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This Week’s Teamster News For April 15-21
TEAMSTERS
Freight & Warehouse Campaigns
XPO Workers in Trenton, New Jersey Vote to Join Teamsters Local 701 Teamster.org …XPO drivers in Trenton, New Jersey voted to join Teamsters Local 701 on Friday, April 14, boosting momentum to a nationwide workers’ campaign for fairness at the giant transportation and logistics company. Also voting on Friday, April 14, drivers in Elgin, Illinois and dockworkers in Aurora, Illinois were not successful at this time seeking Teamster representation…
Drivers Employed by XPO Logistics Ruled Misclassified By CA Labor Commissioner Teamster.org …On Friday, April 14, 2017, the California Labor Commissioner issued Orders, Decisions, and Awards in the amount of $855,285.62 to four (4) port and rail drivers working for XPO Logistics’ subsidiary XPO Cartage. These drivers – like hundreds of others at XPO and other harbor trucking companies – filed Wage & Hour claims with the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement alleging misclassification as independent contractors…
West Palm Beach Sysco Drivers Ratify First Contract Local 769 …On April 15, 2016 Sysco Drivers in West Palm Beach Florida voted for Teamster representation and now exactly one year to the day later they voted to ratify their first contract. They embarked on this journey seeking fair treatment and respect in the workplace and today they have that in the form of a new three-year agreement. Highlights of the agreement include strong seniority and bidding language, job security, a strong grievance procedure…
UPS Teamsters
Teamsters Local 25 Wins Arbitration Case Against UPS Teamster.org …On April 12, an arbitrator ruled in favor of Teamsters Local 25 in a case involving a UPS package driver who was injured and not permitted to work despite being released by his doctor. The arbitrator found UPS in violation of Article 20, Sections 2 and 3 of the National Master Agreement and awarded retroactive pay for John Perry, the driver involved in the case…
UPS Teamster Makes Heroic Rescue Teamster.org …Paul Pereira’s UPS shift took a lifesaving turn Monday evening when the Boston-area Teamsters Local 25 member rescued two people from a burning home. With 12 stops left on his regular route, Pereira’s next stop was 18 Hamilton Ave. Two houses away, he saw a porch engulfed in flames. Pereira jumped out of his truck and immediately started banging on the door, screaming, “fire, fire, fire,” and helping a mother and her stepdaughter safely escape…
School Bus Campaign
Teamsters Local 745 Ratifies New Contract with First Student Teamster.org … Members of Teamsters Local 745 unanimously ratified a first contract with First Student Transportation in Lewisville, TX on March 31, 2017. Local 745 organized the 381 school bus monitors and drivers that service The Colony and Lewisville Independent School Districts (TX) in 2016. The contract includes some significant improvements, including wage increases ranging from 17-19 percent over the course of four years…
Driving Up Standards at the Minnesota State Capitol Teamster.org …Last month, members from Teamsters Locals 120 and 638 headed to the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul to voice support on legislation that would extend unemployment insurance to school bus workers during the summer months. This is the second year that Teamster First Student school bus drivers have gone to the State Capitol during their Spring Break to meet with their legislators…
Silicon Valley Organizing
Teamsters Local 665 Files for Election at Chariot Teamster.org …More than 130 commuter shuttle drivers with Chariot will have the opportunity to vote for Teamster representation in the coming weeks, after the union officially filed for an election. Teamsters Local 665 in San Francisco filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board late last week, after Chariot drivers signed cards authorizing a vote. Chariot is a jitney service that was acquired by Ford Motor Company in 2016…
Teamsters file to unionize Chariot’s jitney drivers SF Examiner …Jitneys have roamed San Francisco’s streets for a century. But a modern, tech-enabled private bus company — Chariot — may be the first in The City to unionize. The Teamsters Union filed with the National Labor Relations Board on Thursday to allow Chariot’s some 140 drivers to vote form a union…
Locals
Univ. of California Teamsters Contract Ratified with Over 97% of Vote Local 2010 …With nearly 5,000 members casting their vote, this contract ratification is the most widely participated event in the history of Teamsters Local 2010. “This victory comes through the incredible work, dedication, and solidarity of activists and leaders from every part of California,” said Jason Rabinowitz, Teamsters Local 2010 Secretary-Treasurer…
