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Election Day Teamster News – November 8, 2016

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Election Day Edition

 

TEAMSTERS

Teamsters Denounce Aubuchon Hardware Lockout of Distribution Center Workers  Teamster.org  …Teamster warehouse workers and drivers at Aubuchon Hardware’s distribution facility found themselves locked out of their jobs when they reported to their shifts this morning. They were met by security who had been instructed to tell the workers that they were not allowed on the property. The 60 warehouse workers and drivers at Aubuchon’s distribution center are represented by Teamsters Local 170… 

Aubuchon Hardware union says company locked out employees in Westminster  Sentinel & Enterprise  …As Teamsters Local 170 workers arrived at Aubuchon Hardware’s distribution facility Monday, at 5:30 a.m., to start their 45-hour workweek, the union workers were “greeted by an army of security” and locked out of the facility. Union officials insist they were forbidden from the property Monday after a contract agreement was not reached — with biggest point of contention being outsourcing language added to the contract by Aubuchon Hardware…

Airport car rental workers strike: Hertz drivers rally to stop layoffs but company says decision is final  Daily Journal  …Drivers facing layoffs from the Hertz car rental company staged a work strike at San Francisco International Airport in protest of alleged unfair treatment from their corporate employer. Many of the workers are associated with Teamsters Local 665, and union spokesman Rudy Gonzalez said offers to meet with Hertz to discuss the labor dispute have been rebuffed…

ABX Air Labor Dispute to be Resolved Via Arbitration  Aviation Tribune  …Air Transport Services Group today said that Judge Timothy S. Black of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio has ordered that the dispute between ABX Air and its pilots should be resolved through an arbitration process. The pilots are  represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Airline Division; and the Airline Professionals Association of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 1224…

Local 117 Member Registers 14,000th Voter  Local 117  …After the infamous 2000 election, Deb Dahlin made it her mission to help more people vote. With only a 537 vote margin in Florida separating George W. Bush from Al Gore, she saw the importance of each vote. In 2000 there were over 4.7 million people eligible to vote in Florida that did not cast a ballot. She set out to register 537 voters in Washington. She started with friends and her Teamster coworkers at Macy’s…

 

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE

French women strike against gender pay gap  Vice News  …Thousands of women throughout France were set to walk off the job at exactly 4:34 p.m. Monday in an organized protest against the country’s gender pay gap. Women in France make 15.1 percent less than their male counterparts. The founder of Les Glorieuses, Rebecca Amsellem, said that French women would have to work an additional 38.2 days in a year to reach pay parity…

TTIP Talks Remain Important for Germany Regardless of US Elections Outcome: Merkel  Sputnik News  …Membership of the proposed US-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) remains important for Germany regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s US presidential elections, German Chancellor Anegla Merkel said Tuesday. The last round of TTIP negotiations was held in mid-July. The sides discussed mainly market access, regulatory cooperation, and trade rules…

Negotiators Question EU Commitment to Services Deal  Bloomberg  …egotiators working to increase market access for services are beginning to question whether the European Union is capable of forging a multi-trillion dollar services agreement this year. Brussels won’t agree to provide nondiscriminatory treatment to “new services,” which include those that haven’t yet been created, EU Trade Ambassador Marc Vanheukelen confirmed during a Nov. 4 Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) plenary meeting in Geneva… 

Japan: ruling bloc delays TPP vote amid strong opposition  Japan Today  …The Japanese government’s plan to rapidly ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement hit another setback Monday, with the ruling coalition deciding not to put the pact and related bills up for a House of Representatives vote the following day. The Democratic Party and smaller opposition parties have held firm in their insistence that they will not participate in voting on the trade pact…

TPP ratification down to the wire in waning Obama White House  Globe and Mail  …No matter who prevails in Tuesday’s presidential election, the U.S. ambassador to Canada says President Barack Obama is determined to win an uphill fight to get congressional approval of the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership deal during the lame-duck session. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican challenger Donald Trump are opposed to the 12-country global trade deal…

