Today's Teamster News 04.06.15

Teamsters
Anti-Union Allegiant CEO Lives His Worst Dream: Teamster Pilots  Forbes   ...In January, pilots voted 465-8 to authorize a strike. Now, the union is moving on two fronts to use the threat of a strike to improve working conditions. Pilots were prepared to strike on April 2, but on April 1 a U.S. district court judge in Las Vegas issued a temporary restraining order. A hearing is scheduled for Friday, April 10...
Horse Carriage Foes Spend $14k on Subway Ads  City & State   ...Demos Demopoulos, executive officer of the Teamsters Local 553 union that represents about 120 horse carriage drivers, said his group is also lobbying the Council. Demopoulos claimed a majority is opposed to the bill and noted that polling has shown that public opinion is on the side of drivers...
Detroit residents unite to honor Viola Liuzzo  USA Today   ...The committee, supported by the Greening of Detroit, has received financial commitments totaling $300,000 from the UAW-Ford and the Teamsters, among others, and two fundraisers are planned for upcoming days. (Anthony Liuzzo Sr., who died in 1978, was a Teamsters official.)...
NYCHA worker may have been killed by faulty trash machine  NY Daily News   ...An investigation by Teamsters Local 237, which represents 8,000 NYCHA workers, has since found evidence that contradicts the NYPD theory and suggests maintenance failures may have contributed to Jackson’s death...

Global Labor & Trade
White House Says Enviros Love This Trade Pact, But Enviros Say Otherwise  Huffington Post  ...The Obama administration has angered a host of environmentalist organizations with an Internet campaign that suggests green groups broadly support the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership, which environmentalists have in fact been fighting for years...
The True Myths on the Trans-Pacific Partnership  CEPR   ...The proponents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are doing everything they can to try to push their case as they prepare for the fast-track vote before Congress this month. They begin by giving us three myths, all of which happen to be accurate depictions of reality...
Strikes proliferate in China as working class awakens  Today Online   ...More than three decades after Beijing began allowing market reforms, China’s 168 million migrant workers are discovering their labour rights through the spread of social media. They are on the forefront of a labour protest movement that is posing a growing and awkward problem for the ruling Communist Party...

State & Living Wage Battles
Right-to-work backers vow continued push  Albuquerque Journal   ...A high-profile push to approve a New Mexico right-to-work law stalled during the recent 60-day legislative session, but the issue appears likely to be back next year — both in the Roundhouse and on the 2016 campaign trail...
State Looking For National Role In Union-Backed Bill   Hartford Courant   ...Connecticut gained widespread attention in recent years as a national leader in Democratic circles by increasing the minimum wage and passing a first-in-the-nation statewide mandate for paid sick days for some service employees...
Nevada Senate approves minimum wage increase bill  Las Vegas Review Journal   ...A Republican-backed bill to overhaul Nevada’s overtime law and increase the minimum wage for some workers was approved Friday by the state Senate on a party-line vote, with Democrats calling the measure a “slap in the face” to the working poor...
U.S. Supreme Court Declines To Review North Carolina Voting Law  Huffington Post   ...The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review the legality of new Republican-backed voting restrictions in North Carolina that were part of a law opponents argued was aimed at making it harder for voters who tend to favor Democrats to cast ballots...
Kansas Will Limit Welfare Recipients To $25 A Day   Think Progress  ...During debate over the bill state Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau (D) pointed out that many recipients need to withdraw hundreds of dollars some days in order to be able to pay rent...
Fast Food Workers: Thanks for the Raise, McDonald’s, But We Said $15 an Hour, Not $10  In These Times   ...The company, fighting to improve its battered image, may not have intended the move to be a joke. But in the end, many workers saw the welcome boost in pay and benefits as largely a fraud perpetrated on the public as well as on fast food workers...
This City Could Become The Next Detroit   Think Progress  ...Starting this week, 25,000 households in Baltimore will suddenly lose their access to water for owing bills of $250 or more, with very little notice given and no public hearings...

U.S. Labor
Be Nervous (But Not Panicked) About The March Jobs Report   FiveThirtyEight   ...Employers added 126,000 jobs last month, breaking a 12-month streak of growth over 200,000 jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday. The report was far weaker than most economists expected and represented the slowest pace of growth since the end of 2013. The government also revised down its estimate of January and February hiring by a combined 69,000 jobs...
Michigan Factory Owner Gives Out $6 Million In Thank-You Bonuses  Huffington Post  ...When J.C. Huizenga sold his namesake machinery manufacturing company, he wanted to share the spoils. The Huizenga Group chairman gave out nearly $6 million in bonuses to more than 575 workers in his two Michigan factories. It was his way of thanking the employees for helping grow the company, which now earns about $170 million in annual sales, according to CBS News...
Trade workers set to benefit from Gov. Jerry Brown's project list  Los Angeles Times   ...At his recent groundbreaking for the state's high-speed train, Gov. Jerry Brown paused while extolling the project to laud the union workers who will build it. "You've got to put something in the ground," Brown said, riffing on what drives economic growth. "You've got to get these building trades men and women doing stuff. That's what makes America — what makes the world — go 'round."...
Workers — not employers — are the real wage movers and shakers  (opinion) Washington Post   ...“We’re too big and complicated a system to do anything in reaction to a particular group or something happening,” Karen King, who has the wonderful title of “chief people officer” at McDonald’s, said Wednesday, explaining her company’s decision to raise wages for some of its employees. If you believe that, don’t go near anyone purporting to sell you a bridge, even if it comes with fries on the side...

