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Today’s Teamster News For March 21, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Hoffa: Missouri Governor Sticks Up For Public Employees With Veto Teamster.org …Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa on the veto today of paycheck deception legislation by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) that would hamper the ability of unions to fully represent their membership in the state: “Gov. Nixon has again stood up for everyday Missourians against corporate interests. Workers already have the ability to stop having dues withdrawn from their paycheck for political purposes”…
Teamsters Rally in Lima over proposed pension cuts Your News Now …The Teamsters Union held a rally in Lima today to draw attention to the problem of underfunded pensions. The retirees are facing drastic cuts in their benefits if nothing is done soon. Samuel Wireman is president of Teamsters Local 908 Retirees Club. He retired 11 years ago and news that pensions will be cut drastically is having an effect on him and his fellow Teamsters. Local Teamsters are planning to join a nationwide demonstration at the Capitol building in Washington D.C. on April 14th…
St. Charles Coca-Cola Teamster Recovers $2,000 in Lost Wages Teamsters JC 25 …A relief driver with Great Lake Coca-Cola Distribution recently secured $2,000 in back pay after Teamsters Local 330 fought to protect his seniority rights at work. Local 330 member Emanuel Lopez was unlawfully sent home last year while awaiting additional relief work at Coca-Cola’s distribution facility in St. Charles, Ill…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Pakistan Women MPs to Push for Decent Work in Brick Kilns Solidarity Center …The effort to secure decent work in Pakistan’s brick kiln industry took a step forward in recent weeks when 18 women parliamentarians vowed to take up the issue in the Punjab Legislature. TUFF, a program the Solidarity Center piloted to bring together female labor activists, comprises women union leaders and members of Pakistan Workers Federation and Muttahida Labor Federation…
Border force officers among thousands of public-sector workers on strike The Guardian …The Community and Public Sector Union says thousands of public servants at Medicare, Centrelink, the tax office, defence department, the Bureau of Meteorology, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Australian Bureau of Statistics will strike for 24 hours on Monday. And immigration and border protection officers will begin stoppages at international airports from Tuesday…
EU-US free trade deal unlikely before US elections, Irish leader says Europe Online …It is unlikely that the European Union and the United States will wrap up their negotiations on a mammoth free trade deal before the US elects a new president in November, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said Thursday. There have long been fears that a change of leadership in the White House could stall progress on the so-called Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)…
The Job-Killing Trade Deal You’ve Never Heard Of: The China Bilateral Investment Treaty American Prospect …What if those voters learned that the Obama administration is in the midst of negotiating yet another corporate-friendly trade deal, one that would facilitate more offshoring, and that could also give China, of all countries, effective veto power over domestic policy? That’s precisely what’s happening in behind-the-scenes negotiations over a little-publicized agreement on the table between the U.S. and China…
How Obama and Congressional Republicans Intend to Pass TPP Into Law — After the November Elections People’s Voice …These deals will be enormously favorable to large international corporations, at the expense of workers’ rights, consumer rights, and environmental protection; so, it’s natural that they have overwhelming Republican support in Congress. After the November elections incumbents will be free to pay back their donors by voting for TPP and any other Obama trade-deal…
Latest Leak Confirms TTIP a ‘Serious Threat to Democracy as We Know It’ Mint Press …EU member states and the European Parliament will be “sidelined” in favor of big business and U.S. interests should the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) go through, according to a leaked document revealed Friday. The leak, of the corporate-friendly trade deal‘s draft chapter on “regulatory cooperation” between the EU and U.S., was made public by The Independent and Brussels-based campaign group Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)…
Tampa City Council Passes Resolution Opposing Trans Pacific Partnership FL Politics …The Tampa City Council on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution calling on elected officials in Congress to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the controversial free trade agreement between the U.S. and 11 Pacific Rim nations. It’s intended to reduce trade barriers between the 12 countries by lowering tariffs on goods, coordinating regulations and much more…
Canada: Anti-austerity demonstrators rail against corruption and privatization Montreal Gazette …Corruption. Austerity. Privatization. Those are about the three dirtiest words one could utter about the provincial government. And on Sunday afternoon, more than 75 demonstrators who gathered at Place Jacques Cartier weren’t afraid to hurl those words again and again at Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard, assailing the Liberal government for making cuts…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Hundreds Protest W.Va Legislature’s Right to Work Bill WTRF …here was a strong showing of support against some members of the West Virginia Legislature. Hundreds of local labor and union members were on hand today in Benwood on Friday to protest a private fundraiser for West Virginia Senate President Bill Cole and State Senator Ryan Ferns. Many of the workers say the recent passage of the recently passed “Right to Work Act” could potentially put them out of jobs…
NH Senate Refuses To Address Gerrymandering In New Hampshire Districts NH Labor News …The New Hampshire Senate killed the common sense legislative approach to eliminate gerrymandering, the political power play that creates nearly guaranteed election wins for specific parties. SB 425, would have established an independent redistricting commission to take power out of the hands of politicians restoring democracy to the people…
