High court hears critical union case

The most important union-related case in more than a generation was heard before the U.S. Supreme Court this morning, and its effects could be wide-reaching for the Teamsters and other unions.

A negative ruling in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association involving public workers and their unions could hurt all workers nationwide in their fight for their rights and decency on the job. The case pits nine anti-union teachers against the two teachers unions in California who represent them and against the state. The issue is whether states can order anti-union workers – whom, however, the union represents -- to pay “agency fees” to cover costs of contract bargaining and administration, such as defending grievances.

Maryann Parker, associate general counsel for the Service Employees International Unions, said:

This case should be seen for what it is: It would place substantial limitations on the ability of working people to advocate for themselves. In terms of what’s happening in the country [to workers, their wages, their declining standards of living and their rights], it’s very important.

The plaintiffs say such orders and laws violate their free speech rights by forcing them to support union political positions. But in reality, speakers at the Jan. 6 American Constitution Society panel said, Friedrichs is part of a broader movement to strip all workers of their rights.

 They lost, intentionally, in lower courts, but took their case to the High Court at the outright invitation in a prior court ruling by Associate Justice Samuel Alito. In a parallel, but more restricted case two years ago, Alito questioned whether any public worker unions had the right to require non-members to pay agency fees.

He didn’t win then. If he wins now, there would be wide ramifications for all workers, public and private, union and non-union. Parker noted that by outlawing the right for unions to charge anyone even “agency fees” – not to mention membership dues – unions would lose funds that help workers band together and fight for their rights and a better standard of living.

Parker and panelist Anisha Gupta, New York state’s deputy solicitor general, also stressed the practical impact of a decision for the Friedrichs dissidents. It would overturn almost 40 years of laws, precedents and cases involving public workers, following a 1976 High Court ruling in a case, Abood, involving the Detroit school board and its teachers unions.

A decision in the case is not expected until June.

• Press Associates, Inc., contributed to this report.