Today's Teamster News 04.05.14

Teamster News
Judge Approves $1.25 Million Wage Settlement For Baltimore City School Bus Workers  teamster.org   ... The settlement covers damages for 372 class members over unpaid wages dating back to 2010...
Teamsters Hail ‘Groundbreaking’ LA-Area Waste Reduction Plan  teamster.org   ...Teamster leaders are hailing a vote by the Los Angeles City Council this week to overhaul the city’s waste-collection system so that more materials are diverted from landfills, and will give responsible employers a better chance to do the work...
Teamsters Airline Division Statement On Republic Pilots' Vote  teamster.org   ...pilots of Republic Airlines, represented by Teamsters Local Union 357 in Plainfield, Ind. and the Teamsters Airline Division, voted down a tentative agreement by the count of 289-1,643...
Teamsters Union Members Receive Raise As Ypsilanti Township Reigns In Legacy Costs  Ann Arbor News   ...Ypsilanti Township approved a 3 percent pay increase for five of its ten Teamsters Union members, but in exchange received significant savings in legacy costs...
Trade
US allows Boeing airplane component sales to Iran  BBC News   ...The US Treasury has granted plane manufacturer Boeing a licence to export certain spare commercial parts to Iran, a company spokesman says...
Teamsters: House USTR Hearing Raises Warnings of ‘Back To The Future’ With Trade  teamster.org   ...Unfortunately for working Americans, there is reason to doubt U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman’s outlook on how the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other trade agreements will affect their ability to support their families in the future...
State Battles
California Truckers Will Get $2.2 Million In Back Pay For Being Misclassified  ThinkProgress   ...A California logistics company must pay more than $2.2 million in back pay to seven short-haul truck drivers it had illegally misclassified as independent contractors, a state labor board ruled on Wednesday, continuing a streak of victories for drivers who are asserting their labor rights in the state...
MO House Narrowly Approves Bill Dubbed 'Paycheck Deception' By Opponents  Crooks and Liars   ...The bill, approved 83-69, now goes to the Senate. If they approve it, through a clause, it'll bypass the governor and go up for a referendum on the August ballot...
GOP governor uses taxpayer money to bust unions  MSNBC   ...There are bombshell revelations about GOP Gov. Bill Haslam’s influence in stopping the UAW from unionizing the Tennessee VW plant...
War on Workers
Hoffa Pushes Back On Labor Attacks At Public Colleges  teamster.org   ...Watch General President Jim Hoffa on “Real Money” as he takes on Republicans who want to block public universities from offering courses on labor issues...
Walmart Admits: 'Our Profits' Depend on 'Their Poverty'  Common Dreams   ...Although a notorious recipient of "corporate welfare," Walmart has now admitted that their massive profits also depend on the funding of food stamps and other public assistance programs...
Ruling Spurs Rush for Cash in Both Parties  New York Times   ...The ruling allows donors to make the maximum contribution to an unlimited number of campaigns, freeing donors from caps that required them to pick and prioritize from among each party’s candidates and national committees...
U.S. Creates 192,000 Jobs In March, Unemployment Rate Holds At 6.7%  Associated Press ...The U.S. economy added 192,000 jobs in March, as the unemployment rate remained at 6.7 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday...
3 reasons to worry about March's jobs report  CNN   ...Average hourly wages fell in March...
Chicago McDonald's Workers Protest Against Wage Theft  Progress Illinois   ...As fans filed into the McDonald's All-American Games Wednesday evening, paying as much as $135 for a ticket to watch basketball played by future millionaires, fast food workers stood across the street in hopes of simply being paid what they are owed...
Loss Of Unemployment Benefits Has Now Cost Almost $5 Billion As Congress Dithers  ThinkProgress   ...The Senate moved one small step closer to passing a restoration of long-term jobless benefits that lapsed in December, costing states billions...
Sure, Bigwigs Want Labor Rights—But Only for Themselves  In These Times   ...What do Apple, the NCAA and Tennessee Republicans all have in common?...
More Than 20 Striking Students Arrested, Belying University of California’s Era of ‘Labor Peace’  In These Times   ...A system-wide strike by graduate assistants at the University of California started with what their union calls an ugly irony. The work stoppage, staged in protest of past alleged attempts by UC to intimidate graduate workers for labor organizing, was quickly met with the arrest of 20 students at UC Santa Cruz who were picketing early Wednesday morning...
Hopkins Hospital Workers Speak Out against "Poverty Wages"  The Real News   ...The Real News talks to workers at Baltimore's internationally renowned Johns Hopkins Hospital as they prepare for a possible strike in order to obtain a $15 hourly wage...
Miscellaneous
Northwestern Football Union Leaders Take Their Case To Capitol Hill  Washington Post   ...As Northwestern's football players attempt to unionize, their leaders came to Capitol Hill this week to lobby for the effort and to protect their interests in advance of potential legislative battles...
How the Latest Supreme Court Ruling Will Mint Millions for Mass Media  AlterNet   ...The same companies which operate on our publicly owned airwaves stand to gain the most from McCutcheon and its earlier obscene counterpart, Citizens United...

Today's Teamster News 03.29.14

Teamster News
Truckers at Pratt Logistics in Lower Macungie Unioninze  The Morning Call   ...Truck drivers at a Lower Macungie cardboard box-maker now are represented by the Teamsters after a union vote taken nearly two years ago was unsealed and certified earlier this month...
CCTA: Contract Proposal from Drivers is Next Step Toward Compromise  Burlington Free Press   ...A contract proposal was offered Wednesday evening by Teamster bus drivers to the Chittenden County Transportation Authority management as the next installment in the contract negotiation saga...
20 Teamsters jobs in the balance with possible new sanitation contract  Cumberland Times-News   ...Bids for a new three-year garbage collection contract with the city of Cumberland are under review with the future of 20 city sanitation workers with Teamsters Local 453 hanging in the balance...
NetJets Unions Form Coalition, Start Picketing Campaign  AIN Online   ...The NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots and International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 284 executive boards launched the NetJets Union Coalition last week...
Trade
Hundreds protest against trade deal  msn.nz   ...Hundreds attended protest rallies across the country in opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal. About 15 rallies were held from 1pm on Saturday in cities and towns from Invercargill to Hokianga...
NZNO Joining Rally Against TPP  Voxy   ...The New Zealand Nurses Organization is joining the international rally against the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement...
U.S. Trade Deficits Have Grown More Than 440% with FTA Countries, but Declined 16% with Non-FTA Countries  Public Citizen   ...The aggregate U.S. goods trade deficit with Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partners is more than five times as high as before the deals went into effect...
Labor Crisis Begets Violence on Colombia’s Pacific Coast  In These Times   ...The Pacific port city of Buenaventura handles around two-thirds of the country’s maritime foreign trade and connects Colombia to 300 ports around the world. But Buenaventura is better known as an epicenter of narco-paramilitary activity, making it one of Colombia’s many sites of rampant poverty and violence, death and hopelessness...
State Battles
St. Louis Religious Leaders Declare Opposition To 'Right-To-Work' Law  St. Louis Public Radio   ...Top religious leaders in St. Louis — led by Catholic Archbishop Robert J. Carlson — announced Friday that they oppose legislative efforts to pass “right-to-work’’ measures that would restrict labor rights...
Missouri Senate endorses unemployment change  Associated Press   ...The amount of time Missourians can receive unemployment benefits would be tied to the state's jobless rate under legislation endorsed by the state Senate on Wednesday...
Leah Vukmir agrees to turn over ALEC documents to settle open records lawsuit  Wisconsin State Journal   ...The agreement comes as part of a lawsuit settlement between Sen. Leah Vukmir, R-Wauwatosa, and the Center for Media and Democracy, a liberal advocacy group, over documents it sought related to the American Legislative Exchange Council. It includes $15,000 in payments from the state on behalf of Vukmir...
Good news for Connecticut’s governor: He got the highest state minimum wage  Washington Post   ...Connecticut’s Gov. Dan Malloy can breathe a little easier: he just landed the minimum wage hike he’s been pushing so hard for. The new bill will raise the minimum wage by 2017 to $10.10, the highest among any state...
Illinois House gets millionaire tax plan moving  Daily Herald   ...Illinois lawmakers chose to advance an additional income tax on millionaires over a broader shift of taxes toward the wealthy Thursday, setting the tone for months of debate over how much people should pay to help the state stabilize its finances...
NY AG Settles Labor Violations with 6 Domino's Franchisees  Blue MauMau   ...New York's Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced settlements with six Domino’s franchisees over labor violations, requiring them to pay $448,000 in restitution to 750 employees...
FedEx loses another driver misclassification case, in Maine  People's World   ...FedEx, notorious for misclassifying its drivers as "independent contractors" - barring them from labor law protection and avoiding paying Social Security, Medicare and workers' comp taxes, lost another misclassification case, in Maine...
War on Workers
U.S. Government Charges Kellogg With Serious Violations of Federal Law  bctgm.org   ...The U.S. government charged the Kellogg Company with multiple and serious violations of federal law stemming from its October 22, 2013 lockout of more than 220 workers at the company's Memphis cereal production facility...
Class-action lawsuit seeks back pay for cabdrivers    Chicago Sun-Times   ...Chicago taxicab companies are “misclassifying” their drivers as independent contractors and should consider them employees eligible for overtime and the state’s $8.25-an-hour minimum wage, a federal class-action lawsuit claimed Wednesday...
Walmart Gets More Heat for Low Pay  AOL Jobs   ...The pressure on Walmart is growing from within, as workers tell behind-the-scenes tales of overwork and underpayment at America's largest employer. But there's another, potentially more damaging source of growing criticism: the media, including the financial media that covers events from the investor's perspective...
SEPTA union boss Willie Brown: We're not afraid to strike  Philadelphia Inquirer   ...The chances of a transit strike against SEPTA are "very good," union president Willie Brown said Wednesday...
The troubling reason Americans are so depressed  AlterNet   ...Our unhappiness can be traced to feelings of "learned helplessness" -- and corporations, in part, may be to blame...
Michigan State Univ. should end union organizing seminars, say anti-union lawmakers and builders    Michigan Live   ...The Associated Builders and Contractors of Michigan is demanding that Michigan State University cancel its Building Trades Academy program on the grounds that it encourages "organizing in non-union construction companies"...
Greek unions to hold general strike on April 9 to protest latest austerity measures  Associated Press   ...Greece's largest public sector union says it will join a nationwide general strike April 9 to protest austerity measures. The move means that the walkout will affect all private and public sector services...
Miscellaneous
Social Security launches expedited process for Veterans’ disability claims  Belvoir Eagle
Social Security claims from veterans with a Veterans Affairs Department disability compensation rating of 100 percent permanent and total have a new process that will treat their applications as high priority and issue expedited decisions...

