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Today’s Teamster News For August 29, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Endorse Hillary Clinton For President Teamsters…“We are proud to endorse Hillary Clinton for President of the United States,” said Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa. “She is the right candidate for the middle class and working men and women across the country. She will stand strong for the workers of America by fighting to reject job-killing trade deals, enforcing labor laws and working to provide retirement security for millions of people who have sacrificed so much for the chance to retire with dignity”…
Hillary Clinton Statement On International Brotherhood Of Teamsters Endorsement Hillary for America…Unions like the International Brotherhood of Teamsters built the American middle class, and they make our economy run today. Teamsters keep our planes in the air, they put food on our shelves, and they get packages to our doors. In fighting for better wages and safer conditions on the job, the Teamsters are fighting for all America’s workers…
Workers At Sysco’s FreshPoint In Florida Vote To Join Teamsters Local 769 Teamsters…By a 60-35 vote, drivers at FreshPoint in Pompano Beach, Fla., voted today to join Teamsters Local 769, the third organizing victory at Sysco in South Florida in the past four months. FreshPoint, a produce delivery company, is a division of Sysco, the largest food-service company in the country. There are 101 workers in the bargaining unit…
Teamsters Intensify National Handbilling Of Albertsons Grocery Stores Teamsters…The International Brotherhood of Teamsters intensified rolling handbilling 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…
Louisiana Flood Relief Drive Collects Thousands In Donations KMOX (St. Louis, MO)…Teamsters spokesman Roy Gillespie says total donations from Friday morning’s KMOX collection drive for flood victims in Baton Rouge filled five, 53-foot trailers…
Invest In WA! State Workers To Rally In Olympia On Wed Teamsters Local 117…Whatever is decided in Local 117’s upcoming interest arbitration hearing next week, one thing is clear. “Teamsters Local 117 needs to come together to hold the State accountable so that we can get our contract funded,” they said in a statement posted online. “That’s why we’ve helped organize a rally next Wednesday, August 31 from noon to 1 PM in the Capitol Rotunda in Olympia. We want to let state lawmakers know this next contract is about investing in Washington, and investing in our future”…
Pressure From Uber Drivers Leads To Minimum Fare Increase Teamsters Local 117…Just two days after drivers packed a hearing room at City Hall to demand swift, fair implementation of the City’s new collective bargaining law, Uber announced that it would raise its minimum fare from $4.00 to $4.80. “This means that drivers who get dispatched on short trips will see a modest increase in their earnings,” Local 117 said in a statement posted online. “As far as we know, Seattle is the only city where Uber is offering a higher minimum fare for drivers”…
Local 727 Secures Three-Year Contract For Burr Oak Cemetery Workers Teamsters Local 727…Teamsters Local 727 secured a new three-year contract for workers at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Ill. The members, who are employed by Quality First Management, ratified the agreement on Aug. 15. The contract, which expires April 30, 2019, protects all job security clauses and working conditions and provides quarterly lump-sum bonuses to cover health care premiums and retirement investments…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Tunisia’s New Government Wins Parliamentary Approval, Eyes Austerity Reuters…Tunisia’s new government won a confidence vote late on Friday after the Prime Minister Youssef Chahed warned in Parliament an austerity program will be inevitable with thousands of public sector job cuts and new taxes if Tunisia does not overcome its economic difficulties. The Unity government was backed by 167 of the parliament’s 217 members…
Ghana: Striking ECG Workers To Face Sanctions All Africa…Ghana’s government has said it may be forced to take punitive actions against workers of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) if they do not immediately abort their ongoing 3-hour daily protest scheduled to end on Friday. Yesterday [Wednesday], the ECG workers laid down their tools in all district and regional offices to protest government’s decision to hand over management of the company to a private entity…
Defying Challenges, Myanmar Workers Win Rights At Work Solidarity Center…Myanmar garment workers helped form a union at a 200-worker factory, standing up to massive employer resistance. Many workers were fired in 2015 for forming the union, but with the assistance of the Confederation of Trade Unions–Myanmar (CTUM), some workers returned to the job. “The life of workers is very poor,” says Myo Zaw Oo, a CTUM organizer who helps garment workers form unions and helps solve their problems at the workplace. “Workers don’t know about their rights. They are very vulnerable,” he says, speaking through a translator…
Sherrod Brown: Put American workers — Not Corporate Profits — First Orlando Sentinel (opinion)…For too long, Americans have been fed one empty promise after another when it comes to trade. Workers are angry, and they have every right to be. They were assured that free trade would create ever-expanding prosperity. That hasn’t happened — instead, our middle class is shrinking, and too many families struggle to get by. Corporate profits have gone up, while wages haven’t kept pace. And our trade agreements have been exposed as corporate handouts and worker sellouts…
Postal Union Serves Notice Of Strike Action Toronto Star…The union representing 50,000 postal workers has served formal notice that it is prepared to take strike action beginning Monday, though it will stop short of walking off the job. The 72-hour notice of job action was only filed on Thursday, after Canada Post refused a request by Labour Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk for a 24-hour extension of timelines, the union said…
Texas Congressmen Predict TPP Dies In Congress WFAA (Dallas, TX)…The Trans Pacific Partnership, one of President Obama’s signature trade deals, will likely die in Congress, according to three North Texas congressmen who are both Republican and Democrat. “I’m not betting the farm or my first born on the TPP passing,” said U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas 5th District, on this morning’s Inside Texas Politics broadcast on WFAA…
German Official Says U.S.-Europe Trade Talks Have Collapsed, Blames Washington National Public Radio…The Obama administration and the 28-member European Union have been in talks to set up the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, which would be the world’s largest free trade zone. But negotiations have reportedly stalled because of the unexpected decision by Britain to leave the EU and because of growing public opposition to trade agreements on both sides of the Atlantic…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
The Scorching Cynicism Of Scott Walker’s Assault On Voting The Nation…Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has for many years engaged in urgent advocacy for laws that make it harder for voters to cast ballots. As the governor of a state that frequently backs Republicans in off-year elections, but that has not backed a Republican for president since 1984, Walker has emerged as a national leader in the fight for rules and restrictions on practices and procedures that are designed to make voting easy. That has put the governor at odds with Wisconsin’s historic commitment to high-turnout elections…
Democracy Wins As ‘Biggest Gerrymandering Case In Generation’ Moves Forward Common Dreams…A panel of federal judges on Wednesday advanced what an expert says could be “the biggest gerrymandering case in a generation”—one that could have nationwide implications for elections and democracy across the United States. The three-judge court ruled 2-1 (pdf) that the First Amendment-based claim against partisan gerrymandering regarding Maryland’s sixth congressional district is valid and may proceed, either to summary judgment or trial. The ruling has no bearing on voting this November, and a decision would apply only to future elections…
Assembly To Vote On Farmworker Overtime Bill After Protest KQED (San Francisco, CA)…AB 1066 would allow workers to be paid overtime after they work eight hours a day or 40 hours a week. Right now they must work 10 hours a day or 60 hours a week to get extra pay. The bill faces tough opposition. Supporters knew it could be close, but they were shocked when it wasn’t even put up for a vote after Assembly leaders were unsure whether it had the 41 votes needed to pass…
New Massachusetts Law Promises Pay Equality To Close The Gender Wage Gap NBC…This month, in an effort to close the widespread wage gap and prevent other women from having to fight the same battle as Duchon, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed the “Pay Equity bill” into law. This legislation prohibits companies from asking prospective employers their current or past salary history…
Right-to-work Debate Puts National Spotlight On Missouri Governor’s Race St. Louis Post-Dispatch…If Republican nominee Eric Greitens is elected on Nov. 8, Missouri will almost certainly, almost immediately become America’s 27th “right-to-work” state. If he isn’t, it probably won’t…
Today’s Inequality Could Easily Become Tomorrow’s Catastrophe The New York Times (opinion)…Economic inequality is already a concern, but it could become a nightmare in the decades ahead, and many fear that we are not well equipped to deal with it…
The Fed And Labor Agree: Workers Need A Raise Cincinnati Enquirer…The consensus among the machinist, teacher, construction and postal worker unions is that employees haven’t received raises in years and it’s eating into their ability to make ends meet or plan for the future…
Study Finds No Evidence Of Widespread Voter Fraud NBC News…A study of 2,068 alleged election-fraud cases in 50 states between 2000 and 2012 found the level of fraud was infinitesimal compared with the 146 million voters registered over the 12-year period…
