Woot! More corporations leave ALEC in stampede out the door

ALEC, the secretive lobbying shop that pretends to be a charity, continues to lose members this week as several more corporations cut ties to the troubled organization.

The Center for Media and Democracy reports,

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., Occidental Petroleum, International Paper, and Overstock.com are the latest corporations to say they have left the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) after a wave of technology companies led by Google and Facebook announced their departures last week...

Corporations that have publicly cut ties to ALEC since CMD launched ALECexposed.org in July 2011 include Fortune 500 firms such as General Motors, General Electric, Wal-Mart, McDonald's, Kraft Foods, Coke, and Pepsi. ALEC spent years pushing controverisal Stand Your Ground gun laws and bills to make it harder for Americans to vote before trying to distance itself from that legacy.

Occidental Petroleum's departure is a big deal.  It's the first major oil company to leave ALEC. An Occidental spokesperson said the company didn't want to be associated with ALEC's position on climate change or environmental regulation. Investors had pressured the company to drop ALEC especially because of its opposition to sustainable energy at the state level.

The last two weeks have been horrible for ALEC, as its members stampeded toward the door. Corporations don't want to be associated with the notorious Koch brothers, nor do they want their customers believing they meet behind closed doors with elected officials. They certainly don't want the public to think they support ALEC's agenda: lowering wages, eradicating public education, weakening workers' rights, killing jobs, suppressing voting and rolling back consumer and environmental protections.

Teamsters played a big part in putting ALEC on the ropes. We've worked hard to tell people how ALEC is destroying America's democracy by arranging secret meetings between corporations and state lawmakers. Our work over the past few years paid off, as nearly 100 corporate members of ALEC have severed their relationship with the organization.

We're not sure of the exact reasons for the departures of News Corp., (which owns FOX News), International Paper and Overstock.com. But it's clear that ALEC has become an undesirable bedfellow.

Heh-heh.

Today's Teamster News 09.30.14

Teamster News
Gov. Brown Signs Protections For Temp Workers Into Law  teamster.org   ...Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 1897 into law Sunday. The new law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2015, will hold companies accountable for serious violations of the rights of workers on their premises that are committed by their own labor suppliers...
Teach-in this weekend about Bill Gates' burning, radioactive landfill in Missouri  TeamsterNation   ...There's only one place in the country where a landfill fire smolders hundreds of away a nuclear dump site, and there are hundreds of Teamsters families living near it...
Parents, Health Officials Search For Answers About Sick Kids  St. Louis Post-Dispatch   ...Kirbi Pemberton pulled her 7-year-old daughter out of Rose Acres Elementary School in Maryland Heights this year over her concerns about potential health risks from the nearby radioactive West Lake Landfill...
Woot! Local 117 Teamsters ratify Fred Meyer contract!  TeamsterNation   ...Great news from Washington State, where our brothers and sisters from Teamsters Local 117 voted on Saturday to ratify a contract with Fred Meyer, a subsidiary of Kroger, Inc. They stood together and bargained a contract that maintains affordable health care and protects members against subcontracting...
Teamsters win arbitration award giving Corrections’ employees 9.8% raises over two years  The News Tribune   ...The ruling in favor of the Teamsters provides pay raises of 5.5 percent in July 2015 and another 4.3 percent in 2016 — with additional raises of 2.5 percent for select positions. About 6,000 employees at the Department of Corrections are covered by the Teamsters contract...
Trade
History’s largest trade agreements are being negotiated in secret  Aljazeera America   ...For the past four years, Froman and Selig have headed the U.S. team of unelected representatives secretly negotiating history’s two biggest trade agreements. If both treaties — drafted on behalf of 1.6 billion people — are approved, they will regulate almost three-quarters of all trade and investment in the world. The deals would void national legislation on environmental policy, labor rights, financial regulation and intellectual property...
Voters Will Oppose Politicians Who Support “NAFTA-Style” Trade Deals  Trade Reform   ...the polling overwhelmingly shows that the public “gets it” that these “trade” agreements have been used to send jobs out of the country and force wages down...
China's Tech Factories Turn To Student Labor  Wall Street Journal   ...Schools send thousands of teenagers here to put together electronic devices for some of the world's largest brands. Many students say they are given no choice. "I was suddenly told I had to spend the summer making computers or I couldn't graduate," said a 16-year-old girl surnamed Xiao...
State Battles
Early voting in Ohio blocked (UPDATED)  SCOTUS Blog   ...With just sixteen hours before polling stations were to open in Ohio, the Supreme Court on Monday afternoon blocked voters from beginning tomorrow to cast their ballots in this year’s general election...
Large Oil Company Bolts From ALEC  National Journal   ...Occidental Petroleum sent a letter Friday to an investment-management company indicating its intention to sever ties with ALEC, a conservative coalition of state legislators and major corporations that actively opposes environmental regulations...
Expedia under fire over membership to rightwing lobby group Alec  Guardian   ...Expedia, the world’s largest online travel company, has declined to follow the lead of other big internet firms, instead choosing to remain a member of a controversial rightwing lobby group that works against climate change legislation...
Silicon Valley's Done With American Legislative Exchange Council  U.S. News   ...ALEC takes a conservative, national political approach down to the state level through model bills that do the bidding of big, corporate interests which provide the funding. ALEC bills are generally promoted word for word at the state level by GOP legislators on issues ranging from information technology to renewable energy...
45 Million Americans Still Stuck Below Poverty Line: Census  Huffington Post   ...Median household income barely budged last year, edging up to $51,939 from $51,759 in 2012, the Census Bureau noted separately. Median income is still far from the $56,436 in 2007 and the all-time high of $56,895 in 1999...
Taxis In Washington DC Losing Their Identity With Modern Makeover As Drivers Compete With Car-Sharing App Uber  ABC News   ...The car-sharing service launched in San Francisco in 2010 has since gone global, invariably causing a chorus of complaint and sparking legal challenges from local cab industries...
Arguments Set This Week In Arkansas Voter ID Case  Times Record   ...Arkansas’ highest court is set to take up a case this week that could decide whether the state’s voters will be required to show photo identification at the polls in the November election...
War On Workers
FAA Approves Drone Use For Hollywood Productions, Sets Guidelines – Update  Deadline Hollywood   ...The FAA has approved the limited use of drones as camera platforms for film and TV productions, opening the skies to swarms of small, camera-mounted planes and mini-helicopters over film locations across the country. Unmanned aerial cameras are legal elsewhere in the world, but have been prohibited for commercial use in the U.S. until now...
Finally, the Truth About the A.I.G. Bailout (opinion)  New York Times   ...the government has never provided a plausible explanation for why the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which had enormous leverage over banks like Goldman thanks to its role as their regulator, didn’t lean on them to accept less than 100 cents on the dollar in their payouts from A.I.G...
Almost Three-Quarters Of Big Companies To Increase Outsourcing  Computer Weekly   ...Almost three quarters of global businesses will increase their investment in outsourced services, according to research by KPMG. The research also indicates that more firms are taking advantage of global delivery models including functions such as finance, procurement and HR delivered centrally, often offshore...
Philadelphia zoo worker killed after being pinned under golf cart, report says  South Jersey Times   ...The 57-year-old employee became trapped under the cart around 11 a.m. at the zoo, located on West Girdard Avenue. He was then taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he died, according to the report...
Trump Seeks Pact To End Union Pension To Save Atlantic City Casino  Reuters   ...Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc is seeking to impose a new contract on its unionized workers and end pension contributions as part of a plan backed by billionaire Carl Icahn to save the Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey...
Miscellaneous
NTSB: Truck showed no signs of trying to avoid North Texas softball team's bus  Dallas Morning News   ...National Transportation Safety Board investigators said Sunday that the truck drove through the median for 820 feet on a shallow angle before colliding with the bus. It did not brake or appear to take any action to avoid the crash. They found no apparent problems with the truck’s brakes...
Walmart Faults Tracy Morgan for Not Wearing Seatbelt During Car Accident (Exclusive)  Hollywood Reporter   ...Among nine affirmative defenses, Walmart says that injuries "were caused, in whole or in part, by plaintiffs' failure to properly wear an appropriate available seatbelt restraint device."...
Will More Coal, Oil Trains Rumble Through Northwest?  Public News Service   ...About two dozen projects have been proposed in the past two years to move the Northwest toward becoming a transportation hub for coal, oil and gas to Asia...

