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This Week’s Teamster News for July 8-14
TEAMSTERS
Contracts & Strikes
Clare Rose, striking workers call talks ‘constructive’ Newsday …“We had constructive dialogue with Clare Rose this week and hope to reach an agreement that allows our members to provide for their families and have a secure retirement,” Ed Weber, president of Teamsters Local 812 said in a statement. “We thank the Long Island community for its support as our strike continues”…
Top NYC Office Furniture Company Waldner’s Locks Out Teamster Workers Teamster.org … On July 5, Waldner’s Business Environments locked out its union workers. Waldner’s is one of the largest office furniture companies in the New York City area and has been unionized for over 50 years. For several months, Waldner’s refused to bargain a new contract with Teamsters Local 814, and now has locked out union workers and replaced them with subcontractors…
Waldner’s Workers Rally as Lockout Continues Labor Press …Digging in for a long struggle, locked-out members of Teamsters Local 814 rallied outside NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital July 11, demanding that the hospital drop its contract with office-furniture supplier Waldner’s Business Environments. “We’re going to redouble our efforts until the hospital does the right thing and cuts the contract,” Local 814 political coordinator Julian Tysh said…
Workers Protest NY Presbyterian Hospital’s Ties To Disreputable Furniture Delivery Company Teamster.org …New York Presbyterian Hospital is under fire for taking furniture deliveries from Waldner’s Business Environments amidst a union lockout and terminations of long-time workers. Waldner’s refused to bargain a new contract with Teamsters Local 814 for several months, which the Teamsters call illegal…
Teamsters Set Strike Deadline at Twin River Casino Teamster.org …Teamsters Local 251 has set a deadline for Twin River Casino to reach a fair contract or face a potential strike on Friday at 3 p.m. The sticking point in contract negotiations is Twin River’s demand that employees be stripped of their job security…
Twin River parking valets set July 14 strike deadline Providence Journal …Teamsters Local 251 said the main issue for the valets is the casino’s insistence that it be able to lay off the 42 union valets and hire a private contractor to do their work. “Twin River is rolling the dice and risking a strike that will hurt customers, working families and the public,” said Matt Taibi, Local 251 secretary-treasurer, in a prepared statement…
SunTran Teamsters Avoid Striking and Agree to a Three-Year Contract Teamster.org …Teamsters Local 104 SunTran members voted Saturday, July 8, 2017 for a three (3) year contract with an overwhelming 90% in favor. This contract was the most lucrative, including wage increases, health benefits and new language that will bring added security to the members of SunTran…
Organizing & Locals
Workers at Parsec Intermodal Company Vote to Join Teamsters Local 179 Teamster.org …Workers at Parsec, Inc. in Elwood, Ill., an intermodal rail transportation company, have voted overwhelmingly to form their union as members of Teamsters Local 179. The win is the second major worker victory at the company in the last nine months…
Ahead of union vote, environment at Lamb Weston is ‘very tense’ Magic Valley …Employees at Lamb Weston say there is palpable tension at the Twin Falls plant ahead of a vote to determine whether they will be represented by a Boise union. In a dispute between the company and Teamsters Local 483, employees on both sides have flung accusations of harassment and intimidation…
Garbage workers in CA win union after a ten-year fight People’s World …A Teamsters win after a decade-long effort by solid waste workers in Santa Rosa, Calif., highlighted a spate of union victories that produced a total of at least 950 new members. But the victory in Santa Rosa at the Ratto Group, a non-union firm that low-balled its pay scales and paid scant attention to safety, was especially meaningful…
Local 107 Teamsters Set Philly Concrete Pour Record Teamster.org …Local 107 Ready Mix Teamsters from four different companies participated over the weekend in the largest continuous concrete pour in Philadelphia history, part of the $5 billion Penn First development that will bring a new hospital facility to the City of Brotherly Love…
Political Action
T-HUD Threatens Highway Safety by Adding Special Interest Provisions in Funding Bill Teamster.org …Teamsters denounced the House Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (T-HUD) Appropriations Subcommittee’s attack on highway safety and infrastructure investment. While eliminating important funding for infrastructure improvement, the subcommittee compromised the very highway safety programs the bill funds…
Teamsters Meet With Mnuchin on Central States Pension Fund Transport Topics …A group of 25 Teamsters pensioners met July 11 in Washington with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin about failing pension plans. Each came from committees created to fight a proposal last year to slash current retirees’ checks, some by more than half, in an effort to rescue the failing Central States Pension Fund…
Shareholder Action
Teamsters Tell Big Pharma Shareholders: Vote No on Boss’ Bonus NBC …The Teamsters are trying to punish Big Pharma for flooding the country with prescription painkillers by hitting one of its top leaders where it hurts — in the eyes of shareholders. The union has taken the unusual step of directly calling on McKesson Corp. shareholders to turn thumbs down on July 26 to the $1.1 million bonus that was awarded earlier this year to Chief Executive John Hammergren…
