Seattle School Bus Drivers Prepare for Strike teamster.org ...Teamsters Local 174 represents more than 450 school bus drivers who transport K-12 students for the Seattle School District and are preparing to strike over unfair labor practice charges after First Student broke off talks and walked away from negotiations...
Bay Valley workers hold rally as strike continues saukvalley.com ...The Teamsters Local 722 workers went on strike at 11 p.m. last Thursday, after their contract with Bay Valley Foods, a Green Bay-based company, expired Dec. 28....
Trade
TPP Trade Officials Received Hefty Bonuses From Big Banks Republic Report ...Michael Froman, the current U.S. Trade Representative, received over $4 million as part of multiple exit payments when he left CitiGroup...
State Battles
Catching Up: Ticketed Capitol singers preparing to turn tables on the state Wisconsin State Journal ...The state could soon face thousands of dollars in civil rights lawsuits stemming from hundreds of tickets issued to singing protesters at the Capitol last summer...
Business tax replacements doomed to fail (opinion) Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette ...Our governor and legislature have been calling for the elimination of the business personal property tax, which has led to panic among local government officials because of the $1 billion negative effect on local revenue...
After comment to Gov. McCrory, food store cook fired in Charlotte Charlotte News & Observer ...On Sunday afternoon, McCrory was shopping at Reid’s Fine Foods when Drew Swope, a 45-year-old cook, said he asked if he could help McCrory. After realizing he was speaking with the governor, whom he disagrees with politically, Swope said he told McCrory, “Thanks for nothing,” and walked away...
Workers Shouldn’t Be Stopped from Voting -- Ever teamster.org ...GOP lawmakers in Georgia are behind legislation that would tighten the early voting window for municipal elections in the state...
The War on Workers
More workers take second jobs to bridge income gap Boston Globe ...‘‘More people have actually entered and remained in the underground economy than we have seen before,’’ he said. Workers are trying to raise their income even as job growth is sluggish, he said. So while employed, they may also do handyman repairs, or tutor, or fix computers...
Low-Wage Workers Have Experienced Wage Erosion in Nearly Every State Economic Policy Institute ... Between 2009 and 2013, low-wage earners’ wages declined in every state except three (West Virginia, Mississippi and North Dakota). Real (i.e. inflation-adjusted) wage erosion was greatest in Maryland (-$1.24), Massachusetts (-$1.18), and New Jersey (-$1.16) during this period...
Homeland Security is seeking a national license plate tracking system Washington Post ...The Department of Homeland Security wants a private company to provide a national license-plate tracking system that would give the agency access to vast amounts of information from commercial and law enforcement tag readers, according to a government proposal that does not specify what privacy safeguards would be put in place...
How Big Banks Are Cashing In On Food Stamps American Prospect ...Many benefit programs have gone high tech with debit cards and J.P. Morgan Chase and others are making a pretty penny charging users fees...
Student debt may hurt housing recovery by hampering first-time buyers Washington Post ...loan applications for home purchases have slipped nearly 20 percent in the past four months compared with the same period a year earlier...
5 of the strangest lawsuits making headlines Inside Counsel ... the servers at several eastern Pennsylvania Red Robin restaurants had another uniform-related problem: They claim their employer illegally took deductions from employee paychecks to pay for uniforms...
Will a Minimum Wage Hike Really Cost Jobs? The Nation ...Several economists Tuesday, including Jason Furman and Betsy Stevenson at the White House, stressed that the CBO report doesn’t match the “consensus view” of economists...
Miscellaneous
Exclusive: Mega-donors plan GOP war council Politico ...A group of major GOP donors, led by New York billionaire Paul Singer, is quietly expanding its political footprint ahead of the midterm elections in an increasingly assertive effort to shape the direction of the Republican Party...
Angry Residents Wave Pitchforks, Torches In Protest Of Mayor's Crackdown On Homelessness Huffington Post ...An estimated 4,000 people sleep on the streets of Portland, Ore., on any given night and, since last summer, life has become increasingly difficult for them. So, a group of protesters descended upon Portland City Hall on Tuesday night carrying pitchforks and torches to "shame the mayor into action," ...
Train accidents stir worries about crude transport Associated Press ...Experts say recent efforts to improve the safety of oil shipments belie an unsettling fact: With increasing volumes of crude now moving by rail, it's become impossible to send oil-hauling trains to refineries without passing major population centers, where more lives and property are at risk...
JP Morgan Banker Jumps to his Death From Hong Kong Skyscraper International Business Times ...His death comes as a London coroner's office gathers evidence into the death of JP Morgan IT executive Gabriel Magee, who is thought to have leapt to his death from the roof of the investment bank's European headquarters in Canary Wharf last month. The incident also follows the apparent suicide of US JP Morgan banker Ryan Crane, who was found dead at his Connecticut home on February 3...
5 of the strangest lawsuits making headlines Inside Counsel ... the servers at several eastern Pennsylvania Red Robin restaurants had another uniform-related problem: They claim their employer illegally took deductions from employee paychecks to pay for uniforms...
Will a Minimum Wage Hike Really Cost Jobs? The Nation ...Several economists Tuesday, including Jason Furman and Betsy Stevenson at the White House, stressed that the CBO report doesn’t match the “consensus view” of economists...
Miscellaneous
Exclusive: Mega-donors plan GOP war council Politico ...A group of major GOP donors, led by New York billionaire Paul Singer, is quietly expanding its political footprint ahead of the midterm elections in an increasingly assertive effort to shape the direction of the Republican Party...
Angry Residents Wave Pitchforks, Torches In Protest Of Mayor's Crackdown On Homelessness Huffington Post ...An estimated 4,000 people sleep on the streets of Portland, Ore., on any given night and, since last summer, life has become increasingly difficult for them. So, a group of protesters descended upon Portland City Hall on Tuesday night carrying pitchforks and torches to "shame the mayor into action," ...
Train accidents stir worries about crude transport Associated Press ...Experts say recent efforts to improve the safety of oil shipments belie an unsettling fact: With increasing volumes of crude now moving by rail, it's become impossible to send oil-hauling trains to refineries without passing major population centers, where more lives and property are at risk...
JP Morgan Banker Jumps to his Death From Hong Kong Skyscraper International Business Times ...His death comes as a London coroner's office gathers evidence into the death of JP Morgan IT executive Gabriel Magee, who is thought to have leapt to his death from the roof of the investment bank's European headquarters in Canary Wharf last month. The incident also follows the apparent suicide of US JP Morgan banker Ryan Crane, who was found dead at his Connecticut home on February 3...
