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tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43288993391354698692014-10-25T09:20:19.884-04:00Teamster NationNews for the Teamster worker.Teamster Powerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-52274487583797456832014-10-25T09:20:00.001-04:002014-10-25T09:20:19.987-04:00Today's Teamster News 10.25.14Teamster News
Oakland School Bus Drivers Choose Teamsters Representation teamster.org ...First Student school bus drivers in Oakland, Calif., have voted by an overwhelming 15-1 margin in favor of representation by Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif. The 150 drivers transport children in the Oakland Unified School District...
Meeting Celebrates Million Worker March Movement Workers World ...Founding members of the Million Worker March Movement held a 10th commemorative anniversary meeting Oct. 16 at Teamsters Local 808 in Long Island City, Queens, N.Y...
DiNapoli, Schneiderman hold "get out the vote' rally in Orange County MidHudson News ...Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli brought their "get out the vote" tour to the Teamsters Local 445 hall in Rock Tavern on Friday...
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement: Secret Deal Means Bad News For Consumers, Choice Warns News.com ...The TPP is being negotiated in secret by 12 countries, including Australia, with governments having full access to the draft agreement while the public have nothing, a WikiLeaks press release said. WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange said it had a duty to reveal what is in the TPP. "The selective secrecy surrounding the TPP negotiations, which has let in a few cashed-up megacorps but excluded everyone else, reveals a fear of public scrutiny," he said. "By publishing this text we allow the public to engage in issues that will have such a fundamental impact on their lives...
State Battles
Minimum Wage: Scott Walker Based 'Living Wage' Ruling On Restaurant Industry Study Business Insider ...Under pressure to raise the state's minimum wage, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker confidently declared that there was no need....That official government finding ... was largely based on information provided by the state's restaurant industry -- which represents major low-wage employers including fast-food companies...
Sacramento Crude Oil Transfers Halted; Air Quality Official Says Permit Was Granted In Error Sacramento Bee ...A Sacramento fuel distributor has agreed to stop unloading train shipments of crude oil at McClellan Business Park after the county's top air quality official said his agency mistakenly skirted the state's environmental rules by issuing a permit for the operation...
A GOP Governor Tried A Radical Tax 'Experiment' — And Now He's Hanging On For His Political Life Business Insider ...Kansas' budget, which has to be balanced each year by law, has serious revenue shortfalls. The state's credit rating has been downgraded by two major ratings agencies — Moody's and Standard and Poor's. School funding is being stretched thin, and there are whispers of concerns in rural parts of the state that some will close entirely. And now, a governor is in trouble...
War on Workers
The 1% are more likely to vote than the poor or the middle class, and it matters — a lot Vox ...After 1972, voters and non-voters differ significantly on most issues relating to the role of government in redistributive policies. In addition to these differences being evident in nearly every election since 1972, we also note that the nature of the electoral bias is clear as well: voters are substantially more conservative than non-voters on class-based issues...
Billionaire Investor Says Atlantic City's Taj 'Will Almost Certainly Close' NBC News ...Billionaire investor Carl Icahn says the struggling Trump Taj Mahal casino "will almost certainly close." The would-be purchaser of the casino told The Associated Press on Thursday night that the casino's finances are dire...
Picket Lines Due At Atlantic City's Taj Mahal Casino Friday NBC News ...Picket lines were to go up outside Atlantic City's Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort as union members planned to protest the court-ordered termination of their health insurance and pension plans. The picketing was scheduled to run from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday...
The Real Bailout Victims (opinion) New York Times ...It's certainly true that the government deserves criticism for how it spent the A.I.G. bailout money: It funneled the money to the banks to make them whole on deals they had done with A.I.G., instead of requiring them to absorb some of the losses. But again, the real victim of the overly generous treatment of the banks is the American public...
Plutocrats Against Democracy (opinion) New York Times ...now you understand why there's so much furor on the right over the alleged but actually almost nonexistent problem of voter fraud, and so much support for voter ID laws that make it hard for the poor and even the working class to cast ballots. American politicians don't dare say outright that only the wealthy should have political rights ...a lot of what's going on in American politics is, at root, a fight between democracy and plutocracy. And it's by no means clear which side will win...
Construction worker dies in hit and run Associated Press ... 53-year-old Barry Asbury of Vance was struck and killed shortly after 2 a.m. Thursday on state Highway 170. Asbury was working with a paving crew on the road in Okatie when he was struck by a car...
Miscellaneous
Where Is The Investigation Into Financial Corruption At The NSA? The Atlantic ...Earlier this year, when Keith Alexander resigned as head of the National Security Agency, he began trying to cash in on expertise he'd gained while in government, pitching himself as a security consultant who could protect Wall Street banks and other large corporations from cyber-attacks by hackers or foreign governments. Early reports focused on the eye-popping price tag for his services: He reportedly asked for $1 million a month, later decreasing his rate to $600,000...Teamster Powerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-37874342722605470442014-10-24T07:28:00.000-04:002014-10-24T07:28:02.728-04:00Today's Teamster News 10.24.14Teamster News
Teamsters Continue Get-Out-The-Vote Effort in Chicago teamster.org ...Brewers and bottlers at Lagunitas Brewery Company, members of Teamsters Local 727 in Chicago, today confirmed they will be voting in advance of the Nov. 4 election during a visit by Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa...
Uber Drivers Protest Company's Business Practices Outside Santa Monica Office CBS Local ...Teamsters Local 989 organized the demonstration at 11 a.m. outside Uber Technology offices, 1437 Seventh St. in Santa Monica...
Online petition calls for living wage for Facebook drivers USA Today ...Activist group CREDO Action is calling on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to support paying a living wage to shuttle bus drivers who ferry Facebook workers to and from the company's Menlo Park, Calif., campus...
Facebook drivers plan union vote Fusion ...Facebook's bus drivers have scheduled an election to unionize to seek better working conditions...
How Fedex is trying to save the business model that saved it millions Washington Post ...In FedEx's case, courts in several states, including California and Massachusetts, have told the company that its strategy of treating drivers as independent contractors doesn't fly, prompting the shift to the independent service provider model. Now, at least one court has questioned whether even this new model passes muster...
Trade
The Trans-Pacific Partnership – One Sick Treaty? RT ...The TPP will help to maximize profits by increasing the ability of large corporations to acquire or hold international monopolies on a product for longer periods than they are currently able to. They can use this position to ensure that prices remain high – too high for many. Those unable to afford necessary medicine will suffer, become sicker, and in many cases die...
State Battles
Kansas and Wisconsin Continue to Lag Nation Econbrowser ...Some observers have argued that Wisconsin's poor performance is attributable to regional shocks; if so, it is strange that Minnesota — Wisconsin's next door neighbor — has failed to evidence a similar slowdown relative to the United States...
St. Pete Plans $12.50 Minimum Wage For City Workers St. Petersburg Tribune ...St. Petersburg is planning to introduce a $12.50 per hour minimum wage for all city workers. ... That will mean a pay raise for about 70 city workers who earn below that amount, including library assistants, sanitation workers, custodians and laborers. Increasing their pay will cost about $125,000...
Kansas Faces Additional Revenue Shortfalls After Tax Cuts New York Times ...Revenue numbers for July through September, the first three months of fiscal year 2015, suggest Kansas' revenue gap is permanent, not temporary...
Judge Extends Blocking Wisconsin Campaign Law FOX6 ...A federal judge has extended until Nov. 12 his order blocking a Wisconsin campaign coordination law that's at the center of an investigation into Gov. Scott Walker's 2012 recall campaign and more than two dozen conservative groups...
Gov. Rick Scott To Avoid Testifying In Public Records Lawsuit Before Election WESH ...Scott was scheduled to give a deposition this Friday over private Google email accounts set up by the governor and two former aides...
War on Workers
Compensation shrinks for all income groups – except the very highest Aljazeera America ...Average pay for 2013 was $43,041 — down $79 from the previous year when measured in 2013 dollars. Worse, average pay fell $508 below the 2007 level, my analysis of the new Social Security Administration data shows...
Elizabeth Warren Demands An Investigation Of Mortgage Companies Mother Jones ...Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called on the Government Accountability Office to investigate non-bank companies that service Americans' mortgages, noting in a letter co-signed by Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) that an increasing number of lawsuits has been filed in recent years against these firms—which are not regulated as strictly as banks...
Port Has Valid Concerns About Oil Trains (opinion) The Olympian ...all South Sound residents should worry about the environmental and economic impacts of building terminals that could bring dangerous oil tanker trains moving 175,000 barrels of highly flammable Bakken crude oil per day through Thurston County...
SC Construction Worker Killed In Hit And Run On Highway 170 WSAV ...A construction worker was killed early Thursday morning in a hit and run on S.C. Highway 170 near Cherry Point. Beaufort County Deputy Coroner David Ott identifies the man as 53-year-old Barry Asbury...
Construction worker dies on-site in southern Saskatchewan Leader-Post ...A 43-year-old man from Kelvington is dead after a construction-site accident in southern Saskatchewan...
The Bottom 90 Percent Are Poorer Today Than They Were In 1987 Washington Post ...Once upon a time, the American economy worked for everybody, and even the middle class got richer. But this story has only been a fairy tale for almost 30 years now. The new, harsh reality is that the bottom 90 percent of households are poorer today than they were in 1987...
Miscellaneous
Owners: Taj Mahal To Stay Open Throughout November NBC News ...Trump Entertainment Resorts is dropping its threat to close Atlantic City's Taj Mahal casino on Nov. 13. The company said Wednesday it still cannot guarantee the Taj Mahal won't close by the end of the year, but added it will definitely remain open throughout the month of November...
Why Was The NSA Chief Playing The Market? Foreign Policy ...At the same time that he was running the United States' biggest intelligence-gathering organization, former National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander owned and sold shares in commodities linked to China and Russia, two countries that the NSA was spying on heavily... Teamster Powerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-3479340178026406572014-10-23T16:02:00.002-04:002014-10-23T16:02:32.880-04:00Teamsters Local 117 is on an organizing tear

Hundreds of new Teamsters at Local 117 in Tukwila, Wash., are sitting down and bargaining with their employers for the first time.

Teamsters Local 117 has been on an organizing tear in the parking, warehouse and cold storage industries as well as the public sector.

According to Paul Zilly at the local,

Over the last year, workers at Animal Supply, Americold, Impark, Doug Fox, ATZ, and the City of Black Diamond have come together to fight for a voice in the workplace.

 Now, after winning their Union elections, the workers are sitting down, face to face with their employers, along with Union staff, to engage in the collective bargaining process.

Some groups, like the workers at Americold, have already met with their employer several times and have made slow, but steady progress at the table. Other groups, like the Impark unit, are just pinning the employer down with bargaining dates.
Awgaw Fanta, a bargaining committee member and Impark employee, said,

We'll be at the table soon, fighting for fair wages and good benefits. We also need a break room. The Teamsters are good for us and have already helped us a lot.
Local 117 organizers are organizing three more companies right now in the Puget Sound region.

Here's a list of companies where new Teamsters can expect job security, a voice on the job and a way to settle disputes:

Puget Sound taxi cab operators - 600
Steeler (construction) - 40
IKEA (warehouse) - 65
GCA (airport shuttlers) - 175
AmeriCold (cold storage) - 30
Impark (parking) - 86
App-Based Drivers Association (Uber drivers) - 160
Doug Fox (parking) - 25
Shuttle Park 2 (parking) - 21
Animal Supply (warehouse) - 85
City of Black Diamond (public sector) - 20
They also have the 16,000 Teamsters of Local 117 standing beside them -- not to mention the 1.4 million hardworking men and women of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

The organizing wins are good for all workers in the region. As the local points out:

Bringing new workers into the Union builds power by creating Union density in key industries, which helps improve wages and benefits for all members.

Teamster Powerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-31103136435493913332014-10-23T07:14:00.000-04:002014-10-23T07:14:09.799-04:00Today's Teamster News 10.23.14Teamster News
The Teamsters Of The 21st Century: How Uber, Lyft, And Facebook Drivers Are Organizing Fast Company ...Teamsters are taking a bold step into the new sharing economy by organizing Uber and Lyft drivers in Los Angeles and San Diego and attempting to represent drivers for Facebook and Cisco employee shuttles...
Hoffa Tells Chicago Teamsters They Play Pivotal Role In Election teamster.org ...The Teamsters' get-out-the-vote effort in advance of the Nov. 4 election moved onto Illinois today, with General President Jim Hoffa encouraging early voting among union members and working families at workplaces throughout the Chicagoland area...
We Stand With Italy's Workers! teamster.org ...Workers at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union in Washington D.C. sent a message of solidarity to their Italian brothers and sisters today as they prepare to protest labor law deregulation that will destroy workers' rights on the job...
Ikea and union strike a deal after 17-month dispute Vancouver Sun ...Ikea Canada announced Wednesday afternoon a 17-month labour dispute between the furniture giant and its Teamsters employees is over...
Grundy sergeants and dispatchers Teamsters endorse Briley Morris Daily Herald ... Teamsters Local 700, which represents the sergeants and dispatchers of Grundy County, announced Wednesday they are endorsing Ken Briley for Grundy County Sheriff...
Union chief maintains that Local 25 is a kinder, gentler Teamsters group Boston Business Journal ...He called the "Top Chef" story "fiction at best" and bristles as he discusses the negative media that resulted. Most frustrating, O'Brien said, is that the rough-and-tumble image of the Teamsters is the very thing he has been working to change as he works to increase the local's representation in new industries...
Polling place finds new home in Spring Garden Twp. York Dispatch ...The polling place that serves District 2 in the township is being moved from the Teamsters Local 430 building, 1780 Sixth Ave., to St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, 1502 Fourth Ave. The emergency move comes after mold was discovered in the Teamsters building...
Mayoral race heats up with new endorsements, donations Brown Daily Herald ...Teamsters Local 251, a union that has more than 3,000 members working in Providence, endorsed Cianci because "we thought he was the best candidate," said Matt Taibi, the union's principal officer...
Canfield Township, Teamsters continue negotiating for months Youngstown Vindicator ...Canfield Township officials continue to negotiate a contract with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 377 after it expired nearly a year-and-a-half ago...the township is being asked to pay between $229 and $238 per week per employee versus what they are negotiating, $220...
Phillips Pet Food workers will vote to form union Morning Call ...Some 200 warehouse workers at a Northampton County pet supply company will vote Thursday to join the Teamsters, a union and government official said today...
Trade
Profits Before Health: The Next Chapter Of The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Center For Research On Globalization ...The Transpacific-Partnership (TPP) continues its ride through the negotiating rooms in top secrecy, punctured occasionally by a WikiLeaks release and the utterings of concerned bystanders. The latest variant of the TPP's intellectual property chapter (the "second release") suggests a predictably corporate driven agenda on the issue of health care...
State Battles
Paul LePage's New Idea: Indentured Servants DailyKos ...Recently he has been talking about selling student loans to workers' employers in part because "I think we can make it sort of a very profitable operation."...
Why Voter ID Laws Aren't Really About Fraud PBS ...Six of the 16 states that have passed voter ID laws since 2010 have a documented history of discriminating against minority voters. All but one of those states' laws were put in place after the Supreme Court overturned a key provision of the Voting Rights Act that required them to seek approval from the Justice Department for any voting-law changes...
Kansans Are Moderate As Hell And They're Not Going To Take It Anymore Huffington Post ...Members of Republicans for Kansas Values, a stodgy group of lawmakers past and present, assailed the state's increasing deficits, depleted trust funds and lowered credit rating. All these grievances were laid at the doorstep of the state's Republican governor, Sam Brownback, whose re-election the group opposed. ...
Gov. Snyder's Karma: Elections Have Consequences (opinion) Detroit News ...Four years ago, Rick Snyder was elected governor and the Republicans won complete control of the Legislature. One-party control has created clear-cut winners and losers. The winners, large corporations and CEOs, have been given huge tax cuts, while the consequences for the losers — senior citizens, middle-class families, public school students and low income workers — have been devastating...
Scott Walker Campaign Staffer OK'd Statement Denying Political Activity By County Staff Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...When Scott Walker's county staff members needed to release a statement in 2010 saying they did not engage in campaign activity, who exactly did they ask to approve the language? Walker's top campaign aides, naturally...
City May Refuse Licenses To Companies Convicted Of Wage Theft KVIA ...The City of El Paso is preparing an ordinance meant to deter companies from stealing wages from workers...
War on Workers
How Quantitative Easing Contributed to the Nation's Inequality Problem New York Times ...Quantitative easing adds to the problem of income inequality by making the rich richer and the poor poorer. By intentionally driving down interest rates to low levels, it allows people who can get access to cheap money on a regular basis to benefit in extraordinary ways...
New Study Confirms EPA's Proposed Carbon Regulations To Hurt W.Va. West Virginia Record ...A new analysis by a global economic consulting firm is projecting "significant negative economic impacts" to West Virginia under a proposed plan by the federal Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from existing fossil-fuel power plants...
Most People Oppose Changes To Trucker Hours-Of-Service Requirements Safety and Health Magazine ...Four out of five Americans oppose legislative efforts to increase the number of hours truck drivers can be behind the wheel per week, according to the results of a poll released by Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety and the Truck Safety Coalition...Teamster Powerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-9815027147467772262014-10-22T08:30:00.001-04:002014-10-22T08:37:38.714-04:00Today's Teamster News 10.22.14Teamster News
Teamsters Local 769 In Miami Files For Representational Elections At Con-Way Freight IBT ..."For far too long, these hardworking employees have not had the respect and dignity on the job that they deserve," said Mike Scott, President of Local 769. "When they form their union with the Teamsters, they will be treated fairly and we will work hard to negotiate a strong Teamster contract for them that addresses their issues including job security."...
The Frozen-Egg Gap: Silicon Valley's Perks Aren't For Everyone NBC News ..."We've got companies that make stupendous amounts of money and can afford to treat them better," said Rome Aloise, principal officer of Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif. The Teamsters is seeking to organize shuttle drivers who work at tech firms through third-party contractors...
Brinks Workers In Alberta Ratify New Labour Contract Canadian Labour Reporter ...Alberta workers with the logistics cash provider Brinks recently ratified a new labour contract. The new collective agreement — negotiated with Teamsters Local Union 362 — includes wage increases of 2.5 per cent to three per cent every year for the next four years. Approximately 230 workers are covered by the contract. The agreement will expire in September 2018...
Brian Davis IBT ...Dear Brothers and Sisters: We are saddened to inform you that Teamster Local 174 Business Agent and Joint Council 28 Freight Division Director Brian Davis tragically passed away on Sunday, October 19, 2014...
Americold Workers in Wisconsin Choose Teamsters teamster.org ...Cold storage warehouse workers at Americold in Darien, Wisc., have voted by nearly a 2-1 margin to join Teamsters Local 695 in Madison, Wisc. There are 133 workers in the bargaining unit...
Hoffa Tells Wisconsin Teamsters They Can Effect Change teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa continued his whirlwind tour of the union's workplaces in Wisconsin today, urging members at UPS, Roundy's grocery and Nestle to get out and vote to ensure that pro-worker candidates are elected in Madison and Washington, D.C...
Funeral Giant SCI Accepts Union's Offer to Enter Federal Mediation teamster.org ... Funeral industry giant Service Corporation International (NYSE:SCI) has accepted Teamsters Local 727's offer to enter federal mediation as the union attempts to reach an agreement on a new contract for Chicago-area funeral workers...
Trade
WTO Rejects US Country-of-Origin Labels for Meat Associated Press ...In a ruling Monday, the World Trade Organization rejected U.S. rules requiring labels on packaged steaks, ribs and other cuts of meat identifying where the animals were born, raised and slaughtered. The WTO said the requirements put Canadian and Mexican livestock at an unfair disadvantage...
U.S. floats cutting tobacco from part of Pacific trade pact -sources Reuters ...The United States has floated excluding tobacco products from a key section of a 12-nation Pacific trade deal and signaled it may present a formal proposal to trading partners at talks in Australia, sources briefed on the negotiations said...
Don't Let Congress Trade U.S. Jobs Away teamster.org ...Hardworking Americans have seen a significant decline in the availability of middle-class jobs in this country during the last 20 years. And that is largely due to one thing – lousy trade deals approved by Congress...
State Battles
Emails show Scott Walker campaign treasurer got inside information on real-estate deal Wisconsin State Journal ...The campaign treasurer for Gov. Scott Walker got detailed financial information from a top Walker aide around the time he was bidding on a real estate deal involving Milwaukee County, according to correspondence released Tuesday as part of a now-closed investigation into Walker's office while he was county executive...
Wisconsin: Effort To Reinstate Voter ID Law Is Abandoned New York Times ...J. B. Van Hollen, the state's attorney general, is giving up on finding a way to get a voter photo identification law in place for the Nov. 4 election...
Why is the Boston Globe Covering Up for Gubernatorial Candidate Charlie Baker? (Updated) naked capitalism ...Boston's paper of record is effectively covering up for Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker by failing to cover a growing pay to play scandal in New Jersey, with Baker as one of its central figures...
Minimum Wage Increase Headed To Ballot NBC News ...San Diego City Council voted unanimously to let voters decide whether to raise the city's minimum wage. But it's not as though they had much of a choice. On Monday, the council voted on whether to put the matter on the ballot or rescind an ordinance that would have raised the minimum wage to $11.50 over the next three years, beginning in January...
Minimum Wage In Mountain View To Jump From $9 An Hour To $10.30 This Summer San Jose Mercury News ...the Mountain View City Council followed San Jose's lead by voting ... to increase the minimum wage in the city from $9 to $10.30 an hour. After the initial bump in July, the wage is supposed to increase every Jan. 1 based on inflation. The council set a goal of $15 per hour by 2018...
White Hat's Magic Trick: Transforming Public Schools into Private Assets Center for Media and Democracy ...There's a lot of money at stake in Ohio charter schools, which as a group will receive almost $900 million in 2014. Charters get about $7,200 per student in taxpayer funding, compared to about $3,500 per student in traditional public schools...
ALEC's Corporate Sponsors Should Be Held Accountable For Forcing Taxpayers to Subsidize Their Lobbying Common Cause ...A complaint pending in the IRS Whistleblower office, filed by Common Cause, used thousands of pages of ALEC's own records to challenge the group's claim that it does not engage in lobbying. If the tax agency finds that ALEC is a corporate lobby masquerading as a charity, and its corporate sponsors knew this all along, the businesses which contribute to its $7 million annual budget could be on the hook for back taxes, too...
War on Workers
Labor Secretary Says U.S. Record On Paid Parental Leave Is 'Dismal': 'We Need To Lead' Huffington Post ...Labor Secretary Tom Perez said Monday the path to more "shared prosperity" in the U.S. economy lies in a higher minimum wage, paid family leave for workers and stronger union density in the private sector...
Uber Will Lower GDP Forbes ...If someone takes an Uber ride instead of a regular cab, what happens? The customer is spending less, a taxi driver somewhere is losing a customer, the Uber driver is making less than the taxi driver would have, and the customer gets where they want to go in a happier state. Alternatively, traditional taxi companies may try to compete and start lowering their prices, as they appear to be doing. Add it all up; you get a smaller number. GDP goes down..
New Efforts To Ban Tobacco Farm Child Labor ABC News ...Two years after the Obama administration backed off a rule that would have banned children from dangerous agriculture jobs, public health advocates and lawmakers are trying anew to get kids off tobacco farms. The new efforts were jumpstarted by a Human Rights Watch report in May that said nearly three-quarters of the children interviewed by the group reported vomiting, nausea and headaches while working on tobacco farms...
Worker killed at North Antelope Rochelle Mine identified Associated Press ...A contractor died in a weekend accident at Peabody Energy's North Antelope Rochelle Mine in northeastern Wyoming…The contractor's death was the second this year at North Antelope Rochelle...
Friends, relatives remember Pittsburgh sanitation worker killed in Carrick Pittsburgh Post-Tribune ...Those who knew Mr. Hodges, who had no criminal record and who worked three jobs to try to support two children he treated as his own, said they were stunned by the way he died...
Greece: Deficit would be just 1.8% without the "support" to banks! unbalanced evolution ...Another official source, Eurostat this time, confirms that the banks in Greece received billions in bailout packages, leading to the unprecedented enlargement of the national deficit. Of the total 12.2% of GDP revised deficit, 10.4% is due to recapitalization of the banks!...
Miscellaneous
Low Oil Prices Hurting U.S. Shale Operations naked capitalism ...The number of active rigs drilling for oil and gas fell by their most in two months, according to the latest data from oil services firm Baker Hughes. There were 19 oil rigs that were removed from operation as of Oct. 17, compared to the prior week. There are now 1,590 active oil rigs, the lowest level in six weeks...
U.S. to funnel travelers from Ebola-hit region through five airports Reuters ...The United States ratcheted up its safeguards against Ebola on Tuesday, requiring travelers from three countries at the center of an epidemic in West Africa to fly into one of five major airports conducting enhanced screening for the virus...
Help, We're in a Living Hell and We Don't Know How To Get Out Esquire ...There have always been fools, and rancorous factionalism, too. What is new in this part of history that we are living through is that we have been taken hostage by them and by the heroes of the Constitution and various other charlatans...Teamster Powerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-26007853524288502582014-10-21T07:54:00.001-04:002014-10-21T09:56:06.937-04:00Today's Teamster News 10.21.14Teamster News
Hoffa Heads To Wisconsin To Urge Teamsters To The Polls teamster.org ...Jim Hoffa, Teamsters' General President, barnstormed the state of Wisconsin today to encourage fellow Teamsters to vote for working family candidates and those who support collective bargaining...
Teamsters Honor School Bus Worker Contributions To Safety During National School Bus Safety Week, Oct. 20-24 IBT ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is honoring school bus workers—including the more than 75,000 Teamster school bus workers—for their dedication to safety and service during National School Bus Safety Week, Oct. 20-24...
U.S. Senators seek antitrust scrutiny of Sysco deal to buy U.S. Foods Reuters ...The top two lawmakers on the Senate's antitrust panel have urged regulators to scrutinize food distributor Sysco Corp's planned purchase of rival U.S. Foods for $3.5 billion...
Trade
Trans-Pacific trade deal could bankrupt governments All Voices ...TPP is really about giving corporations the right to sue sovereign governments for profit...
State Battles
Scott Walker Puts Miles On State Vehicles For Job — And Campaigning Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...Since taking office in January 2011, Walker has used a state SUV and sedan to get to political events on at least 365 days, or more than a year out of his four years leading the state, according to state records reviewed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel...
Report Critical Of Corbett "Outsourcing" In Pennsylvania Public News Service ...Shrinking government has meant shifting responsibilities to private industry in some states, and Gov. Tom Corbett is one of seven governors taken to task in a new report that correlates these outsourcing decisions with major campaign donors and mixed results for taxpayers...
Kids As Crash Test Dummies: Brownback Outsources Child Support Services To Donor Huffington Post ...In March 2013, however, the Kansas Department of Children and Families (DCF) announced that all child support services would be outsourced, and a request for proposal was issued. Not limited to enforcement, the contracts would include services connected to court petitioning, locating parents, and establishing paternity, which had never been in private hands before...
Indiana Reinstates Time Limits For Some Food Stamp Recipients Indianapolis Star ...Advocates for the poor say it would be better for Indiana to first make sure it has sufficient programs to help the unemployed find jobs or new skills before reinstating the time limits...
Captive Customers: Outsourcing Prison Services Is Ruining Lives And Bilking Taxpayers Huffington Post ...Florida Governor Rick Scott campaigned on privatizing health care in Florida's prisons, and that is exactly what he has delivered. The Post investigation uncovered sky rocketing inmate deaths, as referrals to outside doctors have dropped by nearly 50 percent, and prescription pain management medications are replaced with over the counter drugs like Tylenol and ibuprofen. One inmate complained of lumps in her arm and was given a warm compress, Tylenol and solitary confinement. Six weeks later, she was dead of cancer that had spread throughout her body...
Supreme Court Allows Texas To Use Controversial Voter-ID Law Washington Post ...The Supreme Court's order that Texas can proceed with its strict voter-ID law in next month's election ended what is likely to be just the first round in a legal battle over election-law changes made by Republican-led legislatures around the country...
War on Workers
Taxi Shortage As Uber Lures Away Yellow Cabbies New York Post ...Fleet owners are blaming the Taxi and Limousine Commission for the mass migration, accusing it — or one of its employees — of supplying drivers' contact information to Uber. "They're leaking it," said Tony Georgiton, of Queens Medallion, which leases its cars to some 2,000 drivers. "It has to be somebody within the agency, within the TLC."...
Middletown Man Killed In Freak Farm Accident New Castle News Journal ...A tractor being operated by 64-year-old Robert L. Baker, of Odessa, was pulling a grain hopper, which had a tow strap attached to the back, and was attempting to pull out a tractor-trailer fully loaded with corn that was stuck in the mud, Fournier said...
Hartford jury awards $7M in DOT worker death case Associated Press ...The 41-year-old father of two from Rocky Hill was struck by a tractor trailer on the right shoulder of Route 8 northbound on March 22, 2012, after parking his DOT truck, which had its emergency lights on...
NYC Papa John's Pizza Franchisee Sued For $2 Million Reuters ...New York state's attorney general sued the owners of five Papa John's pizza restaurants in Manhattan on Thursday for about $2 million over claims that they had underpaid 400 delivery workers and shaved hours from their paychecks...

