State proposes fining Waste Management
Renton Reporter April 23, 2013 View the original piece State regulators are proposing to fine Waste Management, Inc., for missed garbage, recycling and yard-waste collections during last year's eight-day labor dispute. Waste Management handles Renton's garbage and recycling services. In a complaint issued Monday, the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) staff is recommending the commission penalize Waste Management for violations of state law when the company failed to provide scheduled trash service to more...
ABF seeks 6.5% cut in Teamsters pay
Lisa Hammersly Arkansas Democrat Gazette April 23, 2013 View the original piece FORT SMITH - ABF Freight System Inc. is proposing a one year, 6.5 percent cut in wages for its Teamsters union drivers and other workers, as well as reduced health care and other benefits, according to a website posting by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. After four months of contract negotiations, the Teamsters and ABF Freight System Inc. of Fort Smith are at...
Tell Congress: "Don't mess with the 40-hour workweek and overtime pay!"
AFL-CIO April 22, 2013 View the original piece The House of Representatives has renewed its decades-old attack on the 40-hour workweek. Once again, some members of Congress are pushing so-called "comp time" legislation that would allow employers to stop giving workers any extra pay for overtime work. H.R. 1406, the so-called "Working Families Flexibility Act" would take away "Overtime Pay" and replace it with "Comp Time". This bill is not about providing employees with greater...
YRC Worldwide to Lock Out IAM Mechanics
William B. Cassidy, Senior Editor The Journal of Commerce April 15, 2013 View the original piece YRC Worldwide is facing off against a union representing a small group of employees, demanding those workers take the same wage and benefit cuts already accepted by thousands of Teamsters and nonunion co-workers. The $4.9 billion less-than-truckload operator said it will end a contract extension April 15 that covers about 200 members of the International Association of Machinists and...
Union-Employer Proposal Would Hit Some Retirees
Kris Maher The Wall Street Journal April 15, 2013 View the original piece A coalition of unions and employers is proposing changes to the federal law that governs the pension plans of about 10 million people, including reducing benefits paid to retirees, the first time in four decades that such cuts would be allowed. The proposal, which would undo guarantees put in place by federal law in 1974, is already stirring controversy among pension-rights advocates...
Hong Kong Dockworkers Strike Attracts Huge Solidarity
Ellen David Friedman Labor Notes April 12, 2013 View the original piece Five hundred dockworkers are facing down the richest man in Hong Kong (and, according to Forbes, eighth-richest in the world) in a strike that has entered its third week and brought transport in the world’s third-busiest port to a virtual halt. Li Ka-shing, the billionaire behind Hongkong International Terminals (HIT), controls more than 70 percent of Hong Kong’s port container traffic and oversees...
Teamsters strike at AFC Cable
Simón Rios South Coast Today April 11, 2013 View the original piece DARTMOUTH — Local 59 Teamsters went on strike Wednesday at AFC Cable Systems, picketing in front of a company site inside the New Bedford Business Park. About 30 workers wearing "strike" placards around their necks were at the park. However, union representatives on site would not comment on the nature of the strike. One of the strikers attempted to speak to a Standard-Times...
Workers at closing YRC Freight hub took pay cuts, lost vacation time
Chelsey Levingston Journal News April 12, 2013 View the original piece Local YRC Freight workers are angry about the company’s plans to close the West Chester Twp. freight distribution hub after union employees took pay cuts, had the company’s pension contributions reduced, and gave up vacation time under the impression that these concessions would help keep the company running. “That’s what kept this company open and then they turn around and take your jobs anyway,”...
Star Tribune Guild workers rally outside of the newspaper's headquarters
Olivia LaVecchia City Pages April 11, 2013 View the original piece Late Tuesday afternoon, about 135 people gathered outside the entrance of the Star Tribune's downtown headquarters.They carried posters proclaiming "Show Us the Green in 2013" and "Re$tore Our Pay"; they wore green ribbons next to stickers emblazoned with a sneezing green face, marked "PTO makes us sick: Give us back our sick days." The most common sign said only "2,000," with each zero doing...
Teamsters At Republic Services Extend Picket Lines To Anaheim, California
PR Newswire April 10, 2013 View the original piece Sanitation workers employed at Republic Services/Allied Waste's [NYSE: RSG] Carbon Limestone landfill in Youngstown, Ohio raised a picket line extension at Republic's Anaheim, Calif. facilities early this morning. The more than 400 workers at Republic's transfer station, commercial and residential truck yard, and materials recovery facility (MRF) are refusing to cross the picket line. The striking landfill workers are members of Teamsters Local Union 377 in...