Uncategorized
Today’s Teamster News For February 26, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Launch Bargaining At Flight Options, Flexjet Teamster.org …The International Brotherhood of Teamsters Airline Division has sent a “Section 6 Notice” to OneSky, LLC parent company of fractional share airlines Flight Options and Flexjet on behalf of the pilots represented by the union at those air carriers. Under the Railway Labor Act, the filing of notice on Feb. 24 signals the Teamsters’ intent to commence negotiations to unify all the pilots of both air carriers…
United Airlines mechanics to picket at LAX, other airports nationwide Business Journal …Teamster mechanics with United Airlines say they plan to hold informational picketing outside airports around the country, including at Los Angeles International Airport, on Friday morning. The mechanics with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said they will be bringing attention to their fight for a contract, alerting United Airlines customers and passengers…
Unhappy Teamsters talk strike again at NetJets Columbus Dispatch …Teamsters members who work in areas such as fueling, catering and dispatching for NetJets are threatening “another serious labor dispute” for the company. The union said its members are preparing for a strike authorization vote based on “cost-cutting demands and proposals that undermine the ability” of workers to perform their jobs…
Uber Driver Wins Reinstatement, Credits Community, Teamsters Local 117 …Uber driver Peter Kuel, who was stripped of his ability to work on the company’s app two weeks ago, thanked fellow drivers and the Teamsters Union for their support in helping him regain access to Uber’s for-hire driving platform. Kuel was notified of his reinstatement by phone and in an email from the company on Wednesday…
Lehigh Valley responds to Flint water crisis Morning Call …Dennis Hower, president of Teamsters Local 773 in Allentown, said Potter asked him about arranging the water haul to Flint. That set in motion calls to UPS Freight and area union organizers and others far away as Scranton and Philadelphia. United Way’s Teen Works program members donated the bottled water from Nestle…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Workers Wage Successful Nationwide Strike in Morocco Solidarity Center …Hundreds of thousands of public- and private-sector workers waged a massive national strike throughout Morocco yesterday to protest the government’s unilateral approach on pension reforms, including moves to increase the retirement age, and its unwillingness to engage in dialogue with unions. Nearly 85 percent of workers joined the strike…
Business groups form powerhouse coalition to lobby for Pacific pact The Hill …Five of the nation’s most powerful business groups said Thursday they are teaming up to rally support behind an expansive Pacific Rim trade agreement, reflecting the enormity of the fight ahead. On top of the Emergency Committee for American Trade, the U.S. Coalition for TPP has beefed up its ranks with the American Farm Bureau Federation, the Business Roundtable, the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in the battle to convince Congress to approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)…
Peru’s Police Violently Clashes with Anti-TPP Protesters TeleSUR …Peruvians massively took to the streets of the country’s capital Lima on Thursday to protest against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, an ambitious trade deal signed earlier in February aimed at opening up the market for transnational firms in detriment of the populations of the nations that signed the agreement…
TTIP round of negotiations extended for two weeks New Europe …The European Union aims to bring free trade negotiations with the United States towards a close by the summer, said Ignacio Garcia Bercero, Chief EU Negotiator for the TTIP. Closing the negotiations this year is a necessary step if a deal is to be clinched before a change of president in the United States. The start of the present round of talks was delayed on Monday after a blockade by Greenpeace activists…
Ireland votes in parliamentary election amid anti-austerity mood DW.com …Ireland has begun voting in a parliamentary election that could see the incumbent pro-austerity coalition out of power. But can opposition parties capitalize on unemployment and growing anger against austerity taxes? Many voters are wary of rising poverty and homelessness in the country despite government’s claims of a speedy economic recovery…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Judge to decide right-to-work lawsuit after arguments Wisconsin State Journal …A Dane County judge will decide at a later date whether to grant an injunction putting Wisconsin’s nearly year-old right-to-work law on hold after hearing arguments Thursday on a lawsuit that claims the law forces unions to provide an unfair benefit to non-union workers. The lawsuit, filed in March by the Wisconsin AFL-CIO and two other labor organizations, says that the law is unconstitutional…
Plaintiffs in Virginia voter ID case may wrap up case Friday Times Dispatch …The Democratic Party of Virginia and two other plaintiffs may wrap up their case today challenging Virginia’s 2013 law requiring photo voter identification as an attempt to curb minority voting. Allan J. Lichtman, a history professor at American University and author of “White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement,” testified Thursday that he concludes after study that the intent of the Virginia law was discriminatory…
A look at Minnesota’s minimum wage employees Star Tribune …State labor officials have released a snapshot of minimum wage workers in Minnesota. The Department of Labor and Industry says there are nearly 1.6 million hourly workers in Minnesota. And, about 216,000 made $9 an hour or less in 2015. The state minimum wage was raised to $9 an hour as of Aug. 1, 2015…