In latest attack on the poor, Alabama Republican tells food stamp recipients: If you want to eat, give up your car Salon …The result, for huge numbers of low income people who have little to no access to public transportation — and this is Alabama, so that means a whole bunch of them — is that they won’t have any ability to either look for work or to get to their job if they are lucky enough to find one…
Maine Republicans keep alive alternative minimum wage proposal Press Herald …Republican lawmakers salvaged an effort Thursday to get a $10-an-hour minimum wage proposal on the November ballot after the Democrat-led House rejected the idea earlier in the day. The $10 wage would appear as a “competing measure” to the $12-an-hour minimum wage proposal that gained a spot on the ballot as a result of a statewide petition drive by progressive groups…
Attempt to pull out minimum wage bill for discussion on Idaho House floor fails State Journal …Idaho House Republicans on Wednesday rejected an attempt by minority Democrats to unearth a bill that would increase the Gem State’s $7.25 per hour minimum wage by $2 per hour by next year. With an estimated 50 protesters of Idaho’s current minimum wage in the House gallery, the GOP-dominated 56-14 party-line floor vote excused the House Ways and Means Committee from releasing the stalled House Bill 400 for a House floor debate…
U.S. LABOR
Farmworkers remember historic Delano-to-Sacramento march 50 years ago Fresno Bee …Fifty years to the day after Cesar Chavez led a historic march from Delano to Sacramento seeking labor rights for farmworkers, surviving members of the 340-mile trek assembled here to mark the anniversary. Of the 77 protesters who left Delano that day, the United Farm Workers union has identified 17 who are still alive…
Suburban school bus drivers group sues over wages, overtime Chicago Tribune …The class-action lawsuit filed Thursday in the Northern District of Illinois court names nine bus drivers from the south suburbs who allege managers at Positive Connections, Inc. in Harvey, and New Jersey-based Student Transportation of America, failed to pay drivers for all regular hours worked and for overtime hours…
Teachers union plan walkout at schools on April 1 Crusader …Leaders for the Chicago Teachers Union will ask its members to walk off their jobs Friday, April 1 for a one-day demonstration, Vice President Jesse Sharkey said on Monday. The announcement came as the CTU pushes for public education funding and contract negotiations. Sharkey called the one-day walkout an act of civil disobedience designed to marshal support for new taxes and revenue for public education…
Report of 10,000 severe workplace injuries might be only half the problem Washington Post …Shortly after a federal rule requiring employers to report severe work related injuries was implemented, Labor Department staffers in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Atlanta office noticed a disturbing and surprising trend – “numerous reports of fingertip amputations among workers using food slicers”…
Federal rule to let more workers collect overtime pay gets final review Chicago Tribune …A proposal to extend overtime pay to millions more Americans took a step forward this week. The Labor Department has submitted its overtime rule to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget for a final review. Details of the final rule won’t be made public until it is published by the Labor Department, which has it on its July agenda…
CSX Lays Off 101 at Russell Facility Levisa Lazer …More than 100 employees are losing their jobs at the CSX facilities in Russell. Tuesday afternoon, CSX leaders told 101 union and management employees in the Transportation and Mechanical departments their jobs will be cut due to the declining volume through this region, according to Melanie Cost, a CSX spokesperson. This is out of the nearly 430 employees who work at the Russell location…
Trump’s Tomatoes Harper’s Magazine …The Coalition of Immokalee Workers conceived and adopted a new strategy targeting not the agribusinesses that employed and exploited farm workers, but the farmers’ corporate customers, using the leverage of consumers’ social conscience. Over successive years giant enterprises have fallen into line. Burger King, McDonald’s, Chipotle, and Walmart all eventually signed on to the Fair Food Program. Only one major fast-food enterprise has refused to join: Wendy’s…
Donald Trump’s Working-Class Appeal Is Starting To Freak Out Labor Unions Huffington Post …Trump’s pyromaniac approach to politics has earned him strong support from white, working-class voters and brought him to the cusp of winning the GOP nomination. Trump, the worry goes, is making precisely the right appeals at precisely the right time to fundamentally realign the Rust Belt working class electorate’s traditional political allegiances…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Rampant wealth inequality in Silicon Valley could make San Francisco a ghost town Quartz …Silicon Valley has played a big role in the Bay Area’s skyrocketing cost of living, while those left out of the tech boom have suffered the consequences. The problem is particularly pronounced for low-earning workers, including the customer service representatives, maintenance workers, drivers and other support staff who have helped make the industry’s explosive growth possible…
“Donald Trump, Go Away”: Amid Violence at Trump Rallies, New Yorkers Take to Streets Against Racism Democracy Now …As protesters in Arizona blocked a highway leading to a Donald Trump rally outside Phoenix Saturday, as many as 2,000 people rallied against Trump in New York City, condemning his racist rhetoric and violence at his rallies..
‘Enough is Enough’: Sanders Demands Treasury Block Pfizer Tax Dodging Deal Common Dreams …In a bid to prevent what has been called the biggest tax evasion scheme of its kind—and others like it—Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has urged U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to use his agency’s authority to block the planned merger of two pharmaceutical giants. Viagra-maker Pfizer’s proposal to acquire Allergan, which manufactures Botox, is “nothing less than a tax scam,” Sanders wrote in a letter sent to Lew on Friday…