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Today’s Teamster News For January 6, 2017
TEAMSTERS
UCLA Labor Dispute: Teamsters Local 2010 Union To Strike For 5 Days IBTimes …A union of plumbers, electricians and other workers will strike and protest for five days against what they call unfair and illegal labor practices at the University of California, Los Angeles. The Teamsters Local 2010 will start striking midnight Friday. The announcement of the strike came Thursday, and the strike will start with a walkout…
Teamster strike set for UC Santa Cruz on first day of class Santa Cruz Sentinel … A systemwide University of California strike protesting alleged unfair labor practices and violations of state law could disrupt classes Tuesday, the first day of the winter quarter at UC Santa Cruz. Teamsters Local 2010 workers will strike at UCSC and other campuses to demonstrate support for UC administrative, clerical, and support workers, which “are so underpaid that 70 percent suffer from hunger or food insecurity”…
Iowa public employees’ unions oppose bargaining changes Des Moines Register …Unions representing Iowa’s public employees are vowing to fight efforts by the Iowa Legislature to rewrite the state’s collective bargaining laws, although they face long odds against winning their battle. “If we want to ensure that we have the officers we need to protect our communities and keep our streets safe, we need to ensure fair compensation and benefits for those who answer the call,” said Choat, who is a Teamsters’ union member…
Dole plant to close, 30 workers affected Recordnet …A central Stockton food processing plant that makes a frozen yogurt product sold in grocery stores is shutting down at the end of the month, eliminating jobs for 30 production and management employees. “Business is slow. The products they were making didn’t do well,” said Gabriel Salcido, president of General Teamsters Local 439, which represents 26 of the workers being laid off…
Carting industry staffs up to fight de Blasio plan Crain’s NY …The Teamsters Local 813, which represents some waste-truck drivers, and left-wing environmental coalition ALIGN-NY back the zone collection plan. Approximately 85 carting companies compete with each other to collect businesses’ trash, leading to criss-crossing of routes and multiple trucks serving individual blocks each night…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Petrotrin workers strike, stopping offshore production Splash247 …Trinidad & Tobago’s state oil firm Petrotrin has been hit by strike action after conciliation talks broke down between the government and representatives of the Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU), according to the island nation’s Daily Express newspaper. The action shut down the Point a Pierre refinery, stopping production from both offshore and onshore fields. Workers want pay increases of 10% after having none in four years…
Nigeria govt. moves to avert oil workers’ strike BusinessDay …In what is aimed at preventing an early New Year crisis, the Federal Government is wading into the face-off between petroleum workers’ union and some oil companies operating in Nigeria. The move followed the announced plan by the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) to proceed on a three-day warning strike from January 11…
UK: London Tube station workers strike to go ahead after talks fail BBC …Workers from the RMT and the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) unions will walk out for 24 hours from 18:00 GMT on Sunday. Unions had been in talks with LU at the conciliation service Acas in a dispute over the closure of ticket offices. LU has warned travellers to expect major disruption to services…
Secret negotiations at the World Trade Organization create a big problem Washington Post …After decades of steadily increasing globalization, trade liberalization has slowed to a standstill. Congress has delayed ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) indefinitely. And negotiations around the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) have ground to a halt. In both the United States and abroad, these agreements are dogged by widespread concerns over the nontransparent manner in which trade deals are negotiated…
It’s time for a new approach to trade agreements (opinion) Portland Press Herald …The ultimate defeat of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement in 2016 was a stunning example of how millions of people can join together to defeat powerful business lobbyists and stop a corporate power grab. One real test of the incoming president’s stance on trade policy will be whether he announces an end to negotiations already underway for more TPP-style trade deals, like the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, the Trade in Services Agreement…
Kuwait Shows Depth of Opposition to Austerity in the Gulf Wall Street Journal …The persistent slump in oil prices, combined with rapid population growth, has forced all the Gulf monarchies to consider austerity and economic overhauls. The reaction here in Kuwait, by far the most open Gulf state, shows just how hard these measures could be to implement—and how much opposition they are likely to attract…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Kentucky: despite union jeers, Right to Work, prevailing wage repeal fast-tracked for Saturday vote passage Wave3 …Senators and Representatives face a rare Saturday session to deliver changes to labor and wage laws that the new Republican super-majorities in both chambers insist are critical to making the Commonwealth more business-friendly. The Right to Work bill would rescind Kentucky’s mandate that workers joining unions and pay union dues if their employers recognize such organizations as collective bargaining agents…
Why Workers Everywhere Should Be Scared by Kentucky’s Assault on Unions The Nation …Kentucky Republicans launched the new year with a race to enact sweeping anti-labor legislation, and they aren’t concerning themselves withthe question of whether they have a mandate to assault labor unions and undermine wages and workplace protections in the Bluegrass state. They are moving immediately, aggressively…
Bill to legalize rideshare services introduced in Wyoming Legislature Tribune Eagle …A bill legalizing rideshare services like Uber and Lyft in Wyoming has been introduced in the state Legislature. The proposed law outlines how ridesharing services could operate in Wyoming. It addresses legal definitions surrounding rideshare services and outlines insurance requirements either individual drivers or ridesharing companies would need…
New minimum wage hikes help more people than they harm (opinion) The Hill …On Jan. 1, the legal minimum wage increased in no less than 19 states. In 12 states, this was due to new legislation or ballot initiatives, while in 7 others, it was due to automatic increases based on indexation. After the changes, some 29 states have minimum wages higher than the federal level…
