Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Today's Teamster News 10.22.13

Chicago Teamsters Hispanic Caucus Awards Scholarships   Teamsters Joint Council 25 … The Chicago Teamsters Hispanic Caucus awarded $6,000 in academic scholarships on Oct. 16 to a dozen Illinois Teamsters and the sons and daughters of active Teamster members...
Chester Upland approves deal with Teamsters  Delaware County Daily Times   ...Chester Upland School District (Pennsylvania) approved a one-month contract extension with the district’s custodial and maintenance employees, who represented by Teamsters Local 312...
BART Strike Has Commuters Facing Gridlock  Associated Press   …San Francisco Bay Area commuters started the new work week on Monday with gridlocked roadways and long lines for buses and ferries as a major transit strike entered its fourth day, while investigators are searching for clues to a train crash that killed two workers...
ILA Halts Strike at Baltimore  Journal of Commerce   ...International Longshoremen’s Association workers agreed Friday to return to work for 90 days while negotiators work on a local contract that triggered a three-day strike at the Port of Baltimore. An arbitrator ruled that ILA Local 333’s walkout over a local contract violated the no-strike clause in the union’s coastwide master contract…
AFL-CIO To Democrats: We'll Work To End Your Career If You Cut Social Security Or Medicare  Huffington Post   ..."We will never forget. We will never forgive. And we will never stop working to end your career..."
McDowell County, USA Has Close to Haiti's Life Expectancy: Welcome to Third World America  Alternet   ...Many Americans, especially in the South, can look forward to dying far younger than their counterparts in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and much of Europe...
Suicide Rate Climbs by 30 Percent in Kansas as Government Slashes Mental Health Budgets  The Nation   ...the recession may have pushed already troubled people over the edge. Being unable to find a job or settling for one with lower pay or prestige could add “that final weight to a whole chain of events...”
JP Morgan to Pay $13 Billion in Fines, NYT Says, but Still No Criminal Charges Against Top Wall Street Execs  Buzzflash   ...Neither has there been any serious DOJ attempt -- as BuzzFlash has repeatedly written commentaries about over the past few years -- to hold the Wall Street execs criminally accountable for acts of fraud with a devastating financial impact that almost crashed the US economy. Our prisons are filled with burglars, check kiters, income tax evaders and others who are pikers compared to the masters of the universe who run Wall Street...
BofA Said to Face Three More U.S. Probes of Mortgage-Bond Sales  Bloomberg   ...Bank of America Corp., sued by U.S. attorneys in August over an $850 million mortgage bond, faces three additional Justice Department civil probes over mortgage-backed securities, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation...
SEC Files Charges in Magnetar Deal  Pro Publica   ...Magnetar worked with investment banks to build CDOs that the hedge fund also bet against.  Magnetar would buy the riskiest part of the CDO, which gave it influence in picking which bonds would be included in the CDO. In turn, the hedge fund pushed riskier bonds that would make the investment more likely to fail...
Nissan under mounting pressure as United Auto Workers union targets Mississippi plant  Raw Story   ...The United Auto Workers is ratcheting up pressure on Nissan in the hopes it may finally succeed at organizing the Japanese automaker’s plant in the typically anti-union southern US state of Mississippi...
Privatization Benefits the 1%: Public Services Benefit Everyone  Truth-Out   ...Private systems are focused on making profits for a few well-positioned people. Public systems, when sufficiently supported by taxes, work for everyone in a generally equitable manner. The following are six specific reasons why privatization simply doesn't work...
How Taxpayers Get Punished by Private Prison “Lockup Quotas"   Demos   ...In the Public Interest (ITPI) recently released a shocking study on the alarming frequency of state private prison contracts that contain “occupancy quotas” that guarantee for-profit prison companies a steady stream of revenue even if prison populations decline...
More U.S. students borrowing for college  CBS News   ...The number of U.S. students who borrow money for college continues to climb, while the number of graduates who are paying off these loans is slipping...
Smithfield Foods Acquisition: A Lot of Bacon for China  Journal of Commerce   ...Chinese consumers soon could be in line for a lot more U.S. pork in mainland grocery stores. Shareholders in Smithfield Foods voted Sept. 24 to approve the company’s $4.7 billion purchase by Shuanghui International Holdings, the largest acquisition of a U.S. company by a Chinese business...
How dare you filthy peasants know…  Fire Dog Lake   ...Pretty much, oh 99 percent, of the country knows that the pay ratio of corporate CEOs to their workers is obscene. But to the CEOs the real obscenity is that people know just how obscene...
Secret probe spreads to five Wisconsin counties  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...Sources familiar with the probe told the Journal Sentinel that it was scrutinizing a wide variety of state-related issues, including the recall races. Sources suggested the probe is looking at a current legislative leader and the governor's contest...
Judge holds employment commissioners in contempt in Act 10 ruling  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...Monday's ruling by Circuit Judge Juan Colás will give teachers and local government workers the ability to immediately enter labor negotiations with their bosses; likely result in the cancellation of union recertification elections set for November; and grant official state recognition of a Kenosha teachers union that had been decertified...
Pennsylvania inmates on work detail declared public workers  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette   ...A jail inmate on a work detail can be considered a public employee, Commonwealth Court has ruled in a decision that could open the door to liability against a government entity for injuries that may stem from such work assignments...