TEAMSTERS

Bus Drivers In Minooka Set To Strike On First Day Of School   WSPY…Minooka High School District 111 officials are preparing for bus drivers and bus aides to go on strike the first day of school, which is Monday, August 15th. Negotiations have been ongoing since February and the district on Monday received a Notice of Intent to Strike from Teamsters Local 179.The Union and the District attended a session with a federal mediator on Tuesday, but negotiations were cut short by the union shortly before noon…

Unions Looking To Millennials As Alberta Workforce Grows Younger   Teamsters Local 362…With millennials now making up almost 40 per cent of Canada’s working population, it will be up to a younger generation of employees to decide how relevant unions are in today’s labour movement. For decades unions have fought for fairer wages, more secure pensions and equality in the workplace. With high unemployment rates and growing numbers of precarious jobs spanning the province, millennials are looking to unions for opportunity and security…

Teamsters Local 118 Endorses Rachel Barnhart   Rachel Barnhart for Assembly (Release)…Teamsters Local 118 has endorsed Rachel Barnhart for State Assembly for the 138th District. “The Local 118 Executive Board was extremely impressed regarding your Union Membership with AFTRA and your personal experience to take on an injustice against working people and winning!” President Paul Markwitz wrote in the union’s endorsement letter…

Local 769 Joins The Rivers Coalition   Teamsters Local 769…The Rivers Coalition is a group of more than 85 businesses and organizations and their mission “is to fight for a safe, healthy and ecologically balanced St. Lucie River Estuary and Indian River Lagoon.  Natural resources that are vital to the economy and quality of life of Martin County and the Treasure Coast”.  The Rivers Coalition was created in 1998 by local businesses and environmental groups that educate the public and advocate for clean waterways in Florida…

An Update On The Release Of DOC Personal Information   Teamsters Local 117…Earlier this year, the so-called, “Freedom Foundation” made a public records request to obtain personal information of Local 117 members, including phone numbers, emails, and birth dates. The “Freedom Foundation” is an anti-union organization. As they have done with multiple other state labor unions, they have been seeking the release of Teamsters’ private information so they can contact and mislead workers into abandoning union membership and, in the process, defund public sector unions…

Roxbury School Bus Drivers Predict New Route “Havoc”   Tap Into Roxbury (Roxbury, NJ)…Parents and students in Roxbury will face bus route “havoc” when school opens next month, warns the union representing the town’s school bus drivers. “As if the first day of school isn’t hectic enough for students and parents, Roxbury school bus drivers have great concern that the new routing format slated to be introduced this September is going to cause more havoc,” said Teamsters Local 97 Business Agent Jill Pitman, in a statement…

Teamsters To Get Raises Under New City Contract   Pittsburgh Post-Gazette…The five-year pact boosts base wages to $14.75, up from $12.28 now, consistent with the mayor’s drive to get all full-time city workers to the $15-an-hour level. First-year Teamsters will get $15.20 an hour in 2018. The cost is partially offset by savings gained from moving the 184 Teamsters to a union-sponsored health care plan, according to an administration press release…

 

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE

U.S. TPP Battle Is Sign ‘Old America Is Gone’   CNBC…Historically, Republicans had always supported free trade, but now the mood has turned nationalistic, said Koh, who called himself an “accidental diplomat” despite 50 years of working within the Singapore government. The collegiality between the two major parties has also disappeared and the atmosphere is now a “civil war”, said Koh at the DBS Asian Insights conference in Singapore on Thursday…

Just How Powerful Are France’s Labor Unions?   Al Jazeera…In June, the French strikes made international headlines as rubbish piled up in the streets, trains and planes were cancelled, and oil refineries paralysed – overshadowing the start of one of the world’s biggest sporting events. Although France hosted more than a million tourists for the tournament, while being under a state of emergency since the attacks in November, French workers did not relinquish their right to strike…

Contentious Election Brings TPP Trade Deal To Front    The Epoch Times...President Barack Obama, who signed the deal in February, continuously defends and champions the prosperity promised by the trade deal, but when speaking in the convention hall, he made no mention of it. Both presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, have publicly opposed the deal. In each of the candidate’s acceptance speeches, the candidates referred disparagingly to it—although Clinton didn’t name the TPP directly…

