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Today’s Teamster News For December 20, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Hoffa: XPO Sets Stage for Huge Money Grab for CEO Bradley Jacobs, While Workers Suffer Huffington Post …XPO Logistics’ CEO Bradley Jacobs is poised to reap a potential $110 million money grab while the company’s employees have to deal with lousy health insurance and no retirement security. These events expose the yawning divide in respect XPO holds when it comes to those at the top of the corporate ladder and those who actually do the work that make this multinational company successful. It is why the Teamsters and other unions are standing up to fight against this greed…
Study Finds Boosting NYC Recycling Rate Would Create Thousands of Jobs Transform Don’t Trash NYC …A new report from Transform Don’t Trash NYC finds that New York City has an opportunity to create thousands of good-paying jobs by raising the city’s low recycling rate and investing in recycling and composting infrastructure. “New York produces more trash than any other city in the country. That is an opportunity to create recycling jobs that sustain our city’s working families,” said Sean Campbell, President of Teamsters Local 813, which represents private sanitation workers…
County signs pact with Sheriff’s Dept. union Press Republican …Franklin County has ratified a new contract with its Sheriff’s Department union, agreeing to retroactive and future raises totaling 11.75 percent and health-insurance changes. County Manager Donna Kissane said the agreement signed by representatives of Teamsters Local 678 and legislators covers five years, including 2015 and 2016…
Teamsters anonymously bring Christmas happiness to tens of thousands of St. Louis kids Labor Tribune …“We just want smiles on kid’s faces at Christmas,” said Teamsters Local 600’s Roy Gillespie, who along with his friend and co-organizer, Teamsters 600 member Mike Koeller, have been coordinating this particular incredible Christmas effort for the past four years. And all with the blessing of Teamsters Joint Council 13 whose other locals provide part of the volunteer manpower to make this happen…
Full donation bins at police, fire stations reflect a spirit of giving Patriot Ledger …At the Hingham police station, donors have already filled 10 large boxes with new toys in support of the department’s 16th annual toy drive. Hingham police dispatcher John Gordon said the drive was organized by the Teamsters union, and that the toys collected will be distributed to families in need in Greater Boston…
Metro Detroit labor community to help unemployed and underemployed workers with distribution of more than 1,100 food baskets and turkeys SAT PR News …For the eighteenth year, Teamsters Local 299 and the Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO conducted a Holiday Food Basket Giveaway on Saturday, December 17, 2016. More than 1,100 baskets were distributed at Teamsters Joint Council 43. “Every year, we see the critical need to help workers who are struggling at this time of the year,” Kevin Moore, president of Teamsters Local 299 said…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
ILO: Global Wage Growth Hits Four-Year Low Solidarity Center …Workers around the world are losing ground in their paychecks as annual growth in real wages around the world fell to 1.7 percent in 2015, down from 2.5 percent in 2012, according to a new International Labor Organization (ILO) report. Wages have stagnated primarily in developing and emerging economies, especially in Latin America and Eastern Europe…
UK: ‘Christmas of discontent’ as Post Office, Southern and BA workers strike The Week …Britain is facing a “Christmas of discontent”, says the BBC, as Post Office workers kick off a wave of postal, rail and airline strike actions this week. Around 4,000 workers at the Post Office – a mix of counter staff and cash handlers – are on strike for a total of five days from today in protest over job losses and the closure of branches…
Argentine Transit Workers Strike, Grinding Buenos Aires to Halt TeleSUR …Public transit operators in Argentina launched a one-day national strike Monday morning, grinding commuting in the capital city Buenos Aires to a halt to demand changes in the income tax system in the face of what labor unions have criticized as slow progress toward reforms to benefit workers. The suspension of services reportedly sparked chaos and heavy traffic in the capital city of nearly 3 million people and its surrounding areas…
Japan and EU will Seek Free Trade Agreement in 2017 Market Pulse …The European Union and Japan will seek a broad agreement on a bilateral free trade deal next year, EU chief negotiator Mauro Petriccione said Saturday, setting a new timeline partly due to some tariff issues in the dairy sector. “We will need to continue working in the next few weeks in order to bridge the remaining distance and reach an agreement in principle, with the right balance, as early as possible at the beginning of next year,” Petriccione said at a press conference in Tokyo…
Sudanese protest government austerity measures MEMO …A number of Sudanese on Monday began a campaign of civil disobedience in Khartoum and other states to protest government austerity measures. According to an Anadolu Agency correspondent in Khartoum, the campaign partially affected the movement of traffic in the capital. Activists on social media called for acts of civil disobedience on Monday to protest a recent government decision to lift subsidies on fuel, electricity and medicine…
Workers Found Dead in Collapsed Bangkok Building Khaosod English …Rescue workers pulled the bodies of two more workers Sunday from a collapsed building on Soi Sukhumvit 87. The retrieval at about 10am of the bodies of Boonjang Letla-ong, 46, and Phrai Kanoonrum, 38, brought the death toll to four in Friday’s accident, which saw the eight-story Thaiyarnyon Mitsu Ltd. building come down as it was being illegally demolished, according to the authorities…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Kobach seeks Kansas driver’s license list in voting rights case LJ World …Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach asked a federal court Thursday to order the state to release to him a list of about 21,000 people who have temporary driver’s licenses in an apparent effort to bolster his claims that noncitizens are voting. The move comes in a civil lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union challenging a Kansas law requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote…
Gov. Rauner signs bill helping laid-off steelworkers St. Louis Public Radio …Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has signed a bill that would extend unemployment benefits for 2,000 laid-off Granite City steelworkers. The legislature this month approved the proposal that will provide 52 weeks of benefits, instead of the current 26 for eligible workers…
