Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Today's Teamster News 04.30.14

Teamster News
Teamsters Applaud School Board Decision To Investigate Durham School Services  Teamster.org   ...Teamsters applaud the Charleston County School Board members for their unanimous (9-0) vote Monday night to conduct an investigation into unsafe practices by Durham School Services, the school bus transportation contractor for Charleston County schools...
Teamsters Protest Republic Services' Toxic Landfills at Waste Expo  Teamster.org   ...Today, Teamsters and community members protested Republic Services, Inc. [NYSE: RSG] at WASTE EXPO 2014 at the Atlanta Convention Center...
Teamsters Lead Effort To Break CEO Moyes' Control at Swift  Teamster.org   ...ISS, the country’s largest proxy voting advisory firm, recommends that shareholders of Swift Transportation [NYSE: SWFT] vote ‘FOR’ Item #4 on the company’s proxy – a Teamster proposal that seeks to address the company’s dual class stock structure which currently provides CEO Jerry Moyes with majority voting control of the company despite owning a minority of the outstanding shares...
Teamsters Call for Improved Oversight at National Express  Teamster.org   ...As shareholders of National Express Group PLC, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters General Fund, along with three major United Kingdom-based pension funds, are calling for a vote FOR Resolution 22 at the Annual General Meeting on May 14 in Birmingham, England...
Most City Council Members Undecided About Carriage Horse Ban  New York Daily News   ...Both sides of the raging debate over horse carriages have their work cut out for them: a majority of the City Council is undecided about banning the rides, a Daily News poll shows...
OCTA Approves New Contracts With Coach Operators, Maintenance Workers  Orange County Breeze   ...The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) Board of Directors today approved three-year collective bargaining agreements with its coach operators and maintenance employees. Both of the contracts with Teamsters Local 952 run through 2016...
Trade
Western Mass. Residents Demonstrate In Opposition To Proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement Outside Rep. Richard Neal's Springfield Office  Mass Live   ...As President Barack Obama and his team left Springfield without a deal following negotiation work on terms of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, some in Western Massachusetts aren't shy about voicing their opposition to the new proposal...
The troops will finally wear American-made sneakers  manufacturethis   ...Late Friday afternoon, the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) received very exciting news from Rep. Michael Michaud regarding American-made shoes: the Department of Defense (DOD) will comply with the Berry Amendment to ensure that all service members purchase #MadeinUSA shoes with their footwear allowance...
State Battles
Wisconsin Voter ID Law Rejected By Federal Judge  Huffington Post   ...A federal judge in Milwaukee has struck down Wisconsin's voter identification law, saying it unfairly burdens poor and minority voters. U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman issued his long awaited decision Tuesday. It invalidates Wisconsin's law...  
Louisiana About To Make It Illegal For Homeless People To Beg For Money  ThinkProgress   ...If you are poor, live in Louisiana, and have the audacity ask someone else for help, be prepared to spend up to six months in jail...
War On Workers
Trucking Used To Be A Ticket To The Middle Class. Now It's Just Another Low-Wage Job  Washington Post   ...It’s the skewed economics of Tigre’s trade that prompted port truckers to go on strike in Los Angeles on Monday as part of a union-backed campaign to regain some of the pay, benefits and respect they say they’ve lost after three decades of decline...
Woman Loses Her Home For Owing $6  ThinkProgress   ...Eileen Battisti owed $6.30 in interest on school district taxes. That was enough, a Pennsylvania court has ruled, for her to lose her house over...
Wall Street’s Pension Gamble  Moyers & Company   ...So what is happening to retirees’ money? ... more and more of it is going to pay the exorbitant fees charged by the Wall Street firms managing the pension money. “Fees have skyrocketed over 1,000 percent since 2000 and have almost doubled since (2008) from $217 million to $416 million...”
How Bank Watchdogs Killed Our Last Chance At Justice For Foreclosure Victims  Huffington Post   ...If the program hadn't been shut down, aggrieved homeowners could have received another $1.5 billion in cash, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office released Tuesday....
Bank of America Pleads “We’re Idiots, not Crooks!”  firedoglake   ...The acquisition of Merrill Lynch was in 2009, Bank of America only caught this mistake last week, and you’re happy they are handling it swiftly?...
What A Higher Minimum Wage Would Mean For Me  Detroit Free Press   ...I have worked as a tipped server for 15 years and, not counting tips, I still only make $2.65 an hour. I'm a divorced mother with three kids. I need to put food on the table...
U.S. Knew Sallie Mae Cheated Service Members On Student Loans, But Still Renewed Contract  Huffington Post   ...Federal investigators discovered evidence showing Sallie Mae cheated active duty service members on their federal student loans at least two months before the Department of Education told the company it planned to renew its lucrative contract to collect loan payments...
NFL Cheerleaders: We're Not Even Making Minimum Wage  CNN Money   ...Cheerleading isn't as glamorous as one might think. Several current and former cheerleaders are suing their NFL employers over pay. Three separate suits against the Oakland Raiders, Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals describe contracts that don't guarantee the minimum wage and claim the cheerleaders are vastly underpaid...
Miscellaneous
Justices Back Rule Limiting Coal Pollution  New York Times   ...the Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the smog from coal plants that drifts across state lines from 28 Midwestern and Appalachian states to the East Coast...