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Today’s Teamster News For October 5, 2016

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TEAMSTERS

Hoffa: Bill Shows Two Pension Plans Aren’t Better Than One  Detroit News  …Almost two years ago, Congress approved language that gave multiemployer pension plans the ability to dramatically cut benefits to their participants. Now some of those same lawmakers are threatening the retirement security of thousands again. Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.) authored the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act (MRPA) that ultimately was included in the fiscal 2015 omnibus funding bill…

The Silicon Valley Union Victories You Haven’t Heard Of  The Nation  …The Teamsters got a boost with a card-check vote at Bauer’s Intelligent Transportation, which operates commuter shuttles for mega-brands like Cisco, Zynga, and Intuit. Though the Teamsters have organized other tech contract drivers, the Bauer’s battle was especially rough, culminating in a mandate for “labor harmony” issued by San Francisco’s Municipal Transportation Authority… 

Henderson City Council OKs contract extension for 3 units represented by Teamsters  Review-Journal  …A two-year contract extension for three bargaining units represented by Teamsters Local 14 that will cost Henderson $3.8 million through 2018 was approved Tuesday by the Henderson City Council. Blue-collar workers such as building inspectors, crime scene analysts, custodians and equipment operators; clerical and technical employees; and supervisors will receive a 2.25 percent base wage increase…

 

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE

S. Africa domestic workers strike for better working conditions  SABC  …Domestic workers took their fight for better working conditions to the streets of Ekhuruleni, demanding to be paid overtime, maternity leave and Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) benefits. Domestic workers are some of the most vulnerable employees, often working unforgiving hours with very little pay. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) will stage a national protest on October 07 to mark World Day for Decent Work…

Australia: WA protesters rally against TPP trade deal  News.com  …With public hearings held in Perth by the senate inquiry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, protests opposing the deal have rallied on. The Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network, UnionsWA and The Greens voiced their opposition on Wednesday outside state parliament. WA Greens Senator Scott Ludlam said negotiations for the agreement had been shrouded in secrecy…

Obama Hails Enforcement on Trade Deals to Win Support for T.P.P.  NY Times  …The Obama administration has used a flurry of tough-sounding trade enforcement announcements in recent weeks to counter complaints from the left and right that free trade is not fair trade — and to assist President Obama in the struggle to win approval of his trade pact with 11 Pacific Rim nations…

Voters in Key Swing State Agree: Faulty Trade Deals Bad for Jobs  Lifezette  …That result cuts across ideological grounds. Excluding unaffiliated voters, 59 percent of conservatives, 72 percent of moderates, and 58 percent of liberals all agree that jobs could be brought back by rolling back bad trade deals. There is no party registration in Virginia, so that portion of the poll was conducted on the basis of philosophy…

Stop TTIP – A ‘Good Starting Point’ for Rising Left Movements in Europe  Sputnik News  …The 15th round of negotiations on the secretive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal has begun in New York, despite major opposition in both Europe and the United States. Mark Dearn, senior campaign coordinator at War on Want, spoke with Radio Sputnik’s Brian Becker, stating that there is no chance for the agreement to be passed this year…

In Boon for Big Pharma, TTIP Would Lock In High Drug Prices: Report  Common Dreams  …As E.U. and U.S. officials meet in New York this week for the 15th round of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations, a new report warns of how the corporate-friendly, increasingly unpopular deal could “lock in” high drug prices and “help entrench a broken medical innovation system”…

Greek Police Use Teargas on Pensioners Protesting Austerity  TeleSUR  …Thousands of pensioners responded to a protest call by the communist opposition and tensions boiled over as their protest march approached the Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s office and residence in Athens Monday. ne group of protesters attempted to breach the cordon of riot police guarding the building, while others attempted to overturn a police car, according to an AFP correspondent…

 

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES

Guaranteed paid sick leave gains momentum  CBS  …The campaign to give workers paid time off when they’re sick is picking up momentum. A bill that would give workers for the Illinois county that includes Chicago one hour of paid sick time for each 40 hours they work was up for a vote Wednesday. Sick leave referendums are on the November ballot in Arizona and Washington state…

UW study hopes to find effect of Wisconsin voter ID laws  Badger Herald  …While Wisconsin’s new voter ID requirement continues to cause controversy, the Dane County Clerk’s office will study the November election to see how much of an impact the law really has on voters. Factors that may inhibit voting, such as the voter ID requirement, have been discussed and speculated before, but there hasn’t been any quantitative data to back it up…

Virginia’s right-to-work amendment  News Leader  …On the 2016 ballot, most people have been focusing on the presidential race. In Virginia, two proposed constitutional amendments will also be on the ballot for people to vote on in November. One of the ballots involves tax exemptions for certain spouses of emergency services providers. The second proposed amendment is a right-to-work amendment involving labor unions…

A federal court struck down much of North Carolina’s voter ID law — but what’s left could still shrink the black vote  Washington Post  …Many voting rights activists breathed a sigh of relief this year when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit overturned numerous provisions of North Carolina’s 2013 election law. The law had instituted a strict voter ID requirement, curtailed the early voting period and eliminated one-stop voting and registration, among other provisions…

The Cities That Are Fighting Back Against State Intervention  City Lab  …Back in May, Ohio passed a new state law targeting an old Cleveland ordinance. The state law, HB 180, preempted a 12-year-old municipal law that requires contractors to hire locally. The state’s legislation prohibited Cleveland or any other city in Ohio from passing local-hire laws. Late in August, Cleveland struck back…

 

U.S. LABOR

Seattle University refuses to bargain with faculty union  The Stand  …Seattle University announced on Friday its refusal to bargain with the adjunct and contingent faculty union certified by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on September 12. The University also announced its plan to seek court review of the NLRB’s jurisdiction over the Jesuit school, which could occur once the NLRB has processed any unfair labor practice charges filed by SEIU 925 over the refusal to bargain…

11th Circuit reverses NLRB in Mercedes-Benz ‘mixed use’ case  Reuters  …A divided U.S. appeals court on Monday said the National Labor Relations Board erred in finding that Mercedes-Benz’s U.S. subsidiary broke the law by prohibiting workers from distributing pro-union flyers in rooms they used both during work and down time. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision said walled-off areas at a Mercedes-Benz U.S. International Inc plant in Vance, Alabama known as team centers were primarily used for work… 

Major Union, Clinton Backer Makes Its Demand For Her First 100 Days  BuzzFeed  …The powerhouse union that played a pivotal role in the election of Barack Obama is working just as hard to put Hillary Clinton in the White House. And it has equally high expectations for what its two million members will get in return this time around. The Service Employees International Union wants healthcare jobs to become a foundation of the American middle class, just as manufacturing was a generation ago…

‘Trump talks a big game’ on Indiana factories – but workers express doubt  The Guardian  …Most of its Indianapolis workers make about $26 an hour. Their Mexican replacements make $3 an hour. Unfortunately for Trump, notwithstanding his repeated attacks against Carrier and the fact that his running mate Mike Pence is the state’s governor, workers at the company’s sprawling Indianapolis factory voice little support for the Republican nominee…

A National Strike Against “Prison Slavery”  New Yorker  …In the lead-up to this year’s Attica anniversary, the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), a project of the Industrial Workers of the World union, drew up plans for a national strike “against prison slavery,” to draw attention to the conditions in America’s jails and penitentiaries… 

Out of Prison, Out of Work  Bloomberg  …About 7 million American men of prime working age (25 through 54) are not in the labor force, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That means they don’t have a paid job and haven’t been actively looking for one. This figure does not include those in jail or prison.1 It does include students and men staying home to take care of children or other family members…

The Housing Bubble Explains Today’s Odd Labor Shortage  Bloomberg  …If the labor market is close to full employment, as some people argue, why isn’t wage growth higher? For one possible explanation, we can look at a similar dynamic that played out during the housing bubble. One of the surprises of the housing bubble was how long it took investors and markets to respond even after fundamentals had turned south…

 

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS

Hurricane Matthew Slams Haiti as Experts Warn Cuba, Florida Next  Common Dreams  …Hurricane Matthew has made violent landfall in Haiti, killing at least one person and destroying homes with heavy rain, strong winds, and surge flooding throughout the island’s south-western peninsula in the Caribbean’s most powerful storm in almost a decade. The eye of the Category 4 hurricane hit Haiti just after 7:00am, with maximum sustained winds of 145 miles per hour… 

6 things Trump definitely said that Pence claimed he didn’t  Politico  …Tim Kaine came into the vice presidential debate with a clear goal: make Mike Pence own all of Trump’s most controversial moments. But Kaine was unable, with Pence successfully parrying his attacks as the debate dissolved into a string of interruptions and contradictions. Scored on accuracy, however, Pence fares far worse. The main tenet of his strategy was to deny that Trump ever said these things to begin with — despite the fact that many of the statements were both real and a part of the public record…

What the government does for people like Donald Trump that it won’t do for the poor  Washington Post  …Though we don’t know the details of Trump’s finances, the Times’ disclosure of part of the 1995 return does illustrate one important benefit available to wealthy people under the tax laws that less affluent people often can’t enjoy. The tax laws were written on the principle that a business ought to be able to count past losses against future gains…

Judge Dismisses $40M Lawsuit Over Police Tactics in Ferguson Protests  Daily Beast  …A federal judge on Monday threw out a lawsuit claiming police used excessive force against protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, after the 2014 death of Michael Brown. Judge Henry Autry issued a 74-page ruling in which he sided with police officers. The lawsuit alleged police abused protesters and made unlawful arrests, using excessive force by firing rubber bullets and tear-gas…

Supreme Court, like the country, struggles with race  CNN  …Race has divided the Roberts court like nearly no other issue. The justices have wrangled over how openly to talk about their differences. And now, as a new session begins, the court is delving into a set of racially charged cases in the explosive context of the criminal justice system…

Pence says stop-and-frisk works. It’s actually ineffective and illegal.  Think Progress  …At the Vice Presidential debate on Tuesday, former Gov. Mike Pence said that families in inner cities want more stop and frisk policing as a way to stop crime. Not only has stop-and-frisk been shown to be ineffective, but it was also ruled unconstitutional because it disproportionately targets black and Hispanic Americans…