Teamsters
Teamsters, Bauer's Drivers Rally For Labor Harmony in San Francisco Teamster.org ...Teamsters and drivers for Bauer’s Intelligent Transportation held an action this morning in San Francisco to call on the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) to adopt a resolution ensuring labor harmony...
Tech-Shuttle Company Is Accused Of Thwarting Efforts To Unionize Its Drivers Mother Jones ..."The drivers need and deserve better wages, better benefits, and more respect," says Doug Bloch, the political director for the Northern California chapter of the Teamsters, which is holding a protest in San Francisco's Mission District today to call attention to Bauer's alleged union-busting tactics. "What Bauer's did is an insult to these workers."...
Global Labor & Trade
Japan Anxious At Lull, U.S. 'Giving Up', In Pan-Pacific Trade Talks Reuters ...Japan has expressed concern about a loss of momentum in talks on a pan-Pacific trade pact after participants failed to agree to meet again this month to try to clinch a deal that would cover 40 percent of the global economy...
China Devalues Yuan After Poor Economic Data Huffington Post ...China devalued its currency on Tuesday after a run of poor economic data, a move it billed as a free-market reform but which some suspect could be the beginning of a longer-term slide in the exchange rate...
After Marathon Talks, Greece And International Lenders Clinch Multi-Billion Euro Bailout Deal Huffington Post ...Greece and its international lenders reached a multi-billion euro bailout agreement on Tuesday after talking through the night, officials said, potentially saving the country from financial ruin...
Bounty On Its Head: Wikileaks Raising €100K Reward For Secret Text Of TTIP Common Dreams ...The full text of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement (TTIP) now has a bounty on its head. Launched publicly on Tuesday, the media outlet Wikileaks announced its creation of a crowd-sourcing effort that aims to raise a €100,000 reward for the full text of the the TTIP, the corporate-friendly trade pact currently being negotiated in secret by the United States and member countries of the European Union...
Despite Majority Opposition, Japan About To Hit 'Go' On Nuclear Restart Common Dreams ...Despite widespread public opposition and lingering safety concerns, Japan on Tuesday will switch on a nuclear reactor for the first time since the 2011 Fukushima disaster...
Hundreds Of Peace Corps Vets Demand US Stop Funding Ethnic Cleansing Common Dreams ...Over 500 former Peace Corps volunteers are calling on the U.S. government to withhold military aid and stop funding the Dominican Republic's ethnic cleansing of people of Haitian descent, adding theirs to the cacophony of voices—from Pope Francis to United Nations experts to thousands marching in Port-au-Prince—speaking out against the mass-scale human rights violations...
State & Living Wage Battles
Daily Oil Trains Could Threaten Lives In The Bay Area San Francisco Chronicle ...If oil giant Phillips 66 has its way, an oil train disaster and increased air pollution may be coming to a Bay Area town near you. Phillips 66 is proposing an oil transport station to refine Canadian tars sands in San Luis Obispo. If the project is approved by the San Luis Obispo planning commission and board of supervisors, Phillips 66 will have a contract for 500 oil train trips a year that could go right down the spine of the Bay Area...
Wis. Residents Upset About Sand, Oil Train Delays Winona Daily News ...Neighbors living near railroad tracks in Wisconsin are becoming increasingly concerned about long train blockages since an increase in sand and oil shipments have caused them to grow into a frequent and dangerous disruption...
Florida Lawmakers Pushing For Higher Minimum Wage WFSU ...As workers across the country push for higher minimum wage, two Florida lawmakers are joining the fight. They’ve filed a bill that would raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour. But earning a living wage is about more than a person’s hourly pay...
Study Reveals The True Scope Of Voter Disenfranchisement In Texas Think Progress ...A Texas law, which closely resembles similar laws erecting obstacles to the franchise in other states, does far more to keep voters from casting a ballot than previously thought, according to a study conducted by researchers at Rice University and the University of Houston...
Silicon Valley’s Skyrocketing Housing Costs Shut Teachers Out Alternet ...Skyrocketing housing prices in Silicon Valley, the red-hot center of tech entrepreneurship and one of the most highly educated enclaves in the world, are making it hard for teachers to call the area home...
Election Rights Advocates Allege New Voter ID Violations In Ohio WLWT ...The advocates say the laws allow absentee ballots to be rejected for mistakes such as the wrong birth month even though the voter supplied the correction information when requesting the ballot...
U.S. Labor
Unpredictable Work Hours, Chaotic Life New York Times ...The tyranny of erratic work schedules is obvious to employees who don’t know what their schedules will be tomorrow or have to call in to see if there is work. And the effects have been well documented in articles and oral histories. Increasingly, the anecdotal evidence is being confirmed by research...
Social Justice & Other News
Huffington Post, Washington Post Reporters Charged For Doing Journalism In Ferguson Huffington Post ...Reporters from The Huffington Post and Washington Post have been charged with trespassing and interfering with a police officer’s performance, a chilling setback for press freedom coming nearly a year after their arrests in Ferguson, Missouri...
Jerry Brown Nixes 'Alien' From California Labor Law Huffington Post ...California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed legislation Monday removing the word "alien" in reference to undocumented immigrants from the state's labor code. The measure, which will take effect Jan. 1, seeks to modernize the language used in California state law. Brown signed the legislation, SB 432, along with two other bills updating immigration policy on Monday...
Twitter Activists Slam St. Louis County Officials For Ferguson Response With #WhichEmergency Hashtag Salon.com ...Shortly after St. Louis County officials declared a state of emergency last night in response to protesters marking the anniversary of the death of Michael Brown, activists on Twitter did something odd, agreeing with county officials and tweeting that there is, in fact, a state of emergency in St. Louis County — just not the one the officials had declared...
Here's How Much Water Golf Courses, Ski Resorts, And Pools Are Using In California Mother Jones ...Of the thirsty nonagricultural businesses, golf takes the lead: The average Palm Springs golf course uses the same amount of water in one day that a family of four does in five years. The 123 golf courses in the Palm Springs area use nearly a quarter of the region's groundwater...
Water Rationing In Puerto Rico Hits The Poor, Leaves Resorts Untouched Think Progress ...As the commonwealth’s reservoirs drop to their lowest levels in decades, the government has declared a state of emergency, and implemented strict rationing. Hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans now have had tap water only every third day, and that tightened this past weekend, giving families water only two days a week...
Heavily-Armed Oath Keepers Showed Up To Ferguson Last Night Mother Jones ...As demonstrators gathered in Ferguson to continue commemorating the one year anniversary of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown on Monday, five heavily-armed men belonging to a vigilante group called the Oath Keepers were spotted patrolling the streets. According to reports, the Oath Keepers said they were on the scene to provide voluntary protection to a journalist working for the site InfoWars, the conspiracy mill run by noted lunatic Alex Jones...
Racialized Poverty In America Has Nearly Doubled In 21st Century Common Dreams ...Discriminatory housing, zoning, and other policy choices are driving the dramatic rise of racialized poverty and segregation across the United States, with the number of people residing in low-income "ghettos, barrios, and slums" nearly doubling in the 21st century alone, a new report finds...
Showing posts with label oil trains. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oil trains. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Monday, August 10, 2015
Today's Teamster News 08.10.15
Teamsters
Picketers At Calgary BURNCO Location Protest Employee Lockout Global News ...The lockout affects members of Teamsters Union Local 362, which covers employees at plants in Airdrie, Springbank and Okotoks.The union says the biggest sticking point with the negotiations is seniority, which employees don’t want to give up...
Sun Tran Strike: Day 5 Arizona Daily Star ...Teamsters want a pay raise and improved workplace safety conditions. Sun Tran says its offer “amounts to an increase of $2.7 million over the recommended three-year contract, while the offer issued by Teamsters Local Union 104 amounts to a $20.3 million increase.” Sun Tran also says it’s working with the union to address assaults on drivers and a mold issue in a maintenance building...
Teamster: Even The Top Guys In UFC Are Underpaid SB Nation ...While Thursday's announced garnered plenty of attention, details were still a little vague. To get a better idea of what exactly the Teamsters and UNITE HERE were trying to accomplish I spoke last Friday with Chris Griswold, Secretary-Treasurer of the Teamsters, Local 986...
Global Labor & Trade
Child Labor On The Rise In West Africa As Demand For Cocoa Grows Wall Street Journal ...Despite nearly 14 years of government and industry efforts aimed at combatting child labor in cocoa production, 21% more children are illegally laboring on cocoa farms in Ghana and Ivory Coast than five years ago, according to a Tulane University study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Labor...
How El Salvador’s Supreme Court Is Undermining Democracy—With Washington’s Help The Nation ...In fact, plans to undermine leftist governance in El Salvador go back years before the election of Sánchez Cerén, the first guerrilla leader of the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) party to become president of El Salvador. The strategy centers on the country’s Supreme Court—and the US government has been in on it from the beginning...
Greece And Creditors In Final Push For Bailout Huffington Post ...Greece and international creditors sought to put final touches on a multi-billion euro bailout accord on Monday to keep the country financially afloat and meet an important debt repayment to the European Central Bank within days...
State & Living Wage Battles
Washington State Poised To Become Leader In Oil Train Safety Ahead Of Massive Increase In Traffic Puget Sound Business Journal ...Washington state is quickly becoming a leader in crude oil train safety standards. That's good because the state is gearing up to become a high-traffic zone for the controversial trains...
Corps Of Engineers Should FUSRAP-Up West Lake's Toxic Waste St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...The best solution for cleaning up radioactive waste buried at the West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton is to give control of the site to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers...
California Effort To Issue Driver’s Licenses To Immigrants Receives Surge Of Applicants New York Times ...When Alberto Fraire drives past a police car these days, he no longer worries about steep fines, or perhaps being hauled to jail and tangling with the immigration system. When California began issuing driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants this year, he was one of the first in line...
Amid Push For Higher Minimum Wage, Concern Rising About Workers Cheated Out Of Proper Pay U.S. News & World Report ...As a campaign to raise the minimum wage as high as $15 has achieved victories in such places as Seattle, Los Angeles and New York, it has bumped up against a harsh reality: Plenty of scofflaw businesses don't pay the legal minimum now and probably won't pay the new, higher wages either...
Another Sign That Momentum Is Building On Paid Parental Leave In The U.S. Huffington Post ...In the latest sign that support for paid family leave is growing in the U.S., Adobe on Monday announced a big expansion of benefits, including up to half a year of paid time off for new mothers...
U.S. Labor
The Outrageous Ascent Of CEO Pay Huffington Post ...For the last thirty years almost all incentives operating on American corporations have resulted in lower pay for average workers and higher pay for CEOs and other top executives. Consider that in 1965, CEOs of America's largest corporations were paid, on average, 20 times the pay of average workers. Now, the ratio is over 300 to 1...
Sysco Profit Drops, Hurt By US Foods-Related Costs Wall Street Journal ...Sysco Corp. said profit in its latest quarter fell, as the company booked charges stemming from its abandoned plan to acquire rival US Foods Inc...
Twisting Words To Make ‘Sharing’ Apps Seem Selfless New York Times ...Of course, marketing by its very nature involves concocting the most appealing expressions to attract consumers. But start-ups that enable consumers to summon drivers, lunch deliveries or domestic help at the tap of an app have added incentives to portray themselves in feel-good terms. Government regulators, legislators and courts in the United States have started scrutinizing the app-mediated service sector with the idea of determining whether longstanding consumer protection and labor rules apply to these new delivery models...
AT&T, Union Continue Negotiations After Contracts Expire Bloomberg Business ...AT&T Inc. and the Communications Workers of America continued talks on new labor contracts as current agreements covering more than 24,000 employees in the southeast U.S. expired...
CTU President: Contract Talks Haven’t Broken Down WBBM ...Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis disagrees contract talks with school officials have reached the “acrimonious” stage. She says meetings with public school officials have been very cordial and teachers have even been willing to take a pay freeze...
Social Justice & Other News
Virginia Recalling Specialty License Plates With Confederate Flag NPR ...Virginia's Department of Motor Vehicles will begin recalling specialty license plates depicting the Confederate battle flag following a federal judge's decision last week to dissolve an injunction that barred officials from blocking such plates...
The Confederate Flag Just Came Down In ‘The Last Capitol Of The Confederacy’ Think Progress ...According to GoDanRiver.com, the Danville city council voted 7-2 last week to remove the Third National flag of the Confederacy from the lawn of the Sutherlin Mansion, a historic building which houses a museum paid for with public funds. The flag was erected in 1995 on the house’s lawn to commemorate its historical significance — namely, that it hosted the last official meeting of the Confederate presidential cabinet, making it the “Last Capitol of the Confederacy.”...
Congress’s Cybersecurity Plan Has Some Major Flaws Think Progress ...One complaint privacy advocates have is that CISA, as written, undercuts existing privacy laws that give citizens power to hold companies responsible for any digital recklessness...
Segregation 101 Huffington Post ...Surveys of black families have found that most would prefer to live in racially integrated neighborhoods. But black families face a variety of obstacles in finding houses to buy or apartments to rent in such areas. Moreover, racial segregation isn't simply a byproduct of the fact that blacks have, on average, lower incomes than whites. Even middle-class African-American families tend to live in racially segregated areas; they, too, face discrimination when looking for apartments to rent or houses to buy...
Fox News v. Donald Trump: It’s Hard To Destroy A Monster Of Your Own Creation Salon.com ...For years, Fox News provided Donald Trump a platform to talk about politics to an audience of conservative voters. The network’s employees constantly bombarded him with questions and encouragement regarding his presidential ambitions. When he finally did run, Fox promoted and defended his candidacy in the face of near universal criticism. His presence at Fox News’ debate helped make it the most-watched primary debate in history. And after all that, when he finally got up on stage, Fox News shivved him...
A Gaggle Of Future Governors Just Had A Great Time In Maui Huffington Post ...Last month, a group of state attorneys general flew to Maui for the annual meeting of the Conference of Western Attorneys General. For several days, the top law enforcement officers -- who are often referred to as "aspiring governors" because of their tendency to run for and win higher elected office -- attended panels and swapped legal expertise on issues facing their states. They also mixed with executives, lawyers and lobbyists at a Waldorf Astoria resort that boasts tropical gardens, a swim-up bar and a grand view of Wailea Beach...
