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Today’s Teamster News For July 19, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Watch What Happens When You Try To Unionize Some Truck Drivers In The South Huffington Post …Workers in the state of Georgia are less likely to be union members than workers in almost any other state. After watching an encounter between three union organizers and a pair of cops in the state last month, it’s easy to understand why. Three Teamsters stood outside the gates of a company called XPO Logistics on June 10, passing out flyers along the side of the road…
IDOT Teamster Saves Passengers From Burning Car After Accident JC 25 …At 1:48 a.m. on Tuesday, May 31, Illinois Department of Transportation Minuteman and Teamsters Local 700 member Matt Spina was responding to a crash when a drunk driver on the Dan Ryan expressway slammed into his truck. Matt — who has been an Emergency Traffic Patrol (also known as Minutemen) for 10 years — works the nightshift and had just responded to a crash on Chicago’s South Side at 59th Street…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
UK: North Sea workers’ strike to ‘severely disrupt’ Shell operations – union EuroNews …Wood Group oil and gas maintenance workers employed at several Royal Dutch Shell platforms in the North Sea will go on strike for 24 hours on July 26, labour union Unite said on Monday. The workers, who are protesting against changes to pay and working conditions, will also undertake several three-hour stoppages over the following weeks, a union representative said…
TPP Foes Plan Campaign to Forestall Lame-Duck Vote Wall Street Journal ..Unions and their allies in Congress are getting an early start on preventing a so-called lame-duck vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, vowing to spend the Congressional recess educating constituents and union members about the trade deal they say will cost the U.S. jobs. They are worried the administration and Republican supporters of the TPP could try to use a post-election session of Congress in November or December –the lame-duck session–to get the deal approved in Congress…
Trans-Pacific Partnership: Biden all optimism, except on trade deal The Australian …US Vice-President Joe Biden has warned that the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement will struggle to pass the US congress. Mr Biden told a crowd of Australia’s business people yesterday the TPP was as much a foreign policy document as it was an economic agreement. “It’s going to be hard to pass in both our countries, maybe not as hard for you, we’re going to try do a lame duck session in the US congress,” he said…
The Pence Paradox: Why Did Trump Choose A Top TPP Cheerleader? Huffington Post …Trump has tried to contend that there’s at least one unshakable principle for which he’s fighting: since the early 1990s, he’s opposed free trade agreements on the grounds that they ship jobs overseas, violate U.S. sovereignty and betray our national interests. So why did Donald Trump just choose one of the country’s foremost free trade cheerleaders as his running mate?…
Is Donald Trump Serious About Trade, or Anything? (opinion) Truth-Out …While many working people would agree that recent trade deals have not benefitted them, they have good cause to be skeptical about Trump’s get tough promises. Most immediately his vice-presidential pick, Gov. Mike Pence, has been a strong supporter of NAFTA and other trade deals. But choosing vice presidents with differing views certainly has precedents. More importantly, it is not clear what Trump thinks he is going to do when he gets tough with the Chinese and the other bad guys in his story…
Kerry to embark on EU roadshow to promote TTIP EurActiv …US Secretary of State John Kerry said today (18 July) that concluding the TTIP agreement before the end of President Barack Obama’s term in office remains his country’s priority, and that he was going to tour EU countries to make this happen. Without mentioning France or Germany, Kerry said that he was aware of “comments from the region” that talks to conclude the TTIP should stop…
179,000 Jobs Lost as Macri’s Austerity Hits Argentines Hard TeleSUR …A total of 66,404 Argentine workers have lost jobs in the public sector, including nearly 2,000 in the Senate, in the first six months of Macri’s presidency. Mass layoffs in Argentina since conservative President Mauricio Macri took office last December eclipsed 179,000 in the public and private sector by the end of June…
Three Years After Global Garment Industry’s Worst Disaster, 38 Indicted for Murder Common Dreams …More than three years after the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory building near Dhaka killed over 1,100 people, a Bangladesh court on Monday formally charged 38 people with murder for their role in the catastrophe. It’s been described as the worst disaster in the global garment industry’s history. Thirty-five of those charged—including building owner Sohel Rana—appeared in court on Monday and pleaded not guilty, Reuters reports…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Domestic worker bill of rights awaits governor’s decision Journal Courier …Advocates for the rights of domestic workers are urging Gov. Bruce Rauner to sign legislation they’re calling “historic.” The Illinois Domestic Workers Bill of Rights would officially make domestic work a recognized vocation in the state, extending workplace protections to the service jobs of nannies, housekeepers, homecare workers, cooks and chauffeurs…
As the GOP Convention Begins, Ohio Is Purging Tens of Thousands of Democratic Voters The Nation …At least 144,000 voters in Ohio’s three largest counties, home to Cleveland, Colombus, and Cincinnati, were purged since the 2012 electiom, with voters in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods twice as likley to be removed as those in Republic-leaning ones, according to a Reuters analysis by Andy Sullivan and Grant Smith…
These Virginians Just Got Their Voting Rights Back. Republicans Are Trying To Take Them Away Again. Think Progress …Until this year, Virginia was one of just four U.S. states to permanently disenfranchise former felons. But Randolph and hundreds of thousands of other ex-offenders have been able regain their voting rights over the last few years, thanks to executive actions by Governors Bob McDonald (R) and Terry McAuliffe (D)…
