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Today’s Teamster News For February 13, 2017
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Will Fight Kellogg’s Job-Killing Plan Teamster.org …a statement by Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa: “On February 8, The Kellogg Company announced its short-sighted plan to eliminate their U.S. (Keebler) snacks direct store delivery system across the country which will destroy nearly 1,200 good, Teamster jobs in key markets across the country. It is an outrage for Kellogg’s – an iconic American company – to turn its back on working families”…
Ernie Soehl Appointed to Lead Teamsters National Freight Division Teamster.org …International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa has appointed Ernie Soehl as the director of the Teamsters National Freight Division. “I am pleased to appoint Ernie Soehl to lead our National Freight Division moving forward,” Hoffa said. “Our freight members continue to face many difficult challenges in an industry that is fraught with uncertainty”…
New Jersey/Pennsylvania Head Start Workers Ratify Contract Teamster.org …Preschool teachers, counselors, custodians and cafeteria workers at Gateway Head Start in New Jersey and Pennsylvania recently ratified their first contract with Local 929 in Philadelphia. The 156-member unit voted for Teamster representation in December 2015 and the local union and rank and file members on the negotiating committee have been bargaining for the contract since then…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Unite workers at BMW threaten action over plans to shut UK pension scheme The Guardian …More than 7,000 BMW workers are threatening industrial action over the German carmaker’s plans to shut the final salary pension scheme. A warning that “serious industrial action will occur” if the company presses ahead with the plans is carried in a letter sent by Len McCluskey, leader of the Unite union…
Sri Lankan workers vote for union IndustriALL …Setting a strong standard for other workers in the Sri Lankan free trade zones, workers at industrial gloves manufacturer ATG voted to establish their union on 7 February. IndustriALL Global Union has been celebrating a good win for workers this week after the multinational gloves company failed in its attempt to kick out the union from its two factories in Sri Lanka…
Machinists union hopes to represent Canada GE workers St. Catherines Standard …After representing General Electric workers in Waukesha, the International Association of Machinists hopes to represent the 220 workers at the new plant being built in Welland to replace it. “We’re going to do everything in our power to try to organize them and make them IAM members,” said Bill Trbovich, IAM’s director of communications for Canada. The majority of the 350 workers at the plant in Waukesha have been represented by District 10 and Local Lodge 1377 of the IAM…
NAFTA Has Harmed Mexico a Lot More than Any Wall Could Do CEPR …While it has finally become more widely recognized that such misleadingly labelled “free trade” agreements have hurt millions of US workers, it is still common among both liberal and right-wing commentators to assume that NAFTA has been good for Mexico. This assumption is forcefully contradicted by the facts…
Trump-Trudeau Meeting Will Preview Trade, Border Issues Wall Street Journal …President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are scheduled to meet in Washington Monday in a visit likely to provide a glimpse of how the Trump administration will seek to overhaul the 23-year-old economic framework of North America. Mr. Trump wants to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, or Nafta, and has vowed to extract new, better terms for the U.S. So far most of his focus has been on Mexico…
These Countries Could Be Trump’s Next Trade War Targets Bloomberg …India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam have largely escaped U.S. President Donald Trump’s glare on trade, but he may yet come looking. The U.S. runs trade deficits with all of them, in some cases quite big ones. Trump’s exit from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, his attacks on the trade policies of Japan, China and South Korea, and a Republican push for tax reforms that would impose a levy on U.S. imports from all countries are contributing to concerns that a protectionist era will hurt growth…
