Teamsters
Teamsters Praise Lt. Governor Stack For Supporting Working Families IBT ...Teamsters across the state are praising Lt. Governor Mike Stack for standing strong and striking down an attempt by some lawmakers to place a stranglehold on unions...
Could The Gogama Derailment Have Been Prevented? NewsWire ...The Teamsters Union once again raises concerns following the third train derailment in Northern Ontario in less than a month. For years, the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC)—which represents more than 12,000 railway workers—have continually stressed the need for more inspectors to be hired to see to the optimal operation of the equipment and the integrity of the tracks...
Facebook approves shuttle drivers contract USA Today ...Facebook and the contractor that supplies the shuttle drivers who transport the social networking giant's employees have agreed to a union-negotiated contract...
Google Shuttle Drivers To See Pay Hike, Better Benefits San Jose Mercury News ...The overtures come amid a growing Silicon Valley labor movement that has unionized some companies' shuttle drivers and also sought to lift up janitors, cooks, security guards and other service workers who buttress the high-tech economy. Shuttle drivers for Yahoo, Apple, Genentech, eBay and Zynga voted to join the Teamsters last month, following the lead of Facebook drivers, who joined the union in November...
Ryder Drivers In California Unionize Materials Management and Distribution ...Drivers with Ryder Integrated Logistics at three California locations have voted to join the Teamsters Union, gaining representation for 105 workers in one week. Eight-four drivers in Riverside and nine drivers in Fontana are now members of Teamsters Local 166 in Bloomington, California, and 12 drivers in Orange, have joined Teamsters Local 952, also located in Orange...
Time to Celebrate with Some Union Wine Beeson Tayer & Bodine ...Nearly 50 workers at the Constellation Brands Woodbridge Winery have joined the ranks of Teamsters Local 601. Constellation Brands is one of the largest wineries in the United States and produces some of the finest wines in California, including Ravens Wood, Toasted Head and Robert Mondavi wines...
Trade
AFL-CIO head on Obama’s trade push: ‘We are going all out to oppose it’ Washington Post ...The head of the nation's largest labor organization on Tuesday slammed President Obama's trade push and vowed to block efforts in Congress to help the administration finalize a major free trade pact in the Asia Pacific...
Saving Obama from a Bad Trade Deal American Prospect ...lans to rush fast-track authority for two trade deals for a quick House and Senate vote abruptly broke down on Tuesday. The White House was hoping to put the vote to Congress as early as this week...
Elizabeth Warren Says Trade Deal May Force U.S. Payouts to Overseas Firms Bloomberg ...A nearly completed trade agreement among 12 Pacific Rim nations may require U.S. taxpayers to finance settlements to multinational corporations that say U.S. regulations hurt their companies, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren said Wednesday...
Major U.S. Unions Step Up Battle Against TPP Japan Times ...The largest American labor federation says it and its affiliated unions are freezing political contributions to federal candidates “until further notice” to channel funds into labor’s intensifying battle to stop or at least help shape a proposed free trade agreement being negotiated by the U.S. and other nations that border the Pacific Ocean...
State Battles
Bill would curtail bargaining power of public sector unions in Kansas Wichita Eagle ...Senate Bill 179, which had a hearing in the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday, would define “conditions of employment” to exclusively mean salaries and wages in future contract negotiations between state and local governments and employees. That would mean that sick leave, insurance benefits and retirement benefits, for example, would no longer be included in negotiations between municipalities and police and firefighters’ unions...
Wages Are Lower in States With These Laws New York Times ...Where unions are strong, compensation increases even for workers not covered by any union contract, as nonunion employers face competitive pressure to match union standards...
House Narrowly Approves Right-To-Work Bill New Hampshire Union Leader ...A measure prohibiting labor unions from collecting agency fees to pay for negotiating and administering collective bargaining agreements was approved by the House on a 149-146 vote Wednesday. However, the bill faces a near-certain death in the Senate, which is evenly split 12-12 on the issue...
NY Assembly Democrats Propose State Budget Increasing Minimum Wage, School Aid Syracuse Post Standard ...Assembly Democrats on Tuesday proposed a $150.7 billion state budget they say will put families first, proposing larger increases in the minimum wage and public school aid than Gov. Andrew Cuomo did...
War on Workers
Wall Street's Yearly Bonuses Could Double the Pay for All of America's Minimum Wage Workers New Republic ...So how much are the wolves of Wall Street cashing in? Collectively, the report found, the employees received $28.5 billion in bonuses last year, a 3 percent jump, despite a decline in industry profits...
Union signals possible proposal coming to end U.S. refinery strike Reuters ...The United Steelworkers union signaled that lead refinery owner representative Shell Oil Co. may offer a possible settlement in the coming days that could end the largest refinery strike in 35 years...
Juries To Decide Landmark Cases Against Uber and Lyft Forbes ...Two landmark lawsuits that claim that drivers for ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft should be considered employees rather than contractors will both go to jury trial, two U.S. judges ruled Wednesday. The decisions could have a ripple effect on the business models of the burgeoning on-demand and sharing economies...
1 Worker Killed, 1 Hurt in New Mexico Oil Field Explosion Associated Press ...
An explosion at a New Mexico oil field site has killed one worker and injured another. Authorities say preliminary information indicates the workers were loading material into perforated pipe being installed into a drilling pipe in southern Lea County when the blast occurred Wednesday...
Why Salaries Don’t Rise (opinion) Washington Post ...At the root of our great pay stagnation is the appropriation by major investors of the funds that used to go to businesses’ research, modernization, expansion and workers. Full employment will certainly boost workers’ wages, but unless the power shift from workers to investors is reversed, the stagnant middle class we will always have with us...
Showing posts with label wage stagnation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wage stagnation. Show all posts
Friday, March 13, 2015
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, March 7, 2015
Today's Teamster News 03.07.15
Teamsters
Pasco HR Director Resigns Amid Criticism From Unions, Sheriff The Tampa Tribune ...Members of the Teamsters Local 79 routinely post videos of union bargaining session on YouTube with headlines describing DeSimone as the “snippy county lawyer.”...
Wisconsin Right-To-Work Law Heads To Scott Walker's Desk Despite Union Fight The Guardian ...Thomas Millonzi, the head of a 4,700-member Teamsters local in Milwaukee, said he was already taking steps to discourage Teamsters from seizing on the new legislation to quit the union and stop paying union dues...
Ryder Drivers At Three Locations In California Join Teamsters Union teamster.org …Drivers with Ryder Integrated Logistics at three California locations have voted to join the Teamsters Union, gaining representation for 105 workers in one week...
Trade
Thank You, Congressmember Loebsack Blog for Iowa …The second is for his membership in the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC)….The CPC issued an alternative to the TPP Thursday that takes the negotiations back from corporations and puts it back into the hands of elected representatives...
State Battles
Senate Deadlocks On Right-To-Work Bill New Hampshire Union Leader ...New Hampshire is not likely to join the ranks of right-to-work states any time soon. After a short debate Thursday, the Senate deadlocked 12-12 on Senate Bill 107, which would have prohibited collective bargaining agreements from requiring employees to either join or contribute to a union...
Illinois: Unions Sue To Reinstate Dues New York Times ...Labor unions filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking to invalidate Gov. Bruce Rauner’s executive order ending a requirement that state workers pay union dues even if they do not want to join a union. Twenty-seven unions sued the Republican governor, saying the order he issued last month violates collective bargaining agreements and state labor law and that Mr. Rauner exceeded his constitutional authority...
Push To Expand Paid-Leave Law In Connecticut Wall Street Journal ...On Thursday, the state Legislature’s labor and public-employees committee is holding a public hearing in Hartford on a new bill that would expand the law to include businesses with 10 or more workers. It would extend the number of paid days to seven a year. Manufacturing companies and certain nonprofit organizations, which are currently exempt, are included in this proposal...
War on Workers
Senate Votes To Kill NLRB Rule That Speeded Votes On Union Representation Washington Post ...The Republican-controlled Senate on Wednesday voted 53 to 46 to kill a National Labor Relations Board rule reducing the time between a union’s request for representation and a vote by workers on it. The legislation now goes to the House, where similar action is expected...
U.S. Airlines Reveal Evidence They Say Proves Gulf Carriers Get Unfair Subsidies Skift ...Delta Air Lines, American Airlines Group, and United Airlines released their much-anticipated report providing what they say is proof that the Gulf carriers have received $42 billion in “quantifiable subsidies” from their governments, enabling them to jumpstart their growth and distort the competitive marketplace...
Workplace Injuries Are Adding To Income Inequality: Labor Department Huffington Post ...According to the Labor Department, roughly 4 million serious injuries and illnesses are reported by employers each year, though the true tally is likely much higher. Workers who suffer a serious injury earn an estimated 15 percent less, or $31,000 on average, over the ensuing decade...
Strong Hiring Still Isn’t Bringing Pay Raises FiveThirtyEight ...wages are doing little more than keeping up with inflation. The average worker earned $24.78 an hour in February, just 2 percent more than a year earlier. That means most workers aren’t seeing much benefit from the rapidly improving job market...
Miscellaneous
On The Anniversary Of Selma, A Call To Action (opinion) Huffington Post ...It is time for us to continue in the footsteps of the great civil rights leaders that came before us. As a labor movement, we need to start pressuring Congress along with our allies to immediately pass a Voting Rights Act that will close all the loopholes that allow restrictive legislation to be possible...
Pasco HR Director Resigns Amid Criticism From Unions, Sheriff The Tampa Tribune ...Members of the Teamsters Local 79 routinely post videos of union bargaining session on YouTube with headlines describing DeSimone as the “snippy county lawyer.”...
Wisconsin Right-To-Work Law Heads To Scott Walker's Desk Despite Union Fight The Guardian ...Thomas Millonzi, the head of a 4,700-member Teamsters local in Milwaukee, said he was already taking steps to discourage Teamsters from seizing on the new legislation to quit the union and stop paying union dues...
Ryder Drivers At Three Locations In California Join Teamsters Union teamster.org …Drivers with Ryder Integrated Logistics at three California locations have voted to join the Teamsters Union, gaining representation for 105 workers in one week...
Trade
Thank You, Congressmember Loebsack Blog for Iowa …The second is for his membership in the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC)….The CPC issued an alternative to the TPP Thursday that takes the negotiations back from corporations and puts it back into the hands of elected representatives...
State Battles
Senate Deadlocks On Right-To-Work Bill New Hampshire Union Leader ...New Hampshire is not likely to join the ranks of right-to-work states any time soon. After a short debate Thursday, the Senate deadlocked 12-12 on Senate Bill 107, which would have prohibited collective bargaining agreements from requiring employees to either join or contribute to a union...
Illinois: Unions Sue To Reinstate Dues New York Times ...Labor unions filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking to invalidate Gov. Bruce Rauner’s executive order ending a requirement that state workers pay union dues even if they do not want to join a union. Twenty-seven unions sued the Republican governor, saying the order he issued last month violates collective bargaining agreements and state labor law and that Mr. Rauner exceeded his constitutional authority...
Push To Expand Paid-Leave Law In Connecticut Wall Street Journal ...On Thursday, the state Legislature’s labor and public-employees committee is holding a public hearing in Hartford on a new bill that would expand the law to include businesses with 10 or more workers. It would extend the number of paid days to seven a year. Manufacturing companies and certain nonprofit organizations, which are currently exempt, are included in this proposal...
War on Workers
Senate Votes To Kill NLRB Rule That Speeded Votes On Union Representation Washington Post ...The Republican-controlled Senate on Wednesday voted 53 to 46 to kill a National Labor Relations Board rule reducing the time between a union’s request for representation and a vote by workers on it. The legislation now goes to the House, where similar action is expected...
U.S. Airlines Reveal Evidence They Say Proves Gulf Carriers Get Unfair Subsidies Skift ...Delta Air Lines, American Airlines Group, and United Airlines released their much-anticipated report providing what they say is proof that the Gulf carriers have received $42 billion in “quantifiable subsidies” from their governments, enabling them to jumpstart their growth and distort the competitive marketplace...
