Friday, August 9, 2013

Today's Teamster News 08.09.13

Oxford deputies to vote on joining the Teamsters Union  Oxford Hills Sun Journal   ...Oxford County Sheriff's deputies in Maine are set to begin voting on whether to drop their current bargaining agent and become members of Teamsters Local 340...
Talks break down between Ikea and striking Teamster workers  Vancouver Sun   ...The union representing Ikea workers in Richmond, British Columbia has rejected the company’s latest offer, including an automatic wage increase, as talks ground to a halt in the four-month labor dispute...
Little Campbell train trestle talks on track   Peace Arch News   ...Meetings between BNSF and Semiahmoo First Nation are planned later this month to discuss replacing the Little Campbell River railway bridge that union leaders, including Bill Brehl, President of Teamsters Canada Rail Conference Maintenance of Way Employees Division, have voiced concerns about safety...
ALEC at 40: Turning Back the Clock on Prosperity and Progress   PRWatch   ...The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) released a new report: "ALEC at 40: Turning Back the Clock on Prosperity and Progress." The new report identifies and analyzes 466 American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) bills introduced in 2013 that reflect corporate agenda...
ALEC Meeting In Chicago Draws Conservative Lawmakers, Protesters  Associated Press   ...As meeting participants handed out awards and dined at a meal sponsored by the Texas Oil and Gas Association, picketers denouncing "corporate greed" paced the sidewalks and clogged the street in front of the Chicago hotel hosting the conference...
Wisconsin Capitol Protesters Defiant Despite Growing Crackdown  The Real News   ... In the past two weeks alone, more than 100 demonstrators have been arrested during the weekly held Solidarity Sing-Along protests, with this most recent wave of arrests taking place on Tuesday, August 6...
JPMorgan Under Criminal and Civil Investigation Over Mortgages  firedoglake   ...JPMorgan Chase & Co. disclosed in a SEC filing that it was under criminal investigation and had already been notified by the Department of Justice’s civil division that it had violated federal securities laws in offerings of subprime and Alt-A residential mortgage securities during 2005 to 2007...
Bank of England governor calls for change in banks' culture  The Telegraph   ...There must be a change of culture in “socially useless” banks that disconnect themselves from the real economy, the Bank of England governor Mark Carney has suggested...
Walmart pays $190,000 fine and agrees to improve safety at 2,800 stores  The Guardian   ...Walmart has agreed to improve safety conditions at more than 2,800 stores in 28 US states after inspectors discovered "repeat and serious" health and safety violations at a store in Rochester, New York...
Fast-Food Fight (opinion)  New York Times   ...As measured by the federal minimum wage, currently $7.25 an hour, low-paid work in America is lower paid today than at any time in modern memory...
Enormous, Humongous Trade Deficit Shrank In June  TradeReform   ...The enormous, humongous, vast, staggering, unbelievable, job-sucking, economy-sucking US trade deficit shrank to “only” $34.2 billion from a revised $44.1 billion in May. Exports of US goods and petroleum were up, imports of petroleum and consumer goods were down....
Chasing costs, a ‘sweatshop locator’  New York Times   ...Disasters at garment factory buildings in Bangladesh, such as the collapse of this building earlier this year, have the clothing industry looking for new locations to place factories. To find such places, it turns to Li & Fung, a company most American shoppers have never heard of...
BART, unions resume talks as senators add pressure  Associated Press   ...Bay Area Rapid Transit's management and employee unions resumed contract negotiations Thursday as California's two senators urged the parties resolve the labor dispute and head off a crippling transit strike...
Hearing reveals huge gap between BART management, unions  KTVU News   ...A fact-finding panel appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown heard firsthand Wednesday how far apart BART and its labor unions remain even though they've been bargaining since April 1...
Tennessee Takes a Bite out of Worker Misclassification  Construction Citizen   ...A new law in Tennessee gives the state’s Department of Labor (DOL) sharper teeth with which to take a bigger bite out of workers’ compensation fraud in the construction industry...
Ohio payday lenders keep loaning under other laws 5 years after effort to limit such business  Associated Press   ...Payday lenders targeted by Ohio legislation that banned short-term, high-cost loans five years ago are skirting that crackdown by offering high-interest loans under other laws...
In a state with high voter turnout, a GOP bill targets elderly, early voting  MSNBC   ...While voting rights advocates have zeroed in on North Carolina where the governor is getting ready to sign a controversial voting law, Republicans in Wisconsin are readying their own voting overhaul...