Today's Teamster News 06.01.15

Teamsters
Strike at Del. soft drink distributor slows soda flow  Delaware Online  ...A nearly two-week strike by workers at a soft drink distribution center in New Castle shows no signs of ending soon, leaving some stores running low on certain brands of soda and bottled water. "The last offer the company put forward didn't have any of the changes the workers were looking for," said Joe Smith, president of Teamsters Local 326, which represents the striking workers...
Tracy Morgan Settles In Fatal Tractor-Trailer Crash As House Works To Make Highways More Dangerous  Think Progress  ...Whether its pay-per-mile, sleep rules, or the physical arrangement of a truck, the FMCSA’s job is to create a system that addresses those lowest common denominators — but the regulator won’t be free to do so if the current House transportation funding bill becomes law...

Global Labor & Trade
Obama's Trade Agenda Faces Tougher Odds Heading Into House  Associated Press  ...After several near death experiences in the Senate, the trade agenda that President Barack Obama is pushing as a second term capstone faces its biggest hurdle yet in the more polarized House. Anti-trade forces have struggled to ignite public outrage over Obama's bid to enact new free-trade agreements, but Democratic opposition in Congress remains widespread...
House trade vote will be tight, like in 2001  Politico  ...House Republicans hoped to avoid a replay of the gut-wrenchingly close vote on fast track trade legislation that took place in 2001, but stiff Democratic opposition makes it likely history will repeat itself. The bill is expected to hit the floor in coming weeks, but with a number of Democratic and Republican votes still up in the air, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy was non-committal on Friday about the exact timing...
Obama Seeks Rare Business Support  Wall Street Journal  ...President  Barack Obama, who frequently has tussled with corporate America, now is relying heavily on an array of large U.S. companies to help enact a major Pacific trade deal. From Hollywood studios to drug makers and manufacturers, such as  Caterpillar Inc.,  some major American companies are lending key support in the complicated push to negotiate the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership...

Obama’s Trade Deal Faces Bipartisan Peril in the House  New York Times  ...The bruising battle over President Obama’s push for the power to negotiate two potentially far-reaching trade pacts will shift this week to the House, where the White House faces entrenched opposition from Democrats and the stirring of rebellion from the Republicans’ right flank...
Arguments for TPP don’t make sense  (opinion) Boston Globe  ...It is absurd to imagine that TPP could wrest China — soon to be the world’s largest economy — from a preeminent role in Asia. The United States is far more likely to buttress its influence in Asia by leveraging rising Chinese prosperity and working with China than by ignoring it or attempting to bypass it...
Obama is no progressive: Why Teddy Roosevelt is grousing in his grave  (opinion) Salon  ...Given that reality, insisting that “TPP will end up being the most progressive trade agreement in our history” – in the most benevolent interpretation — is at best an attempt to engage in focus-grouped wordsmithing. Ultimately, Mr. Obama leaves no other conclusion than that at heart he is an unabashed corporatist, protecting the interests of large corporations...
The Limited ''Victory'' Won by Mexican Farm Workers  Truthout  ...The farm workers of the San Quintin Valley have gotten the federal government to commit to facilitating negotiations for a wage hike, the central demand of the more than 80,000 agricultural laborers in this region of Baja California. But Lucila Hermandez, a spokesperson for the movement, warns that the agreement is still not a clear victory...
Network Rail strike talks to go into fourth day  BBC  ...Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union members are set to hold a 24-hour strike from 17:00 BST on 4 June and a 48-hour strike from 17:00 BST on 9 June. On Thursday the union rejected a fresh pay offer by Network Rail. Both sides have been talking with conciliation service Acas since Friday...

