Sunday, November 9, 2014

Today's Teamster News 11.09.14

Trade
Japan economy minister says TPP agreement difficult by year-end: report  Reuters   ...Japan's Economy Minister Akira Amari said on Saturday he saw progress in Asia-Pacific regional trade negotiations, although it would be difficult to reach an agreement by the end of the year, according to Jiji press...
US says TPP is its priority, as China touts free-trade zone  AFP   ...A China-backed vision for Asia-Pacific free trade is only a "long-term aspiration", a top US commerce official said Sunday, stressing that Washington remains focused on its own plans for a regional trade agreement...
US rules out major Trans-Pacific trade announcement at APEC  Business Recorder   ...There will be no "major announcement" on a Washington-backed Asia-Pacific free trade deal during a meeting of leaders from the region in Beijing this week, US Trade Representative Michael Froman said on Sunday...
State Battles
Republicans rule in the Missouri and Kansas statehouses, and the consequences could be profound  Kansas City Star   ...Missouri: The GOP is also expected to once again take aim at public employee unions by making it more difficult for them to collect dues from members. However, allowing employees in the private sector covered by union contracts to refuse to pay union dues or fees — more commonly known as right to work — still appears too steep a hill to climb, even with larger legislative majorities....Kansas: There also might be a run at limiting collective bargaining rights for teachers, especially after the teachers unions spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in a failed attempt to defeat Brownback this year...
Nearly half of Indiana's charter schools doing poorly or failing  WTHR   ...nearly half of the state's 76 charter schools are doing poorly or failing...
Common construction wage at risk next year  Kokomo Perspective   ...If the common wage is eliminated, it will result in job loss and lower wages for local workers, according to Chet Fincher, business agent for the Carpenters Local 615...
How Voter Suppression Helped Produce the Lowest Turnout in Decades  The Intercept   ...the evidence is piling up that systematic voter suppression, including voter ID laws and dubious vote-fraud prevention software, played a significant part in keeping people from casting ballots, as well...
War on Workers
5 New Lows for Walmart—Just Last Month  UK Progressive   ...From slashing employee healthcare, to stalling on wage increases, to investing in unsustainable energy and selling offensively labeled Halloween costumes, Walmart has stooped to new lows in October. Walmart workers have been fighting back, such as two weeks ago when hundreds of employees and their supporters ralliedin front of Walmart heiress Alice Walton’s luxury New York City condo. Twenty-six of them were arrested...
A Blank Page in the S.E.C. Rule Book, Four Years Later  New York Times   ...Executives should return compensation earned improperly as a result of accounting shenanigans at their companies. But four years after Congress told the Securities and Exchange Commission to write a rule making it easier to recover unearned pay, that rule remains unwritten...
Lenders Can Now Disable Your Car When You're Driving on the Freeway  Alternet   ...Car dealers and automotive lenders are targeting those with poor credit by installing GPS-based kill switches, or starter-interrupt devices, on the cars that they sell...
Kaci Hickox, boyfriend leaving Maine after Ebola quarantine fight  Portland Press Herald   ...the couple will stay through Monday, after which a state court order expires and Hickox will no longer have to submit to daily health monitoring, inform state officials of travel plans and let them know if her health changes...
Worker killed in fall at Gillette-area power plant  Casper Star Tribune   ... Authorities are investigating after a worker was killed in a fall at a power plant in Gillette...
Worker at Ohio bowling alley dies when clothing gets caught in machinery, authorities say  New York Daily News   ...A maintenance worker at an Ohio bowling alley died Thursday in what a former colleague calls a "freak accident." David Geiger, 53, passed away when his clothing got caught in machinery while he was working on a pinsetter at Northwest Lanes in Fairfield, WCPO reported...