 

Republic Services rips off workers, violates contract with San Jose

Republic Services is breaking the law in San Jose by refusing to pay workers living wages for the hard, dangerous work they do, according to Brother John Bouchard, business agent for Teamsters Local 350 in Daly City, Calif.

Brother Bouchard posted a story in The Left Hook blog today about Republic's theft of wages from workers at the Newby Island Recyclery. He tells us:

Republic Services is the second largest solid waste and recycling company in the world, and they are the company that runs Newby Island Recyclery, a state of the art recycling facility that uses hundreds of unrepresented workers to sort the various commodities that are brought in and processed there.  These workers perform extremely difficult work in poor conditions. 

They don’t have any benefits, and are only paid the city’s minimum wage; about half of what sorters make for other companies.  Republic has refused to pay them the living wage, as called for in their contract with the city of San Jose. 

Why, you ask, are these workers only paid the minimum wage?  Because Republic Services feels that they are above the law, and that the living wage provision in their contract with the city does not apply to this group of workers. 

As members of this community, we should all be extremely concerned about this lack of respect, and blatant disregard for worker’s rights.  This wasn’t just a simple oversight.  It was an intentional cost-saving move at the worker’s expense.  The city of San Jose has brought the violation to Republic’s attention, and Republic is still disputing whether or not they are obligated to pay the required wages. 

Republic Services owes more than two million dollars in back-pay to affected workers, and could face more fines from the city for not complying with the ordinance.  This has been dragging on for months, and as of today, the issue has not been settled due to Republic’s continued appeals.  This company ought to be ashamed of itself, skirting the law instead of flouting it in the face of the 10th largest city in America.

We especially like Brother Bouchard's explanation of why living wage ordinances are important:

... for those workers that are non-union, living wage ordinances may be the only wage protection they have...They are meant to ensure that workers are provided with fair wages for jobs performed in the areas in which they live and work. 

Read his whole post here. And post a comment of support for our brothers and sisters who work for Republic Services on their Facebook page here.

Another Teamster organizing victory in Georgia!

DeKalb County workers celebrate.

Please give a warm welcome to hundreds of soon-to-be new Teamster brothers and sisters who work as sanitation workers for DeKalb County, Ga.!

Although the future Teamsters Local 728 members had the support of their company’s CEO and county commissioners, it took months to find a solution to the state’s No Rights at Work laws. State law does not give public sector workers the right to collectively bargain. Today, DeKalb County Commissioners unanimously passed an ordinance allowing county employees to organize.

Commissioners essentially voted to recognize the Teamsters as the workers' union representative. The ordinance takes effect Jan. 1.The 400 workers who have already signed membership applications will become members of Teamsters Local 728 that day.

Dejuan McDaniel, an organizing committee member and front-end loader driver for 13 years at DeKalb, is excited for the future.

We have been without a serious voice for so long. We had safety issues that have been unheard. We had pay issues, mistreatment of employees. It was long overdue.

Eric Robertson, Teamsters Local 728 business agent, said they've been talking to the workers for more than seven years. "It's been a long time coming," he said.

The new ordinance will allow about 4,000 other DeKalb County workers to join unions.

NYC Teamsters make splash with campaign to fix commercial waste industry

Teamsters JC 16 President George Miranda and Teamster brothers and sisters

New York City welcomed the news yesterday of the Teamsters' new coalition to reform the commercial waste industry, an alliance that includes small businesses fed up with shakedowns and environmentalists fed up with fighting air pollution.

Sean Campbell, president of Teamsters Local 813, told a news conference yesterday what union members are fed up with. The Epoch Times reported on his remarks:

Growing up, jobs in the sanitation industry were good paying jobs with good pension plans. Now the majority of private owners pay very low wages and little in benefits. Many break the most basic health and safety regulations.

