Teamsters Protest Worker Lockout By Shore Point Distributing
https://teamster.org/news/2017/05/teamsters-protest-worker-lockout-shore-point-distributing
Freehold, N.J.) – Teamster members, union allies and supporters are protesting Shore Point Distributing’s lockout of its workers, as are Shore Point’s retail customers.
On April 30, Shore Point, Freehold, New Jersey, locked out 113 of its workers in an attempt to force them to give up their pension, accept a 3-year wage freeze, and agree to give the company permission to change their health insurance plan and co-pays at any time.
These workers are members of Teamsters Local 701 in North Brunswick, New Jersey. Local 701 had been in negotiations for a new contract with Shore Point since Feb. 28, 2017. The workers and their union wanted to continue negotiations, but Shore Point locked them out instead.
Payroll Information
Reminder due to the Memorial day holiday all time cards for the pay period ending May 23, 2017 must me at verification/ROC by Thursday May 25th by 11:00am.
Payroll needs to be completed and submitted Friday this week.
Thanks and have a safe holiday
Empower/Great West Retirement
Recently employees have received a letter concerning the non-agreement 457 plan, this letter was sent out to all members in error.
There will be a retraction letter sent out from Empower, please disregard as this does not effect our 457 or 401 accounts.
Thanks
House of Representatives passed an anti-worker bill
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| Brothers and Sister,
Earlier this week, the House of Representatives passed an anti-worker billed misguidedly labeled as the “Working Families Flexibility Act” (H.R. 1180). This harmful legislation would let employers give workers paid time off instead of being required to pay one and a half times their regular rate of pay for hours worked beyond 40 in a work week. H.R. 1180 encourages employers to require excessive hours because overtime work would become cheaper and allow the employer to determine when the compensatory time off is allowed. This anti-worker bill would result in longer hours, less pay and more unpredictable work schedules for those who are not fortunate enough to have a union contract to protect them. During a time when our nation’s elected leaders should be focused on creating good paying American jobs, H.R. 1180 does nothing more than provide employers with an opportunity to cheat their employees out of their earned overtime pay. Attached is a letter I sent to every Member of Congress urging them to vote NO on this anti-worker bill. You can find out how your elected representatives voted by clicking the link below. |
| In solidarity, |
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| John Risch National Legislative Director SMART Transportation Division |
Day At The Races
RRB Analysis: Trump’s budget to gut Amtrak would be disastrous for ALL rail workers
http://www.congressweb.com/SMART_Transportation/15
| If signed into law, President Trump’s 2018 budget proposal would eliminate Amtrak’s long distance train service. The immediate fall out would be significant for all American rail workers resulting in the loss of 10,000 non-Northeast Corridor Amtrak jobs by the end of this year.
According to a recent report by the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) Actuary, the impact of such job losses would result in a long-term decrease in Railroad Retirement benefits and overall increase in taxes. Impact on RRB benefits & trust funds if 10,000 Amtrak jobs cut
While RRB accounts could absorb the loss of 10,000 Amtrak jobs, the cumulative impact of losses in the rail industry, including approximately 30,000 jobs that have been lost in just the last two years, will take a significantly negative toll on the entire system. Attached you will find the RRB’s detailed projection in loss of jobs, loss of benefits, and major increase in railroad unemployment benefits projected for 2017 and 2018. The time to act is NOW
We must urge fellow members, friends and family to call, email and write our national elected officials to OPPOSE any budget that would cut 10,00 Amtrak jobs, eliminate commuter rail service and irreparably harm the retirement benefits that all railroad members worked for a lifetime to secure. |
| In solidarity, |
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| John Risch National Legislative Director SMART Transportation Division |
Schedule Changes Highlighted
NJ Tax Update
Contact Number for State of NJ division of taxation
Message
Kathleen D Perna
NJ Transit
Director Payroll Taxes, Accounting and Deductions
“We have received many phone calls from employees including union leadership regarding their NJ State tax refund, apparently when our employees call the state they are told that it is a NJ Transit issue.
However, this tax refund issue is NOT unique to NJ Transit employees, (see articles and websites below – right click on the link and select “open Hyperlink”).
This is a statewide issue for all NJ employers that the NJ State Dept. of Taxation must address.
This year the state changed their process and implemented several controls to guard against fraudulent tax return/identity theft.
One of the safe guards is to cross check the electronic file of W2’s issued by employers with the tax return filed by employees.
In prior years the state would begin the issuance of refunds prior to the receipt of the W2 file from employers.
NJT transmitted the W3 file with all W2’s timely prior to the regulatory deadline of February 28, 2017, as required by the IRS and all states including NJ, NY and PA,
and we received electronic confirmation of each successful transmission (see attached NJ State specifications for W2 electronic filing with due date February 28, 2017).
FYI – the February 28th deadline has been in place historically for the IRS and all states.
Although it is difficult to discern a pattern, based on the articles below it appears that NJ state did not begin processing refunds until March 1st, and anyone who filed
after March 1st have received their refunds. However, it appears the state did not go back to review and process tax returns for those individuals who filed their tax returns prior to March 1st.
Many of our employees have received refunds and some have not, we have been in contact with NJ State Dept. of Taxation on a daily basis, and have escalated this issue.
However to date we have not received a satisfactory response and continue to press the issue for a resolution so that our employees receive their refunds
http://nj1015.com/new-jersey-d
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.c
Below are some of the tax websites and there chat group where tax filers are complaining about not getting their refunds from the state of NJ;
https://ttlc.intuit.com/questi
http://igotmyrefund.com/forums
http://www.city-data.com/forum
