Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Today's Teamster News 06.17.14

Teamster News
EVSC School Board extends 'final offer' to Teamsters Local 215 employee groups  Evansville Courier & Press   ...The Evansville Vanderburgh School Board voted Monday night to extend their original contract offer to employee groups represented by Teamsters Local 215 — bus drivers, bus aides, custodians, special education assistants and secretaries — after those members who voted on it earlier this month overwhelmingly rejected it; and then made a counter-offer...  
Trade
Bipartisan Group of 150+ Members of Congress Urge Commerce Department to Act on Dumping of Steel Pipe  Trade Reform   ...the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) praised a bipartisan group of more than 150 Members of Congress for signing a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker urging a thorough investigation of the dumping of Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG) steel pipe in the U.S. market by South Korea...
State Battles
San Francisco Leads The Way With $15 Minimum Wage Ballot Measure  Los Angeles Times   ...Unlike in Seattle, San Francisco employers would have to comply regardless of their companies' size and receive no credit for sick or healthcare pay they already provide. Workers who receive tips are included....
Who In Maine Benefits From A $10.10 Minimum Wage?  Bangor Daily News   ...112,000 workers in Maine, 20.2% of workers, would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage to $10.10...
Low-Income Restaurant Workers Want Gov. Cuomo And State Labor Dept. To Help Them Wage War Against Wage Theft  New York Daily News   ...it is estimated that low-income workers are robbed of more than $1 billion every year. Yet the law puts no resources toward enforcement, which means that in the rare instances workers win their wage theft complaints, they seldom collect...
War On Workers
Hell on Wheels: Are bad trucking laws partially to blame for Tracy Morgan's accident?  The New Republic   ...Two days before Kevin Roper crashed his Walmart big rig into Tracy Morgan’s limousine, critically injuring the comedian and killing his colleague James McNair, the Senate Appropriations Committee quietly loosened the laws governing truckers’ hours on the road...
Kochs launch new super PAC for midterm fight  Politico   ...The new group aims to spend more than $15 million in the 2014 midterm campaigns — part of a much larger spending effort expected to total $290 million...
Cantor Shocker and New Survey Put Anger at Wall Street at Center of Political Debate  Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research   ...A 64 percent majority believes "the stock market is rigged for insiders and people who know how to manipulate the system..."
The coming 'tsunami of debt' and financial crisis in America (opinion)  The Guardian   ...the debt held by American households is rising ominously. And unless our economic policies change, that debt balloon, powered by radical income inequality, is going to become the next bust...
Without Highway Bill, 700,000 Jobs at Risk  AFL-CIO Now   ...If Congress doesn’t act soon, more than 700,000 middle class jobs building the nation’s highways, bridges and transit systems will be at risk. While the legislation authorizing the spending for those vital projects doesn’t expire until Sept. 30, the Highway Trust Fund that helps states pay for transportation construction and upkeep is running out of money and layoffs could begin later next month...