Today's Teamster News 09.15.15

Teamsters
Thousands Of Teamsters March In New York Labor Day Parade  Teamster.org  ...Thousands of Teamsters in New York participated in the annual Labor Day parade on Saturday.  Members from local unions representing a variety of industries including construction, motion picture, theatrical trades, warehouse, public services, sanitation, parking, brewery, soft drink, freight, funeral, moving and printing participated. In each of the local union contingents members held the new "Let's Get America Working - Union Strong, America Stronger" signs...
Atlanta Teamsters Ratify Sysco Contract, First Ever in Georgia  Teamster.org  ...Teamsters Local 528 members, whose fight to win union representation has lasted more than 18 months, ratified a first  contract that provides strong union protections for more than 400 workers at Sysco’s Atlanta facility on Saturday. “This has been an uphill struggle, but these workers stood together through it all to negotiate a strong first contract that will protect them for years to come,” said Maurice Cobb, Teamsters Local 528 President...
Port truck drivers enter 10th week of wage-theft protests  Press Telegram  ...Truck drivers for a transportation company serving the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports entered their 10th week protesting what they say are more than $6 million in wages and expenses stolen by their employer, a Teamsters official said Monday. The drivers picketing at Pacific 9 Transportation’s Carson truck yard say they should be on the pay roll as employees but are instead misclassified as independent contractors...
Teamsters Vehemently Voice Opposition to Harmful Soda Tax  Local 727  ...Teamster representatives and beverage industry members showed their strength and solidarity in vehement opposition of 12th Ward Ald. George Cardenas’ proposed penny-an-ounce soda tax. Dozens of Local 727 members dressed proudly in work shirts displaying Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper and other soft drink logos packed Chicago’s City Council chambers for a Health Committee hearing on Sept. 9 as opponents of the harmful tax outnumbered supporters by an estimated 40 to 1...
Local 727 Continues to Raise Hotel Industry’s Working Standards  Local 727 ...Teamsters Local 727’s campaign to raise wages and working standards at Chicago-area hotels recorded another victory last week when DoubleTree Arlington Heights shuttle bus drivers ratified their first union contract. The five-year agreement includes annual wage increases, paid sick/personal days and crucial job protections such as a grievance and arbitration procedure, seniority and non-discrimination clauses, and roll-off for discipline...
Teamsters Raise $37,500 for Camp Papillon  Teamsters Canada  ...On Thursday, the Teamsters Union sent the profits from the Teamsters Quebec Omnium to the Director General of the Quebec Society for Disabled Children and Camp Papillon, Ronald Davidson. A total of $37 500 was donated to the camp that that, each year, welcomes close to 700 children with disabilities by giving them a chance to experience outdoor living in a secure environment...

