Today's Teamster News 10.16.15

TEAMSTERS
Pasadena Unified, Teamsters Reach Salary Agreement  Pasadena News Now  ...The Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education and Teamsters Local 911 entered into a Salary Increase Agreement on Sept. 24, 2015. This collaborative agreement is in keeping with the district’s priority of working to retain and fairly compensate staff. “I am pleased to see this agreement reached with the Teamsters,” said Superintendent Brian McDonald, Ed.D...
House to hold transportation bill hearing   Fleet Owner  ...California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation covering ready-mix concrete workers under Assembly Bill 219 wage laws. According to the Teamsters, the bill was introduced by Tom Daly (D-Anaheim), and union members throughout the state have participated in the legislative process before the bill was signed. According to Teamsters, president Rome Aloise said: “We are pleased that the governor chose to recognize the important role that these drivers play in the execution of publicly funded projects...
Teamsters Canada Launches Web Series on Mental Health  Market Wired  ...Teamsters Canada is launching a documentary web series on mental health issues facing young workers. The seven episodes will be released weekly at www.makeitmandatory.ca. They feature stories from courageous young workers who faced or are facing mental health issues. "Mental health issues take a devastating toll on our members" said Francois Laporte, President of Teamsters Canada...
Teamsters join to fight autism in Mansfield  Sun Chronicle  ...Union Teamsters and volunteers will be taking to the road Sunday in the fight against autism. Local 25 is sponsoring its annual fundraising walk for Autism Speaks at 10:30 a.m. beginning at the Xfinity Center. The event, now in its 15th year, usually attracts 200 or more walkers to raise funds for autism education and research...
Union rep has concerns after sanitation director admits to wrecking county vehicles  CBS ...Disturbing details emerged Wednesday regarding the director of the DeKalb County Sanitation Department. nion representative Eric Robertson, with Teamsters Local 728, identified serious concerns involving Director Billy Malone. “I’ve seen county employees be terminated for incidents much more minor than that one right there,” Robertson said...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
White House wants trade vote before lame duck  The Hill  ...The White House wants Congress to take up President Obama’s Pacific Rim trade deal long before next year’s lame-duck session, when some congressional aides say a vote is likely to take place. “The timeline that we envision is shorter than that,” press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters on Thursday.  Earnest did not specify when the White House would like a vote to occur...
House Democrats: Enough With the “Fratricide” on Trade Deal  National Journal  ...The AFL-CIO has been among the most vo­cal op­pon­ents of the deal, run­ning ads against Demo­crat­ic sup­port­ers like Rep. Ami Be­ra and hold­ing protests in the dis­tricts of oth­ers. The group also cut off cam­paign fund­ing for Demo­crats dur­ing the TPA fight, a move os­tens­ibly aimed at fo­cus­ing re­sources on the trade battle but one that was perceived as an implicit threat to would-be supporters...
Lessons from NAFTA for the TPP  Common Dreams  ...There are many lessons from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that are relevant to the current debate over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). First, like the TPP, NAFTA was never mostly about trade and even less about free trade. In 1994, the U.S. already had low tariff barriers to Mexican goods. The agreement was much more about creating and expanding new rights and privileges for investors...
TTIP protesters warn of Trojan Horse  EU Observer  ...To the protesters, the treaty could become a trojan horse watering down EU rules on issues like food safety and health, hence the blow-up figure at the entrance of the Parc du Cinquantenaire at the end of the Rue de la Loi in Brussels' EU neighbourhood. Cruls and Voltuan do not trust the people negotiating on their behalf, including European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker...
Trade in services deal: MEPs to hammer out their demands  Euro Parl  ...As talks on the plurilateral Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) advance between 25 parties, including the EU, international trade MEPs will hold their first debate on Parliament’s draft recommendations to the Commission negotiators on Thursday morning. The aim is to ensure that the views of European citizens, represented by Parliament, can be taken on board before the deal is concluded...
Deprived of Right to Work, Refugees Struggle to Subsist Outside Syria  Truthout  ...As masses of Syrian refugees continue to flood Europe, paranoia is running high. One of the most common objections is that refugees and migrants rob already established citizens of jobs and income. in countries like Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, on the receiving end of the true brunt of the Syrian mass exit, refugees are not allowed to work at all, forcing them to find jobs "under the table" in the informal labor market...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Mich. Supreme Court hears prevailing wage challenge  Michigan Radio  ...The Michigan Supreme Court heard arguments for and against local laws that require contractors on public projects to pay union-scale wages.  The challenge to Lansing’s ordinance was filed by non-union contractors. They say local governments aren’t allowed to adopt local wage laws...
Here's what Arizona's minimum wage will be in 2016  Business Journal  ...Arizona businesses won't have to adjust their budgets for workers on the lowest end of the pay scale next year. The Industrial Commission of Arizona, in accordance with the voter-approved Minimum Wage for Working Arizonans Act, calculated this week that the state's minimum wage of $8.05 will remain the same in 2016...
Paid sick leave becomes focus in Mpls after 'fair scheduling' effort stumbles  MPR News  ...Minneapolis leaders are vowing to push for a proposal that will require employers in the city to provide all workers with paid sick time off. Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges announced earlier this week that she was tabling another effort that would have required employers to give employees advance notice of work schedules. That proposal hit a snag after it encountered strong opposition from the business community...
Papa John's Stores To Dish Up Half A Million Dollars In Wage Theft Case  Huffington Post  ...Four current and former Papa John's franchisees have agreed to pay out nearly $500,000 to New York workers in order to settle a wage theft investigation, New York's attorney general and the U.S. Labor Department announced on Thursday. The settlement resolves allegations from workers that they were shorted on pay at nine Papa John's restaurants in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx...

