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Today’s Teamster News For May 9, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Applaud Treasury Decision to Deny CSPF Cuts, Protect Retiree Pensions Teamster.org …The Department of Treasury announced its decision to deny the Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund (CSPF) application to cut the pensions of thousands of Teamsters Union retirees. The union applauds this decision, and will continue to work with members of Congress to find a solution to the pension crisis…
Treasury Department Rejects Plan to Cut Pension Benefits for Teamsters NY Times …The Treasury Department on Friday rejected a plan to cut benefits for 270,000 union drivers and retirees who belong to a deeply troubled Teamster pension fund, a decision that could thwart the intentions of other large, financially struggling pension funds. The move, welcomed by workers and retirees, reopened the vexing question of how to save the huge Central States pension fund…
U.S. Foods workers in Severn on strike because facility shutting down ABC …U.S. Foods workers in Severn, who deliver to most of Maryland, have been on strike since last week. Truck drivers and the warehouse employees for US Foods at this location were told their facility is shutting down in June. o they’re trying to take these Maryland jobs, move them to Virginia, a non-union facility and then shuffle the trucks back up here to Baltimore,” said Jim Deene, a Local 355 Teamster representative for the truck driver…
Teamster Kalitta Air Pilots Vote “No Confidence” in Management Teamster.org …Pilots employed by the Ypsilanti, Mich. based cargo airline, Kalitta Air, LLC, have overwhelmingly passed a resolution of no confidence in the management of Kalitta Air. Kalitta Air operates a fleet of Boeing 747 aircraft in support of the global network of DHL Express…
California offers amnesty for drayage companies that reclassify drivers JOC …The California labor commissioner’s office has launched a program offering amnesty to trucking companies that voluntarily grant employee status to port drayage drivers who have been misclassified as independent contractors. Drivers’ efforts have been backed by the Teamsters union…
Osco Accepts Union’s Contract Extension Offer; Mediation Set to Begin May 18 Local 727 …Osco management has accepted the Teamsters Local 727 Bargaining Committee’s offer to extend the contract covering about 500 Chicago-area Osco pharmacists until 11:59 p.m. on Friday, May 20. The union’s contract extension offer, which includes full retroactivity, was contingent on the company agreeing to meet with the Local 727 Bargaining Committee and a federal mediator on Wednesday, May 18, and Friday, May 20…
Local 710 Settles All Outstanding Grievances at UPS Freight South Holland Local 710 …As of Monday, April 25, Teamsters Local 710 has made UPS Freight South Holland current on all grievances with no outstanding grievances at that barn. Local 710 business agents worked diligently to go through the backlog of 70 outstanding grievances at the South Holland barn alone, plus any additional grievances filed each month…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Greek MPs approve toughest austerity measures yet amid rioting The Guardian …Amid violence on the streets and a three-day general strike that had brought much of the country to a halt, the embattled government pushed the legislation through parliament with the backing of its 153 MPS. Addressing the 300-seat House, prime minister Alexis Tsipras said: “We are determined to make Greece stand on its two feet at any cost”…
Tens of Thousands Protest TTIP in Rome TeleSUR …Tens of thousands of protesters took to the Roman streets Saturday to protest against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Holding signs that said “Stop TTIP” and “Not capital, but people,”it seems many Italians have decided that the trade agreement is not for them. Critics say that the document will erode protections in food law, environmental regulation, banking regulation, and other areas…
TTIP trade deal under threat after Germany claims US not making ‘any serious concessions’ Independent …The controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has been thrown into further doubt after a senior German minister claimed the United States was not willing to make “any serious concessions”. Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt is the latest senior European politician to criticise the American approach to the negotiations, which Barack Obama had hoped would be completed this year…
Will TPP Help to Curb China’s Rise? Medium …With few people buying the argument that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a sweeping trade and investment agreement between the United States and 11 Pacific Rim countries, will bring more jobs and higher wages, proponents of TPP now argue that it is a critical front in the geopolitical conflict between the United States and China…
Will the Trans-Pacific Partnership Turn Silicon Valley Into Detroit? (opinion) Truthout …The proponents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) like to describe it as a free-trade deal for the 21st century. That might be a good sales pitch, but it’s not accurate. The TPP has little to with reducing trade barriers, which in most cases were already low. The TPP can more accurately be described as a piñata that is chock full of special deals for the corporate interests…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Labor plans to challenge ‘Right to Work’ law Metro News …The West Virginia AFL-CIO and other union groups have notified the state they plan to file a lawsuit in 30 days over the state law that makes West Virginia a “Right to Work” state. “While we believe we have strong grounds for a constitutional challenge of the law, based in part on the recent circuit court decision on the Right to Work law in Wisconsin, we also have found several significant flaws in West Virginia’s Senate Bill 1″…
