Teamsters
Techs At St. Vincent Hospital Seek To Unionize Worcester Telegram ...Approximately 200 technicians have applied to the Boston bureau of the National Labor Relations Board for an election to join Teamsters Local 170 in Worcester...
As Dark Money Monsters Torment Investors, Shareholders Need SEC Chair To Be Superhero; They Ask: ‘Where Is Mary Jo White?’ Public Citizen ...Jim Hoffa, general president, Teamsters. The Teamsters invest more than $100 billion in the capital markets through affiliated pension and benefit funds...
Trade
U.S.-Korea Trade Deal Resulted In Growing Trade Deficits And More Than 75,000 Lost U.S. Jobs Economic Policy Institute ...March 15th was the third anniversary of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS). President Obama said that the agreement would support 70,000 U.S. jobs...
Digital Rights Activists Use Jumbotron ‘Film Fest’ To Pressure Ron Wyden Go Local PDX ...The Digital Rights group Fight for the Future, a posse of internet activists currently campaigning against an international trade deal they say would give officials too much power to censor online content, brought its message to Capitol Hill Monday...
City Council Opposes Fast Track For Pacific Rim Trade Pact Seattle Times ...Seattle City Council on Monday unanimously passed a resolution opposing the so-called fast-track consideration of the Trans-Pacific Partnership...
UAW, Dems Rally Against TPP Trade Agreement Detroit News ...Lortz, who works at the Toledo Assembly Complex producing the Jeep Cherokee, was one of hundreds of union members and others to attend an anti-TPP forum featuring U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo, and local UAW leaders...
State Battles
Indiana Lawmakers Try To Quiet Firestorm Surrounding New Law Associated Press ...Gov. Mike Pence called off public appearances Monday and sports officials planned an "Indy Welcomes All" campaign ahead of this weekend's Final Four as lawmakers scrambled to quiet the firestorm over a new law that has much of the country portraying Indiana as a state of intolerance...
Senate To Consider Bill Raising Washington's Minimum Wage News Tribune ...A bill to raise Washington's highest-in-the-nation state minimum wage to $12-an-hour with a series of annual 50-cent increases is set to get a hearing in the state Senate...
War on Workers
Movement To Increase McDonald’s Minimum Wage Broadens Its Tactics New York Times ...in the wave of actions on April 15, organizers say more than 60,000 people will join strikes and protests in 200 cities nationwide...
NLRB To Weigh In On High-Stakes McDonald’s Labor Dispute The Hill ...An NLRB administrative law judge on Monday will begin weighing whether McDonald’s should be responsible for what employees say are poor working conditions and low pay at many of its franchise restaurants. A finding in the affirmative would mark the first time that a major franchisor would be found culpable for labor violations at individual chains...
U.S. Signed Agreement With Mexico To Teach Immigrants To Unionize Washington Examiner ...The federal government has signed agreements with three foreign countries — Mexico, Ecuador and the Philippines — to establish outreach programs to teach immigrants their rights to engage in labor organizing in the U.S...
After A Story Is Published, A Minimum Wage Worker Loses Her Job Washington Post ...When I wrote about her in The Post last month, she said the minimum wage hike would bring her a bit of financial relief, but it wouldn’t lift her above the poverty line. She called me the other day to say she didn’t get to enjoy the 25-cent hike for long...
Legions Of Women Workers In U.S. Still Lack Minimum Wage And Labor Protections American Prospect ...Today, the National Labor Relations Act still excludes domestic workers and farm laborers, and the Fair Labor Standards Act does not require overtime for farmworkers or even the minimum wage or overtime for many domestic workers. The implications of these exclusions have been profound, denying a growing workforce the basic workplace protections most of us take for granted...
In Surprise Show Of Support, Filibuster-Proof Senate Majority Backs Paid Sick Leave Washington Post ...Just a few weeks ago, the Healthy Families Act — which would allow employees to earn up to seven days of paid sick leave — seemed like just another White House proposal doomed to die in the newly Republican Senate. But this afternoon, it gained a surprise vote of confidence: 61 senators voted for an amendment to the budget that would do essentially the same thing...
Lawmakers Aim To Toughen Laws On Oil Trains Herald Net ...A spate of oil train accidents the past two years has fueled state and federal lawmakers' concerns about the ability of railroads to safely transport the material and the capability of communities to respond to an incident...
Don't Undermine Open Skies (opinion) USA Today ...The big three U.S. carriers — United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines — are rightly asking the Department of Transportation to initiate talks with the UAE and Qatar over their estimated $40 billion in subsidies over a decade...
Miami Beach Maintenance Worker Killed By Flying Tabletop Miami Herald ...A Miami Beach maintenance worker was killed Friday night in what police called an unfortunate accident caused by bad weather...
Worker Killed In Blast At Berks Plant Allentown Morning Call ...Authorities say a worker was killed in an explosion at an eastern Pennsylvania manufacturing plant...
Miscellaneous
Amazon Tests Delivery Drones At Secret Canada Site After US Frustration The Guardian ...The company wants to offer its customers the ability to have packages dropped on their doorstep by flying robots within 30 minutes of ordering goods online. With innovation in the drone sector reaching lightning speeds, Amazon said it was not prepared to curtail its ambitions because of what Misener said was a lack of “impetus” on the US side of the border...
Showing posts with label workplace abuses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label workplace abuses. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Today's Teamster News 08.20.14
Teamster News
Teamsters Local Union Ratifies New Agreement With Penn State Penn State News ...Members of Teamsters Local Union No. 8 employed by Penn State have ratified a new collective bargaining agreement with the University to replace the current agreement, which expired June 30. Teamsters Local Union No. 8 represents the bargaining unit consisting of approximately 2,600 technical-service employees at University locations throughout the Commonwealth...
Negotiations Continue Between EVSC And Teamsters WTVW ...While there is still no contract in hand, communication is still open between the EVSC and Teamsters Local 215 Union. ...The Teamsters Union is made up of bus drivers, custodians, and secretaries, or about 20 percent of the EVSC's staff...
Dubuque's unions name grand marshal for annual Labor Day parade KWWL.com ...This year, members of Dubuque's United Labor Participation Committee selected long-time local Teamsters leader Dave Baker as the parade's grand marshal...
Trade
China fines Japanese car parts firms for price-fixing BBC News ...he country's anti-monopoly regulator said the companies were found to have colluded to reduce competition. Japan's Sumitomo Electric and Mitsubishi Electric were among the firms that received the heaviest fines...
If America Won’t Invest in America’s Infrastructure, China Will manufacture this ...there is a big gap between eastern and western China in terms of transportation infrastructure. China will strengthen infrastructure construction in central and western areas while promoting exports in technology and high-speed railway and highway equipment. China is willing to join the United States in upgrading transportation infrastructure...
State Battles
WEDC is marketing industrial properties owned by Walker donors WKOW.com ...The only private properties being marketed through a Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) land development program are owned by companies whose executives have donated extensively to the campaign of Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wisconsin)...
Group Backing Minimum Wage Hike Submits More Signatures Arkansas News ...A group seeking to place on the November ballot an initiated act to raise the state minimum wage submitted what it said were 69,070 additional signatures in support of the measure to the secretary of state’s office Monday...
San Diego Defies Mayor, Raises Minimum Wage CNN Money ...San Diego is the latest city to pass a minimum wage hike despite a veto from Mayor Kevin Faulconer. On Monday, the San Diego City Council overrode his veto to approve a gradual wage increase and paid sick days...
Students Appeal to 4th Circuit for Stay of Voter Suppression Law Camel City Dispatch ...On Monday Students who have filed suit against the state of North Carolina over new voter suppression legislation (HB589 which Republican messaging call a voter ID bill) have filed a notice of appeal of U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder’s August 8 ruling denying a stay of the new law, pending the 2014 elections...
War On Workers
Wendy's Worker Says She Was Fired For Being Sick Huffington Post ...A 6-year veteran Wendy's worker in Alabama is alleging that management fired her for "job abandonment" while she was being treated for an ovarian cyst that would require surgery...
Lawn Worker Killed By Vehicle On McIntosh Road WWSB ...Authorities are investigating the death of a lawn maintenance worker that was struck by a vehicle while he mowed along McIntosh Road Monday morning...
Outside Campaign Spending Jumps In 2014 The Hill ...Outside political groups are on track to eclipse their spending during the 2010 GOP wave election, but only a fraction of that money has been reported to the public. ... outside groups have spent $72 million on independent expenditures in nine Senate races, a pace set to exceed the $97 million that such groups spent on 37 Senate races in the 2010 cycle...
Teamsters Local Union Ratifies New Agreement With Penn State Penn State News ...Members of Teamsters Local Union No. 8 employed by Penn State have ratified a new collective bargaining agreement with the University to replace the current agreement, which expired June 30. Teamsters Local Union No. 8 represents the bargaining unit consisting of approximately 2,600 technical-service employees at University locations throughout the Commonwealth...
Negotiations Continue Between EVSC And Teamsters WTVW ...While there is still no contract in hand, communication is still open between the EVSC and Teamsters Local 215 Union. ...The Teamsters Union is made up of bus drivers, custodians, and secretaries, or about 20 percent of the EVSC's staff...
Dubuque's unions name grand marshal for annual Labor Day parade KWWL.com ...This year, members of Dubuque's United Labor Participation Committee selected long-time local Teamsters leader Dave Baker as the parade's grand marshal...
Trade
China fines Japanese car parts firms for price-fixing BBC News ...he country's anti-monopoly regulator said the companies were found to have colluded to reduce competition. Japan's Sumitomo Electric and Mitsubishi Electric were among the firms that received the heaviest fines...
If America Won’t Invest in America’s Infrastructure, China Will manufacture this ...there is a big gap between eastern and western China in terms of transportation infrastructure. China will strengthen infrastructure construction in central and western areas while promoting exports in technology and high-speed railway and highway equipment. China is willing to join the United States in upgrading transportation infrastructure...
State Battles
WEDC is marketing industrial properties owned by Walker donors WKOW.com ...The only private properties being marketed through a Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) land development program are owned by companies whose executives have donated extensively to the campaign of Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wisconsin)...
Group Backing Minimum Wage Hike Submits More Signatures Arkansas News ...A group seeking to place on the November ballot an initiated act to raise the state minimum wage submitted what it said were 69,070 additional signatures in support of the measure to the secretary of state’s office Monday...
San Diego Defies Mayor, Raises Minimum Wage CNN Money ...San Diego is the latest city to pass a minimum wage hike despite a veto from Mayor Kevin Faulconer. On Monday, the San Diego City Council overrode his veto to approve a gradual wage increase and paid sick days...
Students Appeal to 4th Circuit for Stay of Voter Suppression Law Camel City Dispatch ...On Monday Students who have filed suit against the state of North Carolina over new voter suppression legislation (HB589 which Republican messaging call a voter ID bill) have filed a notice of appeal of U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder’s August 8 ruling denying a stay of the new law, pending the 2014 elections...
