Human rights before huge profits from TPP

Putting people before the powerful. It's a statement the Teamsters firmly believe in, and one that U.S. democracy supports by having a one-person, one-vote system in place. But a report released today by the State Department raises some concerns about whether American policy is following the same path.

Workers shouldn't have to pay for TPP corporate profits.

As part of the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) document, the U.S. upgraded the standing of Malaysia despite concerns raised by human rights activists here and abroad about the nation's forced labor practices. Its new ranking would allow it to participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which is currently being discussed in Hawaii.

Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said the welfare of workers must be considered before any trade agreement:

While negotiators are trying to finish up discussions on the TPP this week, America should not lose focus on what is truly important. Malaysia must come into compliance with international labor standards that ban forced labor before it is allowed to participate in this Pacific Rim trade agreement. Our standing in the world demands the U.S. to take such a position for those being exploited around the world.

This is just the latest, of course, in a litany of potential problems involving the 12-nation Pacific Rim trade deal. This agreement will ship thousands of jobs overseas, weaken labor standards (as the Malaysia action shows), and allow unsafe food and products to flood American shores. It will also balloon the U.S. trade deficit by doing nothing to curtail currency manipulation by other countries, which will lower the price of imported goods into the U.S. while raising the price of products we export.

There are many hurdles that still need to be worked out as part of TPP. Nations have a litany of concerns, as Politico points out, that trade leaders need to solve going forward:

Canada wants to protect its dairy and poultry producers and Japan, its rice farmers. American drug companies want other countries to adopt strong U.S. protections on a blockbuster new class of medicines called biologics, and U.S. automakers oppose giving Japan more market access. Canada and Malaysia are particular concerns because of difficult domestic politics that could make it more difficult for them to close in Maui, even if other countries are ready.

At the end of the day, the Teamsters' concerns about Malaysia and trade are the same -- people need to count more than corporations. Elected officials need to remember that too.

Today's Teamster News 07.27.15

Teamsters
Allentown Healthcare Workers Vote For Teamster Representation  Teamster.org   ...A majority of janitorial workers working for Crothall Healthcare at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, Penn., have recently voted to be represented by Teamsters Local 773. There are 233 total employees in the group which consists of staff members assigned in the cleaning crews, room preparation and as floor technicians...
Chicago Teamsters at Translogix Ratify New Three-Year Contract  Joint Council 25  ...Approximately 180 members of Teamsters Local 710 ratified a new three-year contract with Translogix by a two-to-one margin on June 10. Teamsters who work out of two Chicago facilities will receive either a pay raise or yearly bonus — respective to their location — as part of the new contract. In addition, language regarding pushback scheduling has been improved...

Global Labor & Trade
Despite criticism from Congress, Malaysia, Cuba taken off US human trafficking blacklist  US News & World Report  ...The State Department has taken Malaysia and Cuba off its blacklist of countries failing to combat modern-day slavery. That could leave the U.S. open to criticism that politics is swaying the often-contentious rankings in its annual human trafficking report. Critics contend that Malaysia's upgrade is related to its participation in a U.S.-backed trade agreement among Pacific Rim countries...
Rice, milk and cars among the stumbling blocks in historic trade pact  Politico  ...The Obama administration is closer than ever on a breakthrough on the biggest trade deal in world history. But years of delicate negotiating could be undone by Canadian milk. Or Japanese rice. Or U.S. pharmaceutical patents. Top trade officials from 12 countries scattered around the Asia-Pacific region descended on the island of Maui on Friday for a week of meetings...
The Trans-Pacific Partnership issues in-depth  Politico  ...There are hundreds if not thousands of issues to resolve within the nearly 30 chapters of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership pact, which would cover more than 40 percent of world economic output. A complicated four-way dance is going on in the dairy negotiations, and right now everyone is waiting for Canada to make its move. U.S. dairy producers were opposed to the agreement when it only included New Zealand...
Corporate lobbying expense jumps as U.S. trade debate rages  Reuters  ...Washington lobbying by companies and groups involved in global trade boomed in the past nine months, records show, as Congress debated a landmark trade pact proposed by President Barack Obama, the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Lobbying expenditures by members of a pro-TPP coalition increased to $135 million in the second quarter of 2015, up from $126 million in the first quarter and $118 million in the fourth quarter of 2014...
TPP enters final negotiations  NZ Herald  ...A controversial trade deal between New Zealand and other Pacific Rim countries including the United States enters final negotiations this week. Prime Minister John Key said there would be "give and take" in the final negotiations of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), but he remained confident in the deal...
Wyden: Canada must open door to dairy for trade deal  KTVZ  ...Canada must agree to significantly expand market access for dairy products from the United States in any Trans Pacific Partnership deal, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, wrote to Canadian Ambassador Gary Doer on Friday. Wyden and Hatch said their support for a final TPP agreement that includes Canada is contingent on Canada’s ability to meet TPP’s high standards...
TPP meeting 'will reveal changes to dairy markets'  Radio NZ  ...New Zealand's special agricultural trade envoy is expecting a crucial meeting on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) this week will reveal how far key countries will go to open up their protected dairy markets. Mike Petersen is on his way to Hawaii for ministerial talks on the Pacific-wide trade pact. Trade Minister Tim Groser is still waiting for a further offer on opening up the dairy markets of Japan, Canada and the United States...
Peru: Construction Union Leaders Murdered  Solidarity Center  ...One construction union leader was killed and another injured as the men left a union organizing meeting in Casma, Peru, this week. Miguel Cotelo Villanueva, a member of the Federación de Trabajadores en Construcción Civil de Perú (Federation of Civil Construction Workers of Peru, FTCCP)­­, Peru’s largest construction union, is the most recent of 14 construction union leaders murdered in the past five years. Victor Rodas, another FTCCP union leader, was murdered on July 10 in similar circumstances...
Greek Austerity and Its Resemblance to African Debt Peonage  Global Research   ...The current situation in Greece resembles the debt peonage that many African countries have been subjected to for decades. They suffered the consequences of the so-called structural adjustment under the supervision of the international finance institutions and the result was economic and social devastation. In the post-Independence Zimbabwe, for example, the Mugabe government abandoned its ‘growth with equity’ strategy and went for the economic model designed by the World Bank and the IMF...