The TPP is a back door for dumped and subsidized imports from China; it would enhance, not limit, China’s influence in the region  EPI.org  …As of today, China has already established deeper trade ties than the United States with the TPP nations. Further, congressional approval of the TPP would actually lock in those advantages for China. China has a large trade surplus with the TPP countries, and crucial terms of the agreement requirements would provide a back-door guarantee for China and other non-TPP members to duty-free access to U.S. and other TPP markets…

Truth: The First Casualty in Trade Debates  (opinion) Truthout  …As the country prepares for the election this week, we should also be prepared for the day after the election. President Obama has indicated that he wants one last stab at pushing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) through Congress before leaving office. In preparation for this push he is already lining up the elite policy types in order to convince the public that we really, really need the TPP…

The US has never been closer to passing a paid parental leave bill than it is now  Quartz  …There are more than 180 nations with laws guaranteeing some form of paid maternity leave. Among them are some of the world’s poorest, smallest, and most dangerous countries, including Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Dominica, Haiti, Kiribati, Syria, and Yemen. There are nine countries without it—six tiny Pacific island nations, Papua New Guinea, Surinam, and the United States of America…

 

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES

Nevada: unions flex muscle in high-stakes Senate race  People’s World  …Inflamed by Trump’s candidacy but with an eye on turning the whole ticket blue, organized labor groups including the heavily immigrant Culinary Union are in the thick of an aggressive get-out-the-vote campaign that’s contributing to Democrats’ early voting turnout lead in Nevada, and raising alarms for down-ticket Republicans…

Arizona: The Supreme Court Just Reinstated a Controversial Voting Law  Mother Jones  …The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked Arizona’s law against so-called “ballot harvesting” on Friday, clearing the way for community activists to go door to door collecting completed ballots as part of their get-out-the-vote efforts. The state of Arizona has asked US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy to issue an immediate stay on the ruling…

Minimum wage: 4 states decide whether to put more money in workers’ pockets  USA Today  …Voters in four states on Tuesday will consider ballot initiatives to raise the minimum wage, threatening to widen the disparity between the growing number of jurisdictions that have lifted their pay floors and the rest of the country. In Arizona, Colorado and Maine, state hourly minimums would rise to $12 by 2020 from a range of $7.50 to $8.31…

Missouri: A Certain Victory for Campaign Finance Reform Looms  Truthout  …ampaign finance reformers appear set to celebrate a big win Tuesday in Missouri, where voters are expected to approve a proposed constitutional amendment that would, among other things, reinstate campaign-donation limits in a state that, this year alone, has seen more than $120 million poured into campaigns by writers of six- and seven-figure checks… 

New York City bans salary histories in government agencies  Think Progress  …Anyone who applies to work in New York City government won’t have to worry anymore about providing a salary history. On Friday, Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) issued an executive order that bans city agencies from asking about a job applicants’ prior compensation until after a conditional job offer, including a salary offer, is made…

This is Voting in 2016: Armed Intimidation Squads, Purged Rolls, 868 Fewer Polling Stations  Democracy Now  …In New Jersey, a federal judge decided against the Democratic National Committee in a complaint it brought against the Republican National Committee, ruling that the RNC’s poll monitoring and ballot security activities did not violate a legal settlement. But in a ruling hailed by voting rights advocates, a federal judge late Friday ordered county elections boards in North Carolina to immediately restore registrations wrongfully purged from voter rolls…

Justice Department To Monitor Tuesday’s Election In 28 States  Huffington Post  …Personnel from the U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights division will be deployed to polling sites in 28 states to monitor Tuesday’s election, five more than it monitored in the 2012 election, the department said on Monday. Most of those states will receive Justice Department staff who have no statutory authority to access polling sites as a result of a 2013 Supreme Court decision that struck down parts of the Voting Rights Act…

 

U.S. LABOR

TARTA union offers bus rides free to polls  The Blade  …For the past decade, the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority has waived fares on Election Day to allow residents of its service area to ride to polling places for free. Now the union representing transit authority drivers and mechanics has stepped in to provide a similar service for people needing rides to early voting centers. Since Oct. 12, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 697 drivers have volunteered their time to drive a van to take Lucas County residents to the Early Voting Center…