State & Living Wage Battles
Will Connecticut Go Robin Hood on Low-Wage Bosses?  The Nation  ...Call it a Robin Hood Tax for big-box stores: take from the rich to give to the poor, by forcing companies that pay unlivable wages to support the public benefits that impoverished workers need to survive. According to one economic assessment, the “true cost” of low-wage jobs in Connecticut amounts to some $486 million per year paid through various public welfare programs. So the logic goes, the most heavily state-subsidized companies should pay their fair share...
Texas Lawmakers Are Busy Making It Harder to Vote  Truthout  ...One measure (HB 1096) that would make it more difficult for voters to confirm their residency recently cleared the House. Another bill approved by the Senate (SB 1934) would eliminate nonexpiring photo identification cards for the state’s senior citizens. Because unexpired photo IDs or IDs that have been expired no more than 60 days are required to vote, this change would make it even harder for Texas seniors to get their ballots counted...
An American workplace war that's reached a tipping point  CNBC  ...With Wisconsin's adoption of so-called right-to-work legislation earlier this year, 25 states now prohibit mandatory union dues, and with legislation being pushed in several more states, the right-to-work movement is talking about a national "tipping point"...
Kansas Republicans Finally Consider Changing Course On Their ‘Tea Party Experiment’  Think Progress  ...Republicans in Kansas, facing a $400 million budget hole due to tax cuts pushed by Gov. Sam Brownback, are now finally considering raising taxes to compensate for the shortfall. Legislators are considering rolling back an exemption on nonwage income for small businesses they passed a few years ago and replacing it with a 1 percent tax credit...

U.S. Labor
If You’re In A Nail Salon In New York, You’ll Now See A Workers’ Bill Of Rights On The Wall  Think Progress  ...All nail salons in New York City will now be required to display a “manicurists’ bill of rights” that’s easily visible to both employees and customers — the latest attempt from city officials to crack down on the rampant labor abuses in the industry detailed in a recent New York Times investigation...
California Walmart Workers Go on Hunger Strike After Stores Closed in ‘Retaliation’ for Organizing  In These Times  ...With tents and sleeping bags in tow, workers set up camp outside a Los Angeles Walmart this week and held a one-day fast to protest the corporation’s retaliation against their organizing. Walmart recently closed five stores, including one in Pico Rivera, California, where workers were especially active in OUR Walmart, the Food and Commercial Workers-backed effort to boost standards at the retail giant...
NLRB Certifies USW Representation for Workers at Golden Dragon Copper  PR Newswire  ...The United Steelworkers (USW) today said that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has certified the union as the exclusive bargaining representative for production, maintenance and warehouse workers at Golden Dragon Copper. In a very close, secret ballot election conducted on Nov. 7, 2014, workers at Golden Dragon voted in favor of USW representation, even after outsiders, including Gov. Robert Bentley, campaigned against the union...
Elizabeth Warren Gets Job Security and the Uber-ization of the Economy Completely Wrong  Alternet  ...Her remarks in response to moderators talking about the rise of Uber-style contract-based part-time work were less inspiring. She dismissed these concerns as primarily about technology, not the nature of work, and then later failed to answer a question asking if Uber-style contract workers should be classified as full-time employees, which would give them greater rights...

Miscellaneous
Foreclosed nation: Wall Street, the dispossessed & the quality of American democracy  Salon  ...Why has the continued crisis of dispossession not been treated as a national emergency? Given the scale of the foreclosure crisis, the policy response has been muted. Congress and the Obama administration have repeatedly rejected demands for a national moratorium on mortgage foreclosures. Legislators in several states introduced foreclosure moratorium bills, but few states enacted them...
Emergency bridge repairs to snarl Virginia-to-D.C. traffic  Daily Kos  ...There are 61,000 structurally deficient bridges in the United States, but transportation is on the long list of things congressional Republicans refuse to invest in. A two-month bill extending the Highway Trust Fund recently passed, but two months of funding makes it more than a little difficult to do long-term planning and investment...

Teamsters fight for good jobs, then train members to do them right

Teamster pipeliners

The Teamsters Union is helping members get pipeline construction jobs because they are good American jobs. They pay a fair wage for a hard day's work, provide benefits and give workers a chance to build a better life for themselves and their children.

Teamsters have helped build more than 25,000 miles of pipeline with union contractors. On one job, a contractor may have more than 100 trucks to deliver pipe, sand and gravel. Suppliers need trucks to deliver propane, ready mix, fuel oil and steel. They need trucks to remove waste as well.

Pipeline contractors prefer union labor because (a) it's the best and (b) they known they'll have harmony on the job. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters identified pipeline projects and then advised locals on how to approach suppliers and how to unionize their work forces. The IBT also trained Teamster members to do specific jobs and get certified on them. In Minnesota, Teamster Local 346's principal officer Pat Radzak met with the Ready Mix company. He told them they could get two months of work if they had union workers on the job. The Teamsters organized and Ready Mix got what was promised.

Teamsters have worked on pipelines in the East, on pipelines in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey. They've worked on them throughout the Midwest and in the Rocky Mountains. They've worked on the Florida Gas and Tiger pipeline that goes through Texas, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida. They've also worked on the Ruby Project, a pipeline traversing Oregon, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.