Global Trade And The Politics Of The TPP Backlash   On Point with Tom Ashbrook (WBUR)…On the campaign trail, Sen. Bernie Sanders called the Trans-Pacific Partnership – the TPP trade deal – a nightmare for American workers. Hillary Clinton says it’s not good enough. Donald Trump calls it the rape of America. This week, President Barack Obama is again strongly supporting it. Backers of the TPP are pinning their hopes on racing it through Congress in a lame duck session this fall, no matter who wins the White House.  This hour On Point, who’s right?  The battle over the TPP…

Corbyn Unveils Series Of Pledges To End Tory Austerity That Has “Ravaged Our Country”    Labourlist.org…Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to fight the “failed austerity model of turbo-Thatcherism” of the Conservatives with a raft of promises designed to promote fairness in Britain and abroad. The leadership candidate pledged 10 policies this morning at a business park in east London, including a £500bn infrastructure investment plan, building one million houses – half of which will be council houses – a national education service which would be open to everyone throughout their lives and putting justice at the heart of the UK’s foreign policy…

 

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES

Polk County And Des Moines Move Closer To Raising Minimum Wage    WQAD...After a task force said it intends to recommend that Polk County raise the minimum wage to $10.75 an hour by 2019, the discussion on whether to implement that change appears to be headed to the county’s individual cities. The Des Moines Register reports that people who aren’t satisfied with the wage plan can take their cases to local city governments and urge them to opt out of the proposed wage increases…

Low Minimum Wage Means Taxes Subsidize Wealthy Corporations    Star-Telegram…The CEO of McDonalds got a 69 percent raise last year. Steve Easterbrook made $1.1 million base salary with a bonus up to $1.7 million. Even if you have never purchased a McDonalds product, your tax dollars are a portion of these increases going to Easterbrook and every other CEO in the service industry. I’m picking on McDonalds but, like all of the U.S. corporations, there is little pressure to pay a living wage to the service industry workers. Right now, Americans are working full time, sometimes two or more jobs, and they are still falling below the poverty level. These full-time workers are eligible to receive food stamps, welfare checks and other community assistance…

Paid Family Leave Benefits Growing Trend    Chicago Daily Law Bulletin…The call for paid family leave on the Democratic Party platform is the most ambitious attempt by a major party in years to reverse the United States’ status as the only industrialized nation without any standard for paid time off for new parents. But over the last five years a handful of states and some industries have been quietly increasing this benefit. Last week’s convention put paid family leave on the list of workplace election issues along with the minimum wage and equal pay. The Democrats say they will try to secure up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave to care for a new child. While the Republican platform makes no specific reference to paid family leave, the GOP in 2015 called for establishing a “flexible credit hour program” in which workers could exchange overtime hours worked for future leave time…

Texas Will Soften Voter ID Law Before November Election    CBS News…Texas agreed Wednesday to weaken its voter ID law, which federal courts have said discriminated against minorities and the poor and left more than 600,000 registered voters potentially unable to cast a ballot. The state worked fast to soften the law before November’s election, moving from requiring voters to show one of seven forms of suitable ID — a list that included concealed handgun permits, but not college IDs — to letting those without such an ID to sign an affidavit. That will allow them to cast a regular full ballot, and their vote will be counted. Texas must also spend at least $2.5 million on voter outreach before November, according to the agreement submitted to U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos, who must still approve the changes…

Tighter Restrictions Are Losing In The Battle Over Voter ID Laws    FiveThirtyEight…The struggle over who can vote on Election Day is becoming more heated in courtrooms, judges’ chambers and statehouses across the country, paralleling the intensity of the presidential race. And at the moment, the side that wants fewer voting restrictions seems to be winning. The battle began in earnest after 2010, when several Republican state legislatures began tightening identification requirements on voters. It has reached a new level in the 2016 election, when voters in 17 states faced new restrictions that ranged from photo ID requirements to cutbacks on early voting and same-day registration. Republicans said the laws were necessary to prevent fraud; Democrats and voting rights advocates said the restrictions were really designed to reduce participation by minority groups and young voters who traditionally support Democrats…

