Thursday, May 29, 2014

Today's Teamster News 05.29.14

Trade
The fight to save an industry and middle class jobs from imports  Cleveland Plain Dealer   ...The United States is losing middle class jobs; but those in the fight to limit steel imports are hoping they will be able to offer an example on how to save them. At its core, the effort to limit steel imports is part of a much bigger effort to save American jobs. Not just any job, but “decent-paying” and “family supporting” jobs, to draw upon the chants of organized labor...
State Battles
City council votes to repeal collective bargaining for some workers  WANE.com   ...In a 7-2 vote Tuesday night, Fort Wayne City Council approved an ordinance that will remove collective bargaining for some city workers. Council members had three ordinances to vote on Tuesday that would affect collective bargaining rights for most of the city’s union workers...
Scientists: Florida's congressional map is 'partisan gerrymander'  Orlando Sentinel   ...The coalition of groups trying to prove Florida's congressional map was intentionally gerrymandered to help Republicans turned to experts Tuesday who testified it was "virtually impossible" to have drawn the maps without political bias...
War On Workers
Supreme Court case could impact public unions   Philadelphia Inquirer   ...A largely overlooked Supreme Court case has the potential to fundamentally alter the right of public employees to unionize — and a ruling could be handed down as early as this week...
American jails have become the new mental asylums – and you're paying the bill (opinion)  Guardian   ...As sheriff, I run the Cook County Jail, the largest jail on a single site in the country with approximately 10,000 inmates on any given day – and approximately 30% of them suffering from a serious mental illness...
How Tech Companies Tricked A Generation Into Working For Free  Forbes   ...Valve’s Steam service is building an ecosystem of unwaged user productivity, selling games through its “Early Access” program, essentially allowing game developers to charge players to beta test their games in exchange for the flattering thrill of seeing something before it’s ready...
The Worst Places On The Planet To Be A Worker  Huffington Post   ...The U.S., embarrassingly, scored a 4, indicating "systematic violations" and "serious efforts to crush the collective voice of workers."s...
Walmart's Penny Pinching Doesn't Extend To Executives, Says Report  Gawker   ...The problems afflicting crap mecca Walmart extend beyond its persecuted workforce, all the way into the corporate executive suite. A new report from an outside overseer says the famously cheap company doesn't mind burning tons of money to benefit top executives...
Walmart Workers Launch Effort To Unseat Rob Walton As Chair  Forbes Magazine   ...Walmart has a new CEO in Doug McMillon, a one-time warehouse worker who took over the top job this year. Is it time for a new chairman too? A coalition of Walmart workers believe so, and they're mobilizing fellow shareholders in an effort to boot billionaire Rob Walton off the board at the big box giant's annual meeting on Friday, June 6...
Miscellaneous
VA investigators: Delayed care is everywhere  USA Today   ..."Our reviews at a growing number of VA medical facilities have thus far provided insight into the current extent of these inappropriate scheduling issues throughout the VA health care system and have confirmed that inappropriate scheduling practices" are widespread, the report said...
R.I.P., Maya Angelou, Proud Gun Owner and User  National Review   ...Angelou also emerged very late in life as an off-hand supporter of the right to bear arms. In a 2013 interview with Time magazine’s Belinda Luscombe, the ancient poetess talked Star Trek and death (“I’ll probably be writing when the Lord says, ‘Maya, Maya Angelou, it’s time’”), but she also recounted how she used a gun for home defense...