Teamsters Warn of Labor Dispute Looming at Rite Aid Teamster.org …Union representatives and consumer advocates distributed educational handbills to customers at Rite Aid stores in Rosemead, Calif. The handbills read, “Tell Rite Aid: Attacking People’s Health Care is Bad Business” and “Rite Aid: Bad Deal for Workers.” Approximately 100 employees of Rite Aid’s Thrifty Ice Cream plant in El Monte, Calif., who are members of Teamsters Local 630 and 63, have been negotiating a new contract since last year…
Teamsters Local 585 Members Win Decertification Fight at Waste Management Teamster.org …Thanks to a strong, unified group of workers, members of Teamsters Local 585 near Pittsburgh won the right to keep their union at Waste Management. “Our members at Waste Management did a great job educating each other about the importance of Teamster representation, and we are continuing this education by reaching out to all the workers at the company,” said William Rhoades, President of Local 585 in Washington, Pennsylvania…
Canteen Vending Workers Vote Union Joint Council 16 …Teamsters Local 810 in Long Island City, NY won its organizing campaign at the Canteen Vending. “We had over 90% of cards signed and the company still refused to recognize the union” said Mike Smith, President of 810. Local 810 immediately filed for an election and yesterday these hard working employees voted overwhelmingly to join the Teamsters…
Workers at Clock Freight Join Teamsters Local 2785 in California Teamster.org …Drivers and warehouse workers at Clock Freight in South San Francisco overwhelmingly voted on Thursday, April 13 to join Teamsters Local 2785. The vote was 32 to 3. The workers are fighting for better wages with overtime pay, affordable health care and respect on the job…
Local 727 Negotiates Settlement to Reinstate Laid Off CVS Pharmacists Local 727 …After bringing CVS to the brink of an arbitration hearing, Teamsters Local 727 negotiated a settlement to reinstate 12 pharmacists who had been laid off in March as a result of CVS store closures. All recalled pharmacists will be reinstated at their base hours held at the time of layoff. This settlement resolves a grievance filed after the union received numerous complaints that non-union pharmacists were working in union stores in violation of Article 1 of the collective bargaining agreement…
Teamsters, national labor board sue Mikesell’s Dayton Daily News …The National Labor Relations Board has petitioned Dayton’s U.S. District Court for a preliminary injunction against Mikesell’s, alleging unfair labor practices. The civil action brought on behalf of the Teamsters alleges that the Dayton potato chip maker should have bargained about sales routes that have been sold to other entities…
Airline Division
Teamsters Flight Dispatchers at Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo Ratify Tentative Agreement Teamster.org …Following a tentative agreement on April 5, 2017, Teamster flight dispatchers at Atlas Air, Inc., and Polar Air Cargo have voted today to ratify changes to their existing contract. One-hundred percent of the flight dispatchers voted, with 74 percent voting in favor of ratification. The amended agreement, which was set to expire in November, has been extended for another four years and becomes amendable on November 12, 2021…
Horizon Air and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters reach tentative agreement for pilots Aviation Tribune …Horizon Air and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced today that they have reached a tentative agreement to amend their existing eight-year contract for the carrier’s 620 pilots. The proposed agreement gives Horizon Air the ability to attract and retain the best pilots in the regional industry through enhanced salary and bonus provisions…
Political & Corporate Action
Teamsters: ‘Buy American and Hire American’ Executive Order Benefits U.S. Jobs, Production Teamster.org …The Teamsters Union supports today’s signing of the ‘Buy American and Hire American’ Executive Order by President Donald Trump. The initiatives that promote American workers and investment in domestic products will help the country take a positive step toward a stronger economy…
Leading Proxy Advisory Firm Recommends Against Tenet Healthcare’s CEO Pay Teamster.org …The recommendation comes on the heels of the Teamsters Union call to fellow investors to reject Tenet’s executive pay as practices take a turn for the worse in the face of arresting share performance and costly legal troubles. In a letter to shareholders, General Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall blasted Tenet’s Board for walking-back touted reforms to its pay practices…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Amazon is using peer pressure to keep German warehouse workers from calling in sick Quartz …Germany is known for its generous labor practices, including paid sick days. But to encourage workers not to use too many of these, Amazon has instituted a controversial policy that relies on peer pressure to encourage better employee attendance. The policy gives workers a bonus of between 6% and 10% of their monthly salary if they have used few paid sick days that month…
