Today's Teamster News 03.22.14

Teamster News
Truckers for Costco and Forever 21 land victory that may allow joining the Teamsters  Salon ...The Port of Los Angeles workers who alleged stolen wages and false "independent contractor" scam now one step closer to organizing with the Teamsters Union...
Truck Drivers Handed Labor Victory That Could Reshape The Industry  ThinkProgress   ...Truck drivers at a Los Angeles-area freight hauling company cannot be treated as “independent contractors” or harassed for discussing the possibility of unionizing, according to a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling issued Thursday...
Port truck drivers vying to join union get state, federal boost  Los Angeles Times   ...A string of actions by state officials and the National Labor Relations Board has strengthened the hand of truck drivers who say they need union representation to improve pay and working conditions for the thousands who transport cargo out of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach...
Port Truck Drivers Labeled 'Independent Contractors' Told They Have Right To Unionize  Huffington Post   ...As part of a settlement with the Teamsters that was finalized on Thursday, Pacific 9 Transportation in Carson, Calif., has agreed to hang a posting in the workplace saying workers have the right to form a labor union...
Teamsters Local 722 Highway Maintainers Ratify New Contract  Joint Council 25   ...Carroll County, Illinois, public employees represented by Teamsters Local 722 unanimously approved a new three-year contract with the county’s highway department...
APAC/Old Castle Inc. Drivers Choose Teamsters  Teamsters Local 523   ...Drivers at APAC/Old Castle Inc. in Vinita, Okla. voted to join Teamsters Local 523 in Tulsa, securing a strong voice on the job, despite the company's blatant union-busting tactics...
Teamsters at CCTA find support from fellow workers  Burlington Free Press   ...Drivers with Chittenden County Transportation Authority (CCTA), who are represented by Teamsters Local 597, were joined by numbers of organizations at a rally in support of their strike against the company since Monday....
Teamsters, Pasco reach tentative contract deal  Tampa Bay Times  ...Teamsters Local 79, which represents more than half of Pasco County, Florida's workers, says it has reached a tentative contract deal after a final round of talks...
Georgia Senate votes to bar some workers from unemployment benefits  Atlanta Journal-Constitution   ...The Georgia Senate approved a measure Thursday that would ban bus drivers, cafeteria workers and other people who work for private firms in public schools from claiming unemployment benefits when school is out...
Teamsters reject CN deal, company proposes binding arbitration   The Northern View ...The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference has rejected a second proposed settlement with CN with a vote of 891 against and 852 voting in favor of the agreement...
Teamsters Step Up Fight for D.C. Taxi Drivers   teamster.org ...The Teamsters Local 922-affiliated Washington, D.C. Taxi Operators Association filed a petition on Wednesday demanding that ride-sharing companies adhere to similar regulations that the taxi drivers follow...
Trade
Roberto Azevedo urges U.S. to push for Doha finish  Politico   ...World Trade Organization Director-General Roberto Azevedo urged the United States on Monday to reprise its traditional leadership role in the multilateral trading system by pushing to bring the 13-year-old Doha Round of world trade talks to a swift conclusion...
State Battles
W.Va. governor signs budget that taps reserves  Associated Press ...West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signed a budget into law Wednesday that dips into millions of dollars in state reserves but gives public employees raises...
Louisiana committee OK's bill to bar teachers unions from public pension system  Times-Picayune   ...The House Retirement Committee on Thursday approved a bill that would bar any future employees of four organizations, two of them teachers unions, from also being members in the state public pension system for teachers...
War on Workers
Real wage stagnation, year 41  Angry Bear   ...The good news is that… real wages advanced somewhat in 2013, from $294.31 per week (in 1982-84 dollars) to $295.51, an increase of 0.4%. Woo hoo! The bad news, of course, is that this is still 13.5% off the peak real weekly wage of $341.73, achieved in 1972... 
Social Security already hit by the austerity squeeze  DailyKos   ... that annual statement you used to get that provided your earnings to date and estimated your monthly benefits is gone now. It was an important educational tool for Social Security, and a reminder that you are paying into a secure retirement fund. The statements are still available, but you have to be able to go online or visit an SSA office...
Microsoft Software Leak Inquiry Raises Privacy Issues  New York Times   ...The company conducted an inquiry by reading through email and instant messages, which may violate its promise of privacy, highlighting the power technology companies have to snoop on their customers...
Fox Has Consistently Minimized Koch Campaign Funding, But The Truth Is Out  Media Matters   ...As the group emerges as a dominant force in the 2014 midterm elections, spending up to 10 times as much as any major outside Democratic group so far, officials of the organization say their effort is not confined to hammering away at President Obama's Affordable Care Act...
Miscellaneous
Discovery of body clock reset mechanism could help shift workers and jetsetters  gizmag   ..."As this work progresses in clinical terms, we may be able to enhance the clock's ability to deal with shift work, and importantly understand how maladaptation of the clock contributes to diseases such as diabetes and chronic inflammation"...
Bernie Madoff: 'JPMorgan knew'  PoliticoPro   ...JPMorgan Chase served as Madoff’s bank for more than two decades and its role in his infamous Ponzi scheme has been the subject of intense interest to both federal authorities and investors who were victims of his fraud...
Hog Wild: Factory Farms are Poisoning Iowa's Drinking Water  Mother Jones   ...Millions of pigs are crammed into overcrowded barns all across the state, being fattened for slaughter while breeding superbugs—all to feed China's growing appetite for Spam...
Revelations of NSA Spying Cost U.S. Tech Companies  New York Times   ...Tech companies in the United States have lost customers and billions of dollars while companies overseas are gaining customers because of the revelations made by Edward J. Snowden,tied these providers to the National Security Agency’s vast surveillance program.