Global Labor & Trade
Labor Will Keep Up Trade Pressure on Democrats  National Journal  ...Two months after the pas­sage of con­tro­ver­sial trade le­gis­la­tion that stirred ten­sions with­in the Demo­crat­ic Party, AFL-CIO Pres­id­ent Richard Trumka said or­gan­ized labor has no plans to back down when it comes time for Con­gress to rat­i­fy pas­sage of a sweep­ing Pa­cific trade deal. Asked if his group would ap­ply pres­sure to Demo­crats on the is­sue—even if it came up close to the elec­tion—Trumka replied, “Yes”...
Auto parts differences between Japan, U.S. and others seen clouding prospects for next TPP ministerial talks  Japan Times  ...The 12 countries taking part in Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations are likely to face difficulties in arranging a ministerial meeting as Japan, the United States and others were unable to narrow the gap over the automotive sector in recent working-level talks. The participating nations are aiming to hold a ministerial session later this month or in early October, after they failed to reach a broad TPP accord at their previous ministerial discussions...
Thailand looks to join US-led TPP  Today Online  ...Thailand is interested in joining the ambitious Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact being touted by the United States, but needs to study the terms and conditions of the new trade bloc first, Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak has said. “We are very interested, but we must weigh the advantages and disadvantages carefully,” Mr Somkid told the Bangkok Post...
Uruguay Pulls Out Of ‘Secret’ Talks On Trade In Services  Eurasia Review   ...Just a week before the deadline for submitting national offers on liberalisation of services sectors under the on-going “secret” talks for a Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez decided on September 7 to abandon the plurilateral negotiations. The Uruguayan president’s action follows a decision taken on September 5 by a large majority of the Frente Amplio, the governing leftist political coalition, against Uruguay continuing to be part of the TiSA negotiations...
Germany Closes Its Border With Austria, Hoping to Stop the Refugee Flow  Mother Jones  ...The German government has announced that the country is closing its border with Austria and also suspending train traffic to and from its southern neighbor, the route by which tens of thousands of refugees have entered Germany in recent days. Those borders have been open for nearly 20 years under the Schengen Agreement, which turned most of the European Union into one large free-travel zone with no internal border checks...
Brazil unveils a massive $17 billion austerity package that won't make people happy  Business Insider  ...Brazil announced a massive $17 billion austerity package Monday in a bid to boost its ailing economy amid a deepening crisis that has already caused a shock downgrade of its credit rating. The package -- announced at a news conference by Planning Minister Nelson Barbosa -- includes freezing public sector salary raises and hiring, entirely eliminating 10 of 39 ministries, cutting 1,000 jobs and slashing housing and health-related social spending...
Forced Labor Rampant in Uzbekistan Fall Cotton Harvest  Solidarity Center  ...Health care workers in Uzbekistan are toiling in cotton fields and third- and fourth-year university students are now on their way as well, forced by the government to labor in the country’s fall harvest, according to stories compiled by the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights. The nonprofit organization also is highlighting news that minors again may be forced into picking cotton...

State & Living Wage Battles
Missouri GOP governor candidates urge right-to-work override  Kansas City Star  ...Five likely Republican candidates for Missouri governor have sent a letter to state lawmakers urging them to overturn Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of so-called right to work legislation. The candidates are Eric Greitens, Catherine Hanaway, Peter Kinder, Randy Asbury, and John Brunner. The veto session starts Wednesday. The bill under consideration would prohibit the collection of mandatory union dues. The vote is likely to be close...
Vote postponed on minimum wage bill  WIAT  ...A vote on legislation to keep municipalities in Alabama from independently raising the minimum wage has been postponed in the state House of Representatives. The bill was introduced last week by Rep. David Faulkner (R – Mountain Brook), not long after the Birmingham City Council voted to raise minimum wage from $7.25 an hour, the federal rate, to $10.10 an hour, to be phased in over two years...
Anti-union group offers petition to end prevailing wage  Detroit Free Press  ...A group looking to end Michigan's prevailing-wage law turned in enough signatures Monday to put the issue before the Legislature. The 390,959 signatures in 44 boxes still have to go through a review with the Michigan Secretary of State to determine whether there are at least 252,523 valid signatures...
NJ's paid sick leave bill stalls  North Jersey  ...A bill that would require employers to give workers paid sick time off remains stalled over whether the statewide law should be the final word on what employers must do, or whether it should allow towns to pass their own laws in the future. The bill, which has the backing of committees in the Senate and the Assembly, has gotten bogged down over whether the law should supersede nine municipal paid sick leave laws...
10 Cities Where It’s Most Terrifying To Scrape By On Minimum Wage  Huffington Post  ...Recently, New York became the first state to approve a $15 minimum wage for the state’s 200,000 fast-food cooks and cashiers. Gov. Andrew Cuomo used the occasion to announce a campaign to make New York the first state in the nation to adopt the same standard for all of its workers. In fact, workers making minimum wage in New York counties have had it relatively easy, at least compared with the following 10 counties...

