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Today’s Teamster News For March 23, 2016
TEAMSTERS
Labor dispute threatens tech shuttle firm’s S.F. permits SF Chronicle …A private bus company that transports tech workers to their jobs in Silicon Valley could see its permits in the city’s corporate shuttle program revoked because of a labor dispute with its drivers. Bauer’s Intelligent Transportation, which operates buses for Zynga, Cisco and Electronic Arts, once again finds labor tensions threatening its business. That threat became a reality Tuesday morning, as roughly 100 Teamsters picketed Bauer shuttles…
Teamsters, Carhaul Employer Group to Resume Negotiations April 12 Teamster.org …The Teamsters National Automobile Transporters Industry Negotiating Committee (TNATINC) and the carhaul employer representatives will resume contract negotiations on April 12 in Detroit. The talks will continue on April 13. The next round of talks comes on the heels of “significant progress” reported during the last round of negotiations in late February…
Teamsters Union Pleased with Trudeau’s First Budget; Should Keep CP and CN Rail Staff On Track Sonoran Weekly Review …The Teamsters Union said Wednesday it is satisfied with the Trudeau government’s first budget, which respects many of the commitments the Liberals made during the elections, including infrastructure spending, retirement and the restored tax credit to labour-sponsored funds…
Saputo to axe 230 jobs with three plant closures Dairy Reporter …Teamsters Canada Local Union 647, which represents some of the workers, responded to the announcement by saying that Saputo is forcing middle class families into tough times. It said that many of the Ottawa plant’s 100 workers are parents who rely on their weekly paycheck to support their families…
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Protest in Indonesia Against Ride-Hailing Apps Turns Violent New York Times …The center of Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, was paralyzed Tuesday morning by a violent mass protest by taxi and other public transportation drivers against ride-hailing apps, with demonstrators blocking major roads and highways and attacking other taxis that were not taking part. An estimated 10,000 members of the Indonesian Land Transportation Drivers Association had planned a protest march…
Athens metro workers to strike over staff safety Ekathimerini …There will be no service on the Athens metro on Thursday after workers announced a 24-hour strike on Tuesday. The capital’s metro workers said they are protesting poor security in the wake of several vandal attacks at central stations, as well as the recent publication on an anti-establishment website of the names of 125 ticket inspectors…
U.S. Department of Labor releases report finding serious labor rights abuses in key Peruvian export industries ILRF …The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released a report confirming widespread violations of fundamental labor rights in key Peruvian export sectors that supply the U.S. market with billions of dollars of goods annually. The report was issued six months after the ILRF and Peruvian unions filed a complaint under the U.S. – Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA) asking the U.S. Government to investigate pervasive labor abuses…
Women Make Historic Gains in New Iraq Labor Law Solidarity Center …Women workers made important gains under Iraq’s new labor law, the country’s first ever to prohibit sexual harassment at the workplace. The law clearly defines sexual harassment and specifies penalties for perpetrators. Women union activists led their unions in fighting for this protection…
TPP ‘atrocious’, Reich tells Labour future of work event Scoop …In comments that raised a cheer from many of the approximately 200 Labour Party members, trade unionists, economists and businesspeople attending the Labour Party’s two Future of Work conference, former Clinton era US Labor Secretary Robert Reich said he had always supported free trade, but that the Trans-Pacific Partnership was “atrocious”…
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
WA Ballot Initiative for $13.50 Minimum Wage Gets Signatures Public News Service …Groups across the state are collecting signatures for a ballot initiative that would raise Washington’s minimum wage to $13.50 an hour by 2020. Initiative 1433 has support from Washington unions and education associations, and recently received endorsements from presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders…
Idaho Cities Blocked From Raising Minimum Wage KUOW …Idaho cities and counties will not have the option to approve increases in the minimum wage in the absence of action at the state level. A legislative measure to block local minimum wage increases became law Tuesday. It happened without Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter’s signature…
Voters to decide state’s minimum wage hike SF Gate …California’s lowest paid workers could see a bump in their paycheck in coming years if a ballot initiative aiming to boost the state’s minimum wage is approved by voters in November. The stodgily-named “Minimum Wage Increases and Future Adjustments Initiative Statute” passed the 365,880 signature threshold needed to qualify for the November ballot…
New York’s Millionaires to Governor Cuomo: ‘Raise our Taxes, Please’ Common Dreams …Over forty of the richest residents of New York recently penned an open letter to Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York state legislature asking to pay more in taxes. “In the last thirty-five years, there’s been an enormous widening in pre-tax income,” stated an economist at an asset management firm who signed the letter. “The fact that public policy has contributed to widening the gap is shameful”…
Labor Group Announces Boycott Against Nonunion Lincolnshire Businesses Progress Illinois …Controversy continues over Lincolnshire’s recent right-to-work ordinance. On Monday, the Northeastern Illinois Federation of Labor announced a boycott of nonunion businesses in the village. The boycott represents the latest act of opposition by labor against Lincolnshire’s right-to-work ordinance approved in December…
The People of Puerto Rico vs. the Hedge Funds: Supreme Court Hears Case on PR’s Bankruptcy Laws Democracy Now …On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments to decide whether Puerto Rico can avoid financial collapse by restructuring a portion of its massive $70 billion debt. The issue before the court was a bankruptcy law Puerto Rico’s Legislature passed in 2014 that would permit the island’s public utilities to restructure about $20 billion those entities owe to bondholders…
U.S. LABOR
Over 1,000 LA Nurses Finish Weeklong Strike Today, Saying Work Conditions Are Dangerous for Patients In These Times …One thousand two hundred registered nurses with the California Nurses Association (CNA), an affiliate of the National Nurses United (NNU), went on a weeklong strike last Tuesday that ends today, in demand of a first contract settlement with their employers at the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center (LAMC)….
