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Today’s Teamster News For April 27, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters, Food And Worker Safety Advocates Protest At Chipotle Teamster.org …A group of Taylor Farms employees and advocates from Working Partnerships USA, the Consumer Federation of California, HEAL Food Alliance and the Teamsters protested today to call on Chipotle Mexican Grill to hold its supplier Taylor Farms accountable for health and safety violations. The action took place outside a Chipotle on Fourth Street in San Francisco, Calif..
Rady Children’s Hospital Nurses And Med Techs Vote For Teamsters Teamster.org …Today, the nurses and medical technicians, who are members of the United Nurses of Children’s Hospital (UNOCH), overwhelming approved affiliating with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The final vote revealed more than 70 percent of members that voted approved of the formal affiliation…
Pilots Flying For DHL Express To Enter Federally Mediated Contract Negotiations With Atlas Air Teamster.org …The Teamsters Airline Division and APA Teamsters Local 1224, filed for mediation with the National Mediation Board (NMB) recently after Atlas Air refused to engage in any further legally-mandated negotiations. The federal government accepted the request of the union representing more than 1,300 pilots flying for DHL-contracted airlines Atlas Air, Inc. and Polar Air Cargo to mediate contract negotiations…
Teamsters File Temporary Restraining Order Against Flexjet and Flight Options Teamster.org …The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Teamsters Airline Division and Teamsters Local 1108 filed a temporary restraining order against Flexjet and Flight Options the evening of Friday, April 22 to compel the companies to accept the integrated seniority list of pilots created by pilots’ committees and to bargain with the Teamsters in good faith…
Teamsters, Carhaul Employer Group Remain Apart on Economic Issues Teamster.org …Despite lengthy and thorough negotiations, Teamsters negotiators and the carhaul employer group remain apart on the most critical economic issues to the members, including pay retroactivity and the appropriate level of wage increases necessary to retain drivers in a long-term agreement…
Teamsters, Community Groups Escalate Protests Against Abuses in Chipotle’s Supply Chain CA Labor Fed …Hundreds of Teamsters and allies from Working Partnerships USA and Jobs with Justice protested outside Chipotle Mexican Grills across the country last week to educate consumers about food safety issues with Taylor Farms, a supplier to Chipotle. Teamsters and community allies educated consumers about salad processing giant Taylor Farms, and its documented and ongoing food recalls, safety and health violations and worker abuses…
Historic NLRB Complaint Could Be First Step Toward Making Employee Misclassification a Crime We Party Patriots …The NLRB has issued a historic complaint on behalf of port truckers working as independent contractors for Intermodal Bridge Transport (IBT). The complaint, issued by Region 21 of the NLRB, claims that managers and supervisors for IBT made illegal threats against drivers they viewed as pro-union. Much of the momentum that has swung in truckers’ favor has been the result of work done by the group Justice for Port Drivers, which was organized by the Teamsters union…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Garment Workers Urge Justice for Rana Plaza Tragedy Solidarity Center …Garment workers and their allies took part in a series of actions, starting off with a wreath-laying in memory of those killed. Later, hundreds of garment workers formed a human chain at the Press Club to demand punishment for those responsible for the building’s collapse and press for social security insurance so that in the future, workers and their families can be compensated for workplace injuries and death…
German public workers stage short strikes ahead of talks Business Insider …Lufthansa has cancelled 895 flights scheduled for Wednesday from six German airports as government workers call short-term strikes in the run-up to wage discussions later this week. Public-sector workers doing ground handling and security checks were expected to walk off the job ahead of wage talks Thursday with the government. The ver.di union is looking for a 6 percent pay rise for its 2 million members…
TTIP: Chevron lobbied for controversial legal right as ‘environmental deterrent’ The Guardian …Chevron lobbied the EU to give foreign investors the legal right to challenge government decisions in a major US-EU trade deal because it would act as a deterrent against laws such as fracking bans, the Guardian can reveal. Environmentalists have long-warned that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership’s (TTIP) investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) commercial courts risk a regulatory chill…
Labour accuses Big Pharma of ‘threatening New Zealand’, as US TPP negotiators arrive Stuff.co …A war of words has erupted between Labour and Big Pharma lobby group Medicines New Zealand, as US trade negotiators arrive in Wellington to discuss the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Labour’s health spokeswoman Annette King has accused Medicines NZ of “openly threatening New Zealand”…
