Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Today's Teamster News 02.17.15

Teamsters
CP Rail, Teamsters union agree to arbitration  CBC News   …Labour Minister Kellie Leitch says the government is withdrawing its back-to-work legislation now that Canadian Pacific Railway and the Teamsters union have agreed to arbitration...
Labor Supports a Fair Trash Plan (opinion)   Gotham Gazette   …Forcing a few neighborhoods to take almost all of the city's trash is just plain wrong…
Freight railroads watched Canadian Pacific strike closely  Associated Press   …Railroad officials say the brief strike by roughly 3,300 Canadian Pacific workers didn’t have a significant impact on U.S. rail traffic. The strike by members of the Teamsters union that began eary Sunday was closely monitored by other railroads…
British Members Of Parliament Join Teamster School Bus Workers At Community Forum  teamster.org   …Teamster school bus drivers and monitors were joined by members of the British Parliament, parents, community, political and faith leaders, as well as representatives from Teamsters Local 509 at tonight’s Community Forum on School Bus Transportation, hosted by S.C. state representatives Wendell Gilliard and David Mack...
Trade
Currency Battle Is Tethered to Obama Trade Agenda  New York Times   …a growing bipartisan majority in Congress is coalescing around a demand that could derail President Obama’s ambitious trade agenda before it really gets moving: include a robust attack on international currency manipulation or no deal...
As free trade pacts expand, U.S. trade deficit soars. Why add one more?  Reuters   …Since the pacts were implemented, U.S. trade deficits, which drag down economic growth, have soared more than 430 percent with our free-trade partners. In the same period, they’ve declined 11 percent with countries that are not free-trade partners. Since fast-track trade authority was used to pass NAFTA and the U.S. entrance into the World Trade Organization, the overall annual U.S. trade deficit in goods has more than quadrupled, from $218 billion to $912 billion…
State Battles
Hundreds attend rally against prevailing wage, right-to-work bills  Charlestown Gazette   …Union workers and supporters showed up in force at the state Capitol for a rally Monday afternoon. The rally, called by Senate Minority Leader Jeff Kessler, D-Marshall, was to protest several bills in the Legislature, including those to make West Virginia a “right to work” state and to cut the state’s prevailing wage…
5 Of The Biggest Right-To-Work Battles  Daily Caller   …Lawmakers in several states are considering their own right-to-work legislation, but opponents warn such proposals will hurt the middle class…
Construction company voices concerns over plans to scrap common wage law  WTHR.com   …The construction industry is abuzz after House Speaker Brian Bosma revealed the Indiana GOP plans to scrap the the state's 80-year-old common wage law for construction workers. It could mean a loss of higher wages for union and non-union workers alike...
War on Workers
Fires from W. Va. derailment could burn 2-3 days  CBS News   …A train carrying more than 100 tankers of crude oil derailed during a snowstorm in southern West Virginia on Monday, sending at least one tanker into a river, igniting at least 14 in all and sending a fireball hundreds of feet into the sky, officials and residents said…
Labor secretary to help reach West Coast port deal  Reuters   …Labor Secretary Tom Perez will travel to California to help broker an agreement between shipping companies and dockworkers in a dispute that has led to a partial shutdown of ports along the U.S. West Coast...
Construction worker killed after falling into sand silo  Atlanta Business Chronicle   …A construction worker was killed after falling into a sand silo at Thomas Concrete Co. on Canton Road in Marietta. Two subcontractors from Texas were cleaning the inside of a silo when one worker fell in...
EMS workers killed in line of duty remembered 2 years after crash  FOX 59   …A vigil was held Monday morning at 3 a.m. to honor two Indianapolis Emergency Medical Service workers who lost their lives in a tragic accident on Feb. 16, 2013...
Miscellaneous 
Economists Say Millennials Should Consider Careers In Trades  National Public Radio   …millions of good-paying jobs are opening up in the trades. And some pay better than what the average college graduate makes...
Are Submarines About to Become Obsolete?  National Interest   … If advances in big data and new detection methods fuse with the anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) ambitions of nations like China and Russia, naval planners around the world might have to go back to the drawing board...