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Today’s Teamster News For April 5, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Ratify Contract with Columbia Distributing Teamster.org …Teamsters Local 174 members who work for Columbia Distributing in Kent (Wash.) have ratified a five-year collective bargaining agreement, securing key job protections and health insurance benefits. After returning to the bargaining table, the Teamsters and Columbia were able to avoid a strike and reach an agreement that guarantees labor peace for five years…
Beer distributor, Teamsters reach contract deal Seattle Times …Workers and management at Columbia Distributing in Kent agreed to a five-year contract after months of negotiations and a threat of a possible strike. The company distributes more than 1,800 beverages including top beer brands such as Coors, Miller, Mac & Jack’s, Georgetown, Deschutes, Lagunitas, and Fremont Brewing…
Labor dispute could disrupt growth at DHL hub in Northern Kentucky WCPO … The fast-growing cargo hub at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport could be in for a major disruption this summer thanks to a labor dispute that’s been simmering for months between the Teamsters union and companies that operate about 80 DHL flights a day at CVG Airport. APA Teamsters Local 1224 announced Wednesday that it will schedule a strike authorization vote…
Bauer’s blames Teamsters for shuttle permit denial SF Bay …Shuttle provider denied a permit to use city bus stops and shuttle zones in San Francisco Monday blamed a union campaign, but transit officials say the company’s record of traffic violations is equally to blame. Bauer’s Intelligent Transportation is the only company so far to be denied a permit under The City’s shuttle regulation program…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Colombia’s child welfare workers strike over starving children Colombia Reports …Approximately 7,000 “community mothers” began an indefinite strike on Monday, amid ongoing concerns over the deteriorating humanitarian situation of the poorest of Colombia’s children. The women aim to achieve wide-ranging reforms in working conditions…
Striking coal workers arrested after violent raid at Glencore’s South African mine Mining.com …A group of almost 60 striking coal miners were arrested Tuesday after a raid to demand higher wages at a South African coal mine owned by Glencore turned violent. The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union said armed security guards fired at workers to dissolve picketing lines. The union said leaders would meet mine representatives later today following today’s violent incident…
Thousands Take To Streets In France To Protest Labor Reform Popular Resistance …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, which they argue will badly erode hard-won worker protections…
Japanese lawmakers lock horns over TPP Japan Times …The ruling and opposition parties locked horns over the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement on Tuesday, kicking off Diet deliberations on ratifying the pact. It is likely to be the predominant focus of debate until June, when this ordinary Diet session ends. In a question-and-answer session, the Democratic Party and the Japanese Communist Party denounced the pact as unworthy of deliberation…
US Trade Deficit Rises in February to 6-Month High ABC …The U.S. trade deficit rose in February to the highest level in six months as the growth in imports outpaced a modest rise in exports. The trade gap widened to $47.1 billion, up 2.6 percent from a January imbalance of $45.9 billion, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Backers of $15 minimum wage eye more states USA Today …California and New York — where almost 1 in 5 Americans live — are on their way to raising their minimum wage to $15 an hour, and the activists who spearheaded those efforts are now setting their sights on other similarly liberal, Democratic-led states. Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington are among the states with active “Fight for 15″ efforts…
Supreme Court rejects challenge to ‘one person, one vote’ definition Politico …In a unanimous ruling Monday on procedures for drawing state and local legislative districts, the Supreme Court rejected a legal challenge that could have diminished the political power of Latinos and some city-dwellers. The high court held that states can rely on broad measures of population when setting district boundaries and need not to take into account how many eligible voters live in each district…
House GOP, Minnesota public unions ready to battle over contracts MPR News …Contract agreements between Minnesota and its public sector unions typically sail through the Legislature. This year, however, those deals may get caught up in a broader fight over union dues and political activities. House Republicans this spring have altered the traditional process of putting all the two-year contracts up for a single vote…
