Jobs may be up, but workers are still struggling

There have been a lot of words written in the last few years about income inequality. That is a good thing -- it is a problem that is gripping many American families as they struggle to make ends meet despite holding down jobs.

Infrastructure investment creates good-paying jobs.

But what does the term really mean? At a time when more and more people are working, things should be looking up, right? Well, no. Just because there are more low-wage jobs doesn't mean more workers can support themselves. And a recent survey by the Federal Reserve Board really drove home that point.

While there are some signs that Americans feel a bit more confident about their family's economic well-being, it doesn't mean they are prepared for an emergency where they would need money in a hurry. The Federal Reserve notes:

The survey results reveal a lack of economic preparedness among many adults. Only 53 percent of respondents indicate that they could cover a hypothetical emergency expense costing $400 without selling something or borrowing money. Thirty-one percent of respondents report going without some form of medical care in the past year because they could not afford it.

And the news isn't much better when it comes to retirement. The study finds too many workers are not prepared for their golden years and many just plan to keep working:

Thirty-one percent of non-retirees have no retirement savings or pension, including nearly a quarter of those older than 45. Even among individuals who are saving, fewer than half of adults with self-directed retirement savings are mostly or very confident in their ability to make the right investment decisions when managing their retirement savings. 

Consistent with a lack of preparedness for retirement, 38 percent of non-retired respondents say that they either do not plan to retire or plan to keep working as long as possible. Among lower-income respondents, whose household income is less than $40,000 per year, 55 percent plan to keep working as long as possible or never plan to retire.

This nation needs an action plan to create middle-class jobs. It starts by investing in infrastructure that will create better roads, better transit and better energy networks. That would help not only workers but businesses as well. And it would boost the U.S. economy.

Workers shouldn't have to struggle to keep a roof over their heads. Elected officials need to value their contributions to society as much as they seem to value big business' campaign contributions. Now is the time to build, repair and maintain America!

Today's Teamster News 03.31.15

Teamsters
Techs At St. Vincent Hospital Seek To Unionize  Worcester Telegram   ...Approximately 200 technicians have applied to the Boston bureau of the National Labor Relations Board for an election to join Teamsters Local 170 in Worcester...
As Dark Money Monsters Torment Investors, Shareholders Need SEC Chair To Be Superhero; They Ask: ‘Where Is Mary Jo White?’  Public Citizen   ...Jim Hoffa, general president, Teamsters. The Teamsters invest more than $100 billion in the capital markets through affiliated pension and benefit funds...
Trade
U.S.-Korea Trade Deal Resulted In Growing Trade Deficits And More Than 75,000 Lost U.S. Jobs  Economic Policy Institute   ...March 15th was the third anniversary of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS). President Obama said that the agreement would support 70,000 U.S. jobs...
Digital Rights Activists Use Jumbotron ‘Film Fest’ To Pressure Ron Wyden  Go Local PDX   ...The Digital Rights group Fight for the Future, a posse of internet activists currently campaigning against an international trade deal they say would give officials too much power to censor online content, brought its message to Capitol Hill Monday...
City Council Opposes Fast Track For Pacific Rim Trade Pact  Seattle Times   ...Seattle City Council on Monday unanimously passed a resolution opposing the so-called fast-track consideration of the Trans-Pacific Partnership...
UAW, Dems Rally Against TPP Trade Agreement  Detroit News   ...Lortz, who works at the Toledo Assembly Complex producing the Jeep Cherokee, was one of hundreds of union members and others to attend an anti-TPP forum featuring U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo, and local UAW leaders...
State Battles
Indiana Lawmakers Try To Quiet Firestorm Surrounding New Law  Associated Press   ...Gov. Mike Pence called off public appearances Monday and sports officials planned an "Indy Welcomes All" campaign ahead of this weekend's Final Four as lawmakers scrambled to quiet the firestorm over a new law that has much of the country portraying Indiana as a state of intolerance...
Senate To Consider Bill Raising Washington's Minimum Wage  News Tribune   ...A bill to raise Washington's highest-in-the-nation state minimum wage to $12-an-hour with a series of annual 50-cent increases is set to get a hearing in the state Senate...
War on Workers
Movement To Increase McDonald’s Minimum Wage Broadens Its Tactics  New York Times   ...in the wave of actions on April 15, organizers say more than 60,000 people will join strikes and protests in 200 cities nationwide...
NLRB To Weigh In On High-Stakes McDonald’s Labor Dispute  The Hill   ...An NLRB administrative law judge on Monday will begin weighing whether McDonald’s should be responsible for what employees say are poor working conditions and low pay at many of its franchise restaurants. A finding in the affirmative would mark the first time that a major franchisor would be found culpable for labor violations at individual chains...
U.S. Signed Agreement With Mexico To Teach Immigrants To Unionize  Washington Examiner   ...The federal government has signed agreements with three foreign countries — Mexico, Ecuador and the Philippines — to establish outreach programs to teach immigrants their rights to engage in labor organizing in the U.S...
After A Story Is Published, A Minimum Wage Worker Loses Her Job   Washington Post   ...When I wrote about her in The Post last month, she said the minimum wage hike would bring her a bit of financial relief, but it wouldn’t lift her above the poverty line. She called me the other day to say she didn’t get to enjoy the 25-cent hike for long...
Legions Of Women Workers In U.S. Still Lack Minimum Wage And Labor Protections  American Prospect   ...Today, the National Labor Relations Act still excludes domestic workers and farm laborers, and the Fair Labor Standards Act does not require overtime for farmworkers or even the minimum wage or overtime for many domestic workers. The implications of these exclusions have been profound, denying a growing workforce the basic workplace protections most of us take for granted...
In Surprise Show Of Support, Filibuster-Proof Senate Majority Backs Paid Sick Leave  Washington Post   ...Just a few weeks ago, the Healthy Families Act — which would allow employees to earn up to seven days of paid sick leave — seemed like just another White House proposal doomed to die in the newly Republican Senate. But this afternoon, it gained a surprise vote of confidence: 61 senators voted for an amendment to the budget that would do essentially the same thing...
Lawmakers Aim To Toughen Laws On Oil Trains  Herald Net   ...A spate of oil train accidents the past two years has fueled state and federal lawmakers' concerns about the ability of railroads to safely transport the material and the capability of communities to respond to an incident...
Don't Undermine Open Skies (opinion)  USA Today   ...The big three U.S. carriers — United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines — are rightly asking the Department of Transportation to initiate talks with the UAE and Qatar over their estimated $40 billion in subsidies over a decade...
Miami Beach Maintenance Worker Killed By Flying Tabletop  Miami Herald   ...A Miami Beach maintenance worker was killed Friday night in what police called an unfortunate accident caused by bad weather...
Worker Killed In Blast At Berks Plant  Allentown Morning Call   ...Authorities say a worker was killed in an explosion at an eastern Pennsylvania manufacturing plant...
Miscellaneous
Amazon Tests Delivery Drones At Secret Canada Site After US Frustration  The Guardian   ...The company wants to offer its customers the ability to have packages dropped on their doorstep by flying robots within 30 minutes of ordering goods online. With innovation in the drone sector reaching lightning speeds, Amazon said it was not prepared to curtail its ambitions because of what Misener said was a lack of “impetus” on the US side of the border...

Today's Teamster News 03.20.15

Teamsters
Teamsters Allege "Eavesdropping" At San Francisco Zoo, Management Says Technology Was Meant For Medical Emergencies  KNTV   ...The union representing scores of workers at the San Francisco Zoo says management is spying on employees' private conversations — but the zoo says its radio monitoring system was put in place for medical emergencies and denied the eavesdropping claims. Still, the executive director vowed to swiftly investigate the spying allegations...
CCSD Support Staff Union Leadership In Trouble After Challenge  Las Vegas Review Journal   ...A decade long fight between the two unions came to a head earlier this year when 71 percent of workers who voted in a special election backed the Teamsters. However, only 5,190 votes were cast, which was short of the supermajority the Nevada Supreme Court has ruled is needed for one union to oust another...
Transit, shuttle workers get new contract from COG  Sharon Herald   ...Mercer County Regional Council of Governments on Wednesday approved a contract with public transportation drivers, mechanics and washers that gives workers a pay hike but also institutes health-care co-pays and reduces some sick and holiday benefits...
Bremerton approves pay increase for Teamsters  Kitsap Sun   ... The City Council has approved a 2.5 percent bump in pay for its management and for city employees represented by the Teamsters union...
Shell oilsands workers to carry electronic trackers on the job  CBC News   ...The technology is becoming increasingly common in Alberta’s industrial north, said Wayne Garner, the vice president of General Teamsters Local Union No. 362. “It doesn’t really surprise me,” he said. “Electronic monitoring is nothing really new to us.”...
Trade
Hoffa Statement on USTR Trade Deficit Claims  teamster.org   ...“The U.S. Trade Representative has made recent statements claiming that the U.S. has a trade surplus with its free trade agreement partners. The problem is this simply is not true...
Five reasons to fret about Obama’s trade agenda  Financial Times   ...Pro-trade Democrats speak with awe of the pressure being applied by unions in their home districts...
EU Trade Commissioner Suggests Special Court For ISDS Cases  Intellectual Property Watch   ...Acknowledging that the vast majority of citizens rejected ISDS in a recent public consultation and that many members of the EU Parliament Trade Committee (INTA) object to ISDS – INTA Chair and TTIP Rapporteur Bernd Lange said there was just no need for the EU-US deal – Malmstroem offered several amendments to be considered. This includes: A permanent list of arbitrators chosen by governments should avoid conflicts of interest, jumping between ISDS and courts should be banned, and an appeal mechanism should be put in place...
State Battles
Right-To-Work Law Challenged In Dane County Court  WDJT   ...The controversial Right-to-work law has been challenged by state unions as unconstitutional and gets a hearing Thursday morning in Dane County Court. The suit was brought against the State of Wisconsin by workers represented by the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, Machinists Local 1061 and United Steelworkers District 2 on March 10th...
Report: Wisconsin Drops To 40th In Nation In Job Growth  Wisconsin Public radio   ...Wisconsin ranked 40th in the nation in private-sector job growth during the one-year period between September 2013 and September 2014, according to the latest detailed job numbers from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics...
Oldham Tables 'Right-To-Work' Law  Louisville Courier Journal   ...The decision to table the bill, which was approved by a 7-2 vote, was met by applause from a nearly full house of union supporters and those opposing the right-to-work measure. Magistrates Steve Greenwell and J.D. Sparks opposed the motion...
Boone Leaders Pass Right-To-Work Ordinance  Cincinnati.com   ...After Boone County Fiscal Court members unanimously approved a controversial right-to-work ordinance, members of the audience booed and yelled they were going to move to Kenton County, where a similar ordinance was recently tabled...
Delaware Bill Would Raise Minimum Wage To $10.25  News Journal   ...Legislation to raise Delaware's minimum wage to $10.25 by June 2019, and index future wage hikes to cost-of-living increases, is expected to be introduced this week in Dover...
War on Workers
NLRB Stands by ‘Refined' Contractor Test; FedEx Home Fails in Bid for Reconsideration  Bloomberg BNA   ...The National Labor Relations Board March 16 declined to reconsider its September 2014 ruling that a group of Connecticut drivers are employees of FedEx Home Delivery under the National Labor Relations Act, not independent contractors outside the act's protection...
It’s illegal to prevent workers from talking about wages. T-Mobile did it anyway.  Washington Post   ...Last year, however, the NLRB’s general counsel consolidated complaints from four cities into one, putting 12 provisions of the handbook on trial. And on Wednesday, an administrative law judge issued her decision: In 10 of those provisions, T-Mobile’s employee handbook violates federal protections on workers’ right to organize...
Repair The Voting Rights Act (opinion)  Washington Post   ...The Voting Rights Act requires fixed attention, now, from lawmakers. For decades, the value of the act — all of it — has not been a partisan issue. It should not turn into one...
Miscellaneous
Fed Puts Interest-Rate Hikes In Play  Wall Street Journal   ...The Fed, in a statement Wednesday after its two-day meeting, dropped an assurance that it would remain “patient” before acting on rates. In the odd parlance of central bankers, the shift meant the Fed would consider raising short-term rates at its June 16-17 meeting...

Today's Teamster News 03.09.15

Teamsters
Teamsters Stand With Jimena Lopez, Women Union Leaders On International Women's Day  teamster.org   ...The Teamsters Union honors International Women’s Day today, standing in solidarity with Jimena Lopez, a woman union leader who was fired during a successful union organizing effort at LAN Ecuador, an subsidiary of LAN Airlines, the largest airline in Latin America...
Teamsters endorse Williams in mayoral campaign  Philly.com   ...State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams' mayoral bid has won the endorsement of Philadelphia Teamsters District Council 107...
Trade
China is Obama's trump card in push for Pacific Rim trade pact  Los Angeles Times   ...As the White House looks to wrap up years of negotiations on a highly contested Pacific Rim trade pact, administration officials are increasingly casting the agreement as vital to helping the U.S. face its most daunting economic rival: China...
New Zealand Witnesses Protests Against Trans Pacific Pact: Critics Allege TPP Is Harmful To Common Man  International Business Times   ...New Zealand witnessed nationwide protests on March 7, against the proposed Trans Pacific Pact--the U.S.-led trade deal covering 12 countries in the Pacific region. Protesters held demonstrations, waved banners and placards while speakers addressed gatherings, giving their version of the trade deal...
State Battles
Right-to-work: the anti-union laws soon to be on the books in 25 states  Vox   ...Wisconsin's legislature passed a right-to-work law on Friday, and Gov. Scott Walker, a conservative hero and likely 2016 presidential candidate, will sign it Monday. That move will help cement his reputation as a fierce union opponent and make Wisconsin the 25th "right-to-work" state...
War on Workers
Jobs and the Federal Reserve  New York Times   ...rising rates in the near term would lock in high unemployment among minorities and wage stagnation...
NEWS & POLITICS
One Simple Way to Save American Democracy: Get Serious About Taxing the Mega-Rich  Alternet   ...The Founding Fathers were very clear that they didn't want America to ever degenerate into an oligarchy...
Why Your Workplace Might Be Killing You  Stanford Business   ...Stanford scholars identify 10 work stressors that are destroying your health...

