TEAMSTERS

Teamster DHL-Contracted Pilots Protest Outside Atlas Air Worldwide Headquarters In Purchase, N.Y.   Teamsters…Holding signs reading “Our Families Deserve Better” and “Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings Pilots Ready to Strike,” pilots from major DHL and Amazon contractor Atlas Air are protesting outside the Purchase headquarters of their airline’s holding company, Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings (AAWW), to demand company executives stop denying them of a fair, industry-standard contract. This week marks the current contract’s amendable date – the date pilots are due a new contract by management…

Teamsters Applaud Judge’s Ruling To Continue Pipeline Construction   Teamsters…The Teamsters Union is pleased with a ruling today by U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg that will allow for the continued construction of the Dakota Access pipeline. Judge Boasberg ruled against an injunction filed by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to halt the pipeline project that is currently under construction in North Dakota. The Dakota Access pipeline was lawfully approved by four states, including North Dakota, and the United States Army Corps of Engineers…

Teamsters Decry Subcontracting At Warren Buffett Owned NetJets   Teamsters…The Teamsters Airline Division and Local 284 criticized NetJets today for continuing to subcontract critical aircraft maintenance to vendors and subcontractors as part of a scheme to save money, rather than using its own workers. “NetJets subcontracts maintenance work on a massive scale,” said Chris Moore, Chairman of the Aviation Mechanics Coalition. “NetJets Aviation, Inc. and NetJets Sales, Inc. employ a mere 111 mechanics to perform maintenance work on its fleet of approximately 400 aircraft. By comparison, a major airline employs over 7,000 mechanics to service its fleet of approximately 700 aircraft”…

UCSF Erupts In Protest   Teamsters Local 2010…Weeks of informational leafletting came to a climax on Wednesday, August 31, 2016 as workers from across UCSF rallied at Parnassus protesting the UC’s attack on workers. “Our work makes the University of California work,” said Secretary-Treasurer Jason Rabinowitz.  “UC workers deserve fair wages and the dignity that comes with a secure retirement.  It’s time the UC pays workers enough to live.” A masked superhero names Pension Plan Man joined the rally to protect the secure retirements of all UC workers…

U.S. Workers Unload First Of Hanjin Ships Stalled By Bankruptcy   Daily Mail (U.K.)…While the unloading of the Hanjin Greece was underway, truck drivers had not yet been called in to transport the goods from the port for distribution to retailers, many of which are awaiting products for the busy holiday shopping season. “At this moment, the drivers are still idle,” Patrick Kelly, secretary-treasurer for Teamsters Local 952, said at a news conference on Saturday morning. Once its unloaded, the Hanjin Greece will be reloaded with empty containers or with containers filled with goods for export, said Barbara Maynard, a spokeswoman for Justice for Port Drivers, a union organizing effort by the Teamsters’ Port Division…

Union: UTA Spends Plenty Of Taxpayer Money To Block Labor Organizing   Salt Lake Tribune…UTA declined to say whether it is spending any money on the effort or, if so, how much. The agency has delayed its responses to separate open-records requests seeking such information both by Teamsters Local 222 and The Salt Lake Tribune. “They are spending a lot of money,” asserts Britt Miller, business agent for the Teamsters local. “Our concern is tax dollars are being used to deny these workers their right to organize”…

Made In Hollywood Celebrates TV Industry Job Creation In Hollywood   KABC Los Angeles…”In one year we already increased production to the tune of $1.5 billion in direct spending to the state,” Amy Lemisch, executive director of the California Film Commission, explained. “That’s a lot of people employed, a lot of small businesses, and the studio facilities are really busy.” While the incentive program allows the stars to stay close to home, officials said it really benefits blue collar workers who are at full employment at the moment. “The beautiful part about our incentive is that it’s a below the line incentive, which means it’s for working class people,” Steve Dayan with Teamsters Local 399 Hollywood said…

 

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE

The Coup In Chile   Jacobin…What happened in Chile on September 11, 1973 did not suddenly reveal anything new about the ways in which men of power and privilege seek to protect their social order: the history of the last 150 years is spattered with such episodes. Even so, Chile has at least forced upon many people on the Left some uncomfortable reflections and questions about the “strategy” which is appropriate in Western-type regimes for what is loosely called the “transition to socialism”…

The Rise And Rise Of Zero-hours Contracts: 900,000 Workers Now Have Them   Yahoo News (U.K.)…The number of workers on zero-hours contracts has increased by a fifth over the past year, official figures show. More than 900,000 people say they work on a zero-hours basis in their main job – up from 747,000 a year ago. It means that almost 3% of British workers are on zero-hours contracts, the Office for National Statistics says. Women make up more than half of those on zero-hours contracts, while one in five of those on the contracts is in full-time education…

Boiler Explosion at Bangladesh Factory Kills at Least 23   New York Times…A boiler explosion in a cigarette packaging factory outside Dhaka enveloped the five-story building in flames early Saturday, killing at least 23 people, fire officials said…

