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Today’s Teamster News For January 10, 2017
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Denounce Passage of Destructive Anti-Worker Bills in Kentucky Teamster.org …Kentucky Republican state lawmakers pushed through three bills this weekend designed to attack working families by driving down wages and weakening labor unions. Gov. Matt Bevin has already signed the bills into law. “With three strokes of his pen, Gov. Bevin has gutted worker protections in the state of Kentucky,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. “The governor and the state’s Republican state legislators are leading the state down a road to ruin by passing right-to-work”…
Hoffa: Thousands of UC Workers Go on Strike for Fair Wages, Pensions Huffington Post …Today, thousands of University of California (UC) administrative, clerical and support workers are on strike across the Golden State, taking a stand against a UC system that has turned its back on them by not paying them a wage that allows them to support themselves and their families. More than 12,000 workers, members of Teamsters Local 2010, walked off the job Tuesday to protest the numerous unfair labor practices…
Thousands of UC workers plan one-day strike Tuesday SF Gate …UC has 10 campuses, five medical centers and three national laboratories where about 12,000 clerical and administrative support workers are represented by Teamsters Local 2010. An additional 800 trade workers — plumbers, electricians and mechanics — at UCLA and UC San Diego have been striking since Friday…
Union members approve new contract with Ozarks Coca-Cola News-Leader …Members of the Teamsters on Saturday voted to approve a contract with Ozarks Coca-Cola Bottling Company, ending a dispute that became public when the union distributed fliers at Springfield’s Labor Day parade in September. Roger Chappell, who led Teamsters Local 245’s negotiations with the Springfield-based company, said about 90 Teamsters members of the approximately 120 who work for Ozarks Coca-Cola voted on Saturday…
Teamsters Joint Council 13 brings joy to children hospitalized over Christmas Labor Tribune …Teamsters Joint Council 13 once again helped brighten the spirits of kids hospitalized over the Christmas holiday by donating $19,290 to the St. Louis Children’s Hospital Snowflake Village program. The program uses the money to buy toys, games, stuffed animals and clothing items for children confined to the hospital on Christmas Day and their siblings. Parents visit Snowflake Village and select the free gifts and Teamster volunteers and their guests wrap the presents…
Teamsters blast CCSD support staff union over lack of transparency Review-Journal …A leaked copy of the agreement between the Clark County School District and its support staff shows changes in the contract were negotiated between the two sides, not awarded through an arbitrator. “They were going out of their way to hide this information,” said Grant Davis, vice-president of the local Teamsters union trying to replace the ESEA. “That’s the bigger issue”…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
UK: Nuclear workers could strike next as thousands are to be balloted for action over pensions row Mirror …Thousands of nuclear workers at sites across the UK are to be balloted for strikes in a row over pensions. Around 16,000 members of several trade unions, mainly involved in decommissioning work, will vote in the coming weeks on whether to launch a campaign of industrial action. The unions are protesting at plans by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to make savings of £660 million…
Trinidad: Union Accepts Five Per Cent Wage Increase, Oil Workers Strike Averted Jamaica Observer …Workers in Trinidad’s oil industry yesterday agreed to a five per cent wage increase at the state-owned oil company, PETROTRIN, averting a 90 day strike in the energy sector. Labour Minister Jennifer Baptiste Primus said she was happy that the strike was averted after the agreement had been signed following 30 hours of talks over the past two days…
Nigeria: Labour begins action with NUPENG’s warning strike The Nation …Labour is set to begin a regime of strikes from tomorrow when junior oil workers down tools for a three-day warning strike. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has also expressed its readiness to go on strike soon if the minimum wage is not raised from N18,000…
Britain in ‘front seat’ for US trade deal, top Republican says CNBC …Britain will be in the “front seat” to negotiate a new trade deal with the incoming administration, a top Republican in the United States Senate said, the BBC reported. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker said after meeting British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson that a trade deal between the two countries would be a priority as Britain prepares to leave the European Union…