Today's Teamster News 01.11.16

TEAMSTERS
Local 727 Members Overwhelmingtly Ratify Coca-Cola Refreshments Contract  Teamster.org  ...Teamsters Local 727 members voted by a 17-to-1 margin on Sunday, Jan. 10, to overwhelmingly ratify a new three-year contract with Coca-Cola Refreshments in Niles and Alsip, Ill. The agreement provides annual wage increases, retroactivity and improved health and welfare benefits for 319 Coca-Cola production and warehouse workers and transport drivers...
Coca-Cola workers overwhelmingly approve 'strong' contract  Chicago Tribune  ...Coca-Cola workers who went on strike for nearly a month at two Chicago-area production plants approved a new three-year contract Sunday that includes annual wage hikes and better health benefits, bringing an end to contentious negotiations. Members of Teamsters Local 727 voted 170-10 to approve the contract offer from Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Refreshments, the union announced...
BLET members ratify new contract with DM&E  BLE-T.org  ...Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) ratified a new hourly-rate collective bargaining agreement with the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railway (DM&E) on November 30, 2015. The agreement governs rates of pay and work rules for approximately 300 locomotive engineers, assistant engineers, conductors and brakemen. It runs through December 31, 2019...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Brazil unions, Kirchnerite leaders blast ‘austerity measures, repression’  Buenos Aires Herald  ...As anger continued to rise yesterday over the sacking of between 12,000 and 15,000 state workers by President Mauricio Macri’s administration, Kirchnerite lawmakers and union representatives accused the government of deliberate repression and of trying to implement harsh austerity measures.
“The model of austerity and economic concentration can only be implemented with repression and shielding by the media,” Andrés “Cuervo” Larroque...
Portugal's socialist government restores holidays cut during austerity drive  The Guardian  ...The Portuguese government has restored four public holidays cut in the previous administration’s attempt to boost productivity. The new socialist government won parliament’s approval to discard one of the most unpopular legacies of a recent austerity drive and bring back the holidays cut two years ago...
Canada potato chip boss to workers: “Screw you and your f**king union”  People's World  ...On Tuesday morning, half of the employees at the Covered Bridge Potato Chip Company walked off the job and hit the picket lines. The workers, who are members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1288P, have had their union certified for more than two years but have yet to conclude a first contract with their employer...
TPP fight kicks off  Politico  ...After the prologue of business endorsements last week, what could be the last big battle over the finalized Trans-Pacific Partnership kicks off this week. On Tuesday, President Barack Obama will make his pitch for the Asia-Pacific pact in his final State of the Union address to the nation, which will be followed by three days of testimony at the U.S. International Trade Commission...
Trans-Pacific Partnership will barely benefit Australia, says World Bank report  Sydney Morning Herald  ...Australia stands to gain almost nothing from the mega trade deal sealed with 11 other nations including United States, Japan, and Singapore, the first comprehensive economic analysis finds. Prepared by staff from the World Bank, the study says the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership would boost Australia's economy by just 0.7 per cent by the year 2030. The annual boost to growth would be less than one half of one 10th of 1 per cent...
How Obama is using the world’s biggest tech show as a political opportunity  Washington Post  ...President Obama dispatched his top trade negotiator to Las Vegas on Thursday to talk up the benefits of a major multilateral deal on international business before a number of tech companies, in hopes that the companies will pressure their representatives in Washington to vote for the trade agreement when the time comes. The trade deal, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, has support from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups...
U.S., EU Look to Conclude TTIP Talks in 2016  BNA  ...The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations are expected to kick into high gear in 2016, with both sides doubling down on trying to finish talks during the last year of the Obama administration and rejecting the concept of a “TTIP light,” which officials said would be hard to sell to Congress and the European Parliament...
TransCanada the underdog in NAFTA gambit over Keystone XL rejection  Globe and Mail  ...Legal observers say that while TransCanada Corp. appears to have a strong case under the North American free-trade agreement to challenge Washington’s rejection of its Keystone XL pipeline, the Calgary-based company has just embarked on a long-haul process in which it remains an underdog...
In 2016, let's hope for better trade agreements - and the death of TPP  The Guardian  ...The US concluded secret negotiations on what may turn out to be the worst trade agreement in decades, the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and now faces an uphill battle for ratification, as all the leading Democratic presidential candidates and many of the Republicans have weighed in against it. The problem is not so much with the agreement’s trade provisions, but with the “investment” chapter...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
On right-to-work, other bills, W.Va. GOP may overturn vetoes  Times Union  ...Republican lawmakers are pushing to make West Virginia a right-to-work state and repeal its prevailing wage for public construction projects this legislative session. And though those policies don't sit well with Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, it may not matter. It only takes more 'yes' than 'no' votes in the Legislature to cement a policy into law after the governor vetoes a bill...
Voter ID case will go to trial in January  Winston-Salem Journal  ...North Carolina’s photo ID requirement will go on trial late this month in U.S. District Court in Winston-Salem, a federal judge said in court papers filed Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder signed an order modifying the deadlines for discovery in the case so a trial on the photo ID requirement can begin Jan. 25. The N.C. NAACP, the U.S. Department of Justice and others sued North Carolina in 2013...
Texas Governor Unveils Plan To Repeal The 20th Century  Think Progress  ...Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) proposed a series of constitutional amendments on Friday that would so fundamentally alter our founding document that it would be akin to throwing out the system of government established by the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Abbott would place restrictions on the federal government that are so severe, both national child labor laws and anti-lynching laws would be unconstitutional under his proposals...
Branstad willing to consider Iowa minimum wage increase  WCF Courier  ... Gov. Terry Branstad said Thursday that he would be willing to consider an increase in the state minimum wage if a bill landed on his desk during the 2016 legislative session. In an interview, Branstad noted that a number of states have increased their minimum wages and that he signed the bill in 1989 that created Iowa’s minimum wage...
Giving Workers Paid Family Leave ‘Should Be Up To Employers,’ Kasich Says  Think Progress  ...Republican presidential candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich doesn’t think employers should be required to let their workers take paid time off for a new baby or serious illness. At a town hall on Friday in Hampton, New Hampshire, he was asked what he thinks about paid family leave. Rather than a government mandate ensuring that all Americans can take paid leave, Kasich said instead it should be “up to employers"...
Minimum wage rate likely to dominate NY 2016 session  NCPR  ...The New York State Senate held a hearing on raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Governor Cuomo and Assembly Democrats support the phase-in to a higher wage, but many Senators remain uncommitted. Senate Labor Committee Chair Jack Martins said he wants to broaden the discussion...
What Poor South Carolinians Think About The GOP’s Poverty Summit In South Carolina  Think Progress  ...Jeb Bush has called for the end of food stamps. Chris Christie has vetoed an increase in the minimum wage in his state and Ben Carson believes Obama is purposefully depressing the economy to keep people on welfare. These three presidential candidates, along with Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Carly Fiorina, and Mike Huckabee, will speak in Columbia, South Carolina on Saturday at a summit on poverty...

U.S. LABOR
At the Supreme Court, a Big Threat to Unions  New York Times  ...A case the Supreme Court will hear on Monday morning threatens to undermine a four-decade-old ruling that upheld a key source of funding for public-sector unions, the last major bastion of unionized workers in America. In the 1977 decision Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, the justices ruled that public unions may charge all employees — members and nonmembers alike — for the costs of collective bargaining related to their employment...
Conservative group nears big payoff in Supreme Court case  Politico  ...The conservative Bradley Foundation has spent millions over three decades to smash labor unions. Now an investment that could barely buy a house in Washington may bring it closer to that goal than ever before.
The vehicle is a Supreme Court case, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, to bar public employee unions from compelling payments from nonmembers...
USW workers to start voting on U.S. Steel contract  NWI Times  ...The United Steelworkers union is now mailing out ballots to U.S. Steel employees, including those at Gary Works, East Chicago Tin and the Midwest Plant in Portage. Steelworkers will get a week or two to cast their votes to ratify or reject a new contract with the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker, after getting summaries of all the changes from the 2012 contract in the mail...
Judge grants Gerawan Farming access to labor board documents  Fresno Bee  ...A Sacramento Superior Court judge on Thursday partially granted Gerawan Farming Company’s request for documents related to an unfair labor practice complaint filed against it by the Agricultural Labor Relations Board. The ALRB said the employee was fired for his support of the United Farm Workers union...
International Food Workers Show Solidarity with Chicago Nabisco Workers  AFL-CIO  ...The International Union of Food Workers (IUF) and the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) have affirmed their solidarity with employees of Mondelēz International, the maker of Nabisco products, around the world. The state of Illinois has given Nabisco/Mondelēz millions of dollars in public assistance and tax breaks. BCTGM represents some 4,000 Mondelēz workers...
Multiple Jobholders Surge To Highest Since August 2008  Zero Hedge  ...The most troubling aspect of today's jobs report, and perhaps the clearest explanation why there was no wage growth in December, is that the number of multiple job holders soared by 324,000 bringing the total to 7.738 million. This was the highest since August 2008, which as a reminder is the month before the great financial crisis started...
The verdict on the “sharing” economy, from the 20% of Americans who’ve worked in it  QZ.com  ...Just how big has the new digital economy—variously called “gig,” “on-demand,” “sharing,” and more—gotten? Big enough that one in five Americans say they’ve worked in it, and two in five say they’ve used services through it, according to a new survey from Burson-Marsteller...

