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Today’s Teamster News For August 12, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Escalate National Hand Billing of Albertsons Grocery Stores Teamster.org …The International Brotherhood of Teamsters escalated rolling hand billing actions this week outside grocery stores under the Albertsons umbrella, demanding that the grocery stores hold their food supplier, Taylor Farms, accountable for a long list of human rights violations or cease purchasing food from the company…
West Virginia Teamsters Endorse Jim Justice for Governor Teamster.org …Today, Teamsters Local 175 in South Charleston announced the union’s endorsement of Jim Justice for governor of West Virginia. The Teamsters Union, which has more than 4,000 members across West Virginia, chose to back Justice because of his commitment to creating good jobs in the state, fixing the infrastructure and fighting outside special interest groups that seek to undermine the middle class…
Teamsters National Black Caucus Celebrate 8th Annual Women’s Day Teamster.org …Teamster brothers and sisters gathered in red attire to celebrate the 8th annual women’s day at the 41st Conference of the Teamsters National Black Caucus (TNBC). Women’s day is celebrated to show appreciation to all women for their hard work and dedication to their union and communities. TNBC Vice Chair Ferline Buie reminded everyone of how important it is for women to gather each year…
Teamsters Voice Concern Over Issues Reported By Latam Airlines Mechanics Teamster.org …Today, the Teamsters expressed solidarity with trade unions in the International Transport Workers’ Federation LATAM network, which represents 23,000 LATAM Airlines workers in seven countries. The ITF LATAM network revealed this week that in a recent survey, 80 percent of LATAM maintenance technicians in Brazil, Peru, Paraguay and Colombia reported having witnessed increasing numbers of incidents or problems with aircraft…
Interlake workers vote for union Daily Leader …The employees of the Pontiac Interlake-Mecalux plant just missed casting enough votes to unionize last year, losing 73-64. This year, the vote was similarly close — however, the result was inverted, leaving a 67-55 vote for unionization for the employees of Interlake Tuesday. Rick Putman, a local organizer with the Teamsters labor union, was confident of the outcome early afternoon, well before the polls closed…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
UK: North Sea oil workers’ strike suspended as talks resume Telegraph …North Sea workers have called off a planned three-week strike in a bid to tackle an ongoing dispute over tough new contract terms. The truce between unions and oil services company Wood Group will avert a strike involving hundreds of workers across Shell’s North Sea oil rigs…
Australian airport workers prepare to go on strike from midnight on Friday Daily Mail …International travellers should expect flight delays as Department of Immigration and Border Protection staff strike for 24 hours beginning Friday at midnight. Members of the Community and Public Sector Union – almost 70 percent of front line airport staff – will cease working at airports across Australia in a bid for better salaries, workplace rights and conditions…
Eurostar workers in UK begin four-day strike The Guardian …Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union will walk out from Friday to Monday, followed by three days over the bank holiday weekend from 27 August. A picket line will be mounted outside London St Pancras station, where trains depart for Paris and Brussels…
Progressives praise Clinton’s stronger stance against the TPP The Hill …Progressives praised Hillary Clinton for sharpening her opposition to an Asia-Pacific trade agreement, calling her position necessary to kill the far-reaching deal. Several left-leaning groups said the Democratic presidential nominee’s vow to oppose a lame-duck vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is her toughest pronouncement yet against moving the 12-nation agreement through Congress before President Obama leaves office…
TPP crusaders head west Politico …The nationwide campaign surrounding the Trans-Pacific Partnership is showing no signs of letting up, with the deal’s critics beginning to ramp up efforts to speak out against the agreement and the administration reaching deeper into its lineup to get some of its lesser-known players out on the field…
Obama puts Congress on notice: TPP is coming Politico …The White House put Congress on notice Friday morning that it will be sending lawmakers a bill to implement President Barack Obama’s landmark Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement — a move intended to infuse new energy into efforts to ratify the flat-lining trade pact. The submission of the draft Statement of Administration Action establishes a 30-day minimum before the administration can present the legislation…
Donald Trump’s Business Past at Odds With Rhetoric on Trade Time …Trump has long sent most of his businesses overseas, from clothing apparel to hotel construction parts and all the various products he has branded. He outsourced the production of his shirts to Bangladesh and elsewhere in Asia. Trump vodka was made by a distillery in the Netherlands. Trump suits are made in Mexico and tie clips are made in China. He brought barware in from Slovenia and imported glass and building materials from China…
Teachers and Students Occupy Schools in the Shadow of Olympic Rio The Nation …In the shadows of both the 2016 Rio Olympics and a political impeachment/coup that rocked the world, a struggle took place in Brazil with more resonance than either of these events, if people only knew that it happened. Just beyond the city’s northern borders, a five-month strike by public-school teachers ended only last month, just in time for the games to begin…
“Equal Play, Equal Pay”: Female Athletes Play for Respect in Rio Truthout …Female athletes all over the world are struggling to succeed: Just in the soccer world, Costa Rica has yet to pay its players the bonuses they won for entrance into last year’s World Cup; Colombian players have been suspended for speaking out about going for long periods unpaid by their federation; and the Australian team has gone on strike to protest yearly salaries of less than $15,000 USD…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
WV Supreme Court likely to take up right-to-work Gazette-Mail …A preliminary injunction Wednesday blocking enforcement of the West Virginia’s new right-to-work law drew exuberance or disappointment from those with differing views on the legislation — but agreement from both sides that the issue will ultimately end up before the state Supreme Court.“We’re still walking on air,” West Virginia AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Josh Sword said Thursday of Kanawha Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey’s order, which blocks implementation of the law…
