TEAMSTERS

Drivers for Bauer’s Intelligent Transportation Choose Teamsters Union  Teamster.org  …Drivers with Bauer’s Intelligent Transportation are the latest workers in the tech transportation industry to choose Teamsters representation, after a majority of drivers signed up last week to join San Francisco-based Teamsters Local 665. The 39 drivers operate commuter shuttles for Bauer’s big tech clients, including Cisco Systems, Zynga, Electronic Arts and Intuit…

Bauer’s tech shuttle drivers unionize after long battle  San Francisco Examiner  …Bauer’s Intelligent Transportation is the newest regional tech shuttle company to unionize. Its 39 drivers are now part of the Teamsters Local 665, which represents thousands drivers statewide. Those drivers shuttle workers of tech companies Cisco Systems, Zynga, Electronic Arts and Intuit to their headquarters every day…

Teamsters, Beverage Association, File Suit Against Philadelphia Soda Tax  Teamster.org  …Teamsters local 830, as representative of hundreds of working men and women employed in the soft drink industry, and the American Beverage Association jointly filed a suit today against the city of Philadelphia’s plan to implement a soda tax. The suit seeks to block the tax from going forward until a court can hear arguments about the proposed tax…

Teamsters at PTO Faucher Brothers Ratify New Contract  Local 710  …Twenty-nine Teamsters Local 710 drivers at PTO Faucher Brothers recently ratified a new three-year agreement with their employer. The contract is in effect until March 31, 2019. Local 710 successfully secured improved wages for the members that will increase 40 cents per hour in the first year of the agreement and 30 cents per hour in each of the remaining two years…

Kraft’s Lunchables plant in Fullerton to remain open, sparing 360 jobs  OC Register  …More than 350 people will keep their jobs making Lunchables at the Fullerton-based Kraft Heinz manufacturing plant, which was previously slated to shutter by the end of the year. Teamsters Local 952 represents 350 workers at the plant. “We are very thankful that Kraft Heinz has reconsidered its decision to close and will keep the plant open,” said Patrick Kelly, Local 952’s secretary treasurer and principal officer…

Teamster Strike at Manoir Sainte-Julie Has Ended  Teamsters Canada  …The strike is over at the Résidences Soleil Manoir Sainte-Julie retirement home. The roughly 70 workers from Teamsters Local Union 106 ratified a tentative agreement on August 30th with 67% voting in favour. The results of the vote can be attributed to the fact that Teamster members were furious at how they had to strike for nearly six weeks only to revisit the union’s proposals that were filed in June… 

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE 

Jamaica NWC Workers On Strike Ahead Of Labour Ministry Meeting  The Gleaner  …Workers at the National Water Commission have gone on strike ‎ahead of a meeting scheduled for this afternoon with the Labour Ministry. The workers are upset about the failure of the Commission’s management to settle on their wage and fringe benefits claims. The General Secretary of the Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers says the move by the workers to take industrial action ahead of the meeting with the Labour Ministry is apparently because of a miscommunication among workers…

UK Post Office workers staging 24-hour strike  BBC  …Thousands of Post Office workers have gone on strike in a dispute over branch closures, job losses and changes to pensions. The 24-hour walkout is being staged by members of the Unite and Communication Workers unions. A total of 118 of the 305 Crown offices in city and town centres were closed, the Post Office said…

Tunisia: Tourism crisis bites as hotel industry workers go on strike  Africa News  …The Tunisian Hotel Trade Federation (FTH) on Wednesday warned against worsening of the country’s tourism crisis, in the wake of a strike by hotel industry workers, who are demanding a 6% wage increase citing rising cost of living. The federation’s chairman Radhouane Ben Salah told a press conference that the industrial action which had been called by the workers’ trade union could have a “very negative impact” on the sector…

