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Today’s Teamster News For March 7, 2017
TEAMSTERS
Shaw’s Delivery Drivers and Mechanics Vote to Join Teamsters Local 340 Teamster.org …Employees at the Shaw’s distribution center in Wells, Maine have formed a union with Teamsters Local 340, due to an organizing election that took place on March 1. The workers are seeking job security and disciplinary due process, in addition to a contract that will protect their wages, benefits and working conditions from the uncertainties of the corporate workplace…
AmerisourceBergen draws heat for opioid distributions Daily Local …A prescription drug distribution company based in Chesterbrook is coming under increased scrutiny amid allegations its business practices are helping to fuel the nation’s opioid epidemic. AmerisourceBergen last week was the subject of a protest organized by the Teamsters union outside of a Philadelphia hotel where the company was holding its annual shareholders’ meeting…
Teamsters Honor Women’s History Teamster.org …March is Women’s History Month, and on March 8 we celebrate International Women’s Day. The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is #BeBoldForChange. Teamster women are certainly no strangers to being bold for change. Whether it’s the tanker truck driver, the airplane mechanic or the first responder, Teamster women are bold players in the fight for justice, equality and workers’ rights…
NLRB Reviews Wave of Truck Driver Workplace Retaliation Claims Trucks.com …Truckers have asked the National Labor Relations Board to intervene in a string of cases in which the drivers say they have become victims of workplace retaliation, including termination, as they pushed for collective bargaining and better working conditions. XPO Logistics Chief Executive Bradly Jacobs said he isn’t against unions. He said he doesn’t like working with the Teamsters union, which has been working to organize XPO drivers…
ITF urges union solidarity for US XPO workers ITF.org …A delegation of over 100 XPO truck drivers, warehouse workers, Teamsters leaders and faith allies protested on 27 February in Long Beach, California, where XPO’s chief executive officer Bradley Jacobs was the keynote speaker at an international logistics conference. The Teamsters told the ITF that in response to the demonstration, Jacobs declared on-stage: ‘I don’t believe in the Teamsters…
Sen. Claire McCaskill invites Trump’s Treasury secretary to meet retired Teamsters Kansas City Star …Mr. Secretary, you are cordially invited to meet with Missouri’s retired Teamsters about their disappearing pensions. So said a letter Monday from U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri to recently sworn in Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The invitation is for Mnuchin to sit down with retired Missouri Teamsters whose nest eggs are going bad thanks to the flagging Central States Pension Fund…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Workers at Peru’s Cerro Verde mine to strike for five days Reuters …Workers at Cerro Verde mine, one of the largest copper producers in Peru, plan to start a five-day strike on Friday to demand better labor conditions, a union representative said on Monday. The representative and the mine’s controlling owners said the strike could be indefinite. Cerro Verde is controlled by Freeport-McMoRan Inc , which owns a 53.56 percent stake…
Chile’s No.1 Copper Mine Facing 2-Month Strike TeleSUR …Workers at BHP Billiton’s Escondida copper mine in Chile, the world’s largest, are warning they are ready to strike for two entire months, threatening to disrupt the international supply of the widely used metal. “We have been in this conflict for 26 days days now, and we decided to keep striking as long as necessary,” said union leader Carlos Allende…
On trade, it’s Trump vs. the deep state Politico …Last week the Trump administration released its first formal marker of how it plans to shake up trade policy. The vehicle was an unwieldy annual document that rarely makes much news: the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s statutorily mandated report to Congress. The administration’s trade report highlights the fissures beneath the surface—and the contradictions of its trade policy…
U.S. trade deficit jumps to five-year high on imports Reuters …The U.S. trade deficit jumped to a near five-year high in January as cell phones and rising oil prices helped to push up the import bill, suggesting trade would again weigh on economic growth in the first quarter. The Commerce Department said on Tuesday the trade gap increased 9.6 percent to $48.5 billion, the highest level since March 2012…
NAFTA in play: What’s at stake for Canada-U.S. trade Globe and Mail …How the decades-old free-trade deal with the U.S. and Mexico will change as the Trump administration pursues protectionist policies is still unknown. U.S. President Donald Trump believes revamping NAFTA, and U.S.-Mexico trading rules in particular, would revive factory jobs and bring manufacturers back to the U.S…
Where’s the Fair Trade? Another contradiction in Trump’s administration (opinion) IATP …The contradictions in the Trump administration’s stance on trade have only increased this week with the announcement that Andrew Quinn will be joining the National Economic Council. Quinn is a former Deputy US Trade Representative, and was a lead negotiator for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) since 2012. Trump bashed the TPP throughout the campaign and withdrew from the trade deal in his first week…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Proposed changes to Iowa’s workers’ comp system face criticism Omaha World Herald …Legislation making big changes to Iowa’s workers’ compensation system is moving through the Legislature despite arguments that the new rules would penalize employees who work in physically demanding conditions. Committees in the House and Senate approved the bill Thursday, and it could come up for votes in the full chambers next week…
Minnesota: preemption of local labor ordinances passed by House KXRA …After more than four hours of debate, the House voted 76-53 late Thursday to preempt local governments from enacting ordinances requiring private employers to meet certain labor policies. Sponsored by Rep. Pat Garofalo (R-Farmington), HF600 would retroactively rescind any such local laws adopted on or after Jan. 1, 2016, including ordinances in Minneapolis and St. Paul…
New Mexico House OKs minimum wage hike to $9.25 Las Cruces Sun-News …The New Mexico House or Representatives has endorsed a proposal to increase the statewide minimum wage to $9.25 an hour from $7.50. The House endorsed the increase on Friday, days after the Senate voted to raise the base wage to $9. The Legislature has until the end of the session on March 18 to come up with a compromise…