Wisconsin Judge halts part of his order in voter ID case State Journal …A federal judge in Madison on Thursday night granted a partial stay to his ruling from late last month that narrowed some state voting laws, pulling back his requirement that the state reform a system for assisting voters who lack credentials to get ID before the November election…
AZ minimum wage initiative at risk as judge rules many petitioners not qualified Capitol Times …A judge on Thursday ruled that dozens of people who circulated petitions to boost the minimum wage were not legally qualified to do so. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Joshua Rogers said Arizona law requires residents from other states and those who are collecting signatures for pay to register with the secretary of state’s office…
There’s Now an App to Help Businesses Fight a Higher Minimum Wage Wall Street Journal …The latest weapon in the battle to block legislation that would boost minimum wages: an app to arm small businesses across America with alerts about state proposals. With the push of a few buttons, the mobile interface will enable them to identify and send their respective lawmakers personalized form letters…
Uber Drivers Shouldn’t Be Left Behind In The Fight For $15 (opinion) Huffington Post …At the same time cooks and cashiers are winning huge wage increases from coast to coast, regulators and policymakers have seemed willing to let behemoths like Uber off the hook, resulting in paltry pay for the folks who are literally driving the “new economy.” Recently, Buzzfeed broke the news that Uber drivers in Detroit bring home poverty-level wages of $8.77 per hour…
California’s Rich-Poor Gap: The Reality May Surprise You KQED …according to research from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, income inequality in the Bay Area has worsened only marginally, at least when compared to other parts of the state. In 2007, Bay Area households at the top 10 percent of incomes made about 10.6 times what Bay Area households at the bottom 10 percent of incomes brought home…
U.S. LABOR
Flowers Foods Faces Fair-Labor Review Wall Street Journal …Baking company Flowers Foods Inc., already battling nearly two dozen lawsuits brought by drivers who say they were incorrectly classified as independent contractors, disclosed Wednesday that it faces a federal inquiry into its labor practices. On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Labor notified Flowers, which owns the Wonder Bread, Nature’s Own and Tastykake brands, that it is slated for a compliance review…
ILWU raises hopes for US West Coast contract extension JOC …The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Thursday gave a huge boost to beneficial cargo owners looking for long-term labor stability at West Coast ports by agreeing to meet with waterfront employers to discuss their request for a contract extension. The ILWU statement, issued from its coastwide caucus of delegates Thursday in San Francisco, was carefully worded to indicate that union representatives will meet with the Pacific Maritime Association…
Professional Fighters Association has officially launched BJPenn …The Professional Fighters Association (PFA) was established today to represent the collective interests of the fighters employed by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The goal of the “PFA” is to organize the fighters so that they can collectively bargain their terms and conditions of employment. The “PFA” will not only be a union of fighters, but it will be governed solely by fighters…
In South Texas, Fair Wages Elude Farmworkers, 50 Years After Historic Strike NPR …A lot has changed since 1966, when watermelon workers in the South Texas borderlands walked out of the melon fields in a historic strike to protest poor wages and appalling working conditions. The strike failed when replacement workers were brought in. Still, working conditions have improved in the decades since the failed strike. What hasn’t changed is the work: It’s as brutal as ever…
The Strike At Trump’s Atlantic City Casino Is a Flashpoint for the Entire Labor Movement (opinion) In These Times …In Atlantic City right now workers at the Trump Taj Mahal casino hotel, members of UNITE HERE Local 54, are waging a struggle that should make it one of those crystallizing flashpoints that garner national attention and mobilize support from the entire labor movement, progressives, and working people at large. Such flashpoints arise only occasionally in workers’ struggles for justice…
Nearly 44,000 retail workers have been laid off in 2016 CNN …According to figures from job placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, more than 43,600 layoffs have been announced in the retail sector so far this year. The only two sectors to cut more jobs in 2016 are energy — due to the massive drop in oil prices over the past two years — and computers, largely a reflection of layoffs…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Ferguson-Area Cities “Terrorizing” Poor Through Modern-Day Debtors’ Prisons: Federal Lawsuit Common Dreams …A new federal class-action lawsuit accuses 13 St. Louis-area municipalities of “terrorizing” poor, primarily African-American people through a “deliberate and coordinated conspiracy” by “creating a modern-day police state and debtors’ prison scheme that has no place in American society.” The U.S. Department of Justice released a report last year into Ferguson’s police practices…
Racist & Illegal: Justice Department Slams Baltimore Police for Targeting Black Residents Democracy Now …A Justice Department investigation has concluded Baltimore police have carried out a practice of racially discriminatory policing by systematically stopping, searching and arresting black residents at a disproportionate rate. “BPD engages in a pattern or practice of making unconstitutional stops, searches and arrests”…
Black Lives Matter Is Joining The Fight Against Deportations Popular Resistance …The Black Lives Matter movement this week announced it has adopted a 10-point platform that includes a call to end all deportations. It could be a game changer. Black Lives Matter, which started as a hashtag in 2013, has quickly evolved into a leading civil rights movement that until this week has mainly focused on policing issues that affect the black community…
Donald Trump was for the auto bailout, before he was against it, before he was both Daily Kos …There’s a big one where he may not play well in the Midwest: the 2009 auto rescue. In true Trumpian fashion, he’s taken several positions on the issue. When it was a George W. Bush policy, Trump liked government assistance. When it was a Barack Obama policy, not so much, especially in 2012 when Trump was busy carrying Mitt Romney’s water…
Is the U.S. Due for Radically Raising Taxes for the Rich? The Atlantic …According to a Gallup poll, 63 percent of Americans say the distribution of money and wealth is unfair, and just over half favor higher taxes on the rich. It’s clear that many people believe that it’s time to lessen inequality. But what’s the best way to proceed? “I think it is high time for the U.S. to push up the top tax rate,” Emmanuel Saez, a Berkeley professor who is one of the country’s top experts on wealth accumulation, said…