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Today’s Teamster News For August 22, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Sysco Mechanics Vote Unanimously to Join Teamsters Local 769 Teamster.org …In another victory for Sysco workers in West Palm Beach, Fla., mechanics voted unanimously in favor of joining Teamsters Local 769 in Miami yesterday. The eight mechanics follow 84 Sysco drivers at the facility who won Teamster representation back in April, making theirs the first Sysco facility in the state where workers have formed a union…
Minooka School District’s And Teamsters To Resume Contract Talks WJOL …Minooka School District’s 201 and 111 and Teamsters Local 179 have announced that they will resume contract negotiations at noon on Wednesday August 24th. It was on Thursday that Teamsters Local 179, which represents bus drivers for the two Minooka School Districts, announced they were going on strike after negotiations between the two parties stalled…
Louisville EMS union votes a resounding no on proposed city contract Insider Louisville …Members of the Louisville Emergency Medical Services union turned out in droves to vote no on a new contract proposed by Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government. The vote was 202-2. “This is pretty much unheard of to have this kind of turnout,” said John Stovall, president and principal officer for Teamsters Local 783, which handles contract negotiations on behalf of city EMS workers…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Libya: unpaid GECOL workers threaten prolonged strike Libya Herald …GECOL workers have said they will go on indefinite strike if their wages are not paid. During a one-day stoppage today, angry demonstrators in Tripoli protested they had not had anything since March. The threatened disruption could bring to a halt the already meagre power supplies in the west of the country…
Looming strike deadline for Canada Post workers Nugget …The threat of a Canada Post work stoppage is once again looming as the union’s strike deadline quickly approaches. Keith Bradford, of Local 576 of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), suggested Thursday the Crown. Corp. is trying provoke a labour dispute by refusing to extend the union’s strike mandate beyond its Aug. 25 deadline…
Vietnam doubtful of Trans-Pacific Partnership sign-off Aljazeera …Vietnam, with its strong export-led economy and potential for growth, is tipped to significantly benefit from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The country expects revenue to increase by as much as 50 percent when tariffs apply under the 12-nation trade deal. However, the TPP is in doubt due to opposition in the US…
Germans rally against TTIP, CETA agreements PressTV …German activists have rallied in Berlin to protest against the negotiations between EU, US and Canada over two proposed trade agreements known as TTIP and CETA. They argue that the agreements will reduce the regulatory barriers for trade and environmental legislation, and endanger sovereignty of individual nations…
Obama Readies One Last Push for Trans-Pacific Partnership NY Times …President Obama is readying one final push for approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the largest regional trade agreement ever, between the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim nations. And though the odds may be long, a presidency defined by partisan stalemate may yet secure one last legacy — only because of Mr. Obama’s delicate alliance with the Republicans who control Congress…
Former US trade official urges TPP concessions RNZ …With influential Republicans demanding concessions before they will back it, a former US trade representative Clayton Yeutter said the TPP will fail in the US unless the other countries make concessions, including accepting longer monopoly protection periods for next generation drugs called biologics…
In Egypt, IMF Deal Brings Austerity Few Can Afford Fortune …Squeezed by economic and political turmoil since the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, Egyptians are preparing for a new era of austerity. The reforms are part of a programme to cut the budget deficit and rebalance currency markets promised to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to secure $12 billion of lending over three years…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
$12 Arizona minimum-wage measure on the November ballot, judge rules AZ Central …The fight over Arizona’s minimum wage is on the general election ballot as Proposition 206, at least for now. A Maricopa County Superior Court judge dismissed Friday a lawsuit challenging thousands of petitions gathered supporting the citizen ballot initiative to increase Arizona’s minimum wage to $12 over the next four years. Opponents of the measure are appealing the ruling…
Talks stall on $400 million in California affordable housing SF Gate …California’s Assembly speaker conceded defeat Thursday on negotiations over a plan to inject $400 million into affordable housing projects, a deal that was included in the $122 billion budget compromise legislative leaders negotiated with Gov. Jerry Brown this spring. The funding was contingent on lawmakers approving Brown’s controversial “by right” housing proposal to speed approval for developments that include affordable units…
Virginia unionists concentrate on beating right-to-work People’s World …Amid reports that Virginia may soon be taken off the national “swing state” list in the presidential race and ceded to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Virginia unionists have decided to concentrate this fall on defeating a right to work (RTW) state constitutional amendment referendum. The Old Dominion is already an RTW state – which unionists call “right to work for less” – but only by statute…