Paid sick leave cleared by key Md. Senate committee, where it died last year Washington Post …A paid sick-leave measure, hailed by labor advocates but derided by business owners, was approved by a key Maryland Senate committee Friday, the first signal that Maryland could join the District and seven other states in requiring certain businesses to provide the benefit. The 8-to-4 vote by the Senate Finance Committee came just hours after the House of Delegates gave final approval to a similar version of the bill…
Opponents rail against GOP minimum wage legislation Des Moines Register …Dozens of Iowans rotated in and out of the old Iowa Supreme Court Chamber on Monday evening to rail against pending legislation that would forbid cities and counties from setting their own minimum wages. In addition to immediately rolling back minimum wage increases approved in Polk, Johnson, Wapello and Linn counties, House File 295 would ban future local wage hikes and significantly scale back the authority of local governments…
U.S. LABOR
Cornell Graduate Students United Announce Intention to File for Union Recognition Election Cornell Sun …In a landmark moment for graduate students, Cornell Graduate Students United has announced that they will be notifying Cornell of their intention to file for a union recognition election. “We are excited to move forward and we have a strong majority of grads behind this movement with over 1,200 signatures on the petition. We are ready to vote yes and win,” said Paul Berry grad, CGSU member…
Women can’t educate their way out of the gender wage gap EPI …Wednesday, March 8th is “A Day Without a Woman,” a national day of action where women and allies will strike from paid work, refrain from domestic work, and boycott certain businesses. Women are using their absence to highlight the continued lack of equality, including the persistent and pervasive gender wage gap. Women in the workforce have increased their educational attainment, yet women’s pay lags men’s at every level of education…
Danny Glover: Nissan workers in the South need a union (opinion) Newsweek …Canton is home to a Nissan factory that employs more than 5,000 workers, roughly 80 percent of whom are African-American. The workers at this plant have been organizing to form a union, so that they can have a voice on the job and stick together to address issues like health and safety hazards and fair pay…
Senate votes to kill worker safety rule aimed at federal contractors Washington Post …President Trump and congressional Republicans are poised to roll back a series of Obama-era worker safety regulations targeted by business groups, beginning Monday night with a vote by the Senate to kill a rule that required federal contractors to disclose and correct serious safety violations. In a narrow result that divided along party lines, the Senate voted 49 to 48 to eliminate the regulation, dubbed the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule…
GM will lay off 1,100 in Michigan after domestic production shift Reuters …General Motors Co. said on Monday it will lay off 1,100 workers in May at its Lansing Delta Township assembly plant in Michigan as it shifts production of a vehicle to Tennessee. GM has announced other U.S. factory cuts even after it said in January it would invest another $1 billion in U.S. factories. U.S. President Trump has urged GM and other automakers to build more cars in the country as part of his pledge to boost U.S. manufacturing jobs and discourage the industry from investing in Mexico…
The Future of the Department of Labor Under Trump (opinion) The Atlantic …The president has targeted regulations on coal, hoping to resuscitate the industry, and tried to convince manufacturers to locate in the United States, which could create more jobs. But most workers aren’t in the coal or manufacturing industries, so another way to help the “forgotten” Americans may be to focus on improving the working lives of the more than 120 million other Americans who clock in to a job every day…
How Foxconn’s broken pledges in Pennsylvania cast doubt on Trump’s jobs plan Washington Post …What happened in Harrisburg provides a skeptical lens for viewing the waves of corporate investment promises being used by Trump as evidence that he is following through on his campaign pledge to reinvigorate U.S. manufacturing. “I’m delivering on everything we promised,” Trump said last month during a meeting with manufacturing executives…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
“Still Unconstitutional”: Critics Lambast Trump’s Muslim Ban 2.0 Common Dreams …President Donald Trump on Monday rolled out “Muslim ban 2.0″—a new executive order blocking entry to the United States to people from six majority-Muslim countries, a directive one civil liberties group says amounts to doubling down on religious discrimination. The new ban will be effective March 16; the previous order went into effect immediately…
‘A Day Without A Woman’ Boycott Planned for Wednesday NBC …The organizers of the Women’s March on Washington are calling for a general strike in which women take a day off for “A Day Without A Woman” boycott. Wednesday, March 8 is International Women’s Day and boycott organizers are calling for a one-day strike around the world to spotlight the indispensable role women play in society, they said in a statement…
Leashes Come Off Wall Street, Gun Sellers, Polluters and More New York Times …The emerging effort — dozens more rules could be eliminated in the coming weeks — is one of the most significant shifts in regulatory policy in recent decades. It is the leading edge of what Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s chief strategist, described late last month as “the deconstruction of the administrative state”…
House Republicans unveil Obamacare replacement bill USA Today …House Republicans released draft legislation Monday to replace former president Barack Obama’s signature health care law, proposing to phase out the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion and change the law’s subsidies for private insurance. “It is Obamacare gone,” House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, told Fox News. “There’s nothing left there.” The bill’s details released Monday do not say how many people would have coverage compared with Obamacare…
Samuel L. Jackson slams Ben Carson claim immigrants came on slave ships Raw Story …Ben Carson, the new secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), on Monday referred to slaves brought to the United States against their will as “immigrants,” drawing quick condemnation from civil rights groups who cast his remarks as offensive. It was Carson’s first address to the staff at HUD…
Transportation Secretary admits Trump’s infrastructure plan will force taxpayers to pay tolls to corporations Resistance Report …While Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao — wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) — was talking to Fox News’ Sean Hannity about the White House’s plan to invest $1 trillion in American infrastructure, she accidentally let it slip that the ultimate motive behind the proposal was to pad the pockets of powerful multinational corporations, saying the president’s plan was “new and innovative”…