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Local and National News
Advisories, industry-specific fact sheets, and resources for members
Apr. 28, 2020 | Our Union is closely monitoring the global health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Working with other unions, public health officials and other experts in our Safety and Health Department, the Union is focused on providing Local Unions and staff with the most up-to-date information and resources to help everyone in this difficult time. Click on COVID-19 Outbreak Resources for Members for local and regional resources. Click on COVID-19 News for Industry-related Fact Sheets and other critical information from the IBT.
Hoffa: Changes to guest worker programs will help protect U.S. livelihoods
June 30, 2020 | In a statement released yesterday about a White House effort to temporarily curtail guest worker programs during the current economic downturn, General President Hoffa said, “U.S. workers are facing a nearly unprecedented loss of jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic. Given the current conditions, it only makes sense to prioritize the lives and the livelihoods of hardworking Americans and protect their wages…” Continue reading Hoffa’s statement here.Newspaper, magazine conference update
June 18, 2020 | Printing the news about the COVID-19 pandemic and providing CDC information on safety guidelines for the public has been an important part of what’s been carried in the news over recent months. Our brothers and sisters working as “essential” workers in the newspaper industry have diligently gone to work, worn protective gear and taken other precautions to stay safe and healthy on the job. I am proud that we are part of the news distribution system in the United States. But, our health is of utmost importance. I want to make sure that every one of our members which work the newspaper, magazine or with electronic media that are part of the Teamsters take special precautions… Read more hereOlder news items can be viewed at 888 News.
Elsewhere in The News
June 29, 2020 | OPINION | The COVID-19 pandemic has sent our world into a public health and economic tailspin. As of May, the national unemployment rate was at 13.3%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In Michigan, it is a staggering 21.2% — worse than the Great Recession. [ In Maryland, it’s 9.9%.] The Washington Post reports that more than 100,000 businesses have closed permanently. But more important, lives are at stake. While a majority of employees in white-collar industries were able to move to much safer remote work environments, hundreds of thousands of “essential” and “frontline” workers — grocery store clerks, sanitation and transportation workers, medical professionals, and others — could not stay home even when the nation was on lockdown… This pandemic has shown just how critical it is to have a union to protect the rights, working conditions, safety, and health of workers. With almost the flip of a switch, millions of hard-working people across the country were suddenly without work, without health benefits, struggling economically — proud individuals who suddenly needed to file unemployment, miss mortgage payments, and visit food banks… Detroit News
• The jobs we need
• Update for Industrial Trades Teamsters
• Workers are striking during coronavirus
• COVID-19 news updates for June 25
• GCC Local in Pa. defeats a decert campaign
• More than half of workers expect to work past 65
• How a raise for workers can be a win for everybody
• Warning: These 9 hand sanitizers could be toxic
• AFGE scores major contract win for EPA employees
• How to stay safe at the beach amid coronavirus
• Mine workers seek order protecting them from coronavirus
• Two million “Save USPS” petitions delivered to U.S. Senate
• Policy & election discussed at Teamsters (virtual) political conference
• Teamsters demand Republic Services end abuse of Black workers in Atlanta
• 7 labor leaders on how COVID-19 has given the labor movement new urgency
June 26, 2020 | WORKERS’ RIGHTS | From Fairbanks to San Juan and from Bangor to Honolulu, workers nationwide turned out June 17 in car caravans, at press conferences, and in call-ins to lawmakers to demand solons “Put Workers First For Racial And Economic Justice.” Their top demands are additional economic aid during the coronavirus pandemic, for workers, not bosses, and for racial justice and economic justice and to force the federal government to order employers to provide anti-coronavirus protective gear. To make their views heard, at least 1,000 cars, festooned with posters and flags, honked their way to Capitol Hill from two sites in the D.C. suburbs, then descended on the Mall to its west. Their point, and those of hundreds of other caravans in every state, D.C., and Puerto Rico, was to force the GOP-run Senate to approve a $3 trillion coronavirus pandemic economic aid package [Heroes Act] the Democratic-run House passed late last month.… Peoples World
• A message for Public Services Teamsters
• What is systemic racism? Here’s what it means…
• Why the pandemic has energized hospital unions
• Longshoremen will shut down ports on Juneteenth
• Hertz warns stock buyers will need miracles to avoid wipeout
• How to unionize your workplace; why you should do it now
• Supreme Court rules workers can’t be fired for being gay, transgender
• Teamsters hail decision protecting LBGTQ+ workers on the job
• Facebook actively building tools designed to suppress labor organizing
• Poultry workers: We’re feeding America, but we’re sacrificing ourselves
• State lays off turnpike workers without warning, Teamsters promise legal action
• Labor Dept. quietly offers up 401(k) plans to private equity vultures
June 19, 2020 | HUMAN RIGHTS | Today, the Teamsters join in honoring the 155th anniversary of the first Juneteenth and call on Congress to create a federal holiday marking the end of slavery. The Teamsters Human Rights & Diversity Commission will be celebrating along with Teamsters from across the country. Juneteenth, a portmanteau of June and nineteenth, is also called Freedom Day, Emancipation Day, or Jubilee Day. Juneteenth acknowledges June 19, 1865, when Major General Gordon Granger, along with more than 1,800 federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to take control of the state and ensure freedom for the last remaining enslaved African Americans in the area… Teamsters
