Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Today's Teamster News 05.21.13

Business groups step up push for fast-track authority The Hill   ...Business groups are stepping up their efforts in pushing for a renewal of fast-track authority to negotiate trade agreements. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable  ... teamed up on Monday to launch the Trade Benefits America Coalition...
Trans-Pacific Partnership deal unlikely this year  Stuff.co.nz   ...A heavyweight lineup of former United States trade representatives have delivered a gloomy prognosis on the likelihood of the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal being wrapped up this year...
Foreclosure Fraud Failures Come To A Head In Justice Department Protest   ThinkProgress   ...Frustration with the failed execution of various weakly-constructed legal settlements stemming from widespread foreclosure fraud bubbled over today into a protest at Justice Department headquarters that culminated in homeowners being arrested...
White-collar workers are turning to labor unions  Los Angeles Times   ...The next wave of union protesters isn't blue collar. It's lawyers, paralegals, secretaries, helicopter pilots, judges, insurance agents and podiatrists...
Employee Abuse Runs Rampant In America  Economic Populist   ...The Workplace Bullying Institute documents just how widespread employee abuse is in America. ... the WBI site describes who gets targeted for workplace abuse.... The people most targeted are the ones most capable....
Billionaires Now Own American Politics  TomDispatch   ...Billionaires with an axe to grind, now is your time. Not since the days before a bumbling crew of would-be break-in artists set into motion the fabled Watergate scandal, leading to the first far-reaching restrictions on money in American politics, have you been so free to meddle...
Former Sen. Judd Gregg Named CEO Of Top Wall Street Lobbying Group  Huffington Post   ...As the onetime ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, Gregg was a staunch defender of Wall Street and the financial sector throughout the 2008 financial crisis, helping to author the bill that bailed out the nation's largest banks. The finance, insurance and real estate sector was a top contributor to his campaigns...
Proposal gives Scott Walker administration more power to sell state property  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...Gov. Scott Walker's administration would gain broad authority to sell state property - including prisons, highways, heating plants and university dormitories - under a plan legislators will take up Tuesday...Senator’s plan would make Washington a right-to-work state  Olympia Report   ...Sen. Michael Baumgartner (R-Spokane) on Wednesday announced a strategy  ... to make Washington a right-to-work state if worker’s compensation insurance rates continue to increase...
Pension vote puts some House Republicans in awkward position  Tampa Bay Times ...Florida House Republicans tried to close the state's pension system to new employees this year, saying it's a ticking time bomb that could cripple the state's budget for years to come. But many of those same GOP lawmakers are members of the state pension system themselves...
In Florida, Incentives Only the Beginning for Favored Companies  Florida Center for Investigative Reporting   ...Enterprise Florida is picking winners, and most small businesses cannot imagine being successful in securing these awards,” said Dan Krassner, executive director of the Tallahassee-based watchdog group Integrity Florida. “The whole incentives strategy needs further review to see if it is truly in the public interest.”...
State workers anxious as Illinois lawmakers debate pensions  Associated Press   ...An Illinois agency manager might have to delay retirement. A former university secretary wonders where she’ll have to cancel vacations. A state office assistant fears he won’t be able to afford the medical care his wife needs...
GUEST COMMENTARY: The hidden agenda in Jefferson City  Columbia Missourian   ...the real goal of Missouri's legislative leaders is to continue the shift of wealth and power upward to their friends at the American Legislative Exchange Council. Using ALEC's principles of free markets, limited government and federalism, Missouri's legislative leaders scored at the top of the list of states working to dismantle all public programs and services...
My Voice: No tax dollars for ALEC dues  Argus Leader   ...Do you want your tax dollars to support higher perks, out-of-state travel and membership dues for state legislators to a conservative organization funded by corporate special interests? That’s what is happening now in South Dakota under the leadership of Republican legislators...
ABF Local Leaders Unanimously Approve Tentative Agreement  IBT   ...Leaders from about 160 Teamster local unions that represent ABF members unanimously endorsed a tentative master agreement and supplements today that covers 7,500 workers. The vote to support the tentative agreement and supplements paves the way for a vote by the members...
Teamsters Help 'Stamp Out Hunger'  The Morning Call   ...On May 11, members of National Association of Letter Carriers Locals 389, 254 and 274; the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association; the AFL-CIO and Teamsters Local 778; AARP; the U.S. Postal Service ... collected, sorted and delivered food donated along postal routes, writes Ann B. McManus, director of the Second Harvest Food Bank, in her letter to the editor...
Bold Growth Plans at Hollywood Studios  New York Times   ...Film counts are down. Production is going elsewhere. And yet big Hollywood studios are planning to expand...