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Today’s Teamster News For April 11, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Meet With European Unions About Airgas and Air Liquide Teamster.org … International Brotherhood of Teamsters Director of Global Strategies Tim Beaty met this week with officials from CFDT and CGT, two of the major unions representing workers at Air Liquide in France. Together they strategized about the quickly deteriorating labor relations at Airgas, Air Liquide’s recent investment in the United States gas market…
Lyft Pays Price for Success in Rejected Driver Pay Accord Bloomberg …The Teamsters applauded Chhabria’s ruling “We are hopeful that Lyft drivers will get more of the money that they deserve thanks to our objections in this case, and we proudly continue to stand with Lyft workers who have been misclassified and are seeking justice,” Rome Aloise, Teamsters International Vice President and President of Teamsters Joint Council 7, said in a statement…
The $15 Minimum Wage Wins Where Silicon Valley Fails Hard Wired …If a higher minimum wage isn’t likely to have a huge impact on Silicon Valley businesses’ bottom lines, it also isn’t likely to do much to help workers. Rome Aloise, vice-president of Teamsters Union International, says this rings true to him. Some drivers for tech shuttle buses were already making about $15 an hour and still living and sleeping in cars because they couldn’t afford Bay Area rent before the Teamsters got involved, Aloise says…
Panama Papers, Campbell Soup and the American way SacBee …”If they can go to some other place to do it cheaper, they’re going to do that,” said Rome Aloise, of Teamsters Joint Council 7, which represented the Campbell workers. In the first week of February 2013, when Faris received her last Campbell paycheck, Campbell stock sat at $37.93. It’s trading above $64 now. It is all part of the all-American story…
Teamsters approve contract with Cummins Inc Metro News …Members of Teamsters Union Local 175 who work at Cummins Incorporated in Charleston overwhelmingly ratified the company’s most recent offer of a new contract Friday. The latest offer maintains current healthcare benefits, including deductibles and a retiree health program. The vote comes just a week after the employees unanimously rejected an offer and authorized a strike…
Schnucks to bag 190 union warehouse workers in Bridgeton STL Today …One hundred and ninety union warehouse workers here found out last week that Schnuck Markets is cutting their positions as the grocery chain’s new distribution center comes online in Kinloch. Mike Goebel, secretary and treasurer of Teamsters Local 688, said chairman and chief executive Todd Schnuck informed the union about the planned changes at an April 4 meeting…
Local 237 takes the fight to stop NYCHA FlexOps to the State Supreme Court Local 237 …Local 237 won a major battle in our fight to stop the Housing Authority from unlawfully changing the work schedules of our members. On April 7th, the New York City Office of Collective Bargaining (OCB) authorized Local 237 to seek an injunction in state court to prevent the Housing Authority from implementing these schedule changes…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Port workers plan to expand strike from Fremantle to Sydney JOC.com …Longshoremen working for terminal operator Patrick at the Australian port of Fremantle have been on strike since Wednesday with another action planned for Sydney’s Autostrad Terminal April 13 to increase pressure on Patrick to reach an agreement on longshore employment terms and conditions. Patrick has a 40 percent market share of Australia’s overall container trade…
‘Up All Night’ Protests Sweep France as 100,000 Join Pro-Democracy Movement Common Dreams …Demonstrations this weekend were held in as many as 60 cities and towns across France as well as in Belgium, Germany, and Spain, according to reports, as an estimated 120,000 protested against austerity, globalization, increasing inequality, privatization, and the continent’s severe anti-migrant policies…
Defense Sec Carter calls on Congress to pass TPP this year The Hill …Defense Secretary Ash Carter said that a sweeping Asia-Pacific trade agreement is critical to the U.S. strategic rebalance into the Pacific region and urged Congress to pass the deal this year. Carter said that without the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the United States risks losing wide-ranging advantages in the region…
Pro-TPP Op-Eds Remarkably Similar to Drafts By Foreign Government Lobbyists The Intercept …Opinion columns published in California newspapers over the last year in support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership use language nearly identical to drafts written and distributed by public relations professionals who were retained by the Japanese government to build U.S. support for the controversial trade agreement…
Administration makes a TPP pharma sales pitch Politico …The Obama administration is continuing its work of trying to convince Capitol Hill of the benefits of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, sending a memo that explains every provision in the deal that will benefit the pharmaceutical industry. The White House has faced headwinds from Congress on the deal…
The TPP Attack on Buy America Citizen Trade Campaign …On Friday, April 1, 2016, the White House officially notified Congress that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would require waiving U.S. “Buy America” government purchasing preferences for goods and services from Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan and other Pacific Rim nations. If the TPP were enacted, the federal government would no longer be able to preference using taxpayer dollars to create jobs for American workers…
