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Today’s Teamster News For January 25, 2017
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Applaud Executive Orders Advancing Pipeline Projects Teamster.org …The Teamsters Union applauds President Donald Trump’s issuance of executive orders today that will advance the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline (KXL) and the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), creating thousands of good union jobs. “The construction of the KXL and Dakota pipelines will help put thousands of Americans, including Teamster members, to work,” said Jim Hoffa, Teamsters General President…
Las Vegas Teamsters Ratify Rinker Hydro Conduit Agreement Teamster.org …Teamsters Local 631 members who work at Rinker Hydro Conduit (CEMEX) overwhelming ratified a new five-year collective bargaining agreement on Monday, January 23, 2017 ending a ten-week strike. Members will return to work January 25, 2017. Members of Teamsters Local 631 who work at Rinker Hydro Conduit, which is owned by CEMEX, had been on strike since November 15, 2016…
County Comissioners Reach Agreement with Teamsters Union on Two-Year Deal Laconia Daily Sun …Belknap County Commissioners have reached a two-year agreement with Teamsters Local 633, which represents 23 mid-level county employees in several departments. The agreement provides cost-of-living and step increases, as well as a $1,000 one-time health incentive bonus and also provides that employees will pay 3.75 percent of their health insurance costs in the first year of the contract and 7.5 percent in the second year…
Negotiations with port authority, airport police union planned News-Press …Newly formed Teamsters Local 79, covering 43 members of the Lee County Port Authority police, will negotiate its first contract with the port authority though no date has been set for the start of talks. “They are certified and we accepted that,” said Victoria Moreland, director of public affairs for the port authority. “We will sit down with the union and negotiate a contract”…
Teamsters fear lockout at Honeywell Star Tribune …Teamsters said they fear 1,000 Honeywell workers in four Twin Cities plants might be locked out when their contract expires on Jan. 31. Labor talks between Honeywell and members of Teamsters Local 1145 have been ongoing since December. But the two sides are far from reaching a contract agreement, union members said…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Workers at Chile’s Escondida reject wage offer, strike looms Reuters …Unionized workers at BHP Billiton-run Escondida, the world’s biggest copper mine, said on Tuesday they rejected the company’s latest wage offer and asked workers to vote for a strike and prepare for an extended conflict. The Escondida workers’ union, which represents about 2,500 laborers at the Chilean mine, has been in collective wage talks with the company since December to replace the current contract which expires at the end of January…
Kazakh Oil Workers Prosecuted For Hunger Strike Radio Free Europe …Dozens of oil workers are facing court hearings in Kazakhstan’s western region of Manghystau after a local court found their hunger strike illegal. Hundreds of oil workers who had been on strike since January 5, protesting the closure of a confederation of independent labor unions, stopped their protest on January 21 following the court’s ruling…
On trade, Trump gets to work for his blue-collar base CNN …Flexing his broad executive powers for the first time on the economy, Trump formally withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that was the centerpiece of the Obama administration’s Asia strategy. He also gave notice that he hopes to get a better deal for American workers by renegotiating the North America Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico…
TPP trade deal dead without US: Canada Reuters …The Trans-Pacific Partnership cannot proceed without the US, Canada says, even after Australia and New Zealand pledged to salvage it. US President Donald Trump withdrew from the 12-nation trade agreement on Monday, following through on an election promise days after his inauguration. “This agreement was so constructed that it can only enter into force with the United States as a ratifying country,” Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters in Calgary on Tuesday…
Mexico’s Potential Weapons if Trump Declares War on Nafta New York Times …As President Trump prepares the opening gambit in his project to either renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement or pull out, Mexico’s most important strategic goal is narrowing to one word: deterrence. It must convince Mr. Trump that if he blows up the trade agreement on which Mexico has staked its hopes of development, the United States will suffer, too. The critical question is whether Mexico’s threat will be convincing…
We celebrate TPP’s death. Now the Nafta trade deal must be re-written (opinion) The Guardian …The American people were divided in their choice for president in 2016. But one clear mandate emerged: there is strong, broad-based support for a new direction on trade. And when it comes to bad trade deals, none has a longer record of failure than the North American Free Trade Agreement…
Greece’s Tsipras Insists on ‘Not One Euro More’ of Austerity Bloomberg …Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras dug in against creditor demands for more pension cuts and tax increases before a meeting of euro-area finance ministers to unblock the country’s bailout review. “There is no way we are going to legislate even one euro more than what was agreed in the bailout,” Tsipras said in an interview with Efimerida ton Syntakton…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Right-to-work laws gain momentum in states following election Post-Gazette …Pennsylvania, with its deep history of organized labor and unionization efforts in the health care and service industries, has long resisted laws that would undermine union membership. So the Keystone State is not one of the more than two dozen states have passed so-called “right-to-work” laws. But the election has altered certain assumptions. Now with strong Republican majorities, some states that have high rates of unionization, in Appalachia and the Midwest, have taken up right-to-work laws…
Debate expected on Arkansas voter-ID bill Arkansas Online …The sponsor of a voter-identification bill expects a legislative committee to consider it this week. Rep. Mark Lowery, R-Maumelle, said he expects the House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee to consider House Bill 1047 on Wednesday. The bill would require voters to show a document or identification card to verify registration…
