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Today’s Teamster News For July 27, 2016

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TEAMSTERS

Pilots Flying for DHL Protest Outside Kalitta Air Bargaining Meeting In Fort Lauderdale   Teamsters…Pilots from Kalitta Air, a DHL contractor, are protesting in Fort Lauderdale today to tell Kalitta executives and DHL that they are united and ready to strike. The pilots are joined in solidarity by pilots from other North American DHL contractors – Atlas Air, Southern Air, Polar Air and ABX Air…

Teamsters, Carhaul Employer Group Reach Tentative Agreement   Teamsters…After long and difficult negotiations, the Teamsters National Automobile Transporters Industry Negotiating Committee (TNATINC) has reached a tentative national Carhaul agreement with the National Automobile Transporters Labor Division (NATLD), the multi-employer collective bargaining association representing the unionized sector of the vehicle transport and logistics industry…

Little Movement Toward Agreement Seven Weeks After Hartford Distributors Locked Out Union   Hartford Courant…It’s been seven weeks since the owners of Hartford Distributors locked out 120 warehouse workers and drivers, and the sides remain divided on some contract details. The workers, who belong to Teamsters Local 1035, were told they would not be allowed to return to work until they agree to a contract, union Secretary Treasurer Chris Roos said…

Shortage Of Bus Drivers Linger As School Year Nears For JCPS   WHAS (Louisville, KY)…With more than two weeks until Jefferson County Public School students will be riding buses and the district is still short 50 drivers. President of Teamsters Local 783 John Stovall believes this year, there are a few reasons why…

Schnucks Dealing With Produce Shortage   KSDK (St. Louis, MO)…The recent shortage comes three months after Schnuck’s announced it would be laying off almost 200 employees from the Teamsters Local 688 Union. “I don’t know if an electric outage would cause this much of a shortage in their stores,” Michael Schlueter, Teamsters Local 688 Union. Some former employees aren’t buying the reasons the store is giving for the lack of items…

Video Of Teamsters Trying To Organize Port Truckers Goes Viral   Connect Savannah…As trucks slowed to a stop coming out of the gate, the Teamsters—dressed in orange vests for visibility and safety—quickly handed them a leaflet that explained the campaign and sent them on their way. All perfectly legal under the National Labor Relations Act, and as far as Speight understood, Port Wentworth city code. But when Port Wentworth police arrived, apparently called by someone at XPO, all three organizers were issued citations for impeding traffic as “pedestrians in the roadway”—on a street with no other vehicles and ended at the XPO gates…

Brentwood Council Rejects Police Contract Agreement   Pittsburgh Tribune-Review…“After contract negotiations concluded, we took the agreed-upon contract to a vote at the request of the borough’s bargaining committee. Officers approved the contract and sent it to council for their vote,” said Carl Bailey, of Teamsters Local 205, in a written statement. “The borough bargaining committee didn’t take it to council for a vote but instead wanted to meet for further discussion after we already voted it in. It is our position that the borough is bargaining in bad faith as they continue to add items to the proposed contract after it was agreed upon”…

 

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE

Nancy Pelosi Declares Opposition To Obama’s TPP Trade Deal   Huffington Post…House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has come out in opposition to the massive Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal as it’s currently written, putting her on the same page as newly minted vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine. Pelosi (D-Calif.) made the declaration in a letter late last week to several groups that protested outside her offices in San Francisco and delivered her more than 200,000 petition signatures opposing the TPP…

Donald Trump’s Tough Trade Talk Not Swaying Michigan Democrats, UAW VP   Detroit Free Press…Before the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia convened Monday, Michigan delegates, alternates and officials seemed largely in agreement as they held their first breakfast meeting that while they may reject deals they see as bad for American workers, Trump is not the answer. “It’s clear he doesn’t want to bring jobs back at union wages,” said Cindy Estrada, vice president of the UAW.  “Once our members get the real facts, they will understand the differences (between the candidates) are stark…

Refinery Workers To Strike From Thursday   Independent Online (South Africa)…The union, along with Solidarity and the South African Chemical Workers Union, has hit a negotiation deadlock with the employers’ association over wage increases. Unions are demanding a nine percent increase and an agreement for one year only, but employer associations are offering seven percent as part of a multi-year deal…

Labour Leadership Contender Owen Smith Pledges To End Austerity In Radical Pitch To British Labour Party   The Guardian…Labour leadership contender Owen Smith has made a raft of concrete new pledges in a radical pitch to the left of the party, including scrapping the Department for Work and Pensions, which he said had become “a byword for cruelty and insecurity.” “I am determined that a Labour government I hope to lead will smash austerity, will end austerity. We will make an unbreakable promise to the British people to guarantee a better future,” he said…

How The TPP Became The Most Divisive Policy In The Democratic Party   Washington Post…In Philadelphia on Monday, delegates chanted “No TPP!” and brandished signs declaring their opposition. They were frustrated that the party’s official platform did not explicitly reject the Trans-Pacific Partnership — a reflection of the fierce disagreement among Democrats about the deal’s merits…

With Trans-Pacific Partnership, The Battle Of Seattle Goes Mainstream   CrossCut…The WTO anti-globalization demonstrations of 1999 — the so-called “Battle in Seattle” — have pretty much faded into history. Some have debated their lasting effect — were they a tribal tantrum, or did they forge lasting coalitions that are skeptical of globalization? Most would probably say the former…

TTIP: The Most Dangerous Weapon In The Hands Of The Fossil Fuel Industry   The Ecologist…The European Union and the USA have been negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) behind closed doors since 2013. Negotiators kept insisting that their secret talks would work in the best interest of the public and the environment. But since Greenpeace leaked the TTIP draft negotiating documents it became clearer than ever, that this trade agreement could become one of the most dangerous weapons in the hands of the fossil fuel industry in its effort to kill Climate Action for the 21st century…

 

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES

REI Boosting Wages For Workers In 7 Cities, Including Seattle   Seattle Times…Effective Aug. 21, REI says, employees at 37 stores in cities where the cost of living has been rising the most will see their base wages rise anywhere from 5 to 15 percent. The cities include Seattle (including the Alderwood, Redmond, Tukwila and Issaquah stores, as well as the Seattle flagship), Portland, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Denver and Washington, D.C…

After Seven Years, The Minimum Wage Is Worth A Lot Less   Marketplace…the EPI calculated that minimum wage peaked way back in 1968, when Americans earned $9.68 per hour in today’s dollars. Before then, minimum wage was set to correspond with productivity — how much income the average worker produces. If federal minimum wage had kept that pace, it’d sit at just under $19 now. If the minimum followed average wage growth — which, as we know, hasn’t been stellar — it’d be around $11.35…

State DOL: Cleaning Contractors At Stop & Shop, ShopRite, Whole Foods Violated Labor Laws   Hartford Courant…Two cleaning contractors have been temporarily barred from cleaning grocery stores at 18 sites in Connecticut until they remedy labor violations, the state Department of Labor said Monday. A total of 23 cleaners covered the stores. The Department of Labor visited the stores July 19 after some of the workers complained that they were working overtime and not getting paid. The ban began immediately…

Colorado Minimum-Wage-Hike Campaign Turns In 200,000 Signatures   Denver Business Journal…Supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment to raise Colorado’s minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020 turned in about 200,000 signatures Monday, making it very likely that the ballot initiative will be on the November statewide ballot. Colorado Families for a Fair Wage needs the office of Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams to verify 98,492 of the signatures are valid in order to put the proposal to a vote of the people…

Wage Theft Discovered Inside The Senate   Huffington Post…If members of Congress want to learn more about wage theft, they should talk to some of the low-wage workers who serve them meals. The Labor Department announced Tuesday that federal contractors had shorted 674 Senate cafeteria workers to the tune of $1 million. Two companies, Restaurant Associates and its subcontractor, Personnel Plus, violated the law by misclassifying workers into lower-paying positions and having them work off the clock, the agency said…

Texas Is Far Behind The Conversation On Paid Family Leave   Houston Chronicle…In Texas, of course, such policies haven’t  left the starting gate. Nearly every legislative session, advocates propose some form of family leave mandate, sometimes as modest as allowing paid time off for parent-teacher conferences. Every time, says Texas AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Levy, they get drowned out…

Illinois Governor Vetoes Minimum Wage Bills   Bloomberg BNA…Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) vetoed bills driven by organized labor, including a measure to strengthen prevailing wage standards and three bills designed to boost base wages for child care providers and home health workers serving the elderly and disabled. While Rauner’s criticism of organized labor and minimum wage standards has been a consistent theme throughout his administration, the first-term governor pointed to the ongoing fiscal crisis in Illinois as a basis for his vetoes July 22…

 

U.S. LABOR

Upper-Tier Sonoma County Health Workers Push For Equity Pay, End To Furloughs   North Bay Bohemian…“I think there is a direct connection between the county workers’ strike and the bargaining at ESC Local 20,” says Marty Bennett, co-chair of North Bay Jobs with Justice. He sees intersecting issues between the two unions, such as understaffing, low morale and falling retention rates among the workers, and the impact that has on the overall quality of the services that are provided to residents. Bennett’s organization plans to host a workers’ rights board hearing on Aug. 13, where members of ESC will highlight the critical services they provide the county…

Talks Between City, Teachers Union Hit Obstacles   Boston Globe…The head of the Boston Teachers Union, frustrated by what he calls the school district’s tactics, says he is losing hope that the 8,200-member union will reach a new labor agreement with the city by the end of summer. “The optimism that we had . . . has vanished,’’ union president Richard Stutman said recently about meetings with School Department officials…

Labor Is Key To A Democratic Victory, Minnesota Delegates Say   Minneapolis Star-Tribune…As Democrats converge in Philadelphia, the chairman of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party is concerned about losing working-class labor voters who formed the heart of the Democrats’ coalition for decades but are now up for grabs. All of those Rust Belt states are heavy with working-class voters, many of them economically displaced after a decline in manufacturing and labor unions…

Union Leader Lambastes Gov. Rauner, Vows To ‘Take Him Out’ In 2018   Chicago Tribune…The scene was a spirited display of the strong allegiance between Democrats who control the legislature in Springfield and the forces of organized labor in their protracted battle with the Republican governor. That dynamic has been a central theme of the state delegation’s gathering at the Democratic National Convention, often overshadowing the presidential contest between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump…

U.S. Steel Agrees Not To Punish Workers For Reporting Injuries Late   Northwest Indiana Times…The United Steelworkers union objected after U.S. Steel disciplined three of its steelworkers, who were all punished for “late reporting” of minor injuries they received at work in separate accidents in 2014. The workers filed complaints with OSHA with the help of the USW, arguing that they reported the injuries as soon as they knew about them…

SEIU Protesting In Downtown San Francisco   KRON (San Francisco, CA)…About 1,000 activists with the SEIU are marching on Market Street in San Francisco. The protesters were going into the Southern Pacific Building in the Financial District when police arrived on scene…

United Farm Workers Co-Founder Eyes Big Latino Turnout In November Election   WDET (Detroit, MI)…Voter registration seems to be growing in the Latino community. UFW co-founder Delores Huerta says the Latin vote can be influential. In order to fight what Huerta calls an attack on the Latino community, she urges, “It is incumbent upon us for our communities to know what’s going on and not get disillusioned,” and emphasizes, “The strongest weapon ever, the non-violent weapon, is our vote…take it to the ballot box”…

 

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS

The Basic Reason Why There Just Isn’t Enough Decent Housing For The Poor   Washington Post…Even if you could build an entire property for free, an apartment meant for extremely low-income renters (those making 30 percent of area median income or less) probably wouldn’t work at the end of the day. Those apartments could still cost more to maintain over time than the families living in them would yield in rent. That’s basically the story of what’s broken with public housing today…

Latinos Remain Skeptical Of Democrats’ Immigration Policy  American Prospect…Democrats have positioned themselves to the left of the Republican Party on immigration reform. Neither Clinton nor Obama have channeled Trump by proposing to build a wall on the Mexican border or by painting undocumented immigrants as murderers terrorizing American neighborhoods. But immigrant advocates argue that current Democratic policies are far from humane…

What High Heels Say About The Massive Gap Between The Rich And The Poor   Washington Post…Fashion may seem like a trivial subject, but Jeff Galak, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, says that it provides an excellent measure for examining how people are influenced by those around them, and the lengths to which people go to conform. After all, Americans spend a huge amount of time and billions of dollars each year to keep up to date with fashions…

This Group Of Politicians Just Put Forward A Platform Progressives Can Embrace   The Nation…The platform presented by the Democrats is undoubtedly more progressive than it’s been in years past, but absent from the speeches are many issues that affect cities like the one where thousands of delegates are currently gathered: nuts and bolts urban policies like housing affordability, transportation funding, and access to good public schools…

‘Black Lives Matter!’ Chants Erupt As Mothers Of The Movement Take The Stage At The DNC   Los Angeles Times…“Give me two moments to tell you how good God is. Give me a moment to say thank you,” said Geneva Reed-Veal, whose 28-year-old daughter, Sandra Bland, died in jail after being pulled over for a traffic stop in 2015. “We are not standing here because he’s not good. We are standing here because he’s great.” What followed was one of the most powerful moments of Tuesday’s convention, as the mothers held back tears to speak about the deaths that ignited a national debate about police reform and race relations…