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Today’s Teamster News For October 19, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Union workers stage protest over low wages for UC employees Daily Bruin …Union members temporarily disrupted traffic in Westwood on Tuesday as they protested what they called low wages for University of California employees. Teamsters Local 2010, the union representing administrative, clerical and skilled trades workers, held the protest a day after a study revealed that 70 percent of UC clerical workers are food insecure…
Amerijet Pilots Reach Agreement in Principal With New Management Local 769 …Into the early hours of Friday morning, after nearly four years of bargaining and arbitration, the Airline Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Teamsters Local 769 and the AmeriJet negotiating committee announced that an Agreement in Principle had been reached by all parties for a new collective bargaining agreement. According to David Renshaw, Local 769 Business Agent for the Miami based carrier; significant gains over the previous collective bargaining agreement have been achieved…
Airway Heights Honor Guard Veteran Closes in on Retirement Local 117 …“The hardest thing are the funerals, but that’s the way we show our respect,” said Officer Hector Padilla of the Airway Heights Corrections Center (AHCC) near Spokane. Teamsters Local 17 member Padilla serves on the Honor Guard at AHCC and attends ceremonies and memorial services across the country as a representative of the Department of Corrections…
Going hungry at University of California: 70 percent of UC employees struggle My News LA …Seven in 10 University of California workers in clerical, administrative and support services struggle to put adequate food on the table. The finding comes from a new Occidental College study expected to be released Monday, the Los Angeles Times reported. The study found that 45 percent of 2,890 employees surveyed throughout the 10-campus UC system went hungry at times…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Korean Workers Launch Major Wave of Strikes, Winning International Support In These Times …Over the past few weeks, thousands of South Korean transport workers have gone on strike to protest against government “reform” proposals that would make it easier for employers to fire workers, weaken seniority protections won through collective bargaining and privatize some state-owned industries. The strike have generated an unprecedented response from global unions…
Ghana: state attorneys decide on strike today Ghana Web …Ghana’s state attorneys will today hold a crucial meeting with officials of the National Labour Commission to decide on their industrial strike. They issued a seven-day ultimatum on October 10 for the enforcement of an order to harmonize their salaries with that of the members of the lower bench…
U.S., EU close to overcoming sticking points in trade talks: U.S envoy Reuters …The United States and the European Union are close to bridging differences on many sticking points in negotiations for a free trade deal, U.S. ambassador to Germany John B. Emerson told a German broadcaster on Tuesday. “As far as I know, we are close to a solution on many points. It will eventually come down to a matter of political will,” rbb broadcaster quoted Emerson as saying…
EU doubts trade deal with US will happen this year RT …The European Commission has indicated it is unlikely negotiations over a controversial trade deal with the United States will be completed during the current US administration, Reuters reported citing Commission sources. According to the source speaking on condition of anonymity, the Commission wants to preserve the interim status reached in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks…
Europe’s trade woes could spell trouble for TTIP Politico …A proposed free-trade deal between the European Union and Canada could be on its last legs after one of Belgium’s regional leaders vowed on Tuesday not to support it by Friday, which Brussels is touting as a make-or-break deadline. Belgium can’t sign the deal without consent from all five of its regional parliaments, and the EU can’t ratify it without unanimous support from its members…
Japan PM pitches TPP ratification as critical to national and regional growth Japan Times …Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pitching the Trans-Pacific Partnership as an essential component of Japan’s future growth and regional stability. “It’s a new economic zone to be created in the Asia-Pacific region, where trade will be done under proper rules,” Abe told a Lower House committee meeting. “Becoming part of this is definitely necessary for Japan’s future”…
Japanese are working themselves to death–literally USA Today …Japan’s Labor Standards Law currently mandates a 40-hour workweek and a maximum of 15 hours of weekly overtime. But the law effectively allows unlimited overtime if there is a written agreement between a company and its labor union (unions in Japan generally are organized at individual companies, rather than across industries or trades). According to a 2013 Labor Ministry report, companies with 300 or more employees on average allow up to 96.1 hours of overtime per month…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Florida: bucking party, 2 Republicans back minimum wage increase Miami Herald …Conservative Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and state Sen. Anitere Flores joined Democrats in Miami and across the state Monday to do what would have been unthinkable four years ago — endorse a $15 minimum wage in Florida. The GOP leaders are running in newly-drawn districts with more Democrats and no-party-affiliated voters than they’ve ever faced before…
Texas Keeps Misleading Voters Truthout …This November, for the first time in three years, the estimated 600,000 Texans who do not have an ID accepted under the state’s strictest-in-the-nation photo ID law will not be forced to sit on the sidelines of democracy, thanks to a court-ordered alternative option at the polls. And yet, the state’s effort to spread the word has gotten off to a dismaying start…
S. Dakota: state minimum wage to increase Jan. 1 KSFY …The state minimum wage will increase from $8.55/hour to $8.65/hour effective Jan. 1, 2017. The minimum wage is annually adjusted by any increase in the cost of living, as measured in the Consumer Price Index published by the U.S. Department of Labor. This year’s increase was 1.06 percent and is rounded up to the nearest five cents. These increases will apply to all South Dakota employers, with some limited exceptions…