Teamster Powerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-62814951677713170852014-10-20T08:17:00.002-04:002014-10-20T08:17:53.498-04:00Today's Teamster News 10.20.14Teamsters
Ikea and union to start mediation Vancouver Sun ...Mediation is set to begin Monday between Ikea and the Teamsters' Union Local 213, which represents employees at the company's store in Richmond...
Coakley, Baker rally supporters as election looms Boston Globe ...At a cavernous union hall in Charlestown Sunday morning, her voice resonating off the walls, Democrat Martha Coakley exhorted members of Teamsters Local 25 to get out the vote for her...
Casino question could be a jackpot Boston Herald ..."Obviously Question 3 (the repeal initiative) is a big question for organized labor and also for the economy of Massachusetts," Teamsters Local 25 President Sean O'Brien said yesterday at a raucous Charlestown rally of hundreds of union members for Democratic candidate Martha Coakley...
Trade
The TPP Would Enroll More Online Spies Public Citizen ... the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) includes draft rules that would increase significantly the role of online service providers in keeping an eye on their users, under the pretext of combatting copyright piracy. Even if you are not an infringer, your Internet service provider (ISP) will be watching you, just in case...
Jack Lew Sees No Evil: Treasury Fails To Name China as a Currency Manipulator for the 12th Time  Economic Policy Institute ...China purchased $681 billion in total foreign exchange reserves between December 2012 and June 2014, and more than $2 trillion since this Administration took office. Currency manipulation by China and approximately 20 other countries has increased the U.S. trade deficit by $200 to $500 billion. Elimination of currency manipulation would create 2.3 million to 5.8 million U.S. jobs, without raising public spending at all (indeed, reducing the trade deficit through currency re-alignment would reduce the federal budget deficit)...
TPP proposal is a bad deal (LTE) News and Sentinel ...I do not want my children to wonder where they are going to work because manufacturing will be done in third world countries for pennies on the dollar...
State Battles
Snyder, Schauer spar over fairness of tax rewrite Lansing State Journal ...Democrat Mark Schauer is centering his populist message against Republican Gov. Rick Snyder around a 3-year-old tax overhaul that lowered the burden on business but raised it on individuals...
Letters: State worse under Walker (LTE) Post-Crescent ...the state's median income has dropped from $54,210 in 2009 to $51,647 in 2013 and that the percentage of children living in poverty has risen from 13.3 percent in 2008 to 18.4 percent in 2013...
War on Workers
The Social Security office of judges who hear appeals for disability benefits is 990,399 cases behind Washington Post ...What's left now is an office that costs taxpayers billions and still forces applicants to wait more than a year — often, without a paycheck — before delivering an answer about their benefits...
Poor kids who do everything right don't do better than rich kids who do everything wrong Washington Post ...rich high school dropouts remain in the top about as much as poor college grads stay stuck in the bottom — 14 versus 16 percent, respectively. Not only that, but these low-income strivers are just as likely to end up in the bottom as these wealthy ne'er-do-wells...
Ebola fear, monitoring eases for some in Dallas Associated Press ...Ebola fears began to ease for some Monday as a monitoring period passed for those who had close contact with a victim of the disease and after a cruise ship scare ended with the boat returning to port and a lab worker on board testing negative for the virus...
Harold Meyerson: How workers lost the power struggle — and their pay raises (opinion) Washington Post ...The distribution of income is a function not just of global forces but also of social and institutional power. And over the past four decades, U.S. workers have suffered a loss of power that may exceed even their loss of income...
Behind Private Equity's Curtain New York Times ...public employees are relying on their pensions for financial security. Private equity firms are relying on their pensions, too. Over the last 10 years, pension funds have piled into private equity buyout funds. But in exchange for what they hope will be hefty returns, many pension funds have signed onto a kind of omerta, or code of silence, about the terms of the funds' investments...