To Honor and Protect: Workers Memorial Day 2016 Capital & Main …April 28 will be a noteworthy day for workers in the U.S. and abroad. International Workers’ Memorial Day (WMD) was established in 1970 – the year Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) – to honor wage-earners who were injured or lost their lives due to unsafe job conditions. WMD is a time to redouble efforts to make current and future workplaces safer…
Greek bailout talks stall on impasse over austerity measures MarketWatch …Negotiations between Greece and its international creditors ran into trouble on Tuesday over demands for extra austerity measures, denting hopes for a quick end to the monthslong deadlock over the country’s bailout. The impasse is the latest in a saga of troubled talks…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Beyond Bathrooms: Gov. McCrory’s #HB2 flushed local power, workplace rights down the toilet NC AFL-CIO …Most of the attention paid to North Carolina’s controversial new law has focused on its repeal of Charlotte’s anti-discrimination ordinance, particularly its accommodations for transgender citizens, but the law significantly undermined the rights of all working people in the state…
Opponents of North Carolina’s Voter ID Law Appeal Ruling NY Times …The protracted battle over North Carolina’s voting rules moved to a federal appeals court on Tuesday, one day after a judge upheld the Republican-backed overhaul and increased the likelihood that the changes would be in effect for this year’s presidential election…
Paid family leave put on hold DL-Online …Legislation requiring most Minnesota businesses to provide paid family leave to workers is on hold until new cost estimates are available. Cost estimates are based on 45,000 Minnesotans receiving family leave payments a year and paying $110 million to them. Administration costs of the insurance-like program are estimated at less than $8 million a year…
Gov. Scott launches ad bashing California’s minimum wage ABC …The ad bashes the state’s decision to raise the minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour, and tells California business owners to consider Florida as an alternative. “Ready to leave California?” says the ad, “Go to Florida instead — no state income tax and Gov. Scott has cut regulations”…
Judge Throws Out Lawsuit Challenging Arizona’s Disastrous Primary Think Progress …Maricopa County Superior Court Judge David Gass has tossed a lawsuit from a Tucson, Arizona voter challenging the March 22 presidential primary, which was marred by confusion, 5-hour lines, and rampant errors. Judge Gass noted that while “glitches are always something that we need to wary of and we need to work hard, and we need to fix them…they don’t rise to the level of fraud”…
U.S. LABOR
Volkswagen Reverses Course on Union at Tennessee Plant NY Times …Just two years ago, Volkswagen was actively supporting the United Auto Workers in its push to organize the company’s plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. Since then, a large portion of Volkswagen’s senior management has changed — and so has its approach to the union drive…
Gov. Rauner and state workers union go to labor board over new contract Journal Star …An administrative law judge heard an attorney for the state lay out the case for why the board should declare the talks at an impasse, while an attorney for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 argued that the talks should continue…
Ford, UAW renew relationship with state job safety agency Associated Press …Ford Motor Co. and the United Auto Workers say they have renewed a relationship with a state workplace safety agency that’s helped cut on-the-job injuries and absences. The Detroit-based union and Dearborn automaker said Tuesday that the continuing partnership with the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration — known as MIOSHA — covers 14 Ford sites…
UNITE HERE seeks stay and review of Indiana Gaming Commission order allowing Pinnacle Entertainment’s sale of two casinos Business Wire …Yesterday attorneys for UNITE HERE filed a petition for review of an order of the Indiana Gaming Commission. The Commission’s February order allows the sale of two casino properties currently owned by Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc. to Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc.. UNITE HERE is seeking that the court stay the effectiveness of the order…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
In an Age of Privilege, Not Everyone Is in the Same Boat NY Times …With disparities in wealth greater than at any time since the Gilded Age, the gap is widening between the highly affluent — who find themselves behind the velvet ropes of today’s economy — and everyone else. It represents a degree of economic and social stratification unseen in America since the days of Teddy Roosevelt, J. P. Morgan and the rigidly separated classes on the Titanic a century ago…
Michigan Official Tried to Manipulate Lead Tests—Six Years Ago Common Dreams …A newly resurfaced email demonstrates that in 2008 an official from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) tried to game lead tests by suggesting that technicians collect extra water samples to make the average lead count for a community appear artificially low…