Big McKesson Shareholder, Governance Experts Say the Opioid Crisis Should Have Cost the CEO Some Bonus Pay Fortune …The International Brotherhood of Teamsters owns shares in the company through its pension and benefit funds. In a letter sent late last week to fellow McKesson shareholders, the union took aim at the issue: “It is staggering that Hammergren received a $1.1 million boost to his bonus”…
Teamsters urge McKesson shareholders to reject CEO pay plan amid opioid probe Gazette-Mail …The Teamsters union is urging shareholders of drug giant McKesson Corp. to vote down the company’s proposed executive pay plan amid lawsuits and a congressional investigation into the firm’s role in the nation’s opioid epidemic. Teamsters also have called for McKesson stock owners to support a proposal to appoint an independent chairman to lead the company’s board of directors…
Teamsters Urge McKesson Shareholders to Vote Against CEO Pay New York Times …The International Brotherhood of Teamsters urged McKesson Corp’s shareholders to vote against the company’s executive pay practices and called for it to appoint an independent chairman as the union criticized the drug distributor for its role in the U.S. opioid drug epidemic. McKesson Chief Executive John Hammergren was paid more than $20 million for the year ended March 31…
Teamster Leaders
Becky Strzechowski Named President of Teamsters Joint Council 25 Local 700 …John T. Coli, who has been a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters since 1971 and served as President of Teamsters Joint Council 25 for more than 15 years, has announced plans to retire from the union on July 31. Following Coli’s announcement, the Joint Council 25 Executive Board selected Trustee Becky Strzechowski as the next President of the organization during its meeting on July 10…
UPS Teamsters
Hundreds pay tribute to slain UPS drivers at City Hall memorial SF Gate …About 300 people attended Sunday’s service, according to the slain men’s union, the Teamsters, which organized the event. Onlookers watched from the second floor of City Hall, where the event was held in front of the grand staircase. Photos of the men were displayed in front of the stairs, along with flowers in the shape of a broken wheel, which symbolized the union’s loss…
Schooling the Boss on Safety at UPS Teamster.org …Local 177 Business Agent Michael Irving filed a grievance to be heard at the National Grievance Committee panel. Several related grievances against the supervisor were also filed regarding Article 18 violations he committed during another safety demonstration. In June, the National Grievance Committee agreed with Local 177, ordering UPS to abide by Article 18…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Brazil Passes Extreme Anti-Worker Labor Law Solidarity Center …Brazil workers and their unions are outraged and vowing further protests over a draconian labor law reform the Senate passed yesterday that will weaken labor regulations as well as restrict financing for unions. The law, which President Michel Temer supports, will remove all restrictions on outsourcing, dismantle labor rights, including provisions on vacations, overtime and working hours…
Trump Team Unlikely to Fight for NAFTA Worker Safety Rewrite Bloomberg …Worker safety and labor advocates don’t see eye to eye with President Donald Trump on very much, but one thing they both agree on is that NAFTA should be rewritten. Yet economists and global trade specialists tell Bloomberg BNA they can’t see the Trump administration demanding significant changes to the North American Free Tree Agreement’s side labor agreement…
Trump, Peña Nieto Discuss Mexican Guest-Worker Proposal Wall Street Journal …Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and U.S. President Donald Trump, at their first one-on-one meeting since Mr. Trump took office, agreed Friday to explore new ways of allowing Mexican workers to temporarily enter the U.S. to help the agriculture industry. The proposal came at the end of a half-hour meeting between the two heads of state at the G-20 summit…
G20: UK-US trade deal to happen quickly, says Trump BBC …US President Donald Trump has said he expects a “powerful” trade deal with the UK to be completed “very quickly”. Speaking at the G20 summit in Hamburg, he said he would visit London. Asked when, he said: “We’ll work that out.” Mr Trump and UK Prime Minister Theresa May agreed to prioritise work on a post-Brexit trade deal…
Foreign leaders see nation’s governors as potential allies in trade talks with Trump Washington Post … The sudden interest in the work of the governors from abroad reflects fears by leaders of some foreign governments about the direction of U.S. trade policy under a president who has sharply criticized free-trade agreements negotiated by past administrations. Those concerns were on display at last week’s Group of 20 meeting…
Chinese labour activist says he was arrested due to factory’s Trump links The Guardian …A Chinese activist who was arrested after investigating working conditions at a factory making Ivanka Trump-branded shoes has said he believes the connection to the US president’s daughter led to his detention. Speaking for the first time since his detention, Hua Haifeng told the Guardian how he was interrogated…
