TEAMSTERS

Teamsters: Federal Labor Board Rejects XPO’s Latest Anti-Union Tactics  Teamster.org  …The National Labor Relations Board has dismissed six objections filed by XPO Logistics involving the Oct. 12 election in Aurora, Ill., which means the Teamsters are now certified as the workers’ bargaining representative. The union anticipates the company will appeal the decision to further delay the will of the workers…

Kalitta Air Backs Out of Tentative Agreement with Teamster Pilots  Teamster.org  … Kalitta Air, LLC, the Ypsilanti, Michigan-based cargo airline, has reneged on its tentative agreement with pilots and their union that would have ended six years of prolonged contract negotiations and put the airline on a path to stability for its clients. Kalitta Air operates a fleet of Boeing 747 aircraft in support of the global network of DHL Express, a division of the German logistics company, Deutsche Post DHL. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Airline Division, Local 1224 represents the pilot group…

Teamsters, Researchers Play Hunger Games with UC Contract Talks  UCSD Guardian  …Outside the headquarters of the University of California in Oakland, researchers Peter Dreier and Megan Bomba sat alongside two officials of Teamsters Local 2010. Behind them: signs that read “UC: Pay Workers Enough to LIVE.” The Teamsters local is negotiating with the university system over clerical and administrative support salaries. Part of the union’s campaign is to persuade outsiders that the UC’s hardest-working employees are going to bed hungry…

Teamsters look to Garneau for action on trucking and rail  MM&D Online  …The Teamsters Union is satisfied with the measures recently proposed by Minister Marc Garneau, namely with respect to the environment and infrastructure. However, the Strategic Plan for the Future of Transportation in Canada does not directly meet the specific challenges facing rail transport workers and truckers, and the Teamsters will therefore be impatiently awaiting the detailed announcements in the coming months…

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE

Pakistan: Workers strike as shipyard death toll rises  IndustriALL  … A fire is raging aboard an oil tanker in the shipbreaking yard of Gadani, Pakistan, with up to 150 workers trapped inside. A gas container exploded inside the oil tanker on Tuesday, and firefighters are battling to control the blaze. The National Trade Union Federation of Pakistan (NTUF) has called a three day strike and period of mourning at the shipyards, which employ about 9,000 workers…

UK: Southern rail workers to strike over Christmas and new year  The Guardian  …Southern rail commuters are to be hit by yet more delays and cancellations over Christmas and the new year as the RMT union has given notice of additional strikes in the heart of the festive period. The action comes as part of a long-running dispute between the union and Southern’s operating company, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), over plans to reform the role of the conductor and potentially run trains without a second crew member aboard…

The Philippines’ Drug Crackdown Is Creating an Atmosphere of Impunity for Anti-Union Violence The Nation  …Duterte’s regime may lose some populist credentials, as its brutal anti-crime crackdown shades into a patters of anti-labor violence. At a late September rally, advocates with the labor organizations Partido Manggagawa and Philippine Airlines Employees Association expressed frustration with the government’s emphasis on combating crime rather than addressing crucial welfare issues…

French women to walk out of work in protest against gender pay gap  France24  …The demonstration, which has been dubbed #7NOVEMBRE16H34, was inspired by a similar initiative in Iceland last month, during which thousands of women protested against the country’s 14 percent gender pay gap ending the workday 14 percent early at 2:38pm. Just two days after the walk-out in Iceland, the World Economic Forum (WEF) published a report that found if the global economic gender gap continues to shrink at its present rate, it could take up to 170 years before it closes…

Japan Lawmakers Vote to Ratify TPP  Wall Street Journal  …The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal cleared its main hurdle in Japan’s parliament on Friday, helping Prime Minister Shinzo Abe make the case before the U.S. election that the deal isn’t dead. Mr. Abe has put the TPP at the center of his agenda of overhauling Japan’s economy…

No rest for Sanders supporters on TPP  Politico  …The progressive group founded by Sen. Bernie Sanders has begun a targeted campaign to sway at least five House Democrats to oppose the TPP in hopes it could change the outcome of a ratification vote — and it’s getting some results. Rep. Denny Heck (D-Wash.) came out against the deal last week despite the White House’s efforts to gain his support for the pact based on the interests of his trade-oriented south Puget Sound district…

Black Lives Matter declares its opposition to TPP  Boing Boing  …Add another name to the list of TPP’s strange bedfellows opponents: Black Lives Matter, who have found a signature plank in Donald Trump’s platform that they can endorse wholeheartedly, as improbable as that may sound. It’s pitting the Congressional black caucus against Obama, who sees TPP as his legacy. The group ties past trade deals to the closures of factories that have hurt black workers disproportionately and increased black poverty…

 

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES

Arizona, Colorado, Maine and Washington: Voters Could Push the Minimum Wage to $12 or Higher  Wall Street Journal  …The number of states poised to have a $12-an-hour minimum wage—or higher—could more than double on Election Day if voters in Arizona, Colorado, Maine and Washington approve ballot questions seeking to raise the pay floor. All four states have minimums above the federal level of $7.25 an hour, but low-wage workers in each could see a raise if the measures pass…

Maine: Gov. LePage tells voters to say ‘No’ to all referendum questions  WGME  …With five days left until Election Day, the debate over Maine’s six referendum questions is heating up. Governor Paul LePage made a stop in Lewiston Thursday, telling residents to vote them all down. The governor told the Lewiston Rotary Club that Maine would become an economic wasteland if some of these questions pass, including a hike in minimum wage, but proponents say it would do exactly the opposite… 

