Thursday, February 12, 2015

Today's Teamster News 02.12.15

Teamsters
Ken Hall: Right to work is wrong for West Virginia  Charleston Gazette   ...West Virginia citizens are correct to be skeptical of politicians proposing a right-to-work law...
Outcome of Teamsters’ bid to represent CCSD workers pending  Las Vegas Review-Journal   …Dozens of Clark County School District’s bus drivers, janitors, cooks and other support staff hoped to learn late Wednesday what union would be representing the 11,263 workers at the bargaining table. But that decision was postponed until Thursday morning when the Nevada Local Government Employee-Management Relations Board will rule on the validity of Teamsters Local 14’s bid to take over as the workers’ union...
San Bernardino County labor union to vote on joining Teamsters  The Sun   …San Bernardino County’s largest labor union announced Wednesday that its board will vote this month on whether to become a chartered, independent local of the Teamsters...
CP faces weekend strike deadline  The Sun   …Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. is bracing for a possible strike this weekend by the Teamsters union that threatens to damp profit at the country’s second-biggest carrier...
Study Finds UC Workers Are Underpaid  Daily Nexus   ...According to initial reports from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) released two weeks ago, sponsored by Teamsters Local 2010, a majority of University of California union workers receive wages less than the basic one-adult, one-child family’s yearly budget...
Hoffa: Walking Man’ Not Alone In His Struggles  Detroit News   ...Sometimes real life can seem like a movie. Such is the case with James Robertson, the 56-year-old Detroit man who walked 21 miles round trip to his factory job in Rochester Hills each day after his car died and his job moved further into the suburbs...
US Regulators Skeptical Of Huge Food Merger Ahead Of Vote  New York Post   ...Regulators are set to vote in the afternoon on the controversial $3.5 billion merger of the top two distributors of food to schools, restaurants and hospitals that critics charge will lead to higher foods costs across the country, The Post has learned...
Trade

NAFTA shadows Obama's efforts to seek clout for trade deals  Ledger-Enquirer   …A 21-year-old ghost haunts President Barack Obama and his allies as he presses Congress for enhanced powers to make trade deals with Japan and other nations. Obama says new trade deals will avoid the shortcomings of NAFTA, the 1994 North America Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada, which many Americans blame for big job losses, especially in manufacturing...
Currency Warriors Get Boost At G-20 Meeting  Wall Street Journal   ...The world’s top finance leaders on Tuesday in effect backed currency depreciation as a tool for promoting growth by signaling strong support for aggressive easy-money policies aimed at boosting the fragile global economy...
Agricultural Reforms in Japan Pave the Way for TPP  The Diplomat   ...Last October, Japan’s powerful farm lobby, the Japan Agriculture Cooperative (JA), still had the clout to stall Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) ministerial negotiations between Japan and the U.S. over tariffs on sensitive farm products. However, recent reforms tip the balance of power firmly in favor of the government, accelerating JA’s slow demise and paving the way for greater market liberalization and deregulation in Japanese agriculture...
State Battles

Missouri takes a step toward becoming ‘right-to-work’ state  Associated Press   …Missouri took a step toward joining 24 other states with right-to-work laws when its House voted Wednesday to bar the collection of fees from workers who choose not to join a union...
New Mexico House Judiciary Postpones Vote On 'Right-To-Work' Bill  Santa Fe Daily Times   ...Opponents and backers of a highly divisive "right-to-work" bill that would prohibit union membership as a condition for employment in New Mexico testified for five hours before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday evening. After hearing public comments on the legislation, the committee decided to hold off on a vote until Friday afternoon...
Butler County OKs Right-To-Work Ordinance  Bowling Green Daily News   ...Butler County Fiscal Court Monday approved the first reading of a right-to-work ordinance. The ordinance was approved with a vote of 4-1, Deputy Judge-Executive Kim West said. District 4 Magistrate David Whittinghill voted against the measure...
Special Election, Right-To-Work Discussed At Fiscal Court  Maysville Ledger Independent   ...During the meeting, Judge-Executive Larry Foxworthy told the court he would like to wait until the right-to-work law is sorted out in the court system before it is discussed any further in Fleming County...
Minimum Wage Bill Passes Ky. House  Louisville Courier Journal   ...A bill to raise Kentucky's minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by 2017 passed the House in a largely party-line vote on Tuesday, but the bill again faces an uphill battle in the Senate...
Compromise Crafted On Prevailing Wage  MetroNews   ...Under the compromise reached Wednesday, the task of determining the prevailing wage would be turned over to the state’s Workforce Development office, which would consult with economists at WVU and Marshall to determine the formula for what the pay should be. That formula would still need to be approved by the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Government and Finance...
War on Workers

Congress and President Obama Cannot Sit Idly By While Companies Use H-1B Guestworkers to Replace American Workers  Economic Policy Institute   …A recent investigation by Computerworld revealed that hundreds of information technology (IT) workers were laid off by Southern California Edison (SCE) and replaced with temporary foreign workers through the H-1B guestworker visa program, which allows employers to hire temporary foreign workers for up to six years if they have at least a college degree (most work in IT)…it doesn’t look like any action will be taken to reverse it…
Bernie Sanders: Keeping US From Becoming Oligarchy 'A Struggle We Must Win'  Common Dreams   ...senator says growing wealth gap, high poverty rates, health care crisis signs of country slipping into control of small billionaire class...
Judge Rules For NSA In Warrantless Search Case  Reuters   ...A U.S. judge on Tuesday ruled in favor of the National Security Agency in a lawsuit challenging the interception of Internet communications without a warrant, according to a court filing...
Justice Department Is Seeking Felony Pleas By Big Banks In Foreign Currency Inquiry  New York Times   ...The Justice Department is pushing some of the biggest banks on Wall Street — including, for the first time in decades, American institutions — to plead guilty to criminal charges that they manipulated the prices of foreign currencies...