Friday, February 27, 2015

Today's Teamster News 02.27.15

Teamsters
Teamsters Seek To Unionize More Tech Shuttle Bus Drivers In Silicon Valley  San Jose Mercury News   ...Shuttle bus drivers for five prominent tech companies will decide whether to unionize on Friday in a vote that has the potential to dramatically expand organized labor's territory in Silicon Valley and embolden others in the tech industry's burgeoning class of service workers to demand better working conditions...
Teamsters-Represented Rail Traffic Controllers In Canada Ratify Labour Deal  RTT News   ...Canadian National Railway Co. announced that members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference-Rail Canada Traffic Controllers union have ratified a new labour agreement. The four-year agreement covers approximately 180 rail traffic controllers in Canada...
Roma Warehouse Workers In California Win Teamster Representation  teamster.org   …California warehouse workers at Roma Food, a Performance Food Group company, have voted by a 3-1 margin in favor of joining Teamsters Local 630 in Los Angeles, Calif. All 53 workers in the bargaining unit participated in the Feb. 25 election...
Bill To Eliminate Michigan's Film Incentives Gains Traction In House Committee  MLive   ...Unions and supporters of the film industry testified against the bill in the House Tax Policy Committee on Wednesday. "We took those jobs from Hollywood and brought them here," said Bill Black, Legislative Liaison for the Teamsters Local 337 in Michigan...
Swissport/Servisair YYZ Below-The-Wing Workers Pick Teamsters Over USW  Aviation Pros   ...Servisair and Swissport below-the-wing employees in Toronto chose the Teamsters over the United Steelworkers as their union, in a representational vote conducted by the CIRB...
Trade
The Trans-Pacific Partnership clause everyone should oppose (opinion)  Washington Post   ...The United States is in the final stages of negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a massive free-trade agreement with Mexico, Canada, Japan, Singapore and seven other countries. Who will benefit from the TPP? American workers? Consumers? Small businesses? Taxpayers? Or the biggest multinational corporations in the world?...
Elizabeth Warren’s next target: Trade deals  Politico   …The Massachusetts senator is stepping up her criticism of the administration’s proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, a centerpiece of the president’s second-term agenda, saying it could allow multinational corporations to gut U.S. regulations and win big settlements funded by U.S. taxpayers but decided by an international tribunal...
White House sees China as trump card in trade debate  Reuters   ...The Obama administration is confident lawmakers will warm up to a proposed Pacific free trade deal on the grounds that it is a chance for America to dictate the rules of Asian trade rather than China, a top official said on Thursday...
Nurses sound a CODE BLUE in D.C. on Fast Track and TPP  Daily Kos   ...With the White House and some of the biggest multinational corporations lobbying Congress to “fast track" the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive trade deal between the United States and 11 other countries, National Nurses United today converged on the nation’s capital to explain that what’s good for investors’ balance sheets is not necessarily good for patients...
NAFTA’s Specter May Haunt Keystone Verdict  Politico   ...The 21-year-old free-trade pact allows foreign companies or governments to haul the U.S. in front of an international tribunal to face accusations of putting their investments at risk through regulations or other decisions. The CEO of Keystone developer TransCanada has raised the prospect as a potential last resort if Obama rejects the $8 billion project, although for now the company is focused on getting him to say yes...
State Battles
Walker: I took on unions, I can take on ISIS  The Hill   …Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) argued his fight with unions has prepared him to be commander in chief during his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference. "If I can take on 100,000 protestors, I can do the same across the world," Walker said in response to a question about international terrorism...
Wisconsin, Workers and the 2016 Election  New York Times   ...In a nation where the long decline in unions has led to a pervasive slump in wages, Republicans’ support for anti-union legislation is at odds with their professed commitments to helping the middle class...
Wisconsin is poised to become the 25th right-to-work state  Los Angeles Times   ...Sometime in the next few weeks, Wisconsin will likely become the 25th state to get a right-to-work law, opposed by organized labor because it eliminates the requirement that workers must pay union fees...
House Passes Right-To-Work Bill On 37-30 Vote  Albuquerque Journal   ...A bruising political battle over whether to add New Mexico to the list of states with right-to-work laws is moving on to the Senate after the House voted 37-30 late Wednesday to approve the change in state labor laws...
‘Right-to-work’ clears House but faces tough battle in Senate Santa Fe New Mexican   ...Last week, both Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith of Deming and Senate President Pro Tem Mary Kay Papen of Las Cruces publicly committed not to helping Senate Republicans “blast” the bill to the Senate floor if the legislation gets stuck in a Senate committee, as expected. Without those two conservative Democrats, even backers of the bill say privately that this greatly hurts the chances of the bill to pass...
Logan County Becomes Right-To-Work  News-Democrat Leader   ...By passing a Right-to-Work ordinance, Logan County officially agrees with a law that prohibits union security agreements, or agreements between labor unions and employers, that govern the extent to which an established union can require employees’ membership, payment of union dues, or fees as a condition of employment, either before or after hiring...
Michigan Right To Work Law Would Extend To Police, Firefighters Under Midland Lawmaker's Proposal  MLive   ...A newly-elected state representative from Midland has drafted legislation to extend the reach of Michigan's Right to Work law to public safety personnel, the only union members exempt under the 2012 law...
Prevailing Wage Bill Clears First House Hurdle  West Virginia Metro News   ...The measure, which has passed the Senate, would transfer the responsibility of determining the wage from the Division of Labor to WorkForce West Virginia and business experts from West Virginia University and Marshall...
War on Workers
Why It's So Difficult to Repair Stuff: It's Made That Way   of two minds   ... once Corporate America books the sale, they're done with customers...
New York Couple Accused of Torturing Housekeeper Over Missing Jewelry  Gawker   …A couple in Bayside, Queens is accused of kidnapping their housekeeper at knifepoint, allegedly burning her body with a plumber's torch while questioning her about missing cash and jewelry...
Worker killed by lift at Sarasota mall  FOX 13 Tampa Bay   …Deputies say a man was crushed to death by a scissor lift at the Westfield Sarasota Square shopping mall...
Miscellaneous
FCC Approves Net Neutrality Rules For 'Open Internet'  NPR   ...The Federal Communications Commission approved the policy known as net neutrality by a 3-2 vote at its Thursday meeting, with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler saying the policy will ensure "that no one — whether government or corporate — should control free open access to the Internet."...