PHL Airport workers to protest ahead of planned DNC strike Philly Voice …Workers for three Philadelphia International Airport subcontractors will rally Tuesday morning ahead of a planned strike during the upcoming Democratic National Convention. SEIU 32BJ, a union that represents baggage handlers, wheelchair attendants and other workers, plans to walk off the job at 11:30 a.m. to raise awareness about its campaign for a $15-an-hour minimum wage…
How Banks Stole Homes From the Most Vulnerable New Yorkers The Nation …The Great Recession has technically started to recede, but the banks that sparked it have mostly been allowed to walk. Some even prospered in the aftermath. But a jury just hit back against one predatory lender, restoring a little of the confidence in the system that Wall Street stripped away from Brooklyn during the financial crisis…
U.S. LABOR
Health care offer withdrawn as Taj Mahal strike continues Seattle Times …An Atlantic City casino owned by billionaire Carl Icahn withdrew an offer to restore health insurance for its striking workers Monday after the union refused to put the measure up for a vote 18 days into a walkout. The Trump Taj Mahal had given striking Local 54 of Unite-HERE workers until Monday to vote on its offer, but union president Bob McDevitt said that the offer was “essentially half” of what workers at other casinos received…
Why there is still hope grocery workers, stores will avoid a strike Pasadena Star News …Four and a half months after their labor contract expired, union representatives for workers at Albertsons, Vons, Pavilions, Safeway and Ralphs grocery stores say little progress has been made in forging a new agreement. If the two sides fail to ink a new contract it sets the stage for another grocery strike, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 770…
The AFL-CIO Pushes Back Against Pro-Business Democrats Trying To Change The New Overtime Threshold NH Labor News …In May, the Department of Labor announced that they would be lifting the salary threshold for overtime from just over $23,660 a year to $47,476. This week, Congressman Kurt Schrader (OR-5), Congressman Jim Cooper (TN-5), Congressman Henry Cuellar (TX-28) and Congressman Collin Peterson (MN-7) introduced legislation that will “initiate a reasonable three-year phase-in of the Department of Labor’s new overtime rule”…
Labor Board Ruling Could Allow Grad Students to Unionize Wall Street Journal …When Paul Katz, a fourth-year graduate student at Columbia University, is researching primary texts in the library, he considers himself a student. But when he is grading undergraduate papers or lecturing to students, he sees himself as an employee who should have the right to join a union. The National Labor Relations Board is expected to decide on his status this summer in a ruling that could pave the way for graduate students at private universities to unionize…
Congress Proposes to Strip Farmworker Protection Standards in Funding Bill Alternet …A funding bill (H.R. 5538) for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Interior Department is receiving pushback from conservation groups, environmental lobbyists, and workers’ rights advocates for containing dozens of controversial amendments, including one that would strip funding for parts of the Agricultural Worker Protection Standard (WPS), which establishes many protections for those in the country who experience the highest and most dangerous pesticide exposure – farmworkers…
It Takes Jamie Dimon 3 Hours to Earn What Some of His Employees Do All Year The Nation …Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, announced in a New York Times op-ed column on Tuesday that the bank would soon raise wages for its lowest-paid employees. JPMorgan Chase—America’s largest bank, with $2.4 trillion in assets—has over 235,000 employees in over 100 countries, but the pay boost will cover only 18,000 employees in the United States…
Mike Pence May Be a Friend to Trump, But He’s No Friend to Workers (opinion) In These Times …Donald Trump’s vice-presidential pick of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence should have workers worried. “Mike Pence has waged repeated attacks on working Hoosiers as governor and will without a doubt continue the attacks alongside his anti-worker running mate Donald Trump who is ‘100 percent right to work,’” said Brett Voorhies, president of the Indiana State AFL-CIO…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Obama Administration Asks Supreme Court to Re-Hear Immigration Case NBC …The Obama administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court Monday to re-hear the lawsuit that shut down its plan to allow more than four million people here illegally to remain. The request was a long shot, because such moves are usually rejected. The justices tied 4-4 last month, leaving a lower court order intact that blocked the immigration plan from going into effect…
GOP’s Attempt To Soften Trump’s Language On A Muslim Ban Derailed By Trump Himself Think Progress …Trump’s top advisor Paul Manafort has had to walk back statements for the GOP nominee. Asked directly by 60 Minutes host Lesley Stahl if he had changed his position, Trump replied “no.” During the 60 Minutes interview with vice presidential running mate Mike Pence, Trump shrugged off a suggestion that he had changed his position on a proposal for a blanket ban on Muslim immigration…
Protester wrongly suspected of Dallas shooting fears for his family Dallas News …Mark Hughes has spent the last week shielding his wife and five children from death threats. Hughes was identified as a potential suspect by the Dallas Police Department during last week’s shooting. He turned himself in to police on Thursday and was released the same night…
How Racial Bias Affects The Quality Of Black Students’ Education Think Progress …Amid the conversation about systemic racism sparked by the Black Lives Matter movement, especially in the wake of the police killings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling and the subsequent protests across the country, it is important to look at how racism manifests itself in our education system. In addition to inadequate levels of education funding, there are other factors that affect quality of education…
Public School Defenders Amend Democratic Platform to Criticize Unaccountable Charter Schools Alternet …Champions of traditional public schools won a big victory at the Democratic Party’s final platform drafting session when they pushed the party to adopt new language criticizing charters that are privately run, unaccountable and often part of for-profit franchises. While the amendment did not call out charter schools for patterns of financial self-dealing and corruption seen in many states, it displaced a policy veneer generally supporting charters…