State & Living Wage Battles
Push for $15 minimum wage gathers steam  Dallas Morning News  ...The federal minimum wage has stood at $7.25 an hour since 2009, but labor unions and anti-poverty advocates are pushing a rate more than twice that amount as the new standard needed to afford hourly earners a decent living. The movement to make $15-per-hour the mandatory minimum over the next several years has seen success in a number of cities and is starting to spill over to statehouses and public universities...
Prevailing wage debate continues among WV officials  State Journal  ...Republican lawmakers said their intention with the 2015 legislation was not to eliminate the wage, but to come up with a better way of determining it. As a result of Senate Bill 361, WorkForce West Virginia, a division of the state Department of Commerce tasked with making sure West Virginians can be put to work, was asked by the West Virginia Legislature to come up with what the prevailing hourly wage for public improvement projects should be...
Dunkin' Donuts CEO Who Earns $10 Million Claims to Be Outraged by $15 Minimum Wage  Alternet  ...This week, the New York Wage Board recommended that the state's fast food workers should make $15 per hour, which has been the rallying cry for the labor movement across the country. Dunkin Donuts CEO Nigel Travis – who previously held senior positions at Papa John's and Burger King, other low-wage employers – appeared on CNN and decried the $15 minimum wage as “absolutely outrageous.” He went on to claim that the move will prevent his company from hiring more people...
Is There A Subliminal Message In Walmart’s Minimum Wage TV Ad?  Buzzfeed  ...It has been a good week for the Fight for 15, the national movement to raise pay for low wage workers to $15 an hour. From New York to California and D.C., cities and public institutions have moved closer to pay hikes that center around the number, more than twice the current federal minimum. Today, a union-backed campaign is calling for a Federal Trade Commission investigation into a Walmart commercial it claims is “unfairly implying that workers are paid enough to support themselves and their families”...
Uber Wins a Battle With New York, Now It’s War  The Nation  ...When New York Mayor Bill De Blasio talked of a Tale of Two Cities on the campaign trail, promising to address an epidemic of social inequality, he probably wasn’t expecting a viral app to drive a multibillion-dollar wedge through Gotham’s fault-lines of race and class. But now De Blasio and city lawmakers have been blindsided by Uber’s corporate surge, forced to stall an attempt to cap the company’s expansion...

U.S. Labor
Verizon Communications (VZ) Workers Vote To Strike Amid Tense Contract Talks  International Business Times   ...Many of the almost 40,000 workers at Verizon Communications Inc.'s wireline unit voted to strike amid negotiations over a new labor agreement. The Communications Workers of America (CWA) union announced the results of the vote -- 86 percent of the workers who cast ballots approved the strike -- during a rally in New York Saturday. The move does not necessarily mean workers will go on strike...
Mitsubishi, UAW partnering to ID buyer for plant  Pantagraph  ...Workers returned to the Mitsubishi auto plant on Monday with both the company and the United Auto Workers pledging to "work collaboratively to identify a suitable buyer to assume operations of the facility." In a statement, the company repeated that production at the Normal plant will stop at the end of November...
USW takes aim at new contract proposals  Chicago Tribune  ...United Steelworkers said Friday it has received more proposals from ArcelorMittal seeking additional concessions from its workers as the two sides continued to meet to hammer out a new three-year contract. The union said the new proposals came as its committee was still working on a response to the steel giant's initial proposal made earlier this week...
The New American Slavery: Invited to the U.S., Foreign Workers Find A Nightmare  Buzzfeed   ...The H-2 visa program invites foreign workers to do some of the most menial labor in America. Then it leaves them at the mercy of their employers. Thousands of these workers have been abused — deprived of their fair pay, imprisoned, starved, beaten, raped, and threatened with deportation if they dare complain. And the government says it can do little to help...
Did ICE Violate Its Own Deportation Guidelines in Arresting Chicago-Area Unionized Meatpackers?  In These Times  ...On Friday, June 26, workers from the Ruprecht Company’s meatpacking factory in Mundelein, Illinois, walked off the job in a spontaneous strike against a pending immigration audit. Several weeks later, eight Ruprecht workers, three of whom are members of UNITE HERE Local 1, have been apprehended by immigration authorities. In a statement, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said the eight workers were picked up after the department discovered the workers had records that fall within its priorities for arrest during a routine immigration audit...
D.C. Circuit Backs NLRB on Hospital Discipline Cases  Bloomberg  ...The National Labor Relations Board properly held that a Virginia hospital violated federal labor law when it discharged, disciplined or failed to promote three nurses because they engaged in protected concerted activity, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held July 24. The court also approved the board's decision that a second nurse was given a final written warning for protesting INOVA's treatment of Miller and a third nurse was denied a promotion, both in violation of the National Labor Relations Act...
Why Women Shouldn’t Have to Act Like Dudes at Work  The Atlantic  ...When it comes to gender equality in the workplace, the research on its economic benefits is clear: Equality can boost profits and enhance reputation. But the progress of women in the workplace is so far inadequate: Women are woefully underrepresented in executive positions, the pay gap persists, and the motherhood penalty is very real...