Why do conservatives keep saying Seattle’s minimum wage hike has failed — without data? (opinion) LA Times …Ever since Seattle enacted a measure to raise its minimum wage to a nation-leading $15 an hour, conservatives have been sharpening their pencils to show the raise is a job-killer. But the problem with using Seattle as an early warning signal for minimum wage increases is that, as yet, there’s almost no good information…
U.S. LABOR
Union Effort Gains Majority Support from Grad Student Employees Harvard Crimson …Organizers of a graduate student unionization effort confirmed the campaign has reached a critical point: a majority of graduate students employed by the University have signed authorization cards in support of unionization, which satisfies the threshold to call an election to form a union. A student who signs the card authorizes the movement, called the Harvard Graduate Student Union-United Auto Workers…
USW: ArcelorMittal ‘hell-bent’ on making workers pay NWITimes …ArcelorMittal and the United Steelworkers started negotiating eight months ago, and the union says the company remains “hell-bent” on extracting concessions that would lower quality of life for workers and retirees. “What we did not anticipate was that ArcelorMittal would be so ‘hell-bent’ on ignoring the real issues and would be so focused on insisting that the employees and the retirees pay for the ‘ills’ of the industry”…
National Grid gas workers protest ahead of contract expiration WWLP …Members of a local gas union representing 800 National Grid employees protested at the State House Wednesday claiming that the utility company’s practice of hiring outside contractors puts the public at risk. “We feel like it’s unacceptable and it’s dangerous not to have this done in house by people that have the institutional knowledge to do it,” said Joe Kirylo, president of Boston Gas Local 12003 United Steelworkers…
Workers strike across metro area, picket Eden Prairie office Sun Current …Several custodial workers on a 24-hour strike picketed the UnitedHealth Group offices in Eden Prairie on Feb. 17. UnitedHealth Group was one of several locations to be picketed by members of the Service Employees International Union Local 26. The union is citing unfair labor practices in the strike, and it organized picket lines at additional workplaces, including Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport…
Hospital chain is target in NLRB trial Register Herald …In a trial scheduled to begin Monday in Cleveland, the National Labor Relations Board will weigh the evidence connected to a consolidated complaint based on dozens of charges filed by National Nurses United against the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain and several of the hospitals it owns. Two of the hospitals owned by Community Health Systems that are involved in the trial are located in southern West Virginia…
CCSF faculty union to hold strike authorization vote SF Examiner …City College of San Francisco’s faculty union will vote next week whether to authorize a strike after nearly a year of unsuccessful salary negotiations with the school’s administration. The strike authorization vote, set to begin Monday and run through March 8, would allow the American Federation of Teachers Local 2121’s executive board and negotiating team to call for a strike…
This is the script Uber is using to make anti-union phone calls to drivers in Seattle Quartz …Uber is rich enough that it could weather unionization in Seattle, but if drivers across the US followed suit, the risks to the company would quickly escalate. Killing the movement in Seattle could be Uber’s best shot at forestalling similar action nationwide. Quartz obtained a copy of the script that Uber has been using in Seattle since mid-January…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
What Austerity Is Doing to Our Infrastructure Huffington Post …CBPP’s report reveals that state and local spending on infrastructure is at a 30-year low. Pushing austerity politics, leaders in many states are cutting taxes and offering subsidies to corporations in what CBPP calls a “misguided approach to boosting economic growth.” One of the lessons from Flint is that austerity — i.e., reducing government deficits by any means except raising taxes — has real consequences, especially for low-income families…
Snyder Aide Says Governor Knew About Flint Water Issues A Year Before Action Was Taken Think Progress …Aides close to Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) and his top lawyers discussed concerns about water quality in Flint and its impact on health as early as October 2014, a full year before the water source was switched back to Detroit and away from the Flint River, according to a review of 550 newly released emails by the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News…
Why Blacks and Hispanics Have Such Expensive Mortgages The Atlantic …The homeownership rates of black and Hispanic Americans lag dramatically behind that of white Americans. The reasons for this are not solely practices of the recent past, such as redlining. Today, home loans are consistently more expensive for black and Hispanic buyers than they are for white buyers. Why? Because banks and other lenders direct these groups toward high-risk, high-priced products…
Rip-Off Tax Treaties ‘Making the World More Unequal’ Common Dreams …Multinational corporations are taking advantage of global tax treaties to avoid paying their fair share, thereby fueling poverty around the world, according to a groundbreaking report released this week. The analysis by Johannesburg-headquartered ActionAid International shows how “rip-off tax treaties cost developing countries billions every year, tying the hands of governments, hurting some of the poorest people in the world”…