Court Denies North Carolina Motion To Stay Decision On Voter ID Law    Reuters…A U.S. appeals court issued an order on Thursday denying North Carolina’s motion to stay the court’s decision last week striking down the state’s voter ID law. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said staying its ruling now “would only undermine the integrity and efficiency of the upcoming election.” On Friday, the court ruled that the North Carolina law, which required voters to show photo identification when casting ballots, intentionally discriminated against African-American residents…

Higher Minimum Wages Lead To Healthier Newborns, According To Two New Studies    Slate…The potential benefits of raising the federal minimum wage continues to be a matter of controversy among economists. Proponents of a minimum wage hike believe it would reduce poverty and decrease income inequality. Skeptics argue that it would lead to fewer jobs and higher prices. Now, further complicating this already complicated debate, there’s new research on some of the long overlooked non-market benefits of higher wages. Two recent studies have found that higher mandated hourly wages lead to healthier babies at birth. The first, titled “Effects of the Minimum Wage on Health” and published as a working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research, compared the birth weight, fetal growth, and gestation length of babies born to women with low educational status from states with different minimum wages. They rely on data from 1989 through 2012, a period during which the federal minimum wage went from $3.35 to $7.25, and higher in states where mandated wages supersede the federal minimum…

800 Workers To Benefit From New Minimum Wage    BVI News…While noting that 800 employees in the British Virgin Islands will be affected by the new minimum wage which will take effect on October 1, the government has urged all employers to comply. It added that measures are in place to ensure enforcement of the new minimum wage, which will be $6 per hour, up from $4. “The new minimum wage will be enforced through the Labour Department by means of inspections, work permit cross-checking, employer orientation sessions, and encouraged employee awareness and reporting,” said Labour Commissioner Janice Rymer…

U.S. LABOR
SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris Appointed To AFL-CIO Executive Council   Hollywood Reporter…“Gabrielle is a long-time union activist who is not afraid to stand up and fight for what’s best for her fellow actors,” said AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka. “I am proud to welcome her to the executive council, and look forward to working with her to make the lives of all working people better.” Said Carteris: “I’m thrilled to join the AFL-CIO executive council and look forward to working with my fellow council members to advance the interests of SAG-AFTRA members and those of our brother and sister unions. I want to thank President Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler, Executive Vice President Tefere Gebre and all of my fellow council members for this great honor and tremendous opportunity”…

Another News Site Is Trying To Unionize. This Time, Management Is Fighting It Hard.   Huffington Post…The staffers behind the union drive were hoping collective bargaining could address a list of concerns ― and not necessarily about pay. Some reporters, for instance, felt pressure to write uncritical articles about big law firms and their partners. So management’s reaction to the union effort struck a few of those staffers as ironic. Law360 quickly retained the services of Jackson Lewis, a law firm well known for its pricey “union avoidance” work on behalf of employers. As it happens, Jackson Lewis gets plenty of nice coverage in the pages of Law360. Last year, the site put Jackson Lewis on its top ten lists for “most charitable law firms” and the “mightiest employment practice groups”…

Rauner Administration Suspends No-Overtime Plan For Home Care Workers   Associated Press…Secretary of Human Services James Dimas said the agency would seek permission to bar overtime hours through an administrative rule with the consent of the Illinois General Assembly. Human Services prohibited overtime earlier this year after the federal government decided home care workers deserved time-and-a-half pay for work over 40 hours a week. Dimas said the policy — not fully enforced until May — has saved $5 million and provides a break for some caregivers who routinely worked double-digit hours…

Water Bottles For Farm Workers South Of Bakersfield   Kern Golden Empire…Th out water bottles yesterday afternoon at the corner of David and Wheeler Ridge Roads. The ‘lifeline’ bottles are printed with information about workers’ rights during dangerously hot temperatures…e United Farm Workers and a billionaire philanthropist took action to prevent heat deaths and illnesses among farm workers. The UFW and next-gen president Tom Steyer passed

