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Today’s Teamster News For November 14, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Workers at Parsec Intermodal Company Vote to Join Teamsters Local 986 Teamster.org …Workers at Parsec, Inc. in Commerce, Calif., an intermodal rail transportation company, voted overwhelmingly this week to form their union as members of Local 986, Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said.There are 777 ramp drivers and crane operators in the bargaining unit and the vote was 455 to 193. “I am proud to welcome the Parsec workers who stood strong and united throughout this campaign,” Hoffa said…
XPO Logistics Workers Near Philadelphia Choose Teamster Representation Teamster.org …Drivers at XPO Logistics in suburban Philadelphia voted for Teamster representation today, propelling a nationwide campaign where XPO workers are standing together and forming their union to win fairness and respect on the job. The vote was 37 to 13. The 52 drivers at the former Con-way Freight join workers in Miami; Laredo, Texas; Vernon, Calif.; Aurora, Ill.; and in North Haven, Conn. who have already voted for Teamster representation…
UPS Air Maintenance Workers Vote 98 Pct to Authorize Strike Fox …Air maintenance workers at United Parcel Service Inc have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike against the world’s largest package delivery company as contract talks remained deadlocked over health-care benefits, the workers’ union said on Monday. Teamsters Local 2727 said 98 percent of those who took part in a mail-in ballot voted to authorize strike action…
Hoffa: Teamsters Will Work With President-Elect on Worker Issues Teamster.org …A statement from Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa about the election of Donald J. Trump as the 45th President of the United States: “On behalf of the 1.4 million Teamsters, I want to congratulate President-elect Trump on his victory. Americans have voted, and we respect their choice at the ballot box”…
No progress in Aubuchon union fight Sentinel & Enterprise …Aubuchon Hardware and Teamsters Local 170 are so far apart on ongoing labor issues, the two sides don’t even agree on how long they met for Thursday during their first official sit-down since a work stoppage started Monday at the company’s Westminster distribution facility. after meeting with the Teamsters Local 170, the union has said they will not accept any contract containing outsource language…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Ghana: labour Unions threaten strike over pension deduction MyJoyOnline …Twelve labour unions have hinted they would embark on a nationwide strike starting Tuesday over the failure of government to pay their five percent Tier II pension deduction. National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) President, Christian Adai Poku told Joy News they are dissatisfied with government’s handling of the issue, which informs their the decision…
Fire kills factory workers in India’s Sahibabad Al Jazeera …Thirteen workers have died in a fire at a suspected illegal garment factory on the outskirts of Delhi in India. The workers were sleeping when the blaze started in the early hours of Friday on the ground floor of a narrow building, which was being used to make leather jackets in Sahibabad, a suburb of Delhi…
Obama Administration Gives Up on Pacific Trade Deal Wall Street Journal …A sweeping Pacific trade pact meant to bind the U.S.and Asia effectively died Friday, as Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress told the White House they won’t advance it in the election’s aftermath, and Obama administration officials acknowledged it has no way forward now. The failure to pass the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership—by far the biggest trade agreement in more than a decade—is a bitter defeat for President…
Trump will quit TPP in first days Politico …President-elect Donald Trump plans to move quickly to fulfill some of his most controversial campaign promises related to what he derided as “job-killing” trade policies. Within the first 100 days, his administration will drop out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership…
Japan’s Abe to Make Trade Case to Trump in New York Meeting Bloomberg …Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will make the case for free trade and seek to build trust with Donald Trump when he meets the U.S. President-elect later this week in New York. During his election campaign, Trump vowed to drop the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a regional trade pact that covers 12 countries that make up 40 percent of the global economy, saying its enactment would be “catastrophic”…
Labor calls for Australia to indefinitely delay on TPP unless US ratifies it The Guardian …Labor has asked the government to indefinitely delay consideration of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, arguing it is doomed now due to US president-elect Donald Trump’s opposition. “It now appears the TPP is very unlikely to be ratified by the US,” Danby wrote. “As you know, if the United States does not ratify the TPP there is no TPP”…
No, Trump Didn’t Kill the TPP — Progressives Did (opinion) Medium …If you read the headlines, Donald Trump’s election has killed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The headlines have it wrong. Donald Trump didn’t kill the TPP. Assuming we see the fight through to the bitter end, it’s the cross-border, cross-sector, progressive “movement of movements” that will have defeated the TPP…
EU Sees Trump Freezing Talks on Trans-Atlantic Trade Pact Bloomberg …European Union Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said EU-U.S. negotiations on a free-trade agreement would probably be put on hold indefinitely because of Donald Trump’s victory in the American presidential election. Trump lashed out at market-opening initiatives such as the planned Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, during his successful campaign to succeed U.S. President Barack Obama…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Legislators prepare for a Greitens GOP administration in Missouri Post-Dispatch …Greitens, a Maryland Heights native who founded a charity to help veterans, offered little on the campaign trail in terms of specific policy proposals. But, in the wake of his victory over a man with 22 years in politics, a picture began to emerge of what he may attempt to tackle in his first year in office. It will likely include transforming Missouri into an anti-union, pro-business right-to-work state and eliminating regulations that could hamper the growth of the economy…
How voter ID laws helped Donald Trump win the presidency Salon …Laws passed by Wisconsin and North Carolina turned out to be very important for the Republican Party. In Wisconsin, for example, Voter ID laws disproportionately targeted non-white voters and, according to the executive director of Milwaukee’s Election Commission, resulted in the city’s turnout dropping by roughly 41,000 voters (Trump won the state by less than 18,000)…
Employers Await Stamp of Approval on State Minimum Wage Results Bloomberg …Voters’ approval on Nov. 8 of minimum-wage ballot initiatives in Arizona, Colorado and Washington means that the 2017 hourly minimum wage in these states is to be greater than the inflation-adjusted wage increases recently announced by the states’ labor departments. Employers preparing for upcoming wage adjustments may feel in limbo until the preliminary election results are official. How long that will take depends on the state…
In the Wake of a Trump Upset, 11 Reasons to Have Hope in Washington State Seattle Weekly …After the city of SeaTac and then Seattle passed a $15 minimum wage, Washington voters soundly approved the state minimum wage law by nearly 60 percent of the vote. Workers across the state can expect to earn $13.50 per hour by 2020 and know that every employer will provide them with paid sick leave by 2018…
Women No Longer Have To Pick Between A Paycheck And Escaping Abuse In These 2 States Huffington Post …It’s a lose-lose situation: If you’re a victim of domestic violence, you’re likely to have to skip work on short notice ― to seek medical attention, to talk to police and prosecutors, or even to relocate for your own safety. But missing work means losing money, or even worse, your job, at a time when financial independence is key. Victims in Arizona and Washington may not have to worry about that anymore…
U.S. LABOR
Tacoma General nurses plan weeklong boycott of extra shifts News Tribune …Nurses at Tacoma General Hospital plan for a week to refuse to take extra shifts or voluntary overtime to protest hospital work practices. The boycott of extra shifts is scheduled for Thursday to Nov. 17, according to a news release from the Washington State Nurses Association…
Union workers strike against Federal-Mogul in Van Wert LimaOhio.com …Employees of the Federal-Mogul Corporation plant in Van Wert went on strike at midnight, an official with United Steelworkers Local 14742 confirmed Monday morning. The Local 14742 union represents employees at Federal-Mogul, a global manufacturer of non-discretionary parts for automobiles, light trucks, heavy rucks and farm and construction vehicles…
The wild card in D.C. Metro’s budget talks: Union negotiations Washington Post …General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld acknowledged last week that it’s unlikely contracts talks with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 will be completed by the time the board is scheduled to vote on a final budget in March. Either negotiations won’t be concluded, he said, or, more likely, the two sides have entered binding arbitration, which could take more than a year…
Cincinnati bakery faces federal citations for unsafe working conditions Business Courier …A Greater Cincinnati bakery is being cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for exposing workers to hazards. OSHA said federal safety workers witnessed employees at Klosterman Baking Co. cleaning an improperly guarded bread wrapping machine just five weeks after a 28-year-old maintenance worker lost part of his right arm performing the same duty…
Labor movement braces for three-front battle with Trump, Congress and courts The Guardian …After spending tens of millions of dollars in hopes of electing Hillary Clinton, the labor movement fears that President-elect Donald Trump, the Republican-controlled Congress and the supreme court will be hostile to labor and take numerous steps to hobble unions. These steps can range from appointing a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that does business’s bidding to erasing an array of Obama administration regulations…
Unions brace for pro-business shift in labor policy under Trump Reuters …Unions in the United States face sweeping changes to labor law and regulations under a new Republican administration that is expected to tilt policy toward employers. Clinton’s loss could have wide-ranging consequences for unions. Donald Trump and a Republican-led Senate will likely pick the next justice for the Supreme Court, which often hears labor-related cases…
Donald Trump’s presidency is going to be a disaster for the white working class (opinion) Vox …Trump has promised an economic agenda that will increase the ranks of the uninsured by tens of millions, that will eliminate crucial safety net programs for low- and moderate-income Americans, that could start a trade war that drives up prices and devastates the economy, and that will put in place a tax code that exacerbates inequality and leaves many families with children worse off…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Public transportation won big on election night Think Progress …A record 48 public transportation initiatives were on the ballot in cities and states across the country, which in total would have raised some $200 billion for projects such as bike-sharing, bus improvements, or more walkable cities, according to the American Public Transportation Association. And on election night, 33 of those passed — 69 percent…
Trump’s call for new roads, bridges and other public works finds wide support Washington Post …If there’s one thing President-elect Donald Trump, Congress and a lot of Democrats can agree on, it’s the need for more spending on bridges, roads and other infrastructure. And corporate America and lawmakers are salivating at the prospect of a windfall. “Infrastructure” is “the happiest word in American politics,” said Jason Grumet, president of the Bipartisan Policy Center…
Trump Campaigned Against Lobbyists, but Now They’re on His Transition Team New York Times …President-elect Donald J. Trump, who campaigned against the corrupt power of special interests, is filling his transition team with some of the very sort of people who he has complained have too much clout in Washington: corporate consultants and lobbyists…
If you voted for Trump because he’s ‘anti-establishment,’ guess what: You got conned (opinion) Washington Post …The greatest trick Donald Trump pulled was convincing voters he’d be “anti-establishment.” Look at the people Trump is considering for his Cabinet, and you won’t find any outside-the-box thinkers burning to work for the little guy. It’s a collection of Republican politicians and corporate plutocrats — not much different from who you’d find in any Republican administration…
Protesters Take Anti-Trump Message to His Doorstep, and Plan Next Steps New York Times …Thousands of demonstrators filled public squares, parks and streets in the country’s three largest cities on Saturday to protest President-elect Donald J. Trump, part of a wave of dissent that has swelled since the presidential contest last week. In one of the largest anti-Trump demonstrations since his election on Tuesday, a mass of people marched from Union Square in Manhattan to Trump Tower, the headquarters and home of Mr. Trump…
Vitriol only intensifies after bitter election Washington Post …Three days since businessman Donald Trump won the presidency, it is clear that the animosity wrought by a historically divisive election did not simply die in its wake, but may have intensified. U.S. cities have been convulsed by anti-Trump protests. Swastikas, racial slurs and personal threats have appeared on public buildings and dorm room doors. And online, the vicious word-slinging between supporters of the two candidates has escalated to include videotaped accounts of personal confrontation and retribution…
Children are already being harassed in the name of our president-elect Think Progress …In the days following the election, students are already invoking the name of our president-elect while they spread white supremacist messages. During lunch at Royal Oak Middle School in Royal Oak, Michigan, a group of students chanted “Build the wall! Build the wall!” The superintendent said the school is addressing the issue…
House Republicans test Trump on his U.S.-Mexico wall Reuters …A House Republican aide and a Department of Homeland Security official said a wall was not realistic because it would block visibility for border agents and cut through rugged terrain, as well as bodies of water and private land. The House aide said House Republicans working on the alternative plan…