Welcome to the new Fox "Blame the Workers" reality show

Fox TV's newest reality show sinks to a new level: forcing workers to fire each other for viewer entertainment.

Although increased employee control in the workplace is wonderful, the premise of the show is not. The point of “Does Someone Have to Go?” is that workers are to blame for all of the problems, all of the time.

From the Fox show description:

Almost every office across the country has some level of dysfunction, which often can be attributed to just a few select individuals – those co-workers who might be viewed as anything from lazy to incompetent to quite simply having a toxic personality that poisons the entire workplace. The difficult part for the employees is that, most of the time, the boss isn’t even aware of how bad the problem is, and the only person who can do anything about it IS the boss. That is, until now!

Remember, it’s not your management’s fault that work sucks, or the economy’s that sales may be dropping. It’s yours. A review from Time Magazine says:

In other words, if something’s wrong where you work, the problem isn’t management—God forbid—it’s you, or one of your shiftless coworkers. So go find a scapegoat! To help in that pursuit, the show prods sores by having employees badmouth each other in private interviews—which it then shares publicly—and revealing every participating worker’s salary. It’s the crabs-in-a-barrel philosophy of management: whip up ill will, stir up resentment, and then set the employees out to pull down people who have risen slightly higher from the bottom.

This isn’t the first time a TV show has gone hail-corporate (Undercover Boss, anyone?) But the particularly odious way FOX scripted this show – lower-wage workers beg co-workers for their jobs, as nepotism runs rampant in the office – shows how little respect the company has for working people.

In the real world, respect is one of the most important workplace requirements, more important than health benefits or work/life balance, yet 84% of people in the workplace report being put down at work in the last 5 years.

At the end of the day, these cage-matched employees deserve better – and so do you.

It's official: No 'union violence' at Lansing RTW4Less protest

Remember the phony "union violence" video that Fox News promoted heavily after the No Rights At Work protests in Lansing late last year? It supposedly showed Steven Crowder, a Fox contributor, in a scuffle with a union member. Closer examination showed the video had been heavily doctored. That didn't stop anti-worker extremists tweeting out the video with pious denunciations of "brutality" and "violence." 

