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Today’s Teamster News For November 22, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Hoffa-Hall Re-Elected to Five-Year Term to Lead Union Teamster.org …International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa, General Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall, International Vice Presidents At-Large, International Trustees and International Vice Presidents in the Eastern, Southern and Central Regions were elected Friday night in the 2016 Election of International Union Officers, according to unofficial results provided by the Office of the Election Supervisor…
Teamsters Hold Unfair Labor Practice Strike at Selland Auto Transport Teamster.org …Early Monday morning, approximately 250 drivers, mechanics and owner-operators who work for Selland Auto Transport went on strike over Selland’s multiple violations of federal law meant to protect workers’ rights. The workers picketed at 11 locations in Washington, Oregon, Montana, California and Utah…
Teamsters Make Unconditional Offer to Return to Work at Selland Auto Transport Teamster.org …On Monday the union was forced to call an Unfair Labor Practice Strike against Selland Auto Transport at 11 different locations across Washington, Oregon, Montana, California and Utah, in an attempt to dissuade the company’s continued violations of federal labor law. After a great display of solidarity from across the entire system, the unions made an unconditional offer to return to work…
Cargo pilots for DHL, Amazon strike in Wilmington Dayton Daily News …A cargo airline whose pilots are striking will seek a court order today in a bid to get the pilots flying again in the crucial weeks before Christmas, the airline said. Air Transport Services Group, Inc. Tuesday said one of its two airline subsidiaries, ABX Air, Inc., is taking “multiple steps” to end what it calls an “illegal work stoppage” started early Tuesday by its pilots represented by the Airline Professionals Association of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 1224…
Union agrees to warn schools ahead of strike Eagle Tribune …A local bus drivers union and First Student bus company have agreed to give School Administrative Unit 55, or Timberlane and Hampstead schools, a 48-hour warning ahead of any strike. Superintendent Earl Metzler received word of the agreement Monday afternoon, several days after the district took Teamsters Local 633 and the bus company to court…
2nd Circuit says NLRB misapplied ‘micro union’ test Reuters …A unanimous three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Constellation Brands U.S. Operations Inc, represented by Jones Day, that the NLRB ignored similarities between 46 cellar workers at its Woodbridge Winery in Acampo, California who voted last year to join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters…
Teamsters 688 boycott costing Schnucks more than if it had moved fired Teamsters to new warehouse Labor Tribune …Schnucks Markets firing of 201 Teamsters Local 688 warehouse workers (plus 30 management) was a misbegotten economic decision, demonstrates a survey by Pro-Union St. Louis of its Facebook participants that were former Schnucks shoppers. Schnucks is losing more in income from boycotting shoppers than it would have cost them to pay the union warehouse workers wages and benefits at their new north county warehouse that is now operated by scabs…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
UK: Diageo Unions Vote for Industrial Action Over Pension Cuts Wall Street Journal …British-based workers at Diageo PLC, the world’s largest drinks maker, threatened Monday to strike over pension restructuring, raising the specter of a disruption going into the critical Christmas selling period. Diageo has about 5,100 workers in the U.K., of which 1,700 are covered by the pension rules in question…
Kenya: Crisis After 300 County Workers Strike, Demand Pay All Africa …Over 300 casual workers employed by Migori County government downed tools on Monday demanding to be paid salary arrears for three months, paralysing service delivery. They deserted their work stations in the eight sub-counties and camped at the county headquarters in Migori Town for the better part of the day…
One of Britain’s biggest unions is ratcheting up its war on Uber Business Insider …One of Britain’s biggest unions is ratcheting up its war on Uber — calling on HMRC to investigate the company over tax and worker pay. In October, a London tribunal ruled that Uber’s drivers are workers and should be entitled to benefits like minimum wage and holiday pay in a case involving two drivers that was brought by the union GMB…
Donald Trump: US to quit TPP on first day in office BBC …President-elect Donald Trump says the US will quit the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal on his first day in the White House. He made the announcement in a video message outlining what he intends to do first when he takes office in January. The TPP trade deal was signed by 12 countries which together cover 40% of the world’s economy…
Trump’s NAFTA revamp would require concessions, may borrow from TPP Reuters …President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to make it “a lot better” for U.S. workers would not be a one-way street for his administration, as Canada and Mexico prepare their own list of demands that could require difficult U.S. concessions…
