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Today’s Teamster News For May 6, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Flight Dispatchers, NetJets Reach Tentative Agreement Teamster.org …The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Teamsters Airline Division and Local 284 have reached a tentative agreement with NetJets on a five-year contract for approximately 50 flight dispatchers at NetJets. The agreement reached on May 5 is the first union agreement for the NetJets dispatchers…
St. Louis Area Law Enforcement Officers Vote To Join Teamsters Teamster.org …The City of Crestwood Police Department became the first Teamster–organized law enforcement unit in the St. Louis metropolitan area after the members of the police force voted overwhelmingly in favor of representation by Teamsters Local 610 on April 29…
First layoff notice at UC Berkeley spurs rally, criticism of chancellor Mercury News …As UC Berkeley begins to lay off employees as part of an effort to erase a $150 million budget deficit, unions are pushing back, saying campus leaders — not workers or students — should pay for budget missteps. At Thursday’s rally, organized by Teamsters Local 2010, some carried signs blasting Chancellor Nicholas Dirks. Some read: “Workers not responsible for Dirks’ incompetence”…
Pac 9, Teamsters Agree to End Dispute Over Drivers BNA …Pacific 9 Transportation Inc. and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have agreed to end their protracted labor dispute and work together to assist striking drivers, they said May 5 in a joint statement. At the core of the labor dispute was the question of whether the drivers, who haul goods from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., to retailers’ warehouses and distribution centers, were independent contractors or Pac 9 employees…
18-Wheelers Swarm City Hall For Soda Tax Hearing NBC …Drivers were joined by other groups who objected to the tax, including corner store coalitions and beverage distributors, which rely on soda and other sugary drinks for revenue. Speakers at a rally included Dany Vinas, owner of CTOWN Supermarket; Anne McNally, owner of McNally Tavern; Danny Grace, business manager for the Philadelphia Teamsters…
BLET reaches tentative agreement with Indiana and Ohio Railway BLET …The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) has reached a tentative contract with the Indiana and Ohio Railway (I&O), governing rates of pay and work rules for approximately 50 engineers, conductors, and trainees. Ballots and instructions, along with a synopsis of the agreement, have been mailed to active members working for the I&O…
Why Los Angeles County Should Pass a Pharmaceutical and Syringe Take-Back Ordinance (opinion) LA Progressive …Los Angeles County, California, and the Nation are in the midst of an escalating health and safety-environmental crisis brought on by an increase of unwanted pharmaceuticals and sharps in medicine cabinets, garbage, and municipal waste streams. LAANE and Teamsters Local 396 have dedicated our efforts to protecting our environment by reforming our current waste and recycling system…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Greek Workers Start 3-Day Nationwide Strike Against Austerity TeleSUR …Greeks started a three-day nationwide strike Friday in anger at tax and pension reforms pursued by the indebted nation to qualify for more of a multi-billion euro bailout it signed up to last year. Called by the largest private and public sector unions, the strike left ships docked at port, disrupted public transport and kept civil servants and journalists off the job…
Clinton does not back Obama trade vote in post-election congressional session Washington Post …Hillary Clinton has signaled that if she is elected president in November she would oppose a vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade accord during a lame-duck session of Congress, sharpening her differences with President Obama as he is ramping up his sales pitch on behalf of the deal. Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner, responded in writing to a question on the lame-duck session…
Automakers group presses for currency provisions in trade deals The Hill …Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council, made the argument that Treasury’s recent report to Congress, which put five countries on a currency watch list, adds to the wealth of evidence that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), along with other trade deals, must include enforceable rules that crack down on exchange rate manipulation…
U.S.-Korea trade deal resulted in growing trade deficits and more than 95,000 lost U.S. jobs EPI …In the first four years after KORUS took effect, there was absolutely no growth in total U.S. exports to Korea, as shown in the figure below. Imports from Korea increased $15.2 billion, an increase of 26.8 percent. As a result, the U.S. trade deficit with Korea increased $15.1 billion between 2011 and 2015, an increase of 114.6 percent, more than doubling in just four years…
70% of Germans oppose TTIP, survey says RT …Seventy percent of Germans oppose the TTIP trade treaty, according to a new poll. The news comes after France said it is against signing the deal amid a scandal over leaked documents revealing negotiations between US and European officials. The survey, conducted by German broadcaster ARD, found that 70 percent of participants believe the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has more disadvantages than advantages…
