Friday, February 20, 2015

Today's Teamster News 02.20.15

Teamsters
Teamsters Congratulate Walmart Workers Who Stood Strong For A Raise And Better Hours  teamster.org   …Today, Walmart workers who spoke out and took action won a raise for 500,000 Walmart workers nationwide. The workers and their families need better pay and regular hours from Walmart, a company that can afford it. Walmart last year earned $16 billion in profits, and it is run by a family with $150 billion in wealth…
Members Of Parliament Join Teamsters At Memphis School Bus Community Forum  teamster.org   ...Teamster school bus drivers and monitors with Durham School Services were joined by members of the British Parliament, labor and faith leaders, community members and Teamsters representatives Wednesday night at a community forum on the state of Shelby County, Tenn., student transportation...
Durham Bus Services Under Fire From British Parliament  localmemphis.com   …Durham is owned by a British company that operates a bus system in the UK called National Express Group. Two members of parliament are here in the United States this week to talk with parents, bus drivers and union leaders about the ongoing issues with Durham…
Tech Shuttle Driver Unionization Effort Heats Up  Silicon Beat   ...The Teamsters have asked tech companies chief executives to speak up to stop what they are calling “union busting.” The workers are planning a Feb. 27 unionization vote, as Julia Love reported in the Mercury News.  Compass has contracts with Apple, eBay, Genentech, Yahoo, Zynga as well as Amtrak...
County Board Approves Contract With Sheriff’s Employees  Ogle County News   ...Ogle County Sheriff’s Department employees will be getting raises thanks to a new four-year contract approved Tuesday by the county board...
British Pols Demand Union Protection For Durham School Bus Drivers  WMC   ...Ian Lavery and Jim Sheridan, both current or former union leaders and members of Britain's House of Commons, said they have investigated Durham School Services' on-going problems in Shelby County. They've concluded most of them are to blame on a hostile work environment, in which drivers are discouraged from filing grievances or from expressing their concerns about multiple routes...
CN Plans Unilateral Contacts Modifications After Talks With Unifor Fail  Toronto Star   ...The company’s last offer on Sunday, rejected by Unifor, called for a three-year agreement with three per cent wage increases in each year. It also contained benefit improvements the company said were in line with what it negotiated recently with the United Steelworkers, which represents 3,000 maintenance-of-way employees; as well as the 1,800-member Teamsters Canada locomotive engineers and the 180-member Teamsters Canada-Rail Canada Traffic Controllers...
Fire Official Says Bridgeton Landfill Hotspots Are Close To Radioactive Waste  St. Louis Post Dispatch   ...A Pattonville Fire District official says new infrared footage of the Bridgeton Landfill shows higher heat readings beyond the base of an ongoing fire, raising questions about whether the fire is contained...
Trade
Fast track trade authority a 'close call' in U.S. Congress -Vilsack  Reuters   …Fast track trade authority a 'close call' in U.S. Congress -Vilsack…  Reuters   …Lawmakers' approval of a bill to streamline the passage of trade deals through the U.S. Congress will be a "close call," U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Thursday...
U.S. lawmaker sees fast-track trade power soon in step towards trade pact  Reuters   …The chairman of a U.S. congressional committee responsible for trade said on Thursday he expects passage of legislation to fast-track trade deals soon, a vital step towards a Pacific trade pact covering a large chunk of the global economy...
Obama's Trade Deal Rewards A Brutally Anti-Gay Dictator -- And LGBT Lawmakers Are Not Pleased  Huffington Post   … Prominent LGBT members of Congress assailed the Obama administration on Wednesday for including Brunei and Malaysia -- two nations deeply hostile to gay communities -- in major trade talks...
Democrats Introduce Legislation to Ban Investor-State Provisions in Trade Agreements  U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan   … U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) and 12 House Democrats today introduced H.R. 967: Protecting America’s Sovereignty Act, legislation to prohibit investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions in foreign trade agreements...
Intellectual Property Provisions in the Leaked Japanese RCEP Proposal that Threaten the Availability of Generic Medicines  infojustice.org   …Japan’s proposed intellectual property text, which was leaked and has been posted online by KEI, includes numerous TRIPS Plus provisions.  (South Korea is reported to be advocating for TRIPS-Plus provisions too.) Many of the provisions would be especially harmful to the Indian generic industry, which supplies the majority of medicines used by people in developing countries...
State Battles
GOP readies new wave of voting restrictions  MSNBC   …A roundup this month by the Brennan Center found that at least 40 restrictive voting bills have been introduced in state legislatures just since the start of the year...
Conservative Dem Senators Publicly Say They Won't Blast Right to Work Bill  Santa Fe New Mexican   … if any Senate Committee votes to table House Bill 75, it'll be dead for the session...
Koch Group Claims California Endangers Donors by Demanding Names  Bloomberg News   …A Koch brothers advocacy group contends California Attorney General Kamala Harris has no business demanding the names and addresses of its donors, who might face “grotesque threats” if identified…
Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder Says He's Experienced "Gradual Impoverishment" with $86k Salary, Asks for More Money  AFSCME Council 72   ...[Missouri] Lt. Governor Peter Kinder has been pushing hard for so-called Right to Work and Paycheck Deception legislation which would force wages down, but now he has the gall to ask for a raise for himself - even though Missouri state workers are the lowest paid in the country - saying $86,000 per year is leading him into "gradual impoverishment."...
Vote Delayed On Right-To-Work Bill  Albuquerque Journal   ...A vote on a high-profile right-to-work bill was put off Wednesday in the New Mexico House as some Republican lawmakers balked at a plan to tie a minimum wage increase of 50 cents per hour to the proposed change in state labor laws...
Boone County Tackles Right-To-Work Issue  Cincinnati.com   ..."We believe the time has come to put it on the agenda for a first reading to explore if it should or should not be passed in Boone County," said Judge-executive Gary Moore. ...
Scott Walker Is King Of Kochworld  Bloomberg Politics   ...The relationship between the Kochs and Walker was cemented during Walker's bitter war against public unions that led to a recall election in 2012. During the tense weeks of standoff at the capitol in Madison, it was the Kochs' Tea Party troops who provided the main counterforce to the tens of thousands of union activists protesting the governor, in a battle Walker eventually won...
Common Wage Repeal Advances In House On Party-Line Vote  Indianapolis Star   ...The GOP-controlled House Employment, Labor and Pensions Committee voted 8-4 Tuesday afternoon, along party lines, to recommend repealing the law that allows a board of contractors and taxpayers to set baseline wages for public construction projects worth more than $350,000...
War on Workers
Walmart Gives 500,000 Workers A Raise  Huffington Post   ...In a move that could alter the minimum wage debate and improve the image of the world's largest retailer, Walmart announced it will raise the baseline wage of its current store employees to $10 per hour, bringing pay hikes to an estimated 500,000 workers...
Are We Becoming a Part-Time Economy?  Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta   …Compared with 2007, the U.S. labor market now has about 2.5 million more people working part-time and about 2.2 million fewer people working full-time. In this sense, U.S. businesses are more reliant on part-time workers now than in the past...
Corporate Welfare Queens – Shocking “Development Program” Failure Rate in North Carolina  naked capitalism   …Picking Losers shows that the state’s flagship development program, the Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG), has seen 62 of its 102 projects fail in the period from its inception in 2002 until 2013. That is, 60% of the projects failed to meet either their job, investment, or wage goals, and had to have their awards canceled...