Unions push new NAFTA to protect workers, raise incomes Workday Minnesota …Vowing to hold Republican President-elect Donald Trump to his promise to repeal NAFTA, the controversial, 23-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, the AFL-CIO and a group of pro-labor lawmakers will push for a new NAFTA that protects workers’ rights and raises their incomes, too. Their opening salvo came in a press conference on the first day of the GOP-run 115th Congress…
Immigration boosts wealth, does not increase inequality: IMF Reuters …Immigration has a generally positive economic impact on receiving countries but the benefits depend on how well the migrants are integrated, the International Monetary Fund’s First Deputy Managing Director David Lipton said on Monday. Speaking at a seminar in Brussels, Lipton noted that the politics and economics of migration were at odds with each other because like trade, immigration created winners and losers and required time for societies and businesses to adjust…
Why France’s new ‘right to disconnect’ law matters ComputerWorld …France recently implemented a law giving workers “a right to disconnect” from email, messaging and calls after work. It may ultimately be ignored by many workers in France and scoffed at in the U.S., but it addresses a problem many employees deal with. Emails arriving at night, on weekends and during vacation can create stress and interrupt family life…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Kentucky Republicans assault unions and wages in first act of the year Think Progress …Last year, Republican Matt Bevin won the governorship of Kentucky, taking over from Democrat Steve Beshear. Then, in November, Republicans took full control of the state legislature after they gained their first majority in Kentucky’s state house in almost a century. And the very first things the Republican majority did with its power this past weekend were to pass a so-called “right-to-work” law…
Unions vow to fight on against the union busters KY AFLCIO …Kentucky unions vow to fight on after the Republican-majority legislature passed a “right to work” law and repealed the prevailing wage. “The labor movement is needed in Kentucky now, more than ever,” said State AFL-CIO President Bill Londrigan in a statement. All but a handful of GOP lawmakers voted for the two measures. Every Democrat opposed them…
Union members say lawmakers launching ‘attack on the working people’ Herald Leader …Angry labor union members on Saturday said they don’t know how they became public enemy No. 1 in Kentucky’s 2017 legislative session. Hundreds of workers in boots and heavy coats poured onto every public floor of the state Capitol to loudly protest final passage of three bills that they say will weaken unions and reduce construction workers’ wages…
Obamacare Repeal Could Punch $15 Billion Hole in Calif, State Budget KQED …When Gov. Jerry Brown unveils his 2017-18 budget Tuesday, there will be one huge question mark hanging over the proposal: What will it cost California when congressional Republicans follow through on their promise to dismantle Obamacare? GOP lawmakers, along with President-elect Donald Trump, have vowed to repeal the landmark health care law…
Petitioners withdraw proposal for $15 minimum wage in Cleveland Cleveland.com …A proposal seeking to phase in a $15 minimum wage in Cleveland will not go to the ballot in May. Petitioners from Raise Up Cleveland, the organization pushing the initiative with the backing of the Service Employees International Union, officially withdrew their petition on Monday — weeks after state legislators passed a bill banning municipalities from setting their own minimum wage…
Expert Warns on Social Impact of Austerity in Puerto Rico Prensa Latina …The UN independent expert on external debt and human rights, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, has warned that an increase in austerity measures in Puerto Rico will trigger poverty and a desperate situation for many people. Last year, the US Congress approved a Supervision and Financial Administration Board for Puerto Rico, which is responsible for dealing with the crisis…
U.S. LABOR
SEIU Gains Contract for Airport Workers Labor Press …BuzzFeed reports that airport workers in New York and New Jersey gained a significant win and union recognition. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), now represents airport skycaps, baggage handlers and other airport workers. In addition, the union has successfully negotiated a $15 an hour wage base…
