http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=6863&catid=&volume_id=317&issue_id=390&volume_num=42&issue_num=45

Cash from cabbies

Yellow Cab pushes driver prepayment plan that city officials say is illegal

By Maria Dinzeo

› news@sfbg.com

The largest taxicab company in San Francisco is trying to squeeze more money from its drivers, who say they're already being hit hard by increased gate fees and rising fuel costs.

Yellow Cab has ordered its drivers to prepay for the privilege of driving each month, amounting to thousands of dollars for full-time drivers. Compounding that financial hardship is the apparent intention of the company to use prepaid gate fees to change the employment status of its drivers from employees to independent contractors who are no longer entitled to unemployment insurance and workers' compensation coverage.

While local officials say Yellow Cab's new policy is illegal, they have little power to compel the company to abandon the plan, which was supposed to go into effect Aug. 15 but has now been moved to December under pressure from city officials and the United Taxicab Workers union. Drivers are also threatening to bring legal action to stop Yellow Cab, relying on a past ruling barring the company from requiring deposits from its drivers and misclassifying drivers as independent contractors.

http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080725.waircanada0725/BNStory/Business/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080725.waircanada0725

Globe and Mail July 25, 2008 at 4:19 PM EDT

Ottawa rejects Air Canada's request for layoffs

Ross Marowits

Montreal -- Federal Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn has rejected Air Canada [AC.A-T]'s request for a waiver that would have allowed the airline to lay off flight attendants Nov. 1 without first setting up a joint union-company committee to examine ways to ease the impact of the cuts.

"After carefully examining the application, I have decided that there are insufficient grounds to grant a waiver to Air Canada," Mr. Blackburn said in a statement Friday.

The minister has offered the airline and the union access to mediators and instructed department officials to monitor the situation to ensure that any affected Air Canada employees receive their entitlements under the Canada Labour Code.

Under the code, the airline must create a joint committee with employees to try to minimize the impact of the Montreal-based carrier's planned streamlining of about 2,000 jobs, including more than 600 flight attendants, from its 24,000-employee work force.

Petition against Persecution of Costa Rican Union Leaders for Opposing CAFTA

To: Dr. Óscar Arias Sánchez, President of Costa Rica
Francisco Morales Hernández, Minister of Labor
We, the undersigned Australian union members and supporters of free speech and association, call on the government of Costa Rica to stop retaliating against union leaders who oppose implementation of the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
We adamantly insist that you rescind the disciplinary actions, and threats of action, against the union officers listed below who have worked for years in public service and who are tireless advocates for workers rights:
Alicia Vargas, Secretary of the Women Workers section of the Staff Union of the National Insurance Institute (UPINS);
Luis Salas, General Secretary of UPINS and the Central Labor Council (CGT);
Fabio Chavez, General Secretary, and Executive Board members Francisco Aguilar and Jorge Vega, Association of Employees of the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ASDEICE);
Jose Luis Castillo, Financial Secretary of the port workers union in Limon and Moín SINTRAJAP); and

From: Teresa Gutierrez
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 9:37 AM
Subject: Truck Drivers & May Day

We are excited to report that a truck will be leading the May Day March from Union Square to Foley Square tomorrow.

This is great news to show our solidarity among all workers of all nationalities, documented, undocumented or born in the U.S.
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For Immediate Release:
Transportation Workers Coalition for Change

Contact: Billy Randel, 646-645-6284

New Jersey Port Truckers to Strike Over Fuel and Energy Costs

Workers Will Rally Off the New Jersey Turnpike in Large Work Stoppage.

WHAT: Port truckers will stop work for two days to protest rising fuel and energy costs.

WHY: Rising fuel and energy costs are threatening the ability of port truckers to earn a decent living and support their families as well as negatively impacting communities across the country. NJ port truckers are taking action as part of a national effort of transportation workers including - longshoremen and women, taxi
workers, port and long haul truck drivers, and railway workers - to build rank and file unity.

April 17, 2008

One Longshoreman's Opinion

Stop PMA's Phony Legal Attack!

Defend Our Union!

Support the Caucus Resolution!

Around contract time, it often gets hot between unions and employers. I've been in the trade union movement 50 years. (I joined the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union when I was 14 years old.) I have never heard an employer use such bogus arguments to deny workers their right to a union meeting particularly at contract time. Longshore workers, by democratic vote, have decided to stop work on May Day to stop the war, a war that most people in this country oppose. It's the war that's illegal, not our decision to stop work. PMA legal threats will only anger longshore workers, especially now during negotiations, a time when Local 10 has usually led the locals on the Coast in job actions showing our union's strength to bolster the Negotiating Committee. Our action was decided by a democratic debate at the Longshore Caucus and that's the highest body in the ILWU Longshore Division when it's in session. PMA can't change that decision.

The ILWU International requested to change the date of our stop work meetings in April 1999 and PMA agreed. The purpose for the meeting change was to lead a demonstration of 20,000 people in San Francisco to help save the life of Mumia Abu-Jamal, an innocent black journalist on death row in Pennsylvania. PMA didn't have a problem then and shouldn't have a problem now. We also had negotiations going on then and there was a helluva lot more shipping going on then. It's clear PMA is trying to test the will of the ILWU membership Our antiwar action has the backing of many trade unions as well as the San Francisco Labor Council, the International Dockworkers Council and the International Transport Workers Federation, representing longshore unions in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia.