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Today’s Teamster News For February 10, 2017
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters statement on proposed reckless changes to Iowa’s collective bargaining laws Iowa Labor News …The Iowa Teamster Law Enforcement League issued the following statement today regarding reckless changes to Iowa’s collective bargaining laws proposed by Iowa Legislative Republicans: “The legislation released this week by Republicans Leaders in the House and Senate is short sided, overreaching, and fails to consider a number of relevant factors”…
American Canyon agrees to new labor contract for city workers Napa Valley Register …After more than a year of labor negotiations, the city of American Canyon and Teamsters reached an agreement Tuesday morning on a new five-year contract for city employees. The 55 workers represented by Teamsters Local 315, constituting the majority of city workers, had gone more than seven months without a contract after their last one expired on July 1…
Dump Truck Co.’s Post-Union Election Closure Ruled Illegal Law360 …A Brooklyn dump truck company trimmed operations in retaliation for its drivers voting to join the Teamsters and later illegally attempted to resume its full volume of work conditional on its employees rejecting the union, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled Wednesday. NLRB Administrative Law Judge Benjamin W. Green ordered Dawn Trucking owner Henry Burey to reinstate and provide back pay to six drivers…
Teamsters, unions look to upend Missouri’s new right-to-work law through public vote Missouri.net …If they successfully get a referendum onto the ballot, the right-to-work statute itself will be delayed from going into effect until after voters weigh-in during the November 2018 election. Labor leaders from around the state are organizing the effort to place right-to-work before voters. Unions such as the AFL-CIO and the Teamsters are coordinating with a host of labor interest groups…
Relocation of Jeep Cherokee production prompts layoffs, closure ABC …Auto suppliers in Northwest Ohio are announcing layoffs and closures, as Fiat-Chrysler prepares to move Jeep Cherokee (FCA) production from Toledo. According to documents filed with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, Toledo Molding and Die will close its facility. The cuts at DHL Supply Chain impact a total of 277 workers from the United Auto Workers and Teamsters unions…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Workers strike at BHP’s Escondida copper mine in Chile Reuters …Workers at BHP Billiton’s Escondida copper mine in Chile, the world’s largest, walked off the job on Thursday in a strike that threatens to disrupt the international supply of the widely used metal. It said no miners arrived for morning work aboard buses that normally carry upwards of 1,200 workers per shift to the vast deposit, which accounted for about 6 percent of global production in 2015…
Spanish port workers to strike over labour reforms Container Management …Spanish ports face three days of strikes this February after the Spanish government announced plans to reform the sector’s port labour market due to an ongoing fine from the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Unions have mobilised against the proposals and industrial action is due to take place on February 20, 22 and 24…
Tunisia: 60,000 construction workers go on hunger strike TAP.info …60 thousand construction workers went on a hunger strike on February 9. A protest outside the headquarters of all governorates was held on the same day. These protests come in reaction to the silence of the government which, according to sources, has not honoured its commitments to fight against all forms of precarious employment…
Canada, China to attend summit on free trade after TPP collapse Globe and Mail …Canada and China are joining a mid-March summit hosted by Chile on how to advance trade in Asia-Pacific now that Donald Trump has pulled the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and ceded leadership in the region. It’s the first effort to move beyond the rubble of the TPP deal – dead since Washington’s exit – and offers a possible way for Beijing to take the lead on influencing how trade should deepen between the West and Asia…
Too Soon to Discuss China Replacing U.S. in TPP, Singapore Says Bloomberg …It is too early to think about other countries like China joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership after Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the trade pact, according to the Singapore government. Asked if Singapore would first want to clarify the future of the TPP with the 10 other parties that remain, Trade and Industry Minister S. Iswaran replied: “To some extent that would be the case”…
Lawmakers urge Trump to raise trade issues with Abe The Hill …Several groups of House and Senate lawmakers on Thursday called on President Trump to tackle major trade issues with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Trump will meet on Friday with Abe at the White House and the two leaders are expected to discuss a wide range of topics from security to trade…