Picketers At Calgary BURNCO Location Protest Employee Lockout Global News ...The lockout affects members of Teamsters Union Local 362, which covers employees at plants in Airdrie, Springbank and Okotoks.The union says the biggest sticking point with the negotiations is seniority, which employees don’t want to give up...
Sun Tran Strike: Day 5 Arizona Daily Star ...Teamsters want a pay raise and improved workplace safety conditions. Sun Tran says its offer “amounts to an increase of $2.7 million over the recommended three-year contract, while the offer issued by Teamsters Local Union 104 amounts to a $20.3 million increase.” Sun Tran also says it’s working with the union to address assaults on drivers and a mold issue in a maintenance building...
Teamster: Even The Top Guys In UFC Are Underpaid SB Nation ...While Thursday's announced garnered plenty of attention, details were still a little vague. To get a better idea of what exactly the Teamsters and UNITE HERE were trying to accomplish I spoke last Friday with Chris Griswold, Secretary-Treasurer of the Teamsters, Local 986...
Global Labor & Trade
Child Labor On The Rise In West Africa As Demand For Cocoa Grows Wall Street Journal ...Despite nearly 14 years of government and industry efforts aimed at combatting child labor in cocoa production, 21% more children are illegally laboring on cocoa farms in Ghana and Ivory Coast than five years ago, according to a Tulane University study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Labor...
How El Salvador’s Supreme Court Is Undermining Democracy—With Washington’s Help The Nation ...In fact, plans to undermine leftist governance in El Salvador go back years before the election of Sánchez Cerén, the first guerrilla leader of the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) party to become president of El Salvador. The strategy centers on the country’s Supreme Court—and the US government has been in on it from the beginning...
Greece And Creditors In Final Push For Bailout Huffington Post ...Greece and international creditors sought to put final touches on a multi-billion euro bailout accord on Monday to keep the country financially afloat and meet an important debt repayment to the European Central Bank within days...
State & Living Wage Battles
Washington State Poised To Become Leader In Oil Train Safety Ahead Of Massive Increase In Traffic Puget Sound Business Journal ...Washington state is quickly becoming a leader in crude oil train safety standards. That's good because the state is gearing up to become a high-traffic zone for the controversial trains...
Corps Of Engineers Should FUSRAP-Up West Lake's Toxic Waste St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...The best solution for cleaning up radioactive waste buried at the West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton is to give control of the site to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers...
California Effort To Issue Driver’s Licenses To Immigrants Receives Surge Of Applicants New York Times ...When Alberto Fraire drives past a police car these days, he no longer worries about steep fines, or perhaps being hauled to jail and tangling with the immigration system. When California began issuing driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants this year, he was one of the first in line...
Amid Push For Higher Minimum Wage, Concern Rising About Workers Cheated Out Of Proper Pay U.S. News & World Report ...As a campaign to raise the minimum wage as high as $15 has achieved victories in such places as Seattle, Los Angeles and New York, it has bumped up against a harsh reality: Plenty of scofflaw businesses don't pay the legal minimum now and probably won't pay the new, higher wages either...
Another Sign That Momentum Is Building On Paid Parental Leave In The U.S. Huffington Post ...In the latest sign that support for paid family leave is growing in the U.S., Adobe on Monday announced a big expansion of benefits, including up to half a year of paid time off for new mothers...
U.S. Labor
The Outrageous Ascent Of CEO Pay Huffington Post ...For the last thirty years almost all incentives operating on American corporations have resulted in lower pay for average workers and higher pay for CEOs and other top executives. Consider that in 1965, CEOs of America's largest corporations were paid, on average, 20 times the pay of average workers. Now, the ratio is over 300 to 1...
Sysco Profit Drops, Hurt By US Foods-Related Costs Wall Street Journal ...Sysco Corp. said profit in its latest quarter fell, as the company booked charges stemming from its abandoned plan to acquire rival US Foods Inc...
Twisting Words To Make ‘Sharing’ Apps Seem Selfless New York Times ...Of course, marketing by its very nature involves concocting the most appealing expressions to attract consumers. But start-ups that enable consumers to summon drivers, lunch deliveries or domestic help at the tap of an app have added incentives to portray themselves in feel-good terms. Government regulators, legislators and courts in the United States have started scrutinizing the app-mediated service sector with the idea of determining whether longstanding consumer protection and labor rules apply to these new delivery models...
AT&T, Union Continue Negotiations After Contracts Expire Bloomberg Business ...AT&T Inc. and the Communications Workers of America continued talks on new labor contracts as current agreements covering more than 24,000 employees in the southeast U.S. expired...
CTU President: Contract Talks Haven’t Broken Down WBBM ...Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis disagrees contract talks with school officials have reached the “acrimonious” stage. She says meetings with public school officials have been very cordial and teachers have even been willing to take a pay freeze...
Social Justice & Other News
Virginia Recalling Specialty License Plates With Confederate Flag NPR ...Virginia's Department of Motor Vehicles will begin recalling specialty license plates depicting the Confederate battle flag following a federal judge's decision last week to dissolve an injunction that barred officials from blocking such plates...
The Confederate Flag Just Came Down In ‘The Last Capitol Of The Confederacy’ Think Progress ...According to GoDanRiver.com, the Danville city council voted 7-2 last week to remove the Third National flag of the Confederacy from the lawn of the Sutherlin Mansion, a historic building which houses a museum paid for with public funds. The flag was erected in 1995 on the house’s lawn to commemorate its historical significance — namely, that it hosted the last official meeting of the Confederate presidential cabinet, making it the “Last Capitol of the Confederacy.”...
Congress’s Cybersecurity Plan Has Some Major Flaws Think Progress ...One complaint privacy advocates have is that CISA, as written, undercuts existing privacy laws that give citizens power to hold companies responsible for any digital recklessness...
Segregation 101 Huffington Post ...Surveys of black families have found that most would prefer to live in racially integrated neighborhoods. But black families face a variety of obstacles in finding houses to buy or apartments to rent in such areas. Moreover, racial segregation isn't simply a byproduct of the fact that blacks have, on average, lower incomes than whites. Even middle-class African-American families tend to live in racially segregated areas; they, too, face discrimination when looking for apartments to rent or houses to buy...
Fox News v. Donald Trump: It’s Hard To Destroy A Monster Of Your Own Creation Salon.com ...For years, Fox News provided Donald Trump a platform to talk about politics to an audience of conservative voters. The network’s employees constantly bombarded him with questions and encouragement regarding his presidential ambitions. When he finally did run, Fox promoted and defended his candidacy in the face of near universal criticism. His presence at Fox News’ debate helped make it the most-watched primary debate in history. And after all that, when he finally got up on stage, Fox News shivved him...
A Gaggle Of Future Governors Just Had A Great Time In Maui Huffington Post ...Last month, a group of state attorneys general flew to Maui for the annual meeting of the Conference of Western Attorneys General. For several days, the top law enforcement officers -- who are often referred to as "aspiring governors" because of their tendency to run for and win higher elected office -- attended panels and swapped legal expertise on issues facing their states. They also mixed with executives, lawyers and lobbyists at a Waldorf Astoria resort that boasts tropical gardens, a swim-up bar and a grand view of Wailea Beach...
Friday, May 8, 2015
Today's Teamster News 05.08.15
Teamsters
Teamsters Support Alaska Airlines Contract Workers Fight for $15, Union Teamster.org ...The Teamsters Airline Division has pledged its support of contract workers at Alaska Airlines who are fighting for fair wages and union representation. The contract workers picketed outside airports across country today in an effort to raise public awareness of their fight...
Fired Workers Win Back Their Jobs Times News Weekly ...Allan Henry, an organizer for the Teamsters, said that after speaking out against Five Star Carting and their working conditions, Bush and Darden were told to sign papers deeming them terminated before they could receive their paychecks. “Now they both have their jobs back, but this is the type of working conditions and the type of retaliation these workers are dealing in this industry,” Henry said...
Strike At McMahon Distributeur Pharmaceutique Inc’s Montreal DC Materials Management & Distribution ...Unionized employees, represented by the Teamsters Québec, local 1999, are on strike at McMahon Distributeur pharmaceutique inc’s Montreal DC. The union rejected the company’s offer after several months of bargaining...
De Blasio Administration To Begin Horse-Carriage Outreach Capital New York ...The de Blasio administration began its outreach on Monday to horse-carriage drivers and others who would be affected by legislation to abolish the industry...
Global Labor & Trade
Costa Rica Announces Plan To Eradicate Child Labor By 2020 Tico Times ...During an event Monday morning, Costa Rica announced an initiative to get more than 40,000 children out of the workforce. The multi-pronged approach builds off previous efforts to reduce child labor and aims to eliminate the practice altogether by 2020...
TTIP Talks Dubbed Secretive And Undemocratic Sputnik ...As the EU Foreign Affairs Council re-starts discussions on Thursday on the trade and investment partnership with the United States (TTIP), a senior UN official has dubbed the talks undemocratic and secretive. The controversial TTIP agreement has been pushed through by US President Barack Obama, who has called for the negotiations for the world's biggest trade agreement to be speeded up. As the talks get underway in Brussels on May 7, the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, Alfred de Zayas, expressed deep concerns over the talks...
TPP, TTIP And TISA: How The Media Misrepresent Obama’s “Fast Track” “Secret” International Trade Deals Centre for Research on Globalization ...Both conservative and liberal ‘news’ media misrepresent U.S. President Barack Obama’s proposed international trade-deals as if they were about only such things as lowering tariffs and reducing national trade-protectionism — which are relatively minor surface-features of these huge proposed treaties: TTIP with Europe, TPP with Asia, and TISA (Trade in Services Agreement)...
Obama's Scheduled Visit To Nike Has Trade Deal Skeptics Scratching Their Heads Huffington Post ...Nike, which is regarded as a pioneer in overseas outsourcing, has a long and checkered labor history in Vietnam. The footwear and apparel giant was pilloried for alleged sweatshop conditions in its contracted factories in Vietnam back in the 1990s, bruising its public image. By most accounts, Nike has helped make significant safety improvements in factories through its own monitoring programs since then, but wages in Vietnam are still extremely low, and the government has a poor track record of enforcing labor laws there...
State & Living Wage Battles
Pennsylvania Senate OKs Public Employee Collective Bargaining Bills Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ...Republicans on Wednesday gave Senate approval to two bills that they said would increase transparency in collective bargaining for public employees, but which Democrats equated to union-busting...
Wisconsin GOP’s Latest Attack On Food Stamp Recipients Would Cost The State Millions Think Progress ...Wisconsin would have to spend millions of dollars to realize a Republican scheme to restrict how poor people shop for food, state fiscal analysts revealed Wednesday...
For Women In This State, Getting Pregnant Will No Longer Mean Losing A Job Think Progress ...On Tuesday, the New York State legislature passed a bill aimed at shielding pregnant women from workplace discrimination, which the governor has said he will sign...
Racist History Of ‘Right To Work’ Shows Threat To Black, Latino Workers Chicago Reporter ...Rauner may be a true believer in trickle-down ideology, but for major right-to-work supporters like the corporate-sponsored American Legislative Exchange Council (which pioneered the county-level approach Rauner is now taking), it’s all about removing unions as a political check on the power of corporations. But that will have real costs for working families in Illinois. And the costs will be highest for blacks and Latinos...
Why The FEC Won’t Crack Down On Campaign Finance Violations In 2016 Think Progress ...Though the election is more than a year away, several candidates and soon-to-be candidates have already been accused of campaign finance violations. But the head of the government’s main agency for investigating the claims and enforcing the laws on the books has publicly admitted that few violators will be brought to justice this election cycle...
Effort To Repeal Prevailing Wage Law Fails In Committee Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...A bill to repeal the state's (Wisconsin) prevailing wage failed in committee Thursday, when Republican Sen. Howard Marklein joined the panel's two Democrats to block the measure...
Pence Signs Bill Repealing Indiana Construction Wage Law Indianapolis Business Journal ...Local boards will no longer set minimum wages for public construction projects in Indiana under a law signed Wednesday by Gov. Mike Pence. The bill will eliminate the boards that set what is known as the common construction wage that workers must be paid on most state or local government projects...
Senate Votes To Block Union Dues Deduction For Some Public Employees Houston Chronicle ...Senate Bill 1968 would allow the payroll deductions to continue for police, fire and emergency-services employees -- groups that generally vote Republican in most parts of Texas -- but would not allow them for other unions, such as those for teachers, construction trades and other unions...
U.S. Labor
The 40-Hour Work Week Is A Thing Of The Past Wall Street Journal ...The phrase “nine to five” is becoming an anachronism. About half of all managers work more than 40 hours a week, according to a new survey from tax and consulting firm EY, and 39% report that their hours have increased in the past five years. Little wonder, then, that one-third of workers say it’s getting more difficult to balance work and life...
U.S. Productivity Falls 1.9% In First Quarter Wall Street Journal ...U.S. worker productivity fell in the opening months of 2015, extending a poor track record since the recession and underscoring longer-term risks to American workers’ wages...
Making The Economy Work For The Many, Not The Few -- Step 1: Raise The Minimum Wage (opinion) Huffington Post ...If the minimum wage in 1968 had simply kept up with inflation it would be more than $10 today. If it also kept up with the added productivity of American workers since then, it would be more than $21 an hour. Some opponents say minimum wage workers are teenagers seeking some extra pocket money. Wrong. Half are 35 or older, and many are key breadwinners for their families. And don't believe scaremongers who say a $15 minimum will cause employers to cut employment. More money in people's pockets means more demand for goods and services, which means more jobs not fewer jobs...
U.S. Employers Add Solid 223,000 Jobs, Unemployment Rate Falls To 7-Year Low Huffington Post ...U.S. employers added 223,000 jobs in April, a solid gain that suggests that the economy may be recovering after stumbling at the start of the year. The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate dipped to 5.4 percent from 5.5 percent in March. That is the lowest rate since May 2008, six months into the Great Recession...
Miscellaneous
Oil Train Erupts In Flames In North Dakota Wall Street Journal ...A BNSF Railway Co. train carrying crude oil derailed Wednesday morning in rural North Dakota, erupting into flames and sending billows of black smoke into the air...
