Allegheny County, Teamsters reach tentative contract for road workers Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ...Teamsters Local Union 249 and the county Public Works Department reached a tentative agreement on a contract Tuesday, according to a statement issued by Teamsters president Joseph Rossi Jr...
Momentum building against Fast Track; thank you, Teamsters! TeamsterNation ...Tens of thousands of people are taking action to stop politicians in Congress from pulling a fast one and passing a Fast Track bill...
Corporations See an Income Divide, So Why Doesn’t Congress? teamster.org ...Income inequality is an issue that is receiving increased attention, especially after President Obama addressed the matter during his State of the Union speech last week...
Unsealed John Doe filings reveal roots of recall probe Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...From the outset, the probe focused on possible "illegal campaign coordination between (name redacted), a campaign committee, and certain special interest groups," according to a filing signed by the five district attorneys in the case. The campaign committee under the microscope? Almost certainly it's the Friends of Scott Walker, the governor's campaign committee. "Good guess," said one source familiar with the probe. "That's it."...
Scott Walker's big money comes from big donors outside Wisconsin The Cap Times ...the governor could at least show a little respect for the intellect of Wisconsinites when he makes claims about the money that he raises — which has, since 2010, tended to come in very large checks from very wealthy people in very distant states such as Texas and Florida...
Right-to-work would be an unnecessary and divisive fight in Ohio: editorial Cleveland Plain Dealer ...The divisive measure should not be enacted. Putting aside the likely partisan explosion, Ohio's voters signaled as recently as 2011 that they do not favor such measures...
Fast-Track Opponents Rally Support Wall Street Journal ...A coalition opposed to overseas trade agreements is building grassroots support, gathering more than half a million signatures and making tens of thousands of calls to lawmakers to argue against trade legislation in Congress...
Vermont Becomes 12th State With Legislation Targeting NSA Spying Truthout ...a transpartisan group of four Vermont state representatives introduced legislation that would block some of the practical effects of mass data collection by the National Security Agency (NSA)...
Trade deal is bad for working Americans (opinion) Nogales International ...There are two related issues to worry about. One is the agreement itself, which was written mostly by business lobbyists and helps the corporate bottom line at taxpayer expense. It also harms the environment, weakens labor protections and increases the price of medicines here in the U.S. The other issue to watch is what’s called trade promotion authority, which is often referred to as “fast track.” If the House and Senate approve fast track – and the House and Senate already have bills to do just that – it would make it impossible for members of Congress to offer any changes to the agreement before it’s approved...
Tea Party teams with union leaders to fight Obama’s trade plan The Hill ...The groups are at separate poles when it comes to taxes, ObamaCare and who should be the next president, but they agree that making it easier for the administration to negotiate and win congressional approval of trade deals is a bad idea...
The Farm Bill Still Gives Wads of Cash to Agribusiness. It's Just Sneakier About It. New Republic ...while the parties argued about how much food to take away from poor people, it’s just as revealing to look at the area where they both agreed. Democrats and Republicans alike have pointed to the repeal of $4.5 billion in annual direct cash payments, a long disfavored policy where farmers received a fixed amount of money for every acre they owned, regardless of whether it was planted...
Only About One-Third of Labor Force Dropouts Will Return Wall Street Journal ...Millions of people have dropped out of the labor force since the start of the recession in late 2007, and only about a third of them will come back in the years ahead when the economy is stronger...
Welcome Relief for Homeowners, Then the Tax Bill New York Times ...Come tax time, JPMorgan Chase will be able to write off the $1.5 billion in debt relief it must give homeowners to satisfy the terms of a recent settlement. But the homeowners who receive the help will have to treat it as taxable income, resulting in whopping tax bills for many families who have just lost their homes or only narrowly managed to keep them...
USW: Jail nun/nurse was fired for union organizing Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ...A nun who worked for five years as a registered nurse at the Allegheny County Jail infirmary was fired last week for spearheading unionization efforts, an organizer for the United Steelworkers union said Monday...