Pennsylvania: judge’s ruling a setback for GOP bid to police polls in urban areas  Think Progress  …A judge has rejected Pennsylvania Republicans’ bid for residents to serve as poll monitors anywhere in the state regardless of where they live, dealing a blow to Donald Trump’s hopes to mobilize rural voters into urban districts on Election Day. The state party sued in late October over an 80-year-old law that restricts election monitors to their home counties…

In Ohio’s Blue-Collar Bellwether, the Focus Is on Jobs  Wall Street Journal  …As voters turned up for the primary elections in this blue-collar county, Phil Giavasis became worried: About 2,600 registered Democrats asked for ballots to vote in the Republican primary, he said, while only 1,100 Republicans wanted to vote in the Democratic contest. “Democrats have historically shown up and said, ‘Give me a Democratic ballot,’ ” said Mr. Giavasis, the party’s chairman for Stark County…

How States Moved Toward Stricter Voter ID Laws  New York Times  …Thirty-two states — a figure that has been steadily rising — now have some form of voter ID laws, based on a count by the National Conference of State Legislatures. The number of states with the strictest laws is rising as well: Voters in seven states will be required to show photo identification in order to cast their ballots this year. In 2012, only four states required it…

Milwaukee County Board votes to approve $15/hour minimum wage  TMJ4  …The Milwaukee County Board voted to approve a higher minimum wage Thursday for county workers and contractors. The proposal called for a raise in Milwaukee County’s “Living Wage Ordinance” to $15 an hour. The measure is expected to be signed into law by Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele. It had already passed the Finance and Audit Committee unanimously… 

 

U.S. LABOR

Talks Continue Going Into Day 4 Of SEPTA Strike  ABC  …Talks are continuing between SEPTA and striking members of Transport Workers Union Local 234 as commuters move forward into Day 4 of the work stoppage. SEPTA has been public about its proposal, saying it is offering the union a drop in the current earnings cap on pension, and enhancing that benefit by 8 percent. But offsetting that, SEPTA says, union members must pay more for their healthcare plan…

Momentive workers go on strike in Waterford  Daily Gazette  …Tensions ran high as Momentive Performance Materials employees on strike attempted to block the entrances outside the Waterford facility as busloads of new employees inched forward into the crowd Wednesday afternoon. Workers walked out at noon after several months of negotiations between union representatives and the company, which began in June, failed to result in a contract…

Labor board: Trump hotel violated labor law  Politico  …The National Labor Relations Board, the agency charged with enforcing federal labor law, ruled Thursday that the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas violated the National Labor Relations Act by refusing to bargain with a union that represents more than 500 housekeeping, food and beverage and guest services workers there. The NLRB’s decision orders Trump Ruffin Commercial LLC to recognize and bargain with the workers, who are represented by Nevada’s powerful Culinary Workers Union Local 226…

How McDonald’s avoids responsibility for its franchises’ mistreatment of workers  Salon  …In an unprecedented move, McDonald’s recently decided to fork out millions to settle a wage-theft class action brought by hundreds of San Francisco area McDonald’s employees. While the $3.75 million payment is a victory for the workers involved, it stops short of helping labor activists in their effort to hold McDonald’s responsible for the treatment of franchise employees…

NLRB argues against Uber  Politico  …The National Labor Relations Board is wading into the case of 385,000 Uber drivers in California and Massachusetts who claim they’ve been misclassified as independent contractors. Uber tried to end the three-year legal proceeding with a $100 million settlement in August, but the district court judge hearing the case thought the deal was unfair and denied it. A few weeks later, the Ninth Circuit ruled in a separate case that Uber’s arbitration agreements were valid and enforceable… 

Nabisco bakery recalls about 100 laid-off workers  Chicago Tribune  …DeGolyer is one of about 100 of the 320 laid-off members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union who have been recalled to work at the facility. In July 2015, Mondelez International announced its plans to cut about 600 of the 1,200 jobs at the plant and shift some operations to Mexico…

Loosely regulated, charter schools pose fiscal risk  The Hill  …Charter schools were originally envisioned to serve as incubators of excellence where teachers and schools were given the flexibility to explore alternative strategies for helping children succeed. However, that model was quickly replaced by those who saw charter schools as a mechanism to profit off the privatization of public education…

To Reduce Prison Population, Invest in Public Mental Health, New Study Says  Common Dreams  …A new study points to a key way to reduce the prison population in the incarceration capital of the world: boost spending on public mental health. Reducing the prison population means reducing jail expenditures. The average cost in the U.S. to incarcerate a person is $60 a day, an accompanying press release states. As the ACLU has written, “The human and financial costs of mass incarceration are staggering”…

Race and the Tragedy of Quota-Based Policing  American Prospect  …Across the country, police officers’ use of quotas have been investigated, litigated, and legislated against, but the perniciousness of the practice gets lost amid discussions about more imminent dangers such as fatal police shootings or the overreliance on incarceration as a punishment tool. But this understandable prioritization is why the use of quotas is especially dangerous…

Families crossing the border: ‘We are not criminals’  CNN  …The Obama Administration responded to the 2014 crisis by opening two large family detention centers in Texas: The Karnes County and the South Texas Family Residential Center. The initial goal was to deter new families from coming. Instead, the stream of incoming families is growing. Two years ago, 68,445 family units (people who come in groups of two or more family members) were apprehended at the border. In fiscal year 2016 that total swelled to 77,674… 

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