TEAMSTERS

Laid-Off Virginia Workers to Protest Subsidies for ‘Job Killer  Hospitality Industry  …Virginia workers who have been laid off by MillerCoors will attend Thursday’s meeting of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) to protest financial assistance and tax exemptions being offered to the company. This month, MillerCoors is shuttering its award-winning Eden, N.C., brewery which employs 500 Teamster workers…

Stewards at Safeway Dairy Propel Organizing Win  Local 117  …Safeway Dairy Shop Stewards, Alan Inderbitzen and Andy Peterson, work each day producing milk products and ensuring that their Teamsters contract is enforced. Almost everyone working at Safeway Dairy is a union member, but there is a small group of lab technicians who have never been part of the Union…

Disney World, union can’t agree: Are Festival of Fantasy ‘girls’ dancers or performers?  Orlando Sentinel  …That’s the debate right now between Walt Disney World and the union that represents the resort’s performers. The Teamsters Local 385 says it wants the women who accompany Mickey, Minnie and other characters to get “mover pay” that’s typically given to parade dancers. “They are doing intricate footwork,” Teamsters business agent Donna-Lynne Dalton said. “They have to be a skilled dancer in order to do this”…

Working-Class Struggles in Southern California Symbolize Blue-Collar Blues Across America   Truthdig  …At the port, truck drivers—classified as “independent contractors”—wait in long lines to pick up loads. Driver Daniel Anseko Vaina told me he might get $185 a load to carry a container of Wal-Mart merchandise. Barb Maynard, a communications consultant for the Teamsters Union, which is trying to organize the drivers, introduced me to Vaina…

University should increase wages for union workers  (opinion) Daily Cal  …The University of California’s fundamental missions are teaching, research and public service. The members of Teamsters Local 2010 provide essential support services for the university’s missions.  We are composed of various administrative support personnel, public safety dispatchers, early childhood educators, library assistants and cashiers. Our work makes the university work…

 

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE

UK: thousands of Post Office workers in strike chaos with 24 hour walkout over branch closures, jobs and pensions  Mirror  …Thousands of Post Office workers are to stage a 24-hour strike in disputes over branch closures, jobs and pensions. Members of the Communication Workers Union will walk out on September 15 after voting overwhelmingly for industrial action. The union warned of an ongoing dispute over jobs, services and pensions, saying the Post Office was at a crisis point…

There’s A New Front In The Battle Over The Trans-Pacific Partnership  Huffington Post  …The Trans-Pacific Partnership, which has taken a drubbing from all directions during the presidential campaign, will not get a vote before the election. But as Congress returns to Capitol Hill from a seven-week break, the battle over the TPP continues. The fight has been given renewed urgency by revelations about the nature of a secret court system embedded in trade agreements…

TTIP trade deal might never happen, Trade Secretary Liam Fox says  Independent  …The future of the controversial TTIP trade agreement looks “less than secure”, Britain’s new International Trade Secretary has said. Liam Fox, a staunch Brexiteer, reiterated his support for the US-EU trade treaty and said the Government would continue to push it forward even though it was leaving the EU…

Warren Slams ISDS Provision in Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Deal  Morning Consult  …Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday said that the investor-state dispute settlement provision in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal would allow corporations to challenge foreign laws before private arbitration panels outside of the traditional legal system. “It allows companies to challenge foreign laws they don’t like and potentially win millions or even billions of dollars from taxpayers,” Warren (D-Mass.) told reporters on a conference call…

Japan vows to back expanding TPP participation to more ASEAN members  Japan Times  …Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Wednesday that Japan will support any Association of Southeast Asian Nations member countries that wish to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact. The TPP, inked by the United States, Japan and 10 other Pacific Rim nations in February, “is a framework that allows for participation as each country becomes prepared to do so”…

 

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES

Illinois Republicans Want To Shut Down Same-Day Voter Registration  Think Progress  …As Illinois’ Republican governor vetoed legislation that would have allowed the state to automatically register millions of voters, state Republicans filed a lawsuit attempting to make it even more difficult for people to register to vote. Illinois currently allows voters to register on Election Day in counties with populations of more than 100,000 people…

DOJ Catches Texas Violating The Court Order Against Its Voter Suppression Law  Think Progress  …Texas is violating a court order intended to prevent it from suppressing the vote, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. In July, a federal appeals court held that Texas’ voter ID law, a common method of voter suppression, violates the Voting Rights Act. In response, Texas agreed to be bound by a court order during the upcoming election that offers a workaround for voters who “cannot reasonably obtain” ID…

Poll: Most Arizona voters buy a $12 minimum wage  AZ Central  …Arizona voters favor a hike in the state’s minimum wage by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, according to an Arizona Republic/Morrison/Cronkite News poll. Proposition 206 would gradually raise the starting pay to $12 an hour by 2020, beginning with a jump to $10 in January. The current wage is $8.05 an hour…