Workplace Injuries Are Adding To Income Inequality: Labor Department Huffington Post ...According to the Labor Department, roughly 4 million serious injuries and illnesses are reported by employers each year, though the true tally is likely much higher. Workers who suffer a serious injury earn an estimated 15 percent less, or $31,000 on average, over the ensuing decade...
Strong Hiring Still Isn’t Bringing Pay Raises FiveThirtyEight ...wages are doing little more than keeping up with inflation. The average worker earned $24.78 an hour in February, just 2 percent more than a year earlier. That means most workers aren’t seeing much benefit from the rapidly improving job market...
Miscellaneous
On The Anniversary Of Selma, A Call To Action (opinion) Huffington Post ...It is time for us to continue in the footsteps of the great civil rights leaders that came before us. As a labor movement, we need to start pressuring Congress along with our allies to immediately pass a Voting Rights Act that will close all the loopholes that allow restrictive legislation to be possible...
Saturday, January 31, 2015
Today's Teamster News 01.31.15
Teamsters
Teamsters Urge Tech Giants To Support Workers, Hold Contractor Accountable teamster.org ...In a letter to the CEOs of six East Bay-area companies, Rome Aloise, International Vice President and President of Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif., urged the executives to call on their transportation contractor, Compass Transportation, to cease its anti-worker, anti-union tactics and proceed with a representation election...
Unions urge president not to veto Keystone Washington Examiner ...Galen Munroe, spokesman for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said the union was still backing the project though it hasn't issued a statement on the Senate vote...
Strike possible at Dutchess LOOP MidHudson News …The [Teamsters] union representing Dutchess County LOOP bus drivers, mechanics, office employees and bus washers said they could be walking the picket line within the next few days...
Rhode Island Hospital Workers Demonstrate Amid Negotiations On New Contract Providence Journal ...Workers seeking a new contract demonstrated outside Rhode Island Hospital on Thursday afternoon to demand job protection and improved pay and benefits. The union leading the demonstration — the Teamsters, Local 251 — represents about 2,300 employees at the hospital, which is part of the Lifespan health system. They include certified nursing assistants, maintenance staff and clerical help...
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership: Fast Track To Job Losses (opinion) Huffington Post ...Much like NAFTA, the TPP has more to do with big-business protectionism than with genuine free trade. Of TPP's 29 sections, only five relate to traditional trade issues like lowering tariffs. The rest of the chapters seek to limit the powers of governments to protect the safety of food, medicines, and the environment, as well as to forestall governments from implementing financial regulations of the sort that are needed to safeguard taxpayer money from bank bailouts. Most damaging of all, the TPP would create new incentives for corporations to ship jobs overseas and would forbid governments from using strategies like "Buy American" provisions that keep jobs in our country...
Big Business “Regulators” And The Transatlantic Trade And Investment Partnership (TTIP): Opening The Floodgates To Corporate Plunder Center for Research on Globalization ...there would be compulsory impact assessments for proposed regulation, which will be checked for their potential impact on trade. This would be ideal for big business lobbies: creating a firm brake on any new progressive regulation in the very first stage of decision-making...
The Obama Administration’s Illusionary Job Gains From The Trans-Pacific Partnership Washington Post ...imports would increase by virtually the same amount as exports, meaning the net number of new jobs is zero....
State Battles
Meet the next Scott Walker: Illinois’ new GOP governor declares war on labor Salon …Meet the next Scott Walker: Illinois’ new GOP governor declares war on labor...
Rauner Presents "Right-to-Work" Zone Preferences and Hopes for Improvement in Illinois' Business Competition Reboot Illinois ...In a speech in Champaign Jan. 29, Gov. Bruce Rauner talked business and state competition. He reiterated his position on unions–he’s not against them, but wants to encourage parts of Illinois to become “right-to-work zones.”
Rauner Wants Gov't Unions Banned From Political Campaign Contributions WNIJ ...Gov. Bruce Rauner lit a fire under labor unions this week when he suggested local governments should be able to implement their own right-to-work laws. Yesterday, Rauner went one step further, saying government unions should be banned from contributing to political campaigns...
Logan may soon join others in state to step up for ‘Right-to-Work’ newsdemocratleader.com ...The Logan County fiscal court unanimously voted on a first reading of an ordinance that will declare Logan a “Right-to-Work” county. Logan will become one of the handfull of counties in the state to historically set out into uncharted territory to send a loud and clear message to the legislators in Frankfort...
$12 Minimum-Wage Bill Advances After Fiery Debate Seattle Times ...A bill to boost the state minimum wage to $12-an-hour over four years passed out of a House committee Thursday, but not before an opposed GOP lawmaker ripped minimum-wage activists as entitled in a “kids-these-days” diatribe...
Right-to-work advocate visits Ruidoso Ruidoso News ...Paul Gessing, president of the [Koch-funded] Rio Grande Foundation, was in Ruidoso Monday raising awareness and support for passage of right-to-work legislation in New Mexico...
GOP in full sail at the Capitol West Virginia Metro News ... there are hints of possible storm clouds ahead. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael (R-Jackson) is adamant about pushing legislation making West Virginia a right-to-work state. Carmichael has long lobbied for limiting the power of unions in the workplace and he wants to take advantage of the new majority to see it through this year. Labor leaders will fight right-to-work to the last man...
Senate leader says he will have votes to pass right to work The Chippewa Herald ...Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said Friday there will be enough votes to pass a right-to-work bill in Wisconsin this session after the GOP majority grows to 19 following the April election to fill a vacant seat...
War on Workers
McConnell, Alexander Introduce Bill To Reform National Labor Relations Board The Chattanoogan ...Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Lamar Alexander, chairman of the Senate labor committee, on Wednesday introduced the NLRB Reform Act to turn the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from an advocate to an umpire and keep the general counsel from operating as an activist for one side or the other...
Construction worker killed in Gold Coast crane accident WLS …the 45-year-old man was 60 feet up when part of the crane's equipment came crashing down on his chest around 3 p.m. Friday near State and Elm. He was pinned by part of the crane until workers were able free him...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Economy Slows To 2.6 Percent Growth In Fourth Quarter Politico ...The U.S. economy slowed in the final three months of 2014 as a big burst in consumer spending was offset by weakness in other areas. The Commerce Department said Thursday the overall economy grew at a 2.6 percent rate in the October-December period, down from sizzling gains of 4.6 percent in the second quarter and 5 percent in the third quarter...
Senate Approves Keystone XL Pipeline Bill, Testing Obama New York Times ...The Senate voted 62 to 36 in favor of building the pipeline. Nine Democrats joined 53 Republicans in passing the bill. The passage sends the measure back to the House, which passed a largely similar bill this month. House leaders are deciding whether to pass the Senate bill as is or to hold a conference merging the House and Senate versions into a new bill to be voted on by each chamber...
Drones Spotted, But Not Halted, Raise Concerns New York Times ...While drones have not been used in a terrorist attack on American soil, thwarting them is increasingly becoming a challenge for law enforcement and security officials who are charged with protecting large-scale events like the Super Bowl and high-profile public buildings like the White House. The officials have warned that the low-flying devices could be modified to carry explosives, chemicals, biological agents, guns or cameras...
Teamsters Urge Tech Giants To Support Workers, Hold Contractor Accountable teamster.org ...In a letter to the CEOs of six East Bay-area companies, Rome Aloise, International Vice President and President of Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif., urged the executives to call on their transportation contractor, Compass Transportation, to cease its anti-worker, anti-union tactics and proceed with a representation election...
Unions urge president not to veto Keystone Washington Examiner ...Galen Munroe, spokesman for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said the union was still backing the project though it hasn't issued a statement on the Senate vote...
Strike possible at Dutchess LOOP MidHudson News …The [Teamsters] union representing Dutchess County LOOP bus drivers, mechanics, office employees and bus washers said they could be walking the picket line within the next few days...
Rhode Island Hospital Workers Demonstrate Amid Negotiations On New Contract Providence Journal ...Workers seeking a new contract demonstrated outside Rhode Island Hospital on Thursday afternoon to demand job protection and improved pay and benefits. The union leading the demonstration — the Teamsters, Local 251 — represents about 2,300 employees at the hospital, which is part of the Lifespan health system. They include certified nursing assistants, maintenance staff and clerical help...
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership: Fast Track To Job Losses (opinion) Huffington Post ...Much like NAFTA, the TPP has more to do with big-business protectionism than with genuine free trade. Of TPP's 29 sections, only five relate to traditional trade issues like lowering tariffs. The rest of the chapters seek to limit the powers of governments to protect the safety of food, medicines, and the environment, as well as to forestall governments from implementing financial regulations of the sort that are needed to safeguard taxpayer money from bank bailouts. Most damaging of all, the TPP would create new incentives for corporations to ship jobs overseas and would forbid governments from using strategies like "Buy American" provisions that keep jobs in our country...
Big Business “Regulators” And The Transatlantic Trade And Investment Partnership (TTIP): Opening The Floodgates To Corporate Plunder Center for Research on Globalization ...there would be compulsory impact assessments for proposed regulation, which will be checked for their potential impact on trade. This would be ideal for big business lobbies: creating a firm brake on any new progressive regulation in the very first stage of decision-making...
The Obama Administration’s Illusionary Job Gains From The Trans-Pacific Partnership Washington Post ...imports would increase by virtually the same amount as exports, meaning the net number of new jobs is zero....
State Battles
Meet the next Scott Walker: Illinois’ new GOP governor declares war on labor Salon …Meet the next Scott Walker: Illinois’ new GOP governor declares war on labor...
Rauner Presents "Right-to-Work" Zone Preferences and Hopes for Improvement in Illinois' Business Competition Reboot Illinois ...In a speech in Champaign Jan. 29, Gov. Bruce Rauner talked business and state competition. He reiterated his position on unions–he’s not against them, but wants to encourage parts of Illinois to become “right-to-work zones.”
Rauner Wants Gov't Unions Banned From Political Campaign Contributions WNIJ ...Gov. Bruce Rauner lit a fire under labor unions this week when he suggested local governments should be able to implement their own right-to-work laws. Yesterday, Rauner went one step further, saying government unions should be banned from contributing to political campaigns...
Logan may soon join others in state to step up for ‘Right-to-Work’ newsdemocratleader.com ...The Logan County fiscal court unanimously voted on a first reading of an ordinance that will declare Logan a “Right-to-Work” county. Logan will become one of the handfull of counties in the state to historically set out into uncharted territory to send a loud and clear message to the legislators in Frankfort...
$12 Minimum-Wage Bill Advances After Fiery Debate Seattle Times ...A bill to boost the state minimum wage to $12-an-hour over four years passed out of a House committee Thursday, but not before an opposed GOP lawmaker ripped minimum-wage activists as entitled in a “kids-these-days” diatribe...
Right-to-work advocate visits Ruidoso Ruidoso News ...Paul Gessing, president of the [Koch-funded] Rio Grande Foundation, was in Ruidoso Monday raising awareness and support for passage of right-to-work legislation in New Mexico...
GOP in full sail at the Capitol West Virginia Metro News ... there are hints of possible storm clouds ahead. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael (R-Jackson) is adamant about pushing legislation making West Virginia a right-to-work state. Carmichael has long lobbied for limiting the power of unions in the workplace and he wants to take advantage of the new majority to see it through this year. Labor leaders will fight right-to-work to the last man...
Senate leader says he will have votes to pass right to work The Chippewa Herald ...Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said Friday there will be enough votes to pass a right-to-work bill in Wisconsin this session after the GOP majority grows to 19 following the April election to fill a vacant seat...
War on Workers
McConnell, Alexander Introduce Bill To Reform National Labor Relations Board The Chattanoogan ...Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Lamar Alexander, chairman of the Senate labor committee, on Wednesday introduced the NLRB Reform Act to turn the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from an advocate to an umpire and keep the general counsel from operating as an activist for one side or the other...
Construction worker killed in Gold Coast crane accident WLS …the 45-year-old man was 60 feet up when part of the crane's equipment came crashing down on his chest around 3 p.m. Friday near State and Elm. He was pinned by part of the crane until workers were able free him...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Economy Slows To 2.6 Percent Growth In Fourth Quarter Politico ...The U.S. economy slowed in the final three months of 2014 as a big burst in consumer spending was offset by weakness in other areas. The Commerce Department said Thursday the overall economy grew at a 2.6 percent rate in the October-December period, down from sizzling gains of 4.6 percent in the second quarter and 5 percent in the third quarter...