A Reboot On Trade: As TPP And TTIP Stall, It’s Time To Rethink   Pittsburgh Post-Gazette…With the U.S. economy in the state it is in, and with a large portion of the American population victim to continuing economic inequality, it is natural for voters to be skeptical about trade agreements that might result in even more jobs being shipped offshore. If a subsequent U.S. administration returns to the table on TTIP and TPP, it should insist on agreements that will more equitably balance U.S. trade and put the American worker first…

China’s BRICS Trade Pact Idea Finds No Takers   The Hindu (New Delhi, India)…While Beijing’s proposal for a ‘BRICS FTA’ is aimed at boosting trade ties in the grouping through binding commitments on eliminating tariffs, BRICS members barring China are not keen on such a pact. Their apprehensions about the plan include the fear that it could lead to a surge in imports of Chinese goods into their territory — in turn, hurting local manufacturing.The development comes amid hectic preparations for the BRICS Trade Ministers Meeting on October 13 and the first BRICS Trade Fair from October 12 to 14 (both in Delhi) as well as the Eighth BRICS Summit (to be held in Goa) on October 15-16…

U.S. Senate Hopefuls On TPP: 3 Opposed, 1 In Favor, Michael Bennet Undecided   The Colorado Indepedent…Incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet is undecided about whether he will support the Trans-Pacific Partnership global trade agreement backed by President Barack Obama. In an interview with The Colorado Independent following a speech before a much-anticipated Sept. 10 debate, Bennet said he doesn’t know if he’ll take a stance on TPP before ballots drop in Colorado here next month…

Did The G20 Sound The Death Knell For Austerity?   The Market Mogul…Meeting in Hangzhou, China last weekend, world leaders gathered for the G20 talks faced the critical task of trying to achieve meaningful political consensus on how to stimulate global economic growth. Even as the US Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew announced the global shift toward fiscal stimulus (as advocated by the White House) was a fait accompli, dissenting voices were quick to respond. Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund – an institution itself under fire for policies that have deepened the austerity quagmire within the European Union – was quick to correct any perception that the battle was over…

 

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES

A $15 Minimum Wage Would Stop 1.2 Million Households From Going Hungry   The Nation…For such a wealthy nation, hunger is shockingly widespread in the United States. Food insecurity has risen about a third since the recession, to 14 percent of households nationwide. So why is it so hard for the world’s richest economy to provide poor people with enough money to feed themselves? Now we have some numbers to help explain to lawmakers what to the rest of us has become painfully obvious…

Why it Matters: Child Care And Pay Equity   Associated Press…In much of the U.S., families spend more on child care for two kids than on housing. And if you’re a woman, it’s likely you earn less than your male colleagues even though 1 in 4 households with kids relies on mom as the sole or primary breadwinner…

County Board Votes To Raise Minimum Wage   The Daily Cardinal…The Dane County Board of Supervisors voted to amend its minimum wage ordinance Tuesday night, increasing pay for workers of the county and entities with which the county contracts to $12.50 by January of next year…

Atlanta Looking At Ways To Increase Minimum Wage For City Workers   Atlanta Journal Constitution…This week, the Atlanta City Council voted to look at the feasibility of increasing the minimum wage for all full-time city employees to $15 an hour in increments over a three-year period beginning in 2018…

Opposing A Minimum Wage Hike Could Cost The GOP The Senate  Newsweek (Opinion)…New polling shows that close to 70 percent of voters in key swing states want an increase in the federal minimum wage—and that 60 percent or more support a $15 minimum wage in six of the seven states polled. Even more, the polling shows that candidates’ positions on raising pay could play a pivotal role in this year’s electoral battles for control of the U.S. Senate. The results show that the incumbent Republican U.S. senators locked in close races could lose critical support—and even their seats—over opposition to raising wages for working people…

Morristown Proposing Mandatory Sick Leave   Morristown Daily-Record…Employees would accrue paid sick leave at a rate of one hour for each 30 hours worked, according to the ordinance, which the Council is considering putting to a public vote or just approving on its own. The ordinance, No. O-34-2016, would apply to employees who provide food service, child care, or home health care, or who work for employers with 10 or more employees; it states they would be entitled to up to 40 hours of paid sick leave each year…

Austin Protesters Rally For $15 Minimum Wage At The Capitol   KXAN (Austin, TX)…The group fighting for wage increases is called Fight for $15 Texas. The rally is one of 25 happening around the country for Higher Ground Moral Day of Action initiated by Rev. Dr. William J Barber of North Carolina. They are calling on state lawmakers to raise the minimum wage to $15. The protesters will march with a Moral Declaration signed by more than 10,000 people seeking a livable wage…

 