If Most Of Your Income Comes From On-Demand Work, You’re Probably A Racial Minority  BuzzFeed  ...Of survey respondents who earn more than 40% of their income from on-demand work, a whopping 67% identify as racial minorities. (For context, in 2010 the U.S. Census found that only 36.3% of the U.S. population identifies as a racial minority, which means racial minorities are overrepresented among this sector of gig workers by nearly double.)...

Chris Christie goes back to what made him famous: Attacking teachers  Daily Kos  ...Chris Christie went back to his wheelhouse on Saturday. That means attacking teachers, the move that helped gain Christie his early YouTube fame as the kind of bully Republicans can love. “The single most destructive force for public education in this country is the teachers union,” Christie said at a Jack Kemp Foundation panel discussion...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Resistance & Outrage as Obama Administration Rounds Up Central American Refugees  Democracy Now  ...The new year began inauspiciously for many immigrant families. Federal agents have detained at least 121 people, including children, in raids as part of an operation to deport families fleeing violence in Central America. The raids took place mainly in Georgia, North Carolina and Texas...
Postal Banking Worked—Let’s Bring It Back  (opinion) The Nation  ... Postal banking was the most successful experiment in financial inclusion in the United States—a problem in front of us once again. Postal banking brought millions of new immigrants and rural dwellers into the United States banking system. We are again facing the realization that our banking industry is unstable, but also, more crucially, that it is unfair...
Important Reminder in the Flint Crisis: People Still Have No Safe Water  Common Dreams  ...Republican Governor Rick Snyder on Thursday offered a second apology for the crisis, saying it's an "unfortunate situation." That problem, which began as the city was under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager, has left 200 children below the age of six with confirmed elevated blood lead levels...
"The National Shame Continues": On Its 14th Anniversary, Will Guantánamo Ever Be Closed?  Democracy Now  ...Today marks the 14th anniversary of the opening of the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo, where 107 prisoners are still being held. Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project, represented Mohamedou Ould Slahi, one of the men still being held. Last year a book collecting Slahi’s diary writings became a surprise best-seller. "This is a shame that threatens more than ever to mar President Obama’s legacy"...
Small debt is destroying black lives: Institutional racism and the wealth gap America still refuses to acknowledge  Salon  ...It is not unreasonable to attribute these perils to discrimination. But there’s no question that the main reason small financial problems can have such a disproportionate effect on black families is that, for largely historical reasons rooted in racism, they have far smaller financial reserves to fall back on than white families...

New Year brings new laws to help workers

New Year's Day brought new pro-worker state and local laws into effect, as past worker activism at those levels provided an alternative to gridlock and anti-worker attitudes in the GOP-run Congress in Washington.

And it wasn't just minimum wage laws, either. Data compiled by the National Partnership for Women and Families show a wide range of family-friendly and pro-worker legislation either took effect on New Year's Day or will take effect this year, on top of a host of new laws that began in 2015.

National Partnership Executive Director Debra Ness called 2015 a year filled with tremendous victories for America’s working families:

We expect the progress to continue, but our nation still has a long way to go to ensure that hardworking people aren’t left struggling when illness strikes or new children arrive, or because we have failed to eradicate pay and pregnancy discrimination. 

Not counting a carload of family-friendly laws that took effect last year, or state minimum wage hikes on Jan. 1, other state and local family-friendly laws that will start in 2016 included:

• Paid parental leave laws in Oregon (statewide), New York City (city workers), California (teachers), New Brunswick, N.J. (citywide), Seattle and King County public workers, all on Jan. 1, Tacoma (citywide, Feb. 1), Kansas City, Mo.(for city workers on May 1), Elizabeth, N.J. (March 2, citywide) and Montgomery County, Md. (countywide), on Oct. 1.
  
• California's paid sick leave law had its one-year anniversary on Jan. 1. It was the second such statewide law, and Massachusetts became the third on July 1, 2015. Many laws outlawing pregnancy discrimination took effect in a wide range of states last year.
  
• A strong equal pay law in California, the nation's most-populous state and home to one of every eight people in the U.S., took effect this Jan. 1.  Stronger statewide equal pay laws started in Oregon this Jan. 1 and will start in New York on Jan. 19. North Dakota’s stronger equal pay law started this past Aug. 1.
  
