Teamster Nation

Today's Teamster News 03.01.12

2012-03-01T07:10:00.000-05:00

Unbelievable Stress of Making "Only" $200,000 After Taxes Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis   ...Imagine the stress of renting a three-bedroom summer home for only one month instead of four...
Growing Number Of Americans Can't Afford Food, Study Finds Huffington Post   ...About 18.6 percent of people -- almost one out of every five -- told Gallup pollsters that they couldn't always afford to feed everyone in their family in 2011...
Bailout Ingrate Bank of America To Impose Monthly Fees on Many "Basic" Checking Account Customers naked capitalism   ...Bank of America Corp. is working on sweeping changes that would require many users of basic checking accounts to pay a monthly fee unless they agree to bank online, buy more products or maintain certain balances…
Florida prison system to cut back visits probation officers make to offenders  Tampa Bay Times   ...Florida's prison system is cutting back on the visits that probation officers have with offenders — a move sure to raise public safety concerns...
Wisconsin leads Midwest in layoffs, new jobless claims The Cap Times   ...
Among the major layoffs reported in January were Sub-Zero in Madison with 100 layoffs; M&I/BMO Bank in Milwaukee with 57, Mayville Products with 130 and Colligan's Bakery in Stevens Point with 51 layoffs...
Teamster Pilots at Cape Air Ratify First Labor Agreement IBT   ...The new contract includes an improved pay scale, 401k match, short and long term disability, an ASAP program and a grievance resolution process...

Unions coming back in all the right anti-union places

2012-02-29T13:47:00.000-05:00

Voting for that all-important first contract.

Unions are scoring important victories even as union-bashing reaches new lows. Corporate money talks louder than ever in the political arena. Republican presidential candidates have become noisy mouthpieces against working families. (The candidates need that campaign cash, after all, and now the way to get it these days is from billionaires' SuperPACs.)

As John Nichols in the Capital Times notes,

Like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Maine Gov. Paul LePage, they are anti-labor extremists whose opposition to free trade unions goes to extremes not seen since Southern segregationists sought to bar unions because of their fear that white workers and people of color were being organized into labor organizations that would threaten Jim Crow.

But despite these attacks -- or probably because of them -- unions are fighting back and winning. Truthout recently wrote about some recent union victories:

...GE and Cablevision workers unionizing after several failed organizing attempts, the end of the bloody Longview Port longshoremen dispute and the State Department issuing new rules governing student guest workers after last summer's strike by young Hershey foreign workers.

This extraordinarily rare string of victories leads me to believe that despite major attacks on workers’ organizing and collective bargaining rights, unions can take advantage of workers' backlash against these attacks and win big victories. They can still organize.

Organizing is only the first step, of course. The next one is to get that first contract. And the next is to ratify it.

Members of Local 200 in Milwaukee recently did all three in an extraordinary contract ratification. Local 200, of course, knows a thing or two about union bashing, as they've had to endure a year of ~~Koch whore~~ Gov. Scott Walker's attacks on working families. A few weeks ago, 421 Nestle's members of Local 200 in Burlington voted for a new contract by a stunning 14-to-1 margin.

Here's what Local 200 had to tell us:

Ready to vote their first ever Teamster contract Nestle workers in Burlington Wisconsin sent a message.

“This is the highest percentage yes vote for a contract and the largest group to participate in over 30 years” said Teamster negotiating team member Darold Lukaszewski.

Local 200 Business representatives Jeff Bandur and Randy Monroe praised the Stewards group with them on the negotiating team.

“It was a pleasure to work with this Steward group through this process” said Jeff. “Their dedication, long hours, and knowledge of the plant, along with knowing the wishes of their co-workers was invaluable.”

Some of the highlights of the new agreement were gains in wages, pension and health care contributions, along with numerous language enhancements.

The contract will run through February 15, 2017.

Congratulations to all the Local 200 Teamsters at Nestle!

Inspiration Wednesday: 'Woke Up This Morning With My Mind on Freedom'

2012-02-29T10:33:00.000-05:00

Just because it's Wednesday.

Today's Teamster News 02.29.12

2012-02-29T07:14:00.000-05:00

Why banks are reluctant to foreclose on expensive homes Reuters   ...if a rich person owes a bank somewhere north of a million dollars, the bank is likely to be quite aggressive in attempting to get all of the money it’s owed, rather than simply letting the borrower walk away from their house...
70 Cities Nationwide Stand up to Corporate Greed and ALEC National Day of Action to Resist the Selling Out of the 99% The Paramus Post   ...On February 29th, concerned citizens, students, and occupiers in over seventy cities across the nation, including Occupy Wall Street (NYC), are standing up to the corporations and legislators involved in American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)...
Michigan Workers Fight Emergency Managers, Plan Constitutional Amendment to Protect Union Rights Alternet   ...Michigan’s top union leaders are meeting behind closed doors to decide whether to take on the huge fight it would require to amend the state constitution to block right to work, with a ballot initiative this November...
Union seeks restraining order on right-to-work law Associated Press   ...A federal judge will hear arguments next week on a union's request for a temporary restraining order to stop Indiana from enforcing its new right-to-work law...
Senate reports says Beijing is cheating its way to the top in green technology exports Manufacture This   ...Senate reports says Beijing is cheating its way to the top in green technology exports...
ATA Trucking index declined in January Calculated Risk   ...“Last month I said I was surprised by the size of the gain in December. Today, I’m not surprised that tonnage fell on a seasonally adjusted basis in January simply due to the fact that December was so strong,” ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said...
Crashing the Biennial: Locked-Out Sotheby's Workers Take Their Fight to the Whitney ArtInfo   ...a group of artists and others involved with Occupy Wall Street will take Teamsters as their dates to the Whitney Biennial's official kickoff party. And not just any Teamsters: specifically, Sotheby's union art handlers, who have been locked out of their jobs since August...

Hey Scotty, we're b-a-a-a-ck in WI!

2012-02-28T17:36:00.000-05:00

Proud Teamsters Pat Walker and Rob Moss, about a year ago.

A labor-backed tour to "Reclaim Wisconsin" and a gigundo rally in Madison on March 10 will mark the one year anniversary of the Wisconsin uprising against ~~Koch whore~~ Gov. Scott Walker's attacks on working families.

Let's hope it marks the beginning of the end for Scotty boy. Wisconsin can't take much more of his "leadership" as the state is hemorrhaging jobs faster than any other state in the country. He is certain to face a recall election and he is certain to fund his campaign with tens of millions of dollars from out-of-state 1 percenters.

Our brothers Pat Walker and Rob Moss from Local 695 will be at the March 10 rally, along with many more of our Teamster brothers and sisters. For more information, click here.

The LaCrosse Tribune reported on the beginning of the "Reclaim Wisconsin" tour on Feb. 15:

Wisconsin labor leaders kicked off a statewide tour Wednesday night in La Crosse to mark the one-year anniversary of a Republican-backed bill that curbed collective bargaining for public workers and call for the ouster of Gov. Scott Walker.
About 150 labor supporters — and half a dozen Walker loyalists — attended the rally in Copeland Park where local public sector workers talked about the impact of the GOP budget reforms.About 150 labor supporters — and half a dozen Walker loyalists — attended the rally in Copeland Park where local public sector workers talked about the impact of the GOP budget reforms. (Um, we take issue with the word "reforms.")

The Wisconsin AFL-CIO tells us more about the Tour:

The “Reclaim Wisconsin” Tour will culminate with statewide candlelight vigils on March 9 and a “Reclaim Wisconsin March” in Madison on Saturday, March 10. These events will mark the one year anniversary of when Gov. Walker and Senate Republicans rammed through the collective bargaining bill illegally in the dead of night.

Under Walker's "reforms," the state has lost jobs. Lots of them. Those red bars below, showing job loss, appear when Walker's budget took effect.

(Thanks to Publius No. 9 for that.) That's why Walker may soon be an ex-~~Koch whore~~ governor. Here's how the Associated Press sees the recall:

Nowhere are the parties’ contrasting visions on more vivid display than in Wisconsin, where Democrats submitted more than a million petitions in January to recall Walker, whose efforts to slash state worker benefits and end their collective bargaining rights drew fierce protests from union members and other activists.

The special election is expected to take place in June, with a likely primary in May to select a Democrat to challenge Walker. Former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, a favorite of labor leaders, is expected to run, and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett is also exploring a race.

Both parties agree that the Wisconsin recall is likely to be the closest governor’s race of the year, and possibly the most expensive.

It isn't the debt, stupid, it's globalization

2012-02-28T11:52:00.000-05:00

We live in a time when up is down. Victims of financial crimes are portrayed as the perps. And the biggest financial crime is unfair trade.

Working people in America and Greece (and all over Europe, in fact) are being painted as profligate. The reality is that globalization has so depressed wages -- and the banks have figured out so many ways to siphon money from the poor and middle class -- that people are falling into debt they can't escape from. Today, one in seven Americans is pursued by a debt collection agency.

The story we've heard so often in the U.S. is that Americans bought houses they couldn't afford and then used them as ATMs to buy SUVs. That caused the housing bubble to burst and the poor widdle banks are left with all those bad mortgages.

Trouble is, it isn't true. Americans are borrowing no more now than they did 30 years ago. They have more debt, but that isn't because they've borrowed more.

A new study by two economists, Josh Mason and Arjun Jayadev, shows that Americans borrowed at the same rate or less from 1929 to the present, with the exception of 2000-06. The reason Americans have more debt is that wages and inflation fell while interest rates rose. Interest rates on credit cards, for example, were a lot lower in 1982 than they are now. And that doesn't even account for the fees banks are now charging.

And why are wages falling? Because of globalization .

Greece is also the victim of an economic fable. The story goes that Greece paid too much for a social safety net that it can't afford. The reality is that Greece's economic problems result from its currency integration with the rest of Europe -- aka, "globalization."

As economist Paul Krugman points out in a recent New York Times op-ed,

By introducing a single currency without the institutions needed to make that currency work, Europe effectively reinvented the defects of the gold standard — defects that played a major role in causing and perpetuating the Great Depression.

More specifically, the creation of the euro fostered a false sense of security among private investors, unleashing huge, unsustainable flows of capital into nations all around Europe’s periphery. As a consequence of these inflows, costs and prices rose, manufacturing became uncompetitive, and nations that had roughly balanced trade in 1999 began running large trade deficits instead. Then the music stopped.

If the peripheral nations still had their own currencies, they could and would use devaluation to quickly restore competitiveness. But they don’t, which means that they are in for a long period of mass unemployment and slow, grinding deflation. Their debt crises are mainly a byproduct of this sad prospect, because depressed economies lead to budget deficits and deflation magnifies the burden of debt.

Today's Teamster News 02.28.12

2012-02-28T07:15:00.000-05:00

Towards a Creditor State: One in Seven Americans Pursued by Debt Collectors nakedcapitalism   ...There are now thousands of people legally jailed because they aren’t paying their bills, ie. debtor’s prisons have returned...
Threatened Goldman Japan workers unionize Japan Times   ...At Goldman Sachs Japan, things became so unusual that some of its staff even took the remarkable step of unionizing after the firm's attempts to force workers to voluntarily resign — and thus sidestep the notoriously tough restrictions on layoffs under Japanese labor law — apparently backfired...
Controversy over Scientology influence clouds future of Pinellas charter school Tampa Bay Times   ...Some parents and former teachers at Life Force, which receives about $800,000 a year in public funding, say the Pinellas County charter school has become a Scientology recruiting post targeting children...
Indiana Speaker of the House Brian Bosma Moonlighting as a Union-Busting Attorney? We Party Patriots   ...Isn’t “hiring, disciplining, and terminating public employees” union-busting? Isn’t mediation of “employee civil right claims” and “contract disputes” by the House Speaker for a private firm a little bit of an issue?...
Walker Using Out-of-State Tea Party Group to Indirectly Challenge Recall PR Watch   ..."Registering [the poor] to vote is like handing out burglary tools to criminals,” he wrote. “It is profoundly anti-social and un-American to empower the nonproductive segments of the population to destroy the country."...
New York Motor Truck Says 'Fair Play Act' Anything But  Trucking Info   ...in New York State between 2002 and 2005, nearly 40,000 employers misclassified more than 700,000 workers...
IATSE and Teamsters picket producers of '1000 Ways to Die' Los Angeles Times   ...“1000 Ways to Die” has become the latest flash point in an effort by Hollywood's leading unions to extend contracts to the rapidly growing cable TV sector...
Unions reveal 'serious concerns' over National Express' human rights approach Fresh Business Thinking   ...Over the course of a decade serious concerns have been raised over the negative human rights and labour relations record of National Express Group’s US private school bus transportation subsidiary, Durham School Services...

GA wants to make picketing a felony

2012-02-27T16:53:00.000-05:00

Do these look like felons to you?

You read that right. Anti-worker state lawmakers in Georgia want to criminalize our basic right to freedom of speech. They're pushing a bill to impose a $10,000 fine or a year in prison or both for picketing.

Alternet has the story:

In a move that could impact non-labor groups engaged in direct action, picketing, or protest, Georgia's Senate Bill 469 includes felony penalties for "criminal trespass" and, unbelievably, "conspiracy to commit criminal trespass"--the punishment being a $10,000 fine or a year in jail, or possibly both. That this is specifically included in a bill that cracks down on organizations' right to picket outside a workplace or company seems to indicate that a union or other group engaged in picketing could be charged with a crime for the activity of one member who crosses the line.
And in the bill, the line is pretty nebulous. The bill has this to say about what would constitute "unlawful" picketing:
It shall be unlawful for any person to engage in mass picketing at or near any place, including private residences, where a labor dispute exists in such number or manner as to obstruct or interfere with or constitute a threat to obstruct or interfere with the entrance to or egress from any place of employment or the free and uninterrupted use of public roads, streets, highways, railroads, airports, or other ways of travel, transportation, or conveyance.
What's that mean? "Constitute a threat to obstruct or interfere with" could be interpreted pretty broadly, and leaves a lot of discretion up to police on the scene--or to business owners, who could have picketers removed by claiming they presented a "threat."

Every single sponsor of this bill is a member of ALEC, the corporate conspiracy funded by the ~~Benedict Arnold~~ Koch brothers to destroy what's left of the middle class. Read more about ALEC here. Thursday, by the way, is a National Day of Action against ALEC. Look for a direct action near you!

Props to our brothers from Local 728, Eric Robertson and Jim Nichols, are spreading the word about this heinous bill.

Teamsters walk the line in CA, OH, NY and IL today

2012-02-27T15:42:00.000-05:00

Today Teamster members of Local 399 are walking the line outside of Original Productions in Burbank, Calif., in solidarity with "1,000 Ways to Die" crew members who were fired for trying to join IATSE. The workers were replaced with scabs.

Today in Burbank.

Original employs a non-union crew to produce -- unbelievably -- "Ice Road Truckers," "Storage Wars" and "Deadliest Catch." The company halted production on the Spike TV series on Feb. 16 when it fired more than two dozen workers for union activity. Local 399's business agent/organizer Steve Dayan explained to Deadline Hollywood,

This is a company that has not communicated with us at all. Our understanding is that Original Productions are crewing up again and that they are going to attempt to shoot again ... This is a company, when it comes to safety, to health benefits, to the people who made their show a success, do not do things the way they should. It is a recipe for abusing people. The bottom line is that’s wrong.

Local 727 Teamsters in Chicago Local 727 are walking the line at a downtown parking garage to tell the public about Hunter Parking's substandard wages and benefits. Hunter recently started running the garage and put eight union member jobs in jeopardy. Local 727 represents more than 3,000 people who work in Chicagoland's parking industry.

Local 727's president, John Coli Jr., said,

Our members have spent years in this garage, building relationships with the patrons. These men and women aren’t just the people who park your car. They are the people you see twice a day, every day, all year long. They are the ones you entrust with one of your most valuable possessions. They are important workers who deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.

Last week in Ohio.

Local 507 Red Cross Teamsters have been walking the line throughout Northeastern Ohio since Valentine's Day. Tammy Lettieri recently wrote a stirring account of their struggle in the Examiner:

These workers are facing losing their medical insurance in 12 days if negotiations do not lead to an agreement. These people believe enough in what they do to risk their insurance, and above that, their jobs. Every worker I have spoke with over the past few days have had a few things in common. They all love their job, they do not want to strike, but they feel that the safety of the donors is at risk until their working conditions improve.

You can watch it on youtube here.

We can't forget Sotheby's art handlers, who've been walking the line on the Upper East Side of New York since they were locked out seven months ago. Tomorrow night they'll be in front of the Whitney Museum to protest Sotheby's sponsorship of its Biennial Exhibit. Today a hoax press release went out claiming that the Whitney had severed ties with Sotheby's because of its treatment of the art handlers. The fake press release said, in part,

The Whitney recognizes that the financial speculation on art taking place in secondary sales of works benefits wealthy investors far more than the artists who created the works, let alone the workers who craft, move, install, maintain, or guard them. The Museum understands the importance of providing working people—including artists who must work second jobs to support their careers—with the livable wages and healthcare for which the Sotheby's art handlers are fighting. Sotheby's actions are a direct attack on the Museum's mission to support and collect the work of living artists. For these reasons, the Whitney cannot allow Sotheby's to tarnish the image of the Biennial any longer.

If only it were real....

We hope we're not overlooking anyone. Stay strong, brothers and sisters.

Pro-union lyrics in new Van Halen hit

2012-02-27T13:11:00.000-05:00

Cross-posted from American Rights at Work's Blog at Work:

Van Halen has really got us going. The legendary rock band has reunited with original lead singer David Lee Roth and their first studio album in 14 years has shot to the top of the charts nearly as fast as Eddie Van Halen’s fingers fly up and down the fretboard. We’re jumping for the hit record’s first single, “Tattoo,” which features this great union shout out:

Uncle Danny had a coal tattoo,
he fought for the union, some of us still do.
On my shoulder is the number of the chapter he was in.
That number is forever like the struggle here to win.
In a video interview about the hit single’s lyrics, Roth says he relates to the pride that goes along with being in a union or fighting for one, “What’s more poignant than the union struggle today – you identify [with] that, you join a team, you join a group… when you get a tattoo.”

Roth says that while tattoos can be decorative or celebratory, they can also signify something serious and personal. He goes on to pay tribute to the daily wear and tear on working people by explaining the song’s reference to a “coal tattoo”–the permanent mark left on miners from years of black coal seeping into their pores.

Catch Van Halen on tour now or dance the night away listening to their latest album, “A Different Kind of Truth,” available online and in stores everywhere.

Want to know who else rocks for workers’ rights? Check out our interview with the Street Dogs and our feature on Tom Morello.

Today's Teamster News 02.27.12

2012-02-27T07:29:00.000-05:00

April 9-15, 2012 -- 100,000 Americans Will Train for Non-Violent Direct Action Common Dreams   ...From April 9-15 we will gather across America, 100,000 strong, in homes, places of worship, campuses and the streets to join together in the work of reclaiming our country...
Massive Leak Reveals Criminality, Paranoia Among Corporate Titans  The Yes Men   ...Just as Wall Street has at times let slip their fear of the Occupy Wall Street movement, these leaks seem to show that corporate power is most afraid of whatever reveals "the larger whole" and "broader issues," i.e. whatever brings systemic criminal behavior to light...
Greece sinks to its knees The Telegraph   ...“They give many reasons, but a common one is financial problems: the crisis, unemployment, losing their job or being fearful of losing their job, a cut in salary so they cannot afford everyday responsibilities,”...
The lesson for the Europeans is that the US fiscal stimulus worked billy blog   ...the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) has been successful in increasing real GDP growth in the US and reducing the rise in the unemployment rate. Some simple calculations reveal that in the absence of the ARRA US economy would still be in recession. That is, taking a European trajectory...
Thousands form human chain in anti-Putin protest Associated Press   ...Sunday's protest appeared to have drawn close to the 34,000 people that opposition activists estimated were needed to complete the chain along the Garden Ring, a wide road that makes a loop around the city center...
LSU identifies community conditions related to malnutrition deaths among older adults Physorg.com   ...2,000 to 3,000 people a year die due to malnutrition-related causes in the U.S...

Did deadbeats cause the foreclosure crisis?

2012-02-26T09:59:00.000-05:00

Some people sure think so. Here's a comment on an Economic Populist post by a Bank of America employee called "Anonymous Drive-by." He or she was upset that BofA had announced layoffs.

I hope BoA keeps kicking out the deadbeats and minorities that refuse to pay their bills. Because of you low lifes 30,000 of my coworkers are being laid off. Long live BoA

Charming, right? Well, "Anonymous Drive-by" got a boatload of responses from people who'd lost their homes due to BoA's fraud and incompetence. Here are a few horror stories:

We received a approval for short sale program 9/2/11 and were getting ready to sign the paperwork and send back to BOA when we found out that our home was foreclosed on 9/6/11!!!!! BOA quickly responded in letter saying that we actually did not qualify for the program. We have spent over three years trying to get loan mod, that was denied. Then short sale, which according to them was approved, but foreclosed on us anyway. We currently have a lawyer trying to help us with this mess.

I found out one day before my auction sale that I was not approved for a loan modification. Therefore, I had no time to do a short sale. The response from B/A was that I should liquidate but there was not time for me to do that since the sale was the next day. The house did not sell, B/A took the house back and I have until next month to find another place to live.

I and my wife are victims as well. Got our home in 2007 and had trouble with BoA from day one. Our payments were somehow always magically "late" and we would have to pay some fee to make the problem go away. We both had to change jobs and did get a couple of payments behind but they said "no problem, we will do a loan remodification!" Sent us a couple of letters saying we got it and a new payment schedule with the lowered payments. Went along as if there was no problem for 2 years. Then, in January of 2011, they send us a letter telling us we were 9 payments behind when we were current. We tried to solve the problem, to no avail. Over and over, for months. Then, in September, we get a letter from an attorney in St. Louis that the home had been sold at a foreclosure auction in August! In Missouri, you have to notify the homeowner that their home has gone into foreclosure. You have to notify them of an impending foreclosure sale. You have to place an ad in the local paper of a foreclosure sale. BoA skipped every one of these steps and foreclosed on the home without notifying us at all, except when they served us in September of 2011 that we would have to be out of the house by October 12th. We lost our home through no fault of our own.

I am now in a position where BofA is ready to do me in. I to was trying to obtain a MHA package always being told that the investor would not allow a modification. I was stuck in a securitized sub-prime mortgage loan package and sold off to an investor. BofA does not know who the owner of my mortgage is and if they do, they will not tell me. I sent them a 'QWR' for any and all documents that pertained to my loanand they will not and did not comply.

Today's Teamster News 02.26.12

2012-02-26T08:28:00.000-05:00

Locked-out workers on 6-state trip Journal Gazette ...Eight locked-out union members have embarked on a six-day, six-state trip designed to increase public awareness of their situation. The travelers represent workers at American Crystal Sugar Co. in North Dakota and Cooper Tire and Rubber Co. in Findlay, Ohio, in what they’re calling a “1,000-mile journey for justice.”...
Get a real job! The note with 1 per cent tip left by wealthy banker after $133 lunch as an insult to the 99 per cent Daily Mail ...After dining on a meal at a boutique Newport Beach, California restaurant, the banker left only $1.33 on a $133.54 tab. Adding insult to injury, he gave the server, Breanna, another tip: ‘Get a real job.’...
Workers attack factory Phnom Penh Post ...A fourth day of protests by garment workers in Kampong Cham turned unruly yesterday, as nearly 2,000 workers shattered the windows of their factory with stones...
Have Labour Will Travel Macrobusiness ...governments in developed economies are caught in a vice. To keep the work force in employment, the workers have to be able to compete with much cheaper labour forces in the emerging world. If they try to compete on price, it leads to a Catch 22 — to keep the nation’s standard of living up you have to cut workers’ standard of living...
Length of Unemployment is Worst Since World War II Middle Class Political Economist ...The current average of over 40 weeks is completely unprecedented historically...
Why are Gas Prices Skyrocketing? Economic Populist ...soaring oil prices literally can cripple the entire economy. When will the people override Wall Street and stop this insanity?...

Layoff skunk at 745 Peachtree St.

2012-02-25T11:05:00.000-05:00

Looks like AT&T executives are nervous about the Occupation outside their Southeastern headquarters. Maybe they should have thought about that before they decided to lay off 740 people while they're raking in the revenues and the bonuses.

Here's what we union thugs do on our Harleys

2012-02-25T10:01:00.000-05:00

JC25 Horsemen, IN Labor Day Parade

We raise money for a local children's hospital and the SPCA.

We also join our brothers and sisters on strike lines and ride in Labor Day parades.

You can read all about the Teamster Horsemen in this post by Scott Samayedny we'll borrow from the Teamster Magazine blog:

The Teamster Horsemen Motorcycle Association is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization. I’ve been a member of Teamsters Local 456 for 15 years and a Teamster Horseman for three years.

I personally joined the Teamster Horsemen because I not only love riding my Harley, but I’m a proud Teamster. Our chapter of the Horsemen has been fundraising for our local children’s hospital in the Hudson Valley of New York for the last three years. The hospital is the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital, a one-of-a-kind hospital just for children. The fundraiser is called the “Go the Distance” walk, which had more than 5,000 participants last year alone.

The next fundraising event is on April 22, 2012. If you can’t join us at the event, you can still help out here.

Our chapter of the Teamster Horsemen also supports the SPCA of Westchester, N.Y. We will be attending a fundraising event with them on April 28, 2012.

I would love any Teamster to join the Teamster Horsemen to get involved in this wonderful experience. Anyone in the Hudson Valley here in New York can contact me to join my chapter, at bird456@optonline.net.

Oh, and btw, "thugs" stands for "Those Helpful Union Guys."

'Cut ties to Sotheby's' rally, Part II

2012-02-25T09:38:00.000-05:00

We couldn't quite figure out what this photo showed until we were enlightened by our brother Dave Martinez, shop steward for Local 814's art handlers at Sotheby's. The photo accompanied some shots of Teamsters and friends rallying outside of the Museum of Modern Art.

Here's how Dave explained the photo:

So, we stood outside of MOMA and explained to people the lockout situation and how MOMA continues to do business with Sotheby's while we are locked out, etc., and asked them to help Support us by dropping these STOP SELLING AT SOHEBY'S flyers at the information desk. We gave out 120 of them. We sent someone inside to take pictures of them on the desks. When we were done we marched through the lobby chanting Sotheby's UNFAIR - MOMA UNFAIR. It was a very successful Action. The free Friday audience was very receptive.

Today's Teamster News 02.25.12

2012-02-25T08:58:00.000-05:00

Romney's Big-Stadium Speech Makes Some Ask: Why Union-Bash In Detroit? NPR   ..."Taking pot shots at the union doesn't serve either candidate well," said Singelis of Shiners International. Again on Friday in Ford Field, he called Romney's jab at the UAW — "a huge communication error"...
Scott Walker's Koch Connection Goes Bad The Nation   ...Could Koch really be admitting to a violation for the Internal Revenue Service code that says organizations such as AFP are “absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office”? It certainly sounded like it...
Anonymous Hacks Private Prison Company Website Huffington Post   ...Hackers defaced the website for the Florida-based GEO Group, the nation's second-largest operator of private prisons...
Greece: The Epicenter of Global Pillage Energy Bulletin   ...Greece is the epicenter of what's metastasizing globally. The latest bailout deal highlights out-of-control pillage...
Would We Have Drugged Up Einstein? How Anti-Authoritarianism Is Deemed a Mental Health Problem Alternet   ...Americans have been increasingly socialized to equate inattention, anger, anxiety, and immobilizing despair with a medical condition, and to seek medical treatment rather than political remedies. What better way to maintain the status quo than to view inattention, anger, anxiety, and depression as biochemical problems of those who are mentally ill rather than normal reactions to an increasingly authoritarian society?...
IATSE, Teamsters set Monday rally for 'Die': Orgs to protest Original Prods. as part of push to unionize TV series  Variety   ...The rally has been set in the wake of producers dismissing about 30 crew members who were attempting to unionize. Teamsters busines rep Steve Dayan said the fired crew members have been replaced...

This is what we union thugs do in our union halls

2012-02-24T16:39:00.000-05:00

We run a clothing drive for moms and kids who need clothes and shoes.

We'll let the Teamsters Local 743 Women's Committee describe what they're doing:

Members and supporters are encouraged to donate gently used women's clothing, kids' clothes and shoes to help disadvantaged mothers, girls and working families. Donations will be accepted through April at the Local 743 union hall every Monday-Friday 8 a.m.-noon and 3-5 p.m.

Donations can be dropped at Local 743, 4620 S. Tripp Avenue, Chicago, IL.

All clothing and shoe donations will benefit the Breakthrough Urban Ministries and the Pacific Garden Ministry located in Chicago.

Props to Valeska Coleman and Deidrie Jenkins of Local 743 for making it happen.

Oh and by the way, "thugs" stands for "Those Helpful Union Gals."

Teamsters demand MoMA cut ties to Sotheby's

2012-02-24T16:18:00.000-05:00

Our brothers who've been thrown out on the street by Sotheby's are right now standing on the street in front of the prestigious Museum of Modern Art in New York, demanding that it cut ties to the auction house because of the way it treats workers.

They've just put out a press release explaining their demands, which we'll quote from here:

The workers who rallied today outside of MoMA are not on strike; Sotheby's kicked them out of their jobs with no paychecks.

The auction house sparked the bitter labor dispute seven months ago when it locked out its 42 art handlers who belong to Teamsters Local 814. Their contract had expired at the end of July 2011. Sotheby's - which grossed $680 million in 2010, its second-most profitable year ever - wants to eliminate the union by demanding all future hires be low-wage temporary workers with no benefits and no collective bargaining rights.

MoMA recently sold several major works of art at Sotheby's, and has a long history of buying and selling with the auction house. This ongoing relationship is a direct contradiction of any claim the museum has to responsible behavior, according to Local 814 President Jason Ide. Ide said,
MoMA has always tried to act justly toward its own employees and been diligent in selecting responsible contractors," said Ide. "But the decision to do business with Sotheby's when it wants to eliminate good jobs just when New Yorkers need them most is very disturbing.
Occupy Wall Street activists have taken up the cause of the 42 art handlers, who lost their health care on Jan. 1, 2012 and are struggling to survive on unemployment. OWS recently dropped a large banner inside the museum that read "Sotheby's End Your Lockout. Hang Art Not Workers."

Teamsters Joint Council 16 President George Miranda had this to say:

The kind of reckless, anti-worker practices you see at Sotheby's should not be condoned or supported by leading institutions like MoMA. MoMA should be setting an example for the art world. Until the lockout is ended, all museums, especially those receiving money from New York taxpayers should cease all business with Sotheby's.

Day 11: Teamsters, CWA, Friends, Occupy AT&T in GA

2012-02-24T10:50:00.000-05:00

Another tent is up, No. 24, at 745 Peachtree St. in Atlanta. It's the Occupation of the Southeast headquarters of AT&T, which wants to lay off 740 union workers even as it rakes in the dough. The Occupiers, who want to stop the layoffs, brought a surprise to the corporate lobby on Feb. 13. Reports the Huffington Post,

Occupy Atlanta launched a surprise protest against AT&T Monday, staging a sit-in at the communication giant's Southeast headquarters in downtown Atlanta to protest its planned layoffs of hundreds.

...the participants (include) ... retired Communications Workers of America (CWA) members, a Teamster organizer and members of Atlanta Jobs With Justice. They sat as a group in the lobby, each wearing hot-pink hearts made of poster board that read "No Layoffs" and "AT&T Have A Heart."

Yesterday, an interfaith service was held in front of AT&T's building. The American Friends Service Committee reports,

AT&T about 25 leaders of various faith traditions came together to pray, contemplate, and express deep concerns for AT&T’s corporate greed.

Why are they concerned? AT&T made record profits last year, had the resources to compensate their CEO to the tune of 27 million dollars, yet they plan to layoff 740 unionized workers in the south east despite the fact that AT&T customers constantly complain that service is slow.

The interfaith service was held on AT&T property and it appeared that AT&T executive staff didn’t have the nerve to ask folks to leave the grounds; they were of course invited to join, as several AT&T workers did.

AT&T has its own friends in the Georgia Legislature. Alternet reports those friends filed a bill that would make it a felony to picket outside of a workplace, with a punishment of $10,000 or a year in jail or both.

Our brother Eric Robertson (erictheteamster on Twitter), Local 728's political director, told Alternet:

This bill is obviously an attack on working people and anyone who believes in organizing for justice. It undermines civil liberties, and clearly is designed to cripple working peoples' ability to organize and build organizationations to improve their working conditions. Labor, civil rights and community organizations, and our allies are going to have to play hardball to beat this bill.

Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

Today's Teamster News 02.24.12

2012-02-24T07:09:00.000-05:00

Union sues to stop Indiana "right-to-work" law Reuters   ...The suit, filed on Wednesday, claims the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution by requiring dues-paying members to furnish free representation to people who refuse to join the union and pay dues, also known as "free riders."...
Political Notebook: Supporters of Right-to-Work amendment trying to rally public support PostBulletin.com   ...Backers of a proposed Right-to-Work constitutional amendment (in Minnesota) have launched an aggressive campaign to win over supporters in hopes of pressuring enough state senators and representatives to get on board...
Gov. Chris Christie's budget plan would help rich, hurt middle class (opinion) Newark Star-Ledger   ...(The governor's proposed income tax cut) for the rich, this would be enough for a family vacation in the south of France every year. For the typical middle-class family ... it wouldn’t be enough to buy the kids new shoes...
Corporate Lobby Group Gave Cash Awards to Cantor, 21 State Lawmakers Common Cause   ...A lobbying group funded by some of the nation's richest corporations appears to have given ethically and perhaps legally dubious cash awards to nearly two dozen state and federal lawmakers, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Common Cause said today...
Big Banks Squeeze Billions in Profits from Public Budgets SEIU   ...The banks have already taken as much as $28 billion from state and local governments. Now, during the worst public budget crisis in memory, the big banks seek to collect billions more from toxic deals that local and state governments are trapped into and are forcing layoffs and cuts to services to cover payments to banks...
Teamsters Testify About Workers' Rights Violations at Loomis
IBT   ...Teamsters and legal and security experts testified about workers' rights violations by Loomis, an armored car guard company, before a public hearing at the UC Berkeley Labor Center on Tuesday...

Today's Teamster News 02.23.12

2012-02-23T07:18:00.000-05:00

The “Can’t Find Workers” Meme Columbia Journalism Review   ...These young folks don’t want to spend a lot of money and time training to do a specific job they might not get only to get laid off when some private-equity slicks (where the real money’s at) buy out the company and ship the jobs to China...
WikiLeaks: Saudis often warned U.S. about oil speculators McClatchy   ...Saudi Arabia suspected that "speculation represented approximately $40 of the overall oil price when it was at its height."...
Chinese Open First Car Plant in Europe Der Spiegel   ...Just as the Japanese and Koreans did decades ago, Chinese automakers are hoping to gain strong positions in the longer term in the Western European and United States markets...
Do-Over Season New York Times   ...Is there really a chance that the Supreme Court might reconsider Citizens United? A week ago, I wouldn’t have thought so, and I still think it’s an extreme long shot. But a provocative statement last Friday by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer makes this crazy idea worth pondering – which is undoubtedly what the two justices intended...
Wisconsin GOP Attempts to Ram Through Special Interest Mining Bill PR Watch   ...Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald are pushing for radical changes in Wisconsin’s current mining law to benefit a single out-of-state company...
Clients Continue Exodus as Nuveen Investments Seeks Another Billion Dollar Refinancing, Teamsters Say IBT   ...As Nuveen Investments seeks to refinance $1.1 billion in debt – just barely a year after the firm's last billion dollar refinancing – the International Brotherhood of Teamsters is urging clients carefully to consider the firms suitability as an asset manager in light of its highly leveraged financial condition, as well as its oversight and control by private equity owners Madison Dearborn Partners...

Inspiration Wednesday: 'Which Side Are You On?' (video)

2012-02-22T11:51:00.002-05:00

Thanks to the Solidarity Singalong for today's 3+ minutes of inspiration.

Talk Like David Koch Day

2012-02-22T11:36:00.000-05:00

What will those wild and crazy Badgers think of next? Today is the one-year anniversary of the infamous prank call in which Buffalo Beast blogger Ian Murphy called ~~Koch whore~~ Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and talked for 10 minutes pretending to be David Koch.

(Come to think of it, it's the one-year anniversary of calling Scott Walker a "Koch whore.")

Most amazing about the call was the way Murphy got through to the governor. According to Murphy,

I called at noon and was quickly transferred to ... Walker’s Chief of Staff Keith Gilkes. He was “expecting my call.

“David!” he said with an audible smile.

I politely said hello, not knowing how friendly Gilkes and Koch may be. He was eager to help.

“I was really hoping to talk directly to Scott,” I said. He said that could be arranged and that I should just leave my number. I explained to Gilkes, “My goddamn maid, Maria, put my phone in the washer. I’d have her deported, but she works for next to nothing.” Gilkes found this amusing. “I’m calling from the VOID—with the VOID, or whatever it’s called. You know, the Snype!”

“Gotcha,” Gilkes said. “Let me check the schedule here…OK, there’s an opening at 2 o’clock Central Standard Time. Just call this same number and we’ll put you through.”

The official "Talk Like David Koch Day" Facebook event page suggests

...on the anniversary of that call, be a cruel, heartless, rich bastard and talk like David Koch all day long! "Crush those Bastards" "Fly you out to Cali" "Beautiful" "Goddamn right!" "Bring a baseball bat "

The latter is a reference to the following exchange between "Koch" and Walker at a time when the Statehouse was surrounded by peaceful protesters:

Koch: Bring a baseball bat. That’s what I’d do.

Walker: I have one in my office; you’d be happy with that. I have a slugger with my name on it.

Koch: Beautiful.

Then there's this:

Koch: We’ll back you any way we can. What we were thinking about the crowd was, uh, was planting some troublemakers.

Walker: You know, well, the only problem with that —because we thought about that. The problem—the, my only gut reaction to that is right now the lawmakers I’ve talked to have just completely had it with them, the public is not really fond of this…

Since then, Koch and his brother Charles have been exposed for their attacks on democracy and Walker faces a recall election, tentatively on June 5.

What's disheartening is to think that someone as dumb as Scott Walker can become governor and harm thousands of working families just by sucking up to a cruel, heartless, rich bastard.

The mind boggles.

Today's Teamster News 02.22.12

2012-02-22T07:08:00.000-05:00

Margins Widen at U.S. Companies as Wages Lag Behind: Economy Bloomberg   ...Companies are improving margins and generating profits as wage growth for the American worker lags behind the prices of goods and services...
Gallup survey shows 'sharp deterioration in job market' in Feburary The Hill   ...Gallup's mid-month reading, which traditionally previews the government report issued at the end of the month, shows a rise of seven-tenths of a percentage from the 8.3 percent unemployment rate at the end of January...
Jobs scarce, but the stigma stays McClatchy   ...An advocacy group for workers surveyed online job postings last year and found more than 100 companies that want only applicants who are currently employed...
25% of super PAC money coming from just 5 rich donors USA Today   ...Five wealthy people, led by Dallas industrialist Harold Simmons and Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, have donated nearly $1 of every $4 flowing to the super PACs raising unlimited money in this year's presidential race...
Billionaire Sheldon Adelson Says He Might Give $100M To Newt Gingrich Or Other Republican Forbes   ...Adelson could personally fund an entire presidential campaign—say, $1 billion or so—and not even notice...
We need to know who funds these thinktank lobbyists The Guardian   ...The battle for democracy is becoming a fight against backroom billionaires seeking to shape politics to suit their own interests...
Unions countering GOP with voter campaign Post-Tribune   ...(Indiana) Labor unions are starting new voter education campaigns in response to right-to-work legislation passed by the General Assembly. “We’re taking the anger and turning it into motivation,”...
Ohio voters may get say on ‘right to work’ Dayton Daily News   ...Ohioans for Workplace Freedom wants to collect the signatures of about 600,000 registered voters in Ohio, said Chris Littleton, a Butler County resident and former president of the conservative Ohio Liberty Council. The organization needs to collect a minimum 386,000 valid signatures, Littleton said...

12K drug murders in '11. It's why US truckers don't haul freight in Mexico

2012-02-21T16:51:00.001-05:00

The Teamsters Union is suing the federal government to end its latest Mexican truck pilot program. We'll submit legal briefs in about three weeks. In the meantime, our prediction that the program would be a dismal failure appears to be accurate. After six months, two trucks and three drivers have made nine -- count 'em, nine -- trips into the U.S. beyond the border zone.

Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa argued today in The Huffington Post that Mexico's inability to control drug violence is a barrier to trade -- and therefore a violation of Nafta. Here's what he had to say:

The State Department recently warned Americans against taking unnecessary trips to vast, dangerous sections of Mexico. Nearly all the states along the border are awash in violence, and there is no safe road to Mexico City.

Mexico's 5-year-old narco-war is only getting worse. More than 12,000 people were killed in drug-related violence last year, a 6 percent increase over the previous year. Reports of torture, beheadings and killing of women are up as well.

Just two weeks ago, Mexican troops announced that they seized 15 tons of methamphetamine near Guadalajara - an amount equal to half the meth seized in 2009 in the entire world.

That's why U.S. truck drivers don't haul freight south of the border.

Read the whole thing here.

How Seattle port drivers are ripped off by their employers

2012-02-21T16:13:00.000-05:00

The recent march for Seattle port drivers.

In These Times posted a terrific story about the two-week Seattle port drivers strike. To hear the Port of Seattle tell it, the strike didn't have an impact. To hear people who were there tell it, the trucking companies lost a lot of money. According to In These Times,

...the “cans,” as they’re called, stacked up on ships, in rail yards, and at warehouses. The port’s lifeblood slowed to a crawl. Cargo has to move for shippers and trucking companies to make money. A still container, a waiting ship and an idle truck all mean lost profits. It was clear the strike was costing employers a lot of money.

Here's how port drivers get ripped off:

The drivers have to lease the tractors from the trucking companies -- but can't use them for anything other than company business.
Employers punish drivers who refuse overweight loads by denying them work for a few days. If the drivers are stopped by the Highway Patrol for being overweight, they pay the fine. The trucking companies flat-out refuse to give them copies of the manifests.
Employers charge drivers $120 a week for liability insurance, though the freight is already insured by the shippers. If a driver doesn't work for a week, their employers take $120 from future earnings.

Read the whole thing here.

Tell AT&T to stop the layoffs

2012-02-21T15:54:00.000-05:00

Awaiting arrest outside of AT&T in Atlanta.

Our brothers and sisters at Local 728 in Atlanta are fighting against AT&T's layoff of 740 workers, along with CWA, Jobs With Justice and Occupy Atlanta. They've been rallying and staging sit-ins in the lobby. Some even got arrested.

Today, AT&T workers are getting their layoff dates. Last year, AT&T had record revenues of $127 billion. Their CEO, Randall Stephenson, took home $27 million.

We agree with Occupy Atlanta:

The 1% wants to lower the standard of living for the average American worker, all so that they can pocket some extra cash. We can no longer allow them to squeeze every penny they can out of the 99%. The 99% creates the wealth; it is made on our backs.

Help our brothers and sisters who are getting laid off by AT&T. Email CEO Randall Stephenson at rs2982@att.com or call Michael Matthews, VP of Labor Relations at (205) 977-0722. Tell them to stop the layoffs.

MN carpenter blasts 'right to freeload' (video)

2012-02-21T12:32:00.000-05:00

Anti-worker politicians in Minnesota are proposing a right-to-work-for-less amendment to the state Constitution. Our sister in the video above explains why it's a bad idea.

Here's an IN lawmaker we need to defeat

2012-02-21T11:52:00.000-05:00

Bring him down.

State Rep. Robert Morris, a Fort Wayne Republican, voted for Indiana's heinous right-to-work-for-less law. That alone is reason to kick him out of office. Indiana unions are working hard to do just that. Last weekend the AFL-CIO began a series of trainings on mobilizing a workers' army to take back the state.

But back to Morris: Apparently the same twisted thinking that prompted him to vote for a law that will worsen the lives of Indiana's working families also prompted him to declare the Girl Scouts are a radicalized organization that promotes homosexuality.

Yup. The Girl Scouts.

Morris refused to sign a resolution honoring the Girl Scouts of America on its centennial. According to We Party Patriots,

...in his words, the Girl scouts are a “radicalized organization” that supports abortion and promotes the “homosexual lifestyle”:

Rep. Bob Morris, R-Fort Wayne, sent a letter to his fellow House Republicans on Saturday explaining why he would be the only member in the House not to endorse the nonbinding resolution.

He said he did some web-based research and found allegations that the Girl Scouts are a tactical arm of Planned Parenthood, allows transgender females to join and encourages sex.

Morris also said the fact that First Lady Michelle Obama is honorary president “should give each of us reason to pause before our individual and collective endorsement of the organization.”

When you think about it, though, it's not that big a leap from attacking workers to attacking Girl Scouts. Scary to think who his next target will be.

WI unions make hay off media's dumb mistake

2012-02-21T10:05:00.000-05:00

This is not a union banner. This is the state flag of Wisconsin. Here's a clue: The word "Wisconsin." Here's another: "1848," the date Wisconsin became a state. And here's a third: The state seal.

A Politico reporter covering a speech President Obama gave in Wisconsin seemed to miss all those hints. He
reported the state flag was "a flag for the local union, Wisconsin 1848." And he suggested it demonstrated Obama's pro-union bias.

We can hardly blame the reporter. He's part of a Beltway culture that disregards workers, unions and the plight of ordinary people. But as Talking Points Memo reported, AFSCME took advantage of the mistake.

...the gaffe made the rounds among actual union officials in the state and now that the laughter’s subsided, they’ve turned it into a membership drive.

“When national news blog Politico came to Milwaukee to cover Pres. Obama’s visit, they incorrectly identified the Wisconsin flag as the “flag for the local union, Wisconsin 1848.” Many people got a chuckle at the embarrassing mistake, but we think it really represents something larger,” reads a new AFSCME petition. “So let’s say it loud and say it proud! Join as a charter member of “Wisconsin Local 1848” today. We’ll share up-to-the-minute information on statewide issues that affect us all.”

You can sign the petition here.

Today's Teamster News 02.21.12

2012-02-21T07:16:00.000-05:00

America’s last hope: A strong labor movement Salon   ...Americans give up their individual freedom and democratic voice every single day they walk into work. The workplace is an authoritarian dictatorship, and we accept this as legitimate...
U.S. oil gusher blows out projections Houston Chronicle   ...many say the booming shale oil fields in Texas and North Dakota and the growth of deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico will allow the nation to cut its reliance on oil imports significantly over the next couple of decades...
Some Doubt a Settlement Will End Mortgage Ills New York Times   ...Even as government officials prepare to unveil new standards this week for how banks treat millions of Americans facing foreclosure, housing advocates and homeowners are skeptical the rules will be able to do something past efforts have not: provide a beleaguered borrower with one individual to help them navigate the mortgage maze...
Massachusetts Home Seizures Threatened in Loan Case: Mortgages Bloomberg Business Week   ...The highest court in Massachusetts is poised to rule as soon as this month on a foreclosure case that could lead to a surge in claims from home owners seeking to overturn seizures...
Cooper Tire, drivers of fleet trucks reach deal Toledo Blade   ...Cooper said the drivers, represented by Teamsters Local 20, gave final approval Saturday. The new contract is a three-year agreement, though terms weren't revealed...
Teamsters union may soon represent employees at Production Engineering MLive.com   ...Alan Sprague, president of the Teamsters Local 164, confirmed Monday the union has put out a petition to hold an election March 16 at Production Engineering...

Atlanta Teamsters demand AT&T rescind 740 layoffs

2012-02-20T14:08:00.000-05:00

AT&T wants to lay off 740 employees, but they won't do it without a fight from Atlanta Teamsters, CWA members, Occupy Atlanta members and Jobs With Justice.

The video above is a raw excerpt from Valentine's Day rally at 675 W. Peachtree Building in Atlanta

Workers Independent News also did a feature about the rally. Teamsters Local 728 President Randy Brown was quoted:

It’s about you and I. Us standing together against the 1 percent that are doing everything they can to look after theirself and doing everything they can to take care of the very top and the corporations. More money, more money, more money.

The full WIN story is here.

According to the AT&T and Corporate Greed Facebook page,

Tomorrow (2/21/12) AT&T workers affected by the layoffs have been summoned to a meeting at 675 West Peachtree street to get their official layoff notice. These meetings are at 9:30 AM and 1:30 PM.

This is devastating news for any worker to receive. Occupy Atlanta, Jobs... with Justice and other allies will be there to support them. There will be a press conference at noon to address AT&Ts greed and to hear the stories of some of the workers who just learned they were laid off.

We need occupiers at the AT&T building to help serve pastries and donuts and to show the AT&T workers that we stand with them.

The event will start at 8:45 AM and go until 2:00 PM. See you there.

We will maintain a presence on the sidewalk at 675 West Peachtree until AT&T rescinds all 740 job layoffs or guarantees that each worker will have wage/benefit protection when they are moved to a new position.

Our Teamster brothers and sisters will be there. Solidarity!

Today's Teamster News 02.20.12

2012-02-20T07:44:00.000-05:00

David Koch on Wisconsin: I'm helping Scott Walker Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...Koch told the Post ... "If the unions win the recall, there will be no stopping union power..."
Activists end sit-in at Piccolo school Chicago Tribune   ...Community activists and parents at Brian Piccolo Elementary Specialty School ... ended an overnight campus sit-in Saturday staged to protest a proposed shake-up of faculty and administrators. The group, aided by representatives of Occupy Chicago, began its sit-in Friday evening, with nearly 100 people participating when the demonstration began...
Spain Unions Protest Against Labor-Market Reform  Dow Jones   ...Spanish unions led protests in 57 cities across the country Sunday against the new government's labor-market reform, kicking off what is likely to be a lengthy campaign against the policies of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy...
Federal Reserve Ignores California Concerns, Approves Capital One-ING Direct Merger California Reinvestment Coalition   ...With the merger approved, Capital One becomes the fifth largest bank in the country with no immediate obligations to reinvest into the communities from which it profits...
The working man's paradise macrobusiness.com    ...the Germans cut hours while the Americans cut people ... for the last decade the Australian labour market has been so strong that a private approximation of the German kurzabeit system has developed...
Manufacturing Illusions Information Clearing House   ...The fundamental problem isn’t the decline of American manufacturing, and reviving manufacturing won’t solve it. The problem is the declining power of American workers to share in the gains of the American economy...

Today's Teamster News 02.19.20

2012-02-19T08:05:00.000-05:00

Vaughan-Bassett Furniture still making it in America Richmond-Times Dispatch   ...The official had no idea Bassett was on a mission to gather proof that Chinese manufacturers were not playing by the rules, threatening to put a permanent chill on the smokestacks that bore his family's name...
Foxconn Plans to Lift Pay Sharply at Factories in China New York Times   ...Foxconn said that salaries for many workers would immediately jump by 16 to 25 percent, to about $400 a month, before overtime...
Foreclosure abuse rampant across U.S., experts say Reuters   ...One of the major problems that has emerged in the foreclosure crisis is that it is far from clear that many lenders foreclosing on properties actually own the loans and have the right to take action against them...
Kill prison privatization? Not so fast, Scott says Jacksonville.com   ...Gov. Rick Scott ... last week ... told a group of reporters that he is going to explore ways he can privatize prisons unilaterally...
Occupy Our Hearts: Potluck Social and Port of Seattle Truckers Food Drive Facebook   ...We are also collecting non-perishables for the Teamsters who have risked their livelihoods in order to fight the good fight...
Teamsters' Drive Up Standards Bus Campaign Reaches Milestone 300th Win IBT   ...The Teamsters' Drive Up Standards campaign to organize private school bus and transit workers nationwide has reached a major milestone, with 300 organizing wins for more than 32,500 workers since the campaign began in 2006...

Today's Teamster News 02.18.12

2012-02-18T07:02:00.000-05:00

Risking union ire, Romney slams Santorum’s labor votes Boston Globe   ...“I’ve taken on union bosses before, and I’m happy to take them on again because I happen to believe that you can protect the interests of American taxpayers, and you can protect a great industry like automobiles without having to give in to the UAW [United Auto Workers], and I sure won’t,’’ Romney said Wednesday....
Supreme Court blocks Montana ruling against outside group spending CNN   ... The Supreme Court has blocked enforcement of a ruling by Montana's highest court that upholds the state's century-long restrictions on independent political spending by outside groups in election campaigns...
Why Inequality Matters: 3 Ways the Mortgage Crisis Has Undermined Our Legal System New Deal 2.0   ...Banks are demonstrating that if you have enough money and influence, you’re not expected to follow the same laws as everyone else...
Reversing Local Austerity New York Times   ...we could put well over a million people to work directly, and probably around 3 million once you take other effects into account, without any need to come up with new projects; just transfer enough money to state and local governments to let them return to doing the essential business of government, like educating our children...
Judge denies Walker request for extension Wisconsin State Journal   ...A judge has denied Gov. Scott Walker's request for a two-week extension to review recall petition signatures...
Teamsters threaten to picket Ford plant as Escape production looms Louisville Courier-Journal   ...The union fears Ford is going to hire only non-Teamsters drivers at lower wages to prepare new sport utility vehicles for shipment to car dealers...
CP Rail seeks conciliation in contract talks with Teamsters The Star   ...Canadian Pacific Railway is asking the federal labour minister to appoint a conciliator to help push along talks with its main union...

This congressman will turn your stomach

2012-02-17T16:13:00.000-05:00

Yeah, stripping wages from workers. That's patriotic.

Dave Jamieson at Huffington Post has a great story about a disgusting effort by an Indiana (what a surprise) congressman to take money out of workers' already meager paychecks.

Rep. Larry Bucshon of Evansville, Ind., got a snootful of money from the head of the company that owns Evansville, Ind.-based Professional Transportation Inc. (PTI). Bucshon wants to strip PTI's workers of their minimum wage and overtime protections. The company has already been sued for cheating workers out of their wages.

Here's Jamieson:

The change ... would remove wage protections for several thousand "long-haul drivers" who transport railroad crews from worksite to worksite. Many of those drivers work for roughly the minimum wage and sometimes log 60 hours a week, often driving several hundred miles at a time across state lines. The drivers are currently entitled to overtime pay but would lose it under the House bill.

Some of the firms that could benefit from the GOP provision other than PTI include RailCrew Xpress, Renzenberger and Coach America, all of which have faced employee lawsuits over alleged wage violations.

Joseph Cassell, a Wichita, Kan.-based lawyer, has successfully sued PTI and other rail transport companies for violating wage laws. He says exempting the workers from minimum-wage and overtime protections would take money out of an already meager paycheck. Drivers are compensated on a per-mile basis and the pay sometimes doesn’t even work out to minimum wage, according to Cassell.

"These drivers work their butts off," Cassell says. "All you have to have is a clean driving record and pass a drug test. In some cases, they're not even high school graduates. They need work and unfortunately they're willing to work under tough conditions and long hours ... If anybody gets overtime, it should be these people."

"Look, these companies are making money, even if they have to pay overtime," Cassell adds. "They are not hurting."

Bushon is running for re-election, providing another good reason to register to vote in Indiana.

Super PACs: 22 people contributed $67 million

2012-02-17T11:52:00.000-05:00

Political campaigns ought to be about repealing Nafta. Bringing good jobs home. Prosecuting Wall Street criminals. Restoring our home values. Lowering the cost of college tuition.

They're not. They're about bad jokes, tax returns and extramarital affairs.

And that's deliberate. The super-wealthy who bankroll anti-worker politicians like ~~Koch whore~~ Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Mitt Romney don't want anyone talking about restoring the middle class.

The influence of the super-wealthy is only growing. The Supreme Court's Citizens United decision unleashed a tsunami of political cash from the .000000071%. As Stephen Colbert noted in a recent show,

...half of the money ($67 million) raised by super PACs in 2011 came from just 22 people.

Here's how it works, according to Ari Berman:

Before Citizens United, the maximum amount one person could give to a candidate was $2,500; for a political action committee, $5,000; for a political party committee, $30,800. Now, the sky’s the limit for a super PAC, and even more disturbingly, any donor can give an unlimited contribution to a 501c4 -- outfits defined by the IRS as “civic leagues or organizations not organized for profit but operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare,” and to make matters worse, that contribution will remain eternally secret. In this way, American politics is descending further into the darkness, with 501c4s quickly gaining influence as “shadow super PACs.”

Disgusted yet? If not, read on about how "social welfare" groups buy our democracy

:...at a cost of $24 million, 40% of the TV ads in the presidential race so far came from these tax-exempt “social welfare” groups. The Karl Rove-founded American Crossroads, a leading conservative super PAC ... also runs a 501c4 called Crossroads GPS. It’s raised twice as much money as its sister group, all from donations whose sources will remain hidden from American voters. Serving as a secret slush fund for billionaires evidently now qualifies as social welfare.

This is exactly why unions are more important than ever. Only through mass mobilization of working families will we get the money out of politics -- and restore the middle class.

IN labor starts massive voter registration drive

2012-02-17T09:05:00.000-05:00

This fight isn't over.

Remember we told you that Indiana passed right-to-work-for-less law before -- and then repealed it?

That's exactly what Hoosiers intend to do again. Indiana unions already started to register voters at the Capitol during the protests last month. Now they're continuing.

According to the AFL-CIO,

Indiana Trade Unionists are in a fight for our lives, for our families and it begins with you joining our army of activists.

Our first battle is Massive Voter Registration, we need every one of our members & their communities registered to vote.

Join us for one of several free training sessions around the state to learn how to organize a mobilization effort and how we build the army we need to take back our state!

Click here to find a training near you.

Today's Teamster News 02.17.12

2012-02-17T08:31:00.000-05:00

Deal reached on unemployment, payroll tax cut CBS News   ...The bill would assure a continued tax cut for 160 million workers and jobless benefits for several million others...
Collection and Credit Firms Facing Broad New Oversight New York Times   ...Debt collectors and credit reporting companies are bracing for intense scrutiny after the government’s consumer finance watchdog unveiled a broad plan to regulate financial firms that have largely evaded federal oversight...
New Bill to Weaken Protections, Incentives for Whistleblowers Sneaks Through Committee truthout   ...Thanks to a lobbying effort from the US Chamber of Commerce, New York Rep. Michael Grimm's attempt to eviscerate hard-fought whistleblower reforms included in the Dodd-Frank Act is gaining steam. This news should be seriously troubling to anyone hoping to stop wrongdoing on Wall Street - the kind that led to the 2008 financial meltdown...
Kazakhstan massacre death toll may rise to 200 the moscow news   ...over 70 people were killed and 400 injured when police shot at striking oil workers in the central square of the Caspian port city of Zhanaozen on Dec. 16...
Detroit Finance Study Team Closed Sessions Barred by Judge Bloomberg   ...A Michigan judge permanently barred a review team studying Detroit’s finances from holding closed- door sessions, handing a legal victory to city employees...
Teamsters: Florida Doesn't Want Prison Privatization Local 2011   ..."Floridians do not want the rules changed so private companies can get secret contracts with no cost-benefit analysis and no public review," (said Ken Wood, Acting President of Teamsters Local 2011).

Sotheby's Teamsters on art and the lockout

2012-02-16T15:06:00.000-05:00

Sim Jones is a Sotheby's Teamster who's been locked out of his job since Aug. 1. This painting is by one of his favorite artists, Guy Wiggins. Jones tells MetroFocus,

The first paintings I fell in love with were Guy Wiggins’ snow scenes, but that’s just because I’m a city kid. I love what he does with his paint. He brings out the light, and you really get a feel for New York City.

Props to Sam Lewis at MetroFocus for interviewing our locked-out brothers. The story, "Love’s Labor Lost: Lockout at Sotheby’s" is a great read. We learn, for example,

Still there.
There is a right way and a wrong way to pick up a $15,000 chair that was made in 18th century France. According to Sotheby’s art handler Luis Baucage, this kind of knowledge matters when you’re handling high-priced antiques. “But there’s more than a price tag underneath the cushion,” Baucage cautioned. “There’s an entire history to learn.”

Anwari Musan, the youngest art handler, says he tries to picket every day:

I just want the people to know that we’re out here everyday for a purpose, we’re not just making noise. The clients seem to be so focused on the auction and people from the community don’t always come inside the building, but they wake up to our whistles. I want them to know that they’re actually waking up to our struggle. Now that we’ve been out here for three months, people from the community have started coming by and asking us questions.

Read the whole thing here.

The Tea Party's over in NH

2012-02-16T14:00:00.000-05:00

Politico reports that President Obama's popularity is improving in New Hampshire -- partly because of the Tea Party's unpopularity. Reports Politico:

According to a memo shared with POLITICO, the president’s rebound in the state coincides with voters turning against the Republican state legislature there. In February of 2011, 49 percent of voters said they favored the agenda of the GOP legislature; now, only 38 percent say they support it, with 51 percent saying the opposite.

Half of voters say they have an unfavorable view of the tea party, while 29 percent say they have a favorable view of the conservative activist movement. And tea party-aligned State House Speaker Bill O’Brien has gone from a 6 percent favorable, 16 percent unfavorable rating, to 15 percent favorable, 29 percent unfavorable.

Apparently island-paradise-dweller O'Brien overreached in his zeal to lower wages for Granite State workers:

Perhaps the central legislative flash point in New Hampshire politics over the last year has been a “right to work” law Republicans have pushed, but have not been able to pass due to the opposition of Democratic Gov. John Lynch. The BSG memo makes the case that Democrats are winning the message war on the issue: Sixty-four percent of voters said a right to work bill should not be a high priority and 51 percent of voters agreed with the statement: “Unions are good. They make sure employers provide good wages, benefits and a safe work environment.”

Today's Teamster News 02.16.12

2012-02-16T07:04:00.001-05:00

Audit Uncovers Extensive Flaws in Foreclosures New York Times   ...An audit by San Francisco county officials of about 400 recent foreclosures there determined that almost all involved either legal violations or suspicious documentation...
Rising Gas Prices: Not Demand Driven Bloomberg Business Week   ...much of the increase is due to speculative money that’s flowed into gasoline futures contracts since the beginning of the year, mostly from hedge funds and large money managers...
Austerity Policy Destroying Greek Society   naked capitalism   ...whether in a city or a village, all you see strolling the streets is a succession of empty storefronts with rent signs and often a deluge of unopened mail just inside the door. The few businesses that have managed to stay open have gigantic banners proclaiming 50-70% reductions, hoping to catch the eye of the few potential customers out there. Walking through what used to be crowded and bustling markets now feel like a Sunday stroll through deserted urban centers....
Gov. Scott Walker's corruption scandal brings shame to Wisconsin (opinion) The Isthmus   ...So far, six of his closest allies have been arrested and charged with felonies...
Teamsters Local 332 union leader says she is 'insulted and offended' by Genesys letter MLive.com   ...in coming months there may be unpleasant messaging about Genesys as we enter bargaining with the union representing our registered nurses,” the letter states...
Akron Red Cross impacted by Teamster strike Akron Beacon Journal   ...The union maintains its members must work long hours without breaks because too few workers are scheduled...

Just to drive the point home...

2012-02-15T15:26:00.000-05:00

That red line at the bottom is Wisconsin. Heckuva job, Scotty Boy.

Teamster sets Walker straight on LaCrosse jobs (video)

2012-02-15T15:17:00.000-05:00

(Sorry about the ad.)

Our Teamster brother Rob Moss, business agent for Local 695, wasn't going to let ~~Koch whore~~ Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker take credit for creating jobs at City Brewery in LaCrosse. (After all, 69 percent of what comes out of Walker's mouth is "False," "Mostly False" or "Pants on Fire.") Walker made the claim during his State of the State speech.

Moss told WKBT in LaCrosse that Walker's assertion made him ill.

(Good one, Rob!)

Moss points out that Teamster workers agreed to take wage cuts to keep the brewery open when it was going through a rough patch. Collective bargaining, he said,

not only saved this brewer, it's moved this brewery forward.

Walker's record on jobs, by the way, is just about the worst in the nation. Wisconsin is the only state to have lost jobs in six consecutive months. But that's what happens when you destroy collective bargaining rights.

Inspiration Wednesday: 'There Is Power In A Union'

2012-02-15T09:59:00.000-05:00

We chose this video in honor of our brothers and sisters in Florida. A little over a month ago, Florida's Senate leadership filed a bill to privatize more than two dozen prisons. Thousands of hard-working correctional officers would have lost their jobs if the bill passed.

Everyone thought it was a done deal.

They didn't account for the Teamster FDOC officers who put up one hell of a fight. The officers emailed their senators. They rallied. They wrote letters to their newspaper. They attended meetings. They signed petitions. They drove day after day after day to the Capitol to lobby against the bill. Some drove for hours on little sleep to make their voices heard.

They never gave up.

And last evening, the Florida Senate voted 19-21 to kill the privatization bill.

There's a lot more work to be done. But this is a sweet victory.

P.S. We figured they'd like the bluegrass version best.

Today's Teamster News 02.15.12

2012-02-15T07:12:00.000-05:00

Florida Prison Privatization Dies on Senate Floor The Bradenton Herald   ...As more and more Senators from both sides of the aisle began to question whether it was a good idea to displace more middle-class Floridians from their jobs, especially when there seemed to be little to no evidence that it would have the budget-solving impacts that its proponents promised, a critical mass began to build, leading to Tuesday's negative vote...
Payroll-tax cut, unemployment benefits: Tentative deal reached Politico   ...A tentative deal reached by senior House and Senate leaders, which appears poised to pass absent a last-minute snag, would prolong a payroll tax cut that benefits 160 million Americans, extend unemployment benefits and forestall rate cuts to doctors who treat Medicare patients...
Greece and the return of the economic 'death spiral' The Guardian   ...The lesson of 2008 was that stimulus prevented a new Great Depression. Without similar drastic help, Greece will now default...
Teamsters union eyes Hostess strike if judge cuts pensions Associated Press   ...The Teamsters union said Monday that its members at Wonder Bread and Twinkies maker Hostess Brands have voted to authorize a strike if a bankruptcy judge approves the company's request to cut their health care and pension benefits...
Teamsters strike Red Cross of Northern Ohio WTAM1100   ...Dozens of blood collection workers and mobile unit assistants for the American Red Cross in Northern Ohio are in front of the Red Cross building on Euclid Avenue holding signs that say "Red Cross Unfair. Tainted with Greed."...
Teamsters ratify contract at Memphis Kroger distribution center Memphis Commercial Appeal   ...Kroger said the new agreement includes high-quality, affordable health care, company-funded pensions and wage increases, determined by local supplemental agreements, over three years...
Teamsters protest meddling by papers' ownership Philadelphia Daily News   ...About 50 Teamsters protested in front of the Daily News and Inquirer building yesterday, complaining that company managers imperiled "journalistic integrity" - and therefore Teamster jobs - by meddling last week with news stories about the sale of Philadelphia Media Network.

Woo-hoo! Prison privatization fails in FL!!

2012-02-14T17:45:00.000-05:00

FDOC Teamsters are celebrating tonight, as the Senate voted 19-21 to kill the sweeping prison privatization plan that would have cost thousands of jobs.

We'll just let the press release do the talking:

Florida correctional officers today praised the Senate today for voting down a bill that would have privatized more than two dozen prisons.

The Senate vote of 19-21 killed the legislation. Yesterday, Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, introduced an amendment to turn the privatization bill into a study, which would have effectively killed it. That amendment failed by a vote of 21-19.

“Florida Department of Corrections officers are extremely thankful to the senators who stood up for us,” said Brian Cliffint, a sergeant at New River Correctional Institution. “The privatization proposal would have put thousands of FDOC employees out of work and seriously harmed our communities and our families.”

Cliffint was among the dozens of Teamsters who traveled to Tallahassee today to lobby against the bill. Over the past few weeks, hundreds of correctional officers have visited the Capitol to oppose plans to privatize 27 correctional facilities and work camps and to close 11.

“We are so grateful that a bipartisan Senate majority decided against this damaging legislation,” said Ken Wood, Acting President of Teamster Local 2011, which represents 20,000 Florida Department of Corrections officers. “They supported hard-working corrections officers and their communities, and they protected Florida taxpayers from spending billions on secret contracts with no public oversight.

“The Teamsters are still fighting hard against unnecessary closures of correctional facilities and work camps, but for now, we’re very pleased with the Senate’s action,” Wood said.

Biggest obstacle to U.S. jobs: China

2012-02-14T16:57:00.000-05:00

China and five other Asian countries cause 80 percent of the U.S. trade deficit in manufactured goods -- and they do it by manipulating their currencies and other illegal trade practices, according to our friend Rob Scott at the Economic Policy Institute.

The other countries -- South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia - are forced to artificially undervalue their currencies so they don't lose market share to China, Scott writes.

He points out that our overall trade deficit more than tripled between 2000 and 2009. In 2011, our deficit with China in "non-oil manufactured goods" hit a record of $326.1 billion.

What does all that mean? A loss of about 2 million good American manufacturing jobs. (He calculates we lost 2.3 million manufacturing jobs between December 2007 and January 2010, and only gained back 354,000 through December 2011.)

Scott's conclusion:

What China has in common with most, if not all, of its Asian trading partners are a set of illegal trade practices including currency manipulation and subsidies and other markets barriers ... China’s unfair trade policies “are now the single largest impediment to job growth in America.” It is time for the United States to get tough with China and other unfair traders and put an end to these policies. The first and most important step is to get tough with currency manipulators.

Read the whole thing here.

Sign Ben & Jerry's petition to take back our democracy

2012-02-14T16:10:00.000-05:00

The scoop: Ben & Jerry want to get the dough out of politics

Ba-da-bing!

Here's what they have to say:

There’s way too much money in American politics. It’s drowning out people’s voices, especially since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision gave corporations the green light to spend limitless sums of money to influence our elections. We are building a movement of engaged citizens and responsible business leaders working together to oppose this decision and Get the Dough Out of Politics. Our goal is to take back American democracy, and over-rule the Supreme Court, with a Constitutional Amendment that will keep corporate money out of our elections.

Sign the petition here.

Make-or-break FL prison privatization vote today

2012-02-14T12:26:00.001-05:00

Teamster FDOC correctional officers at a Capitol news conference today.

This afternoon, Florida's Senate is expected to vote on a massive prison privatization proposal that will cost 3,800 jobs in order to save less than 1 percent of the state's corrections budget. Oh, and it will make a private prison company richer.

Yesterday, a Republican Senator introduced an amendment to turn the privatization bill into a study. That would have effectively killed the bill. The amendment was narrowly defeated by one vote.

We may be defeated in a tie, but nothing is certain. Today, Teamsters, union allies and friends in the communiy are flooding the Senate with calls to oppose this horrible bill. Two dozen Teamster correctional officers are at the Capitol now, urging their state senators to vote for safety, jobs and fairness and against the privatization bill. In the photo above, Bill Curtis, a correctional officer at Charlotte Correctional Institute, speaks at a news conference held by Sen. Maria Sachs, an opponent of the bill.

Here's the kind of crap the opposition is pulling: Last week, a group called "South Florida Prison Ministries," and the Florida Chamber of Commerce put out a statement supporting prison privatization. The Private Corrections Institute exposed them today:

Claudio Perez, the CEO of South Florida Jail Ministries, in an op-ed and a letter delivered to the Florida Senate, expressed his support for the privatization plan...the same lobbyist that formerly represented South Florida Jail Ministries, and currently lobbies for the partner organization of another of Perez’s groups, is a paid lobbyist for GEO Group. (Ed: GEO Group is a private prison company that stands to benefit from the bill.)

And this:

...some of the sources mentioned by the Senate Rules Committee in support of cost savings through prison privatization had undisclosed biases. For example, the Committee cited research by the Reason Foundation, but failed to note that Reason receives funding from private prison companies, including GEO Group and CCA. Reason’s 2009 donor list included GEO as a Platinum Level supporter while CCA was a Gold Level donor.

Nice, hunh?

We'll keep you posted.

OH Teamsters strike Red Cross

2012-02-14T11:36:00.000-05:00

More than 200 blood collection workers and mobile unit assistants for the American Red Cross in Northern Ohio went on strike early this morning.

They're striking over threats to the safety of blood donors and to their own health. The Red Cross has already been fined more than $30 million by the FDA over blood safety practices. Last month, they were fined $9.6 million last month for mishandling or misplacing donated blood and transfusing potentially infected blood into patients.

According to the news release, the workers gave the Red Cross 10 days' notice before the strike. Al Mixon, secretary-treasurer of Local 5507 in Cleveland and an International Vice President, said:

There are serious problems at the Red Cross and potential donors need to be made aware of them. We had hoped a 10-day strike notice was enough to get Red Cross management’s attention.

This should be a wake up call to Red Cross management, which chooses to ignore FDA fines and mounting evidence that Red Cross treats the Cleveland blood supply as a cash cow that can be sold for $700 a pint rather than as a guardian protecting our community's public health. There are alternative places to donate blood.

Outside Red Cross’ offices, workers are picketing and holding signs that read, “Red Cross Unfair. Tainted With Greed.”
Safeyyah Edwards, a 10-year blood collection instructor at the Red Cross, said,

Our concern is not only for blood donors and recipients, but for our community overall. The Red Cross needs to stop destroying good Ohio jobs.

Local 507 says Red Cross is mistreating its employees. In Northern Ohio, the Red Cross made major staffing cuts and is trying to replace its workers’ quality health care plan with a far inferior one. The result: high turnover when workers seek other jobs that provide adequate family health care protection. High staff turnover can lead to more challenges to keeping the blood supply safe.

U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich supports the Teamster Red Cross workers:

The Red Cross has a responsibility to this community to protect the health of its workers. I stand with the workers who are fighting to protect us all here in Ohio.

Today's Teamster News 02.14.12

2012-02-14T07:18:00.000-05:00

Senate sets stage for do-or-die vote on South Florida prison privatization Orlando Sentinel   ...Florida lawmakers are set to vote on a massive prison privatization plan for South Florida in what will likely be an emotionally fraught debate and a severe test of Senate President Mike Haridopolos' leadership...
State spends millions for 202 new jobs Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...A state-subsidized investment program yielded huge returns for three out-of-state financial firms and their partners while netting just 202 new jobs for Wisconsin, at a cost of more than $247,000 per job...
French Elections Potentially More Momentous Then Greek Vote credit writedowns   ...Polls suggest that in the first round of balloting in late April, Sarkozy is trailing his Socialist challenger Hollande 31%-24.5%. Marina Le Pen’s candidacy appears sufficiently strong to deny either candidate a majority in the first round...
A key driver of a US recovery Macrobusiness   ...Over the course of 2011, productivity growth slowed noticeably as the ‘easy’ gains from streamlining operations came to an end (and perhaps reflecting supply disruptions). Moreover, average weekly hours worked are almost back at pre-recession levels. As a result, firms have needed to take on extra employees to expand...
Armageddon at the Strip Mall National Review   ...There’s going to be a lot of dark storefronts out there, with serious long-term consequences for nearby neighbors and for local real-estate markets: Foreclosures will put more property onto the market, driving down rents and subsequently making existing loans less tenable as the cashflow of commercial properties is diminished...
Red Cross workers possibly going on strike; blood drive canceled NewsNet5   ...Local Red Cross workers may be hitting the picket line today, affecting about 250 union members in Northeast Ohio. The contract for union members, Teamsters Local 507, expired at 3 a.m. We have not heard of any agreement...

Teamsters vote to strike Hostess, depending on bankruptcy court

2012-02-13T14:45:00.000-05:00

Whoa! More than 90 percent of Hostess Teamsters voted to authorize a strike if the bankrtupcy court lets the company impose unfair contract terms.

According to the press release:

Teamster local unions that comprise the national bargaining unit for more than 7,500 Hostess employees conducted strike authorization votes during the past 10 days. A majority of the members participated in the overwhelming strike vote.

Dennis Raymond, director of the Bakery and Laundry Conference, said,

This vote shows that, while our Hostess members are willing to take significant steps to save the company, they can only go so far. Twice before, they have made sacrifices to help this company with no progress to show for it. They need to see their sacrifices matched by other key stakeholders and they need protections to make sure their sacrifices are not made in vain again due to mismanagement. While we remain committed to finding a solution to save the company, it won’t be done solely on the backs of our members and Hostess employees.

Our retired Teamste sister, RuralRoute, gave a pretty stinging analysis of Hostess management in DailyKos a while back. Read the whole thing here.

International Vice President Ken Hall said the Teamsters would fight the company's motion to impose unfair employment terms.

The strike authorization should send a loud and clear message about our determination, and we will be equally determined in defending our case before the court.

The court will hear arguments on the company's motion on March 5. The bankruptcy judge will have 30 days to rule.

In the meantime, Hall had some good news. When Hostess had the effrontery to ask the court to guarantee a job for CEO Brian Driscoll, the Teamsters protested loud and long. Hostess thought better of the request, and won't ask again until mid-March. Said Hall,

The delay shows that our voices were heard, and, while the contract remains an open issue, we will continue to press the principle of equal sacrifice for all stakeholders, including the CEO.

Teamsters march on Port of Seattle to support striking drivers

2012-02-13T14:03:00.000-05:00

The rally to support 400 striking Port of Seattle truck drivers is in full swing, we learn from the Tweetosphere. Protesters chanting "We Are One" marched in the cold along the harborside to the Social Security Administration building, where they demanded fairness and safety.

The crowd converged on Harbor Island at 9 a.m. Local news cameras -- KOMO and KIRO -- arrived and "tons of trucks" honked in support. Local 117 from Tukwila tweeted that drivers from the Port of Los Angeles spoke to the fired-up crowd. Signs read, "We Support Seattle Port Drivers," and "Respect Drivers' Rights."

The drivers have been on strike for two weeks. They are misclassified as "independent contractors," and forced to work for poverty wages in dangerous conditions. They are routinely harassed. Shipping companies are even refusing to pay them for work they did before the strike.

Here's how bad it is: $56 billion worth of goods passes through the Port of Seattle, but the drivers are paid only $9.38 an hour http://t.co/uWhazZDD

Jon Talton at the Seattle Times previewed the rally:

Non-union short-haul truckers are entering their third week of an action to get better working conditions at the Port of Seattle. According to Sage Wilson of the activist group Working Washington, a rally was to be held at 9 a.m. today at Harbor Island to show support for the drivers, organized by the Seattle Port Truckers Association and Puget Sound Sage. The Teamsters are also supporting the action.

The drivers, primarily immigrants, haul containers from the port to rail yards. They complain of poor working conditions and wages, as well as being held liable for safety violations over which they have no control. Last week, they were largely successful in shutting down movement of freight. ... Last week, the truckers successfully rallied for back pay from Edgmon Trucking, one of the short-haul (drayage) companies that employs the immigrant drivers.

Meanwhile, in Olympia, the House passed HB 2395, which would grant short-haul truck drivers more of the rights of employees under state law. Currently, they are treated as independent contractors. Still, a meeting involving port officials last week produced no resolution.

Solidarity, brothers and sisters!

Sh*t John Kasich says at his State of the State

2012-02-13T10:12:00.000-05:00

Plunderbund edits the Ohio governor's nutty, 90-minute State of the State speech down to 6 minutes. You still may not be able to stand watching the whole thing.

Today's Teamster News 02.13.12

2012-02-13T07:07:00.000-05:00

Senate Takes Up Prison Privatization NorthEscambia.com   ...Today, the Florida Senate will take up or down votes on pending amendments, and try to get a bill on privatizing prisons in most of South of Florida ready for a floor vote...
David Koch's Non-Profit Flouts Law And Spends $700,000 Against Wisconsin Recall Alternet   ...The Koch-founded Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFP), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit "charity" prohibited from intervening in political campaigns, is spending $700,000 on ads and holding events around Wisconsin that look like appeals to re-elect Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who is facing a recall election...
Trader Joe's Signs Fair Food Agreement On Tomatoes With Immokalee Workers Huffington Post   ...The agreement requires the grocery store to pay a penny more per pound of tomatoes and to ensure better working conditions for tomato workers...
Greece MPs pass austerity plan amid violent protests BBC   ...Greek MPs have approved a controversial package of austerity measures, demanded by the eurozone and IMF in return for a 130bn euro ($170bn; £110bn) bailout...
Break Up the Banks? Here’s an Alternative (opinion) New York Times   ...If a shareholder invests a dollar in a big bank, why not make that shareholder liable for the first $1.50 — or more — of losses as insolvency approaches?...
Teamsters file improper practice against SCCC for asbestos removal Mid-Hudson News   ...Union business agent Sandra Shaddock said 10 union employees may have been subject to asbestos while removing floor tiles from buildings at the Loch Sheldrake school...

Rally tomorrow for striking Seattle port drivers

2012-02-12T14:33:00.000-05:00

We're cross-posting this from Seattle Solidarity at Highboldtage. It's about the rally to support the Seattle port truckers on Monday, Feb. 13:

9:00 am until 12:00pm.. E. Marginal Way and Hanford, under the viaduct

Over the last two weeks non-unionized short-haul truckers at the port have refused to work until they receive better treatment. For months they’ve been trying to build an association to fight back. These mostly immigrant workers face horrendous conditions on the ports – e…xtremely low pay, harassment from law enforcement and trucking companies, exorbitant fees charged by the companies that more than once have resulted in “negative” paychecks for the drivers.

Because of this they’ve stopped work, first at just one company, but it has since spread to many companies, slowing all traffic at the port. They’ve asked us to support them at a strike rally they’ll hold on Monday. We’ll be there with banners and flyers. Their situation is desperate, and it’s extremely important we show solidarity, we’re there to say “We support the Seattle truck drivers and their association.”

Depending on how their actions go there may be future ways we can help out. People from Occupy have also organized a food drive for the truckers – who aren’t making any money while they’re out. Please feel free to bring some donations of non-perishable food, diapers, baby wipes and etc – for the striking truckers and their families

*SEE YOU MONDAY!*

Check out the Facebook page here.

Back by popular demand (Part III)

2012-02-12T13:06:00.000-05:00

"Through the organized strengths of unions, they can achieve a better way of life."

Back by popular demand (Part II)

2012-02-12T12:54:00.000-05:00

Part III is next.

Back by popular demand (Part I)

2012-02-12T12:40:00.000-05:00

Yesterday's video of the Flint sit-down strike generated requests for more labor history.

So here you go. This is about the Great Minneapolis Truckers Strike of 1934, led by Teamsters Local 574. According to wikipedia,

The strike began on May 16, 1934. The strike was remarkably effective, shutting down most commercial transport in the city with the exception of certain farmers, who were allowed to bring their produce in to town, but delivering directly to grocers, rather than to the market area, which the union had shut down.

To be continued.

Today's Teamster News 02.12.12

2012-02-12T08:24:00.000-05:00

Legislature at midterm: several splits emerge (opinion) Bradenton Herald   ...Senate President Mike Haridopolos, Gov. Scott and others continue to push hard for privatization of 27 prisons, but legislation ran into a roadblock when other GOP lawmakers contested the figures on potential savings. The millions of dollars in campaign contributions from for-profit prison companies appear wasted this year as Senate passage looks shaky with a split vote. However, Haridopolos is forging ahead with a vote this week...
Unions expect right-to-work will cost them members Associated Press   ...How many members decide to become "free riders," as non-dues payers are called, will determine whether the passage of the right-to-work law here turns out to be a mostly symbolic setback for organized labor or a grave financial and political blow...
Seattle port truckers on strike Workers World   ...Drivers told Workers World that the strike, now a week old, has grown from 120 workers to 500 or 600. What started at four or five companies now affects a dozen, they said...
Secret Conservative Report Reveals Scott Walker as a Dire Fiscal Failure politicus.usa   ...today we find out that not only did Walker leave Milwaukee in such dire straights that it should have filed for bankruptcy (perhaps this is why Walker took all of the files and even computers from the office when he left?) after increasing spending by 35%, but the people suffered as well, with annual income drops continuing to plummet under Walker during his entire eight year tenure...
Fewest Young Adults in 60 Years Have Jobs Time   ...only 54.3% of young adults aged 18 to 24 have a job...
Union Pacific plans billions in infrastructure investment Wichita Eagle   ...The Omaha-based company said it expects to add between 4,000 and 4,500 workers in 2012, depending on the performance of the economy. It also said it would spend $3.6 billion on infrastructure this year, which would be a record amount. Between 2000 and 2011 the company spent $31 billion...

This is what we union thugs do on our bikes

2012-02-11T12:18:00.000-05:00

We raise money for breast cancer research.

The Teamster Horsemen Motorcycle Association and the Iron workers raised over $2400 for breast cancer research at Allegheny General Hospital near Pittsburgh.

(H/T to Nancy Stinner, who posted this on the Teamster Women's Facebook page.)

Thanks to all who helped make this possible

And by the way, "thugs" stands for "Those Helpful Union Gals."

How's that Tea Party Economics working for you?

2012-02-11T12:09:00.000-05:00

It's been a year now since Tea Party quislings swept into governors' offices across the country. They promised to shrink government in order to unleash the powers of free enterprise.

Once elected, that isn't exactly what happened. They shrunk funding for education, pensions and health care. But their governments stayed pretty much the same size. We assume their cronies got what working families didn't.

Anyhoo, we thought we'd take a look at how well the Tea Party playbook worked out. Did austerity for the 99 percent coupled with tax breaks and giveaways to the 1 percent improve their states' economies?

Let's start with Maine, which has possibly the wingnuttiest governor in the country. Paul LePage, you'll recall, took down a mural depicting labor history in Maine at the state's Department of Labor. He also followed the Tea Party recipe for economic success. According to the Bangor Daily News:

...the state lost more jobs per capita in 2011 than every other state in the nation, shedding 7,200 jobs...

Whoops.

Well, then let's look at the second most wingnutty governor: Wisconsin's ~~Koch whore~~ Scott Walker. He campaigned on a promise of creating 250,000 jobs. If you listen to Walker now, his ~~attacks on working families~~ "reforms" are working and he's created jobs. But then you have to remember that 69 percent of what comes out of Scott Walker's mouth is a lie, so you need to dig a little deeper.

According to Express Milwaukee,

Jobs have been lost in each month since Walker's budget has been in effect.

...Even worse, Walker's Wisconsin is moving in the opposite direction as the rest of the country. While the United States as a whole has been adding jobs for 22 months as part of the broader national recovery, Wisconsin is the only state to have shed jobs in each of the past six months.

So much for Scotty Boy. How about a Tea Party governor with business experience, like Florida's Pink Slip Rick Scott?

Oh wait, the business experience involved ripping off the government.

Scott, however, did promise to create 700,000 jobs as governor.

Here's what he's done, according to The Florida Center for Investigative Reporting:

The jobless rate is falling because so many Floridians have stopped looking for work that they aren’t being counted anymore.

Steep cuts in state spending have further squeezed the poor and unemployed, and in turn, the municipalities in which they live.

The majority of new jobs are in the lowest-paying sectors.

Wages have fallen for the poorest workers.

Poverty has increased.

Florida has one of the highest populations of uninsured in the country.

Oh, and when Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts? He ranked 47th out of 50 governors in job creation.

Time for a new playbook.

Today: 75 years since original Occupy (video)

2012-02-11T11:52:00.000-05:00

Today is "White Shirt Day," the anniversary of the Flint sit down strike settlement. The UAW tells us:

Known as "White Shirt Day," Feb. 11 marks the 75th anniversary of the most famous of these sit-down actions, the 1936-1937 General Motors Flint Sit-Down Strike. Men and women throughout the UAW wear white-collar attire traditionally donned by management to remember the sacrifices and victories of workers.

Solidarity.

Benedict Arnold Koch brothers lash out at Obama

2012-02-11T10:40:00.000-05:00

My, my, my. Are the ~~Benedict Arnold~~ Koch brothers unnerved by recent exposure of the anti-worker conspiracy they fund?

Politico reports,

Responding more aggressively than in the past, Koch Industries’ political arm on Friday accused President Barack Obama and his allies of “trying to intimidate into silence those who may disagree with them.”

Obama had changed his mind and decided to accept money from Super PACs because the Koch brothers contribute so much money to his opponents. But, as readers of this blog know, there's way more to the Kochtopus than contributions to presidential candidates.

ALEC is a big part of their conspiracy. Here's what we've learned in the past 24 hours about ALEC's activities:

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed a series of bills making it harder to sue corporations for wrongdoing. Dayton said the bills were the canned product of ALEC. According to Hometown Source, "Holding aloft a publication from the American Legislative Exchange Council — a conservative, business-oriented think tank — Dayton panned the Republican bills...Minnesotans do not want their laws written by Big Business, Dayton said."
The Center for Media and Democracy reports Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) has been circulating the "ALEC Accountability Act," a bill that would require ALEC to register with the state as a lobbyist and report the funding sources for the “scholarships” funding legislators’ travel. ALEC has written laws in Wisconsin that eliminate worker and environmental protections. As you can guess, ~~Koch whore~~ Gov. Scott Walker is an ALEC alum.
In New Hampshire, the Center for Media and Democracy reports, 14 pieces of anti-worker ALEC legislation have made their way through the House and Senate in the past three weeks. One was a right-to-work-for-less bill.
ALEC wrote bills to turn public education over to corporations in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, Iowa and Colorado. (Here's a good criticism of the Iowa plan.)

The Koch brothers support ALEC. They also traffick with Iran. We'll let you draw your own conclusions about their concern for America.

The big lie from 'Center for Union Facts'

2012-02-11T09:40:00.000-05:00

If you happened to watch the Super Bowl in Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia or Maryland, you may have seen an anti-union ad. It was paid for by a nasty little front group called "The Center for Union Facts," which, as you can guess, lies about unions.

This video exposes the 'union' worker as Richard Berman, head of the Center for Union Facts. Here's what you need to know about him: His own son calls him a despicable person.

Feel free to share widely.

Today's Teamster News 02.11.12

2012-02-11T08:38:00.000-05:00

Letter: Let me try to figure out why politicians want to privatize prisons TCPalm   ...Employees earning $30,000 to $40,000 a year are not Florida's biggest problem yet the governor has put this on the front burner...
12 Indiana House Democrats call it quits Associated Press   ...More than quarter of the Indiana House Democrats who unsuccessfully fought passage of the state’s new right-to-work law won’t try for re-election this year, further boosting the chances of Republicans strengthening their hold on the chamber...
Strike at the Seattle Port: Truckers Buck an Unfair System Demos   ...The Port of Seattle has been shut down for more than a week. And it is the so-called independent contractor drivers who have stood together to stop the flow of goods. In doing so, the drivers are taking a powerful stand against the deregulated model of port trucking that takes a toll, not only on their own livelihoods and safety but on the environment and public as well...
Dayton's veto of four 'tort reform' bills comes with stinging GOP criticism MinnPost.com   ...The changes, Dayton said, would not create a single job, would not help Minnesotans and would only "pad the bottom lines of mostly out-of-state insurance companies..."
Teamsters Oppose Court Approval of Hostess CEO's Contract IBT   ...“We struggle to understand how Hostess’ management team, its board and its advisers think that filing this motion to guarantee CEO Brian Driscoll’s employment conditions, at a time when Hostess is seeking to dramatically modify the working conditions of its employees, is a good idea" (said Ken Hall, Teamsters International Vice President...
Anti-worker bills must be rejected (LTE) Concord Monitor   ...Currently the New Hampshire House has a long list of anti-public worker legislation filed. The goal is to weaken New Hampshire public worker rights and local influence. What is really troubling is that a national special interest group called ALEC (the American Leadership Exchange Council) has been giving our GOP legislators trips to its seminars where they are encouraged and coached on how to write and pursue anti-union legislation...
Missing Settlement Document Raises Doubts on $25B Deal American Banker   ...a fully authorized, legally binding deal has not been inked yet...
The big banks win again Salon   ...Foreclosure victims get little help in a mortgage-settlement plan that only benefits the banks' bottom line...
Red Cross Cancels Blood Drive In Anticipation Of Teamsters Strike Mentor Patch   ...Albert Mixon, the chapter's Secretary-Treasurer (said) "We are operating blood drives at high schools, community centers and hospitals every day. But now Red Cross’ blood services division wants to cut staffing levels to the point where donors should be concerned for their safety..."

'You say CPAC, We say Fight Back'

2012-02-10T16:19:00.000-05:00

Here's a short video from the massive #OccupyCPAC rally in Washington, DC, this afternoon. Just to give you an idea of the energy level.

CPAC provocateurs fail to provoke much of anything

2012-02-10T16:15:00.000-05:00

You can't really see it, but the security officer -- we're not sure if he's federal, local or what -- just behind the flagpole is talking to a young CPACer. The latter had been trying to provoke protesters. Many of the CPACers were doing the same. TeamsterNation saw the security officer pull the CPACer aside and -- we hope -- tell him to chill out. The two CPAC guys in the front were also recording protesters.

Here's another CPAC provocateur. Andrew something. He demanded, belligerently, that protesters tell him exactly HOW they KNEW they're the 99%. Pretty soon people figured out it was best to ignore him.

If you haven't been following, CPAC is the annual summit of the 1% wannabes in Washington, D.C. They got a very warm labor welcome this afternoon!

CPAC gets Occupied by thousands of Teamsters, unions, jobless, community groups

2012-02-10T15:14:00.000-05:00

The annual corporate greedfest known as CPAC was turned upside down today by thousands upon thousands of union members, community activists, unemployed workers and our good friend the giant Fat Cat. Dozens of reporters trained cameras on the sprited Washington, D.C. scene. Union banners waved as throngs of marchers surged into the street and up the hill to the hotel entrance. Protesters chanted, sang, drummed and danced while grandmothers sat down in the street to protest attacks on Medicare.

Police gave up trying to keep the huge crowd on the sidewalks. They blocked off the street as the peaceful protesters vented their thoughts about greed, tax dodging, unemployment and the war waged on working families.

Teamsters with "Stop the War on Worker" signs joined autoworkers, sheetmetal workers, firefighters, elevator constructors, UFCW, SEIU, AFSCME, UNITE. Community groups from as far away as Baltimore showed up by the busload.

Some of the entitled jerks attending CPAC had gleefully predicted violence, the way they always do, then did their best to provoke it. With expensive suits and camera equipment, they waded into the crowd hurling belligerent questions at the protesters. A security official -- was it a Secret Service agent -- took one entitled jerk away from the group he was badgering and gave him a talking-to.

The rally got off to a slow start around noon, as steelworkers, UAW members and Teamsters formed a picket line around the Fat Cat chanting, "Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, Union busting's got to go." But at 12:30 someone shouted "Oh my God, thousands of marchers!" Led by drummers they filled the street, waving signs and banners as cars honked and police officers tried to herd them onto the sidewalks. "Our DC" and "We Are The 99%" signs joined "Recall Walker" and "Greed is Good--Romney-Gekko."

Soon the huge crowd surged up the hill, past the police and security, bellowing, "The People United Will Never Be Defeated!" Then they peacefully marched down again and regrouped in the street. Two women sat down on the pavement, soon to be joined by many more. Some gave speeches, some chanted and some sang along with pro-movement songs made up on the spot.

The CPAC one percenters had some charming things to say: @BossyMother called them "mutant scum." The delightful @stephenww tweeted, "I think we all can agree that the #OccupyCPAC crowd should get free contraception." @JimForbes_Pasco refers to the peaceful protesters as "OccupyCPAC goons."

Here's @sigsixputnik:

THE LOSERS----ON WELFARE----TAKE YOUR STINKASS ELSEWHERE!!! #OccupyCPAC #CPAC12 #tcot #p2

(What is it that psychologists say about projection?) It's comforting to know we vastly outnumber those people.

Some of our favorite tweets:

@AureliaFierros: Website that's carrying the fabricated story of "unions are paying for #OccupyCPAC" is FILLED w/ gun ads that say Obama's coming for ur guns

@Harry Waisbren: "Incredible, ton of marchers here!" - @Occupied_Air livestreamer as #OccupyDC arrives at #OccupyCPAC http://t.co/dfATSFxJ

@OperationLeakS Epic photo coming out of the #OccupyCPAC Protest at #CPAC We give you the Tax Dodgers

There will be more #OccupyCPAC action tonight. Stay tuned.

Double-double: Canadian workers need more than coffee

2012-02-10T10:30:00.000-05:00

Angry Bear featured a terrific post this morning from Canada. It explained why pensions and lifetime -- not living -- wages are essential for a stable society. The crux of the argument is this:

...on average every person working must earn double what it costs him to live. That extra money pays for the child the worker is before he goes to work, and the senior he is afterwards. For the population of Canada to stay level, each Canadian must raise one child, and he must support himself once he retires. What it costs to do that is the “lifetime wage.”

...Whatever way you try to jig the numbers, half the population depends on the other half just to live. In a nation, these life-stages overlap so the burden levels out over time, but effectively one half is always supporting the other. Paying out to each worker less than double the bare cost of living in a closed system will result in collapse or shrinkage of the system.

Canada, we are told by Angry Bear, prides itself on being a secure, stable nation. That security and stability is provided by the government through a nationalized, centralized, fixed-benefit pension:

The chaotic, competitive and short term business community won’t and probably can’t supply that stability; only a government has the ability over generations to ensure stability.

What about the childhood end of the equation? The author argues that poor nations foot the bill for raising children before they enter Canada's work force.

In Canada in 2010, of the 280,000 immigrants, 60% were “economic” (adults ready to work.) Another 28% were classed as “family.” The hard lifting of childbirth and childrearing and child mortality was done by other countries with no cost to Canada. In fact, immigrants pay a small but significant landing fee, $500 to $1000 depending on entry class. We further maximized the value of the outsourced new citizens by selecting capable applicants free of serious medical problems.

And here's a great line:

Nations grow their own people, they don’t rent them.

Wondering where the Tim Horton coffee cup comes from? (We were saving that for last):

One of the best loved Canadian drinks is the famed Double-Double, a big coffee with two creams and two sugars from the Tim Horton’s coffee shop chain. Millions of double-doubles warm grateful workers hands and wake up their brains on the way to work each morning. Want to raise a cheer from a Canadian crowd? Just toast the double-double. But Canadian workers need more than coffee to see them through. They need wages and pensions.

Today's Teamster News 02.10.12

2012-02-10T06:48:00.000-05:00

Haridopolos: Private prison vote is next week Orlando Sentinel   ...Haridopolos was coy though when asked if that meant he had the votes to pass the bill. “We’ll see,” he said...
Pro-labor Republicans recruit challengers for right-to-work supporters in Indiana House Associated Press   ...some candidates, such as high school teacher Diana Boersma, are taking on powerful House members, such as Rep. Douglas Gutwein of Francesville. Others, such as Randy Conner and Jon D. Hare, are challenging freshmen legislators elected in 2010's Republican sweep...
ALEC wrote parts of LePage education agenda Maine's Majority   ...ALEC, a corporate-funded organization that encourages conservative lawmakers to advance big business-friendly laws on the state level, is currently under fire for its efforts to influence the legislative process in several states, including Maine...
Jobs, Economy Most Important Issues To NH Residents WMUR   ...Coming in a distant second place is the Republican majority in the Legislature...
SD Panel Strikes Down Collective Bargaining Ban Keloland.com   ...Lawmakers unanimously rejected a bill Wednesday that would have ended collective bargaining for public employees in South Dakota...
This is no bailout for Main Street America The Guardian   ...While the government's help to homeowners is far from adequate or just, it represents a partial and late recognition of trickle-down economics' inadequacy as policy...
Disgruntled Greeks Start 48-Hour National Strike New York Times   ...Greek workers walked off the job for the second time this week on Friday in a snap 48-hour general strike called to protest new austerity measures the country must take to avert a disastrous default next month...
This Teamsters Memo Shows How The Threat Of A Union Strike Could Seal Hostess' Fate Business Insider   ...union officials are calling Hostess's demands — which include a five-year wage freeze and scrapping employer contributions to health and pension plans — unreasonable...

WI plans week of action on anniversary of uprising

2012-02-09T15:49:00.000-05:00

Check out this Facebook page to see what's planned for the week of Feb. 10-Feb. 17.

Oh, and Recall Walker.

Remember when Walker told Dems to do their job?

2012-02-09T15:39:00.000-05:00

Protesting Walker in Naples, Fla., yesterday

Just about a year ago, ~~Koch whore~~ Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker berated 14 brave Democrats who left the state to prevent a vote to strip government workers of their collective bargaining rights.

"I'm going to tell them they get paid to come to work, and they should be coming to work," he told reporters.

He also said the lawmakers were "disrespectful to the hundreds of thousands of public employees who showed up to work today and the millions of taxpayers they represent."

Guess where Walker was yesterday? He wasn't working for millions of taxpayers in snowy Wisconsin. He was in Florida. Guess where he'll be tomorrow? He won't be showing up to work in Madison. He'll be speaking to a bunch of narcissistic wingnuts at the CPAC confab in Washington, D.C.

In fact, Scott Walker has traveled outside of his state more than any other governor in the country and more than any other governor in Wisconsin history, according to Uppity Wisconsin.

By my count, this is Walker's fourth trip to Florida. He's also traveled to Kentucky, Arizona, California, Tennessee, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Utah, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Nevada and Texas. He has\also gone to Washington DC seven times and New York city nine times.

He's been everywhere, man. Often times he takes his sidekick and taxpayer-paid press secretary, Cullen Werwie, with him.

When the 14 state senators left the state for their walk-out filibuster, Walker finger-wagged at the Senators to "come back and do your job!" And that admonition came after the Senators were gone for 20 days.

By my count, Walker has been out of the state all or part of 42 days since he became governor-- about twice the time the "Wisconsin 14" were outside the state.

Just sayin'.

How the super-rich ruin our lives

2012-02-09T15:17:00.000-05:00

The question is how do America's 1 percent get so powerful they can steal our wages, loot our pensions, fraudulently foreclose on our homes, charge us with hidden bank fees, bust our unions and buy taxpayer assets for a song?

Super PACs are one way. The 1 percenters spend enormous amounts of money putting their quislings into elected office. Politico reports that the Super Political Action Committees raised about $100 million from fewer than 200 people since the beginning of 2010:

Super PACs raised about $181 million in the last two years — with roughly half of it coming from fewer than 200 super-rich people.

Those are the findings in a new study that confirms what public interest groups have long feared and campaigns are learning the hard way in 2012 — that the cash for big-ticket campaign spending like TV advertising is increasingly controlled by an elite class of super-rich patrons not afraid to plunk down a million bucks or more for favored candidates and causes.

Last year alone, just 32 donors gave $34 million — and that’s not including an eight-figure donation from billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson in January.

Some 1 percenters don't even bother with Super PACs -- they just buy themselves memberships in Congress or governorships. Pink Slip Rick, for example, spent $73 million of his ill-gotten wealth to become governor of Florida, something the Sunshine State regretted almost immediately.

ALEC is another tool used by the 1 percenters to siphon more money from America's middle class. It's a corporate conspiracy to take control of state governments, only they don't call it that. Here's their high-minded-sounding "mission":

… to advance the Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty, through a nonpartisan public-private partnership of America’s state legislators, members of the private sector, the federal government, and general public.

It's actually funded by the ~~Benedict Arnold~~ Koch brothers, drug companies, airlines and such charming industries as banking and insurance. Here's what we've found out in the past two days about ALEC:

It tried to limit asbestos claims. From the AP: Pennsylvania-based Crown Holdings, whose products include the tops of soda pop and beer containers, has gotten help from the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate-backed conservative nonprofit, to broaden limits on asbestos claims against it stemming from an ill-fated acquisition nearly 50 years ago.
It tried to buy off Virginia's Speaker of the House by paying for a luxe little vacation.
Got 14 lawmakers in Oregon to introduce legislation written by corporations.
Got Ohio lawmakers to introduce 33 bills written by corporations, including the infamous anti-union SB5.

That concludes today's lesson in how the super-rich ruin our lives.

Has John Kasich gone round the bend?

2012-02-09T12:17:00.000-05:00

Here is ~~corporate stooge~~ Ohio Gov. John Kasich, best known for his stunning defeat in the referendum against the anti-worker SB5 law. (H/T to Plunderbund for the remix.)

In this video Kasich is giving his State of the State address. Yup, that's right, State of the State -- an address customarily given once each year by governors before both houses of the state Legislature.

It gets worse, though. According to The Hill, Kasich's "bizarre" speech

...was laced with repeated mentions of his wife, Karen Kasich, an impersonation by the governor of someone with severe Parkinson's disorder, and a reference to Californians as "wackadoodles."

Perhaps he's had a little too much Koch.

Today's Teamster News 02.09.12

2012-02-09T07:14:00.000-05:00

Ohio Lawmakers Introduced 33 Bills Last Year Based on ALEC Model Legislation truthout.com   ...At least nine of the 33 bills have passed the State Legislature, including the now-defunct Senate Bill 5, which was poised to strip public employees of collective bargaining rights until Ohioans overwhelmingly voted for a repeal in November...
Koch Brothers Spend $700,000 on Ads Defending Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Atlantic Wire   ...Last year, they were reportedly behind Walker in his showdown with unions over the state budget...
49-State Foreclosure Fraud Settlement Will Be Finalized Thursday firedoglake   ...Forty-nine states, every one but Oklahoma, as well as federal regulators will participate in a foreclosure fraud settlement that will release the five biggest banks (Wells Fargo, Citi, Ally/GMAC, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America) and their mortgage servicing units from liability for robo-signing and other forms of servicer abuse, in exchange for $25 billion in funding for legal aid, refinancing, short sales, restitution for wrongful foreclosures and principal reduction for underwater borrowers...
Insight: The dark side of Germany's jobs miracle Reuters   ...Wage restraint and labor market reforms have pushed the jobless rate down to a 20-year low, and the German model is often cited as an example for European nations seeking to cut unemployment and become more competitive. But critics say the reforms that helped create jobs also broadened and entrenched the low-paid and temporary work sector, boosting wage inequality...
Condemned Florida prison gets second chance at life in House Palm Beach Post   ....The Senate and Gov. Rick Scott still need to be persuaded. But the House decision to add the prison financing to its $69.2 billion proposed state budget will likely go a long way toward preventing the closing...
Boiling point at the port Seattle Times   ...the Teamsters are supporting an effort by non-union drayage (short-haul) truckers to shut down the Port of Seattle...

State lawmakers unleash a whole lot of crazy

2012-02-08T17:01:00.000-05:00

Jim Hoffa in Madison last year.

It's becoming an annual ritual when state Legislatures convene in January. The corporate quislings who somehow got elected file anti-worker bill after anti-worker bill. The explanations are always lame. In Florida, for example, Budget Chairman J.D. Alexander offered the head-spinner that privatizing correctional facilities was good because a lack of competition destroyed the Soviet Union. Say what?

In Indiana, Gov. Mitch Daniels said right-to-work for less would improve the state's business climate. As if making Indiana more like Mississippi would somehow generate lots of jobs, albeit low-wage ones. Doesn't Mitch know the crappy jobs are going to China and India these days?

Just today we learn that a New Hampshire lawmaker wants to eliminate workers' lunch breaks. ThinkProgress tells us,

The bill’s sponsor, state representative J.R. Hoell, argued that companies failing to provide lunch breaks would be shamed over social media, thus rendering the law unnecessary. “If they are not letting people have lunch, they could put it out though the news media, though social media. I don’t think that abusive behavior would continue, the way communications are today,” he said.

Of course, not every employer can be counted to to follow even the easiest of requirements to look after workers’ health and rights. Back in 2005, Walmart was forced to pay $172 million for denying workers their lunch breaks. Pyramid Breweries Inc. settled a case in 2008 for $1.5 million. Just a few months ago, California ordered Embassy Suites to pay workers tens of thousands of dollars for forcing them to skip breaks.

Jim Hoffa warns that politicians who attack workers -- who, after all, represent the vast majority of the electorate -- will ultimately fail. Today in the Detroit News he writes,

Michigan politicians contemplating similar anti-union legislation should proceed at their own electoral peril. Michigan's working families are mobilizing right now and will certainly remember in November.

We may not win battles in every state this fall. It may take years, but in the end, I'm confident we'll win the war on workers.

Why are those entitled CPAC jerks so obsessed with their violent fantasies?

2012-02-08T15:20:00.000-05:00

Quite a parade of horribles will speak at CPAC's annual greedfest in Washington, D.C., starting tomorrow. Premium wine enthusiast Paul Ryan will be there, no doubt explaining why Social Security is fine for him but not for anyone else. Newt Gingrich may once again call for union janitors to be fired so their kids can clean schoolrooms. ~~Koch whore~~ Gov. Scott Walker will deliver a speech, 69 percent of which will be lies, unless the feds wrap him up before he takes the podium.

CPAC stands for Conservative Political Action Conference, and attendees are about as intellectually honest as Josef Stalin's propagandists. You can be sure they'll be spouting their fairy-tale economics, in which the Free Enterprise Fairy gives lots and lots of presents to deserving "conservatives." In the CPAC children's book version of reality, Tax Breaks for the Rich magically "trickle down" on all of America and Big Bad Labor Unions deprive workers of their Freedom. They're even offering workshops called ‘Return of Big Labor: What Can We Learn from Wisconsin & Ohio,‘ and ’Taking back Wall Street: The Tea Party vs. Occupy Wall Street.’

To counter these misguided voices, union members and Occupy DC are planning two direct actions in front of the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel at noon on Friday and at 5 pm the same day (Woodley Park Metro stop on the Red Line). The Teamsters will be there with our inflatable fat cat. Be there!!

These will be peaceful actions, much to the chagrin of the CPACees. Judging by the Tweet-o-sphere, the narcissistic 12-year-olds who attend CPAC are obsessed with violence and grooming. They can't really argue the merits of the corporate greed, inequality or Wall Street criminality they so ardently support. So they use the time-honored tactic of being shocked that their critics plan physical assaults -- assaults that exist only in their own imaginations.

Here's a typical tweet:

@HarleyLeBon: Let's be prepared: Exclusive: Occupy DC Plans Mayhem for Major Conservative Conference

Never mind that the only people promoting mayhem are the entitled jerks attending CPAC.

Inspiration Wednesday: "Man in Black'

2012-02-08T10:04:00.002-05:00

Thought we'd play "Man in Black" for this bleak time of year.

Today's Teamster News 02.08.12

2012-02-08T07:11:00.000-05:00

Florida prison privatization stalls in legislature Reuters   ...A proposal to privatize at least 26 prisons in south Florida is facing stiff opposition in the Florida Senate and may not have the votes to pass, the chamber's president and chief backer said on Tuesday...
Labor says 'right-to-work' impact too soon to gauge NWI Times   ...The Indiana Department of Labor will promulgate rules within the next six months pertaining to right-to-work, said agency spokesman Robert Dittmer. However, he said if a situation required rules to be developed on an emergency basis, the Department of Labor has the ability to do so...
Arizona’s vicious war on workers Alternet   ...Gov. Jan Brewer is pushing a radical anti-union bill that makes Wisconsin's law look lax...
Occupy D.C. to protest CPAC Politico   ...The Occupy Wall Street movement in Washington announced on Tuesday, just days before the three-day Conservative Political Action Conference is set to kick off on Thursday, that it is planning to send a clear message to the “gathering of bigots, media mouthpieces, corrupt politicians and their one percent elite puppet masters...”
Bernanke Says 8.3% Unemployment Understates Weakness in U.S. Labor Market Bloomberg   ...“There are also a lot of people who are either out of the labor force because they don’t think they can find work” or in part- time jobs...
What would happen if the value of the dollar were lowered? Manufacture This   ...Baker predicts that a lower dollar could lead to an increase in output by the U.S. manufacturing sector of more than 40 percent, resulting in the creation of millions of new manufacturing jobs...

Woo-hoo! Hershey guestworker company punished

2012-02-07T16:50:00.000-05:00

Last August in Pennsylvania.

Remember last year when foreign students paid up to $6,000 to come to America for a "cultural exchange program" and instead found themselves near slaves boxing chociolates in a Palmyra, Pa., Hershey factory?

It happened under the J-1 visa program, which started out as a cultural exchange program but ended up recruiting guestworkers.

The students walked off the job last August to demand Hershey stop exploiting them and give living-wage jobs to Pennsylvania's workers. Union Review has rest of the story:

The students faced immediate retaliation for their organizing. Students from all three shifts were summoned to “captive audience” meetings in the plant and threatened with deportation. Back home, the recruiters in their countries sent threatening emails to the student-workers, called their parents, and even flew into the U.S. from China to undercut the organizing. Hershey’s security directed local police to arrest labor leaders who were conducting civil disobedience in support of the students....

Afterwards, four federal agencies, including the US Department of Labor and the US State Department, launched investigations into the exploitation of J-1 student workers at the Hershey’s plant, and nearly 70,000 Americans signed a petition in support of the students’ demands. ... Hershey’s launched a PR campaign to attempt to discredit the students, and hired Blank Rome Government Relations to lobby Congress on “government affairs issues related to labor practices.” When pressured, they tried to shift the blame to the Council for Educational Travel USA (CETUSA), the company they worked with the recruit the students. CETUSA was one of the biggest actors in the J-1 program, bringing thousands of students each year.

Here's the good news:

Monday, the State Department announced that CETUSA was now banned from the J-1 visa program—sending a clear message to all companies participating in the program, “A cultural program for foreign students will not be exploited to recruit cheap labor!” Additionally, the entire J-1 program, which has hosted over one million students, is now under review.

Now if only we could undo Nafta....

Ah, the luxury of toying with workers' lives

2012-02-07T14:25:00.000-05:00

One of our brothers locked out by Sotheby's saw this sticker on an advertisement for something luxurious. It captured the cool indifference of the entitled jerks at Sotheby's. Six months ago, they kicked their fellow human beings out on the street -- because they stood up for their right to belong to a union. According to Sotheby's report to the SEC, it cost them more to lock out 42 art handlers than it would cost to pay them their wages.

We hear negotiations are going along okay between Teamsters Local 814, which represents the art handlers, and Sotheby's. We're just wondering if Sotheby's board members will ever step out of their luxe cocoons. They might just find their reputations as decent human beings forever tainted.

Today's Teamster News 02.07.12

2012-02-07T07:42:00.001-05:00

Gov. Walker says DA requested talks on John Doe probe Associated Press   ...Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says he voluntarily agreed to the Milwaukee County district attorney's request to meet with him about a secret investigation that so far has led to charges against five of Walker's former close aides and associates...
Critics right: No evidence to support privatizing state prisons (opinion) Palm Beach Post   ...This plan, believed to be the largest prison privatization in U.S. history, is being rushed through without nearly the amount of study an overhaul of this magnitude merits...
Company Faces Forgery Charges in Mo. Foreclosures New York Times   ...One of the largest companies that provided home foreclosure services to lenders across the nation, DocX, has been indicted on forgery charges by a Missouri grand jury — one of the few criminal actions to follow reports of widespread improprieties against homeowners...
For Sale: AIG's Subprime Bonds Wall Street Journal   ...Five Wall Street banks have been invited to bid this week for another multibillion-dollar bundle of risky mortgage bonds held by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as a result of its 2008 rescue of American International Group Inc....
Greek protesters, police clash outside Parliament Associated Press   ...Riot police fired tear gas to repel hundreds of anti-austerity protesters trying to break a cordon outside Parliament, but no arrests or injuries were reported and the clashes quickly subsided...
Danbury Moves Away from Traditional Pension Plans Danbury Patch   ...The city's Teamster Union agreed to take raises of 0 percent, 2.25 percent, 2.75 percent and 2.75 percent for the contract it radified through July 1, 2015...

Walker hires criminal defense attorneys

2012-02-06T15:36:00.000-05:00

The noose certainly seems to be tightening around ~~Koch whore~~ Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. He recently hired two high-powered criminal defense attorneys and said he wants to meet with a county prosecutor about the ongoing "John Doe" investigation.

The editors at the Cap Times think Scotty boy owes the people of Wisconsin an explanation. The Times notes that Walker's aides and supporters have already been subject to a series of arrests, raids, felony charges, convictions and grants of immunity.

His former aides have been charged with illegal campaigning -- both misdemeanor and felony raps.
Evidence has come to light indicating Walker knew of a secret email system to support illegal campaigning on the taxpayer dime.
One of Walker's longtime aides was charged with stealing from a charity for wounded military veterans and the families of troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Cap Times writes:

Wisconsinites have a right to ask whether their governor is "lawyering up" simply as a precaution or in anticipation of additional criminal complaints about wrongdoing in offices where Walker was the boss.

The governor should level with Wisconsinites about the controversy that has developed. He has a right, and a responsibility, to defend himself. But he also has a responsibility to communicate fully and frankly with the citizens who pay his salary, and who have entrusted him with the state's most powerful position.

Politiscoop gives us a hint where the investigation may lead.

In 2002 Milwaukee County picked Bear Stearns to underwrite a $100 million bond refinancing deal even though their bid was $90,000 higher than another bidder and also violated the bidding guidelines. Bear Stearns’ executive, Nicholas Hurtgen, who has since pled guilty in a political corruption probe in Illinois, raised $25,000 in campaign contributions for Walker at two Illinois fundraisers shortly after they won the contract. Walker personally approved the selection of Bear Stearns. The sale of the bonds took place in 2003. Incidentally Karl Rove was to appear at this fundraiser but backed out at the last minute.

Let's just hope poor widdle Scotty doesn't land in the hoosegow before he gets recalled.

Israel outlaws private prisons as violations of human rights

2012-02-06T12:14:00.000-05:00

There really is something a stomach-turning about making money off the imprisonment of human beings. It seems to us that it's an inherently governmental function that shouldn't be turned over to for-profit corporations. What's next, Wal-Mart handing out speeding tickets?

Israel isn't too keen on private prisons either. A little over a year ago, Israel's Supreme Court ruled that incarcerating people for profit violates their human rights.

According to the Jerusalem Post,

(Supreme Court President Dorit) Beinisch wrote that the incarceration of anyone was a violation of human rights but when it was done by the state, it was done for the public good. When the state allows a private group to incarcerate, the violation of human rights is being perpetrated for profit - both the state's and the private entrepreneur's.

Haaretz further explains,

Israel's basic legal principles, she continued, hold that the right to use force in general, and the right to enforce criminal law by putting people behind bars in particular, is one of the most fundamental and one of the most invasive powers in the state's jurisdiction. Thus when the power to incarcerate is transferred to a private corporation whose purpose is making money, the act of depriving a person of his liberty loses much of its legitimacy. Because of this loss of legitimacy, the violation of the prisoner's right to liberty goes beyond the violation entailed in the incarceration itself.

Beinisch also argued that in a prison run by a private company, prisoners' rights are undermined by the fact that the inmates are transformed into a means of extracting profit. Efficiency, she wrote, is not a supreme value when the most basic and important human rights for which the state is responsible are at stake.

Makes sense to us.

Today's Teamster News 02.06.12

2012-02-06T07:19:00.000-05:00

Small Super Bowl protest for anti-union law Reuters   ...A small group of about 50 activists marched to Lucas Oil Stadium where the Super Bowl will be played later on Sunday to peacefully protest Indiana's new anti-union "right-to-work" law...
Adbusters Calls for 50,000 Protesters to Meet at Chicago’s G8/NATO Summit In These Times   ...Adbusters, the group credited with inspiring the Occupy Wall Street movement, has once again put out a call for tens of thousands of protesters to flock to Chicago in early May and "set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and #OCCUPYCHICAGO for a month," according to the official statement...
Florida prison privatization push stalls despite big spending Palm Beach Post   ...Millions of dollars in campaign contributions from for-profit prison companies may not be enough this year to push through a prison privatization plan that is a priority of Gov. Rick Scott and Republican legislative leaders...
Strike Looms As Greek Party Leaders Push For Deal on Reforms Wall Street Journal   ...Signs of popular protest loomed over Greece's political leaders as they raced to agree on painful reforms, including private-sector pay cuts, needed to win a new bailout agreement to keep the country from defaulting on its debts next month...
The Nine American Cities Nearly Destroyed by the Recession 24/7 Wall St.   ...Norwich-New London, Ct.; Brunswick, Ga.; Abilene, Texas; Wichita Falls, Texas; Flint, Mich.; Champaign-Urbana, Ill.; Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Goleta, Calif.; Reno-Sparks, Nev.; Carson City, Nev....
Rep. Mike Michaud (D-ME) urges trade enforcement against China Manufacture This   ...Three new reports issued by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and the Law Offices of Stewart and Stewart have found that more 400,000 jobs in the U.S. auto supply chain have been lost since 2000...

Today's Teamster News 02.05.12

2012-02-05T08:33:00.000-05:00

Legislature nears midpoint as houses divided SunSentinel.com   ...Senate President Mike Haridopolos, by insisting on driving through the prison plan, risks losing his grip on his chamber...
Indiana's new law turns up the volume on 'right to work' debate in Michigan Legislature  Associated Press   ...The debate over whether Michigan should become a right-to-work state has intensified because of actions in a neighboring state...
Gov. Scott Walker to meet with DA about John Doe investigation Wisconsin Rapids Tribune   ...Gov. Scott Walker said Friday evening that he will be "voluntarily meeting" with the prosecutor leading the secret John Doe investigation that already has brought charges against some of his top aides...
Occupy CPAC  Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO   ...With workshops like “Return of Big Labor: What Can We Learn from Wisconsin & Ohio,” and “Taking back Wall Street: The Tea Party vs. Occupy Wall Street,” the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) descends on the nation’s capital February 9-11 and local labor activists are planning a DC lesson to ensure that the voice of the 99% are heard at this elite conservative gathering...
Agribusiness Fights to Allow Children to Work in Manure Pits Republic Report   ...lobbying is just gross...
Snow plow drivers still negotiating with state KXLH.com   ...The Teamsters are asking for more pay, a different work schedule, and a better reimbursement for health insurance. The employees haven't received a raise in 4 years. In December, the Teamsters voted to strike if they didn't get a deal...

Today's Teamster News 02.04.12

2012-02-04T08:48:00.000-05:00

Dockery to Senate bosses: Just the prison privatization facts, please Orlando Sentinel   ...I have seen no convincing evidence that the state’s current private prisons are saving tax dollars...
How to fight Indiana’s “Right to Work” law Salon   ...To survive after losing the fight in the statehouse, Indiana labor needs to win the fight in a thousand break rooms and living rooms – not just over whether it’s worth paying dues, but whether it’s worth joining the struggle...
Jan Brewer Recall Possible As Arizona Collective Bargaining Has Democrats, Unions Planning Protests Huffington Post   ...State Democrats and union leaders said that plans are in place to launch Wisconsin-style measures in an effort to block the collective bargaining ban measures currently headed to a vote in the Republican-dominated Senate...
How Scott Walker and ALEC Plotted the Attack on Arizona's Unions The Nation   ...Two days after Ohio voters overwhelmingly rejected Governor John Kasich’s anti-labor agenda by a sixty-one to thirty-nine margin in a statewide referendum, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker jetted to Arizona to launch the next front in the national campaign to attack union rights...
Koch Brothers, Allies Pledge $100 Million At Private Meeting To Beat Obama Huffington Post   ...Charles Koch pledged $40 million and David pledged $20 million...
Teamsters reach agreement with Fieldbrook Foods Observer   ...Some 350 production and maintenance workers at Fieldbrook Foods in Dunkirk will be working under a new contract ... (that) ...provides significant increases to wages and benefits...

Teamsters fight back against right-to-work-for-less

2012-02-03T15:28:00.000-05:00

You wouldn't call him a man of his word. But you could call him a weasel.

Hoosier politicians who serve corporations rather than the people who elected them might get the feeling that working people despise them.

~~These corporate manservants~~ They haven't seen anything yet.

The recent passage of right-to-work legislation, by 28-22, has caused a firestorm among Indiana’s working families. They have pledged to fight both the legislation and those politicians who supported it. And our brothers and sisters are leading the charge.

Starting Friday, Feb. 17, International representatives will travel to Indiana to teach business agents about right-to-work-for-less legislation, what it means, how to work under it and, most importantly, how to overturn it.

Bobby Warnock, president of Local 364 in South Bend, said Indiana Teamsters are already developing a statewide program to educate working people—union or not—about the legislation. The core of the training will focus on the politicians who voted in favor of right-to-work legislation and why they voted the way they did. Said Warnock:

We know who supported us and who didn’t. We are going to great pains to reach out to our members, other union members, community supporters, neighbors and friends to tell them who voted for right-to-work. We’re going to remind everyone why these particular politicians voted the way they did.

Unlike Wisconsin, Indiana does not have a recall process. But all of the House seats will be up for election and re-election this November. Through education, perseverance and pure anger, Warnock hopes labor will be out in full force during the election season to vote corporate manservants out of office.

This has woke up a lot of people. The vote count was so close—we lost 28-22. One way of looking at that is, if we could have turned just four people to our side, we wouldn’t be a right-to-work state right now. On the other hand, if four more people who cared about working families had been elected, this wouldn’t have happened. There were people before who weren’t energized and didn’t think they could make a difference. I think that vote count showed them that there is power in the voting booth.

We had a governor who campaigned openly time and time again that he would never support right-to-work. Then, his very last year in office, when he’s not running again, he completely flipped and supported this legislation openly with television and radio ads. When asked who paid for those million-dollar ads, the governor refused to say. That has also angered many people here. People in Indiana feel betrayed.

Warnock encourages Hoosier Teamsters to educate their friends, relatives, and neighbors about what right-to-work will do and who supported the legislation. He encourages Teamsters in other parts of the country to write letters of support to Indiana’s working people and talk openly with any friends, relatives, or business associates they have in Indiana. Said Warnock:

We’re not giving in. It is possible to turn this over, but we’re going to need all the support we can get. Every little bit helps.

Today's Teamster News 02.03.12

2012-02-03T06:00:00.003-05:00

Indiana union president promises no Super Bowl disruptions following right-to-work battle loss Associated Press   ...Nancy Guyott said Thursday that organized labor will take its fight to the ballot box in November rather than Super Bowl celebrations in downtown Indianapolis this week...
Opponents to prison privatization should hold firm (opinion) Tampa Bay Times   ...Any idea too controversial to withstand the scrutiny of the full legislative process — particularly one that transfers public responsibility to for-profit businesses for questionable savings — is not one worth passing...
Leaders wage war on working people (opinion) Arizona Republic   ...in addition to regular working people, Arizona lawmakers are waging war on children, on sick people, on poor people, on teachers and on unions...
Wisconsin Recall: Shooting the Moon blue cheddar   ...Walker raised more than $1 million per week from mid-December to mid-January. According to Mike McCabe, director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, “The governor has raised more than any candidate for any state office in Wisconsin history...”
New poll demonstrates public support for manufacturing, investment in infrastructure manufacturethis.org   ...70% of voters would be “somewhat more inclined” or “much more inclined” to vote for a presidential candidate who "has a very strong position on strengthening manufacturing industries and creating more manufacturing jobs...”
Teamsters Prepare to Strike Northern Ohio Red Cross Local 507   ...More than 200 Teamsters who work as blood collection workers and mobile unit assistants for the American Red Cross in Northern Ohio announced today that they intend to strike on Feb. 14 over concerns about donor safety...

Goodish news on the Sotheby's front, and an awesome story...

2012-02-02T20:04:00.000-05:00

That Upper East Side picket line.

...This is a terrific story about a retired teacher who took the proceeds from an auction sale and donated them to the locked out Teamsters. From ArtInfo:

Sotheby’s union art handlers have been picketing outside the auction house’s Upper East Side flagship for months. It wasn't long before people in the neighborhood began to walk by without paying much attention. One day last fall, Merry Tucker, a retired teacher, was heading to Sotheby’s offices to consign two pieces of Georgian 18th-century silver she had inherited from her mother. Rather than walk right by the Teamsters, she took a pamphlet and read up on the cause. After the sale, she decided to give a portion of the $5,000 she made to the workers, who have been locked out of their jobs since August in a protracted contract dispute.

“I thought, I never did anything to earn this money,” Tucker told us. “My mother stipulated that a lot of her estate go to charity, and when I learned about the workers’ situation I felt a lot of sympathy for them.” Tucker, who said she is appreciative of her own union-obtained health care, was particularly motivated to give after learning that the art handlers’ health insurance expired January 1. (Workers earn unemployment benefits plus an additional $200 a month from their union during the lockout. However, as of the New Year, they are no longer entitled to health care without a contract.) "I was afraid to let them [the union] release my name until I got the money from Sotheby's," Tucker said, "but the check just came."

Meanwhile, negotiations are taking a "slightly better tone," according to Julian Tysh. But the art handlers are standing firm on against Sotheby's attempt to slowly dissolve the union.

Stay strong, brothers!

Inspiration Thursday: 'Union Man Dues'

2012-02-02T19:13:00.000-05:00

In honor of our brothers and sisters in Indiana. Singer-songwriter Turner Corn is a Hoosier and proud member of Laborers Local 795 in New Albany, Ind. The video includes footage of him playing at various spots in Indiana.

Today's Teamster News 02.02.12

2012-02-02T08:50:00.000-05:00

Indiana’s Last ‘Right-To-Work’ Law Failed So Badly It Was Repealed Eight Years Later ThinkProgress   ...Indiana Republicans passed a similar right-to-work law in 1957 over the objections of Democrats, labor leaders, and workers, and the law proved so unpopular that it lasted only eight years...
Prison privatization plan may be crumbling in Florida Senate Orlando Sentinel   ...The plan – scheduled to be debated on the Senate floor Wednesday – was abruptly yanked off the calendar by Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, amid reports that as many as 20 Republicans and Democrats were prepared to kill it...
Teamsters, safety advocates oppose higher truck weight limit bill Detroit News   ...Teamsters President Jim Hoffa ... called it a "recipe for danger and disaster. This legislation is a reckless giveaway to the trucking industry, and corporate greed is at the wheel. The driving public absolutely does not support these radical changes that will endanger our highways. This overhaul will not create jobs. It will damage our roads and bridges, costing taxpayers. It will put lives at risk...."
Apple's Ethical Blindness Selects for Criminal Suppliers in Fraud-Friendly Nations Huffington Post   ...Apple's suppliers' often seek managers willing to order their workers to exceed the lawful workweek, to refuse to pay them for significant portions of the wages they have earned, to unlawfully employ child labor, and even to coerce abortions. American managers are often unreliable in terms of their willingness to engage in these forms of illegality...
US unemployment “progress” FT Alphaville   ...“if the same number of people were seeking work today as in 2007, the jobless rate would be 11 per cent”...
Teamsters, Nichols to resume talks Saturday as Iowa strike continues Platts.com   ...Contract talks are scheduled to resume Saturday between Teamsters Local 371 and Nichols Aluminum in an attempt to end a strike that began January 20 at the company's casting and coil-coating plants in Davenport, Iowa. Local 371 President Howard Spoon said Wednesday it will be their first face-to-face meeting since more than 200 hourly workers launched the first strike at the Davenport plants since 1965...

Teamsters flood Indy for huge protest against RTW4less

2012-02-01T18:48:00.000-05:00

Thousands of working people crowded the Indianapolis streets today to protest the passage of right-to-work-for-less legislation. Our Teamster brothers and sisters were there in force, along with members of other unions, their families, their friends and their neighbors.
As many as 20,000 were estimated to have spoken out against the legislation that will lower wages for all Hoosier working families.

Said labor activist Cathy Sherwin via Twitter:

Hoosier workers as far as I can see!

Another Twitter post read:

Union member Rose has been directing traffic for 25 minutes. Marchers keep coming.

The bill passed 28-22 earlier today, despite shouts of disapproval from ever-growing crowds inside the Statehouse. Later, a rally was held outside the Statehouse lawn, followed by a march to Lucas Oil Stadium, where the Super Bowl will be held.

Here's the AFP on what happened:

While Super Bowl players prepared for Sunday's NFL title showdown, protesting workers marched on the host stadium after a vote Wednesday by Indiana lawmakers to weaken union power in the state.

With thousands of protesters in and around the Statehouse in the shadow of the NFL host hotel, the Indiana Senate voted 28-22 for a bill that forbids companies from making deals with unions that force non-members to pay dues.

"It's a union-busting tactic all the way," said protesting carpenter Mike Coomes. "You just create more poverty. They want us to go back to slavery. We've worked 150 years to get here and they wiped it out in one vote."

Today's Teamster News 02.01.12

2012-02-01T08:48:00.000-05:00

Indiana poised to enter right-to-work era as unions prep protest amid Super Bowl festivities Associated Press   ...The Indiana Senate scheduled a Wednesday morning vote on the bill that, if passed, would be sent to Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, who has said he will sign it as soon as it arrives on his desk...
Prison privatization plan debated in Senate Associated Press   ...Faced with opposition from Republicans and Democrats alike, Senate President Mike Haridopolos cut off debate Tuesday on a South Florida prison privatization plan that once seemed likely to be approved and now is being harshly criticized...
In Atlanta, Housing Woes Reflect Nation’s Pain New York Times   ....In November, prices of single-family homes were down close to 12 percent compared with a year earlier, the largest decline among major metropolitan areas, according to data released on Tuesday in the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index...
Romney’s gift from Congress Reuters   ...The idea that someone could pay zero gift taxes on contributions to a $100 million trust fund may surprise people who have heard arguments that the wealthy are overburdened by gift and estate taxes. But the Romneys’ gift-tax avoidance strategy is perfectly legal...
The Perils of 2012 Project Syndicate   ...The pragmatic commitment to growth that one sees in Asia and other emerging markets today stands in contrast to the West’s misguided policies, which, driven by a combination of ideology and vested interests, almost seem to reflect a commitment not to grow...
Norwood CertainTeed settles contract with Teamsters Local 25 Norwood Patch   ...The employees voted overwhelmingly, 69-0 to accept the contract offer and will be returning to work today with full shingle and granule production beginning at that time...

Security worse at private prisons. Sometimes it's terrible.

2012-01-31T10:34:00.003-05:00

Florida citizens at a meeting opposing prison closures and privatization last night in Jefferson County.

Private correctional facilities are a really, really bad idea. They don't save taxpayers' money because corporations need to make a profit.

And they're dangerous. Murderers, rapists and thieves are more likely to escape a private prison than a government-run institution, according to a nationwide study by researchers at the Federal Bureau of Prisons Office of Research and Evaluation.

Just this month, an inmate pleaded guilty to murdering Gary and Linda Haas, an Oklahoma couple on vacation in August 2010. He and two others had escaped from Arizona State Prison, which is run by Management And Training Corporation. Arizona's Department of Corrections issued a scathing assessment of the poor security and undertrained corrections officers. They actually ignored the alarm that sounded when the inmates cut the fence to escape.

Florida lawmakers want to turn nearly half of Florida's prisons over to a corporation -- though violent inmates have escaped from prisons run by GEO Group Inc. and the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the two companies vying to run Florida’s privatized prisons.

Here are just a few of the delightful things that happened in money-making prisons:

In February 2008, a notorious rapist escaped for two days from a civil commitment center in Arcadia, Fla, according to the Tampa Bay Times. GEO Group ran the facility, which treats sex offenders too dangerous to be released. The escapee, Bruce Alan Young, is a former nurse convicted of raping seven female patients while they were sedated, including a 15-year-old girl at Citrus Memorial Hospital.

Two years ago, three dangerous inmates escaped from the Allen Correctional Center, a GEO facility, in Kinder, La. The Town Talk tells us government law enforcement officers brought them in.

CCA mistakenly released nine inmates from the Bay County Jail Annex in Florida in 2007. Six inmates escaped from the CCA-run Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in the summer of 1998. Four were in prison for murder and one was serving time for armed robbery. One of the inmates eluded capture for more than a month.

See why this is a bad idea? You can sign this petition to oppose prison privatization in Florida here.

Today's Teamster News 01.31.12

2012-01-31T07:07:00.000-05:00

Indiana right-to-work bill heading for final vote ABC News   ...An Indiana Senate committee has passed a right-to-work bill, and Governor Mitch Daniels says he is ready to sign the bill once it clears the full senate. The bill is expected to clear the senate on Wednesday...
Senate expected to begin floor debate on South Florida prison privatization plan Associated Press   ...Debate on the bill (CS/CS/SB 2038) is set for Tuesday and a vote is expected Wednesday...
Bills to change workers' rights high on state Senate's agenda St. Louis Beacon   ...Greater St. Louis Labor Council president Bob Soutier ...(said) the debate in the Missouri General Assembly over worker-related legislation is part of a national agenda orchestrated by big business...
Second Year In, Republican Governors Moderate Tone New York Times   ...more laws that aim to curb the power of unions are being pursued in a number of states this year...
Hoeven-Lugar-Vitter, Bipartisan Group of Senators to Introduce Legislation to Approve the Keystone XL Pipeline U.S. Sen. John Hoeven   ...U.S. Senators John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), David Vitter (R-La.) and a total of 44 senators today announced that they will introduce legislation to approve the Keystone XL pipeline project under Congress’s authority enumerated in the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 8...
US economy stumbles Macrobusiness   ...consumer spending has stalled as consumers return to tucking away this income boost as savings...
Hostess asks judge to slash union obligations  Associated Press   ...The Teamsters union issued a swift rebuke on Thursday, saying Hostess was trying to "bully" its way out of obligations to its employees...

The Muppets respond to Fox News

2012-01-30T15:54:00.000-05:00

MSNBC reminds us how Fox went after the Muppets last month:

Eric Bolling of FOX Business' "Follow the Money" took "The Muppets" to task last December as an example of how "liberal media" tries to "brainwash our kids" against big business -- specifically big oil.

Well, at a recent press conference in the United Kingdom to promote the film, frog and pig fought back. Asks Kermit: "If we had problems with oil companies, why would we have spent the entire film driving around in a gas-guzzling Rolls Royce?"

Miss Piggy, though, gets in the real zinger. Watch.