War On Workers
Wendy's Worker Says She Was Fired For Being Sick Huffington Post ...A 6-year veteran Wendy's worker in Alabama is alleging that management fired her for "job abandonment" while she was being treated for an ovarian cyst that would require surgery...
Lawn Worker Killed By Vehicle On McIntosh Road WWSB ...Authorities are investigating the death of a lawn maintenance worker that was struck by a vehicle while he mowed along McIntosh Road Monday morning...
Outside Campaign Spending Jumps In 2014 The Hill ...Outside political groups are on track to eclipse their spending during the 2010 GOP wave election, but only a fraction of that money has been reported to the public. ... outside groups have spent $72 million on independent expenditures in nine Senate races, a pace set to exceed the $97 million that such groups spent on 37 Senate races in the 2010 cycle...
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Today's Teamster News 08.14.14
Teamster News
BLET organizes Illinois Railway short line workers teamster.org ...The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) scored a short line organizing victory last week as a majority of workers at Illinois Railway voted to make the BLET their designated collective bargaining representative...
Teamster at US Foods Seeks Information About Merger teamster.org ...Frank Rinetti, a Teamster member and employee of US Foods, recently sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) seeking information about the proposed Sysco-US Foods merger and he also outlines his concerns about the merger's impact on jobs...
Union teamsters met Wednesday, will vote Thursday KERO Bakersfield ...GET union employees met Wednesday to discuss the proposal from GET...
Trade
Five Tests Walmart Must Pass to Show its 'Made In America' Street Cred manufacture this ...If Walmart is truly serious about its pledge to help American manufacturers, the corporation will slash its imports into the U.S...
Country-Of-Origin-Labeling Dispute Threatens U.S. Exports, Jobs The Hill ...A long list of U.S.-manufactured goods and agricultural products are being threatened by a trade dispute about whether U.S. Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) requirements discriminate against our bordering countries’ meat products. Absent quick action to settle the dispute, the governments of Canada and Mexico—currently the two largest markets for U.S. exports—could impose $2 billion in retaliatory tariffs that would endanger thousands of American jobs...
State Battles
Corporate front groups pushing laughable “National Employee Freedom Week” and other anti-union effort eclectablog ... “National Employee Freedom Week”... encourages union members to become freeloaders by leaving their unions while the unions continue to bargain for on their behalf for better wages, better working conditions, and better benefits...
Floridians tried to stop gerrymandering, and Republicans gerrymandered anyways. We’re about to see who wins. Washington Post ...If it passes muster with the courts in anything like its present form, it will have been a pretty major victory for the GOP in overcoming the so-called Fair Districts amendments -- and an equally large setback for redistricting reformers seeking to rein in partisan gerrymandering...
Christie: GOP governors to spend millions in Maine Associated Press ...New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie returned to Maine on Tuesday to help raise money for Gov. Paul LePage and predicted that the Republican Governors Association would spend millions of dollars in the state this fall to help LePage win a second term...
Record number of labor candidates prep to run for public office at New Jersey State AFL-CIO Labor Candidates School Politicker NJ ...A record-sized class of rank-and-file union members representing 23 local unions from across all sectors of the labor movement took part in the New Jersey State AFL-CIO Labor Candidates School August 9-10, 2014, at the Rutgers University Inn and Conference Center in New Brunswick...
The Big Money Behind Walker’s Campaign Express Milwaukee ...Walker returned to the deep pockets of his recall mega-contributors, including Las Vegas gambling billionaire Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam. Adelson donated $250,000 to Walker in 2012...
Labor and small businesses team up on California franchising law MSNBC ...the theory appears to be that protecting franchisors against the threat of closure will make it easier for them to do things like raise workers’ wages...
War On Workers
Electric Worker Hit By Train, Killed In Edmond KWTV ...The train was traveling southbound when it hit and killed Edmond Electric Worker, Bob Waterson Tuesday evening. Edmond city officials say Waterson was with the company for more than 34 years...
Rail CEOs to Investors: "Bomb Trains" Safe At Almost Any Speed DeSmog Blog ...Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) recently said it would proceed with plans to increase speeds for oil-by-rail unit trains in Devil’s Lake, N.D. to 60 MPH from 30 MPH, despite opposition from local officials...
What’s Lost in the Market Basket Stories Economic Policy Institute ...they have succeeded by taking a distinctly high-road approach: the company takes care of its workers, paying decent wages, offering benefits to full- and part-time staff, and providing employees with a profit-sharing plan. At the same time, Market Basket still offers prices lower than its competitors, Walmart included...
Union Workers In Maine Join Protest Of FairPoint Outsourcing Plans Portland Press Herald ...Hundreds of unionized FairPoint Communications Inc. workers in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire staged “informational protests” Tuesday to educate customers about the negative impact of company plans to boost outsourcing, union representatives said...
For Largest U.S. Companies, Jobs Growth Has Lagged Profits, Revenues Reuters ...From 2001 to 2013, inflation-adjusted revenue at 100 of the largest publicly traded companies grew 71 percent and inflation-adjusted operating profit rose 150 percent. Global headcount reported in company financial filings rose 31 percent...
Los Angeles To Vote On Killing Major Wall Street Deal As City Drowns In Financial Fees International Business Times ...Los Angeles lawmakers were expected to vote Wednesday on a proposal to renegotiate or terminate an interest rate swap deal from the mid-2000s that critics say now costs the city millions of dollars a year in fees. If successful, the initiative could make the city the nation's largest to challenge ballooning Wall Street levies that accompany similar interest rate swap deals throughout the nation...
Front and center: Amendment 3 pushes teacher tenure into the spotlight Southeast Missourian ...if teachers have been teaching in the same district for five years, they're granted due process rights by statute. "Before that, they're at-will," Meyer said. Five years, she said, is probably the longest probationary period used around the country...
Miscellaneous
Does Your Boss Know You’re Reading This? Surveillance Technology Boosts Efficiency But Creates Workplace Issues Atlanta Journal-Constitution ...There are few laws and court cases to help companies or workers understand the limits, leaving some gray areas for protection of employees’ privacy...
BLET organizes Illinois Railway short line workers teamster.org ...The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) scored a short line organizing victory last week as a majority of workers at Illinois Railway voted to make the BLET their designated collective bargaining representative...
Teamster at US Foods Seeks Information About Merger teamster.org ...Frank Rinetti, a Teamster member and employee of US Foods, recently sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) seeking information about the proposed Sysco-US Foods merger and he also outlines his concerns about the merger's impact on jobs...
Union teamsters met Wednesday, will vote Thursday KERO Bakersfield ...GET union employees met Wednesday to discuss the proposal from GET...
Trade
Five Tests Walmart Must Pass to Show its 'Made In America' Street Cred manufacture this ...If Walmart is truly serious about its pledge to help American manufacturers, the corporation will slash its imports into the U.S...
Country-Of-Origin-Labeling Dispute Threatens U.S. Exports, Jobs The Hill ...A long list of U.S.-manufactured goods and agricultural products are being threatened by a trade dispute about whether U.S. Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) requirements discriminate against our bordering countries’ meat products. Absent quick action to settle the dispute, the governments of Canada and Mexico—currently the two largest markets for U.S. exports—could impose $2 billion in retaliatory tariffs that would endanger thousands of American jobs...
State Battles
Corporate front groups pushing laughable “National Employee Freedom Week” and other anti-union effort eclectablog ... “National Employee Freedom Week”... encourages union members to become freeloaders by leaving their unions while the unions continue to bargain for on their behalf for better wages, better working conditions, and better benefits...
Floridians tried to stop gerrymandering, and Republicans gerrymandered anyways. We’re about to see who wins. Washington Post ...If it passes muster with the courts in anything like its present form, it will have been a pretty major victory for the GOP in overcoming the so-called Fair Districts amendments -- and an equally large setback for redistricting reformers seeking to rein in partisan gerrymandering...
Christie: GOP governors to spend millions in Maine Associated Press ...New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie returned to Maine on Tuesday to help raise money for Gov. Paul LePage and predicted that the Republican Governors Association would spend millions of dollars in the state this fall to help LePage win a second term...
Record number of labor candidates prep to run for public office at New Jersey State AFL-CIO Labor Candidates School Politicker NJ ...A record-sized class of rank-and-file union members representing 23 local unions from across all sectors of the labor movement took part in the New Jersey State AFL-CIO Labor Candidates School August 9-10, 2014, at the Rutgers University Inn and Conference Center in New Brunswick...
The Big Money Behind Walker’s Campaign Express Milwaukee ...Walker returned to the deep pockets of his recall mega-contributors, including Las Vegas gambling billionaire Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam. Adelson donated $250,000 to Walker in 2012...
Labor and small businesses team up on California franchising law MSNBC ...the theory appears to be that protecting franchisors against the threat of closure will make it easier for them to do things like raise workers’ wages...
War On Workers
Electric Worker Hit By Train, Killed In Edmond KWTV ...The train was traveling southbound when it hit and killed Edmond Electric Worker, Bob Waterson Tuesday evening. Edmond city officials say Waterson was with the company for more than 34 years...
Rail CEOs to Investors: "Bomb Trains" Safe At Almost Any Speed DeSmog Blog ...Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) recently said it would proceed with plans to increase speeds for oil-by-rail unit trains in Devil’s Lake, N.D. to 60 MPH from 30 MPH, despite opposition from local officials...
What’s Lost in the Market Basket Stories Economic Policy Institute ...they have succeeded by taking a distinctly high-road approach: the company takes care of its workers, paying decent wages, offering benefits to full- and part-time staff, and providing employees with a profit-sharing plan. At the same time, Market Basket still offers prices lower than its competitors, Walmart included...
Union Workers In Maine Join Protest Of FairPoint Outsourcing Plans Portland Press Herald ...Hundreds of unionized FairPoint Communications Inc. workers in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire staged “informational protests” Tuesday to educate customers about the negative impact of company plans to boost outsourcing, union representatives said...
For Largest U.S. Companies, Jobs Growth Has Lagged Profits, Revenues Reuters ...From 2001 to 2013, inflation-adjusted revenue at 100 of the largest publicly traded companies grew 71 percent and inflation-adjusted operating profit rose 150 percent. Global headcount reported in company financial filings rose 31 percent...
Los Angeles To Vote On Killing Major Wall Street Deal As City Drowns In Financial Fees International Business Times ...Los Angeles lawmakers were expected to vote Wednesday on a proposal to renegotiate or terminate an interest rate swap deal from the mid-2000s that critics say now costs the city millions of dollars a year in fees. If successful, the initiative could make the city the nation's largest to challenge ballooning Wall Street levies that accompany similar interest rate swap deals throughout the nation...
Front and center: Amendment 3 pushes teacher tenure into the spotlight Southeast Missourian ...if teachers have been teaching in the same district for five years, they're granted due process rights by statute. "Before that, they're at-will," Meyer said. Five years, she said, is probably the longest probationary period used around the country...