UAW pledges to back Canadian auto workers in GM talks  Detroit Free Press  …UAW President Dennis Williams said Tuesday he is exploring ways the union can support Unifor in its negotiations with General Motors, giving the Canadian union a key ally as it enters the final stretch of negotiations. Unifor is trying to convince GM to keep its Oshawa assembly open and has said it would call a strike if the automaker doesn’t invest, or pledge to build new cars and trucks, at the Canadian plant…

TPP critics fear ‘relentless’ White House push  USA Today  …Progressive lawmakers who oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership fear arm-twisting by the Obama administration that they say could push the trade deal to passage during the lame-duck session of Congress. The lawmakers said Wednesday they’re taking nothing for granted, even after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he won’t bring up the deal for a vote this year and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said he doesn’t have the votes…

Hatch: TPP deal will get done in lame-duck session  The Hill  …Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch said Wednesday that Congress will pass a sweeping Asia-Pacific trade agreement before the end of the year. The Utah Republican said he is working with the Obama administration to resolve several lingering issues that could ultimately pave the way for a vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in the lame-duck session after the November elections…

TTIP talks resume between US and EU trade officials  The Guardian  …The European Union’s trade negotiators are due to meet their US counterparts on Thursday amid growing speculation that talks over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership have ground to a halt. The European commission’s trade chief, Cecilia Malmström, will meet US trade ambassador Michael Froman in a bid to rescue the TTIP talks… 

Brazil to Auction off Infrastructure  TeleSUR  …Brazil’s unelected President Michel Temer announced a new phase of the government’s controversial privatization agenda with plans to auction off 32 major resource and infrastructure projects in the name of boosting private sector investment. The multi-billion dollar privatization plan includes the sale and concession of four airports, two ports, six power distribution plants, three sanitation companies, five highway and rail projects, three oil and gas operations, four mining concessions, and five hydroelectric projects across the country…

 

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES 

Georgia is using an error-riddled database to reject thousands of voter registrations  Think Progress  …Tens of thousands of Georgia voters have had their registrations thrown out because of typos in the state’s databases or because their name in the databases may not exactly match the information on their registration form. Voting advocates filed a lawsuit in federal court on Wednesday alleging that the state’s requirement that voter registration forms exactly match information in state databases violates the Voting Rights Act (VRA)… 

Michigan bill would allow some employees to negotiate their own contracts  AMI Newswire  …Legislation aimed at empowering employees to negotiate their own contracts in certain unionized workplaces was introduced by a Michigan lawmaker last week. A research associate with the Economic Policy Institute, however, said the measure, which carries the label “Worker’s Choice,” could create havoc in the workplace and would further erode the influence of labor unions…

8 Workers’ Rights Measures to Watch This November  Care2  …Key ballot measures have cropped up across the country on topics like minimum wage and convict labor. There are a whopping 160 measures in total up for consideration by the electorate, but sifting through them all to find the critical stuff can be tough. Arizona voters will be able to decide if they want to implement an incremental minimum wage increase to $12 by 2020…

Scott Walker, the John Doe files and how corporate cash influences American politics  The Guardian  …The John Doe files published today open a door onto how modern US elections operate in the wake of Citizens United, the 2010 US supreme court ruling that unleashed a flood of corporate money into the political process. They speak to the mounting sense of public unease about the cozy relationship between politicians and big business…

GOP eases lead paint laws after $750,000 in donations  Journal Sentinel  …Gov. Scott Walker and the GOP-controlled Legislature approved a measure aimed at retroactively shielding paint makers from liability after a billionaire owner of a lead producer contributed $750,000 to a political group that provided crucial support to Walker and Republicans in recall elections, according to a report released Wednesday…

Election office in Texas’ 2nd-largest county misinforming voters about photo ID  Think Progress  …Thanks to a recent federal court ruling, Texans who cannot reasonably obtain photo ID no longer have to show such ID when voting. But you wouldn’t know that from looking at false information prominently displayed on Bexar County property. Incorrect information is displayed on a large poster at the entrance to the Bexar County office…