U.S. Labor
No deal yet: UAW, Fiat Chrysler pulled an all-nighter  Detroit Free Press  ...No deal yet as the UAW and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles continued to negotiate through the night after extending the existing collective agreement on an hour-by-hour basis in anticipation of signing a tentative agreement soon. The pace of the talks slowed a bit in the predawn hours but a core group continued to soldier on. Full resumption of bargaining is expected to resume by midday...
The Verizon Standoff and the Future of Labor, Communication and Privacy  Counterpunch  ...On August 1, 2015, the IBEW and CWA contract with Verizon expired. However, unlike previous years, they decided to not strike, a move meant to undermine the company’s hiring and housing of scabs. This is a labor struggle that will have a major impact on the entire labor movement. “I think the days of the short strike is over. Verizon wants to break the union and is willing to overwork lower levels of management in the process,” said Dan Murphy, a retired member of the union...
ATI declines USW offer to return to bargaining table  Times Online  ...he United Steelworkers tried to get Allegheny Technologies back to the bargaining table ahead of a scheduled mediation Friday, but the company declined to bargain. USW spokesman Wayne Ranick said the company still stands firm to its “last, best and final” offer made more than a month ago before the company locked out thousands of union members...
This Is How Bad the Sharing Economy Is for Workers  The Nation  ... The “sharing” or “gig” economy—think Airbnb, Uber, and Taskrabbit—has made massive fortunes reducing labor to disassembled microtasks; unfortunately, it’s shrunk workers’ rights too. But as our jobs are redefined by labor-brokering platforms, some advocates are trying to redefine labor rights for a digital economy. Currently, the gig economy trades labor fluidly across online platforms...
How Cities Can Join the Fight Against Wage Theft  Truthout  ...Unpaid labor, which is sometimes referred to as wage theft, is a national problem that affects working families and deprives large amounts of money from being circulated in our communities. Estimates on the issue range as high as $30 billion in unpaid wages. The US Department of Labor alone collects hundreds of millions of dollars in wages that were originally not paid, touching only the tip of the iceberg...
Scott Walker wants to destroy what’s left of America’s unions  Slate  ...On Monday, the Wisconsin governor released his plan to strangle unions, titled “My Plan to Give Power to the People, Not the Union Bosses.” He would end collective bargaining for federal employees, as per his move in 2011; he would require complete disclosure for union expenditures and total compensation of union officers; he would sign a national “right to work law;” he would repeal wage controls for federal infrastructure projects; and he would eliminate the National Labor Relations Board...

Social Justice & Other News 
Why Non-Voters Matter  The Atlantic  ...In 2014, just 41.9 percent of the voting-age citizen population of the United States voted. But the people who voted are not only in the minority, they form an unrepresentative minority. In many salient ways, voters are not like nonvoters: voters are richer, whiter, and older than other Americans. "Why Voting Matters," shows how their votes produce a government that caters to their interests—and how boosting turnout would lead to a more representative democracy...
Colleges Flush With Cash Saddle Poorest Students With Debt  Common Dreams  ...NYU is not the only university with a billion-dollar endowment to leave its poorest students with heavy debt loads. More than a quarter of the nation’s 60 wealthiest universities leave their low-income students owing an average of more than $20,000 in federal loans. At the University of Southern California, which has a $4.6 billion endowment, low-income students graduate with slightly more debt than NYU’s graduates: $23,375...
Ferguson "People's Report" Unveils Bold Plan To Achieve Racial Equity  Common Dreams  ...A panel of activists, researchers, community members, and other volunteers on Monday unveiled a new report with 189 "calls to action" to address the scourge of racial inequity in and around St. Louis, Missouri, illuminated by a year of protests following the police shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown last August. Brown's death at the hands of a white police officer galvanized new questions and demands over institutional racism in the U.S...
The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration  The Atlantic  ...Influenced by the civil-rights movement, Moynihan focused on the black family. He believed that an undue optimism about the pending passage of civil-rights legislation was obscuring a pressing problem: a deficit of employed black men of strong character. “The Negro Family” argued that the federal government was underestimating the damage done to black families by “three centuries of sometimes unimaginable mistreatment” as well as a “racist virus in the American blood stream”...