Pennsylvania: sanctuary bill sails by House; bill raises concerns for Philadelphia and immigration advocates Penn Live …A bill that immigration advocates are concerned will lead to t racial profiling and that one Philadelphia lawmaker worries will have devastating consequences on that city sailed past the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Tuesday. By a 136-55 vote, the Republican-controlled House passed House Bill No. 1885, a “Sanctuaries Cities” bill that would broaden to police and local governments immigration enforcement powers…
Five more states vote on minimum wage as federal wage stalls PBS … Congress’ inaction on the $7.25 hourly minimum wage is again playing out on state ballots, with voters in four states considering an increase and another considering wages for the youngest workers, even though the states already exceed the federal. In some cases voters are also deciding whether to add sick-leave policies to help the working poor…
U.S. LABOR
GE Appliances workers take ‘strike authorization’ vote as contract talks continue WDRB …Rank-and-file workers at GE Appliance Park are taking a “strike authorization vote” today, a union official told WDRB News. The move comes about two months after GE Appliances began negotiating a new labor contract with IUE-CWA Local 83761, which represents about 4,000 rank-and-file workers at Louisville’s Appliance Park…
Union Publicizes Sexual Harassment In Chicago’s Hospitality Industry NPR …Because of what’s transpired on the presidential campaign trail, sexual harassment is something we’re all talking about more. But we’re also getting a reminder from a Chicago labor union that, for many, this issue is part of life. The union Unite Here interviewed hundreds of hotel room attendants, casino cocktail waitresses and others about sexual harassment they face on the job…
In a Nightmare for Neoliberal Ed Reformers, Chicago Charter School Teachers May Strike This Week In These Times …An eleventh-hour agreement between the CTU and the school district headed off a second strike in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) last week. But there’s another teacher walkout still brewing—this time, at the UNO Charter School Network (UCSN), a group of 15 publicly-funded, privately-managed schools established by Rangel’s organization, from which he resigned in 2013…
Whiskey Workers Go on Strike: I’ll Drink to That Counterpunch …More than 250 members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 111D, at two separate Jim Beam distilleries in Kentucky (one at Clermont, Kentucky, the other at Boston), have gone on strike to protest working conditions. Jim Beam distillery employees have made it clear to management that the walk-off isn’t primarily about wages and benefits…
Labor Board Challenges Secrecy in Wall Street Contracts New York Times …On Wall Street, moneymaking companies have long relied on confidentiality agreements to prevent employees from divulging their secrets. But now, the nation’s labor board has challenged some provisions in the contracts that Bridgewater Associates, the world’s biggest hedge fund firm, requires each full-time employee to sign…
Uber ruling could bolster case law around employee designation Market Watch …A recent New York ruling that called Uber drivers employees could add to a case against Uber’s independent contractor designation. In the ruling, reported by the New York Times, two former Uber drivers were classified as employees in cases involving unemployment insurance claims. Uber currently classifies its drivers as independent contractors, not employees, which means it does not pay them a salary or benefits…
Taxi group organizes bike messengers to fight Uber Crain’s NY …About a dozen messengers along with the leadership of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance announced the launch of the New York Messengers Alliance. The new group is dedicated to improving pay, benefits and working conditions for messengers, whose numbers have exploded in recent years with the growth of app-based delivery services including UberRush, Uber Eats, Postmates, DoorDash, Caviar and Zipments…
A Union Is Building A Wall Of Taco Trucks Outside Trump’s Las Vegas Hotel BuzzFeed … wall is going up outside the Trump International Las Vegas hotel Wednesday morning. The Culinary Union, long a Donald Trump antagonist in Las Vegas, is going to “build” a wall of taco trucks outside Trump’s hotel, just a couple miles from UNLV, site of the final presidential debate. The groups aim to have at least five taco trucks outside the hotel, in addition to a banner in the style of a wall that participants will be able to sign…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
The New Protesters Defying Donald Trump: His Customers New York Times …Across the country, voters alarmed by the tenor of Mr. Trump’s campaign and the emerging accounts of his personal conduct are engaging in spontaneous, unorganized and inconspicuous acts of protest that take direct aim at perhaps his most prized possession: his brand name…
ICE Renews Private Prison Contractor To Run Largest Family Detention Center Huffington Post …Immigration and Customs Enforcement revised and extended a contract on Monday for a private company to keep running the country’s largest family detention center as a for-profit business for another five years. ICE renewed the contract with Corrections Corporation of America, despite a recent surge of criticism against the government’s reliance on private prison contractors…
Trump poses an unprecedented threat to the peaceful transition of power Washington Post …When we hold elections, the losing party acknowledges the legitimacy of the winner, and the winner allows the loser to survive to fight another day. Now, for the first time in modern history, a major-party candidate rejects both sides of that equation. If he loses, Donald Trump says, it will be due to cheating that makes the result illegitimate. If he wins, he will imprison his defeated opponent…
Kaine calls for broad rethink to combating poverty Politico …President Lyndon B. Johnson famously declared war on poverty in 1964, but in order to eliminate it completely, Kaine said, Americans must understand that impacts more than just cities. “It’s important to remember: poverty isn’t confined to our cities,” Kaine said. “And it isn’t only found in the places we normally think of, like isolated parts of Appalachia or rural America or Indian country”…