At the same news conference, Teamsters International Vice President George Miranda (and Teamsters Joint Council 16 president) called on the city to work with unions and community groups to tackle commercial waste in New York City.

It's time we open a new phase of recycling with New York's commercial carters.

Errol Louis with Bettina Damiani of Good Jobs
New York, which endorsed the coalition's report.

New York City's beloved Daily News columnist Errol Louis wholeheartedly endorsed the plan by what he called "an unlikely environmental activists and neighborhood groups." Louis explained what's wrong with New York's commercial waste industry:

...the commercial trash removal system has been an environmental and economic scandal for decades. In 1996, prosecutors indicted dozens of carting company executives, accusing them of running the garbage firms as branches of the Genovese and Gambino crime organizations. The mayor at the time, Rudy Giuliani, created a government agency, the Trade Waste Commission (now called the Business Integrity Commission), to weed out the crooks. 

But Rudy didn’t kill the beast. This year, federal prosecutors arrested 30 waste haulers, calling them members of the Gambino, Genovese and Luchese crime families and accusing them of racketeering — everything from loansharking to shaking down legitimate businesses and dividing up the New York area into territories controlled by different mobsters. 

To make matters worse, according to Transform Don’t Trash, a large number of commercial waste companies compete in the same neighborhoods, with multiple diesel-powered trucks running up and down the same streets, spewing soot and leaving potholes and chewed-up pavement in their wake. A lack of oversight leaves low-level waste workers badly underpaid and exposed to poisons, disease and accidents, making trash collection and removal one of the 10 deadliest occupations in America. 

And most of the garbage finally arrives in low-income, outer-borough neighborhoods. Manhattan, which generates 41% of the city’s commercial waste, has only 2% of the city’s solid waste transfer stations and 3% of the recycling facilities, according to the coalition.

NYC Teamsters begin campaign to create good commercial waste jobs

Teamsters Joint Council 16 President George Miranda with Sean Campbell,
president of Teamsters Local 813.

(Updates to add photo)

New York City Teamsters and their allies have high hopes for a campaign launched today to increase good jobs, recycling and justice in the commercial waste industry. New Yorkers are paying attention.

This morning the New York Daily News reported the Alliance for a Greater New York (ALIGN)  is recommending the city adopt a franchise system involving competitive bidding, a reduced number of companies and higher environmental and labor standards.

What the newspaper missed was the creation of a strong new alliance -- Transform Don't Trash NYC -- to make that happen. The campaign to tackle the problems of New York City's commercial waste industry involves the Teamsters, ALIGN, environmental justice and community advocacy groups.

A month away from Election Day, mayoral and city council candidates would do well to listen to their message.

Teamsters Joint Council 16 President George Miranda said at a City Hall news conference today:

Today is the day we make New York City a better place to live and work.

Miranda told the press wages are falling in New York's commercial waste industry, with new hires in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island earning just below $20,000 a year:

This industry has become a "Wild West." Unsafe and sometimes illegal operators are driving a race to the bottom in wages and health and safety.

The news conference followed the release of a study showing the city could recycle and compost more than 90 percent of commercial waste, but the current rate is much lower than that.

"This stinks," wrote Daily News reporters Daniel Beekman and Stephen Rex Brown:

...of the 3.2 million tons of commercial waste generated each year, 2 million tons are buried in landfills or burned in incinerators. 

The Alliance for a Greater New York, which wrote the report released Wednesday, blames a dysfunctional commercial waste industry that reeks of inefficiency.

Eddie Bautista, executive director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, said  it's time to stop burying low-income communities of color under mountains of commercial waste.

The time has come for New York City to stop burying communities -- as well as burying potential recycling jobs. ... the next mayor can really jumpstart a commercial recycling program that both increases long-neglected recycling work opportunities, while continuing to decrease our carbon footprint.

Teamsters Joint Council 16 includes Teamsters Local 831, which represents New York City sanitation workers.

Teamster organizing victory in Wisconsin!

Please welcome four new Teamsters to our union family. They are employed by the Port-O-Let division of Waste Management, and voted on Friday to join Local 200 in Milwaukee.

The company ran a nasty anti-union campaign, but the workers stood strong. They had help from brothers employed at Waste Management and support from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters' Freight division.

Our new brothers recognize that joining the Teamsters was the way to better their lives at home and in the workplace.

They made the right decision to join the 1.4 million brothers and sisters of this great organization, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

The newest Teamsters.