Today's Teamster News 02.26.15

Teamsters
Hoffa: Port Driver Efforts Show The Long, Hard Fight For Justice  Huffington Post   ...The port truck industry is highly fragmented, poorly organized and grossly inefficient. Deregulation has forced trucking companies to engage in cutthroat competition. Consequently, many are gearing up to fight the efforts of drivers and the Teamsters to organize and receive a fair wage. Luckily, more and more decision makers are beginning to side with workers...
Teamsters, Consumers And Community Protest Sprouts Farmers Market  teamster.org   ...“It’s time for UNFI to stop the bullying and stop the intimidation,” said Steve Vairma, Teamsters Warehouse Division Director. “Over the years UNFI has tried to undermine workers who have asserted their rights protected by United States law, even where the Teamsters have been certified as the workers’ union through federally supervised elections. UNFI wants to destroy its workers’ fundamental rights join together to improve their working conditions.”...
Trade
The Trans-Pacific Partnership clause everyone should oppose  Washington Post   …Agreeing to ISDS in this enormous new treaty would tilt the playing field in the United States further in favor of big multinational corporations. Worse, it would undermine U.S. sovereignty...
Obama's Trans-Pacific Partnership Promises Echo Clinton's On NAFTA  Op-Ed News   …NAFTA -- the North American Free Trade Agreement -- was sold with promises of jobs and prosperity on all sides of the border. What really happened was that an increased trade deficit sucked demand and jobs out of the U.S. economy; workers lost bargaining power, resulting in pay and benefit cuts; and income inequality rose as corporations pocketed the wage differential. Now the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is being sold with literally the same promises…
Trade Crazy: The Push For Fast-Track Trade Authority (opinion)  Huffington Post   ...There are many issues in the TPP that our trading partners don't like. They don't like rules that will force them to pay more for drugs from Pfizer and Merck, nor do they like rules that will make them pay more money to Time Warner for Hollywood movies, or to Microsoft for software...
State Battles
Wisconsin Senate approves right-to-work bill  Chicago Tribune   …The Wisconsin state Senate narrowly passed a right-to-work bill Wednesday and sent it on to the Assembly, where the Republican majority is wider...
Koch-Funded Allies Descend on Wisconsin to Push Right to Work  Center for Media and Democracy   …It's a rare citizen who would rush to testify that the higher wages, benefits, and training that unions bring are a bad idea. Fortunately, the Wisconsin GOP had the full support of the Koch-funded "think tanks" that are a critical part of the right-wing infrastructure...
Registrations at Wisconsin Senate hearing overwhelmingly against right-to-work bill  Associated Press   …Opponents to right-to-work outnumbered supporters 70-to-1 at a Wisconsin state Senate public hearing that was cut short before Republicans voted to advance the bill...
Kenton County To Adopt "Right to Work" Ordinance  River City News   ...Kenton County will pass a so-called "Right to Work" ordinance at its next meeting after hearing a first reading on Tuesday night in Covington...
Missouri house passes two voter ID measures  CedarRepublican.com   …The Missouri House passed two measures Thursday, Feb. 19, which would make Missouri the 32nd state to require a government issued ID to vote...
Iowa Senate Approves $8.75 Minimum Wage Bill  Des Moines Register   ...Senate File 269 was approved 27-22 with no debate. All 26 Democrats voted for the bill. Only one Republican, Sen. Rick Bertrand of Sioux City, voted yes. Iowa's minimum wage is currently $7.25 per hour. The bill would increase Iowa's minimum wage to $8 an hour on July 1, 2015, and to $8.75 an hour on July 1, 2016...
This Billionaire Governor Taxed The Rich And Increased The Minimum Wage -- Now, His State's Economy Is One Of The Best In The Country  Huffington Post   ...The reason Gov. Dayton was able to radically transform Minnesota's economy into one of the best in the nation is simple arithmetic. Raising taxes on those who can afford to pay more will turn a deficit into a surplus. Raising the minimum wage will increase the median income. And in a state where education is a budget priority and economic growth is one of the highest in the nation, it only makes sense that more businesses would stay. It's official -- trickle-down economics is bunk. Minnesota has proven it once and for all. If you believe otherwise, you are wrong...
War on Workers
T.J. Maxx to hike minimum wage for workers  CNN Monday  …The owner of T.J. Maxx, Marshall's and Home Goods is raising wages for its workers to at least $10 an hour by next year...
JPMorgan, Still On 2-Year Probation, Under Scrutiny in Gold Fixing Probe  Wall Street on Parade   …the U.S. Justice Department is investigating at least 10 of the biggest U.S. and foreign banks for potentially rigging the gold market and other precious metals markets. That investigation comes while ongoing investigations continue into the potential rigging by big banks of the setting of interest-rate benchmarks and foreign currency...
Student Debt Strikers Take On Corinthian College  Mathbabe   …Good for them. Corinthian College is a predatory and fraudulent company which was in the business of gaming the federal loan system while making false promises to its students. Those students are victims of fraud and should not be the ones paying back the government money for an education they never got. Instead, Corinthian should pay back the money...
Iron Worker At Barclays Center Crushed To Death By Steel Beams  New York Daily News   ...A 52-year-old iron worker constructing a green roof on the Barclays Center in Brooklyn was crushed to death by steel beams on Tuesday, police said. Hardhat Peter Zepf was helping to move the massive beams — called joists — from a truck onto a hoist when four of the parts fell on him near the Atlantic Ave. side of the arena around 1 p.m., witnesses said...
Miscellaneous
Janet Yellen Puts Fed On Path To Lift Rates  Wall Street Journal   ...If the economy continues to strengthen as the Fed anticipates and officials become more confident that low inflation will rise toward their 2% goal, she said, the central bank “will at some point begin considering an increase in the target range for the federal funds rate.”...

Today's Teamster News 01.21.15

Teamsters
CN And Teamsters Reach Deal  Materials Management and Distribution   ...CN has negotiated a tentative labour agreement with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference-Rail Canada Traffic Controllers (TCRC-RCTC) union that represents rail traffic controllers in Canada...
Teamsters Head "Optimistic" on Ratification of New Commercial Deal  Hollywood Reporter   …Teamsters Local 399 reached a tentative agreement with commercial producers, the union announced Tuesday, likely averting a threatened strike by drivers and location managers...
Striking Teamsters rally at TW Perry with support from unions, community  TeamsterNation   …Teamsters striking at TW Perry since Jan. 6 took it to the bosses today with help from the Metro Washington DC Labor Council, AFL-CIO and DC Jobs with Justice. They held a spirited rally at the TW Perry lumber store in Springfield, standing in solidarity with the courageous workers...
Texas Teamsters Reach Contract Agreement With Danone  teamsterorg   … Teamsters Local 997 members at Danone's (epn:BN) Fort Worth, Texas, plant have ratified an agreement with the company, gaining participation in the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Fund (WCTPF), the largest multi-employer pension plan in the United States...
Bad Work Conditions Hurt LGBT Employees Too (opinion)  Advocate   ...Jose works at Taylor Farms, which supplies major retailers with chopped fruits and vegetables, and unfortunately his story is not unique. It falls in line with a well-documented history of worker mistreatment at Taylor Farms...
Golden Parachutes Are Lead Balloon For Investors  FT   … by far the biggest component of golden parachutes tends to be the immediate vesting of unvested stock options and other forms of equity-linked compensation. Trade union bodies such as the Amalgamated Bank, AFL-CIO and International Brotherhood of Teamsters are therefore focusing in particular on this aspect of golden parachute payouts...
FTC Yearlong Review of Sysco-U.S. Foods Merger Nears Final Stages  Nasdaq   ...The Federal Trade Commission is nearing the finish line in its yearlong consideration of whether to allow the proposed merger of rival food-service companies Sysco Corp. and U.S. Foods Inc., but the decision still could go either way...
Trade
Liberals: Great speech, Obama … except on trade  Politico   …The president’s push for trade deals is ‘No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4’ on the list of what House Democrats disliked about the State of the Union, Rep. Peter DeFazio said...
Obama Pushes for Trade Support, Warns on China  Wall Street Journal   …Many Democrats, especially in areas that have seen manufacturing losses, are dead-set against the measure. “Fast track is a bad deal for American families,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D., Conn.), whom colleagues said is leading the House campaign against the legislation...
SOTU Schizophrenia: Middle-Class Jobs vs. Fast Track and TPP (opinion)  Huffington Post   … either Obama will be the president whose initiatives to address income inequality and wage stagnation helped rebuild America's middle class, or he will prioritize a trade agenda that will offshore more good-paying jobs, destroy what is left of the American manufacturing sector, increase income inequality and speed the demise of America's middle class. He cannot do both…..
State Battles
Ky counties take up own 'right-to-work' laws  The Courier-Journal   …Kentucky has become the tip of the spear in a national effort to get county governments to pass legislation that would open up union businesses to employees who don't pay dues or service charges to the labor groups...
Wisconsin Right-To-Work Bill Unlikely Soon, Senate Leader Says  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...A group of business leaders opposed to making Wisconsin a right-to-work state announced 50 new members Monday, while Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said any debate over the idea likely won't happen until after the April 7 election...
Missouri Republican operatives launch ‘Missouri Century Foundation’  PoliticMO   …Gregg Keller, Rich Chrismer, Jim Gwinner, Mike Hafner and Holly Gogel – all of whom have deep roots within the state’s Republican community — have launched the “Missouri Century Foundation,” a new non-profit organization that will focus on three issues in the Legislature… actively oppose Medicaid expansion, labor unions, and is teaming up with the American Center for Law & Justice against proposed legislation that would require political non-profits to disclose their donors…
Debate begins on right-to-work laws in NM  Albuquerque Journal   …With New Mexico lawmakers poised to take up politically charged right-to-work legislation in a 60-day session that begins Tuesday, debate is already in full swing over what the change in labor laws would mean to New Mexico’s sluggish economy...
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Wants to Raise Minimum Wage  Wall Street Journal   ...New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Sunday proposed raising the state’s minimum wage and unveiled plans to alleviate student loan debt and cut taxes for small businesses...
New State Minimum Wage? Why Some Foreign Guests Earn $3 More  Seattle Times   ...Last month, the minimum wage for thousands of workers in Washington jumped by nearly 5 percent to $12.42 an hour. Beneficiaries of Seattle’s march toward the nation’s highest minimum wage? Actually, the new pay raises apply only to a select group of people: foreigners hired as seasonal farmhands...
Bill Would Raise Georgia's Minimum Wage To $10 An Hour  WMAZ   ...The bill calls for employers in Georgia to pay their employees at least $10.10 an hour, with built-in increases coming on January 1 each following year to offset the rising cost of living. Presently, minimum wage in the state is just $5.15 an hour, though generally the federal rate of $7.25 applies...
War on Workers
Unemployment on the rise over next five years as inequality persists  International Labor Organization   …ILO report says sluggish jobs recovery and social instability are the result of greater inequality...
New police radars can 'see' inside homes  USA Today   …At least 50 U.S. law enforcement agencies quietly deployed radars that let them effectively see inside homes, with little notice to the courts or the public...
Worker Killed In Industrial Accident At Springfield Business  KOLR   ...Greene County detectives are investigating a fatal workplace accident.According to the Greene County Sheriff’s Office, a man in his early 50’s died while working at Ridewell Suspensions Corp. in the 3700 block of E. Farm Road 94 in Springfield Monday afternoon...
Miscellaneous
Fed Officials On Track To Raise Short-Term Rates Later In The Year  Wall Street Journal   ...Federal Reserve officials are staying on track to start raising short-term interest rates later this year, even though long-term rates are going in the other direction amid new investor worries about weak global growth, falling oil prices and slowing consumer price inflation...

Today's Teamster News 01.06.15

Teamsters
Trade issues are focus of Wyden town hall in Salem  Statesman Journal   ...Local union leaders and others asked Oregon's senior senator to oppose "fast-track" authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, a proposed free trade treaty with 12 Pacific-rim countries. "I want to know why he feels this is a good idea," Chris Muhs, secretary of Teamsters Local 324, said while holding a sign reading "Fast Track: Wrong Track."...
Trade
Senator Wyden Ends Portland Town Hall After Protesters Take Over  Oregon Public Radio   ...Protesters with the group Don’t Shoot Portland forced Oregon Senator Ron Wyden to cancel a town hall meeting on Saturday after the first 30 minutes. About 200 people had gathered in an auditorium at the Southeast Portland campus of Portland Community College to speak with the senator, who is holding six town halls across Western Oregon this weekend. Many in the audience held signs opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement the U.S. is negotiating with 11 countries in Asia...
Bernie Sanders' Brutal Letter On Obama's Trade Pact Foreshadows 2016 Democratic Clash  Huffington Post   ...Progressive unrest over free trade policies is shaping up to be a major issue in the contest for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, if a strongly worded letter from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to the top Obama administration trade official is any sign...
The Growth Projections for the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Pact Are a Joke  Center for Economic and Policy Research   ... The deal is likely to strengthen patent and copyright protections, leading to higher prices for drugs, software, and other products, all of which will be a drain on consumers and a drag on growth...
State Battles
Delegate Tim Armstead about to make history  Charleston Gazette   ...[Incoming West Virginia House Speaker Tim] Armstead offered no firm commitments but said a number of longtime Republican proposals would be in play. Making West Virginia a “right to work” state, where employees cannot be required to pay union dues? “That’s certainly being discussed,” Armstead said. A law requiring voters to show some sort of ID at the polls? “That’s another area,” Armstead said. “We don’t want to make it harder to vote, at the same time we want to make sure that each person’s vote counts.”...
Unions see right-to-work bill as political attack  Albuquerque Journal   ... labor views so-called right-to-work legislation in New Mexico as a political attack from the right, saying the bill would curtail its ability to raise and spend money to influence public policy...
Right-to-work legislation draws buzz, not necessarily votes  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...The leader of the state Senate has called for a quick debate on so-called right-to-work legislation, but it's unclear whether there are enough Republican votes to pass it...
Scott Walker, Starting Second Term as Wisconsin Governor, Resists New Union Battle  New York Times   ...Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who rose to national prominence in the Republican Party by cutting the collective bargaining rights of most public sector unions, strongly indicated in the final days of his re-election campaign that he had no plans to expand the battle with labor unions that defined his first term...
War on Workers
Even with Recent Low Inflation, Real Wages Continue to Stagnate  Economic Policy Institute   ... real wage growth has been about zero on average for the last five years, and there is no sign of acceleration...
The Real Winners Of The Recovery: The Superrich  firedoglake   ...new research shows that the top .1% has broken away from their uber-wealthy peers and amassed more than 22% of the wealth . In other words, the top one-thousandth of the country controls one-fifth of the wealth...
Railroads seek one-person crews for freight trains  Associated Press   ..."These trains are 7,000 tons going 50 mph. You have to have two people," said J.P. Wright, an engineer for CSX railroad in Louisville, Ky. "It's mind-boggling to me that the railroads would go this far with it."...
CEO Who Said He’d Probably Have To Fire Employees If Obama Won Is Now Giving Them Raises  ThinkProgress   ...Siegel informed Westgate employees that instead of layoffs, he would boost their minimum wage to $10 per hour beginning in 2015...
Nobel Laureate Stiglitz Blocked From SEC Panel After Faulting High-Speed Traders  Bloomberg   ...Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel laureate economist who called for a tax on high-frequency trading, has been blocked from a government panel that will advise regulators on issues facing U.S. equity markets, according to people familiar with the matter. Stiglitz’s rejection shows the partisan infighting that has bogged down Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White’s plan to set up a panel of experts to advise the agency on topics ranging from rapid-fire stock trading to dark pools...
The protesters who are trying to upend the ‘fantasy world’ of economics  Washington Post   ...Harrington now runs a campaign called Kick it Over, which aims to combat what it describes as “the fantasy world of neoclassical economics — a faith-based religion of perfect markets, enlightened consumers and infinite growth that shapes the fates of billions.”...
Let the Fed Lend Directly to Cities and States to Save Taxpayers Billions (opinion)  Next New Deal   ...The Federal Reserve should be allowed to make long-term loans directly to cities, states, school districts, and other public agencies so taxpayers can get low interest rates and avoid predatory Wall Street fees...
Miscellaneous
After two-year delay, construction on California's bullet train is set to start  Los Angeles Times   ...California's bullet-train agency will officially start construction in Fresno this week on the first 29-mile segment of the system, a symbol of the significant progress the $68-billion project has made against persistent political and legal opposition...
Global stocks fall for second day amid oil, Greece worries  Associated Press   ...Global stocks sank Tuesday for a second day as slumping oil prices and concern Greece might leave the European currency union fueled unease about the global growth outlook...