• With the GOP-run Congress refusing to strengthen the 53-year-old federal Equal Pay Act, California's legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown (D), backed by state unions, closed that law's loopholes -- at least in the Golden State.

While not in NPWF's chart, the Fight for 15 movement produced legislative and bargaining successes for low-wage workers in New York State and New York City, Massachusetts, Minnesota and elsewhere.

The union-backed movement campaigns for $15 an hour as a living wage and the right to unionize without employer harassment, intimidation, spying, firing and labor law-breaking. Some 42 percent of all U.S. workers earn less than $15 hourly, data shows.

• Press Associates, Inc., contributed to this report.

Today's Teamster News 01.08.16

TEAMSTERS
Arbitrator Rules Parking Employer Created ‘Sham’ Company to Avoid Paying Union  Local 727 ...An arbitrator has ordered PAS, LLC to pay Teamsters Local 727 more than $225,000 in back dues, penalties and late fees after the Chicago parking employer created a “sham” company to avoid its financial obligations to the union. In July 2013, VPS of Illinois closed its business without paying thousands of dollars owed to the union...
NY-NJ port authority revises truck-replacement plan  JOC  ...Environmental groups have insisted that older trucks need to be phased out to reduce unhealthy emissions. Allied with the environmentalists is the Teamsters union, which has tried for years to organize port drivers. A likely side effect of banning older trucks would be to encourage a shift from owner-operators to company employees who would be eligible to unionize...
Teamsters invited to pension session  Press Gazette  ...The Wisconsin Committees to Protect Pensions will hold an informational meeting for active and retired Teamsters. Dobbs will talk about new developments in the effort to stop the cuts from taking effect this summer, legislative proposals introduced in Congress to try to stop the cuts and other information for Teamsters and retirees who want to take action to oppose the proposed cuts...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Colombian Unions to Protest Paltry Minimum Wage Increase  TeleSUR  ...Labor leaders in Colombia say the Constitutional Court has previously ruled that wage increase cannot fall below the rate of inflation. ​Fabio Arias, secretary-general of Colombia's United Workers Trade Union Federation, said Wednesday that his organization will submit a formal complaint before the country's Council of State over a decree raising the minimum wage by only 7 percent...
Delhi's sanitation workers to go on indefinite strike from January 27  Economic Times  ...Scores of municipal sanitation workers on Wednesday decided to go on an indefinite strike from January 27 claiming the civic bodies' failure in meeting their demands, including regularization of salary. The workers have been sitting on a relay hunger strike for the past month at the Jantar Mantar under various unions...
Ontario prepares for looming strike by correctional workers  Globe and Mail  ...This week across Ontario, however, the sudden appearance of construction crews outside jails has prompted weary acceptance that a looming strike could be long and, according to the correctional union, dangerous for the managers forced to operate the institutions. By Thursday, there was ample evidence that the province was preparing for protracted labour action...
Hundreds of advocacy groups ask Congress to block Obama’s Pacific Rim trade pact  Washington Post  ...A coalition of more than 1,500 interest groups is sending a letter to Congress on Thursday demanding that lawmakers block the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the 12-nation Pacific Rim trade pact championed by the Obama administration. Labor unions, environmental groups, consumer advocates and faith groups are among the 1,525 organizations...
Pacific Trade Deal Foes Say Keystone Case Shows Pact's Risk  Bloomberg  ...A legal dispute over the Keystone XL oil pipeline is giving opponents of a Pacific trade agreement a fresh argument in their effort to get Congress to kill the pact. They say the case announced Wednesday, in which TransCanada Corp. is seeking arbitration to recover $15 billion tied to the Obama administration’s rejection of Keystone, shows how foreign companies could use provisions of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement to challenge U.S. policy on the environment and other matters...
World Bank: TPP Trade Deal to Benefit Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia Most by 2030  Sputnik News  ...The US-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade deal is set to provide economic impetus predominantly to Vietnam, Japan and Malaysia among other parties to the agreement by 2030, a Global Economic Prospects report showed...
India set to push for liberalisation of services trade at WTO Geneva talks  Economic Times  ...Reinstating its stand of continuing with the Doha Development Agenda, India will push for liberalising services trade at the World Trade Organization talks in Geneva. 23 countries of the WTO are separately negotiating the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA), which aims at opening up markets and improving rules in areas such as licensing, financial services, telecom, ecommerce, maritime transport and professionals moving abroad temporarily to provide services...
U.S. Says `Tremendous Progress' Made on South Africa Trade Talks  Bloomberg  ...South Africa and the U.S. made “tremendous progress” on talks to resolve a trade dispute between the two nations, U.S. Ambassador to South Africa Patrick Gaspard said. South Africa has been under pressure to reach agreement with the U.S. to open its market to American chicken and beef products in order to retain preferential trade benefits...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Martinez revives right-to-work debate in New Mexico  Las Cruces Sun-News  ...Republican Gov. Susana Martinez is reviving the right-to-work debate in New Mexico, saying she’ll include the issue on the agenda for the upcoming legislative session. She made the announcement Thursday during a panel discussion before a crowded room of business leaders...
Minimum wage boost hangs over California budget negotiations  SacBee  ...They haven’t yet acquired enough signatures to go before voters, but ballot initiatives to bump California’s minimum wage to $15 figured into early discussions of the state budget proposal unveiled Thursday. Organized labor groups across the country have focused their energy on the push for a $15 wage...
Cuomo eyeing plan to give New Yorkers 12 weeks paid family leave  NY Post  ...Gov. Cuomo is mulling a plan to provide up to 12 weeks of paid family leave to New Yorkers in the coming year after Mayor de Blasio allowed city workers to receive the benefit in 2014. Gubernatorial aides met with advocates Dec. 29 in Manhattan to talk providing paid time off for employees with a new child, an injury or a sick family member...
Paid Family Leave Gets More Attention, but Workers Still Struggle  New York Times  ...This year is shaping up to be a big one for paid family leave. On Thursday, the Independent Democratic Conference, a breakaway group of New York state senators, plans to introduce 12 weeks of paid leave as part of its legislative agenda; Gov. Andrew Cuomo is reportedly considering similar legislation...
Virginia to use new congressional map this year, benefiting Democrats  Daily Kos  ...In yet another victory for Democrats, the federal court hearing a lawsuit challenging the state's congressional lines just ruled that elections this year must go forward under a new map proposed by a court-appointed expert, one that all but guarantees that GOP Rep. Randy Forbes' 4th District will turn solidly blue...
Democrats call for redistricting reform  AJC  ...Three Democratic lawmakers are pushing to create an independent commission to redraw political lines in the future. Sen. Elena Parent (D – Atlanta), Rep. Pat Gardner (D – Atlanta) and Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (D – Decatur) said the legislation would be a fairer way to redraw current legislative and congressional district lines in coming years...
"Gov. Snyder Should Be Arrested": Flint Residents Demand Justice over Water Poisoning  Democracy Now  ...Protests are growing in Flint, Michigan, over the state’s cover-up of the ongoing water contamination crisis. Filmmaker Michael Moore is asking fans to sign a petition on his website calling for the immediate resignation of Governor Rick Snyder. In an open letter to the governor, he writes: "[Y]ou have effectively poisoned, not just some, but apparently ALL of the children in my hometown of Flint"...

