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Today’s Teamster News For April 25, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Uber Drivers in California Seek to Form Association with Teamsters Teamster.org …After receiving overwhelming outreach from Uber drivers, representatives of Teamsters Joint Council 7 have announced plans to form an association for workers in California’s rideshare industry. The drivers approached the Teamsters seeking benefits, a dispute resolution procedure, legal and tax services, advocacy assistance, and a stronger voice on the job…
Teamsters plan association for Uber drivers USA Today …A day after Uber announced a $100 million settlement with some drivers in California and Massachusetts, the Teamsters announced plans to form an association for workers in California’s ride-hailing industry. The Teamsters said drivers had approached the transportation union seeking help with benefits, a dispute resolution procedure, legal and tax services, advocacy assistance, and a stronger voice on the job…
With Majority of Non-Economics Settled, Union Pushes to Begin Economic Bargaining With Pepsi Local 727 …With the vast majority of non-economic issues settled, the Teamsters Local 727 Bargaining Committee asked Pepsi management to begin bargaining over economics Friday afternoon, but the company refused. “The clock is ticking, and we still have huge issues to tackle,” said John T. Coli, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 727. “It’s time for management to get moving”…
Brooklyn Waste Workers Demand First Contract Labor Press …Workers at Allstate Power Vac in Brooklyn descend into the sewers to clean electrical equipment—and they’re calling their employer a rat for not giving them their first union contract. The about 75 employees voted last November to join Teamsters Local 813, but Allstate has been “stalling, not committing to anything,” says operator-driver Reginald Riddick…
Osco Management Ignores Information Requests, Past Practices During Bargaining Local 727 …When Teamsters Local 710 began negotiations for two new contracts earlier this year for 900 Jewel-Osco warehouse workers and drivers, the grocery and pharmacy company let the workers know just how much they meant to management. “In recent years, Jewel-Osco has seen a real turnaround, with higher profits and greater market density. They’re growing,” said John T. Coli, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 727…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Severe disruption expected as French rail workers strike France 24 …Train passengers in France have been warned they could face severe disruption to their journeys on Tuesday as rail workers carry out an all-day strike over pay and working conditions. The strike is expected to have a particularly severe impact because it is being backed by all four unions: the UNSA, CGT, SUD and CFDT…
Steelworkers: Trade pact would destroy middle class Post-Gazette …Opponents of a sweeping trade treaty between the United States and 11 other countries say the proposal is worse than the North American Free Trade Agreement, a 1994 pact they blame for the loss of millions of U.S. jobs. “This is literally going to destroy the middle class,” United Steelworkers union district supervisor Bobby “Mac” McAuliffe told about 40 steelworkers attending a meeting Friday morning at USW Local 2227 headquarters in West Mifflin…
Obama pushes controversial trade deal in Germany USA Today … President Obama on Sunday defended a controversial trade deal between the United States and the European Union that he wants to finalize before leaving office in January.Obama said it was necessary to complete the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement because 95% of markets are outside U.S. borders…
German trade deal foes protest on eve of Obama visit The Local …Tens of thousands of opponents of a proposed transatlantic trade deal poured onto German streets Saturday on the eve of a visit by US President Barack Obama. A loose coalition of trade unions, environmentalists and consumer protection groups in the northern city of Hanover said they drew a crowd of 90,000 to a march and rally outside the city’s opera house…
Calling Corporate-Backed Deals an “Indisputable” Good, Obama Makes Pitch for TTIP Common Dreams …Despite the tens of thousands of people who marched against the deal in Germany ahead of his arrival and the steady drop in support for such neoliberal trade deals overall, President Barack Obama stood next to Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday and defended the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and said similar past deals have been an “indisputable” benefit to the U.S. economy…
Shoemaker New Balance Challenges Obama On Trans-Pacific Partnership NPR …Shoemaker New Balance is criticizing the Obama administration over the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The company is trying to make a running shoe with 100 percent American parts and feel the trade deal will doom shoes made in the U.S. President Obama’s big free-trade deal hasn’t seen much progress over the last few months…
Austerity asks the impossible of EU workers, says President Independent …President Michael D Higgins has criticised the austerity programmes placed on EU states as “asking the impossible” of ordinary working Europeans. Speaking to the Irish Independent after addressing the Irish League of Credit Unions annual conference in Limerick at the weekend, Mr Higgins also said banks could learn from the credit union ethos of “providing credit with dignity to the most vulnerable”…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Wisconsin judge to hold hearing on right-to-work stay Fox 6 …A Dane County judge is set to hold a hearing on whether to stay his ruling striking down Wisconsin’s right-to-work law. Judge William Foust found the law unconstitutional earlier this month, ruling it amounts to an illegal taking on union services without compensation. The state Justice Department has filed a motion asking Foust to stay the ruling and leave the law in effect while the agency appeals…