Senate Approves Keystone XL Pipeline Bill, Testing Obama New York Times ...The Senate voted 62 to 36 in favor of building the pipeline. Nine Democrats joined 53 Republicans in passing the bill. The passage sends the measure back to the House, which passed a largely similar bill this month. House leaders are deciding whether to pass the Senate bill as is or to hold a conference merging the House and Senate versions into a new bill to be voted on by each chamber...
Drones Spotted, But Not Halted, Raise Concerns New York Times ...While drones have not been used in a terrorist attack on American soil, thwarting them is increasingly becoming a challenge for law enforcement and security officials who are charged with protecting large-scale events like the Super Bowl and high-profile public buildings like the White House. The officials have warned that the low-flying devices could be modified to carry explosives, chemicals, biological agents, guns or cameras...
Friday, January 16, 2015
Today's Teamster News 01.16.15
Teamsters
Hoffa: Teamsters Put Corruption In Its Past USA Today ...The Teamsters Union and the U.S. Attorney for the southern district of New York filed an application with Chief Judge Loretta Preska requesting that she approve an agreement to end decades of government oversight of our union. We anticipate that the court will approve the agreement...
Allegiant Airline Pilots Picket For Better Pay WKMG ...Teamsters Local 1224, which represents roughly 500 pilots for Allegiant Airlines, said it's been in negotiations with the company since 2012, but those talks have yielded little to no progress. "We seek average wages and job protections, which are standard in the airline industry," said Teamsters Local 1224 President Dan Wells...
Hunts Point Workers Postpone Strike Until Sunday at Request of Federal Mediator Teamsters Joint Council 16 ...Teamsters Local 202 has postponed its strike at Hunts Point Market until 4 p.m. Sunday, at the request of the Acting Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service...
Bronx Produce Company Workers Threaten Strike Over Daily $5 Raise Request New York Daily News ...The Hunts Point Produce Market workers are threatening to go on strike unless a deal is reached by after midnight Friday — raising the specter of New Yorkers having to forego their kale salads and blueberry smoothies. “This is a story about people that work really hard and want to be compensated for it,” said Daniel Kane, president of Teamsters Local 202...
Teamsters To Meet With Producers In Hope of Averting Commercials Strike Deadline Hollywood ...Teamster leaders say that the new meeting, set for January 24, is being called “in anticipation of a revised offer” from producers. The first offer was rejected overwhelmingly by the local’s members on January 11, which put the union on a strike footing...
Teamsters Blast Green Light Allowing Mexican Trucks Roll Nationwide People's World ...An "outraged" union President James Hoffa called DOT's ruling "rash" and in defiance of facts about un-inspected and unsafe Mexican trucks and lack of U.S. inspectors that the agency's own Inspector General uncovered...
Trade
Japan TPP negotiator: felt US intends to wrap up talks in few months Reuters ...But Oe also said more work needed to be done and it was not yet a situation in which a "political decision" could be arranged...
State Battles
Labor Groups File Suit To Stop Kentucky County Right-To-Work Law Reuters ...Nine labor unions filed suit in a Kentucky federal court late on Wednesday to stop a county from enacting right-to-work legislation they say violates the National Labor Relations Act...
Barren County Fiscal Court magistrates tackle ‘right-to-work’ Glasgow Daily Times ...A committee of the Barren County Fiscal Court will be considering Tuesday whether to take a “right-to-work” ordinance to the full court...
Michigan Republicans making new push for prevailing wage repeal in state Legislature Michigan Live ...Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof on Thursday announced plans to sponsor Senate Bill 1, which will seek repeal the 50-year old law that requires union wages and benefits for workers on government-funded construction projects...
Thrasher nixes meeting with students on Koch funding Tallahassee Democrat ...Florida State University President John Thrasher abruptly canceled a meeting Wednesday with students who believe FSU sold its academic integrity for funding of some economics teaching positions by the conservative Koch brothers...
The Koch Foundation funds a lecture series at Penn Daily Pennsylvanian ...The industrialist siblings contributed more than $12.7 million to 163 colleges and universities in 2012. According to the Koch Family Foundations website, Penn is one of those recipient schools, having received a one-time grant of $5,000...
Sinquefield Is Top Missouri Campaign Donor in 2014; McCaskill Leads Democrats St. Louis Public Radio ...During 2014, wealthy financier Rex Sinquefield cemented his place as Missouri’s top political donor — by far — by distributing close to $10 million to candidates and political groups...
N.J. unions back in court today fighting Christie's pension cuts NJ.com ...Seven months after a state Superior Court judge excused Gov. Chris Christie from making a full pension contribution in the last fiscal year, New Jersey unions return to court this morning to fight for the $1.57 billion still in play...
War on Workers
Judge Overturns Home Health Care Wage, Overtime Rules Associated Press ...A federal judge on Wednesday overturned Labor Department regulations requiring overtime and minimum wage protection for 2 million home health care workers...
Trying To Solve The Great Wage Slowdown New York Times ...While wages and incomes have stagnated in the United States (as well as in Japan and large parts of Europe), they have not done so everywhere. In Canada, a broad measure of incomes has risen about 10 percent since 2000, even as it’s fallen here. In Australia, it’s up 30 percent...
What your bank owes you: clarity opinion Los Angeles Times ...many who attend college do not understand their student loans, and 14% of students with federal loans believe they have no student loan debt at all...
Republicans should join in scuttling Citizens United (opinion) The Hill ...Poll after poll shows that the majority of voters of all political stripes are alarmed at the record amounts of money pouring into elections. Voters feel they are being drowned out...
Woman, EMS Worker Killed In Separate Accidents As Wrecks Reported On Icy Patches On NC Roads The Republic ...An emergency worker and a 22-year-old woman were killed in separate accidents Wednesday related to the icy weather that struck portions of North Carolina...
Super Bowl Setup Worker Killed In Fall From Tower KPHO ...A worker on a Super Bowl setup crew died after falling from a tower outside University of Phoenix Stadium. It happened Wednesday shortly after noon in a parking lot where the NFL Tailgate Party will take place...
Georgia Factory Worker Killed By Falling Tons Of Marble New York Daily News ...Falling tons of marble crushed a Georgia factory worker to death Tuesday, authorities said...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Retail Sales Reflect Consumer Caution Despite Lower Gas Prices Wall Street Journal ...Steady job growth and relatively strong confidence supported an upward trend in consumer spending through most of 2014, before the December easing. Most economists expect those factors, beyond just lower energy prices, to support household spending—and overall economic growth—this year despite headwinds from small wage gains and overseas turmoil...
Hoffa: Teamsters Put Corruption In Its Past USA Today ...The Teamsters Union and the U.S. Attorney for the southern district of New York filed an application with Chief Judge Loretta Preska requesting that she approve an agreement to end decades of government oversight of our union. We anticipate that the court will approve the agreement...
Allegiant Airline Pilots Picket For Better Pay WKMG ...Teamsters Local 1224, which represents roughly 500 pilots for Allegiant Airlines, said it's been in negotiations with the company since 2012, but those talks have yielded little to no progress. "We seek average wages and job protections, which are standard in the airline industry," said Teamsters Local 1224 President Dan Wells...
Hunts Point Workers Postpone Strike Until Sunday at Request of Federal Mediator Teamsters Joint Council 16 ...Teamsters Local 202 has postponed its strike at Hunts Point Market until 4 p.m. Sunday, at the request of the Acting Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service...
Bronx Produce Company Workers Threaten Strike Over Daily $5 Raise Request New York Daily News ...The Hunts Point Produce Market workers are threatening to go on strike unless a deal is reached by after midnight Friday — raising the specter of New Yorkers having to forego their kale salads and blueberry smoothies. “This is a story about people that work really hard and want to be compensated for it,” said Daniel Kane, president of Teamsters Local 202...
Teamsters To Meet With Producers In Hope of Averting Commercials Strike Deadline Hollywood ...Teamster leaders say that the new meeting, set for January 24, is being called “in anticipation of a revised offer” from producers. The first offer was rejected overwhelmingly by the local’s members on January 11, which put the union on a strike footing...
Teamsters Blast Green Light Allowing Mexican Trucks Roll Nationwide People's World ...An "outraged" union President James Hoffa called DOT's ruling "rash" and in defiance of facts about un-inspected and unsafe Mexican trucks and lack of U.S. inspectors that the agency's own Inspector General uncovered...
Trade
Japan TPP negotiator: felt US intends to wrap up talks in few months Reuters ...But Oe also said more work needed to be done and it was not yet a situation in which a "political decision" could be arranged...
State Battles
Labor Groups File Suit To Stop Kentucky County Right-To-Work Law Reuters ...Nine labor unions filed suit in a Kentucky federal court late on Wednesday to stop a county from enacting right-to-work legislation they say violates the National Labor Relations Act...
Barren County Fiscal Court magistrates tackle ‘right-to-work’ Glasgow Daily Times ...A committee of the Barren County Fiscal Court will be considering Tuesday whether to take a “right-to-work” ordinance to the full court...
Michigan Republicans making new push for prevailing wage repeal in state Legislature Michigan Live ...Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof on Thursday announced plans to sponsor Senate Bill 1, which will seek repeal the 50-year old law that requires union wages and benefits for workers on government-funded construction projects...
Thrasher nixes meeting with students on Koch funding Tallahassee Democrat ...Florida State University President John Thrasher abruptly canceled a meeting Wednesday with students who believe FSU sold its academic integrity for funding of some economics teaching positions by the conservative Koch brothers...
The Koch Foundation funds a lecture series at Penn Daily Pennsylvanian ...The industrialist siblings contributed more than $12.7 million to 163 colleges and universities in 2012. According to the Koch Family Foundations website, Penn is one of those recipient schools, having received a one-time grant of $5,000...
Sinquefield Is Top Missouri Campaign Donor in 2014; McCaskill Leads Democrats St. Louis Public Radio ...During 2014, wealthy financier Rex Sinquefield cemented his place as Missouri’s top political donor — by far — by distributing close to $10 million to candidates and political groups...
N.J. unions back in court today fighting Christie's pension cuts NJ.com ...Seven months after a state Superior Court judge excused Gov. Chris Christie from making a full pension contribution in the last fiscal year, New Jersey unions return to court this morning to fight for the $1.57 billion still in play...
War on Workers
Judge Overturns Home Health Care Wage, Overtime Rules Associated Press ...A federal judge on Wednesday overturned Labor Department regulations requiring overtime and minimum wage protection for 2 million home health care workers...
Trying To Solve The Great Wage Slowdown New York Times ...While wages and incomes have stagnated in the United States (as well as in Japan and large parts of Europe), they have not done so everywhere. In Canada, a broad measure of incomes has risen about 10 percent since 2000, even as it’s fallen here. In Australia, it’s up 30 percent...
What your bank owes you: clarity opinion Los Angeles Times ...many who attend college do not understand their student loans, and 14% of students with federal loans believe they have no student loan debt at all...
Republicans should join in scuttling Citizens United (opinion) The Hill ...Poll after poll shows that the majority of voters of all political stripes are alarmed at the record amounts of money pouring into elections. Voters feel they are being drowned out...
Woman, EMS Worker Killed In Separate Accidents As Wrecks Reported On Icy Patches On NC Roads The Republic ...An emergency worker and a 22-year-old woman were killed in separate accidents Wednesday related to the icy weather that struck portions of North Carolina...
Super Bowl Setup Worker Killed In Fall From Tower KPHO ...A worker on a Super Bowl setup crew died after falling from a tower outside University of Phoenix Stadium. It happened Wednesday shortly after noon in a parking lot where the NFL Tailgate Party will take place...
Georgia Factory Worker Killed By Falling Tons Of Marble New York Daily News ...Falling tons of marble crushed a Georgia factory worker to death Tuesday, authorities said...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Retail Sales Reflect Consumer Caution Despite Lower Gas Prices Wall Street Journal ...Steady job growth and relatively strong confidence supported an upward trend in consumer spending through most of 2014, before the December easing. Most economists expect those factors, beyond just lower energy prices, to support household spending—and overall economic growth—this year despite headwinds from small wage gains and overseas turmoil...