AFSCME Refutes Rauner Administration Fine Threat Claims   WSRP…Gov. Rauner’s administration claims if AFSCME chooses to strike over stalled contract negotiations, AFSCME threatens to fine any of the 38,000 state workers who cross a picket line. AFSCME responded to the claim Wednesday saying the allegations are false. They say this is an attempt by the state to distract from the real problems created by the Rauner administration…

Grocery Strike Averted: Workers Reach Tentative Deal With Ralphs And Albertsons   Los Angeles Times…Rick Icaza, the president of United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 770, said the two sides hammered out a deal Thursday. He declined to give further details until Monday, when union members are to vote on the package. “For all intents and purposes, it’s over,” he said. Ralphs spokeswoman Kendra Doyel said the company had proposed pay increases and changes to its pension and healthcare plans. She did not provide specifics on the deal…

Economy Shrugs Off Signs Of Trouble With Strong Job Growth In July    Think Progress...The economy added 255,000 jobs in July while the unemployment rate remained at 4.9 percent, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Analysts had expected 180,000 jobs to be added. July’s job growth was driven by professional and business services (70,000), health care (43,000), finance (18,000), leisure and hospitality (45,000), and food and drinking places (21,000). Public sector employment also increased by 38,000 jobs. The two previous months were also revised upward, with 18,000 more jobs than previously reported. May was revised from a paltry 11,000 up to 24,000, while June’s blockbuster number of 287,000 went up to 292,000. Job gains have averaged 190,000 a month for the last three months. In total, the economy has added 1.3 million jobs since December of last year…

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS

The Permanence Of Black Lives Matter    The Atlantic…The “Vision 4 Black Lives,” as the platform has been known on social media, lays out six core planks around criminal justice, reparations, investment and divestment, economic justice, community control, and political power. Some of these items, including the criminal-justice components of the platform’s demands to “end the war on black people,” are likely familiar to anyone who has followed the development of Black Lives Matter. But other ideas, including demands to add special protections for trans, queer, and gender-nonconforming people to anti-discrimination laws, a call for free education for black people, and a proposal to implement black economic cooperatives, haven’t previously been spelled out quite this clearly. The demands are certainly controversial, but they are clearly the result of considered and methodical decision-making…

Apple Store Employees Are Diverse, But Their Silicon Valley Co-Workers Lag Behind    Think Progress…On the tech side, gender diversity has improved by 3 percentage points since 2014, with 23 percent of tech jobs filled by women. The number of Asian workers has ticked up 4 points since 2014, with the number of blacks increasing 2 points. Hispanics in tech saw a marginal increase from 6 percent in 2014 to 7 percent in 2016. The transformation of Apple’s workforce from a white, male dominated company to one that is more reflective of society as a whole is a slow process, but Apple’s report is heartening. CEO Tim Cook has been outspoken and proactive about the tech industry’s need for diversity of all kinds, including religion, sexual orientation and gender identity. In fact, some of the company’s most visible — and perhaps most laudable — improvements have been in its outward representation…

Health Secretary Details How Congress Is Screwing Over Americans Who Get Zika    Huffington Post...The bill got tanked in a partisan squabble last month after Republicans decided to add in contraception restrictions, a pro-Confederate flag provision, extra cuts to Obamacare, and a measure to exempt pesticides from the Clean Water Act, even though those pesticides don’t target Zika-carrying mosquitoes. They then departed for a seven-week break while sending a sternly worded letter to Obama, saying he should take aggressive action to battle Zika using the $589 million the administration transferred from other programs, taken primarily from the ongoing Ebola response. GOP lawmakers have also complained recently that the money is not being spent quickly enough, with nearly two-thirds still available. Wednesday, Burwell detailed how that money is being spent, and how key programs actually will run dry this month if Congress does not act. “Now that the United States is in the height of mosquito season and with the progress in developing a Zika vaccine, the need for additional resources is critical,” she wrote to the top members of the appropriations committees in the House and Senate. “Without additional funding as requested in the President’s request for an emergency supplemental, our nation’s ability to effectively respond to Zika will be impaired…”

 

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