Uncategorized
Today’s Teamster News For April 1, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Bauer’s Loses Permit, Teamsters Praise SFMTA’s Support for Workers Teamster.org …The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) has sided with workers and transit riders, denying a permit to Bauer’s Intelligent Transportation under the city’s commuter shuttle program. The Teamsters Union, drivers and community supporters urged the passage of the labor harmony provision…
Zynga, Cisco shuttle providers kicked off of Muni’s curbs Examiner …A private shuttle provider for multiple tech companies including Zynga and Cisco may no longer use Muni bus stops and other public curb spaces, following continued violation of city provisions. Bauer’s Intelligent Transportation, a tech shuttle provider, was denied a permit to use Muni bus stops and other public curb spaces this week following a public battle with the local Teamsters union…
Tech-Shuttle Giant Given the Boot in San Francisco Mother Jones …Citing a history of disregard for traffic laws and acrimonious labor disputes, San Francisco’s Municipal Transportation Agency has declined to grant tech shuttle operator Bauer’s IT a permit to use public bus stops under the city’s controversial Commuter Shuttle Program. “The SFMTA is enforcing what the City and County of San Francisco is famous for: Recognizing employees’ right to be represented and right to and fair wages and benefits,” said Rome Aloise, the director of Teamsters Joint Council 7…
Teamster Mechanics Protest United Airlines at Houston PGA Tour Event Teamster.org …United Airlines mechanics and technicians ramped up their strike threat at the PGA Shell Houston Open today. United is the airline sponsor of the PGA tour. The Teamster mechanics held banners that read, “United Airlines Execs: Don’t Loot Mechanics’ Healthcare & Profit-Sharing” and “No Contract – No Flights”…
Teamsters Praise New York State Budget JC 16 …Teamsters Joint Council 16 President George Miranda had the following statement on the final New York State budget announced Thursday. Teamsters Joint Council 16 represents 120,000 workers in Downstate New York: “It’s often said that a society can be judged by how it treats the least fortunate and those who have fallen behind. Governor Cuomo is leading the way”…
Amazon Warehouse Workers Sue Go By Truck …Region 21 of the National Labor Relations Board has found sufficient evidence of law-breaking to issue a complaint against the company, California Cartage. “The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, working in partnership with the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, fully supports these workers’ fight for justice,” said Fred Potter, vice president, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and director of the Teamsters Port Division…
Services set for rail worker killed on the job Workday Minnesota …Services will be held Monday in West Allis, Wis., for a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen killed in a St. Paul rail yard. BLET member Jeffrey A. Harsh, a member of BLET Division 882 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, died on March 26 at age 43. Employed by the Canadian Pacific Railway, Harsh normally worked as an engineer out of Milwaukee, but had been cut back and was receiving familiarization training in a new area, his union said…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Amazon workers in Germany stage another walkout in ongoing pay row Europe Online …One of Germany‘s largest trade unions called on Tuesday for renewed strikes by employees of US online retailer Amazon, with workers walking out of a warehouse in the southern town of Graben. There were also reports of further strike action at a depot in Leipzig in eastern Germany. Thomas Schneider, who is leading the strikes staged by the union Verdi, said that around 400 employees will be taking part in the latest bout of industrial action…
Afro-Colombian Domestic Workers Empowered Solidarity Center …Afro-Colombian domestic workers, historically among the most marginalized workers in the country, are increasingly joining together to improve their working conditions and educate lawmakers and the public about their rights as workers. In Colombia, where some 750,000 of the roughly 1 million domestic workers are women, Afro-Colombian domestic workers especially have suffered discrimination…
Thousands Take to Streets in France to Protest Labor Reform ABC …Tens of thousands of workers and youths took to the streets of France to protest, sometimes violently, a government reform meant to make it easier to hire and fire employees and to relax the country’s strict 35-hour workweek. As train drivers, teachers and others went on strike, student organizations and seven employee unions combined to condemn the Socialist government’s bill…
TPP ‘worst trade deal ever,’ says Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz CBC …Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says the Trans-Pacific Partnership may well be the worst trade agreement ever negotiated, and he recommends Canada insist on reworking it. “I think what Canada should do is use its influence to begin a renegotiation of TPP to make it an agreement that advances the interests of Canadian citizens and not just the large corporations,” he said in an interview with CBC’s The Exchange…
US-EU Transatlantic Trade Deal to Negatively Impact Turkey’s Trade Balance Sputnik News …The US-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) free trade deal will harm Turkey’s economic interests, which is why Ankara wants a seat at the negotiating table, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday. Turkey is in a customs union with the EU, hence must abide by all EU trade agreements, he explained…
Canada joins global anti-austerity club CTV …Canada has become a vocal member of the international anti-austerity clique, as the new Liberal government promotes the purse strings-loosening principles of its new federal budget to foreign audiences. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is signalling this week that he’ll deliver a different fiscal message abroad from his predecessor…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Legislature approves minimum wage increase, sending historic measure to Gov. Jerry Brown LATimes …I a move that puts California at the forefront of efforts to raise wages for low-income workers across the country, the Legislature approved a sweeping plan Thursday to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next six years, boosting the future paychecks of millions of the state’s workers. The Senate voted 26 to 12…
NY Senate OKs Bill To Boost State Minimum Wage To $15 CBS New York …The New York Senate on Friday overwhelmingly passed a budget that includes a measure to gradually raise the state’s minimum wage to $15. The Republican-controlled chamber voted 61-1 for the final bill after working through the night to pass other parts of the $156 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that began Friday…
