Sunday, February 24, 2013

Today's Teamster News 02.24.13

Why Should Taxpayers Give Big Banks $83 Billion a Year?  Bloomberg   ...the banks occupying the commanding heights of the U.S. financial industry -- with almost $9 trillion in assets, more than half the size of the U.S. economy -- would just about break even in the absence of corporate welfare. ..
40% of Americans Now Make Less Than 1968 Minimum Wage  The Contributor   ...“If the minimum wage had risen in step with productivity growth [since 1968], it would be over $16.50 an hour today. That is higher than the hourly wages earned by 40 percent of men and half of women...”
'Citizen tide' of protests swamps Spain  AFP   ...Spaniards furious at hardship and corruption scandals in the financial crisis massed in cities across the country on Saturday in a "citizens' tide" of protests...
2 Lucas County officials denounce Kasich's budget  Toledo Blade   ...Lucas County Auditor Anita Lopez and Treasurer Wade Kapszukiewicz ... said the governor's proposed budget would represent a tax increase for middle class and working class Ohioans when the expanded sales tax is taken into account, and leaves less money for local schools and local government services...
State's private-sector job creation slowed, census data shows  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...Just as troubling ... is that Friday's report also shows that average private-sector wages in the July-September period of last year fell 1.2% from the same quarter in 2011...
Teamsters say strike now likely against school bus company  Mid-Hudson News   ...Teamsters Local 445, the union that represents 165 bus drivers and monitors in the Dutchess BOCES and Rhinebeck and Spackenkill school districts, said on Saturday that negotiations broke down this past week...