Friday, August 23, 2013

Today's Teamster News 08.23.13

Teamsters Ratify UPS Upstate New York Supplement   IBT   ...UPS Teamsters in New York state ratified the Upstate New York supplement to the UPS national agreement yesterday with 65% voting in favor...
Teamster Waste Workers On Cape Cod Ratify First Contract  IBT   ...Workers at Republic/Allied Waste, who serve all of Cape Cod, have ratified their first contract which contains many improvements. The workers joined Local 59 in New Bedford in 2012...
Teamsters gains a foothold in Ontario hospitals  Teamsters Canada   ...Teamsters Union Local 419 has gained approximately 2000 new members as the result of a merger with the Ontario Workers' Union (OWU). The OWU represents 14 bargaining units with two of the more notible sized units being Humber River Hospital with three hospital locations and William Osler Health System with two hospital locations...
Pleasant Hills, Teamsters reach four-year contract agreement  Pittsburgh Tribune-Review   ...Pleasant Hills Council has a tentative contract agreement with the Pleasant Hills police officers, who are represented by Teamsters Local 205 in White Oak, Pennsylvania. Wages would increase by 2.5 percent in the first and fourth years and 3 percent in the second and third years...
Congressman urges Teamsters, Lake Transit to continue talks  Lake County News   ...On Wednesday, Congressman Mike Thompson sent Teamsters Local 665 President Ralph Miranda and Paratransit Services a letter urging the two sides to return to negotiations as soon as possible, noting the service stoppage is having a “devastating effect” on riders...
Teamsters at Ikea Richmond, B.C. unanimously reject fourth contract offer  The Tyee   ...Members of Teamsters Local 213 locked out of the Richmond Ikea since May have unanimously rejected a fourth contract offer from the company, while other unions are calling for a boycott of the store. Ikea has been embroiled in a bitter labor fight with the union at the Richmond outlet in British Columbia since May 13, but reported $32 billion in revenues last year...
Higher Minimum Wage: Public Agrees But Republicans Remain Divided  ABC News   ...Republicans in Congress are divided over a measure that most Americans support: raising minimum wage...
Fired Walmart Workers Arrested at Rally Announcing Labor Day Deadline  The Nation   ...Nine fired workers and a current employee were arrested around 2:30 pm Thursday after locking arms and sitting in front of the entrance to a Washington, DC, Walmart office. The planned act of civil disobedience concluded a noon rally at which workers announced a Labor Day deadline for Walmart to raise wages and reinstate workers they allege were fired for their activism. Twenty workers who joined a June strike by the labor group OUR Walmart have since been terminated; another fifty-some have been otherwise disciplined by Walmart...
‘Alt Labor’ Provides Support For Fast-Food Strikes  Mint Press News   ...On the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, thousands of low wage fast food workers are expected to walk off the job in what could be the largest single-day protest in the history of U.S. fast food. In a $200 billion per year industry, workers across the U.S. have taken part in protests, calling for $15 per hour and the right to form a union without intimidation...
Japan-made parts to push up price of F-35 fighter jets for ASDF  Asahi Shimbun    ...Two Japanese contractors will supply 24 components for the next-generation F-35 stealth fighters for the Air Self-Defense Force, which will push up the price by 50 percent, sources said. The F-35 will be built mainly by Lockheed Martin Corp., with parts procured in the United States, Britain and other countries participating in the project. The aircraft will be assembled in the United States, Italy and Japan...
Working Families Need Fair Trade, Not Free Trade (opinion) Huffington Post   ...Working families haven't seen much of an economic recovery, and we definitely can't afford to lose more manufacturing and service jobs to yet another free trade agreement. But that is exactly where we're headed if the Trans-Pacific Partnership moves ahead unchallenged...
Sources: Koch Industries not buying LA Times, Chicago Tribune  The Daily Caller   ...The company determined that purchasing the newspapers was “not economically viable” and that both parties walked away from the negotiations, they said...
Amazon Ramps Up $13.9 Billion Warehouse Building Spree  Bloomberg   ...Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) is stepping up a warehouse building spree, signaling the urgency of getting products to customers more quickly amid rising competition from EBay Inc. (EBAY)and Wal-Mart Stores Inc...
NSA gathered thousands of Americans’ e-mails before court ordered it to revise its tactics Washington Post   ...For several years, the National Security Agency unlawfully gathered tens of thousands of e-mails and other electronic communications between Americans as part of a now-revised collection method, according to a 2011 secret court opinion...
ALEC declares itself exempt from public-disclosure laws, and is challenged   MinnPost   ...Sometime in the last year or so, the super-secretive American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the group that helps its corporate and think-tank members get their wish lists into the hands of state lawmakers, decided to unilaterally declare itself exempt from public disclosure laws throughout the country...
Speaking in Raleigh, Colin Powell blasts North Carolina voting law   News & Observer   ...With Gov. Pat McCrory in the audience, former Secretary of State Colin Powell took aim at North Carolina's new voting law Thursday, saying it hurts the Republican Party, punishes minority voters and makes it more difficult for everyone to vote...
Justice Department will challenge Texas Voter ID law   Washington Post   ...The U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday that it will challenge Texas’s Voter ID law, saying it violates the Voting Rights Act, as well as the Constitution’s 14th and 15th Amendments...
Pension systems to file longer Chapter 9 objection  Associated Press   ...A federal judge will let Detroit's two pensions systems file longer eligibility objections to emergency manager Kevyn Orr's bankruptcy petition...
CEO Comes Out Swinging in Favor of SB7, Prevailing Wages, and the Race to the Top   We Party Patriots   ...In a recent op-ed for the Modesto Bee, Mark Breslin, CEO of San Francisco-based United Contractors, explains why he favors California’s SB 7, a bill which would make charter cities eligible for public funds only if they follow prevailing wage guidelines...