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Today’s Teamster News For February 19, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Demand United Airlines Deliver Fair Contract for Mechanics Teamster.org …Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa, Teamsters Airline Division Director Capt. David Bourne and local union leadership from across the United States are demanding United Airlines negotiate an industry-leading contract for over 9,000 airline mechanics. On Tuesday, over 93 percent of mechanics who voted cast ballots against the company’s final offer, sending a strong message that United Airlines needs to do better by its workforce…
Rollex Again Ordered to Make Changes for Member Safety Local 727 …The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) again has ordered Rollex Corporation to correct safety violations and pay a corresponding penalty of $13,500. Teamsters Local 727 representatives are insisting that the changes be made immediately. Local 727 represents about 100 workers at the aluminum soffit and steel siding manufacturer located in Elk Grove Village, Ill…
Teamsters file 2 suits over right to work Register-Herald …How much influence did the state’s top economist, West Virginia University, the Senate president and the House speaker have in research on the right-to-work legislation passed by the legislature this year? That question is at the center of two lawsuits filed by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters last week contending WVU and the state Senate failed to fully comply with the state’s Freedom of Information Act…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
In Violence-Torn Nigeria, Teachers’ Union Goes Beyond ABCs Solidarity Center …n northeastern Nigeria, where violence has terrorized communities over the past several years, the Nigerian Union of Teachers is going beyond the difficult task of ensuring students continue to receive an education and teachers get the support they need. Union leaders and members have taken on the enormous job of providing housing, food and medical assistance to some of the thousands of teachers and their families displaced by the upheaval…
City, outside workers continue talks past strike deadline The Star …The City of Toronto and unionized workers continue to bargain this morning in a bid to avert a strike or lockout. Some 5,400 Local 416 outside workers, including garbage collectors, staff in water and parks departments, and paramedics, were in a legal strike-lockout position at 12:01 a.m. The inside workers in Local 79 will be in the same position Saturday at midnight…
Nissan – Not fit to be an Olympic sponsor IndustriALL …Nissan is under fire from trade unions that say the car company is breaking Olympic guidelines for sponsors of the Rio 2016 Games. Representatives from trade unions in Brazil will hand deliver a complaint letter to Carlos Nuzman, President of the Organizing Committee for the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Japanese-owned car giant, which operates in an alliance with French-based Renault, is supplying around 6,500 vehicles to the Olympic and Paralympic Games…
USW, Mexican Miners’ Union Accuse Asarco, Parent Firm of Rights Violations PR Newswire …The United Steelworkers (USW) and the National Union of Mine, Metal, Steel and Allied Workers of the Mexican Republic (Los Mineros) today filed a complaint accusing Mexican mining conglomerate Grupo Mexico and its U.S. subsidiary, Asarco, of violating workers’ rights on both sides of the border. The complaint, filed with the U.S. National Contact Point (NCP) for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises, asks the NCP to attempt to foster a dialogue between the parties…
Key Democrat opposes Pacific trade deal The Hill …A top House Democrat says he is opposing a sweeping Asia-Pacific trade agreement. “As negotiated the Trans-Pacific Partnership falls short of an acceptable outcome, and I cannot support it,” said Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.), ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee, during a Christian Science Monitor breakfast on Thursday. Levin cited four major areas where he said the agreement failed to make the improvements he has been calling for during the past year…
TPP undergoes stealthy changes that expand penalties for copyright infringement RT …While the final text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership was released last November, a legal combing of the deal modified some language that resulted in substantially heavier penalties for copyright infringement. Since the November finalization of the text, parties involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a free-trade agreement among twelve Pacific Rim nations, have had their lawyers engaged in a “legal scrub” of the document…
TPP Threatens Indigenous Land Rights Says the UN TeleSUR …The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, better known as the TPP, seriously threatens indigenous land rights, as well as the natural resources they preserve, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz said. According to Tauli-Corpuz, the major issue with the TPP is “the clause of non-discrimination between a local and an international investor…
MPs can view TTIP files – but take only pencil and paper with them The Guardian …MPs have won access to documents covering controversial and secretive trade talks between Brussels and Washington, but can only take a pencil and paper into the room where the files can be viewed. Confidentiality rules mean no electronic devices – including phones, tablet and laptop computers, or cameras – are allowed in the room at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in Westminster…
Irish Voters Will Grade Austerity Counterpunch …The country is in the middle of an economic “boom,” but that is a relative term. Ireland is still reeling from years of European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) imposed austerity that doubled the rate of childhood poverty and saddled working people with onerous taxes, painful rate hikes and high unemployment. Wages have fallen 15 percent…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Oregon Lawmakers Approve Landmark Minimum Wage Increase ABC …Oregon lawmakers have approved landmark legislation that propels the state’s minimum wage for all workers to the highest rank in the U.S., and does so through an unparalleled tiered system based on geography. The state House of Representatives on Thursday passed Senate Bill 1532, which now heads to Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, who said in a statement she will sign it into law…
Ballot initiatives would hike Colorado’s minimum wage Business Journal …Business leaders shot down several attempts at the Legislature last year to raise Colorado’s minimum wage. This year, they may have to spend more to defeat a new attempt at the ballot. Colorado Families for a Fair Wage — a newly formed group that organizers say is composed of low-wage workers and small-business owners — filed two proposed constitutional amendments with the Secretary of State’s office on Thursday that would raise workers’ minimum hourly pay to $12…
WV House to vote on voter ID bill WOWK …West Virginia lawmakers are set to vote on a proposal to require some voters to show ID to vote. The House scheduled the vote for Friday. The bill would require presenting a state or federally issued ID featuring a name and photo. Options could range from driver’s licenses to valid West Virginia high school IDs…
Judge will not block Alabama voter ID law AL.com …A federal judge Wednesday deciding against effectively suspending Alabama’s law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls. U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler refused a preliminary injunction request to allow alternate means of identification for voters in the upcoming 2016 elections…
Wisconsin Senate vote on drinking water privatization bill scrapped Madison.com …The vote on a bill written to help corporations buy municipal water systems was scrapped in the state Senate on Tuesday in the face of opposition from nearly 20 groups, including the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, which withdrew its support late last week…
States Have Spent Nearly $2 Million Drug Testing Welfare Recipients. Here’s What They Found. Think Progress …In 10 states, someone who applies for welfare cash assistance through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program doesn’t just have to deal with complicated paperwork at a time when there’s a good chance she’s already in a state of financial crisis. She also has to be screened and possibly tested for substance abuse. And if she tests positive, she won’t receive benefits…
The Industry That Treats Wage Theft as the Cost of Doing Business The Nation …The “Freelance isn’t Free” Act purports to be one of the first concrete legislative measures aimed at protecting independent workers specifically by providing a new enforcement mechanism to go after derelict bosses. The proposed bill would empower the Mayor’s Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) to aid with investigating wage claims and recovering lost pay, as an alternative to the longer and more costly court process for seeking backwages…
This State Just Ended Homelessness For All Of Its Veterans Think Progress …On Thursday, Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) announced that the state has been officially certified by the federal government as having effectively ended veteran homelessness. The state had already ended chronic homelessness, or those who had been without a home for at least one year or four times in the past three, among its veteran population as of last summer…
Anti-union group worked to influence elections in 5 states AP …It was a tantalizing offer for candidates for state legislative offices, many of whom had never mounted a campaign before. A national anti-union organization offered candidates in five states a “deadly effective” series of seven custom-written letters that would be signed with their digitally-scanned signatures and mailed to thousands of voters in the final weeks before Election Day…