Miscellaneous
Does Your Boss Know You’re Reading This? Surveillance Technology Boosts Efficiency But Creates Workplace Issues Atlanta Journal-Constitution ...There are few laws and court cases to help companies or workers understand the limits, leaving some gray areas for protection of employees’ privacy...
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Today's Teamster News 08.07.14
Teamster News
Unions No Enemy To Achievement Worcester Telegram and Gazette ...Last month, teachers at the Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School in Marlboro voted to join the Teamsters, and in so doing picked the scab of a festering lie — that unions are the enemy of a competitive American business climate...
GET Officials Summoned To City Council Meeting Bakersfield Californian ...Tuesday, GET issued a news release spelling out for the first time its weeks-old bargaining position with Teamsters Local 517, the union representing the more than 250 bus drivers and mechanics who walked off the job July 15...
Tentative agreement reached between Sun Tran, Teamsters Tucson Business ...Sun Tran officials and representatives of Teamsters Local 104 have announced a tentative agreement on a new contract and assured normal bus service through at least tomorrow...
Teamsters Support Rep. Dan Maffei Teamsters Locals 294 and 317 ..."Local Teamster Unions 294 and 317 proudly support Rep. Dan Maffei because he is a proven leader for the hardworking men and women of Central New York and someone who has worked tirelessly on efforts to strengthen the middle and grow the economy...
Trade
Trade Gap Shrinks To Five-Month Low As U.S. Imports Drop Bloomberg News ...The gap shrank 7 percent to $41.5 billion, the smallest since January, from May’s $44.7 billion, Commerce Department figures showed today...
State Battles
Thousands Attend Mountain Moral Monday In Asheville USA Today ...Barber said lawmakers are hurting schools and children by not adequately funding education. They have taken away rights through sweeping restrictions on how people vote, he said. They have raised taxes on working people and cut taxes for the rich and corporations, he said...
Map: Where's Scott Walker? The Cap Times ...Since November 2012, the governor has been traveling the country — most recently to Colorado — looking a lot like a 2016 presidential candidate...
Just how accurate are Wisconsin's vote counting machines? Daily Isthmus ..."You don't need to understand the intricacies of computer security to understand that if computers managed by the likes of Target and the Federal Reserve Bank can be hacked, computers managed by my municipality or county can be hacked," she says...
Union-Backed City Council Members Clear The Way For Referendum On $12.25 Minimum Wage Daily Signal ...Last week, the council voted, 5-3, against a moderate proposal to raise the minimum wage over time and to exempt small businesses in the early stages so they could adjust. The council did so to clear the way for a ballot measure to put before the voters in November that would raise the wage for all businesses to $12.25 beginning in March...
War On Workers
How the Decline of Labor Unions Led to Stagnant Wages Motley Fool ...From the years 2000 to 2012, college graduates saw a rise in pay of only 1% . For those with a high school diploma or only a smattering of college, wages actually fell during that time span...
Guitar Center Accused Of Unfair Labor Practices Huffington Post ...More than a year after its initial election victory at a Guitar Center store, the union representing the chain's first unionized employees is accusing the retailer of bargaining in "bad faith" and trying to purge the union...
Minn. Restaurant Charging Customers Minimum Wage Fee CBS News ...People eating at a Stillwater restaurant Tuesday noticed a new fee added to their bill. Owners of the Oasis Cafe are charging a 35 cent minimum wage fee. They say it’s to offset the cost of an increased minimum wage for tipped employees...
A comprehensive investigation of voter impersonation finds 31 credible incidents out of one billion ballots cast Washington Post ...ID laws are not aimed at the fraud you’ll actually hear about. Most current ID laws (Wisconsin is a rare exception) aren’t designed to stop fraud with absentee ballots (indeed, laws requiring ID at the polls push more people into the absentee system, where there are plenty of real dangers). Or vote buying. Or coercion. Or fake registration forms. Or voting from the wrong address. Or ballot box stuffing by officials in on the scam. In the 243-page document that Mississippi State Sen. Chris McDaniel filed on Monday with evidence of allegedly illegal votes in the Mississippi Republican primary, there were no allegations of the kind of fraud that ID can stop...
Part-time workers find full-time jobs elusive McClatchy ...The number of unemployed people is 24 percent higher now than it was in December 2007 when the recession began. But the number of people like Alexander _ known as involuntary part-time workers _ is 66 percent higher, more than double what it was back then...
The 1% May Be Richer Than You Think, Research Shows Bloomberg ...The 1 percent is literally rich beyond measure, depriving nations of billions in tax revenue and obscuring shifts in global inequality...
AP Source: BofA Nears $16-$17B Settlement With US Associated Press ...Bank of America is nearing a $16 billion to $17 billion settlement to resolve an investigation into its role in the sale of mortgage-backed securities before the 2008 financial crisis...
New Statistics: Pregnancy Discrimination Claims Hit Low-Wage Workers Hardest Washington Post ...pregnancy discrimination cases show some of the most overt, if unconscious, discrimination of any cases they litigate. Now, new data released by the EEOC show that that discrimination hits virtually every industry and every geographic area of the country...
Highway 101 Worker Killed In Redwood City When Driver Veers Off Road CBS News ...A highway road worker was killed Tuesday after a car ran off of Highway 101 in Redwood City and into a crew worksite...
Miscellaneous
Subpoena Could Drag The NFL Into Cheerleader Wage-Theft Cases Bloomberg Businessweek ...Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner under scrutiny for his response to domestic violence allegations against a running back, now faces a further potential headache: a subpoena seeking to depose him on the league’s role in cheerleaders’ pay (or lack thereof)...
New Post-Snowden Leaks Reveal Secret Details Of U.S. Terrorist Watch List Time Magazine ...The published documents describe government efforts using the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE), a database used by federal state and local law-enforcement agencies to identify and track known or suspected terrorist suspects. The database has been subject to public debate and federal litigation, because of the secretive process that determines inclusion on this list...
Unions No Enemy To Achievement Worcester Telegram and Gazette ...Last month, teachers at the Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School in Marlboro voted to join the Teamsters, and in so doing picked the scab of a festering lie — that unions are the enemy of a competitive American business climate...
GET Officials Summoned To City Council Meeting Bakersfield Californian ...Tuesday, GET issued a news release spelling out for the first time its weeks-old bargaining position with Teamsters Local 517, the union representing the more than 250 bus drivers and mechanics who walked off the job July 15...
Tentative agreement reached between Sun Tran, Teamsters Tucson Business ...Sun Tran officials and representatives of Teamsters Local 104 have announced a tentative agreement on a new contract and assured normal bus service through at least tomorrow...
Teamsters Support Rep. Dan Maffei Teamsters Locals 294 and 317 ..."Local Teamster Unions 294 and 317 proudly support Rep. Dan Maffei because he is a proven leader for the hardworking men and women of Central New York and someone who has worked tirelessly on efforts to strengthen the middle and grow the economy...
Trade
Trade Gap Shrinks To Five-Month Low As U.S. Imports Drop Bloomberg News ...The gap shrank 7 percent to $41.5 billion, the smallest since January, from May’s $44.7 billion, Commerce Department figures showed today...
State Battles
Thousands Attend Mountain Moral Monday In Asheville USA Today ...Barber said lawmakers are hurting schools and children by not adequately funding education. They have taken away rights through sweeping restrictions on how people vote, he said. They have raised taxes on working people and cut taxes for the rich and corporations, he said...
Map: Where's Scott Walker? The Cap Times ...Since November 2012, the governor has been traveling the country — most recently to Colorado — looking a lot like a 2016 presidential candidate...
Just how accurate are Wisconsin's vote counting machines? Daily Isthmus ..."You don't need to understand the intricacies of computer security to understand that if computers managed by the likes of Target and the Federal Reserve Bank can be hacked, computers managed by my municipality or county can be hacked," she says...
Union-Backed City Council Members Clear The Way For Referendum On $12.25 Minimum Wage Daily Signal ...Last week, the council voted, 5-3, against a moderate proposal to raise the minimum wage over time and to exempt small businesses in the early stages so they could adjust. The council did so to clear the way for a ballot measure to put before the voters in November that would raise the wage for all businesses to $12.25 beginning in March...
War On Workers
How the Decline of Labor Unions Led to Stagnant Wages Motley Fool ...From the years 2000 to 2012, college graduates saw a rise in pay of only 1% . For those with a high school diploma or only a smattering of college, wages actually fell during that time span...
Guitar Center Accused Of Unfair Labor Practices Huffington Post ...More than a year after its initial election victory at a Guitar Center store, the union representing the chain's first unionized employees is accusing the retailer of bargaining in "bad faith" and trying to purge the union...
Minn. Restaurant Charging Customers Minimum Wage Fee CBS News ...People eating at a Stillwater restaurant Tuesday noticed a new fee added to their bill. Owners of the Oasis Cafe are charging a 35 cent minimum wage fee. They say it’s to offset the cost of an increased minimum wage for tipped employees...
A comprehensive investigation of voter impersonation finds 31 credible incidents out of one billion ballots cast Washington Post ...ID laws are not aimed at the fraud you’ll actually hear about. Most current ID laws (Wisconsin is a rare exception) aren’t designed to stop fraud with absentee ballots (indeed, laws requiring ID at the polls push more people into the absentee system, where there are plenty of real dangers). Or vote buying. Or coercion. Or fake registration forms. Or voting from the wrong address. Or ballot box stuffing by officials in on the scam. In the 243-page document that Mississippi State Sen. Chris McDaniel filed on Monday with evidence of allegedly illegal votes in the Mississippi Republican primary, there were no allegations of the kind of fraud that ID can stop...
Part-time workers find full-time jobs elusive McClatchy ...The number of unemployed people is 24 percent higher now than it was in December 2007 when the recession began. But the number of people like Alexander _ known as involuntary part-time workers _ is 66 percent higher, more than double what it was back then...
The 1% May Be Richer Than You Think, Research Shows Bloomberg ...The 1 percent is literally rich beyond measure, depriving nations of billions in tax revenue and obscuring shifts in global inequality...
AP Source: BofA Nears $16-$17B Settlement With US Associated Press ...Bank of America is nearing a $16 billion to $17 billion settlement to resolve an investigation into its role in the sale of mortgage-backed securities before the 2008 financial crisis...
New Statistics: Pregnancy Discrimination Claims Hit Low-Wage Workers Hardest Washington Post ...pregnancy discrimination cases show some of the most overt, if unconscious, discrimination of any cases they litigate. Now, new data released by the EEOC show that that discrimination hits virtually every industry and every geographic area of the country...
Highway 101 Worker Killed In Redwood City When Driver Veers Off Road CBS News ...A highway road worker was killed Tuesday after a car ran off of Highway 101 in Redwood City and into a crew worksite...
