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Today’s Teamster News For August 25, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Local 986 Wins $4.2 Million Settlement for KAG West Employees Teamster.org …After fighting on behalf of workers for six years, Teamsters Local 986 has won a $4.2 million back-pay settlement for employees at KAG West in Southern California. “This is a huge victory for the workers at KAG West who voted to join Local 986 in August 2010,” said Chris Griswold, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 986 in South El Monte, California…
Teamsters Voice Support for Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order Teamster.org …Today, the White House announced the final rule for the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order which will put strong protections in place for workers that are employed by government contractors. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters supports this executive order. Originally announced in July 2014, Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces will establish clear guidelines for federal agencies to implement when reviewing companies for government contracts…
Osco Pharmacists Ratify New Three-Year Contract Local 727 …Osco members overwhelmingly voted to ratify the company’s revised three-year contract offer, which includes retroactive wage increases, bonuses, personal and sick day coverage, frozen HRA health care premiums and a guaranteed 401(k) match for more than 500 Chicago-area pharmacists. The mail ballot count was held Aug. 19 at the local union’s meeting hall in Park Ridge, with the Teamsters Local 727 Bargaining Committee and other Osco members present…
Major Arbitration Win Nets Whopping 50k for UNFI Members Local 117 …James Williams knew he was getting shortchanged. His contract had clear language stating that employees were entitled to overtime pay when they worked in excess of 40 hours during the week. His company, United Natural Foods, Inc., generally followed that rule. But James detected a glaring exception. “I pay close attention to my paycheck,” he said. “I noticed that the hours worked on a holiday weren’t being counted toward my 40 hours for the week”…
Teamsters Suspend Strike Against Minooka School Districts WJOL …Teamsters Local 179 has announced that they are suspending their strike against Minooka School Districts 111 and 201, after a negotiating session on Wednesday afternoon. A statement from Local 179 says that the districts are negotiating in bad faith and have no intent of reaching any kind of agreement with the Union. Local 179 is directing their supporters to return to work immediately due to the possible length and complications regarding on going negotiations…
Teamsters complain to American Canyon City Council about new job, negotiations Napa Valley Register …Labor leaders used last week’s City Council meeting to publicly complain about the creation of a new job involving water conservation, saying it would amount to a “slap in the face” to Teamsters negotiating a new contract with City Hall. Don Garcia, secretary-treasurer for Teamsters Local 315, told the council before it got down to business on Aug. 16 that it was inappropriate to approve a new sustainability coordinator until a new labor agreement has been reached…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Mexico’s Striking Teachers Reinstate Blockades, Close Schools TeleSUR …The CNTE announced that schools in Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Michoacan and 11 in Mexico City would remain closed as the teachers continue their strike. The CNTE teachers union has been leading nationwide protests against neoliberal education reforms, demanding that the government come to the table to discuss a more inclusive, heterogeneous model…
South Africa: Robertson Winery Workers On Strike AllAfrica …Workers at Robertson Winery went on strike today, calling on the winery to pay them R8,500 a month. The workers, who protested outside the winery this morning, say they are currently earning between R2,900 and R3,500 a month before deductions, according to Karel Swartz, deputy general secretary of the Commercial, Stevedoring and Allied Workers’ Union (CSAAWU)…
Ashdod, Haifa Port Workers Set for Pre-Rosh Hashanah Strike Hamodia …The Histadrut labor union has declared a work dispute at the Haifa and Ashdod ports, which, between the two of them, handle 90 percent of Israel’s imports and exports. The union is dissatisfied with the pace of implementation of a new labor agreement for port workers. Under Israeli law, work disputes must precede strikes by two weeks…
The administration’s search for a path forward for TTIP Politico …While the TPP has dominated headlines and campaign-trail rhetoric this summer, the Obama administration has been careful not to let the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership fall by the wayside. Instead, an enormous amount of work — including regular, bi-weekly communication between U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström — has been ongoing…