Teamster Powerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-26115812539880482522014-10-19T08:47:00.000-04:002014-10-19T08:47:04.136-04:00Today's Teamster News 10.19.14Teamsters
Teamsters' employees will not get raises Hernando Today ...Hernando County, which was poised to give salary increases to hundreds of employees — union members and others — instead will give them only to some non-union workers. The nonunion employees who will receive raises are those whose paychecks were deemed too low by consultants who looked at pay of government employees elsewhere…
First Student drivers vote to authorize strike Savannah Now ...First Student school bus drivers and mechanics voted to authorize a strike during a meeting of the Teamsters Union Local 728 on Saturday...
Trade
TPP Agreement Will 'Definitely' Raise Medicine Costs telesurtv.com ...The U.S. government has insisted you shouldn't read the leaked draft of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. Expect the cost of life saving drugs like cancer medicine to rise under the secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), a Malaysian legislator warned on Friday...
TPPA would criminalise journalism No Right Turn ...it also criminalises leaks which are detrimental to a party's international relations or international security. So, the US is trying to US the TPPA as a backdoor to silence WikiLeaks, the Snowden files, and the entire enterprise of journalistic criticism of power...
A Trade Storm Is Brewing Public Citizen ...Because Fast Track is so unpopular in the House, Speaker John Boehner has a devious plan to force the bill through Congress in the "lame duck" session after the November elections...
State Battles
The Court won't interrupt Texas voter ID law Scotus Blog ...In a stinging defeat for the Obama administration and a number of civil rights groups in a major test case on voters' rights, a divided Supreme Court told the state of Texas early Saturday morning that it may enforce its strict voter ID law for this year's general election, with early voting starting next Monday...
About Those 8400 Jobs (opinion) Milwaukee Sentinel ...what really matters, is that Governor Walker promised us, that his 250,000 jobs pledge was his "floor not his ceiling". He came as close to reaching his jobs promise as the Bucks did in landing Lebron James!...
War on Workers
Two-Thirds Of America's Biggest Retailers Are Worried About Flat Wages Huffington Post ...Sixty-eight percent of the top 100 retail companies in the U.S. -- a group that includes, Walmart, Apple, McDonald's and J.C. Penney -- say the country's stagnant wages pose a major threat to their bottom lines, according to a new report by the Center For American Progress...
Ebola! Prevention and Responsibility In The Public Interest ...Why didn't the National Institutes of Health (NIH) properly anticipate Ebola? It did, according to NIH director Dr. Francis Collins. "NIH has been working on Ebola vaccines since 2001," he asserted, pointing to stagnant congressional funding for developing a vaccine and therapeutics. Dr. Collins said that with funding, "we probably would have had a vaccine in time…"
Unprecedented amount of 'dark money' fuels midterm races Los Angeles Times ..."Is that going to become the new normal, this kind of money focused on one candidate, and we don't know where it's coming from?"...
405 Reopened After Construction Workers Killed in DUI Crash KTLA ...Two construction workers were hit and killed by drunk drivers on the northbound 405 Freeway early Sunday morning.Teamster Powerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-8079252504761976742014-10-18T08:35:00.001-04:002014-10-18T08:43:59.548-04:00Today's Teamster News 10.18.14Teamster News
Frontier Airlines President Says Nurse On Flights May Have Been At More Advanced Stage Of Ebola Than Thought Associated Press ...The president of (Teamster-represented) Frontier Airlines says a nurse who was on flights between Dallas and Cleveland and who later tested positive for Ebola may have been at a more advanced stage of the illness than previously thought...
Aramark Workers Negotiate New Contract Chicago Maroon ...The contract was negotiated by Debra Simmons-Peterson, the president of Teamsters Local 743, who represents the dining hall and academic café employees.... "Health insurance is more affordable for members and is now provided through [Teamsters Local's] health and welfare plan, which includes short term disability and dental insurance," Catharine Schutzius, a business agent for Teamsters Local 743, said...
Square D Workers Intimidated Into Contract, Union Leader Says Lincoln Journal Star ...A tentative settlement reached early Thursday could end strikes almost two weeks old at two of Schneider's six U.S. factories in Peru, Indiana, and Oxford, Ohio. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, IBEW and International Association of Machinists all represent some of the workers for Schneider...
Golden Gate Bridge Workers Unions, District Reach Tentative Contract Agreement San Francisco Examiner ...The tentative agreement - for which details remain confidential pending votes from all 13 bridge worker unions and the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District - came after both sides met for the first time since Teamsters Locals 856 and 665 announced Oct. 9 a planned bus strike. District spokesman Priya Clemens did reveal that "healthcare is an area where a compromise was reached."...
Sysco Looks To Divestitures To Nail Down US Foods Deal Reuters ...Food distributor Sysco Corp., fighting to complete a merger with U.S. Foods Inc , is attempting to craft a package of potential asset sales weighty enough to convince U.S. antitrust regulators to approve the deal...
State Says Bridgeton Landfill Owner Must Do More To Contain Fire's Spread St. Louis Public Radio ...Republic Services has confirmed that it agreed on Thursday, in writing, to comply with all of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources' requirements ― although the company remains committed to its position that the additional measures are not needed...
First Student Teamsters in Georgia to Take Strike Vote  teamster.org ... Employees of First Student, who provide school bus service to Chatham County schools, Georgia will vote Saturday to authorize their union to call a strike over unfair labor practices and the Company's refusal to meet their demands regarding income security over the summer months...
Teamster Taxi Drivers Protest at Union Station in D.C. teamster.org ...Taxi drivers, represented by the Teamster-affiliated Washington, D.C. Taxi Operators Association, held a protest today outside Union Station in Washington, D.C. to send a strong message to the City Council that drivers demand fairness now...
Business Briefs St. Cloud Times ...The Minnesota Public Transportation Association named Metro Bus driver Jerry Gillman as Minnesota Bus Operator of the Year… He also serves as a driver instructor and Teamsters Local 638 union steward representing Dial-a-Ride bus operators and dispatchers…
Trade
Leaked TPP Chapter Exposes Sweet Deals for Big Pharma and US Bully Tactics RINF ...WikiLeaks on Thursday released a second updated version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Intellectual Property Rights chapter, charging that it will hinder affordable access to medicines globally, increase online surveillance, and impinge on civil liberties while benefiting Big Pharma and other corporate interests...
The TTIP: A Brief History Of An Agenda For Corporate Plunder CounterCurrents.org ...The public is not allowed to know the positions held by the EU (unlike business interests) in these talks, who is being given access to whom and who is lobbying for what on whose behalf...
State Battles
U.S. Census Migration Report: WI Lost Nearly 2K Residents to MN in Past Year Uppity Wisconsin ...9,352 more people moved out of Wisconsin than moved into Wisconsin and a large share of those leaving-- 1,972 to be exact-- are going to our next door neighbor, Minnesota...
Tax returns show Chris Christie and his wife made $698,838 last year, paid $193,510 in taxes Star-Tribune ...Christie's wife, Mary Pat … works part-time on Wall Street and earned $475,854 for her job as a director at Angelo, Gordon & Co. and $34,698 from Cantor Fitzgerald...
War on Workers
FedEx Ground Says Its Drivers Aren't Employees. The Courts Will Decide Bloomberg Businessweek ...several recent court decisions have rejected FedEx Ground's arguments that the drivers are contractors, which could stem a broader trend of U.S. companies treating more workers as contractors instead of employees...
Walmart Workers Arrested In New York And Washington Protesting For $15 Minimum Wage UPI ...At least 42 Walmart workers and labor rights activists were arrested Thursday while marching for $15 per hour minimum wage outside of heiress Alice Walton's New York City apartment and in front of the Walton Family Foundation's Washington headquarters...
Construction worker involved in flood repair killed by semi on Lefthand Canyon Drive Daily Camera ...Federal workplace safety investigators are conducting an investigation into the death Friday of a road construction worker who was killed on Lefthand Canyon Drive when a truck involved in flood repair backed over him...
Private donors, including Target and IBM, supply spy gear to cops Pro Publica ...police foundations operate with little transparency or oversight and can be a way for wealthy donors and corporations to influence law enforcement agencies' priorities...
Miscellaneous
Hawk Attacks Man's Quadcopter Drone NBC News ...A hawk attacks a man's quadcopter while he was attempting to film the fall foliage in Cambridge, Massachusetts...Teamster Powerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-40132064309561989152014-10-17T08:06:00.000-04:002014-10-17T08:06:11.315-04:00Today's Teamster News 10.17.14Teamster News
Ebola outbreak: CDC, Frontier Airlines hunt passengers who flew with nurse Fox News ...Amber Joy Vinson, 29, a nurse at Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas who cared earlier this month for the first U.S. patient to die of the virus, flew on two Frontier Airlines flights between Dallas and Cleveland. Two days after she returned to work, she became the third confirmed case of Ebola in the United States. [Teamsters represent Frontier pilots]..
Airline notifying more passengers of Ebola Associated Press ...Frontier Airlines is expanding the circle of passengers being notified that they flew with a nurse who later tested positive for Ebola, or flew on a later flight using the same plane...
Hoffa Hits The Road To GOTV In Philadelphia teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa visited more than 150 members employed by Penn Auto Team today, urging them to get out and vote on Nov. 4...
No Golden Gate Bus Strike Tomorrow PR Newswire ...Teamsters 856 and 665 members working for the Golden Gate Highway & Transportation District will not be holding a bus service strike tomorrow in order to allow for the membership to vote on the District's latest offer...
Connelly returns to talk health insurance in Foster Township The Bradford Era ...Connelly said the supervisors would have to begin with non-union employees, asking them to pay copays and deductibles. Then when it's time to bargain with the Teamsters union, officials could say other workers are paying those...
Safety groups, congressmen say new poll proves public doesn't want truckers' hours increased; 'misleading' says ATA The Trucker ...Safety advocacy groups, The Teamsters Union, a couple of Democratic congressmen and a research group today disclosed a new public opinion poll they said shows "dramatically" and overwhelmingly that the general public would be opposed to truckers being able to increase their work week from 70 to 82 hours...
Ambulance Workers Unionize The Spectrum ...Citing a lack of facilities available to the company's 20-plus paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians working in the St. George area, as well as pay starting as low as $11 per hour for paramedics, employees approached the Utah Teamsters about organizing earlier this year, said Spencer Hogue, secretary treasurer and business agent with the Teamsters Local 222 in Salt Lake City. Employees voted to join in September, and the union has already initiated negotiations with Gold Cross management about improving work conditions, Hogue said...
New Concerns About The Bridgeton Landfill Fire CBS News ...It's not what they know, but what they don't know about where the Bridgeton Landfill fire is. That's why Pattonville Fire Department Assistant Chief Matt LaVanchy says the state Department of Natural Resources is sending a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, asking for more information on where the fire is in relation to buried nuclear waste...
Trade
Trade Talk Documents Suggest Access to Medicines May Become Harder Wall Street Journal ...As the latest round of talks for the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement begins in Australia next week, negotiators will be discussing revisions in a key document that consumer advocacy groups say would strengthen patent rights for drug makers at the expense of patients in poor countries...
Latest Intellectual Property Chapter Of TPP Agreement Leaked: Would Be A Disaster For Public Health TechDirt ...A bunch of countries are pushing for the right to cancel a patent if it "is used in a manner determined to be anti-competitive," but of course, the US and Japan are completely against such a thing...
State Battles
Pa. Senate Defeats Union Dues Measure Pittsburgh Post Gazette ...A controversial proposal that would have ended automatic dues deductions and political contributions from unionized public school employees was defeated in the state Senate Wednesday...
Arkansas Voter ID Law Struck Down Politico ...Arkansas' highest court on Wednesday struck down a state law that requires voters to show photo identification before casting a ballot, ruling the requirement unconstitutional just days before early voting begins for the Nov. 4 election...
Minnesota Unemployment Rate Drops To 4.1 Percent 610KDAL ...The unemployment rate of 4.1 percent is the lowest Minnesota jobless rate in eight years. The U-S unemployment rate was at 5.9 percent in September...
War on Workers
US hospital worker who may have handled Ebola samples quarantined on cruise ship MyFox8 ...A Texas hospital health worker who may have handled Thomas Eric Duncan's fluid samples has been quarantined on a cruise ship in Belize — another reminder of the widespread fears of the deadly virus...
Private Prisons Face Suits, Federal Probes Clarion Ledger ...Florida-based GEO got the boot in Mississippi after a federal judge in 2012 called the Walnut Grove Correctional Facility "a cesspool of unconstitutional and inhuman acts and conditions. In Idaho, the FBI is investigating the Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America after allegations emerged that records were falsified to cover up staff shortages at the Idaho Correctional Center, that gangs ruled and that violence was so rampant it was called "Gladiator School."...
Worker killed in accident at candy plant in Va. Associated Press ...a worker died Wednesday from injuries suffered in what appeared to be an industrial accident at Helms Candy Co. Police identified the worker as 50-year-old Gary Bowers of Washington County, Virginia. Police say Bowers was employed by At Work Personnel, a temporary employment agency...
Tomorrow's Taxi Commission Hearing Could Limit How Uber And Lyft Operate In New York City BuzzFeed ...The Taxi and Limousine Commission will be holding a public hearing on Thursday morning to discuss a proposed change to its rules that could place new restrictions on app-based car services like Lyft and Uber operate in New York City...
Miscellaneous
Bill that would stop Tesla direct sales in Michigan reaches Snyder's desk Crain's Detroit Business ...Legislation that would prevent Tesla Motors Inc. from directly selling its electric vehicles in Michigan has cleared the state's legislative chambers and is awaiting the signature of Gov. Rick Snyder...Teamster Powerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-8409133128680840282014-10-16T07:35:00.001-04:002014-10-16T07:35:22.144-04:00Today's Teamster News 10.16.14Teamster News
Teamsters, Highway Safety Groups Sue Feds To Force Tougher Rule For New Trucker Training AFL-CIO ...What happened to Dorothy Wert's late husband, David, on an unlit Pennsylvania highway three years ago shouldn't happen to anyone. Thanks to the lack of a tough federal rule for training rookie tractor-trailer drivers, the Teamsters and highway safety groups say, it did. Now they're suing in federal court to try to prevent such further tragedies...
Judge Reinstates Port Truckers Fired In Labor Dispute Los Angeles Times ..."This sends a message throughout the Port of Los Angeles and the shipping industry that misclassified drivers are in fact employees," said Julie Gutman Dickinson, the attorney for the truckers and the Teamsters Union port division...
Clallam Rejects Mediator Proposal, But Is Willing To Work With Teamsters Union On New Labor Contract Peninsula Daily News ...The Clallam County commissioners unanimously rejected Tuesday a mediator's proposal but said they are willing to continue working with Teamsters Local No. 589. Both county and union officials said that the county and its largest union are close to settling a new labor contract that has been in the works for 22 months...
Performance-Based Pay Accepted In 'Historic' Union Agreement Brainerd Dispatch ...The county also approved contracts with Teamsters Local 346, which includes nine corrections and dispatch sergeants, and with the Law Enforcement Labor Services of Minnesota (LELS) on behalf of communications officers in the sheriff's office...
Domestic Relations Court union in limbo The Chronicle-Telegram ...The push by Lorain County Adult Probation Department employees to unionize has had the unintended effect of throwing into question the legality of the [Teamsters] union representing workers at the county's Juvenile Detention Home and other residential facilities under the control of the county's Domestic Relations Court...
Trade
'Tough' issues still remain in Japan-U.S. TPP talks Japan Times ..."We were encouraged by the progress made this week during our negotiations," Cutler said. "But we need to underscore that issues before us are tough."...
Street Demonstrations In 21 European Countries Held To Protest Against TAFTA/TTIP; Another ACTA Revolt Brewing? TechDirt ..."Self-organised European Citizens' initiative Against TTIP and CETA"... was only launched last week, it has already collected over 600,000 signatures from European citizens at the time of writing...
State Battles
House Speaker gives his thoughts on what could help Ferguson rebound from months of turmoil Missouri Digital News ...Missouri's House Speaker said one of the ways the legislature could help Ferguson is by passing right-to-work legislation...
Opponents Ask Supreme Court To Block Texas Voter ID Law Reuters ... Civil rights lawyers on Wednesday asked a U.S. Supreme Court justice to block a Texas law requiring voters in the state to show certain forms of identification in order to cast a ballot...
Judge blocks Wisconsin law used in Walker probe Associated Press ...A federal judge Tuesday blocked enforcement of a Wisconsin election law that's at the center of an investigation into Gov. Scott Walker's 2012 recall campaign and more than two dozen conservative groups...
Investigation reveals influence of 'dark money' in Wisconsin against anti-mining senators The Cap Times ...The financial power and influence of an out-of-state mining company and business lobby Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce were used to directly target two Wisconsin lawmakers who stood in the way of the passage of a new state mining bill...
War on Workers
WalMart Makes Empty Gesture to End Minimum Wage Pay While Cutting Pay Levels naked capitalism ...pay levels, including benefits, are falling for WalMart workers, not rising...
Amid Ebola Fears, Airlines Share Few Cabin Cleaning Details KSTP ...flight attendants and others who work on planes are becoming increasingly concerned, while others are raising questions about just how clean airplane cabins are...
A Red Privatization Horror Story Thom Hartmann ...For Republicans, privatization is just a business opportunity. And they don't care about the damage privatization does to our society because privatization destroys the one thing standing between them and the total corporate takeover of our democracy: our government...
Texas worker dies after electrocution at school Associated Press ...West Texas authorities say a contractor has died after being electrocuted while working on a light pole at a school...
Worker dies at nuclear facility in E. Tenn.  Associated Press ... the employee fell into a vault where radioactive resins are unloaded before they are taken to be processed for disposal. He was taken to a hospital, where he died from his injuries...Teamster Powerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-86993227082016633442014-10-15T08:37:00.000-04:002014-10-15T08:37:08.745-04:00Today's Teamster News 10.15.14Teamster News