Social Justice & Other News
Body Cams Are The Next Step In The Over-Policing Of Schools  Think Progress  ...Burlington Community School District in Burlington, Iowa may be the first school district in the nation to ensure that all of its 13 administrators, principals and associate principals, wear body cameras. Administrators have compared the need for body cameras in schools to the need for body cameras on police officers. But as with police officers, the argument against body cameras for administrators is that the administrators still hold the power since they hold the camera...
Vowing to #SayHerName and More, Hundreds Gather to Honor Life and Death of Sandra Bland  Common Dreams  ...Hundreds of people attended the funeral of Sandra Bland on Saturday at the DuPage African Methodist Episcopal Church in Lisle, Illinois outside of Chicago to commemorate the woman whose untimely death in Texas jail cell on July 13 has further galvanized a national call demanding something be done about the extreme levels of police violence and the pervasive mistreatment of black women, men, and other minorities across the country...
Paul Krugman: The GOP has never “abandoned its dream” of destroying the social safety net  Salon  ...In his Monday column at the New York Times, economist Paul Krugman went after GOP presidential hopeful Jeb Bush for claiming that Medicare ought to be “phased out,” claiming that such talk is emblematic an ideologically motivated desire on the part of the Republican Party to destroy the social safety net — especially if there’s evidence that it’s working...
“Collective Healing” at Nat’l Black Lives Matter Convergence Ends with Police Pepper-Spraying Teen  Democracy Now  ...More than a thousand Black Lives Matter supporters converged in Cleveland, Ohio, this weekend for a historic conference to raise national attention about police brutality and other pressing issues, including immigration rights, economic justice and LGBTQ rights. During the opening ceremony, family members of more than 20 African Americans killed by police took to the stage to speak about why they continue to fight for justice...
Taking a road trip this summer? Enjoy America's crumbling infrastructure  The Guardian  ...The US’s once gleaming interstate highway system is in crisis. The federal program that funds maintenance and improvements – the Highway Trust Fund – is set to expire on 31 July. Congress passed a five-week funding “patch” to extend the deadline, one of 34 it has passed in the last nine years. But if lawmakers don’t settle upon a more permanent solution, the US Department of Transportation says the fund will become insolvent before year’s end...
The disingenuous ways Uber hides behind its algorithm  Slate  ...In June, the California Labor Commission ruled in favor of classifying Uber driver Barbara Ann Berwick as an employee and not as an independent contractor. But the battle over ride-hailing apps continues to rage as companies, governments, activists, and incumbent businesses all seek to shape how a new generation of companies will be regulated. A class-action suit with potentially even bigger implications continues to wind its way through the federal courts, with Uber resisting every step of the way...
Judge rules U.S. government should not hold immigrant children  Reuters  ...The U.S. government is violating a 1997 settlement by detaining unauthorized immigrant children, and an order may be forthcoming to require the release of the minors and parents detained with them, a judge in California has ruled. The ruling on Friday by U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee follows an influx across the U.S.-Mexico border of immigrants from Central America...
Aging Infrastructure Plagues Nation’s Busiest Rail Corridor  New York Times  ...In Maryland, a century-old rail tunnel needed emergency repairs this winter because of soil erosion from leaks, causing widespread train delays. In Connecticut, an aging swing bridge failed to close twice last summer, stopping train service and stranding passengers. And last week, New Jersey Transit riders had a truly torturous experience. There were major delays on four days because of problems with overhead electrical wires and a power substation, leaving thousands of commuters stalled for hours...

Turning the tide on voter suppression

Voting rights is a key issue of our time, challenging democracy and the ability of the American people to participate in the electoral process as guaranteed under U.S. law.

N.C. residents took to the streets against voter suppression.

Many states in recent years have approved rules that tamp down on the ability of particularly minority voters to make it to the polls. An ongoing federal lawsuit challenging restrictive voter suppression rules approved by North Carolina lawmakers in 2013 stands as one of the leading examples of how legislatures across the country have tried to tip the scales toward a more corporate-friendly landscape.

As part of North Carolina NAACP v. McCrory, plaintiffs are rightfully questioning the trimming or eliminating measures that had been adopted over the previous 15 years in an effort to help boost electoral participation by minority and younger voters in North Carolina.

It appears even some of the proponents of those changes have had a change of heart in regards to the provisions they enacted two years ago. Gov. Pat McCrory (R.), for instance, recently signed into law changes that lessened the identification requirements to vote.

Efforts to defeat voter suppression or even make state laws less restrictive are actually on the rise, according to a panel that discussed the issue at the Netroots Nation conference in Phoenix last week. In fact, DeNora Getachew, campaign manager and legislative counsel for the Brennan Center's Democracy Program, said four times as many bills to expand voter rights were introduced in 2014 than to restrict them.

The trends we have seen ... is that the trend is actually in favor of increasing access to voting.

Participants from Nevada, Oregon and New Mexico discussed how building coalitions were essential to their efforts either to defeat stricter voting rules or to get measures passed that made it easier for state residents to cast a ballot. And in some instances, the results were truly monumental. In Oregon, for instance, the state earlier this year approved automatic voter registration.

The Teamsters have been active for years in registering union members to vote. That is the way this country makes sure the voices of all Americans are heard. Oregon is doing that. North Carolina isn't. Others need to follow the more inclusive model.

Today's Teamster News 07.24.15

Teamsters
Teamsters Canada: Stand Firm on Supply Management  Teamster.org  ...In advance of the final stages of Trans Pacific Partnership Negotiations (TPP), Teamsters Canada President Francois Laporte sent a letter today to International Trade Minister Ed Fast urging him to defend Canada’s Dairy Industry and to “make clear, as Canadian governments have done for many years in many trade talks, that our dairy supply management is ‘off the table’”...
Contractor/Employee Debate Heating up at Ports  Truckinginfo   ...Are drivers who handle the drayage of intermodal containers into and out of the nation's ports employees or independent contractors? The controversy was visible this week at ports on both coasts. The Teamsters union has been active in trying to get independent contractors at the ports declared employees...
Teamsters' bi-coastal drayage 'misclassification" protests heat up  JOC.com  ...The Teamsters are deploying a bi-coastal strategy to challenge what the union charges is misclassification of drayage truck drivers as independent contractors, an indication of how the issue has expanded far beyond the San Pedro Bay area. In Los Angeles-Long Beach, the Teamsters launched their sixth strike against Pac 9 Transportation, while in Savannah the union was supporting drivers who attended a public hearing by the Georgia Senate on employee misclassification...