California lawmakers expect another showdown on overtime pay for farmworkers LA Times …On the floor of the California Assembly in June, lawmakers voiced passionate but opposing stances on whether to expand overtime pay for farmworkers. They quoted scripture. They called upon their own experiences on family farms. They turned to the historic exploitation of black, Latino and Asian laborers in the fields…
Christie Faces Decision on Raising Minimum Wage ABC …Gov. Chris Christie is facing a deadline to act on raising New Jersey’s minimum wage to $10.10 an hour in the next year and to at least $15 over the next five. The Republican Christie has criticized the proposal, which the Democrat-led Legislature sent to him in June. When lawmakers return from an August break, likely after Labor Day, Christie will have to veto the law if he wants to block its enactment…
U.S. LABOR
Allina nurses prep for more negotiations, possible strike StarTribune …Union officials met Saturday to continue conversations about another possible strike against five Allina Health hospitals, where as many as 4,800 nurses could walk out in a labor dispute over health benefits, workplace safety and staffing. The nurses rejected a proposed Allina contract on Thursday…
State, local leaders back Linden workers in labor dispute NJ.com …About 40 workers at Laminated Industries are sparring with the company for a contract that offers health insurance, paid holidays and increased vacation time, said Tom Walsh, president of Local 262 of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). He said the workers never have had a contract…
AFL-CIO Sees Unions Gaining in Virginia Labor Press …Barely 5% of Virginia workers belong to labor unions, but membership grew by more than 10% last year, as 23,000 joined—and that has organizers optimistic. “Sometimes, in the day to day, you don’t see it, but from the 20,000-foot view, Virginia’s looking good,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Aug. 12 at the state federation’s convention…
Judge Overturns Uber’s Settlement With Drivers NY Times … A federal judge on Thursday struck down a proposed class-action settlement between Uber and a group of its current and former drivers, potentially continuing a protracted lawsuit that questioned a key tenet of the ride-hailing company’s business. Under a settlement forged in April, Uber had been set to pay up to $100 million in reimbursement damages to nearly 400,000 drivers…
Appeals court upholds NLRB actions in labor dispute The Hill …The nation’s second most powerful court on Friday sided with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in a case challenging actions the board took against a company that tried to keep employees from joining a union. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said it found no basis to disturb the NLRB’s “well-reasoned decisions” and denied Ozburn-Hessey Logistics’s petition for review…
The wealthy have nearly healed from recession. The poor haven’t even started. Washington Post …The Great Recession and the subsequent recovery from it have deepened the wedge between the very wealthy and everyone else in America, plunging the poor deeper into debt and wiping out two-fifths of the wealth held by families in the heart of the middle class. The wealthiest Americans, meanwhile, appear close to regaining all their losses over the same period, according to a new analysis…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Trump’s false claim that undocumented immigrants collect Social Security benefits Washington Post …DAPA and DACA grantees are considered lawfully present in the United States. They can apply for a Social Security number once they receive work permits. They earn Social Security and Medicare benefits through their payroll taxes — meaning they must be paying taxes…
The Justice Department is Done with Private Prisons. Will ICE Drop Them Too? The Intercept …Advocates directly called on the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement — which is responsible for holding a growing number of detainees with pending immigration cases or awaiting deportation — to end its multimillion-dollar relationship with the private corrections industry…
Justice Department Says Poor Can’t Be Held When They Can’t Afford Bail NBC News …Holding defendants in jail because they can’t afford to make bail is unconstitutional, the Justice Department said in a court filing late Thursday — the first time the government has taken such a position before a federal appeals court. It’s the latest step by the Obama administration in encouraging state courts to move away from imposing fixed cash bail amounts and jailing those who can’t pay…
Affordable Child Care: The Secret to a Better Economy (opinion) NY Times …most working families can’t afford good care — if they can even find it in the first place. In 2006, a federal study gave a “high quality” rating to only 10 percent of the nation’s child care programs, and the proportion today is almost certainly smaller, since government financing for child care has declined in the past decade…
Flooding in the South Looks a Lot Like Climate Change NY Times …Climate change is never going to announce itself by name. But this is what we should expect it to look like. That’s what many scientists, analysts and activists are saying after heavy rains in southern Louisiana have killed at least 11 people and forced tens of thousands of residents from their homes, in the latest in a series of extreme floods that have occurred in the United States over the last two years…