U.S. LABOR
One Step Closer To Collective Bargaining, Some Temp Workers Unionize  NPR  ...Advocates for temporary workers are celebrating a decision by the National Labor Relations Board to broaden the definition of joint employers — a move that could bring many temp workers closer to collective bargaining. One of the first to join a union following the new rule is a group of Guatemalans in New Bedford, Mass...
Strong Job Growth In 2015 Still Couldn’t Give Workers A Raise  Think Progress  ...The economy added 292,000 jobs in December while the unemployment rate stayed at 5 percent, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Analysts had expected 200,000 jobs to be added. However, gains in wages were weak. Hourly earnings fell 1 cent in December after a 5-cent increase in November, and average hourly earnings have risen just 2.5 percent over the last year...
Company must pay after making workers clock out for bathroom breaks  KCCI  ...A Pennsylvania company that publishes business newsletters will pay about $1.75 million to thousands of employees who had to clock out while going on short breaks, including for the bathroom. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that a federal judge has given the U.S. Department of Labor and the Malvern-based company, American Future Systems Inc., until Thursday to submit proposals on managing payment...
Rauner implements merit pay for some workers; AFSCME opposed  NW Herald  ...Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration is starting a new compensation system for some state workers that includes merit pay and bonuses for saving taxpayers money, a plan the former businessman says will make government more efficient. It's the latest sticking point in long-running negotiations between Rauner's office and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents about 36,000 state employees...
When companies hire temp workers by race, black applicants lose out  Reveal News  ...When its clients wanted to hire temp workers based on race, sex or age, Automation was happy to oblige, according to dozens of former employees. Often, the practice was blatant. A manager at a Georgia manufacturing plant asked Christie Ragland not to send him “any black thugs,” she said...
This Supreme Court Case Could Make All Public Unions ‘Right to Work’  The Nation  ...O n January 11, the Supreme Court will hear argument on Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, a full-bore attack on public-sector unions. The lead Friedrichs plaintiffs, a group of fiercely anti-union California public-school teachers, seek to reverse Abood v. Detroit Board of Education (1977) on First Amendment grounds. Abood has provided the bedrock constitutional analysis and recommended administrative structure for public-sector unionism...
Can Millennials Save Organized Labor?  Labor 411  ...A new Pew survey reveals how Millennials, the oft-hyped demographic, view key social institutions. It turns out that Millennials have a more positive view of many major social institutions than their elders and that one of the most notable examples is organized labor. Labor unions are viewed more positively today than they were five years ago by all age groups,  but the uptick in opinion is especially notable among those born after 1980...
Why Do Americans Work So Much?  The Atlantic  ...In a new paper, Friedman tries to figure out why increased productivity has not translated into increased leisure time. American inequality means that the gains of increasing productivity are not widely shared. In other words, most Americans are too poor to work less...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
A Rush of Central Americans Compounds Obama’s Immigration Task  NY Times  ...When mothers and children streamed across the Texas border in 2014, the Obama administration devised a strategy to manage the influx, putting them in detention centers to convince others that illegal crossers would be caught and sent back. But that strategy is now under intense legal and political attack, leaving the administration with limited options...
Bernie Sanders Demands President Obama End ‘Inhumane’ Roundups Of Immigrant Families  Think Progress  ...Vermont Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders wrote to the White House on Thursday, demanding an end to the stepped up immigration raids and deportations of Central Americans that the Obama Administration announced just before Christmas. Just after the new year, more than 100 people were arrested in Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas, including many women and children...
Sen. Elizabeth Warren Cheers Bernie's Fight to "Hold Big Banks Accountable"  Common Dreams  ...Sen. Bernie Sanders got a shout-out from big bank critic Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday a day after the presidential hopeful gave a policy speech laying out his tough on Wall Street stance. During his speech in New York on Wednesday, Sanders said, "Wall Street and corporate greed is destroying the fabric of our nation." He also vowed to break up too-big-to- fail banks...
Making the World Safe for Predatory Capitalism  CounterPunch  ...Steve Jobs used old-fashioned anti-raiding agreements to keep competitors from enticing away his workers. Gates and Google have both engaged in anti-competitive practices that likely would have brought antitrust enforcement in prior decades. And Amazon has prospered not only because of low prices and good service, but also by being exempted from the requirement to collect the same sales tax as its brick-and-mortar competitors...
Oregon Sheriff Meets Ammon Bundy, Greets Him With Handshake Not Handcuffs  Think Progress  ...The treatment of armed militants conducting an illegal occupation in Oregon differs greatly from the response to overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrations by unarmed individuals protesting police misconduct. In Ferguson, for example, protesters were met by police with military-style equipment, full riot gear, and tear gas...

