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Today’s Teamster News For September 30, 2016

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TEAMSTERS 

Teamsters, United Airlines Reach Tentative Agreement for Technicians  Teamster.org  …Following an agreement in principle on August 12, 2016, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters has reached a tentative agreement with United Airlines on a six-year joint collective bargaining agreement covering more than 9,000 technicians, finalizing the language in the contract. The contract, which contains industry-leading wages and benefits, will now be put in front of members for a ratification vote…

United Airlines Mechanics to Vote on New Labor Agreement  Wall Street Journal  …The union that represents 9,000 mechanics at United Continental Holdings Inc. said it signed off on the terms of a new tentative labor contract and intends to put it out to a membership vote in the coming weeks. If the agreement is approved by a majority of the workers, it would mark the mechanics’ first joint labor contract since the 2010 merger of United Airlines and Continental Airlines…

BLET Legislative Representatives Meet in Washington  Teamster.org  …Legislative Representatives of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) met at Teamsters headquarters in Washington this week for training classes and to lobby House and Senate representatives about the need for two-person crews and other safety measures. The BLET Education and Training Department conducted the training classes…

Mesquite finalizes agreement with Teamsters  The Spectrum  …Mesquite’s city workers finally have a new contract. A new collective bargaining agreement between the city of Mesquite and Teamsters Local 14 was approved unanimously at Tuesday night’s city council meeting. The new agreement is good until June 30, 2019 and provides city employees with merit-based raises…

 

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE 

Thousands of Belgian workers march against planned labor law changes  Reuters  …Tens of thousands of Belgian workers marched through Brussels on Thursday to mark the second anniversary of a center-right government that plans to extend the working week and abandon a scheduled wage increase. The protest, the fourth against the government in two years, saw workers dressed in the green or red of respective unions march across the city center from north to south…

Cambodian agrees to raise minimum wage for garment workers  Seattle Times  …The Cambodian government has agreed to raise the minimum wage for clothing and footwear workers, a move that could help placate workers in the country’s biggest export industry. The Ministry of Labor, Vocational and Training said in a statement Thursday that the minimum wage would be raised by 9.2 percent to $153 a month…

Student Death Launches Uzbekistan’s Forced Labor Season  Solidarity Center  …At least one person has died in Uzbekistan cotton fields so far this season, part of the country’s massive mobilization of compulsory labor in which nurses, teachers, students and state employees are forced from clinics and classrooms to toil for weeks picking cotton. Komiljon Asimov, 20, a biology student at Abduhab State University, died September 11, days after university students were the first group mobilized by the Uzbek government for the fall cotton harvest…

Trade union head says labor laws don’t protect Gaza’s workers  Al Monitor  …In 1965, the PLO established the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU), an independent labor organization with the mission of defending the interests of the Palestinian working class against potential violations by their employers or the ruling authorities and ensuring workers’ rights in accordance with Palestinian Labor Law…

EU and US trade negotiators seek to get TTIP talks back on track  The Guardian  …Trade negotiators will meet in New York next week to search for common ground on the controversial EU-US trade deal, which has been buffeted by strong opposition on both sides of the Atlantic. A team of 90 EU negotiators will travel to New York for five days of talks on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), starting on Monday… 

TPP trade deal is dead until a new president revives it, McConnell says  Washington Post  …The Senate’s top Republican said Thursday that the sweeping 12-nation Pacific Rim trade deal championed by President Obama will remain on ice until another president revives it. And with both current presidential nominees opposed to the deal’s ratification, that could be the death knell for the Trans-Pacific Partnership…

Senators Call For Global Super Court To Be Removed From TPP  BuzzFeed  …Citing a BuzzFeed News investigation, a dozen senators urged President Obama to remove a controversial element of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the massive trade deal the administration is pushing Congress to ratify in the coming months. The senators — including Sherrod Brown, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren — highlighted a private legal system contained in the deal that would empower foreign companies to sue the US government… 