Awkward Trade Fight Coming For Hillary Clinton NBC News …The Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive trade deal with a dozen pacific rim countries, is one of the last things on Obama’s to-do list. The president is expected to bring it up before Congress during the post-election lame duck session in the hopes of getting it approved before he leaves office. A lame-duck fight on the TPP would put potential president-elect Clinton in an awkward position…
‘Fast track’ Dems mostly undecided on TPP Politico …More than 10 months after the conclusion of talks on the TPP, most of the 28 Democrats in House and the 13 in the Senate who voted in favor of trade promotion authority still have not taken a public position on the landmark 12-nation agreement — but they say they’re working on it…
US Postal Workers Protest TPP and the Threat of Privatization TeleSUR …Postal workers rallied against the Trans Pacific Partnership in Orlando, Florida, on Tuesday, claiming the controversial trade deal strips them of worker protections and threatens to privatize the postal service. Members of the American Postal Workers Union held signs and chanted against the agreement, which has been blasted by trade unions for weakening states at the hands of multinational corporations…
Australia: the volunteer army fighting Selby’s austerity cuts BBC …Since 2010, national spending on local government has halved and all of our communities are having to make do with less. In Selby, the police cells and magistrates court have been closed, CCTV and bus services have been cut back, street wardens have been axed and many of the street lights turn off at midnight. And a voluntary army is at work…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Parents Of Developmentally Disabled Decry Connecticut’s Privatization Efforts Hartford Courant …Parents of developmentally disabled sons or daughters in state care, reeling from the layoffs of 605 state workers and the largest privatization effort in years, met at the workers’ union headquarters Tuesday and called for a halt to the state’s planned shift to the chronically underfunded private sector. They said the state workers have built lasting relationships with their children…
Kentucky Gov. Bevin submits Medicaid waiver plan to feds with few changes Insider Louisville ...Gov. Matt Bevin on Wednesday submitted his Section 1115 Medicaid waiver plan, which would transform Kentucky’s Medicaid expansion enacted by former Gov. Steve Beshear. Under the waiver individuals with income up to 138 percent of the federal poverty rate would still be eligible for expanded Medicaid, though “able-bodied” persons would have to pay a monthly premium…
Foes want Arizona supreme court to block minimum wage initiative Tucson.com …Foes of requiring employers to pay their workers at least $12 an hour asked the Arizona Supreme Court Wednesday to block a vote on a “deficient initiative.” In a petition to the justices, Attorney Roopali Desai pointed out that Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Joshua Rogers judge had concluded that more than 50,000 of the signatures turned in to put Proposition 206 on the ballot should not be counted…
Tennessee Seeing Spike In Workplace Fatalities The Chattanoogan …The Administrator of the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Steve Hawkins, urges employers and workers pay special attention to workplace safety and health after 22 Tennessee workers suffered fatal job-related injuries since January. “In the month of July alone, 10 Tennessee workers lost their lives in workplace accidents, devastating families, friends, co-workers and businesses,” said Mr. Hawkins. “Most all of these could have been prevented”…
Minnesota Supreme Court to hear appeal on decision to vote on minimum wage Star Tribune …The battle over whether Minneapolis voters can weigh in on a $15 minimum wage proposal will go to the Minnesota Supreme Court next week. The state’s highest court will hear the case on Aug. 30, following an appeal by the city of Minneapolis…
U.S. LABOR
Tinker AFB Workers Enter Fourth Week Of Strike News9 …For the 23rd day in a row, members of the International Machinist and Aerospace Workers union have been on the strike line in front of Tinker Air Force Base. “Never have had a strike, this is my first and we’re learning as we go exactly how to do them. I hope to never have another one,” local union president Ben Moody said. The union has a 570 worker membership, and roughly 260 work on base…
Staff Of Law360 Votes To Unionize Huffington Post …Earlier this month, managers at the subscription news site Law360 brought some high-priced consultants into the newsroom. Their purpose: to persuade employees not to unionize. Turns out that money could have been better spent elsewhere. In an election held over the course of several days this month, editorial staffers at the site voted in favor of joining the NewsGuild…