Teamsters Make History With First Ever Organizing Victory At FedEx Freight teamster.org ...A group of 47 drivers at FedEx Freight's East Philadelphia terminal in Croydon, Penn. made history today when they overwhelmingly voted to join Teamsters Local 107 in Philadelphia...
Philadelphia FedEx Freight Drivers Vote to Unionize Wall Street Journal ...A group of Philadelphia FedEx Freight drivers voted on Tuesday to join a local Teamsters union, a landmark move for the company's drivers who are seeking improved working conditions...
Mexican trucking pilot expires Capital Press ...The Teamsters Union, citing safety and job loss concerns, opposed the pilot program...
Hoffa: Mexican Cross-Border Trucking Program Has Failed teamster.org ...After spending tens of millions of dollars over the past three years to monitor and inspect trucks domiciled in Mexico, the Mexican Cross-Border Trucking Program ends today...
SEPTA, Rail Engineers Reach Tentative Agreement Philadelphia Inquirer ...Negotiators for SEPTA and Regional Rail locomotive engineers reached a tentative agreement, which will avert a possible commuter rail strike if the pact is accepted by the engineers and the SEPTA board...
State Asks Bridgeton Landfill Owners To Do More To Keep Fire From Spreading St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...The owners of the Bridgeton Landfill need to step up their efforts to keep an underground fire from reaching nuclear waste at the adjacent West Lake Landfill, according to a letter released Monday by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources...
Sysco Plying FTC To Save US Foods Deal New York Post ...Executives at Sysco, the nation's No. 1 food supplier to restaurants and schools, are talking with government regulators in an attempt to save the company's $3.5 billion purchase of US Foods, The Post has learned...
Trade
Anti-TTIP Demonstrations Seize European Capitals EurActiv ...Some 400 activist groups marched all over Europe on Saturday (11 October) in protest against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), as the EU-US trade deal crystallises opposition to a wide variety of issues – from shale gas to corporate finance...
State Battles
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Doesn't Think The Minimum Wage 'Serves A Purpose' Huffington Post ...Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) on Tuesday bluntly put into words how he feels about the minimum wage. "Well, I'm not going to repeal it," he said in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "but I don't think it serves a purpose…
Philly Teachers Say They Already Give To Keep Schools Afloat Philadelphia Inquirer ...Inez Campbell has paid for students' medicine. Kimberly Lent has footed the bill for prom tickets and class dues. Sharnae Wilson bought her own copier because her school's machine doesn't always work. Emily Cohen has shelled out for enough books to fill a small library. For decades, Philadelphia School District teachers, counselors, nurses, school psychologists, and others made a trade-off, they say...
War on Workers
Nurses at Texas hospital: 'There were no protocols' about Ebola CNN ...A union made troubling allegations Tuesday about the Texas hospital where a nurse contracted Ebola, claiming "guidelines were constantly changing" and "there were no protocols" about how to deal with the deadly virus."...
Second Texas health-care worker tests positive for Ebola USA Today ...A second hospital worker who helped care for Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan has tested positive for the disease, the Texas Department of State Health Services said in a statement early Wednesday...
Union Urges Protection for Federal Workers at Possible Risk for Ebola Exposure  Government Executive ...A federal employee union is urging agencies to "take all necessary measures" to protect government employees working at the country's ports of entry from possible exposure to the Ebola virus...
Construction worker dies after Sept. crash Toledo Blade ...A construction worker critically injured last month in a crash on the Anthony Wayne Trail in Maumee died Monday...
Sharp rise in contract workers killed on the job wsws.org ...Last year 734 contract workers were killed on the job in the US...The Bureau of Labor Statistics only began keeping figures on the deaths of contract workers in 2011. But in that short time there has already been a dramatic increase in the number of such workers killed. In 2012, 715 contract workers died in on-the-job accidents, up from 542 in 2011...
Koch Donors Uncloaked Politico ...New York hedge fund billionaire Bob Mercer wrote the largest check — $2.5 million — followed by Charles and David Koch, who each stroked $2 million checks from trusts in their names. The group received $1 million apiece from Arkansas poultry producer Ronnie Cameron, Wisconsin roofing billionaire Diane Hendricks and Nebraska trucking magnate Clarence Werner...
Walmart's Cuts To Worker Compensation Are Self-Defeating Al Jazeera America ...Walmart is cutting worker compensation — again. The stealthy way the giant retailer is cutting pay for most of its 1.4 million American workers not only throws sand in the gears of the nation's economic engine but also misleads investors by disguising the company's weakening finances...
Miscellaneous
Oil Keeps Crashing Business Insider ...This is just unbelievable what's happening in oil. Every day it's crashing. Markets are drifting lower overall, contributing to the general "risk off", deflationary-winds vibe. But man, oil! It's close to breaking below $80...
Uber Just Got A Failing Grade From The Better Business Bureau Jalopnik ...The heart of the BBB's charge apparently lies in Uber's "surge pricing" model, where the company charges you enormous amounts of money for a ride exactly when you need it most, like when they charged more than seven times the normal rate during a blizzard, or five times the normal rate during a busy conference...Teamster Powerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-24190999138578160962014-10-14T07:40:00.002-04:002014-10-14T07:40:34.436-04:00Today's Teamster News 10.14.14Teamsters
Schneiderman gets Teamsters endorsement Albany Times-Union ...State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman picked up the endorsement of the state Teamsters union Monday...Schneiderman's campaign on Monday rolled out the backing of the Teamsters Joint Council 16, a union known for its electoral efforts...
Teamsters ratify contract giving Pasco County employees raises Tampa Tribune ...The vote was nearly unanimous — 97 percent — clearing the way for employees to get their raises in the first paycheck of the fiscal year....Teamsters Local 79 represents more than half of the county's 2,000 workers...
Facebook Shuttle Drivers Demand a Union—And Some Sleep In These Times ...the company's shuttle bus drivers are looking to unionize with the Teamsters, seeking reasonable work hours and a living wage...
Trade
Mexico lifts dollar restrictions after drug cartels target US businesses to launder profits Fox News ...A Mexican law to severely limit the amount of dollars that banks can accept in cash has led drug cartels to bring money back to the U.S. to be deposited in American banks and wired back in pesos under the guise of international trade...
Demonstrations over missing Mexico students turn violent Washington Post ...Hundreds of students and teachers smashed windows and set fires inside a state capital building in southern Mexico on Monday, as fury erupted over the disappearance of 43 young people believed abducted by local police linked to a drug cartel...
Shock China coal tariff decision throws Australian free trade talks into turmoil Sydney Morning News ...The crucial final stages of free trade talks between Canberra and Beijing have been thrown into turmoil following China's shock decision to impose harsh new tariffs on Australian coal supplies...
State Battles
Will Voters Punish or Reward Scott Walker for His Out-of-Touch Views on the Minimum Wage? (opinion) Express Milwaukee ...Although a majority of Wisconsinites support a higher minimum wage, Walker is standing on the side of employers who don't pay adequate wages...
The Big Lie Behind Voter ID Laws New York Times ...There is virtually no in-person voter fraud; the purpose of these laws is to suppress voting...
War on Workers
Americans Face Post-foreclosure Hell As Wages Garnished, Assets Seized Reuters ...Many thousands of Americans who lost their homes in the housing bust, but have since begun to rebuild their finances, are suddenly facing a new foreclosure nightmare: debt collectors are chasing them down for the money they still owe by freezing their bank accounts, garnishing their wages and seizing their assets...
How 14 People Made More Money Than the Entire Food Stamp Budget for 50 Million People Alternet ...For the second year in a row, America's richest 14 individuals made more from their annual investments than the $80 billion provided for people in need of food. Nearly half of the food-deprived are children...
Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Campaign to Dismantle the Post Office  Angry Bear ...The plans are clear: eliminate the layoff protections in union contracts; cut the career workforce by nearly half while tripling the number of non-career workers; reduce service standards for first-class mail; do away with Saturday delivery; give management control of workers' benefit plans; consolidate over 250 processing plants; and close 15,000 post offices...
Car Wash Worker in Newark Killed in Crossfire of Shooting WABC-TV ...Witnesses tell Eyewitness News that Zoungo Sou-Oud was hard at work at the car wash, when a spray of bullets from across the street shattered what had been a peaceful Sunday afternoon...
Texas Health Worker Tests Positive For Ebola  Huffington Post ...A Texas health worker has contracted Ebola after treating a Liberian who died of the disease at a Dallas hospital last week, raising concern about how U.S. medical guidelines aimed at stopping the spread of the disease were breached...

Teamster Powerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-76482607010106346212014-10-11T04:45:00.000-04:002014-10-11T04:48:21.110-04:00Today's Teamster News 10.11.14A note to our readers: TeamsterNation will take a short break over the next two days. We will return on Tuesday, Oct. 14.
Teamster News
Teamsters' teach-in spotlights environmental injustice at hazardous Missouri landfill Peoples World ...Corporate environmental injustice - in this case, Republic Service at its toxic waste landfill and Superfund site in Bridgeton, Missouri - led the discussion at an October 3 St. Louis teach-in on the dump, its future and responsibility for cleaning it up...
FedEx workers at New Jersey facility reject union representation Reuters ...Workers at a New Jersey facility of package delivery company FedEx Corp (FDX.N) unit FedEx Freight voted against union membership on Friday...
Collective agreement reached between the Canadian Transit Company and Teamsters Local 879 KCEN-TV ...The Honourable Dr. K. Kellie Leitch, Minister of Labour and Minister of Status of Women, congratulated the Canadian Transit Company and Teamsters Local 879 today on reaching a new collective agreement covering 14 employees working as general maintenance employees, janitors, patrolmen and traffic guards at the Ambassador Bridge...
Golden Gate Bridge Workers To Hold One Day Strike Next Friday San Francisco Appeal ...Tim Jenkins, a labor representative of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 856, said the District's bus workers, servicers, mechanics and dispatchers work hard and fear that the new contract proposed by the District will deprive them of quality, affordable health insurance...
4 Arrested In Culinary Protest Near Red Rock Resort KSNV ...During the protest, Culinary organizing director Donell Henderson was arrested after he attempted to park a truck on Charleston for people giving speeches to stand on. Police took the truck away. Not long afterward, three organized labor leaders were intentionally arrested: Culinary Secretary-Treasurer Geoconda Arguello-Kline, Culinary President Ted Pappageorge and Chris Griswold, the secretary-treasurer of California Teamsters Local 986...
Bell Island Workers Get 4.5 Percent Raise, Signing Bonus The Telegram ...Keith Hollahan, business agent for the Teamsters, said the offer accepted was very close to what the union had been asking...
Chicago's 2014 Columbus Day Parade ABC News ...The parade will start on State at Wacker Drive and continue south to Van Buren. Serving as this year's Grand Marshal is John Coli, President, Teamsters Joint Council 25 and Vice President, Central Region, International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership Taking on Water, May Sink Forbes ...There are two big problems. One is that Congress is in a less charitable mood where trade is concerned than it was the last time it was asked to ratify a free trade agreement. The other is Japan, which stubbornly refuses to drop its tariffs on agricultural exports, even though all other parties to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) have committed to eliminate or phase out their tariffs on everything...
TTIP Negotiating Mandate Finally Declassified EurActiv ...The Council of the European Union Thursday (9 October) finally published the secret negotiating mandate for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the US...
State Battles
Teachers protest pension tax at Snyder town hall WOOD-TV ... Outside the event at Noto's restaurant in Cascade Township were several dozen teachers protesting the governor's visit. Among them was JoAnne Peterson, who taught at Grand Rapids City High for 35 years before retiring in 2010. But then something happened that she had never planned for: A tax on her pension was instituted...
Philadelphia Students Strike to Support Teachers Portside ...Two days after the Philadelphia School Reform Commission unilaterally canceled the teachers' contract and announced it would impose changes, hundreds of high school students went on "strike" Wednesday to support their teachers...
Study: Voter ID Laws Cut Turnout By Blacks, Young Associated Press ...tates that toughened their voter identification laws saw steeper drops in election turnout than those that did not, with disproportionate falloffs among black and younger voters, a nonpartisan congressional study released Wednesday concluded...
New right-to-farm laws protect Big Ag, not small farmers Aljazeera America ...The new wave of state right-to-farm laws is meant to stop environmental regulation and animal rights activists and protect industrial-scale agriculture. Across the country, supporters of right-to-farm laws are demanding that there be no restrictions on fertilizer use or animal antibiotics — even when they are used solely for growth stimulation and create human health problems — and no limits on puppy mills or crowding and caging of farm animals...
War on Workers
Bank Of America's No-Bid Prison Contract Facing Criticism In Congress firedoglake ...Bank of America received an extremely lucrative and favorable deal to be the exclusive provider of technology and financial services in all federal prisons. The terms of the Bank of America deal are so favorable that even members of Congress seem uneasy. Treasury gave the contract out without competitive bid and and the transparency most federal contracts are required to have...
EXCLUSIVE: Bank of America's horrid "customer service" scandal Salon ...Tony (last name not included for fear of reprisal on the job) has worked at Bank of America for 11 years as a customer service associate. He takes phone calls from customers whose needs range from a simple change of address to a family crisis that leaves the caller unable to pay their bills, and he tries to help them solve their problems. And Tony and his coworkers are organizing. Bank of America has had more complaints filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau than any other American financial institution...
22 States Where Adjunct Faculty Are Organizing for Justice In These Times ...A wave of organizing is sweeping contingent faculty. Below, a list of current campaigns in 22 states and D.C. shows how far and wide this wave has spread. The new thing is the Metro Strategy, where multiple institutions are targeted at once so a whole regional workforce becomes unionized. This takes advantage of how contingent (also known as adjunct) faculty members typically commute among various campuses, facing equally bad working conditions everywhere they go...
Walmart Health Insurance Could Leave A Really Sick Worker Broke Forbes ...First the Walmart employee would face the $2,750 deductible, less the $250 reimbursement, or $2,500. That leaves $27,500, 20 percent of which is $5,500. Walmart's insurance would require the employee to pay $5,000. An employee in for an extended stay or possibly an operation now faces bills of $7,500. That may be affordable for employees who make higher salaries, but it isn't for the bulk of Walmart workers...
Kia Worker Suffocated To Death LaGrange News ...Investigators and Kia officials are staying tight-lipped about the cause of an accident that killed a 57-year-old Lanett, Alabama, man Tuesday at the sprawling Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia plant in West Point...
Worker killed after machinery falls in Baltimore Associated Press ...A man has died after a piece of machinery fell on him at a building in downtown Baltimore...
Miscellaneous
Amazon to open first physical store for holiday season – report Associated Press ...E-commerce giant plans its first physical store for Manhattan, possibly temporarily, set to open for the holiday shopping season...Teamster Powerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-67161838244448212282014-10-10T16:26:00.003-04:002014-10-10T16:26:53.133-04:00Every day, workers are dying horrible deaths -- on the jobEvery year an average of 4,400 workers are killed at work in the United States. That's 12 workers every day. Now and then you may hear or read about a worker who died at a worksite in your community: crushed under heavy equipment, struck by a vehicle, pinned by a forklift. But it seems like an isolated incident.

It isn't. Just yesterday, a worker was killed in a 50-foot fall from a bucket truck in Ogden, Pa. A construction worker died in northwest Iowa after he was pinned under a piece of equipment.

And those are just the two we know about.

Low pay and part-time work can be as deadly as a dangerous machine. A 32-year-old Newark woman who worked at three Dunkin' Donuts died of asphyxiation recently when she tried to take a nap in her car between shifts. And an estimated 50,000 people die every year from occupational illnesses.