Global Labor & Trade
U.S. diplomat pushes Canada for dairy, poultry access as TPP talks intensify  Globe & Mail  ...The top U.S. diplomat in Canada is wading into the debate over whether Ottawa is negotiating in good faith at major Pacific Rim trade talks, saying this country must come to the table as soon as possible with concrete proposals to offer foreign farmers more access to its heavily protected dairy and poultry sector...
IMF: Unionization, Higher Wages Reduce Income Inequality  Solidarity Center  ...he notion that unionization and higher wages decrease income inequality is a fundamental premise of the Solidarity Center and our allies. But now a surprising source has reached the same conclusion: the International Monetary Fund (IMF). “The decline in unionization is related to the rise of top income shares and less redistribution, while the erosion of minimum wages is correlated with considerable increases in overall inequality”...
Obama Administration Hype About a TPP Vote in 2015 Does Not Comport with Fast Track Timelines Public Citizen  ...TPP proponents are eager for Congress to vote on a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal in late 2015. But to do so, given Fast Track’s statutorily-required timeframe of notice periods and pre-vote reports, TPP negotiations – and the TPP text itself – must be completed by the end of July. If notice to Congress of intent to sign the TPP were sent by August 1, a final TPP vote could be held the last week Congress is in session in December...
'Shrewd' Canada playing long game as TPP trade talks begin in Maui   CBC News  ...As Canada's lead negotiator Kirsten Hillman and the rest of her Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiating team sit down with their counterparts in Maui, Hawaii this weekend, they may sense pounding from more than just the nearby surf. The game has changed since trade negotiators from 12 Pacific Rim countries met in Guam last April. The Americans, who'd been busily deal-fixing without a mandate to back it up, are now armed with fast-track negotiating authority...
Anonymous hacks US Census Bureau over TTIP agreement, leaking employee details online  International Business Timess   ...The reason for the cyber-attack is the recent Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), both of which are top priorities for the Obama administration and promise a radical reform of the global politico-economic system, with integration and convergence of major Atlantic and Pacific nations...
Putting Business First: How TTIP Changes the Rules of the Game  (opinion) TeleSUR  ...TTIP would cut tariffs and lower regulatory barriers to make trade easier between the two countries. According to The Telegraph, it would be the biggest trade agreement of its kind, affecting one quarter of global trade. And yet despite this, no one is totally sure of what TTIP will actually do for the EU, because it is such an unusual trade agreement. Not only are the two parties involved exceptionally large, but the nature of the agreement is – according to the CEPS, “more like a wide-ranging regulatory agreement, with some elements of classical trade agreements as well”...
Administration Desperate to Announce Deal on Trans-Pacific Partnership: There May Be an Announcement, But a Real Deal? One Congress Would Approve?  (opinion) Public Citizen  ...Unless the Obama administration can not only announce a final Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal by the start of August, but also by then complete a TPP text and give notice to Congress of intent to sign it, a U.S. congressional vote on TPP almost certainly will be pushed into the politically perilous 2016 presidential election year...
Do not undermine efforts to combat human trafficking  (opinion) The Hill  ...both the Obama administration and the U.S. Congress could be poised to take a terrible step backwards in the struggle against the global scourge of human trafficking by weakening a key amendment to the Fast Track trade authority bill.  Even more shocking are reports that the State Department is set to compromise its own Trafficking in Persons report to “upgrade” Malaysia without merit for narrow economic interests...
Many Greeks blame their economic plight on austerity-minded Germans  USA Today  ...As this economically distressed nation faces even more austerity measures, many citizens are taking their frustration out on hard-nosed Germany. The hashtag #BoycottGermany has been trending in the country since Germany took the lead in demanding tough bailout terms that have hiked taxes and slashed pensions. Tourist agencies report vacation cancellations that include many Germans...
Myanmar Officially Recognizes Trade Union Confederation  Solidarity Center  ...The government has officially recognized the Confederation of Trade Unions of Myanmar (CTUM), and registered the federation as representing “all Myanmar.” In a ceremony today, CTUM President Maung Maung and other union leaders received the registration papers, with Maung Maung thanking “everyone who made this vision of ours come true”...
Strikes, Labor Slowdowns Add up to Summer of Woe in Italy  ABC News  ...Italy's summer of woe is getting worse — as tourists face record-high temperatures, labor slowdowns, one strike at the Pompeii archaeological site and another at Alitalia that forced the cancellation of dozens of flights. Alitalia cancelled 15 percent of its flights Friday because of a walkout by pilots and flight attendants. Further south, hundreds of tourists lined up for hours in the sun Friday outside the gates of Pompeii, near Naples, after unions called a wildcat strike...

State & Living Wage Battles
The rapid success of Fight for $15: 'This is a trend that cannot be stopped'  The Guardian  ...When 200 New York restaurant workers walked out in the nation’s first-ever fast-food strike in late 2012, they were widely mocked for demanding minimum pay of $15 an hour, with some critics saying their demand was absurdly out of reach, akin to visiting Mars. But this week a New York state panel appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo recommended establishing a $15 minimum wage for the state’s 180,000 fast-food workers...
Regional petition drive kicks off to repeal prevailing wage law  Midland Daily News  ...The debate over Michigan’s prevailing wage law has been somewhat contentious and that spilled over at the Associated Builders and Contractors Greater Michigan Chapter office on Thursday. Kicking off a regional petition drive to repeal Michigan’s prevailing wage law, Rep. Gary Glenn, R-Midland, Jimmy Greene, president/CEO ABC Greater Michigan Chapter and ABC-Michigan CEO Chris Fisher held a press conference promoting the regional petition drive to repeal the prevailing wage law...
Facing Lawsuits, North Carolina Relaxes Voter ID Rules  Care2.com  ...North Carolina passed one of the most comprehensive and toughest voter suppression laws in the country. The law targeted every demographic that had made the state one of the most progressive in the nation. At the time of passage, Republicans held all branches of government for the first time since reconstruction and were determined to reverse any progress made since then. The aggressive assault on voters led to several lawsuits against the state...
Virginia Odds and Ends  Public Policy Polling  ...There is even more overwhelming support from Virginians on another pair of pieces of progressive legislation. 64% in the state think all workers should get a minimum number of paid sick days, with only 19% opposed to that concept. And an equal 64% think borrowers should be able to deduct their student loan payments on their state income taxes, to just 20% against that...
Hillary Clinton to Back $15 Fast-Food Minimum Wage in New York  New York Times  ...Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday will use a speech focused on growing the economy to endorse a $15-an-hour minimum wage proposal for fast-food workers recommended by a New York panel, a person briefed on her plans said. The remarks from Mrs. Clinton will come in the city where the fast-food workers’ labor effort first started several years ago. A panel created by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Wednesday recommended the change...
Meet ALEC’s Little Brother, ACCE  The Nation   ...So how has the American Legislative Exchange Council, a powerful lobby serving right-wing interests at the state level, responded to this resurgence of local democracy? With a systematic effort to destroy it. ALEC task force director Cara Sullivan recently explained to a room full of local officials that when it comes to citizen movements supporting job creation and higher wages, “perhaps the biggest threat comes from the local level”...
'Dark Cloud' of ALEC Converges at Annual Corporate-Political Lovefest  Common Dreams  ...Fighting to protect dark money. Attacking federal efforts to rein in carbon pollution. Undermining local democracy. These are just some of the "hot topics" on the agenda this week as conservative lawmakers, corporate lobbyists, and top GOP candidates from around the country gather in San Diego for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)'s annual meeting...