Labor Board Says Trump Broke the Law, Orders Him to Negotiate with Las Vegas Union  In These Times  …Whatever happens in the presidential election this week, the Las Vegas-based Culinary Union won’t let up in its campaign against Donald Trump. The union’s argument against Trump goes deeper than the vague threats, promises and generalities that pass for presidential debate—the argument is about some 500 jobs in downtown Las Vegas, right at the beating heart of the union…

Cedar Point workers strike  Sandusky Register  …Ohio Local 480 Laborers union members voted down a contract offer from Cedar Point and Cedar Fair on Friday and hit the picket line. The union represents numerous job classifications at the park, including 76 full-time laborers. Other divisions — including 18 carpenters, 14 electricians, 13 painters and six plumbers — also work at the park and are joining the picket lines… 

Poverty Wages For U.S. Child Care Workers May Be Behind High Turnover  NPR  …Specialists in early education say low pay doesn’t just hurt child care workers. It has an effect on babies and toddlers, too, and poses a major challenge in creating high quality child care — something 71 percent of parents who rely on care from outside the family say they seek when choosing a program, according to a recent poll from NPR…

Federal Court Backs Protections For Gay Workers Under Existing Law  BuzzFeed  …A federal judge in Pittsburgh ruled on Friday that existing civil rights laws banning sex discrimination also protect against discrimination for lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. The ruling is a victory for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which brought the case against Scott Medical Health Center. The agency has been fighting for the past several years to expand LGBT workers’ protections under federal law…

Finally, pay for workers across much of economy is climbing  AP  …Workers at construction sites, hotels and restaurants have enjoyed solid pay raises in the past 12 months. So have employees of utilities and telecom firms. Finally, after years of stagnant pay, more American workers are receiving meaningful raises — a trend driven home by the government’s October jobs report…

US manufacturing economy fails employers and workers  CNBC  … Employers gripe about workers with little work ethic, while employees decry falling pay for the kind of jobs that once fed families. The logical response to a labor shortage is to raise pay enough to attract a quality staff, but many manufacturers say they can’t afford it in an era of rising global competition…

Cracking Down on Immigration Doesn’t Boost Wages  Bloomberg  …Whatever happens on Nov. 8, the immigration debate will continue to rage, and Arizona will still be the case study for mass deportations. No state rounded up and kicked out more illegal residents. Not that it did a heck of a lot for the economy. Wages for the most part didn’t rise more for low-skilled positions than for those overall when undocumented workers — who in theory pull the base down by accepting lesser pay — were expelled…

 

ELECTIONS & SOCIAL JUSTICE NEWS

Inside Donald Trump’s Last Stand: An Anxious Nominee Seeks Assurance  New York Times  …Donald J. Trump is not sleeping much these days. Aboard his gold-plated jumbo jet, the Republican nominee does not like to rest or be alone with his thoughts, insisting that aides stay up and keep talking to him. He requires constant assurance that his candidacy is on track. And he is struggling to suppress his bottomless need for attention…

This Election Is a Referendum on Hate  (opinion) Mother Jones  …Trumpism didn’t start with Donald Trump. The politics of exploiting racism, bigotry, hatred, and fear has long been a core strategic component of the Republican Party. In this regard, a straight line runs from Barry Goldwater through Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan to the current GOP nominee… 

‘A Recipe for Disaster’: Rights Advocates Fear Intimidation at Polls from Sheriff Joe Arpaio  Common Dreams  …Voting rights defenders in Arizona are expressing fear and concern that right-wing Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was found in contempt of court in May and again last month for failing to stop his practice of racial profiling and targeting of Hispanic people in “immigration patrols,” will intimidate voters at the polls on Tuesday… 

In GOP Country, a Small Labor Organization Offers a Model for Fighting Trumpism  The Nation  … Ten years ago, before Donald Trump made anti-immigrant scapegoating into popular politics, a group of organizers in Fort Wayne, Indiana, were trying to figure out how to bridge the divide between white workers and undocumented Latino workers. Since then, the Workers’ Project in Indiana has been uniting undocumented immigrants with white union workers…

Holding Fast to Dreams: Undocumented Youth Want True Immigration Reform  American Prospect  …The young undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children with their parents are paying close attention to the election even though they cannot vote. A Hillary Clinton presidency raises key concerns for young people who’ve seen their hopes for a clear path to American citizenship dashed. Yet the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency brings on high anxiety…