More talks set between striking workers, NY chemical plant Pantagraph …Union officials representing hundreds of striking employees of an upstate New York chemical plant are expected to resume talks with the company in an effort to end the nine-week-old strike. The Saratogian newspaper reports the talks set to start Tuesday involving IUE-CWA Local 81359 and Momentive Performance Materials are scheduled to last three days this week…
Fear among federal workers flourishes as they face a hostile presidency Washington Post …The fear in the federal workforce is palpable. “Obviously, the end of my run is here,” predicted an Agriculture Department employee, sure that the new presidential administration won’t be friendly to his agency. “The war on federal workers has just begun,” another declared in an online federal worker forum…
NLRB to hold hearing reviewing University’s objections to unionization election Columbia Spectator …Following the University’s decision to file an objection with the National Labor Relations Board regarding teaching and research assistants’ vote to unionize, the NLRB announced that it will hold a hearing to evaluate the University’s claims on Jan. 17. Students voted 1602 to 623 in favor of joining Graduate Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers last month…
Teachers unions mount campaign against education pick Betsy DeVos Washington Post …National teachers unions are mounting an aggressive campaign against Betsy DeVos, the President-elect’s pick for education secretary, arguing that she is an ideological extremist with a record of undermining the public schools her department would oversee. The National Education Association, the largest labor union in the nation, is mobilizing teachers to call and email their senators, urging a vote against DeVos’s confirmation…
President-elect had nothing to do with our new US jobs, Fiat Chrysler reveals Independent …Fiat Chrysler has said thousands of news jobs it announced in the US is not related to Trump – despite a series of tweets in which the President-elect appears to take credit – and that the firm’s chief executive had not even spoken to him. The car manufacturer announced its plan on Sunday to spend $1 billion to expand plants in Ohio and Michigan and create 2,000 more jobs in the country…
New Washington Trump hotel owes laborers more than $5 million Salon …The Trump International Hotel, which opened in October, has had liens filed against it in November and December, according to public records reported by Bloomberg on Thursday. The allegedly stiffed individuals include electricians, wood workers and a plumbing and heating business…
Why Employers Are Rolling Back Raises The Atlantic …Some employers aren’t waiting for official word from the federal government and have, in several cases, canceled raises that were meant to push workers salaries above the overtime threshold. “The clawbacks seem mainly to have occurred at nonprofits and smaller for-profit businesses,” Politico’s Ted Hesson reported on Tuesday…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Attorney General Sessions Would Be Good News for Private Prisons Mother Jones …Last summer, the Justice Department announced it would stop contracting with the for-profit prison industry, whose facilities are more violent and less humane than government-run prisons. Sessions, who at the helm of the Justice Department would have the power to reverse its decision, has close ties to the industry and a history of supporting private prisons. The horrors of private prisons are well documented…
Supreme Court considers if exonerated people can be charged the same fines and fees as the guilty Think Progress …Under the Colorado Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in People v. Nelson, an exonerated defendant who seeks to recover money that was unlawfully taken from him due to an illegal conviction is out of luck. Its sweeping holding would potentially allow the state to collect thousands or even millions of dollars worth of fines and fees from someone convicted of a crime, and then refuse to give it back after that person is exonerated…
We Need To Tax The Rich But Instead We’ll Do The Opposite Deadspin …Economic inequality in America has been rising steadily since the Reagan era. Why? A new research paper identifies what it say is the main culprit: the fact that we’ve stopped taxing the rich. There are, of course, many contributing factors to the post-Reagan Age of Inequality that has finally grown so dire that it is warping our electoral politics past recognition…
“Unprecedented” Polar Melting Unfolds as Climate Disruption Denial Goes Wild Truthout …Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) concluded in their annual Arctic climate report card, “The Arctic is unraveling.” Record-breaking heat in the north has clearly pushed the region into uncharted climate territory. In late December, the heating trend continued, with temperatures at the North Pole spiking to near melting point, a stunning 50 degrees Fahrenheit above normal…