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Today’s Teamster News For October 7, 2016
TEAMSTERS
UCLA skilled workers union calls for higher wages in protest Daily Bruin …About 40 union members protested Thursday outside the UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center to advocate for higher wages. Teamsters Local 2010, the union representing UCLA administrative, clerical and skilled trade workers, argued their wages are below market value and lower than those received by workers at other California institutions. Despite UCLA’s promise to raise wages for skilled trade workers by 18 percent over five years, Ramsun said he has not received a pay raise in the past four years…
Teamsters Local 202: Feeding New York for 100 Years Labor Press …Teamsters Local 202 was born 100 years ago at the old Washington Market in what is now Tribeca, when fruits and vegetables were transported by horse-drawn carts over cobblestone streets. Today, it represents a diverse group of more than 4,000 workers in the New York metropolitan area, but its core is the 1,500 at the Hunts Point Terminal Market in the Bronx, where the city’s produce market moved in 1967…
Body Camera Delay Laconia Daily Sun …Teamsters Local 633 representing the town’s police officers have requested the town delay its use of body cameras until it has time to review the operating policy and possibly renegotiate the existing contract. The union’s position, as explained in a letter dated Sept. 30, is that the use of body cameras represents “a change in our Union members’ working conditions that directly affects them all”…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Oil Worker Strike In Kazakhstan Ends Without Violence OilPrice.com …Oil workers in an energy-rich region in Kazakhstan ended on Wednesday their six-day strike, after the drilling company employing them agreed to raise salaries and lift opposition to union leader choices. Around 2,300 workers had started the industrial action in the western town of Zhanaozen on September 30, demanding that private drilling firm Burgylau adopt the salary system of Kazakhstan’s state company KazMunayGaz…
Brazil bank employees end longest strike in 12 years, union says Reuters …Workers at Brazil’s private banks and state-run Banco do Brasil on Thursday ended a 31-day strike, according to the nation’s biggest banking industry union, the Sindicato dos Bancários de São Paulo, Osasco e Região. Workers accepted a proposal made by the National Banking Federation (Febraban) of an annual wage increase of 8 percent, implying an inflation-adjusted gain of 1 percent…
Worries Deepen That Globalization Is Hitting the Skids Wall Street Journal …Global finance ministers and central bankers are descending on Washington this week with a central concern in mind: fear that the modern age of globalization is hitting a wall. Last year’s $646 billion in foreign direct investment in rich economies represents a 40% drop from the peak before the financial crisis. International lending, as measured by cross-border banking claims at the Bank for International Settlements, is down…
Austria Presidential Hopeful to Sign TTIP Deal Only If Favored in Referendum Sputnik News …Talks on the deal resumed on Monday amid speculation that the November US presidential election could disrupt the process or possibly derail Washington’s involvement altogether. “The Federal President signs laws and with his signature he approves that these laws are in line with the Austrian constitution. TTIP is a state contract and can be signed only after citizens of Austria have been asked in a form of referendum”…
Europe May Finally End Its Painful Embrace of Austerity New York Times …Europe is re-examining the merits of austerity. Some policy makers are flashing tentative signs that they may be prepared to slacken their grip on public coffers to spur growth and improve the lot of ordinary people suffering joblessness and diminished wealth. In the clearest sign of this shift, the heavily indebted Italy is increasingly inclined to challenge Germany — the guardian of austerity — to loosen European purse strings…
Donald Trump’s Tax Pitch Could Miss Trade’s Strike Zone Wall Street Journal …Shrinking that deficit by rewriting trade deals and imposing tariffs is now the cornerstone of Trump’s platform. The GOP presidential nominee wants a smaller trade deficit, but his deficit-financed tax cut could do the opposite…
A Nigerian Superhighway Project Threatens a Critical Rainforest and Its People Truthout …Amidst protests, bulldozers backed by armed, rampaging soldiers stormed one of Africa’s largest surviving rainforests last spring and cut down trees — all in pursuit of the newly elected government’s agenda for rapid development. Large expanses of forests and green areas, which were natural habitat for certain wildlife species along the Okokor village, were torched and reduced to bare earth…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Massive campaign contributions pour into Missouri politics Kansas City Star …The days of unlimited campaign contributions in Missouri could be coming to an end this November. Yet looming limits aren’t doing much to slow down Missouri’s mega donors. A constitutional amendment will appear on the November ballot re-establishing campaign contribution limits that were repealed by the Missouri General Assembly in 2008…
Why 10% of Florida Adults Can’t Vote: How Felony Convictions Affect Access to the Ballot New York Times …One of every 40 American adults cannot vote in November’s election because of state laws that bar people with past felony convictions from casting ballots. Experts say racial disparities in sentencing have had a disproportionate effect on the voting rights of blacks and Hispanics…
The Fight For 15 Will Use Its Members To Get Out The Vote BuzzFeed …The group that has led protests by thousands of fast food workers across the country will begin a get-out-the-vote effort this month, targeting low-wage workers in a number of swing states. The Fight for 15 minimum wage movement plans to begin canvassing voters in more than three-dozen cities, including Miami, Denver and Milwaukee…
States confront exploding pension costs The Hill …State budget officials already worried about tight financial times face a new pressure in rapidly rising pension liabilities, according to a new report to be released Friday. The report, from Moody’s Investors Service, shows states are already liable for an estimated $1.25 trillion in pension costs for current employees and retirees…
Bridgegate trial reveals Chris Christie’s expletive-filled tirade Raw Story …The George Washington Bridge lane closure criminal trial has pulled back the curtain on parts of the inner workings of New Jersey’s government — including an expletive-driven tirade from Gov. Chris Christie. During hist testimony Wednesday, former Christie staffer Chris Stark recalled an incident involving Monmouth County Freeholder John Curley…
New Study Reveals That Raising the Minimum Wage Doesn’t Kill Jobs – It Creates Them Labor 411 …Conservatives preach gloom and doom whenever the topic of minimum wage increase comes up. It is “common sense,” they claim, that higher wages lead to less jobs. A new study, however, reveals that they are very wrong. In practice, minimum wage increases are not correlated with job losses but instead with job gains. The results were clear: Of the nearly two dozen federal minimum wage hikes since 1938, total year-over-year employment actually increased 68 percent of the time…
U.S. LABOR
CPS, teachers union meet with strike looming Chicago Tribune …After talking for well over a year without resolution, Chicago Public Schools and the teachers union met Wednesday to begin the final stretch of contract negotiations before a threatened strike next week. The Chicago Teachers Union’s 40-member bargaining unit, which last January rejected a contract proposal from the city that union leaders had deemed serious enough to bring to the team for approval, sat in on Wednesday’s talks at the CTU’s Merchandise Mart offices…
Steelworkers Blast Trump Over Use Of Cheap Chinese Steel NH Labor News …The United Steelworkers (USW) today launched an awareness campaign to educate union members after Kurt Eichenwald’s investigative report for Newsweek exposed Donald Trump’s use of Chinese steel and aluminum for several recent, high-profile construction projects. USW International President Leo W. Gerard called the Republican candidate’s statements about foreign trade and the need to create and maintain jobs in America’s manufacturing sector “hypocritical” and “fundamentally dishonest”…
Harvard dining hall workers strike for better pay, health care CNN …Harvard dining hall workers went on strike Wednesday after negotiations broke down over their pay and health care benefits. Local Union 26 and university officials failed to reach an agreement by a midnight deadline Tuesday. They’ve been in negotiation talks since May…
Teachers in over 200 cities protest public school funding Think Progress …As part of a national effort coordinated by Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools, teachers, parents, and students protested lack of funding and other issues affecting the quality of education in public schools this week. Erica Huerta, who teaches at James A. Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, said her main reasons for walking are to protest what she calls the “charterization” of the education system and to protect teachers’ rights…
McDonald’s Workers Detail Horrifying Sexual Harassment Huffington Post ….McDonald’s ignored serious instances of sexual harassment ― including groping, propositioning and lewd comments ― endured by hourly workers in eight states, according to 15 separate complaints that restaurant cashiers and cooks filed with a federal agency over the past month. Workers reported having their breasts and posteriors grabbed, and hearing obscene comments about their appearance and sexual orientation from bosses and colleagues…
Video game voice actors push for standardized contracts Engadget …In the midst of a protracted squabble, the union representing voice actors has come up with a contract for low-budget indie game developers. SAG-AFTRA is promoting a new agreement for titles under $250,000 that would limit difficult vocal sessions (presumably involving yelling or other vocal gymnastics) to two hours…
Here’s why shifts in job market favor women USA Today …The nature of work has changed radically in recent decades, with jobs that require social and analytical skills, and a college education, growing much faster than those demanding physical or manual prowess, a Pew study says. Pay for these higher-level jobs is increasing far more sharply, and the shift as disproportionately benefiting women, according to the study of Labor Department data by Pew Research Center, in association with the Markle Foundation…
‘I Wasn’t There To Help’: Dad With Newborn Struggles With Lack Of Leave NPR …Among private sector workers in the U.S., just 13 percent have access to paid family leave, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Men also typically take shorter leaves than women after the birth of a child. The U.S. is an outlier when it comes to the issue of paid leave. Papua New Guinea, Suriname, a few small South Pacific island states and the U.S. are among the handful of the 193 countries in the United Nations that do not provide this benefit to new parents…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Flint warnings as Atlantic City may be forced into state takeover of water The Guardian …Atlantic City may be forced by New Jersey into an unprecedented state takeover of its water as the result of a bailout, something experts have warned has worrying echoes of the ongoing water crisis in Flint, Michigan, and could result in price hikes…
DOJ Launches Unprecedented Investigation into Alabama Prisons Common Dreams …Alabama’s notoriously inhumane and overcrowded prisons are to be investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice, in an unusual move the agency announced late Thursday. “Only the most egregious of conditions would prompt the federal government to open a major investigation into the state’s prison system,” said Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) president Richard Cohen, which is currently suing the state of Alabama for its treatment of prisoners…
Amid Media Blackout over Climate Change Links to Hurricane Matthew, Top Scientist Speaks Out Democracy Now …States of emergency have been declared in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas as Hurricane Matthew barrels toward the Southeast coastline. More than 2 million people have been urged to evacuate their homes. The record-breaking storm has already killed at least 26 people in Haiti and four in the Dominican Republic. Many scientists are saying climate change has intensified Hurricane Matthew because warmer ocean waters help create stronger hurricanes…
After Hurricane Matthew, Haiti Faces Crisis and Media Instantly Forgets Common Dreams …Hurricane Matthew’s devastation in Haiti has left the nation facing a humanitarian crisis as corporate media shifts its focus to the storm’s encroachment onto U.S. shores. As the brief U.S. news coverage of Haiti dissipates, aid groups on the ground are still struggling to reach the most impacted regions…
Trump ‘greedy’ for not paying taxes, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown says Columbus Dispatch …”Dodging taxes doesn’t make Donald Trump smart, it makes him greedy,” Brown said. The senator listed several products made in the state of Ohio, all of which Trump opts not to sell through his companies. The New York businessman, Brown said, chooses to outsource his products to overseas manufacturers instead…
Donald Trump’s First 30 Years: Business Failures and Bailouts From Dad (opinion) Mother Jones …Donald Trump has lived his entire life in the shadow of his father’s success. Everything he’s done has been one long, desperate attempt to prove to himself and the world that he’s as successful as Fred Trump—who really was a self-made man. He never found that success…