Monday, February 2, 2015

Today's Teamster News 02.02.15

Teamsters
Battle between Anheuser-Busch and craft beer makers spilling over into Kentucky legislature  Kentucky.com   …While craft brewers, such as Lexington's Country Boy and West Sixth Brewery, have the support of Lexington-based distributor Kentucky Eagle, the Kentucky Guild of Brewers and the National Beer Wholesalers Association, AB InBev has the backing of Greater Louisville Inc. (Louisville's chamber of commerce) and the Teamsters...
Trade
The Secret Trade Deal That Allows US Corporations To Outsource Even More Jobs Abroad  Sky Valley Chronicle …The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is being called the largest and worst trade deal "you've never heard of." And why haven't you heard about something that may have a major impact on your life and your job? Curiously the mainstream news media has been eerily silent when it comes to this story...
The Global Fight Against Corporate Rule  The Nation   …Activists are challenging rules that grant corporations the right to sue governments...
Why we're protesting against TTIP  Herald Scotland   …This week a trainload of protestors will be heading for Brussels to raise their voices against TTIP - the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership - which is beginning its crucial next round of negotiations. It's a big business deal between the European Union and the United States that will determine how goods are traded across the world…
State Battles
Union membership nearing pre-right-to-work totals in Indiana  News and Tribune   ... Despite becoming a right-to-work state, union memberships rose by about 50,000 in Indiana from 2013 to 2014, a study released last week by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed. But opponents of the law still believe the true impact of the legislation can’t yet be measured...
War on Workers
Bernie Sanders Shows How Reagan Helped Destroy The Middle Class  Huffington Post   … in the decades after World War II, the bottom 90 percent of the country captured most of the growth in income during rebounds from tough times. But then came the Reagan era, and what George H. W. Bush once dubbed "voodoo economics." After Reagan implemented his policies, the top 10 percent grabbed nearly 80 percent of the growth in incomes coming out of the oil crises of the late '70s...
Boomers Vindicated in "Aging Work Force" Myth  Economic Populist   …the decline in the work force was mostly due to a lack of jobs being created (for those who wanted to join the labor force)...
National Oil Bargaining Talks Break Down: USW Calls for Work Stoppage at Nine Oil Refineries, Plants  United Steelworkers   …“Shell refused to provide us with a counter-offer and left the bargaining table,” said USW International President Leo W. Gerard. “We had no choice but to give notice of a work stoppage.”...
First U.S. doctor's strike in decades  San Diego Union-Tribune   ...A handful of doctors providing medical services to students at UC San Diego — and their colleagues at nine other University of California campuses — went on strike Tuesday...
Can Fast Food Afford a $15 Minimum Wage Without Cutting Jobs?  naked capitalism   …Having a minimum wage that was more like a living wage would reduce employee churn, offsetting some of the cost of the pay increase. Costco has demonstrated that this approach works...
Worker killed in accident at Comanche Generating Station in Pueblo  KOAA  …A Denver man died in an industrial accident at the Comanche Generating Station in Pueblo police confirmed Sunday night. According to Pueblo police, workers were moving a large transformer when the contractor got caught up in the equipment…
Miscellaneous
Ratings Now Cut Both Ways, So Don’t Sass Your Uber Driver  New York Times   …People routinely use the Internet to review services from plumbers to hairdressers. Now the tables are turned. Companies are rating their customers, shunning those who do not make the grade...