Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Today's Teamster News 02.11.14

Contract Negotiations Continue at Bay Valley Foods  23 WIFR   ...It's back to the bargaining table Sunday for union leaders and representatives of Bay Valley Foods in Dixon, Illinois. Teamsters Local 722 are on strike, but they and the company met with a federal mediator Friday to try to work out a deal...
North Carolina’s Moral Monday Movement Kicks Off 2014 With a Massive Rally in Raleigh  The Nation   ...Tens of thousands of activists—from all backgrounds, races and causes—marched from Shaw to the North Carolina State Capitol, where they held an exuberant rally protesting the right-wing policies of the North Carolina government...
Missouri is leading the country for technology start-ups  KPLR St. Louis   ...For the second year running, Missouri leads the country in the percentage increase in technology jobs. Most of that is due to the growing boom in technology start-ups in St. Louis. And most of that is being done in spite of state lawmakers in Missouri who are pushing right-to-work, tax cuts, and more recycled voodoo economics...
Committee sides with special interests over families  The St. Louis Powercast   ...The party-line vote on HB1053, HB1143, HB1306 and HB1617 was the latest to move the tired agenda backed by extremists and out-of-state interest groups including the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)...
Tennessee legislators threaten to withhold incentives if VW workers choose UAW  Lansing State Journal   ...Not only are Republican legislators accusing Volkswagen of backing the UAW, some of their leaders on Monday threatened to withhold tax incentives for future expansion of the three-year-old assembly plant in Chattanooga if workers vote this week to join the UAW...
Why Volkswagen is helping a union organize its own plant  Washington Post   ...The German company is campaigning for the UAW, not against it, in a kind of employer-union partnership America has seldom seen. What gives?...
Lights Out for NSA? Maryland Lawmakers Push to Cut Water, Electricity to Spy Agency Headquarters  US News   ...The National Security Agency’s headquarters in Ft. Meade, Md., will go dark if a cohort of Maryland lawmakers has its way. Eight Republicans in the 141-member Maryland House of Delegates introduced legislation Thursday that would deny the electronic spy agency “material support, participation or assistance in any form” from the state, its political subdivisions or companies with state contracts...
Barclays to cut 12,000 jobs, pays bigger bonuses  Reuters   ...Barclays said it would axe up to 12,000 jobs this year even as it raised bonuses for investment bankers, prompting fury among politicians and unions who said it had not learned the lessons of the financial crisis. Stepping up efforts to cut costs, Barclays said up to 9 percent of employees could go, including 7,000 in Britain...
Union-Backed Candidate Wins First Round in El Salvador Election
  Truthout   ...At the end of January, representatives from 83 unions across El Salvador gathered in the Casa Sindical (a shared union hall) in San Salvador to greet a delegation of international election observers to ensure that the presidential election would be free of fraud, violence, and intimidation...
The Threat Of Defaulting On U.S. Debt And Other Crises Have Cost 750,000 Jobs  ThinkProgress ...The threat of defaulting on American federal debt thanks to lawmakers bickering over raising the debt ceiling — a situation that has now taken place twice, once in the summer of 2011 and again toward the end of last year — and other instances of governing by crisis increased unemployment by 0.5 percent, or in other words, meant the loss of 750,000 jobs, according to a new report...
Workers threaten strike at World Cup stadium
  Associated Press   ...Workers at a World Cup stadium in the jungle city of Manaus are threatening to go on strike to demand better conditions following a third recent construction-related death at the venue...
Walmart’s Labor Practices Backfire  ThinkProgress   ...An equities research firm, downgraded Walmart in a new research report, citing understaffing, among other problems...
Man Fired After Employer Learns of Trespassing Misdemeanor 40 Years Ago
  AlterNet   ...Donel Fuller is just one out of potentially millions discriminated against because of a criminal history. But the Ban the Box campaign is changing that...
The Company Behind West Virginia's Chemical Spill Skips Congressional Hearing  Huffington Post ...The company that owns the facility that leaked 10,000 gallons of chemicals into the water supply of hundreds of thousands of West Virginians last month was a no-show at a congressional hearing on the spill Monday...
Tipping the Scales of Inequality (Opinion)  Truthout  ...Stagnating wages for tipped workers is part of a bigger story of rising inequality in America...
5 “entitlements” for the wealthy that make things worse for everyone else   Salon   ...From $1 trillion in subsidies to a tax system rigged in their favor, the rich are getting a bargain at our expense...
Gov. Rick Scott’s Administration Gets Between Florida College Students and Voting  truthdig   ...Secretary of State Ken Detzner blocked an effort to ease the congestion of voters at polling places by using the University of Florida’s student union facility...