Teamsters have been fighting hard for approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which will create many more good-paying pipeline jobs.

Now, Teamsters Local 891 and Teamsters Local 991 will sponsor a pipeline training program in Lucedale, Miss., on Aug. 10. Teamster drivers who take the training will learn about the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's new regulations to reduce accidents.

Drivers need to understand the new federal regulation. Violations under the new rule could follow drivers from workplace to workplace. The training will help Teamsters protect their driving records -- and potential future employment as a driver.

The training is free, but you have to sign up. If you're interested, call Rex Creel (601) 624-4296 (Local 891) or Jesse Braggs (251) 408-1393 (Local 991).

The training isn't just for Teamsters who work on pipelines, but for all commercial drivers. For more information, click here.

Today's Teamster News 04.11.14

Teamster News
After Protests, Teamsters Take Over An Art Fair  Crain's New York Business   ...After facing protests last year, the Randall's Island Art Fair has agreed to employ Teamsters and theater union members to set up tents and temporary galleries for the show that begins May 9...
Greece School District Teamsters Approve Contract   International Brotherhood of Teamsters   ...Teamsters Local 118 in Rochester, N.Y. is pleased to announce the ratification of a new four-year agreement with Greece Central School District...
North Las Vegas Teamsters, firefighters OK settlements with struggling city  Las Vegas Review-Journal   ...officials had settled with half of the city’s union heads for exactly $3.35 million — the settlement figure City Council members offered city Teamsters and firefighters early this month...
Starving Artists Fed Up; Seek To Establish Industry Standards With Teamsters Local 705  Digital Journal   ...Teamsters and artists may seem like an unlikely combination, but professional artists at Chicago's Mana Terry Dowd fine art packers and movers are organizing in an effort to establish income and benefit standards in their profession...
Polk Township Road Crew Workers Ratify Teamster Contract  Gnomes   ...Road crew workers employed by Polk Township, PA have recently voted for their first Teamster contract and to be represented by Teamsters Local 773 in Allentown...
Trade
H&M calls for faster factory inspections in Bangladesh  Reuters   ...Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), the world's second-biggest fashion retailer, said on Thursday Bangladesh needed to speed up inspections of its garment industry, almost a year after the collapse of a factory that killed more than 1,100 people...
U.S. Claims Country Building Its Own Network to Protect Against NSA Spying Violates Trade Laws  Washington's Blog   ...The U.S. is trying to not only protect U.S. businesses, but also keep the NSA’s hand in the cookie jar by arguing (wait for it…) that closing borders to the NSA would violate trade law...
State Battles
Corker, Haslam Subpoenaed By UAW For Volkswagon Appeal  Talking Points Memo   ...The United Auto Workers on Wednesday subpoenaed Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) and Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam (R), along with 18 other officials, for the union's challenge of the Chattanooga, Tenn. Volkswagon plant workers' vote to reject unionization, the Associated Press reported...
New Rule Prohibits Voters In Miami-Dade County From Using The Restroom, No Matter How Long The Line  ThinkProgress   ...Earlier this year, the Miami-Dade County Elections Department quietly implemented a policy to close the bathrooms at all polling facilities...
War on Workers
Getting Walmart Workers Off Food Stamps Would Cost Customers Barely Anything  Huffington Post   ...Would you be willing to spend one penny more for a box of macaroni and cheese if it meant that Walmart workers would no longer need food stamps to survive? Because that's all it would cost, according to an analysis by American Public Media’s Marketplace...
Koch Brothers Received Millions In Obamacare Subsidies  ThinkProgress   ...Charles and David Koch may have spent millions of dollars opposing President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, but that didn’t stop them from benefiting from the law to the tune of $1.4 million in subsidies...
Billionaires Score Big Win With McCutcheon Decision  Truthout   ...The Supreme Court’s McCutcheon ruling dealt another 5-4 body blow to our democracy...
The NCAA Makes Billions and Student Athletes Get None of It  StudentNation   ...Despite devoting forty to sixty hours per week to their sport most of the year, Division I football players lack basic economic rights under the NCAA’s cartel restrictions...
Do You Know Where Your Government Uniform Was Made?  The Nation   ...Despite some laudatory local and state efforts, taxpayer dollars are still being used to purchase clothes made in sweatshops...
The Worst Cash Rip-Off Since Bank Fees? Behold an Infuriating New Scheme to Sap Your Money  AlterNet   ...If prepaid debit cards sound too good to be true, it's because they're a scam. Here's the hidden truth behind them...
Family Dollar to cut jobs, shut 370 stores as sales fall  Reuters   ...The discount retailer, which caters to lower income shoppers--many of whom live from paycheck to paycheck, said it would it would cut jobs, shut hundreds of underperforming stores and slash prices...
Uninsured Greek patients with contagious diseases are being left untreated, voluntary health clinic warns EnetEnglish ...One health clinic in Greece warned that uninsured patients have contagious and serious diseases but are left untreated due to austerity...
Miscellaneous
Senator Durbin Asks For IG Investigation into Federal Agency's Oversight of Trucking Companies With a History of Violations  eNews Park Forest   ...U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) asked the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Inspector General (IG) to audit the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s investigative practices after a report that the FMCSA ordered, but never actually launched, an investigation into an Illinois motor carrier with a long history of violating safety rules...