Today's Teamster News 08.23.14

Trade
U.S. Steel Producers Win Anti-Dumping Case Against Cheap Imports  Reuters   ...The U.S. International Trade Commission on Friday voted to impose anti-dumping duties against steel pipe imports from six countries, exempting two, handing a victory to domestic producers who had complained that the cheap imports were undercutting their prices...
State Battles
Documents Allege Scott Walker Pressured Groups To Donate To Campaign  Huffington Post   ...Newly released court documents include excerpts from emails showing that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's recall election campaign team told him to instruct donors to give to a key conservative group that would run ads for Walker and distribute money to other conservative groups backing him. … The documents are part of a secret investigation into whether Walker's campaign illegally coordinated with conservative groups during the run-up to the June 2012 recall...
Minimum Wage Ballot Campaign Begins  KGTV   ...A campaign spearheaded by local businesses to put the minimum wage ordinance before voters kicked off Thursday. The San Diego Small Business Coalition announced the referendum campaign at a news conference Thursday morning in Sorrento Valley...
Appeals Court Delays Wisconsin Voter ID Decision  WCWF   ...A federal appeals court put off a decision until next month on whether to put Wisconsin’s voter ID law back in place...
Survey: Economy Slows Down In Rural Areas Of Kansas  KMUW   ...A new monthly survey of bankers suggests the economy is slowing down in rural areas of Kansas, Missouri and eight other states...
Cruel Cuts: Philadelphia Public Schools Pay The Price For Pa.’s Expanded Neo-Voucher Program  Americans United   ...For the second year in a row Philadelphia’s public schools are struggling to open on time, and it appears deep budget cuts – including money siphoned for a voucher-like program – are to blame...
War On Workers
Bank Of America Papers Show Conflict And Trickery In Mortgages  New York Times   ...A founder of Countrywide Financial warned three years before the housing market collapsed that his company could face “financial and reputational catastrophe” if it continued holding certain risky mortgages on its balance sheet. Still, Countrywide continued to sell these loans to investors...
Few homeowners expected to benefit from Bank of America's $16.65B settlement  Associated Press   ...Only a fraction of homeowners would be eligible for refinancing under the settlement. And the process by which people would qualify and receive aid could drag on for years, with payouts set to be completed as late as 2018...
Man Claims Uber Driver Promised Him A Low Fare, Then Charged Him $814  LAist   ...A man says that Uber charged his group a whopping $814 for a ride from El Monte to Culver City even though his driver promised it wouldn't be much more than $150...
Rebuilding America, One Bridge At A Time (opinion)  Washington Post   ...Our public infrastructure is rusting, rotting and, in some cases, falling apart, and we now lag behind nations that are investing in modern, efficient, low-carbon infrastructure...
Economic harassment and the Ferguson crisis (opinion)  Los Angeles Times   ...the Ferguson court is a "chronic offender" in legal and economic harassment of its residents. There's not much of a secret why: the municipality collects some $2.6 million a year in fines and court fees, typically from small-scale infractions like traffic violations. This is the second-largest source of income for that small, fiscally-strapped municipality...
A Walmart Manager Describes Walmart's Mismanagement  Gawker   ...Last week, we received an email from a current Walmart manager in Oklahoma asking to share his story. Below is his description of the policies that America's largest employer uses to pit managers against low-level employees, for the benefit of the richest family in America...
A first for Jackson Hole — protesters are here, and they don’t want rate hikes  Marketwatch   ...Protesters, worried that the central bank is about to put its foot on the brakes, have come to the Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole retreat this year to urge the central bank to hold off and give the economy more time to heal. This is believed to be the first time there ever has been protesters at the event...
Miscellaneous
Americans' Satisfaction With Job Security at New High  Gallup   ...In the U.S., 58% of full- or part-time workers are completely satisfied with their job security. This represents an increase from the levels recorded during the aftermath of the Great Recession -- from 2009 to 2013 -- when roughly 50% of Americans said they were completely satisfied...

Today's Teamster News 08.08.14

Teamster News
Teamsters Fully Ratify AEI Contract  teamster.org   ...The contract, which runs through Dec. 31, 2016, covers about 800 Teamsters across the U.S. employed by AEI, the domestic air freight forwarding arm of DHL Global Forwarding...
Wegmans: Teamsters fund dispute going to court  Rochester Democrat & Chronicle   ...Wegmans Food Markets has gone to federal court to resolve a dispute over workers' compensation payments to Teamsters-represented employees that the company says could cost it millions of dollars...
Trade
Pressure on Canada to Open Poultry Markets for Trade Talks with US  The Poultry Site   ...A powerful group of US members of Congress says the White House should cut Canada out of a major global trade deal unless it opens up its protected dairy and poultry markets...
U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman Announces U.S. Victory in Challenge to China’s Rare Earth Export Restraints  Office of the USTR   ...U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman today announced that the World Trade Organization (WTO) Appellate Body found China’s export restraints on rare earths, tungsten, and molybdenum, which are used as key components in a multitude of U.S-made products for critical American manufacturing sectors, including hybrid car batteries, wind turbines, and energy-efficient lighting, to be inconsistent with China’s WTO obligations...
TTIP: Have We Lost Our Democratic Privileges?  The London Economic   ...As the European Commission and the US are busy negotiating a free trade agreement, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), campaigners say they are increasingly worried citizens are losing their democratic privileges. While corporations are looking forward to an improved trade and regulatory cooperation between the US and EU, the opposition -which includes Pan-European civil society groups – is concerned that regulatory convergence will grind down hard-won social and environmental standards...
State Battles
Daniel Golden: Media go too easy on Scott Walker (opinion)  The Cap Times   ..."Wrong Way Walker" has achieved the impossible and launched Wisconsin on an economic death spiral...
Disney World, Union Strike Deal To Raise Minimum Wage  The Ledger   ...The world's most popular vacation resort recently struck an agreement with its largest union group. Last week, Walt Disney World and the Service Trades Council signed off on a 5½-year pact that will raise the minimum hourly pay for the union group's full-time workers to $10 by 2016...
Anchorage Assembly Repeals, Replaces City Labor Law  KTUU   ...The Anchorage Assembly voted 7-4 Tuesday night to repeal controversial ordinance AO37, Mayor Dan Sullivan's overhaul of how the city interacts with municipal workers....
Latest Blow To Gov. Brownback: Kansas Debt Downgrade  Wall Street Journal   ...Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is more stumbling than storming into the general election. On Tuesday night, results from the GOP primary showed 37% of those voting cast their ballots for a Republican political newcomer over Mr. Brownback. Then Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services on Wednesday morning dropped Kansas’s credit rating by one notch, blaming the downgrade on a sharp slide in state revenues that followed deep tax cuts Mr. Brownback championed...
War On Workers
Part-Time Market Basket Workers Have Hours Cut  Boston Globe   ...Thousands of part-time workers at Market Basket stores have had their hours cut by half or more this week, as the cost of the unusual protest movement hits home for the employees seeking the reinstatement of ousted boss Arthur T. Demoulas...
Plot Thickens as 900 Writers Battle Amazon  New York Times   ...This latest uproar in Amazon’s three-month public battle with Hachette comes at a vulnerable moment for the Internet giant, which is rapidly transforming itself into an empire...
U.S. Labor Force: Where Have All the Workers Gone?  IMF Direct   ...The equivalent of 7.5 million workers have been lost from the U.S. labor force...
Fed Study Finds 2 million in "Forced Retirement", 52% Cannot Afford an Unexpected $400 Expense  Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis   ...Almost half of respondents had not planned financially for retirement, with 24 percent saying they had given only a little thought to financial planning for their retirement and another 25 percent saying they had done no planning at all...
The Federal Reserve Is Telling Us The Economy Is Pitiful  Huffington Post   ...Just 30 percent of survey respondents described themselves as better off than they were in 2008, with 34 percent saying they were doing about the same and 34 percent saying they were worse off...
Worker Killed When Crate Falls From Truck In The Bronx  CBS News   ...A construction worker was killed Tuesday when a heavy crate fell on him as he unloaded a truck near the Throgs Neck Bridge in in the Bronx...
Cornering the Zero-Day Market  Cryptome   ...“The CIA and the big corporations were, in my experience, in step with each other. Later I realized that they may argue about details of strategy - a small war here or there. However, both are vigorously committed to supporting the system.”...
What If Walmart's CEO Took A Pay Cut For His Workers?  Vox   ...The compensation packages of all 500 of the biggest corporations' CEOs are worth enough to boost all full-time minimum wage workers' annual pay by nearly $5,000...
Miscellaneous
Really Big Number Spent on High Speed Rail  Center for Economic and Policy Research   ... the federal government has spent roughly $550 billion on transportation over the last six years, so spending on high speed rail would be roughly 2.0 percent of total transportation spending...

Today's Teamster News 06.18.14

Teamsters
Assemblyman joins Teamsters in Taylor Farms protest  Tracy News   ...call for worker equality was shouted outside Taylor Farms Pacific on MacArthur Drive on Thursday by members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The group gathered in large numbers to protest the alleged mistreatment of company employees...
Obama sides with Teamsters in employment non-discrimination order  TeamsterNation   ...President Obama today is signing an order forbidding federal contractors from discriminating against employees because of their sexual orientation, a policy supported by the Teamsters Union...
Teamster Women's Conference To Be Held September 4-6  teamster.org   ...The 2014 Teamster Women's Conference will be held September 4-6, 2014 in Chicago. For details about this conference, click here...
Trade
Trade deals, Investment Treaties and the Death of Democracy – How companies sue whole nations and win.  Golem XIV   ...there is a growing discontent and a determination to question mainstream assurances and find new answers...
State Battles
GDP Numbers Confirm Wisconsin’s Lagging Growth  WI Budget Project   ...Wisconsin’s GDP growth of 4.5% over the last three years has been well below the national average of 6.1%...
A $13.13 Minimum Wage Means 1.2 Million NYers Earn An Extra $100/Week Gothamist ...New York's $8/hour ($9 by 2016) continues to be the lowest of any major city, a fact noted by Comptroller Scott Stringer, who just released a report [PDF] detailing the effects of raising the minimum wage in the city to $13.13/hour: 1.2 million New Yorkers would receive an extra $100/week...
Princeton considering ordinance to protect workers from wage theft The Star-Ledger ...Those seeking landscaping permits to do work in Princeton will first need to acknowledge federal and state wage theft laws pertaining to their employees if the governing body adopts an ordinance that ties the two together...
War on Workers
A Small Increase in Inflation Squeezes U.S. Workers  New York Times   ...Average hourly earnings for private sector American workers rose about 49 cents an hour over the last year, to $24.38 in May. But that wasn’t enough to cover inflation over the year, so in real or inflation-adjusted terms, hourly worker pay fell 0.1 percent over the last 12 months...
A manager agrees – bargaining is better (opinion)  Fort Wayne Journal Gazette   ...The most important and consistent feature of collective bargaining is not disagreement about work rules or compensation – it is problem-solving. ..
The US Chemical Safety Board's Turmoil Is Playing With Public Safety  truthout   ...Inside this fight is a tale of ambition, manipulation and personal games that put public safety and the prevention of chemical accidents at risk...
Fed Issues Surreptitious SNAP Payments to Bankster Welfare Queens At Taxpayer Expense   Wall Street Examiner   ...This is a direct giveaway to the banks at the expense of US taxpayers. The banks will shift as much of their excess cash as they can, subject to the $10 billion per bank limit, from their regular deposit accounts at the Fed (aka reserves) to these higher interest paying term deposits. This is cash which the Fed has given them for free in the first place...
Raise the Minimum Wage to Help Economy, IMF Tells U.S. NBC News ...The International Monetary Fund released its annual review of the U.S. economy on Monday and called on the U.S. to raise its federal minimum wage rate...
Uber Drivers Protest Their Dick Boss  Gawker   ...They're not just protesting autonomous taxis. Uber's drivers say "they feel exploited, don't earn enough money and are taken for granted."...

Banker warns of 'shadow labor force'

The war on workers has created a shadow labor force of people who want or need to work but can't find jobs.

That's according to Dennis Lockhart, of all people. He's the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and he recently sounded a dire warning about the lack of good jobs.

Millions of Americans cannot find good jobs, Lockhart said in a speech the other day:

The labor force participation rate has fallen from 65.8 percent of the population at the end of 2008 to 62.8 percent in December 2013.

Lockhart dismissed the argument that it's because Baby Boomers are retiring. He looked at prime-age workers -- people aged 25-54 -- and found their participation rate is down significantly at 2.1 percent.

This suggests that other factors, such as low prospects of finding a job, are playing a role.

He then looked at workers who are willing to work and have looked for work recently but are not currently looking -- also known as 'marginally attached workers.' During the last recession, the number of marginally attached people rose from 1.4 million at the end of 2007 to 2.4 million at the end of 2009.

