TEAMSTERS

Teamster Mechanics Picket United Airlines  Teamster.org  …Today, hundreds of United Airlines mechanics protested the airline’s contract offer by picketing outside key maintenance bases at the San Francisco, Houston and Orlando airports. Earlier this week, mechanics voted down United’s contract proposal by 93 percent. Mechanics also voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. Over 9,000 mechanics at United are represented by the Teamsters Union, which will petition the National Mediation Board for a strike release…

Teamsters Condemn Uber for Deactivation of Outspoken Driver  Local 117  …An outspoken Uber driver who supports unionization and has been critical of the company in the press was stripped of his ability to work on the Uber app without notice last week. Peter Kuel, who has driven for Uber since 2014, said he was given inconsistent, unfounded reasons for the deactivation of his account when he visited Uber’s Seattle offices in an attempt to resolve the issue…

Firing of Sysco Worker, a Teamster Supporter, Takes Terrible Toll  Teamster.org  …Sysco workers in Michigan are mourning the loss of a former co-worker, Don Horn, who died on Monday, Feb. 8 about a year after he was callously fired by the company. The cause of death is unknown because no autopsy was done. Horn, 58, was a 26-year employee when he was fired in the winter of 2013. At the time of his firing, he and his co-workers were not protected because they were not Teamster members…

Teamsters blocked from representing CCSD staff  Review Journal  …A Las Vegas judge has temporarily blocked Teamsters Local 14 from taking control as the bargaining agent for the 11,000 bus drivers, custodians and support staff who work for the Clark County School District. After waging a nearly 15-year battle to oust the Education Support Employees Association as the union representing those workers, the Teamsters won a landslide victory in an election last December to replace ESEA…

Teamsters, Carhaul Employer Group to Resume Negotiations Feb. 25  Teamster.org  …The Teamsters National Automobile Transporters Industry Negotiating Committee (TNATINC) and carhaul employer representatives will reconvene on Thursday, Feb. 25 and Friday, Feb. 26 in Detroit to discuss and exchange proposals for a new national contract…

 

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE

Unions question Nissan’s sponsorship of Olympics in Brazil   Miami Herald  …International unions supporting an effort to unionize Nissan’s Mississippi assembly plant are questioning the automaker’s sponsorship of the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian union representatives delivered a letter to Rio organizers Thursday claiming Nissan Motor Co. violates committee guidelines stating workers have a right to bargain collectively…

Court orders dismissed Palestinian union organizer be returned to work  972mag.com  …Jerusalem’s Labor Court ordered a Palestinian union leader who had been dismissed from his job be returned to work on Wednesday, after he was fired for organizing workers at a West Bank automobile shop. Abu Ziadeh, a 45-year-old Palestinian from the Nablus area, worked for the auto repair shop, located in a West Bank industrial zone, for 17 years. In 2013 he led the unionization of workers at the shop alongside with the help of Ma’an Workers Advice Center (WAC)…

Council to Congress: Trans Pacific Partnership Undermines Goals for Worker Rights, Environmental Standards  Seattle.gov  …In an open letter to members of Washington State’s Congressional delegation, Councilmember Mike O’Brien and his Council colleagues declared their opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement and affirmed their support for practices that protect jobs, workers and the environment….

Labor starting to bring trade fight to campaigns  Politico  …Labor wasn’t kidding when it threatened to hammer many of the 28 moderate Democrats who supported “fast-track” trade promotion legislation and who will presumably support the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It’s taking the fight against the Obama administration’s free-trade agenda into the trenches in tight Democratic races…

TTIP’s tell-tale 12th round?  Politico  …The United States and European Union are expected to dive deep into controversial investment protection provisions of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership when they meet today in Brussels for the 12th round of negotiations on the proposed pact. The EU broke off negotiations on the issue in January 2014 in the face of a public outcry over the “investor-state dispute settlement” provision…

1,000 Coloradans: ‘Rejecting the TPP Is Most important Thing Congress Can Do’  EcoWatch  …Labor unions, environmental organizations and community, internet freedom and racial justice groups delivered more than 1,000 signatures from Rep. Diana DeGette’s constituents Wednesday urging her to reject the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The TPP is a trade deal negotiated in secret for years by 12 countries, including the U.S…

Protestors urging rejection of the “TPP” trade agreement  Praire Public  …Around 200 people held a rally in downtown Bismarck, outside the Guy Federal Building. They protested the new Trans Pacific Partnership Trade agreement. They carried signs, and chanted “TPP has got to go.” “We got labor groups, we’ve got union members, we’ve got faith groups here,” said North Dakota AFL-CIO president Waylon Hedegaard… 

Oregon Is Blazing New Trails on Minimum Wage  Gawker  …Yesterday, Oregon achieved two things: it passed the highest minimum wage in America, and the first minimum wage law that has multiple tiers tied to cost of living in certain areas. Currently, only Washington, DC has a (state-level) minimum wage higher than $10 per hour, but Massachusetts is raising its minimum to $11 per hour starting next year…