Veteran Federal Judge Blasts Ruling That Will Disenfranchise Poor, Black Ohio Voters  Huffington Post  …A divided appeals court on Tuesday largely rejected a challenge to a set of voting requirements that will quite likely make it harder for poor, black Ohioans to have their ballots counted this election cycle. “By denying the most vulnerable the right to vote, the Majority shuts minorities out of our political process,” wrote U.S. Circuit Judge Damon Keith…

 

U.S. LABOR

Detroit teachers union OKs new contract  Detroit News  …Teachers with the Detroit Public Schools Community District ratified a new contract Wednesday night, according to the Detroit Federation of Teachers. The contract provides salary increases “mostly in the form of bonuses” and includes the restoration of class size limits, a news release said late Wednesday. The contract proposal was presented Sept. 6 to members of the teachers union and had to be approved by the union’s 2,900 members…

During strike, Allina pays replacements more than what union nurses earn  Duluth News Tribune  …As thousands of Twin Cities hospital nurses represented by the Minnesota Nurses Association went on an open-ended strike last week, their employer, Allina Health, brought in 1,500 traveling nurses — recruited and paid through staffing agencies — to operate its four metro-area hospitals and a clinic.

Yale challenges grad assistants’ union bid before NLRB  Miami Herald  …Yale University is challenging a bid by some of its graduate assistants to unionize, in proceedings this week before the National Labor Relations Board that other private U.S. universities are closely watching. Yale maintains graduate assistants should not be allowed to organize, arguing they are students and not employees…

“Everything Was Cut Immediately”: LIU Faculty and Students Protest Lockout & Class Cancellations  Democracy Now  …This was supposed to be the second week of classes at Long Island University’s campus in Brooklyn, but the administration barred all 400 members of the faculty union from its Brooklyn campus after their contract expired on August 31. A new proposed contract would have slashed pay for adjunct professors and also pay faculty lower salaries… 

Obama Tried, But The Gender Pay Gap Hasn’t Budged Since ‘07  Huffington Post  …The gender pay gap isn’t moving. Women working full time earned just 80 percent of what men made in 2015, according to new income data released by the U.S. Census on Tuesday. That’s an increase of about 1 percentage point since 2014, but the Census said the rise is not statistically significant…

Workers Pay More for Health Care as Companies Shift Burden, Survey Finds  NY Times  …State health insurance exchanges created under the new health care law are in turmoil. By contrast, the employer market — where the majority of Americans still get their coverage — seems like a bastion of stability. An analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation released on Wednesday shows that the share of employers offering coverage remained steady this year, and that the cost of premiums for health plans remained largely unchanged…

 

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS

Elizabeth Warren Asks Newly-Chatty FBI Director to Explain Why DOJ Didn’t Prosecute Banksters  The Intercept  …Like a lot of other Americans, Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to know why the Department of Justice hasn’t criminally prosecuted any of the major players responsible for the 2008 financial crisis. On Thursday, Warren released two highly provocative letters demanding some explanations…

It’s fair to question Uber safety after driver arrests  Boston Globe  …Uber critics are usually cast as protectors of the dying taxi industry, or as oldsters who are too uncool to appreciate the thrill of innovative disruption. But that doesn’t explain away the four Uber drivers who were arrested last month on a variety of charges — all of whom passed the company’s background check…

Yes, half of Trump supporters are racist  (opinion) Washington Post  …Hillary Clinton may have been unwise to say half of Donald Trump’s supporters are racists and other “deplorables.” But she wasn’t wrong. If anything, when it comes to Trump’s racist support, she might have low-balled the number. The American National Election Studies, the long-running, extensive poll of American voters, asked voters in 2012 a basic test of prejudice…

A Buried Coup D’État in the United States  The New Yorker  …On November 10, 1898, a coup d’état took place on United States soil. It was perpetrated by a gang of white-supremacist Democrats in Wilmington, North Carolina, who were intent on reclaiming power from the recently elected, biracial Republican government. y the end of the day, they had killed somewhere between fourteen and sixty black men and banished twenty more, meanwhile forcing the mayor, the police chief, and the members of the board of aldermen to resign…

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