We Had Trade Before We Had NAFTA and Other Trade Deals (opinion) Inside Sources …Supporters of the trade deals of the last quarter century imply that the debate is between those who support opening up markets and increasing trade and those who would have the United States retreat into self-sufficiency. This may be an effective sales pitch for these deals, but it has nothing to do with reality. The United States already had plenty of trade before NAFTA, CAFTA and the other trade deals…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Judge Strikes Down Scott Walker’s ‘Right To Work’ Law Think Progress …A judge declared late Friday that Wisconsin’s controversial “right-to-work” law violated the state’s constitution. The law had become a centerpiece in the state’s contentious battles over the role of unions and the conservative war on labor unions. “Right-to-work” laws prevent unions from reaching agreements with employer that require all workers, not just union members, to pay union dues…
Maryland sick leave bill gains new momentum on final day of session Baltimore Sun …After being declared all but dead last week, a bill that would require bosses to grant sick leave to their employees picked up new momentum on the final day of the Maryland General Assembly session on Monday. Advocates with the Working Matters Coalition, which has been pushing for the sick leave bill, said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Thomas “Mac” Middleton announced the bill would be moving forward in the Senate today…
Paid family leave bill to cross final hurdle Monday KCRA …Gov. Jerry Brown will sign a bill into law Monday that will increase the ability for California parents to take more time off when they have a baby. Soon-to-be parents said they are excited about the new law. It means they are going to get a bigger pay check when they are on maternity leave. Assembly Bill 908 expands California’s paid family leave program…
State not moving on minimum wage hike CitizensVoice …New York and California have just enacted $15 an hour minimum wage laws. Pennsylvania is not ready to follow in their tracks. The debate in Harrisburg for a second year in a row is over whether the state’s current $7.25 an hour minimum wage should be increased to $10.15 an hour, as proposed by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf…
Michigan governor Rick Snyder faces recall petition amid Flint water crisis The Guardian …ollowing his pronouncement in October that Flint, Michigan’s water supply had been contaminated to an extent far worse than he initially understood, Snyder, who ascended into office in 2010 by portraying himself as a pragmatic businessman and data nerd, has been mired in a battle for political survival that he likely never would have imagined…
U.S. LABOR
Cal State system, faculty union reach tentative agreement Fresno Bee …An unprecedented five-day strike by California State University professors was postponed indefinitely on Thursday as the 23-campus system and its faculty union announced they had reached a tentative deal in a months long salary dispute. The California Faculty Association and Cal State officials said in a joint announcement Thursday that details of the agreement would not be disclosed until Friday…
Workers at 2 Brevard nursing homes plan strike Florida Today …Both facilities are part of a bigger umbrella company, Consulate Health Care, which responded on behalf of Vista Manor and The Palms. The company has more than 200 health care centers in 21 states. Nineteen of those facilities are in Florida, employing about 1,100 nursing home workers. Workers are able to join 1199 SEIU Florida union, which is backing the strike…
Despite dwindling numbers, Big Labor has a winning new strategy LA Times …With the signing into law Monday of a $15 minimum wage in both California and New York, American unions — more particularly, the Service Employees International Union — have demonstrated that they’ve found a new way to bargain on workers’ behalf. Blocked by dysfunctional labor laws from organizing workers on the job, they’ve become adept at winning victories for them through the political process…
Paying Women Equally Would Be a Boon for ‘Everyone Else,’ Too The Atlantic …A new report from the McKinsey Global Institute finds that greater gender parity in the workforce—in terms of pay, hours worked, and access to full-time jobs—would also benefit the entire country’s economy. The report makes the case for both the government and businesses to take a more proactive role in bringing about gender equality…
Farm workers march to celebrate Chavez legacy, stop Trump and push for overtime pay Facebook …Ventura County farm workers will march on Sunday, April 10 to mark Cesar Chavez’s birthday, reject Donald Trump and other anti-immigrant presidential candidates, and support state legislation ending their exclusion from overtime pay after eight hours a day. UFW members and supporters took to the streets in three marches on Sunday, April 3 in the Central, Coastal and Sonoma valleys to deliver a resounding “No!” to Trump and remind consumers that #WeFeedYou…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Black Lives Matter vs. the LAPD: Are the Police Unfairly Targeting & Surveilling the Movement? Democracy Now …Prosecutors in Los Angeles are determining whether to retry six Black Lives Matter activists whose trial recently ended in a hung jury. The six face misdemeanor charges for barricading the 101 freeway in Los Angeles in November 2014. That action was in response to the non-indictment of former Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson in the killing of Michael Brown three months earlier…
Climate Change Is Making Droughts Drier And Deluges Wetter — And Worse Is To Come Think Progress …A deeply flawed new study tries to challenge the basic scientific understanding that “wet areas are likely to get wetter and dry areas drier in a warmer world.” This Nature article has been justifiably criticized for both its methodology and for ignoring a vast literature that contradicts it. “It is sad for the science,” when “papers like this gets published and get attention,” according to Kevin Trenberth, a leading expert on how climate change impacts the hydrological cycle…
Disproportionate Suspensions of Black Students Reveal Racism in School Discipline Truthout …The nearly 50 million students in the US public school system are not all at equal risk of facing harsh disciplinary measures: Black students are more than three times more likely than white students to be suspended or expelled from school, according to our original analysis of data compiled by the US Department of Education…