Miscellaneous
Subpoena Could Drag The NFL Into Cheerleader Wage-Theft Cases Bloomberg Businessweek ...Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner under scrutiny for his response to domestic violence allegations against a running back, now faces a further potential headache: a subpoena seeking to depose him on the league’s role in cheerleaders’ pay (or lack thereof)...
New Post-Snowden Leaks Reveal Secret Details Of U.S. Terrorist Watch List Time Magazine ...The published documents describe government efforts using the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE), a database used by federal state and local law-enforcement agencies to identify and track known or suspected terrorist suspects. The database has been subject to public debate and federal litigation, because of the secretive process that determines inclusion on this list...
Friday, July 25, 2014
Today's Teamster News 07.25.14
Teamster News
Union Official: GET Board Rejects Offer, Strike To Continue KBFX ...Union drivers, mechanics and other support staff went on strike July 15, unhappy with pay and the part-time status of more than half of their GET drivers. The union was asking for a 4 percent wage increase every year over a three-year deal...
Latino Express Bus Drivers Still Fighting For Rights In Chicago teamster.org ...For more than three years, Teamsters Local 777 has continued to fight for approximately 100 school bus drivers in Chicago who want nothing more than fair working conditions...
Teamsters Grievance Prompts Cook County Sheriff to Conduct Manpower Study teamster.org ... Teamsters Local 700, Cook County's largest public employee union, has learned the Sheriff's Office has enlisted college-age interns to oversee a critical new study on manpower shortages facing the department...
Trade
Administration Plans Orwellian Statistics Fudge to Make Offshored Production Look Like US Made naked capitalism ...If the factoryless goods proposal were to be implemented, the value of U.S. brand-name products made outside of the United States and imported here would be counted as manufacturing “services” imports, not imported goods...
State Battles
Seattle Minimum Wage Referendum Effort Fails Daily Caller ...Forward Seattle, a group which represents local businesses in Seattle, announced Wednesday that they failed to collect enough signatures to subject the city’s $15 minimum wage to a November vote...
Recent Report Points To Job Growth Despite Minimum Wage Increase Oakland Press ...New data released by the Department of Labor points toward job growth in states that have raised the minimum wage, something still being debated in Michigan...
Republican lawmakers push 'paycheck protection' in Pa. Pocono Record ...Republican supporters of so-called "paycheck protection" legislation moved bills in both houses last week that would prevent government employee unions, such as the Service Employees International Union and the Pennsylvania State Education Association from deducting union dues and political contributions from members' checks...
Davis And State Dems Planning To Monitor For Voter Suppression, Discrimination Texas Public Radio ...Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis and the Texas Democratic Party are launching a voter protection program to monitor voter suppression and discrimination on Election Day...
Christie: Public workers' benefits must be cut Asbury Park Press ...It was the first time Gov. Chris Christie had come to any event in Republican-red Ocean County where the protesters outnumbered his supporters. And these were not just ordinary protesters — they were police officers and firefighters in the hundreds from all over New Jersey, outraged that Christie on Tuesday had come to use a municipal park their fraternal brothers and sisters had built for local children...
War On Workers
The Pay-For-Performance Myth Bloomberg Businessweek ...The trend line—the average of how much a CEO’s ranking is affected by stock performance—shows that a CEO’s income ranking is only 1 percent based on the company’s stock return. That means that 99 percent of the ranking has nothing to do with performance at all. (The size and profitability of companies didn’t affect the random patterns.)...
Obama Seeks to Close Loophole That Firms Use to Shield Profits Abroad New York Times ...President Obama on Thursday called for Congress to strip away tax advantages that have encouraged a rush of mergers and acquisitions that give companies an overseas base while they maintain their presence in the United States...
IMF Cuts US and Global Growth Forecasts for 2014 Associated Press ...The International Monetary Fund foresees the global economy expanding less than it had previously forecast, slowed by weaker growth in the United States, Russia and developing economies...
Koch High: How The Koch Brothers Are Buying Their Way Into The Minds Of Public School Students Huffington Post ...The official mission of Youth Entrepreneurs is to provide kids with "business and entrepreneurial education and experiences that help them prosper and become contributing members of society." The underlying goal of the program, however, is to impart Koch's radical free-market ideology to teenagers. In the last school year, the class reached more than 1,000 students across Kansas and Missouri...
Norfolk Southern sues to block disclosure of crude oil shipments McClatchy ...A major hauler of crude oil by rail has sued the state of Maryland to stop the public release of information about the shipments, according to court documents...
Stability Is Good For Employees And Bosses (opinion) New York Times ...Unpredictable, unstable work hours, over which workers may have little control, make it difficult for any employee, at any level of income, to combine or schedule caregiving for family members, education, participation in civic and religious organizations or another job...
Volatile Schedules Exacerbate Inequality (opinion) New York Times ...Across the economy, workers are either employed for too few hours or far too many in an ever-changing workweek that demands 24/7 availability, without guarantees of equal treatment or employee input...
Road Construction Worker Killed In Reno County KAKE ...The Kansas Highway Patrol says a construction worker died after being hit by a trash truck in Reno County...
Miscellaneous
Walmart U.S. CEO Bill Simon Is Out Huffington Post ...Walmart’s U.S. chief Bill Simon is leaving the company after a rough four years. The 54-year-old will be replaced by Greg Foran, 53, Walmart’s current president and CEO in Asia...
Union Official: GET Board Rejects Offer, Strike To Continue KBFX ...Union drivers, mechanics and other support staff went on strike July 15, unhappy with pay and the part-time status of more than half of their GET drivers. The union was asking for a 4 percent wage increase every year over a three-year deal...
Latino Express Bus Drivers Still Fighting For Rights In Chicago teamster.org ...For more than three years, Teamsters Local 777 has continued to fight for approximately 100 school bus drivers in Chicago who want nothing more than fair working conditions...
Teamsters Grievance Prompts Cook County Sheriff to Conduct Manpower Study teamster.org ... Teamsters Local 700, Cook County's largest public employee union, has learned the Sheriff's Office has enlisted college-age interns to oversee a critical new study on manpower shortages facing the department...
Trade
Administration Plans Orwellian Statistics Fudge to Make Offshored Production Look Like US Made naked capitalism ...If the factoryless goods proposal were to be implemented, the value of U.S. brand-name products made outside of the United States and imported here would be counted as manufacturing “services” imports, not imported goods...
State Battles
Seattle Minimum Wage Referendum Effort Fails Daily Caller ...Forward Seattle, a group which represents local businesses in Seattle, announced Wednesday that they failed to collect enough signatures to subject the city’s $15 minimum wage to a November vote...
Recent Report Points To Job Growth Despite Minimum Wage Increase Oakland Press ...New data released by the Department of Labor points toward job growth in states that have raised the minimum wage, something still being debated in Michigan...
Republican lawmakers push 'paycheck protection' in Pa. Pocono Record ...Republican supporters of so-called "paycheck protection" legislation moved bills in both houses last week that would prevent government employee unions, such as the Service Employees International Union and the Pennsylvania State Education Association from deducting union dues and political contributions from members' checks...
Davis And State Dems Planning To Monitor For Voter Suppression, Discrimination Texas Public Radio ...Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis and the Texas Democratic Party are launching a voter protection program to monitor voter suppression and discrimination on Election Day...
Christie: Public workers' benefits must be cut Asbury Park Press ...It was the first time Gov. Chris Christie had come to any event in Republican-red Ocean County where the protesters outnumbered his supporters. And these were not just ordinary protesters — they were police officers and firefighters in the hundreds from all over New Jersey, outraged that Christie on Tuesday had come to use a municipal park their fraternal brothers and sisters had built for local children...
War On Workers
The Pay-For-Performance Myth Bloomberg Businessweek ...The trend line—the average of how much a CEO’s ranking is affected by stock performance—shows that a CEO’s income ranking is only 1 percent based on the company’s stock return. That means that 99 percent of the ranking has nothing to do with performance at all. (The size and profitability of companies didn’t affect the random patterns.)...
Obama Seeks to Close Loophole That Firms Use to Shield Profits Abroad New York Times ...President Obama on Thursday called for Congress to strip away tax advantages that have encouraged a rush of mergers and acquisitions that give companies an overseas base while they maintain their presence in the United States...
IMF Cuts US and Global Growth Forecasts for 2014 Associated Press ...The International Monetary Fund foresees the global economy expanding less than it had previously forecast, slowed by weaker growth in the United States, Russia and developing economies...
Koch High: How The Koch Brothers Are Buying Their Way Into The Minds Of Public School Students Huffington Post ...The official mission of Youth Entrepreneurs is to provide kids with "business and entrepreneurial education and experiences that help them prosper and become contributing members of society." The underlying goal of the program, however, is to impart Koch's radical free-market ideology to teenagers. In the last school year, the class reached more than 1,000 students across Kansas and Missouri...
Norfolk Southern sues to block disclosure of crude oil shipments McClatchy ...A major hauler of crude oil by rail has sued the state of Maryland to stop the public release of information about the shipments, according to court documents...
Stability Is Good For Employees And Bosses (opinion) New York Times ...Unpredictable, unstable work hours, over which workers may have little control, make it difficult for any employee, at any level of income, to combine or schedule caregiving for family members, education, participation in civic and religious organizations or another job...
Volatile Schedules Exacerbate Inequality (opinion) New York Times ...Across the economy, workers are either employed for too few hours or far too many in an ever-changing workweek that demands 24/7 availability, without guarantees of equal treatment or employee input...
Road Construction Worker Killed In Reno County KAKE ...The Kansas Highway Patrol says a construction worker died after being hit by a trash truck in Reno County...
Miscellaneous
Walmart U.S. CEO Bill Simon Is Out Huffington Post ...Walmart’s U.S. chief Bill Simon is leaving the company after a rough four years. The 54-year-old will be replaced by Greg Foran, 53, Walmart’s current president and CEO in Asia...
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Today's Teamster News 07.03.14
Teamster News
Labor Decision Finds In Favor Of Bus Drivers Washington Times ...A challenged lone vote questioning whether employees of the Green Mountain Express bus company in Vermont will join the Teamsters Union has been resolved in favor of the union...
U.S. Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of Teamsters At Daycon Teamsters Local 639 ...NLRB Administrative Law Judge Eric Fine awarded more than $1.1 million in back pay plus interest to the Teamsters at Daycon...
Trade
As American as Apple Pie — But Made Overseas manufacture this ...New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority recently outsourced the $235 million renovation of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to a company in China, despite objections from steel producers and workers...
State Battles
Democracy For Some: Ohio’s Struggle For Voting Rights Plunderbund ...In February, the Ohio legislature passed Senate Bill 238, eliminating the first week of in-person absentee voting. Known as Golden Week, it was the only time when people could register and vote on the same day...
Plaintiffs gear up for voter ID hearing News & Record ...Organizers of lawsuits filed in response to the Voter Identification Act passed in North Carolina last year hope a federal judge will delay implementation of the law until after the November midterm elections...
How North Carolina Turned So Red So Fast Governing ...Finally in total control in 2013, Republicans passed a long list of contentious laws, from strict voter identification requirements to a system of private school payment vouchers. These moves have generated endless media coverage and drawn tens of thousands of people to “Moral Monday” protests...
John Doe documents reveal ugly picture for public PostCrescent ...The most revealing piece of information is an excerpt from an email that Walker wrote to national Republican political consultant Karl Rove in May 2011, telling Rove that R.J. Johnson, a Walker campaign strategist who also operated the special-interest organization Wisconsin Club for Growth, was operating the recall campaigns...
Super-Rich Guy To 'Zillionaires': Back $15 Minimum Wage Or Prepare For Revolution Huffington Post ...A Seattle millionaire is urging his super-rich peers to support a $15 minimum wage or face the possibility of a devastating populist revolt...
L.A. Unified Agrees To Pay Low-Wage Workers $15 An Hour Los Angeles Times ...Low-wage workers in the nation’s second-largest school system have won a minimum-wage pay increase to $15 an hour...
War On Workers
U.S. offshore tax evaders facing new scrutiny starting July 1 Agence France Presse ...US tax evaders will find it harder to hide money abroad from Tuesday, when a law comes into effect requiring foreign banks to report their offshore accounts...
Employees' Pay Cut By Denied Overtime, Deductions For Equipment NPR ... All told about 15 percent, we estimate, of a worker's salary is lost to wage theft. And these are the lowest wage workers that we interviewed. So workers who make about $17,000 a year...
A 'Lost Generation Of Workers': The Cost Of Youth Unemployment NPR ...It's a development that experts warn could have ripple effects for decades to come — not only for young people's lifelong earning potential but also for their contributions to the tax base and the strength of the U.S. economy overall...
Hundreds Of City Workers Protest Bank Deals At L.A. City Hall Los Angeles Times ...Hundreds of city workers and their allies packed the streets and sidewalks outside Los Angeles City Hall on Tuesday morning, protesting "predatory fees" the city pays to Wall Street banks...
Chase’s fraudulent foreclosure: Court finds for plaintiffs Housing Wire ...JPMorgan Chase (JPM) created and recorded false documentation that showed the bank owned the mortgage of two California residents in order to foreclose on their home, the California Court of Appeals stated...
Miscellaneous
Goodbye, Malls of America Bloomberg ...Since 1990, when 16 million-square-feet of mall space opened, building has tailed off, and 2007 was the first year in more than four decades when no large malls opened in the U.S. Only one has opened since then, in 2012...
Labor Decision Finds In Favor Of Bus Drivers Washington Times ...A challenged lone vote questioning whether employees of the Green Mountain Express bus company in Vermont will join the Teamsters Union has been resolved in favor of the union...
U.S. Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of Teamsters At Daycon Teamsters Local 639 ...NLRB Administrative Law Judge Eric Fine awarded more than $1.1 million in back pay plus interest to the Teamsters at Daycon...
Trade
As American as Apple Pie — But Made Overseas manufacture this ...New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority recently outsourced the $235 million renovation of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to a company in China, despite objections from steel producers and workers...
State Battles
Democracy For Some: Ohio’s Struggle For Voting Rights Plunderbund ...In February, the Ohio legislature passed Senate Bill 238, eliminating the first week of in-person absentee voting. Known as Golden Week, it was the only time when people could register and vote on the same day...
Plaintiffs gear up for voter ID hearing News & Record ...Organizers of lawsuits filed in response to the Voter Identification Act passed in North Carolina last year hope a federal judge will delay implementation of the law until after the November midterm elections...
How North Carolina Turned So Red So Fast Governing ...Finally in total control in 2013, Republicans passed a long list of contentious laws, from strict voter identification requirements to a system of private school payment vouchers. These moves have generated endless media coverage and drawn tens of thousands of people to “Moral Monday” protests...
John Doe documents reveal ugly picture for public PostCrescent ...The most revealing piece of information is an excerpt from an email that Walker wrote to national Republican political consultant Karl Rove in May 2011, telling Rove that R.J. Johnson, a Walker campaign strategist who also operated the special-interest organization Wisconsin Club for Growth, was operating the recall campaigns...
Super-Rich Guy To 'Zillionaires': Back $15 Minimum Wage Or Prepare For Revolution Huffington Post ...A Seattle millionaire is urging his super-rich peers to support a $15 minimum wage or face the possibility of a devastating populist revolt...
L.A. Unified Agrees To Pay Low-Wage Workers $15 An Hour Los Angeles Times ...Low-wage workers in the nation’s second-largest school system have won a minimum-wage pay increase to $15 an hour...
War On Workers
U.S. offshore tax evaders facing new scrutiny starting July 1 Agence France Presse ...US tax evaders will find it harder to hide money abroad from Tuesday, when a law comes into effect requiring foreign banks to report their offshore accounts...
Employees' Pay Cut By Denied Overtime, Deductions For Equipment NPR ... All told about 15 percent, we estimate, of a worker's salary is lost to wage theft. And these are the lowest wage workers that we interviewed. So workers who make about $17,000 a year...
A 'Lost Generation Of Workers': The Cost Of Youth Unemployment NPR ...It's a development that experts warn could have ripple effects for decades to come — not only for young people's lifelong earning potential but also for their contributions to the tax base and the strength of the U.S. economy overall...
Hundreds Of City Workers Protest Bank Deals At L.A. City Hall Los Angeles Times ...Hundreds of city workers and their allies packed the streets and sidewalks outside Los Angeles City Hall on Tuesday morning, protesting "predatory fees" the city pays to Wall Street banks...
Chase’s fraudulent foreclosure: Court finds for plaintiffs Housing Wire ...JPMorgan Chase (JPM) created and recorded false documentation that showed the bank owned the mortgage of two California residents in order to foreclose on their home, the California Court of Appeals stated...
Miscellaneous
Goodbye, Malls of America Bloomberg ...Since 1990, when 16 million-square-feet of mall space opened, building has tailed off, and 2007 was the first year in more than four decades when no large malls opened in the U.S. Only one has opened since then, in 2012...
Saturday, June 14, 2014
Today's Teamster News 06.14.14
Teamster News
SEPTA Commuter Rail Union on Strike NBC10 ...Four hundred workers at the Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority's regional rail system (including Teamsters BLET and IBEW members) went on strike Saturday morning, shutting down 13 train lines that carry commuters to the suburbs and Philadelphia International Airport...
Town Of Clinton Approves 2 Percent Raises For Police, Public Works Unions NJ.com ...Elected officials approved this week contracts with the town's public works and police unions, giving members of each 2 percent raises. The new PBA contract calls for that raise each of four years and is retroactive to Jan. 1. The Teamsters contract does the same, but is in effect for five years...
De Blasio’s Approval Rating Improves, Poll Finds New York Times ...His plan to terminate the carriage-horse industry in Central Park remains broadly unpopular, with two-thirds of voters saying he should allow the horses to stay, an opinion that cut across gender, racial and political lines...
Trade
What Do You Think About Trade? The WTO Wants to Hear from You AFL-CIO Now ...The World Trade Organization (WTO) is conducting a “public forum”—a short poll with leading questions about what people think about trade and how it affects their lives. While it’s sad that this is what passes for public involvement in trade policy, it is important to let the WTO, a powerful international institution, know what you think...
Council Calls on Japan to Alter Position on Trans Pacific Partnership ThePigSite ...The National Pork Producers Council says, unless Japan significantly alters its demands, US agriculture will not be in a position to support the Trans Pacific Partnership, Bruce Cochrane writes...
How Big Pharma (and others) began lobbying on the Trans-Pacific Partnership before you ever heard of it Sunlight Foundation ...In 2009 ... 28 organizations filed 59 lobbying reports mentioning the (TPP, the) then far-off trade agreement. Almost half of those organizations were pharmaceutical companies or associations...
State Battles
Fighting To Increase The Minimum Wage To $15 Per Hour, Wage Action Protest Held In Worcester MassLive ...Chanting rhymes the likes of, "Low pay is not okay!" a few dozen advocates for increasing the minimum wage gathered in front of the Tobias Boland Way Walmart for one hour Thursday night in hopes of bringing attention to the issue...
North Carolina is still suing Facebook, wants to pass law banning public from knowing what else it’s doing Pando ...legislators in North Carolina — whose $86 billion public pension fund is the 7th largest in America – are proposing to statutorily bar the public from seeing details of the state’s Wall Street transactions for at least a decade. That time frame is significant: according to experts, it would conceal the terms of the investment agreements for longer than the statute of limitations of various securities laws...
AFSCME Helping Chicago Cab Drivers Push For Greater Voice Chicago Tribune ...The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union is joining up with Chicago cab drivers to try to help give cabbies a stronger voice in negotiating with Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration to raise fares, lower costs and push for greater regulation of the nascent ride-share industry...
Map: How A $10.10 Minimum Wage Could Affect Workers In Every Congressional District Washington Post ...Raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 would have widely varied impact on the nation’s congressional districts, according to a new report. There is a more than fourfold gap between districts where the impact would be largest and smallest...
War On Workers
Federal regulators cite contractors after worker's death in Amazon warehouse Fortune ...Federal regulators have cited five companies for “serious” labor violations after a temp worker died at an Amazon warehouse in New Jersey six months ago, according to a statement released on Friday...
Remember the Problems With Mortgage Defaults? They’re Coming Back With Student Loans New York Times ...“robo-signing” is making a comeback, this time in student loans. Robo-signing refers to a practice in which bank employees signed blizzards of documents selling mortgages to another investor without properly verifying who actually owned them...
What If Your Ability To Stay In This Country Depended On Your Employer? The Nation ...Every year, US companies invite thousands of special guests from abroad into the labor market, and they arrive clutching visas that will provide them short-term jobs in food processing, farmwork and other seasonal sectors...
HowardCenter Workers Speak About Wages, Work Conditions Burlington Free Press ...Allison Segar has worked at the HowardCenter for 16 years, and said she is paid less now than she was 17 years ago when she immigrated to America from England...
SEPTA Commuter Rail Union on Strike NBC10 ...Four hundred workers at the Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority's regional rail system (including Teamsters BLET and IBEW members) went on strike Saturday morning, shutting down 13 train lines that carry commuters to the suburbs and Philadelphia International Airport...
Town Of Clinton Approves 2 Percent Raises For Police, Public Works Unions NJ.com ...Elected officials approved this week contracts with the town's public works and police unions, giving members of each 2 percent raises. The new PBA contract calls for that raise each of four years and is retroactive to Jan. 1. The Teamsters contract does the same, but is in effect for five years...
De Blasio’s Approval Rating Improves, Poll Finds New York Times ...His plan to terminate the carriage-horse industry in Central Park remains broadly unpopular, with two-thirds of voters saying he should allow the horses to stay, an opinion that cut across gender, racial and political lines...
