Today's Teamster News 05.22.13

How to help tornado victims  The Oklahoman   ...If you are able to do so, please do what you can to help families impacted by the recent storms. Several nonprofit organizations are collecting donations...
Rubber bullets greet Bangladesh garment workers' pay protest  AFP   ...Bangladeshi police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at thousands of garment workers as they demanded a wage hike at a protest in a manufacturing hub outside the capital Dhaka...
Poverty Among Senior Citizens is Worse than Official Numbers  Fire Dog Lake   ...A new analysis shows that poverty among seniors is significantly worse than official estimates...
Low-wage workers picket outside federal buildings   Washington Post   ...Food-service workers in Washington, D.C. walked off their jobs in the food court of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center on Tuesday morning as part of a day-long protest of low wages paid to federal contract employees...
Why Austerity Kills: From Greece to U.S., Crippling Economic Policies Causing Global Health Crisis  Democracy Now!   ...there have been more than 10,000 additional suicides and up to a million extra cases of depression across Europe and the United States since governments started introducing austerity programs...
Occupy Our Homes Activists Arrested At Justice Department Headquarters  Fire Dog Lake   ...About 100 protesters with groups called the Home Defenders League and Occupy Our Homes marched on the building ... According to D.C. police, 17 people were arrested. Ann C. Wilcox, an attorney who represents protesters, said several were tased during the scuffle...
Apple Avoids Paying $17 Million In Taxes Every Day Through A Ballsy But Genius Tax Avoidance Scheme  Business Insider   ...Apple has found the secret to not paying taxes. You just avoid taxes by not declaring a tax residency for the company that oversees the entirety of your international income...
Delaware judge orders Wal-Mart to give shareholders more info related to bribery allegations Associated Press   ...A judge in Delaware ordered attorneys for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to turn over more information to shareholders seeking records on how the company responded to allegations of bribery involving its operations in Mexico...
Can crowd funding rescue the LA Times?  MSN Money   ...An advocacy group wants to raise $660 million from lots of little guys to keep Tribune's newspapers away from the billionaire Koch brothers...
Unions are integral part of modern free society (opinion)  Cincinnati Enquirer ...Well-organized union work has given us the 40-hour work week, the weekend, Labor Day, safety laws and health laws among other enhancements. The so-called “right to work” is a referenda between choosing to work in a unionized business or agency, or being stripped of workplace rights that protect people and further freedom...
City underpaid Teamsters' health fund  Utica Observer Dispatch   ...The Teamsters audited the health fund from January 2010 to December 2012 and discovered the error...
No deal: Bay City Commission rejects Teamsters contract for managers  Michigan Live   ...The Bay City Commission rejected a new contract for nine managers working in City Hall...
Teamster reps endorse ABF contract  The City Wire   ...Monday’s action paves the way for a vote among the estimated 7,500 union workers employed by Fort Smith-based ABF...

American Winter: A film we want to see about our '1 strike and you're out' economy

It's called 'American Winter' and it looks like a movie that will break your heart. Here's the description, from HBO:

AMERICAN WINTER tells the interwoven stories of eight families living in and around Portland, Oregon, each of  whom called 211info, a nonprofit referral organization, in search of help with paying bills, finding housing, or getting advice on how to weather the current financial downturn.  In addition to vérité footage of each family, the  documentary includes insights from several local officials and businesspeople. 

The profiled families include: 

• TJ & Tara – Living in a trailer home with their three children, TJ and Tara see a glimmer of hope in their escalating bill crisis when TJ gets a minimum-wage job, though the optimism proves temporary.  As 12-year-old daughter Dakota tries to make the best of things through a first foray into dating, 13-year-old son Justin worries about being made fun of at school, and despairs he’ll never be able to provide for a family when he grows up. 

• John & Geral – Proud of the fact that he has always worked, John is now facing a third year of unemployment, and despairs that he’ll soon lose his ranch, the only home son Geral, who has Downs Syndrome, has ever known. 

• Brandon & Pam – With Brandon frustrated by a series of close calls on the job front, Pam is forced to go to the Rose Haven women’s shelter for advice on the family’s next steps – a scenario she admits she never envisioned.  Eventually, Brandon gets a part-time job he hopes will lead to something better for his wife and two kids.

It's coming out on DVD. You can pre-order it here.

Republic Airways' skies are unfriendly for Teamsters, passengers

Fasten your seat belts! Teamster-member pilots with Republic Airline Holdings, Inc. (RAH), are warning potential new hires and customers about their abysmal pay and working conditions. The pilots are telling them they would be much better off with another airline, and they caution that the safety of both pilots and passengers is at stake.

International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 357, which represents 2,300 professional aviators, ran an advertisement in USA Today last Friday and created two websites to publicize their disgust with RAH. Local 357 also began a White House petition asking for the law to be changed so companies can't endlessly extend contract negotiations. RAH pilots have been trying to reach a deal on a new contract since 2007, and have not received a contractual raise in more than five years.

This advertisement ran in the May 17 edition of USA Today.

Meanwhile, RAH -- which operates regional jets for American, Delta, Frontier, United and USAirways -- has increased employee contributions for health care and uprooted pilots from their home bases. Many pilots subsist on less than $1,000 a month in take-home pay and are spending more time away from their families.

As both websites state:

Aviation is a rewarding career in many ways, but Republic Airways management does their best to keep that at a minimum. They continue to beat the competition and expand the business by ensuring that we are among the lowest compensated pilots in the industry. Republic Airways works against us in every possible fashion to keep us cheap at our own expense and sacrifice.

How could a company let issues grow to the point that the pilots’ union is taking out ads and creating a website like this? Believe it or not, management does it on purpose. The “stepping stone” mentality was intentionally designed to get low-experienced pilots in the door who will stay for a minimum time then move on once better employment is found – essentially making the company into a temporary staffing agency for other airlines. The industry has changed, but our company (along with our pay and work rules) have not kept up with the times.

It is time for RAH leadership to come to the table and negotiate in good faith with hard-working pilots who are only asking for a fair shake. To say our lives are in their hands is not an exaggeration. Pilots should be fairly compensated for the critical work they do. Until RAH changes its ways, new pilots and customers should vote with their feet by choosing other airlines.

TN rep gets $3.5M in handouts, but says food stamp recipients 'stealing other peoples' money'

Is he smiling because he
has a check in his pocket?

Oh this is rich. U.S. Rep. Stephen Fincher, a Tennessee Republican, gladly cashed $3.48 million in taxpayer-funded farm subsidies between 1999 and 2012.

Then, during a House Agriculture Committee debate, he spoke against the food stamp program, which feeds 47 million (Now there's a scandal) hungry Americans:

We are all here on this committee making decisions about other people’s money. We have to remember there is not a big printing press in Washington that continually prints money over and over.  This is other people’s money that Washington is appropriating and spending.

The Environmental Working Group reported on Fincher's own theft of other people's money:

Fincher collected a staggering $3.48 million in “our” money from 1999 to 2012. In 2012 alone, the congressman was cut a government check for a $70,000 direct payment. Direct payments are issued automatically, regardless of need, and go predominantly to the largest, most profitable farm operations in the country. 

Fincher’s $70,000 farm subsidy haul in 2012 dwarfs the average 2012 SNAP benefit in Tennessee of $1,586.40, and it is nearly double of Tennessee’s median household income. After voting to cut SNAP by more than $20 billion, Fincher joined his colleagues to support a proposal to expand crop insurance subsidies by $9 billion over the next 10 years.

Tennessee, what were you thinking when you elected this guy?

Teamsters tell Ore. lawmakers: TPP is 'a big, bad secret'

Brother Mark McPherson, testifying today in  Oregon against the TPP. 

A Teamster organizer is telling an Oregon House committee today about the union's grave concerns with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal. He said the Teamsters are concerned that it's being negotiated in secret and that it will throw dairy employees out of work.

Mark McPherson, an organizer with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters' Joint Council 37, is speaking before the House Committee on Agriculture and National Resources today. Brother McPherson is telling lawmakers that TPP will be worse for U.S. workers than the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) approved 20 years ago.

McPherson is sounding the alarm on several fronts. He explains how the TPP is being negotiated behind closed doors. He talks about how it will destroy workers' rights. Most of his comments focus on how it will adversely affect the dairy industry in North America, including the 600 workers employed at eight different dairy facilities in Oregon:

...the pending TPP trade agreement will have tremendous impact on where and how dairy products are produced and processed both here in Oregon, and throughout the United States.  We are concerned about sanitary standards and market access – in short, concerned that the agreement will be unhealthy and will kill U.S. jobs in the dairy industry. Many of us may not know much about New Zealand, which is one of the twelve countries in negotiations, but it is my understanding that New Zealand is to milk what Saudi Arabia is to oil.  New Zealand has a monopolistic dairy sector wherein essentially one company, Fonterra, has evolved only several degrees from a state-owned entity. New U.S. market access for New Zealand would be especially damaging not only to Teamsters, but to Oregon dairy farmers as well.

McPherson details how the Teamsters have asked the U.S. Trade Representative and Congress to open the TPP process so the public can comment on how it wold impact the dairy industry. They haven't. He also explains how the TPP is following in the footsteps of NAFTA:

Why should we believe that this one will be any different?

I think we already have the answer. I think that the answer is that it won’t be. That’s why, although this agreement will impact all of us in virtually every aspect of our lives – including the milk we pour into our cereal every morning – we haven’t been able to see it. It’s a big, bad secret. We know the drill. After working on a multi-volume document for over 3 years – it will be shoved in front of Congress for a rushed, take it or leave it vote – and we’ll be told it has to pass or the world will end.

In closing, McPherson calls on Oregon lawmakers to get involved by speaking to federal elected officials about the TPP's secret negotiation process. He urges them to tell U.S. policymakers to take dairy off the table. Let's follow his lead and tell lawmakers to stop messing with dairy!

Breaking: Poverty wage protesters taking over Union Station (VIDEO)

View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.
(UPDATES with new DETAILS in grafs 5-12)

Cries of "No Justice, No Peace" are filling the cavernous Union Station in downtown Washington, D.C., as federal workers protesting their poverty wages are joined by their supporters.

Teamsters are among the supporters who marched through the historic rail station. Some wore t-shirts saying, "We are on strike for a Good Jobs Nation." Some held signs with the message, "Sierra Club Stands With Workers." Protesters briefly confronted police as television cameras rolled.

Federal workers, among the 2 million employed by contractors who earn less than $12 an hour, are on strike for the day. They aren't just rallying at Union Station. They're also picketing in front of the National Air and Space Museum, the Old Post Office and the Ronald Reagan Trade Center.

It's the sixth one-day strike by low-wage workers in recent months. Fast-food and retail employees have walked off the job in New York, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis and Milwaukee to protest poverty-level wages. The Teamsters support these actions through its affiliation with the Change to Win labor federation.&nbsp

Holding signs that said “Strike to Survive,” the protesters marched into Union Station and picketed throughout the  building. They paraded through the large basement food court where many of the strikers work. At one point, protestors staged a brief sit-in while a banner that read “Strike for a Living Wage” floated to the top of a large dome ceiling, held up by a several dozen balloons. Workers spoke through a megaphone and told their stories of struggling on poverty wages while toiling in the nation’s vast low-wage economy that includes some 2 million federally contracted workers.

Demonstrators chanted “Si, se puede” (Yes, we can), “Can’t survive on $7.25,” and “No justice, no pizza” as they headed back to the front of the station where a rally was held. Representatives of DC’s faith community opened the rally. With the crowd’s hands in the air, Rev. Whit Hutchinson said,

These are the hands with which nothing else works. We are here to remind employers, Congress and President Obama that this city, this country depends on your working hands.

Vilma Martinez, who has worked as a janitor at Union Station for 19 years, told the diverse crowd about her struggles earning just $8.75 an hour with no benefits and a serious medical condition. Justin, a 22-year old local who works at FYE in Union Station said he makes $8.50 an hour and works 17 to 28 hours a week. He is not eligible for health benefits.

It’s not fair. I’m asking Obama to help us. Keep your promise to make change.

Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota addressed the rally, pledging his support and advocacy for the workers on Capitol Hill:

This country demands better pay. Your action today comes on the heels of fast food workers who have struck in New York and Chicago. They demand a living wage, paid leave, and benefits. We call on President Obama to sign an executive order to stop federal contractors from paying less than a livable wage.

The rally was closed out by Rev. Graylan Hagler, a mainstay figure in DC’s activist community for workers’ rights. Hagler gave a fiery speech drawing parallels to sharecropping and demanding that the “federally-funded sweatshop economy” be overturned. After the rally, a contingent of protestors and workers marched to Capitol Hill for a hearing organized by the Progressive Caucus to discuss the issue of low-wage workers providing services on behalf of the federal government.

Good Jobs Nation is asking President Obama to sign an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay living wages. You can sign the petition here.

We're also hearing this about today's action:

A flash mob will occur around 530 eastern. You don't wanna miss it.

Stay tuned.

Federal govt. has more low-wage workers than Wal-Mart, McDonald's combined

Today in Washington, D.C.

And today Teamsters are joining hundreds of them in Washington, D.C., rallies to protest their low wages.

The federal workers are on strike for the day and picketing in front of the National Air and Space Museum, the Old Post Office, Union Station and the Ronald Reagan Trade Center. DCist reports,

Groups of workers employed in service jobs at federal buildings around D.C. are picketing this morning outside the landmark sites at which they are employed over their low wages. The protest, organized by a new group calling itself Good Jobs Nation, includes people who work at federal building food courts, loading docks, memorabilia shops, and facilities that manufacture uniforms for the military. 

The demonstration started about 7 a.m. outside the Ronald Reagan Building, with more than 100 participants filling the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and 13th Street NW during the morning rush. 

It's the sixth one-day strike by low-wage workers in recent months. Fast-food and retail employees have walked off the job in New York, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis and Milwaukee to protest poverty-level wages.

A report released by Demos exposes the millions of government jobs that don't pay enough to live on:

...Through federal contracts and other funding, our tax dollars are fueling the low-wage economy and exacerbating inequality. Hundreds of billions of dollars in federal contracts, grants, loans, concession agreements and property leases go to private companies that pay low wages, provide few benefits, and offer employees little opportunity to work their way into the middle class. At the same time, many of these companies are providing their executives with exorbitant compensation. 

We find that nearly two million private sector employees working on behalf of America earn wages too low to support a family, making $12 or less per hour. This is more than the number of low-wage workers at Walmart and McDonalds combined.1 Yet, if anything, this figure underestimates the total number of poorly-paid workers funded by our tax dollars. Our analysis encompasses U.S. workers employed by government contractors, paid by federal health care spending, supported by Small Business Administration loans, working on federal construction grants, and maintaining buildings leased by the federal government. This encompasses the largest share of poorly-paid workers funded by our taxes. However, other streams of funding have yet to be analyzed. For example, loans and subsidies from the Department of Agriculture fund giant agribusinesses that employ more than a million farm workers, while grants from the Department of Education fund low-wage assistant teachers, bus monitors and cooks in Head Start and other programs. Due to lack of data, retail and food service workers for concessionaires of the National Parks Service and other federal agencies also fall outside our analysis.

Josh Eidelson at The Nation also reports:

In September 2010, the Government Accountability Office issued a report concluding that the government had paid $6 billion in fiscal year 2009 federal contracts to contractors who had been cited for violations of federal labor laws. Seven months earlier, The New York Times reported that the Obama administration was planning to issue a “High Road Procurement Policy” that could “disqualify more companies with labor, environmental or other violations and give an edge to companies that offer better levels of pay, health coverage, pensions and other benefits” in securing federal contracts. But such a move never came to pass.

Good Jobs Nation is asking President Obama to sign an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay living wages. You can sign the petition here.

The Teamsters are supporting the strike through the Change to Win federation. Change to Win supports strikes by non-union workers who work in Wal-Mart stores, Wal-Mart warehouses, on sub-contracted cleaning crews in Minneapolis-St. Paul Target stores and in fast food restaurants.