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Today's Teamster News 01.15.15
Teamsters
Hoffa To Members: A New Day For Our Great Union teamster.org ...Today, the United States of America represented by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York entered into an agreement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters whereby in consideration of its terms and conditions the United States of America upon order from the court will dismiss its action against the International Brotherhood of Teamsters sounding in provisions of the Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, 18 U.S.C. Section 1964 and will thereby extinguish the consent order of March 14, 1989...
Hoffa: Obama Should Bend On Keystone Pipeline Detroit News ...It is time for Obama to change his positions on trade and the pipeline. To do otherwise risks hobbling thousands of middle-class workers just trying to support their families and potentially taking the shine off his admirable job-growth legacy. No one wants that to happen...
Teamsters Seek To Organize More Tech-Shuttle Drivers Wall Street Journal ...The union hopes to make Facebook and Loop a model for the other companies. It is pressuring the brand-name companies, even though they don’t employ the bus drivers, in the hope that they will support unionization and agree to pay more to the bus operators, so that they in turn can raise wages. The union says the drivers now make $18 to $20 per hour, but typically are forced to work separate morning and evening shifts that extend their workday to 12 hours or more...
Trade
Japan and US Resume TPP Talks Today MarketPulse ...The fresh round of bilateral negotiations come after the Trans-Pacific Partnership countries failed to see major progress at their leaders’ summit held in November in Beijing, with Japan and the United States, the largest economies in the framework, struggling to fill gaps over the contentious issues...
Espey: US deserves better transparency from TPP (opinion) The Des Moines Register …The American people and those we elect to represent us deserve more than the thin promise of job creation and increased economic activity. If the TPP is so good for America and our economy, then its backers would have no need to hide behind a curtain like the Wizard of Oz, pulling whatever lever is within reach...
Idea For Tackling Inequality #27,653: Stop Subsidizing It (opinion) Huffington Post ...It isn't hard to identify these policies. A trade policy that is intended to put U.S. manufacturing workers in direct competition with low-paid workers in countries like Mexico and China has the predicted and actual effect of lowering their wages. It also lowers the wages of non-college educated workers more generally, as displaced manufacturing workers crowd into other sectors of the economy...
State Battles
Michigan Supreme Court Presses Both Sides On Right-To-Work Detroit Free Press ...Considering if the state's right-to-work law applies to state workers, Michigan Supreme Court justices this morning pressed attorneys for both sides to establish whether collective bargaining is a working condition or merely a process to establish those conditions...
Hardin Fiscal Court approves right-to-work ordinance The News-Enterprise …Hardin County became the fifth Kentucky county to join the right-to-work movement with adoption of a local ordinance Tuesday afternoon...
Legislative Preview Santa Fe Reporter …While we’re already bracing for important debates on spending for education, increasing the state’s minimum wage, economic development, hemp farming, right-to-work and other issues, New Mexicans can also expect some lightweight fare and doomed-to-failure ideas to surface...
Right-to-work booster Diane Hendricks gave $1 million to Wisconsin Republicans in 2014 The Cap Times …Now with some GOP legislators pushing a right-to-work bill in the upcoming session, a watchdog group is reporting that Hendricks donated $1 million to the Republican Party of Wisconsin in advance of the 2014 election...
Evenly Divided 7th Circuit Rejects En Banc Review of Indiana's Right to Work Act The National Law Review …The even split means the three-judge panel’s decision from September, 2014 upholding the statute under the United States Constitution stands...
War on Workers
Want To Be Happy? Join A Union (opinion) New York Times ...The study authors, Patrick Flavin, an assistant professor at Baylor University, and Gregory Shufeldt, an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, used data from five different years between the early 1980s and mid-2000s, conducted in the United States, of the World Values Survey, a research project focusing on people’s beliefs. As they write in the report, they found that “union members are more satisfied with their lives than those who are not members and that the substantive effect of union membership on life satisfaction is large and rivals other common predictors of quality of life.”...
First Step in Republican Campaign Against Bank Reform: HR 37 Passed in House naked capitalism …Dodd-Frank supporters fear Republicans will try to tack Wednesday’s bill and others on to larger pieces of legislation that it will be harder for the president to reject...
How Expanding the 1964 Civil Rights Act Can Save America's Dying Labor Movement Alternet …In July 2014, U.S. Representatives Keith Ellison and John Lewis, stalwarts for civil rights and labor, introduced the Employee Empowerment Act to extend civil rights remedies to labor organizers, and reinforce the connection between civil rights and worker rights...
Rep. Chris Van Hollen's Bold Attack on Inequality Huffington Post …Another potential revenue raiser would disallow corporations from deducting bonuses above $1 million if they're cutting the jobs and pay of their workforce. Note that the plan doesn't restrict "performance pay" above $1 million. It just says you can't deduct it from your taxes unless you're also providing raises to employees (or more directly sharing profits)...
More Evidence That Public Beats Private in Education truthout …except for the debilitating effects of poverty, our public school system may be the best in the world. The most recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reveal that the U.S. ranked high, relative to other OECD countries, in reading, math, and science (especially in reading, and in all areas better in 4th grade than in 8th grade)…
Why Wages Won't Rise (opinion) Huffington Post ...The growing use of outsourcing abroad and of labor-replacing technologies, the large reserve of hidden unemployed, the mounting economic insecurities, and the demise of labor unions have been actively pursued by corporations and encouraged by Wall Street. Payrolls are the single biggest cost of business. Lower payrolls mean higher profits...
Worker Dies After Fall At Citgo Corpus Christi Refinery Yahoo News ...A worker has died from injuries sustained in a fall on Monday night at Citgo Petroleum Corp's Corpus Christi, Texas, refinery, said sources familiar with the plant's operations...
Miscellaneous
Yep, Gasoline Lead Explains the Crime Decline in Canada Too Mother Jones …Canada saw a substantial decrease in violent crime that started about 20 years after lead emissions began to drop, which is exactly what you'd expect...
U.S. Racks Up Smallest Deficit Since 2007 Wall Street Journal ...The U.S. last year racked up its smallest budget deficit since 2007, marking an economic shift of fortunes as President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans prepare to face off over legislative priorities this year...
Hoffa To Members: A New Day For Our Great Union teamster.org ...Today, the United States of America represented by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York entered into an agreement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters whereby in consideration of its terms and conditions the United States of America upon order from the court will dismiss its action against the International Brotherhood of Teamsters sounding in provisions of the Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, 18 U.S.C. Section 1964 and will thereby extinguish the consent order of March 14, 1989...
Hoffa: Obama Should Bend On Keystone Pipeline Detroit News ...It is time for Obama to change his positions on trade and the pipeline. To do otherwise risks hobbling thousands of middle-class workers just trying to support their families and potentially taking the shine off his admirable job-growth legacy. No one wants that to happen...
Teamsters Seek To Organize More Tech-Shuttle Drivers Wall Street Journal ...The union hopes to make Facebook and Loop a model for the other companies. It is pressuring the brand-name companies, even though they don’t employ the bus drivers, in the hope that they will support unionization and agree to pay more to the bus operators, so that they in turn can raise wages. The union says the drivers now make $18 to $20 per hour, but typically are forced to work separate morning and evening shifts that extend their workday to 12 hours or more...
Trade
Japan and US Resume TPP Talks Today MarketPulse ...The fresh round of bilateral negotiations come after the Trans-Pacific Partnership countries failed to see major progress at their leaders’ summit held in November in Beijing, with Japan and the United States, the largest economies in the framework, struggling to fill gaps over the contentious issues...
Espey: US deserves better transparency from TPP (opinion) The Des Moines Register …The American people and those we elect to represent us deserve more than the thin promise of job creation and increased economic activity. If the TPP is so good for America and our economy, then its backers would have no need to hide behind a curtain like the Wizard of Oz, pulling whatever lever is within reach...
Idea For Tackling Inequality #27,653: Stop Subsidizing It (opinion) Huffington Post ...It isn't hard to identify these policies. A trade policy that is intended to put U.S. manufacturing workers in direct competition with low-paid workers in countries like Mexico and China has the predicted and actual effect of lowering their wages. It also lowers the wages of non-college educated workers more generally, as displaced manufacturing workers crowd into other sectors of the economy...
State Battles
Michigan Supreme Court Presses Both Sides On Right-To-Work Detroit Free Press ...Considering if the state's right-to-work law applies to state workers, Michigan Supreme Court justices this morning pressed attorneys for both sides to establish whether collective bargaining is a working condition or merely a process to establish those conditions...
Hardin Fiscal Court approves right-to-work ordinance The News-Enterprise …Hardin County became the fifth Kentucky county to join the right-to-work movement with adoption of a local ordinance Tuesday afternoon...
Legislative Preview Santa Fe Reporter …While we’re already bracing for important debates on spending for education, increasing the state’s minimum wage, economic development, hemp farming, right-to-work and other issues, New Mexicans can also expect some lightweight fare and doomed-to-failure ideas to surface...
Right-to-work booster Diane Hendricks gave $1 million to Wisconsin Republicans in 2014 The Cap Times …Now with some GOP legislators pushing a right-to-work bill in the upcoming session, a watchdog group is reporting that Hendricks donated $1 million to the Republican Party of Wisconsin in advance of the 2014 election...
Evenly Divided 7th Circuit Rejects En Banc Review of Indiana's Right to Work Act The National Law Review …The even split means the three-judge panel’s decision from September, 2014 upholding the statute under the United States Constitution stands...
War on Workers
Want To Be Happy? Join A Union (opinion) New York Times ...The study authors, Patrick Flavin, an assistant professor at Baylor University, and Gregory Shufeldt, an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, used data from five different years between the early 1980s and mid-2000s, conducted in the United States, of the World Values Survey, a research project focusing on people’s beliefs. As they write in the report, they found that “union members are more satisfied with their lives than those who are not members and that the substantive effect of union membership on life satisfaction is large and rivals other common predictors of quality of life.”...
First Step in Republican Campaign Against Bank Reform: HR 37 Passed in House naked capitalism …Dodd-Frank supporters fear Republicans will try to tack Wednesday’s bill and others on to larger pieces of legislation that it will be harder for the president to reject...
How Expanding the 1964 Civil Rights Act Can Save America's Dying Labor Movement Alternet …In July 2014, U.S. Representatives Keith Ellison and John Lewis, stalwarts for civil rights and labor, introduced the Employee Empowerment Act to extend civil rights remedies to labor organizers, and reinforce the connection between civil rights and worker rights...
Rep. Chris Van Hollen's Bold Attack on Inequality Huffington Post …Another potential revenue raiser would disallow corporations from deducting bonuses above $1 million if they're cutting the jobs and pay of their workforce. Note that the plan doesn't restrict "performance pay" above $1 million. It just says you can't deduct it from your taxes unless you're also providing raises to employees (or more directly sharing profits)...
More Evidence That Public Beats Private in Education truthout …except for the debilitating effects of poverty, our public school system may be the best in the world. The most recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reveal that the U.S. ranked high, relative to other OECD countries, in reading, math, and science (especially in reading, and in all areas better in 4th grade than in 8th grade)…
Why Wages Won't Rise (opinion) Huffington Post ...The growing use of outsourcing abroad and of labor-replacing technologies, the large reserve of hidden unemployed, the mounting economic insecurities, and the demise of labor unions have been actively pursued by corporations and encouraged by Wall Street. Payrolls are the single biggest cost of business. Lower payrolls mean higher profits...
Worker Dies After Fall At Citgo Corpus Christi Refinery Yahoo News ...A worker has died from injuries sustained in a fall on Monday night at Citgo Petroleum Corp's Corpus Christi, Texas, refinery, said sources familiar with the plant's operations...
Miscellaneous
Yep, Gasoline Lead Explains the Crime Decline in Canada Too Mother Jones …Canada saw a substantial decrease in violent crime that started about 20 years after lead emissions began to drop, which is exactly what you'd expect...
U.S. Racks Up Smallest Deficit Since 2007 Wall Street Journal ...The U.S. last year racked up its smallest budget deficit since 2007, marking an economic shift of fortunes as President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans prepare to face off over legislative priorities this year...