Teamsters praise California Gov. Jerry Brown for signing temp worker-protection bill

California just took a step toward ending the abuse of temporary workers -- like those at Taylor Farms who want to become Teamsters.

On Sunday night, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that will hold employers responsible when their subcontracted temp agencies endanger or underpay workers. 

California Teamsters, along with Taylor Farms workers, pushed hard for the bill.

Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said,

Today marks a new era for worker protection in California. No longer can employers hide behind unscrupulous labor contractors. Workers, no matter if they are temporary or permanent, can hold companies who profit from their labor accountable for violations in the workplace.

Dave Jamieson at the Huffington Post credited the Teamsters:

The Teamsters, in particular, lobbied hard for the new measure, largely through a public campaign against Taylor Farms, a food processor in Tracy, California, that supplies to companies like McDonald's, KFC and Subway. Most of Taylor Farms' laborers are temp workers, not direct employees...

The new law, which takes effect Jan. 1, will make it easier to punish companies like Taylor Farms and other warehousing and food processing companies that cut costs by hiring low-paid temp workers.

The law's passage marks a significant win for labor groups that are organizing workers in temp-heavy industries. As HuffPost reported in 2011, Southern California's Inland Empire is home to a sprawling retail distribution nexus, where staffing agencies provide warehouses with low-wage temp workers who frequently cite unsafe working conditions and wage theft. Worker advocates have been clamoring for larger companies to be held responsible alongside their subcontractors when the law is broken. 

 Way to go!

Teach-in this weekend about Bill Gates' burning, radioactive landfill in Missouri

There's only one place in the country where a landfill fire smolders next to a nuclear dump site, and more than a thousand Teamster families live near it.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is the dominant shareholder in Republic Services Inc., the company that owns the West Lake Landfill burning in Bridgeton, Mo.

The Teamsters Union along with other groups will hold a public teach-in on Saturday about the threats of the West Lake Landfill Superfund site in Bridgeton. They will demand institutional support for health and safety protections from Republic Services, Bill and Melinda Gates, elected officials and the Environmental Protection Agency..

The teach-in will spread awareness of the environmental catastrophe at the West Lake Landfill. Discussions will be held on how to best keep area residents safe from the underground fire and uncontained buried nuclear wastes.

Lois Gibbs will be there as well. She is a mom who helped organize her community to fight for the health and wellness of their children after government officials allowed a school to be built on top of a toxic waste site in Love Canal, N.Y. Ms. Gibbs will be in St. Louis to discuss her journey from seeking the American dream to becoming the founder and executive director of the Center for Health, Environment & Justice.

Sponsors of Saturday’s event include the Teamsters, Just Moms STL, the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, Franciscan Sisters of Mary and other supporting organizations.

Read more about the teach-in here. It's in Maryland Heights, Mo., on Oct. 4, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

If you're interested in attending, click here. If you can't make the teach-in, you can sign a petition asking Bill Gates to put out the fire and evacuate families living near the dangerous landfill. Just click here.

Woot! Local 117 Teamsters ratify Fred Meyer contract!

Great news from Washington State, where our brothers and sisters from Teamsters Local 117 voted on Saturday to ratify a contract with Fred Meyer, a subsidiary of Kroger, Inc. They stood together and bargained a contract that maintains affordable health care and protects members against subcontracting.

We got the news on Twitter:

Congrats! to warehouse workers at Fred Meyer who have just voted to ratify a new 3-yr contract! @Teamsters

The contract covers 388 warehouse workers at the company’s grocery distribution center in Puyallup.
The contract ratification vote is especially sweet because of the fight to get it. Teamsters at Fred Meyer worked without a contract for five weeks. Talks broke off on Sept.10, and Teamsters and allies passed out leaflets describing their concerns at Fred Meyer stores in four states. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters authorized strike support for the Fred Meyer workers.

Tracey Thompson, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 117, issued a statement:

When Fred Meyer intimidates workers, threatens to outsource their jobs, or insists on degrading their medical coverage, it harms the entire community.

A federal mediator stepped in, and the union and the company reached agreement on Monday, Sept. 22.

It all goes to show,

United we bargain, divided we beg.

Today's Teamster News 09.29.14

Trade
TPP deadline moves again  Radio New Zealand   ...Another self-imposed deadline to agree a Pacific-wide trade deal appears to be crumbling...
Study Confirms: Offshoring Sucks  Economic Populist   ...ever since Bill Clinton granted permanent normal trade relations to the China, the U.S has lost over 64,000 manufacturing firms and at least 5.8 million manufacturing jobs...
CAFTA and the Forced Migration Crisis  Public Citizen   ... The deal appears to have actually contributed to the economic instability feeding the region’s increase in violence and forced migration...
State Battles
Jerry Brown signs subcontractor bill  The Sacramento Bee   ...In a major victory for California labor unions, Gov. Jerry Brown announced Sunday that he has signed legislation that will hold businesses liable when subcontractors violate wage, workplace safety or workers’ compensation rules...
LA Hotel Workers Win $15.37 Minimum Wage: a New Day for Labor in the United States?  Economic Policy Institute   ...The LA County AFL-CIO, UNITE HERE Local 11 (the LA area union of hospitality workers), and the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, which led the campaign, don’t intend to rest on their laurels and will push for an across-the-board minimum wage increase to $13.25 an hour, far above the national minimum wage of $7.25 an hour...
Thank Goodness Wisconsin Turned Down High Speed Rail!  Econbrowser   ...We find that sales and measured productivity rose substantially for firms near the new (high speed rail) stations after the opening...
Under Scott Walker, Wisconsin slows updates of building and safety codes  The Cap Times   ...DuPont, a lobbyist representing the Alliance for Regulatory Coordination, a consortium of more than a dozen state industry and public safety groups, warned Ross that failure to do so “can negatively impact both public safety and the economy in Wisconsin because products and designs offered across the nation most often reflect the newest national model regulations...”
War on Workers
Watchdog presses SEC for CEO pay disclosure  The Hill   ...The Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) slammed the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday for dragging its feet on the CEO pay disclosure rule amid pressure from business groups to scrap it...
Hong Kong Protesters Defy Officials’ Call to Disperse  New York Times   ...The continued public resistance underscored the difficulties that the Hong Kong government faces in defusing widespread anger that erupted on Sunday, after the police used tear gas, pepper spray and batons to break up a three-day sit-in by students and other residents demanding democratic elections in the semiautonomous Chinese territory...
Court to Weigh Political-Contribution Ban for Government Contractors  Wall Street Journal   ...A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday will consider a fresh challenge to campaign-finance rules, this time a 74-year-old law prohibiting government contractors from making political contributions tied to federal elections...
'Why They Hate Us': A Rant Against U.S. Before Attack on Chicago Air Traffic Hub  Bloomberg   ...The man charged with setting fire to a Chicago-area air-traffic facility, paralyzing travel through the city’s two major airports, was consumed by the U.S. government’s “immoral and unethical acts,” according to a Facebook message under his name. The posting, which includes references to being under the influence of drugs, calls government workers “lazy and useless” and said the government “would rather take care of itself and the money in the world, definitely not its people.”...
Construction worker killed in Rockdale County wreck  Atlanta Journal-Constitution   ...A construction worker died Saturday night in Rockdale County after being trapped underneath a dump truck...

