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Today’s Teamster News For December 6, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Teamster Mechanics at United Airlines Ratify National Agreement Teamster.org …Mechanics at United Airlines stations across the nation ratified a six-year National Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement with the company today after more than three years of negotiations. More than 9,000 mechanics in the bargaining unit will see their compensation move to the top of the industry…
United Airlines mechanics ratify new contract Reuters …Union mechanics at United Continental Holdings Inc on Monday ratified a six-year joint collective bargaining agreement with the airline, marking the end to several years of contract talks between the two parties. The agreement, approved by United mechanics who are represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, is a major step toward integrating United and Continental, which merged in 2010, and reducing flight cancellations…
Teamster Pilots, Flight Engineers Ratify Contract With Amerijet Teamster.org …By an overwhelming margin, Teamster pilots and professional flight engineers at Amerijet ratified a new contract with the airline. There are 85 members in the bargaining unit represented by Local 769 in North Miami, Fla. The four-year agreement includes an initial increase in base wages for Captains and First Officers of more than 55 to 75 percent, with additional yearly wage increases…
Teamsters Oppose Law Weakening Protections for Newspaper Drivers Joint Council 16 …Teamsters Joint Council 16 President George Miranda had the following statement on legislation recently signed by Governor Cuomo that would reduce employment protections for newspaper delivery drivers. “At a time when our state is doing so much to increase wages and protect workers, it is a sad to see workplace protections taken away from an entire classification of workers”…
Teamsters, Local Leaders Rally to Demand Justice for Workers of Trucking Company Teamster.org …Hundreds of families, Teamsters Local 120 officials, Lt. Governor Tina Smith and Rep. Erin Murphy rallied late last week against the deceptive business practices of Lakeville Motor Express (LME), a Roseville-based trucking company.At the rally, community and political leaders called for the company to address public concerns and pay the workers…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Kenya health workers strike despite court order World Bulletin …Thousands of health workers went on strike across Kenya on Monday in a bid to get the government to implement a 2013 agreement to improve pay and conditions. Around 5,000 doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists and other health staff took part in industrial action. Police tear gassed one group of protesters outside the Ministry of Health offices…
Greek unions call general strike, ferry crews extend walkout The Daily Progress …Greece’s biggest labor unions have called a general strike for Thursday, to protest further tax hikes and labor reforms demanded by the country’s bailout creditors. Ferry crews have also extended for another two days a four-day walkout over planned tax hikes and pension cuts, which had been due to expire early Tuesday…
Services coalition calls on TISA negotiators to lock in progress Inside Trade …The Global Services Coalition is urging chief Trade in Services Agreement negotiators to preserve the progress they’ve made so the deal can be quickly picked up next year. “[W]e call on you to ensure that the significant progress that has been achieved to date in these negotiations is preserved,” the Dec. 5 statement said…
NAFTA trade totals $91.1b in September American Shipper …Total value of cross-border trade between the United States and its partners in NAFTA, which include Canada and Mexico, stood at $91.1 billion in September, a 2.3 percent decline from September 2015, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). “The total value of cross-border freight has declined from the same month of the previous year in 20 of the past 21 months beginning in January 2015 with only an increase of 0.7 percent in August 2016,” the BTS said…
Clean, affordable housing will reduce exploitation of Indian textile workers – campaigners Reuters …A proposed new township for garment industry workers in the southern Indian textile hub of Tiruppur will tackle the problem of exploitation of workers housed in hostels on factory sites, campaigners said on Monday. In a first, the Tiruppur Exporters’ Association, a trade body, has asked the Indian government to give the go-ahead for the construction of 100,000 houses and 200,000 dormitories in and around Tiruppur to accommodate workers…
UK: Theresa May’s government condemned for driving ‘more austerity and more racism’ Independent …Campaigners have condemned a review of integration for “adding to the politics of racism and scapegoating” after it called for immigrants to swear an oath to the UK and children to be taught “British values” in schools. “Austerity is crushing people’s living standards, therefore acting as a barrier to integration and failing to invest in housing, health and education”…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Alaska minimum wage to increase to $9.80 per hour News Miner …Alaska minimum wage will increase from $9.75 to $9.80 per hour, effective Jan. 1, according to an Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development news release. In 2014, voters approved a ballot initiative that increased the Alaska minimum wage from $8.75 to $9.75 in 2016. Additionally the ballot initiative required Alaska minimum wage to be adjusted for inflation annually…
Connecticut labor board recommends $15 minimum wage by 2022 My Record Journal …A board examining the effects of low-paying jobs is recommending that the state continue to increase its minimum wage, eventually reaching $15 by 2022. The Low Wage Employer Advisory Board’s final report, released last week, says the increase is needed because the current minimum wage, “while a positive step, is insufficient to allow Connecticut’s low-wage workers to live with even minimal security or dignity”…