Cincinnati streetcar operators join union Business Courier …Cincinnati’s streetcar operators have joined a transit union, the Enquirer reports. So far, all of the city’s nine streetcar drivers have agreed to a contract with the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 627. Additional drivers could be hired and join the union as well. The local chapter of the union has 720 members…
NYC developer comes under fire for allegedly breaking promise with union labor Lic Post …Several hundred construction workers and members of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York protested outside of the 5Pointz development site in Long Island City today, saying the developer reneged on a promise to use all union labor for the project. While negotiating with the City Council, Wolkoff allegedly agreed to use all union labor, along with several other conditions…
Chipotle under fire for illegal workplace policies CNN …The National Labor Relations Board said in a recent decision that Chipotle has to amend four rules that are illegal because they can “chill employees” from exercising their collective bargaining rights. The ruling has implications for what workers everywhere are allowed to say on social media…
America’s Pay Gap Could Cost Black Women More Than $1 Million Huffington Post …Every April, Equal Pay Day is widely talked about, and rightly so. Women in the United States earn just 79 cents for every dollar men make, and observing a date that shows exactly how many months, weeks, and days women must work into a new year to catch up to what men earned the previous year is important. But that April date only tells a part of a larger story. August 23, 2016 is the day when black women finally catch up to white men’s pay from the last year…
Paying People to Stay Home When They’re Sick Results in Fewer People Getting Sick NY Magazine …Letting people stay home when they’re sick without docking their pay could help curb the spread of diseases. Specifically, a new paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the flu rate “decreases significantly” when employees are given paid sick days. Many people in the United States don’t have paid sick leave…
The highest-paid CEOs tend to get the worst ratings from workers Washington Post …Massive paydays for chief executives, at least as designed, are supposed to reward great performance for investors. But when it comes to what their workers think of their performance, the highest-paid CEOs actually tend to get the worst ratings from employees. That’s according to a statistical analysis released Wednesday by Glassdoor, the careers Web site…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Katrina pain index 2016 by the numbers: Race and class gap widening Salon …The gap between rich and poor in New Orleans is massive, the largest in the country. The economic gap between well-off whites and low-income African Americans is widening. Despite receiving $76 billion in assistance after Katrina, poor and working people in New Orleans, especially African Americans, got very little of that help…
Detroit water shutoffs belie business ‘priority’ The Detroit New …Detroit’s water shutoff campaign remains focused on residents, despite vows this spring the city’s “first priority” would be delinquent businesses, records obtained by The Detroit News show. Homes account for a little more than half of the $119 million in delinquent bills — but nearly all shutoffs…
52 years ago, this speech changed the course of black voting rights in America Timeline …Fifty-two years ago, on August 22, 1964, Fannie Lou Hamer delivered arguably the most significant speech of her political career. The fiery civil rights activist known for her iconic line, “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired,” spoke before a televised audience at the 1964 Democratic National Convention (DNC)…
“Deadly Heat” in U.S. Prisons is Killing Inmates and Spawning Lawsuits The Intercept …In a 2014 report documenting the “deadly heat” inside Texas prisons, researchers with the University of Texas School of Law’s Human Rights Clinic found that since 2007, at least 14 inmates had died from extreme heat exposure in prisons across the state. The report documented at length the failures of prison officials to prevent heat-related injury to inmates and concluded with a series of recommendations…
Private Prison Companies Are Embracing Alternatives to Incarceration The Nation … Last Thursday, private prison stocks dropped like a rock when the Department of Justice announced that it would be phasing out its use of for-profit detention facilities. Nevertheless, private prison companies have hijacked the language of reform—but for them, it’s still business as usual….