'Safe Rates' is goal for truckers worldwide

Urata, Sterle and Sheldon (l. to r.) met with Teamsters' Hoffa today.

Australia's Transport Workers' Union (TWU) pushed through legislation several years ago in that country that placed retailers whose goods are hailed by truck drivers on the hook for safety and wage standards. Now it's taking that message abroad.

TWU Federal Secretary Tony Sheldon came to IBT headquarters in Washington today to explain the "Safe Rates" approach approved Down Under in 2012 and how it could improve the lives of truck drivers and motorists globally if it was instituted more broadly. He was joined by Australian Senator Glenn Sterle and Mac Urata of the International Transport Worker's Federation who are strong supporters of the measure.

Sheldon explained the approach as a way to improve not only the pay of professional drivers, but the profits of trucking companies they work for as well:

The concept is who is the economic employer and how do we hold then into account. ... It's about how you change people's consciousness on this.

He noted that giant retailers today largely create the conditions and wage scale that truck drivers are forced to worker under. In Australia, for example, the top two grocery companies make up 72 percent of market and thus if trucking firms want to compete, they need to adhere to their standards.The result is less safe roadways and lower pay for drivers, he said.

But under changes made in the Safe Rates legislation, driver safety and the safety of all road users became the starting point when rates were determined for transporting goods. The result in Australia was the raising of standards for truckers and the strengthening of transportation unions. It's a model he and others want to take worldwide.

Lamont Byrd, director of the IBT's Safety and Health Department, said he was impressed by the TWU's work on the issue:

I see this bringing the solution to the problem we have, not only in crash rates and fatalities, but in reducing the churn rates of drivers.

Sheldon, Sterle and Urata will be further discussing the idea at a global labor conference Sunday.