Underemployment is a problem, too, he said:

Many Americans are working fewer hours than they would prefer because their employers are offering them only part-time work. The share of workers who are involuntarily working part-time doubled during the recession and has moved only about 30 percent lower since the recovery began.

About 4 million more people are unemployed today than before the recession, he said.

It’s accurate to say the country has a large number of people in the so-called “shadow labor force.”

That shadow could destroy the economy.

Today's Teamster News 12.24.13

Just a reminder we will resume posting Teamster News on Monday, Dec. 30.

U.S. Flouts Its Own Advice in Procuring Overseas Clothing  New York Times   ...One of the world’s biggest clothing buyers, the United States government spends more than $1.5 billion a year at factories overseas, acquiring everything from the royal blue shirts worn by airport security workers to the olive button-downs required for forest rangers and the camouflage pants sold to troops on military bases...
PBS Drops a Bombshell on the Federal Reserve’s 100th Birthday Party  Wall Street on Parade   ...two famous stock market historians made the same stunning announcement – that the Fed has decided its job is to push up the stock market...
Holiday sales down for third week  Associated Press   ...After a strong start to the holiday shopping season, sales at stores have fallen for the third consecutive week as Americans continue to hold back on spending during what is traditionally the busiest buying period of the year...
Retail Traffic Plunges By "Staggering" 21% In Week Before Christmas  zero hedge   ...the "eroding middle class can no longer drive activity as it has in the past"...
Charts: The Worst Long-Term Unemployment Crisis Since the Depression  Mother Jones   ...The economic downturn remains in full effect for millions of Americans, particularly the nearly 40 percent of the unemployed who have been looking for work for six months or more. In less than a week, emergency federal unemployment benefits for 1.3 million of these jobless Americans are set to run out...
Phoenix Becomes First City To End Chronic Homelessness Among Veterans  ThinkProgress   ...Three years ago, city officials identified 222 homeless veterans living in Phoenix. Using both state and federal funds, the city had successfully housed the last veterans who were living without homes. ..
FALSE: Gov. Scott Walker says protesters surrounded his car, blocked his exit and rocked the vehicle after a 2011 appearance in La Crosse  Politifact   ...Based on the available information, we think the book’s depiction of what happened -- an organized effort to prevent Walker from leaving that placed him in direct danger -- is False...
De Blasio Hires Goldman Sachs Exec To Make City More Affordable  gothamist   ...For all his campaign bluster against the two cities New York has become, Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio isn't exactly shying away from some of the people who helped make it that way...

Why hasn't Alan Greenspan crawled under a rock?

Alan Greenspan doesn't have the decency to just go away, even after he encouraged the housing bubble that burst and caused the 2008 financial panic.  He was chairman of the Federal Reserve Board when the bubble got gigantic, and all he did was cheer it on.

Instead of crawling under a rock, Greenspan is out flogging a new book, to which we will not link because we don't want to encourage it.

The peerless Dean Baker, writing in The Guardian, lambastes Greenspan for causing hardship for millions of Americans and then showing his face in public. Baker doesn't buy Greenspan's excuse that he didn't know about Wall Street's risky speculation:

The explosion of exotic mortgages in the bubble years was hardly a secret. It was frequently talked about in the media and showed up in a wide variety of data sources, including those produced by the Fed. In fact, there were widespread jokes at the time about "liar loans" or "Ninja loans". The latter being an acronym for the phrase, "no income, no job, no assets".

Most of the news media is slavishly reporting Greenspan's denial he knew what was going on. Here's how close Alan Greenspan is to the media: he's married to MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell.

Greenspan is likely to be interviewed by the same 'journalists' who whine that JPMorgan is being persecuted because it has to pay a fine. The fine is a small fraction of JPMorgan's earnings, and it's punishment for destroying the financial security of millions of Americans.

Anyhoo, Baker explains how Greenspan was in the best position to stop the bubble's growth:

Suppose that, instead of extolling the wonders of adjustable rate mortgages, Greenspan used his public addresses to warn people that they were buying into an overpriced housing market; and he warned investors that the subprime mortgage backed securities they were buying were filled with fraudulent mortgages. Suppose further that he used the Fed's research staff to document these facts. 

Greenspan could have used the regulatory powers of the Fed to crack down on the bad mortgages being issued by the banks under the Fed's jurisdiction, as his fellow governor Edward Gramlich urged. And, he could have arranged to have a meeting with other federal and state regulators to see what they were doing to prevent mortgage fraud in the financial institutions under their jurisdictions as well.

Instead, he did nothing. As a result, the United States has 9 million fewer jobs than it would have had without the financial crisis. Millions of families lost their homes to foreclosure. Older workers lost their jobs with little hope of replacing their previous income. Young people face the worst job market since the Great Depression, and many of them carry tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt.

Thanks, Alan. Now please go away.

Today's Teamster News 09.16.13

Summers Pulls Name From Consideration for Fed Chief  New York Times   ...After weeks of opposition to his candidacy from an array of progressives, the president’s inability to rally Congressional Democrats on Syria persuaded Mr. Summers that his most important audience — the Senate, which must confirm a Fed chairman — probably could not be won over...
Wal-Mart Moves Forward With First D.C. Stores After Mayor Vetoes 'Living Wage'  ABC News   ...Wal-Mart will move forward with plans for its first stores in the nation's capital after Mayor Vincent Gray vetoed the city council's bill that mandated higher wages for so-called big-box stores...
Officials Say Nearly 19,000 Homes Damaged, Destroyed In Flooding  CBS Denver   ...The Colorado Office of Emergency Management estimated Sunday on its website that 17,494 homes have been damaged and 1,502 destroyed...
At Grandmother’s House We Stay  Pew Research   ...In 2011, 7.7 million children in the U.S.–one-in-ten—were living with a grandparent, and approximately 3 million of these children were also being cared for primarily by that grandparent...
Public Colleges' Quest for Revenue and Prestige Squeezes Needy Students  The Chronicle of Higher Education   ...Less institutional aid goes to the poorest students, as colleges seek to rise in rankings and make up for state cuts...
Joe Stiglitz: The People Who Break the Rules Have Raked in Huge Profits and Wealth and It's Sickening Our Politics  Alternet   ...More than 20 million Americans who would like a full time job still can't get one, incomes are still lower than they were a decade and a half ago, wealth in the middle is back to where it was two decades ago. Young Americans face a mountain of student debt, and dismal job prospects...
The 1 Percent Took Home the Largest Share of Income Since 1928 Last Year  Next New Deal   ...the only year on record in which the top 1 percent took home a larger piece of the economic pie was in 1928, and then only barely...
New Rule Could Shed Light on CEO-Worker Pay Gap  Bill Moyers & Company   ...The Securities and Exchange Commission has been considering (and considering, and considering) a new rule mandated three years ago under Dodd-Frank that would require companies to disclose the ratio between a CEO’s compensation and the median pay of the firm’s employees...
AFL-CIO to Fight "Trade" Deals Like TPP  truthout   ...It looks like this will be a treaty that writes corporate and billionaire interests into law with no protections for regular people and our environment from corporate and billionaire interests...
Pollsters say Scott Walker is vulnerable in 2014  The Capital Times   ...those who feel the state economy is in poor condition are much less likely to support Walker than those who believe the state is on the right track, meaning that Democrats could hurt Walker by driving home the message that he isn't creating jobs...