Here's a rundown of worker deaths we've followed recently (and we now include them in our daily news roundup, Today's Teamster News.

On Thursday, a 57-year-old autoworker was reported killed at a Georgia Kia plant in an 'industrial accident.

Also reported on Thursday was a 55-year-old highway worker killed on a highway project in Tilden, Neb.

On Wednesday, a 27-year-old man was reported killed after he was struck by large metal plates in a Tualatin, Ore., manufacturer.

On Sunday, a St. Louis trucking company employee was reported dead after being struck by a box truck in the company parking lot.

A 61-year-old man died last week in a south Georgia industrial accident while he was working on a hydraulic system at an agricultural business.

Another Nebraska man died after a truck with gravel tipped over on him. The same day, also in Nebraska, a worker at Midwest Manufacturing was killed when a standing forklift backed into a shelving unit and pinned him.

On October 1, Charlotte, N.C., firefighters reported a worker was killed at a recycling plant after being struck by a forklift. A Texas port worker was reported killed after metal collapsed on him at a Port of Brownsville recycling center.  A farmworker was reported dead in an East Idaho potato harvest accident; he was working on a tarp covering a truckload of potatoes when another truck backed up and crushed him.

On Sept. 30, a Philadelphia zoo worker was reported killed after being pinned under a golf cart.

Remember that one of tne of the most important things your union does is to fight for workplace protections.

And remember to stay safe out there!Teamster Powerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-429414168153939192014-10-10T08:10:00.001-04:002014-10-10T08:10:50.440-04:00Today's Teamster News 10.10.14Teamster News
Strike called on Golden Gate Bridge bus lines for Oct. 17 sfgate.com ...Buses operated by the Golden Gate Transportation District will not be crossing the Bay Area's most famous bridge next Friday as workers from the Teamsters Union Local 856 and 665, which represents dispatchers, supervisors and maintenance crews, announced a one-day strike...
Local 237, Ex-Council Speaker In Push to Pass Women's Equality Act The Chief ...Citing a recent agreement to settle a gender-pay lawsuit brought by its members against the city as an example of an incremental victory for income equality between the sexes, Teamsters Local 237 President Gregory Floyd joined former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to gather political support for a long-stalled equal-rights bill...
Teamster Taxi Drivers Turn Out In Mass Again To Protest Unequal Treatment By D.C. City Council IBT ...Thousands of D.C. cab drivers affiliated with the Teamsters Union participated in a second "Fairness NOW!" caravan today throughout the city to demand equal regulatory treatment with private sedan services by the D.C. City Council...
County Rescinds Blood Draw Surcharge After Unions Object Billings Gazette ...A proposed surcharge on Yellowstone County employees who failed to participate in a health fair blood draw backfired this week after two unions objected. The county commissioners voted 3-0 on Tuesday to rescind the surcharge after the Teamsters and the Montana Public Employees Association both told the county the issue must be part of contract negotiations. The Teamsters Local 190 also filed a grievance...
Trade
Michael Perelman: Globalization, "Free Trade," and Food as a Strategic Weapon naked capitalilsm ...much of the pressure to intensify globalization does not necessarily come from market successes, but often comes from disappointment in market outcomes. Dissatisfied that markets were not providing sufficient profits, powerful states adopted a strategy of pressuring their weaker counterparts to join in so called free trade deals...
TTIP's Threat To Democracy (opinion) Huffington Post ...TTIP marks the merging of the EU's common market with that of the United States, but without the social and political safeguards that at least theoretically exist in the EU. It is worth noting that little has been divulged in terms of the exact content and the extent of the risks to public services. But what we do know should be a matter of concern for everyone...
State Battles
Supreme Court blocks Wisconsin's voter ID law USA Today ...The Supreme Court on Thursday night blocked Wisconsin from implementing its new voter identification law on the eve of next month's elections. In a related action, a district court judge in Texas ruled that state's voter ID law is racially discriminatory and violates the Voting Rights Act. The state attorney general's office said it would appeal...
Parts Of North Carolina Law Limiting Vote Are Restored By Justices New York Times ...The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a brief, unsigned order reinstating provisions of a North Carolina voting law that bar same-day registration and counting votes cast in the wrong precinct. A federal appeals court had blocked the provisions, saying they disproportionately harmed black voters...
Even After Gov. Sam Brownback's Tax Cuts, Jobs Aren't Fleeing Missouri To Kansas In The KC Area (opinion) ...The tax cuts have led to deeper losses in state revenue than predicted. They have not created a significant growth in jobs that could begin to replace money lost from the tax reductions. The state's bond rating has been reduced...
War on Workers
New York Airport Workers Go On Strike Over Ebola Gawker ...LaGuardia Airport employees responsible for cleaning airplanes and bathrooms staged a walkout this week, saying they're not being adequately protected against the Ebola virus...
Slow Hiring Shows That The Job Market Isn't Fully Healed FiveThirtyEight ...Companies are posting new jobs a lot faster than they're filling them. Employers hired nearly 300,000 fewer workers in August than in July. This has been a persistent problem in the recovery: Job openings have more than doubled since the recession ended, but hiring is up by just 27 percent...
As Trains Move Oil Bonanza, Delays Mount For Other Goods And Passengers New York Times ...An energy boom that has created a sharp increase in rail freight traffic nationwide is causing major delays for Amtrak passenger trains and is holding up the transport of vital consumer and industrial goods, including chemicals, coal and hundreds of thousands of new American cars, rail officials and federal and state regulators say...
Worker Killed After Fall From Truck In Ogden Fox29 ...A worker has died after falling from a bucket truck in Delaware County, authorities say...
 Construction worker dies near Correctionville Cherokee Chronicle Times ... Authorities say a construction worker has died after he was pinned under a piece of equipment in northwest Iowa...
Miscellaneous
Here's How Much Business S&P 500 Companies Generate Outside Of The US Business Insider ..."Foreign sales accounted for 33% of aggregate revenue for the S&P 500 in 2013," Goldman Sachs' Amanda Sneider writes...Teamster Powerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-72730844673711334812014-10-09T16:47:00.000-04:002014-10-09T16:47:08.495-04:00Photos: Teamster boots on the ground (and ears on the phones) all over the USAWorking people don't have as much money as the squillionaires trying to buy our democracy, but there are more of us than there are of them. We have boots on the ground to combat the influence of big money in politics.

Here, for example, are just a few photos of Teamsters getting out the vote all over the country. We're pulling out all the stops to elect pro-worker candidates for office on November 4: phone-banking, handbilling, rallying, registering, hosting candidates. And we're campaigning for candidates seeking local office in the City of Tracy, Calif., all the way up to Alison Grimes, who's challenging Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Above, Brother Doug Bloch from Teamsters Joint Council 7 in Northern California sent us this photo of Teamsters from Locals 150, 439 and 601 phone-banking in Tracy. Our California brothers are working to elect Ray Morelos to be the first Latino mayor in the city's history. It's important because Tracy is home to Taylor Farms, which harasses and intimidates its mostly Latino workers who are fighting against poverty wages.

Congressman Tim Ryan, a staunch friend of working people, was invited to speak at Teamsters Joint Council 41 in northern Ohio. Afterwards, Tim tweeted:

Thanks to @Teamsters Joint Council No. 41 for having me out to speak!

Above, Teamsters stand with Nina Turner, a secretary of state candidate who will protect Ohioans' right to vote. The current administration is pulling all kinds of tricks to make it easier for its own supporters to vote. Standing to the left of Nina is Al Mixon, an international vice president and president of Teamsters Local 507.

Ohio Teamsters are also working hard for Connie Pillich, a pro-worker candidate for state treasurer. Lost-timers are up and at 'em early every day. Thanks to Brother Fred Crow for this photo.

Above, Georgia Teamsters are working hard to win for working families this November. Members of Teamsters Local 728 are fanning out to work sites, determined to make a difference in the race for governor. They're especially hopeful that Jason Carter will restore an honest state government that works for everyone, not just friends and campaign donors. Brother Eric Robertson sent us this photo from a YRC yard.

There are plenty more photos of Teamster boots on the ground to come!

Teamster Powerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-28503090720731917812014-10-09T07:52:00.001-04:002014-10-09T07:59:41.162-04:00Today's Teamster News 10.09.14Teamster News
The Teamsters launch a television ad campaign on rail safety Teamsters Canada ..."We want to send a clear message to the federal government: we need more inspectors on the track," explains Robert Bouvier, president of Teamsters Canada...
Drivers Say Two-Tier System Will Give Uber, Others Unfair Advantage teamster.org ...Thousands of D.C. cab drivers affiliated with the Teamsters Union participated in a second "Fairness NOW!" caravan today throughout the city to demand equal regulatory treatment with private sedan services by the D.C. City Council...
A Clear Choice In November (opinion) Detroit News ...When you don't fight to close loopholes that encourage companies to ship their jobs overseas, you're not doing what's best for Michigan...
The Antique Car That Might Replace Horse-Drawn Carriages In NYC Yahoo News ...The eCarriage is the proposed replacement for all that animal-powered transportation capacity for tourists...
Trade
A New U.S. Tobacco Proposal in TPP? Politico ...U.S. trade officials have denied they plan to offer a new tobacco proposal in the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks in Australia later this month. The pushback comes amid growing industry concerns that the United States is discussing the idea of prohibiting tobacco companies from bringing lawsuits against TPP governments under an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) clause...
Union Boss Len McCluskey Slams Vince Cable Over TTIP Threat To NHS The Independent ...unions and a plethora of NGOs are concerned about an element in the agreement which they say could pave the way for US multinationals to sue future British governments if they try to reverse the recent privatization of large parts of the NHS...
State Battles
Fla. Gov. Scott sued over finances by AG candidate Associated Press ..."The people of Florida don't really care whether Gov. Scott is worth $3 million or $300 million," said Sheldon. "What they care about is being able to determine whether he has a personal financial stake in the decisions he makes as a public official..."
AFL-CIO leaders decry Johnson's opposition to minimum wage increase Minneapolis Star Tribune ...AFL-CIO leaders on Tuesday decried what they say is Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeff Johnson's opposition to increasing Minnesota's minimum wage...
Philadelphia's school reform debacle: Despised governor crosses the line Salon ...Parents, teachers and students have resisted full privatization, New Orleans-style, and have found themselves punished for resistance as Gov. Tom Corbett, who controls the schools after a 2001 takeover by the state, slashes school budgets, wipes out thousands of jobs, and shutters dozens of schools. The latest move by Corbett and the Philadelphia School Reform Commission (SRC), which replaced an elected school board after the 2001 takeover, is to unilaterally cancel the city's contract with the 15,000 members of the Philadelphia Federation of teachers...
L.A. Lawmakers Lay Out Path To $15.25 Minimum Wage By 2019 Los Angeles Times ...Six members of the Los Angeles City Council launched an effort Tuesday to take the city's minimum wage to $15.25 by 2019, a move that would be more aggressive than the pay strategy backed by Mayor Eric Garcetti several weeks ago...
Mailers Sent By Koch Group Appear Designed To Misdirect Voters In Key U.S. Senate Race The American Prospect ...The North Carolina State Board of Elections announced this week that it is investigating a controversial mailer the conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFPF) sent to thousands of state residents that contained inaccurate information about voter registration...
Court Decisions On Voting Rules Sow Confusion In State Races New York Times ...Just weeks before elections that will decide control of the Senate and crucial governors' races, a cascade of court rulings about voting rules, issued by judges with an increasingly partisan edge, are sowing confusion and changing voting procedures with the potential to affect outcomes in some states...
Anti-ALEC Activists Pressure eBay to Drop Conservative Group National Journal ...More than 80 organizations are asking the e-commerce company to follow the lead of Google and other tech giants and divorce itself from the American Legislative Exchange Council...
Rightwing Groups Try to Stamp Out Local Union Contracts The Progressive ...A rightwing legal group is suing the school district, school board, and teacher's union in Madison, Wisconsin, for honoring a labor contract negotiated before the state supreme court upheld Governor Scott Walker's divisive Act 10 law, ending most collective bargaining rights for most public employees...
War on Workers
Union blocks traffic to protest casino givebacks Associated Press ...Casino workers blocked traffic on a highway Wednesday night to protest demands for contract givebacks being made to keep the Trump Taj Mahal casino open...24 protesters who sat down in the intersection and refused to move when ordered by officers were arrested and charged with obstructing a highway and failure to move...
Republicans Are Trying to Make Sure Minorities and Young People Don't Vote This November Mother Jones ...In 15 states, this year's midterms will mark the first federal election with a host of these new voting restrictions in action...
There Were Two Unemployed Persons Per Job Opening in August 2014 Economic Populist ...If one takes the U-6 broader measure of unemployment that includes people who are forced into part-time work and the marginally attached, the ratio is 3.9 people needing a job to each actual job opening....
Union Miners Rally At EPA To Protest New Emissions Standards Huffington Post ...Organizers said about 700 people made it to Washington for the protest, and another 50 or so were on a bus that arrived late. They carried signs that read "EPA Rules Destroy Good Jobs" and "EPA Rules Put Seniors At Risk," and some wore shirts that said "Stop The War On Coal."...
Burdened With Record Amount Of Debt, Graduates Delay Marriage NBC News ...Student loans have hit a record high of $1.2 trillion, putting a crimp in The American Dream of owning a home and starting a family. And it's affecting the broader economy too...
Uber Skimps On Driver Training, Then Charges Drivers $65 For Basic Driver Skills Course Forbes ...Uber puts some drivers out on the road with no vehicle inspections and barely any training — and Uber makes them pay out of pocket if they want basic driver training, drivers say...
Worker killed at West Point Kia plant turnto10.com ...The worker who died during an industrial accident at the Kia production plant in West Point has been identified as 57-year-old John Edd Dunnivant, of Lanett, the West Point Police Department has announced...
Highway worker dies in Tilden, NE accident Associated Press ...55-year-old man has been killed while working on a highway project in northeast Nebraska...

