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This Week’s Teamster News For April 22-28

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TEAMSTERS
 
Congress
 
BLET Urges Rail Infrastructure Investment At House Hearing  Teamsters … The need for proper infrastructure funding was a key point for Vice President and National Legislative Representative John P. Tolman as he delivered testimony on behalf of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), a division of the Teamsters Rail Conference, before Congress today in Washington, D.C. Vice President Tolman’s testimony also touched upon the need to address rail worker fatigue and maintain important rail safety regulations …
 
Waste Management
 
Teamsters Local 991 Waste Workers Ratify New Contract  Teamsters … Waste workers at Republic Services in Mobile, Alabama have ratified a new contract by a 100-percent margin that contains numerous improvements …
 
Teamsters Local 763 Ratifies Agreement with Republic Services  Teamsters … Teamsters Local 763 has ratified a new agreement with Republic Services covering seven workers in Seattle and Bellevue, Washington. The members are service technicians and a truck and container washer …
 
Locals
 
Local 107 is on Big Stage for NFL Draft  Teamsters … Teamsters Local 107 was among a handful of Philadelphia unions tasked with a sizeable job by the National Football League – to build the largest temporary structure ever in North America to host the NFL draft, which begins tomorrow night. And they have risen to the challenge …
 
Teamster Strike Shuts Down Budweiser Distribution On Long Island Teamsters … The workers who deliver, sell, and merchandise Budweiser, Heineken, and other beer products to Nassau and Suffolk Counties walked the picket line today, largely stopping distribution on Long Island. The over 100 drivers and warehousemen, who work for Clare Rose and are members of Teamsters Local 812, began striking when the company announced 30 percent wage cuts and ended the drivers’ pension …
 
Workers at Long Island beer distributor on strike after rejecting proposal that included 30% pay cut  New York Daily News … More than 100 drivers and warehouse staffers who work for Clare Rose, a private beer distributor, went on strike Sunday. On Friday, the workers voted against management’s latest “draconian” offer, a deal with 30% pay cuts and the end of pensions for drivers, according to Teamsters Local 812, the union representing the staffers …
 
Drivers, Mechanics Strike at Long Island Distributor Clare Rose Brewbound … More than 100 union delivery drivers and warehouse workers for Clare Rose Inc., a New York beer distributor, went on strike Sunday afternoon after months of unsuccessful wage negotiations. Clare Rose announced that it would be replacing the striking workers, according to a press release Monday afternoon from Teamsters Local 812 …
 
Red Cross Blood Workers Choose Teamsters Teamsters … Fort Wayne-area Red Cross workers in the mobile and fixed site blood collection units have selected to be represented by Teamsters Local 414 in a card-check agreement. The count, tallied today, means that the local union has gained 142 bargaining unit members …
 
Local Red Cross workers joining Teamsters 414 The Journal Gazette … After local Red Cross workers overwhelmingly supported unionization this week, the American Red Cross recognized them as a bargaining unit under Teamsters Local 414. The 142 affected employees include those who work with the public, drawing blood at bloodmobiles and stationary donation locations across the state. Others drive bloodmobiles or assist with equipment setup …
 
Amazon Delivery Drivers Join Teamsters Local 337 in Detroit Teamsters … Delivery drivers who work at a company that contracts with Amazon voted today to join Teamsters Local 337 in Detroit. The drivers at Silver Star in Brownstown, Michigan voted 22-7 to join Local 337. There are 46 drivers in the bargaining unit …
 
Teamsters picket firing of bus driver The Post Review … More than 40 Teamsters who are bus drivers for North Branch Area Public Schools, along with parents and community members, picketed outside the North Branch Area Education Center April 24 to protest the termination of bus driver Tanya Bloomdahl …
 
Yale shuttle drivers reach agreement, no strikes Yale Daily News … Yale Shuttle drivers, represented by the Teamsters Union Local 443 union, and First Transit, the company contracted by Yale to run their shuttle system, reached an agreement on April 9 eliminating the possibility of a strike in the near future …
 
Local 727 Continues to Fight CDT’s Unlawful Actions Teamsters Local 727 … In January, Local 727 filed unfair labor practice charges against Cook-DuPage Transportation (CDT) for, among other things, the company’s violation of the settlement agreement which mandated that drivers were to be paid the van wage rate instead of the car rate. Yet CDT unlawfully continued to pay drivers the car rate after the agreement was signed and made unilateral changes without bargaining with the union …
 
Teamsters NetJets Workers Call on Company to Provide Fair Wages, Limit Subcontracting Teamsters … NetJets aircraft technicians and related employees represented by the Teamsters Airline Division and Teamsters Local 284 are calling on the leaders of the company to stop denying workers’ pay increases and provide the job security that comes with a viable in-house maintenance system …
 
UPS Freight Teamster Joins ATA “Road Team” Program Teamsters … John McKown has been working in the trucking industry for more than 20 years – 12 of them as a Teamster at UPS Freight in Pennsylvania. But his greatest achievement on the road happened when he was selected to join the American Trucking Associations’ “America’s Road Team” program …
 
You can’t fight obesity by killing jobs – No Beverage Tax in Seattle Teamsters Local 174 … The tax on sugar-sweetened beverages proposed by Seattle Mayor Ed Murray is a disaster in waiting for local workers, businesses and families. On its surface, the tax may sound like a good idea: fighting the obesity epidemic while funding education at the same time – who wouldn’t like that? But the reality is that it is working families who will end up shouldering the heavy burden of this proposed tax …
 
Canteen Vending Workers Vote to Join Teamsters Local 810 Teamsters … A group of twenty-nine workers at Canteen Vending have voted to join Teamsters Local 810 in Long Island City, New York. The new members work as vending drivers, vending helpers, pantry drivers, pantry helpers, and warehouse helpers. The vote was 22 – 6 in favor of voting to join the union …
 
 
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
 
Sanders, Dems introduce $15 minimum wage bill The Hill … Democrats are uniting behind Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in a legislative push to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. Sanders will reintroduce a $15 minimum wage bill Wednesday, attracting support from some Democrats such as Sen. …
 
Workers in City of St. Louis could see wage increase ‘within days’  KMOV … A group advocating for a hike in the minimum wage expects an increase “within days” after the Missouri Supreme Court decided not to take up a case involving the city’s minimum wage ordinance, according to Richard von Glahn with Missouri Jobs with Justice …
 
Employment at Arizona restaurants, bars surges after minimum-wage increase Tucson.com … Remember those claims during the Proposition 206 debate that increasing the minimum wage would lead to less hiring and people being laid off from low-wage jobs? The latest unemployment statistics suggest that hasn’t happened …
 
IL representative pushes for $15 per hour minimum wage WSIL … A Chicago lawmaker stopped in Carbondale to gather support for pushing the Illinois minimum wage to $15 an hour. State Representative Will Guzzardi claims his bill “would generate billions of dollars in new revenue and ease the budget crisis.” …
 
The average millennial worker makes less than the average baby boomer did in 1975 The Washington Post … The United States has enjoyed extraordinary economic progress over the past four decades, but average incomes for today’s young workers are lower than they were in 1975 …
 
A future of shrinking jobs: Most workers today are underpaid, and it gets worse Salon … The jobs reports would have us believe our rebound from the recession is almost complete. The reality is very different. The Economist has some fancy words for it: “Job polarization,” in which middle-skill jobs decline while low-skill and high-skill jobs increase and the workforce “bifurcates” into two extremes of income …