U.S. Labor
Ford, UAW start optimistic contract talks  Michigan Radio  ...The United Auto Workers and Ford Motor Company are officially in talks for their next four-year contract. This time, the kickoff ceremony was held off Ford and UAW premises. The event at Ford follows last week's contract kickoff at General Motors and Fiat Chrysler. Analysts believe the talks with Fiat Chrysler could be the most problematic. The automaker has the highest number of workers being paid the "tier two" wage...
Verizon, CWA union lock horns over pension benefits  Fierce Telecom  ...Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union continue to be at odds over how to structure pension benefits for a new labor contract. The current contract expires on Aug. 1. In a new update post on the union negotiations, the CWA said that Verizon's pension proposals are not acceptable. "After listening to 5 minutes worth of their retrogressive and insulting pension presentation/proposal, the Union made it clear to the Company that we are looking for improvements to the Pension Plans"...
AFSCME: Governor trying to force work stoppage  Rock River Times  ...The state’s largest employees’ union says Gov. Bruce Rauner wants to try and force a strike or lockout while the union works to enact legislation to block a work stoppage and bring in a third party arbitrator. That’s according to an AFSCME Council 31 bargaining update posted to the Capitol Fax blog as a contract extension nears an end with no agreement in sight...
NLRB considering union's latest complaint against ACMH Hospital in East Franklin  TribLive  ...A discrimination charge filed against ACMH Hospital in East Franklin last month could be joining an earlier union complaint at a trial in front of a federal judge in Pittsburgh in September. An August trial on the earlier charge alleging hospital officials acted illegally by taking self-scheduling duties away from workers has been moved to Sept. 2. The complaints were filed by technicians and licensed practical nurses who formed a union at the hospital about a year ago...
In Indiana, Employers Can Fire Workers for Being Gay or Trans—and They Do, All the Time  The Nation  ...Decades worth of national and local surveys have found that gay and lesbian workers report widespread job bias. In a 2013 Pew Research Center survey of more than 1,000 LGBT adults, 21 percent believed they’d been treated unfairly by an employer because of their identity, and 23 percent said they’d received poor service at a restaurant, hotel, or place of business. Transgender people seem to have it the worst: In a landmark 2011 nationwide survey of 6,450 transgender and gender-nonconforming folks, 90 percent said they had been mistreated at work; 47 percent said they’d been fired, not hired or not promoted...
Applications for unemployment aid plunge to 42-year low  USA Today  ...The number of Americans filing initial applications for unemployment benefits fell to a 42-year low last week in the latest sign the labor market is poised for further gains. Even so, there are some signs of ongoing weakness in the job market. The unemployment rate fell in June mostly because many of the unemployed stopped looking for work, rather than found jobs. The proportion of Americans working or looking for work fell to a 38-year low...
Company To Pay Record-Breaking Damages For Telling Pregnant Woman She Couldn’t Do Her Job Anymore  Think Progress  ...This week, the auto parts retailer AutoZone dropped its challenge to a verdict ordering it to pay a record-breaking $185 million in damages to a former employee who claimed she was demoted and fired for being pregnant. Rosario Juarez was hired by AutoZone in 2000 and was eventually promoted to store manager in 2004. But when she became pregnant in September of 2005, she says her manager told her, “Congratulations…I guess,” adding, “I feel sorry for you”...

Social Justice & Other News
U.S. House bars funding for 'sanctuary' cities for immigrants  Reuters  ...The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Thursday to deny funding to cities that do not report undocumented immigrants to federal authorities, setting off outcry from the White House and immigration advocates. The bill, approved by a vote of 241 to 179 largely along party lines, was largely a Republican response to the recent killing of a San Francisco woman, allegedly at the hands of an immigrant man...
Robert Reich: It Would Be a Mistake For Progressives to Split Along 'Black Lives Matter' & 'Economic Justice' Lines  Alternet  ...Racial inequalities are baked into our political and economic system. Police brutality against black men and women, mass incarceration disproportionately of blacks and Latinos, housing discrimination that has resulted in racial apartheid across the nation, and voter suppression all reveal deep structures of discrimination that undermine economic inequality. Our only hope for genuine change is if poor, working class, middle class, black, Latino, and white come together in a powerful movement to take back our economy and democracy...
How Did ‘Driving While Black’ Turn Deadly for Sandra Bland?  The Nation  ...If the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by Darren Wilson was, as The New York Times put it, “simply the spark that ignited years of pent-up tension and animosity in the area,” then Bland’s response upon being stopped came from a similar place of pent-up tension. She didn’t bow and scrape and defer to the increasingly aggressive officer, as some are suggesting she should have. Sometimes a person or a people have just had enough...
Holder's Legacy: Mass Incarceration and Protection of Killer Cops, Part II  (opinion) Truthout  ...Eric Holder has been praised as a "civil rights"-oriented attorney general, but the only rights he has championed are those of the bankers, white vigilantes and killer cops. Holder refused to press charges against millionaire banking executives who, he assured Wall Street, 'were too big to jail.' Blacks have to make do with their Miranda warning rights - if they are lucky enough to survive an encounter with the police...

UPS workers demand employer end ALEC membership

Joint Council 42 President Randy Cammack calls on UPS to leave ALEC.

UPS Teamsters have for years asked the package delivery giant to end it's affiliation with the virulently anti-union American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). And yesterday in San Diego, hundreds of them from throughout California came to a national meeting of the organization to have their voices heard.

Randy Cammack, President of Teamster Joint Council 42, which represents members throughout Southern California, spoke to the more than thousand people on hand and told them to send a message to the UPS representative inside:

There is a UPS representative inside attending the meeting as we rally out here. Let's make sure she can hear what we have to say -- UPS, get out of ALEC! UPS, get out of ALEC! UPS, get out of ALEC!

The Teamsters represent more than 250,000 members at UPS and UPS Freight. While more than 120 corporations and organizations have left ALEC due to their controversial positions, UPS remains an active member of ALEC despite the organization's anti-worker agenda that seeks to undermine and weaken worker positions. UPS might be obligated to encourage union involvement among its workforce, but uses part of its profits to push for so-called "right-to-work" laws in states around the nation.