Today's Teamster News 08.05.14

The Payday Playbook: How High Cost Lenders Fight to Stay Legal  ProPublica   ...Outrage over payday loans, which trap millions of Americans in debt and are the best-known type of high-cost loans, has led to dozens of state laws aimed at stamping out abuses. But the industry has proved extremely resilient. In at least 39 states, lenders offering payday or other loans still charge annual rates of 100 percent or more. Sometimes, rates exceed 1,000 percent...
Members of Congress denied access to basic information about NSA  The Guardian   ...Members of Congress have been repeatedly thwarted when attempting to learn basic information about the National Security Agency (NSA) and the secret FISA court which authorizes its activities, documents provided by two House members demonstrate...
Why Do the People Raising Our Children Earn Poverty Wages?  The Nation   ...Childcare workers perform that most vital labor, rearing our young. But across the country, they are invisible and poorly paid, without healthcare, unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation or other benefits...
Higher Wages Don't Destroy Fast Food  Next New Deal   ...high wages can lead to more prosperous companies, and those companies aren't getting the bad press about wage-related strikes...
Has the Rise of Online Shopping Made Traffic Worse?  The Atlantic   ...all those Amazon deliveries could just as easily be increasing congestion by putting more UPS trucks on the road, while at the same time freeing you up to travel for other reasons...
Top Fed economist slams 'incoherent' ECB  The Telegraph   ...The US Federal Reserve has launched a blistering attack on the European Central Bank, calling for quantitative easing across the board to lift the eurozone fully out of its slump...
Will Medical Trade Be Included in the EU Trade Deal and the TPP? If Not, Why Not?  CEPR   ... our hospitals, doctors, and medical equipment makers benefit from tariffs on the order of 500 percent or more. If the Obama administration really is interesting in promoting growth through trade it would be difficult to imagine a sector with larger potential gains than trade in medical care...
Detroit workers fear city’s bankruptcy could wipe out their pensions  Agence France-Press   ...their city-run plan is the only thing keeping them out of food banks or even homeless shelters...
After Detroit bankruptcy, Brits and bankers target Chicago  Examiner   ...Wall Street bankers are maneuvering to loot municipal pension funds across the country...
Boston Globe newspaper sells for fraction of buying price  BBC News   ...The New York Times company bought it for $1.1bn (£700m) in 1993 but has now agreed to sell it for $70m...
'Moral Monday' protests heading to Asheville  WRAL   ...With the North Carolina General Assembly finished for the year, protesters are bringing their Moral Monday demonstrations on the road...
Break given to Christel House could have spared two IPS schools from state takeover  Indianapolis Star   ...Two Indianapolis Public Schools might never have been taken over by the state if then-Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett had offered the district the same flexibility he granted a year later to the Christel House Academy charter school...

Whoa. Fed governor says low-wage jobs are a problem

Even the crony capitalists are starting to realize that low-wage jobs are stifling prosperity. Federal Reserve governor Sarah Bloom Raskin says she's concerned about the quality of available jobs, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Journal reported:

After finding mostly security, restaurant and life guard positions at a job fair held at community college near her home, Ms. Raskin said Tuesday that she investigated the type of jobs that have been gained since the economy emerged from recession.

The onset of fast food strikes spreading across New York City, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis and Seattle shows how important the creation of good jobs with livable wages, healthcare, and hope of a retirement is.

Originally, fast food and other minimum wage jobs were meant as short-term jobs for teens, but have since become long-term, poverty jobs for adults.  CNN reports:

Nationally, fast food workers have a median age of 28, and two-thirds of them are women, according to data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Such low-end jobs often have replaced jobs with salaries of $40,000 or more, sums which were enough to cover rent and food as well as transportation and insurance, according to the National Employment Law Project, an organization that campaigns for a higher hourly wage. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the most marginal jobs -- in the sense that they allow the employees to eke out the barest of livings -- will continue to dominate the labor market in the coming decade, leaving many with little choice of employment because so many of middle-income jobs have been permanently eliminated.

And the worst is yet to come – fast food job growth averaged 25,000 gained jobs per month last year – and is expected to continue the trend over time.  Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich explains:

Jobs are slowly returning to America, but most of them pay lousy wages and low if non-existent benefits. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 7 out of 10 growth occupations over the next decade will be low-wage — like serving customers at big-box retailers and fast-food chains. That’s why the median wage keeps dropping, especially for the 80 percent of the workforce that’s paid by the hour.

Without representation, low-wage workers are working on starvation wages and have little power to protect themselves from rampant wage tampering.  With seven of the decade’s 10 top fastest-growing occupations paying low-to-poverty wages, it’s important to stand up and protect workers rights.

Labor federations, including Change to Win, are supporting the fast-food strikes through campaigns such as Fight for 15 and Fast Food Forward. You can sign a petition to support the workers here.

Today's Teamster News 04.15.13

Foreclosure Settlement Shows 4.2 Million Borrowers Shafted in 2009-2010  Economic Populist   ...Close to 1.2 million borrowers, or about 30 percent of the more than 3.9 million households whose properties were foreclosed on by 11 leading financial institutions in 2009 and 2010, had to battle potentially wrongful efforts to seize their homes despite not having defaulted on their loans, being protected under a host of federal laws, or having been in good standing under bank-approved plans to either restructure their mortgages or temporarily delay required payments...
Is the Fed Handing Out Valuable Tips to Insiders?  Washington Blog   ...Congressman Grayson Asks for an Investigation into Federal Reserve’s FOMC leak...
The Terrifying Reality of Long-Term Unemployment  The Atlantic   ...It's an awful catch-22: employers won't hire you if you've been out of work for more than six months...
U.S., Guatemala reach deal to resolve labor dispute  Reuters   ...The new 18-point labor enforcement plan "reflects Guatemala's commitment to constructive engagement to meet its labor obligations under our trade agreement," Acting U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis said in a statement...
Margaret Thatcher the tax snatcher? Mystery of her £6m house with links to THREE tax havens  Mirror   ...“How can a former prime minister spend more than two decades living in a house in London that has been owned for many years by a company based in the British Virgin Islands? ... We all have a duty to pay our taxes, and that includes former politicians...
Portugal's fed-up youth pack and go as their nation slides into reverse  The Guardian   ...Job prospects are grim, health and education are in crisis and, with more austerity to come, emigration is increasingly the only solution...
U.S. grants Michigan permit to build 2nd Detroit-Canada bridge  Detroit Free Press   ...The U.S. State Department announced its issuance of a presidential permit to the state of Michigan for the New International Trade Crossing between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, moving the project an important step closer to completion...
After Courts Block GOP Laws, Wisconsin GOP Pushes Bill To Strip Most State Courts’ Power To Block Laws  ThinkProgress   ...Last November, Wisconsin was able to run a fair election unmarred by one of the Republican Party’s favorite voter suppression tactics because two lower courts struck down the state’s unconstitutional voter ID law, and the conservative state supreme court repeatedly refused requests to take up the case before it winds its way through the normal appeals process. Now, a group of Wisconsin Republicans are pushing legislation to ensure that something like this never happens again:...
Flaws Seen in Protection of Animals on the Set  New York Times   ...Trainers, who are already heavily regulated by state and federal officials, are particularly incensed by the idea that the (American Humane) association might seek to extend its authority beyond film sets, to include certification of those who house and supply animals — something they see as an attempt to bolster funds by tapping them for fees...