Friday, December 5, 2014
Today's Teamster News 12.05.14
Teamster News
First Student School Bus Workers Vote To Join Teamsters Local 653 teamster.org ...School bus workers at the Abington, Mass., First Student yard have voted overwhelmingly, 38-8, in favor of representation by Teamsters Local 653 in South Easton, Mass. The group of 60 drivers and monitors transport children in the Rockland, Holbrook and Weymouth school districts...
New Yorkers Swamp City Council Members With Phone Calls, Opposing Bill de Blasio’s Ban On Horse Carriages New York Daily News ...Angered by Mayor de Blasio’s drive to ban horse-drawn carriages, New Yorkers fought back Tuesday with their fingertips — swamping City Council members with phone calls urging them to oppose the mayor’s plan...
LA schools reach tentative agreement with supervisor staff union; teacher negotiations ongoing Associated Press ...LAUSD and Teamsters Local 572 announced agreements on job protections, food service practices and payment cycles Wednesday. The two sides had previously reached an agreement on salary...
Union workers turn the heat up in fight over oil terminal in the Bronx New York Daily News ...Dozens of union workers at a Bronx heating oil supply facility braved freezing rain Wednesday to fight for their jobs and protest the transfer of their facility...
College Scholarships Available To Sons and Daughters of Teamster Members teamster.org ...College scholarships, ranging in award amount between $1,000 and $10,000, are available to the sons, daughters or financially-dependent grandchildren of Teamster members through the James R. Hoffa Memorial Scholarship Fund...
Trade
Obama Claims that Economic Reality Will Make It Hard to Get Political Support for His Trade Deals Center for Economic Policy and Research ... It's not clear why President Obama would be surprised that most of the public opposes trade deals that are likely to redistribute more income upward...
US To Determine Whether Child Labour Is Used In Indian Carpets Economic Times ...The US has proposed to determine whether Indian carpets are produced by forced or indentured child labour, even as it added cotton and sugarcane to the already existing child labour produced list from India...
State Battles
Wisconsin Senate to quickly take up right-to-work legislation Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...Nearly four years after mostly eliminating collective bargaining for public workers, Republicans are considering putting limits on most private-sector unions while giving an unprecedented exemption to the labor groups that support them politically...
After Republican Wins, Right To Work Bills On The Agenda Washington Post ...Republicans in at least five states — Wisconsin, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Ohio and Missouri — have introduced or plan to introduce versions of the law in legislative sessions that will begin in January. Legislators in Colorado, Kentucky, Montana and Pennsylvania are all likely to push similar laws, though union-friendly Democratic governors in each state will act as firewalls...
War on Workers
Minimum wage fight hits the streets of nearly 200 U.S. cities Reuters ...Thousands of U.S. fast-food workers and supporters marched in nearly 200 cities around the United States on Thursday including Chicago and Boston to advocate for a $15 minimum wage and other labor rights...
JPMorgan Rushed to Hire Trader Who Suggested on His Resume That He Knew How to Game Electric Markets Wall Street on Parade ...“There’s two things that I find incredible about this. First, that anyone would advertise in a resume that they know about a flaw in the system — signaling that they’re ready and willing to exploit that flaw. And, second, that somebody would hire the person sending that signal.”...
The Incredible Shrinking Incomes Of Young Americans The Atlantic ...In retail, wholesale, leisure, and hospitality—which together employ more than one quarter of this age group—real wages have fallen more than 10 percent since 2007...
Which U.S. Cities Have the Biggest Income Gaps? Wall Street Journal ...Fairfield County had the widest inequality of any U.S. metro area in 2009-13, according to newly released Census data...
Unsteady Incomes Keep Millions Behind On Bills New York Times ...A more recent national survey by the Federal Reserve, based on 2013 data, suggests the problem has not only persisted as the economy recovers but may even have worsened. More than 30 percent of Americans reported spikes and dips in their incomes. Among that group, 42 percent cited an irregular work schedule; an additional 27 percent blamed a span of joblessness or seasonal work...
Ohio Power Prices Could Spike With U.S. Plan To Cut Power Plant CO2 Emissions Cleveland Plain Dealer ...The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio filed a 67-page analysis with the U.S. EPA arguing the federal proposal would spike power prices, hurt industry and destabilize the regional high-voltage grid...
Oil Trains Hide In Plain Sight Wall Street Journal ...Finding the locations of oil-filled trains remains difficult, even in states that don’t consider the information top secret. There are no federal or state rules requiring public notice despite several fiery accidents involving oil trains, including one in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, that killed 47 people...
Miscellaneous
The NSA Listened In On Trade Group Talks To Stay Ahead Of Phone Encryption The Verge ...By monitoring any new encryption proposals before they were made public, the agency was able to get a head start on finding ways to break the new systems...
First Student School Bus Workers Vote To Join Teamsters Local 653 teamster.org ...School bus workers at the Abington, Mass., First Student yard have voted overwhelmingly, 38-8, in favor of representation by Teamsters Local 653 in South Easton, Mass. The group of 60 drivers and monitors transport children in the Rockland, Holbrook and Weymouth school districts...
New Yorkers Swamp City Council Members With Phone Calls, Opposing Bill de Blasio’s Ban On Horse Carriages New York Daily News ...Angered by Mayor de Blasio’s drive to ban horse-drawn carriages, New Yorkers fought back Tuesday with their fingertips — swamping City Council members with phone calls urging them to oppose the mayor’s plan...
LA schools reach tentative agreement with supervisor staff union; teacher negotiations ongoing Associated Press ...LAUSD and Teamsters Local 572 announced agreements on job protections, food service practices and payment cycles Wednesday. The two sides had previously reached an agreement on salary...
Union workers turn the heat up in fight over oil terminal in the Bronx New York Daily News ...Dozens of union workers at a Bronx heating oil supply facility braved freezing rain Wednesday to fight for their jobs and protest the transfer of their facility...
College Scholarships Available To Sons and Daughters of Teamster Members teamster.org ...College scholarships, ranging in award amount between $1,000 and $10,000, are available to the sons, daughters or financially-dependent grandchildren of Teamster members through the James R. Hoffa Memorial Scholarship Fund...
Trade
Obama Claims that Economic Reality Will Make It Hard to Get Political Support for His Trade Deals Center for Economic Policy and Research ... It's not clear why President Obama would be surprised that most of the public opposes trade deals that are likely to redistribute more income upward...
US To Determine Whether Child Labour Is Used In Indian Carpets Economic Times ...The US has proposed to determine whether Indian carpets are produced by forced or indentured child labour, even as it added cotton and sugarcane to the already existing child labour produced list from India...
State Battles
Wisconsin Senate to quickly take up right-to-work legislation Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...Nearly four years after mostly eliminating collective bargaining for public workers, Republicans are considering putting limits on most private-sector unions while giving an unprecedented exemption to the labor groups that support them politically...
After Republican Wins, Right To Work Bills On The Agenda Washington Post ...Republicans in at least five states — Wisconsin, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Ohio and Missouri — have introduced or plan to introduce versions of the law in legislative sessions that will begin in January. Legislators in Colorado, Kentucky, Montana and Pennsylvania are all likely to push similar laws, though union-friendly Democratic governors in each state will act as firewalls...
War on Workers
Minimum wage fight hits the streets of nearly 200 U.S. cities Reuters ...Thousands of U.S. fast-food workers and supporters marched in nearly 200 cities around the United States on Thursday including Chicago and Boston to advocate for a $15 minimum wage and other labor rights...
JPMorgan Rushed to Hire Trader Who Suggested on His Resume That He Knew How to Game Electric Markets Wall Street on Parade ...“There’s two things that I find incredible about this. First, that anyone would advertise in a resume that they know about a flaw in the system — signaling that they’re ready and willing to exploit that flaw. And, second, that somebody would hire the person sending that signal.”...
The Incredible Shrinking Incomes Of Young Americans The Atlantic ...In retail, wholesale, leisure, and hospitality—which together employ more than one quarter of this age group—real wages have fallen more than 10 percent since 2007...
Which U.S. Cities Have the Biggest Income Gaps? Wall Street Journal ...Fairfield County had the widest inequality of any U.S. metro area in 2009-13, according to newly released Census data...
Unsteady Incomes Keep Millions Behind On Bills New York Times ...A more recent national survey by the Federal Reserve, based on 2013 data, suggests the problem has not only persisted as the economy recovers but may even have worsened. More than 30 percent of Americans reported spikes and dips in their incomes. Among that group, 42 percent cited an irregular work schedule; an additional 27 percent blamed a span of joblessness or seasonal work...
Ohio Power Prices Could Spike With U.S. Plan To Cut Power Plant CO2 Emissions Cleveland Plain Dealer ...The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio filed a 67-page analysis with the U.S. EPA arguing the federal proposal would spike power prices, hurt industry and destabilize the regional high-voltage grid...
Oil Trains Hide In Plain Sight Wall Street Journal ...Finding the locations of oil-filled trains remains difficult, even in states that don’t consider the information top secret. There are no federal or state rules requiring public notice despite several fiery accidents involving oil trains, including one in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, that killed 47 people...
Miscellaneous
The NSA Listened In On Trade Group Talks To Stay Ahead Of Phone Encryption The Verge ...By monitoring any new encryption proposals before they were made public, the agency was able to get a head start on finding ways to break the new systems...
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Today's Teamster News 11.08.14
Teamster News
Teamsters Applaud U.S. Appeals Court Decision Reinstating Misclassified Port Truck Drivers teamster.org ...In a landmark victory for misclassified “independent contractors” across America, two previously fired port truck drivers have returned to work today as employees of Green Fleet Systems (GFS) in Long Beach, Calif. Earlier misclassified as independent contractors by GFS...
Waste Workers In Houston Vote To Join Teamsters Local 988 teamster.org ...Workers at WCA Waste Corporation in Houston, who are seeking fair wages, job security and safer working conditions, voted today to join Teamsters Local 988. The vote was 90 to 28...
Trade
Thousands rally against trade agreement TVNZ ...There's been an outcry against secretive trade talks, with thousands joining rallies around [New Zealand]. The target of the protesters' anger in 17 towns and cities is the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement...
What the 2014 Election Results Mean for Trade Policy Public Citizen ...The GOP takeover of the U.S. Senate probably reduces the chances that President Barack Obama gets Fast Track at all before his presidency is over or that a deal is completed on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
State Battles
One Community Beat Big Money On Election Day. Here's How They Did It. Huffington Post ...Voters in Florida's capital city overwhelmingly approved an extraordinary ethics and campaign finance reform ballot initiative that fights money in politics corruption, reclaims local government for the people, and provides a path to victory for national reform efforts...
Kansas Governor’s Grand Tax Cut Experiment Is Gutting His State’s Services Think Progress ...Kansas brought in $23 million less in tax revenue in October than the state had predicted, continuing a pattern of serious shortfalls that began when Gov. Sam Brownback’s (R) massive tax cuts went into effect in 2012...
Wingnut Voter ID Group Fails Again: “Voter Integrity” Outfit Unable To Find Midterm Fraud Salon.com ...Despite army of monitors, Catherine Engelbrecht's discredited organization uncovers 0 polling place impersonations...
Former Mississippi Prisons Head Charged With Getting Kickbacks, Bribes On Prison Contracts Slate ...A 49-count federal indictment unsealed on Thursday charges the head of prisons in Mississippi, Christopher Epps, with orchestrating a massive corruption scheme where he pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from private prison companies in return for contracts to work in the Mississippi prison system...
War on Workers
U.S. labor market tightens, but wages still anemic Reuters ...Average hourly earnings rose only three cents last month, leaving the year-on-year increase at 2.0 percent, the level it has been around for the last few years. The muted wage growth partly reflects the types of jobs being created. In October, about a fifth of the new jobs were in the food services sector...
The hidden truth about job growth, lost amidst the statistical noise & optimists’ hopes Fabius Maximus ...The key thing to know about the latest job report is the same thing to know about all 2014’s job reports: there has been no change to the trend. No sign of the acceleration so confidently forecast by so many. This confirms the other economic indicators, amidst the slowing world economy...
Whole Foods Employees Ask For a Union Gawker ... There is now an official movement on to unionize at least one Whole Foods store on 4th street in San Francisco. A press release that went out yesterday says that 20 workers held a rally and "initiated a temporary work stoppage to deliver a petition to Whole Foods management demanding a $5 an hour wage increase for all employees and no retaliation against workers for organizing a union."...