U.S. LABOR
Teachers Union Organizes ‘Walk-In’ Protests Over CPS Budget Cuts CBS …Students, parents, and teachers at nearly 200 schools across Chicago were staging a series of “walk-in” demonstrations, to protest budget cuts by the Chicago Public Schools. The Chicago Teachers Union said the protests are part of a national demonstration to show support for public schools. Supporters will meet before school to rally and show unity before walking into the building together, and then breaking up so students can go to class…
Faculty push back against ‘attrition’ policy Chronicle …Members of Duke Teaching First, an organization of non-tenure track or contingent faculty, filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board asking to be represented by the Service Employees International Union last Thursday. Faculty and student activists pushing for unionization argue that contingent faculty do not have adequate job security and are doing some work without pay…
Quest Diagnostics Workers Vote to Join UFCW Locals 135 and 1167 UFCW.org …Quest Diagnostics workers across 10 different locations around the San Diego area voted to join UFCW Locals 135 and 1167. Workers from four locations will be UFCW Local 135 members and workers at the other six locations will be part of UFCW Local 1167. Better wages and respect on the job are some of the top priorities for workers…
Food workers without paid sick leave are making customers sick Salon …More than 60 percent of restaurant workers have served food while sick, according to a study by the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC). And in most case the workers have no alternative — they don’t get paid sick leave. The lack of sick leave for workers is a matter of life and death — 70% of reported norovirus outbreaks are caused by infected food workers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…
Stop & Shop supermarkets advertising for replacement workers in case contract negotiations with union fail MassLive …The Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. is advertising for replacement workers at a pay rate of $16 an hour as negotiations with the union representing the chain’s workers continue. Stop & Shop has run similar ads in the past only to not need the replacement workers because a contract had been reached. The current three-year United Food and Commercial Workers Union contract with Stop & Shop and its parent Ahold USA expires at midnight on Feb. 27…
Morning rush hour snarled as protesters block downtown Minneapolis streets Star Tribune …Protesters supporting janitors who want higher pay and more sick time took to the streets Thursday, blocking downtown roads at the peak of the morning rush hour and causing massive traffic jams on Interstate 94 and I-35W. Twin Cities janitors staged a one-day strike Wednesday in an effort to improve working conditions…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
#DayWithoutLatinos: Thousands Protest Anti-Immigrant Bills in Wisconsin Common Dreams …Workers, students, and activists walked off the job and out of their schools for a massive action in Wisconsin on Thursday, protesting two anti-immigration bills currently advancing through the state legislature. Thousands of Wisconsinites converged at the State Capitol in Madison for A Day Without Latinos and Immigrants…
Michigan’s Water Wars: Nestlé Pumps Millions of Gallons for Free While Flint Pays for Poisoned Water Democracy Now …In 2001 and 2002, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality issued permits to Nestlé, the largest water bottling company in the world, to pump up to 400 gallons of water per minute from aquifers that feed Lake Michigan. Nestlé is not required to pay anything to extract the water, besides a small permitting fee to the state and the cost of leases to a private landowner. The company received $13 million in tax breaks from the state to locate the plant in Michigan…
“We’ve identified 7,000 Americans who matter”: Big Pharma’s big idea for controlling drug pricing Salon …The intent of PhRMA’s multimillion-dollar PR blitz and intensified offensive in Congress is not to restrain the gouging but to improve the industry’s image in hopes of restraining lawmakers from taking steps to rein in prescription costs. Of course, the ads dishonestly fail to mention the selfish intent of being allowed to keep ripping off patients, instead pitching drugmakers as selfless saviors of humanity…
Nothing Less Than Fate of Planet Hinges on Next Supreme Court Nominee Common Dreams …As Washington, D.C. gears up for a Supreme Court showdown, experts this week are predicting that the person chosen to fill Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat on the high court bench will have a huge impact on the fate of the planet. Several high-profile cases hang in the balance in the wake of Scalia’s death. But perhaps none will be as closely watched as the case that pits fossil fuel giants and Republicans against environmentalists and the Obama administration…