Sixth Circuit Federal Court Paves Way for Local ‘Right to Work’ Laws National Law Review …Local governments may enact “right to work” laws, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, has held. The Court ruled that such a law is not preempted by the National Labor Relations Act. This is the first federal appellate court to weigh in on the issue. Right to work laws prohibit workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement from being forced, as a condition of employment, to join or not to join, or to pay dues to a labor union…
Fast Food CEO Says Higher Minimum Wage Boosts Business KQED …UC Berkeley economist David Card has studied the minimum wage for over two decades. In the early 1990s, he published this influential case study that showed increasing the minimum wage did not reduce employment, as critics feared. Card said colleagues have long suspected that rising minimum wages could actually increase fast food sales in the U.S…
U.S. LABOR
Menards accused of misclassifying drivers to deprive them of rights Columbus Dispatch …A federal agency is accusing home-improvement giant Menards of illegally misclassifying thousands of its truck drivers as independent contractors in order to deprive them of workplace rights. The National Labor Relations Board’s Minneapolis regional office filed the complaint late last month, based on a charge filed by the AFL-CIO’s Office and Professional Employees International Union, Local 153…
U.S. Postal Service Drops Service at Staples Amid Union Pressure Bloomberg …Following union-backed boycotts and an adverse labor board ruling, the United States Postal Service has agreed to curb a controversial arrangement allowing private employees to provide its services at Staples Inc. stores. USPS spokeswoman Darlene Casey told Bloomberg that the Postal Service would end its relationship with Staples in order to comply with a National Labor Relations Board judge’s ruling…
Steelworkers protest loss of jobs, benefits Trib Live …Union Electric Steel Corp. announced in October it would temporarily shut down the plant, which makes cast steel rolls, as it restructures to cut costs. The facility will be closed by April 21 if the situation continues as it is, but it is possible a deal could be struck with United Steelworkers to keep it open, according to Union Electric Steel spokeswoman Melanie Sprowson…
Labor Opponents Already Have The Next ‘Friedrichs’ SCOTUS Case Ready to Go Under Trump In These Times …There is another case in the pipeline that was stayed pending the outcome of Friedrichs. That case, which began as Rauner v. AFSCME, was originally brought by the ultra-wealthy Republican Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, who—shortly after taking office—issued an executive order placing all fair-share fees in an escrow account, rather than turning them over to unions…
UAW Mack Contract Halts Company’s Attempt to Move Work, Kills Two Tier UAW.org …Members approved the three-year master contract, along with local agreements, in October. Members maintained their job security, eliminated the second-tier wage schedule, negotiated wage and pension increases, won a $2,000 lump sum for active members and yearly lump-sum increases for retirees, as well as improved the health and safety and health care language in the contract. “They came after everything from health care to job security,” Balukas said…
Paid Family-Leave Programs Actually Benefit Employers, New Report Finds NY Mag …Those who criticize paid family leave and paid sick days have claimed that such programs are burdensome to employers and lead to increased unemployment. Yet, a new report found that ensuring access to paid family leave and paid sick days helps companies save on health-care costs, decreases turnover rates, and increases productivity in the workplace…
Why Men Don’t Want the Jobs Done Mostly by Women New York Times …One solution is for the men who have lost jobs in factories to become health aides. But while more than a fifth of American men aren’t working, they aren’t running to these new service-sector jobs. Why? They require very different skills, and pay a lot less. They’re also seen as women’s work, which has always been devalued in the American labor market…
House Republicans revive obscure rule that allows them to slash the pay of individual federal workers to $1 Washington Post …House Republicans this week reinstated an arcane procedural rule that enables lawmakers to reach deep into the budget and slash the pay of an individual federal worker — down to $1 — a move that threatens to upend the 130-year-old civil service. The Holman Rule, named after an Indiana congressman who devised it in 1876, empowers any member of Congress to propose amending an appropriations bill to single out a government employee or cut a specific program…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Children, parents, U.S. suffer because quality, affordable child care is lacking Washington Post …14.2 million children under age 13 met federal requirements for child-care subsidies in 2011-2012. Of that number, 8.6 million were eligible under state policies. Yet only 1.5 million children actually received the subsidies. That means only 10.6 percent of the number of children meeting federal guidelines actually get the subsidy…
The House just made it a lot easier to sell off national parks Think Progress …The U.S. House of Representatives just made it easier for the government to sell or give away national parks, national forests, and other public lands. A new rule, written by House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT), establishes as fact that any legislation to dispose of public lands and natural resources would cost taxpayers exactly $0…
Will The Private Prison Business See Bump? NPR …With President-elect Donald Trump’s tough talk on immigration, private prisons may be an early winner under his administration. In the week after Election Day, stocks of GEO and CoreCivic, the two biggest for-profit detention companies, shot up more than 20 and 40 percent, respectively…
House GOP, Trump team hatch border wall plan Politico …House Republicans and Trump’s team are coalescing around a multi-billion dollar plan to make good on the president-elect’s campaign vows to build a wall between the United States and Mexico. Republican leaders, in tandem with Trump’s transition staff, are considering using a 2006 law signed by former President George W. Bush that authorized the construction of 700 miles-plus of “physical barrier”…
Issa bill aims to reform H-1B immigration program USA Today …The Protect and Grow American Jobs Act, co-authored by Issa, R-Calif., and U.S. Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., addresses what’s sure to be a hot-button issue this year amid repeated vows by President-elect Donald Trump to reform immigration laws. But it faced opposition last year in Congress, and could encounter more resistance this time around…