News
Today’s Teamster News For September 29, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Feds: XPO/Con-way Must Bargain With Teamsters Teamster.org …A federal court has denied XPO/Con-way’s efforts to set aside the workers’ decision to form their union as Teamsters, which means the company needs to recognize the Teamsters as the workers’ bargaining representative. The company can still appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but it has not done so in similar cases. The company had asserted that there were numerous problems with the election, but the court denied the company’s frivolous claims…
Teamsters Local 653 Organizes Mechanics, Achieves First Contract for Drivers and Monitors Teamster.org …Workers in the South Easton area have organized and ratified a first contract at two separate bus companies with the assistance of Local 653. On Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016, school bus mechanics at First Student voted to join Local 653 in South Easton, Mass. There are seven workers in the bargaining unit. This victory comes on the heels of 56 drivers and monitors at Lucini Bus Lines voting to ratify their first contract…
Garbage Trucks Are Choking South Bronx and North Brooklyn: Study Gothamist …Steve Falk, a trucker for a private waste disposal firm and a member of Teamsters Local 813, said he participated because he is concerned about the risks of exposure to diesel pollution. “I worry about what this job is doing to my health and my life,” he said. “We all deserve to drive cleaner trucks and breathe safe clean air”…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
S. Korea: nationwide strikes weigh on economy Korea Herald …Strikes by railway and subway workers as well as Hyundai Motor workers are taking a further toll on the nation‘s economy, already suffering from continued low growth in the wake of weak consumption and exports. Damages from the strike are expected to soar as the management and the labor union failed again to reach an agreement during the 26th round of negotiation on Thursday. The walkout is expected to continue next week…
Canada: Hotel Bonaventure workers locked out, union says CBC …The union for striking workers at Montreal’s Bonaventure Hotel says its employees have been locked out. The employees went on a 36-hour strike Saturday. Monday morning, the union said the hotel’s owner had locked them out. One of the hotel’s general managers was seen Monday working as a concierge and hailing cabs for guests…
EU Trade Ministers: TTIP Conclusion Unlikely This Year ICTSD …EU trade ministers affirmed last week that finishing negotiations on a bilateral trade and investment deal with the US before year’s end is an “unrealistic” goal, following informal meetings held late last week in Bratislava, Slovakia. The 22-23 September meeting had been flagged as a potentially pivotal moment for both the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), as the EU-US talks are known, as well as a separate trade accord already negotiated with Canada…
Progressive Groups Press Clinton to Speak Out Against Lame-Duck TPP Vote Mother Jones …The Trans-Pacific Partnership, the comprehensive free-trade deal that’s been attacked by all parties in the presidential campaign, has one real shot at becoming law: if Congress passes it and President Barack Obama signs it in the lame-duck session after the November election. So a coalition of progressive groups is applying all the pressure it can on Hillary Clinton to come out strongly and unambiguously against the lame-duck passage of the TPP…
More Wealth, More Jobs, but Not for Everyone: What Fuels the Backlash on Trade New York Times …Trade comes with no assurances that the spoils will be shared equitably. Across much of the industrialized world, an outsize share of the winnings have been harvested by people with advanced degrees, stock options and the need for accountants. Ordinary laborers have borne the costs and suffered from joblessness and deepening economic anxiety…
Kerry warns of ‘serious consequences’ if U.S. backs away from TPP trade pact Washington Post …Kerry’s impassioned defense of the agreement came two days after the two major-party nominees for president, Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, criticized the impact of multilateral trade pacts on American workers and denounced the TPP in a nationally televised debate…
Why Vietnam is delaying TPP ratification Asia Times …Vietnam’s National Assembly (NA) will not include the ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a US-led trade agreement, on its agenda for the upcoming session – and its last meeting in 2016 – which starts on October 20 and ends on November 21. That means the trade pact would not be approved until early next year…
Will the TPP Rise From the Dead? Real Clear Politics …The question about the TPP — the Trans-Pacific Partnership — is whether it has already gone to the political morgue or whether it’s still in intensive care. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump oppose the agreement, while the president has urged ratification. With Obama’s term ending and his already-modest influence eroding by the day, the TPP seems dead. But it may still be in intensive care…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Governor to approve state-run retirement for private workers Union Democrat … Gov. Jerry Brown is scheduled to sign legislation Thursday to automatically enroll nearly 7 million people in a retirement savings account, an attempt to address growing fears that many workers will be financially unprepared to retire. The legislation creates a state-run retirement program for workers who don’t have an employer-sponsored plan, many of them working in lower-wage positions…
California Will Keep Housing Its Detained Immigrants in For-Profit Centers Mother Jones …Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a bill on Wednesday that would have prevented local governments from contracting with for-profit companies to detain immigrants. Seventy percent of the state’s immigrant detainees are held in for-profit facilities, according to data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)…
The Koch Connection in the Scott Walker John Doe Documents PR Watch …A cache of documents recently released by The Guardian shed new light on how Governor Scott Walker, his top advisors, and allies evaded the state’s campaign finance system in an unprecedented effort to win 15 elections and maintain control of the Wisconsin Senate and Supreme Court as well as the Executive Mansion in the tumultuous recall period of 2011 and 2012. The Guardian documents also illuminate the activities the shadowy “grassroots” arm of the Koch political machine…
Oregon bans janitorial company from government jobs over wage theft Oregon Live …A Hillsboro janitorial company is forever blacklisted from government work after an investigation by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries found widespread underpayment of workers. As part of the settlement, Cornerstone Janitorial must pay $144,000 in damages to 46 workers. That’s on top of almost $200,000 in back wages collected by the bureau last year…
