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Today’s Teamster News For July 26, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Service Workers Have Hershey Medical Center Pact The Sentinel…A Teamsters union representing housekeeping, food service and other support staff has reached a new contract with the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. The union says it ratified the new deal late Friday…
Teamster Mechanics At Piedmont Airlines Ratify Contract Aviation Tribune…Approximately 300 Piedmont Airlines mechanics from Teamsters Locals 210, 355 and 776 have voted overwhelmingly to ratify a five-year contract with the carrier. More than 83 percent of voting mechanics cast their ballots in favor of the agreement…
Ferguson Warehouse Contract Negotiations Near Completion Teamsters Local 710…The Teamsters Local 710 Bargaining Committee for the Ferguson Warehouse contract met again Friday to progress through negotiations. They are bargaining for their first Local 710 contract with their employer. All non-economic issues have been wrapped up. Both parties have reached a conceptual agreement on all of those outstanding issues. Counsel for Local 710 is drafting the contract language for that in preparation for the next bargaining session…
Boston Beer Co.’s Jim Koch Shares Frontline Manufacturing Lessons Food Processing Magazine…In 1997, Koch purchased Hudepohl-Schoenling, Cincinnati’s 112-year-old brewery that had seen better days. Its 100 workers were Teamsters. Many acquirers would have laid them off and reopened with nonunion workers, but Koch rejected that approach. “Most unions were good, I thought, and most employee problems were, in fact, caused by bad managers,” he wrote. Instead of layoffs, Koch invested in equipment upgrades and introduced worker safety programs with teeth. Morale skyrocketed, followed by productivity improvements that tripled barrels per person within six years…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Global Union Leaders To Attend Court To Protest Persecution Of South Korean Colleagues International Transport Workers Federation…Global union leaders will attend a Seoul court next Tuesday, 26 July, to witness the treatment of Cho Sung-deok, one of several South Korean union leaders who have been put on show trials on trumped-up charges…
Trans-Pacific Partnership Provisions ‘Questionable’, Says Productivity Commission The Guardian…A key economic policy adviser to the federal government has said the Trans-Pacific Partnership has provisions of “questionable benefit” – including an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) clause allowing foreign corporations to sue the Australian government if they think the government has introduced or changed laws that hurt their commercial interests…
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon Blames Austerity For Brexit Vote, Repeats Threats Of 2nd Scottish Independence Referendum Russia Today…Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has once again threatened Westminster with a new independence referendum, demanding “Scotland’s voice is heard and our wishes respected.” The Scottish National Party (SNP) leader warned Britain is heading towards a “hard rather than a soft Brexit,” which would leave Scotland excluded from the single market and with restrictions on its citizens’ freedom of movement…
Shell Oil Workers In North Sea Threaten To Strike New York Times…As energy prices start to rebound, a group of oil workers in the North Sea are gearing up for a strike, saying the industrywide cuts have been too deep. The labor action, by unions representing about 400 maintenance workers on seven oil production platforms operated by Royal Dutch Shell, is part of the broad struggle to find a new equilibrium…
‘Stop TPP’ A Rallying Cry At Democratic National Convention The Street…When Democratic stars to the party’s liberal base like Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders took the stage at the Democratic National Convention last night at the Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia, they were not given the attention usually afforded such figures as they speak. Protest chants could be heard throughout the arena and by those watching on TV: “Stop TPP”…
Why Teachers Have Been Occupying One Of Mexico’s Most Alluring Public Spaces Since May Los Angeles Times…The plaza, or zocalo, has become a desolate eyesore, a tent city of sleeping bags and plastic mats topped with a jagged array of plastic tarps thrown up as protection against daily thunderstorms. Teachers enraged at federal education reforms have occupied the plaza since May, stranding thousands of pupils and transforming one of Mexico’s most alluring public spaces into something resembling a ramshackle refugee camp. Street vendors have set up shop alongside the tents…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Want Sick Leave? You Probably Need To Be Paid More Wall Street Journal…Whether a worker has access to paid sick leave varies widely by income, a new Labor Department report found. Among the top 25% of income earners in the private sector—those earning $28.60 an hour or more—84% had access to paid sick leave, the Labor Department said. Among the bottom quarter of workers—those earning $12 an hour or less—39% had the benefit as of March…
