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Today’s Teamster News For September 13, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters End Strike At ABC Supply, Ratify New Contract Teamsters…Members of Teamsters Local 25, who had been on strike since May against the roofing corporation ABC Supply Co., have ratified a contract. The new five-year contract includes significant improvements over the company offer that was on the table when the workers went on strike…
Local 710 Negotiations Continue With Classic Party Rentals Teamsters Local 710…The Teamsters Local 710 Bargaining Committee has exchanged and responded to bargaining proposals as progress continues to be made during contract negotiations with Classic Party Rentals. The employer tentatively agreed to the union’s proposal to not use temporary workers during the “slow season” when operations are significantly decreased due to the seasonal nature of the business…
Teamsters Union Pleased With Dakota Access Ruling World Pipelines Magazine…The Teamsters Union has released a statement, which claims that it is pleased with the ruling made by US District Court Judge James Boasberg on the Dakota Access pipeline. Judge Boasberg’s decision ruled against an injunction filed by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to halt the pipeline project that is currently under construction in North Dakota. His decision allowed for the continuation of construction at pipeline work sites…
Busing Company Underpaid Pension Plan, Suit Claims The Citizen (Laconia, NH)…A savings and investment plan for Teamsters members in New England has filed a civil suit in U.S. District Court claiming the company, which provides school bus transportation for students throughout the Lakes Region, has shorted on paying pension benefits. First Student Inc., headquartered in Cincinnati, is a national provider of school bus transportation. In the Lakes Region, the company is under contract as the carrier for students in the Inter-Lakes, Laconia and Shaker Regional School Districts…
Minooka Bus Union Negotiations Continue Morris Herald-News…Minooka school officials and the union representing bus drivers and aides met late last week for contract negotiations once again, but an agreement was not reached. Teamsters Local 179 – representing bus drivers and aides from Districts 111 and 201 – posted on its website Friday about the negotiations that occurred that day. Union officials said the districts’ conduct in the negotiations is “nothing less than shameful” and has “unfortunately increased the likelihood of further disruption to bus services”…
Virginia Teamsters Protest State’s Incentives To Help MillerCoors Craft Brewing Business…The Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) board was confronted by out-of-work Virginians protesting the commonwealth’s decision to provide a $500,000 grant, plus tax breaks and other incentives to MillerCoors in exchange for only 27 new jobs at its Shenandoah Valley brewery. The workers’ jobs are being destroyed by MillerCoors as it shuts its Eden brewery in neighboring North Carolina this month (we covered that in this column last year). Of the 500 jobs lost in Eden, 122 were held by Virginia workers. Most of the MillerCoors Virginia workers who are losing their jobs in Eden are from Ridgeway, Martinsville and Danville, Virginia — areas that have been hard hit by job losses…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Elizabeth Warren Squares Off Against Global Super Court Buzzfeed News…The secretive private legal system written into many international trade treaties is the epitome of a “rigged game,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren told BuzzFeed News. But it is not set in stone, she said. In an interview in her office on Capitol Hill, she outlined three steps that could get rid of it entirely…
Bangladesh Women Workers Take Steps To Gender Equality Solidarity Center…Bangladesh women garment workers make 20 percent less than their male counterparts and are often physically and sexually harassed. Yet women comprise 80 percent of the country’s 4 million garment workers, and the garment industry accounts for more than 80 percent of Bangladesh’s export earnings, according to Solidarity Center Senior Program Officer Lily Gomes, speaking on a panel yesterday at the 2016 Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) forum in Bahia, Brazil…
Trade Agreements Should Mainstream Human Rights – UN Expert Urges UN News Center…“Investors and transnational enterprises have invented new rules to suit their needs, rules that impinge on the regulatory space of States and disenfranchise the public,” the United Nations Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, Alfred de Zayas, warned during the presentation of his latest report to the UN Human Rights Council, according to a news release from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). “In case of conflict, priority must be given to advancing the public interest rather than continuing the current emphasis on profit expectations of investors and transnational corporations,” he added…