Trade
What Do You Think About Trade? The WTO Wants to Hear from You AFL-CIO Now ...The World Trade Organization (WTO) is conducting a “public forum”—a short poll with leading questions about what people think about trade and how it affects their lives. While it’s sad that this is what passes for public involvement in trade policy, it is important to let the WTO, a powerful international institution, know what you think...
Council Calls on Japan to Alter Position on Trans Pacific Partnership ThePigSite ...The National Pork Producers Council says, unless Japan significantly alters its demands, US agriculture will not be in a position to support the Trans Pacific Partnership, Bruce Cochrane writes...
How Big Pharma (and others) began lobbying on the Trans-Pacific Partnership before you ever heard of it Sunlight Foundation ...In 2009 ... 28 organizations filed 59 lobbying reports mentioning the (TPP, the) then far-off trade agreement. Almost half of those organizations were pharmaceutical companies or associations...
State Battles
Fighting To Increase The Minimum Wage To $15 Per Hour, Wage Action Protest Held In Worcester MassLive ...Chanting rhymes the likes of, "Low pay is not okay!" a few dozen advocates for increasing the minimum wage gathered in front of the Tobias Boland Way Walmart for one hour Thursday night in hopes of bringing attention to the issue...
North Carolina is still suing Facebook, wants to pass law banning public from knowing what else it’s doing Pando ...legislators in North Carolina — whose $86 billion public pension fund is the 7th largest in America – are proposing to statutorily bar the public from seeing details of the state’s Wall Street transactions for at least a decade. That time frame is significant: according to experts, it would conceal the terms of the investment agreements for longer than the statute of limitations of various securities laws...
AFSCME Helping Chicago Cab Drivers Push For Greater Voice Chicago Tribune ...The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union is joining up with Chicago cab drivers to try to help give cabbies a stronger voice in negotiating with Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration to raise fares, lower costs and push for greater regulation of the nascent ride-share industry...
Map: How A $10.10 Minimum Wage Could Affect Workers In Every Congressional District Washington Post ...Raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 would have widely varied impact on the nation’s congressional districts, according to a new report. There is a more than fourfold gap between districts where the impact would be largest and smallest...
War On Workers
Federal regulators cite contractors after worker's death in Amazon warehouse Fortune ...Federal regulators have cited five companies for “serious” labor violations after a temp worker died at an Amazon warehouse in New Jersey six months ago, according to a statement released on Friday...
Remember the Problems With Mortgage Defaults? They’re Coming Back With Student Loans New York Times ...“robo-signing” is making a comeback, this time in student loans. Robo-signing refers to a practice in which bank employees signed blizzards of documents selling mortgages to another investor without properly verifying who actually owned them...
What If Your Ability To Stay In This Country Depended On Your Employer? The Nation ...Every year, US companies invite thousands of special guests from abroad into the labor market, and they arrive clutching visas that will provide them short-term jobs in food processing, farmwork and other seasonal sectors...
HowardCenter Workers Speak About Wages, Work Conditions Burlington Free Press ...Allison Segar has worked at the HowardCenter for 16 years, and said she is paid less now than she was 17 years ago when she immigrated to America from England...
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Today's Teamster News 05.28.14
Teamster News
Teamsters Hope To Keep ABF In Little Rock Memphis Business Journal ...The president of the Teamsters local in North Little Rock, Tim Nichols, says he will meet with Gov. Mike Beebe this week in hopes of preventing ABF from moving to Memphis...
Bus Company Workers To Vote On Joining Union WAMC ...Employees of the Green Mountain Express bus company in Vermont have scheduled a vote on whether to join the Teamsters union. William Kelly, trustee organizer for Teamsters Local 597, tells the Bennington Banner that 23 people at Green Mountain Express are eligible to vote Wednesday...
Pekin City Council approves Teamsters pact Pekin Daily Times ...The Pekin City Council on Tuesday approved a three-year contract with the Teamsters, Chauffeurs & Helpers Local 697...
Hollywood Teamsters Back Patric Verrone For State Senate Deadline Hollywood ...Hollywood Teamsters Local 399 stood behind former WGA West President Patric Verrone when he led the 2007-08 Writers Guild strike, and it’s supporting him again in his run for the California Legislature...
Trade
European Milk Board opposes TTIP Dairy Herd Management ...A dairy farmer group representing organizations in 14 E.U. countries is not happy with current trade talks that would align European and U.S. trade and investment...
TTIP: The Lobby plague is coming Access ...The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a free trade agreement currently being negotiated between the United States and the European Union, aiming at increasing trade and (dangerously) seeking “regulatory coherence.” If adopted, TTIP would become the world’s largest free trade and investment agreement, opening both markets for exchange in goods, services, investment, and public procurement. While the negotiations are being held in secret on both sides of the Atlantic, a large number of concerns arose in Europe on the actual benefits of such a trade agreement and its potential impact on EU legislation on digital rights as well as environmental protection, public health, agriculture, consumer rights, and labour standards...
TPP: Bad for global health (opinion) OakPark.com ...On April 8, Oak Park Township approved putting a referendum measure on the November ballot that would declare Oak Park a "TPP-Free Zone."...
State Battles
Will The Supreme Court Kill Public-Employee Unions? Mother Jones ...Forget Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his fellow union-bashing governors. Forget the partisan attacks on organized labor. The gravest threat to public-employee unions--which represent cops, firefighters, prison guards, teachers, nurses and other state workers, is a Supreme Court case named Harris v. Quinn...
Michigan's Snyder signs bill raising minimum wage Associated Press ...Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed legislation Tuesday to raise the state's minimum wage by 25 percent gradually over the next four years to $9.25 an hour, as Republicans controlling the state government moved to head off a November ballot measure that could have raised pay even more.
Federal Judge Who Halted Walker Dark Money Criminal Probe Attended Koch-Backed Judicial Junkets Center for Media and Democracy ...The federal judge who ordered a halt to Wisconsin's "John Doe" criminal investigation into spending during the 2011 and 2012 recall elections has regularly attended all-expenses paid "judicial junkets" funded by the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, and other ideological and corporate interests...
States Consider Bills To Crack Down On Workplace Bullies NPR ...Bullying is a behavioral problem often associated with children in grade school, but according to a recent Zogby poll, more than a quarter of American workers say they've experienced abusive conduct at work...
War On Workers
Median CEO Pay Passes The $10 Million Mark For The First Time Think Progress ...The median CEO pay package hit $10.5 million last year, according to the Associated Press, cracking eight figures for the first time since the wire service began calculating the statistic...
Workers At This Giant Retailer Are Really Happy With Their Pay Think Progress ...In an analysis of employee feedback shared on Glassdoor over the past year, just one retailer comes in the top 25 for top marks on pay and benefits: Costco...
The Ripple Effects Of Rising Student Debt New York Times ...What are the roads not taken because students must take out loans for college? A collection of studies show that the burden of student debt may very well cause people to make different decisions than they would otherwise--affecting not just individual lives, but also the entire economy...
Miscellaneous
Europe's Secret Success New York Times ...Europe's financial and macroeconomic woes have overshadowed its remarkable, unheralded longer-term success in an area where it used to lag: job creation. What? You haven't heard about it? Well, that's not too surprising...
7 States Running Out Of Water Huffington Post ...In seven states, drought conditions were so severe that each had more than half it's land area in severe drought. Severe drought is characterized by crop loss, frequent water shortages and mandatory water use restrictions...
Teamsters Hope To Keep ABF In Little Rock Memphis Business Journal ...The president of the Teamsters local in North Little Rock, Tim Nichols, says he will meet with Gov. Mike Beebe this week in hopes of preventing ABF from moving to Memphis...
Bus Company Workers To Vote On Joining Union WAMC ...Employees of the Green Mountain Express bus company in Vermont have scheduled a vote on whether to join the Teamsters union. William Kelly, trustee organizer for Teamsters Local 597, tells the Bennington Banner that 23 people at Green Mountain Express are eligible to vote Wednesday...
Pekin City Council approves Teamsters pact Pekin Daily Times ...The Pekin City Council on Tuesday approved a three-year contract with the Teamsters, Chauffeurs & Helpers Local 697...
Hollywood Teamsters Back Patric Verrone For State Senate Deadline Hollywood ...Hollywood Teamsters Local 399 stood behind former WGA West President Patric Verrone when he led the 2007-08 Writers Guild strike, and it’s supporting him again in his run for the California Legislature...
Trade
European Milk Board opposes TTIP Dairy Herd Management ...A dairy farmer group representing organizations in 14 E.U. countries is not happy with current trade talks that would align European and U.S. trade and investment...
TTIP: The Lobby plague is coming Access ...The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a free trade agreement currently being negotiated between the United States and the European Union, aiming at increasing trade and (dangerously) seeking “regulatory coherence.” If adopted, TTIP would become the world’s largest free trade and investment agreement, opening both markets for exchange in goods, services, investment, and public procurement. While the negotiations are being held in secret on both sides of the Atlantic, a large number of concerns arose in Europe on the actual benefits of such a trade agreement and its potential impact on EU legislation on digital rights as well as environmental protection, public health, agriculture, consumer rights, and labour standards...
TPP: Bad for global health (opinion) OakPark.com ...On April 8, Oak Park Township approved putting a referendum measure on the November ballot that would declare Oak Park a "TPP-Free Zone."...
State Battles
Will The Supreme Court Kill Public-Employee Unions? Mother Jones ...Forget Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his fellow union-bashing governors. Forget the partisan attacks on organized labor. The gravest threat to public-employee unions--which represent cops, firefighters, prison guards, teachers, nurses and other state workers, is a Supreme Court case named Harris v. Quinn...
Michigan's Snyder signs bill raising minimum wage Associated Press ...Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed legislation Tuesday to raise the state's minimum wage by 25 percent gradually over the next four years to $9.25 an hour, as Republicans controlling the state government moved to head off a November ballot measure that could have raised pay even more.
Federal Judge Who Halted Walker Dark Money Criminal Probe Attended Koch-Backed Judicial Junkets Center for Media and Democracy ...The federal judge who ordered a halt to Wisconsin's "John Doe" criminal investigation into spending during the 2011 and 2012 recall elections has regularly attended all-expenses paid "judicial junkets" funded by the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, and other ideological and corporate interests...
States Consider Bills To Crack Down On Workplace Bullies NPR ...Bullying is a behavioral problem often associated with children in grade school, but according to a recent Zogby poll, more than a quarter of American workers say they've experienced abusive conduct at work...
War On Workers
Median CEO Pay Passes The $10 Million Mark For The First Time Think Progress ...The median CEO pay package hit $10.5 million last year, according to the Associated Press, cracking eight figures for the first time since the wire service began calculating the statistic...