Today's Teamster News 10.19.13

Teamsters Stop FMCSA Attack on Truck Drivers  teamster.org   ...The Teamsters Union helped score a victory for truck drivers this week when H.R. 3095 was signed into law compelling the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to follow the formal rulemaking process to set strict guidelines for when they can require screening, testing and treatment for sleep apnea...
Star-Ledger unions ratify new 4-year contracts, agree to buyouts   Star-Ledger   ...After months of negotiations under the cloud of a threatened shutdown of the state’s largest newspaper, the Star-Ledger’s production unions, including the Teamsters Union, have ratified new four-year contracts, agreeing to buyout packages for at least 55 workers...
Since End of U.S. Recession, More Seniors in Workforce  Gallup   ... There has been a three-point increase since 2010 in the percentage of Americans aged 65 and older who are in the workforce -- employed full time through an employer, self-employed, working part time, or unemployed but actively searching for work. At the same time, there has been a two-point decrease in the percentage of Americans aged 18 to 29 who are in the workforce...
Millennials still lag in forming their own households  Pew Research   ... most Millennials (adults ages 18 to 32) are still not setting out on their own. As of March 2013, only about one-in-three Millennials (34%) headed up their own household...
Is The Debt Still Worth The Degree?  zero hedge   ...The price of a college education has increased 1,000% or more over the past 3 decades...
You Thought the Government Shutdown Was Over. You Were Wrong. New Republic ...It was an awful time. Federal employees had to take unpaid furlough days. Beneficiaries were thrown off of federal programs. Courthouses had to be sold. Federal agencies like the FBI, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health strained to meet commitments, leading to more crime, more outbreaks of disease and less basic research, among other horrors. This may sound like a description of the recent government shutdown, which ended October 16. But this describes the fallout from sequestration...
Pro-Coal Kids' Pages Pulled from Government Site as Public Pressure Increases Alternet ...The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity has removed coal-related educational sections from its website, less than two weeks after the launch of a grassroots campaign demanding that the pages be taken down...
Food Stamp Outage Highlights Problems With Privatization of Public Services  Truthout   ...Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), a subsidiary of Xerox since 2000 that specializes in privatizing government administrative services for the most economically vulnerable Americans, has taken heat in the past for siphoning excessive fees from welfare recipients, mismanaging Medicaid payment systems, and failing to complete multimillion dollar contracts for public agencies...
"Fix the Debt's" "Fix the Debt Q&A" needs to be fixed (hilarious)  Storify   ..."Fix the Debt" decided to have a Twitter Q&A about fixing the debt. I'm not sure it went the way they wanted...
How Mexico is upending the U.S. auto industry  Washington Post ...More U.S. automakers have been shifting their plants south of the border, attracted by Mexico's lower wages and dense industrial clusters…
States Clamping Down on Workers Mislabeled as Contractors  Bloomberg News   ...When construction slowed during the recession, some companies hired workers and wrongly designated them as independent contractors to avoid paying insurance, taxes, fair wages and overtime...
Scott Walker Steers State Funds to Union Busters  PolicyMic   ...Scott Walker (R-Wisc.) made headlines in 2011 with his plans to bust public sector unions and strip unions of their collective bargaining powers, which led to mass protests in the Madison Capitol building. Now he is back with his latest contribution to increasing jobs in Wisconsin: making them up and steering them to his supporters...
Moral Monday Leader Comes To Boone Oct. 28  High Country Press   ...Moral Monday leader Rev. William Barber II will address “The Necessity of a Moral Movement in North Carolina and the Nation” on Monday, Oct. 28...
BART strike: About 400,000 S.F.-area commuters to be affected  Los Angeles Times   ...Bay Area residents were without commuter rail service and facing a morning of frustration Friday as BART workers went on strike after a week of marathon negotiation collapsed overnight...
Michigan Walmart worker says he was fired for helping assaulted woman  Associated Press ...A Michigan man says he was fired from his job at Walmart after he tried to help a woman being assaulted in the parking lot of one of the retail giant's stores and ended up fighting with her attacker...
Wal-Mart workers on strike, defying firings  The Salon   ...In protest of paltry hours and defiance of firings, over 80 Wal-Mart workers in Hialeah, Florida walk off the job...
The U.S. Blows Everyone Else Out Of The Water In 1 Key Way  Huffington Post   ...That one way? We're really, really good at creating really, really rich people -- like, $50 million-plus rich. Just ignore the fact that our 400 wealthiest people are worth more than the entire bottom half of the country combined. Look at the chart…
Krugman on GOP’s “top-down class warfare”  The Salon   ...The New York Times columnist explains how the GOP policies have stalled a true economic recovery...
McDonald's Has Their Hands in All of Our Pockets  AlterNet   ...Do you want to pay for billion dollar companies to make more money? Of course not, but in recent studies, we learned that we are, in fact, playing billions of dollar to support low-wage fast food workers for America's top seven restaurant chains...
Euro Capitals Tighten Fiscal Leash as EU Polices Cuts  Bloomberg News   ...Even with the 17-nation euro area projecting economic expansion next year, policy makers are keeping a fiscal leash on growth by maintaining austerity policies to save the euro...

Teamsters score major victory over sleep apnea guidance

Here's good news for Teamster truck drivers and anyone who turns a key for a living: Teamsters who might be at risk for sleep apnea won't have to undergo costly tests or lose time at work because of federal regulators.  The International Brotherhood of Teamsters successfully lobbied Congress to force federal trucking regulators to set strict guidelines for when they can require screening, testing and treatment for sleep apnea.

The House and Senate passed the bill unanimously, and President Obama signed it into law earlier this week. Now, federal regulators will have to listen to the Teamsters, owner-operators, trucking and bus associations and YOU before issuing regulations on sleep apnea.

This is a good thing because regulators were coming up with "guidance" for testing and treating sleep apnea for truckers and other CDL holders. That "guidance" could have cost commercial truck drivers thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket expenses. It could have cost them their jobs.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) actually stated that 28 percent of CDL holders have sleep apnea. FMCSA's guidance in 2012 set arbitrary standards -- like 17-inch necks and certain body mass indexes -- that would have forced many Teamsters to go through the potentially costly testing.

Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa said in a statement, We cannot allow federal regulators to make uninformed decisions that will cost millions of people a lot of money that they can’t afford to spend right now... 

This law, which passed the House with a unanimous vote, protects millions of working men and women who turn a key for a living from being forced to spend money on a test they may not need at the whim of a federal agency.

The new law won't absolutely prevent doctors from referring certain drivers for testing during their medical exams, it will postpone mandatory screening for three years or more.  During that time, you can be sure the Teamsters' voices will be heard!