Secrecy, Democracy And The TPP: Trade Transparency Is What The Public Wants–And Needs The Hill (opinion)…Without actual documents and with members of Congress throttled, the public was left with what little information could be gleaned from the government, and a few drafts published by Wikileaks. When the full text of the TPP came out in November of last year, it was even worse than expected, according to many groups that were monitoring the secretive trade negotiations. It is clear that from workers’ rights, to access to medicine, to food safety to climate change, the impact of the TPP would be felt in some way by every American…
TPP: A Threat To Our Digital Rights Manilla Standard (opinion)…Joining the trade bloc would require the Philippines to comply with all 30 chapters of the free trade agreement, a move that would necessitate changing regulations, laws and even the Constitution. At a seminar last month, researchers found that the Phillipines falls short of the pact’s requirement for a truly competitive environment in telecommunications. While few would question the need to encourage genuine competition in the island nation’s telecommunications duopoly, one participant at the forum questioned the prudence of tailoring laws and regulations to a foreign trade agreement the Philippines didn’t help draft, or even the wisdom of joining the TPP in the first place…
EU-US TTIP Agreement Talks Unlikely To Progress Before June 2017 Sputnik News…The negotiations on the trade deal between Europe and the United States, that stipulates the free trade zone between the two regions and that is set to be finalized before the end of the year, have been going for the last three years, but 14 rounds of talks have not brought any result. “Taking into consideration the forthcoming elections in Austria, France, Germany, as well as in the United States itself, any substantial progress could not be expected in the TTIP negotiations before the end of June, 2017,” the source said…
Longshoremen In France To Join Labor Reform Strike Thursday American Shipper…French dockworkers with the trade union CGT will join a nationwide strike against a labor reform bill it says contravenes conventions of the International Labour Organisation relating to collective bargaining, trade union rights, and layoffs. CGT said in a statement translated from the original French it will mobilize trade union organizations of wage earners, youth CGT, FO, FSU, Solidaires, UNEF, UNL, LDIFs, private-employees, students, and retirees Sept. 15 to protest the labor law…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
‘Moral Day of Action’ Rallies Focus On Workers, Poor, Sick ABC News…Activists in more than half the states in the nation marched and rallied Monday, calling on elected officials to view public policies through a moral lens that focuses on the poor, workers, the sick and other disenfranchised people…
State Capitol Flooded With Supporters Of A Higher Minimum Wage CBS4…Supporters of a higher minimum wage flooded the Colorado state Capitol on Monday. The workers are fighting for $15 an hour wages. They protested with faith and community leaders at the Capitol…
Protesters At Capitol Call For Higher Minimum Wage, Slam Voter ID Proposals St. Louis Post-Dispatch…Joining groups protesting in 25 other state capitals for a day of action, faith leaders and workers rallied in Jefferson City Monday to call for a $15 an hour minimum wage, Medicaid expansion and the rejection of a proposed photo ID requirement to vote…
Judge Temporarily Blocks Proof-of-citizenship Voting Requirement In 3 States The Washington Post…A federal judge said Monday he is unlikely to hear arguments in a lawsuit challenging a proof-of-citizenship requirement in a mail-in federal voter registration form used by Kansas, Alabama and Georgia until an appeals court panel that looked at the matter issues its written opinion…
California Farmworker Overtime Bill Signed By Jerry Brown Sacramento Bee…Brown, a fourth-term Democrat, signed Assembly Bill 1066 without comment. The farmworker overtime bill’s enactment followed narrow passage in the Legislature and intense lobbying by farmworkers. Assembly Bill 1066 will raise overtime wages for agricultural workers incrementally over four years, ultimately matching other industries by requiring time-and-a-half pay for more than eight hours in a day or 40 hours in a week…
Top Dem Urges Labor Dept. To Investigate Chipotle For Wage Theft The Hill…Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) is calling on the Labor Department to investigate allegations that Chipotle Mexican Grill is failing to pay employees overtime. According to media reports, nearly 10,000 workers from the fast casual Mexican restaurant chain have joined a class action lawsuit against the company for allegedly forcing employees to work “off the clock” hours without compensation…
