TEAMSTERS

Hoffa, Teamster Women Rally in Support of Univ. of California Workers  Teamster.org  …Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa, Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall and Local 2010 Secretary-Treasurer Jason Rabinowitz led hundreds of Teamster women on a march through Hollywood today in support of University of California (UC) Teamsters seeking a fair contract… 

Teamsters Women’s Conference Convenes in Hollywood  Teamster.org  …The 2016 Teamsters Women’s Conference kicked off Thursday in Hollywood, California, where more than 1,300 Teamsters have gathered in the spirit of sisterhood and solidarity. The annual three-day conference provides an opportunity for education and empowerment for Teamsters from throughout North America. Jim Hoffa, Teamsters General President, commended the conference participants on their enthusiasm and commitment, and called on them to lead the way in strengthening the union…

Teamsters Take Action at Annual Women’s Conference  Teamster.org  …The Teamsters Women’s Conference continued on its second day Friday with an address from Teamsters General-Secretary Treasurer Ken Hall, as more than 1,300 Teamster women gathered in Hollywood. “It’s great to be in a room full of people who know how to get the job done, and that’s Teamster women,” Hall said. Hall reported on the union’s strong financial outlook…

Lake County Jail Workers Union Voices Concerns Over Long Hours, Safety  Progress Illinois  …The union representing workers at the Lake County jail is expressing concerns over excessive overtime and staff shortages. Labor leaders with the Teamsters Local 700 say mandatory overtime shifts are due to understaffing and are creating a potentially dangerous situation. “Sheriff Curran and his jail administration are mandating the forced overtime because the jail is understaffed and has been for years,” Teamsters Local 700 President Becky Strzechowski said…

Teamster’s Chief: Self-Driving Vehicles “Not Going to Happen”  KABC  …Forget all that talk about self-driving vehicles eventually wiping out four million professional driver jobs. James P Hoffa General President of the Teamsters, says it’s a lot of hype. “You really want a giant 14-wheeler remotely? C’mon. It’s not going to happen. I think there’s a lot of hoopla about that. I see it on TV all the time.  The media loves to talk about it. I don’t see it happening.  I don’t intend to have someone else drive my car.” James Hoffa says there are too many technical obstacles…

Members Stand in Solidarity With Republic Drivers In Ohio  Local 117  …Over a dozen Teamster drivers at Republic Services in Bellevue sent messages of solidarity this morning to their brothers and sisters in Zanesville, Ohio, who are fighting to win a voice at work. The Zanesville drivers filed a petition recently with the National Labor Relations Board for a Union election to certify Teamsters Local 637 as their exclusive bargaining representative…

Teamsters at GP Gypsum Gear Up for Strike Vote  Local 117  …Teamsters at GP Gypsum are fed up. Their contract has been expired since the end of July and the company is dragging its feet in bargaining. The union sent them multiple bargaining dates; the company says it can’t meet until the end of the year. They’re also insisting that Teamsters go to mediation even though they haven’t finished bargaining over language… 

Local 710 UPS Informational Meeting Brings Members Together  Local 710  …Teamsters Local 710 UPS Business Agents Del Schaefer and Simon McNamara ran an informational meeting to go over various pieces of the current UPS contract. The meeting was held in Springfield, Ill., and was very well attended. Southern Illinois Local 710 UPS members gathered together to get answers on questions regarding the contract…

 

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE

Hyundai workers strike; first time in 12 years  Market Watch  …Hyundai Motor Co. plants in South Korea were crippled by the first complete strike by unionized workers in more than a decade on Monday, threatening to worsen the auto maker’s profit slide. Assembly lines at all of the company’s three domestic plants halted early in the day, crippling production of thousands of vehicles at the largest auto maker in South Korea…

60,000 Brazil Bank Workers Strike Against Temer’s Labor Reforms  TeleSUR  …Bank employees are the latest workers to take actions against the Temer government’s attack on workers’ rights. More Brazilian bank workers have joined the strike against the labor reforms by the imposed government of Michel Temer, after 17 days of national strike that has halted financial services across the country…

UK to Oppose TTIP Deal Promoting Deregulation in Europe – Shadow Chancellor  Sputnik News  …The United Kingdom will not back the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership trade agreement (TTIP) or any other deal, which promotes deregulation and privatization trends in the European economy, UK Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said Monday…

EU rules out TTIP deal with US under Obama, seeks to salvage Canada deal  RT  …France and Austria have demanded the suspension of controversial TTIP negotiations until a new president takes over the White House. However, a similar deal with Canada is slowly moving forward despite protests. EU ministers and the European Commission agreed on Friday, that the negotiations between Brussels and Washington on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are unlikely to end before US President Barack Obama’s term expires in January next year…

How the New Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) Could Undermine Global Action on Climate Change  Global Research  …Greenpeace Netherlands has obtained and published key chapters of The Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) currently being negotiated by fifty countries around the world, including the United States and the EU states. The deal, a spiritual and practical sibling of the much-maligned TTIP and TPP free trade agreements, is designed to drive deregulation across the vast global services sector increasing international trade in everything from banking to energy services…

Japan’s Leader Vows to Accelerate Economic Measures, TPP  ABC  …Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged Monday to accelerate his mix of policies to prop up Japan’s economic recovery and speed up parliamentary approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. In his policy statement opening the 66-day parliamentary session, Abe outlined an extra set of stimulus measures to help the economic recovery and spur more consumer and corporate spending… 

