TEAMSTERS

Hoffa: Infrastructure and citizen concerns ignored  The Detroit News  …Flint residents are in crisis, placed in a situation no one in this country should have to face. Their water is contaminated with lead, putting their health at risk. And Gov. Rick Snyder is shirking his responsibilities to find a long-term solution. Teamsters from all over the Midwest have pitched in to help the people of Flint. Members from Grand Rapids to Indianapolis have trucked in more than 200,000 bottles of water as of last week…

Teamster Pilots Reach Tentative Agreement with GoJet Airlines  Teamster.org  …The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Teamsters Local 618 and GoJet Airlines announced today that they have reached a tentative agreement on a five-year contract for approximately 500 pilots. The new tentative agreement contains improvements in work rules, benefits and pay… 

Teamsters Head to the Hill to Warn Congress about Central States  Teamster.org  …Teamster representatives briefed a standing room only crowd of Capitol Hill staffers today on a dire proposal by the Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas pension plan that would devastate tens of thousands of retirees and workers across the Midwest. Officials noted the pension fund is totally unrealistic in its projections and that even if it were to meet them, Central States itself says there is only a 50 percent chance the fund would remain solvent long term… 

Dingell leads coalition against Teamster pension cuts  The Detroit News  …U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell is leading a bipartisan coalition of 88 representatives in asking the U.S. Treasury Department to reject a Central States Pension Fund request to cut retiree benefits. It’s one of the largest Teamster pension funds that includes 30,000 members in Michigan. If approved, the proposal sparked by the Kline-Miller Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 would impact 273,000 current and future retirees…

In Memoriam: Timothy Lynch  Teamster.org  …Teamsters are mourning the loss of Timothy Lynch, a beloved member of the Teamster family, on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016. Lynch was President of Local 1205 in Farmingdale, N.Y., for 17 years. He was also a Vice President of the Long Island Federation of Labor. Teamsters may be more familiar with him as the man who always led the union in singing “Solidarity Forever”… 

 

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE

PIA workers’ strike continues, flight schedule affected  The News  …The protest by the workers of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) still continues due to which several flights were cancelled today also whereas schedule of other flights was also affected. The protest against the proposed privatization of the PIA continues and the flight schedule in various cities has been cancelled…

Scottish unions back Labour proposal to save public services from austerity cuts  Daily Record  …The SNP must rip up their austerity budget and use new tax-raising powers to protect schools and vital services, unions demanded last night. Their call came after Labour announced they want to put an extra penny on income tax to pay for public services while offsetting the impact on the lowest-paid…

McConnell to Obama: I have ‘some problems’ with Trans-Pacific Partnership  Reuters  …Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday he had “some problems” with the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement and told reporters he thought it should not be pursued before the November U.S. presidential election. Speaking after a meeting with President Barack Obama, McConnell, a Republican, said he and the president had agreed to keep discussing the trade pact…

White House warns Congress to not delay TPP deal  Channel NewsAsia  …The White House warned Congress Wednesday (Feb 3) that delaying ratifying a vast trans-Pacific trade deal will cost the US economy. On Tuesday, Obama discussed his desire to get the treaty ratified this year with top Congressional Republican leaders, who said they still had problems with the complex deal…

Study: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Will Cost US a Half Million Jobs, Drag Down GDP  Truthout  …A group of economists studying the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) have concluded that the sweeping trade agreement will have a net negative impact on the US economy. Economic researchers with Tufts University’s Global Development and Environment Institute said Monday that widely cited projections claiming the TPP will boost economic activity in the US are “based on unrealistic assumptions”…

The Trans-Pacific Partnership will be signed in the world’s most isolated big city  Quartz  …Were the agreement to be signed on, say, the US west coast, anti-TPP protestors would surely congregate and stage an energetic, headline-grabbing demonstration. But the signing will take place in Auckland, New Zealand—the world’s most isolated big city by some measures. Whether by design or accident, sheer distance will mean the signing can proceed in (relative) peace…

The Trans Pacific Partnership – A Corporate Bill of Rights  (opinion) TeleSUR  …Governments from around the world are gathering in New Zealand to sign the Trans Pacific Partnership, the TPP. People around the world are mobilizing to make sure that the agreement, even if signed, does not get ratified. Why? It’s just another in a long line of trade deals that are aimed at growing our economies by increasing trade between our countries, right? At least that’s what we’re told…

Brazil President Dilma Rousseff Asks Hostile Congress to Pass Austerity Bills  Wall Street Journal  …Embattled Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff called on Congress to approve a new tax on financial transactions and other potentially unpopular bills to balance the nation’s finances and reverse a deep recession. Ms. Rousseff, who is being targeted for impeachment by the lower house, addressed the congress in the legislative year’s opening ceremony for the first time since 2011…

Haiti’s Mining Industry: Worker Rights in Peril  Solidarity Center  …If the current political impasse in Haiti is resolved, lawmakers are likely to consider how to develop the country’s untapped gold and copper veins—and the process will determine the extent to which workers achieve their share of economic prosperity. “Given the dearth of decent employment opportunities and pervasive extreme poverty, workers are highly susceptible to exploitation and rights violations,” according to a new report, “Human Rights and Environmental Risks of Gold Mining in Haiti”…

 

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES

NC Voter ID Law ‘Intentionally’ Discriminates Against Minority Voters, Attorneys Charge  Common Dreams  …North Carolina’s restrictive voter ID law was designed to “intentionally” discriminate against the state’s black and Latino voters, attorneys argued in a packed Winston-Salem courtroom on Monday. The charge was leveled during closing arguments in a trial that has garnered national attention because of its connection to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Shelby County v. Holder ruling, which essentially nullified the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act…