Burlington to ask voters about $15 minimum wage Burlington Free Press …Burlington residents will have a chance to vote on a $15 an hour minimum wage this March. City Council members at Monday’s meeting approved placing an advisory question about the issue on the Town Meeting Day ballot. The question is nonbinding, but supporters hope the measure will influence state legislators to take action on raising Vermont’s minimum wage…
Maryland County Supporters of $15 Minimum Wage Plot Path Forward After Veto Bethesda Magazine …The labor groups and County Council members who worked to pass a $15 minimum wage bill in Montgomery County are vowing to move forward with a new bill after County Executive Ike Leggett vetoed the legislation Monday. Gino Renne, president of the county employee union Local 1994 MCGEO, on Tuesday described Leggett’s veto as a “huge disappointment”…
Misnamed ‘right-to-work’ laws exploit workers (opinion) Seattle Times …These anti-union laws make it illegal for a union to charge a fee to all those covered by a union contract. But a union is still required to represent everyone, even those who decide not to pay a dime. The resulting freeloader effect can bankrupt a union. A look at the history of such laws reveals their true intent. They were first enacted in former slave states as a way to keep workers divided along racial lines…
U.S. LABOR
AT&T Union Workers Plan Protest To Jump Start Talks Fortune …AT&T’s four-year run of unbroken labor peace will be tested in 2017 amid preparations by the carrier’s main union to ramp up the pressure in two ongoing contract negotiations. There has been little progress in the negotiations on sticking points like the outsourcing of call center jobs overseas, stagnant pay, rising health care costs, and greater reliance on wireless retail stores not owned by AT&T, officials at the Communications Workers of America union say…
NLRB Joint Employer Case Will Be Heard by Federal Appeals Court on March 9 National Law Review …Oral argument on Browning-Ferris Industries of California, Inc.’s appeal seeking to overturn the National Labor Relations Board’s landmark joint employer decision, Browning-Ferris Industries of California, Inc., has been scheduled for March 9, 2017, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The Browning-Ferris decision established a new, union-friendly standard for determining joint employer status under the NLRA…
Refusing to compromise, Rauner risks a strike Kearney Courier …One year ago, Governor Rauner broke off contract negotiations with AFSCME, the largest union representing public service workers in state government. Since then, he has refused all efforts by our union to renew negotiations in the hopes of finding common ground. State employees are on the job every day, protecting kids, caring for veterans, keeping prisons secure, responding to emergencies and providing countless other services that Illinois residents rely on…
These Cities Are at the Forefront of the Next Big Labor Struggle: the Fight for a Fair Workweek The Nation …But over the last several decades, as union membership has declined, and retail work has largely replaced manufacturing jobs, a different kind of scheduling problem has emerged: These days, most retail work is part-time, with a process known as “just-in-time” scheduling—which pins workers’ schedules to customer shopping patterns—often dictating the hours…
The new president and labor unions don’t always get along — but they did today Washington Post …Amid tension with the organized labor community, President Trump met with a dozen union leaders and members Monday afternoon at the White House for a “listening session” about American jobs. His audience responded with applause. They came from groups across the country representing carpenters, construction workers, bus drivers and welders…
Workers dismayed by President’s federal hiring freeze AP …Trump had raised the possibility of a hiring freeze during the campaign. At a news conference Monday, Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said the freeze ensures taxpayers get effective and efficient government and said it “counters the dramatic expansion of the federal workforce in recent years.” Statistics from the Office of Personnel Management, though, show that the number of executive branch employees hasn’t been this low since 1965…
Don’t let the president roll back gains for workers (opinion) The Hill …Donald Trump will soon decide whether or not to repeal a number of pro-worker regulations that make a real difference in the lives of working people. Regulations make sure our food is inspected, and stop Wall Street firms from bleeding our retirement funds. They help us stay safe on the job, and to prevent airplanes from falling apart in the sky…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Democrats call president’s bluff on infrastructure spending Think Progress …When his team released details of his plan, however, it didn’t live up to the promise. Instead, his advisers promised to offer tax credits to private firms that are interested in infrastructure projects with profit potential — in other words, the ability to charge Americans user fees and tolls — that would almost certainly do nothing to address the most dire upgrades…
White House to Order Mexican Border Wall and Curtail Immigration New York Times …President Trump on Wednesday will order the construction of a Mexican border wall — the first in a series of actions this week to crack down on immigrants and bolster national security, including slashing the number of refugees who can resettle in the United States and blocking Syrians and others from “terror prone” nations from entering, at least temporarily…
President calls for ‘major investigation’ into voter fraud CNN …President Donald Trump called on Wednesday for “a major investigation” into voter fraud, following through with baseless claims he has made since November’s election alleging millions of illegal votes during the general election without citing any evidence. “I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal”…
President still holds baseless belief that millions voted illegally The Guardian …Donald Trump still believes the false claim that millions of people voted illegally in last year’s presidential election, the White House confirmed on Tuesday. While some Republicans distanced themselves from the assertion, his press secretary, Sean Spicer, stood by it during Tuesday’s press briefing but was vague on the possibility of an investigation into the supposed crime…
Two journalists covering inauguration protests face felony riot charges The Guardian …Two journalists who were arrested while covering the unrest in Washington DC surrounding Donald Trump’s inauguration last Friday have been charged with felonies and could face up to 10 years in prison. The journalists, who were there on assignment, are both charged with the most serious level of offense under the District of Columbia’s law against rioting…