Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Today's Teamster News 09.10.14

Teamster News
Teamster Endorsements Announced For Santa Monica City Council Race  Santa Monica Mirror   ...The City of Santa Monica Trades & Maintenance Teamsters Local 911 have announced its endorsements of Kevin McKeown, Michael Feinstein, and Pam O’Connor for the Nov. 4 Santa Monica City Council election...
Animal Rights Activists Protested A Fashion Show Starring A ‘Breaking Amish’ Star  Vice   ...Throughout the day, Stoltz spends hours at a ballroom applying makeup and trying on clothes and her wig, but when I arrive at Central Park, I only see dozens of activists screaming at middle-age men driving horse carriages. “VICTOR D’SOUZA! ANIMAL ABUSER!” they scream as street performers dance to Papa Roach-like music...
Outdoor Flea Market Coming to Teamsters Parking Lot in Court Square  DNA Info   ..."I went ahead and spoke with the Teamsters and they were really excited about it — they want to support local vendors and the arts," she said...
Teamsters Claim Racial Wage Discriminiation by Republic; Firm Denies  waste360   ...The Teamsters union has filed a claim with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that in Atlanta Republic Services Inc. offers overtime to white employees but not black employees. ..
Workers Apprehensive About Sysco Acquisition of US Foods  Workers Independent Radio   ...A merger between the country’s two largest food distribution companies has raised concerns that thousands of good-paying, good-benefit union jobs are at risk. Food giant Sysco has provided no assurances about what will happen after they finish their acquisition of US Foods however they claim the merger will result in 600 million dollars in savings from what they call “synergies”...
Trade
Farmers Union Opposing Trans Pacific Partnership  WNAX   ...250 Farmers Union members from across the country are in the nation’s Capital this week telling Congress to vote against the Trans Pacific Partnership...
Farm minister seeks U.S. concessions in TPP talks  Japan News   ...Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Koya Nishikawa on Tuesday requested the United States to make concessions at bilateral talks on an envisioned Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement...
State Battles
Sam Brownback Has Bankrupted State So Much He Trails Democrat Paul Davis by 10 Points in Deep Red Kansas  Grunge   ...“Governor Sam Brownback and the Republican legislature were so confident that slashing safety nets, cutting education, and spending a budget surplus on tax cuts for the rich would produce an economic bonanza, they gave the wealthy well over a billion dollars in unfunded tax cuts that has the state’s economy starved of revenue. … Kansas is lagging behind the rest of the nation in creating jobs besides facing a revenue shortfall of massive proportions.”...
Plexus has net job loss in Wisconsin according to WEDC memo  WKOW   ...An internal memo from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) shows Plexus Corp. has cut more than 300 jobs in the state since agreeing to add more jobs as part of an enterprise zone tax credit contract...
Federal Court To Hear WI Voter ID Lawsuit This Week  WKOW   ...Multiple lawsuits have been filed since the state Legislature passed the measure in 2012. The state Supreme Court ruled it constitutional earlier this summer. The three-judge panel will be asked this week to reinstate Wisconsin's voter ID law in time for the November elections...
Lawsuit Over Scott Walker Recall Election Probe To Be Argued In Appeals Court  Huffington Post   ...Prosecutors investigating Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's recall election campaign hope to convince a federal appeals court to eventually allow them to resume a probe of possible illegal fundraising and coordination with conservative groups...
DeVos family donates $1M to Michigan Republicans; Dems trail in fund-raising  Detroit Free Press   ...Members of western Michigan’s DeVos family donated nearly $1 million to the Michigan Republican Party in the latest reporting period, bringing the total amount the family has donated to the party for this election cycle to about $1.4 million, newly filed campaign finance reports show... 
Founder of 2 short-lived Columbus charter schools indicted on theft counts  Columbus Dispatch   ...Andre Rasheen Tucker, who founded the two Talented Tenth Leadership Academies, was indicted by a Franklin County grand jury on Friday on two counts of theft. Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said Tucker stole checks made out to the school totaling about $7,500...