ALEC has served as a legislative clearinghouse which authors model bills that are often brought to state capitals by lawmakers and introduced as-is. The group also acts to connect lawmakers with corporate big-wigs. It is funded, in part, by billionaire industrialists the Koch Brothers.

These legislative schmoozefests, for instance, have resulted in more and more states introducing preemption bills that stop localities from raising the minimum wage in their jurisdictions or offering paid sick leave. Big business relishes such laws. Workers pay the price for their greed.

Ken Hall, the Teamsters' General Secretary-Treasurer, said by remaining in ALEC, UPS sends the wrong message to its employees and people around the country:

Global corporations like Coca Cola, Apple, McDonald’s and even Walmart have decided that continuing a relationship with this toxic organization is too damaging to their brand. It begs the question of why UPS, the largest unionized company in America, continues to associate with ALEC. It’s time for UPS to do the right thing for its workers and cut ties with ALEC.

Today's Teamster News 07.23.15

Teamsters
Hoffa: Senate Transportation Bill is Positive Step, But Safety Issues Remain  Teamster.org  ...Today, the Senate voted to take up a six-year surface transportation reauthorization that will include three years of funding for highway, rail and transit programs. The House has passed a five-month extension funding programs until the end of the year. “While some lawmakers seem content to ignore our broad transportation infrastructure needs, it is clear many U.S. roads and bridges don’t have the luxury of time to be fixed,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa...
Hoffa: Workers in D.C. and Around the Country Deserve '$15 and a Union'  Teamster.org  ...The Teamsters stand with thousands of workers who rallied on Capitol Hill today and millions of hardworking Americans around the country who deserve the dignity and respect that earning $15 an hour would bring. These same workers should also have the ability to unionize so they can advocate for themselves going forward...
Teamsters: Toyota is a Danger to American Families  Teamster.org  ...Today, the Teamsters Union posted the first of several roadside billboards about the Toyota Corporation in order to educate the American public about the economic and safety dangers posed by the company. "Toyota is bidding out much of its automobile transport work to small, unproven operators who undercut the health care protections and retirement security of their drivers,” said Kevin Moore, Teamsters International Trustee and Director of the Teamsters Carhaul Division...
Teamsters Call On UPS To Leave ALEC At Massive Protest In San Diego Teamster.org ...Hundreds of Teamsters from across California traveled to San Diego today to participate in a massive protest outside a national meeting for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The Teamsters had one clear message they wanted to send – it was time for UPS to end its affiliation with ALEC. The Teamsters Union represents more than 250,000 members at UPS and UPS Freight...
Port truck drivers to get hearings on wage theft claims as they strike against employer, Pacific Transportation 9  OC Register  ..."Pac 9’s desperate tactic to stop the drivers from getting their day in court has failed. History will show that the drivers’ sacrifices on the picket line, coupled with the facts presented in court, will lead to permanent change in the port trucking industry,” Eric Tate, Secretary-Treasurer of Local Teamsters 848, which is representing the drivers, said in a statement...
Leslie Marshall Show On Executive Compensation at McKesson  (radio) Teamster.org   ...Louis Malizia, with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Capital Strategies Department, spoke with the Leslie Marshall Show about the disparity between high-level managers and frontline workers at McKesson. McKesson is the world’s largest wholesale pharmaceutical distributor, yet many of its employees cannot afford health care. The Teamsters recently sponsored a shareholder proposal to curb unearned executive pay...

Global Labor & Trade
Zimbabwe Supreme Court Guts Worker Job Security  Solidarity Center  ...The Supreme Court of Zimbabwe upheld a decision late last week stating that companies can now terminate workers’ contracts at any time, without offering them layoff benefits, by giving them three months’ notice. The unanimous decision “has grave consequences for anyone under formal employment,” according to one news source and comes “at time when business is crying for flexible labor laws in order to improve industrial competitiveness”...
State poised to issue report crucial to trade deal  The Hill  ...The State Department will release a human trafficking report Monday that many lawmakers fear could raise Malaysia’s status — allowing them to remain in a sweeping international trade pact. Congressional lawmakers and human rights groups are rankled over speculation that the annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report will upgrade the Asian nation — one of 12 nations negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — from tier 3 to a higher status that would help them remain part of the talks...
Abuse and Exploitation of Migrants Ignored in Exchange for TPPA  APR Network  ...The recent Reuters report on United States President Barack Obama’s move to upgrade the human rights status of Malaysia to allow the continuation of the negotiations of the TransPacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) gives a taste of what is to come, especially for migrants’ rights, if the trade deal will be signed. Citing congressional sources, Reuters reports that President Obama is going to move Malaysia’s status from Tier 3 in its annual trafficking in persons report, to Tier 2...
Why everyone hates Obama's signature trade deal  CNN  ...After years of painful, drawn-out meetings, negotiators are preparing for what could be the final round of talks over the biggest free trade deal in history, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Even as the deal nears completion, plenty of groups are trying to scuttle the agreement...
Bar unhappy over Malaysia’s upgrade on U.S. watch list on trafficking  Therakyat Post  ...The Bar Council expressed its unhappiness that Malaysia may be upgraded from Tier 3 to Tier 2 Watch List status in the rankings in the imminent 2015 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report prepared by the United States Department of State. Its president, Steven Thiru, said any upgrade of Malaysia in the 2015 TIP report would appear to be primarily motivated by a desire to allow Malaysia to be included in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA)...
TPP will prevent ban on foreign ownership  TVNZ  ...Labour says it will not support a trade partnership with the United States, Japan and 10 other Pacific nations if new conditions are not met because it worries that it could see New Zealand give up too much power. ONE News can reveal that the Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade deal will stop the right to restrict sales of homes and farm land to non-resident foreigners in fellow TPP countries...
US Trade Deficit Expansion Weighs on GDP  The Desert Sun  ...The U.S. trade deficit, which had shrunk significantly in the post "great financial recession" aftermath, reversed sharply in the first quarter 2015. Already beset by a drop in business and industry stock building early in the year, together with export restricting West Coast port strikes, and inclement weather in the East and Midwest, plus a strong export-reducing dollar, the first quarter trade deficit posted the greatest downward widening since the pre-recession (2008-10) years...
Anti-Austerity Protesters Massed Outside Greek Parliament Before Vote  Huffington Post  ...As Greek lawmakers gathered Wednesday to vote on a bill that would institute more economic reforms demanded by the nation's creditors, crowds amassed outside the Hellenic Parliament to decry the latest austerity measures. The vote, expected in the early hours of Thursday, has spurred anger among Greeks who called for an end to austerity when they elected the ruling Syriza party, only to have the government ultimately accept additional harsh economic policies in order to secure bailout funds...
Varoufakis: Troika Forced Syriza Into Choice Between 'Suicide or Execution'  Common Dreams ...In his first international television interview since stepping down from his post as Greek Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Monday that European lenders had forced his government to make a choice between "suicide or execution." After five months of rigorous negotiations, the outspoken Varoufakis stepped down from his post the night of the Greek referendum. And despite voting against the latest austerity package, Varoufakis said he understood why Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras decided to accept...