Effort to turn Colorado into right-to-work state dies Business Journal …Human-resources directors take note: Colorado is not becoming a right-to-work state this year. Democrats on the state House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee voted along party lines Monday to kill a bill that would have turned Colorado into a right-to-work state where closed union shops are banned…
How the $15 Minimum Wage Went From Laughable to Viable New York Times …All this momentum might seem startling at a time when the traditional union movement is on its heels, with the percentage of private-sector workers in unions sliding to 6.7 percent. Indiana, Michigan, West Virginia and Wisconsin have all enacted anti-union, right-to-work laws since 2011. The movement for a $15 floor has been partly fueled by the same frustration over wage stagnation and income inequality that has spurred the campaigns of Donald J. Trump and Bernie Sanders…
Minimum wage hikes actually boosted my sales: CEO CNBC …Wetzel’s Pretzels CEO Bill Phelps said Thursday minimum wage increases in California have actually helped his business. “California raised the minimum wage in 2014 from $8 to $9 [per hour]. Our same-store sales were up 8 percent in the next six months,” Phelps told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” He said same-store sales rose by more than 7 percent after California recently raised it again to $10…
U.S. LABOR
Workers: Nabisco layoffs more than campaign trail sound bites Sun Times …Six hundred workers are being cut at the Marquette Park plant by Deerfield-based Mondelez International, owner of the company that makes the iconic Oreo cookie. Smith was in the first wave of 277 layoffs. Another 91 workers at the more than 60-year-old plant received 60-day notices last week. The plant had employed 1,200…
Union members ratify new 5-year contract with Volvo at Dublin truck plant WDBJ …Union workers at the Volvo truck plant in Dublin have overwhelmingly approved a new five year contract. A document shared on the local United Auto Workers union Facebook page shows more than 80 percent of the facility’s voters ratified the deal. The previous contract ended last month…
Donald Trump’s Las Vegas Hotel Is Officially Unionized Think Progress …Overruling objections filed by Donald Trump’s corporation, the National Labor Relations Board officially certified a union for more than 500 workers at the Trump International Hotel just off the Las Vegas strip. The workers, who voted to unionize last December, are now demanding the hotel’s management sit down with them to negotiate…
Highlights of Luntz Poll of American CEOs Shows Broad Support for Progressive Policies PR Watch …When considering American CEOs as a category, “empathetic” is not the first word that comes to mind. Yet, the fact that these top executives have empathy for their workers is a major take away from a closed-door webinar about a new poll taken by LuntzGlobal, the polling firm of prominent GOP pollster Frank Luntz. The polled executives want to raise the wage, expand paid sick and maternity leave, and support predictive scheduling…
Leaked Video Shows Majority of Chamber Members Support Predictable Schedules JwJ.org …The video includes results of an internal poll that found 78 percent of current or prospective Chamber members support measures that would require employers to provide advance notice of schedules and end abusive “on-call” shifts that leave without a guarantee of work or pay for their time…
Chicago Teachers Joined with Fight for 15 and Black Lives Matter in One-Day Strike American Prospect …After four years of continued budget cuts, school closings, and a new Republican governor, Chicago’s teachers were back on the streets again Friday. Their strike only lasted one day, but the action’s brevity was more than compensated for by the large and diverse coalition of workers and activists who joined them, turning the strike into a broader effort to protect worker rights against a hostile state government…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Trump’s Nefarious Plan To Stop Immigrants From Supporting Their Families Back In Mexico Think Progress …Trump laid out this idea in his most detailed immigration policy proposal to date explaining how he plans to make Mexico pay for a “beautiful” wall along the southern United States border. Getting Mexico to finance a new wall is a centerpiece of Trump’s border security platform that has already been heavily ridiculed by Mexican officials…
Business-as-Usual Emissions Could Deliver $24 Trillion Hit to Global Economy Common Dreams …Placing a dollar amount on the impact of unmitigated greenhouse gas emissions, the London School of Economics (LSE) on Monday released a new report warning that $2.5 trillion of the world’s financial assets are at risk if the Earth’s temperature increases 2.5°C by 2100…
Massive ‘Panama Papers’ Leak Begins To Unravel The Secret Networks Global Elites Use To Stash Money Think Progress …The murky world of offshore wealth and power is getting some unwelcome sunshine on Monday after newspapers around the world received 11.5 million leaked records from a Panama-based law firm that specializes in creating and connecting shell corporations in tax haven countries…