Dedicated Bangladesh Union Organizer Targeted for Work Solidarity Center …Asaduzzaman Asad (Asad), a long-time organizer with the Bangladesh Independent Garment Workers Union Federation (BIGUF) that has helped thousands of workers in 36 factories form unions, was one of the more than 35 people arrested in the December crackdown. Police took him from his home on December 22 and later charged him with involvement in a January 2015 political opposition violence case…
TÜMTİS and the case that “threatens all trade unions in Turkey” Equal Times …Six days a week for nine long months, Turkish road transport workers picketed outside three UPS transfer centres in Istanbul and İzmir, demanding the right to organise their workplaces. As more union members were dismissed from their jobs, the picket lines grew, holding firm even when riot police aggressively tried to break them up…
Trump Targets a NAFTA Deal With Few Defenders Bloomberg …It’s hard to know exactly what President Donald Trump has in mind for opening up the North American Free Trade Agreement, but it may be even harder to find industry and environmental groups or even members of Congress who want the 1994 deal left as is. Trump has continued to call for renegotiating the deal, although his administration has sent mixed signals of late that suggest some softening in that position…
In Japan, Vice President Pence Pushes For Bilateral Trade Deal NPR …Vice President Pence, visiting Japan on his 10-day tour of Asia, said the U.S. has launched bilateral talks with Tokyo in the hopes of reaching a new trade agreement. It was Pence’s second stop on the trip, which will later take him to Australia and Indonesia. Trade was also a major topic of conversation…
Child refugees selling sex to pay Europe entry fee Raw Story …Smugglers are forcing unaccompanied child refugees to sell their bodies in exchange for money to aid their traveling through Europe, a new report from Harvard University has claimed. There is a “growing epidemic of sexual exploitation and abuse of migrant children in Greece”…
Sen. Sherrod Brown, unions want trade deals that don’t harm workers Cleveland.com …Area labor leaders told Sen. Sherrod Brown they support his effort to make Donald Trump honor campaign promises to renegotiate trade deals the president says have harmed American workers. The union officials, most representing manufacturing workers, made their comments during a roundtable…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Wages slower to grow in Michigan, adjacent Right to Work states MiBiz …In Michigan and two neighboring states that passed Right to Work laws, wages have grown slower than in three other Great Lakes states that have preserved collective bargaining rights. That’s according to the findings of a new study by the left-leaning Illinois Economic Policy Institute (ILEPI) on Right to Work laws in Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin and their impact on wages…
Gov. Walker signs into law bill banning required labor agreements FOX …Gov. Scott Walker has signed a bill that prohibits local governments from requiring contractors working on public projects to use collective bargaining agreements. Republican supporters of the measure argue it gives non-union firms more opportunities to win public work…
Stakes are high for workers, businesses as Illinois considers minimum wage hike Chicago Tribune …Illinois legislators are considering a bill introduced by House Democrats to slowly raise the state’s minimum wage to hit $15 by 2022, following the example of California, New York and Washington, D.C., as well as several cities. The first increase, to $9, would go into effect Jan. 1…
Iowa GOP’s Workers’ Comp Bill Signed by Governor Insurance Journal …Iowa Gov. Gov. Terry Branstad has signed a controversial workers’ compensation bill that reduces benefits for injured workers, notably benefits for shoulder injuries, and decreases coverage for injuries tied to a pre-existing condition. A proposal to end permanent total disability benefits at age 67 was ultimately removed from measure…
Nevada bill would require private companies to give workers paid sick leave Review-Journal …Nevada would become the eighth state in the U.S. requiring many private companies to give workers paid sick leave under a bill passed by the Senate on Tuesday. Businesses with 50 or more employees that have operated in the state for one year would be required to give workers at least 24 hours of sick paid sick leave annually…