Today's Teamster News 04.26.13

Everything Is Rigged: The Biggest Price-Fixing Scandal Ever  Rolling Stone   ...The second huge financial scandal of the year reveals the real international conspiracy: There's no price the big banks can't fix...
Executive-Pay Tax Break Saved Fortune 500 Corporations $27 Billion Over the Past Three Years  Citizens for Tax Justice   ...One “single tax break, for executive stock options” allowed Fortune 500 corporations to avoid paying $11.2 billion in income taxes in 2012. The top 25 benefiting during 2010-12: Apple $3.2bn, Facebook $1.6bn, JP Morgan $1.1 bn, etc...
The West, Texas, explosion shows the deadly effect of profit before safety   The Guardian ...Poor regulation of the West Fertilizer plant likely contributed to 15 deaths – just as 13 US workers die at their jobs every single day…
Bangladesh Factory Disasters Will Become ‘More And More’ Common   Talking Points Memo   ...Walmart, H&M, Sears, Gap, etc. outsource to Bangladesh because of its low wages and labor standards. It also lacks safety regulations, resulting in the recent factory collapse which left at least 250 dead and more than 1,000 injured...
Four Reasons to Worry About the Potential Koch Takeover of Tribune Co. Newspapers (opinion)  The Nation   ...If their bid is successful, the Koch brothers won’t just have a strong influence over the laws we all live under and the climate we pass on to the next generation, they’ll be publishing the news we read...
Labor Department: Florida Unemployment Regime Violates Civil Rights Requirements  Huffington Post   ...Florida violated federal civil rights law with its new and unusual requirement that unemployment claimants file online and take math and reading tests before they can receive benefits, the U.S. Labor Department determined this month...
California Lawmakers Consider Soda Tax  KTLA5 ...A bill that would impose a tax on sugary drinks in California is in front of lawmakers in Sacramento this week. The state law would tax sugary drinks such as sodas, energy drinks and sweet teas one cent per fluid ounce.
Anti-Worker "Paycheck Protection" Bills Moving in Missouri   PR Watch   ...Missouri is the latest front in the attack on organized labor with so-called "paycheck protection" bills moving through the legislature, with backing from the usual array of corporate interests. But according to the Economic Policy Institute, the bills primarily disadvantage workers while preserving privileges for corporations...
Cincinnati city council votes no on right-to-work law  Business Courier   ...Cincinnati City Council unanimously passed a resolution opposing right-to-work laws and the “workplace freedom” amendment being pushed by some groups in Columbus...
Maine lawmakers kill right-to-work, dues bills  Associated Press   ...The Maine Senate has killed a pair of bills labeled by opponents as anti-union. Senators voted 21-13 Thursday against a right-to-work bill, which would have made it illegal for a private employer to require employees to join a labor organization or pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment...
Oregon lawmakers pass law to lower pension COLAs  Pensions & Investments   ...The Oregon House of Representatives passed a pension reform bill Wednesday that lowers the maximum cost-of-living adjustment for retirees of the $61.1 billion Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund...
Ind. lawmakers reach deal on tax cuts, road funds  Associated Press   ...Gov. Mike Pence and Indiana's Republican legislative leaders have reached a budget deal that increases spending on roads and schools while giving the governor a piece of the income tax cut he has arduously sought this session...
Teamsters Reach Tentative Agreements Covering 250,000 Workers at UPS, UPS Freight  IBT   ...The Teamsters Union announced last night that it has reached tentative agreements with UPS on new five-year national contracts for package and freight workers that protect their health care benefits, provide substantial wage increases and significantly raise contributions to pension and health and welfare benefits...
Hudson Valley Teamster School Bus Drivers Return To Work At Durham  IBT   ...After engaging in an unfair labor practice strike today, Teamsters Local 445 has given Durham School Services an unconditional offer to return to work at the beginning of the work day on Friday morning, April 26, 2013...
Torres Adds Teamsters To Trove of Union Endorsements  City & State ...Bronx City Council candidate Ritchie Torres continues to pick up support from organized labor in a crowded to replace City Council Majority Leader Joel Rivera, winning the endorsement of the Teamsters Joint Council 16, one of the largest unions in the city with roughly 120,000 members...
Striking Thorn Creek Basin workers to return Friday  NWI Times   ...A two-month picket by Teamsters members of the Thorn Creek Basin Sanitary District will come to an end this week...