CEO's lavish pay trimmed at McKesson, a Teamster employer

John Hammergren

McKesson CEO John Hammergren took a 'voluntary' $45 million cut to his pension after shareholders said 'no more' to his lavish wages at the company's annual meeting in August. 

His pension is now 'only' about $114 million. Last year, he took home $51.7 million in pay. Meanwhile, McKesson pays some of its workers so little they can’t afford health care.

The Wall Street Journal reported today:

Medical-products distributor McKesson Corp. said it made more changes to its executive compensation programs and its chief executive voluntarily reduced his pension benefit, after activist investors complained about the company's pay structure. 

CEO John H. Hammergren will reduce his pension benefit by $45 million, which McKesson said Friday will eliminate the volatility of pension benefit calculations, which result from changes in interest rates or other issues. 

Companies such as McKesson are increasingly using unconventional earnings measures when determining bonuses, which makes it easier for them to appear more profitable when they reward executives with big pay days, according to a Wall Street Journal report this week.

Shareholders in August voted by more than 3-to-1 to reject Hammergren's compensation package. They also approved a shareholder proposal to strengthen the executive pay clawback policy. The proposed clawback policy would allow the company to recoup some of the boss’s pay if it is discovered the pay was based on inaccurate financial reporting or misconduct.

McKesson has had to pay out nearly a billion dollars to settle allegations of price fixing and Medicaid fraud. The scandal happened during John Hammergren’s tenure as chief executive. Still, the board richly rewarded him with roughly $50 million a year in total compensation.  Before his pension was trimmed from $159 million, it was likely the highest for any executive in history according to compensation consultants interviewed by the Wall St. Journal.

Perhaps even more shameful than the CEO’s pay is the workers’ pay. Workers at the Lakeland, Fla., distribution center have said their pay is so low that many can't afford to pay for their healthcare. 

Workers at the Lakeland facility voted for Teamster representation nearly two years ago and still don’t have a first contract.  The company has hired union busters and retaliated against workers who support the union. At a rally outside the San Francisco shareholder meeting, Teamster leaders pledged the solidarity of Teamster members throughout North America to support the fight of McKesson’s workers in Florida.

Today's Teamster News 02.28.14

Teamster News
Teamsters not happy with inmates filling potholes  WFMJ.com   ...The Teamsters union, representing employees with the Mahoning County engineer's office, is considering filing a grievance after seeing inmates filling potholes...

Teamster School Bus News  teamster.org   ...Baltimore school bus workers win $1.25 million wage settlement; Teamsters Local 445 drivers and monitors in New York win fight for fair contract at Durham; what to do when your bus equipment is defective – all these stories and more are in the latest issue of the Drive Up Standards newsletter...
Nashville Chapter of TNBC Honors Leaders  teamster.org   ...The Nashville Middle TN Valley Chapter of the Teamsters National Black Caucus (TNBC) held its second annual awards banquet titled “Education and Accountability” on February 22, 2014 in Nashville...
Liam Neeson: NYC Mayor Is a Horse Nazi  TMZ   ...Liam Neeson is PISSED OFF at New York City's new mayor for trying to kill the Central Park horse industry...
Will Academy Award nominees speak up for the workers who make the Oscars?  Pando Daily   ...The Teamsters Local 743 in Chicago has been unable to reach an agreement with R.S. Owens & Company, the local awards shop that has exclusively manufactured the familiar gold statuettes for the last three decades...
D.C. Taxi Drivers' Voices Are Being Heard  teamster.org   ...Over the past few months, Washington, D.C. taxi drivers have joined together with the Washington, D.C. Taxi Operators Association, affiliated with Teamsters Local 922, for one strong voice...
Teamster Tells Lawmakers How TPP Will Damage Workers  teamster.org   ..."this is about American families and these trade deals have brutalized the American economy,” he said. “A trade agreement is not an agreement. It is a gun to the head of the American worker...”
BLET tells House: Don’t extend deadline for Positive Train Control  BLET News   ...BLET Vice President & National Legislative Representative John P. Tolman made a strong case for the timely implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC) and other measures to boost rail safety and improve the quality of life for BLET members during testimony delivered at a House subcommittee hearing on February 26...
Trade
NPPC: Japan's Offer On TPP Unacceptable to U.S. Agriculture  National Hog Farmer   ...The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) says U.S. acceptance of the recent Japanese offer, made as part of the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade talks,  would be a radical departure from previous U.S. free trade agreements (FTAs) and could potentially set an unacceptable precedent for future trade deals...
Japanese activist: TPP will affect food security  FMT News   ...The TPP will not only widen the economic disparity between the rich and the poor, but also deny poor nations the power to secure food import, says a Japanese activist...
Ending currency manipulation would create jobs  ABC, Sioux Falls   ...Policy change could bring 20,000 jobs to South Dakota...
State Battles
Protestors gather as Republicans unveil Right to Work legislation  WAVE News   ...Protesters gathered in Frankfort on Thursday as Kentucky Republicans introduced right to work legislation, even though the legislation has dim chances of success this year...
Vermont Citizens Push to Form a State Bank, But Will Ratings Agencies Kill the Idea?  naked capitalism   ...The objective is not to set up a retail bank (say along the lines of a Post Office bank) but to save the fees that are now paid to large financial institutions and to fund public projects...
The War on Workers
Household wealth still down 14 percent since recession  EurekAlert   ...the mean net worth of American households in mid-2013 was still about 14 percent below the pre-recession peak in 2006. Their analysis suggested that middle-aged people took the biggest hit...
Wal-Mart Ad Celebrates American Workers With A Canadian Band's Song About A Guy Who Hates His Job  Business Insider   ...Wal-Mart has been running a high-profile advertising campaign to promote its recent pledge to purchase $250 billion of American-made products over the next 10 years...Rush was strange choice of soundtrack for an ad celebrating American manufacturing given that the band is not just Canadian, but famously Canadian...
Underemployment Piles On Problems For Low-Wage Workers  CBS   ...The state Labor Department says there are about 276,000 Pennsylvanians in the category “working part time for economic reasons.” They include 47,900 people who usually work full-time but are working part-time, and 228,000 people who usually work part-time but are working less than they normally would...
GOP blocks veterans bill  The Hill   ...Senate Republicans stopped Democrats from advancing a bill that would have expanded healthcare and education programs for veterans...
Miscellaneous
Federal Budget Deficit Falls to Smallest Level Since 2008  New York Times   ...Closing the books on a fiscal year in which the federal budget deficit fell more sharply than in any year since the end of World War II, the Treasury Department reported on Thursday that the deficit for 2013 dropped to $680 billion, from about $1.1 trillion the previous year...