Trading coal for renewable energy would create jobs in Kentucky, group says Insider Louisville …Greater emphasis on energy efficiency and on producing electricity from renewable sources would create thousands of jobs in Kentucky, reduce electricity bills and help improve the health of residents by cutting pollution, according to a report by a social-justice organization…
Colorado Senate OKs legislation expanding workers comp to cover PTSD Colorado Politics …Democrats cheered the Senate’s passage Tuesday of a bipartisan plan to extend workers-compensation coverage to on-the-job victims of post-traumatic stress disorder. House Bill 1229 theoretically could apply to any line of work but is especially aimed at cops, firefighters, paramedics and other first-responders…
Expecting mothers could get new workplace protections under Washington bill KIRO …New and expecting mothers could get new protections in the workplace and in hospitals under a wide-ranging bill aiming to promote healthy outcomes for women and their infants. Senate Bill 5835 arrived to Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s office on Tuesday after it passed the state House of Representatives unanimously earlier this month…
Pennsylvania Gov. Wolf’s budget proposal boosts minimum wage to cut Medicaid costs Post-Gazette …In Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposed state budget, administration officials say increasing the state’s minimum wage to $12 an hour — above the current $7.25 — would shave almost $50 million from public-benefit costs. The bulk of that potential savings, according to budget estimates, would be from about 100,000 people who would no longer be eligible for Medicaid…
NYC Lawmakers Are Banning Salary Questions to Narrow the Wage Gap Rewire …New York City Council passed legislation this month barring employers from asking job seekers how much they earned at their last jobs. The bill represents what equal pay advocates say is a growing trend that could help shrink the gender wage gap…
U.S. LABOR
Union Says It Organized Ground Service Workers at United and Alaska Subsidiaries The Street …The largest airline union is expanding its reach, organizing the ground service workers who have largely been left out of the airline industry’s remarkable post-recession recovery. The International Association of Machinists said that in the past 10 months it has organized more than 2,000 ground service workers at two leading providers…
Judge slams fruit grower over ‘bad faith’ bargaining with farmworkers LA Times …Thee state’s largest grower of peaches and other fruit bargained in bad faith with the United Farm Workers of America and wrongly tried to exclude as many as 1,500 employees from a collective bargaining agreement, a judge has ruled. The decision gives a strong boost to the UFW’s claim to represent as many as 6,500 workers at Gerawan…
Women Ironworkers Will Get Six Months Of Paid Maternity Leave Buzzfeed …The membership of the 130,000-strong Ironworkers union is an overwhelmingly male crowd, but the approximately 2,100 women members just won a benefit that would be prized by working women across the country: Six months of paid maternity leave. The leave, designed to be taken prior to delivery, complements six to eight weeks of post-delivery leave…
Virgin America Flight Attendants Join AFA in Merger with Alaska Airlines AFA-CWA …The National Mediation Board (NMB) today certified the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) as the sole bargaining representative of the combined Flight Attendant work group at post-merger Alaska Airlines. “We are so excited to welcome Virgin America Flight Attendants to AFA,” said Sara Nelson, international president for the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA…
Thousands of state workers rally to urge lawmakers to support new labor contracts Try-City Herald …Thousands of public employees held rallies throughout the state Wednesday to urge Washington lawmakers to approve new labor contracts for state workers. During the demonstrations, which organizers said took place at 150 workplaces including in Kennewick, employees stressed the importance of including money for the labor contracts…
Trump orders review of visa program to encourage hiring Americans Reuters …President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered a review of the U.S. visa program for bringing high-skilled foreign workers into the country, putting technology firms and the outsourcing companies that serve them on notice that possible changes may be ahead. It was vague on many fronts, and did not change existing rules, but one objective, said Trump aides, is to modify or replace the current lottery for H-1B visas…