Teamster Powerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-79001737587026393702014-10-08T17:22:00.002-04:002014-10-08T17:22:14.442-04:00Worker power wins in California

Teamstesrs and Taylor Farms workers in Sacramento

Workers won important new laws in California over the past legislative session by telling lawmakers the truth about employers' abuse, the struggle to balance work and family and illegal but unenforced anti-union activities.

The California Federation of Labor describes how important laws for workers were passed because of the work of Teamsters, IATSE, SAG-AFTRA, LIUNA, Taylor Farms workers, OUR Walmart and more.

In the Labor's Edge blog, we learn how entertainment workers helped to keep television and film jobs in California with a tax incentive for the industry. We learn how Taylor Farms workers helped protect temporary workers by winning passage of a law that holds employers liable for temporary workers. And we learn how OUR Walmart workers got three paid sick days for nearly every employee in California.

Here's Labor's Edge:

Throughout the year, workers and union members gathered, worked, petitioned, called, rallied, lobbied, testified, protested at the Capitol for pro-worker legislation. They engaged their coworkers in their fight for better jobs and a brighter future. They took days off work and risked their jobs to tell their stories and to push for greater worker protections.

The loss of good film and television jobs to other states and countries is devastating families. Union members spent all year fighting for a solution in AB 1839, which invests in the industry.

Their activities culminated in a Mobilization Day in Sacramento where hundreds of union workers demonstrated their crafts through a make-up transformation, erection of a blue screen from the set of the TV hit Scandal and presentation of the crew, cast and talent of hit shows. Every dollar of a film tax incentive investment goes to support a union job – with the Teamsters, IATSE, SAG-AFTRA, IBEW, LIUNA, AFM, DGA. Their collective efforts produced success – the Governor signed AB 1839 (Gatto/Bocangera), creating a $330 million film tax incentive for five years, on September 18.
Two-thirds of Taylor Farms workers have little or no protection from wage theft or dangerous working conditions because they work for staffing agencies.

All this will change because Governor Brown signed AB 1897 into law on September 28. This landmark bill will hold employers responsible for the wages, health and safety, and workers compensation for contracted employees doing their work while on their premises. This bill was enacted because of the courage, the power, the voice of workers at Taylor Farms. Over and over again, Taylor Farms workers and the Teamsters would descend on the Capitol, speak their truth, testify in committee, bird dog corporate lobbyists, claim valuable real estate at "The Gate" where lobbyists can meet with legislators off the floor. Taylor Farms workers and Teamsters would line up in the hallway and flush out the corporate lobbyists. And it all worked!
And here's how OUR Walmart won three sick days for nearly all California workers:

Members of the OUR Walmart campaign worked the stores, talking to associates about what it would take to make their jobs at Walmart better jobs. Resoundingly, the lack of paid sick days, being forced to work when they or their family member is sick…or else face discipline and the threat of losing their jobs is what they heard as a top priority for Walmart associates. OUR Walmart members from throughout the state gathered at the state Capitol in the final weeks of the legislative session to fight for paid sick days. They spent time on the doors lobbying for three paid sick days and gathered at the Senators entrance to the Senate floor to engage in valuable face time with legislators. Their efforts produced success – Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 1522, creating three paid sick days for nearly all California workers on September 10.
Great work everybody!

Teamster Powerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-20870739289120474842014-10-08T08:01:00.001-04:002014-10-08T08:01:20.908-04:00Today's Teamster News 10.08.14Teamster News
Teamsters Warehouse Workers Face a Bankruptcy Court Designed to Protect Bosses, Not Workers In These Times ...The Keene, New Hampshire-based C&S Wholesale Grocers's actions could prove to be an immediate threat to the livelihoods of about 1,100 Teamster members in the Mid-Atlantic region, the latest in a series of damaging anti-union maneuvers by the company. The action also highlights the growing market power of C&S, a low-profile company that has quietly grown into the nation's largest warehousing corporation...
Investors, activists press eBay, others to break up with ALEC Reuters ...Civic groups such as Common Cause and the Environmental Defense Fund and unions including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters wrote to the e-commerce company's management asking it to reconsider involvement in ALEC because of what they called its "extreme agenda."...
Trade
TTIP Could Weaken Chemical Rules, Environmental Groups Say Wall Street Journal ...environmental groups worry the chemical industry will use these procedures to delay or block new restrictions or bans on chemicals that pose a threat to people or the environment...
TPP Talks Slated For Oct. 25 As Nations Scramble For Deal law360 ...The Australian government announced Thursday that it will host a meeting of Trans-Pacific Partnership trade ministers this month to tackle outstanding provisions on intellectual property, agricultural market access, state-owned enterprises and other areas as negotiators race to close major parts of the pact by year's end...
State Battles
Walker administration denies complaint seeking to raise minimum wage Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ...Gov. Scott Walker's administration has denied a complaint by a labor group seeking to force an increase in Wisconsin's minimum wage...The state law requires that Wisconsin's minimum wage "shall not be less than a living wage."...
Rochester Borough Says No To Police Outsourcing Insurance News ...After comments about sacrificing safety for potential savings, officials decided Tuesday to halt a conversation with the township about contracting out police services...
City To Ponder Raise For Contractor Workers News Journal ...Wilmington City Council will take action next month on an ordinance that will require employees of city contractors to get paid at least $10.10 an hour...
War On Workers
Freight Train Drivers Report Falling Asleep On The Job CBC ...Train operators in Canada's burgeoning freight rail industry report falling asleep at the controls and coming to work exhausted at an alarmingly high rate, according to an ongoing CBC News investigation into rail safety...
43 Missing Students, a Mass Grave and a Suspect: Mexico's Police New York Times ...they are among 43 students reported missing after deadly clashes with the police on Sept. 26, when at least six student protesters and bystanders were killed in the restive, rural state of Guerrero, one of the poorest in the country and long afflicted by political, social and criminal upheaval...
Las Vegas Schools Groan From Growing Pains New York Times ...Schools in this suddenly robust community are so packed these days that 13 of them stay open 12 months a year. Children go to classes and eat lunch in cramped, windowless trailers, bustling with restless students. Thousands more take online classes at home, and school district administrators, desperate for space, are looking to abandoned strip malls for classrooms...
The Great Wage Slowdown Of The 21st Century New York Times ...The typical American family makes less than the typical family did 15 years ago, a statement that hadn't previously been true since the Great Depression...
American Agriculture's Child Labor Problem KCET ...Fourteen hour days with no pay, very little food, routinely beaten and whipped by overseers before being locked away in cramped quarters every night. The fact that U.S. companies were reaping the benefits of this slave labor was outrageous. But what's more disturbing is the fact that child labor exploitation isn't only occurring outside of America. It happens here, too. And it's not entirely illegal...
Construction worker dies on the job KCCI News ...Authorities say a construction worker has died after he was pinned under a piece of equipment in northwest Iowa...
Tualatin worker dies after being struck by large metal plates, state agency says Oregon Live ...A 27-year-old man hit by large metal plates while working at a Tualatin manufacturing business Monday morning has died, according to the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division...
Is Your Dentist Ripping You Off? Mother Jones ...more and more young dentists are taking jobs with chains, many of which set revenue quotas for practitioners. This has created some legal backlash: In 2012, for example, 11 patients sued (PDF) a 450-office chain called Aspen Dental, claiming that its model turns dentists into salespeople...
Microsoft's Windows 10 has permission to watch your every move Tech Worm ..."Microsoft collects information about you, your devices, applications and networks, and your use of those devices, applications and networks. Examples of data we collect include your name, email address, preferences and interests; browsing, search and file history; phone call and SMS data; device configuration and sensor data; and application usage."...
Government Set Up A Fake Facebook Page In This Woman's Name  Buzzfeed ...A DEA agent commandeered a woman's identity, created a phony Facebook account in her name, and posted racy photos he found on her seized cell phone. The government said he had the right to do that...Teamster Powerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-69510115870376720852014-10-07T07:13:00.001-04:002014-10-07T07:13:43.951-04:00Today's Teamster News 10.07.14Teamster News
Saputo Dairy Workers Overwhelmingly Choose Teamsters teamster.org ...Workers at the Saputo Inc. (TSE: SAP) cheese production facility in Lena, Wisc., have voted overwhelmingly, 367 to 79, in favor of representation by Teamsters Local 662 in Green Bay, Wisc. There are 459 production, maintenance and warehouse workers...
Teamsters, St. Louis Community Hold Teach-In On Republic Services' Nuclear Waste Landfill on Fire Teamsters ...On Saturday, Teamsters gathered with St. Louis-area residents, union members, elected officials, faith leaders, environmental experts and attorneys about Republic Service's [NYSE: RSG] West Lake Landfill. West Lake is a Superfund site in Bridgeton, Mo. that contains 8,700 tons of buried uncontained radioactive nuclear wastes adjacent to an underground landfill fire...
Teamsters Local 922, D.C. Taxi Drivers to Hold A Second Caravan for Fairness teamster.org ...Taxi Companies, UberX, Lyft, and others should follow the same regulations, rather than the proposed two-tiered system that gives a competitive advantage to private vehicles for-hire and keeps the public vehicles for-hire strictly controlled...
Teamsters Urge Zuckerberg, Loop Trans. To Recognize Facebook Bus Drivers' Union teamster.org ...Rome Aloise, International Vice President and President of Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif., wrote a letter to Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg last week on behalf of bus drivers who transport Facebook employees from San Francisco, Palo Alto and other areas to the Facebook campus. The drivers, employees of Loop Transportation, are seeking union representation and a contract...
BLET delegates back two-person train crews on final day of Third National Convention teamster.org ..."The single employee train crew issue is one of the most important questions facing rail labor, and specifically the BLET," the resolution reads...
PCC tries to impress a formerly unhappy customer philly.com ...When her organization last came to Philadelphia, in 2009, six unions worked in the building. In May, two of the six did not sign a customer satisfaction agreement by a deadline set by management. Those two unions - the carpenters and the Teamsters - no longer work in the building, although they are contesting that move with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board...
Trade
Food fight The Economist ...This week Koji Tsuruoka, Japan's chief negotiator on the TPP, blasted the media in general, which, he said, pays far too much attention to American spin doctors when reporting on the trade agreement, negotiations for which are conducted in secret...
Find out what TTIP is and how it will affect you On the Wight ...Growing numbers of Islanders have become aware of the threat to public services, food safety and wages posed by an international trade treaty being cobbled together behind closed doors by EU governments – including Britain...
Make No Mistake, the TTIP is a Move in the Wrong Direction Global Economic Intersection ...This week has witnessed the seventh round of talks between EU and US negotiators seeking to hammer out a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). These have been mired in controversy over the supposed impact that the agreement will have on the ability of countries to regulate in the public interest...
State Battles
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback's Tax Cuts Cause Another Revenue Hit (opinion) Kansas City Star ... the lower income tax rates that took effect in January 2013 haven't brought a dramatic surge in revenue from the bonanza of new jobs Kansas was supposed to enjoy....
Secretly kissing up to Kochs pays off for Doug Ducey Arizona Republic ...Fresh off a primary in which dark-money attacks were launched against any Republican who stood in Ducey's way, we now learn that Ducey has been cozying up to America's premier princes of dark money...
Scott Walker Could Win Thanks to Wisconsin's Voter ID Law New Republic ...It's hard to say how many people might be disenfranchised by the law, but in such a tight election, where Republican incumbent Scott Walker is neck-and-neck with Democrat Mary Burke, it doesn't take many votes to swing the results...
Perdue 'proud' of outsourcing past, blames Washington for jobs lost Atlanta Journal-Constitution ...U.S. Senate candidate David Perdue, … a former CEO for Dollar General and Republican nominee to replace retiring Sen. Saxby Chambliss, was stung by his own words last week in an article (that) ... quoted Perdue from a 2005 deposition where he said he "spent most of my career" outsourcing...
War on Workers
The Good News and Bad News About 5.9 Percent Unemployment truth-out ...there is a real danger that the political power of the financial sector will force (Federal Reserve chair Janet) Yellen to start slowing the economy and stopping job growth long before workers gain any bargaining power...
FedEx Drivers Win Kansas Top Court Ruling On Employment Bloomberg ...FedEx Corp. (FDX) drivers in Kansas, in the lead case among 21 consolidated lawsuits over unpaid expenses and overtime, won a ruling by the Kansas Supreme Court that they're employees and not independent contractors...
Hours Of Service Rules Back As Top Concern In Annual Trucking Industry Survey The Trucker ...Operational impacts being experienced across the supply chain from the changes to the Hours-of-Service (HOS) rules that went into effect in 2013 once again propelled the HOS rules to the top of the list in ATRI's annual survey of more than 4,000 trucking industry stakeholders...
Exclusive: Hundreds Of Devices Hidden Inside New York City Phone Booths Buzzfeed ...Beacons can push you ads — and help track your every move. Update: Hours after BuzzFeed News exposed the devices, the city ordered the removal of the devices...
Mexico federal agents disarm city's entire police force after student attacks DW ...Mexican federal agents have disarmed all police in the city of Iguala and taken over security. Local officers are alleged to have conspired with a criminal gang to kill 43 missing students, with a mass grave discovered...
Housing Rights Group Says HUD Program Helps Wall Street, Hurts Homeowners truth-out ...They contest that the program has deepened the pain of homeowners and tenants by handing their fates over to hedge funds and investment groups that often have no interest in pursuing loan modifications or other options that would allow residents to remain in their homes...
Michigan judge rules Kalamazoo county has right to take woman's house over one missed tax payment Daily Kos ... Deborah Calley maintains that she was unaware she owed any back taxes and of the ten certified letters sent by the county, only one was sent to her home, the other nine were sent to banks. She steadfastly maintains she never received a single notice. She's also been willing from the get-go to pay the $2,000 debt, but the county has rejected her offers, preferring to sell her mortgage-free home...
Miscellaneous
Keystone Pipeline Opponents Causing Environmental Disaster (opinion) New York Post ...Despite dangers and lawsuits, governments continue to drag their feet on building pipelines or on cracking down on rail practices. By so doing, they merely increase the likelihood of another tragedy. Every day thousands of old tanker cars carry oil along America's 140,000 miles of track, and another disaster looms...
More Oil Trains Heading To N.J. NorthJersey ... The new rail facility at Bayway is cementing New Jersey's reputation as a major transportation corridor for crude oil even as the burgeoning "crude by rail" industry faces increasing concerns about safety following a series of explosive derailments in the past year...Teamster Powerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-45990776897065857322014-10-06T16:51:00.002-04:002014-10-06T16:51:35.431-04:00Teamsters to Facebook: Your drivers deserve a union

Jimmy Maerina

The drivers who shuttle Facebook's high-paid workers to and from work want to join the Teamsters, and they are asking Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg to help them out.