New Jersey Senate set to vote on paid sick leave legislation The Eagle …New Jersey employers would be required to offer paid sick time under a measure being considered in the Legislature. The Democrat-led Senate is set to vote Monday on a bill requiring employers to offer workers one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Lawmakers say the legislation will help low-earning workers who can’t take a sick day without losing pay…
Voter ID requirement gets final go-ahead in the Missouri Legislature STL Today …A measure laying out photo ID requirements at the ballot box won final passage in the Missouri Legislature on Wednesday. The bill still needs either Gov. Jay Nixon’s signature or, if he vetoes the bill, a successful veto override in the Legislature. It would take effect only if voters approve to a change to the state constitution…
Pittsburgh summit bringing business, legislators together Post-Gazette …ALEC bills itself as a forum where “job creators and state legislators alike … offer important policy perspectives.” Participants help shape model legislation for state governments on issues including reforming public pensions, scrapping union-backed “prevailing wage” laws and barring local ordinances that require restaurants to post nutrition information…
Costco raising starting wage for entry-level workers Seattle Times …Costco is raising the starting wage of its entry-level workers — the first time it’s done so in nine years. The $1.50 wage increase is starting this month, the company said during a conference call Thursday to discuss second-quarter financial results that fell below Wall Street expectations. Since 2007, the company’s entry-level wage in the U.S. and Canada has been $11.50 to $12 an hour…
Trump calls for end to federal minimum wage as views shift The Guardian …Donald Trump has called for the elimination of the federal minimum wage, as he retreated from primary promises and once again refused to release his tax returns because of “a link” to an audit. The presumptive Republican nominee for president repeatedly said he would support a higher minimum wage, a reversal from his position when he had conservative opponents. But he insisted on Sunday that states should decide such wages…
U.S. LABOR
Verizon Strike: Single Mother Tells CEO Why She’s Striking Patch …Departing from the increasingly vitriolic dialogue of the Verizon worker strike of 2016, a local parent and union member issued a heartfelt message to Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam for Mother’s Day. In commemoration of Sunday’s holiday, Amanda Poe, a maintenance administrator in Wilmington, Delaware, explained why she was striking alongside almost 40,000 other Verizon employees…
2 Big Labor Unions Share Efforts to Gain Power and Scale NY Times …The leaders of two of the nation’s biggest, most powerful labor unions — the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — are completing a plan that calls for unusually close cooperation in political campaigning, organizing and bargaining in states and cities across the United States. The effort begins a process that could lead to a merger of the two organizations…
SEIU Illinois files unfair labor claim on home-care work The Southern …A spokeswoman says Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration offered the SEIU Healthcare union a chance to discuss overtime-pay limitations for home care workers, but the union declined. SEIU filed an unfair labor practices complaint Friday on behalf of 24,000 home workers who make $13 an hour caring for disabled residents at home…
Mon Power Ratifies Five-Year Contract with IBEW Local 2357 WDTV …Mon Power, a FirstEnergy Corp. utility, announced Wednesday that it has ratified a new five-year contract agreement with employees represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2357. The new agreement runs through February 2021 and includes wage increases in each year of the contract…
Driscoll’s Workers Call for Global Boycott over Alleged Abuses at World’s Biggest Berry Distributor Democracy Now …Saturday marked an international day of action to boycott Driscoll’s—the largest berry distributor in the world. About an hour north of Seattle in Burlington, Washington, berry pickers have been organizing for three years at Sakuma Brothers Farms, one of the farms where Driscoll’s buys berries…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Calling for New Global Rules, Economists Decry Financially Useless Tax Havens Common Dreams …Hundreds of top economists on Monday released a letter stating that tax havens hurt the global poor and have no economic justification, urging world leaders to abolish offshore secrecy. “The existence of tax havens does not add to overall global wealth or well-being; they serve no useful economic purpose,” the letter reads…
For-Profit Colleges Have Found a New Way to Hoodwink Their Students The Nation …College students aren’t generally known for their reticence, but some schools have found an efficient way to hush them up, by forcing them to sign along a dotted line. New research by The Century Foundation (TCF) and Public Citizen reveals that for-profit schools have used deceptive enrollment contracts to erect a legal firewall, perhaps completely unbeknownst to the student, to preempt access to justice…