U.S. LABOR
Faculty Unions For Pa. Universities Will Vote On Whether To Strike Pittsburgh Post-Gazette…A 14-month contract dispute inched closer to a showdown Thursday as the union representing faculty and coaches at Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities scheduled a strike-authorization vote by members. Professors belonging to the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties will cast ballots on Sept. 7-9. Coaches belonging to the union will hold a separate election Sept. 14-15…
The 401(k) Is Wreaking Havoc On Retirement Bloomberg...College graduates have always been able to get better jobs. What’s new in recent decades is that traditional pensions have all but vanished, replaced by 401(k)-style plans. In 1980, 38 percent of private sector workers had a pension and 19 percent a 401(k). By last year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, the numbers had more or less reversed—just 15 percent had a pension and 43 percent a 401(k)…
We Work Too Much, But It Doesn’t Have To Be That Way Washington Post (opinion)…Throughout the history of capitalism, workers have demanded a reduction in working hours to leave more time for leisure, while employers have pushed for the opposite. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, workers fought for and won the 10-hour day and then the eight-hour day. Since then, however, progress toward shorter hours has stalled. It will take political organizing and legislative reforms to expand and enrich the time available to us outside of work…
M.T.A. Contract Workers Will Earn Higher Wages By 2018 The New York Times…The company that runs a call center for Access-A-Ride, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s service for people with disabilities, and the union that represents its workers have reached an agreement to raise their wages to at least $15 an hour by 2018, the union announced on Friday…
A Manhattan Diner’s New Management Has Servers Singing A Defiant Tune The New York Times…But in the last eight months, according to employees of the restaurant, a new management team has fired more than 30 of their colleagues — servers and kitchen workers — while instituting new policies that staff members said threatened their acting careers, their livelihoods and, potentially, the feature that made the restaurant a haven for aspiring stars. On Friday, workers representing a group of over 50 employees notified management that they had formed a union after months of organizing secretly…
New York’s Nail Salons Are Still Toxic The Nation…New policies to improve ventilation in the state’s thousands of nail salons is one modest measure by regulators to protect worker and consumer health in low-budget beauty shops notorious for toxic-chemical contamination. Yet business owners are protesting on the grounds that mandating cleaner air could stifle their American Dream…
Union Makes 1st Amendment Claim For Rats Milwaukee Journal Sentinel…Giant rats could be headed back to Grand Chute after a federal appeals court reversed a judge’s decision for the Fox Valley town that claimed the rats — inflatable rubber ones — were illegal signs, not free speech…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
‘No Vacancies’ for Blacks: How Donald Trump Got His Start, and Was First Accused of Bias The New York Times…Over the next decade, as Donald J. Trump assumed an increasingly prominent role in the business, the company’s practice of turning away potential black tenants was painstakingly documented by activists and organizations that viewed equal housing as the next frontier in the civil rights struggle…
Economists Who’ve Advised Presidents Are No Fans Of Donald Trump Wall Street Journal…The Wall Street Journal this month reached out to all 45 surviving former members of the White House Council of Economic Advisers under the past eight presidents, going back to Richard Nixon, to get their views on this year’s presidential election. Among 17 Republican appointees who responded to Journal inquiries, none said they supported Mr. Trump. Six said they did not support Mr. Trump and 11 declined to say either way. An additional six did not respond to repeated messages. Among the 21 Democrats who responded to the Journal, 14 said they supported Mrs. Clinton, none said they opposed her and seven declined to say either way…
The Big Risk To The Economy That No One’s Talking About: Spiraling Corporate Debt Salon.com…With so much attention paid to U.S. tech giants and their deep pockets (the kind that allow them to swallow $100 million start ups without missing a beat), it’s easy to overlook the fact that some corners of corporate America have worrisome debt problems. U.S. companies now have less cash on hand to than they did in the midst of the Great Recession, causing experts to warn that many could be at risk should the economy stall and borrowing costs rise as lenders tighten their purse strings. Some corporations, especially in the energy sector, are already struggling to survive under the burden of debt…