Gov. John Kasich signs bill blocking Cleveland’s $15 minimum wage proposal Cleveland.com …Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Monday signed legislation blocking next year’s special election vote on whether to raise Cleveland’s minimum wage to $15 per hour, according to his office. Senate Bill 331 prohibits communities in the state from raising the minimum wage beyond the state’s minimum wage rate, currently set at $8.10 per hour…
How Voter Suppression Helped Pave Way for a Legislative Coup in North Carolina Democracy Now …Activists are accusing Republican lawmakers of waging a legislative coup by attempting to strip power from the North Carolina’s incoming governor, Democrat Roy Cooper, who narrowly beat the Republican governor, Pat McCrory, by 10,000 votes last month. In an unprecedented move, Republicans filed dozens of new bills last week during a special session of the General Assembly called to consider relief for Hurricane Matthew victims…
Two D.C. Council members propose radical revisions to paid family leave bill Washington Post …Two D.C. Council members are proposing dramatic revisions to the city’s landmark bill guaranteeing up to two months of paid time off for new parents, setting up a showdown among rival council factions and Mayor Muriel E. Bowser as the council meets Tuesday to take a final vote on the legislation…
Publix- and Disney-Backed Coalition Sues to Stop Miami Beach From Raising Minimum Wage News Times …Publix is one of more than 35 businesses whose execs make up a coalition suing Miami Beach to stop the city from raising its minimum wage to $13.31 an hour. Last Wednesday, three of the state’s largest trade groups — the Florida Retail Federation, Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association, and Florida Chamber of Commerce — filed that lawsuit…
U.S. LABOR
With Too Few Workplace Inspectors, OSHA Targets Worst of the Worst In These Times …Along with subjecting employers to a form of public shaming, the severe violator program helps OSHA work out settlements intended to force companies to clean up their job safety practices. The program, which replaced a George W. Bush administration initiative that an inspector general’s audit derided as ineffectual, also can result in extra inspections, sometimes at multiple sites, and force companies to hire new safety personnel…
Driving a Truck is Among Deadliest Jobs in the U.S. Trucks.com …Work-related fatalities for trucking jobs dropped slightly in 2015 from 2014, when 761 drivers were killed on the nation’s streets and highways. Despite the drop, trucking transportation occupations accounted for slightly more than a quarter of all work-related fatalities last year, more than any other U.S. job, according to an annual workplace fatality report released Friday from the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics…
Pittsburgh Port Authority approves contract with bus drivers, mechanics Post-Gazette …The Port Authority board of directors this morning unanimously approved a new four-year contract with about 2,200 bus drivers and mechanics. Members of Local 85 of the Amalgamated Transit Union voted Sunday to approve the deal, which grants raises of 11.25 percent. The deal also includes first-level supervisors…
No, minority workers are not taking jobs away from white people Washington Post …No, minority workers are not taking jobs away from white people. Yet that’s the conclusion some drew from a report recently released by the Economic Cycle Research Institute. After a New York Times columnist wrote about the report this week — highlighting the disparity in recent job gains by race — readers resolved that whites were “left out” of the nation’s financial recovery and are victims of “economic disenfranchisement”…
When Women in Film and TV Were Looking for That Union Label New York Times …Talk to any honest filmmaker, and they’ll tell you: A movie is only as good as its crew. Yet for decades, the ranks of camera operators, sound mixers and electricians were filled only by men, most often white men. When production work came with a union card, it was a relatively high-paying career. But it was not welcoming to women…
Most Americans don’t pay extra to support worker-friendly businesses Pew Research …The relationship between businesses and their employees is back in the news, with low-wage laborers recently protesting and striking for a higher minimum wage and independent contractors in the sharing economy suing for expanded rights. Around half of Americans say the question of working conditions is indeed important to them, though fewer are actually willing to pay more to support businesses that are seen as worker-friendly…
Aggressive sales goals pressure T-Mobile workers to sell unwanted services, labor group alleges Washington Post …T-Mobile employees under pressure to meet sales goals are sometimes driven to mislead customers or to enroll them in services they didn’t ask for, alleges a report from a labor coalition. In a complaint that Change to Win said they filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Friday, the labor group claimed that T-Mobile sets “unrealistic sales targets” that encourage workers to act in ways that may not benefit consumers…
The Whatchamacallit Economy (opinion) New York Times …These companies maintain that their drivers share their cars with passengers and use apps to share information about where they are. But many academics and workers in this sector assert that the business model seems less like sharing than like traditional corporate profit-making that happens to use an app…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Amazon’s next big play may be freight logistics Market Watch …Amazon.com Inc. may be developing mobile technology so it can schedule and track truck shipments of its products with a few taps or clicks — the next step in the e-commerce giant’s bid to become its own global freight broker and compete with companies in the $150 billion business of booking transportation…
Nearly 3,000 US Communities Have Lead Levels Higher Than Flint: Reuters Common Dreams …A Reuters investigation this week uncovered nearly 3,000 different communities across the U.S. with lead levels higher than those found in Flint, Michigan, which has been the center of an ongoing water contamination crisis since 2014. The investigation found that many of the hot-spots are receiving little attention or funding. Local healthcare advocates said they hope the reporting will spur action from influential community leaders…
Flint emergency managers charged over lead water crisis Think Progress …Two of Flint, Michigan’s former emergency managers, appointed by the Gov. Rick Snyder to run the city, were charged with crimes related to its lead water crisis on Tuesday, according to Michigan Live. Flint’s water first started to be contaminated with lead in early 2014, but local public health emergencies weren’t officially declared until late 2015…