Cleveland Council Approves $15 Minimum Wage For Ballot WKYC (Cleveland, OH)…Cleveland City Council approved legislation to place the raise of minimum wage to $15 on the May 2017 ballot. The legislation was approved under emergency on first reading Monday. The measure would appear on the May 2, 2017 ballot and, if approved, would take effect the following January…
Despite Court Ruling, Activists Continue $15 Minimum Wage Push In Minneapolis Minneapolis Public Radio…More than 100 people marched through north Minneapolis Monday afternoon in a demonstration calling for a $15 an hour minimum wage in the city. Low-wage workers, striking Allina nurses and supporters of a higher minimum wage were among those that shut down West Broadway Avenue between Interstate 94 and Dupont Avenue for less than an hour…
U.S. LABOR
Janitors Go On Hunger Strike, Spotlight Rape On The Job KCRA…A group of female janitors are on a hunger strike this week, calling on Gov. Jerry Brown to sign legislation that could help protect them against rape in the workplace. Assembly Bill 1978 requires employer training and prevention plans, establishes a hotline for victims and more consequences for employers who leave workers at risk…
Period for Ground Zero Workers To Seek Compensation Is Extended The New York Times…New York State is extending the period for workers and volunteers to seek medical benefits and lost wages resulting from their involvement in the rescue and recovery operations in Lower Manhattan after the attack on Sept. 11, 2001…
MBTA Workers, Union Rally Against Privatization Effort Boston Herald…MBTA workers and their supporters crowded outside of the state Transportation Department on Monday to protest against the possible privatization of their jobs — an effort that Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration believes would significantly help the MBTA’s looming $110 million deficit…
Transit Workers Vote Down Proposed Contract Pittsburgh Post-Gazette…Transit employees have rejected a proposed contract recently brokered by union negotiators and the Port Authority of Allegheny County. Members of Local 85 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents more than 2,200 Port Authority bus and light-rail operators, maintenance and service personnel, administrative employees and supervisors, voted against the agreement Monday afternoon, according to the union and the authority…
State System Faculty Votes To Authorize Fall Walkout Pittsburgh Post-Gazette…A couple of things seem clear now that faculty at the 14 state-owned universities have given union leaders authority to call what would be their first strike in State System of Higher Education history…
Worker Strike Could Cause A Significant Peeps Shortage Next Easter The Huffington Post…Last week, 400 employees at the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania factory that manufactures Peeps, Mike and Ikes and Hot Tamales went on strike. Workers are protesting new wage and benefits proposals from their employer, Just Born Quality Confections…
State Agency Violates Records Law Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel…A Dane County judge on Monday ruled a state commission violated the open records law last year when it refused to quickly turn over information about a union election. He called the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission’s decision not to release records to a Madison teachers union “pretextual,” “thin on consistency” and an apparent attempt to make it harder for the union to retain its ability to negotiate over wages. Commission officials said they would appeal…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Why So Few American Economists Are Studying Inequality The Atlantic…Wealth at the top of the income distribution is skyrocketing, leading to growing inequality. This trend is especially pronounced in the United States. But much of the leading research on the topic isn’t coming from American economists…
As Colin Kaepernick’s Gesture Spreads, A Spirit Long Dormant Is Revived The New York Times…Colin Kaepernick, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback who touched off a national debate when he chose not to stand during the playing of the national anthem before games, has emboldened a handful of other players to follow suit…
Black Lives Matter Isn’t Just A Hashtag Anymore Politico…Bringing a spirit of protest into the halls of power presents an inherent challenge. There is understandable skepticism, especially in communities of color, when any of us with black skin are invited to the proverbial table….
Protests, Solidarity Demonstrations Take Over NFL Opening Weekend Huffington Post…Weeks after San Francisco 49er Colin Kaepernick used the national anthem to protest social inequality, NFL players from around the league got political on Sunday, the 15-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks…