Inadequate offer forced East St. Louis teachers strike. Students in the East St. Louis, Ill., school district stayed home beginning in early October after its 400 union teachers rejected an inadequate settlement offer. Members of Illinois Federation of Teachers voted down the offer Sept. 29 and asked for more negotiations, but administrators didn’t respond and teachers walked out Oct. 1. The District started bargaining again Oct. 14, but no progress was made as of press time.

About 6,000 students in nine schools were out of school after 200 high schoolers walked out of classes on Sept. 30 in solidarity with the union.

The forced work stoppage is the first in East St. Louis since a 24-day walkout in 1997.

IFT’s Dave Comerford said, “They’re waiting for us to break down. It’s a power play.”

Women’s health needs survey launched. The Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) has launched a confidential on-line survey for all working women to fill out to help CLUW determine what data and health information working women need. It’s at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/cluw-survey.

“As part of its commitment to empower union women, CLUW provides members with health information,” CLUW president Connie Leak said.

The data will let CLUW create a plan, to be considered at CLUW’s convention this month.

TPP opponents include unions, many allies: Trumka. The Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal was finalized in October, but its future remains uncertain. After eight years of secret talks, the 30-chapter text won’t be revealed for weeks, and Congress may not vote on it until February.

Critics of what’s been leaked not only include labor, but environmentalists, church groups, Republicans Donald Trump and Orin Hatch, and all Democratic presidential hopefuls. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader calls it a “corporate coup” and AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka said, “If it’s anything like what we’ve already seen, we’ll be opposing it vigorously.”

Nationwide protests are scheduled in Washington Nov. 14-18.

Letter Carriers, USPS work on funding retiree health care. Representatives from the Letter Carriers union and the U.S. Postal Service have agreed on a proposal to fund health care for workers and retirees, National Association of Letter Carriers President Fredric Rolando says, and it would end a big red ink drain on USPS.

The proposal would eliminate the $5 billion yearly drain for future retiree health care payments, instead having all future USPS retirees sign up for all parts of Medicare once they’re 65, rather than keeping them in a USPS-funded system.

Solving the problem is important for USPS workers plus customers because, at the behest of President George W. Bush, the GOP-run Congress in 2006 imposed an annual USPS pre-payment of future retirees’ health care benefits. That sent the USPS spiraling into debt. Former Postmaster General Patrick Donahue responded by slashing services, slowing the mail, closing Post Offices and sorting centers, scheming to fire 100,000 full-time unionized postal workers — replacing many with minimum-wage part-time Staples workers — and letting another 100,000 go by attrition.

“This is a good first step towards positive postal reform that recognizes the needs of the employees and the employer,’ Rolando said, “but we’ll need to tread carefully as we progress further.”

Women’s groups hail ban on disciplining workers who discuss pay. Women’s rights groups hailed a ban on federal contractors and subcontractors from disciplining or firing workers who discuss their pay. The Labor Department ban takes effect on Jan. 11, 2016, and applies to firms with federal contracts or subcontracts. Implementing an executive order from President Obama, it could cover up to 28 million workers.

“The department has eliminated a major barrier to fair pay,” said Debra Ness, executive director of the National Partnership for Women and Families. “When workers fear retaliation for talking about pay, discrimination goes unchecked and workers and families lose critical income.”

News briefs courtesy of The Labor Paper