TEAMSTERS

Skilled Trade Workers Strike At UCLA  Teamster.org  …Over 600 UCLA skilled trades workers began a five-day strike today in protest of the University’s numerous violations of state labor law and unfair labor practices. The strike is expected to have significant impact on critical services, and will affect students returning from winter break, as well as the public. Teamsters Local 2010 is advising the public to reschedule all nonessential medical appointments and to avoid the UCLA campus and medical centers on Friday, January 6 through Tuesday, January 10… 

UCLA Workers Launch Strike as Contract Talks Stall  Bloomberg  …Some 600 plumbers, electricians, elevator mechanics and maintenance workers at the University of California at Los Angeles launched a strike Jan. 6 to jump-start stalled contract negotiations, the Teamsters said. The parties have been unable to reach agreement on wage proposals for skilled trades workers at the UCLA campus, both sides said… 

​Union strike planned at 10 University of California campuses  KCRA  …A statewide strike is planned at all University of California campuses, the Teamsters Local 2010 union announced Friday in a statement. The strike is planned for Tuesday at the 10 UC campuses to “protest the numerous unfair labor practices and violation of state law committed by UC,” the union said…

Union to JCPS security monitors: avoid physical altercation  WDRB  …he president of the union that represents Jefferson County Public Schools security monitors is advising them to “restrain from any physical altercation with an out of control student” unless they are instructed by their immediate supervisor to intervene. John Stovall, president of Teamsters Local 783, says his letter — sent over winter break — was prompted by the district’s “new position with any physical interactions with unruly students”…

 

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE 

UK: London Tube Strike Hits Monday Morning Commute for Millions  Bloomberg  …Millions of U.K. commuters struggled to reach work Monday as staff on the London Underground subway system staged a 24-hour strike over station closures and job cuts. Thousands of Tube workers walked out from 6 p.m. Sunday after their unions rejected last-minute proposals from management. Transport for London said services were “severely reduced” with 40 percent of stations closed, including the majority across central London…

Bangladesh: Wage Strike Sparks Government Crackdown  Solidarity Center  …In mid-December, a strike in Ashulia, an industrial suburb of Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, and a ready-made garment sector hub, quickly snowballed into widespread unrest. Garment workers abandoned their factories to call for a living wage in response to ever-rising costs. Mass arrests and firings ensued…

Nigerian oil union threatens three-day strike at Exxon Mobil, Chevron  Daily Mail  …A Nigerian oil labour union will stage a three-day strike at Chevron and Exxon Mobil fuel depots from Wednesday in a protest over sackings if talks with the government fail, union officials said on Monday. The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) said it would make a final decision after its leaders meet officials…

How the New Administration Could Declare a Trade Emergency  Politico  …The president-elect is pledging an overhaul of trade policy that appears to break with longstanding American tradition. From threatening to withdraw from the 164-member World Trade Organization, to slapping tariffs on individual companies that offshore jobs, to this week appointing a trade critic as U.S. trade representative, Trump seems determined to reverse a decades-old bipartisan elite consensus…

Corporate elites think new trade agenda might help them  Washington Post  …Politico reports today that business lobbies, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are privately gearing up for a campaign to persuade Trump that, if he does seek to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, he should do so in ways that help them. In an ironic twist, many business groups hope Trump will steal ideas from another trade agreement — the Trans-Pacific Partnership — as he seeks to upgrade NAFTA…

Lessons to Learn From the Demise of the TPP  The Wire  …Rather than trade promotion, the main purpose of the TPP has been to internationally promote more corporate-friendly rules under US leadership. The 6350 page deal was negotiated by various working groups where representatives of major, mainly US corporations were able to drive the agenda and advance their interests. The final push to seek congressional support for the TPP despite strong opposition from the major presidential candidates made clear that the main US rationale and motive were geopolitical…

Break-Up of EU No Longer ‘Unthinkable,’ German Austerity to Blame  Sputnik News  …Germany’s insistence on austerity policies in the Eurozone has left Europe more divided than ever, so much so that a break-up of the EU is no longer “unthinkable,” German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has said. Gabriel, whose Social Democrat party (SPD) are the junior partners in the Angela Merkel-led grand coalition government, said more budget flexibility and spending leeway needed to be given to countries like France and Italy…

 

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES 

Kentucky Republicans Pass Right-To-Work, Dropping The Hammer On Unions  Huffington Post  …Organized labor suffered its first major legislative setback due to the 2016 elections on Saturday, when Kentucky Republicans gave final approval to right-to-work legislation and repealed the state’s prevailing wage law. Both bills are expected to be signed into law by the governor, and will take effect immediately…

Kentucky: prevailing wage law repealed by House  Courier-Journal  …Construction workers hired for publicly financed projects would earn less money under a bill that has cleared the Republican-controlled state House of Representatives. Lawmakers approved a bill Thursday that would repeal Kentucky’s prevailing wage law. The law required Kentucky officials to decide how much state and local governments paid construction workers for public projects based on a survey of wages in the community…

Koch Astroturf Army Cheers Union Busting in Kentucky  PR Watch  …On the first day that the Kentucky legislature got underway with a newly elected Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican governor, the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity group blew the whistle and legislators jumped to do their bidding. This week, the Speaker of the House Jeff Hoover rammed through the legislature three bills to break the back of unions and lower wages for highly-skilled construction workers…