Lenders Agree On More Austerity For Greece To Avoid Default Eurasia Review …Eurozone and IMF officials met with Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos on Friday to overcome the stalemate in the bailout programme after the lenders agreed to request an additional €3.6 billion in cuts by 2018. The Europeans and the IMF enjoyed a bitter dispute over the last months about the fiscal situation the country will reach once the rescue programme is completed in 2018…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Pa. Senate approves ‘paycheck protection’ bill Post-Gazette …The Pennsylvania Senate today approved legislation to stop public employers from deducting political contributions from workers’ paychecks. The Senate voted 28-22 to send the bill on to the House, which is scheduled to return for its next session day mid-March. A spokesman for the House majority leader said the House will review the bill…
Wisconsin May Ban Prevailing Wages, Project Labor Pacts Bloomberg …Prevailing wage requirements and project labor agreements would be prohibited under a proposal in Wisconsin’s 2017-19 biennial executive budget and tandem legislation speeding through the state legislature. Gov. Scott Walker (R), already recognized for his tough stands against organized labor, included a single sentence in his 644-page budget proposal Feb. 8…
South Dakota lawmaker blocks workplace protection for pregnant workers: “It’s not prison. You can quit.” Boing Boing …South Dakota state Rep. Wayne H Steinhauer was part of a group of eight male, GOP reps who killed a bill that would have guaranteed workplace accommodations to pregnant South Dakotans. During the hearing, Rep Steinhauer told women “It’s not prison. You can quit.” Nationwide, an estimated 250,000 pregnant workers are denied these accommodations every year…
Groundbreaking Bill in Illinois Would Give Temp Workers Equal Pay and Rights as Direct Hires In These Times …Sweeping legislation introduced in the Illinois state legislature last month would dramatically improve pay, benefits and working conditions for almost a million of the state’s temp workers toiling in factories, warehouses and offices. The Responsible Job Creation Act, sponsored by State Rep. Carol Ammons, aims to transform the largely unregulated temporary staffing industry by introducing more than 30 new worker protections…
Washington, Oregon Legislation Sidelines Cities To Help Uber, Lyft Expand Statewide NW Public Radio …Drivers and professional lobbyists for the ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft are urging state lawmakers to replace what they call a “patchwork” of city regulations with uniform statewide rules for their industry. They testified Wednesday that this would expand the availability of the smartphone-based ride-booking services…
U.S. LABOR
UAW says it will greet Tesla workers with ‘open arms’ Reuters …The United Automobile Workers union on Friday said it had been approached by workers at Tesla Inc’s Fremont, California, assembly plant, rejecting a charge by the chief executive of the luxury electric car maker that a worker who publicly criticized the company was on the UAW payroll. The nascent move to organize at Tesla’s factory shines an unwelcome spotlight on allegations of long hours, mandatory overtime and preventable injuries at a time when Tesla is accelerating production to meet ambitious targets…
South Bend rally for Honeywell workers on Flint strike’s 80th anniversary South Bend Tribune …Supporters rallied Saturday for Honeywell Aerospace workers who have been locked out of their jobs for nine months, as word was announced about an upcoming meeting between management and Local No. 9 of the United Auto Workers. About 130 people turned out Saturday for a rally at the UAW Hall on South Main Street to show support for the locked out Honeywell workers in South Bend. The lockout began in May…
New Bills on Equal Pay, Paid Leave Will Test GOP’s Willingness to Follow Trump’s Lead Fortune …The president’s support of those policies upset long-standing GOP orthodoxy that favors small government, and now, two bills to be introduced Thursday by Republican Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) will test whether Senate Republicans are willing to follow their new leader down the uncharted path. The two pieces of legislation will target paid leave and equal pay…
Donald Trump’s Real Plan for Coal-Mine Workers The Nation …Coal mining has always been a lethal industry, for both workers and the environment. But, unsurprisingly, President Donald Trump’s energy agenda threatens to make the coal industry even deadlier, by expanding domestic coal production while simultaneously unraveling Washington’s global commitments on carbon regulation. His plans will likely spell disaster on many fronts…
Labor Department Hire Could Presage Collision Between Trump and Construction Unions ProPublica …The hiring highlights the dilemma of the building trades unions, the segment of organized labor that has been most friendly to Trump: They largely support his agenda on infrastructure and trade even as he is assembling a Department of Labor team that is hostile to unions and cherished wage standards on government contracts…