Facebook Conducted ‘Psychological Experiment’ On Users To Manipulate US Election Turnout Addicting Info ...The company admits that it deliberately suppressed personal posts from people on your friend’s list, while promoting other posts, in an experiment designed to exploit users emotional response in relation to the 2012 election...
Lawsuit: Chicago Futures Market Creates “Guaranteed Winners and Guaranteed Losers” Wall Street on Parade ...Last week three futures traders told a Federal court in Chicago that it’s not just the high frequency trading firms that are reaping a windfall but the exchanges who are engaged in a conspiracy with them to create “guaranteed winners and guaranteed losers.”...
Citizens United Boss: Supreme Court Ruling Handed Midterm Elections To Republicans Raw Story ...“Citizens United, our Supreme Court case, leveled the playing field, and we’re very proud of the impact that had in last night’s election,” said David Bossie, chairman of the conservative advocacy organization...
Explosive Oil Transported Through Indiana Counties Without Notice WISH ...For months, trains hauling millions of gallons of highly flammable crude oil passed through at least 12 Indiana counties with no advanced warning to firefighters, hazardous materials directors or local emergency managers, an I-Team 8 investigation has found...
More Employers Are Hiring But They Aren’t Raising Pay FiveThirtyEight ...7 in 10 Americans said in exit polls that the economy is in bad shape, and only 28 percent said their financial situation had improved in the past two years. Dissatisfaction with the state of the economy was widely cited as a principal reason for Republicans’ big gains...
Maintenance Worker Dead After Being Trapped In Machine At Fairfield Bowling Alley WCPO ...A maintenance worker at a Butler County bowling alley died Thursday afternoon after getting caught in a machine he was trying to repair...
Miscellaeous
Nation's first soda tax is passed USA Today ...Berkeley, Calif., became the first U.S. city to pass a law taxing sugary drinks including sodas...
Mexico scraps high-speed rail project won by China over corruption worries McClatchy ...Perceptions that Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto rewarded friends with a share of a $4.3 billion high-speed rail contract won by a Chinese-led consortium led this week to a stunning decision by Mexico to scrap the deal and start over with new bidding...
Teamsters Applaud U.S. Appeals Court Decision Reinstating Misclassified Port Truck Drivers teamster.org ...In a landmark victory for misclassified “independent contractors” across America, two previously fired port truck drivers have returned to work today as employees of Green Fleet Systems (GFS) in Long Beach, Calif. Earlier misclassified as independent contractors by GFS...
Waste Workers In Houston Vote To Join Teamsters Local 988 teamster.org ...Workers at WCA Waste Corporation in Houston, who are seeking fair wages, job security and safer working conditions, voted today to join Teamsters Local 988. The vote was 90 to 28...
Trade
Thousands rally against trade agreement TVNZ ...There's been an outcry against secretive trade talks, with thousands joining rallies around [New Zealand]. The target of the protesters' anger in 17 towns and cities is the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement...
What the 2014 Election Results Mean for Trade Policy Public Citizen ...The GOP takeover of the U.S. Senate probably reduces the chances that President Barack Obama gets Fast Track at all before his presidency is over or that a deal is completed on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
State Battles
One Community Beat Big Money On Election Day. Here's How They Did It. Huffington Post ...Voters in Florida's capital city overwhelmingly approved an extraordinary ethics and campaign finance reform ballot initiative that fights money in politics corruption, reclaims local government for the people, and provides a path to victory for national reform efforts...
Kansas Governor’s Grand Tax Cut Experiment Is Gutting His State’s Services Think Progress ...Kansas brought in $23 million less in tax revenue in October than the state had predicted, continuing a pattern of serious shortfalls that began when Gov. Sam Brownback’s (R) massive tax cuts went into effect in 2012...
Wingnut Voter ID Group Fails Again: “Voter Integrity” Outfit Unable To Find Midterm Fraud Salon.com ...Despite army of monitors, Catherine Engelbrecht's discredited organization uncovers 0 polling place impersonations...
Former Mississippi Prisons Head Charged With Getting Kickbacks, Bribes On Prison Contracts Slate ...A 49-count federal indictment unsealed on Thursday charges the head of prisons in Mississippi, Christopher Epps, with orchestrating a massive corruption scheme where he pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from private prison companies in return for contracts to work in the Mississippi prison system...
War on Workers
U.S. labor market tightens, but wages still anemic Reuters ...Average hourly earnings rose only three cents last month, leaving the year-on-year increase at 2.0 percent, the level it has been around for the last few years. The muted wage growth partly reflects the types of jobs being created. In October, about a fifth of the new jobs were in the food services sector...
The hidden truth about job growth, lost amidst the statistical noise & optimists’ hopes Fabius Maximus ...The key thing to know about the latest job report is the same thing to know about all 2014’s job reports: there has been no change to the trend. No sign of the acceleration so confidently forecast by so many. This confirms the other economic indicators, amidst the slowing world economy...
Whole Foods Employees Ask For a Union Gawker ... There is now an official movement on to unionize at least one Whole Foods store on 4th street in San Francisco. A press release that went out yesterday says that 20 workers held a rally and "initiated a temporary work stoppage to deliver a petition to Whole Foods management demanding a $5 an hour wage increase for all employees and no retaliation against workers for organizing a union."...
Facebook Conducted ‘Psychological Experiment’ On Users To Manipulate US Election Turnout Addicting Info ...The company admits that it deliberately suppressed personal posts from people on your friend’s list, while promoting other posts, in an experiment designed to exploit users emotional response in relation to the 2012 election...
Lawsuit: Chicago Futures Market Creates “Guaranteed Winners and Guaranteed Losers” Wall Street on Parade ...Last week three futures traders told a Federal court in Chicago that it’s not just the high frequency trading firms that are reaping a windfall but the exchanges who are engaged in a conspiracy with them to create “guaranteed winners and guaranteed losers.”...
Citizens United Boss: Supreme Court Ruling Handed Midterm Elections To Republicans Raw Story ...“Citizens United, our Supreme Court case, leveled the playing field, and we’re very proud of the impact that had in last night’s election,” said David Bossie, chairman of the conservative advocacy organization...
Explosive Oil Transported Through Indiana Counties Without Notice WISH ...For months, trains hauling millions of gallons of highly flammable crude oil passed through at least 12 Indiana counties with no advanced warning to firefighters, hazardous materials directors or local emergency managers, an I-Team 8 investigation has found...
More Employers Are Hiring But They Aren’t Raising Pay FiveThirtyEight ...7 in 10 Americans said in exit polls that the economy is in bad shape, and only 28 percent said their financial situation had improved in the past two years. Dissatisfaction with the state of the economy was widely cited as a principal reason for Republicans’ big gains...
Maintenance Worker Dead After Being Trapped In Machine At Fairfield Bowling Alley WCPO ...A maintenance worker at a Butler County bowling alley died Thursday afternoon after getting caught in a machine he was trying to repair...
Miscellaeous
Nation's first soda tax is passed USA Today ...Berkeley, Calif., became the first U.S. city to pass a law taxing sugary drinks including sodas...
Mexico scraps high-speed rail project won by China over corruption worries McClatchy ...Perceptions that Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto rewarded friends with a share of a $4.3 billion high-speed rail contract won by a Chinese-led consortium led this week to a stunning decision by Mexico to scrap the deal and start over with new bidding...
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Today's Teamster News 10.08.14
Teamster News
Teamsters Warehouse Workers Face a Bankruptcy Court Designed to Protect Bosses, Not Workers In These Times ...The Keene, New Hampshire-based C&S Wholesale Grocers’s actions could prove to be an immediate threat to the livelihoods of about 1,100 Teamster members in the Mid-Atlantic region, the latest in a series of damaging anti-union maneuvers by the company. The action also highlights the growing market power of C&S, a low-profile company that has quietly grown into the nation’s largest warehousing corporation...
Investors, activists press eBay, others to break up with ALEC Reuters ...Civic groups such as Common Cause and the Environmental Defense Fund and unions including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters wrote to the e-commerce company's management asking it to reconsider involvement in ALEC because of what they called its "extreme agenda."...
Trade
TTIP Could Weaken Chemical Rules, Environmental Groups Say Wall Street Journal ...environmental groups worry the chemical industry will use these procedures to delay or block new restrictions or bans on chemicals that pose a threat to people or the environment...
TPP Talks Slated For Oct. 25 As Nations Scramble For Deal law360 ...The Australian government announced Thursday that it will host a meeting of Trans-Pacific Partnership trade ministers this month to tackle outstanding provisions on intellectual property, agricultural market access, state-owned enterprises and other areas as negotiators race to close major parts of the pact by year's end...
State Battles
Walker administration denies complaint seeking to raise minimum wage Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ...Gov. Scott Walker's administration has denied a complaint by a labor group seeking to force an increase in Wisconsin's minimum wage...The state law requires that Wisconsin's minimum wage "shall not be less than a living wage."...
Rochester Borough Says No To Police Outsourcing Insurance News ...After comments about sacrificing safety for potential savings, officials decided Tuesday to halt a conversation with the township about contracting out police services...
City To Ponder Raise For Contractor Workers News Journal ...Wilmington City Council will take action next month on an ordinance that will require employees of city contractors to get paid at least $10.10 an hour...
War On Workers
Freight Train Drivers Report Falling Asleep On The Job CBC ...Train operators in Canada’s burgeoning freight rail industry report falling asleep at the controls and coming to work exhausted at an alarmingly high rate, according to an ongoing CBC News investigation into rail safety...
43 Missing Students, a Mass Grave and a Suspect: Mexico’s Police New York Times ...they are among 43 students reported missing after deadly clashes with the police on Sept. 26, when at least six student protesters and bystanders were killed in the restive, rural state of Guerrero, one of the poorest in the country and long afflicted by political, social and criminal upheaval...
Las Vegas Schools Groan From Growing Pains New York Times ...Schools in this suddenly robust community are so packed these days that 13 of them stay open 12 months a year. Children go to classes and eat lunch in cramped, windowless trailers, bustling with restless students. Thousands more take online classes at home, and school district administrators, desperate for space, are looking to abandoned strip malls for classrooms...
The Great Wage Slowdown Of The 21st Century New York Times ...The typical American family makes less than the typical family did 15 years ago, a statement that hadn’t previously been true since the Great Depression...
American Agriculture's Child Labor Problem KCET ...Fourteen hour days with no pay, very little food, routinely beaten and whipped by overseers before being locked away in cramped quarters every night. The fact that U.S. companies were reaping the benefits of this slave labor was outrageous. But what's more disturbing is the fact that child labor exploitation isn't only occurring outside of America. It happens here, too. And it's not entirely illegal...
Construction worker dies on the job KCCI News ...Authorities say a construction worker has died after he was pinned under a piece of equipment in northwest Iowa...
Tualatin worker dies after being struck by large metal plates, state agency says Oregon Live ...A 27-year-old man hit by large metal plates while working at a Tualatin manufacturing business Monday morning has died, according to the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division...
Is Your Dentist Ripping You Off? Mother Jones ...more and more young dentists are taking jobs with chains, many of which set revenue quotas for practitioners. This has created some legal backlash: In 2012, for example, 11 patients sued (PDF) a 450-office chain called Aspen Dental, claiming that its model turns dentists into salespeople...
Microsoft’s Windows 10 has permission to watch your every move Tech Worm ...“Microsoft collects information about you, your devices, applications and networks, and your use of those devices, applications and networks. Examples of data we collect include your name, email address, preferences and interests; browsing, search and file history; phone call and SMS data; device configuration and sensor data; and application usage.”...
Government Set Up A Fake Facebook Page In This Woman’s Name Buzzfeed ...A DEA agent commandeered a woman’s identity, created a phony Facebook account in her name, and posted racy photos he found on her seized cell phone. The government said he had the right to do that...
Teamsters Warehouse Workers Face a Bankruptcy Court Designed to Protect Bosses, Not Workers In These Times ...The Keene, New Hampshire-based C&S Wholesale Grocers’s actions could prove to be an immediate threat to the livelihoods of about 1,100 Teamster members in the Mid-Atlantic region, the latest in a series of damaging anti-union maneuvers by the company. The action also highlights the growing market power of C&S, a low-profile company that has quietly grown into the nation’s largest warehousing corporation...