Higher Minimum Wage Has Had Moderate Benefits, UW Report Says Seattle Weekly…“Wages have risen, businesses have withstood the increase, work opportunities have declined modestly, [and] average earnings have changed by no more than a few dollars a week,” said the UW minimum wage research team, led by Jacob Vigdor, in a presentation to city council this morning. This outcome stands in stark contrast against the rhetoric used when the new minimum wage was being debated in 2013 and ‘14, when opponents claimed it would “devastate” small businesses…
Detroit Home Care Worker Plans To Push $15 Wage To Dems Detroit News…A Detroit home care worker juggling two jobs to make ends meet will speak at the Democratic National Convention this week to make her case for a higher minimum wage. Henrietta Ivey, 50, is scheduled to speak Thursday at the convention in Philadelphia after meeting presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at a union convention in June…
Nearly 100,000 Ohioans Earning Less Than State Minimum Wage Dayton Daily News…About 2.9 percent of Ohioans earned at or below the federal minimum — slightly lower than the national rate but still higher than some might expect in a state with a mandated minimum wage of $8.10 per hour. Experts attribute the disparity to a variety of factors, including labor laws that allow employers in some cases to pay some workers — farmhands and disabled workers, for example — less than the minimum. But much of the gap can be attributed to employers violating minimum wage and overtime laws and exploiting tipped employees, who comprise a large share of Ohio’s labor force, said Michael Shields, a researcher at Policy Matters Ohio who focuses on wages and job quality…
Ban On ‘Personal Business’ At Work Violates NLRA Rights Bloomberg BNA…A California casino interfered with workers’ labor law rights by maintaining a handbook that prohibited employees from conducting “personal business” while they were at work on the employer’s premises, a National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge held. The decision confirms that unions continue to target missteps in employment codes and handbooks and that NLRB judges are finding unfair labor practices when employer rules compromise employee rights…
Ending Low Pay In The US Is Something Worth Fighting For The Guardian (opinion)…Three-quarters of Americans support raising the minimum wage, as do 60% of small-business owners. When a full-time worker on the current federal minimum rate has an annual take-home pay packet of just $14,500, how is that liveable on or tolerable? As for detractors, their arguments don’t add up. In the US states where the minimum wage has risen, there has been faster employment growth. At a time when it can feel like progressive ideas everywhere are under attack, the fight for fair pay is a timely reminder that when people exercise the power they have to promote social justice, genuine victories can follow…
US Labor Department’s OSHA Enters Alliance With NYS Workers’ Compensation Board To Better Protect Workers Workers Compensation Newsletter…The Memorandum of Understanding between the two agencies establishes a collaborative alliance relationship among OSHA, the Wage and Hour Division and the WCB to communicate more efficiently and effectively, and cooperate on areas of common interest. It will also promote New York employers’ compliance with the laws administered by each agency. Elements of the agreement include cross-training of agencies’ staffs, providing employers and employees with compliance assistance information, conducting joint investigations and sharing information where appropriate…
U.S. LABOR
Polartec Is In Trouble. Here’s A Strategy That Could Save It Boston Globe (opinion)…Its Polarfleece fabric, invented in 1979, was named one of the 20th Century’s Greatest Inventions by Time Magazine.But Polartecfaces an uncertain future. The company, then known as Malden Mills, grew rapidly in the 1980s and early 1990s as the US military and the world’s leading brands of outdoor, athletic, and aerobic apparel discovered Polartec fabric technology’s ability to achieve exceptional performance and style…