Fox's Sean Hannity went on and on about it:

Fox News contributor Steven Crowder was beaten by a mob, having been punched repeatedly in the face. Protesters wielding knives, brought down a tent on representatives from the conservative group Americans for Prosperity. By the way, that’s the tent that was housing women and children and old people and bystanders; they were also roughed up. 

If that had really happened, you would expect criminal charges. But it wasn't what really happened and -- surprise! -- there are no criminal charges. Today the Washington Post reports:

...the prosecutor in this case has determined that there’ll be no charges against anyone who popped Crowder on that December day. Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III “will not be authorizing criminal charges in this case,” Shanon Banner, a spokeswoman for the Michigan State Police, wrote in an e-mail to the Erik Wemple Blog this morning. 

Dunnings said in an interview that the video his office originally reviewed on the matter “appeared to have been edited.” A subsequent review of what the prosecutor termed “unedited” video helped the office reach its decision not to proceed with a case. 

“A look at the unedited video, taken in conjunction with the statements of the alleged victim and the alleged assailant, led me to the conclusion that I would not authorize issuance of the warrant,” Dunnings said.

What are the odds that Fox News will report the news of "no charges" as heavily as it did the initial "fight?"

These people are disgusting.

Rich Fox contributor mocks workers in front of Teamsters HQ

Ingraham tweeted this photo of workers preparing
to take down an inauguration banner
in front of the IBT Building

Millionaire radio hostess Laura Ingraham posted this tweet today:

"Working" outside Teamsters Bldg in DC, en route to radio...

Ingraham makes a good living calling people fat while sitting comfortably in a warm studio. But she mocks actual workers in front of the Teamsters headquarters today, where they were about to take down a banner. In the cold. From five stories up.

She has talked about her work as a radio host: Three hours a day, five days a week. For which she is well paid.

We're a little surprised, frankly. Fox relentlessly pushes the agenda of corporate CEOs and billionaires. But at least it puts a populist facade on its anti-worker propaganda. That's because Fox has to pretend to hate elitists and to speak for ordinary Americans. Otherwise no one would watch it.

But maybe revealing little slips like Ingraham's today are the reason Fox News' ratings are sinking.

Today's Teamster News 12.27.12

Ten Reasons Why the Chained CPI Is Terrible Policy  firedoglake   ...Social Security benefits are already declining due to increases in the retirement age and Medicare premiums...
Ruth Marcus Is Outraged by Overly Generous Social Security Checks  CEPR   ...we have tens of millions of seniors living high on Social Security checks averaging a bit over $1,200 a month at a time when folks like the CEOs in the Campaign to Fix the Debt are supposed to subsist on paychecks that typically come to $10 million to $20 million a year...
Massive New Surveillance Program Uncovered by Wall Street Journal  Slate   ...The guidelines allow the NCTC, for the first time, to keep data about innocent U.S. citizens for up to five years, using “predictive pattern-matching,” to analyze it for suspicious patterns of behavior. The data the counterterrorism center has access to, according to the Journal, includes “entire government databases—flight records, casino-employee lists, the names of Americans hosting foreign-exchange students and many others....”
Ford to invest $773 million in the U.S. to create 2,350 new jobs and save 3,240 existing jobs  AFP   ...The Dearborn-based manufacturer posted its best November since 2005, as sales rose six percent to 177,673 vehicles. The results were driven by strong demand for its small cars, which posted their best November in 12 years...
Fox Parent Company Being Sued For Using Mafia Like Business Tactics   Addicting Info   ...The Dial Corp, makers of soap, personal-care and household cleaning products, have filed suit against News Corp along with subsidies News America, News America Marketing FSI, and News America Marketing In-Store Services, alleging that the company engaged in anti-competitive and illegal practices in order to monopolize the market, even forcing competition out of business through its illegal and immoral tactics...
Michigan Right to Work Law Was the Brainchild of ALEC, The Most Dangerous Group in Politics  PolicyMic   ...ALEC wasted no time in sending many of their most onerous "model legislation" bills to Michigan. These included the Emergency Manager law, privatization of public schools, expansion of charter schools, HB 5221 (Voter ID Act), which required voters to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote, and HB 4305 with language similar to ALEC’s model “Immigration Law Enforcement Act...”
Bakken boom making big impact on regional businesses  Farm and Ranch Guide   ...To visualize the economic impact to Billings of the Bakken oil boom, you can watch the oil field trucks rumble by or you can track subtler clues. Private jets lined up on the tarmac. Rolex watches and diamonds flying out of jewelry stores...
Teamsters Rep: NSB mayor owes cop apology for obscenity after trying to cut through closed street for Christmas parade  Headline Surfer   ...Bob Walker, business agent for Teamsters Local 385, who represents 38 New Smyrna Beach officers  (said) "I think he owes the officer an apology at the very least..."