The drivers work from dawn to well past dusk, with six hours at the yard in between shifts. Their employer, Loop Transportation, refuses to recognize the Teamsters as their representative.

Teamsters Local 853 President Rome Aloise sent a letter to Zuckerberg last week. Aloise is also president of Joint Council 7 and an international vice president for the Teamsters.

USA Today reported,

...the top Teamsters official for Northern California has sent a letter urging Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to "encourage" its contractor to allow the drivers to "bargain a fair contract."

"It is reminiscent of a time when noblemen were driven around in their coaches by their servants. Frankly, little has changed; except the noblemen are your employees, and the servants are the bus drivers who carry them back and forth each day," Teamsters official Rome Aloise wrote to Zuckerberg.

This is the second time the Teamsters have tried to organize the Facebook drivers, but the first time the union has gotten a majority of Facebook shuttle drivers to sign cards asking Local 853 to represent them.
Jimmy Maerina told the New York Times, he leaves home at 5 a.m. and returns at 9 p.m.

"You spend 16 hours a day — no time for family, no time for the kids," Mr. Maerina said. "When I leave home in the morning, my kids are sleeping, and when I get home at 9, they're done with their homework."

Mr. Maerina, who earns $18 an hour and was out temporarily with an injury, said his 51-passenger bus had been attacked by San Francisco residents who resent highly paid high-tech workers pushing up rents and gentrifying neighborhoods, forcing out some longtime residents. "It's very hard for me to make ends meet," he added. "Housing costs are crazy in the Bay Area."
Read the letter sent by Brother Aloise at http://ibt.io/finkd.

Teamster Powerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-51593453397935765572014-10-06T14:52:00.004-04:002014-10-06T14:52:57.963-04:00Supreme Court to hear Amazon wage theft caseThe U.S. Supreme Court has yet to meet a corporation it doesn't love, which is why an upcoming wage theft case against an Amazon contractor is so troubling.

The case, which the high court will hear Wednesday, pits a contract worker at an Amazon warehouse against the online retail giant.

As Bloomberg reported,

Jesse Busk spent a 12-hour shift rushing inventory through an Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) warehouse in Nevada to meet quotas. His day wasn't over, though.

After clocking out, Busk and hundreds of other workers went through an airport-style screening process, including metal detectors, to make sure they weren't stealing from the Web retailer. Getting through the line often took as long as 25 minutes, uncompensated, he and others employed there say.

"They did it on my time," Busk, 37, of Henderson, Nevada, said in an interview. "If people are stuck in your building and they're not allowed to leave, why don't you go ahead and pay them?"
Busk filed a class-action suit against the contractor, a temp agency called "Integrity Staffing Solutions." Workers at other Amazon warehouses have sued both Amazon and the temp agencies that hired them.

What's troubling is that Busk will probably lose his case. Bill Blum noted in truthdig,

Jesse Busk has almost no chance of winning his lawsuit when it comes before the Supreme Court for oral argument Wednesday during the opening week of the new 2014-15 term. His dismal prospects stem not from any legal weaknesses in his case but from one overriding fatal flaw—he's an ordinary working person challenging the prerogatives of corporate power. Cases like his seldom succeed before the panel led by Chief Justice John Roberts, rated by many observers and scholars as the most pro-business iteration of the high tribunal since the early 1930s.
The Supreme Court is therefore likely to open the door for even more wage theft. As University of Washington law professor Eric Schnapper said,

It's a much bigger deal than just about searches. If the court adopts the company's view, it would allow employers to require employees do a variety of tasks once their shift ends.
Brace yourselves for still another anti-worker decision from the Supreme Court.

Teamster Powerhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-8452909808906276652014-10-06T07:19:00.001-04:002014-10-06T07:19:58.589-04:00Today's Teamster News 10.06.14Teamsters
Facebook's Bus Drivers Seek Union New York Times ...they start work around 6 a.m. and do not finish until 9 p.m., 15 hours later. Now, some of these shuttle bus drivers, who get Facebook employees to work, are seeking representation by the Teamsters union...
Facebook workers 'like noblemen driven by servants' claims union The Telegraph ...Some of the drivers who ferry staff to the social network's headquarters in Menlo Park, California want to be part of the Teamsters union in order to get better conditions from the outside contractor they work for...
Uber Drivers Across The Country Are Organizing Their Largest Protest Yet Buzzfeed ...The California App-Based Drivers Association (CADA) – a non-profit dedicated to protecting fairness and transparency in the app-based car service industry – is mobilizing Uber drivers across the country and in some parts of the world to participate in what may be the largest coordinated Uber protest yet.
CADA, which is tied to the Teamsters Local 986 in L.A. , will be protesting at Uber's L.A. offices on October 22 at noon and has encouraged all Uber drivers to gather at their local Uber offices...
Schakowsky walks picket line with Golan's workers Skokie Review ... U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-9, and 7th District Cook County Commissioner Jesus Chuy Garcia joined dozens of striking workers Friday on the picket line outside Golan's Moving & Storage in Skokie. The workers are entering their third month on strike after voting convincingly to unionize and join Teamsters Local 705. But the workers say the company has refused to bargain with them in good faith over a first contract...
Trade
Japan-U.S. accord still seen as key to TPP deal Japan Times ...An agreement between Japan and the United States is still a key element before the envisioned Trans-Pacific Partnership can become a reality, according to informed sources...
TISA, Yet Another Secret "Trade" Threat New American ...The four-day TISA event took place September 22-25 at the Geneva, Switzerland, headquarters of the World Trade Organization. It was held in secret, behind closed doors, of course, the same as with the ongoing talks for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)…. the drafters intend for the text of the agreement to remain secret for five years after the proposed TISA rules take effect!...
Make no mistake - the TTIP is a move in the wrong direction (opinion) Ecologist ...A huge EU-US trade and investment deal may not be quite so dangerous as its opponents portray it, writes Gabriel Siles-Brügge - but it still represents a serious threat to governments' ability to regulate for the benefit of citizens and environment, and would entrench 'competitive' markets in public service provision...
State Battles
Scott Walker is not running for governor The Cap Times ...The remarkable thing about Gov. Scott Walker's re-election campaign is that Walker makes little effort to hide the fact that he is not running for governor in 2014. He is running for president in 2016...
Governor Walker dismisses need for extended DMV hours Wisconsin Radio Network ..."We know that 300,000 registered voters in Wisconsin lack the ID cards now necessary. Without better DMV service hours and more convenient DMV locations, I'm convinced many of these people will be shut out of the November election."...
ALEC has huge influence in Indiana (LTE) Indianapolis Star ...By ALEC's own account, recurring controversies have caused the organization to lose almost 400 state legislators as members in the last three years. However, ALEC highlights Indiana as having a 40 percent gain in legislative members, with many members in the Indiana General Assembly...
War on Workers
Income Inequality Has Regressed to 1820 Levels, Will Likely Keep Regressing Motherboard ...Globalization, the study finds, has the curious effect of making nations more equal relative to each other, but making the residents of the nations less equal relative to each other...
Shift to Bad Retirement Plans Threatens Retirees With Privation truthdig ...The United States' largest employers are increasingly pushing their workers into inadequate retirement plans—and they acknowledge doing so...
Oil, rail industries want time to fix cars Associated Press ...The oil and railroad industries are urging federal regulators to allow them as long as seven years to upgrade existing tank cars that transport highly volatile crude oil, a top oil industry official said. The cars have ruptured and spilled oil during collisions, leading to intense fires...
Two injured as freight train derails in north Louisiana Reuters ...The conductor of a Union Pacific freight train and an engineer on board were injured on Sunday when it crashed into a tractor-trailer that was stuck on tracks in northern Louisiana, a spokesman for Union Pacific said...
1 Dead In NJ Crash Involving Tanker Truck, SUV myfoxphilly.com ...One person is dead after a crash involving a tanker truck and an SUV in Westville...
Mexico massacre victims feared to be missing students Reuters ...Bodies found in mass graves in southwestern Mexico are feared to be those of students who went missing last month after they clashed with corrupt local police, authorities said on Sunday...
A grand design for greater gridlock at National Labor Relations Board Los Angeles Times ...Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee thinks he has the solution to perceived problems at the National Labor Relations Board: Make the five-member body just as deadlocked as Congress...
Big Pharma Ripoffs on Cancer Patients Makes 60 Minutes Economic Populist ... In 2012 alone, of the 12 cancer drugs approved by the FDA, 11 cost over $100,000...

Teamster Powerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-4328899339135469869.post-61952099810296447202014-10-05T08:08:00.001-04:002014-10-06T11:50:09.176-04:00Today's Teamster News 10.05.14Trade
U.S. 'feckless' on trade? — Dates set for TPP meeting — Export ban won't stop oil refining, study says Politico ...Former U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman questions whether his old boss, President Barack Obama, has the political drive and interest to win congressional approval of a pair of ambitious trade deals with Asia-Pacific countries and the European Union...
State Battles
Gov. Rick Scott's complex finances raise new questions about his state disclosure Miami Herald ...The governor, for instance, does not disclose the entire value of assets that reside in different trust and partnership accounts and for which he's listed in federal records as the "beneficial owner," according to an extensive Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times review of hundreds of federal and state documents filed in Florida, Washington, Connecticut, Texas, Nevada and Illinois...
Study: State taxpayers on the hook for $1 billion in useless highway projects due to faulty data Wisconsin Gazette ...The Wisconsin Department of Transportation will waste up to $1 billion on unneeded highway expansions if it continues to rely on inaccurate, outdated highway-use projections, concluded a comprehensive traffic study by a nonpartisan watchdog group...
Democrats question Walker's use of state planes for short trips Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...state planes are being used to carry Gov. Scott Walker on trips around Wisconsin with legs as short as the 30-mile jaunt from Burlington to Milwaukee, according to state records...
War on Workers
Wage Theft Costing Low-Income Workers Billions NBC News ...Nearly $1 billion was recovered in 2012 by lawyers or regulatory agencies acting on behalf of workers who were paid below minimum wage, not paid for overtime or other wage and hour violations...
Workers in Part-Time Limbo Point to U.S. Job-Market Slack Bloomberg ...Forty-nine percent of people working less than 35 hours a week in 2012 and desiring full-time work were able to find such a position within a year, according to research by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. That's down from 61 percent in 2006...
A Middle-Class Crunch Obama Didn't Mention Bloomberg View ...A new report shows that more and more U.S. workers are getting squeezed in another way: pushed into inadequate retirement plans by the country's largest employers. Worse, their employers acknowledge as much...
States probe JPMorgan Chase as hack seen fueling fraud Reuters ... Two U.S. states are investigating the theft of 83 million customer records from JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) in a massive cyber attack uncovered over the summer, and more may soon join, Reuters learned on Friday...
The Walmart Wealth Gap Is Getting Much More Troubling Huffington Post ...By at least one estimate, the Walmart family could already buy every single home in Seattle...
Germany just eliminated tuition, while Americans are drowning in $1.2 trillion student loan debt. Daily Kos ...Germany has just joined other nations of the Continental European Union to eliminate all university tuition, as a human right...
Worker dies after being struck by truck at St. Louis business St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...Police are investigating a fatal accident in which an Antler Trucking Company employee was struck by a box truck on the rear parking lot of the company in the 3000 block of North Broadway this morning...
Miscellaneous
Sheriff's department issues tickets to prompt train movement Goshen News ...Sheriff's deputies went to the crossing and began issuing tickets to Norfolk Southern for blocking the road in violation of state statue. The officers continued writing tickets for every 10 minutes the crossing was blocked, issuing 18 citations in total...Teamster Powerhttp://email@example.com