Iowa: Union reps up in arms over governor’s health plan  Daily Democrat  …Governor Terry Branstad’s administration is negotiating new employment contracts on the assumption that health insurance benefits will no longer be subject to collective bargaining. Branstad offered this, saying the current method of providing health insurance to Iowa’s public employees is inefficient and outdated. Under current Iowa law, any insurance is a mandatory subject of collective bargaining for public employees’ unions…

ALEC Pay to Play on Display in Washington, DC  PR Watch  …The State Policy Network is an umbrella group for more than sixty “think tanks” that help make the national corporate agenda of ALEC seem more local. These included state-based organizations in every state, like the MacIver Institute for Public Policy in Wisconsin. For ALEC corporate members, “free speech” apparently means anonymous, unlimited money-as-speech in the political realm…

 

U.S. LABOR 

No deal, Dayton RTA union transit workers go on strike  WDTN  …Members of the RTA drivers and mechanics union are on strike. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1385 leaders say no agreement was reached after a late night negotiation at City Hall. Both sides were in a closed-door meeting until after 12:30 Monday morning.

GOP bill would eliminate union representation and other protections for new postal workers  Postal News  …A bill introduced by GOP congressman Todd Rokita of Indiana would eliminate civil service protections, including the right to union representation for all new federal employees, including new postal workers. American Federation of Government Employees National President J. David Cox Sr. said “Giving political appointees and the managers who serve them free reign to punish workers without cause is the antithesis of accountability”…

The GOP War With The Federal Workforce Will Hurt Black Workers The Most  Huffington Post  …President-elect Donald Trump and the new GOP Congress are gearing up for battle with federal employees and their unions. If Trump and his fellow Republicans achieve all these austerity goals, there’s one group that will pay a higher price for it than others: black workers. That’s because the federal government disproportionately employs African-Americans… 

Wells Fargo giving raise to 25,000 entry level workers  CNN  …Wells Fargo is giving 25,000 tellers and other entry level workers a raise at a time when the bank is struggling to overcome a morale problem caused by the fake account fiasco. Wells Fargo  (WFC)said the pay hike to a minimum of $13.50 an hour is aimed at attracting and retaining talent, not a response to the scandal… 

If the US unemployment rate included everyone who says they want a job, it would be nearly double  Quartz  …As measured by the BLS, the unemployment rate is defined as the percentage of unemployed people who are currently in the labor force. This leaves out a ton of relevant people. According to the November 2016 data, over 5.5 million Americans said they want a job, but don’t have one, and are not considered a part of the labor force. If these people were included in the unemployment rate, it would jump to 8.2%…

Economy adds 156K jobs in Obama’s final monthly report  The Hill  …Employers added 156,000 jobs in December, slightly below expectations, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.7 percent in the final monthly report of the Obama administration. The Labor Department reported on Friday that labor market continued cranking out modest gains last month…

OSHA issues last major workplace rule under Obama  The Hill  …The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on Friday finalized a long-awaited rule to limit workers’ exposure to beryllium, a substance known to cause cancer. The regulation, which has industry support, is expected to be the last major workplace rule from OSHA under President Obama…

Repealing Obamacare could cost 3 million jobs, study finds  CNN  …Congress has another reason not to roll back Obamacare too quickly: New research suggests that repealing two major provisions of Obamacare without replacing them right away could cost the nation 3 million jobs and trigger negative economic impacts that would extend far beyond the health care industry…

 

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS 

GOP leaders slow-walk president-elect’s infrastructure plan  Politico  …The president-elect’s bold talk about creating millions of jobs while making America’s roads, bridges and airports “second to none” is turning into an afterthought for congressional Republicans who have spent eight years wrangling over debt limits and bemoaning President Barack Obama’s $832 billion stimulus…

America’s Economic Distress Belt  City Lab  …Income inequality has grown dramatically in America since the early 1980s. This is associated with a myriad of bad things, from worse health and higher rates of violence to locking in disadvantage and limiting the ability to move up the economic ladder. But until recently, a county with higher inequality did not necessarily have a high concentration of poverty…

Young Black Men Still Predominant Victims of Police Violence  Common Dreams  …Despite the protests, media scrutiny, and all around heightened national attention, young black men in 2016 continued to be the predominant victims of police violence in the United States. According to year-end figures published Sunday by the Guardian database The Counted, “[b]lack males aged 15-34 were nine times more likely than other Americans to be killed by law enforcement officers last year,” and were “killed at four times the rate of young white men”…

At the Justice Department, Sessions could play a key role on immigration  Washington Post  …As a senator from Alabama, Jeff Sessions has vigorously opposed any efforts to reform the U.S. immigration system in ways that might benefit those in the country illegally. He has advocated tempering even legal immigration, fearful that people from other countries might take Americans’ jobs…

Jesse Jackson to Uber: Release diversity data  USA Today  …Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson is calling on Uber to release its employee demographics and join the fight to “change the face of technology.” Jackson urged the ride-hailing company to report its diversity data by mid-February. “Silicon Valley and the tech industry, at your best, can be a tremendously positive change agent for the world”…