News

Today’s Teamster News For July 25, 2016

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TEAMSTERS

University Of California Regent Under Fire From Workers   Teamsters…University of California (UC) workers rallied at the CBRE’s San Francisco office on Wednesday in opposition to the actions of former CBRE Chairman and UC Regent Richard C. Blum, which continue to hurt the livelihoods and futures of workers and students alike…

Labor Board Allows Teamsters Complaint Against Fall River To Continue   Herald News (Fall River, MA)…So far, the former city sanitation workers and the union that represents them have prevailed in the preliminary proceedings regarding their complaint against the city for unfair labor practices, but a cross-complaint made by the administration has been dismissed by the state Department of Labor Relations…

ABM Parking Member Awarded Reinstatement, Two Years Of Back Pay   Teamsters Local 727…Mensah began working as a Teamster valet in 1994 and started at Lincoln Park 2550 in 2012 when ABM Parking took over the residential high-rise’s valet parking services. The company unjustly suspended and then fired the 20-year Teamster for allegedly failing to report damage on May 22, 2014. The union filed a grievance and took Mensah’s case to arbitration, arguing that not only did the company fail to follow progressive discipline, it also did not provide any evidence of wrongdoing…

Teamsters Rally In Support Of LifeSource Members   Teamsters Local 727…Dozens of Teamsters from across the Chicago area on July 22 rallied in Rosemont in support of Local 727-represented LifeSource drivers and MUAs, who are seeking a fair new contract. The LifeSource members overwhelmingly rejected the company’s contract offer on July 10. The Teamsters Local 727 Bargaining Committee and LifeSource management are scheduled to resume negotiations July 25…

Medical Center, Teamsters Reach New 3-year Agreement   Lebanon Daily News…Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Teamsters Local 776 have reached a new three-year collective bargaining agreement, effective July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2019, according to a news release. The Medical Center’s Teamster-represented employees ratified the tentative agreement, an agreement that covers approximately 900 Medical Center employees who work in various fields including food services, patient transport, housekeeping, facilities and other technical services…

 

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE

Seeking Justice In El Salvador   New York Times (Opinion)…In 1993, just days after the United Nations published a report about the brutal civil war in El Salvador between the military-led government and leftist guerrilla groups, the country’s legislature hastily passed an amnesty law. It absolved all the actors in the conflict, which lasted 12 years, left an estimated 75,000 dead and continues to reverberate in the country’s politics and psyche to this day…

Kaine Comes Out Against Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Deal    Politico…Kaine spokeswoman Amy Dudley said Saturday that the Virginia Democrat shared his negative views on the trade deal with Clinton this week, confirming a report by The Washington Post. “He agreed with her judgment that it fell short” when it came to protecting wages and national security, a Clinton aide reportedly told the newspaper…

Irish Public Wants Referendum On TTIP – Poll   The Irish Independent...The vast majority of Irish people want a referendum on the proposed US-EU free trade deal if it looks like it could become law, a survey suggests. They also want a similar poll on Europe’s planned trade agreement with Canada, according to the survey carried out by Red C…

US Envoy To Visit Malaysia Amid Questions Over Mass Graves   Associated Press…The U.S. envoy on combating human trafficking will visit Malaysia next week, an official said Friday, amid complaints that the Southeast Asian nation has failed to investigate properly alleged official complicity over mass graves of suspected trafficking victims. The State Department has faced a barrage of congressional criticism after Malaysia, a key U.S. trading partner, was kept off a blacklist of countries that fail to meet minimum standards against modern-day slavery…

Argentina: Macri’s Austerity Costs 179,000 Jobs   Green Left Weekly…Mass layoffs in Argentina since right-wing President Mauricio Macri took office last December eclipsed 179,000 in the public and private sector by the end of June, according to the latest data from Argentina’s Center for Political Economy known as CEPA, TeleSUR English said on July 18. Since Macri’s inauguration on December 10, a total of 179,285 workers have lost their jobs, according to CEPA statistics. Nearly 40% of the job losses, or 66,404, were in the public sector, while 112,881 workers were sacked in the private sector…

Call Off Strike, Then We Can Talk: Minister Of Transport Ramalinga Reddy To Workers   Times of India…The impasse in the ongoing BMTC and KSRTC workers strike continued with both the state government and the unions remaining firm on their stance and not ready to budge an inch, leaving the common man in a state of lurch. Speaking to TOI, transport minister Ramalinga Reddy on Monday said the government was ready for negotiations if the striking workers return to duty…

 

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES

Baltimore City Council Members Speak On Revisions To $15 Minimum Wage Proposal   WBFF (Baltimore, MD)…A proposal to raise Baltimore City’s minimum wage to $15 an hour is moving forward in the city council, though it drawn resistance from some lawmakers. City Councilwoman Pat Clarke, who represents District 14, filed the bill in April of this year. Since then, lawmakers have taken comments from hundreds of workforce members and business owners from around Baltimore…

McDonald’s To Appeal Class Cert. To 9th Circ. In Wage Suit   Law 360…McDonald’s wants the Ninth Circuit to review the recent class certification of a group of employees suing for fair wages and overtime compensation, arguing Thursday that the lower court was “manifestly erroneous” in relying on fatally dissimilar evidence of the mental state of more than 800 class members when it made its decision…