U.S. LABOR

‘It’s Just Dressed Up Slavery’: America’s Shadow Workforce Rises Up Against Prison Labor   Center for American Progress…People behind bars are forced to do grueling, back-breaking, and dangerous work for nickles and dimes, while corporations rack up billions of dollars in profit off the cheap labor. They are put to work under the guise of rehabilitation, but the reality is that few people leave prison with the skills, knowledge, or resources to succeed professionally. They are an enticing alternative for large companies that don’t want to pay minimum wage to workers on the outside. And they have had enough…

Tom Brady Urges Players To ‘Stand Together’ In CBA Negotiations   ESPN…New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady sounded a rallying cry to players across the NFL on Thursday night, calling for them to band together in the coming years during negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement.” I actually think it’s a great opportunity for the players to come together and the players to recognize all the things we have negotiated, and as we negotiate hopefully a CBA extension, that we as players come together to really stand up for the things we believe in and continue to fight just as the players who fought before us,” Brady told host Jim Gray in a pregame radio interview on Westwood One before Thursday night’s NFL opener…

Momentive Workers On Path To Strike After Rejecting Contract   Albany Times-Union…Union workers at Momentive Performance Materials in Waterford were mulling a strike Friday after rejecting their company’s latest — and purportedly final — contract offer. IUE CWA Local 81359, which represents 700 workers at the Waterford-based Momentive, voted down a three-year contract that would give employees about $9,000 in wage increases over the next three years…

Trump’s New Jobs Adviser Doesn’t Understand Minimum-Wage Jobs  Center for American Progress…Andy Puzder has held some controversial views over the years, especially when it comes to low-wage jobs and pay, some of the jobs experiencing the strongest growth since the recession. In 2014, after his company’s home state of California raised its minimum wage to $9 an hour, Puzder called government-mandated increases in the minimum wage “artificial.” Instead, he argued that it should be left to the free market. “When there’s a demand for labor, the cost of labor goes up,” he said. “When there’s no demand for labor, it goes down and you can’t solve that problem by having the government artificially mandate a wage increase when there’s no economic growth to support that”…

Hillary Clinton Backs Bill To Protect Retired Coal Miners   Daily Kos…“I firmly believe that if you spent your life keeping the lights on for our country, we can’t leave you in the dark,” the Democratic presidential candidate said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press. Coal miners who have put their own health and safety at risk to provide the nation with affordable, reliable energy “are entitled to the benefits they have earned and the respect they deserve,” said Clinton, who has faced a backlash from coal communities after she declared earlier this year that she was going to “to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business”…

Five Ways America Would Be Different Without Labor Unions   AFL-CIO Blog…On Labor Day, we come together to thank all the American workers who built this great country—and to recognize the millions who wake up every morning to build us an even better future. There’s one group that deserves a special thanks: America’s labor unions. Here are five ways America would look different without labor unions…

Hunt For Holiday Workers Heats Up, Giving Wages A Boost   Wall Street Journal…Retailers such as Amazon.com Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., logistics companies and package-delivery giants like United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp. are expected to step up recruiting, start hiring earlier than usual and pay more for the extra help they need for the peak shopping season. The scramble for holiday-season logistics workers has been intensifying steadily in recent years, fueled by the growth of online shopping. Industry executives say they expect the nation’s relatively low unemployment rate and rising wages for workers at the bottom of the income ladder to make the temporary jobs even harder to fill…

 

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS

What Would It Take To Save The Middle Class?   The Atlantic…If the well-being of the middle-class is the yardstick by which America’s success is measured, then the country is in trouble. There was once a large population of middle-income American families, which stuck out as extraordinary compared to other countries. But in recent years, as developing nations have enjoyed ballooning middle classes, America’s has stalled out…

Bad Business As Usual: Anyone Who Thinks Trump Can Run The Country Must Look At How He’s Run His Campaign   Salon…During the Republican primaries when it became clear that Donald Trump might actually pull off his miracle and win the presidential nomination, conservative movement folks had a big decision to make. As Trump blundered and blustered his way through primary after primary leaving damaged and broken GOP all-stars in his wake, it became necessary for some of them to choose: should they be team players and join up with the certifiably unfit Trump or should they stand up and just say no?

The 30 Million Immigrants Trump Would Turn Away   The Atlantic…If nothing else, Trump’s long-awaited Arizona speech last week clarified this contradiction. Though largely overshadowed by his hard-edged proposals on undocumented immigrants, Trump proposed the most significant restriction on legal immigration since Congress slashed it after World War I. Projections by the non-partisan Pew Research Center suggest that, compared to current law, Trump’s plan would reduce legal immigration through 2065 by tens of millions. “The actual number of people who might not come to the United States would be at least 30 million, possibly more,” said Mark Hugo Lopez, Pew’s director of Hispanic research…

Hundreds Of Inmates Riot At Florida Prison   Miami Herald…Florida’s prison system, the third-largest in the country, has been dangerously understaffed for nearly a year, and several sieges have occurred in recent weeks. To further exacerbate tensions, many inmates have been in forced confinement in their dorms, allowed out only to eat because there isn’t even enough staff to guard them during outside recreation…

 

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