Workers At This Giant Retailer Are Really Happy With Their Pay Think Progress ...In an analysis of employee feedback shared on Glassdoor over the past year, just one retailer comes in the top 25 for top marks on pay and benefits: Costco...
The Ripple Effects Of Rising Student Debt New York Times ...What are the roads not taken because students must take out loans for college? A collection of studies show that the burden of student debt may very well cause people to make different decisions than they would otherwise--affecting not just individual lives, but also the entire economy...
Miscellaneous
Europe's Secret Success New York Times ...Europe's financial and macroeconomic woes have overshadowed its remarkable, unheralded longer-term success in an area where it used to lag: job creation. What? You haven't heard about it? Well, that's not too surprising...
7 States Running Out Of Water Huffington Post ...In seven states, drought conditions were so severe that each had more than half it's land area in severe drought. Severe drought is characterized by crop loss, frequent water shortages and mandatory water use restrictions...
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Today's Teamster News 05.21.14
Teamster News
Can The Teamsters Save Union Pensions? Institutional Investor ...the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Fund ...(has)..."been conservative in their investments, professional in their management and fortunate in their economics..."
Pekin Schools Notify Parents Of Strike Possibility Pekin Daily Times ...Officials of Pekin School Districts 108 and 303 as well as the city's private schools notified parents Monday evening that they may need to find alternative transportation for their children to get to school starting Wednesday...
Trade
Thousands of dogs, and 3 people, sickened by jerky pet treats, FDA says CBS News ... The Food and Drug Administration released updated information on Friday about an ongoing investigation into illnesses and deaths caused by jerky pet treats imported from China...
Fine Line Seen in U.S. Spying on Companies New York Times ... the government does not deny it routinely spies to advance American economic advantage, which is part of its broad definition of how it protects American national security. In short, the officials say, while the N.S.A. cannot spy on Airbus and give the results to Boeing, it is free to spy on European or Asian trade negotiators and use the results to help American trade officials — and, by extension, the American industries and workers they are trying to bolster...
For U.S. Companies That Challenge China, the Risk of Digital Reprisal New York Times ...The United Steelworkers union lost computer records containing trade policy strategies and discussions about rare earth metals and auto parts. All four had something in common besides data theft: Each was in the middle of pushing back against China’s trade policies by seeking help from the World Trade Organization or the Commerce Department...
TPP Talks To Intensify, No Accord Yet Channel News Asia ...Asia-Pacific trade ministers said on Tuesday they would intensify talks on a vast trans-Pacific free trade agreement, but offered no clue on when a final accord would be reached...
State Battles
NSA data-gathering may run into California roadblock Reuters ...The federal government would need a warrant from a judge if it wants the cooperation of California officials in searching residents' cellphone and computer records, under a bill making its way through the state legislature...
If Ohio Eases Green-Energy Rules, Will It Spark National Trend? Columbus Dispatch ...Ohio is on the cusp of becoming the first state to significantly ease its renewable energy standards, a milestone that would be noticed in states around the country where similar debates are being waged...
War On Workers
Harris v. Quinn Is About the Right of Home Care Workers to Improve Their Wages Economic Policy Institute ...The Supreme Court is expected to decide Harris v. Quinn, a case of major importance for American workers, in the next few days. Many observers predict a disastrous decision that will cripple union organizing and collective bargaining for home health aides, child care workers, and other direct care aides. But the Court could go much further and threaten the ability of all public employees to form unions and bargain collectively with any state or local government...
Florida high school charging parents $200 to see their child's graduation - and even seniors must pay $20 to attend Daily Mail ...High School Principal Don Sauer told reporters that the fees are an effort to cover the $12,000 graduation costs for the school after the school district pulled $3,400 from its annual contribution to cut costs...
This Chart Is The Fate of Housing In America As Student Loans Bankrupt A Whole Generation naked capitalism ...Student loan balances soared 362% to $1.1 trillion since 2003, during a period when mortgage debt – including the effects of the current Housing Bubble 2 – rose “only” 65% to $8.2 trillion and credit card debt actually declined by 4.2% to $660 billion (chart). ...And so the proportion of first-time buyers – the single most important sign of a healthy housing market – has been shrinking for years...
GM issues more recalls, this time for 2.42 million vehicles Los Angeles Times ...None of the four recalls is related to GM’s faulty ignition switches. That issue, which has been linked to at least 13 deaths and recalls of 2.6 million vehicles, has prompted federal fines and several investigations into why GM neglected to issue the recalls for more than a decade...
No, Taking Away Unemployment Benefits Doesn't Make People Get Jobs Think Progress ...When 1.3 million long-term unemployed people lost benefits because Congress let the program lapse, some claimed that taking away the checks would encourage people to go out and get a job. That isn't panning out for the 74,000 people who are no longer getting checks in Illinois...
NFL Cheerleader Alleges She Was Paid $2 An Hour Think Progress ...The Tampa Bay Buccaneers became the fifth NFL franchise to face a minimum wage lawsuit Monday, when a former cheerleader alleged in a complaint that the team paid her just $2 an hour...
Can The Teamsters Save Union Pensions? Institutional Investor ...the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Fund ...(has)..."been conservative in their investments, professional in their management and fortunate in their economics..."
Pekin Schools Notify Parents Of Strike Possibility Pekin Daily Times ...Officials of Pekin School Districts 108 and 303 as well as the city's private schools notified parents Monday evening that they may need to find alternative transportation for their children to get to school starting Wednesday...
Trade
Thousands of dogs, and 3 people, sickened by jerky pet treats, FDA says CBS News ... The Food and Drug Administration released updated information on Friday about an ongoing investigation into illnesses and deaths caused by jerky pet treats imported from China...
Fine Line Seen in U.S. Spying on Companies New York Times ... the government does not deny it routinely spies to advance American economic advantage, which is part of its broad definition of how it protects American national security. In short, the officials say, while the N.S.A. cannot spy on Airbus and give the results to Boeing, it is free to spy on European or Asian trade negotiators and use the results to help American trade officials — and, by extension, the American industries and workers they are trying to bolster...
For U.S. Companies That Challenge China, the Risk of Digital Reprisal New York Times ...The United Steelworkers union lost computer records containing trade policy strategies and discussions about rare earth metals and auto parts. All four had something in common besides data theft: Each was in the middle of pushing back against China’s trade policies by seeking help from the World Trade Organization or the Commerce Department...
TPP Talks To Intensify, No Accord Yet Channel News Asia ...Asia-Pacific trade ministers said on Tuesday they would intensify talks on a vast trans-Pacific free trade agreement, but offered no clue on when a final accord would be reached...
State Battles
NSA data-gathering may run into California roadblock Reuters ...The federal government would need a warrant from a judge if it wants the cooperation of California officials in searching residents' cellphone and computer records, under a bill making its way through the state legislature...
If Ohio Eases Green-Energy Rules, Will It Spark National Trend? Columbus Dispatch ...Ohio is on the cusp of becoming the first state to significantly ease its renewable energy standards, a milestone that would be noticed in states around the country where similar debates are being waged...
War On Workers
Harris v. Quinn Is About the Right of Home Care Workers to Improve Their Wages Economic Policy Institute ...The Supreme Court is expected to decide Harris v. Quinn, a case of major importance for American workers, in the next few days. Many observers predict a disastrous decision that will cripple union organizing and collective bargaining for home health aides, child care workers, and other direct care aides. But the Court could go much further and threaten the ability of all public employees to form unions and bargain collectively with any state or local government...
Florida high school charging parents $200 to see their child's graduation - and even seniors must pay $20 to attend Daily Mail ...High School Principal Don Sauer told reporters that the fees are an effort to cover the $12,000 graduation costs for the school after the school district pulled $3,400 from its annual contribution to cut costs...
This Chart Is The Fate of Housing In America As Student Loans Bankrupt A Whole Generation naked capitalism ...Student loan balances soared 362% to $1.1 trillion since 2003, during a period when mortgage debt – including the effects of the current Housing Bubble 2 – rose “only” 65% to $8.2 trillion and credit card debt actually declined by 4.2% to $660 billion (chart). ...And so the proportion of first-time buyers – the single most important sign of a healthy housing market – has been shrinking for years...
GM issues more recalls, this time for 2.42 million vehicles Los Angeles Times ...None of the four recalls is related to GM’s faulty ignition switches. That issue, which has been linked to at least 13 deaths and recalls of 2.6 million vehicles, has prompted federal fines and several investigations into why GM neglected to issue the recalls for more than a decade...
No, Taking Away Unemployment Benefits Doesn't Make People Get Jobs Think Progress ...When 1.3 million long-term unemployed people lost benefits because Congress let the program lapse, some claimed that taking away the checks would encourage people to go out and get a job. That isn't panning out for the 74,000 people who are no longer getting checks in Illinois...
NFL Cheerleader Alleges She Was Paid $2 An Hour Think Progress ...The Tampa Bay Buccaneers became the fifth NFL franchise to face a minimum wage lawsuit Monday, when a former cheerleader alleged in a complaint that the team paid her just $2 an hour...
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Today's Teamster News 05.08.14
Teamster News
Richmond Ikea Labor Dispute Heads Into Year Two--With No End In Sight The Province ...The seasons and the calendar may have changed, but the labor dispute at Ikea's Richmond store remains as workers get set to mark a year on the picket line. About 300 members of Teamsters Local 213 have been surviving on strike pay...
York City approves new Teamsters contract York Dispatch ..."Both parties made concessions. Both parties got things," said Tom Ray, the city's deputy business administrator for human resources. According to the city's 2014 budget, 58 of the city's 364 employees are members of the Teamsters union...
Trade
Hollywood Boycott Threatens Trans Pacific Partnership Huffington Post ...A Hollywood boycott is threatening the Obama administration's Trans Pacific Partnership agreement. The southeast Asian nation of Brunei, a would be member of the TPP, is under fire from Hollywood...
State Battles
Koch Brothers And Big Utilities Campaign To Unplug Solar Power Los Angeles Times ...The Koch brothers have a new ploy to protect the traditional energy business that helped make them the planet's fifth and sixth richest humans...
State Ad Campaign Spreads Word Of Wage Theft The California Report ...Waiters earning only tips. Car wash workers not paid until customers drive up. Farm workers paid for fruit picked, rest breaks not included. Most of us have a sense this thing happens a lot--but it's not legal...
Conflicting Rulings Cloud Wisconsin Campaign Finance Inquiry New York Times ...An investigation into possible campaign finance violations involving conservative groups in Wisconsin and Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign committee has become entangled in back-to-back federal court rulings on whether it should continue...
War On Workers
U.S. Companies Often Assume Black Job Applicants Do Drugs Huffington Post ...More than any other group, black applicants are being turned away by U.S. companies under the implicit assumption that they are using illegal drugs, according to a new study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)...
Last year, 25 hedge fund managers earned more than double every kindergarten teacher combined Vox ...it's good to be a successful hedge fund manager: the top 25 earned a collective $21.1 billion this year...
