Teamster News
2014 Teamsters Unity Conference Convenes teamster.org ...The 2014 Teamsters Unity Conference convened Sunday, May 4, with General President Jim Hoffa welcoming more than 1,400 Teamsters who learned about several key challenges facing the union...
Lilly Ledbetter joins Teamsters and others in support of pay equality for city's 5,000 school safety agents teamster.org ...Lilly Ledbetter, the tireless advocate for equal pay, whose historic Supreme Court case led the way to the Fair Pay Act of 2009—which bears her name—will join Teamsters Local 237 President Gregory Floyd; Sonia Ossorio, President of the New York City Chapter of National Organization for Women; and Mary Lou Urban, Co-President of the League of Women Voters, at a rally in support of resolving the pay disparity of school safety agents...
Trade
Trans Pacific Partnership Still Stalled The Register ...In spite of optimistic official rhetoric from the White House, Japan seems to be the latest speed bump on the road to the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership trade treaty...
Is Another Aspect Of The TPP They Hid From Us, Legally Stoning Gays? Down With Tyranny ...The dictator (of Brunei) is an hereditary sultan and this one is a homophobic psychotic who has just mandated the death penalty (by stoning) for gays. He's one our our esteemed partners in the TPP...
Oscars 'Night Before' Party Pulled From Beverly Hills Hotel Over Sultan of Brunei Ownership (Exclusive) Hollywood Reporter ...The Night Before the Oscars, Hollywood's starriest annual charity event, will not be held at the Beverly Hills Hotel because of the hotel’s ties to Brunei, where Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah instituted a severe new anti-gay penal code based on Sharia law last week...
State Battles
The drive to ban mandated sick days America Al-Jazeera ...the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) ... and the National Restaurant Association ... are pushing legislatures and governors to enact pre-emption (or kill-shot) laws to bar cities and counties from passing paid sick day mandates...
Outside Spending Enters Arena of Judicial Races New York Times ...The primary race for Justice Hudson’s Supreme Court seat alone has drawn more than $1 million — the bulk of it by independent groups including the Republican committee and an arm of the state Chamber of Commerce, which has spent $250,000 to promote both of her opponents with money from companies including Reynolds American, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Koch Industries.
The costly and fierce primary shows how the revolution in financing political campaigns, with the surging role of “super PACs” and other groups financed by corporations, unions and other interests, has entered what was the quieter arena of judicial elections...
War On Workers
Enron 2.0: Goldman-Linked Investors Set to Manipulate East Coast Electricity Prices naked capitalism ...With Brayton Point closed, New England consumers and businesses will spend as much as $2.6 billion more per year for electricity, critics of the deal suggest in documents filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission...
There's no evidence that privatisation works, but it marches on (opinion) ...Governments will always need to deal with markets for procurement and regulation – but that needs a strong, experienced civil service with equal cunning, not one cut by 30%, losing memory of past errors...
Bonuses For Federal Workers Cut In Half, Figures Show USA Today ...Bonus pay for 1.3 million federal workers fell of a proverbial fiscal cliff last year, dropping nearly 50% as a result of draconian budget cuts tied to a partial government shutdown and recent caps on employee awards...
Why Is This Farm Using Guest Workers As Strike Breakers? The Nation ...By law, a company can’t hire H-2A guest workers if it is in a labor dispute with its US workforce. But that is exactly what this Washington State berry grower is trying to do....
The Recession Made Income Inequality Even Worse Think Progress ...The gap between the rich and the poor has grown faster since the financial crisis than it did the entire decade before it, according to a new report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)...
Your Paycheck Proves There Was No Recovery Huffington Post ...Stock prices and corporate profits are setting records, jobs are growing and yet most Americans think the recession never ended. How can this be? Because in the one place it counts--your paycheck--the recovery never happened...
Miscellaneous
Declining Business Dynamism in the United States: A Look at States and Metros Brookings Institute ...dynamism is slowing down. Business churning and new firm formations have been on a persistent decline during the last few decades, and the pace of net job creation has been subdued. This decline has been documented across a broad range of sectors in the U.S. economy, even in high-tech...