Today's Teamster News 01.07.16

TEAMSTERS
Teamsters file labor charges against New England trucking firm  JOC.com  ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters union filed unfair labor practices charges against a Massachusetts-based trucking company that shut down Dec. 21, laying off 75 employees, including 40 truck drivers. Teamsters Local 42 in Lynn, Massachusetts filed charges against Crystal Motor Express with the National Labor Relations Board, a spokesperson for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in Washington said...
Teamsters allege tech shuttle company ‘bullied’ drivers  SF Examiner  ...The Teamsters have filed a complaint alleging Bauer’s bullied its workers into voting down forming a union, which the National Labor Relations Board will address in an upcoming hearing on Feb. 1. Bauer’s is one major provider of so-called “tech shuttles” that ferry tech industry workers in their San Francisco-to-Silicon Valley commute. Teamsters successfully unionized two other providers of tech shuttles...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Rotterdam port workers strike over job losses  Dutch News  ...Port workers at Rotterdam’s container terminal were set to begin a 24-hour strike on Thursday afternoon and five other day-long strikes are being planned, news agency ANP reports. The unions want port companies to rule out making compulsory redundancies, despite overcapacity and growing automation in the sector...
TPP Countries to Sign Trade Pact in New Zealand Feb. 4  BNA  ...The 12 nations party to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will formally sign the agreement on Feb. 4 in New Zealand. Andres Rebolledo, director general of Chile's General International Economic Relations Bureau (DIRECON), confirmed the Feb. 4 date in a meeting yesterday with the country's National Human Rights Institute to discuss how the agreement would affect human rights issues in Chile...
Sen. Sherrod Brown warns against TPP threat to hurt auto industry  WFMJ  ...With the increase in car sales, Senator Sherrod Brown warns against Trans-Pacific Partnership threat to turn its back on auto industry recovery and hurt auto jobs. U.S. car sales hit a record high in 2015. “To continue that progress and protect jobs, we must ensure a level playing field for America's auto suppliers, but TPP and it's weak auto provisions stand to roll back recovery and cost Ohio jobs,” said Brown...
US Chamber announces support for TPP  The Hill  ...The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is throwing its weight behind President Obama's Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade agreement between the United States and 11 other nations. But the Chamber's endorsement comes with conditions.
The business group wants the Obama administration to work with them and Congress to address concerns about the completed deal that range from intellectual property to financial services...
Business groups united on TPP  Politico  ...The administration leveled up this week by officially scoring the endorsements of all the major trade associations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday. But while the business groups said they would fight for the deal in Congress, the direct message in each of the statements of support this week is to the administration, not lawmakers...
The TPP Train Could Still Get Derailed  Foreign Policy  ...Trade agreements only mean something in the United States if Congress passes implementing legislation. And that means grappling with domestic trade politics, which have become increasingly contentious. Trade votes, if they pass at all, frequently move with hardly a vote to spare...
Turkey Seeks Inclusion in US-EU TTIP Free Trade Deal - Turkish Deputy PM  Sputnik News  ...Turkey hopes to renegotiate its current trade agreements with the European Union, so it can be included in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) free trade deal between the United States and EU, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said. The TTIP free trade agreement would reduce barriers to trade in goods and services between Europe and its largest export market, the United States...
TPP, Public Comment Period Open!  Huffington Post  ...Activists from all sectors converged and spoke with a loud voice against this dangerous "trade" deal. This is important to Americans on both sides of the political aisle as well as anyone concerned with job security, the environment, social justice, or public health. Now the public has an opportunity to weigh-in before it is voted on...
Bleak Prospects for Latin America Under Trans-Pacific Partnership  Truthout  ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership, agreed to on October 5, 2015 by the twelve participating countries, is likely to prove disastrous for the Latin American states - Chile, Mexico, and Perú - that have joined the pact up to now. Multinational economic interests based in the United States have exerted extraordinary influence over the accord, inserting language that will arguably serve to damage Latin American interests...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Wisconsin Loses 10,000 More Jobs After Passing Right To Work  NH Labor News  ...Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is in deep trouble as his state is losing jobs at record rates.  Last year Walker promised that if the they passed Right To Work they would create tens of thousands of new jobs, once again proving that Right to Work is not a job creator. Gov. Walker’s administration quietly acknowledged over the busy holiday season that Wisconsin surpassed 10,000 layoffs last year as a result of plant closings and economic challenges...
Republican Senate Majority’s Priorities: Education Reform, Right-to-Work and More  WFPL  ...The priority bills of the Kentucky state Senate’s Republican majority include several familiar policies: right-to-work, repealing the prevailing wage and enacting medical review panels. Senate Republican leaders announced on Wednesday the bills they’ll focus on passing during the 2016 legislative session, which began Tuesday...
NC voter ID trial set for Jan. 25  News & Observer  ...The federal judge who will preside over the trial about North Carolina’s voter ID law told attorneys in an order this week to be ready to make their arguments on Jan. 25. In a status report filed two days before the end of the year, the NAACP and others challenging the law continue to argue that much confusion remains about what voters will need in order to cast ballots...
Michigan Governor Declares State of Emergency Due to Flint's Lead Poisoned Water Crisis  Jezebel  ...In Michigan, Governor Rick Snyder has declared a state of emergency regarding the water crisis in Flint, Michigan where, due to deliberately careless resource management, the number of kids with dangerous levels of lead in their blood doubled in 2015. Sender’s announcement follows Flint Mayor Karen Weaver’s state of emergency declaration: she called the lead poisoning crisis a “manmade disaster” in December...
Voter Suppression Battles To Watch In 2016  Think Progress  ...As of this month, a total of 36 states have passed laws requiring voters to show some form of identification at the polls, and 33 of those states will enforce their laws in 2016. A number of the state’s provisions are being challenged in court, and litigation in Texas and North Carolina could determine the courts’ ability to apply the VRA after its vital provisions were gutted by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013...
This Is What $15 an Hour Looks Like  The Nation  ... The movement for a $15 minimum wage began three years earlier, on a chilly fall morning in 2012, when 200 fast-food workers walked off the job in New York City. Their demand was audacious: $15 an hour was more than twice what many of them earned. But more strikes and protests followed, with the movement spreading quickly, driven by workers...
Gazette editorial: ‘Right to work’ dangerous for WV  Gazette Mail  ...“Right to work” sounds so appealing, doesn’t it, with the vague suggestion that if West Virginia could just get some oppressor’s boot out of its back, its people would be free to prosper? It might be good marketing by out-of-state political interests, but it’s not good policy. The AFL-CIO is right to point out that states that enacted “right to work” laws have suffered...