Georgia GOPer Complains About Early Voting, Excessive Black Voting  Talking Points Memo   ...A Republican state senator in Georgia has vowed to end Sunday balloting in DeKalb County due to the fact that the area is "dominated by African American shoppers and it is near several large African American mega churches."...
Chris Christie’s downgrades start to pile up  MSNBC   ...Wall Street analysts at Fitch Ratings today downgraded New Jersey’s bond rating for the second time this year, citing the state’s poor economic performance, Gov. Chris Christie’s rosy revenue forecasts – which failed to materialize – and his decision to plug the resulting budget gap by cutting $2.4 billion in funding for the state’s strained pension system...
Common Cause and More Than 50 Other Groups Call on Google to Quit the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)  Common Cause   ...Common Cause and 54 other organizations joined Wednesday in asking Google to drop its membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a secretive corporate lobbying group...
NJ Leaders Seek A New Course For Atlantic City  CBS News   ...Unable to wait for any ultimate solution, officials in Atlantic City are scrambling to help displaced casino workers get government assistance and maybe even new jobs...
Microsoft Deletes ALEC Membership  Minneapolis Star Tribune   ...ALEC and its allies demonize school teachers as the major cause of poor student performance while remaining silently complicit on the most serious causes—a lack of early childhood development, unsafe homes and high mobility in school districts due to poverty, drugs and alcohol. It is a perverse joke that ALEC has a long history of bitterly opposing initiatives that address these very social ills...
Council Members Aim To Boost Local Min Wage  Louisville Courier Journal   ...A long-discussed measure to raise the local minimum wage to $10.10 over three years is scheduled for a first reading by the Louisville Metro Council this week...
States move to ensure pregnant workers get fair chance to stay on job  Washington Post   ...Delaware is the latest in a growing number of states and localities to pass what lawmakers call “common sense” legislation to keep pregnant women working with certain accommodations, if warranted, as long as they don’t pose undue hardship on businesses. In the past 18 months, measures to ensure such accommodations have passed unanimously in New York City, Philadelphia, Providence, R.I., and in West Virginia. Bipartisan efforts have resulted in laws in Maryland, Minnesota and New Jersey – where only one lawmaker voted against the bill…
War On Workers
Big-Money Radical Right Groups Help Huge Grower to Avoid Paying Millions Already Owed Its Farm Workers  Huffington Post   ...Well-financed anti-labor groups related to America's radical right are coming to the aid of giant Fresno, Calif.-based Gerawan Farming to avoid implementing a union contract under which it already owes millions of dollars to thousands of its grape and tree fruit workers...
Big Tobacco’s Child Workers: Young Laborers Endure Health Risks, Harsh Conditions On U.S. Farms  Democracy Now   ...Even as tobacco companies are legally barred from selling cigarettes to children, they are reportedly profiting from child labor. Investigations by The New York Times and Human Rights Watch reveal hundreds, if not thousands, of children are working on tobacco farms in the United States...
Low Wage Growth, High Long-Term Unemployment Recognized as International Problem  naked capitalism   ...Workers not sharing in productivity gains has become normal...
Road commission worker killed by motor grader  Better Roads   ...A Kent County, Michigan, road commission worker has been killed after being hit by a motor grader...
Worker killed in industrial accident at Bridgeton refrigeration equipment factory  St. Louis Post-Dispatch   ...Federal safety inspectors and union leaders are investigating the death of an employee Saturday at the Hussman factory here...
American Apparel to Pay $1M After Worker 'Mangled and Killed'  NBC News   ...Clothing manufacturer and retailer American Apparel has agreed to pay out more than $1 million after a factory worker was killed by an industrial knitting machine at a company facility in southern California...
Miscellaneous
Raiders To Pay $1.25 Million To Cheerleaders Over Wage Theft Lawsuit  Huffington Post   ...The Oakland Raiders have agreed to pay $1.25 million to settle a lawsuit brought by 90 members of the team's cheerleading squad who alleged they were underpaid or faced lengthy delays in receiving their wages in violation of California labor law...