W.Va. GOP candidates for 38th, 40th disagree on prevailing wage, right-to-work WV Gazette …Two of the three candidates interviewed by Gazette-Mail editors said they opposed legislation passed last session to make West Virginia a right-to-work state and to repeal prevailing wage rates for large state-funded construction projects. Ronald Shamblin, a union crane operator from Clendenin running in the 40th, said he sees right-to-work as an attack on labor unions…
Raising state’s minimum wage may be Arizona’s best option, Ducey says Tucson.com …He doesn’t believe government should be in the business of telling companies how much they have to pay their workers. But Gov. Doug Ducey finds himself in the position where he is leaning toward supporting a ballot measure that would boost the state minimum wage even higher than it is now…
Rhode Island Voters ‘Caught Off Guard’ By Poll Closures And Voter ID Law Think Progress …Sixty-six percent of Rhode Island’s normal polling places will be closed on the state’s fast-approaching presidential primary, leaving at least one advocate worried that voters will experience confusion and frustration while trying to cast ballots. John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, told ThinkProgress that voters have been “caught off guard” by the fact that only 144 of the state’s 419 polling places will be open on Tuesday…
‘Historic Day for Democracy’: Voting Rights Restored for over 200,000 Virginians Common Dreams …Civil rights organizations are applauding Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s order on Friday restoring voting rights to roughly 200,000 Virginians by eliminating what they call a “vestige of our nation’s Jim Crow past.” The governor’s Restoration of Rights order allows convicted felons who’ve served their time and finished any required supervised release, parole or probation, to be able to vote, as well as be able to run for office, serve on a jury, or be a notary public…
U.S. LABOR
Hundreds of striking Verizon workers rally outside Providence call center Providence Journal …Hundreds of striking Verizon workers loudly rallied downtown on Greene Street early Friday evening. Wearing red shirts, the picketers from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, filled the street outside of a Verizon call center and cheered on speakers who vowed victory in their struggle with the nation’s largest wireless carrier. The union members are among 39,000 workers who launched a strike against Verizon on April 13…
Volkswagen Appealing Ruling Allowing UAW Vote in Tennessee ABC …Volkswagen is appealing a ruling that allowed a union vote ultimately won by the United Auto Workers at the German automaker’s lone U.S. assembly plant in Tennessee. The National Labor Relations Board earlier this month declined to take up Volkswagen’s challenge of allowing the union election among a group of about 160 workers specializing in the repair and maintenance of machinery and robots…
Rauner, state workers union square off over new contract at hearing Chicago Tribune …Rauner administration officials and lawyers for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 will meet in a courtroom this morning to begin what could be a weekslong hearing over whether to end negotiations for a new contract for state workers…
Stop & Shop workers get raises Journal Inquirer …Stop & Shop’s union workers have approved a three-year contract that gives full-time workers raises of $1.62 an hour and provides for 480 new full-time positions by 2019. It took a record six weeks beyond the contract’s Feb. 27 expiration to negotiate a new pact, but United Food and Commercial Workers union leaders say the agreement was worth the effort…
USC violated labor rules by interfering with union vote, federal report says LA Times …USC officials violated federal labor rules by interfering with a high-profile vote to decide whether hundreds of its faculty members should form a union, according to a stinging report from the National Labor Relations Board that calls for a new election. The report says USC undermined the possibility of a free and fair election by giving raises to some non-tenure-track faculty at the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences just before the vote in January…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
‘We’re At War’ Says Organizer Behind Education Protests Sweeping The Country Think Progress …The coalition’s campaign began with a “day of action” where cities across the U.S. protested cuts to public education, the closure of schools in low-income neighborhoods that are predominantly black and Hispanic, the expansion of charter schools, and the proliferation of standardized testing…
Elizabeth Warren’s Big Win: The New, Much-Needed Rule that Could Rein in Wall Street Alternet …As Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren explained, a glaring conflict of interest has been resolved in the favor of people saving for retirement. No longer can investment advisers recommend funds to their clients that reward them or their firms; instead, they must, without exception, direct customers into the best financial products, with lower or, sometimes, zero fees…
Cleveland agrees to pay Tamir Rice family $6m over police shooting The Guardian …The city of Cleveland, Ohio, has agreed to pay $6m to the family of Tamir Rice to settle a lawsuit over the 12-year-old’s fatal shooting by a police officer. The payment will avert a federal civil rights case brought against city authorities by Tamir’s relatives over the death of “a young boy with his entire life ahead of him, full of potential and promise”, their attorneys said on Monday…