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Today’s Teamster News For March 16, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Judge Sides with Teamsters in Fight to Review WVU Right-to-Work Emails Teamster.org …The Teamsters Union today is lauding a court ruling that will require West Virginia University (WVU) to make available seven previously redacted emails about a report detailing the economic impact of so-called right to work (RTW). The West Virginia Legislature approved RTW legislation last month. The court determined the Teamsters were entitled to the contents of the emails as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request the union previously filed…
Teamsters, Lyft Drivers to File Objections to Class-Action Lawsuit Settlement Teamster.org …Today, the Teamsters Union and Lyft drivers will file legal objections to a class-action lawsuit settlement which would continue to misclassify Lyft employees in California as independent contractors. The objectors, who also plan to intervene in the lawsuit, will file their objections today in federal district court in San Francisco before Judge Vince Chhabria…
Teamsters object to $12.25m Lyft drivers deal that falls short of employee status The Guardian …The Teamsters union and several drivers for the ride-hailing company Lyft are charging that the $12.25m settlement reached in a class-action lawsuit over the employment classification of drivers is not good enough. On Tuesday morning, the union is set to file an objection in US district court to the proposed settlement between the San Francisco-based startup and the plaintiffs’ attorney, Shannon Liss-Riordan…
Teamster Local Unions Recommend Members Reject Costco’s Contract Offer Teamster.org …Teamster local unions on the East Coast and in California that represent 16,000 Costco members are recommending a rejection of a contract proposal that was characterized as Costco’s last, best and final offer. The main issue of disagreement is the company’s refusal to allow their East Coast members to move into the same defined benefit pension plan as the California members…
Teamsters Remember Man Behind Teamsters Canada Teamster.org …Ed Lawson, born in Gerald, Saskatchewan in 1929, passed away recently. Lawson was the Director of the Canadian Conference of Teamsters and a Canadian Senator. He was the architect behind the creation of the Canadian Conference of Teamsters in 1976, an organization which later became Teamsters Canada in 1992. “He helped lay the foundations of what became Teamsters Canada,” said François Laporte, President of Teamsters Canada. “Without him, Teamsters Canada might not exist today”…
South Charleston clinic will serve union members Gazette Mail …Members of the Teamsters union will have a new option for primary care at no out-of-pocket expense to them beginning soon. Union officials hope the clinic will ultimately help them save money on health care costs. he center will be the first or among the first in the state dedicated to serving members of a specific union, said Ken Hall, president of Teamsters Local 175…
Sheriff’s Department Employees Switch to Teamsters Union Laconia Daily Sun …Employees of the Belknap County Sheriff’s Department voted unanimously Monday to switch to the Teamsters Union to represent them in contract negotiations. The department had been represented in negotiations by the State Employees Association, which still represents workers in the Belknap County Nursing Home and the Belknap County House of Corrections…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Cotton Cover-Up: Uzbekistan Whitewashes Forced Labor Solidarity Center …The Uzbekistan government again forced more than 1 million teachers, nurses and others to pick cotton for weeks during last fall’s harvest. But this time, the government went to extreme measures—including jailing and physically abusing those independently monitoring the process—to cover up its actions, according to a new report…
Antigua ABS workers expected to strike Antigua Observer …Workers at the Antigua Broadcasting Service (ABS) have decided, at a meeting held yesterday, that they will be embarking on some form of industrial action later this week. ABS employee and spokesperson Khalid Shabazz said that the resolution was arrived at during the meeting with their bargaining agent, the Antigua Trades & Labour Union (ATLU)…
South Africa: Cosatu backs North West health workers strike IOL.co …The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) supports striking Community Health Workers in the North West province, the federation said on Tuesday. “These workers demand that they be permanently employed and also be paid decent salaries instead of the current stipend of a measly R2 000 that they are currently getting,” Cosatu national spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said…
How Do Workers Organize When Their Boss Is an App? The Tyee …Answers remain scarce as Canadian labour grapples with Uber, Airbnb and the ‘gig economy.’ Uber, Airbnb, Lyft, Handy — the list of on-demand services is exploding. And union representatives at the meeting in the Ottawa headquarters of the congress were trying to plot a labour response. “How do people organize when your boss is an app?” asks Emily Norgang…
On free trade, this election is giving business the willies Washington Post …The massively complex agreement made good progress last year. But it still has to be ratified. And this year’s sudden, red-hot rhetoric against trade deals on the campaign trail — from even centrist Hillary Clinton, as she responds to populist attacks from longtime free trade skeptic Bernie Sanders, not to mention the tariff-happy Donald Trump — has dampened hopes that the deal will ever actually get done…
Longer wait and higher prices likely under the TPPA Scoop …Longer wait and higher prices are likely for some life-saving medicines under the TPPA. New Zealand is likely to come under pressure to extend the monopoly times for a new group of potentially life-saving specialty medicines under the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), say the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) and the Council of Trade Unions (CTU)…
Business leaders want TPP done this year The Hill …Oberhelman said that U.S. business leaders would continue to “push as far and as fast as we can on the agreement now and again work with Congress and the administration to get a vote as soon as we possibly can and make sure we get this turned into law in 2016.” Congress is mulling the massive agreement and there is uncertainty surrounding whether lawmakers will vote on the TPP before Obama leaves office in early 2017…
