Thursday, November 21, 2013

Today's Teamster News 11.21.13

Cook County Corrections Officers Vote to Remain Teamsters  teamstersjc25.com   ...Officers at the Cook County Department of Corrections voted last week to remain members of Teamsters Local 700, the strongest union in Cook County...
Why Port Truckers Are Striking: 12-Hour Shifts, Noxious Fumes and $12.90 Paychecks  In These Times   ...The drivers have filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board charging that the company retaliated against them for pushing forward with a drive to join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
Wall Street Boom Doesn’t Lessen Workers’ Gloom  teamster.org   ...A key Wall Street indicator, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, crossed above 16,000 for the first time this week. But for Teamsters and other working Americans concerned about economic security, the news meant damn near nothing...
CEOs With Massive Retirement Fortunes Push Social Security Cuts  The Nation   ...“I find it hypocritical to see CEOs sitting on massive retirement fortunes of their own saying that the solution to the country’s fiscal challenge is to put an even greater burden on retirees, many of whom already struggling,”...
Inequality is (Literally) Killing America  The Nation   ...“The lower people’s income, the earlier they die and the sicker they live,”...
Fact Check: Social Security Does Not Increase the Deficit  Alternet   ...Bought politicians and pundits continue to spread nonsense about America's best-loved program...
Poll: Voters want Social Security expanded, not cut  Salon   ...A new poll from the Democratic-aligned Public Policy Polling (PPP) and MoveOn.org has found that by overwhelming margins, voters want Social Security expanded — not cut...
Meet the Koch funded “stink tanks” that are influencing policy  Salon   ...By disguising corporate propaganda as legitimate research they're pushing a hard-right agenda...
In an Attack Ad, an Alaskan Voter Is Really an Actress From Maryland  New York Times   ...In a tough new advertisement from the Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity, an unnamed woman looks directly into the camera and upbraids Senator Mark Begich, Democrat of Alaska...
Gov't finds merit in labor claims against Wal-Mart  Associated Press   ...Federal officials said Monday they are prepared to file formal complaints against Wal-Mart for allegedly violating the legal rights of protesting workers last year...
How can you study when you can’t eat? The invisible problem of hunger on campus  Salon   ...Thousands of students around the country are homeless or hungry, and their classmates and colleges might never know...
David Beats Goliath!: How the Little Guy Beat A Mega-Corporation  AlterNet   ...Target publicly announced it would “ban the box” on all its employment applications nationwide. This is great news for hundreds of thousands of job seekers across the country who have criminal histories, people who, in this economy, need access to jobs more than ever...
Man claims Bank of America gave him heart attack, files lawsuit  WSOC-TV   ...A man is suing Bank of America claiming the bank gave him a heart attack. He said their mistake caused him stress and he collapsed in a local branch and had to be rushed to the hospital...
US to advise Puerto Rico on economy  Associated Press   ... The U.S. government is sending a team of federal officials to help Puerto Rico manage an economic crisis as the U.S. territory braces for its eighth year of recession...
Hundreds of Chinese workers protest after Microsoft Nokia deal  Reuters   ...Hundreds of workers shouted slogans on Wednesday outside a Nokia factory in southern China to protest against what they called nfair compensation after the company sold its mobile telephones business to Microsoft Corp...
The reality of hungry schoolchildren  EnetEnglish   ...Based on a sample of 16,000 (Greek) households last year, research funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation found that 60% faced food insecurity, while 23% were experiencing food insecurity accompanied by hunger...
Supreme court prosecutor says former finance minister should face criminal charges  EnetEnglish   ...Former finance minister George Papaconstantinou should be tried by a special court over his handing of the so-called Lagarde list of over 2,000 suspected Greeks with undeclared cash deposits in a Swiss bank, a supreme court prosecutor recommended on Wednesday...
Japan Pitches Its High-Speed Train With An Offer To Finance  New York Times   ...They are trying to bring a maglev train to the crowded Northeast Corridor that will cruise between New York and Washington at more than twice the 150-mile-an-hour top speed of Amtrak’s Acela, the fastest train in the United States. Maglev trains could make the journey in an hour, compared with just under three hours, on a good day, for Acela...
Anheuser-Busch provides relief to tornado victims  Packaging Digest   ...Anheuser-Busch is providing 2,156 cases of emergency drinking water-or 51,744 cans-for use by residents affected by the recent storms in Washington, Pekin and East Peoria, IL...
Utah town forgets to hold election — again  Salt Lake City Tribune   ..."Wallsburg never advertised or prepared for an election this year, so no one signed up," said Wasatch County Clerk Brent Titcomb. "They’re going to have to appoint the current mayor and council for two more years and they’ll advertise and have people elected [in 2015]."...
Detroit accused of exaggerating $18bn debts in push for bankruptcy  The Guardian   ...A Demos thinktank report ... lays the blame for the city's woes at the feet of falling revenues, Wall Street banks and "extreme assumptions" calculated to make its problems worse than they are...
How Wall Street — not pensioners — wrecked Detroit  Salon   ...Detroit’s bankruptcy was primarily caused by a severe decline in revenue and exacerbated by complicated Wall Street deals that put its ability to pay its expenses at greater risk...
Non-Union Contractors Hit with $400k Fine in Deadly Philly Building Collapse  The Building Trades   ...Because of the lack of safety procedures in place by Campbell Construction and S&R Contracting, the demolition project of a vacant four-story structure went disastrously wrong; resulting in a large masonry wall collapsing onto an adjacent Salvation Army store next door to the project...
Ohio Senate votes to reduce days for early voting, eliminate so-called 'Golden Week"  Cleveland Plain Dealer   ...In a party-line vote, the Ohio Senate on Wednesday approved a bill to shorten early voting to eliminate the so-called “Golden Week” that allowed people to both register to vote and cast early in-person absentee ballots at the same time...