Bangladesh factory fire renders over 5,000 workers jobless Dhaka Tribune …A ready-made garment factory in Ashulia was forced to suspend its operations after a devastating fire ravaged it on Saturday night, leaving more than 5,000 of the workers without jobs. At least eight workers were injured when they tried to escape the fire that originated from the first floor of the eight-story Medlar Apparels Limited at Narsinghapur, on the outskirts of Dhaka…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
U.S. appeals court upholds Wisconsin ‘right-to-work’ law Reuters …A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday upheld Wisconsin’s so-called right-to-work law. The plaintiffs did not provide “any compelling reason” for the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago to revisit an earlier ruling upholding a right-to-work law in a similar case in Indiana, Judge Joel Flaum wrote…
Missouri Republican Lawmakers Take A Raise Away From St. Louis Workers Huffington Post …Under the law Republicans passed in response to St. Louis’ new ordinance, no locality could have a minimum wage higher than the state level of $7.70 per hour. And St. Louis is not the only city immediately affected. A referendum to gradually raise the minimum wage in Kansas City to $15 was slated to go on the ballot in August…
Missouri Gov. Greitens protested for cutting minimum wage STL American …Greitens could scarcely be heard over an improvised sound system at Riverview Plaza in North St. Louis, as protestors were much more numerous and vocal than the elected officials. “Increase wages, decrease crime!” one protestor shouted. “Poverty makes crime!” shouted another. “Pay the workers, don’t incarcerate them!” shouted yet another…
Michigan House Passes Tax Breaks for Companies That Add Jobs US News & World Report …Qualified companies creating at least 250 jobs in Michigan would receive tax incentives under legislation approved in a crucial vote by the House. The move clears the way for the “Good Jobs” program to win final Senate approval later Wednesday. Gov. Rick Snyder is pushing for passage of the tax breaks this summer as Michigan tries to lure Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn…
Hawaii Passes Law to Ease Responsibility of Elder Care NBC …Hawaii last week passed legislation that will provide working family caregivers with financial assistance to help pay for costs associated with caring for their elders. The Kupuna Caregivers Act, signed Thursday by Hawaii Gov. David Ige, is the first of its kind in the nation…
Retail and restaurant workers have the worst schedules. Oregon plans to change that. Vox …Pprogressive cities and states are taking on another issue that affects low-wage workers in retail and restaurant jobs: work schedules that can change with less than 24 hours’ notice and that can require workers to pull back-to-back shifts. Oregon is poised to become the first state in the nation to pass a statewide fair scheduling law…
New York Congressional Democrats Push to Legalize Undocumented 9/11 Workers NBC …Up to two thousand workers who worked at Ground Zero are estimated to have been undocumented immigrants. A group of House Democrats from New York, including several Latino legislators, are sponsoring a bill to grant residency to those who lacked legal status…
Despite Trump, State Progressives Advance Pro-Worker Policies American Prospect …The Democratic Party controls the governorship and legislature in just six states, while progressive power is most concentrated in a few dozen municipalities. It’s in those places in recent weeks that lawmakers have pushed forward a number of innovative labor laws…
U.S. LABOR
UAW Files For Historic Union Vote at Nissan in Mississippi Payday Report …The United Auto Workers filed a petition with the NLRB asking for a vote for the 6,500- worker plant in Canton, Mississippi. If successful, the vote would top off a historic 14-year long campaign to unionize the plant and would be a major breakthrough for efforts to organize the South…
AT&T Workers Reject Proposed Contract Deal Fortune …Some 17,000 AT&T workers in California and Nevada have rejected a proposed contract deal reached by the company and its largest union, the Communications Workers of America. After over a year of negotiations, AT&T and the CWA thought they had a deal covering the unionized employees who work in the carrier’s traditional wired telephone and Internet business and its DirecTV unit…
WestJet CEO Ramps Up Anti-Union Campaign Amid Push To Certify Workers Huffington Post …The head of WestJet has stepped up his fight against the growing push to unionize the airline’s staff, telling them to resist organized labour’s pitch because it will chomp into their paycheques. CEO Gregg Saretsky revealed that five unions are now trying to certify several groups of WestJet workers after its pilots agreed in May to join the Air Line Pilots Association…
Hundreds of New York-area airport workers go on strike NY Post … Seven hundred workers, including baggage handlers, cleaners and customer service agents at three New York-area airports are going on strike. The workers are alleging unfair labor practices. They’re being represented by 32BJ Service Employees International Union. Philadelphia International Airport also is targeted…
CTA rail union workers favor strike in preliminary vote Chicago Tribune …rustrated after 18 months of negotiations for a new contract, CTA rail workers have voted overwhelmingly in favor of a strike in a preliminary, unofficial vote, union representatives said Monday. About a third of 3,000 union members cast their ballots last week, with 98 percent favoring a strike, said Kenneth Franklin, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308…