What Will Happen To American Jobs, Incomes, And Wealth A Decade From Now? (opinion) Huffington Post ...We are now faced not just with labor-replacing technologies but with knowledge-replacing technologies. The combination of advanced sensors, voice recognition, artificial intelligence, big data, text-mining, and pattern-recognition algorithms, is generating smart robots capable of quickly learning human actions, and even learning from one another. A revolution in life sciences is also underway, allowing drugs to be tailored to a patient's particular condition and genome...
Break Up Big Banks (opinion) Huffington Post ...We don't hear it discussed much in the media, but the reality is that the middle class of this country, once the envy of the world, is collapsing, 45 million Americans are living in poverty, and the gap between the rich and everyone else is growing wider and wider...
Wall Street Had Five Years To Prove They Can Control Their Computers. They Failed. Think Progress ...Regulators have struggled to explain the 2010 flash crash, first blaming it on legitimate trades made by a Kansas-based firm and then charging one individual trader with intentionally creating the crash from his parents’ basement. It’s not clear that either explanation is correct, though, and that very inability to convincingly diagnose what happened that day underscores how loose human control over digitized trading strategies has become...
Trucking Company Shows Facebook Road To Future New York Times ...Frustrated by Swift Transportation’s co-founder and chief executive, Jerry Moyes, the company’s shareholders will be voting at Friday’s annual meeting whether to eliminate a dual-share structure that grants him control. Owners of Facebook and other similarly feudalistic frameworks one day may find themselves similarly frustrated...
Teamsters Support Alaska Airlines Contract Workers Fight for $15, Union Teamster.org ...The Teamsters Airline Division has pledged its support of contract workers at Alaska Airlines who are fighting for fair wages and union representation. The contract workers picketed outside airports across country today in an effort to raise public awareness of their fight...
Fired Workers Win Back Their Jobs Times News Weekly ...Allan Henry, an organizer for the Teamsters, said that after speaking out against Five Star Carting and their working conditions, Bush and Darden were told to sign papers deeming them terminated before they could receive their paychecks. “Now they both have their jobs back, but this is the type of working conditions and the type of retaliation these workers are dealing in this industry,” Henry said...
Strike At McMahon Distributeur Pharmaceutique Inc’s Montreal DC Materials Management & Distribution ...Unionized employees, represented by the Teamsters Québec, local 1999, are on strike at McMahon Distributeur pharmaceutique inc’s Montreal DC. The union rejected the company’s offer after several months of bargaining...
De Blasio Administration To Begin Horse-Carriage Outreach Capital New York ...The de Blasio administration began its outreach on Monday to horse-carriage drivers and others who would be affected by legislation to abolish the industry...
Global Labor & Trade
Costa Rica Announces Plan To Eradicate Child Labor By 2020 Tico Times ...During an event Monday morning, Costa Rica announced an initiative to get more than 40,000 children out of the workforce. The multi-pronged approach builds off previous efforts to reduce child labor and aims to eliminate the practice altogether by 2020...
TTIP Talks Dubbed Secretive And Undemocratic Sputnik ...As the EU Foreign Affairs Council re-starts discussions on Thursday on the trade and investment partnership with the United States (TTIP), a senior UN official has dubbed the talks undemocratic and secretive. The controversial TTIP agreement has been pushed through by US President Barack Obama, who has called for the negotiations for the world's biggest trade agreement to be speeded up. As the talks get underway in Brussels on May 7, the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, Alfred de Zayas, expressed deep concerns over the talks...
TPP, TTIP And TISA: How The Media Misrepresent Obama’s “Fast Track” “Secret” International Trade Deals Centre for Research on Globalization ...Both conservative and liberal ‘news’ media misrepresent U.S. President Barack Obama’s proposed international trade-deals as if they were about only such things as lowering tariffs and reducing national trade-protectionism — which are relatively minor surface-features of these huge proposed treaties: TTIP with Europe, TPP with Asia, and TISA (Trade in Services Agreement)...
Obama's Scheduled Visit To Nike Has Trade Deal Skeptics Scratching Their Heads Huffington Post ...Nike, which is regarded as a pioneer in overseas outsourcing, has a long and checkered labor history in Vietnam. The footwear and apparel giant was pilloried for alleged sweatshop conditions in its contracted factories in Vietnam back in the 1990s, bruising its public image. By most accounts, Nike has helped make significant safety improvements in factories through its own monitoring programs since then, but wages in Vietnam are still extremely low, and the government has a poor track record of enforcing labor laws there...
State & Living Wage Battles
Pennsylvania Senate OKs Public Employee Collective Bargaining Bills Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ...Republicans on Wednesday gave Senate approval to two bills that they said would increase transparency in collective bargaining for public employees, but which Democrats equated to union-busting...
Wisconsin GOP’s Latest Attack On Food Stamp Recipients Would Cost The State Millions Think Progress ...Wisconsin would have to spend millions of dollars to realize a Republican scheme to restrict how poor people shop for food, state fiscal analysts revealed Wednesday...
For Women In This State, Getting Pregnant Will No Longer Mean Losing A Job Think Progress ...On Tuesday, the New York State legislature passed a bill aimed at shielding pregnant women from workplace discrimination, which the governor has said he will sign...
Racist History Of ‘Right To Work’ Shows Threat To Black, Latino Workers Chicago Reporter ...Rauner may be a true believer in trickle-down ideology, but for major right-to-work supporters like the corporate-sponsored American Legislative Exchange Council (which pioneered the county-level approach Rauner is now taking), it’s all about removing unions as a political check on the power of corporations. But that will have real costs for working families in Illinois. And the costs will be highest for blacks and Latinos...
Why The FEC Won’t Crack Down On Campaign Finance Violations In 2016 Think Progress ...Though the election is more than a year away, several candidates and soon-to-be candidates have already been accused of campaign finance violations. But the head of the government’s main agency for investigating the claims and enforcing the laws on the books has publicly admitted that few violators will be brought to justice this election cycle...
Effort To Repeal Prevailing Wage Law Fails In Committee Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...A bill to repeal the state's (Wisconsin) prevailing wage failed in committee Thursday, when Republican Sen. Howard Marklein joined the panel's two Democrats to block the measure...
Pence Signs Bill Repealing Indiana Construction Wage Law Indianapolis Business Journal ...Local boards will no longer set minimum wages for public construction projects in Indiana under a law signed Wednesday by Gov. Mike Pence. The bill will eliminate the boards that set what is known as the common construction wage that workers must be paid on most state or local government projects...
Senate Votes To Block Union Dues Deduction For Some Public Employees Houston Chronicle ...Senate Bill 1968 would allow the payroll deductions to continue for police, fire and emergency-services employees -- groups that generally vote Republican in most parts of Texas -- but would not allow them for other unions, such as those for teachers, construction trades and other unions...
U.S. Labor
The 40-Hour Work Week Is A Thing Of The Past Wall Street Journal ...The phrase “nine to five” is becoming an anachronism. About half of all managers work more than 40 hours a week, according to a new survey from tax and consulting firm EY, and 39% report that their hours have increased in the past five years. Little wonder, then, that one-third of workers say it’s getting more difficult to balance work and life...
U.S. Productivity Falls 1.9% In First Quarter Wall Street Journal ...U.S. worker productivity fell in the opening months of 2015, extending a poor track record since the recession and underscoring longer-term risks to American workers’ wages...
Making The Economy Work For The Many, Not The Few -- Step 1: Raise The Minimum Wage (opinion) Huffington Post ...If the minimum wage in 1968 had simply kept up with inflation it would be more than $10 today. If it also kept up with the added productivity of American workers since then, it would be more than $21 an hour. Some opponents say minimum wage workers are teenagers seeking some extra pocket money. Wrong. Half are 35 or older, and many are key breadwinners for their families. And don't believe scaremongers who say a $15 minimum will cause employers to cut employment. More money in people's pockets means more demand for goods and services, which means more jobs not fewer jobs...
U.S. Employers Add Solid 223,000 Jobs, Unemployment Rate Falls To 7-Year Low Huffington Post ...U.S. employers added 223,000 jobs in April, a solid gain that suggests that the economy may be recovering after stumbling at the start of the year. The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate dipped to 5.4 percent from 5.5 percent in March. That is the lowest rate since May 2008, six months into the Great Recession...
Miscellaneous
Oil Train Erupts In Flames In North Dakota Wall Street Journal ...A BNSF Railway Co. train carrying crude oil derailed Wednesday morning in rural North Dakota, erupting into flames and sending billows of black smoke into the air...
What Will Happen To American Jobs, Incomes, And Wealth A Decade From Now? (opinion) Huffington Post ...We are now faced not just with labor-replacing technologies but with knowledge-replacing technologies. The combination of advanced sensors, voice recognition, artificial intelligence, big data, text-mining, and pattern-recognition algorithms, is generating smart robots capable of quickly learning human actions, and even learning from one another. A revolution in life sciences is also underway, allowing drugs to be tailored to a patient's particular condition and genome...
Break Up Big Banks (opinion) Huffington Post ...We don't hear it discussed much in the media, but the reality is that the middle class of this country, once the envy of the world, is collapsing, 45 million Americans are living in poverty, and the gap between the rich and everyone else is growing wider and wider...
Wall Street Had Five Years To Prove They Can Control Their Computers. They Failed. Think Progress ...Regulators have struggled to explain the 2010 flash crash, first blaming it on legitimate trades made by a Kansas-based firm and then charging one individual trader with intentionally creating the crash from his parents’ basement. It’s not clear that either explanation is correct, though, and that very inability to convincingly diagnose what happened that day underscores how loose human control over digitized trading strategies has become...
Trucking Company Shows Facebook Road To Future New York Times ...Frustrated by Swift Transportation’s co-founder and chief executive, Jerry Moyes, the company’s shareholders will be voting at Friday’s annual meeting whether to eliminate a dual-share structure that grants him control. Owners of Facebook and other similarly feudalistic frameworks one day may find themselves similarly frustrated...
Thursday, April 2, 2015
Today's Teamster News 04.02.15
Trade
Australia should fix trade deal investor protection Financial review ...Two weeks ago an international arbitration panel awarded a US company compensation for the way its quarry project in Canada was "unfairly" rejected on environmental and planning grounds...
In Press Call, Progressives Announce Anti-Fast Track Activities Nationwide Public Citizen ...Hundreds of progressive organizations are engaged nationwide in two action-packed weeks of rallies, press events, briefings, bird-dogging events, phone banks,canvasses and more to build opposition against Fast Tracking the Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Blame Bad Trade For Hurting America's Steel Industry Alternet ...Sucker punched by massive, illegally subsidized imports, American steel producers laid off thousands of workers in bedrock communities from Ohio and Illinois to Texas and Alabama. That’s in just the past three months...
ISDS A Bigger Threat Than ISIS (opinion) Wanganui Chronicle ...The Investor-State Dispute Settlement. ISDS is a means whereby investors (read corporations) may sue a government for lost corporate profits due to regulatory barriers of the defendant country. Regulatory barriers like environmental protections, health and safety rules, generic pharmaceuticals. ISDS is part of the invasive TPPA (TransPacific Partnership Agreement), a trade agreement written to benefit multinational corporations....
Cambodian Child Labor Laws Flouted With Fake IDs The Guardian ...“For many children in Cambodia, the child protection situation is dire,” says Unicef’s chief of communication...
State Battles
Seattle Minimum Wage Up To $11 For Most Wednesday KING ...Seattle's minimum wage is increasing to $11 for most businesses on Wednesday. It's the start of a phased increase to $15 per hour over the next several years...
City Council Pushes To Raise Minimum Wage WDAF ...The Kansas City council will consider an ordinance to raise minimum wage within the city to $15 an hour. Mayor Sly James talked about the ordinance during his state of the city address. The ordinance would begin raising the minimum wage within the city to $10 by September and then up to $15 by 2021...
Perez And Garcetti Take Aim At Wage Theft, Minimum Wage Los Angeles Times ...On Tuesday, Los Angeles County supervisors voted 5 to 0 to study the possible effects of boosting wage floors at the county level. City leaders in Los Angeles are considering an increase in the minimum wage to $13.25 or $15.25 an hour from the state minimum of $9 an hour...
Oil Trains To Pay More In State Fees Albany Times Union ...The state will collect millions of dollars more from companies that ship oil from the Midwest in massive trains that pass through the Capital Region and other parts of the state under language contained in the state budget hammered out by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers...
BNSF Implements New Safety Rules For Oil Trains Flathead Beacon ...In an effort to safely move massive oil trains from North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields, BNSF Railway has told shippers that it is implementing its own rules to try and prevent explosive derailments and accidental spills...
War on Workers
Student Debt Strikers Grow in Number and in Power truthout ...Just over a month ago, Waging Nonviolence reported that 15 former students of Corinthian Colleges — the beleaguered, notorious for-profit higher education system — were going on strike; not from their jobs, or from class, but from their debt. Today, there are over 100 debt strikers...
McDonald’s to Raise Pay at Outlets It Operates New York Times ...McDonald's announced on Wednesday that it would raise wages and offer new benefits to 90,000 employees in he 1,500 outlets in the United States that it owns and operates, responding to competitive pressure from a tighter job market and to labor campaigns drawing public attention to its pay policies...
Republicans Take Aim At Union ‘Official Time’ For Federal Employees Washington Post ...House and Senate Republicans have introduced bills to bar federal employees from performing union work on the government’s dime, a practice that has been allowed since 1978 under the Civil Service Reform Act...
Worker Killed In Fall At Site New Braunfels Herald Zeitung ...A San Antonio construction worker died as a result of an accident he had while working Tuesday in New Braunfels, a New Braunfels Police Department spokesman said. Authorities said Victor Echartea-Medina, 41, fell from about four stories up before being rushed in an ambulance to Resolute Health Hospital in town. The man died from his injuries...
Miscellaneous
DOJ Inspector General: ATF, FBI's Drones Worthless, Expensive And Completely Mismanaged Techdirt ...$3 million spent on drones, with only half currently considered "operational." In eight years (2006-2014), the drones have only been deployed to assist in 13 investigations, with nine of those occurring in the last four years. This may be good news for those concerned about extensive domestic surveillance, but it's not good news for those interested in how their tax dollars are being spent...
Australia should fix trade deal investor protection Financial review ...Two weeks ago an international arbitration panel awarded a US company compensation for the way its quarry project in Canada was "unfairly" rejected on environmental and planning grounds...