Mortgage applications at lowest level in 20 years

Mortgage applications are at their lowest levels in 20 years, according to this chart brought to us by The Center of the Universe blog.

People can't afford to buy houses, especially all those millennials living with their parents.

This is what the decline of the middle class looks like.

Do trade deals cause social unrest?

S. Korean demonstration in Seoul Feb. 26

It sure looks like the corporate-empowering, job-killing, environment-ruining trade deals we've been treated to ever since Nafta are instigating social unrest and even violence.

We know what's happened in Mexico since Nafta: A drug war that has taken the lives of as many as 100,000 people since 2006. Not to mention slow growth, wage stagnation and continued poverty, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

The terrible violence against unionists in Colombia was supposed to end with the Colombian 'free trade' deal. It didn't.

And now, almost two years after the trade deal with South Korea, 40,000 workers staged a one-day general strike on Wednesday, marching through the streets to protest a clampdown on labor groups and the government's attempts to privatize government services.

Just wondering.

Today's Teamster News 02.27.14

Teamster News
Teamster Feed Manufacturer Increasing Union Workforce in Illinois  Teamsters Joint Council 25   ...Teamster membership at Hubbard Feeds is expanding this month as the Canadian-based animal feed manufacturer hires more union labor to meet the demands of production. The workers are represented by Teamsters Local 722...
Teamsters get details on inmate paving plan  WKBN   ...Mahoning County Engineer Pat Ginnetti wants to try out a new program to fill all those pesky potholes we’ve all been complaining about and save the county some money at the same time…It sounds like a good idea, but Ginnetti admits he didn’t run it by union leaders first. Road crews in Mahoning County are represented by the Teamsters…
John H. Cleveland, A Teamster’s Life  teamster.org   ...In 2006, the Teamsters Union started a biography series on past Teamster leaders, who made a huge difference, with the story of John Cleveland, the first African-American International Vice President of the Teamsters, who broke through barriers and devoted his life to improving society at all levels for all people—a true Teamster...
Teamsters Hold Pipeline Stewards School  teamster.org   ...More than 200 stewards, business agents and principal officers from Teamster local unions with pipeline projects across the country attended the 2nd Annual Pipeline Stewards School held this week...
Hoffa Slams Job-Killing Pacific Rim Trade Deal  teamster.org    ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa blasted the secret negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) at a Capitol Hill press conference Wednesday and warned of further hemorrhaging of U.S. jobs if the trade deal is approved...
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Talks Hit Doldrums: Will Obama Visit To Japan In April make A Difference?  International Business Times   ...Labor unions oppose free-trade agreements because they believe companies will go where the labor is cheapest and manufacturers of low-wage goods will undercut producers in the U.S., where wages and costs of living are higher...
State Battles
Wisconsin Justices To Decide On Criminal Probe Involving Their Own Campaign Donors  ThinkProgress   ...A criminal probe in Wisconsin targets several major spenders on state supreme court races. Yet the justices who benefited from that spending will likely get to decide whether this probe moves forward...
Illinois Considering Bill Mandating Students Learn the History of Labor Unions  TheBlaze   ...The Illinois state Senate is considering legislation that would make it mandatory for public school students to learn the history of labor unions and the collective bargaining process...
Ohio Early Voting Will No Longer Take Place On Sundays, Weekday Evenings  Huffington Post   ...Ohio voters will no longer be able to take part in early voting on Sundays or weekday nights, according to hours set by Secretary of State Jon Husted...
War on Workers
Report: 75 percent of corporate subsidies soaked up by richest companies  Raw Story   ... eight out of the top 20 firms receiving  subsidies are not  U.S. companies, meaning American taxpayers are subsidizing foreign firms...
Study: More than half of U.S. housing wealth concentrated in 10 percent of communities  Washington Post   ...By contrast, the bottom 40 percent held 8 percent of the wealth, or $700 billion...
Foreclosures Surging in New York-New Jersey Market  Bloomberg   ...The epicenter of the U.S. foreclosure crisis is shifting to New Jersey and New York, threatening a housing rebound in one of the country’s most densely populated areas...
South by Southwest’s unpaid labor problem: Why it’s risking a class action lawsuit  Salon   ...Company running the hip festival relies on 3000 volunteers. Experts say that violates minimum wage laws...
Florida woman living off the grid forced to connect to city utilities  Salon   ...A judge ruled that it's illegal to disconnect from the city's water system...
30,000 Protesters Take To The Streets in Nantes, France  The Prudent Investor   ...the economic crisis erupts into fire in the heartland of the Eurozone. 30,000 protesters took to the streets in Nantes, France on Saturday, in an ongoing struggle to prevent the building of a new airport...
South Korean Labor and Civic Groups Stage Strike  Global Voices   ...about 40 thousand South Koreans (police estimate 15 thousand) held protests across the country. The demonstration, spearheaded by Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, calls halt to a clampdown on labor groups, the government's move towards privatization of public sector and cover-up of the presidential election manipulation scandal...
Greek port workers strike over privatization plans  Associated Press ...Greek dock workers across the country walked off the job Wednesday in a 24-hour strike to protest plans to sell a stake in the Piraeus Port Authority, the country’s largest port...
Sen. Corker outs himself as a lying dirt bag on unions  Press TV   ...Know how southern Republican politicians who support “right to work” laws claim they’re not against unions as such — just against closed shop contracts that force workers to join a union as a condition of employment? They’re liars. The negative outcome of the recent UAW certification vote at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga proves that, if you needed any more proof...
Detroit public safety union leaders say pension cuts 'crippling,' 'unacceptable'  The Detroit News   ...Officials with Detroit’s public safety unions on Monday blasted the city’s “brutal and unreasonable” plan to cut pensions as it aims to shed about half of its estimated $18 billion in debt...
Walmart’s Big Push to Go Small—and Destroy Your Neighborhood Dollar Store  Time   ...After months of subpar sales, the prototypical big-box retailer is embracing the idea that one size does not fit all...
Miscellaneous
Bank Of America Faces Probe Over Federal Housing Program  Reuters   ...Bank of America Corp said on Tuesday that federal investigators are looking into whether the bank violated certain requirements of a government housing program...
House Republican unveils sweeping tax reform with focus on Wall Street  The Guardian   ... Dave Camp, a Michigan Republican who chairs the House ways and means committee, larger banks would have to pay a penalty for receiving government bailouts, and would face a new tax on their worldwide assets. Wall Street’s private equity barons would also be hit hard by a proposal to end the controversial ‘carried interest’ rule which lets them avoid income tax by paying themselves through profits treated as capital gains and taxed under lower rates than those to which income is typically subject...
Western Union Investigation: FTC Launches Probe Over Fraud-Induced Money Transfers  Reuters   ...Money-transfer company Western Union Co is being probed by the Federal Trade Commission and a U.S. district court over fraud-induced money transfers, the company said in a regulatory filing on Monday...
Lawsuit: Attempted Entrapment of Activists by Military Officer & Further Evidence of Domestic Spying  Fire Dog Lake   ...A lawsuit challenging domestic military spying against citizens engaged in antiwar activism and acts of civil disobedience obtained a public record that further confirms the United States Army was involved in targeting “leftists” or “anarchists” as domestic terrorists in 2007...

First Walmart, then Target's earnings are down

Target today reported its profit fell 46 percent after a weak holiday season. Last week, Walmart announced its profit fell 21 percent.

Today, the Washington Post reported

The results don’t surprise retail analysts, but they signal the onset of a rough year for one of the nation’s biggest retailers while the industry is already facing setbacks. The extreme winter weather, weak holiday sales, sluggish labor market and low consumer confidence have hit most retailers’ profits.

Here's the problem: Huge retailers that pay their workers low wages create poverty. And poor people can't afford to spend much at retailers, which cuts into their profit.

Impoverishing your work force is not a good business plan.

Teamsters President Hoffa, Teamster dairy worker blast Fast Track, TPP at Capitol Hill press conferenc

Jerry Reeves, Teamster Local 463 member and Lehigh Valley Dairies worker

Today Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa and Local 463 member Jerry Reeves stood shoulder to shoulder with members of Congress at a news conference today to denounce Fast Track legislation that would make it easier for the TPP to pass.

Reeves, a worker at Lehigh Valley Dairies in Landsdale, Pa.,  said the TPP would hurt the nation’s dairy industry because a New Zealand conglomerate would be granted special access to the U.S. for its cheap dairy exports. Reeves said the deal could threaten the livelihoods of 40,000 Teamster dairy workers.

He also said,

TPP is shaping up to be a bad deal. Fast Track is the wrong track. We need these good jobs to stay here for working families.

Hoffa said he was proud the United States has the best environmental, labor and food safety laws. "The TPP will undermine all of them," he said. "Fast Track is the wrong track."

He called the TPP "a corporate power grab that will harm workers all over the world.” Read the Teamsters press statement here.

Also participating in the news conference were U.S. Reps. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., and Alan Grayson, D-Fla. Slaughter said trade was responsible for the decline of America's middle class:

The largest export for the US over the last 20 years has been jobs.

In other trade news today, the Economic Policy Institute issued a report that shows ending currency manipulation could create 5.8 million jobs. The TPP does not deal with currency manipulation, according to reports. (We can't be sure, of course, because the negotiations are secret.) Reports EPI:

• The reduction of U.S. trade deficits and expansion of U.S. GDP would create 2.3 million to 5.8 million jobs, reducing the U.S. jobs deficit by between 28.8 percent and 72.5 percent.
• About 40 percent of the jobs gained would be in manufacturing, which would gain between 891,500 and 2,337,300 jobs. Agriculture would also gain 246,800 to 486,100 jobs, heavily affecting some rural areas.

Eliminating currency manipulation would reduce the U.S. trade deficit by $200 billion in three years under a “low-impact” scenario and $500 billion under a “high-impact scenario.” This would increase annual U.S. GDP by between $288 billion and $720 billion (between 2.0 percent and 4.9 percent).

As usual, ABC News missed the news conference. A report by Media Matters showed ABC has for six months completely ignored TPP, the most important jobs and wages issue in a generation. That, of course, is because ABC's corporate owners want to TPP passed. They know it couldn't possibly pass if most people knew about it.  

You can help derail Fast Track. Call your member of Congress at 1-888-979-9806 (you'll be instructed what to do). Or you can send an email by clicking here.

Today's Teamster News 02.26.14

Teamster News
Teamsters Local 722 Secures Three-Year Contract for School Bus Workers  teamster.org   ...More than 70 Teamster school bus workers in western Illinois have ratified a new three-year contract with First Student...
Anheuser-Busch Brewery Contract Extended Until March 31  teamster.org   ...The Teamster negotiators for the Anheuser-Busch brewery contract which covers 3,500 members at 12 breweries have reached a one-month extension agreement with the company...
State Battles
Mo. Republicans Fight for “Right-To-Work”  CBS St. Louis   ...Greater St. Louis Labor Council President Robert Soutier gave emotionally charged testimony. Everything that s being proposed will hurt workers, it hurts the very core people that we represent, said Soutier. It drives wages down. Why are we interesting in attracting low wage workers to this state? ...
Trade
The Trans-Pacific Partnership: No end in sight The Economist   ...opposition to TPP seems to be growing in America as well. The most obvious manifestation of this is that Barack Obama seems to have little immediate hope of winning “fast-track” authority (known now as “Trade-Promotion Authority” or TPA) to negotiate trade agreements that Congress cannot challenge clause by clause...
TPP Talks Fizzle Again under Broad Opposition  Public Citizen   ...The talks have missed a succession of deadlines due to opposition from negotiating countries to corporate-backed U.S. demands that would increase the cost of medicines, restrict financial stability measures, and empower corporations to challenge health and environmental safeguards...
War on Workers
Why We Oppose the Oakland Spy Center  The Oakland Privacy Working Group   ...there is great potential for abuse of civil liberties, and the city cannot afford it.  The city has no data retention and privacy policy or oversight committee for the DAC...
Credit Suisse 'cloak-and-dagger' tactics cost US taxpayers billions – senators  The Guardian   ...John McCain and Carl Levin say offshore schemes operated by Swiss firm helped 22,000 Americans hide billions from taxman...
JP Morgan to cut 8,000 jobs in mortgage and retail  BBC News   ...The bank reported profits of $17.9bn (£10.7bn) in 2013, down from $21.3bn a year earlier....
Bombshell Documents Vanish in the JPMorgan-Madoff Investigation  Wall Street on Parade   ...The Feds slap a $1.7 billion penalty on a bank, file a two-felony count indictment against it, put it on probation for two years – all for not filing a Suspicious Activity Report and yet when a bank did file a Suspicious Activity Report no documents exist to show there was ever an investigation. ...
Democrats again delay Senate minimum wage vote  Associated Press   ... Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, the bill's author, said Tuesday they now expect to consider it after lawmakers return in late March...