U.S. LABOR
Phoenix bus contract negotiations continue, strike averted for now  AZ Central  ...Negotiations to avoid a bus strike by hundreds of drivers along dozens of Phoenix routes will continue Wednesday, with service operating normally for now. Officials from Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1433 and transit company Transdev, which operates 34 routes for the city of Phoenix, did not reach a contract agreement Tuesday...
Union: Dematic’s potential move to Mexico ‘a slap in the face’  WoodTV  ...Around 300 people could lose their jobs if Dematic moves forward with plans to relocate its manufacturing plant in Grand Rapids to Mexico. UAW Local 1485 President Scott Wahlfeld said employees were informed Wednesday morning by company leaders about the potential move. Wahlfeld said Dematic will consider finalizing the decision on Feb. 8...
Taxi drivers oppose MSP airport proposal on Uber, Lyft: What's at stake  MPR News  ...Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is weighing new rules that could better accommodate ride-sharing services like Lyft and Uber. But more than 200 cab drivers showed up at a Metropolitan Airports Commission meeting Monday night in Bloomington to voice their opposition to the plan. They said ride-sharing through smartphone apps like Lyft and Uber would have an unfair advantage...
The Rescue of 17 Workers Trapped in a Salt Mine in Upstate New York  The Atlantic  ...The miners became stuck 900 feet underground while descending in the elevator to the floor of the mine to begin their shift at around 10 p.m. Wednesday. Emergency officials from Tompkins County were able to communicate with the trapped miners, the county said, and send them blankets and other supplies for the night. The mine, which is north of Ithaca, New York, has been in operation since 1922...
Working conditions at T-Mobile under scrutiny  Bangor Daily News  ...The German company’s biggest subsidiary has enjoyed two years of rapid expansion in a fiercely competitive U.S. market that has seen it overtake its closest rival Sprint in terms of subscribers. But it has been accused by its main labor union, the Communications Workers of America (CWA), of flouting employees’ rights and was last year found to have engaged in illegal work practices...
NLRB Cites Ingredion for Federal Law Violations at CR Plant  KCRG  ...The National labor Relations Board has found “sufficient evidence” to issue a complaint against Ingredion Inc., owner of Penford Products in Cedar Rapids, alleging violations of federal law in its contract negotiations with the union at the plant. The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) Local 100G filed a complaint with the NLRB alleging multiple violations of the National Labor Relations Act...
Chicago Teachers Union Joins Demand for Rahm Emanuel, Anita Alvarez To Resign  In These Times  ...The Chicago Teachers Union's House of Delegates, the union's member-led governing body, voted tonight to demand the resignations of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and State's Attorney Anita Alvarez in the wake of the Laquan McDonald scandal, which has roiled the city for nearly two months and led to the resignations of multiple city officials, including Chicago police superintendent Garry McCarthy...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Democrats lash out at Obama over immigration raids  Politico  ...Democrats and immigrant-rights groups have turned against the Obama administration in an uproar over recent deportation raids, likening the president to bombastic GOP front-runner Donald Trump and warning him that the controversial strategy will tarnish his legacy on immigration...
Psst: Illegal Immigration Is Actually Declining  Time  ...With Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz coming out with new ads this week featuring droves of people streaming over the U.S. border, you would be forgiven for thinking that illegal immigration is on the rise. But it isn’t. In fact, the number of immigrants crossing illegally into the U.S. has actually declined over the last nine years...
Executive Action: Bush Opened Guantánamo Without Congress, So Why Can't Obama Close It?  Democracy Now  ...As President Obama takes executive action on gun control without going through Congress, could closing Guantánamo be next? In January 2009, Obama ordered the closure of the Guantánamo Bay military prison in one of his first executive actions. Seven years later, 107 prisoners are still there...
Sanders Promises to Break Up Big Banks, Tax Speculation, and Establish Postal Banking  The Nation  ...Speaking just a few dozen blocks from Wall Street Wednesday, Bernie Sanders announced that, with regard to so-called “too-big-to-fail” banks, he would “break them up.” “If a bank is too big to fail, it is too big to exist,” announced the senator from Vermont, as he brought his presidential campaign to New York City’s Town Hall...
Ben Carson’s Flat Tax Would Only Benefit The Rich  Think Progress  ...On Monday, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson released his tax plan, the center of which is a flat tax of 14.9 percent. On a static basis — that is, without any assumptions baked in about how the plan might change economic growth or other factors — the Tax Foundation found that only the richest 10 percent would see a benefit. Everyone else would actually see their tax burdens increase...
State Trooper Who Arrested Sandra Bland Indicted on Perjury Charge  Common Dreams  ...Brian T. Encinia, the Texas State Trooper who made the initial and violent arrest of Sandra Bland during a routine traffic stop just days before she was found dead in a jail cell last summer, was indicted on charges of perjury by state prosecutors on Wednesday for making false statements regarding his behavior during the incident...

VIDEO: NYC carriage drivers thank public for support

For two years, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has tried to outlaw the beloved Central Park horse carriages that have become part of the fabric of the nation's largest city. And for two years, he has failed.

In fact, he has gone as far to admit he doesn't have the votes to get it done. That is simply amazing, given how much of a priority he made putting 300 horse-carriage drivers out of work once taking office. But it a testament to the resolve of those workers and Teamsters Local 553 who have stood side-by-side to stall the effort.

That said, the success of keeping New York City's iconic carriages going couldn't have been accomplished without the public and advocates like The New York Daily News. The drivers and the union are aware of that, so they made the video above to thank supporters, city residents and others from around the world for rallying to their side.