Today's Teamster News 08.20.13

DeKalb County Workers Nearer to Union  Atlanta Journal-Constitution   ...DeKalb County took a huge step toward having its first union representing nonpublic safety workers...
Don’t Forget to Register for the Teamster Women’s Conference  IBT   ...The Teamster Women’s Conference will be held September 19-21, 2013 in New Orleans. Sign up to join your Teamster Sisters and Brothers in this dynamic event while space is still available!...
Shaheen: High Sugar Prices Not Sweet for Jobs  Portsmouth Patch   ...Speaking to union representatives at the Teamsters Bakery and Laundry Conference in Portsmouth Monday, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, said high sugar prices are killing manufacturing jobs across the country...
Rally for fair trade Tuesday in Minneapolis  Workday Minnesota   ...Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen will headline a rally Tuesday by union members, community groups and others to protest the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal...
Fast-food workers call for nationwide walkout Aug. 29  Washington Post   ...Emboldened by an outpouring of support on social media, low-wage fast-food and retail workers from eight cities that staged walkouts earlier this year are calling for a national day of strikes on Aug. 29...
Moral Monday protesters rail against 'Mecklenburg trio'  Charlotte Observer   ...One of the city’s largest protests – police estimated about 2,000 demonstrators – packed into uptown’s Marshall Park...
Despite nearly 300 arrests, Capitol protest grows  Wisconsin State Journal   ...Participation in the noontime Capitol protest against Gov. Scott Walker continued to crescendo Monday despite nearly four weeks of almost daily arrests for gathering in the rotunda without a permit...
Americans Get Fewer Paid Sick Days Than Two Decades Ago  Think Progress   ...Compared to 1993, Americans now get fewer paid sick days from their employers on average, dropping from 10 days a year to eight for a worker who has been with a company for a year. The decrease becomes bigger the longer an employee stays on...
Bangladesh’s Workers Deserve Better  New York Times   ...Four months after a building collapse killed more than 1,100 factory workers in Bangladesh, their families are still waiting for adequate — and in some cases, any — compensation. This is a shocking lapse by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government...
Democrats push back on voting rights  Washington Post   ...After crying foul over Republican efforts to modify election laws in key states, Democrats are launching their own wide-ranging push to change the way Americans vote, kicking off the latest battles in a fight over voting rights that’s as old as the republic itself...
Congressman Brags About ‘Savings’ In Farm Bill, Ignoring Devastating Food Stamp Cuts  Think Progress   ...Rep. Jeff Denham (R-CA) flagrantly misrepresented what the House has done with the farm bill at a recent constituent breakfast in Turlock, California. Denham claimed the House farm bill cuts twice as much spending as it actually does, misled about the nature of those cuts, and ignored his party’s unprecedented decision to drop food stamps and other anti-hunger and anti-poverty spending from the bill...
The Incredible Con the Banksters Pulled on the FBI (opinion)  OpEdNews   ...criminal referrals have virtually vanished against the "accounting control frauds" that drive our recurrent, intensifying financial crises...
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Said to Avoid Billions in Write-Offs  Bloomberg News   ...Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have reported record profits after a taxpayer bailout, are ignoring billions of dollars in potential losses on delinquent loans as they take three years to adopt a new accounting system, a government auditor said in a letter made public today...
Samsung hit with lawsuit over labor conditions  Washington Post   ...Samsung has been named in a lawsuit filed by a Brazilian labor group, which said working conditions at the technology firm’s assembly lines were in violation of Brazilian law. The group is asking for at least $108 million in damages...
Obama goes to bat for Big Tobacco in TPP  Action on Smoking and Health   ...Legal analysts for the public health community, who were briefed Friday morning in a closed session by administration officials, agreed that the new proposal will do little to protect governments’ right to regulate tobacco...
1,800 Ohio jobs lost  Dayton Daily News   ...Offshoring continues to impact Ohio with companies cutting at least 1,800 jobs in the state since January, according to petitions for federal assistance from employees, labor groups, and company officials...
Support lacking for BART strike ban  San Francisco Examiner   ...BART remains the busiest public transit system in the U.S. that does not have a worker strike ban in place, and the route to blocking that right could be a long journey...
There's A New Push To Raise Seattle Minimum Wage To $15 Per Hour  Associated Press   ...Washington already has the nation's highest state minimum wage at $9.19 an hour. Now, there's a push in Seattle, at least, to make it $15...
Indiana customers due $32M from 6 utilities  Indianapolis Business Journal   ...Indiana's largest power companies are set to reimburse their customers $32 million after falling short on spending for energy efficiency last year...
Minnesota factories' output up, employment down  Minnesota Public Radio   ...Minnesota's factories are churning out lots of products like airplane parts and medical devices these days, but they're not exactly going on hiring sprees...

Teamster organizing victory in California

Please give a warm welcome to our 80 new brothers and sisters, drivers and mechanics at Waste Management in Carlsbad, Calif.! They voted overwhelmingly to join Local 683 in San Diego.

Todd Mendez, Local 683 secretary-treasurer, said the workers are seeking strong Teamster representation.

The company treats their people bad. The supervisors bully their workers. We will work hard to negotiate a strong first contract that will help put a stop to the mistreatment that is taking place.

Local 683 will also work to win the workers a strong pension plan, Mendez said.

On July 13, Waste Management workers in El Cajon who belong to Local 683 overwhelming ratified their first contract, which provides solid pay increases and excellent benefits. The contract covers 190 workers who joined the Teamsters in March.

