TEAMSTERS

First Transit Workers Choose Teamsters Union  Teamster.org  … First Transit workers in upstate New York have voted overwhelmingly, 30-5, to join Teamsters Local 264 in Cheektowaga, N.Y., seeking a voice on the job and improved working conditions. The drivers and mechanics provide transit and paratransit services in Cuba, Wellsville, Steamburg and Irving, N.Y…

Teamsters Demand Management Accountability at Flexjet, Flight Options  Teamster.org  …The Teamsters today increased pressure on Flexjet and Flight Options management, calling on customers of the airlines to tell management to prioritize its workers. “The management situation at these luxury private jet air carriers is completely unacceptable,” said Capt. David Bourne, Director of the Teamsters Airline Division…

Union: Animals will be cared for in case of Brookfield Zoo strike  Chicago Tribune  …Brookfield Zoo workers are nearing a Monday night deadline on contract talks that have hit a snag over an elephantine rise in health care costs. Teamsters Local 727, which says it represents nearly 300 zookeepers, groundskeepers and patrol officers at Brookfield Zoo, says the Chicago Zoological Society wants the workers to shoulder all $6.5 million in health care cost increases over the next four years…

Teamsters: Union, Brookfield Zoo Management Agree To Meet Again April 21  Local 727  …The Teamsters Local 727 Bargaining Committee and Chicago Zoological Society management have agreed to meet again Thursday, April 21, in an effort to reach an agreement on a new contract for Brookfield Zoo employees. The sides agreed to extend the current contract until midnight on April 21. Teamsters Local 727 represents nearly 300 zookeepers, groundskeepers, patrol officers and other workers at Brookfield Zoo…

Teamsters, safety groups to Congress: Don’t touch hours of service  Overdrive  …In an April 18 letter, the Teamsters Union, along with the Advocates for Auto and Highway Safety, the Truck Safety Coalition, Parents Against Tired Truckers and about a dozen others, have asked Congress to not include any hours of service-related policy riders. The groups say they prefer no restart option at all over a 34-hour restart that isn’t required to have two 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. periods…

Schnucks to lay off 190 Teamsters; will replace them with anti-union logistics firm  Labor Tribune  …The company recently informed Teamsters Local 688 that it would layoff 190 of the some 300 Teamsters now working at the Bridgeton facility. The company said it will bring in a notoriously non-union international logistics firm – XPO Logistics, apparently a brokerage company that, according to its website, uses “thousands of independent fleet owners, solo drivers and teams” to carry out its delivery services…

New York’s location workers on a path to become Teamsters  Crain’s NY  …New York’s assistant location managers, location scouts and location coordinators are one step closer to becoming Teamsters by this summer. While New York-based location managers are Directors Guild of America members, their junior colleagues have never been represented by a labor union… 

Ontario Northland reaches five year deal with Teamsters  Bay Today  …Ontario Northland and Teamsters Canada Rail Conference Division 910 announced that they have reached a tentative, five-year agreement. The tentative agreement covers 54 employees working as Motor Coach Operators, Operator Labourers and Dispatchers. “We are very pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with Teamsters,” said Corina Moore, President and CEO in a news release… 

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE

Oil rises as Kuwaiti strike cuts output for third day  Reuters  …Oil prices rose on Tuesday as a strike by oil workers in Kuwait nearly halved crude production from the OPEC member, overshadowing bearish sentiment following Sunday’s failure by producers to agree to freeze output levels. Thousands of Kuwaiti oil workers downed tools for a third day on Tuesday to protest against planned public sector pay reform…

Peru: Activists Prepare Sixth March Against the TPP  TeleSUR  …With the first round of presidential elections over in Peru, activists are resuming the marches against the Trans Pacific Partnership. This would be the sixth March against the TPP in Peru this year. Previous actions took place in Lima and other major cities of the country like Cuzco, Arequipa, and Tacna. ctivists are mobilizing mainly through social media and have called for people to begin gathering in Plaza San Martin, downtown Lima…

TTIP: More than 130,000 people urge Barack Obama to kill controversial trade deal during UK visit  Independent  …Thousands of people have signed a petition to stop president Barack Obama from agreeing on a controversial trade deal between the US and the European Union. The TTIP, a free-trade agreement which members of campaign group 38 Degrees say threatens the NHS, food standards, animal welfare and “democracy”, might be signed before Mr Obama leaves the White House next January…

Clinton and Sanders Detail Their Cases Against the TPP  CitizensTrade  …Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders expanded on their opposition to the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in detailed questionnaires on trade policy published by the Pennsylvania Fair Trade Coalition (PAFTC) today. The questionnaires explore their positions on the TPP, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and other trade policy matters in much greater depth than earlier statements on the subject…

Voters Stung by Chinese Import Competition Turned to Democrats, Economists Say  Wall Street Journal  …Voters looking to blunt Chinese import competition turn to Democrats, a team of economists found, because they want politicians who vote to restrict trade. In counties most exposed to Chinese imports, the economists found, voter turnout increased, as did the votes for Democratic House members or candidates…

American Workers Crushed Under China’s Deliberate Overproduction  (opinion) Huffington Post  …China makes way, way too much steel. In 2015, it produced nearly 500 million tons more than it needed. It did that to keep its citizens employed, its mills running and its country free of civic unrest. That would be fine if China just put all of that extra steel in a warehouse somewhere. But it dumped more than 100 million tons in overseas markets in 2015…

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES

State seeks to keep right-to-work law in effect during appeal  Journal Times  …State attorneys formally asked a Madison judge on Monday to stay his ruling declaring Wisconsin’s right-to-work law unconstitutional while they appeal the decision. State Justice Department attorneys filed a motion requesting a stay with Dane County Circuit Judge William Foust as well as a notice of appeal with the 3rd District Court of Appeals… 

Ohio Official Blasts ‘Sickening’ Voting Restriction  Think Progress  …In Ohio’s March 15 presidential primary, a car crash blocked a major highway near Cincinnati, leaving thousands of people stranded in their cars as the polls were set to close. A local judge ordered the polls to remain open just one hour later than scheduled. Now, a Cincinnati Republican is pushing a bill to make sure it’s much more difficult, and expensive, to get such an emergency extension…

Idaho’s Shift In Food Stamps Timing Could Make For Empty Bellies On Independence Day  Think Progress  …A change in state policy may eventually make life a little better for Idaho’s poorest families. But first, people who are already forced to stretch a dollar farther than anyone else at the grocery store will have to find a way to get by for an extra week — and the timing could hardly be worse. The state has distributed food stamps benefits on the first of the month for the past seven years…

D.C. Minimum Wage Bill Will Include Tipped Workers  City Paper  …Mayor Muriel Bowser’s promised $15-an-hour minimum wage legislation will include tipped workers, according to a spokesperson for the mayor. Under the proposal, tipped workers would see their base minimum wage rise from $2.77 an hour to $7.50 an hour by 2022. Bowser’s office is circulating the bill to the D.C. Council today…  

Millions of New Yorkers Disenfranchised from Primaries Thanks to State’s Restrictive Voting Laws  Democracy Now  …Voters head to the polls today in New York for both the Democratic and Republican primary in one of the most closely watched races of the election. But millions of New Yorkers won’t be able to vote, thanks to the state’s restrictive voting laws. The state has no early voting, no Election Day registration, and excuse-only absentee balloting…

U.S. LABOR

‘Sea of Red’ as 40,000 Verizon Workers and Allies March Against Greed in New York  Common Dreams  …Verizon workers were joined by city leaders in New York on Monday for the sixth continuous day of their labor strike, with a march that stretched from the Verizon building on West 36th Street to 42nd Street. An estimated 40,000 workers, elected officials, and other allies marched through Manhattan in “a sea of red” as they called for Verizon executives to settle contract disputes that they say hold tens of thousands of livelihoods in the balance…

10 labor strikes bigger than Verizon’s 36,000-worker walkout  Vox  …Earlier this week, 36,000 Verizon workers went on strike. A jaunt through the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ work stoppage archive tells us this strike is the largest in the United States since 45,000 workers walked off the job in 2011. But going back even further, to the heyday of union membership, history yields hundreds of even bigger worker uprisings…

O’Hare workers fired after one-day strike  WGNTV  …A security firm fired striking O’Hare workers and SEIU says it’s a violation of labor law. Longtime security worker Sadaf Subijana  became a leader in a movement to improve working conditions for low wage staff at O’Hare airport. “I’d had enough so I decided we should form a union to tell them what we wanted,” she said…

Airbnb is forming an alliance with one of the nation’s biggest labor unions  Washington Post  …Airbnb is in negotiations to cut a deal with one of the nation’s biggest unions that would employ unionized home cleaners who are paid at least $15 per hour, according to people familiar with the discussions. The agreement between the Services Employees International Union and the home rental start-up takes place amid a national campaign being waged by unions and their allies for a $15 minimum wage…

Gerawan Farming to appeal ag board ruling in UFW case  Fresno Bee  …Gerawan Farming of Fresno has vowed to appeal a recent decision by the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board that rejected an attempt by the company’s workers to oust the United Farm Workers union. The ALRB, in a ruling late Friday, upheld an administrative law judge’s decision that a 2013 petition by a group of Gerawan workers was tainted by the company’s unlawful and objectionable conduct…

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS

Demanding an End to Citizens United, 300 ‘Democracy Awakening’ Protesters Arrested at U.S. Capitol  In These Times  …About 300 activists in organizations devoted to progressive reforms in the federal government were arrested Monday in a civil disobedience action on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. Embracing legislative issues common to labor unions, civil rights groups, environmentalists, and immigrant rights advocates, the coalition known as Democracy Initiative engineered the arrests as a way to punctuate its springtime “Democracy Awakening 2016” campaign… 

Supreme Court Divided on Immigration Bill Challenged by ‘Politics of Hate’  Common Dreams  …The U.S. Supreme Court reportedly appeared divided on a challenge to President Barack Obama’s immigration executive actions, as a 90-minute oral argument session wrapped up on Monday afternoon. The case, brought by 26 Republican-led states and spearheaded by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, concerns two deportation protections that would shield roughly 5 million undocumented parents…

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