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Today’s Teamster News For February 17, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Teamster Mechanics Reject United Airlines’ Final Offer, Vote to Strike Teamster.org … Teamster mechanics voted overwhelmingly today to reject United Airlines’ final offer and authorize a strike. There are over 9,000 mechanics in the bargaining unit. Over 93 percent of mechanics who voted cast ballots against the company’s offer. “The membership has spoken clearly. The final offer from United Airlines was soundly rejected today and the membership has authorized a strike because of the substandard proposition,” said Jim Hoffa…
Strike Looms at United Airlines as Mechanics Reject Contract Deal Reuters …Maintenance workers at United Airlines overwhelmingly rejected a new contract offer, their union said Tuesday, adding it would seek approval from U.S. regulators to strike. More than 93 percent of mechanics who voted on the offer decided against it, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said in a statement. The union said it would petition the U.S. National Mediation Board to release it from mediated talks…
Twin City Teamsters Stand Tall for Airport Taxi Drivers Teamster Nation …App-based transportation service operators like Uber and Lyft successfully lobbied to undercut their livelihoods, and were ramping up a similar effort at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Uber and Lyft seemed to have the Metropolitan Airport Commission (MAC) on board. But then more than 400 airport taxi drivers associated with Teamsters Local 792…
Teamsters file 2nd suit over right-to-work study DPost.com …The Teamsters Union has another lawsuit in process concerning email exchanges regarding production of a WVU study for the Legislature’s right-to-work bill. TheDPost.com previously reported on a Freedom of Information Act suit filed last week by the Teamsters against the WVU Board of Governors to gain access to unredacted copies of the emails. The other suit is filed against the state Senate and Cole as president…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Vale says coal workers in Mozambique strike over pay Reuters …Workers at Vale’s Moatize coal mine in Mozambique have been on strike since Tuesday due to a dispute over bonus payments, the company said on Wednesday. Mozambican state news agency earlier reported that 1,400 workers went on strike because Vale had cut a profit-sharing bonus called “variable remuneration”, which the company says it only pays if it achieves strong results…
11 Textile Workers in Peru Dismissed after Forming Union Solidarity Center …Peru’s National Federation of Textile Workers is calling for immediate reinstatement of 11 textile workers who were fired less than a month after they formed a factory union in Lima. The factory produces high-fashion jeans for the Peruvian market. The garment workers, many of whom had worked at the plant between nine and 20 years, created a factory union in January…
Luas strike: Commuters face second two-day stoppage Irish Times …Thousands of commuters will be left stranded again this week as Luas workers are set to hold another two-day strike on Thursday and Friday. Owen Reidy, transport sector organiser with Siptu, the union representing the majority of Luas workers, said resolving the dispute would go nowhere as long as Transdev continued talking about increases of 53 per cent being sought…
The Union Busting That Goes Into Your Canned Fish The Nation …About 500 fishing cannery workers are in crisis in the Moroccan city of Agadir, according to the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco, and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF). The workers, most of them women, have since last March been struggling to hold onto their jobs in the face of a vicious union busting scheme by a prominent food processing corporation, DOHA, which exports tinned fish and other delicacies to North America and Europe…
Why hundreds of protesters are at Obama’s summit Desert Sun …Hundreds of people gathered outside Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage Monday, braving the oppressive desert heat to protest the summit between President Obama and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Others protested the Trans Pacific Partnership, an Asian trade deal that will be discussed at the summit…
New AFL-CIO TPP Report Highlights Lack of Worker Protections AFLCIO …A new report released today shows how the Trans-Pacific Partnership lacks adequate labor rights provisions. AFL-CIO Director of International Affairs Cathy Feingold explained the problem: The consistency plans fall woefully short of ensuring that all 12 TPP countries will be in full compliance with the TPP’s labor standard on Day One of the agreement. Vietnam will get a five-year free pass to deny freedom of association”…
European Groups Expose ‘Terrifying Extent of Corporate Grab’ Within TTIP Common Dreams …Even with global inequality at historic highs and corporate tax evasion in the public spotlight, a new report out Monday shows how a so-called free trade deal between the U.S. and European Union could further threaten tax justice, hampering governments’ ability to ensure that critical public services are well funded or to pursue progressive tax practices…
EU defends TTIP investor court after German backlash EU Observer …The EU Commission has defended a proposed court that would allow big firms to sue EU governments for perceived profit losses. German magistrates criticised the idea earlier this month, declaring the so-called investor court system (ICS) unlawful. Proposed last September by the EU executive, the investor court forms a part of the EU-US free trade talks known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Workers hold rally in downtown Charleston to protest Right to Work, prevailing wage repeal MetroNews …Incensed over the passing of Right to Work legislation and the repeal of prevailing wage, a crowd of about 100 West Virginia workers staged a rally in downtown Charleston Tuesday night in advance of a dinner to honor Sen. President Bill Cole. The crowd lined Virginia Street and Dickinson Street during rush hour, holding signs and chanting “Cole Must Go” and “Right to Work is Wrong”…