Austerity Measures In Cuba Spark Fears Of A Return To Dark Economic Times  NPR  …Cubans are bracing for a tough end of the year, after what has already been a rough summer. The island’s economy is in trouble. Venezuela, Cuba’s main patron and supplier of cheap oil, has slashed its generous subsidies, while Cuba’s other top cash commodities are facing worldwide price plunges…

 

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES

New Jersey lawmakers want to outlaw salary histories  Think Progress  …Two New Jersey state senators think that banning employers from asking about job applicants’ salary histories could bring the state one step closer to closing unfair wage gaps based on gender or race. Women in New Jersey make about 70 percent of what male residents make. Women of color make even less…

Wisconsin Is Systematically Failing to Provide the Photo IDs Required to Vote in November  The Nation  …Nine percent of registered voters in Wisconsin don’t have a valid voter ID and many are still struggling to get the documents they need to vote in November. It appears that Wisconsin is violating multiple court orders by not promptly giving eligible citizens free IDs or certificates for voting…

Gov. John Hickenlooper endorses higher minimum wage  Denver Post  …Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper on Thursday threw his support behind Amendment 70, the ballot measure to lift the state’s minimum wage to $12 an hour from $8.31 by 2020. “I’m not sure there’s another way to help move more people out of poverty than to raise the minimum wage,” Hickenlooper told Ryan Warner, host of the radio program Colorado Matters…

The High Cost of Being Poor in New Hampshire  NH Labor News  …It is welcome news that the poverty rate in New Hampshire declined from 9.2 percent in 2014 to 8.2 percent in 2015 and declined nationally from 15.5 percent in 2014 to 14.7 percent in 2015. The decline in poverty is good news, and with job growth continuing, we ought to be able to take steps to accelerate the pace of poverty reduction. But the precarious situation for the poor and near poor stands in the way of substantial progress…

Chris Christie ‘Laughed’ When Told of Bridge Plot, Top Official Testifies  Common Dreams  …New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was told about the 2013 George Washington Bridge lane closures during a 9/11 memorial ceremony the week the closures were happening—and laughed when he heard the news. That’s according to testimony from the man who orchestrated the closings in his former role as interstate capital projects director for Port Authority, during a hearing on Tuesday…

Fighting for 15 at the presidential debate  People’s World  …One thousand workers, union members, students, and members of various community groups made their way to Hofstra University in Uniondale, Long Island September 26th to highlight the needs of the 99% at the first Presidential debate. Twenty-five buses left from various neighborhoods in Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn, filled with working people mobilized by the #Fightfor15 low-wage workers’ campaign…

Sea-Tac Airport workers vote to strike Delta contractor  Herald Net  …Hundreds of cart drivers, wheelchair agents, cabin cleaners, baggage handlers, unaccompanied minor escorts and lavatory and water service fillers voted today to strike over unfair labor practices at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The workers are part of the nationwide campaign of airport workers fighting for $15…

 

U.S. LABOR 

Union: Striking nurses to vote Monday on Allina contract offer  MPR News  …After three long days of negotiations, the Minnesota Nurses Association said it will let its members decide whether to approve Allina Health’s latest contract proposal. Union negotiators said in a statement that they are “not making a recommendation” on the offer. The rank and file will vote Monday on the three-year package, which would be retroactive to June 1… 

Mayor’s Office Negotiating Directly With Teachers Union To Avoid Strike   DNA  …Mayor Rahm Emanuel is taking a direct hand in negotiating with the Chicago Teachers Union to avert a strike, according to aldermen, who hoped for a compromise Thursday even as they prepared for the worst. Union officials confirmed Thursday teachers are in talks with the Emanuel administration…

Construction Trade Workers March, Demand Better Wages from Developer  NBC  …Close to a thousand construction trade workers gathered Thursday in San Jose to demand better wages from a developer. The workers also told KT Urban they want more promises that local unions will be used for downtown San Jose high rises…

Obama Just Guaranteed Sick Days For More Than A Million Workers  Huffington Post  …Making good on an earlier executive order, the Labor Department published a final rule Thursday that will guarantee at least some paid sick leave for workers employed under federal contracts. The rule is the latest in a string of new regulations aimed at improving working standards for those on the bottom rungs of the economy…