Trans-Pacific Partnership may not be dead yet USA Today …It may be too early to write off the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP. While the tech-friendly free trade agreement won’t come up for a vote during the current lame-duck session of Congress, that doesn’t mean it won’t be resurrected in some form under President-elect Donald Trump…
Japan PM says TPP trade pact meaningless without U.S. Reuters …The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would be meaningless without U.S. participation, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said he would withdraw the United States from the pan-Pacific free trade deal. Abe, who attended a gathering of TPP leaders in Lima on Saturday, said there was no discussion at the meeting that other members should try to put the TPP into effect without the United States…
Obama confronts an uncertain future on trade with the likely death of his signature TPP deal LA Times …An atypical alliance between President Obama and pro-business Republicans built momentum for the largest global trade agreement in history. Now, the equally unlikely pairing of President-elect Donald Trump and key constituencies of the left are celebrating its near-certain demise…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Texas: Fate Of Voter ID Law May Hinge On Incoming Trump Administration Houston Public Media …The Obama Administration is asking a federal judge to rule Texas legislators deliberately discriminated against African-American and Latino voters. At issue is the state’s voter ID law, passed in 2011. The fate of the lawsuit is up in the air, as President Obama prepares to leave office. The Texas case is one of several federal suits challenging state voter ID laws…
New York: Andrew Cuomo Creates Special Unit To Investigate Post-Election Surge In Hate Crimes Huffington Post …New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) plans to investigate the uptick in hate crimes that have occurred in the state since the presidential election, he announced Sunday. Speaking before the congregation at Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, Cuomo reaffirmed New York’s place as a safe haven for immigrants, people of color and members of the LGBTQ community…
Nevada: Embattled Democrats, Labor Allies See State as a Beacon Wall Street Journal …Donald Trump’s presidential victory has been widely interpreted in part as a sign of organized labor’s waning influence over its members. But not in Nevada, where the Culinary Workers Union helped to deliver a nearly clean sweep for Democrats in several races. The state was a rare electoral bright spot for the party…
Puerto Rico: governor defies new federal control board Journal Star …Puerto Rico’s governor on Monday challenged a federal control board created by Congress just months ago to oversee the finances of the U.S. territory and help pull it out of an economic crisis. In what could be a test of the board’s powers, Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla announced he would not submit an amended fiscal plan — the board’s first request of the island’s leader. He said he believes new austerity measures would only worsen the crisis…
Minimum wage protests planned in 340 cities The Hill …Organizers behind a movement to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour are promising its “largest, most disruptive protest ever” in response to Donald Trump’s stunning victory in the 2016 presidential election. “Just because the election went a certain way, doesn’t mean we’re going away,” said Kendall Fells, organizing director of the Fight for $15. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Raising the minimum wage is a “winning issue,” Fells said…
U.S. LABOR
Trump has a plan for government workers. They’re not going to like it. Washington Post …President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress are drawing up plans to take on the government bureaucracy they have long railed against, by eroding job protections and grinding down benefits that federal workers have received for a generation, including a ban on union business on the government’s dime. They include hiring freezes, an end to automatic raises, a green light to fire poor performers, a ban on union business on the government’s dime and less generous pensions…
Donald Trump probably looking to Scott Walker for guidance on public employees Madison.com …Atop adviser to President-elect Donald Trump said the new administration would probably look to Gov. Scott Walker for guidance on major changes to the federal government workforce. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told the Washington Post that he has urged Trump to shrink the federal government and make it easier to fire federal employees…
Hundreds of O’Hare workers to strike next week as part of Fight for $15 protests Chicago Tribune …A strike planned for Nov. 29 at Chicago O’Hare International Airport will miss the Thanksgiving holiday’s busiest travel days and coincide with a nationwide day of protests that the Fight for $15 movement claims will be its most disruptive yet. The Fight for $15 asserted Monday that after the election of Donald Trump to the White House it “won’t back down”…
Thousands of airport, fast food workers across U.S. to strike for $15 minimum wage, union rights Daily News …Tens of thousands of airport and fast food workers across the U.S. will strike on Nov. 29 as part of a nationwide movement calling for a $15 an hour minimum wage and union rights, and protesting police killings and Donald Trump’s “politics of divisiveness.” The protests will affect 20 airports, including O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, and various fast food establishments, including McDonald’s franchises from Detroit to Denver…
Public school teachers worry for their profession under a Trump presidency Think Progress …President-elect Donald Trump once called teachers “stupid” and sharply criticized teachers unions. Members of his family have minimized sexual harassment and suggested that teaching kindergarten would be a good job for someone who does not “belong in the workforce”…
Vote Count on Student Unionization Pushed to Tuesday Harvard Crimson …National Labor Relations Board officials have not yet begun counting the ballots of students who voted in last week’s union election due to the time-consuming process of sifting through challenges. Graduate student teaching and research assistants, as well as undergraduate teaching assistants, voted in the NLRB-supervised election on authorizing the Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers last Wednesday and Thursday…
Trump’s tax plan will enrich investors and do little for workers Think Progress …American companies have an estimated $2.6 trillion in profits sitting untaxed overseas. As part of his tax proposal package, President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to entice them to bring that money back and invest it in production and jobs here at home. But there is a very slim chance that companies will use that money to invest in jobs or the economy…
Unions, Rights Groups Call on Trump to Denounce Hateful Acts US News & World Report …Some of the nation’s largest labor unions, along with civil rights leader Rev. William Barber and a coalition of rights groups, are calling on President-elect Donald Trump to use the bully pulpit he’s about to inherit, make good on his promise to unify the country and demand an end to the hate-fueled acts that have occurred since his stunning election last week…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
The systemic media failure of the Trump transition Think Progress …Trump held a party at his new Washington DC hotel encouraging foreign diplomats to stay in a $20,000 per night suite. Trump’s behavior threatens a core tenet of American democracy — the president is supposed to represent the people, not himself. But major media outlets continue to treat Trump’s business conflicts as a secondary issue…
Trump Assembling Team of ‘Swamp Creatures,’ Says Ellison Common Dreams …Forget “draining the swamp,” President-elect Donald Trump is building a cabinet full of “more swamp creatures than ever before,” Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. Appearing on the morning show, the progressive lawmaker, who is running to chair the Democratic National Committee (DNC), said, “Donald Trump has already proven where he’s going with this thing”…
Hillary Clinton’s Popular Vote Lead Increases to Almost 1.7 Million Slate …Hillary Clinton’s lead in the popular vote over President-elect Donald Trump keeps growing and currently stands at 1.677 million votes. On Election Day, Clinton received 63,541,056 votes compared with Trump’s 61,864,015 while other candidates received 7,034,595 votes. There are numerous petitions circulating online calling on delegates to become “faithless electors” while Sen. Barbara Boxer from California has said she will introduce legislation to abolish the Electoral College…
“Heil Victory!” Alt-Right Groups Emboldened by Trump’s Election & Chief Strategist Steve Bannon Democracy Now …A video leaked Monday from a self-proclaimed “alt-right” conference that took place over the weekend in Washington, D.C., shows hundreds gathering to celebrate Donald Trump’s victory and raising their arms in the traditional Nazi salute and saying “Heil victory!” Leaders of the alt-right movement have been emboldened since Trump’s election, particularly since he named Steve Bannon to become his chief strategist…
Trump Infrastructure Plan a ‘Trap’ Democrats Should Reject, Experts Warn Common Dreams …A former Obama aide is calling on Democrats not to support President-elect Donald Trump’s so-called infrastructure plan, saying it’s a “trap” and a “mistake in policy and political judgment they will regret.” A closer look at Trump’s proposal shows the plan may just be a smokescreen for corporate tax cuts that might not build anything new at all…
Standing Rock protest: hundreds clash with police over Dakota Access Pipeline The Guardian …Law enforcement officials in North Dakota have deployed tear gas and water hoses against hundreds of activists protesting against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Protesters also reported being hit with rubber bullets and percussion grenades on a bridge just north of the encampments established by indigenous and environmental activists…
Immigrants Who Came to U.S. as Children Fear Deportation Under Trump New York Times …Mr. Trump has promised to “immediately terminate” Mr. Obama’s executive actions on immigration, including the youth initiative. With deep roots in the United States, and with many supporters in civil rights groups, universities and city governments already mobilizing to shield them, many who came here as youths said they were prepared to fight efforts to end the program or expel them from the country…
Meet the Anti-Science Extremist Who Could Transform the EPA The Nation …Myron Ebell, who is leading Donald Trump’s transition team at the Environmental Protection Agency, is the boring face of extremism. As the main in-house climate-change denier for the Competitive Enterprise Institute (a libertarian think tank partially funded by oil and coal companies), he appears often in the media to provide “balance” to mainstream science…