The local is starting a campaign to organize about 100 workers at Waste Management in Oceanside. When Local 683 is done, they will represent 400 Waste Management workers at three locations in San Diego County.

Bob Morales, director of the Teamsters Solid Waste, Recycling and Related Industries Division, said: 

We will continue to work hard to organize waste and recycling workers across the country so that they receive the fair pay, decent benefits and improved working conditions they deserve for the extremely difficult job they do.

To our new brothers and sisters we say, Welcome to our great union!

More good jobs, less bad pollution

If more U.S. cities recycled like Seattle, a million-plus good jobs would result, according to our friends at Partnership for Working Families. We're cross-posting their blog today about a new report that explains how:

The top 37 metro areas in the country are poised to create new jobs, make bad jobs into good ones, and solve tough environmental problems by transforming the way they handle their trash and recycling.

Transforming Trash in Urban America, a new report from the Partnership for Working Families, shows that creating jobs and slowing climate change through a new approach to waste management is both possible and urgent for America’s largest cities.

Our cities bear the brunt of the national jobs crisis, as well as suffering the worst effects of climate change, whether through superstorms, drought, fires, or heat waves.  The combination of national and global scale problems with federal political paralysis requires local solutions that add up to national impact.

Transforming the way we deal with our waste is one of the best ways cities can take local action on our jobs and environmental crises.  While the environmental benefits of recycling are well established, the best approach also raises standards in what are some of the worst jobs in country, and becomes a catalyst for economic development and job creation.   This comprehensive, sustainable approach to waste and recycling can yield dramatic results.  Tellus Institute’s More Jobs, Less Pollution study, prepared for labor and environmental organizations, found that we can create 1.3 million jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions at a level equivalent to shutting down 72 coal-fired power plants.

Transforming Trash in Urban America analyzes the top 37 cities in the country and asks whether the innovative recycling models being developed in a few cities could be applied broadly. We found huge potential to build good waste management and recycling systems that would maximize both environmental and economic benefits.

To conduct this study we did an in-depth public records analysis of city waste management plans, recycling reports, and local news.  We followed this document research with in-depth interviews with city waste management and recycling staff, as well as activists and allies in key cities.

We found a few cities doing a great job, many more on the cusp, and a significant number who are early enough in the development of their recycling systems that they can include job standards and creation from the outset.

• In a few model cities like Seattle and San Francisco, workers, environmentalists and community activists have successfully worked with elected leaders and sanitation staff to create comprehensive recycling systems that capture the sector’s full potential as a catalyst for the green economy. 
• Many other cities are on the cusp of capturing recycling’s full potential.  Oakland, Los Angeles, Boston, and New York are all examples of cities where important pieces of the puzzle have been put in place, but critical components, often related to standards for workers or economic development, have been left out.  In many of those cities, new labor/community/environment coalitions are successfully advocating to increase diversion and job standards together, all while strengthening local recycling economies.
• A significant number of cities that we surveyed have low recycling rates and/or few job components of their waste management plans, and lots of room for improvement.  Places like Denver and Milwaukee should adopt waste management and recycling policies that increase diversion and maximize job creation and equity from the very beginning.

The Partnership for Working Families, together with environmental, labor, and community allies, is building a ground up movement to tackle jobs and climate problems through a shift to comprehensive, sustainable waste management and recycling solutions.  Transforming Trash in Urban America shows that city level change can add up to national impact.

On the job with Waste Management workers. It's hard and it's dangerous.

Writer Madeline Thomas learned just how hard and dangerous sanitation work is after spending a day with Local 70 Teamsters who work for Waste Management of Alameda County (WMAC). She wrote a terrific story about it in Oakland North, which Brother Doug Bloch shared with us.

Read the whole story and you will understand why refuse and recyclable collection workers have the fourth highest rate of death on the job in the U.S.

It was at WMAC where one of our Teamster brothers, Jose Camarena, died in 2008 when a car pinned him against his truck.

Writes Thomas:

“There are a lot of things that could happen in the blink of an eye,” said Felix Martinez, a business agent for Teamsters Local 70... 

A driver may dump well over eight tons of garbage in a single day. Drivers also risk being assigned to routes that run through neighborhoods where prostitution, drug deals and gang activity are rampant. There’s also the possibility of sustaining traffic injuries en route, or of being exposed to contaminants in the trash itself.

Thomas drove with Brian Ghilarducci, whose dad was a 29-year Teamster and whose godfather was a collector. (Props to her for showing up in the yard at 3:30 a.m.)

Ghilarducci grabs the cans, latches them to a bin that dumps them into two receptacles attached to an arm on the front of the truck, hops back into the cab, and directs the arms up and over the vehicle to dump the refuse into a much larger container in the back.  He’ll do this hundreds, if not thousands, of times over before the day is done. 

On hotter days, a trail of ants might make their way from the container in back of the truck into his cab. Or the cockroaches might scatter as they’re disturbed from their bins. Today, as sunlight starts to bathe the street in warmth, there’s this stench—overripe, acrid, almost slightly sweet. “You’re going to get used to that smell pretty quick,” said Ghilarducci. “That’s the maggots.”