WV Senate President Bill Cole speaks at retreat organized by Koch brothers  Gazette-Mail  …Senate President Bill Cole spent the weekend at a Palm Springs resort with about 500 high-spending donors, where he spoke at a retreat organized by the conservative mega-donors Charles and David Koch. The annual donors retreat is organized by the Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, a nonprofit affiliated with the Koch brothers, which requires an annual membership fee of $100,000…

WV Democrats continue efforts to slow prevailing wage repeal  Register-Herald  …Continuing their efforts to put the brakes on a piece of legislation that would repeal the state’s prevailing wage rates on public projects, Democrats made their eighth request for a fiscal note to accompany the bill. It was Senate Minority Whip John Unger’s turn to demand the Senate enforce its rules for including fiscal notes on bills that will affect state revenues, asking Senate President Bill Cole, R-Mercer, to uphold his request… 

Right-to-work measure headed for Virginia ballot  Washington Post  …The House and Senate passed resolutions Tuesday that will let voters decide whether the state’s right-to-work laws should be enshrined in the Virginia Constitution. The Republican-backed measures passed both chambers without a single Democratic vote, clearing the last major hurdle in the two-year process to get on the ballot…

Oregon Constitution presents hiccup for minimum wage bill  KGW  …A little-known section of the Oregon Constitution became a thorn in the side of legislators working to raise the minimum wage Tuesday. During public testimony before the Senate Committee on Workforce and General Government, Linn County Commissioner Roger Nyquist told legislators that his county would not comply with the minimum wage bill, SB 1532, if it were to become law, because the county wouldn’t have to…

Paid sick leave bill clears hurdle  Burlington Free Press  …Two years after a young Statehouse cafeteria worker told lawmakers she had come to work sick that day and made sandwiches, a bill requiring employers to provide paid sick leave cleared a key hurdle Tuesday. The Senate on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to its version of a House-passed bill requiring paid time off after a year on the job…

Koch-Fueled Playbook against WV Working Families Exposed by CMD  PR Watch  …West Virginia Senate President Bill Cole’s spokesman said Monday that Cole “will travel throughout West Virginia and beyond….” to talk about his legislative agenda that limits workers’ rights. And, boy, did he go beyond. Cole flew to a world far away from West Virginia when he traveled this weekend to the luxurious Esmeralda resort. The entire resort was reserved for the weekend by the billionaire Koch brothers for an exclusive gathering with other billionaires…

 

U.S. LABOR

Service workers give strike notice to Washington Hospital  WTAE  …A service workers union is threatening to strike Washington Hospital in southwestern Pennsylvania if a contract dispute isn’t resolved soon. The Service Employees International Union Healthcare Pennsylvania voted Tuesday to strike on Feb. 16 and 17. The 400 workers include maintenance, housekeeping, dietary and secretarial employees. They account for nearly one-fourth of the hospital’s 1,723 employees…

Nurses unions trying new tack for ‘safe staffing’ bill  Capital New York  …Two unions that represent nurses are pursuing a new strategy to build support for their most important policy objective — passing a mandatory staffing law. Efforts to pass a state law mandating a certain number of nurses per unit have repeatedly stalled in the state Legislature, so the New York State Nurses Association, the state’s largest nurses union, and the Communications Workers of America are asking cities and counties across the state to pass resolutions supporting the state legislation…

USW Members Vote to Ratify 3-Year Contract with U.S. Steel  PR Newswire  …Members of the United Steelworkers (USW) union have ratified a new three-year contract with U.S. Steel that will cover 18,000 workers at more than a dozen facilities across the United States. USW members voted by a greater than 2-to-1 margin to approve the contract, which will take effect immediately. The two sides reached a tentative agreement in December…

The Two-Tier Employment System You Haven’t Heard Of  The Nation  …Tens of thousands more immigrants will be invited to work temporary stints in low-wage industries like housekeeping and landscaping, and their “guest treatment” typically consists of being paid less, treated worse, and having fewer rights than their US-based counterparts. According to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute, the guestworker labor force provides US employers jobs on the cheap, offering less in wages and virtually nothing in terms of labor rights or benefits…

As appalling conditions in Detroit schools draw notice, emergency manager will step down  Daily Kos  …Darnell Earley was the emergency manager who put toxic water in the homes of Flint, Michigan, and he’s the emergency manager who has presided over Detroit public schools with fungus growing in the halls, rotten and moldy food served to students, and serious rodent infestations. In response to Earley’s announcement, the Detroit Federation of Teachers called for the schools to be returned to local control…

 

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS

How Racism And Anti-Tax Fervor Laid The Groundwork For Flint’s Water Crisis  Think Progress  …First Flint’s auto manufacturing benefactor began cutting jobs. Then white flight pulled people into the suburbs. Residents of Michigan began agitating over taxes and ushered in laws that kneecapped the city’s finances. All of it set the stage for a massive public health disaster that has touched nearly everyone in the city…

Govt. Report: Even After 2013 Texas Fertilizer Explosion, Hundreds of Communities Still at Risk  In These Times  …Nearly three years after a catastrophic explosion and fire fueled by about 30 tons of fertilizer grade ammonium nitrate ripped through the West Fertilizer plant in West, Texas—killing 15 people, including 12 first responders, and injuring more than 260 and causing extensive community damage—the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has released and unanimously approved its final report on the incident…

A Record Number of Wrongfully Convicted People Were Exonerated in 2015  Mother Jones  …According to a new report from the University of Michigan Law School’s National Registry of Exonerations, 2015 set a record for the number of wrongly convicted Americans who finally found justice. There were 149 people last year who were either declared innocent or otherwise cleared of the consequences of their convictions or guilty pleas. Many had served some lengthy prison time…