Investors, activists press eBay, others to break up with ALEC Reuters ...Civic groups such as Common Cause and the Environmental Defense Fund and unions including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters wrote to the e-commerce company's management asking it to reconsider involvement in ALEC because of what they called its "extreme agenda."...
Trade
TTIP Could Weaken Chemical Rules, Environmental Groups Say Wall Street Journal ...environmental groups worry the chemical industry will use these procedures to delay or block new restrictions or bans on chemicals that pose a threat to people or the environment...
TPP Talks Slated For Oct. 25 As Nations Scramble For Deal law360 ...The Australian government announced Thursday that it will host a meeting of Trans-Pacific Partnership trade ministers this month to tackle outstanding provisions on intellectual property, agricultural market access, state-owned enterprises and other areas as negotiators race to close major parts of the pact by year's end...
State Battles
Walker administration denies complaint seeking to raise minimum wage Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ...Gov. Scott Walker's administration has denied a complaint by a labor group seeking to force an increase in Wisconsin's minimum wage...The state law requires that Wisconsin's minimum wage "shall not be less than a living wage."...
Rochester Borough Says No To Police Outsourcing Insurance News ...After comments about sacrificing safety for potential savings, officials decided Tuesday to halt a conversation with the township about contracting out police services...
City To Ponder Raise For Contractor Workers News Journal ...Wilmington City Council will take action next month on an ordinance that will require employees of city contractors to get paid at least $10.10 an hour...
War On Workers
Freight Train Drivers Report Falling Asleep On The Job CBC ...Train operators in Canada’s burgeoning freight rail industry report falling asleep at the controls and coming to work exhausted at an alarmingly high rate, according to an ongoing CBC News investigation into rail safety...
43 Missing Students, a Mass Grave and a Suspect: Mexico’s Police New York Times ...they are among 43 students reported missing after deadly clashes with the police on Sept. 26, when at least six student protesters and bystanders were killed in the restive, rural state of Guerrero, one of the poorest in the country and long afflicted by political, social and criminal upheaval...
Las Vegas Schools Groan From Growing Pains New York Times ...Schools in this suddenly robust community are so packed these days that 13 of them stay open 12 months a year. Children go to classes and eat lunch in cramped, windowless trailers, bustling with restless students. Thousands more take online classes at home, and school district administrators, desperate for space, are looking to abandoned strip malls for classrooms...
The Great Wage Slowdown Of The 21st Century New York Times ...The typical American family makes less than the typical family did 15 years ago, a statement that hadn’t previously been true since the Great Depression...
American Agriculture's Child Labor Problem KCET ...Fourteen hour days with no pay, very little food, routinely beaten and whipped by overseers before being locked away in cramped quarters every night. The fact that U.S. companies were reaping the benefits of this slave labor was outrageous. But what's more disturbing is the fact that child labor exploitation isn't only occurring outside of America. It happens here, too. And it's not entirely illegal...
Construction worker dies on the job KCCI News ...Authorities say a construction worker has died after he was pinned under a piece of equipment in northwest Iowa...
Tualatin worker dies after being struck by large metal plates, state agency says Oregon Live ...A 27-year-old man hit by large metal plates while working at a Tualatin manufacturing business Monday morning has died, according to the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division...
Is Your Dentist Ripping You Off? Mother Jones ...more and more young dentists are taking jobs with chains, many of which set revenue quotas for practitioners. This has created some legal backlash: In 2012, for example, 11 patients sued (PDF) a 450-office chain called Aspen Dental, claiming that its model turns dentists into salespeople...
Microsoft’s Windows 10 has permission to watch your every move Tech Worm ...“Microsoft collects information about you, your devices, applications and networks, and your use of those devices, applications and networks. Examples of data we collect include your name, email address, preferences and interests; browsing, search and file history; phone call and SMS data; device configuration and sensor data; and application usage.”...
Government Set Up A Fake Facebook Page In This Woman’s Name Buzzfeed ...A DEA agent commandeered a woman’s identity, created a phony Facebook account in her name, and posted racy photos he found on her seized cell phone. The government said he had the right to do that...
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Today's Teamster News 09.25.14
Teamster News
Reinhart Teamsters Overwhelmingly Ratify First Contract teamster.org ...More than 230 workers at Reinhart Food Service represented by Teamsters Local Union 653 ratified a first contract, voting by a 2 to 1 margin to approve the collective bargaining agreement...
First Transit Workers Stand Together For Teamster Representation teamster.org ...WorFirst Transit paratransit drivers, dispatchers and schedulers in Chicago recently voted resoundingly for Teamsters Local 727 representation...
British Union To Confront Bill de Blasio Over Plan To Ban City's Horse-Carriage Industry New York Daily News ...Members of the federation will raise the carriage ban with de Blasio at the conference, the union said. New York’s carriage drivers are represented by the Teamsters union...
Tom Mulcair Targets 'Freeloader' Corporations In Speech To Teamsters CBC News ...In a toughly-worded speech to be delivered today to a Teamsters rail safety conference, the NDP leader's rhetoric is reminiscent of the party's former leaders, particularly that of David Lewis who campaigned against "corporate welfare bums" in 1972...
Pilot Attrition Accelerates At Allegiant Air As Labor Issues Heat Up teamster.org ...“The Teamsters have presented the company with a comprehensive proposal, to which they have refused to reply....An honest effort by the company to reach an agreement during contract negotiations would have a positive effect, stem the unsustainable losses they are experiencing, and allow the company to succeed going forward.”...
Trade
Japan trade minister: No progress with U.S. in TPP trade talks Reuters ...Japan's Trade Minister Akira Amari said he and his U.S. counterpart made no progress in bilateral talks that are key to an ambitious multilateral trade deal...
U.S. Government Takes Historic Action to Enforce Labor Rules in Trade Agreement with Guatemala AFL-CIO Now ...The United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced that it will finally move forward to arbitration in the long-running dispute with the government of Guatemala regarding whether or not Guatemala is meeting the labor commitments of the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA or CAFTA)...
TTIP Should Help, Not Hinder, Workers (opinion) The Broker ...Labour provisions expected to be included in the deal do not provide enough protections. Additionally, language that would bar preferred status to national companies in government purchasing – known as the Buy American program in the US – would starve job creation...
State Battles
Yahoo, Yelp, Facebook, Google and Microsoft reconsider their relationship with free-market group ALEC Washington Post ...Five tech giants have dropped, or plan to or are expected to drop, their membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council, a free-market, state-focused group that has become a target of the left in recent years...
Court Returns Inquiry Into Walker’s Finances to Wisconsin New York Times ...A federal appeals court on Wednesday removed an injunction halting an investigation into whether the campaign of Gov. Scott Walker illegally coordinated with conservative groups on fund-raising and spending as he sought to overcome a recall effort two years ago...
Judge defies Supreme Court order as legal wrangling over other voter ID case continues Wisconsin State Journal ...A Dane County judge has defied a state Supreme Court order to dismiss a challenge to Wisconsin’s law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, while the legal wrangling continued Tuesday over another case seeking to block the law...
Group Hopes To Force Scott Walker's Administration To Raise The Minimum Wage Wisconsin State Journal ...On Wednesday, Wisconsin Jobs Now plans to present petitions from about 75 workers who say they are paid wages that are not self-supporting. The group said that violates a state law dating back to 1913 requiring that the minimum wage in the state “shall not be less than a living wage.”...
Court: 35 days of early voting to start in Ohio Toledo Blade ...Ohio’s 35-day early voting window will remain intact for the Nov. 4 election, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted said he will ask the entire U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, not just a three-judge panel, to hear an appeal of the decision. Time is short, however. Early voting will begin Tuesday...
Fed Judge: No press exemption for Citizens United in Colorado Colorado Independent ...Judge Brooke Jackson issued a curt decision today refusing to issue a federal injunction that would have allowed Citizens United to air and advertise a documentary on Colorado politics ahead of the November elections without disclosing funding behind any advertising related to the movie.
... Jeffco students walk out of 5 high schools in school board protest Denver Post ...Community members are angry about an evaluation-based system for awarding raises to educators and a proposed curriculum committee that would call for promoting "positive aspects" of the United States and its heritage and avoiding material that would encourage or condone "civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law..."
Indiana Toll Road operator files Chapter 11 Bloomberg ...The operator of the Indiana Toll Road, owned by affiliates of Macquarie Group Ltd. and Ferrovial SA, sought bankruptcy protection after dwindling traffic soured a $3.8 billion bet on a 75-year lease... Alaska's Lessons For The Keystone XL Pipeline (opinion) Wall Street Journal ...The lesson of the Trans-Alaska pipeline is that we can build pipelines in ways that protect the environment while yielding large economic benefits. The naysayers were wrong 40 years ago, and policy makers should give scant credence to their arguments against Keystone today...
War On Workers
Inside the Koch brothers' toxic empire Rolling Stone ...The company's troubled legal history – including a trail of congressional investigations, Department of Justice consent decrees, civil lawsuits and felony convictions – augmented by internal company documents, leaked State Department cables, Freedom of Information disclosures and company whistle-blowers, combine to cast an unwelcome spotlight on the toxic empire whose profits finance the modern GOP...
Walmart moms demand better pay and protections for women workers Peoples World ...Thelma Moore, who worked at the Chatham, Ill. store and is pregnant with her second child., (said) "...we're fighting for bathroom breaks when we're pregnant and steady schedules that let us get reliable childcare and put food on the table." Moore was fired from the store for an absence when she was at doctors' appointments after television sets fell on her at the store...
Student homelessness hits another record high CNN Money ...Approximately 1.3 million students enrolled in U.S. public preschools, elementary schools, middle schools and high schools schools were homeless during the 2012-13 school year. That's up 8% from the prior year…
Worker Dies From Fire at EOG Resources Site in Wyoming Wall Street Journal ...A worker died after a flash fire at a storage tank near a natural gas well in Wyoming, company and hospital officials said. The contract worker, whose name hasn't been released, was one of three people hospitalized after a fire at a well site owned by EOG Resources Inc…
Second worker dies from U.S. Steel explosion; OSHA investigating Pittsburgh Business Times ...A second United States Steel Corp. employee has died from injuries in an explosion at the company's facility in Fairfield, Ala., a spokesperson for UAB Hospital confirmed Wednesday...
Manchester worker dead after Eagleville school accident The Tennessean ...A construction worker died after a backhoe flipped over on him Tuesday afternoon at Eagleville School...
The Recovery That Left Out Almost Everybody (opinion) Wall Street Journal ...Not only are hourly wages stagnating; America's families want more hours of work than the economy is providing...
Reinhart Teamsters Overwhelmingly Ratify First Contract teamster.org ...More than 230 workers at Reinhart Food Service represented by Teamsters Local Union 653 ratified a first contract, voting by a 2 to 1 margin to approve the collective bargaining agreement...
First Transit Workers Stand Together For Teamster Representation teamster.org ...WorFirst Transit paratransit drivers, dispatchers and schedulers in Chicago recently voted resoundingly for Teamsters Local 727 representation...
British Union To Confront Bill de Blasio Over Plan To Ban City's Horse-Carriage Industry New York Daily News ...Members of the federation will raise the carriage ban with de Blasio at the conference, the union said. New York’s carriage drivers are represented by the Teamsters union...
Tom Mulcair Targets 'Freeloader' Corporations In Speech To Teamsters CBC News ...In a toughly-worded speech to be delivered today to a Teamsters rail safety conference, the NDP leader's rhetoric is reminiscent of the party's former leaders, particularly that of David Lewis who campaigned against "corporate welfare bums" in 1972...
Pilot Attrition Accelerates At Allegiant Air As Labor Issues Heat Up teamster.org ...“The Teamsters have presented the company with a comprehensive proposal, to which they have refused to reply....An honest effort by the company to reach an agreement during contract negotiations would have a positive effect, stem the unsustainable losses they are experiencing, and allow the company to succeed going forward.”...