There's more unpleasantness:

Ghilarducci’s current stop on 64th Avenue, for example, is just blocks away the scene of a fatal double shooting that took place last week at roughly 6 a.m. on the 1600 block of 72nd Avenue. Many drivers are wary that they have to return to the same block each morning—sometimes for years if their routes remain the same—regardless of what might have happened there the day or week before. There’s always a chance that residents could become hostile, or identify them as witnesses if their truck happened to be passing through shortly after a crime.

But the story ends on a high note, because Brother Ghilarducci has a great attitude:

 “I love the job,” he said, wiping his brow on his shoulder after taking a swig of Gatorade.  “It’s physical, it’s outside, it’s the driving. It’s everything I want.”

Read the whole thing here.

Sanitation work just got deadlier

Sanitation workers put their lives on the line every day. Rarely is that recognized.

But Waste & Recycling News reported recently that collecting trash and recyclables is not only dangerous, it's getting more dangerous:

One of America's most dangerous jobs, being a trash and recyclable collector, just got deadlier. 

On-the-job fatalities among trash and recycling collectors dramatically increased last year, making the job the fourth most dangerous in the land, according to statistics released minutes ago by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

The much-anticipated numbers show that 34 waste and recycling collectors died on the job in 2011. 

That compares with 26 such fatalities in 2010, according to the BLS.

When Local 117 claimed that four Puget Sound waste workers were killed on the job since 2005, the local newspaper felt the need to check that fact. (Local 117 was supporting striking workers.)  The Seattle Times then reported that five sanitation workers had been killed during that period.

(By the way, Waste Management just agreed to rebate Seattle residents $1.24 million because of the 8-day strike.)

And let's not forget that Martin Luther King, Jr., was killed in Memphis while supporting a sanitation workers' strike. And the strike was inspired by the deaths of two sanitation workers.

Woo-hoo! Huge Teamsters victory over LA union-buster

Teamsters stand with American Reclamation workers at a rally in LA.

California waste workers who want to be Teamsters are big, big winners in a battle against a union-busting sweatshop. American Reclamation was ordered to reinstate union activists and to quit bullying the rest of the workers.

This is a huge victory.

Here's what happened: American Reclamation fired three workers during a campaign in which they sought Teamster representation for 60 workers. They have plenty of reasons to organize. They're exposed to syringes, needles, rotten meat and toxic chemicals. The company was cited for 36 safety violations this spring. It has been intimidating workers who want to join a union.

On July 24, a district court judge ordered the company to give the three workers their jobs back and to stop threatening and coercing the rest of the employees. Ron Herrera, secretary-treasurer of Local 396 in Covina, pointed out that the National Labor Relations Board, a state agency and the district court all found the company broke the law. He said,

This is a tremendous victory for the 60 sorters, drivers, helpers and mechanics at American Reclamation who are seeking better lives for themselves and their families.

American Reclamation isn't the only union-busting sweatshop in the LA waste industry. The Teamsters are part of the “Don’t Waste LA” coalition, which seeks clean air, green jobs and recycling for all Los Angeles residents. It's working for regionwide standards in the commercial and multi-family waste and recycling system.

Bob Morales, director of the Teamsters Solid Waste, Recycling and Related Industries Division, said the union will continue to work with the NLRB and other agencies to make sure companies are held accountable for their behavior. He also said,

This ruling should send a message to all waste and recycling companies that this contemptible, vicious anti-worker behavior must not be allowed.

Solidarity!

Today's Teamster News 06.05.12

World-Wide Factory Activity, by Country  Wall Street Journal   ...A global manufacturing slowdown took hold in May, as Europe weighed heaviest on world-wide factory activity...

Can Apple Start Making Their Product In The U.S. Again? The Answer Is YES.  Campaign for America's Future   ...Apple CEO Tim Cook was quoted this week at an All Things Digital Conference as saying he'd like to see his company make more components, and possibly assemble them, in the U.S....Fox Spins Walker's "Worst In The Nation" Jobs Record On Eve Of Recall  Media Matters for America   ...In an effort to put a positive spin over Scott Walker's tenure as Wisconsin governor on the eve of his recall election, Fox News repeated questionable jobs numbers released by Walker's administration and pointed to the drop in the state's unemployment rate to prove its case. In fact, data show that there are few things to cheer about regarding Wisconsin's economic situation under Walker...Wisconsin governor's recall unites public safety workers  Marketplace   ...What this guy did is he came in and basically, you don't have a voice, you are servants of your employer and you don't have a voice at the table anymore...Teamsters Agreement Maintains Recycling Service on Mercer Island  Mercer Patch   ...The city's waste and recycling provider Republic Services reached agreement with recycling truck drivers from Teamsters Local 117 on terms for a new 5-year contract...Allied Waste, union remain at contract stalemate  Evansville Courier & Press   ... Allied Waste and Teamsters Local 215 remained at odds Monday, with the next scheduled meeting two weeks away...