Kansas faces ACLU lawsuit over voter ID law requiring citizenship proof  Raw Story  …The American Civil Liberties Union sued Kansas officials on Thursday over what it calls illegal demands for additional proof of citizenship for people trying to register to vote when they renewed or applied for drivers’ licenses. In a suit filed in federal court, the ACLU claimed that more than 35,000 potential voters were blocked over two years from voting…

Supreme Court Quietly Denies North Carolina Redistricting Delay  Common Dreams  …Late Friday night, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to stay a ruling that ordered two North Carolina congressional districts to be redrawn. According to the Raleigh News & Observer, that means a lower court ruling issued earlier this month will be left intact and elections in the state’s 1st and 12th districts, both majority black, will be paused until new maps are approved…

Uber And Lyft Facing Prospect Of Tighter Regulation In California  CapRadio.org  …Ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft are facing the prospect of tighter regulation in California this year. At a hearing Wednesday, the companies got an earful from cab drivers and a state Senator. The rules governing ride-hailing services are new, and limited, compared to the many local regulations that govern taxi companies and which vary from city to city. Marco Soto of the Taxicab Paratransit Association of California said that’s more than unfair…

When States Fight to Overturn Good Local Labor Laws  (opinion) New York Times  …State lawmakers in Alabama, Idaho, Illinois, Minnesota, Montana, Pennsylvania and Washington have introduced legislation this year to curb or outlaw local minimum-wage increases. In Indiana, Kansas and New Mexico, state legislators have taken aim at local fair-scheduling laws, which require employers to give reasonable notice of workers’ hours…

 

U.S. LABOR

The Walmart Case That Could Expand Gay Rights at Work  Bloomberg  …Is anti-gay discrimination a form of sex discrimination? Walmart Stores, the biggest private employer in the U.S., is the target of a lawsuit that might soon provide an answer to that question. Walmart didn’t extend spousal health benefits to employees in same-sex marriages until January 2014, even in states where same-sex marriage was legal…

Labor Board Sides With Trump Hotel Workers In Union Battle  Think Progress  …Just days before Nevada’s Republican presidential caucus, a federal labor official weighed in on the ongoing dispute between Donald Trump’s signature luxury Las Vegas hotel and the hundreds of workers who voted in December to unionize. Trump Hotel management had asked the National Labor Relations Board to throw out the results of that election…

Frustration over pay rates spurs some Uber drivers to organize  Post-Gazette  …Sandra Speicher was fed up with Uber. She and other Pittsburgh-area drivers had watched their pay rates drop twice since last summer — first by 15 percent in July, then by another 20 percent in January. Partly inspired by recent organizational efforts and strikes in New York City and San Francisco, she started a Facebook page to express her frustration and test drivers’ appetite to protest in Pittsburgh where Uber has been operating since early 2014…

Nashua school custodians file unfair labor suit against city  Telegraph  …The union representing 101 school custodians whose jobs are on the line once their contract expires June 30 have filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the state labor board, charging the Nashua School District with violating their collective bargaining agreement and state labor laws. The complaint came in response to the Board of Education’s vote last fall to not renew the custodians’ contract…

Pepperidge Farm accused of misclassifying employees as independent contractors  Food Navigator  …Related topics: Regulation, Manufacturers, People, Bakery, Snacks Pepperidge Farm – the latest food company to find itself in legal hot water over allegedly misclassifying employees as independent contractors – says it will vigorously defend itself after being hit with a class action lawsuit filed by its sales development associates in Illinois. The Campbell Soup subsidiary  joins a raft of food companies to be targeted in such litigation…

American Workers Try to Organize — One Click at a Time  Fortune  …Technology is often tough on labor, whether it’s automation eating jobs or “gig economy” platforms undermining the traditional social contract between employer and employee. Now, some workers are trying to leverage social media and other online networks to their own ends. Among them is OUR Walmart, an organization dedicated to ensuring that every worker at the retail giant, “regardless of his or her title, age, race, or sex, is respected”…

White workers have nearly five times as much wealth in retirement accounts as black workers  EPI  …Since the rise of 401(k)s in the early 1980s, the retirement gap between black and white workers has widened. Before 401(k)s took off, black and white workers had similar rates of participation in retirement plans. In 1983, 53 percent of white workers and 52 percent of black workers age 32-61 (the age range during which most workers would be expected to save for retirement before becoming eligible for reduced Social Security benefits) participated in an employer-based plan…

 

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS

Nearly 59,000 bridges in U.S. are structurally deficient  Washington Post  …There are about 2,500 fewer decrepit bridges in the United States than there were a year ago. Still, nearly 59,000 bridges are officially classified as structurally deficient. That’s according to an analysis of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s 2015 bridge inventory database done by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA)…

Last of Angola 3, Who Spent Decades in Solitary, Released  Common Dreams  …Albert Woodfox, the last of the men known as the Angola 3, was released from a Louisiana prison on Friday. He had spent over four decades in solitary confinement at the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary known as “Angola.” Though his previous convictions of murder for the death were previously thrown out, the state had blocked his release…

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