Cereal maker Kellogg could lay off more than 1,100 USA Today …Kellogg (K) could lay off lay off more than 1,100 employees because of its decision to use grocers’ warehouses rather than directly deliver many of its foods to store shelves. The company said Wednesday it plans to begin exiting its direct store delivery network in favor of retailers’ warehouses in the second quarter of this year. As a result, the company will close 39 of its distribution centers…
There Were Fewer Worker Strikes and Lockouts in the Past Decade Than Used to Happen Every Year Wall Street Journal …The strike has become a very rarely used tool for labor unions to extract better contracts or treatment from employers. Fewer major work stoppages occurred in the past 10 years than happened annually each year from 1947 to 1981, according to new data from the Labor Department. From 2007 to 2016, there were 143 strikes…
Trump’s Obsession With Manufacturing Is About Politics, Not Jobs The Nation … As Trump talks a big game about manufacturing, he has been silent about the service sector. Macy’s and Lowe’s have announced job cuts; hundreds of retail stores are closing. But Trump has remarked on none of this. Service-sector jobs were entirely absent from his inaugural address. Yet the service sector makes up over 80 percent of US employment…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Immigration Agents Arrest 600 People Across U.S. in One Week New York Times …Federal immigration officials arrested more than 600 people across at least 11 states last week, detaining 40 people in the New York City area, law enforcement officials said on Sunday. It remained unclear whether the actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were part of continuing operations to round up illegal immigrants with criminal convictions or a ramping-up of deportations by the Trump administration…
Green groups file sweeping lawsuit accusing Trump of usurping Congress’s powers on regulations Washington Post …Three advocacy groups filed a sweeping federal lawsuit Wednesday, challenging President Trump’s executive order requiring two federal regulations to be “identified for elimination” for every new one added — arguing that the order fundamentally takes over Congress’s powers to enact laws to protect public health, safety, and the environment…
Saudis foot tab at Trump hotel Politico …A lobbying firm working for Saudi Arabia paid for a room at Donald Trump’s Washington hotel after Inauguration Day, marking the first publicly known payment on behalf of a foreign government to a Trump property since he became president. The Emoluments Clause of the Constitution prohibits U.S. officials from receiving payments from foreign governments…
With Tom Price Confirmed, Clock Is Ticking for Critical Safety-Net Programs (opinion) Common Dreams …Price, who had represented Georgia in the House of Representatives since 2005, is known as an ardent opponent of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare. During his confirmation hearing in January, Price refused to say whether he would honor President Donald Trump’s campaign trail promises not to cut Medicare and Medicaid spending…
Trump order won’t make cops safer, but might make it a felony to yell at them Think Progress …President Donald Trump encouraged Republicans on Thursday to further enhance the nation’s already stiff criminal penalties for violence against police officers. In a vague executive order signed at the official swearing-in ceremony for new Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Trump instructed Sessions to work with Congress to establish “new Federal crimes, and increase penalties for existing Federal crimes” to protect law enforcement officers…
Trump border ‘wall’ to cost $21.6 billion, take 3.5 years to build: internal report Reuters …President Donald Trump’s “wall” along the U.S.-Mexico border would be a series of fences and walls that would cost as much as $21.6 billion, and take more than three years to construct, based on a U.S. Department of Homeland Security internal report seen by Reuters on Thursday. The report’s estimated price-tag is much higher than a $12-billion figure cited by Trump in his campaign…
For years, immigration authorities gave this Arizona mother a pass. Now she has been deported. Washington Post …Carlos García, director of the group Puente Arizona, said Thursday that García de Rayos was no longer in the United States. “She has been deported,” he told a crowd. “And this has been one of the first victims of President Trump.” ICE confirmed the deportation, saying in a statement that García de Rayos was “removed” to Mexico…
Anger erupts at Republican town halls CNN …More than seven years after angry anti-Obamacare town halls erupted across the country, raw emotions are boiling over again — this time, as the Republican Party under President Donald Trump gears up to dismantle Barack Obama’s legacy. And the fury is flaring up in some of most conservative corners of the country…