Today's Teamster News 10.04.13

Teamsters Across Washington Support Local Grocery Store Workers  teamster.org   ...The Joint Council of Teamsters No. 28, which represents more than 50,000 members and their families across Washington, Alaska and Northern Idaho, says it will honor a grocery worker strike if one occurs...
Agreement reached with public works, police talks go on  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette   ...Public works and parks employees, who are represented by Teamsters Local 249 in Pittsburgh, have reached a contract with the borough of Franklin Park, Pennsylvania...
Report Suggests Commercial Waste Management Reform  Epoch Times   ...“Growing up, jobs in the sanitation industry were good paying jobs with good pension plans. Now the majority of private owners pay very low wages and little in benefits. Many break the most basic health and safety regulations,” said Sean Campbell, a former garbage truck driver and current president of Teamsters Local 813...
Corporate Profits Are Soaring, But You're Not Feeling It  Huffington Post   ...real wages have declined by nearly seven percent in the past seven years, while, corporate profits have increased by 18.6 percent over the past year...
Democrats Balk at Obama’s Fast-Track on Pacific Trade  Bloomberg News   ...Some Democrats in Congress, whose support Barack Obama needs for trade accords, want to put the brakes on a Pacific-region deal just as the president prepares to meet with leaders of nations drafting the pact...
Sorry Charlie? American-made tuna claim questioned  manufacture this   ...”Foreign flag vessels, using who knows what gear type, no traceability, canned in Samoa. Hilarious..."
FMCSA Taking Comments on Mexican Truck Program Applicant  Transport Topics   ...The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is allowing the public to comment on an application by Transportation and Cargo Solutions S de RL de CV to participate in the Mexican cross-border trucking pilot program...
Thousands march to mark anniversary of infamous Mexico City protest  AFP   ...Protesters clashed with riot police in Mexico City, leaving dozens injured as thousands of people marched to mark the anniversary of the 1968 massacre of students...
Happy 100th Birthday Income Taxes! Or How the Rich Have Gamed the System to Pay a Smaller Share  AlterNet   ...October 3 marked the 100th anniversary of the federal income tax. That is, the income tax that we have today – the first US tax raised on earned incomes was a temporary one imposed to help pay for the War of 1812. Another helped pay for the Civil War, but was allowed to expire in 1872...
Google and ExxonMobil run rings around outdated tax laws  The Conversation   ... ExxonMobil (has a) ... Spanish subsidiary (that) operated for a while from the same address as its auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers. The Spanish company apparently had one employee on an annual salary of €55,000, but it reported net profits of €9.9 billion for the period 2009 to 2011. The key to this was a strategy designed to take advantage of Spanish laws for attracting foreign investment...
Coal Use Falling, Proof of Progress to Low-Carbon Future  Oil Price   ...The vehemence in this pace of growth has led the IEA to project that coal consumption will challenge oil as the top global energy source by 2017. From this point, however, its reign will wane as an increasing emphasis is placed on other more clean-burning fuels...
Now the Government Shutdown Is Stopping Blood Drives  Mother Jones   ... in just two days, four federal agency blood drives scheduled by one DC-area health care system have been canceled. The regional Red Cross has had to cancel six others in the Washington region...
The Republican Hardliners Aren't Conservatives, They're Radicals  The Atlantic   ...The legislators driving the direction of the GOP aren't interested in smart, limited government. They're aiming to eviscerate even the parts that work well...
NSA director admits to misleading public on terror plots  Salon   ...The Vermont Democrat then asked the NSA chief to admit that only 13 out of a previously cited 54 cases of foiled plots were genuinely the fruits of the government’s vast dragnet surveillance systems...
Treasury Says Mere Prospect of Default May Harm Economy  New York Times   ...The debt-limit impasse could cause credit markets to freeze, the dollar to plummet and interest rates to rise precipitously with catastrophic effects, according to a Treasury Department released Thursday...
Apple now hoards 10% of US corporate cash  Money Control   ...After the technology sector, the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry is the next most cash-flush sector, according to Moodys. Pfizer for example, is sitting on a USD 50 billion cash pile...
BP wins appeal of spill claims ruling  Associated Press   ...A federal appeals court on Wednesday revived BP’s claims that a judge’s interpretation of a settlement over its 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could force the company to pay billions of dollars for bogus or inflated claims by businesses...
Florida prison healthcare providers sued hundreds of times  Miami Herald   ...The Florida Department of Corrections awarded a five-year, $1.2 billion contract to provide medical care for thousands of state prisoners in North and Central Florida to a Tennessee company that was sued 660 times for malpractice in the past five years...
New RTW Battles in Michigan and Ontario  Democracy Tree   ...Two new right-to-work threats to report: one in Michigan against the non-union, dues-based State Bar of Michigan, and another across the border in Ontario. Michigan attorneys are firing back against the shadowy forces behind RTW. The Koch brothers should be warned: Don’t piss-off 43,600 lawyers...
Detroit residents cope with bankruptcy in daily lives  USA TODAY   ...Here are some far-reaching effects of the city’s lack of operating funds on both its citizens and workers...
Trade unions rail against non-union worksite  Philadelphia Inquirer   ...Philadelphia Trade unions have taken their dispute with developers Michael and Matthew Pestronk to a new level, producing a sleek documentary that accuses the brothers of safety and health violations at their signature project, the unfinished Goldtex building...