None Of Florida’s Newspapers Are Unionized. That Could Change Soon Columbia Journalism Review…The list of digital newsrooms moving to unionize has grown steadily since the start of 2015: Gawker, Vice, Huffington Post, Salon, and more. But the media’s new interest in organizing isn’t only for digital startups. Journalists at The Ledger, a local newspaper in Lakeland, Florida, that dates to 1924, announced this week that they have taken steps to unionize. If the drive is successful, The Ledger would be the only paper in the state with a unionized newsroom…
Brooklyn Car Wash Workers Union Work Out Wage, Paid Vacation Deal New York Daily News…A group of Brooklyn car wash workers have negotiated a new contract that includes the elimination of a tip credit system in return for a base pay of slightly more than minimum wage. The 18 month deal for the 48 SLS Car Wash staffers in East New York is the first of its kind and may serve as a template for other unionized workers in the field, union officials said…
T-Mobile Workers Press Unionization Drive In Kansas Fortune Magazine…Workers at T-Mobile who have been trying to organize a union opened their first official field office in Wichita, Kan. near one of the wireless carrier’s call centers. The small but symbolic move marks the latest escalation in a long-running, high stakes battle. T-Mobile has fought unionization by the Communications Workers of America, which has been trying to organize the carrier’s 50,000 workers, largely unsuccessfully so far…
ThinkProgress Employees Ratify Writers Guild Of America, East Contract Writer’s Guild of America (release)…In the first year of the contract almost a third of the bargaining unit will receive increases of between 9% and 20%, and the average increase for the bargaining unit will be 6%. In addition to the very significant pay increases, the agreement includes provisions on just cause, editorial independence, severance pay, revenue sharing, preserving health benefits and paid time off…
Right To Work Is Playing A Big Role In St. Charles-based Senate Race St. Louis Public Radio…The St. Charles County-based district has been vacant since former Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey resigned nearly a year ago. And the race to replace him features three candidates with vastly different philosophies and political experience. It’s one of several competitive state Senate primaries in the St. Louis area, and perhaps the one where the end result could matter quite a bit. The three-way contest features big money and big issue differences. It’s attracted attention from powerful organized labor officials and some of Missouri’s largest political donors. And the outcome could determine the decades-long battle over “right to work”…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Behind The Scenes Of SafeTrack: Long Shifts, Scorching Heat, Unexpected Kinks Washington Post…Workers are contending not only with the heat but also with the need to be cognizant of trains rushing past every few minutes on the adjacent track. Each time a train approaches, work crews need to pause. Track workers wear reflective vests, hard hats and protective goggles. They carry flashlights to navigate the tunnels and signal their presence to train operators. While walking the tracks, they aren’t allowed to use cellphones. The grueling, round-the-clock work is done in 12-hour shifts…
Restaurant Jobs Both A Blessing And A Curse For Recent Immigrants MassLive…Even people with documents are competing in markets, competing with immigrants that lack documents, and so we’ve seen a steady drop in the wages of both documented and undocumented migrants. The penalty is severe for undocumented migrants, but all immigrants working in these labor markets have suffered, and they have become more vulnerable over time. Employers have taken advantage of them, and we see rising rates of below-minimum wage employment and growing incidents of wage theft and a lot of other abuses…
Lawsuit Forces Texas To Make It Easier For Immigrants To Get Birth Certificates For Children New York Times…In the settlement, Texas made no changes to the basic rules for birth certificates, which it argued were designed to ensure that the essential documents were correctly issued. But the state agreed to accept several documents from parents that it had started to reject. The change in practice by Texas registrars dated to 2013, when state leaders were taking steps to stem a surge in illegal border crossings by families from Central America…
NY Judge Slams Uber Over Misuse Of Background Check Reuters…U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan said the firm, Ergo, crossed a line when its unlicensed investigator lied to friends and acquaintances of plaintiff Spencer Meyer in a bid to dig up derogatory information about him and his lawyer. The judge said Ergo was “engaged in fraudulent and arguably criminal conduct” and that many of the documents it sought to protect “were intended to facilitate this fraudulent and arguably criminal activity”…