Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Today's Teamster News 11.11.14

Teamster News
Teamsters To Cytec: Stop This Dangerous Lockout  teamster.org   ...Since August 24, Cytec has locked out more than 200 skilled local workers without pay after the workers protested Cytec’s plans to freeze their pensions, significantly increase their health care costs, and cut retiree health care for new hires. Cytec also stopped paying workers’ family health care premiums...
Teamsters Local 700 President Becky Strzechowski Comments On Sun-Times Ad  teamster.org   ..."What is unfortunate is that the Sheriff's Department fails to acknowledge
problems like understaffing, lack of training and lack of safety equipment for officers in the jail
unless they read an ad in the paper.”...
Teamster Locals Gather For 2014 Dairy Conference & Food Processing Division Seminar  teamster.org   ...Dozens of principal officers and business agents from Teamster locals around the country are meeting this week in San Diego for the annual conference and seminar of the Teamsters Dairy Conference and Food Processing Division...
NLRB Judge Orders McKesson To Reinstate Fired Teamster Employees  teamster.org   ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters applauds last week’s decision issued by National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Administrative Law Judge Keltner W. Locke ordering McKesson to immediately reinstate fired workers and to stop soliciting employees to decertify their union...
First Student Bus Service Breakthrough May Be Imminent  Savannah Morning News   ...Wednesday, Mayo told the school board he will be negotiating with the Teamsters this week and believes he has a plan that will resolve the threat of a strike...
Newly Unionized Lackawanna County Public Defenders Looking For First Contract  Scranton Times Tribune   ...The attorneys first became Teamsters in spring 2013, when nine of 10 assistant public defenders voted in favor of organizing, said Craig Pawlik, secretary/treasurer for Teamsters Local 229...
Port Of L.A. Truck Drivers Say They Are Ready To Strike Again  CalNews   ...Port truck drivers urged the Harbor Commission Friday to take steps against companies they allege have been misclassifying them as independent contractors, stealing wages and firing dozens of workers in retaliation, while the Port of Los Angeles’s top official promised solutions are on the way. Truck drivers told Harbor Commissioners they were ready to begin striking again, saying they have been retaliated against by their employers even after they stopped picketing this summer at the request of Mayor Eric Garcetti...
CN, Teamsters Rail Conference Continue To Negotiate New Locomotive Engineer Contract  Progressive Railroading   ...Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) negotiators are trying to establish a new negotiating process with CN officials that would prevent a work stoppage or service interruption if the parties fail to reach a new agreement, union leaders announced last week...
Trade
European Commission Served With Lawsuit Over TTIP And Ceta Negotiations  International Business Times   ...A group of anti-free trade groups have filed a lawsuit against the European Commission over its failure to publically review its policy over two wide-reaching trade deals...
Najib: TPP negotiations to enter final phase early next year  The Rakyat Post   ...Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak says that all 12 countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) have agreed for the final round of negotiations to be held early next year...
State Battles
UAW says recognition near at Tennessee VW plant  Associated Press   ...The United Auto Workers union is hailing a new Volkswagen policy as a vehicle to soon gain representation of workers at its first foreign auto plant in the South. Not so fast, says a group of workers who orchestrated a narrow defeat of the UAW...
Study: 37 percent of Hoosier families struggle to meet basic needs  NWI Times   ...Nearly 4 in 10 Hoosiers, including some 70,000 Lake County households and 17,000 in Porter County, are struggling to afford their basic needs due in large part to inadequate job earnings...
AOL Becomes Latest Tech Giant to Flee From ALEC  National Journal   ...The departure makes AOL the latest in a remarkable wave of tech giants to recently separate from the conservative nonprofit...
War on Workers
Food costs eating into consumers' saving at the pump as holidays near  Reuters   ...higher food costs are eating into or eclipsing savings from gasoline, and a $2 billion jump in spending could be a much smaller bump after food inflation is taken into account....
Forget the 1%  The Economist   ...The 16,000 families making up the richest 0.01%, with an average net worth of $371m, now control 11.2% of total wealth—back to the 1916 share, which is the highest on record...
As Coal Jobs Vanish, Laid-Off Workers Struggle To Find Comparable Wages  Associated Press   ...Thousands have lost their jobs in the coal industry, and free classes funded by federal money help only a fraction of them...
Younger Generation Faces A Savings Deficit  Wall Street Journal   ...Adults under age 35—the so-called millennial generation—currently have a savings rate of negative 2%, meaning they are burning through their assets or going into debt....
Protesters In Teaneck Call For Safer Rail Cars To Transport Oil  NorthJersey.com   ...Three dozen protesters rallied Sunday on a bridge over CSX rail tracks that carry an estimated 30 million gallons of highly explosive North Dakota crude oil each week through Bergen County towns, demanding an end to the use of rusted-out tanker cars and calling for full disclosure of the cargo and its risks...
New Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts memorial honors worker killed during construction  Fox4KC   ...Friends, family, and other union workers attended the memorial on behalf of Ryan Goodman, who passed away during the construction of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts five years ago...
Ebola and Inequality (opinion)  Project Syndicate   ...We do not turn to the private sector to control the spread of a disease like Ebola...
Miscellaneous
Union Membership: Very Sexy  The Atlantic   ...Who knew that a union card was a turn-on? Well, that might not be literally the case, but a new study finds that for men, union membership can boost their chances of getting hitched...