Largest Pay Raise for American Workers in History? NY & CA Approve $15 Minimum Wage Hike Democracy Now …Advocates are calling it one of the largest pay raises for American workers in the history of the country. About 5 million workers will see their wages increase substantially after a historic victory for the “Fight for 15” campaign. Both the state of California and New York City are poised to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour in the coming years…
Paid family leave for NY workers in state budget deal, Cuomo says Syracuse.com …Millions of New York workers will be able to take up to 12 weeks of employee-funded paid family leave to care for a new baby or sick relative under a state budget deal reached Thursday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced. No other state offers workers paid family leave for that long, the governor said…
The Failure of Wisconsin’s Voter ID Law Pacific Standard …The law mandates that the state run a public-service campaign “in conjunction with the first regularly scheduled primary and election” to educate voters on what forms of ID are acceptable. But Wisconsin has failed to appropriate funds for the public education campaign. The result is that thousands of citizens may be turned away from the polls simply because they did not understand what form of identification they needed to vote…
The Sneaky Way Arkansas Will Start Drug Testing Poor People Think Progress …he original legislation “was pitched as a limited pilot project,” Leding said. Originally, it would just have created a two-year program in counties bordering states that already drug test welfare recipients. But out of concern that objections might be raised about a targeted program, some lawmakers inserted a line saying, “The pilot program shall include the population statewide”…
U.S. LABOR
Chicago Airport Workers Join 9-City Strike Demanding Higher Wages and a Union In These Times …Nearly 100 O’Hare Airport workers, including baggage handlers, security officers, custodians and cabin cleaners, walked off the job late Wednesday night and Thursday morning, demanding higher wages, the right to unionize and better security training. The 24-hour strike is part of a nationwide campaign which included workers at eight other airports around the country going on strike…
Chicago teachers hit picket lines at schools Chicago Tribune ..Chicago teachers hit the picket lines early Friday at schools across the city as part of a “Day of Action” to shine the light on stalled contract negotiations between the union and CPS as well as the budget stalemate in Springfield that could further cripple the already cash-strapped school system. Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey said: “It’s a shame that we’ve had to strike to make our voices heard”…
SEIU janitors’ San Jose rally targets Adobe Business Journal …Hundreds of Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West members congregated on Cesar Chavez Day to draw attention to ongoing contract negotiations with cleaning service contractors and protest abuse of workers in the janitorial industry…
Will a new generation of activists finish what Cesar Chavez started? Fusion …All over the country this week Americans are honoring Cesar Chavez, the civil rights icon who co-founded the United Farm Workers (UFW) of America. Regrettably, not everyone celebrating Chavez on his commemorative holiday may be aware that the workers whose rights he and others fought so hard to protect are arguably more vulnerable now than they were at the labor union’s height…
Top Female Players Accuse U.S. Soccer of Wage Discrimination NY Times …Five players on the women’s team filed a federal complaint Wednesday, accusing U.S. Soccer of wage discrimination because, they said, they earned as little as 40 percent of what players on the United States men’s national team earned even as they marched to the team’s third World Cup championship last year…
Boeing plans to cut up to 8,000 airplane jobs: sources Reuters …Boeing Co plans to cut up to 8,000 jobs this year at its commercial airplane division, according to two people familiar with the matter, a move that could slash $1 billion in costs and help it battle for sales against European rival Airbus. Boeing on Wednesday acknowledged plans to cut about 4,000 jobs in its commercial airplanes division by mid-year, and another 550 jobs in a unit that conducts flight and lab testing…
Economy Added 215,000 Jobs In March, Unemployment Rate Rises To 5 Percent Think Progress …The economy added 215,000 jobs in March and the unemployment rate ticked slightly up from 4.9 percent to 5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday morning. The topline number came in just above economist expectations of 207,000 jobs added for the month. February and January figures were revised as well, with 1,000 fewer jobs created in total over those two months than initially reported…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Get to Work or Go to Jail UCLA …When many people consider work and the criminal justice system, they commonly consider how difficult it is for people coming out of jail to find work. Yet, a recent UCLA Labor Center report, Get to Work or Go To Jail: Workplace Rights Under Threat, goes further by exploring the ways in which the criminal justice system can also lock workers on probation, parole, facing court-ordered debt, or child support debt into bad jobs…
Study: Antarctic Ice Sheets May Melt Even Faster than Previously Predicted Common Dreams …Antarctic ice has the potential to melt faster than predicted, and could contribute to sea level rise of up to six feet by 2100, according to a new report published Wednesday. The research, published (pdf) in the journal Nature, finds that in a worst-case scenario of unabated carbon emissions, melting ice sheets in Antarctica could raise sea levels by 39 inches by 2100…
The Price of Fighting Back: How Woman Faces 60 Years in Prison for the Death of Her Abusive Ex Democracy Now …Jurors in Connecticut are deliberating the fate of Cherelle Baldwin, a 24-year-old mother accused of killing her alleged abuser. Baldwin has already spent nearly three years in jail. If convicted, she could spend decades in prison…
Donald Trump’s Muslim Ban Somehow Got Worse Mother Jones …Donald Trump told a Wisconsin town hall on Wednesday that his proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States would have an exception for the billionaire’s rich friends. “I have actually—believe it or not—I have a lot of friends that are Muslim and they call me,” Trump said, when asked about his plan by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, the event’s moderator. “In most cases, they’re very rich Muslims, okay?”…