Children from Central America flood U.S. border–again  USA Today  …The number of Central American children fleeing to United States is booming once again, as security and economic troubles continue to grip El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The rush of minors across the southwest border became a political firestorm in the summer of 2014, prompting the Obama administration to enact emergency measures to stem the flow and drawing intense scrutiny from critics of the president’s immigration policies…

 

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES

Right to Work continues to shape Missouri governor race  Missourinet.com  …The issue of Right to Work continues to play a major role in Missouri’s governor race.  Republican Eric Greitens and Democrat Chris Koster couldn’t be farther apart on the issue.Right to Work laws allow employees to operate without paying dues, which are normally required for union supported jobs. Koster thinks such legislation, which would diminish the power of unions, will harm workers by lowering their wages… 

As voting begins, a look back at the fight over Wisconsin’s voter ID law  Superior Telegram  ..This November, something will happen that Wisconsin politicians and advocates have been fighting over for more than a decade: the state will host its first major election with a voter ID requirement in place…

Court Says Ohio’s Voter Purge is Illegal, But Will Rolls Be Restored in Time for Election?  Common Dreams  …In a decision said to be a “big deal” for voters in a crucial swing state, a federal court on Friday declared that Ohio’s practice of purging millions of registered citizens from its rolls is in violation of national voting laws. The order reverses a lower court ruling, which favored Secretary of State Jon Husted. In Friday’s opinion, District Judge George C. Smith declared that “Ohio’s Supplemental Process violates Section 8, subsection (b)(2) of the National Voter Registration Act”…

Amendment 70 in Colorado: minimum wage hike  Denver Post  …Amendment 70 seeks to again raise Colorado’s minimum wage, now at $8.31 an hour, to $12 an hour in steps by 2020. Proponents cite a University of Denver study that estimates lifting the minimum wage to $12 an hour would pump $400 million into the Colorado economy and boost incomes for 20 percent of households in the state, mostly those earning just above the minimum…

John McCain, Ann Kirkpatrick split on minimum-wage proposition  AZ Central  …U.S. Senate candidate Ann Kirkpatrick has officially endorsed Proposition 206, the statewide ballot measure that would increase the hourly minimum wage from the current $8.05 to $12 by 2020. “No one who works 40 hours a week should have to live in poverty and decide between buying groceries, medicine or paying the bills,” Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz, said…

The Fight Against Austerity Started Here  The Nation  … In 2011, the people of Wisconsin challenged the right’s austerity agenda. Their uprising was even more revolutionary than you think. The act that Gov. Walker proposed as a “budget repair” bill on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2011, mirrored what was being called “austerity” in Europe, purporting to balance the state budget with cuts to salaries and benefits for public employees as well as cuts to public services…

 

U.S. LABOR

Nearly 14,000 Uber And Lyft Drivers Sign Union Cards In New York  BuzzFeed  …Nearly 14,000 Uber and Lyft drivers in New York have signed up to join the local branch of the Amalgamated Transit Union, according to a union spokesperson. The group plans to rally at the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) headquarters next week to demand a formal vote on unionizing. The cards signed by drivers indicate that they seek ATU membership…

State university faculty union sets ‘firm’ Oct. 19 strike date  Public Opinion  …The union representing faculty at Shippensburg University and 13 other state-run universities set a strike date of Oct. 19 unless significant progress has been made toward a new contract for faculty and coaches who have been working without a contract for over a year. The union set a preliminary strike date of Oct. 30 when negotiations broke down last week…

Respected by nurses, Allina CEO Wheeler is tested by nursing strike  StarTibune  …Courage aplenty has been required on both sides of a contract dispute pitting Allina Health against more than 4,000 of its nurses over the cost of health benefits. The nurses have risked their livelihoods, striking for a week in June and for three weeks and counting since a walkout that began Labor Day…

Companies must prove need for permanent replacements in strikes, NLRB officer says  Workday Minnesota  …In what would be a major advance for workers’ use of the ultimate economic weapon, the strike, the National Labor Relations Board’s top enforcement officer, its general counsel, is proposing that companies must prove – not just state – that only by hiring “permanent replacement” workers can they keep going economically, after the firms force their own employees to strike…

Former employees file class action against Wells Fargo  Reuters  …Two former Wells Fargo & Co employees have filed a class action in California seeking $2.6 billion or more for workers who tried to meet aggressive sales quotas without engaging in fraud and were later demoted, forced to resign or fired. The lawsuit focuses on those who followed the rules and were penalized for not meeting sales quotas…

Trump’s new SCOTUS picks signals willingness to abolish child labor laws, Medicare, Social Security  Think Progress  …Last May, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump released a list of 11 sitting judges who, he says, fit the ideological mold of the kind of people he will appoint to the Supreme Court if elected president. The list ran the conservative gamut from judges who cut their teeth questioning judicial power to judges who want to revive long-discredited doctrines once used to tear down the minimum wage and other basic labor laws…

Only 136 More Years Until the Pay Gap Closes  TIME  …Women may have to wait another 136 years for equal pay, according to a new report. The American Association of University Women released its Fall 2016 report on the gender pay gap on Thursday, and it doesn’t offer much optimism for women, particularly women of color. The report says that if the gender pay gap narrows at the rate of change that occurred between 1960 and 2015, gender pay parity could be achieved by 2059…

 

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS

 

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