Today's Teamster News 09.28.14

Teamsters
East Bridgewater DPW workers align with Teamsters  The Enterprise   ... Fourteen members of the town’s Department of Public Works have secured their first three-year contract with Teamsters Local 653, after changing union affiliations last year...
Trade
Despite Bold Japan Trade Pledges, U.S. Still Wonders: ‘Where’s the Beef?’  Wall Street Journal   ...Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe began and ended a trip to New York this week with bold pledges to help advance stalled talks on an ambitious pan-Pacific free-trade pact. But mid-week, his chief negotiator walked out of a Washington session with his American counterpart, after U.S. officials accused Tokyo of moving too timidly on opening up Japan’s agriculture market, leaving the agreement’s fate as uncertain as ever...
Want To Find Out Where Your Fruit Was Grown? Good Luck.  Trade Reform   ...What’s required by law in terms of transparency in produce sourcing is minimal: Only country of origin need be shared. Any information shared publicly beyond that is entirely voluntary...
State Battles
5 Tech Companies That Surprisingly STILL Fund ALEC  Common Cause   ...eBay remains a member and funder of ALEC; its biggest competitor, Amazon, cut ties with the organization in 2012...
Court urged to let Ohioans vote early  SCOTUS Blog   ...Arguing that early voting is necessary to continue to deal with the “unprecedented disaster” at the polls in Ohio in 2004, several civil rights advocacy groups urged the Supreme Court on Saturday to permit Ohioans to start casting their ballots next Tuesday for this year’s general election...
Blame Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax cuts for revenue woes in Kansas (opinion)  Kansas City Star   ...the excessive, Brownback-supported tax cuts were to blame for much of the state’s lower-than-predicted revenues...
War on Workers
Miss a Payment? Good Luck Moving That Car  New York Times   ...Ms. Bolender was three days behind on her monthly car payment. Her lender, C.A.G. Acceptance of Mesa, Ariz., remotely activated a device in her car's dashboard that prevented her car from starting...  
Walmart Targets The Poor With New Checking Accounts  Huffington Post   ...Walmart needs that money. Sales at U.S. stores open a year, an important retail metric, have been flat or negative for six straight quarters. Food stamp cuts in November hurt the company's bottom line, executives said...
Worker dies at Moncure wood products company  The State   ...Authorities with the Chatham County Sheriff's Office say a worker at a wood products company died when a piece of machinery fell on him...
Miscellaneous
Team bus/truck collision leaves 4 dead and more than 15 injured  NewsOK   ...Four members of a Texas college softball team are dead after a tractor-trailer crossed over the center median on Interstate 35 and collided with the team’s van Friday night just south of Turner Falls...

Today's Teamster News 09.27.14

Teamsters
Hospitality union, Teamsters, quietly negotiating contract with Harrah's after employees unionize  NOLA.com   ...A pair of labor unions have for the last six months been quietly negotiating a contract with Harrah's Hotel and Casino that, when inked, would double the size of organized labor's tiny footprint in the New Orleans tourism economy...
Local 653 Secures Two Contracts For Workers At Reinhart Food, Bridgewater Public Works  teamster.org   ...Teamsters Local 653 continued its tradition of strong representation this week, securing first contracts for members at two employers – recently organized Reinhart Food Service and East Bridgewater Department of Public Works...
Why the Garbage Man Might Dislike Your Dog  New York Times   ...“I’ve had people, while I’m picking up the bags, they walk up and let the dog pee on the bag,” a trash collector named Kevin said as he paused before a townhouse on Charles Street in the West Village...
Trade
Glum outlook for reaching TPP agreement in Nov.  The Japan News   ...The forecast looks cloudy for reaching a broad agreement in November among countries participating in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations, as Japan and the United States remain divided over specifics on sensitive issues...
Congress' Smackdown of Fast Track: Sweet 16 Bday  Huffington Post   ...Sixteen years ago today, 171 Democrats and 71 GOP Representatives united to vote down then-President Bill Clinton's request for Fast Track authority. As President Barack Obama now seeks to revive the extreme Nixon-era trade procedure, the 1998 Fast Track smackdown is worth remembering...
State Battles
ALEC Can't Hold On To Its Tech Giants Anymore  New Republic   ...With Yahoo becoming the latest company to cut ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council in a matter of days, it's official: ALEC has lost favor with tech giants. ALEC is the right-wing organization that writes model legislation on everything from unions to regulations and tries to push it at the state level...
International Paper Leaves ALEC  Common Cause   ...Spokesperson Tom Ryan told Common Cause on Friday that “we no longer have a membership with ALEC” and confirmed the company also no longer funds ALEC...
Scott Walker’s deficit, distortions, damage to state (opinion)  The Cap Times   ...Walker, who brags about closing a large budget deficit, can no longer cover up the fact his own budget manipulations will create an enormous $1.8 billion budget deficit for whoever is governor in January...
Conservative PAC Grow Missouri Asks St. Louis Journalists To Write for its Blog  Romenesko   ...Grow Missouri is a conservative political action committee funded by billionaire Rex Sinquefield – described as “the Show Me State’s version of the Koch brothers.” Apparently not knowing the ethics rules for journalists, a rep for Grow Missouri has asked St. Louis reporters – including one who covers Grow Missouri for the Post-Dispatch – to contribute to the PAC’s blog...
Los Angeles hotel workers win $15 minimum wage after city council vote  The Guardian   ...The city council voted on Wednesday night to establish a minimum hourly wage of $15.37 for employees of hotels with more than 125 rooms, a decision expected to boost campaigns for better wages in other industries and cities...
War on Workers
Amazon's new Baltimore warehouse has outdoor cages for smokers  Baltimore Business Journal   ...Jennings described security at Amazon warehouses as more stringent than airport screenings, saying the company is highly focused on maintaining strict inventory control. But the company also wants its employees to be happy, so it includes features such as the smoking cages in warehouses...
It happens: Seniors with student debt - and smaller Social Security checks  Reuters   ...The GAO found that 706,000 of households headed by those aged 65 or older have outstanding student debts. That’s just 3 percent of all households, but the debt they hold has ballooned from $2.8 billion in 2005 to about $18.2 billion last year. Some 27 percent of those loans are in default...
1 in 4 Americans 25-54 Not Working  The Weekly Standard   ...workplace participation overall is near a four-decade low...
Hyatt to pay ousted workers $1m in boycott-ending deal  Boston Globe   ...Hyatt Hotels Corp. has agreed to pay $1 million to 98 Boston-area housekeepers who were fired five years ago and replaced by lower-paid, outsourced workers...
Warren Calls for Hearings on New York Fed Allegations  Bloomberg   ...Carmen Segarra, a former New York Fed bank examiner who was fired in 2012, ...described how she felt that her Fed colleagues were afraid of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and handled it with kid gloves...
How Eric Holder Failed the Economy (opinion)  Bloomberg   ...Of 21 separate actions against major financial companies from 2009 through May 2014, only eight were accompanied by charges against individuals, and none of them were high-level executives….more than 1,000 people were charged after the savings-and-loan bust of the 1980s, and more than 100 company officers and directors served prison terms...
Oil field worker dies in mishap  Amarillo Globe-News   ...a man’s leg got caught in a ditch-digging machine. Responders provided emergency medical services on the man, but he died at the scene as a result of the injuries...
Police: Woman beheaded at Oklahoma workplace  Associated Press   ...A man fired from an Oklahoma food processing plant beheaded a woman with a knife and was attacking another worker when he was shot and wounded by a company official, police said Friday...
Chicago-area air traffic center fire grounds 1,750 flights  Reuters   ...The fire was set by a longtime employee of Harris Corp, which provides equipment and technical support for the Federal Aviation Administration facility in Chicago and many others, U.S. government officials said...
LIBRE Initiative criticized for its ties to the Koch brothers  VOXXI   ...The LIBRE Initiative bills itself as a non-profit group that pushes a message of economic freedom and limited government among the Latino community. But lately, the group has been taking a lot of heat for collecting millions of dollars from Charles and David Koch...

Woot! Another corporation flees ALEC

International Paper is the latest corporation to join the stampede out of ALEC, the corporate escort service for state lawmakers. No longer will it publicly link itself to ALEC's agenda of lowering wages, undermining workplace safety, eradicating public education, eliminating environmental protections, empowering corporations and privatizing everything that isn't nailed down.

Companies are realizing the ALEC taint can hurt their profit. Republicans, Democrats and Independents don't like it when corporate lobbyists meet secretly with the politicians they've given money to. It's especially galling when those corporate lobbyists claim to be a charity.

That's why Google, Facebook, yelp and Yahoo! all announced their departure from ALEC just this week alone, even as Uber and Lyft distanced themselves from it.

As Ragan's PR Daily points out,

Study after study finds consumers are making conscious decisions to avoid doing business with bad actors and greenwashers, and to spend their money (and make their investments) in companies that are sincere about trying to do well by doing good. 

Several companies are taking the new reality seriously, incorporating their social responsibility efforts into their annual reports and taking other steps to make sure the public is aware of their activities. It’s not enough yet, though, to change general public perception of corporations, which is deeply cynical in the developed world, where only 52 percent of people have a favorable view of corporations.

 Common Cause tells us this about International Paper's departure from ALEC:

Spokesperson Tom Ryan told Common Cause on Friday that “we no longer have a membership with ALEC” and confirmed the company also no longer funds ALEC. The depature of International Paper, which reported $29 billion in revenue last year, seems to have been recent, as the company was reported to be a member of ALEC’s Energy, Environment, and Agriculture Task Force in 2010 and were a sponsor of ALEC’s annual conference in 2011. International Paper manufactures various paper products, and owns HammerMill Paper.

Great work to all Teamsters and members of the ALEC Exposed community who helped spread the truth about ALEC!

Today's Teamster News 09.26.14

Teamster News
Teamsters Ratify New 3-Year Agreement With Transit Contractor  KRNV   ...Members of Teamsters Union Local 533 ratified a new three-year agreement with Texas-based MV Transportation -- the contractor employing workers operating the Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County transit system...
East Bridgewater Public Employees Vote For Teamster Contract  teamster.org   ...“They were able to work with city management to win a solid new contract with wage improvements for us,” Smith said. “Business agent Bill Trask and the executive board of the local union have worked hard for us already...
Zoo mulls Groundhog Day ban on mayors  New York Post   ...Staten Island Zoo officials — whom The Post exposed for covering up the death of a female groundhog posing as Chuck — want to stop letting butter-fingered politicians handle the critter during Groundhog Day festivities...
Trade
Amari-Froman TPP meeting ends in failure  Japan Times   ...Japan and the United States failed to narrow their differences over the remaining key bilateral trade issues linked to the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations, at their two-day ministerial meeting that ended in Washington Wednesday...
TTIP Draws Flak From Local Leaders In Europe And The US  Deustche Welle   ...While local and regional leaders have remained rather mum about TTIP so far, that appears to be changing. In the US lawmakers from New England and California have spoken out against the trade deal. In Europe, the mayor of Stuttgart, Germany's sixth-largest city and home to global heavyweights Daimler and Bosch, has recently warned that TTIP could undermine local governance...
State Battles
Silicon Valley Companies Follow Google's Lead By Cutting Ties with ALEC  VICE News   ...The companies announcing that they will no longer participate in the organization — Alexandria, Virginia-based American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) — are Google, Facebook, YELP, Yahoo, Uber, and Lyft...
African American Lawmakers Plan To Contact Justice Department Over Voter Applications  WABE   ...After meeting with top officials for the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office Monday, the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus said it still has a number of unanswered questions about the processing of about 51,000 voter registration applications turned in by the New Georgia Project...
Michigan Leads Nation In Loss of Payroll Employment  Ann Arbor Independent   ...The data, released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, come at an inopportune time for Mich. Gov. Rick Snyder. Snyder, locked in a battle for re-election, is leaning heavily on his job creation record...
What The EPA Has To Say About The West Lake Landfill ― And Why Everything Is Taking So Long  St. Louis Public Radio   ...A recent review by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources found evidence of increasing groundwater contamination at the Bridgeton Landfill, including unsafe levels of benzene, arsenic, and other toxic chemicals...
Gov. Dayton Asks For Additional Oil Train Safety In Letter To ND Counterpart  Minneapolis Star Tribune   ...Dayton says Minnesota is "one of the primary routes" for Bakken oil being transported from North Dakota. But Dayton says Minnesotans receive little benefit from the oil trains while experiencing increased risks of a derailment...
What's The Matter With Sam Brownback?  Mother Jones   ...Brownback had said that his tax cut plan would provide "a shot of adrenaline into the heart of the Kansas economy." Instead, the state has gone into cardiac arrest...
Indiana Toll Road rates and revenue are up, traffic has been stagnant  Elkhart Truth   ...Toll rates for cash customers on the Indiana Toll Road are up. Not surprisingly, revenue is up, too. Way up. Traffic, though, is down, at least compared to 2008...
Big-money donors play in quiet 2014 state election cycle  Indianapolis Business Journal   ...Campaign finance data collected by the state show that more than $35 million has been given to candidates and campaign committees so far this year. Of that amount, more than $13 million has come from single donations of at least $10,000...
L.A. City Council Approves Minimum-Wage Hike For Hotel Workers  Los Angeles Times   ...The City Council voted 12 to 3 on Wednesday to impose the higher wage on large hotels, delivering a huge victory to a coalition that included organized labor, more than a dozen neighborhood councils and the ACLU of Southern California...
War On Workers
G.O.P. Error Reveals Donors and the Price of Access  New York Times   ...The documents, many of which the Republican officials have since removed from their website, showed that many of America’s most prominent companies, from Aetna to Walmart, had poured millions of dollars into the campaigns of Republican governors since 2008. One document listed 17 corporate “members” of the governors association’s secretive 501(c)(4), the Republican Governors Public Policy Committee, which is allowed to shield its supporters from the public...
The Middle-Class Squeeze  Center for American Progress   ... for a married couple with two children, the costs of key elements of middle-class security—child care, higher education, health care, housing, and retirement—rose by more than $10,000 in the 12 years from 2000 to 2012, at a time when this family’s income was stagnant...
Worker dies after getting stuck in septic system during repairs  WDRB.com   ... the worker was performing a scheduled repair to the home owner's septic system. The worker was trying to replace a fitting when he got stuck in an 18-inch-pipe...
Worker killed while setting up for Texas Rice Festival  Beaumont Enterprise   ...A woman who was part of a carnival work crew was killed Wednesday while setting up for the Texas Rice Festival. The 30-year-old woman was struck by equipment...