State & Living Wage Battles
New York Plans $15-an-Hour Minimum Wage for Fast Food Workers  New York Times  ...The labor protest movement that fast-food workers in New York City began nearly three years ago has led to higher wages for workers all across the country. On Wednesday, it paid off for the people who started it. A panel appointed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo recommended on Wednesday that the minimum wage be raised for employees of fast-food chain restaurants throughout the state to $15 an hour over the next few years...
New York Fast Food Workers On Passage Of The $15 Wage: ‘It’s A Dream Come True’  Think Progress  ...On Wednesday, the wage board New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) convened unanimously passed a proposal for a $15 an hour minimum wage for the state’s fast food industry. The labor commissioner is expected to approve the recommendation and issue a wage order raising these workers’ pay to at least that amount. The minimum wage for fast food workers will reach $15 an hour in New York City by 2018 and in the rest of the state by 2021...
Aiming to Lift 'Starvation Wage,' Progressive Lawmakers Push for $15 Nationwide  Common Dreams  ..."We are here today to send a very loud and a very clear message to the United States Congress, the President of the United States, and corporate America," Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders bellowed before a crowd of striking low-wage workers in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. "In the richest country on the face of the earth, no one who works 40 hours a week should be living in poverty"...
ALEC Admits School Vouchers Are for Kids in Suburbia  PR Watch  ...School vouchers were never about helping poor, at-risk or minority students. But selling them as social mobility tickets was a useful fiction that for some twenty-five years helped rightwing ideologues and corporate backers gain bipartisan support for an ideological scheme designed to privatize public schools. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which is meeting in San Diego today, has decided to drop the pretense that vouchers have anything to do with social and racial equity...
How Walker Turned 'Job Creation' Into a Goodie Bag for Campaign Donors  TPM  ...When Scott Walker was elected Wisconsin governor in 2010, he came into office with a playbook he’d followed as the Milwaukee County executive: he declared an emergency. Taxes: too high. Public benefits: too generous. Businesses: too burdened. Unions: too coddled. One of his first acts in January 2011 was to call an emergency session of the state legislature. One of the first pieces of legislation he signed as governor, Act 7, privatized the state’s department of commerce by turning it into a public-private hybrid called the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation...
The Governor Who Forgot How to Veto a Bill  The Atlantic  ...LePage may have learned the art of politics in the four-and-a-half years since Maine voters first elected him to the governorship, but it seems he hasn’t yet mastered state law. In a turn of events as incomprehensible as it sounds, the combative conservative apparently muffed the vetoes of 65 bills at the end of the annual legislative session. He is now asking the state’s highest court to rule on whether he successfully rejected the measures, or whether they have in fact become law...
Changes to Pittsburgh workers paid-sick leave legislation introduced  Post Gazette  ...City Councilman Corey O’Connor introduced a series of amendments Wednesday to legislation requiring Pittsburgh employers to offer paid sick leave, softening some of the rough edges to make the proposed law easier to swallow for businesses. Now, the law will not apply to seasonal workers, the amount of paid leave required is reduced and employees must work more hours to accrue it, among other changes...

Uber Strikes Deal With New York City to Avoid Cap on Ride-Hailing Vehicles in City  Slate  ...Uber and New York City struck a conciliatory tone, agreeing to a deal that would avoid the city capping the number of Uber drivers on city streets. The agreement softens a New York City Council bill that aimed at curtailing the ride-hailing service’s growth over concerns about increasing congestion on city streets caused by ride-hailing services...

U.S. Labor
Grocery Chain’s Financial Meltdown Could Leave Thousands of Union Workers Jobless  In These Times  ...Plans to dismember the A&P supermarket chain were revealed in a federal bankruptcy court in New York this week, with dire results predicted for more than 15,000 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union. The historic grocery retailer—the original Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. was formed back in 1859—intends to sell or close all of its 300 stores spread across six Mid-Atlantic states, according to documents filed Monday in the U.S...
NYC Airport Strike Averted at JFK, LaGuardia on Labor Truce  Bloomberg  ...More than 1,200 workers at New York’s Kennedy and LaGuardia airports will stay on the job after scrapping a strike hours before it was supposed to begin. An airline contractor, Command Security Corp.’s Aviation Safeguards unit, agreed to stay neutral in an organizing effort among its workers, the Service Employees International Union’s Local 32BJ said in an e-mailed statement Wednesday. Security officers, baggage handlers and wheelchair attendants had planned to walk off the job starting later in the day...
Future of Focus plant looms over start of Ford-UAW talks  Detroit Free Press  ...Top UAW officials and some of Ford's highest ranking executives will meet today to formally mark the start of contract talks exactly two weeks after the Dearborn automaker said it would move production of the Focus compact car to Mexico. Typically, the ceremonial event to kick-start contract negotiations is a warm and fuzzy event designed to underscore the close working relationship between the union and the automaker...
USW critical of ArcelorMittal contract proposal  Chicago Tribune  ...The United Steelworkers union said it has received an initial three-year contract proposal from ArcelorMittal management that includes no wage increases, reduced incentive payments and increased costs for health care for active and retired workers. The current USW contract with both ArcelorMittal and U.S. Steel expires on Sept. 1...
DOL Decision Could Mean the End of Wage Theft Through “Independent Contractor” Misclassification  In These Times  ...Last week, the administrator of the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, David Weil, released a “letter of guidance” that clarifies who is an employee and who is an “independent contractor”—that is, essentially an individual running his or her own business. He argues that the most definitive statement from Congress comes from the Fair Labor Standards Act, which says that “to employ” means “to suffer or permit to work.” And, he concludes, “under the Act, most workers are employees”...
A Quiet Triumph for Gay Workers  The Atlantic   ...Gay Americans can now get married in the morning and then, in the afternoon, just for being gay, their employers can fire them. Is doing so legal? Up until last week, the answer was yes for Americans living in the 28 states without explicit bans on workplace sexual-orientation discrimination. But an important ruling from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) means that courts in those states are now more likely to say that such discrimination is illegal...
UC willl raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour, heightening focus on efforts to boost the rate statewide  LA Times  ... The campaign to significantly increase the minimum wage shifted from local government to the state Wednesday, with UC President Janet Napolitano announcing that several thousand workers would have their salaries increased to $15 an hour by 2017. UC's action is expected to heighten debate in the state Legislature about a proposal to boost the statewide minimum wage and has also prompted calls for the California State University system to follow suit...
Social Security Has Enough Money To Expand Benefits Now, Trustee's Report Shows  Alternet  ...The Social Security Board of Trustees has just released its annual report to Congress. The most important takeaways are that Social Security has a large and growing surplus, and its future cost is fully affordable. It is sometimes reported that Social Security's current costs exceed its revenue, but if that happened, we wouldn't need a report to tell us. The whole country would know, because 59 million beneficiaries would not get their earned benefits as they now do every month...
Applications for US Unemployment Aid Plummet to 42-Year Low  Associated Press  ...The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment aid plunged last week to the lowest level in nearly 42 years, evidence that employers are holding onto their staffs and likely hiring at a steady pace. Yet the drop also reflects seasonal volatility in the data. The unemployment rate fell in June mostly because many of the unemployed stopped looking for work, rather than found jobs. The proportion of Americans working or looking for work fell to a 38-year low...