Exorbitant CEO pay is fraud born out of cronyism

Inequality results from very rich people hoarding most of the wealth produced by public and private enterprise, the Huffington Post reminds us in a recent story. Writers Ryan Grim and Mark Gongloff expose the cronyism among corporate boards of directors and CEOs:

The press and popular culture treat this phenomenon almost as if natural forces were guiding it -- an invisible hand dealing out different shares to different people. 

But the hands doing the dealing are in fact quite visible. They belong to the directors of the boards of the major companies in the U.S. and around the globe. One key source of wealth at the very top is the pay of the executives of our largest companies. That pay is approved by corporate directors, who are themselves paid for their service. Many of those directors are also executives at other companies, meaning they sit on both sides of the arrangement.

A couple of examples: Erskine Bowles, a director at Facebook, Norfolk Southern Corp. and Belk:

While he has toured the country over the past several years warning of reckless government spending, he has made millions sitting on the boards of companies that are dramatically underperforming against the market, yet lavishing generous payouts on their respective CEOs -- all with the approval of the board of directors. 

Or one of the Teamsters favorites, McKesson CEO John Hammergren. His company paid nearly $2 billion in legal settlements for ripping off customers. Grim and Gongloff tell us:

...the board of San Francisco drug distributor McKesson doled out extra stock to CEO (and Chairman of the Board, naturally) John Hammergren, arguably leaving him better compensated than he should have been. At nearly $52 million, his pay last year was among the highest in corporate America -- and it was only a third of the $145.2 million he took home in 2011. 

In such cases, shareholders have little recourse. Organizing shareholders into a voting bloc is nearly prohibitively difficult. Even when it does happen, it often still doesn't work. Activist McKesson investors and independent advisers last year launched a campaign to toss out three directors and reject Hammergren's compensation plan. Shareholders voted overwhelmingly to censure Hammergren's pay. But the vote was non-binding.

 Check out your favorite CEO's pay here.

Jon Stewart mocks politicians who interfered in UAW VW vote

The Daily Show
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Jon Stewart jokes that Democratic politicians are the ones accused of sticking their big government noses where they don't belong. And yet it was Republicans who employed heavy-handed interventions in the free market when they interfered with the Tennessee Volkswagen workers voting on unionizing with the UAW.

He takes apart Sen. Bob Corker for espousing strict ideological principles but only when it suits his narrow purpose.

Enjoy.

Woot! No final deal on TPP during Singapore round of talks

Teamster Dairy Workers

The corporate power grab known as the TPP remained out of negotiators' reach last night, as they failed to come to a final agreement during the latest round of talks in Singapore.

The Financial Times tells us:

Talks between 12 Pacific Rim countries to create a tariff-free trade zone spanning the US, key Asian states and Latin America ended on Tuesday without a deal after the two biggest powers – the US and Japan – could not agree on allowing easier access to each other’s markets.

This is very good news for those of us who oppose the job-killing, corporate-empowering, anti-worker, anti-environment, race-to-the-bottom deal. It's especially good news for the 40,000 dairy workers the Teamsters represent. That's because one of the countries involved in the deal is New Zealand, which wants access to the U.S. dairy market. Most of New Zealand's dairy products are made by one company -- Fonterra -- that was set up by the New Zealand government.

Teamster dairy workers are very, very worried that cheap imports from New Zealand will shrink the U.S. dairy industry and cost thousands of jobs. Meanwhile, two other countries involved in the TPP talks -- Canada and Japan -- have refused to open their markets to dairy imports from the U.S.

By the way, you wouldn't know this if you got your news from ABC World News (but you would know about Taco Bell's new breakfast menu).

Today's Teamster News 02.25.14

Teamster News
Here's 30 Billion Reasons Why Mexican Trucks Are No Joke  Huffington Post   ...The Mexican trucking industry has repeatedly failed to get its own carriers to participate in a cross-border pilot program created in 2011 to study whether Mexican truckers are meeting basic safety standards set up in the wake of NAFTA...
CCTA says it's open to continued contract negotiations with Teamsters  Burlington Free Press   ...The general manager of the Chittenden County Transportation Authority says CCTA is open to continued contract negotiations with the Teamsters Local 597, a bus drivers’ union that has suggested a work action could begin March 10 without a deal...
Academy Awards 2014: Workers Who Make Oscar Statuettes In Labor Dispute  Reuters   ...A labor dispute is playing out between Teamsters Local 743 and R.S. Owens in Chicago, where Academy Awards are manufactured...
Crews stage large rally in Burbank to support film tax credit   Los Angeles Times   ...More than 1,000 entertainment industry workers, including members of Teamsters Local 399, gathered in Burbank on Saturday, launching a campaign to support an expansion of California's film and TV tax credit program...
The War on Workers
Union: Detroit Restructuring Plan ‘A Gut Punch To City Workers And Retirees   CBS News   ... Now that Detroit’s emergency manager has laid out a plan for bankruptcy, city retirees are getting a look of what their future might include: big cuts to both their pensions and health insurance funds...
Bye Bye Chained CPI and Other Budget Surprises  Economic Populist   ... Only time will tell if chained CPI is really gone and the threat to reduce retirement benefits along with it...
The Grand Bargain’s dead. What now?   msnbc   ...Hopes for a Grand Bargain between the White House and Congress to overhaul entitlements and taxes disappeared many months ago. But President Obama is making the end of that era official in his 2015 budget...
This Is Your Brain on Poverty: What Science Tells Us About Poverty  Truthout   ...People in poverty suffer from many different psychological and physical problems and once they escape it, they become healthier...
Long-term unemployed describe lack of mobility, depression in personal stories  PBS Newshour   ...Amid a difficult economic landscape for out-of-work Americans, more than 1.7 million have lost their emergency unemployment benefits since Dec. 28...
Wal-Mart and Other Retailers Consider Higher Wages (Opinion)  Wall Street Journal   ...Note to the National Retail Federation: You can't keep fighting increases in the minimum wage and then wonder why consumers aren't spending more money in your members' stores...
Worse than Wal-Mart: Amazon’s sick brutality and secret history of ruthlessly intimidating workers  Salon   ...You might find your Prime membership morally indefensible after reading these stories about worker mistreatment...
Truckers: if Hampton Roads port traffic isn't fixed, work will stop  Daily Press   ...Though the independent truck drivers avoided talk of unionizing, a number of the drivers said collective action is needed to ensure executives at Hampton Roads' container ports take seriously the congestion at their facilities causing drivers to spend more of their days in lines and less time making money...
How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations  The Intercept   ...western intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction...
State Battles
Missouri lawmakers considering payday loan changes  Associated Press   ...A proposed overhaul of Missouri's loan industry would give borrowers more time to pay but could allow lenders to charge higher fees and interest...
Union asks Supreme Court to affirm right-to-work law is unconstitutional   NWI Times   ...The International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 150, is urging the Indiana Supreme Court to uphold Lake Superior Judge John Sedia's ruling that portions of the state's 2012 right-to-work law are unconstitutional...
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership: No deal at Singapore meeting  BBC News   ...An ambitious 12-nation free trade plan, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), has hit a new roadblock after four days of negotiations in Singapore. Sticking points over market access and differences over tariffs on imported goods were the main reasons cited…
'Trade' Deals on the Ropes  Huffington Post   ...The globalization agenda of American financial elites that has dominated both parties' trade policy for three decades is on the verge of crashing and burning. There is escalating, perhaps fatal, opposition to the proposed Pacific and Atlantic deals in both the U.S. Congress and among partner nations...
Japan, U.S. must play last card to successfully conclude TPP talks Japan News   ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks appear to be reaching a make-or-break point over whether a broad agreement can be reached...
Miscellaneous
In Missouri, Rand Paul says the GOP needs more people with tattoos  Kansas City Star    ...“We need a more diverse party. People with tattoos, and without tattoos. With earrings, and without earrings,” said Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican, at a recent event...
Woes of Megacity Driving Signal Dawn of ‘Peak Car’ Era  Bloomberg   ...The world will reach “Peak Car” -- a point at which annual global sales growth will top out -- in the next decade, several auto-industry analysts predict...

More than 1,000 anti-Fast Track calls made to Congress despite news blackout

Teamsters protesting Fast Track

Teamsters made more than a thousand calls on Thursday to members of Congress telling them to vote against Fast Track. It was an impressive effort that's going a long way to persuade Congress that voting for Fast Track or job-killing trade deals like the TPP would be a very, very bad idea.

What's even more impressive is that so many calls were made despite a conspiracy of silence about the TPP among the mainstream news media. Media Matters conducted a study that found the three nightly network news programs -- ABC, CBS and NBC -- did not mention the TPP AT ALL over the past six months. That's because corporate-owned news organizations WANT the TPP, which is, after all, nothing but a corporate power grab. They know iif they keep people in the dark about it, Congress just might approve it.

What you won't find out from the mainstream media is that trade talks are going on right now in Singapore. The United States Trade Representative would very much like to make an announcement tonight that a TPP deal has finally been made. You'll have to stay tuned to TeamsterNation tomorrow to learn what happens.

Meanwhile, a social media campaign is underway to embarrass the mainstream media to cover the TPP. It is, after all, the most important jobs and wages story in a generation. This week, ABC is being pressured to pay attention to the trade talks. If you tweet, Facebook Reddit, Instagram or Tumblr, have at it!

Teamsters praise State of the Unions, a diagnosis and guide to labor’s recovery

Why are America’s labor unions under such a relentless assault by enemies who not long ago told us unions were irrelevant? What are the stakes in labor’s recent and ongoing battles for survival – and is its survival even possible?

These and many other vital questions are confronted head on in Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist Philip Dine’s State of the Unions: How Labor Can Strengthen the Middle Class, Improve Our Economy, and Regain Political Influence.

In his updated edition, Dine, a longtime labor journalist and son of a Teamster milk truck driver, brings to life the dire conditions facing today’s labor movement and examines the issues that have thrust unions back into mainstream discussion. While never hiding his solidarity with labor’s cause, Dine’s journalistic scrutiny spares neither side in the war over America’s union movement. He takes on the right-wing crusade against labor as well as labor’s own deficiencies.

State of the Unions shines a light on unions’ opponents – political, corporate and ideological – and captures the ingredients for today’s war on workers:

The fights that have gripped the public, affected our politics, and catapulted labor into the limelight result from a perfect storm – one that has joined motive with opportunity. Labor’s adversaries have long harbored a desire to destroy the union movement – but recent economic and political developments have provided the impetus for a full-scale effort to do just that.

Funny anecdotes are interwoven with Dine’s insights as a reporter embedded with labor. His latest edition reflects on the 2011 Wisconsin labor uprising which touched off an era of anti-union aggression and labor’s pushback.

Dine looks at other state-level assaults waged by business groups and right-wing lawmakers, too. Politicians like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker – underwritten by the Koch brothers and ALEC – are not motivated by a desire to extract concessions from unions or to simply slash budgets, he writes. Their aim is to destroy labor as a political and economic force altogether.

State of the Unions also takes a broad look at labor’s political strategies. Dine doesn’t shy away from critiquing labor’s often reflexive allegiance to the Democratic Party. He argues that labor would do well if it campaigned more around its own issues rather than politicians who often take unions for granted:

There is a strong push by many in labor to focus less on ringing doorbells or spending money to elect politicians and more on explaining their own issues and positions to the public in efforts that will outlast the campaign – something labor should have been doing all along.

But Dine’s book also shows the kind of political muscle that labor still has – and its ability to exert influence on its own terms.

Messaging is key to Dine’s assessment of labor. He devotes an entire chapter to the 1990 strike at Delta Pride, a catfish facility in Mississippi employing some 900 poor black women. The struggle brought labor and civil rights together in one of the biggest labor victories in the South. It galvanized community support with a boycott hitting key markets of the company. Media coverage in one remote labor-friendly city with Mississippi roots spurred favorable local coverage in a town where Delta Pride had powerful allies. The union, UFCW, targeted local press while the moral authority of the strikers as “cotton pickers-turned-catfish processors” won public sympathy. Dine concludes:

The catfish workers’ campaign shows that labor can not only win in the most difficult workplace situations but also that its actions can have profound and lasting impact. It also suggests that the chances of success can be increased when labor develops an innovative strategy…instead of going through the motions and relying on time-worn approaches.

Labor’s role in other events are examined in State of the Unions, including the prevailing wage fight in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the 2006 Sago mine disaster in West Virginia. But the importance of labor’s ability to tell its story is central to all of these, according to Dine:

Labor’s failure to deliver its message means that its enemies get to define what unions are. Trade unionists should help reporters comprehend the links between the growing gap separating rich and poor and the assault on the right to organize…This involves labor doing several things it doesn’t sufficiently do now...