Union workers strike in Sunset Park Brooklyn Daily Eagle …The ongoing breakdown of talks between Charter Communications Inc. and its employees, who are represented by Local Union 3, has Public Advocate Letitia James calling on Charter to meet with the 1,800 striking employees represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 3 to negotiate a new contract…
Obama’s Sick Leave Order Survives Under Trump, for Now Bloomberg …An Obama executive order mandating sick leave for federal contractor employees, once considered primed for reversal by the Trump administration, may be here to stay. The order requiring federal contractors to provide paid sick leave went into effect more than three months ago…
Retired Miners Lament Trump’s Silence on Imperiled Health Plan New York Times … Donald J. Trump made coal miners a central metaphor of his presidential campaign, promising to “put our miners back to work” and look after their interests in a way that the Obama administration did not. Now, three months into his presidency, comes a test of that promise. Unless Congress intervenes by late April, government-funded health benefits will abruptly lapse for more than 20,000 retired miners…
Labor Department asks for third delay in overtime rule appeal Reuters …The U.S. Labor Department has asked a federal appeals court for a third delay in litigation over an Obama-era rule to extend mandatory overtime pay to more than 4 million workers, highlighting that the Trump administration’s Labor secretary nominee has not been confirmed…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Trump companies don’t always follow his ‘buy American, hire American’ pledge CNBC …President Donald Trump promoted his “buy American, hire American” policy again Tuesday — but his family’s companies haven’t always followed that pledge themselves. After touring a Snap-on tools plant in Wisconsin on Tuesday afternoon, Trump signed an executive order pushing the hiring of domestic workers by American companies…
The Tax March: Protesters around the country call on Trump to release his taxes Washington Post …Protesters gathered in cities throughout the country Saturday calling on Trump to release his personal tax returns as part of a nationwide. Presidents are not required to release their tax returns but have done so voluntarily dating to the 1970s. Activists and others say it is the only way to be fully open about any potential conflicts of interest…
First protected DREAMer is deported under Trump USA Today …Federal agents ignored President Trump’s pledge to protect from deportation undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children by sending a young man back to his native Mexico, the first such documented case, a USA TODAY examination of the new administration’s immigration policies shows…
The Human Cost Of Trump’s Rollback On Regulations Huffington Post …Tom Ward would rather fall off a scaffold than endure the slow death his father did from the debilitating lung disease silicosis. Ward fears that other workers will face the same suffocating illness as his father, thanks to the regulatory rollback underway by the Trump administration. Last week, the Trump administration announced that it was pushing back the implementation of the new silica regulations…
Trump White House Taking ‘Marching Orders’ from Hundreds of CEOs: Report Common Dreams …Since his inauguration, President Donald Trump has met with at least 190 corporate executives, not including phone calls with heads of banks or his numerous Wall Street appointees, the watchdog group Public Citizen reported Monday in a new analysis. And since the November election itself, he’s met with at least 224…
Trump Adding Former Lobbyists To Swamp, Giving Them Ethics Waivers Huffington Post …Far from fulfilling his campaign promise to “drain the swamp” in Washington, President Donald Trump appears to be filling it with former lobbyists and consultants. The president has relaxed ethics regulations, eliminating a requirement barring lobbyists from joining agencies that they lobbied up to two years prior…
Poll shows Americans voted for Trump out of “fear of diversity” Mic …Racial resentment drove supporters of President Donald Trump to vote for him in November more than any other factor, new research shows. Political researchers Sean McElwee and Jason McDaniel published a report in the Nation in March detailing their latest study on what motivated Trump voters to go to the polls…
What Paul Ryan’s tax cut would mean for middle-class families Washington Post …A Republican plan for tax reform could be worse for the American economy than previously thought, according to an estimate published Monday by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. In a fresh look at a tax plan being pitched by House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, the center estimated the proposal could reduce growth in the gross domestic product by 0.5 percent after a decade…