Goldman Sachs warns investors to brace for a looming trade war with China MarketWatch …Whether a full blown war or isolated skirmishes, a confrontation between the U.S. and China on trade may be inevitable, even if the only outcome is a Pyrrhic victory. Economists at Goldman Sachs this week predicted that a U.S.-China standoff is a near certainty given President Donald Trump’s anti-trade rhetoric…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Iowa collective bargaining bill advances to Senate floor Des Moines Register …A bill that rewrites Iowa’s collective bargaining law for public employees is headed to the Iowa Senate floor, with Republicans saying it will benefit taxpayers and Democrats warning it will create deep bitterness within the ranks of state and local government workers. Senate File 213 was approved on a 7-4 vote Thursday by the Senate Labor and Business Relations Committee in an Iowa Capitol committee room jammed with about 175 people, mostly public employees who opposed the bill…
Iowa bill would bar local minimum wage hikes, keep statewide rate at $7.25 an hour KICD …A bill has emerged at the statehouse that would stop Iowa cities and county officials from setting a local minimum wage that’s higher than the state’s. The bill also would keep the statewide minimum wage at $7.25 an hour. Republican supporters of the legislation — like House Speaker Linda Upmeyer of Clear Lake — say “uniformity” in the wage rate is best for businesses…
Scott Walker’s budget proposes scrapping state panel that resolves employment disputes Wisconsin State Journal …A state panel that handles thousands of disputes between employers and employees each year — and whose roots date back more than a century — would be abolished under a provision of Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed state budget. The two-year spending plan calls for eliminating the Labor and Industry Review Commission and its 26½ full-time-equivalent positions…
West Virginia AFL-CIO Applauds Governor Justice’s Legislative Agenda WV AFL-CIO …Staying true to his promise to take innovative and bold steps to move West Virginia’s economy forward, Governor Jim Justice provided a solid blueprint for addressing the state budget crisis while still bolstering the business climate. “Governor Justice knows that the current dire budget situation calls for significant short-term sacrifices, but he hasn’t lost sight of his long-term goals of generating good paying jobs, growing the middle class and making West Virginia a top destination for both businesses and young workers”…
California retirement benefit program in Congress’ crosshairs SacBee …Congressional Republicans are moving to eliminate Obama administration labor regulations that helped California establish a landmark effort to automatically enroll millions of private-sector workers without retirement plans in a state-run savings account. When Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 1234, its author, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León argued it would help stabilize Californians’ retirement years…
Kansas: overlooked provision in Trump executive order revives program that deputizes police to start deportations Raw Story …Kansas hard-liner Kris Kobach says he helped write a get-tough executive order for President Donald Trump that clears the way for state and local law enforcement officers to put into deportation proceedings immigrants they apprehend who are in the U.S. illegally. Now Kobach wants to make that the law in Kansas…
U.S. LABOR
Tesla faces UAW unionization challenge after factory workers complain of injuries and long hours Business Insider …As Tesla looks to ramp up production for the rollout of its Model 3, factory workers are asking the company to unionize. Jose Moran, a person claiming to be an employee at Tesla’s Fremont factory for the last four years, wrote a Medium post stating that factory workers are asking to unionize because of difficult work conditions and long hours…
Momentive chemical plant workers’ strike may end soon after they reach tentative deal with management Daily News …It took 100 days and prodding from the governor’s office, but 700 striking upstate workers at the Momentive chemical plant have finally come in from the cold. A tentative contract was reached late Wednesday between Momentive Performance Materials and IUE-CWA Locals 81359 and 81380, officials told the Daily News Thursday — potentially ending a strike that began on Nov. 2…
More Than 20,000 AT&T Workers Are Getting Ready to Protest Nationwide Fortune …Some 21,000 workers in AT&T’s wireless business have overwhelming voted to authorize a strike just ahead of the expiration of their contract on Saturday. The vote, which was expected, comes after 17,000 additional workers in AT&T’s phone, Internet, and cable services in Nevada and California also approved a strike authorization last month…
Companies Plow Ahead With Moves to Mexico, Despite Trump’s Pressure Wall Street Journal …President Donald Trump boosted the hopes of employees at Rexnord Corp.’s factory here in December when he castigated the company for “viciously firing” workers and planning to move their jobs to Mexico. Two months later, Rexnord is still planning to close the industrial-bearings factory, which employs about 350 people…