Palestinian Union Federation Expands Role of Women Solidarity Center …More than 300 the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) members took part in the PGFTU Congress in Nablus late last month, where delegates voted to boost representation of women and reinforced the federation’s commitment to worker rights. They were joined by representatives from 16 international organizations…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Lawmakers In Missouri Just Passed A Voter ID Bill That Could Disenfranchise 220,000 People Think Progress …Republicans in Missouri have been trying to pass a voter ID bill for more than a decade, and they may soon claim victory. This week, a supermajority of lawmakers sent a bill to the desk of Gov. Jay Nixon (D). Even if the governor vetoes, as he did to a similar one in 2011, lawmakers may have the votes to override it…
One in six cleaners, childcare helpers in California paid below minimum wage The Guardian …In the first study of its kind on an industry that typically avoids scrutiny, researchers with the University of California Los Angeles Labor Center found that out of two million domestic employers in the state – those who hire people for house cleaning, home care support and childcare – roughly 17% violate the minimum wage law…
U.S. States Stay in Austerity Age as Debt Barely Budges in 2015 Bloomberg …The debt of U.S. states last year remained below its all-time high from 2013, showing officials were hesitant to borrow even with interest rates near record lows and the recession six years in the past. States’ net tax-supported debt edged up 0.6 percent in 2015 to $512.5 billion, according to a Moody’s Investors Service report released Friday…
A report that analyzed every minimum-wage hike since 1938 should put a bunch of nonsense ideas to rest Business Insider …From the fear-mongering headlines marking passage of $15 statutes in New York and California, you would think nobody ever dared raise the minimum wage before. We have been raising the minimum wage for 78 years, and as a new study clearly reveals, 78 years of minimum-wage hikes have produced zero evidence of the “job-killing” consequences these headline writers want us to fear…
Scott Walker Really Wants To Drug Test Unemployed People Think Progress …Under current law, states aren’t allowed to institute drug tests for unemployment benefits. But that hasn’t kept Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) from trying. In July, Walker approved legislation that would implement drug tests for both unemployment benefits and food stamps, neither of which are currently permissible…
U.S. LABOR
Verizon Strike Surges as Workers Demand Right to ‘Make a Decent Living’ Common Dreams …Hundreds of protests took place around the country on Thursday as the Verizon strike entered its fourth week, with workers in Albuquerque, New Mexico converging outside the annual shareholder meeting to fight for reforms of the company’s labor policies. Striking employees say the company and CEO Lowell McAdams are refusing to pay them livable wages and have made no effort to stop offshoring and outsourcing jobs…
Thousands lose health benefits as Verizon strike continues RT …Verizon workers took to the streets of DC and New York again to protest plans to outsource and offshore their jobs, as their strike enters its fourth week. Verizon has stopped providing healthcare benefits to nearly 40,000 striking workers and their families. The strike began on April 13…
Workers return to work at Sioux City plant after agreeing to new contract Sioux City Journal …After months on strike, unionized workers at a Sioux City box factory have returned to work after an agreement was made with the company. WestRock manufactures corrugated boxes for local industries such as Tyson Foods, Curly’s Foods and BPI Inc. Doug Day, a representative of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 1426, said the company made an offer and the workers voted to accept it…
Why the Gig Economy May Not Put a Dent in Income Inequality Wall Street Journal …The gig economy is paying off for workers who are already among America’s highest earners. More people who were among the top 20% of income earners made money from digital platforms such as Uber and Airbnb than lower-income workers, according to new data from the JPMorgan Chase Institute…
College degrees are not the solution to stagnating wages or inequality EPI …Will increasing college completion help end wage stagnation? For current college graduates, the increased supply would only add to downward wage pressures, while lessening the supply of workers without a college degree can modestly lift that group’s wages. But rather than focusing solely on increasing the number of people pursuing college degrees, we need to make sure both high school and college graduates have jobs that provide robust wage growth…
US economy adds just 160,000 jobs in April – further sign of a slowdown The Guardian …The US economy showed further signs of a slowdown on Friday as the US Department of Labor announced just 160,000 new jobs had been created in April, 40,000 fewer than had been expected. The US unemployment rate remained steady at 5%…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Consumer Protection Agency Moves To Ban Fine Print That Cuts Americans Off From Their Courts Think Progress …Banks, credit card companies, and other financial institutions will no longer be able to deprive customers of their rights in court under proposed rules issued Thursday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The proposed regulations will ban “forced arbitration” clauses in all contracts that involve consumer credit transactions…
NC Faces Costs of Codifying Hate as DOJ Issues Warning Over Anti-LGBTQ Law Common Dreams …In a letter to Governor Pat McCrory, DOJ civil rights chief Vanita Gupta said that the state’s recently passed legislation requiring transgender people to use bathrooms and locker rooms in government buildings that correspond to their biological sex—rather than their gender identity—violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination against employees on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, and religion…