Today's Teamster News 12.21.12

The Fall of Plan B: Self-Destruction in the Cause of the 0.3 Percent  New Yorker   ...On Thursday evening, John Boehner unexpectedly called off the vote on Plan B because he didn’t have enough votes to pass the measure...
AFL-CIO to White House: Time to rescind your offer to Boehner  Washington Post   ...The AFL-CIO wants Obama to pull back his proposal to raise the income threshold on the tax hikes to $400,000 and to rescind the offer of Chained CPI on Social Security...
Big Banks Flunk OCC Risk Tests  American Banker   ...Think corporate governance at the largest banks is weak? You're right, but you probably have no idea just how right you are...
New Year Will Bring Higher Minimum Wages in 10 States  Pew Stateline   ...Nearly 1 million U.S. workers will be getting a New Year’s Day gift: a small raise after 10 states boost their minimum wages...
Why the US media ignored Murdoch's brazen bid to hijack the presidency (opinion)  Guardian   ...Murdoch's goal seems to have been nothing less than using his media empire – notably Fox News – to stealthily recruit, bankroll and support the presidential candidacy of General David Petraeus in the 2012 election...
Kasich, lawmakers don’t rule out 2013 ballot push  Akron Beacon Journal   ...Kasich also declined to say whether he would work to support or oppose a right-to-work amendment limiting Ohio labor unions, if one were advanced by an outside group...
Teamsters at Upstate Niagara Cooperatives Ratify Union Contract  heraldonline.com   ... Drivers, Warehouse and Production Personnel employed by Upstate Niagara Cooperatives in Cheektowaga and Jamestown, N.Y. have overwhelmingly ratified a new collective bargaining agreement that provides annual wage increases, language improvement and benefit enhancements...
Teamsters, ABF exchange contract proposals  IBT   ...The Teamsters National FreightIndustry Negotiating Committee(TNFINC)exchanged national and supplemental contract proposals with ABF on Wednesday, December 19, and the union will fight the company’s attempts to harm ABF Teamsters’ livelihoods...

Fox & Friends Gets It Wrong -- As Usual

The website Media Matters does a great job checking the sloppy reporting and outright lies of irresponsible media outlets. So when Fox & Friends today said Ohio lost 400,000 jobs since Obama was elected president, Media Matters pointed out the truth:

In fact, the 400,000 figure includes job losses that occurred for two years
before Obama took office in the midst of a deep recession.

Media Matters points out that the recession began on George W. Bush's watch, and jobs are coming back to Ohio under the Obama administration.

Economic activity began to decline in December 2007. The National Bureau of
Economic Research announced on December 1, 2008, that based on "economy-wide measures of economic activity," including domestic production and employment, the recession began in December 2007.

Ohio has been gaining jobs in 2010. Bureau of Labor Statistics data indicate that Ohio has added jobs during each month of 2010, through April.