Wednesday, February 26, 2014

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...