In Press Call, Progressives Announce Anti-Fast Track Activities Nationwide Public Citizen ...Hundreds of progressive organizations are engaged nationwide in two action-packed weeks of rallies, press events, briefings, bird-dogging events, phone banks,canvasses and more to build opposition against Fast Tracking the Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Blame Bad Trade For Hurting America's Steel Industry Alternet ...Sucker punched by massive, illegally subsidized imports, American steel producers laid off thousands of workers in bedrock communities from Ohio and Illinois to Texas and Alabama. That’s in just the past three months...
ISDS A Bigger Threat Than ISIS (opinion) Wanganui Chronicle ...The Investor-State Dispute Settlement. ISDS is a means whereby investors (read corporations) may sue a government for lost corporate profits due to regulatory barriers of the defendant country. Regulatory barriers like environmental protections, health and safety rules, generic pharmaceuticals. ISDS is part of the invasive TPPA (TransPacific Partnership Agreement), a trade agreement written to benefit multinational corporations....
Cambodian Child Labor Laws Flouted With Fake IDs The Guardian ...“For many children in Cambodia, the child protection situation is dire,” says Unicef’s chief of communication...
State Battles
Seattle Minimum Wage Up To $11 For Most Wednesday KING ...Seattle's minimum wage is increasing to $11 for most businesses on Wednesday. It's the start of a phased increase to $15 per hour over the next several years...
City Council Pushes To Raise Minimum Wage WDAF ...The Kansas City council will consider an ordinance to raise minimum wage within the city to $15 an hour. Mayor Sly James talked about the ordinance during his state of the city address. The ordinance would begin raising the minimum wage within the city to $10 by September and then up to $15 by 2021...
Perez And Garcetti Take Aim At Wage Theft, Minimum Wage Los Angeles Times ...On Tuesday, Los Angeles County supervisors voted 5 to 0 to study the possible effects of boosting wage floors at the county level. City leaders in Los Angeles are considering an increase in the minimum wage to $13.25 or $15.25 an hour from the state minimum of $9 an hour...
Oil Trains To Pay More In State Fees Albany Times Union ...The state will collect millions of dollars more from companies that ship oil from the Midwest in massive trains that pass through the Capital Region and other parts of the state under language contained in the state budget hammered out by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers...
BNSF Implements New Safety Rules For Oil Trains Flathead Beacon ...In an effort to safely move massive oil trains from North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields, BNSF Railway has told shippers that it is implementing its own rules to try and prevent explosive derailments and accidental spills...
War on Workers
Student Debt Strikers Grow in Number and in Power truthout ...Just over a month ago, Waging Nonviolence reported that 15 former students of Corinthian Colleges — the beleaguered, notorious for-profit higher education system — were going on strike; not from their jobs, or from class, but from their debt. Today, there are over 100 debt strikers...
McDonald’s to Raise Pay at Outlets It Operates New York Times ...McDonald's announced on Wednesday that it would raise wages and offer new benefits to 90,000 employees in he 1,500 outlets in the United States that it owns and operates, responding to competitive pressure from a tighter job market and to labor campaigns drawing public attention to its pay policies...
Republicans Take Aim At Union ‘Official Time’ For Federal Employees Washington Post ...House and Senate Republicans have introduced bills to bar federal employees from performing union work on the government’s dime, a practice that has been allowed since 1978 under the Civil Service Reform Act...
Worker Killed In Fall At Site New Braunfels Herald Zeitung ...A San Antonio construction worker died as a result of an accident he had while working Tuesday in New Braunfels, a New Braunfels Police Department spokesman said. Authorities said Victor Echartea-Medina, 41, fell from about four stories up before being rushed in an ambulance to Resolute Health Hospital in town. The man died from his injuries...
Miscellaneous
DOJ Inspector General: ATF, FBI's Drones Worthless, Expensive And Completely Mismanaged Techdirt ...$3 million spent on drones, with only half currently considered "operational." In eight years (2006-2014), the drones have only been deployed to assist in 13 investigations, with nine of those occurring in the last four years. This may be good news for those concerned about extensive domestic surveillance, but it's not good news for those interested in how their tax dollars are being spent...
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Today's Teamster News 03.31.15
Teamsters
Techs At St. Vincent Hospital Seek To Unionize Worcester Telegram ...Approximately 200 technicians have applied to the Boston bureau of the National Labor Relations Board for an election to join Teamsters Local 170 in Worcester...
As Dark Money Monsters Torment Investors, Shareholders Need SEC Chair To Be Superhero; They Ask: ‘Where Is Mary Jo White?’ Public Citizen ...Jim Hoffa, general president, Teamsters. The Teamsters invest more than $100 billion in the capital markets through affiliated pension and benefit funds...
Trade
U.S.-Korea Trade Deal Resulted In Growing Trade Deficits And More Than 75,000 Lost U.S. Jobs Economic Policy Institute ...March 15th was the third anniversary of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS). President Obama said that the agreement would support 70,000 U.S. jobs...
Digital Rights Activists Use Jumbotron ‘Film Fest’ To Pressure Ron Wyden Go Local PDX ...The Digital Rights group Fight for the Future, a posse of internet activists currently campaigning against an international trade deal they say would give officials too much power to censor online content, brought its message to Capitol Hill Monday...
City Council Opposes Fast Track For Pacific Rim Trade Pact Seattle Times ...Seattle City Council on Monday unanimously passed a resolution opposing the so-called fast-track consideration of the Trans-Pacific Partnership...
UAW, Dems Rally Against TPP Trade Agreement Detroit News ...Lortz, who works at the Toledo Assembly Complex producing the Jeep Cherokee, was one of hundreds of union members and others to attend an anti-TPP forum featuring U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo, and local UAW leaders...
State Battles
Indiana Lawmakers Try To Quiet Firestorm Surrounding New Law Associated Press ...Gov. Mike Pence called off public appearances Monday and sports officials planned an "Indy Welcomes All" campaign ahead of this weekend's Final Four as lawmakers scrambled to quiet the firestorm over a new law that has much of the country portraying Indiana as a state of intolerance...
Senate To Consider Bill Raising Washington's Minimum Wage News Tribune ...A bill to raise Washington's highest-in-the-nation state minimum wage to $12-an-hour with a series of annual 50-cent increases is set to get a hearing in the state Senate...
War on Workers
Movement To Increase McDonald’s Minimum Wage Broadens Its Tactics New York Times ...in the wave of actions on April 15, organizers say more than 60,000 people will join strikes and protests in 200 cities nationwide...
NLRB To Weigh In On High-Stakes McDonald’s Labor Dispute The Hill ...An NLRB administrative law judge on Monday will begin weighing whether McDonald’s should be responsible for what employees say are poor working conditions and low pay at many of its franchise restaurants. A finding in the affirmative would mark the first time that a major franchisor would be found culpable for labor violations at individual chains...
U.S. Signed Agreement With Mexico To Teach Immigrants To Unionize Washington Examiner ...The federal government has signed agreements with three foreign countries — Mexico, Ecuador and the Philippines — to establish outreach programs to teach immigrants their rights to engage in labor organizing in the U.S...
After A Story Is Published, A Minimum Wage Worker Loses Her Job Washington Post ...When I wrote about her in The Post last month, she said the minimum wage hike would bring her a bit of financial relief, but it wouldn’t lift her above the poverty line. She called me the other day to say she didn’t get to enjoy the 25-cent hike for long...
Legions Of Women Workers In U.S. Still Lack Minimum Wage And Labor Protections American Prospect ...Today, the National Labor Relations Act still excludes domestic workers and farm laborers, and the Fair Labor Standards Act does not require overtime for farmworkers or even the minimum wage or overtime for many domestic workers. The implications of these exclusions have been profound, denying a growing workforce the basic workplace protections most of us take for granted...
In Surprise Show Of Support, Filibuster-Proof Senate Majority Backs Paid Sick Leave Washington Post ...Just a few weeks ago, the Healthy Families Act — which would allow employees to earn up to seven days of paid sick leave — seemed like just another White House proposal doomed to die in the newly Republican Senate. But this afternoon, it gained a surprise vote of confidence: 61 senators voted for an amendment to the budget that would do essentially the same thing...
Lawmakers Aim To Toughen Laws On Oil Trains Herald Net ...A spate of oil train accidents the past two years has fueled state and federal lawmakers' concerns about the ability of railroads to safely transport the material and the capability of communities to respond to an incident...
Don't Undermine Open Skies (opinion) USA Today ...The big three U.S. carriers — United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines — are rightly asking the Department of Transportation to initiate talks with the UAE and Qatar over their estimated $40 billion in subsidies over a decade...
Miami Beach Maintenance Worker Killed By Flying Tabletop Miami Herald ...A Miami Beach maintenance worker was killed Friday night in what police called an unfortunate accident caused by bad weather...
Worker Killed In Blast At Berks Plant Allentown Morning Call ...Authorities say a worker was killed in an explosion at an eastern Pennsylvania manufacturing plant...
Miscellaneous
Amazon Tests Delivery Drones At Secret Canada Site After US Frustration The Guardian ...The company wants to offer its customers the ability to have packages dropped on their doorstep by flying robots within 30 minutes of ordering goods online. With innovation in the drone sector reaching lightning speeds, Amazon said it was not prepared to curtail its ambitions because of what Misener said was a lack of “impetus” on the US side of the border...
Techs At St. Vincent Hospital Seek To Unionize Worcester Telegram ...Approximately 200 technicians have applied to the Boston bureau of the National Labor Relations Board for an election to join Teamsters Local 170 in Worcester...
As Dark Money Monsters Torment Investors, Shareholders Need SEC Chair To Be Superhero; They Ask: ‘Where Is Mary Jo White?’ Public Citizen ...Jim Hoffa, general president, Teamsters. The Teamsters invest more than $100 billion in the capital markets through affiliated pension and benefit funds...
Trade
U.S.-Korea Trade Deal Resulted In Growing Trade Deficits And More Than 75,000 Lost U.S. Jobs Economic Policy Institute ...March 15th was the third anniversary of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS). President Obama said that the agreement would support 70,000 U.S. jobs...
Digital Rights Activists Use Jumbotron ‘Film Fest’ To Pressure Ron Wyden Go Local PDX ...The Digital Rights group Fight for the Future, a posse of internet activists currently campaigning against an international trade deal they say would give officials too much power to censor online content, brought its message to Capitol Hill Monday...
City Council Opposes Fast Track For Pacific Rim Trade Pact Seattle Times ...Seattle City Council on Monday unanimously passed a resolution opposing the so-called fast-track consideration of the Trans-Pacific Partnership...
UAW, Dems Rally Against TPP Trade Agreement Detroit News ...Lortz, who works at the Toledo Assembly Complex producing the Jeep Cherokee, was one of hundreds of union members and others to attend an anti-TPP forum featuring U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo, and local UAW leaders...
State Battles
Indiana Lawmakers Try To Quiet Firestorm Surrounding New Law Associated Press ...Gov. Mike Pence called off public appearances Monday and sports officials planned an "Indy Welcomes All" campaign ahead of this weekend's Final Four as lawmakers scrambled to quiet the firestorm over a new law that has much of the country portraying Indiana as a state of intolerance...
Senate To Consider Bill Raising Washington's Minimum Wage News Tribune ...A bill to raise Washington's highest-in-the-nation state minimum wage to $12-an-hour with a series of annual 50-cent increases is set to get a hearing in the state Senate...
War on Workers
Movement To Increase McDonald’s Minimum Wage Broadens Its Tactics New York Times ...in the wave of actions on April 15, organizers say more than 60,000 people will join strikes and protests in 200 cities nationwide...
NLRB To Weigh In On High-Stakes McDonald’s Labor Dispute The Hill ...An NLRB administrative law judge on Monday will begin weighing whether McDonald’s should be responsible for what employees say are poor working conditions and low pay at many of its franchise restaurants. A finding in the affirmative would mark the first time that a major franchisor would be found culpable for labor violations at individual chains...
U.S. Signed Agreement With Mexico To Teach Immigrants To Unionize Washington Examiner ...The federal government has signed agreements with three foreign countries — Mexico, Ecuador and the Philippines — to establish outreach programs to teach immigrants their rights to engage in labor organizing in the U.S...
After A Story Is Published, A Minimum Wage Worker Loses Her Job Washington Post ...When I wrote about her in The Post last month, she said the minimum wage hike would bring her a bit of financial relief, but it wouldn’t lift her above the poverty line. She called me the other day to say she didn’t get to enjoy the 25-cent hike for long...
Legions Of Women Workers In U.S. Still Lack Minimum Wage And Labor Protections American Prospect ...Today, the National Labor Relations Act still excludes domestic workers and farm laborers, and the Fair Labor Standards Act does not require overtime for farmworkers or even the minimum wage or overtime for many domestic workers. The implications of these exclusions have been profound, denying a growing workforce the basic workplace protections most of us take for granted...
In Surprise Show Of Support, Filibuster-Proof Senate Majority Backs Paid Sick Leave Washington Post ...Just a few weeks ago, the Healthy Families Act — which would allow employees to earn up to seven days of paid sick leave — seemed like just another White House proposal doomed to die in the newly Republican Senate. But this afternoon, it gained a surprise vote of confidence: 61 senators voted for an amendment to the budget that would do essentially the same thing...
Lawmakers Aim To Toughen Laws On Oil Trains Herald Net ...A spate of oil train accidents the past two years has fueled state and federal lawmakers' concerns about the ability of railroads to safely transport the material and the capability of communities to respond to an incident...
Don't Undermine Open Skies (opinion) USA Today ...The big three U.S. carriers — United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines — are rightly asking the Department of Transportation to initiate talks with the UAE and Qatar over their estimated $40 billion in subsidies over a decade...
Miami Beach Maintenance Worker Killed By Flying Tabletop Miami Herald ...A Miami Beach maintenance worker was killed Friday night in what police called an unfortunate accident caused by bad weather...
Worker Killed In Blast At Berks Plant Allentown Morning Call ...Authorities say a worker was killed in an explosion at an eastern Pennsylvania manufacturing plant...
Miscellaneous
Amazon Tests Delivery Drones At Secret Canada Site After US Frustration The Guardian ...The company wants to offer its customers the ability to have packages dropped on their doorstep by flying robots within 30 minutes of ordering goods online. With innovation in the drone sector reaching lightning speeds, Amazon said it was not prepared to curtail its ambitions because of what Misener said was a lack of “impetus” on the US side of the border...