Illinois Governor Rauner Vetoes Prevailing Wage Law   Construction Equipment News…Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner vetoed Senate Bill 2964 late last week that would have required state officials to pay construction workers on public works construction projects hourly wages equal to the nearest union worker collective-bargaining in the area…

Minimum Wage At The Center Of The U.S. Presidential Campaign   Equal Times…The bill is just a few pages long and its terms are quite simple: to increase the hourly minimum wage from US$7.25 to US$15 for all workers in the United States. In November 2015, a month when trade unions in sectors such as fast food mobilized workers in huge numbers, this bill was circulating in Congress. For want of agreement between Democrats and Republicans, the bill is currently on hold…

As Courts Strike Down Discriminatory Voter ID Laws, RNC Delegates Cry ‘Voter Fraud’   Center for American Progress…As the Republican National Convention unfolded in Cleveland this week with the Republican Party officially calling for measures to make it harder for people to vote, two different courts across the country issued rulings easing those restrictions. Federal judges this week ruled against voter identification laws in Wisconsin and then Texas, finding that they disproportionately impact minority voters and violate the Voting Rights Act. Those photo ID laws, which have become more prevalent across the country in the years since the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the VRA in 2013, are formally included in the GOP platform…

The Virginia Supreme Court Tried To Kill A Key Voting Rights Order—And This Democratic Governor Won’t Let Them   Mother Jones…Virginia’s Supreme Court on Friday blocked Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s attempt to restore voting rights to more than 200,000 felons. The 4-3 ruling, which could have a significant impact on the potential swing state in November, comes three months after the Democratic governor issued an executive order to enfranchise felons who had completed their sentences and parole or probation as of April 22…

 

U.S. LABOR

Chicago Teachers Want Their Governor To Know That They Definitely Know How To Read   Huffington Post…Chicago teachers are most definitely not illiterate, and they want their governor to know it. Emails released this week by The Chicago Tribune reveal that Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) called half of Chicago Public School teachers “virtually illiterate” in 2011, before he was governor. He apologized for the email during a press conference Friday, calling it “inaccurate and intemperate”…

PHL Airport Workers’ Planned Strike During DNC Averted  The Philly Voice…A planned strike from workers at Philadelphia International Airport during the upcoming Democratic National Convention has been averted, officials announced Friday. Mayor Jim Kenney said that he and Gov. Tom Wolf brought 32BJ SEIU and American Airlines together on an agreement that will give employees of airport vendors the opportunity to form a union of their choosing…

Why Old School Organized Labor Is Needed In New Digital Newsrooms   The Hill (opinion)…The ever-shrinking legacy newspaper business is seeing newsrooms turn to collective bargaining to beat back owners who have turned to layoffs and cuts to secure higher profit margins. Two newsrooms in Illinois organized unions to counter cuts and content demands from Gatehouse. And The Ledger in Lakeland, Fla., recently moved toward forming a union in hopes it can stop more cuts to the newsroom by Gatehouse, according to a report by the Columbia Journalism Review…

Democratic Reps Join Local 54 At Taj Strike In Atlantic City Sunday   Atlantic City Press…The congressional representatives were on the boards Sunday to stand with more than 1,000 cooks, housekeepers, bellmen, bartenders, cocktail servers and other service workers from the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort calling for a contract that includes health care contributions. About 100 union members wearing red “Unite Here” shirts and carrying signs chanted, “All day, all night, Taj Mahal is on strike,” as they marched before the casino doors…

Chestnut Hill Hospital Workers On Strike For Higher Wages   Philadelphia Inquirer…About 150 health-care and service workers at Chestnut Hill Hospital participated in a strike Saturday, calling for higher wages.The strike was organized by the Service Employees International Union Healthcare Pennsylvania, which represents certified nursing assistants, emergency room technicians, workers who move patients around in wheelchairs and stretchers, secretaries, food workers and cleaners…

AT&T, IBEW Strike Labor Agreements Covering DirecTV Field Workers, Call Center Employees   fiercetelecom.com…AT&T (NYSE: T) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) have worked out two tentative agreements covering DirecTV employees in 14 states. One agreement covers over 1,600 employees in the company’s field services group, located in 14 states. The other contract covers about 1,300 employees working in call centers in Boise, Idaho and Missoula, Montana…

 

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS

Texas Investigates Violent Traffic Arrest Of Black Teacher   New York Times…The authorities in Austin, Tex., were investigating a year-old traffic encounter in which a black female driver was dragged from her car and thrown to the ground twice by a white police officer. A second officer was also under investigation for telling the driver, an elementary-school teacher, that white people were sometimes wary of black people because of their “violent tendencies”…

Payday Loan Limits May Cut Abuse But Leave Some Borrowers Looking   New York Times…This city of 73,000 is known for a few things — the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the presidential library of William McKinley, a lively downtown arts scene. But in banking circles, it has gained a more distinct reputation: Canton is a nexus of the payday lending industry, in which people who have trouble making ends meet from one paycheck to the next take out high-interest loans from specialty lenders…

Why Poor, Low-Level Offenders Often Plead To Worse Crimes   The Atlantic…The frequent detention of low-level offenders is also an issue at the federal level. This week, the Department of Justice’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, released an internal audit that provides concrete evidence of how infrequently federal prosecutors avoid jailing low-level offenders by diverting them or allowing them to await trial at home…