Bill to block Birmingham’s minimum wage clears House AL.com …The Alabama House of Representatives today passed a bill to block cities and counties from setting minimum wages, legislation moved to the fast track to preempt a minimum wage set to take effect in Birmingham on March 1. The bill, by Rep. David Faulkner, R-Mountain Brook, passed with overwhelming support from Republicans and opposition from Democrats…
Maine lawmakers will have to consider minimum wage hike WCSH …A key development on the minimum wage debate — Maine lawmakers will have to consider whether to raise the minimum wage statewide. If lawmakers turn the petition down, Mainers will still get the chance to vote on it come November. Election officials have approved the minimum wage hike petition signatures, which well exceeded the minimum requirement for consideration…
Surprise, Surprise! They’re Lying to You About Voter ID Laws AFLCIO …Supporters of strict voter identification laws argue that they are needed to prevent voter fraud and that they aren’t designed to suppress anyone’s vote. We’ve already known for quite a while that voter fraud is largely a myth. Research from the 2014 election shows that voter ID laws suppress the votes of Democrats at more than twice the rate the laws block Republican voters…
Redistricting reform heads to legislative floor Journal Star …Compromise legislation to distance state senators from congressional and legislative redistricting decisions cleared the Legislature’s Executive Board Tuesday and was advanced to the floor for debate. The bill (LB580) creates an independent citizens commission to craft new districts that provide relative population parity following the 2020 census…
Minneapolis Task Force All But Certain To Recommend Paid Sick Leave Twin Cities Business …Minneapolis would be the first city in the state to have a mandatory paid sick leave ordinance, though St. Paul has signaled that it also expects to adopt one following a public process. The Minneapolis task force charged with examining the issue of mandatory paid leave has two more scheduled meetings before its deadline for reporting back to the City Council…
U.S. LABOR
Workers urge change in BWI’s food, retail provider Capital Gazette …While lawmakers debate whether to rebid a contract for the state’s main airport in search of a better deal, a large contingent of airport workers say they’re desperate for new management. Members of the labor union Unite Here are pushing the General Assembly for changes in the way BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport is run, alleging minorities have been relegated to low-paying, “backroom” jobs…
Freightliner to lay off 1,250 workers in Mt. Holly, Cleveland WSOCTV …Workers at Daimler’s truck manufacturing plants in Mount Holly and Cleveland, North Carolina, said they were told Monday morning that the company is cutting hundreds of jobs at each plant at the end of the week. Daimler has taken over the plants that were run by Freightliner in Rowan and Gaston counties, and workers at the plant in Cleveland told Eyewitness News the announcement of job cuts came as a shock to many…
They’re ‘taking from us’ — Western Electric retirees say prosperous union pension fund being raided Omaha.com …The way the union retirees of the old Western Electric plant in the Millard area see it, the money is theirs and that’s that. They say it is a simple case of a large corporation raiding their pension plan — the improper transfer of assets from their prosperous fund for hourly folks into an underfunded one for management and salaried workers…
With 3 Recent High-Profile Walkoffs, Is the Wildcat Strike Back? In These Times …Three high-profile wildcat strikes have caught business watchers and union leaders by surprise in recent weeks. Could they be bellwethers for a rising tide of worker militancy? A wildcat strike is one that occurs with little notice or legal sanction. Wildcats are often organized in violation of a contractual commitment not to strike or a legal prohibition to do so. Non-union workplaces wildcat by striking without formally certifying or affiliating with a union…
State unemployment rates by race and ethnicity at the end of 2015 show a plodding recovery EPI …In December 2015, the national unemployment rate was 5.0 percent, down 0.1 percentage point since the end of the third quarter in September 2015. Yet even as the recovery moves ahead slowly, conditions vary greatly across states and across racial and ethnic groups…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
States Step Up As Washington Stalls On Immigration NPR …Lawmakers in virtually every state in the union aren’t waiting for Washington. The number of states taking action by passing immigration-related laws is growing — by 26 percent last year, according to a new study released today by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Last year, 216 immigration laws were enacted as opposed to 171 laws in 2014. Texas and California led the pack…
As They Drank Contaminated Water, Flint Residents Were Charged The Highest Water Rates In The Country Think Progress …Not only did Flint residents drink tap water contaminated with lead and other chemicals throughout 2015, but they were also paying the highest prices in the country to keep that poisoned water flowing through their pipes. A report released by Food & Water Watch on Tuesday confirmed what many residents had long suspected: that their water bills, averaging $140 a month, were the highest in the country…
Unlikely Critic Says Banks Still Too Big To Fail, Pose ‘Nuclear’ Risk to US Economy Common Dreams …A former Goldman Sachs executive—one credited as an architect of the 2008 banking bailout—said Tuesday that the country’s largest financial institutions are “still too big to fail and continue to pose a significant, ongoing risk to our economy.” In his first speech delivered as the newly appointed president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve, Neel Kashkari “came out swinging,” Business Insider reported…