Former NFL Cheerleader Sues Jets, Alleging Wage Theft Al-Jazeera ...The New York Jets have become the fourth National Football League (NFL) team to be sued by former cheerleaders alleging wage-theft and other labor-law violations...
CEOs Are Spending More And More Of Their Company's Money On Vacations Think Progress ...Corporate CEOs are back to using company jets for personal travel after the practice dipped briefly following the financial crisis, Bloomberg reports. "Non-business travel expenses" increased for the third straight year...
Charter Schools Are Cheating Your Kids: New Report Reveals Massive Fraud, Mismanagement, Abuse Salon.com ...Just in time for National Charter School Week, there's a new report highlighting the predictable perils of turning education into a poorly regulated business...
Miscellaneous
Wide Majorities Losing Faith In John Roberts' Supreme Court, Want Term Limits Huffington Post ...An overwhelming majority of voters would support sweeping reforms to the Supreme Court, as trust and confidence in the institution has eroded in recent years, according to a new survey...
Richmond Ikea Labor Dispute Heads Into Year Two--With No End In Sight The Province ...The seasons and the calendar may have changed, but the labor dispute at Ikea's Richmond store remains as workers get set to mark a year on the picket line. About 300 members of Teamsters Local 213 have been surviving on strike pay...
York City approves new Teamsters contract York Dispatch ..."Both parties made concessions. Both parties got things," said Tom Ray, the city's deputy business administrator for human resources. According to the city's 2014 budget, 58 of the city's 364 employees are members of the Teamsters union...
Trade
Hollywood Boycott Threatens Trans Pacific Partnership Huffington Post ...A Hollywood boycott is threatening the Obama administration's Trans Pacific Partnership agreement. The southeast Asian nation of Brunei, a would be member of the TPP, is under fire from Hollywood...
State Battles
Koch Brothers And Big Utilities Campaign To Unplug Solar Power Los Angeles Times ...The Koch brothers have a new ploy to protect the traditional energy business that helped make them the planet's fifth and sixth richest humans...
State Ad Campaign Spreads Word Of Wage Theft The California Report ...Waiters earning only tips. Car wash workers not paid until customers drive up. Farm workers paid for fruit picked, rest breaks not included. Most of us have a sense this thing happens a lot--but it's not legal...
Conflicting Rulings Cloud Wisconsin Campaign Finance Inquiry New York Times ...An investigation into possible campaign finance violations involving conservative groups in Wisconsin and Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign committee has become entangled in back-to-back federal court rulings on whether it should continue...
War On Workers
U.S. Companies Often Assume Black Job Applicants Do Drugs Huffington Post ...More than any other group, black applicants are being turned away by U.S. companies under the implicit assumption that they are using illegal drugs, according to a new study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)...
Last year, 25 hedge fund managers earned more than double every kindergarten teacher combined Vox ...it's good to be a successful hedge fund manager: the top 25 earned a collective $21.1 billion this year...
Former NFL Cheerleader Sues Jets, Alleging Wage Theft Al-Jazeera ...The New York Jets have become the fourth National Football League (NFL) team to be sued by former cheerleaders alleging wage-theft and other labor-law violations...
CEOs Are Spending More And More Of Their Company's Money On Vacations Think Progress ...Corporate CEOs are back to using company jets for personal travel after the practice dipped briefly following the financial crisis, Bloomberg reports. "Non-business travel expenses" increased for the third straight year...
Charter Schools Are Cheating Your Kids: New Report Reveals Massive Fraud, Mismanagement, Abuse Salon.com ...Just in time for National Charter School Week, there's a new report highlighting the predictable perils of turning education into a poorly regulated business...
Miscellaneous
Wide Majorities Losing Faith In John Roberts' Supreme Court, Want Term Limits Huffington Post ...An overwhelming majority of voters would support sweeping reforms to the Supreme Court, as trust and confidence in the institution has eroded in recent years, according to a new survey...
Friday, May 31, 2013
Today's Teamster News, 05.31.13
(UPDATES with new item in final graf.)
Tax breaks benefit rich households the most, report says Los Angeles Times ...Tax breaks benefit U.S. households unevenly, with the top 1% receiving more than 17% of the savings in 2013...
Unions Press to End Favored Trade Status for Bangladesh New York Times ...After several deadly factory disasters in Bangladesh — including the collapse of an eight-story garment factory that left at least 1,127 people dead, labor advocates are stepping up pressure on the Obama administration, calling for it to convey its disapproval of working conditions in the country by revoking its special trade status...
Walmart Protest Movement Grows As Workers Strike Again Huffington Post ...As Walmart workers this week resume strikes at stores around the nation, organizers are saying that more employees than ever have joined the ranks of the activists, with some experts going so far as to say that the movement has achieved critical mass…
Labor groups launch three-pronged fight to pass 'Walmart' bill Sacramento Bee ...California labor unions have launched a lobbying, direct mail and online advertising blitz in support of legislation to penalize large employers if wages they pay are not high enough to keep workers off Medi-Cal rolls...
Costco's Profit Soars To $459 Million As Low-Wage Competitors Struggle Huffington Post ...At a time when other retailers are struggling to get people into stores, Costco is enjoying a moment in the sun. The company boosted its profits while paying its workers a decent wage, a claim many of Costco’s competitors, including Walmart and Target, can’t make...
Protesters To Koch Brothers: Keep Your Hands Off Tribune! Forbes ...It’s not clear exactly how serious Charles and David Koch are about buying Tribune Co.’s newspapers, but their critics are completely serious about stopping them...
Republican lawmakers trampling democracy in Michigan (opinion) Michigan Live ...Democracy is dying in Michigan, thanks to our Republican legislators. First, changing voting districts increased their chances of winning elections. Then, they ignored the wishes of the people by passing a Right-to-Work bill which cannot be repealed because it is tied to appropriations. Wait---There’s more…
Watchdogs oppose NC undercover investigations bill Associated Press ...A North Carolina bill criminalizing undercover investigations into workplace abuses has drawn opposition from at least 25 animal welfare, worker and watchdog groups...
Seattle fast food workers walk off the job Seattle Times ...A strike by fast food workers has hit restaurants in Seattle yesterday and organizers say more restaurants have been targeted by the movement...
Court Says Rick Scott Cannot Require Drug Testing for All Florida State Workers Huffington Post ...A federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday that Florida Gov. Rick Scott cannot require all state employees to take random drug tests and told the state to identify which government workers it believes should undergo periodic testing...
Motorola announces Texas facility making first US-assembled smartphones, creating 2,000 jobs Associated Press ...Cellphone pioneer Motorola announced it’s opening a Texas manufacturing facility that will create 2,000 jobs and produce its new flagship device, Moto X, the first smartphone ever assembled in the U.S...
10-year strike at Congress Plaza Hotel is over Chicago Tribune ...A 10-year strike at the Congress Plaza hotel in downtown Chicago -- believed to be the longest hotel strike in the world --has ended...
Transportation Department Names Teamsters To Freight Advisory Committee US Department of Transportation ...Jim Hoffa, Teamsters General President, has been appointed to the DOT’s Freight Transportation Committee, along with Rick Inclima of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division. The committee will explore ways to improve the freight transportation system...
Sunsweet union employees demonstrate outside Yuba City plant Appeal-Democrat ...Employees represented by Teamsters Union Local 601 at the Yuba City Sunsweet Growers plant whooped, hollered and carried signs in a demonstration Thursday outside the plant...
Tax breaks benefit rich households the most, report says Los Angeles Times ...Tax breaks benefit U.S. households unevenly, with the top 1% receiving more than 17% of the savings in 2013...
Unions Press to End Favored Trade Status for Bangladesh New York Times ...After several deadly factory disasters in Bangladesh — including the collapse of an eight-story garment factory that left at least 1,127 people dead, labor advocates are stepping up pressure on the Obama administration, calling for it to convey its disapproval of working conditions in the country by revoking its special trade status...
Walmart Protest Movement Grows As Workers Strike Again Huffington Post ...As Walmart workers this week resume strikes at stores around the nation, organizers are saying that more employees than ever have joined the ranks of the activists, with some experts going so far as to say that the movement has achieved critical mass…
Labor groups launch three-pronged fight to pass 'Walmart' bill Sacramento Bee ...California labor unions have launched a lobbying, direct mail and online advertising blitz in support of legislation to penalize large employers if wages they pay are not high enough to keep workers off Medi-Cal rolls...
Costco's Profit Soars To $459 Million As Low-Wage Competitors Struggle Huffington Post ...At a time when other retailers are struggling to get people into stores, Costco is enjoying a moment in the sun. The company boosted its profits while paying its workers a decent wage, a claim many of Costco’s competitors, including Walmart and Target, can’t make...
Protesters To Koch Brothers: Keep Your Hands Off Tribune! Forbes ...It’s not clear exactly how serious Charles and David Koch are about buying Tribune Co.’s newspapers, but their critics are completely serious about stopping them...
Republican lawmakers trampling democracy in Michigan (opinion) Michigan Live ...Democracy is dying in Michigan, thanks to our Republican legislators. First, changing voting districts increased their chances of winning elections. Then, they ignored the wishes of the people by passing a Right-to-Work bill which cannot be repealed because it is tied to appropriations. Wait---There’s more…
Watchdogs oppose NC undercover investigations bill Associated Press ...A North Carolina bill criminalizing undercover investigations into workplace abuses has drawn opposition from at least 25 animal welfare, worker and watchdog groups...
Seattle fast food workers walk off the job Seattle Times ...A strike by fast food workers has hit restaurants in Seattle yesterday and organizers say more restaurants have been targeted by the movement...
Court Says Rick Scott Cannot Require Drug Testing for All Florida State Workers Huffington Post ...A federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday that Florida Gov. Rick Scott cannot require all state employees to take random drug tests and told the state to identify which government workers it believes should undergo periodic testing...
Motorola announces Texas facility making first US-assembled smartphones, creating 2,000 jobs Associated Press ...Cellphone pioneer Motorola announced it’s opening a Texas manufacturing facility that will create 2,000 jobs and produce its new flagship device, Moto X, the first smartphone ever assembled in the U.S...
10-year strike at Congress Plaza Hotel is over Chicago Tribune ...A 10-year strike at the Congress Plaza hotel in downtown Chicago -- believed to be the longest hotel strike in the world --has ended...
Transportation Department Names Teamsters To Freight Advisory Committee US Department of Transportation ...Jim Hoffa, Teamsters General President, has been appointed to the DOT’s Freight Transportation Committee, along with Rick Inclima of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division. The committee will explore ways to improve the freight transportation system...
Sunsweet union employees demonstrate outside Yuba City plant Appeal-Democrat ...Employees represented by Teamsters Union Local 601 at the Yuba City Sunsweet Growers plant whooped, hollered and carried signs in a demonstration Thursday outside the plant...
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