This time, it’s Palo Alto — another Silicon Valley city raises its minimum wage Business Journal …Minimum wages keep on rising in Silicon Valley. On Monday, the Palo Alto City Council voted unanimously to adopt a $15 by 2019 minimum wage timetable, as reported by the Palo Alto Weekly. Palo Alto joins Los Altos and Cupertino in approving the $15 by 2019 wage schedule endorsed by the Cities Association of Santa Clara County…
Benefits of Minimum-Wage Increases Seem Too Good to Be True, But They’re Not (opinion) New York Times …Since 2009, 28 states and the District of Columbia as well as 43 cities and localities have raised their minimum wage. Advocates for increasing the minimum wage argue that it will improve people’s earnings and make it easier for them to support their families…
U.S. LABOR
Trump’s ‘Miss Housekeeping’ Comment Shows His Contempt For The Working Class Washington Post …Trump’s “Miss Housekeeping,” though, was even worse. It was at once a sexist slur against Latinas and a way of minimizing and mocking the hard work done by so many Americans. It’s a revolting display of Trump’s disdain for the dignity of difficult work. His particular combination of boorishness and lack of empathy is rare within the political profession…
Chicago Teachers Union sets Oct. 11 strike date Chicago Tribune …The Chicago Teachers Union on Wednesday set a strike date of Oct. 11, moving one step closer to shutting down schools for the second time in Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s tenure and increasing the heat on negotiations to replace a contract that expired more than a year ago. The CTU is required to give 10 days’ notice before a walkout…
Express Scripts employees to vote on union representation St. Louis Post-Dispatch …Some Express Scripts employees will soon vote on whether they want to be represented by District 837 of the International Association of Machinists. The representation election is the result of growing employee discontent with wages, overtime and workplace favoritism, union officials said…
NYC-Funded Preschool Workers Approve New Contract DNA …After 10 years without a raise, workers at hundreds of city-funded preschools serving low-income families ratified a new contract on Tuesday that will increase their salaries, make health care more affordable and provide some stability for their pensions, labor officials said…
Just Born sues union, saying ongoing strike violates deal Lehigh Valley Live …The workers’ strike at Just Born Inc. in Bethlehem entered its fourth week Wednesday, amid a lawsuit filed by the candy manufacturer against its employees’ union. Just Born, maker of iconic sweets such as marshmallow Peeps and Mike and Ike chewy candies, says in the federal lawsuit the union violated a no-strike clause in its now-expired contract when workers walked off the job Sept. 7…
Northwestern graduate students begin to seek union representation after NLRB decision Daily Northwestern …Some graduate students at Northwestern have begun to organize in favor of unionization in the past month, holding what one called a “flurry of meetings” following the National Labor Relations Board’s decision in August lifting barriers to unionization for student assistants at private universities. Two labor unions — the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of Teachers — are vying to represent NU graduate students…
The Forgotten Providers The Atlantic …The people who will save American health care likely don’t wear lab coats or perform complicated procedures in operating rooms. They probably don’t have doctorates or years and years of graduate experience. Home-care workers are not, however, afforded wages or protections commensurate with their importance, with over a quarter living under the poverty line and more than half reliant on public assistance…
Hotel worker protections would be a win for women’s rights Crosscut …The issues women fought to change in the workplace in 1907 are still with us over a century later. Seattle has the worst gender pay gap in the nation, and women, particularly immigrant women and women of color, are far more likely to be employed in low-wage hotel jobs than profiting from the latest tech frontiers. Initiative 124 is a ballot measure that gives Seattle voters the chance to take real action to protect women working in the hotel industry…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Uber to move freight, target trucking for the long haul CNBC …With its recent acquisition of self-driving truck startup Otto, Uber Technologies is plotting its entry into the long-haul trucking business, aiming to establish itself as a freight hauler and a technology partner for the industry. Otto plans to expand its fleet of trucks from six to about 15 and is forging partnerships with independent truckers, Otto co-founder Lior Ron told Reuters in an interview…
When Public Schools Go Private American Prospect …A new report released today by In the Public Interest, a research and policy organization, makes the case that the increased privatization of public goods and services over the last few decades has contributed to, and exacerbated, the stark inequalities we see today. The report sifts through various sectors that have grown increasingly privatized—from foster care and transportation, to public schools and prisons…
Big League Trouble: Trump Faces New Questions About His Charity Finances TPM …It’s not just where the money went from the Donald Trump Foundation that’s drawing scrutiny to GOP nominee. It’s also how the money came in. A new Washington Post report this week presented cases where Trump directed third parties to pay monies owed to him or his businesses directly to the Donald J. Trump Foundation–monies that arguably should have been taxed as income to Trump…
Trump’s Vision of the Economy vs. the Actual Economy The Atlantic …But Trump’s dire portrait differs from most statistical snapshots of the U.S. economy. Hours after the first presidential debate, the Conference Board, a business research association, reported that consumer confidence had reached its highest level since the recession. Three weeks ago, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the U.S. has added private sector jobs…
Trump’s claim that a racial discrimination suit was ‘brought against many real estate firms’ Washington Post …Trump, in an interview, falsely claimed “there were many, many landlords that were sued under that case.” Similarly, in the debate, Trump claimed “that was a lawsuit brought against many real estate firms.” But the suit was squarely aimed at the Trumps and their company; it was titled: United States of America v. Fred C. Trump, Donald Trump and Trump Management, Inc…
Fans wanted me ‘hung before the anthem’: Emotional Nebraska football player reveals racist threats Raw Story …In an emotional speech on Monday, African-American football player Michael Rose-Ivey revealed that fans had threatened to lynch him because he declined to participate in the national anthem. At Sunday’s game, the Nebraska linebacker followed the lead of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and kneeled to protest police violence during the national anthem…