Michigan legislature debating voter ID bill The Hill …Michigan legislators are debating whether to require voters to show identification at the polls, part of a three-bill package of election reforms the Republican-led body will take up in a lame-duck session. The proposal, sponsored by state Rep. Lisa Posthumus Lyons (R), would tighten requirements on voters who do not present their identifications at the polls…
Union leader says “corporate Missouri” does not want right-to-work Missouri.net …An eastern Missouri union leader who opposes right-to-work legislation says Missourians wanted less government when they voted for Republicans in the general election. The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry supports a right-to-work proposal, but Ballwin-based United Food and Commercial Workers Local 655 President David Cook says “corporate Missouri” does not…
New York City pols eye bills to protect retail, fast food workers NY Daily News …Retail and fast food workers would be spared from last-minute changes to their schedules under new legislation being introduced in the City Council on Tuesday. One bill would ban retail stores with five or more employees from canceling a worker’s shift within 72 hours, or requiring them to come in to work with less than 72 hours’ notice…
U.S. LABOR
Pratt & Whitney Union Members Approve Five-Year Contract Wall Street Journal …Workers at jet-engine maker Pratt & Whitney ratified a five-year contract Sunday, avoiding a potential labor dispute when the company is trying to increase production of new engines for commercial airliners. The contract was approved by members of two locals of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents about 2,600 workers at Pratt’s engine plants in East Hartford and Middletown, Conn…
SEIU Local 1000 contract deal includes delayed raise, $2,500 signing bonus SacBee …The state workers whose union called off a strike last week will have to wait until next summer for a raise under a tentative contract their leaders approved, but they’ll get a $2,500 bonus if they accept the deal. Those are some of the details in a contract outline that SEIU Local 1000 distributed to its members Monday morning…
Transit Workers Union Sues MTA for Blocking Ad Deemed ‘Political’ in Nature NY1.com …The union representing transit workers is taking the MTA to court over an ad that was rejected from being displayed in subway stations for being “political in nature.” Transport Workers Union Local 100 wanted to post this ad at more than 100 stops. It shows transit workers who have been injured on the job…
Buffalo Hospital Workers Get Their Money and Staffing Back Truthout …After giving something up in a previous contract, is it possible to win it back? It took a massive effort, but hospital workers in Buffalo proved it can be done. Catholic Health is one of the two local hospital chains that dominate western New York. Communications Workers (CWA) Locals 1133 and 1168 represent 6,900 of its employees in six bargaining units…
New House labor committee chair questions need for unions Reuters …The incoming chair of the congressional panel that oversees labor issues on Monday questioned the need for unions and said she wants to repeal various Obama administration labor policies. Organized labor has “sort of lost its reason for being” because of the many laws in place to protect workers, said Representative Virginia Foxx, a 73-year-old Republican from North Carolina…
The outrageous legal decision that took overtime pay from millions of workers Vox …Just days before new overtime rules were to go into effect on December 1, a federal judge in Texas blocked the Obama administration’s update to overtime pay from taking effect. That means that millions of workers who should receive time-and-a-half pay when they work more than 40 hours a week are now at risk of losing that extra income…
Amazon is opening a grocery store with no cashiers and no checkout lines Quartz …Amazon imagines its vision for the future as utopian. Customers are tracked as they move around stores, buying their pre-packaged goods, and moving about in silence—cutting down on the massive lines that some grocery stores and lunch spots experience during the work week. However, there’s the very dystopian question of what that all means for the millions of people employed in the US as cashiers…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Fight over ‘Buy America’ provision erupts in Congress The Hill …A last-minute fight over a “Buy America” provision has erupted in the final negotiations over a waterways bill. At issue is language included in the Senate-passed version of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) that would require American iron and steel products be used in projects assisted by the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund. Sources familiar with the negotiations say Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is actively pushing to strip the provision from the bill…
The VA’s Woman Problem Mother Jones …Tthe number of female veterans is expected to climb in the coming years—and most of them will turn to the Department of Veterans Affairs for health care. A new report by the Government Accountability Office raises some serious doubts as to whether the VA is fully prepared to handle this influx of female patients…
From Climate Change to Nuclear War, Noam Chomsky Warns of Literal Threats to Our Survival Democracy Now …On Monday night, Democracy Now! celebrated its 20th anniversary at the historic Riverside Church in New York City. Among those who addressed more than 2,000 attendants was world-renowned linguistic Noam Chomsky, who spoke about the two most dangerous threats the human species faces today: the possibility of nuclear war and the accelerating destruction of human-fueled climate change…
Walter Scott’s family attorney says mistrial is ‘just a delay in justice’ Think Progress …On Monday, more than a year and a half after a North Charleston police officer shot and killed 50-year-old Walter Scott during a routine traffic stop, a jury failed to convict the officer for murder. Despite a video showing Officer Michael Slager shooting Scott at least five times in the back as he ran away from the officer, one juror refused to convict…