Miscellaneous
Most Undocumented Immigrants Will Stay Under Obama’s New Policies, Report Says  New York Times  ...Under new immigration enforcement programs the Obama administration is putting in place across the country, the vast majority of unauthorized immigrants — up to 87 percent — would not be the focus of deportation operations and would have “a degree of protection” to remain in the United States, according to a report published Thursday by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group in Washington...
Elizabeth Warren humiliates executive invited by Senate Republicans to defend opposition to financial regulations  Salon  ...On Tuesday, Senate Republicans invited Primerica President Peter Schneider to testify against proposed regulations that would protect retirement savings from sketchy financial schemes — and it didn’t take long before he wished they hadn’t. The Huffington Post’s Zach Carter reports that Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren wasted no time in embarrassing Scheider, whose outfit is precisely the sort of sketchy financial scheme that the legislation is designed to protect the elderly against...
#SayHerName: Protests Demand Justice for Sandra Bland & Black Teen Found Dead in Jail 1 Day Later  Democracy Now  ...In Texas, new information has emerged about the arrest of Sandra Bland, the 28-year-old African-American woman found dead in a jail cell in what authorities claim was a suicide by hanging. Bland was stopped for not signaling a lane change. Dash cam video shows Texas State Trooper Brian Encinia forced her from her car, threatening to "light [her] up," after she failed to put out her cigarette. Hundreds gathered in New York to honor Sandra Bland and highlight the case of Kindra Chapman, an 18-year-old African-American woman found dead in an Alabama jail cell one day after Sandra Bland was found dead...
Sandra Bland Committed "Contempt of Cop," But That's Not Against the Law  Slate  ...In 2010, Christy Lopez, the Department of Justice official who led the federal investigation into the Ferguson, Missouri police department after Michael Brown's death, wrote a paper on the subject of "contempt of cop" arrests. (Lopez's Ferguson investigation found that officers in Ferguson had a habit of making unjustified and abusive arrests.) Lopez opens her report by noting that disagreeing with, criticizing, or otherwise being verbally difficult with a police officer is behavior protected by the First Amendement...

Fight for 15 strikes D.C. as Sanders calls for $15 minimum wage

Chanting "If you want the people's vote, $15 and a union," low-wage federal contract workers brought the Fight for 15 movement to the center of presidential politics today. Workers, families and supporters held a strike that saw thousands marching to the U.S. Capitol calling for a living wage and union rights for federal contract workers and other low-wage workers.

Addressing the crowd at a rally in front of the Capitol, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced that he and his colleagues introduced a bill today to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour:

If you work 40 hours a week, you have the right not to live in poverty. The current federal minimum wage is a starvation wage. Because of you, the workers, and actions like this, states and cities are realizing we need the minimum wage to be a living wage. And it's time for the federal government to do the same.

Federal contract workers from the Pentagon, the Reagan Building, the Capitol and other locations participated in today's strike. They were joined by Sanders as well as Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) and local leaders from Los Angeles and San Francisco, where the minimum wage was recently increased.

Sontia Bailey, who works at the Capitol, told the crowd why she went on strike:

I'm on strike today because I'm paid so little I had to get a second job. I work 70 hours a week and KFC pays me more than the government does.  

Workers also heard from Charles Gladden, a Senate cafeteria worker who is homeless thanks to poverty wages:

I'm striking again today because workers shouldn't have to rely on charity to survive. We work full time and shouldn't need public aid to get by.

Today's strike was supported by union members in DC and organized by Good Jobs Nation, which has been pushing for President Obama to sign executive orders granting living wages and union rights to low-wage workers subcontracted by the federal government.

With some two million low-wage jobs supported by the government, organizers say Obama can raise millions out of poverty with the stroke of a pen. Last year he signed an executive order raising the minimum wage for federal contract workers to $10.10, still a far cry from what workers need.

The Fight for 15 is gaining momentum as more states and local governments take up proposals for a higher minimum wage, including Los Angeles County, which just passed a $15 minimum wage yesterday. Fast food workers in New York are also pushing for the state's wage board to vote for a $15 minimum wage. Meanwhile, a thousand airport workers in New York City are set to walk off the job today to demand $15 an hour and the right to organize a union.

Teamsters and the labor movement stand with the Fight for 15 because we know this is not just about McDonald's and Walmart. Wages for all workers have not kept up with rising costs of living and increased worker productivity. The result is growing income inequality between corporate bosses and the rest of us.

To raise wages for all workers, we have to start at the base. That means standing in solidarity with low-wage workers who are putting their jobs on the line for living wages in America.