Friday, September 26, 2014

Today's Teamster News 09.26.14

Teamster News
Teamsters Ratify New 3-Year Agreement With Transit Contractor  KRNV   ...Members of Teamsters Union Local 533 ratified a new three-year agreement with Texas-based MV Transportation -- the contractor employing workers operating the Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County transit system...
East Bridgewater Public Employees Vote For Teamster Contract  teamster.org   ...“They were able to work with city management to win a solid new contract with wage improvements for us,” Smith said. “Business agent Bill Trask and the executive board of the local union have worked hard for us already...
Zoo mulls Groundhog Day ban on mayors  New York Post   ...Staten Island Zoo officials — whom The Post exposed for covering up the death of a female groundhog posing as Chuck — want to stop letting butter-fingered politicians handle the critter during Groundhog Day festivities...
Trade
Amari-Froman TPP meeting ends in failure  Japan Times   ...Japan and the United States failed to narrow their differences over the remaining key bilateral trade issues linked to the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations, at their two-day ministerial meeting that ended in Washington Wednesday...
TTIP Draws Flak From Local Leaders In Europe And The US  Deustche Welle   ...While local and regional leaders have remained rather mum about TTIP so far, that appears to be changing. In the US lawmakers from New England and California have spoken out against the trade deal. In Europe, the mayor of Stuttgart, Germany's sixth-largest city and home to global heavyweights Daimler and Bosch, has recently warned that TTIP could undermine local governance...
State Battles
Silicon Valley Companies Follow Google's Lead By Cutting Ties with ALEC  VICE News   ...The companies announcing that they will no longer participate in the organization — Alexandria, Virginia-based American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) — are Google, Facebook, YELP, Yahoo, Uber, and Lyft...
African American Lawmakers Plan To Contact Justice Department Over Voter Applications  WABE   ...After meeting with top officials for the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office Monday, the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus said it still has a number of unanswered questions about the processing of about 51,000 voter registration applications turned in by the New Georgia Project...
Michigan Leads Nation In Loss of Payroll Employment  Ann Arbor Independent   ...The data, released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, come at an inopportune time for Mich. Gov. Rick Snyder. Snyder, locked in a battle for re-election, is leaning heavily on his job creation record...
What The EPA Has To Say About The West Lake Landfill ― And Why Everything Is Taking So Long  St. Louis Public Radio   ...A recent review by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources found evidence of increasing groundwater contamination at the Bridgeton Landfill, including unsafe levels of benzene, arsenic, and other toxic chemicals...
Gov. Dayton Asks For Additional Oil Train Safety In Letter To ND Counterpart  Minneapolis Star Tribune   ...Dayton says Minnesota is "one of the primary routes" for Bakken oil being transported from North Dakota. But Dayton says Minnesotans receive little benefit from the oil trains while experiencing increased risks of a derailment...
What's The Matter With Sam Brownback?  Mother Jones   ...Brownback had said that his tax cut plan would provide "a shot of adrenaline into the heart of the Kansas economy." Instead, the state has gone into cardiac arrest...
Indiana Toll Road rates and revenue are up, traffic has been stagnant  Elkhart Truth   ...Toll rates for cash customers on the Indiana Toll Road are up. Not surprisingly, revenue is up, too. Way up. Traffic, though, is down, at least compared to 2008...
Big-money donors play in quiet 2014 state election cycle  Indianapolis Business Journal   ...Campaign finance data collected by the state show that more than $35 million has been given to candidates and campaign committees so far this year. Of that amount, more than $13 million has come from single donations of at least $10,000...
L.A. City Council Approves Minimum-Wage Hike For Hotel Workers  Los Angeles Times   ...The City Council voted 12 to 3 on Wednesday to impose the higher wage on large hotels, delivering a huge victory to a coalition that included organized labor, more than a dozen neighborhood councils and the ACLU of Southern California...
War On Workers
G.O.P. Error Reveals Donors and the Price of Access  New York Times   ...The documents, many of which the Republican officials have since removed from their website, showed that many of America’s most prominent companies, from Aetna to Walmart, had poured millions of dollars into the campaigns of Republican governors since 2008. One document listed 17 corporate “members” of the governors association’s secretive 501(c)(4), the Republican Governors Public Policy Committee, which is allowed to shield its supporters from the public...
The Middle-Class Squeeze  Center for American Progress   ... for a married couple with two children, the costs of key elements of middle-class security—child care, higher education, health care, housing, and retirement—rose by more than $10,000 in the 12 years from 2000 to 2012, at a time when this family’s income was stagnant...
Worker dies after getting stuck in septic system during repairs  WDRB.com   ... the worker was performing a scheduled repair to the home owner's septic system. The worker was trying to replace a fitting when he got stuck in an 18-inch-pipe...
Worker killed while setting up for Texas Rice Festival  Beaumont Enterprise   ...A woman who was part of a carnival work crew was killed Wednesday while setting up for the Texas Rice Festival. The 30-year-old woman was struck by equipment...