U.S. business urges Obama to pursue new trade negotiating power Reuters ...A leading U.S. business group urged President Barack Obama on Thursday to build on trade successes of the past two years by seeking legislation that would allow him to submit trade deals to Congress for straight up-or-down votes without amendments...
Senate Leaders Finalize Scaled-Back Filibuster Deal Talking Points Memo ...The final details of the deal struck by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), which make only minor changes to the filibuster rules in the Senate, show why leading reformers are so disappointed in the outcome...
U.S.weekly jobless claims drop to 5-year low of 330,000 AP ...The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid fell last week to the lowest level in five years, evidence that employers are cutting fewer jobs and may step up hiring…
Data Points to Slow Recovery in Euro Zone New York
Times ...The euro zone economy took a step closer to recovery
this month as the rate of decline in the bloc’s private sector
eased more than expected, a business survey showed on Thursday...
Spanish Jobless Rate Hits Record Bloomberg ...Spanish unemployment
rose to a record in the final quarter of 2012 as Prime Minister
Mariano Rajoy’s
government imposed the deepest budget cuts in the country’s
democratic history. The number of jobless approached 6 million
people, or 26.02 percent, from 25.01 percent in the previous three
months...
GOP senators seek constitutional amendment on union elections Northwest Indiana Times ...Having prevailed last
year in putting right-to-work into state law, some Republican
senators now want to amend the Indiana Constitution to make it even
more difficult for labor unions to organize...On a party-line vote
Wednesday, the Republican-controlled Senate Pensions and Labor
Committee approved a proposed constitutional amendment requiring
secret ballots be used for any union representation decision...
Virginia Republicans move forward on plan to give GOP more electoral votes The Hill ...Republicans
in the Virginia state Senate are moving
forward with
a plan that would give the GOP presidential nominee a big boost at
winning most of the state's electoral votes even if the Democratic
candidate won the statewide vote...
California unions grow, bucking U.S. trend LA Times ...The latest snapshot of the U.S. working
class shows that unions are in trouble...But California and a few
nearby states in the Southwest are showing a vastly different picture
- labor's ranks are on an upswing...
Union leader: We don’t like the Republic Airlines deal, but we expected it Dallas
Morning News ...Tony
Gutierrez, who heads the Air Line Pilots Association unit at American
Eagle, criticized American Airlines’ deal to send commuter-airline
flying to Republic Airlines. But, the chairman of ALPA’s Eagle
master executive council, told ALPA members that the deal like this
was expected...
New York City school bus strike continues as feds investigate
Queens Chronicle ...Washington may soon intervene in the school bus
strike that has left parents of about 150,000 New York City school
children scrambling for alternative transportation since last week...
Teamsters forced to authorize bus driver strike People's World ...The unyielding bargaining stance of a private school bus company
in South Carolina forced two groups of Charleston-area school bus
drivers, represented by Teamsters Local 509, into unanimous strike
authorization votes...
SC Board of Education Authorizes Strikebreaking Bus Drivers North Charleston Patch ...The
State Board of Education has unanimously authorized an emergency
measure to aid in student transportation in two districts with
privatized school bus workforces that are threatening to strike. The
districts have contracted with private company Durham School Services
to provide transportation services. Durham's employees are unionized
under Teamsters 509 and authorized a
strike last week and this week as negotiations with the company
stalled...