New York City Passed Paid Sick Leave, and Guess What? It Didn’t Kill Any Jobs.  Slate  …Over the past decade, the movement for paid sick leave has been one of American progressives’ greatest policy triumphs. Since San Francisco first passed a law guaranteeing workers one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, in 2007, the policy had been adopted in five states, 26 cities, one county, and Washington, D.C…

Without conservative Supreme Court majority, voter-law challengers make gains  Washington Post  …A coalition of civil rights groups, Democratic lawyers and the Obama administration has scored significant victories in overturning strict voting laws. As the presidential election approaches, the challengers have rung up wins against their two top targets. Texas and North Carolina are now under judicial order to shelve comprehensive voting laws…

 

U.S. LABOR

Miners protest for pension rescue  The Hill  …Retired coal miners and their congressional allies are shifting into overdrive in their push for Congress to pass legislation shoring up their retirement benefits. Coal-state lawmakers say their legislation, the Miners Protection Act, could get a Senate committee vote next week. At issue is the troubled pension plan managed by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), which is expected to slide into insolvency within months unless Congress provides a bailout…

400 Workers at Marshmallow Peeps Plant Go on Strike  ABC  …About 400 workers at the Pennsylvania plant that makes marshmallow Peeps and other candies are on strike. Workers walked out of the Just Born plant in Bethlehem on Wednesday afternoon. Members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Local 6 voted to strike on Sept. 2 after unanimously rejecting the company’s most recent contract offer…

An Unprecedented Faculty Lockout  The Atlantic  …Locking out a university’s faculty right before the start of classes seems like a drastic step, but that is just what Long Island University (LIU) did this weekend, when it barred all 400 members of its faculty union from its Brooklyn campus. The faculty is furious, and planning rallies and pickets with support from the American Federation of Teachers. On Tuesday, faculty voted 226 to 10 to reject a proposed contract from LIU…

Major job losses feared when self-driving cars take to the road  SF Gate  …Millions of Americans make a living by driving trucks, delivery vans, taxis and ride-hailing cars. When technology takes the wheel, what will happen to their livelihoods? That question is growing more urgent as the advent of self-driving vehicles accelerates. Major players like Ford, Volvo and Tesla Motors have introduced concrete plans…

Lipton Workers Vote to Unionize: “Everyone just got tired of it”  In These Times  …They voted, 108-79, in an election held by the National Labor Relations Board on August 26. More than 200 workers at the plant, which makes nearly all of the Lipton Tea sold in North America, will now be represented by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400. The organizing drive came after years of declining benefits—loss of sick pay, supplemental time off and a downgrade in insurance coverage considered too expensive for what it offered…

AFL-CIO claims Trump’s union support is fading  The Hill  …One of the largest union groups in the U.S. says Donald Trump is losing support among union members. The AFL-CIO on Wednesday released an internal poll showing the Republican presidential nominee’s support among rank-and-file members in key states dropped from 41 percent in June to just 36 percent now…

This Week May See the Largest Prison Strike in US History  The Nation  …This September 9, we may witness the largest prison strike in US history. Potentially thousands of inmates across both state and federal prisons in as many as 24 states plan to engage in a coordinated strike and protest in an attempt to bring attention to the daily injustice of their lives. The strikers are calling for an end to “slave-like” working conditions, illegal reprisals, and inhumane living conditions…

 

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS

Hollywood inequality is ‘entrenched’, study suggests  BBC  …Inequality is “entrenched” in Hollywood, with women, minorities and LGBT people among those excluded, a new study has suggested. The University of Southern California’s report showed that women had just 31.4% of spoken roles in 2015’s top 100 films, compared with 32.8% in 2008. Lesbian, gay or transgender characters accounted for less than 1% of speaking parts – or 32 out of 35,205 characters…

Devil in the pulpit: Trump’s visit to a black church was racial stagecraft aimed at gullible whites  Salon  …Trump’s latest black-outreach charade — in a largely empty Detroit church — was really targeted at anxious whites. With his prepared comments at the ready, Donald Trump addressed the several dozen people in attendance — black human props, serving as the professional “best black friends” of a Republican Party where racism and conservatism are now one and the same thing…

Study Finds Greenhouse Gases Doubled the Chances of Louisiana’s Flooding Rains  Truthout  …Human-caused climate change likely doubled the chances of the torrential rains that caused deadly flooding in Louisiana and damaged 60,000 homes in the state, a new study has found. Less than a month after the deluge that killed 13 people, a team of scientists have just published an analysis of rainfall records…

NBC’s Military Forum Was a Master Class on How Not to Hold Candidates Accountable  The Intercept  …The “Commander in Chief Forum” with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton that NBC’s Matt Lauer moderated Wednesday night was billed as a way to interrogate the presidential candidates on substantive veterans’ and national security issues. But from the questions chosen to the format, the event served as little more than a class on how not to hold the candidates accountable…

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