These Economists Just Proved Why Donald Trump’s Wall Won’t Help U.S. Workers Fortune …It looks like building the wall may not actually do much for American workers. A study published on Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that any success the Trump administration has in reducing the U.S.’s undocumented Mexican labor force won’t actually lead to more jobs or higher wages for U.S. workers…
California Farmers Backed Trump, but Now Fear Losing Field Workers New York Times …As for his promises about cracking down on illegal immigrants, many assumed Mr. Trump’s pledges were mostly just talk. But two weeks into his administration, Mr. Trump has signed executive orders that have upended the country’s immigration laws. Now farmers here are deeply alarmed about what the new policies could mean for their workers
Labor unions press Trump to drop Puzder nomination The Hill …President Trump should withdraw Andrew Puzder’s nomination to lead the Labor Department, the AFL-CIO and other labor groups said Thursday in a letter obtained by The Hill. The AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor organization, raised concerns about Puzder hiring and not immediately paying taxes on a housekeeper who was an undocumented immigrant…
Undocumented workers put Puzder and Ross in an unusual spot CNN …It’s an issue that’s sunk Cabinet nominees in the past: Hiring an undocumented immigrant. But two of President Donald Trump’s key Cabinet picks — Andrew Puzder for Labor secretary and Wilbur Ross for Commerce secretary — may still have a path to confirmation despite having hired undocumented workers…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Federal appeals court rules 3 to 0 against Trump on travel ban Washington Post …A federal appeals panel has maintained the freeze on President Trump’s controversial immigration order, meaning previously barred refugees and citizens from seven majority-Muslim countries can continue entering the United States. In a unanimous 29-page opinion, three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit flatly rejected the government’s argument…
Never Has It Been Easier to Get Secret Cash to a President Mother Jones …No president in American history has entered office as conflict-ridden as Trump. It’s almost impossible to keep track of all the ways someone seeking to influence him and his administration could do so without a trace. There is a simpler and more direct way to put money in the pocket of the new president and his family: spend money at a Trump hotel or resort…
White House says Conway has been ‘counseled’ after touting Ivanka Trump’s products Washington Post …The White House on Thursday said that a top adviser to President Trump had been “counseled” after using a television appearance from the West Wing to promote the clothing and jewelry line sold under the brand of Trump’s daughter. The endorsement, in which Kellyanne Conway told Fox News Channel viewers to “go buy Ivanka’s stuff,” appeared to violate a key ethics rule barring federal employees from using their public office to endorse products…
White supremacists are celebrating Sessions’ confirmation as US attorney general Mic …After Sen. Jeff Sessions (R. Ala.) was confirmed as the new United States Attorney General on Wednesday night, white nationalists and members of the alt-right took to Twitter to celebrate what they hope will constitute an ideological victory for their agenda. “Law & Order, welcome back,” tweeted David Duke, the former imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, alongside a picture of Sessions…
White nationalists cite area’s ‘80% Trump vote’ to hold ‘white working family’ event in Kentucky park Raw Story …A white nationalists group announced on Facebook that it is planning to hold a conference for “white working families” at a Kentucky state park in April, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported. The Traditionalist Worker Party said in a Facebook post this week that the group had chosen Eastern Kentucky because “Pike County is 98.35% European and went over 80% for Trump in the recent elections”…
Government by White Nationalism Is Upon Us (opinion) Slate …America still has white supremacists, and they still terrorize nonwhites with harassment and violence. But now that most Americans share a nominal commitment to racial equality—such that the country celebrated at the election of its first black president, more than eight years ago—explicitly racist ideology has cloaked itself in a kind of “nationalism,” outside the mainstream, but not far from its borders…
Michael Moore: DeVos ‘a big FU’ to kids The Hill …Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore on Tuesday ripped both Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, President Trump’s pick to lead the Education Department, and the Senate for voting to approve her earlier in the day. “The Senate Republicans have just sent a big FU to the school children of America,” Moore tweeted Tuesday. “Even the worst countries don’t shit on their own kids”…
Activists win access to NYPD’s Black Lives Matter surveillance files Mic …A New York judge has ordered the New York Police Department to divulge files showing how it surveilled Black Lives Matter demonstrations two years ago, a group of activists announced Wednesday. According to a written decision by Judge Manuel Mendez, the NYPD must release records of the undercover surveillance it conducted on BLM protests…