, Chief Executive Russ Girling said on Wednesday...
Couple Fined $750, Threatened With Jail for Feeding Homeless People Alternet ...A Florida couple who fed more than 100 homeless people each week have been accused of breaking the law for their good deed...
Saudi Arabia: Filipino Maid Disfigured with Boiling Water for not Bringing Coffee on Time IBT ...The maid, who is from Pikit, North Cotabato, said she had been working for the Arab family in Riyadh for two months. She was not given her salary or provided with proper meals...
Teamsters Strike Averted Pekin Daily Times ...After about five hours of mediation between the city of Pekin and Teamsters Local 627 officials the two sides reached a tentative agreement Tuesday to keep city services operational...
International Brotherhood Of Teamsters Reports Taylor Farms Workers' Rights Violations Insurance News Net ...Taylor Farms workers and Teamster members gathered with state and community leaders at a forum on May 15 evening to investigate workers' rights violations at the company's facilities in Tracy, California, according to a release from International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
ACTR Drivers To Vote On Union The Eagle ...Bus drivers of ACTR, Addison County Transit Resources, will vote to unionize June 11, according to driver Craig Bingham. Bingham says the drivers will decide to join the Teamsters Local 597...
Drivers Physicals Must Now Be Performed by Certified Medical Examiners Trucking Info ...The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is reminding the trucking industry Wednesday marks the start of new regulations requiring that all U.S. DOT physicals must be performed by a qualified health professional listed on the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners.
The new program sets baseline training and testing standards for medical professionals who perform commercial driver physicals and for tracking of driver medical certificates...
Teamsters Local 727 Defends Funeral Workers at SCI Shareholders Meeting Teamsters Local 727 ...Teamsters Local 727 President John Coli Jr. on May 14 publicly denounced funeral giant Service Corporation International at its annual shareholders meeting in Houston for the company’s mistreatment of Chicago-area workers...
Trade
Surprise, US media fails to cover talks on big 'trade' deal with Europe TeamsterNation ...The European media came out for a press conference today against TAFTA, the latest power grab by big corporations and the 1%. The American media wasn't interested in the so-called trade deal with Europe...
Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks To Intensify As Key Players Remain Divided Raw Story ...Asia-Pacific trade ministers said Tuesday they would intensify talks on a vast trans-Pacific free trade agreement, but offered no clue on when a final accord would be reached. At the end of a two-day meeting in Singapore, ministers and chief negotiators of the 12 putative member economies of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) remained divided on key issues...
State Battles
Christie's pension payment reduction plan sparks lawsuit from CWA NJ.com ...Another prominent labor union, the Communications Workers of America, says it will file a lawsuit in an effort to stop Gov. Chris Christie's plans to grab $2.43 billion meant for the pension system to balance the state budget...
Minnesota vs. Wisconsin, and More Econbrowser ... No turnaround for Wisconsin — it continues to lag Minnesota and the Nation...
War On Workers
U.S. Fast Food Protests Go Global The Hill ...Last Thursday, fast food workers in over 30 countries participated in protests over poverty wages, a lack of full-time positions, poor working conditions and management retaliation against union activism. U.S. workers protested in over 160 cities...
McDonald's Vacates Headquarters Ahead Of Massive Protest Business Insider ...McDonald's executives vacated the company headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois, on Wednesday ahead of a massive protest involving thousands of workers and supporters...
Why Is Credit Suisse Still Allowed to Do Business in the United States? The Atlantic ...Credit Suisse, the gigantic Swiss bank, is clearly a criminal organization. In its guilty plea yesterday, Credit Suisse admitted that it has been actively helping Americans (and no doubt people from all around the world) evade taxes for years...
Is Credit Suisse Really in Jail? Baseline Scenario ...no one will go to jail because of the conviction...
Hubris at the Top: The Imperial and Tone Deaf CEO Wall Street on Parade ...Yesterday, at the JPMorgan shareholders’ meeting, which has been held in Tampa, Florida for the past three years, more than 1,000 miles from the JPMorgan headquarters in New York (ostensibly to avoid mass protests), CEO Jamie Dimon’s pay package was rubber stamped by shareholders at $20 million for 2013. Over the past 18 months, the bank has been charged with ever alarming amounts of crimes, including the unprecedented two-felony count charge for aiding and abetting the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme which devastated financial lives across America...