Federal Court Rules You Can Be Denied a Job If You Have Dreadlocks  Alternet  …In a blow to equal rights in workplaces everywhere in America, a federal appeals court ruled September 15 that rescinding a job offer based on a candidate’s refusal to remove her dreadlocks does not constitute racial discrimination on the part of an employer. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 3-0 against an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suit brought on behalf of Chastity Jones…

Rep. Keith Ellison: Wells Fargo Racket Shows Why Bank Workers Need a Union  Daily Beast  …In order to end these predatory practices, financial services sector employees should be given a seat at the table and allowed to collectively bargain. This will protect them and their customers. No company should force workers to make a choice between selling potentially harmful products to their customers and keeping their paycheck…

National Prison Strike Exposes Need for Labor Rights Behind Bars  Yes Magazine  …On September 9, an estimated 24,000 inmates began the first national prison strike to protest long-term isolation, inadequate health care, violent attacks, and what they argue is slave labor. Spearheaded by the Free Alabama Movement (FAM), a network of incarcerated human rights activists, the nationwide protest calls for an end to prison slavery…

How Charter Schools Bust Unions  Slate  …Attempts by charter school administrators to thwart teachers’ efforts to unionize are hardly unique to Alliance. While there are charters that have voluntarily agreed to recognize a teachers union at their school—or have even taken the lead in crafting collective bargaining agreements with employees—many others have refused to do so, fighting unionization at every turn. A 2014 study found that in 2012 about 7 percent of charter schools were unionized…

 

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS

Congress Approves Spending Bill, Averting Government Shutdown  New York Times  …Congress averted a government shutdown Wednesday as the Senate and then the House approved a short-term spending bill, allowing lawmakers to avoid a crisis and return home to campaign. The stopgap spending bill, which would fund the government through Dec. 9, had been ensnarled in a debate over financing for the lead-tainted water system in Flint, Mich… 

New Report: Poor Americans of Color Drink Filthy Water and Breathe Poisonous Air All the Damn Time  Mother Jones  …For years, critics have accused the EPA of neglecting communities of color, pointing to cases from toxic air in Richmond, California to lead-contaminated water in Flint, Michigan. The report sheds light on why this might be the case: Despite receiving early 300 discrimination complaints since 1993, the EPA’s Office of Civil Rights has “never made a formal finding of discrimination…

New Study Says Rising Inequality Is Killing the Economy  Mother Jones  …Non-rich people tend to spend 100 percent of their income, or close to it. Rich people don’t. They spend, say, 50 percent of their income and save the rest. This difference is called the “marginal propensity to consume,” and it seems like it might be a problem if income inequality is rising. The problem is that as rich people get a larger share of total income, total consumption goes down…

Protests Continue in San Diego After Police Kill Mentally Ill, Unarmed Ugandan Refugee Alfred Olango  Democracy Now  …Protests continue in the San Diego, California, suburb of El Cajon, where police shot and killed an unarmed African-American man Tuesday after his sister called 911 to report her brother was having a mental health emergency. Eyewitnesses in El Cajon said 38-year-old Alfred Olango was holding his hands up when he was tased by one police officer and then fired upon five times…

Trump digs in on why refusing to pay taxes makes him ‘smart’  Think Progress  …At the first presidential debate earlier this week, Republican nominee Donald Trump seemed to admit that he doesn’t pay anything in federal income taxes. But he’s spent the days since lying about what he said. When CNN’s Dana Bash quoted his own statement back to him hours after the debate, he told her, “No, I didn’t say that at all”…

Report: Donald Trump broke Cuba embargo, knowingly conducted illegal business in Communist country  Salon  …Newsweek’s most recent cover story has alleged Donald Trump illegally conducted business in Communist Cuba in violation of American trade bans in the late 1990s. The investigative report — written by Kurt Eichenwald and titled, “How Donald Trump’s Company Violated the United States Embargo Against Cuba” — suggests the now-Republican presidential nominee knowingly operated in violation of the law…