Labor’s corporate enemies often make themselves far more accessible to the press, giving them the edge in shaping public opinion.

Many more pages are devoted to the dramatic transformation and democratization of certain unions, especially the Teamsters. Because unions struggle to effectively tell these stories, stigmas from bygone eras still color public perceptions – and they are readily exploited by labor’s foes.

State of the Unions is filled with insights on labor’s ongoing dilemmas, from its internal divisions about how to move forward to its diminished influence on policies that affect its ability to recruit members (and vice versa!). These are not academic questions. They are urgent matters with real-life consequences for America’s middle class.

As Dine argues,

As a society, the challenges we now face, ranging from economic inequality to the future of public services, will be directly affected by what happens to labor. For it remains the only mass force capable of countering the rise of corporate dominance and the transfer of wealth from ordinary Americans to the affluent…Labor’s struggles will have much to say about what type of society we evolve into.

State of the Unions is essential reading for anyone who cares about the labor movement, working families and the American economy as a whole.

Greedy billionaire blows chance to cut Social Security

Loony billionaire Pete Peterson is probably furious that cuts to Social Security are becoming less of a possibility every day.  For years he's wanted to eliminate Social Security and Medicare and slash government spending. To that end, he created an astroturf group called Fix the Debt.

Fortunately, Peterson's  incompetent lieutenants made sure the Fix the Debt campaign backfired -- badly.

Real people fought back against the Fix the Debt billionaires, and they're winning: Congress raised the debt ceiling without a whimper recently. President Obama last week submitted a budget that keeps Social Security benefits at their current levels. A Gallup poll released a week ago shows American voters continue to view debt and the deficit as low priorities, despite the $40 million Fix the Debt spent to convince them otherwise.

Americans want jobs, and cutting government spending is exactly the wrong way to create them.

Fortunately for America's middle class, Fix the Debt was headed by two incompetents: corporate looter Erskine Bowles and crazy old coot Alan Simpson.

Bowles never understood that fixing the debt begins at home. He served as director of two corporations that required massive government bailouts --  Morgan Stanley and General Motors -- thus adding to U.S. government debt. Bowles was paid handsomely for looking the other way.He plundered corporations of $3.3 million for some very light duty, a few board meetings a year)

All you need to know about Alan Simpson is he actually compared Social Security to 'a milk cow with 310 million teats.'

Fix the Debt's comical attempts to persuade Americans they need to make do with less are recounted by the peerless Mary Bottari at the Center for Media and Democracy.

Bottari tells us Fix the Debt thought it would be a good idea to round up 100 CEOs to lecture Americans on how we need to expect less. Writes Bottari,

Grassroots groups were in no mood for advice from Fix the Debt CEOs, like Goldman Sach’s Lloyd Blankfein, who somberly explained to CBS News in November 2012 that Americans had to “lower their expectations.”

A worse spokesman could not have been found. Blankfein, after all, is CEO of the bailed-out investment bank also known as a 'great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.'

Sen. Bernie Sanders hit the roof and took to the floor of the Senate to denounce Blankfein's unbelievable arrogance.

Things got even tenser, as someone from the right-wing Heritage Foundation slugged a protester:

...protesters descended upon a Fix the Debt event for the first time, chanting loudly and rattling a senior presenter from the Heritage Foundation. Burke Stansbury from the Campaign for Community Change took a punch from the Heritage hysteric, and the throwdown was on.

Dozens of groups jumped into the fray, disclosing the conflicts of interest behind Fix the Debt's leadership council. State leaders, under pressure from community groups, were forced to resign. Bottari tells us they included  In Iowa, co-chair Dr. Andrea McGuire, former Congressman Dave Nagel, and State Rep. Bruce Hunter all resigned under pressure from the community group Iowa CCI. Michigan also lost its co-chair Jocelyn Benson. Virginia State Senator Ken Plum chose to pull his name, along with Juan Cotto of Washington State.

Some more entertaining lowlights:

• A group called Social Security Works entered a film in a contest sponsored by Pete Peterson and won.
• Economists at U-Mass Amherst made headlines around the world by uncovering mistakes in a study that supported Fix the Debt's argument that budget cuts create economic growth. 
• The Institute for Policy Studies released another damning report showing that Fix the Debt firms could gain as much as $173 billion if Congress adopted their proposed tax system, which would increase the debt. 
• Fix the Debt affiliate The Can Kicks Back launched a bus tour of college campuses with a German-made BMW. As part of the tour they collected cans -- all 800 of them, at a cost of $3,000 a can. 
• They were caught ghostwriting bogus op-eds for students in newspapers.

Their campaign backfired so badly that now Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Tom Harkin sponsored a bill to increase Social Security benefits.

And on Feb. 12, Politico reported that The Can Kicks Back was ... wait for it ... in debt.

Moral of the story: When real people fight back, they win.

Today's Teamster News 02.24.14

State Battles
Wisconsin’s Legacy for Unions  New York Times   ...Mr. Walker’s landmark law — called Act 10 — severely restricted the power of public-employee unions to bargain collectively, and that provision, among others, has given social workers, prison guards, nurses and other public employees little reason to pay dues to a union that can no longer do much for them. Members of Mr. Beil’s group, the Wisconsin State Employees’ Union, complain that their take-home pay has fallen more than 10 percent in recent years, a sign of the union’s greatly diminished power...
Trade
Fast Track to Nowhere: America’s Failed Trade Policy  Campaign for America's Future   ...Froman’s strategy now is to try to move the negotiations over the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) towards completion, using the treaty to convince legislators to pass fast track. Administration officials are reportedly hoping that they can mobilize enough Wall Street and corporate America muscle to cobble together sufficient votes in a lame duck session after the elections to move forward...
Tariff, intellectual property on agenda on 3rd day of TPP talks  Global Post   ...Countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade talks will tackle contentious issues including tariff removal and intellectual property rights on the third day of a ministerial conference Monday in Singapore...
Most wanted drug lord captured in Mexico  Associated Press   ...Guzman was hit with multiple federal drug trafficking indictments in the U.S. as his drug empire stretched throughout North America and extended branches into Europe and Australia. Guzman’s play for power against local cartels caused a bloodbath in Tijuana and made Ciudad Juarez one of the deadliest cities in the world. In 2013, he was named “Public Enemy No. 1″ by the Chicago Crime Commission, only the second person to get that distinction after U.S. prohibition-era crime boss Al Capone...
The War on Workers
You Need to Work at Least 67 Hours a Week to Afford Rent While Making the Minimum Wage AFL-CIO Now   ... In more than half the states, you'd have to work more than 80 hours a week...
Scandal of Europe's 11m empty homes  Guardian   ...Housing campaigners denounce 'shocking waste' of homes lying empty while millions cry out for shelter...
Detroit automakers worry about UAW money struggles  Associated Press   ...They worry that the 382,000-member UAW could be absorbed by a more hostile union. Such a merger could disrupt a decade of labor-management peace that has helped America's auto industry survive the financial crisis and emerge much stronger, according to a person with knowledge of executive discussions...
IMF Fires a Warning Shot at the Fed on Deflation  Wall Street on Parade   ...The IMF is clearly worried about the onset of the kind of intractable deflation that plagued the U.S. and the global economy during the Great Depression of the 30s...
Americans rising up against government: Column  USA Today   ..."The most plausible explanation is that someone up top at the DHS or ICE suddenly realized that publicly calling for bids on a nationwide surveillance system while nationwide surveillance systems are being hotly debated was ... a horrible idea..."
San Francisco Protesters Take Aim at Twitter’s Tax Breaks  In These Times   ... SEIU, the largest public sector union in San Francisco, is taking renewed aim at Twitter over the major tax break it received from City Hall in 2011...

Today's Teamster News 02.23.14

Teamster News
Horse and Carriage Controversy Threatens Small Carriage Owners  Small Business Trends   ...for the moment, city council seems to have stopped the mayor in his tracks and the issue has yet to even make it to the council’s agenda...
Mayor de Blasio Says He'll Visit NYC Stables Before Banning Horse Carriages  New York Daily News   ...Facing criticism for not visiting stables before banning the horse and carriage industry, Mayor de Blasio Thursday promised to go and see the animals in their home environment - but insisted it wouldn’t change his mind...
Georgia: Government Not by the People or for the People  AFL-CIO   ...The Georgia House Committee on Industry and Labor voted on a straight party line to move forward a bill that would make contract employees of private companies that work with schools ineligible for unemployment benefits...
State Battles
Scott Walker urged county staff, campaign aides to promote him online  Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel   ... In the heat of the 2010 governor's race, Scott Walker urged both county employees and campaign aides to go to news websites and post comments promoting him and his record, newly unsealed documents show. It was just such anonymous posts by a county worker on campaign issues that prompted prosecutors to expand a secret "John Doe" investigation — launched to probe into missing money in a veterans fund — to also examine whether taxpayer dollars were being used illegally to finance political operations...
Wis. Assembly ends government minimum wage  WMTV   ...Assembly Republicans have approved a bill ending minimum wage mandates for local government workers and contractors in Madison and Milwaukee...
Delaware considers banning the box  Newsworks   ...Delaware is considering a statewide "ban the box" bill that would remove the criminal history check-off box from state, county and city jobs, among other public agencies...
Ga. Senate OKs bill to privatize some state child welfare services; bill now heads to House  Associated Press   ...Democrats opposed the bill, arguing the reforms wouldn't address the underlying issues in those deaths, or improve the system...
Idaho gov orders police to investigate CCA prison  Associated Press   ...Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter has ordered the state police to conduct a criminal investigation of understaffing and falsified documents at a private prison operated by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA)...
Legislative Update 2.21.14  Indiana AFL-CIO   ...House Bill 1126 was amended significantly on Wednesday. As amended the legislation no longer allows employers to charge employees for “use” of equipment. The bill now only allows employers the ability to garnish up to $2,500 per year from an employee’s paycheck for the “purchase” of equipment or uniforms. Measures were also adopted to limit the amount of wages that could be deducted per pay check; cap the interest rate employers can charge employees who purchase uniforms or equipment through the company; ban employers from requiring prospective employees to pay for training as a condition of employment and; restores some protections against wage theft...
Speak Up For Free Speech  Michigan AFL-CIO   ...The Michigan House of Representatives are taking up House Bill 4643 that creates civil fines of up to $10,000 per day for picketing...Labor Labor unions push back against Right to Work efforts in Missouri, Pennsylvania  Beverly Hills Courier   ...The efforts are from Republicans and, as they have in the past, they are ramping up the rhetoric while promoting new rounds of Right to Work bills, commonly referred to as “Paycheck Protection” legislation in those respective states...
Fighting wage theft is pro-business  Washington State Legislative Update   ...the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives has passed four bills designed to discourage wage theft, level the playing field for honest employers, and recover state revenue lost due to the deliberate misclassification of workers as independent contractors...
Trade
Fast-track foes say they’re winning  Politico Pro   ...The anti-fast-track coalition includes many labor, environmental and consumer groups that are veterans of trade battles over the last 20 years...
Administration Desperate to Announce Deal at TPP Ministerial, But What Is a Real Deal?  Public Citizen   ...“There is a sense that whether or not any real deal is finalized, there may be an announcement of one, if only to portray the talks as not unraveling despite growing opposition to the TPP in some of the countries involved,”...
Zombies’ protest against TPPA  The Malaysian Insider   ...A group of “zombies” attracted the attention of passers-by outside a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur where they gathered today to protest against the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) that Putrajaya is keen to sign...
The War on Workers
Change the Rules on Secret Money (opinion)  New York Times   ...Secret money has become the scourge of the political system and needs to be eliminated regardless of the inconvenience to nonprofit groups, whatever their ideology. Republicans have blocked Congress from dealing with the problem, so now it is up to the I.R.S. to do its job...
The Increasingly Unequal States of America  Economic Policy Institute   ...In four states (Nevada, Wyoming, Michigan, and Alaska), only the top 1 percent experienced rising incomes between 1979 and 2007, and the average income of the bottom 99 percent fell...
When Millennials Can't Move Out of Their Parents' Basements the Entire Economy Suffers  New Republic   ...The recent explosion in student debt—now held by one in five U.S. households—coincided with the Great Recession’s awful job market. Millennials have come of age amid stagnant wages, high unemployment, a lack of quality jobs (44 percent of recent graduates work in positions that don’t require a college degree), and, for those fortunate enough to attend college, an average of nearly $30,000 in debt...
Banks Fight Revised U.S. Plan to Monitor Checking Overdraft Fees  Bloomberg   ...U.S. banks are seeking to shield from scrutiny the $30 billion they collect annually in checking-account fees, saying a proposed requirement for periodic reports is unacceptable even if it exempts small institutions...