Trade
Japan trade minister: No progress with U.S. in TPP trade talks Reuters ...Japan's Trade Minister Akira Amari said he and his U.S. counterpart made no progress in bilateral talks that are key to an ambitious multilateral trade deal...
U.S. Government Takes Historic Action to Enforce Labor Rules in Trade Agreement with Guatemala AFL-CIO Now ...The United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced that it will finally move forward to arbitration in the long-running dispute with the government of Guatemala regarding whether or not Guatemala is meeting the labor commitments of the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA or CAFTA)...
TTIP Should Help, Not Hinder, Workers (opinion) The Broker ...Labour provisions expected to be included in the deal do not provide enough protections. Additionally, language that would bar preferred status to national companies in government purchasing – known as the Buy American program in the US – would starve job creation...
State Battles
Yahoo, Yelp, Facebook, Google and Microsoft reconsider their relationship with free-market group ALEC Washington Post ...Five tech giants have dropped, or plan to or are expected to drop, their membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council, a free-market, state-focused group that has become a target of the left in recent years...
Court Returns Inquiry Into Walker’s Finances to Wisconsin New York Times ...A federal appeals court on Wednesday removed an injunction halting an investigation into whether the campaign of Gov. Scott Walker illegally coordinated with conservative groups on fund-raising and spending as he sought to overcome a recall effort two years ago...
Judge defies Supreme Court order as legal wrangling over other voter ID case continues Wisconsin State Journal ...A Dane County judge has defied a state Supreme Court order to dismiss a challenge to Wisconsin’s law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, while the legal wrangling continued Tuesday over another case seeking to block the law...
Group Hopes To Force Scott Walker's Administration To Raise The Minimum Wage Wisconsin State Journal ...On Wednesday, Wisconsin Jobs Now plans to present petitions from about 75 workers who say they are paid wages that are not self-supporting. The group said that violates a state law dating back to 1913 requiring that the minimum wage in the state “shall not be less than a living wage.”...
Court: 35 days of early voting to start in Ohio Toledo Blade ...Ohio’s 35-day early voting window will remain intact for the Nov. 4 election, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted said he will ask the entire U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, not just a three-judge panel, to hear an appeal of the decision. Time is short, however. Early voting will begin Tuesday...
Fed Judge: No press exemption for Citizens United in Colorado Colorado Independent ...Judge Brooke Jackson issued a curt decision today refusing to issue a federal injunction that would have allowed Citizens United to air and advertise a documentary on Colorado politics ahead of the November elections without disclosing funding behind any advertising related to the movie.
... Jeffco students walk out of 5 high schools in school board protest Denver Post ...Community members are angry about an evaluation-based system for awarding raises to educators and a proposed curriculum committee that would call for promoting "positive aspects" of the United States and its heritage and avoiding material that would encourage or condone "civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law..."
Indiana Toll Road operator files Chapter 11 Bloomberg ...The operator of the Indiana Toll Road, owned by affiliates of Macquarie Group Ltd. and Ferrovial SA, sought bankruptcy protection after dwindling traffic soured a $3.8 billion bet on a 75-year lease... Alaska's Lessons For The Keystone XL Pipeline (opinion) Wall Street Journal ...The lesson of the Trans-Alaska pipeline is that we can build pipelines in ways that protect the environment while yielding large economic benefits. The naysayers were wrong 40 years ago, and policy makers should give scant credence to their arguments against Keystone today...
War On Workers
Inside the Koch brothers' toxic empire Rolling Stone ...The company's troubled legal history – including a trail of congressional investigations, Department of Justice consent decrees, civil lawsuits and felony convictions – augmented by internal company documents, leaked State Department cables, Freedom of Information disclosures and company whistle-blowers, combine to cast an unwelcome spotlight on the toxic empire whose profits finance the modern GOP...
Walmart moms demand better pay and protections for women workers Peoples World ...Thelma Moore, who worked at the Chatham, Ill. store and is pregnant with her second child., (said) "...we're fighting for bathroom breaks when we're pregnant and steady schedules that let us get reliable childcare and put food on the table." Moore was fired from the store for an absence when she was at doctors' appointments after television sets fell on her at the store...
Student homelessness hits another record high CNN Money ...Approximately 1.3 million students enrolled in U.S. public preschools, elementary schools, middle schools and high schools schools were homeless during the 2012-13 school year. That's up 8% from the prior year…
Worker Dies From Fire at EOG Resources Site in Wyoming Wall Street Journal ...A worker died after a flash fire at a storage tank near a natural gas well in Wyoming, company and hospital officials said. The contract worker, whose name hasn't been released, was one of three people hospitalized after a fire at a well site owned by EOG Resources Inc…
Second worker dies from U.S. Steel explosion; OSHA investigating Pittsburgh Business Times ...A second United States Steel Corp. employee has died from injuries in an explosion at the company's facility in Fairfield, Ala., a spokesperson for UAB Hospital confirmed Wednesday...
Manchester worker dead after Eagleville school accident The Tennessean ...A construction worker died after a backhoe flipped over on him Tuesday afternoon at Eagleville School...
The Recovery That Left Out Almost Everybody (opinion) Wall Street Journal ...Not only are hourly wages stagnating; America's families want more hours of work than the economy is providing...
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Workers getting paid like its 1989
Employment might be up slightly, but salaries aren’t.
Despite more people going back to work, American families are continuing to
struggle and, according to a new U.S. Census Bureau report, are now making
less than they did in 1989 when adjusted for inflation.
As Neil Irwin of The Washington Post pointed out, 24 years
ago the median U.S. household made $51,681 in current dollars, compared to
$51,017 in 2012. So despite employment gains, the situation remains dire. And the drop in salary can’t just be blamed on the last recession, he said:
This isn’t a lost decade for economic gains for Americans. It is a lost generation.
Of course, the desire to pay lower wages is why groups such as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and their corporate buddies have pushed for the implementation of no-rights-at-work laws in many states across the country. They know a good deal (for them) when they see it. So they wine-and-dine state lawmakers and spend millions to pass laws that hinder worker’s organizing efforts.
Another big reason is the enactment of the North
American Free Trade Agreement and other so-called “free” trade deals. While
American workers were promised more jobs and improved wages, they didn’t get
either. All the benefits went to big business.
The result is while corporate profits continue to soar,
nothing is trickling down to average workers. Three years into an economic
recovery, they haven’t recovered a thing. Former Obama administration economist Jared Bernstein said:Yes, the economy has expanded over these past few years, but to use a seasonal analogy, today’s report is yet another piece of evidence that this growth has once again done an end run around middle and lower income households on the way to the top of the scale.
That’s the path for a good job and more money in their pocket.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Today's Teamster News 06.09.12
Bernanke signals no imminent steps to aid economy Associated Press ...Slumping job growth has alarmed some economists who fear the U.S. economy is in trouble. (Federal Reserve Chairman) Ben Bernanke doesn't appear to be one of them...
Trade Deficit for April 2012 - $50.06 Billion Instapopulist ...The United States basically has two major ongoing problems with the trade deficit, Chinese goods and Oil imports...
22 States Stand Up Against Citizens United Economy in Crisis ...many observers are excited that the court may have to revisit its decision with the effects of the case now apparent. 22 states have filed a brief with the court expressing their support for the Montana court’s ruling, strongly stating their stance against Citizens United...
Obama Campaign adopts "Made in America" fashion collection Manufacture This ...Kudos to whomever at the Obama 2012 campaign decided to implement a designer Made in America fashion collection. Voters who want to show their support for President Obama while simultaneously supporting American-made shirts and handbags should check out the "Runaway to Win" collection...
Republic Airways Teamsters Share Plight About Company's Attacks On Workforce IBT ...Teamster pilots, flight attendants and mechanics who work at Republic Airways--which provides regional jet passenger service for mainline U.S. carriers--distributed fliers today at 10 airports nationwide to educate the flying public about the company's ongoing attacks on its employees...
Teamsters' picket highlights era without salary increases NWI.com ...Teamsters members working for years without a pay raise conducted an informational picket Friday morning outside the Lake County Government Complex's main entrance...
Trade Deficit for April 2012 - $50.06 Billion Instapopulist ...The United States basically has two major ongoing problems with the trade deficit, Chinese goods and Oil imports...
22 States Stand Up Against Citizens United Economy in Crisis ...many observers are excited that the court may have to revisit its decision with the effects of the case now apparent. 22 states have filed a brief with the court expressing their support for the Montana court’s ruling, strongly stating their stance against Citizens United...
Obama Campaign adopts "Made in America" fashion collection Manufacture This ...Kudos to whomever at the Obama 2012 campaign decided to implement a designer Made in America fashion collection. Voters who want to show their support for President Obama while simultaneously supporting American-made shirts and handbags should check out the "Runaway to Win" collection...
Republic Airways Teamsters Share Plight About Company's Attacks On Workforce IBT ...Teamster pilots, flight attendants and mechanics who work at Republic Airways--which provides regional jet passenger service for mainline U.S. carriers--distributed fliers today at 10 airports nationwide to educate the flying public about the company's ongoing attacks on its employees...
Teamsters' picket highlights era without salary increases NWI.com ...Teamsters members working for years without a pay raise conducted an informational picket Friday morning outside the Lake County Government Complex's main entrance...
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Today's Teamster News 05.30.12
Flat U.S. Wages Help Fuel Rebound in Manufacturing Wall Street Journal ...The celebrated revival of U.S. manufacturing employment has been accompanied by a less-lauded fact: Wages for many manufacturing workers aren't keeping up with inflation...
A revalued Chinese currency would benefit U.S. economy Manufacture This ... the U.S. Department of the Treasury released its “Semi-Annual Report to Congress on International Economic and Exchange Rate Policies.” The report did NOT cite China as a currency manipulator...
War hero, 91, targeted in Florida's purge of voter rolls Stars and Stripes ...Using an American war veteran as the face of their cause, two South Florida congressmen called on the governor Tuesday to immediately stop the state’s purge of the voter rolls...
MJS Report Says Scott Walker is at the Heart of Criminal Corruption Probe The Lakeland Times ...A breaking investigative report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel suggests that Scott Walker is at the heart of the John Doe criminal corruption probe that has charged six Walker associates with 15 felonies. The report discusses an email exchange between Walker and longtime adviser, John Hiller, over a County contract that is under investigation for potential bid-rigging...
Conservatives fast tracked CP Rail back-to-work bill City News ...Back-to-work legislation that will end a week-long strike by CP Rail workers was put on Parliament's equivalent of a red-eye bullet train...
Teamsters Demand US Small Business Administration Cut Ties with Private Equity Fund Westbury Partners GCC-IBT Local 1-L ...Today, dozens of Teamsters, construction workers and community members protested outside the Small Business Administration's regional office in downtown Manhattan calling on the federal agency to pull its investment from private equity firm Westbury Partners in response to ongoing workers' rights violations and anti-union activity at its portfolio company AFL Web Printing...
A revalued Chinese currency would benefit U.S. economy Manufacture This ... the U.S. Department of the Treasury released its “Semi-Annual Report to Congress on International Economic and Exchange Rate Policies.” The report did NOT cite China as a currency manipulator...
War hero, 91, targeted in Florida's purge of voter rolls Stars and Stripes ...Using an American war veteran as the face of their cause, two South Florida congressmen called on the governor Tuesday to immediately stop the state’s purge of the voter rolls...
MJS Report Says Scott Walker is at the Heart of Criminal Corruption Probe The Lakeland Times ...A breaking investigative report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel suggests that Scott Walker is at the heart of the John Doe criminal corruption probe that has charged six Walker associates with 15 felonies. The report discusses an email exchange between Walker and longtime adviser, John Hiller, over a County contract that is under investigation for potential bid-rigging...
Conservatives fast tracked CP Rail back-to-work bill City News ...Back-to-work legislation that will end a week-long strike by CP Rail workers was put on Parliament's equivalent of a red-eye bullet train...
Teamsters Demand US Small Business Administration Cut Ties with Private Equity Fund Westbury Partners GCC-IBT Local 1-L ...Today, dozens of Teamsters, construction workers and community members protested outside the Small Business Administration's regional office in downtown Manhattan calling on the federal agency to pull its investment from private equity firm Westbury Partners in response to ongoing workers' rights violations and anti-union activity at its portfolio company AFL Web Printing...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)