UC Berkeley reaches labor agreement on contract workers Contra Costa Times …UC Berkeley, in what one of its unions hailed as a “historic victory for contract workers,” has agreed to offer direct employment to all regular night shift and athletics custodians currently working at the institution through private contractors, the university announced Friday. As part of the agreement, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 will end its “speakers boycott”…
Airports workers cancel strike planned for U.S. hubs following Brussels attacks Washington Post …n the wake of terror attacks in Belgium, U.S. airport workers are canceling a 24-hour strike and protests they had planned at 10 major U.S. hubs. Officials with the Service Employees International Union said the workers will postpone the walkout that had been slated to begin Tuesday night “out of respect for the innocent victims”…
United Pilots Call Bethune a Diversionary Tactic by Investors Bloomberg …Lining up Continental former Chief Executive Officer Gordon Bethune as part of a board slate for United Airlines is merely a ruse by two hedge funds to “smash and grab from United’s coffers,” according to the carrier’s pilot union. The funds enlisted Bethune “to play on employees’ good will and feelings of nostalgia,” leaders of United’s chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association said in a letter to its more than 11,000 members Monday…
Most Senate cafeteria workers were mistreated on wages, top Capitol official says Washington Post …A majority of the roughly 90 blue-collar restaurant workers serving the U.S. Senate were improperly classified by their private employer, a top U.S. Capitol administrator told a congressional committee last week, putting them at risk of being underpaid and prompting a Labor Department inquiry into the matter…
Shirtwaist Factory Fire Memorial Commemoration Set For Wednesday DNAinfo …Organizers of an elaborate memorial to the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire are facing opposition from the community, just as they got the $1.5 million they need to construct it. The installation on the corner of the New York University building at Washington Place and Greene Street is meant to memorialize the 146 victims who perished in the blaze…
Even At A Company Obsessed With Fair Pay, Women Make Less Than Men Huffington Post …Despite a clearly scrupulous commitment to pay fairness, Buffer just realized that women at the company make less than men overall. The average annual salary for a man at Buffer is $98,705, while women make $89,205, according to internal analysis from Feb. 23, Buffer released last week — its first look at gender and pay…
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
How inequality extends to polling place — and why that makes our country less fair Salon …Automatic voter registration isn’t the sexiest way to start a political revolution, but it may be the most effective. The United States lags behind the rest of the rich world in turnout, but it leads the rich world in disparity in turnout across income and education levels, which has profound effects on policy…
Poor People Go Broke Buying Water, Rich People Get It Cheap Gawker …In developed countries, water is clean and very cheap. In poor, undeveloped countries with weak public infrastructure, many people are forced to buy water from private vendors, who charge exorbitant prices. It is a classic example of the poor being hit with greater expenses than the rich…
Ted Cruz and Donald Trump Want to Make America a Police State After Brussels (opinion) Daily Beast …We didn’t even have a body count in Brussels before Ted Cruz and Donald Trump started calling for a police-state trial run in America. Within hours of the bombs there that left dozens dead and more wounded, the top two Republican presidential candidates here were duking it out to see who could pitch the most authoritarian crackdown on Muslim Americans…
Former Nixon Aide: Drug War’s True Aim to “Disrupt” Black Communities Common Dreams …The former top domestic adviser to President Richard Nixon admitted years ago that the so-called “War on Drugs” was crafted to target black people and anti-war leftists, according to new reporting. The April feature of Harper’s, an investigation by journalist Dan Baum into the widespread failures of drug prohibition, includes an excerpt from a 1994 interview between Baum and Nixon’s adviser, John Ehrlichman…