Saturday, June 8, 2013

Today's Teamster News 06.08.13

Bulk of U.S. Payroll Gain in Jobs Paying Less-Than-Average Wages  Bloomberg   ...Occupations paying below-average wages accounted for more than half of last month’s U.S. payroll increase, a dynamic that may restrain consumer spending and the economic recovery...
Austerity hampered job growth (opinion)  MarketWatch   ...Sharp cuts in government spending implemented March 1 as part of the sequester are slowing the recovery...
Under Korea FTA, U.S. Trade Deficit Surges to Highest Point in History (Again)  Public Citizen   ...The monthly U.S. trade deficit with Korea soared to its highest point in history, topping $2.5 billion for the month of April alone...the unprecedented deficit surge implies 13,500 U.S. jobs lost to trade with Korea in just thirty days...
Walmart Activism Is Effecting Change At World's Largest Retailer, Organizers Say   Huffington Post   ...“On the store level, people have won all kinds of victories,” said Dan Schlademan, a campaign director for the United Food and Commercial Workers…
More Dissent Is Expected Over a Wal-Mart Scandal   New York Times   ...A year after a shareholder meeting with strong opposition to Wal-Mart board members after a bribery scandal in Mexico, many investors are asking why more change has not occurred...
NLRB judges give scrutiny to employer confidentiality policies  Thomson Reuters   ...Confidentiality clauses in the code of conduct and employee handbook used by an American Red Cross unit in Toledo, Ohio, were so broad that they cannot be enforced and must be rescinded, an administrative law judge has found...
Intelligence chief declassifies details of phone-records program after uproar over snooping Associated Press   ...Moving to tamp down a public uproar spurred by the disclosure of two secret surveillance programs, the nation’s top intelligence official is declassifying key details about one of the programs while insisting the efforts to collect America’s phone records and the U.S. internet use of foreign nationals overseas were legal, limited in scope and necessary to detect terrorist threats...
Could Right-to-Work be overturned? (opinion)  Michigan Radio   ...The ACLU has filed a lawsuit, claiming that the way in which right to work was passed violated the state’s Open Meetings Act...
Koch Brothers Admit They're Interested in Buying Sun-Sentinel  Broward Palm Beach New Times   ...After months of hot and sweaty speculation, we're finally getting some answers out of the Koch Brothers about their interest in the media game...
Majority of women, blacks and Latino seniors on cusp of poverty  Los Angeles Times   ...A new report on the senior population found a majority of elderly women, blacks and Latinos are precariously close to poverty, according to the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute report released Thursday...
15K Alabama consumers to get a check in foreclosure settlement  Birmingham Business Journal   ...Approximately 15,000 Alabama consumers will receive payments this month, totaling $21.8 million, as a result of the state’s participation in the National Mortgage Settlement...
Feds to pay OSHA whistle-blower $820,000 settlement  Charlotte Observer   ...U.S. Department of Labor will pay former OSHA official Bob Whitmore $820,000 - one of the largest federal whistle-blower settlements ever approved-under a deal that will end his four-year fight against the government. Whitmore says he was fired because he publicly criticized his agency for allowing companies to underreport workplace injuries...
US Airways Election Dates Announced!   IBT ...Telephone electronic voting and Internet voting will take place from July 8 through August 12 for US Airways mechanics and related workers to decide on Teamster representation...
Carson officials support union organizing by port truckers  Daily Breeze   ...A Teamster Union-organizing campaign by truck drivers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach won the support of the Carson City Council this week...
Negotiations Spur Multi-Year Contracts for Anne Arundel’s Unions  Business Monthly   ...Twelve out of 13 unions have ratified contracts or have reached tentative agreements with Anne Arundel County, Maryland...
Teamsters Local Awards $36,000 in President's scholarships  Teamsters Local 743   ...Thirty-six sons and daughters of Teamsters Local 743 members were awarded the President’s Scholarship for outstanding academic achievement during the local’s general membership meeting on June 3...