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Today's Teamster News 03.28.15
Teamsters
Hoffa: TPP Investor Language Will Leave Taxpayers On The Hook Huffington Post ...Language included in the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) chapter of the TPP would grant new rights to companies to challenge limitations and exceptions to copyrights, patents and other intellectual property. That means corporations could sue the U.S. or other countries included in the deal if they didn't like their laws. Such challenges would be handled by an unaccountable international arbitration forum. And taxpayers would end up paying the tab if the private sector wins...
Hoffa Addresses First Graduates Of Military Job Training Program teamster.org ...Today, Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa took part in a ceremony recognizing the first graduates of a program that helps active military personnel transition to a career in transportation. The ceremony was held at the Army’s new Industrial Training Complex (ITC) in Fort Sill, Okla. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was also held to inaugurate the ITC...
Highway Chief Denies Any Wrongdoing In Legal Action Against Town Hudson Register Star ...It has been alleged the Hillsdale Highway Department has not fulfilled legal obligations to their local Teamsters union, a union official wrote in a letter to the town supervisor. The town board recently mediated the dispute at their March 17 board meeting...
Union organizers question wages at McKesson warehouse Des Moines Register ...Two Teamsters union organizers questioned Friday whether drug distributor McKesson Corp. would pay fair wages at a new warehouse in northern Iowa. "We as a local (union) and your brothers and sisters in Minnesota are concerned about the jobs being shipped down here at a discounted rate, to be honest with you," Troy Gustafson of Teamsters Local 120 told the Iowa Economic Development Authority Board Friday...
From the ranks of Microsoft’s permatemps Washington Post ...In Silicon Valley, contract workers are beginning to organize. Google and Facebook shuttle bus drivers have joined the Teamsters union...
Trade
Now We Know Why Huge TPP Trade Deal Is Kept Secret From the Public Huffington Post ...if corporations feel they have been denied "expected" profits by a government regulation, ISDS lets them circumvent a country's courts and go to an international corporate tribunal with their grievance. But if labor organizers are murdered, workers and their families have nowhere to go...
Trade Show: Today In What The Hell Is Going On With The TPP? Esquire ... It seems that in their desire to bless us all with the benefits of "free" trade, the negotiators have managed to outsource not only all the manufacturing jobs that are worth a damn, but also the job of domestic environmental spoilage...
State Battles
Plain Talk: Scott Walker a textbook case of why we don't trust politicians (opinion) The Cap Times ...Worse, though, is that Walker not only underhandedly cloaks his amibitions, he lies about them, too...
Mandatory Sick Leave Moves Forward In Capitol Statesman Journal ...Nearly every Oregon employee could have at least 40 hours of paid sick leave in the near future if the Oregon Legislature succeeds in passing one of two bills currently under discussion in the Capitol...
Minimum Wage, Equal Pay Bills Fail In House Subcommittee Memphis Business Journal ...A group of Democratic sponsored bills, including two to raise the state’s minimum wage and another to allow female employees recourse to sue over pay discrimination, failed in a Tennessee House subcommittee Wednesday. Votes on each piece of legislation were divided on party lines...
Buffalo Lawmaker Seeking Further Minimum Wage Hike Buffalo Business First ...The proposal would increase the state’s minimum wage to $10.50 now with staggered incremental increases leading to $15 in 2018. After three years of increases, the state’s minimum wage is set to reach $9 on Dec. 31, 2015. The current minimum wage in New York is set at $8.75. Panepinto said that number translates to $18,000 per year...
War on Workers
Metro workers say safety culture doesn’t exist Washington Post ...Metro train and bus operators, mechanics and other employees have lined up to criticize the agency’s safety culture nearly three months after a deadly smoke incident left one person dead and spurred new questions about the system’s management and training...
Amazon demands employees sign 18-month non-compete agreement to get a three-month-long job Pando ...The agreements last for up to 18 months. Seasonal workers can be employed by Amazon for as few as three. That’s a hell of a trade-off, especially considering that the non-compete agreements prevent Amazon’s employees from working “at any company where they ‘directly or indirectly’ support any good or service that competes with those they helped support at Amazon”...
Exclusive: Upset by Warren, U.S. banks debate halting some campaign donations Reuters ...Big Wall Street banks are so upset with U.S. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren's call for them to be broken up that some have discussed withholding campaign donations to Senate Democrats in symbolic protest, sources familiar with the discussions said...
Wall Street isn’t happy with us ElizabethWarren.com ... They want a showy way to tell Democrats across the country to be scared of speaking out, to be timid about standing up, and to stay away from fighting for what’s right. Ok, they have taken their shot, but it will not work...
Middle Class Jobs Are Still Lagging FiveThirtyEight ...This U-shaped recovery – faster growth at the top and bottom, slower in the middle – isn’t a new phenomenon. What’s unclear is how long it will last. Mid-tier jobs are often the last to rebound in a recovery. It’s possible that with job growth now picking up, the pattern will begin to reverse, or perhaps has even begun to do so already...
Raleigh Scaffolding Collapse Kills 3 Construction Workers Raleigh News and Observer ...Three construction workers were killed and another seriously injured late Monday morning when an exterior lift system tore from the side of an office building under construction in downtown Raleigh...
Oil Trains Put US On Target For More Derailments, Warn Experts Fox News ...Activists call them “bomb trains,” and they’re likely rolling through a town near you. The oil boom in North Dakota and Alberta, Canada, has put a record number of train cars on tracks carrying hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil each day all across the U.S. Several accidents have already happened, and local leaders say it is a matter of time until more occur...
Miscellaneous
NSA Doesn’t Need To Spy On Your Calls To Learn Your Secrets Wired ...Collecting metadata on people means putting them under surveillance...
The Shut-In Economy Medium ...the on-demand world isn’t about sharing at all. It’s about being served. This is an economy of shut-ins...
Hoffa: TPP Investor Language Will Leave Taxpayers On The Hook Huffington Post ...Language included in the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) chapter of the TPP would grant new rights to companies to challenge limitations and exceptions to copyrights, patents and other intellectual property. That means corporations could sue the U.S. or other countries included in the deal if they didn't like their laws. Such challenges would be handled by an unaccountable international arbitration forum. And taxpayers would end up paying the tab if the private sector wins...
Hoffa Addresses First Graduates Of Military Job Training Program teamster.org ...Today, Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa took part in a ceremony recognizing the first graduates of a program that helps active military personnel transition to a career in transportation. The ceremony was held at the Army’s new Industrial Training Complex (ITC) in Fort Sill, Okla. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was also held to inaugurate the ITC...
Highway Chief Denies Any Wrongdoing In Legal Action Against Town Hudson Register Star ...It has been alleged the Hillsdale Highway Department has not fulfilled legal obligations to their local Teamsters union, a union official wrote in a letter to the town supervisor. The town board recently mediated the dispute at their March 17 board meeting...
Union organizers question wages at McKesson warehouse Des Moines Register ...Two Teamsters union organizers questioned Friday whether drug distributor McKesson Corp. would pay fair wages at a new warehouse in northern Iowa. "We as a local (union) and your brothers and sisters in Minnesota are concerned about the jobs being shipped down here at a discounted rate, to be honest with you," Troy Gustafson of Teamsters Local 120 told the Iowa Economic Development Authority Board Friday...
From the ranks of Microsoft’s permatemps Washington Post ...In Silicon Valley, contract workers are beginning to organize. Google and Facebook shuttle bus drivers have joined the Teamsters union...
Trade
Now We Know Why Huge TPP Trade Deal Is Kept Secret From the Public Huffington Post ...if corporations feel they have been denied "expected" profits by a government regulation, ISDS lets them circumvent a country's courts and go to an international corporate tribunal with their grievance. But if labor organizers are murdered, workers and their families have nowhere to go...
Trade Show: Today In What The Hell Is Going On With The TPP? Esquire ... It seems that in their desire to bless us all with the benefits of "free" trade, the negotiators have managed to outsource not only all the manufacturing jobs that are worth a damn, but also the job of domestic environmental spoilage...
State Battles
Plain Talk: Scott Walker a textbook case of why we don't trust politicians (opinion) The Cap Times ...Worse, though, is that Walker not only underhandedly cloaks his amibitions, he lies about them, too...
Mandatory Sick Leave Moves Forward In Capitol Statesman Journal ...Nearly every Oregon employee could have at least 40 hours of paid sick leave in the near future if the Oregon Legislature succeeds in passing one of two bills currently under discussion in the Capitol...
Minimum Wage, Equal Pay Bills Fail In House Subcommittee Memphis Business Journal ...A group of Democratic sponsored bills, including two to raise the state’s minimum wage and another to allow female employees recourse to sue over pay discrimination, failed in a Tennessee House subcommittee Wednesday. Votes on each piece of legislation were divided on party lines...
Buffalo Lawmaker Seeking Further Minimum Wage Hike Buffalo Business First ...The proposal would increase the state’s minimum wage to $10.50 now with staggered incremental increases leading to $15 in 2018. After three years of increases, the state’s minimum wage is set to reach $9 on Dec. 31, 2015. The current minimum wage in New York is set at $8.75. Panepinto said that number translates to $18,000 per year...
War on Workers
Metro workers say safety culture doesn’t exist Washington Post ...Metro train and bus operators, mechanics and other employees have lined up to criticize the agency’s safety culture nearly three months after a deadly smoke incident left one person dead and spurred new questions about the system’s management and training...
Amazon demands employees sign 18-month non-compete agreement to get a three-month-long job Pando ...The agreements last for up to 18 months. Seasonal workers can be employed by Amazon for as few as three. That’s a hell of a trade-off, especially considering that the non-compete agreements prevent Amazon’s employees from working “at any company where they ‘directly or indirectly’ support any good or service that competes with those they helped support at Amazon”...
Exclusive: Upset by Warren, U.S. banks debate halting some campaign donations Reuters ...Big Wall Street banks are so upset with U.S. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren's call for them to be broken up that some have discussed withholding campaign donations to Senate Democrats in symbolic protest, sources familiar with the discussions said...
Wall Street isn’t happy with us ElizabethWarren.com ... They want a showy way to tell Democrats across the country to be scared of speaking out, to be timid about standing up, and to stay away from fighting for what’s right. Ok, they have taken their shot, but it will not work...
Middle Class Jobs Are Still Lagging FiveThirtyEight ...This U-shaped recovery – faster growth at the top and bottom, slower in the middle – isn’t a new phenomenon. What’s unclear is how long it will last. Mid-tier jobs are often the last to rebound in a recovery. It’s possible that with job growth now picking up, the pattern will begin to reverse, or perhaps has even begun to do so already...
Raleigh Scaffolding Collapse Kills 3 Construction Workers Raleigh News and Observer ...Three construction workers were killed and another seriously injured late Monday morning when an exterior lift system tore from the side of an office building under construction in downtown Raleigh...
Oil Trains Put US On Target For More Derailments, Warn Experts Fox News ...Activists call them “bomb trains,” and they’re likely rolling through a town near you. The oil boom in North Dakota and Alberta, Canada, has put a record number of train cars on tracks carrying hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil each day all across the U.S. Several accidents have already happened, and local leaders say it is a matter of time until more occur...
Miscellaneous
NSA Doesn’t Need To Spy On Your Calls To Learn Your Secrets Wired ...Collecting metadata on people means putting them under surveillance...
The Shut-In Economy Medium ...the on-demand world isn’t about sharing at all. It’s about being served. This is an economy of shut-ins...
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Today's Teamster News 03.26.15
Teamsters
San Francisco Board Of Supervisors Back Labor Harmony For Commuter Shuttles teamster.org ...The San Francisco Board of Supervisors today adopted a resolution that would require the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) to consider the labor practices of commuter shuttle operators as part of their permitting process...
Why Teamsters Present Walmart With A New Challenge Forbes ...When the Securities and Exchange Commission rejected a request by Walmart Stores to prevent shareholders from voting on a proposal to elect an independent board chairman at their annual shareholder meeting they were whistling up the wrong tree. The matter will now become part of the proxy for fiscal 2016 to be voted on in early June. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters General Fund submitted the proposal in an effort to unseat Walton family member, S. Robson (Rob) Walton from a position that he has held for many years...
BLET Urges Senators To Oppose PTC Extension BLET ...The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) announced today that it strongly opposes S. 650, the Railroad Safety and Positive Train Control Extension Act, which is expected to be voted on in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation within hours...
Senator: Union's reversal makes Sunday growler sales likely in Minnesota Associated Press ...The Teamsters Joint Council 32 helped derail the measure near the end of the legislative session last year, citing concerns about its impact on the union's labor contracts. But union lobbyist Ed Reynoso told a Senate Committee on Monday that, "at this point" the union won't oppose the effort this year...
Railroads Need To Do More To Improve Track, Union Official Says Progressive Railroading ...The president of a national railroad labor union this week called on freight railroads to step up their maintenance of track carrying oil trains in order to help prevent future derailments. Track conditions are a leading cause of train derailments in the United States, accounting for a third of all train accidents, noted Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division President Freddie Simpson, who cited Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) data....
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership Seen as Door for Foreign Suits Against U.S. New York Times ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership -- a cornerstone of Mr. obama's remaining economic agenda -- would grant broad powers to multinational companies operating in North America, South America and Asia. Under the accord, still under negotiation but nearing completion, companies and investors would be empowered to challenge regulations, rules, government actions and curt rulings -- federal state or local -- before tribunals organized under the World Bank or the United Nations...
Oregon MoveOn Members: If Sen. Wyden Supports Fast Track for TPP, We’ll Back a Progressive Challenger in 2016 Primary MoveOn.org ...Oregon members of MoveOn.org Political Action said overwhelmingly that they would back a progressive challenger to Sen. Ron Wyden (D) if the state’s senior senator supports Fast Track for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a dangerous trade agreement that’s been called “NAFTA on steroids.”...
Ron Wyden avoids anti-trade pact protesters while continuing his fundraising The Oregonian ...A liberal Internet freedom group says it mounted an anti-free-trade protest Tuesday night that scared away Sen. Ron Wyden from holding a fundraiser at an upscale French restaurant near the Capitol...
State Battles
Work On Weekends: GOP Bill Takes Away Right To Weekend Day Off In Wisconsin Inquisitr ...Should you be forced to work on weekends? Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin think so, and they have introduced legislation to strip workers in that state of their right to a single, 24-hour “rest period,” once every seven days...
Public unions will lose power if new bill passes Associated Press ...The measure would prevent local government employers [in Nevada] from giving their employees paid time off for union tasks. It would bar supervisors and administrators from unionizing at all, and would expand local governments' ability to implement layoffs...
Bill Limiting Public Workers’ Payroll Deductions Stalls Without Charity Exemption Wichita Eagle ...A bill that would significantly scale back the collective bargaining power of public-sector unions hit a major snag Tuesday. One part of HB 2096 would prohibit automatic deductions from public workers’ paychecks for union dues or charitable contributions. The United Way of the Plains has said it would lose $300,000 if that happens. An amendment Tuesday sought to exempt charities from the bill, but it was rejected by conservative Republicans and Democrats...
Madigan: Rauner's right-to-work plans illegal Dispatch-Argus ... she also said Gov. Rauner's proposal to prevent unions from getting "fair share" dues from nonmembers working for the state would break the law as it stands...
Health Dept. To Study Landfill Effects KSDK ...The St. Louis County Health Department wants to study hundreds of north county residents. It's part of an effort to determine whether the smoldering Bridgeton Landfill is making people sick. The south quarry of the landfill has experienced an underground smoldering event since 2010. The reaction is releasing gas and odors into the air. Now St. Louis County's new Health Director wants to know what effect those emissions are having on people...
NLRB schedules union election for Boeing SC Charleston Business Journal ...More than 3,000 production and maintenance employees at Boeing South Carolina are eligible to vote on April 22 to decide whether they want union representation, following a National Labor Relations Board’s decision today to allow an election at the local plant...
War on Workers
The growing distance between people and jobs in metropolitan America Brookings ...Between 2000 and 2012, the number of jobs within the typical commute distance for residents in a major metro area fell by 7 percent...
America Needs Labor Unions (opinion) Huffington Post ...The reality is that unions are the greatest tool at most workers' disposal for rebuilding the middle class. Advocating for the elimination of this tool is the epitome of cutting off your nose to spite your face...
Senate Dems Seek Stronger Oil Train Safety Rules The Hill ...Senate Democrats have proposed a bill to set stronger safety rules for trains carrying oil, including regulating the content of the oil itself. Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) said the most critical problem with the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) ongoing regulatory effort on oil trains is that it does not confront the problem of the volatility of oil from North Dakota’s Bakken region...
Labor Board Still Grappling With Supreme Court Defeat The Hill ... In a case known as NLRB v. Noel Canning, the high court last June overturned a set of President Obama’s recess appointments to the labor board, concluding he overstepped in exerting his authority to fill vacancies while the Senate was technically in session. As a result, the board has had to revisit more than 100 labor cases that were decided while the NLRB was unconstitutionally constructed...
Miscellaneous
Inflation, New-Home Sales Firm Up Wall Street Journal ...The consumer-price index—covering everything from Americans’ rent to the cost of their dental care—rose in February for the first time in four months, the Labor Department said Tuesday. Overall prices were up 0.2% from January, though they were flat from a year ago. The move suggested inflation pressures are slowly building back up after succumbing to a six-month slide in oil prices...
San Francisco Board Of Supervisors Back Labor Harmony For Commuter Shuttles teamster.org ...The San Francisco Board of Supervisors today adopted a resolution that would require the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) to consider the labor practices of commuter shuttle operators as part of their permitting process...
Why Teamsters Present Walmart With A New Challenge Forbes ...When the Securities and Exchange Commission rejected a request by Walmart Stores to prevent shareholders from voting on a proposal to elect an independent board chairman at their annual shareholder meeting they were whistling up the wrong tree. The matter will now become part of the proxy for fiscal 2016 to be voted on in early June. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters General Fund submitted the proposal in an effort to unseat Walton family member, S. Robson (Rob) Walton from a position that he has held for many years...
BLET Urges Senators To Oppose PTC Extension BLET ...The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) announced today that it strongly opposes S. 650, the Railroad Safety and Positive Train Control Extension Act, which is expected to be voted on in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation within hours...
Senator: Union's reversal makes Sunday growler sales likely in Minnesota Associated Press ...The Teamsters Joint Council 32 helped derail the measure near the end of the legislative session last year, citing concerns about its impact on the union's labor contracts. But union lobbyist Ed Reynoso told a Senate Committee on Monday that, "at this point" the union won't oppose the effort this year...
Railroads Need To Do More To Improve Track, Union Official Says Progressive Railroading ...The president of a national railroad labor union this week called on freight railroads to step up their maintenance of track carrying oil trains in order to help prevent future derailments. Track conditions are a leading cause of train derailments in the United States, accounting for a third of all train accidents, noted Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division President Freddie Simpson, who cited Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) data....
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership Seen as Door for Foreign Suits Against U.S. New York Times ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership -- a cornerstone of Mr. obama's remaining economic agenda -- would grant broad powers to multinational companies operating in North America, South America and Asia. Under the accord, still under negotiation but nearing completion, companies and investors would be empowered to challenge regulations, rules, government actions and curt rulings -- federal state or local -- before tribunals organized under the World Bank or the United Nations...
Oregon MoveOn Members: If Sen. Wyden Supports Fast Track for TPP, We’ll Back a Progressive Challenger in 2016 Primary MoveOn.org ...Oregon members of MoveOn.org Political Action said overwhelmingly that they would back a progressive challenger to Sen. Ron Wyden (D) if the state’s senior senator supports Fast Track for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a dangerous trade agreement that’s been called “NAFTA on steroids.”...
Ron Wyden avoids anti-trade pact protesters while continuing his fundraising The Oregonian ...A liberal Internet freedom group says it mounted an anti-free-trade protest Tuesday night that scared away Sen. Ron Wyden from holding a fundraiser at an upscale French restaurant near the Capitol...
State Battles
Work On Weekends: GOP Bill Takes Away Right To Weekend Day Off In Wisconsin Inquisitr ...Should you be forced to work on weekends? Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin think so, and they have introduced legislation to strip workers in that state of their right to a single, 24-hour “rest period,” once every seven days...
Public unions will lose power if new bill passes Associated Press ...The measure would prevent local government employers [in Nevada] from giving their employees paid time off for union tasks. It would bar supervisors and administrators from unionizing at all, and would expand local governments' ability to implement layoffs...
Bill Limiting Public Workers’ Payroll Deductions Stalls Without Charity Exemption Wichita Eagle ...A bill that would significantly scale back the collective bargaining power of public-sector unions hit a major snag Tuesday. One part of HB 2096 would prohibit automatic deductions from public workers’ paychecks for union dues or charitable contributions. The United Way of the Plains has said it would lose $300,000 if that happens. An amendment Tuesday sought to exempt charities from the bill, but it was rejected by conservative Republicans and Democrats...
Madigan: Rauner's right-to-work plans illegal Dispatch-Argus ... she also said Gov. Rauner's proposal to prevent unions from getting "fair share" dues from nonmembers working for the state would break the law as it stands...
Health Dept. To Study Landfill Effects KSDK ...The St. Louis County Health Department wants to study hundreds of north county residents. It's part of an effort to determine whether the smoldering Bridgeton Landfill is making people sick. The south quarry of the landfill has experienced an underground smoldering event since 2010. The reaction is releasing gas and odors into the air. Now St. Louis County's new Health Director wants to know what effect those emissions are having on people...
NLRB schedules union election for Boeing SC Charleston Business Journal ...More than 3,000 production and maintenance employees at Boeing South Carolina are eligible to vote on April 22 to decide whether they want union representation, following a National Labor Relations Board’s decision today to allow an election at the local plant...
War on Workers
The growing distance between people and jobs in metropolitan America Brookings ...Between 2000 and 2012, the number of jobs within the typical commute distance for residents in a major metro area fell by 7 percent...
America Needs Labor Unions (opinion) Huffington Post ...The reality is that unions are the greatest tool at most workers' disposal for rebuilding the middle class. Advocating for the elimination of this tool is the epitome of cutting off your nose to spite your face...
Senate Dems Seek Stronger Oil Train Safety Rules The Hill ...Senate Democrats have proposed a bill to set stronger safety rules for trains carrying oil, including regulating the content of the oil itself. Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) said the most critical problem with the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) ongoing regulatory effort on oil trains is that it does not confront the problem of the volatility of oil from North Dakota’s Bakken region...
Labor Board Still Grappling With Supreme Court Defeat The Hill ... In a case known as NLRB v. Noel Canning, the high court last June overturned a set of President Obama’s recess appointments to the labor board, concluding he overstepped in exerting his authority to fill vacancies while the Senate was technically in session. As a result, the board has had to revisit more than 100 labor cases that were decided while the NLRB was unconstitutionally constructed...
Miscellaneous
Inflation, New-Home Sales Firm Up Wall Street Journal ...The consumer-price index—covering everything from Americans’ rent to the cost of their dental care—rose in February for the first time in four months, the Labor Department said Tuesday. Overall prices were up 0.2% from January, though they were flat from a year ago. The move suggested inflation pressures are slowly building back up after succumbing to a six-month slide in oil prices...
Saturday, March 14, 2015
Today's Teamster News 03.14.15
Teamsters
FedEx Freight Workers In California Vote To Join Teamsters Local 439 teamster.org ...A group of 50 drivers at FedEx Freight’s Stockton, Calif., terminal have voted to join Teamsters Local 439. The vote took place Thursday, March 12 and today, and the workers voted 33 to 12 to become Teamsters...
Teamsters Testify About UNFI At Supply Chain Commission Hearing teamster.org ...Former Workers Tell Commission Members About UNFI’s Abuses...
Drivers For Facebook Contractor Loop Transp. Gain Strong Agreement, Wage Increases teamster.org ...Drivers for Facebook contractor Loop Transportation are now covered under a Teamsters Local 853 contract, providing for wage increases, health care benefits and a number of improvements to their working conditions. The contract, which workers overwhelmingly voted to ratify on Feb. 21, went to Facebook for its agreement as Loop’s paying client before implementation...
San Bernardino County Public Employees To Vote In Teamster Election teamster.org ... Ballots were mailed out this week to more than 15,000 San Bernardino, Calif., county, city and agency employees to vote in an election for Teamsters representation...
Teamsters Continue Fight To Unionize More Bay Area Drivers KGO ...The Teamsters hit the streets of San Francisco for a rally. They're handing out union cards to the drivers of Bauer Transportation, a company contracted to drive workers to some Bay Area tech companies, including Cisco and Google...
Woodbridge Winery Workers Join Teamsters Local 601 In California teamster.org ...Nearly 50 workers at Woodbridge Winery in Acampo, Calif. joined Teamsters Local 601 in Stockton, voting 32-13 in favor of representation. The new bargaining unit of cellar operation employees includes 46 workers who are seeking improved pay, benefits and the protection of a union contract...
Trade
Unhappy Third Birthday for Korea FTA Drags Down Obama Push for Fast Track Public Citizen Global Trade Watch ...U.S. Exports Down, Imports from Korea Up and Job-Killing Trade Deficit With Korea Balloons 84 Percent on Third Anniversary of Korea Pact, Which Is TPP Template...
Progressives: We’ve Never Heard Of This “Progressive” Group Backing Obama’s Trade Deal BuzzFeed News ...The “Progressive Coalition For American Jobs,” run by former Obama campaign staffers, purports to represent the progressive left on the trade deal that the progressive left hates...
Major Unions Stepping up Battle against Free-Trade Pact Associated Press ...the Teamsters union called for U.S. negotiators on the trade pact to press for a crackdown on Mexican cross-border trucking as part of the emerging agreement...
‘Exploitation’: Clothing Labels Accused Of Cambodia Worker Discrimination, Child Labor RT ...HRW [Human Rights Watch] says workers in Cambodia’s garment factories, producing name-brand clothing sold in the US, Canada and Europe, often come to grips with "discriminatory and exploitative labor conditions." According to HRW, the combination of short-term contracts which make it easier to get rid of workers at any moment, poor government labor inspection and enforcement, as well as aggressive tactics against independent unions make it extremely difficult for workers to assert their rights...
State Battles
Push to rewrite Kansas collective bargaining laws stalls Kansas City Star ...The committee was set to vote Friday on both measures, but Chairwoman and Olathe Republican Julia Lynn canceled the meeting. Lynn said she’s not sure when the votes will occur and said House GOP leaders have signaled that they’re reluctant to tackle such issues...
Chumbley: Right to work all wrong for Missouri Springfield News-Leader ...Missouri's General Assembly is preparing to pass the deceptively titled Right to Work and Paycheck Protection bills. These bills are an attack on workers and an offense to the God of justice...
Union members rally against GOP labor bills outside Legislature Las Vegas Review-Journal ... Hundreds of union members rallied in front of the Nevada Legislature on Thursday to protest Republican efforts to curb collective bargaining and push public employee retirement reforms...
Union workers to protest Walker in NH New Hampshire Union Leader ...Union members and organizers plan to protest outside when Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks to a state Republican Party event Saturday at Concord High School...
WV Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signs prevailing wage change, Coal Jobs and Safety Act WOWK TV ...Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signed three bills into law March 12, including one that changes West Virginia's prevailing wage law...
Maine Republicans Try Again To Push Through 'Right-to-Work' Legislation NPR ...Republicans are once again trying to move a so-called "right-to-work" bill through the Legislature. Their goal is to put an end to a long-standing requirement that public and private sector workers in a unionized shops must either join the union or pay representation fees as a condition of employment...
Senate Kills Bill To Restore State Minimum Wage New Hampshire Union Leader ...The Republican-dominated state Senate has rejected a bill to restore a state minimum wage in New Hampshire. The legislation would have set the hourly rate at $8.25 in 2016, $9 in 2017 and $10 in 2018...
War on Workers
The Retirement Savings Gap Between Haves and Have-Nots Is Getting Bigger Bloomberg ...The median retirement account balance when you look across all households? $2,500...
Dangerous Trains, Aging Rails (opinion) New York Times ...To protect communities and the environment, the Transportation Department needs to act quickly to require more resilient rail cars, improve the safety of rail infrastructure and operations, and reduce the volatility of oil at the wellhead, before it is loaded onto trains...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Retail Sales Fall Amid Rough Weather Wall Street Journal ...U.S. retail sales fell for the third consecutive month in February as a mix of bad weather and consumer caution outweighed an improving labor market and cheap gasoline prices...
FedEx Freight Workers In California Vote To Join Teamsters Local 439 teamster.org ...A group of 50 drivers at FedEx Freight’s Stockton, Calif., terminal have voted to join Teamsters Local 439. The vote took place Thursday, March 12 and today, and the workers voted 33 to 12 to become Teamsters...
Teamsters Testify About UNFI At Supply Chain Commission Hearing teamster.org ...Former Workers Tell Commission Members About UNFI’s Abuses...
Drivers For Facebook Contractor Loop Transp. Gain Strong Agreement, Wage Increases teamster.org ...Drivers for Facebook contractor Loop Transportation are now covered under a Teamsters Local 853 contract, providing for wage increases, health care benefits and a number of improvements to their working conditions. The contract, which workers overwhelmingly voted to ratify on Feb. 21, went to Facebook for its agreement as Loop’s paying client before implementation...
San Bernardino County Public Employees To Vote In Teamster Election teamster.org ... Ballots were mailed out this week to more than 15,000 San Bernardino, Calif., county, city and agency employees to vote in an election for Teamsters representation...
Teamsters Continue Fight To Unionize More Bay Area Drivers KGO ...The Teamsters hit the streets of San Francisco for a rally. They're handing out union cards to the drivers of Bauer Transportation, a company contracted to drive workers to some Bay Area tech companies, including Cisco and Google...
Woodbridge Winery Workers Join Teamsters Local 601 In California teamster.org ...Nearly 50 workers at Woodbridge Winery in Acampo, Calif. joined Teamsters Local 601 in Stockton, voting 32-13 in favor of representation. The new bargaining unit of cellar operation employees includes 46 workers who are seeking improved pay, benefits and the protection of a union contract...
Trade
Unhappy Third Birthday for Korea FTA Drags Down Obama Push for Fast Track Public Citizen Global Trade Watch ...U.S. Exports Down, Imports from Korea Up and Job-Killing Trade Deficit With Korea Balloons 84 Percent on Third Anniversary of Korea Pact, Which Is TPP Template...
Progressives: We’ve Never Heard Of This “Progressive” Group Backing Obama’s Trade Deal BuzzFeed News ...The “Progressive Coalition For American Jobs,” run by former Obama campaign staffers, purports to represent the progressive left on the trade deal that the progressive left hates...
Major Unions Stepping up Battle against Free-Trade Pact Associated Press ...the Teamsters union called for U.S. negotiators on the trade pact to press for a crackdown on Mexican cross-border trucking as part of the emerging agreement...
‘Exploitation’: Clothing Labels Accused Of Cambodia Worker Discrimination, Child Labor RT ...HRW [Human Rights Watch] says workers in Cambodia’s garment factories, producing name-brand clothing sold in the US, Canada and Europe, often come to grips with "discriminatory and exploitative labor conditions." According to HRW, the combination of short-term contracts which make it easier to get rid of workers at any moment, poor government labor inspection and enforcement, as well as aggressive tactics against independent unions make it extremely difficult for workers to assert their rights...
State Battles
Push to rewrite Kansas collective bargaining laws stalls Kansas City Star ...The committee was set to vote Friday on both measures, but Chairwoman and Olathe Republican Julia Lynn canceled the meeting. Lynn said she’s not sure when the votes will occur and said House GOP leaders have signaled that they’re reluctant to tackle such issues...
Chumbley: Right to work all wrong for Missouri Springfield News-Leader ...Missouri's General Assembly is preparing to pass the deceptively titled Right to Work and Paycheck Protection bills. These bills are an attack on workers and an offense to the God of justice...
Union members rally against GOP labor bills outside Legislature Las Vegas Review-Journal ... Hundreds of union members rallied in front of the Nevada Legislature on Thursday to protest Republican efforts to curb collective bargaining and push public employee retirement reforms...
Union workers to protest Walker in NH New Hampshire Union Leader ...Union members and organizers plan to protest outside when Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks to a state Republican Party event Saturday at Concord High School...
WV Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signs prevailing wage change, Coal Jobs and Safety Act WOWK TV ...Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signed three bills into law March 12, including one that changes West Virginia's prevailing wage law...
Maine Republicans Try Again To Push Through 'Right-to-Work' Legislation NPR ...Republicans are once again trying to move a so-called "right-to-work" bill through the Legislature. Their goal is to put an end to a long-standing requirement that public and private sector workers in a unionized shops must either join the union or pay representation fees as a condition of employment...
Senate Kills Bill To Restore State Minimum Wage New Hampshire Union Leader ...The Republican-dominated state Senate has rejected a bill to restore a state minimum wage in New Hampshire. The legislation would have set the hourly rate at $8.25 in 2016, $9 in 2017 and $10 in 2018...
War on Workers
The Retirement Savings Gap Between Haves and Have-Nots Is Getting Bigger Bloomberg ...The median retirement account balance when you look across all households? $2,500...
Dangerous Trains, Aging Rails (opinion) New York Times ...To protect communities and the environment, the Transportation Department needs to act quickly to require more resilient rail cars, improve the safety of rail infrastructure and operations, and reduce the volatility of oil at the wellhead, before it is loaded onto trains...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Retail Sales Fall Amid Rough Weather Wall Street Journal ...U.S. retail sales fell for the third consecutive month in February as a mix of bad weather and consumer caution outweighed an improving labor market and cheap gasoline prices...
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Today's Teamster News 03.10.15
Teamsters
Hoffa: Right-To-Work In Wisconsin Is Another Step Down The Wrong Road For Working Families teamster.org ...“Today, Gov. Scott Walker ignored the will of Wisconsin’s working families, signing a right-to-work bill into law that was fast tracked through the state legislature...
40 hurt when Amtrak train slams into truck in Halifax County WRAL.com ...Dozens of passengers were injured Monday when an Amtrak train traveling from Charlotte to New York derailed in Halifax County after slamming into a tractor-trailer that apparently got stuck at an intersection, authorities said...
Apple Gives Shuttle Bus Drivers A Raise San Jose Mercury News ...Last week, Apple announced it would hire many of its contract security guards as full-time employees entitled to the same benefits as other workers, echoing a similar step made last year by Google. What's more, shuttle bus drivers for popular Silicon Valley contractors Loop Transportation and Compass Transportation have joined the Teamsters union, which is negotiating for better pay and benefits...
Handi-Van Management, Drivers' Union At Odds Over Customer Complaint Calls KHNL ...The disagreement centers over a small card that the Hawaii Teamsters Local 996 distributed to its drivers to give to their passengers, which includes the phone numbers for the offices of the mayor, city manager and transportation. The drivers started giving out the cards last November, a month after the city changed the HandiVan reservation system, resulting in long waits and irate customers...
Sysco Extends Merger Pact With U.S. Foods To May Wall Street Journal ...The food-distributor said the termination date for the accord, initially reached in December 2013, was moved to May 7 from March 8, in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Court hearings are set to begin May 5 on the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust lawsuit against the merger of Sysco and U.S. Foods, the nation’s two largest food distributors...
Trade
Secret Treaties: Why I'm Against the TPP Huffington Post ...The TPP masquerades as a "free-trade" agreement when in reality its designed to make it even easier for colossal corporations to ship American jobs overseas by dismantling organized labor, undercutting workers' rights and shirking environmental regulations...
State Battles
Scott Walker Signs Right-To-Work Bill Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...Gov. Scott Walker has signed the right-to-work legislation passed last week by the state Legislature...
Senate Committee Pushes Vote On Labor Bills To Tuesday Santa Fe New Mexican ...The weekslong debate over whether New Mexico should outlaw compulsory union fees will go on for at least two more days...
Raimondo To Seek Minimum Wage Hike Providence Journal ...Governor Raimondo campaigned for office on a promise to back an increase in the state's minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. On Monday, she will call on state lawmakers to help her fulfill that campaign pledge by raising the minimum wage from $9 to $10.10 an hour in 2016...
Bills On Workers' Comp Bias And Ride-Sharing Safety Are Resurrected Los Angeles Times ...Lawmakers once again are grappling with complaints from injured workers that insurers unfairly slash their disability payments. A bill by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) would partially address the problem of alleged bias against women hurt on the job. The bill has strong backing from labor unions...
War on Workers
The 21st century has been terrible for working Americans Washington Post ...Of all the scary stats you've heard about the U.S. economy over the last few years, this might be the scariest: Almost two-thirds of American households earn less money today than they did in 2002...
Poll: Fox News most trusted network Politico ...In comparison rankings, 29 percent responded that they trust Fox News the most. CNN follows with 22 percent, CBS News and NBC News are at 10 percent, ABC News at 8 percent and MSNBC at 7 percent...
Wrecks Hit Tougher Oil Railcars Wall Street Journal ...In a string of recent oil train derailments in the U.S. and Canada, new and sturdier railroad tanker cars being built to carry a rising tide of crude oil across the continent have failed to prevent ruptures...
NYCHA Employee Dies After Plunge While On Job At Coney Island Public Housing Complex New York Daily News ...A New York City Housing Authority employee died in a Coney Island public housing complex building Saturday — the victim of an apparent fall, cops said...
Miscellaneous
Credit-Reporting Giants Agree To Overhaul Wall Street Journal ...Under an agreement announced Monday with New York state, Equifax Information Services LLC, Experian Information Solutions Inc. and TransUnion LLC will be more proactive in resolving disputes over information contained in credit reports—a process federal watchdogs and consumer advocates have long decried as being stacked against individuals...
Hoffa: Right-To-Work In Wisconsin Is Another Step Down The Wrong Road For Working Families teamster.org ...“Today, Gov. Scott Walker ignored the will of Wisconsin’s working families, signing a right-to-work bill into law that was fast tracked through the state legislature...
40 hurt when Amtrak train slams into truck in Halifax County WRAL.com ...Dozens of passengers were injured Monday when an Amtrak train traveling from Charlotte to New York derailed in Halifax County after slamming into a tractor-trailer that apparently got stuck at an intersection, authorities said...
Apple Gives Shuttle Bus Drivers A Raise San Jose Mercury News ...Last week, Apple announced it would hire many of its contract security guards as full-time employees entitled to the same benefits as other workers, echoing a similar step made last year by Google. What's more, shuttle bus drivers for popular Silicon Valley contractors Loop Transportation and Compass Transportation have joined the Teamsters union, which is negotiating for better pay and benefits...
Handi-Van Management, Drivers' Union At Odds Over Customer Complaint Calls KHNL ...The disagreement centers over a small card that the Hawaii Teamsters Local 996 distributed to its drivers to give to their passengers, which includes the phone numbers for the offices of the mayor, city manager and transportation. The drivers started giving out the cards last November, a month after the city changed the HandiVan reservation system, resulting in long waits and irate customers...
Sysco Extends Merger Pact With U.S. Foods To May Wall Street Journal ...The food-distributor said the termination date for the accord, initially reached in December 2013, was moved to May 7 from March 8, in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Court hearings are set to begin May 5 on the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust lawsuit against the merger of Sysco and U.S. Foods, the nation’s two largest food distributors...
Trade
Secret Treaties: Why I'm Against the TPP Huffington Post ...The TPP masquerades as a "free-trade" agreement when in reality its designed to make it even easier for colossal corporations to ship American jobs overseas by dismantling organized labor, undercutting workers' rights and shirking environmental regulations...
State Battles
Scott Walker Signs Right-To-Work Bill Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...Gov. Scott Walker has signed the right-to-work legislation passed last week by the state Legislature...
Senate Committee Pushes Vote On Labor Bills To Tuesday Santa Fe New Mexican ...The weekslong debate over whether New Mexico should outlaw compulsory union fees will go on for at least two more days...
Raimondo To Seek Minimum Wage Hike Providence Journal ...Governor Raimondo campaigned for office on a promise to back an increase in the state's minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. On Monday, she will call on state lawmakers to help her fulfill that campaign pledge by raising the minimum wage from $9 to $10.10 an hour in 2016...
Bills On Workers' Comp Bias And Ride-Sharing Safety Are Resurrected Los Angeles Times ...Lawmakers once again are grappling with complaints from injured workers that insurers unfairly slash their disability payments. A bill by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) would partially address the problem of alleged bias against women hurt on the job. The bill has strong backing from labor unions...
War on Workers
The 21st century has been terrible for working Americans Washington Post ...Of all the scary stats you've heard about the U.S. economy over the last few years, this might be the scariest: Almost two-thirds of American households earn less money today than they did in 2002...
Poll: Fox News most trusted network Politico ...In comparison rankings, 29 percent responded that they trust Fox News the most. CNN follows with 22 percent, CBS News and NBC News are at 10 percent, ABC News at 8 percent and MSNBC at 7 percent...
Wrecks Hit Tougher Oil Railcars Wall Street Journal ...In a string of recent oil train derailments in the U.S. and Canada, new and sturdier railroad tanker cars being built to carry a rising tide of crude oil across the continent have failed to prevent ruptures...
NYCHA Employee Dies After Plunge While On Job At Coney Island Public Housing Complex New York Daily News ...A New York City Housing Authority employee died in a Coney Island public housing complex building Saturday — the victim of an apparent fall, cops said...
Miscellaneous
Credit-Reporting Giants Agree To Overhaul Wall Street Journal ...Under an agreement announced Monday with New York state, Equifax Information Services LLC, Experian Information Solutions Inc. and TransUnion LLC will be more proactive in resolving disputes over information contained in credit reports—a process federal watchdogs and consumer advocates have long decried as being stacked against individuals...
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Today's Teamster News 03.08.15
Teamsters
Hall Joins Thousands Of Teamsters At West Virginia Rally For Workers teamster.org ...Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall delivered a rousing speech to thousands of rallying protesters in his home state of West Virginia on Saturday, urging workers to continue their fight against the legislature’s anti-worker agenda currently being pushed by state lawmakers...
Teamsters Affiliate Endorses Garcia for Mayor NBC Chicago ...Teamsters [Local 743] union affiliate endorsed mayoral candidate Jesus "Chuy" Garcia Saturday. Teamsters Local 743 represents 10,000 workers in the health care, mail order, technical and warehouse industries in the Chicago area, including the University of Chicago Medical Center and Mercy Hospital...
Trade
Labor fires back at Obama on trade The Hill ...Labor unions and other groups opposed to free-trade policies are ramping up a spring offensive against the White House and congressional Republicans with new trade legislation set to emerge in the coming weeks...
Obscure TPP Provision Will Lead to Corporations Replacing Nations As the Rulers of the Planet The Common Sense Show ...An obscure Trans Pacific Partnership provision will serve to threaten the very existence of the nation state and replace governmental authority with the power and the whim of the corporation. This secretive provision promises to supplant all national authority with a “Rollerball” type of world...
State Battles
Assembly sends Wisconsin's right-to-work bill to Scott Walker Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...In a powerful illustration of the state's increasingly polarized politics, the Wisconsin Assembly passed so-called right-to-work legislation Friday on a strictly party-line vote, with two Republicans who had previously sided with unions now lining up against them...
War on Workers
The month that killed the middle class: How October 1973 slammed America Salon ...October 1973 was a rude awakening for the entire United States. It was a watershed month for the American middle class. The Arab Oil Embargo would lead to the downfall of the American auto industry, whose generous wages and benefits set the standard for the entire economy. It was also the month of the Saturday Night Massacre, which made inevitable the downfall of Richard Nixon. The Watergate scandal resulted in changes to the American political system that put more power into the hands of lobbyists, political action committees and wealthy, self-funded candidates...
EPA: Illinois oil train derailment threatens Mississippi River McClatchy ... An oil train derailment and spill in northwest Illinois poses an “imminent and substantial danger” of contaminating the Mississippi River, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Saturday...
Train carrying crude oil derails near Gogama, Ont. CBC News ...Several tanker cars caught fire after a Canadian National Railway train carrying crude oil derailed in northern Ontario, prompting officials to advise nearby residents to stay indoors and avoid consuming water from local sources...
A CEO's Real Fiduciary Duty Economic Populist ... profits have been increasingly paid back to shareholders, rather than invested in hiring more people and/or paying their employees better. Instead, companies have been borrowing in order to buy back their own company stock, which not only boosts their company's stock price for investors — but also for company executives, who are paid with stock-option grants as "performance pay"...
Hall Joins Thousands Of Teamsters At West Virginia Rally For Workers teamster.org ...Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall delivered a rousing speech to thousands of rallying protesters in his home state of West Virginia on Saturday, urging workers to continue their fight against the legislature’s anti-worker agenda currently being pushed by state lawmakers...
Teamsters Affiliate Endorses Garcia for Mayor NBC Chicago ...Teamsters [Local 743] union affiliate endorsed mayoral candidate Jesus "Chuy" Garcia Saturday. Teamsters Local 743 represents 10,000 workers in the health care, mail order, technical and warehouse industries in the Chicago area, including the University of Chicago Medical Center and Mercy Hospital...
Trade
Labor fires back at Obama on trade The Hill ...Labor unions and other groups opposed to free-trade policies are ramping up a spring offensive against the White House and congressional Republicans with new trade legislation set to emerge in the coming weeks...
Obscure TPP Provision Will Lead to Corporations Replacing Nations As the Rulers of the Planet The Common Sense Show ...An obscure Trans Pacific Partnership provision will serve to threaten the very existence of the nation state and replace governmental authority with the power and the whim of the corporation. This secretive provision promises to supplant all national authority with a “Rollerball” type of world...
State Battles
Assembly sends Wisconsin's right-to-work bill to Scott Walker Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...In a powerful illustration of the state's increasingly polarized politics, the Wisconsin Assembly passed so-called right-to-work legislation Friday on a strictly party-line vote, with two Republicans who had previously sided with unions now lining up against them...
War on Workers
The month that killed the middle class: How October 1973 slammed America Salon ...October 1973 was a rude awakening for the entire United States. It was a watershed month for the American middle class. The Arab Oil Embargo would lead to the downfall of the American auto industry, whose generous wages and benefits set the standard for the entire economy. It was also the month of the Saturday Night Massacre, which made inevitable the downfall of Richard Nixon. The Watergate scandal resulted in changes to the American political system that put more power into the hands of lobbyists, political action committees and wealthy, self-funded candidates...
EPA: Illinois oil train derailment threatens Mississippi River McClatchy ... An oil train derailment and spill in northwest Illinois poses an “imminent and substantial danger” of contaminating the Mississippi River, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Saturday...
Train carrying crude oil derails near Gogama, Ont. CBC News ...Several tanker cars caught fire after a Canadian National Railway train carrying crude oil derailed in northern Ontario, prompting officials to advise nearby residents to stay indoors and avoid consuming water from local sources...
A CEO's Real Fiduciary Duty Economic Populist ... profits have been increasingly paid back to shareholders, rather than invested in hiring more people and/or paying their employees better. Instead, companies have been borrowing in order to buy back their own company stock, which not only boosts their company's stock price for investors — but also for company executives, who are paid with stock-option grants as "performance pay"...
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Today's Teamster News 02.28.15
Teamsters
Drivers For Apple, Yahoo, EBay, Zynga, Genentech and Amtrak Join Teamsters teamster.org … Drivers who transport employees for six big Silicon Valley companies have voted overwhelmingly 104 to 38 in favor of representation by Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif...
CDT Workers Ratify First Union Contract teamster.org ...Nine months after emphatically voting to join Teamsters Local 727, nearly 700 paratransit drivers, garage attendants, dispatchers and customer service representatives at Cook DuPage Transportation (CDT) in Chicago have ratified their first union contract...
Shaw’s fights Teamsters’ effort to unionize Maine pharmacists Bangor Daily News ...Shaw’s Supermarkets is fighting an effort by the Teamsters union to organize the chain’s pharmacists at 16 stores in Maine, arguing its pharmacy managers are supervisors and therefore are not able to join a labor union...
Trade
Trade critics take to Senate floor — Cutler: U.S., Japan close to deal — Anti-TPP group threatens Wyden with primary Politico ...A group of President Barack Obama’s fellow Democrats took to the Senate floor Thursday to oppose his flagship trade initiative, the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, which they said would lead to big job losses and give big corporations too much power over public health and safety laws...
Sen. Elizabeth Warren Kicks Off Assault Against Secret Trade Agreement Crooks and Liars ...Elizabeth Warren is going after the TPP (yay!) and the White House is saying, oh, you misunderstood. But we've already seen the kind of insane copyright protections this administration wants - the kind that makes it impossible for other countries to make generic copies of needed medication, for instance...
TTIP: Transatlantic Trade Deal Text Leaked To BBC BBC News ...The trade union Unite said "real risks" remained because of the dispute resolution mechanism TTIP is expected to include. The union's Scottish regional secretary, Pat Rafferty said: "Last week Lord Livingston tried to pull the wool over the eyes of the Scottish people...
Canada Won't Take 'No' For An Answer On Keystone XL Forbes ...Canada’s leadership, including its prime minister, Stephen Harper, has repeatedly made clear its annoyance with the Obama administration’s Hamlet-like deliberations over the pipeline, suggesting that American rejection of the proposed project — which requires a special permit from the White House to cross the border — was simply not an option...
State Battles
WV Senate Leader Says Right-To-Work Bill Dead This Session Associated Press …Senate Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael said a push to make West Virginia a right-to-work state is dead this session...
No One in Wisconsin Asked to Kill Unions Except Special Interests The Daily Beast ...This death warrant for unions wasn’t drafted in Wisconsin though. The fingerprints of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a right-wing special-interest group, were found all over the bill. Nevertheless, Governor Scott Walker is ready to sign it after dealing unions a mortal wound in 2011 by ending the right to collective bargaining for public employees...
Construction Workers Rally Against Eliminating Prevailing Wage Las Vegas Sun ...Union and nonunion workers overwhelmed hallways and committee rooms. They marched outside, waved banners and filled committee rooms to watch lawmakers vet SB119, one of the most controversial bills in this year's legislative session...
Maine Shows That Publicly Financed Elections Really Can Work Moyers and Company ...It worked well for several cycles. Hundreds of candidates were able to run and win office without prostrating themselves before big donors and lobbyists. Farmers, waitresses, and others who usually can’t make their voice heard in politics were able to go to Maine’s state capital Augusta and represent their constituents free from the influence of special interest cash...
War on Workers
How One Community Is Kicking The Koch Brothers' Harmful Black Dust Out Of Their Neighborhood Huffington Post ...It’s not easy to take on a wealthy, multi-national corporation and win. Especially for residents of Chicago’s struggling southeast side. But that’s exactly what's happening on the banks of the Calumet River, where the steel plants that used to give residents of a mostly Hispanic neighborhood access to a middle-class lifestyle were replaced, nearly two years ago, with black dust called petroleum coke (“petcoke”) piled five or six stories tall...
Oil Train Wrecks Increase Pressure For Tougher Safety Rules Philadelphia Inquirer ...Fiery wrecks of trains hauling crude oil have intensified pressure on the Obama administration to approve tougher standards for railroads and tank cars despite industry complaints that it could cost billions and slow freight deliveries...
Railroads Want One-Man Crews On Massive Freight Trains NBC News ...Railroads have proposed eliminating the job of on-board conductor on most trains, leaving just an engineer aboard. The workers argue that one-person crews will mean more out-of-control trains, like the runaway that caused the Lac-Mégantic disaster in 2013...
L&I Probing Death Of Mabton Dairy Worker Yakima Herald Republic ...State workplace safety officials are investigating the drowning in a manure lagoon Wednesday of a 27-year-old old dairy employee...
Miscellaneous
Gas’s Drop Drives U.S. Into Deflation Territory Wall Street Journal ...Driven by a tumble in oil prices since mid-2014, the consumer-price index fell 0.1% in January from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was the first year-over-year decrease since October 2009. Prices fell 0.7% from December...
Drivers For Apple, Yahoo, EBay, Zynga, Genentech and Amtrak Join Teamsters teamster.org … Drivers who transport employees for six big Silicon Valley companies have voted overwhelmingly 104 to 38 in favor of representation by Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif...
CDT Workers Ratify First Union Contract teamster.org ...Nine months after emphatically voting to join Teamsters Local 727, nearly 700 paratransit drivers, garage attendants, dispatchers and customer service representatives at Cook DuPage Transportation (CDT) in Chicago have ratified their first union contract...
Shaw’s fights Teamsters’ effort to unionize Maine pharmacists Bangor Daily News ...Shaw’s Supermarkets is fighting an effort by the Teamsters union to organize the chain’s pharmacists at 16 stores in Maine, arguing its pharmacy managers are supervisors and therefore are not able to join a labor union...
Trade
Trade critics take to Senate floor — Cutler: U.S., Japan close to deal — Anti-TPP group threatens Wyden with primary Politico ...A group of President Barack Obama’s fellow Democrats took to the Senate floor Thursday to oppose his flagship trade initiative, the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, which they said would lead to big job losses and give big corporations too much power over public health and safety laws...
Sen. Elizabeth Warren Kicks Off Assault Against Secret Trade Agreement Crooks and Liars ...Elizabeth Warren is going after the TPP (yay!) and the White House is saying, oh, you misunderstood. But we've already seen the kind of insane copyright protections this administration wants - the kind that makes it impossible for other countries to make generic copies of needed medication, for instance...
TTIP: Transatlantic Trade Deal Text Leaked To BBC BBC News ...The trade union Unite said "real risks" remained because of the dispute resolution mechanism TTIP is expected to include. The union's Scottish regional secretary, Pat Rafferty said: "Last week Lord Livingston tried to pull the wool over the eyes of the Scottish people...
Canada Won't Take 'No' For An Answer On Keystone XL Forbes ...Canada’s leadership, including its prime minister, Stephen Harper, has repeatedly made clear its annoyance with the Obama administration’s Hamlet-like deliberations over the pipeline, suggesting that American rejection of the proposed project — which requires a special permit from the White House to cross the border — was simply not an option...
State Battles
WV Senate Leader Says Right-To-Work Bill Dead This Session Associated Press …Senate Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael said a push to make West Virginia a right-to-work state is dead this session...
No One in Wisconsin Asked to Kill Unions Except Special Interests The Daily Beast ...This death warrant for unions wasn’t drafted in Wisconsin though. The fingerprints of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a right-wing special-interest group, were found all over the bill. Nevertheless, Governor Scott Walker is ready to sign it after dealing unions a mortal wound in 2011 by ending the right to collective bargaining for public employees...
Construction Workers Rally Against Eliminating Prevailing Wage Las Vegas Sun ...Union and nonunion workers overwhelmed hallways and committee rooms. They marched outside, waved banners and filled committee rooms to watch lawmakers vet SB119, one of the most controversial bills in this year's legislative session...
Maine Shows That Publicly Financed Elections Really Can Work Moyers and Company ...It worked well for several cycles. Hundreds of candidates were able to run and win office without prostrating themselves before big donors and lobbyists. Farmers, waitresses, and others who usually can’t make their voice heard in politics were able to go to Maine’s state capital Augusta and represent their constituents free from the influence of special interest cash...
War on Workers
How One Community Is Kicking The Koch Brothers' Harmful Black Dust Out Of Their Neighborhood Huffington Post ...It’s not easy to take on a wealthy, multi-national corporation and win. Especially for residents of Chicago’s struggling southeast side. But that’s exactly what's happening on the banks of the Calumet River, where the steel plants that used to give residents of a mostly Hispanic neighborhood access to a middle-class lifestyle were replaced, nearly two years ago, with black dust called petroleum coke (“petcoke”) piled five or six stories tall...
Oil Train Wrecks Increase Pressure For Tougher Safety Rules Philadelphia Inquirer ...Fiery wrecks of trains hauling crude oil have intensified pressure on the Obama administration to approve tougher standards for railroads and tank cars despite industry complaints that it could cost billions and slow freight deliveries...
Railroads Want One-Man Crews On Massive Freight Trains NBC News ...Railroads have proposed eliminating the job of on-board conductor on most trains, leaving just an engineer aboard. The workers argue that one-person crews will mean more out-of-control trains, like the runaway that caused the Lac-Mégantic disaster in 2013...
L&I Probing Death Of Mabton Dairy Worker Yakima Herald Republic ...State workplace safety officials are investigating the drowning in a manure lagoon Wednesday of a 27-year-old old dairy employee...
Miscellaneous
Gas’s Drop Drives U.S. Into Deflation Territory Wall Street Journal ...Driven by a tumble in oil prices since mid-2014, the consumer-price index fell 0.1% in January from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was the first year-over-year decrease since October 2009. Prices fell 0.7% from December...
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