More Than 100 Guitar Center Employees Ratify Their First Union Contract Noisey …The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) has been working to organize Guitar Centers hundred of employees since 2013, and, as of today, have notched a major victory: over 100 workers in four stores—in New York (NY), Chicago (IL), Danvers (MA), and Las Vegas (NV)—have unanimously ratified their first union contract…
Duke faculty members win big raises in historic union agreement News Observer …Duke University’s non-tenured faculty have reached a tentative agreement in their first union contract, which includes higher pay and longer-term teaching appointments. The three-year negotiated contract would cover about 275 part-time and full-time contingent faculty, according to Service Employees International Union…
Strike Possible As Contract Talks With Portland Teachers Get Underway OPB.org …Portland Public Schools teachers are preparing for a possible strike as contract talks with district administrators continue to deteriorate. “Our hope is to get a fair settlement and sooner rather than later, so the district can focus on myriad other issues,” said Suzanne Cohen, president of the Portland Association of Teachers union…
Allegheny County workers reject contract offer Post-Gazette …Contract negotiations between Allegheny County and nearly 800 of its workers have hit a snag, as members of the Service Employees International Union rejected the county’s proposal for a new four-year contract late Monday and floated the idea of a strike. The workers are represented by SEIU Healthcare and SEIU Local 668…
Labor board is set for power shift under Trump The Hill …The balance of power on the nation’s labor law enforcement board is set to shift under President Trump. Conservatives say the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) — responsible for enforcing workers’ collective bargaining rights and fair labor practices — has spent the past eight years under former President Obama catering to unions…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
The new Trumpcare bill keeps the single cruelest part of the old Trumpcare bill Think Progress …Though the new draft version of Trumpcare, which was released on Thursday, does make some tweaks to the previous bill’s approach to Medicaid, it largely leaves in place a plan that would eventually phase out Medicaid in its entirety. The new Trumpcare bill, like the one McConnell released last month, imposes caps on Medicaid spending…
Trump’s Son Met With Russian Lawyer After Being Promised Damaging Information on Clinton New York Times …President Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton before agreeing to meet with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign, according to three advisers to the White House briefed on the meeting and two others with knowledge of it…
Battle For the Net: Mass Day of Action Aims to Stop Trump’s FCC from Destroying Free & Open Internet Democracy Now …On Wednesday, nearly 70,000 websites and organizations took part in massive online protest to save net neutrality. Earlier this year, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai outlined his plans to dismantle net neutrality rules despite polling that shows most Americans support a free and open internet…
Trump election group backs away from its request for voter data after outcry The Guardian …The Trump administration is backing away from its extraordinary attempt to gather voters’ personal information, following a barrage of legal challenges, an outcry from state officials, and a rash of voter registration cancellations by people concerned about their privacy…
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin assures that Trump administration won’t raise taxes on the wealthy NY Daily News …Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Sunday shot down a recent report that the Trump administration might kick up taxes on the richest Americans. He also claimed the administration won’t release its much-ballyhooed tax plan until September — even though President Trump has been saying for months it would be ready soon…
Trump Tests Legal Limits by Delaying Dozens of Obama’s Rules Bloomberg …It typically takes years for presidents to kill federal regulations they dislike, but Donald Trump has found a shortcut: He’s just putting them on long-term hold. The Trump administration has stalled more than two dozen Obama-era rules, a legally questionable tactic that sidesteps the cumbersome rulemaking process…
American Democracy Is Now Under Siege by Both Cyber-Espionage and GOP Voter Suppression The Nation … It is now clear that Russian interference in the 2016 elections went far beyond hacking Democratic National Committee e-mails; it struck at the heart of America’s democratic process. “As of right now, we have evidence of election-related systems in 21 states that were targeted,” said Jeanette Manfra, the chief cyber-security official at the Department of Homeland Security…
Serving Wall Street Predators, GOP Launches Swift Attack on New Rule Protecting Consumers Common Dreams …A new rule by a federal watchdog—hailed as having “paramount importance” for protecting consumers from Wall Street predators and curbing corporate abuses—is under direct attack by Republicans just days after being issued. The rule from the successful and broadly-supported Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) bans companies from using mandatory arbitration clauses…