Tell Bill Gates to tell Republic Services to put out the landfill fire near the nuclear dump

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is the dominant shareholder of Republic Services, which owns a burning landfill near a nuclear dump.

Gates has the power to convince Republic Services to evacuate families living next to a burning landfill.

The landfill is in the St. Louis suburb of Bridgeton, Mo. As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently reported,

Buying Allied Waste in 2008 brought Republic Services to the St. Louis area. The acquisition also made it the owner of an infamous landfill...an already-closed dump where a smoldering mass of underground waste was detected in December 2010... 

What the company calls a “smoldering event” triggered by a chemical reaction has produced noxious odors that blanketed nearby communities and raised the ire of residents for more than two years. That anger has gotten the attention of state and federal regulators, politicians, lawyers and national environmental figures. 

Grass-roots citizens groups have formed as the landfill burned, and it has become a cause célèbre for environmental groups worried the smoldering could reach nuclear waste illegally dumped 40 years ago in the adjacent West Lake Landfill. Some residents have filed lawsuits, others want buyouts, and federal regulators have reconsidered a plan to cap the radioactive waste. 

Even the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents about 9,000 of Republic’s workers and has had a contentious relationship with the company over the years, joined the chorus calling for buyouts and removal of the waste.

Please ask Bill Gates to make Republic Services put out the fire and evacuate the families nearby by signing the petition here.

State health investigators found a high rate of brain and nervous system cancers among children 17 and younger in the area near the landfill, in a report just released. There were seven such cancers in that age group compared to an expected 2.5 cases..

Parents of children at Rose Acres Elementary school believe the number of cancers among students and staff members has recently increased, and have asked the health department for a separate study at the school.

Near the burning landfill and nuclear dump is a family with four little girls. The youngest is in first grade today and the oldest is no longer with us. After a series of test her parents were told that their little girl had a rare type of brain cancer—a tumor.  They did everything medically possible to save their child but in the end, four years after she was diagnosed, she died.

Her mother never stopped looking for the cause of the cancer. As she investigated what was in the air outside her window,  she believed she found the cause of her daughter's death. Not only was the air smelly, but it contained cancer-causing chemicals like benzene and likely radioactive dust.

Today, she’s very frightened for the health of her other three girls.

Bill Gates can help protect this family and others living in the community. Please ask Bill Gates to make Republic Services clean up the dump site and evacuate the families nearby by signing the petition here.

Teamsters help push Uber, Lyft and 5 tech giants out of ALEC since August 20

Uber and Lyft just now announced they are leaving ALEC, just after four tech giants in four days announced they're severing ties with the corporate escort service for state lawmakers.

Earlier this week, Google, Facebook, yelp and Yahoo! announced they're dumping ALEC. And on August 20, Microsoft said it was leaving as well.

Common Cause reported,

Two of the largest ride-share companies in the United States, Uber and Lyft, have confirmed to Common Cause that they have no interest in continuing to participate in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a secretive corporate lobbying group. 

Uber and Lyft were invited to ALEC’s annual meeting in Dallas in August and spoke on a panel dealing with the ride share industry. Uber even offered ALEC convention attendees a 30% discount on all rides in Dallas during the conference. Uber also was listed on ALEC’s secret 2013 prospects, published by The Guardian in December 2013. 

Despite ALEC’s efforts to recruit the two growing companies to become corporate members, Lyft spokesperson Chelsea Wilson told Common Cause that the company was “not a member” and has no plans to participate or join the organization. Lane Kasselman, a spokesperson from Uber, also told Common Cause “we attended the Dallas meeting, but are not members and have no plans to participate, fund, or join the organization.”

These devastating losses for the Koch-funded lobbying shop result from the efforts of Teamsters and other union members, environmentalists and civic groups. As part of the ALECexposed community, we've worked hard to shine a spotlight on the corrupting influence of this shadowy group.

As Insider Brief reports years of effort are coming to fruition:

Everyday this week we have witnessed one tech juggernaut after another publicly part ways with ALEC (we - the ALECexposed community - has been directly encouraging them come out of the reprehensible-policy-closet this week).

Though the anti-ALEC campaign has recently focused on climate change, the recent development are great news for anyone who cares about workers' rights, workers' safety and workers' standards of living.

Or, for that matter, anyone who cares about civil rights, democracy, public education, income inequality, privatization, retirement security or taxes (ALEC wants them raised on you, cut for the billionaires).

Great work, everyone!

Today's Teamster News 09.25.14

Teamster News
Reinhart Teamsters Overwhelmingly Ratify First Contract  teamster.org   ...More than 230 workers at Reinhart Food Service represented by Teamsters Local Union 653 ratified a first contract, voting by a 2 to 1 margin to approve the collective bargaining agreement...
First Transit Workers Stand Together For Teamster Representation  teamster.org   ...WorFirst Transit paratransit drivers, dispatchers and schedulers in Chicago recently voted resoundingly for Teamsters Local 727 representation...
British Union To Confront Bill de Blasio Over Plan To Ban City's Horse-Carriage Industry  New York Daily News   ...Members of the federation will raise the carriage ban with de Blasio at the conference, the union said. New York’s carriage drivers are represented by the Teamsters union...
Tom Mulcair Targets 'Freeloader' Corporations In Speech To Teamsters  CBC News   ...In a toughly-worded speech to be delivered today to a Teamsters rail safety conference, the NDP leader's rhetoric is reminiscent of the party's former leaders, particularly that of David Lewis who campaigned against "corporate welfare bums" in 1972...
Pilot Attrition Accelerates At Allegiant Air As Labor Issues Heat Up  teamster.org   ...“The Teamsters have presented the company with a comprehensive proposal, to which they have refused to reply....An honest effort by the company to reach an agreement during contract negotiations would have a positive effect, stem the unsustainable losses they are experiencing, and allow the company to succeed going forward.”...
Trade
Japan trade minister: No progress with U.S. in TPP trade talks  Reuters   ...Japan's Trade Minister Akira Amari said he and his U.S. counterpart made no progress in bilateral talks that are key to an ambitious multilateral trade deal...  
U.S. Government Takes Historic Action to Enforce Labor Rules in Trade Agreement with Guatemala  AFL-CIO Now   ...The United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced that it will finally move forward to arbitration in the long-running dispute with the government of Guatemala regarding whether or not Guatemala is meeting the labor commitments of the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA or CAFTA)...
TTIP Should Help, Not Hinder, Workers (opinion)  The Broker   ...Labour provisions expected to be included in the deal do not provide enough protections.  Additionally, language that would bar preferred status to national companies in government purchasing – known as the Buy American program in the US – would starve job creation...
State Battles
Yahoo, Yelp, Facebook, Google and Microsoft reconsider their relationship with free-market group ALEC  Washington Post   ...Five tech giants have dropped, or plan to or are expected to drop, their membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council, a free-market, state-focused group that has become a target of the left in recent years...
Court Returns Inquiry Into Walker’s Finances to Wisconsin  New York Times   ...A federal appeals court on Wednesday removed an injunction halting an investigation into whether the campaign of Gov. Scott Walker illegally coordinated with conservative groups on fund-raising and spending as he sought to overcome a recall effort two years ago...
Judge defies Supreme Court order as legal wrangling over other voter ID case continues  Wisconsin State Journal   ...A Dane County judge has defied a state Supreme Court order to dismiss a challenge to Wisconsin’s law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, while the legal wrangling continued Tuesday over another case seeking to block the law...
Group Hopes To Force Scott Walker's Administration To Raise The Minimum Wage  Wisconsin State Journal   ...On Wednesday, Wisconsin Jobs Now plans to present petitions from about 75 workers who say they are paid wages that are not self-supporting. The group said that violates a state law dating back to 1913 requiring that the minimum wage in the state “shall not be less than a living wage.”...
Court: 35 days of early voting to start in Ohio  Toledo Blade   ...Ohio’s 35-day early voting window will remain intact for the Nov. 4 election, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted said he will ask the entire U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, not just a three-judge panel, to hear an appeal of the decision. Time is short, however. Early voting will begin Tuesday...
Fed Judge: No press exemption for Citizens United in Colorado  Colorado Independent   ...Judge Brooke Jackson issued a curt decision today refusing to issue a federal injunction that would have allowed Citizens United to air and advertise a documentary on Colorado politics ahead of the November elections without disclosing funding behind any advertising related to the movie.
... Jeffco students walk out of 5 high schools in school board protest  Denver Post   ...Community members are angry about an evaluation-based system for awarding raises to educators and a proposed curriculum committee that would call for promoting "positive aspects" of the United States and its heritage and avoiding material that would encourage or condone "civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law..."
Indiana Toll Road operator files Chapter 11  Bloomberg   ...The operator of the Indiana Toll Road, owned by affiliates of Macquarie Group Ltd. and Ferrovial SA, sought bankruptcy protection after dwindling traffic soured a $3.8 billion bet on a 75-year lease... Alaska's Lessons For The Keystone XL Pipeline (opinion)  Wall Street Journal   ...The lesson of the Trans-Alaska pipeline is that we can build pipelines in ways that protect the environment while yielding large economic benefits. The naysayers were wrong 40 years ago, and policy makers should give scant credence to their arguments against Keystone today...
War On Workers
Inside the Koch brothers' toxic empire  Rolling Stone   ...The company's troubled legal history – including a trail of congressional investigations, Department of Justice consent decrees, civil lawsuits and felony convictions – augmented by internal company documents, leaked State Department cables, Freedom of Information disclosures and company whistle­-blowers, combine to cast an unwelcome spotlight on the toxic empire whose profits finance the modern GOP...
Walmart moms demand better pay and protections for women workers  Peoples World   ...Thelma Moore, who worked at the Chatham, Ill. store and is pregnant with her second child., (said) "...we're fighting for bathroom breaks when we're pregnant and steady schedules that let us get reliable childcare and put food on the table." Moore was fired from the store for an absence when she was at doctors' appointments after television sets fell on her at the store...
Student homelessness hits another record high  CNN Money   ...Approximately 1.3 million students enrolled in U.S. public preschools, elementary schools, middle schools and high schools schools were homeless during the 2012-13 school year. That's up 8% from the prior year…
Worker Dies From Fire at EOG Resources Site in Wyoming  Wall Street Journal   ...A worker died after a flash fire at a storage tank near a natural gas well in Wyoming, company and hospital officials said. The contract worker, whose name hasn't been released, was one of three people hospitalized after a fire at a well site owned by EOG Resources Inc…
Second worker dies from U.S. Steel explosion; OSHA investigating  Pittsburgh Business Times   ...A second United States Steel Corp. employee has died from injuries in an explosion at the company's facility in Fairfield, Ala., a spokesperson for UAB Hospital confirmed Wednesday...
Manchester worker dead after Eagleville school accident  The Tennessean   ...A construction worker died after a backhoe flipped over on him Tuesday afternoon at Eagleville School...
The Recovery That Left Out Almost Everybody (opinion)  Wall Street Journal   ...Not only are hourly wages stagnating; America's families want more hours of work than the economy is providing...

ALEC denies economic science as well as climate science.

Governors in Wisconsin and Kansas who followed ALEC's economic playbook to a T are now defending anemic job growth, large budget deficits and stalled or declining median income.

The architect of ALEConomics is Arthur Laffer, the man who invented 'trickle down' economics (which didn't work either).

Laffer claims to be an economist, but his clownish 'economic' analysis embarrasses the profession.  Even economists who agree with Arthur Laffer say he's a laughingstock.

Every year Arthur Laffer authors a study called 'Rich States, Poor States.'The Center for Media and Democracy calls it "a lobby scorecard ranking states on the adoption of extreme ALEC policies that have little or nothing to do with economic outcomes." 

The Koch brothers directly funded the 2014 report, released in April. They have for many years funded ALEC itself.

In 2014, Laffer ranked Kansas 15th and Wisconsin 17th in 'economic competitiveness.' Their governors, Sam Brownback and Scott Walker, followed his playbook. They cut taxes on the rich and raised them on working people.

Today, both states are creating fewer jobs than the national average. And both states face large and growing budget deficits.

Kansas

In Kansas, Sam Brownback directly followed Arthur Laffer's advice, cutting the income tax and creating huge tax loopholes for corporations. Here's what happened:

• Nonpartisan state budget analyses show Kansas faces $1.3 billion in deficits in the coming five years. 
• Kansas' bond rating has been downgraded by both Moody's and Standard and Poor's. 
• Kansas' economic growth lags the nation by about 3 percent.
• Kansas gained only 7,400 jobs in 2014, for a growth rate of .5 percent. Since Brownback took office in January 2011, the state's growth rate has been 3.7 percent. 
• Personal income growth stalled.

Laffer ranked Missouri behind Kansas (24th vs. 15th), probably because it did not cut its income tax as the Koch brothers wanted. Missouri added four times as many jobs as Kansas and grew twice as fast.

The budget shortfall in Kansas is forcing cuts to public education and school closings. Voters are so angry they may just replace

Wisconsin
Scott Walker ran for governor of Wisconsin promising to create 250,000 new jobs. He won't come close. Since attacking public sector unions and giving tax breaks to corporations that outsource jobs,

Median income fell in Wisconsin by 1.2 percent since 2008;

Wisconsin is dead last in the Midwest in income growth, according to Politifact; 

Wisconsin faces a $471 million budget shortfall next year;

Wisconsin ranks 33rd in the nation in job creation and actually lost 4,300 jobs last month. 

Next door, Laffer ranked the high-tax, high-spending state of Minnesota 46th in the country, compared to 17th for Wisconsin. Minnesota is very similar to Wisconsin in size, population, climate and industry mix. Minnesota now has the highest percentage of adults in the labor force in the country. Tax collections exceeded expectations. Minnesota also outperforms Wisconsin in per capita income growth and job creation.

Just as ALEC denies climate science, it denies economic science. 

Today's Teamster News 09.24.14

Teamster News
Tentative agreement reached with Fred Meyer over grocery contract  Teamsters Local 117   ...Teamsters Local 117 has achieved a fully-recommended tentative agreement with Fred Meyer over a contract involving 388 warehouse workers employed at the company’s grocery distribution center in Puyallup.  The Union and the Company reached the agreement late Monday night with the assistance of a federal mediator...
U.S. FTC mulling antitrust lawsuit against Sysco, US Foods deal  Reuters   ...The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is considering a possible antitrust lawsuit against Sysco Corp's $3.5 billion deal to buy debt-ridden US Foods from private equity, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday citing people with knowledge of the matter...
Teamsters ratify new RTC bus contract  Reno Gazette-Journal   ...The contract is retroactive to July 1 and "includes substantial improvements to employee wages and benefits," the Teamsters said in a statement...
NUC: Picketers Express Outrage At Buffett's NetJets  MarketWatch   ...Hundreds of picketers charged Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK/B) NetJets, Inc., with attacking the livelihoods of middle class families. Unionized pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and related employees, maintenance controllers, stock clerks and flight dispatchers picketed at customer locations in California, New Jersey and the company's Columbus, Ohio corporate headquarters, according to the NetJets Union Coalition (NUC)...
Shareholder Group Sues Darden Over Red Lobster Sale  Orlando Sentinel   ...Darden Restaurants is facing a second lawsuit from a Teamsters shareholder group in Connecticut over the controversial sale of Red Lobster in July...
Oxford Concludes Contract With Teamsters  South Chester County Weeklies   ...Negotiations between the Oxford Area School District and the Teamsters Local Union No. 384 for service and support staff have come to a conclusion with a new contract. The new agreement, approved by the school board at its Sept. 16 meeting, runs from the end of the last contract on July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2016...
Trade
France’s Latest Calls For TTIP Transparency Fall On Deaf Ears  EurActiv   ...Matthias Fekl, the new French Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, has joined his predecessors in calling for the publication of the trade negotiation mandate between the EU and the United States. The continued lack of transparency in the negotiations could lead to the failure of TTIP...
State Battles
Facebook set to join rush to abandon rightwing lobby group Alec  Guardian   ...Alec has attracted global criticism for its opposition to legislation that would curb carbon emissions, anti-union policies and championing of extreme rightwing policies at the state level...
Council To Vote On $15.37 Minimum Wage For Workers At Big Hotels  Los Angeles Times   ...Labor groups are rallying behind the plan now before lawmakers, saying that it could pull hotel workers' families out of poverty and inject more spending into the local economy. Several council members favor the increase, including Councilman Curren Price, who said it would make Los Angeles "a progressive leader" for the nation...
Moral Mondays Movement Spreads To Alabama  San Francisco Chronicle   ...The Moral Mondays movement has spread to Alabama, focusing on a Republican governor and Legislature just as the founders of the protests have done in North Carolina...
GOP’s vote-suppressing militia: Why Scott Walker’s thugs are getting violent  Salon   ...A visit to the group’s Facebook page features makes it clear exactly who they are targeting. All of the pictures on the page feature African-Americans. The group is trying to get African-Americans who may have outstanding warrants arrested in order to keep them from voting...
Wisconsin Voter ID Law Ruling Threatens Chaos On Election Day  The Guardian   ...Election officials and civil liberties advocates are predicting that a surprise court ruling that lifted a stay on Wisconsin’s controversial voter-ID law will produce chaos on election day, as estimates suggest that up to 300,000 eligible voters may not have the documentation now required to vote...
War On Workers
More Fiery Oil Train, Pipeline Accidents Unless Government Acts: Report  NBC News   ...If the U.S. doesn’t quickly address the safe transportation of oil and gas, Americans could pay the price with more fiery train and pipeline accidents, according to a report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office...
OSHA Will Put Workplace Safety Data Online as 'Nudge' to Employers  Bloomberg   ...Starting in January, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will require employers to notify the government within 24 hours every time someone loses an eye, suffers an amputation, or gets admitted to the hospital with an injury sustained at work...
Worker Killed in Explosion at Idaho Dairy  Associated Press   ...the explosion occurred at about 6 a.m. Monday as 30-year-old Dayne A. Hansen of Rupert did welding work on a trailer...
Jersey City construction worker killed at NYC site is identified  NJ.com   ...The worker, identified by The New York Post as Rodolfo Vasquez-Galian, was removing soil from the site when a concrete slab supporting a neighboring building's foundation fell and crushed him to death, according to the news organization's website...
1 In 5 Workers Laid Off In Past 5 Years Still Unemployed, Survey Finds  Huffington Post   ...Twenty-two percent of workers laid off in the past five years are still unemployed, according to a new survey...
More Americans Forgo Marriage as Economic Difficulties Hit Home  Wall Street Journal   ...As long-term financial security becomes a pipe dream for more Americans, a growing share is giving up on marriage. One in five U.S. adults aged 25 or older had never been married in 2012, a record high…
Mercedes labor chief seeks UAW foothold in Alabama  Associated Press   ...The head labor official on Daimler AG’s supervisory board says he considers it “unacceptable” that the German automaker’s Mercedes plant in Alabama stands alone among the company’s factories around the world without union representation for its workers...
Pfizer Seeking Inversions Shows Companies Unfazed by Lew  Bloomberg   ...Pfizer Inc. has approached Actavis Plc to express its interest in an acquisition that could allow the U.S. drugmaker to move overseas and reduce taxes, in a sign the Obama administration’s efforts to curtail such deals could fall short...
A Failure To Treat Workers with Respect Could Be Uber’s Achilles’ Heel  MIT Technology Review   ...Uber will fire a driver if his or her performance rating (an aggregate of the ratings provided by customers of that driver) falls below a certain level. ... There is no mentoring, training, or improvement program—nothing...
Americans Are O.K. With Big Business. It’s Business Lobbying Power They Hate.  New York Times   ...Americans are more likely than respondents in any country surveyed except Italy to believe that corporate lobbyists exercise a high degree of influence over the national government, with 59 percent of American survey respondents saying that corporate lobbyists have “a lot of influence” over policy...

Teamster taxi drivers rally for fairness in Washington, DC

Teamster taxi drivers today in Washington, D.C.

Teamster taxi drivers in Washington, D.C., rallied today for a level playing field with private sedan companies like Uber X and Lyft.

More than 60 drivers, members of Teamsters Local 922, chanted outside a downtown building where several city council members were being interviewed by the news media.

Royale Simms, business agent for Local 922, said, “As we began to chant ‘What do we want? Justice!’, Councilmember Mary Cheh walked out of the Council Chambers and had to pass our action. The drivers’ message was heard loud and clear by the councilmembers.”

After a few minutes, the drivers were escorted from the Wilson Building by security, but their objective was met.

“The drivers were excited and the event has already led to phone calls from drivers wanting to be involved with our next action, which we will announce soon,” Simms said.
Not only are private sedan companies eating into regulated drivers' incomes, they are attacking their own workers.

WAMU reported,

The rise of the “ridesharing” service UberX is bleeding traditional taxicabs in Washington. 

Although precise District-wide data is not available, taxicab company managers and individual drivers said their business is down at least 20 percent — and in some cases much more.

According to Jacobin,

Uber drivers in LA, the largest ride-sharing market in the country, held dozens of protests over the summer to oppose rate cuts. Late last month, drivers working with Teamsters Local 986 launched the California App-based Drivers Association (CADA), a sort of Uber drivers union. Uber workers in Seattle have staged their own protests and have formed the Seattle Ride-Share Drivers Association. Just last week in New York City, drivers for the luxury UberBlack service threatened to strike and successfully reversed a company decision that would have forced them to pick up cheaper and less lucrative UberX rides. On Monday, drivers protested again. 

“We want the company to understand that we are not just ants,” Joseph DeWolf, a member of CADA’s leadership council, told me at the Teamsters Union hall in El Monte, California. “What we want is a living wage, an open channel of communication with the company, and basic respect.” DeWolf said CADA is signing up members, collecting dues, and plans to strike in LA if Uber refuses to come to the negotiating table.

Global support pours in for NYC horse carriage drivers

On the eve of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio's visit to Manchester, England, a British-based labor federation asked the city's council members to support Teamster horse-carriage drivers.  At the same time, an Australian horseman gave his stamp of approval to the horse carriages.

In a press release, the International Transport Workers Federation announced General Secretary Steve Cotton wrote:

On behalf of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) , I would like to add our organisation’s voice to those of the members of Teamsters Joint Council 16 and Teamsters Local 553 – and all those who support the continuation of New York’s horse drawn carriage industry. 

...we consider this industry to be a vibrant, well-established asset to the City of New York, and can see no meaningful reason to deprive the workers involved in it of their jobs, deprive visitors of the pleasure it generates, or deprive New York of one of its landmark sights. 

The men and women who work with these animals do so with pride. Horse drawn carriages are part of the tourism or transportation infrastructure of many countries. The carriages of Central Park are part of what makes New York a global capital. 

We have no doubt that you have examined the case for and against the continuation of this important industry, and feel confident that you will support those who work in it and the best interests of the City that it serves.

Unite, an ITF-affiliated union, plans “to raise the issue with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio when he attends the Labour Party conference in Manchester.”

Meanwhile, the New York Daily News reports Australian horse whisperer Guy McLean supports the Teamster carriage drivers as well.

 World-renowned Australian horseman Guy McLean gave his stamp of approval to the New York City's carriage horses after watching the gentle giants at work in Central Park this weekend. 

“The ones I saw didn't break a sweat. They love the work," said McLean, who was in town for the Central Park Horse Show. "And I've got to say, they look bright in the eyes and coat. These horses weren't working hard, not in the traditional sense, at least."... 

"You're not saving these horses one little bit by taking their job away,” he said. “These horses are happy. They look like beloved team members. And that's what they are."

A trucker writes: God Bless the Teamsters!

Brother Steve Oswald, Teamsters Local 600, St. Louis

Teamsters celebrated National Truck Driver Appreciation Week with lots of great photos of union-driven trucks sent in by our members. Check out the Teamsters Facebook page to see them all, or keep an eye out for the video we're creating.

We also received some great comments, a few of which we'll share here:

Carolyn Steven: My husband is very private so we have not posted his photo with his truck this week. We live in a "right to work state". He is Union and I work as a teacher in this "right to work state" and very involved with the rights of workers since I am from a UAW family. Thanks for recognizing Truck Drivers. I work as an itinerant, special education teacher in a non-union state and drive as many mile as my Teamster husband. I give a silent praise to every trucker as I travel hoping they realize how important the work they do is and hopeful they are organized.

A good reminder:

Caroline Trimmer: Happy Driver Appreciation Week to all of the RETIRED DRIVERS from Anchor Motor Freight/Leaseway (the good old days)

A must-read:

Steve Oswald, Teamsters Local 600 St. Louis, MO. When I was a young man about 20 years old, I was living in my car with nowhere to go and no future...I met an old man who was a Teamster, we began to talk and I told him about my situation and he told me about driving trucks and the Teamsters. I had a Chauffer's License and with a little help from a girl friend at the time, and the advice from the old man, I got a job driving a truck. It wasn't the greatest job in the world but it was a Teamsters union job and it taught me a lot about trucking, management and unions. I quit that job after about 5 or 6 years and worked driving trucks non-union for a few years, what a mistake that was, but I did learn a lot about the non-union trucking industry the hard way, and I know it made me a better union man and appreciate the Teamsters union! So I knew I had to get back into the Teamsters and eventually I did, and that's a story in itself for another time! But anyway, what I'm trying to say is that if it wasn't for that old man, which I'm sorry to say I don't remember his name, my girlfriend at the time, fate, and the Teamsters, I don't know where I'd be right now! The Teamsters took me off of the streets gave me a good job and taught me a lot! Thank God for the Teamsters and organized labor, because without them I would probably be dead or in prison just like a lot of the guys I grew up with! ... God Bless The Teamsters!!!

Brother Steve Oswald back in the day

The photo below makes us hungry: 

Corie Kaminski Thorner: This is the way we roll for Truck Driver Appreciation Week