UK Austerity Linked To Increase In Deaths Of Over-85s, Research Into Pension Credits Finds Huffington Post …Austerity is linked to an increase in deaths of pensioners aged 85 and over, research has found. Spending cuts in England have hit vulnerable adults and are linked to cuts in spending and income support for poorer elderly people, the research, published on Wednesday by the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, revealed…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Governor Snyder Bypasses Accountability; Forces Taxpayers to Foot the Bill for his Personal Defense Progress Michigan …Snyder is attempting to force the taxpayers of Michigan, including the people of Flint, to pay his legal defense for his failure in Flint. That is the equivalent of an $800,000 deposit into Snyder’s personal checking account. Snyder claims he is being defended in his official capacity as governor…
Gov. Cuomo urges lawmakers to include $15-per-hour minimum wage as part of New York state budget Daily News …Gov. Cuomo said an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour should be included as part of the state budget that lawmakers must adopt before the end of the month. Cuomo on Tuesday said the wage hike and another proposal to provide paid family leave to workers were “fundamentally economic issues” that should be included in the 2016-2017 budget…
Campus researchers publish study examining proposed New York state minimum wage increase Daily Californian …Earlier this month, campus researchers published a study examining the possible effects of increasing the minimum wage in New York to $15 over the next five years. The study, conducted by the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, was requested by the New York-based Fiscal Policy Institute after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed last year to raise the state minimum wage to $15 by mid-2021…
Protesters rally at Idaho Capitol for higher minimum wage State Journal …Protesters took to the halls of Idaho Capitol building Monday to urge state lawmakers to increase Idaho’s $7.25 per hour minimum wage. Idaho AFL-CIO President Aaron White said the estimated 40 protesters — many carrying signs — wanted to encourage Idaho legislators to resurrect House Bill 400, a Democrat-backed measure to raise the Gem State’s minimum wage by $2 per hour by next year…
Students Are Being Rejected From The Polls Because Of North Carolina’s Voter ID Law Think Progress …North Carolina’s controversial voter identification law is being used for the first time in Tuesday’s primary, and registered voters are experiencing the consequences of the voter suppression measure. About 218,000 North Carolinians, roughly five percent of registered voters, do not have an acceptable form of government-issued ID that is now required under state law to cast a ballot…
Paid Family Leave Could Be in Final NY State Budget but not Minimum Wage Hike WRFA …Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan has indicated that the paid family leave issue is in play, though details are still being hashed out, including who would finance the benefit and how long such leave would last. The $15 minimum wage seems less likely to be included as part of the budget process…
U.S. LABOR
Donald Trump, Expert Negotiator, Refuses to Meet With His Unionizing Workers The Nation …Trump’s appeal lies in his image as the bold, no-BS boss who “tells it like it is” and cuts a fair deal. But the famously blunt tycoon-turned-candidate has been curiously reticent in his private business dealings lately, specifically when it comes to the hotel housekeepers and maintenance staffers who have been chasing his campaign itinerary in hopes of meeting with him to negotiate a union contract…
Taco Bell Must Pay Workers $500,000 for Unpaid Lunch Breaks Eater …A court case against Taco Bell that dragged on for almost a decade is finally over: A California jury has determined that Taco Bell workers in California are owed nearly $500,000 after finding the chain had underpaid the employees for their meal breaks, reports Nation’s Restaurant News…
1199 SEIU, Nathan Littauer Hospital agree on contract Times Union …Gloversville’s Nathan Littauer Hospital and Nursing Home and the 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East approved a new contract for 400 technical and service employees on Monday after eight months of negotiations. The four-year agreement will increase base wages and pension and health insurance contribution by the hospital and employees, according to a news release. It will expire on June 30, 2019…
United Farm Workers commemorates 50th anniversary of march from Delano to Sacramento Fresno Bee …Farmworkers who walked from Delano to Sacramento starting on March 17, 1966, will gather Thursday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the historic march. The strike lasted more than five years and grew to include an international boycott by consumers of nonunion grapes. It ended with victory for what became the United Farm Workers…
USW, Alcoa to send water to Flint, asks residents for help WLFI …The local steelworkers union and Alcoa are partnering together to send bottled water to Flint, Michigan. Local 115 President Spencer Buchanan says it all started when member Jennifer Archer said her church was sending water to Flint and asked if there was anything the union could do to help residents dealing with the water crisis…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Family Sues Private-Prison Operator Over Deaths at Immigrant-Only Facilities The Nation …The family of Nestor Garay, a federal prisoner, filed a wrongful death lawsuit on March 4 alleging that private prison operators negligently left inmates in the care of underqualified medical workers who failed to respond properly to a medical emergency. Garay is one of at least 137 men who have died while incarcerated in privately run Bureau of Prisons facilities…
Black Lives Matter Scores Political Victory As Chicago Ousts Its Top Prosecutor Think Progress …Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez has covered up police killings, condemned the innocent, and doomed children to the school-to-prison pipeline. But on Tuesday, Chicago area voters said that they’ve had enough. Alvarez lost her bid for a third term to Kim Foxx, a former assistant state’s attorney and a candidate backed by activists from the Black Lives Matter movement…
Case backlog at immigration courts could hit more than 1 million Houston Chronicle …The backlog in Houston’s overwhelmed downtown immigration court grew more than 460 percent between 2010 and 2016, swelling from about 6,400 to 36,100 pending cases, according to a new analysis released Tuesday. With only six immigration judges on the bench, Houston’s court could see its case load double again in three years if no more are added…