Today's Teamster News 02.22.14

Teamster News
Teamsters Local 326 Welcomes Law Enforcement Officers  teamster.org   ...By an overwhelming majority, law enforcement officers in the city of Milford, Delaware's police department have voted to join Teamsters Local 326 in New Castle, Delaware...
Warehouse Workers in Texas Join Teamsters Local 745  teamster.org   ...On February 20, by a vote of 25-4, warehouse workers in Grapeview, Texas voted to join Local 745 in Dallas...
Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition to Launch Investigation into Allegiant Air Maintenance teamster.org  ...The Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition (TAMC) announced it will launch an investigation into reports of a disproportionate number of engine failures, air returns and declared emergencies at Allegiant Air...
High-Speed Rail Supporters Rally in California  teamster.org   ...Teamsters, Laborers, community members and environmental groups rallied February 20 to support high-speed rail. Watch the video...
Spring Grove school bus drivers strike averted, at least though March  York Daily Record   ...The possibility of a strike for Spring Grove, Penn. school bus drivers is at least temporarily averted, and contract negotiations between Teamsters Local 776 and Durham School Services continue...
Penn Station Marks Contributions From African-American Men And Women  teamster.org
BLET member Carlyle Smith, an Amtrak locomotive engineer and member of Division 482 in Washington, D.C., is featured in this Black History Month story on the rail industry. Read the article and watch the video, here....
UPS Honors South Carolina Drivers for 25 Years of Safe Driving  Wall Street Journal   ...On Wednesday, UPS announced 29 elite drivers from South Carolina are among 1,519 newly inducted worldwide into the Circle of Honor, an honorary organization for UPS drivers who have achieved 25 or more years of accident-free driving...
The War on Workers
Fed Misread Fiscal Crisis, Records Show  New York Times   ...The hundreds of pages of transcripts, based on recordings made at the time, reveal the ignorance of Fed officials about economic conditions during the climactic months of the financial crisis. Officials repeatedly fretted about overstimulating the economy, only to realize time and again that they needed to redouble efforts to contain the crisis...
Union still wants to organize Boeing's North Charleston workers, official says   The Post and Courier   ...The union that represents thousands of Boeing Co. workers in the Pacific Northwest is still looking to make inroads at the company's North Charleston jet-making operation...
Boeing Paid No Federal Income Tax Last Year  Huffington Post   ...One of the largest recipients of federal government contracts paid nothing in taxes last year, according to an analysis from the Center for Effective Government...
McDonald’s workers’ horror story: 25-hour shifts and bunking in their boss’s basement!  Salon  ...A former McDonald’s franchisee will pay out a six-figure settlement after allegedly subjecting student guest workers to 25-hour shifts, substandard housing and repeated retaliatory threats...
McDonald’s fires employee for buying meals for firefighters working in the cold  Death and Taxes   ...Heather Levia of Olean, New York, was fired from her job at McDonald’s after she personally bought breakfast for some on-duty firefighters, who were working in the freezing cold...
Majority of port truckers misclassified, pro-labor groups say  FleetOwner   ...A report issued by several pro-labor organizations concluded that about 49,000 of the nation’s 75,000 port truck drivers are misclassified as independent contractors...
Private Prison Firm CEO Collected $22 Million In Compensation Between 2008 and 2012  ThinkProgress   ...A new report from the Center for Media and Democracy dubs GEO Group CEO George Zoley America’s highest paid “corrections officer,” in a ranking of top-earning “government workers” — those in privatized industries...
Despite Receiving Millions in Public Money, Private Prisons are Impenetrable "Bastions of Secrecy"  Alternet   ...Public prisons are beholden to a dizzying array of record-keeping programs under the Bureau of Justice Statistics.  By contrast, the only data released by private facilities about their prisoners and facilities is that which is mandated by business contracts or particular state laws. Even then, the information provided by prison corporations is often falsified -- or even “all the time,” in the words of one high-ranking GEO Group executive...
Secret Plans and Clever Tricks: How Information About Public Contracting Is Hidden From the Public  truthout   ...reporters, elected officials, community activists, public-interest lawyers and other concerned individuals and organizations often hit a brick wall when they attempt to unravel privatization plans...
State Battles
UAW appeals outside interference in union representation election for Chattanooga Volkswagen workers  UAW   ...The UAW filed an appeal (“objections”) with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) today related to the interference by politicians and outside special interest groups in the union representation election held last week at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant...
Walker Staff on the Mentally Ill: "No One Cares about Crazy People"  Center for Media and Democracy   ...One of the more disturbing exchanges in recently-unsealed court documents shows callousness among Scott Walker's staff and campaign as they worked to deflect criticism over mismanagement in a county mental health facility...
Illinois Lawmakers Eye $600 Million Tax on Sugary Drink  Heartland Institute   ...In Illinois, it’s called everything from pop to soda to sodi, but the state’s Democrats are now calling soda pop a money maker...
Arizona Senate repeals 2013 election law  Associated Press   ...The Arizona Senate has voted to repeal a sweeping 2013 Arizona election law that included trimming the state's permanent early voting list and a host of other provisions that incensed voter-rights advocates...
Trade
TPP Trade Officials Received Hefty Bonuses From Big Banks  Bill Moyers   ...Officials tapped by the Obama administration to lead the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations have received multimillion dollar bonuses from CitiGroup and Bank of America...
Crucial TPP ministerial meeting begins in Singapore  Global Post   ...Ministers from the 12 countries involved in the envisioned Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade accord began talks in Singapore on Saturday seeking to achieve the challenging goal of reaching a broad agreement after missing an end-of-2013 deadline...
AFL-CIO Executive Council Calls for Commitment to Broad-Based Wage Growth, Ending Job Export, Stopping Fast Track and More  AFL-CIO   ...The AFL-CIO Executive Council adopted several policy statements addressing wage growth and economic inequality, job outsourcing, Fast Track and trade,  higher education and performers' rights at its winter meeting in Houston on Tuesday...
Miscellaneous
Wall Street Landlords Buy Bad Loans for Cheaper Homes  Bloomberg News   ...Wall Street-backed landlords are showing a greater appetite for bad mortgages as a source for cheap property as the supply of foreclosed homes declines while housing prices continue to climb...
Social Identity Markers are NOT a proxy for left wing social policies  Ian Welsh   ...They may love the gay (or at least not mind it), but that doesn’t mean they don’t still intend to create a society in which there are aristocrats, and if the serfs want to marry same sex, let’em...
Former USGS head endorses Keystone pipeline  Washington Post   ...A former head of the U.S. Geological Survey endorsed the idea of building the Keystone XL pipeline Thursday in an editorial contending that the pipeline would be less damaging to the environment than the “viable alternatives” of transporting oil by rail and truck...