Miscellaneous
TransCanada Considers Keystone XL Pipeline Alternative, Oil By Rail Reuters ...TransCanada Corp is in talks with customers about shipping Canadian crude to the United States by rail as an alternative route as its Keystone XL pipeline project that has been mired in political delays, Chief Executive Russ Girling said on Wednesday...
Couple Fined $750, Threatened With Jail for Feeding Homeless People Alternet ...A Florida couple who fed more than 100 homeless people each week have been accused of breaking the law for their good deed...
Saudi Arabia: Filipino Maid Disfigured with Boiling Water for not Bringing Coffee on Time IBT ...The maid, who is from Pikit, North Cotabato, said she had been working for the Arab family in Riyadh for two months. She was not given her salary or provided with proper meals...
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Today's Teamster News 03.18.14
Teamster News
County sets public hearing on contract with Teamsters Topeka Capital Journal ...The Shawnee County Commission made plans Monday to hear public comments at its March 31 meeting regarding an impasse between Shawnee County and its approximately 470 employees represented by the Teamsters Union...
Trade
The TPP Tries to Put a "No Exit" Sign on America's Crapified Health Care System by Allowing Medical Procedures to be Patented World-wide truthout ...if some guy decided to patent a medical procedure like, oh, looking at a patient’s teeth using a dental mirror (“tilt the mirror at the correct angle to display the crown or other surface”) that patent could be approved, if the examiner had a bad day, even though the procedure is neither new nor revolutionary. That would raise the price of dental care world-wide...
Fashion Faux Pas? Free Trade and Sweatshop Labor in Guatemala truthout ..."In several CAFTA countries things are worse now than when CAFTA went into effect..."
State Battles
Ohio Mistrusts Democracy New York Times ...Ohio Republicans must not think their political candidates can win a fair fight against Democrats...
GOP Bill Designed to Disrupt John Doe Dark Money Probe, Court Filings Confirm Center for Media and Democracy ...New court filings confirm that Wisconsin's John Doe campaign finance investigation hinges on how state election law treats "issue ad" groups coordinating with political campaigns, shedding new light on a Republican effort to quietly change the law in advance of Governor Scott Walker's reelection campaign...
The Battle for Chattanooga: Southern Masculinity and the Anti-Union Campaign at Volkswagen In These Times ...“Work is not supposed to be a popularity contest, but that’s exactly what it is, unless you’re protected [by a union],” says Gravett, who since graduating from high school in 1985 has worked in various factories, including Dupont, Cleveland Tubing, Polyloom and Volkswagen...
Pensiongate? Christie Campaign Donors Won Huge Contracts The Nation ...While trumpeting “pension reform,” the New Jersey governor placed retiree assets in the hands of hedge fund managers bankrolling his political career...
The War on Workers
Hunger crisis: Charities are strained as nearly 1 in 5 New Yorkers depend on aid for food New York Daily News ...In a city of wealth, 1.4 million people rely on a network of 1,000 food pantries and soup kitchens to eat. That's an increase of 200,000 people in five years, and the city's programs are struggling to keep up with that need...
Low-Wage Workers Are Finding Poverty Harder to Escape New York Times ...More than half of those who make $9 or less an hour are 25 or older, while the proportion who are teenagers has declined to just 17 percent from 28 percent in 2000, after adjusting for inflation...
Wells Fargo foreclosure manual under fire Washington Post ...lenders, including Wells Fargo, used forged and shoddy paperwork during the recession to quickly foreclose on struggling homeowners, a practice known as “robo-signing.” Those charges led to a $25 billion national mortgage settlement that was supposed to put an end to such abusive practices, but bankruptcy lawyer Linda Tirelli says nothing has changed...
Miscellaneous
Obama auto rescue saved 2.6 million jobs and over $100 billion examiner ...The total loss of jobs would have topped 2.6 million if the entire auto industry would have been left to collapse and the report also notes that the bailout "saved or avoided the loss of $105.3 billion in transfer payments and the loss of personal and social insurance tax collections -- or 768% of the net investment...”
County sets public hearing on contract with Teamsters Topeka Capital Journal ...The Shawnee County Commission made plans Monday to hear public comments at its March 31 meeting regarding an impasse between Shawnee County and its approximately 470 employees represented by the Teamsters Union...
Trade
The TPP Tries to Put a "No Exit" Sign on America's Crapified Health Care System by Allowing Medical Procedures to be Patented World-wide truthout ...if some guy decided to patent a medical procedure like, oh, looking at a patient’s teeth using a dental mirror (“tilt the mirror at the correct angle to display the crown or other surface”) that patent could be approved, if the examiner had a bad day, even though the procedure is neither new nor revolutionary. That would raise the price of dental care world-wide...
Fashion Faux Pas? Free Trade and Sweatshop Labor in Guatemala truthout ..."In several CAFTA countries things are worse now than when CAFTA went into effect..."
State Battles
Ohio Mistrusts Democracy New York Times ...Ohio Republicans must not think their political candidates can win a fair fight against Democrats...
GOP Bill Designed to Disrupt John Doe Dark Money Probe, Court Filings Confirm Center for Media and Democracy ...New court filings confirm that Wisconsin's John Doe campaign finance investigation hinges on how state election law treats "issue ad" groups coordinating with political campaigns, shedding new light on a Republican effort to quietly change the law in advance of Governor Scott Walker's reelection campaign...
The Battle for Chattanooga: Southern Masculinity and the Anti-Union Campaign at Volkswagen In These Times ...“Work is not supposed to be a popularity contest, but that’s exactly what it is, unless you’re protected [by a union],” says Gravett, who since graduating from high school in 1985 has worked in various factories, including Dupont, Cleveland Tubing, Polyloom and Volkswagen...
Pensiongate? Christie Campaign Donors Won Huge Contracts The Nation ...While trumpeting “pension reform,” the New Jersey governor placed retiree assets in the hands of hedge fund managers bankrolling his political career...
The War on Workers
Hunger crisis: Charities are strained as nearly 1 in 5 New Yorkers depend on aid for food New York Daily News ...In a city of wealth, 1.4 million people rely on a network of 1,000 food pantries and soup kitchens to eat. That's an increase of 200,000 people in five years, and the city's programs are struggling to keep up with that need...
Low-Wage Workers Are Finding Poverty Harder to Escape New York Times ...More than half of those who make $9 or less an hour are 25 or older, while the proportion who are teenagers has declined to just 17 percent from 28 percent in 2000, after adjusting for inflation...
Wells Fargo foreclosure manual under fire Washington Post ...lenders, including Wells Fargo, used forged and shoddy paperwork during the recession to quickly foreclose on struggling homeowners, a practice known as “robo-signing.” Those charges led to a $25 billion national mortgage settlement that was supposed to put an end to such abusive practices, but bankruptcy lawyer Linda Tirelli says nothing has changed...
Miscellaneous
Obama auto rescue saved 2.6 million jobs and over $100 billion examiner ...The total loss of jobs would have topped 2.6 million if the entire auto industry would have been left to collapse and the report also notes that the bailout "saved or avoided the loss of $105.3 billion in transfer payments and the loss of personal and social insurance tax collections -- or 768% of the net investment...”
Friday, February 21, 2014
Today's Teamster News 02.21.14
Teamster News
Massachusetts Highway Workers Unanimously Ratify Contract teamster.org ...Workers with the Newbury Highway Department in Newbury, Mass., have voted unanimously to ratify a strong contract, securing wage increases and job protections. The highway workers, who are members of Teamsters Local 170 in Worcester, Mass., joined the union in December and quickly negotiated a solid agreement...
Baltimore City School Bus Workers Win $1.25 Million Wage Settlement teamster.org ...Baltimore school bus drivers and attendants have reached a $1.25 million wage settlement with their employer, Durham School Services, the transportation contractor for Baltimore City Public Schools...
Pleasanton-based Safeway in discussions to sell company San Jose Mercury News ...In a move poised to rattle the supermarket industry, one of the East Bay's largest employers, Safeway, announced Wednesday that it is in talks to sell the company...
Film tax credit bill goes live Sacramento Business Journal ...Democratic Assemblymembers Raul Bocanegra and Mike Gatto released a film tax credit bill Wednesday that supporters say will protect jobs by keeping film crews in California....
Why privatizing toll collection is a horrible idea teamsternation ...If the New Jersey Turnpike Commission privatizes toll collection, workers who have already taken enormous cuts to pay and benefits will suffer...
Eight lies ‘advocates’ told about carriage horses New York Post ...the carriage industry is well-regulated and safe. NYCLASS attacks us not with facts and well-reasoned arguments, but with emotional manipulation and outright lies...
Judge strikes down Nebraska law that allowed Keystone XL pipeline Dallas Morning News ...A Nebraska judge on Wednesday struck down a law that allowed the Keystone XL pipeline to proceed through the state, a victory for opponents who have tried to block the project that would carry oil from Canada to Texas refineries...
The War on Workers
GOP’s Social Security disaster: Conservatives just lost their chance to cut benefits Salon ...The president dropping Chained CPI from his budget is a reprieve for the left -- and a message to the right...
Federal Government Soon to Know Everywhere You've Driven American Prospect ...There are more license-plate cameras installed all the time. Now the government wants to put all the data together in one database...
Flu Deaths Rise Among Young and Middle-Aged U.S. Adults Bloomberg ...While influenza traditionally affects children and the elderly hardest, adults under age 65 accounted for 61 percent of hospitalizations so far this season, an increase from 35 percent last year, according to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report...
New Report Exposes America's Highest Paid Government Workers truthout ...America’s highest paid "government" workers are not your local teachers, nurses, or sanitation workers. Rather, they are corporate executives who sign lucrative contracts to take over public services and then pay themselves and other executives eye-popping salaries...
Victoria's anti-protest laws pass lower house by one vote The Guardian ...Controversial new laws giving police unprecedented powers to disperse protests have passed Victoria’s lower house...
New Report: Port Trucking Companies Steal More Than $1 Billion in Wages From Drivers In These Times ...The port brings in close to $16 billion per year, but the drivers only see a tiny bit of that money. This is in large part because they're “misclassified” as independent contractors...
State Battles
Concerned Missourians Deliver More than 6,850 Letters Calling on Speaker To Drop ALEC's 'Right-To-Work' Legislation Attacks Progress Missouri ...“We need to be building an economy that works for everyone, not political attacks and favors to special interest donors...”
Employers could pay less in lawsuits over unpaid wages Indianapolis Star ...Long-sought changes limiting employers’ liability when being sued by workers for unpaid wages may come to pass under a House bill backed by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. The bill also would set up a framework to allow employers to take money out of wages of employees — if they agree — to repay loans for work-related equipment and job training...
The Top Five Things You Need to Know about the John Doe Emails Center for Media and Democracy ... in 2010 while Walker was running for governor, he corresponded consistently with key campaign and county staff from a private account in the middle of the work day and apparently on the secret Wi-Fi system set up by top aide Tim Russell...
Scott Walker Ordered Doctor Fired Because She Was Once A Thong Model Huffington Post ... In April 2010, Scott Walker and his staff realized they had a potential problem on their hands that would require them to quietly fire a woman who appeared to be completely competent at her job. The issue was that she had what they perceived to be a "checkered" past: She used to be a thong model...
Chris Christie's Mansion Fund Collected Millions From Political Favor Seekers Huffington Post ...A review of IRS records and Drumthwacket donor lists, however, suggest that prospective donors saw the mansion as something more than just an altruistic investment. Contributions to Drumthwacket often coincided with the donors' attempts to win tax breaks, political appointments or other support from Christie and his appointees. In many cases, the donors, like the Strangfelds, got what they wanted...
SC guv says she wears heels to kick unions teamsternation ...South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley would rather let the people of her state go without jobs than let them get union jobs...
Trade
“Free Trade” Pacts Were Always About Weakening Nation-States to Promote Rule by Multinationals naked capitalism ...the idea behind getting rid of these barriers wasn’t about free trade, it was about reorganizing the world so that corporations could manage resources for “the benefit of mankind”...
Miscellaneous
Madoff said JPMorgan executives knew of his fraud: lawsuit Reuters ..."JPMorgan was uniquely positioned for 20 years to see Madoff's crimes and put a stop to them," the lawsuit said. "But faced with the prospect of shutting down Madoff's account and losing lucrative profits," it added, "JPMorgan - at its highest level - chose to turn a blind eye."...
Massachusetts Highway Workers Unanimously Ratify Contract teamster.org ...Workers with the Newbury Highway Department in Newbury, Mass., have voted unanimously to ratify a strong contract, securing wage increases and job protections. The highway workers, who are members of Teamsters Local 170 in Worcester, Mass., joined the union in December and quickly negotiated a solid agreement...
Baltimore City School Bus Workers Win $1.25 Million Wage Settlement teamster.org ...Baltimore school bus drivers and attendants have reached a $1.25 million wage settlement with their employer, Durham School Services, the transportation contractor for Baltimore City Public Schools...
Pleasanton-based Safeway in discussions to sell company San Jose Mercury News ...In a move poised to rattle the supermarket industry, one of the East Bay's largest employers, Safeway, announced Wednesday that it is in talks to sell the company...
Film tax credit bill goes live Sacramento Business Journal ...Democratic Assemblymembers Raul Bocanegra and Mike Gatto released a film tax credit bill Wednesday that supporters say will protect jobs by keeping film crews in California....
Why privatizing toll collection is a horrible idea teamsternation ...If the New Jersey Turnpike Commission privatizes toll collection, workers who have already taken enormous cuts to pay and benefits will suffer...
Eight lies ‘advocates’ told about carriage horses New York Post ...the carriage industry is well-regulated and safe. NYCLASS attacks us not with facts and well-reasoned arguments, but with emotional manipulation and outright lies...
Judge strikes down Nebraska law that allowed Keystone XL pipeline Dallas Morning News ...A Nebraska judge on Wednesday struck down a law that allowed the Keystone XL pipeline to proceed through the state, a victory for opponents who have tried to block the project that would carry oil from Canada to Texas refineries...
The War on Workers
GOP’s Social Security disaster: Conservatives just lost their chance to cut benefits Salon ...The president dropping Chained CPI from his budget is a reprieve for the left -- and a message to the right...
Federal Government Soon to Know Everywhere You've Driven American Prospect ...There are more license-plate cameras installed all the time. Now the government wants to put all the data together in one database...
Flu Deaths Rise Among Young and Middle-Aged U.S. Adults Bloomberg ...While influenza traditionally affects children and the elderly hardest, adults under age 65 accounted for 61 percent of hospitalizations so far this season, an increase from 35 percent last year, according to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report...
New Report Exposes America's Highest Paid Government Workers truthout ...America’s highest paid "government" workers are not your local teachers, nurses, or sanitation workers. Rather, they are corporate executives who sign lucrative contracts to take over public services and then pay themselves and other executives eye-popping salaries...
Victoria's anti-protest laws pass lower house by one vote The Guardian ...Controversial new laws giving police unprecedented powers to disperse protests have passed Victoria’s lower house...
New Report: Port Trucking Companies Steal More Than $1 Billion in Wages From Drivers In These Times ...The port brings in close to $16 billion per year, but the drivers only see a tiny bit of that money. This is in large part because they're “misclassified” as independent contractors...
State Battles
Concerned Missourians Deliver More than 6,850 Letters Calling on Speaker To Drop ALEC's 'Right-To-Work' Legislation Attacks Progress Missouri ...“We need to be building an economy that works for everyone, not political attacks and favors to special interest donors...”
Employers could pay less in lawsuits over unpaid wages Indianapolis Star ...Long-sought changes limiting employers’ liability when being sued by workers for unpaid wages may come to pass under a House bill backed by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. The bill also would set up a framework to allow employers to take money out of wages of employees — if they agree — to repay loans for work-related equipment and job training...
The Top Five Things You Need to Know about the John Doe Emails Center for Media and Democracy ... in 2010 while Walker was running for governor, he corresponded consistently with key campaign and county staff from a private account in the middle of the work day and apparently on the secret Wi-Fi system set up by top aide Tim Russell...
Scott Walker Ordered Doctor Fired Because She Was Once A Thong Model Huffington Post ... In April 2010, Scott Walker and his staff realized they had a potential problem on their hands that would require them to quietly fire a woman who appeared to be completely competent at her job. The issue was that she had what they perceived to be a "checkered" past: She used to be a thong model...
Chris Christie's Mansion Fund Collected Millions From Political Favor Seekers Huffington Post ...A review of IRS records and Drumthwacket donor lists, however, suggest that prospective donors saw the mansion as something more than just an altruistic investment. Contributions to Drumthwacket often coincided with the donors' attempts to win tax breaks, political appointments or other support from Christie and his appointees. In many cases, the donors, like the Strangfelds, got what they wanted...
SC guv says she wears heels to kick unions teamsternation ...South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley would rather let the people of her state go without jobs than let them get union jobs...
Trade
“Free Trade” Pacts Were Always About Weakening Nation-States to Promote Rule by Multinationals naked capitalism ...the idea behind getting rid of these barriers wasn’t about free trade, it was about reorganizing the world so that corporations could manage resources for “the benefit of mankind”...
Miscellaneous
Madoff said JPMorgan executives knew of his fraud: lawsuit Reuters ..."JPMorgan was uniquely positioned for 20 years to see Madoff's crimes and put a stop to them," the lawsuit said. "But faced with the prospect of shutting down Madoff's account and losing lucrative profits," it added, "JPMorgan - at its highest level - chose to turn a blind eye."...
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