Teamster News
Michigan Teamsters Joint Council 43 President Nowak, Executive Board Re-Elected Without Opposition IBT ...Michigan Teamster local union officers who gathered at the Shanty Creek Resort in Bellaire, Mich. for Joint Council 43’s 2014 Fall Delegates Meeting voted unanimously to re-elect Joint Council 43 President Greg Nowak, Secretary-Treasurer Jim “Cinci” Cianciolo and the entire Executive Board to a new three-year term...
Trade
Awash In Coal, U.S. Imports Even More Wall Street Journal ...Coal imports surged 44% to 5.4 million metric tons during the first six months of 2014, compared with a year ago, according to Global Trade Information Services...
State Battles
Nebraska: Minimum Wage Increase to Be on Ballot New York Times ...A proposal to increase Nebraska’s minimum wage has qualified for the November ballot. The secretary of state’s office said Friday it had verified enough signatures. If approved by voters, the measure would increase the state’s minimum wage to $9 an hour by 2016 from $7.25 an hour, the same as the federal minimum...
California teachers union fears right-to-work law inevitable Washington Examiner ... the change might be inevitable based on various lawsuits that could reach the Supreme Court...
With close ties to sugar, Florida’s next House speaker admits taking King Ranch trip Miami Herald ...Crisafulli, who will become the most powerful man in the Florida House of Representatives this fall, has been a major beneficiary of the state’s sugar industry. During the past two election cycles, agricultural interests have contributed at least $200,000 to Rep. Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, and his political action committees...
How Much Of Wal-Mart Is Really Made In America? Bloomberg Businessweek ...At least one company, Kent Bicycles, has said it located a new factory in South Carolina because of the state’s right-to-work law. The chief executive noted that Wal-Mart had introduced him to South Carolina’s Republican governor, Nikki Haley...
Democracy A Casualty Of Voter-Suppression Politics (opinion) Billings Gazette ...When same-day voter registration and voting is being cut back, as pushed in Montana by the Republican Legislature, and evidence shows that the majority of late registrants do not vote the Republican way, no wonder many Montanans think someone is trying to stop them from voting because of where they stand philosophically...
6,000 Lack Proper Voter ID Locally The Robesonian ...More than 6,000 Robeson County (North Carolina) residents will have to get a voter ID if they they want to vote in the 2016 General Election...
War On Workers
Blame Employers, Not Workers, for Any Skills Gap, Economist Says Wall Street Journal ...The “obvious solution” to “virtually all the skill problems reported by employers is to increase training and produce the skilled workers they want themselves.” Much of the evidence in support of a skills gap could be explained by employers who are no longer willing to train their employees or raise salaries, and instead want to be able to hire people with exactly the right skills–and on the cheap...
Average cost of raising a child hits $245,000 CNN ...To raise a child born in 2013 to the age of 18, it will cost a middle-income couple just over $245,000, according to newly released estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That's up $4,260, or almost 2%, from the year before...
Feds: Red light camera firm paid for Chicago official’s car, condo ars technica ...The former chief executive officer of Redflex, a major red light camera (RLC) vendor, has been indicted on federal corruption charges stemming from a contract with the City of Chicago...
Worker Killed In North Side Industrial Accident KSAT ...A man in his 60s was killed Monday when a 3,500 pound sack of fracking sand fell on him...
Efforts Advance To Stabilize The Schedules Of Part-Time Workers Kansas City Star ...The movement to support “schedules that work” for employees includes a bill by that name, introduced this summer in the U.S. House and Senate, that would let employees request changes to their work schedules “without fear of retaliation,” among other things...
Money in Politics: Rising in Intensity as a 2014 Election Issue Huffington Post ...candidates all over the country, in red states as well as purple and blue, are taking up the fight against money in politics, to take the country back from the Koch brothers, Wall Street, and the big business interests that run things right now...
Miscellaneous
Community Health says data stolen in cyber attack from China Reuters ...Community Health Systems Inc (CYH.N), one of the biggest U.S. hospital groups, said on Monday it was the victim of a cyber attack from China, resulting in the theft of Social Security numbers and other personal data belonging to 4.5 million patients...