U.S. LABOR
UAW leaders push for OK of Fiat Chrysler deal  The Detroit News   ...The UAW International has released two new videos featuring local UAW leaders and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV hourly members who seem supportive of the second tentative deal, as informational meetings for members proceed ahead of next week’s contract vote. In one video posted Thursday to the union’s Facebook page, several local UAW leaders talk about how the “no” vote on the initial tentative agreement reached by the union and company has strengthened the union...
State Board to Hold Hearing on County Workers' Strike  Patch.com  ...The Public Employment Relations Board will hold a settlement conference in Oakland next week on alleged unfair labor practice allegations that Solano County and the 1,800-member employees of SEIU Local 1021 union have made against each other in an ongoing labor dispute. The union began what was intended to be a one-day unfair labor practices strike on Wednesday...
With hour to spare, custodian union & office building owners reach contract  Business Journal  ...Sixty minutes before the contract was set to expire, a tentative agreement was made and a strike averted. The union representing 2,800 custodians and the managers of 168 Philly-area office properties reached a new 4-year contract. The members of 32BJ Service Employees International Union were prepared to walk off the job if a deal was not made before the current contract expired...
Austerity 101: The Three Reasons Republican Deficit Hawks Are Wrong  (opinion) Huffington Post  ...Congress is heading into another big brawl over the federal budget deficit, the national debt, and the debt ceiling. Republicans are already talking about holding Social Security and Medicare "hostage" during negotiations -- hell-bent on getting cuts in exchange for a debt limit hike...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Donald Trump Supporters Spit on Immigration Activist as Rally Turns Violent  Alternet  ...As inflammatory language tends to do, Donald Trump’s campaign rhetoric incited a scuffle between his supporters and immigration activists during a rally last night, leading to at least one Trump supporter spitting on a protester. Trump made his first campaign stop in Virginia and held a rally in Richmond, where he went after “maniac” Bernie Sanders before delving into his usual anti-immigrant tirade...
Note to Dems: Simply Not Being Racist Isn’t Enough on Immigration Reform  (opinion) The Nation  ... Trump’s made the immigration conversation easy for Democrats. But candidates have a responsibility to be more than just not-racist; not showing their fear-mongering backsides doesn’t automatically make them good on immigration. The tonal differences matter, but so do the policy conversations...
Feds Arrest Fox News Commentator, Allege He Lied About CIA Past  Huffington Post   ...A regular guest commentator on Fox News who has been lying for years about working for the Central Intelligence Agency was arrested on Thursday and is being charged in connection with falsely claiming he worked as an “Outside Paramilitary Special Operations Officer” for the CIA for nearly three decades...

Rich People Scared to Move into High Rent Apartments Because of Homeless Displaced by High Rents   Alternet   ...In what could lightly be called an ironic twist, it now looks as if wealthy residents are getting turned off from renting in parts of the city with visible homeless people -- and apartment brokers are not happy about it. DNA Info reports: Brokers have noticed that many of their clients are increasingly reluctant to rent or buy an apartment when they spot a homeless person nearby...

Today's Teamster News 03.10.15

Teamsters
Hoffa: Right-To-Work In Wisconsin Is Another Step Down The Wrong Road For Working Families  teamster.org   ...“Today, Gov. Scott Walker ignored the will of Wisconsin’s working families, signing a right-to-work bill into law that was fast tracked through the state legislature...
40 hurt when Amtrak train slams into truck in Halifax County  WRAL.com   ...Dozens of passengers were injured Monday when an Amtrak train traveling from Charlotte to New York derailed in Halifax County after slamming into a tractor-trailer that apparently got stuck at an intersection, authorities said...
Apple Gives Shuttle Bus Drivers A Raise  San Jose Mercury News   ...Last week, Apple announced it would hire many of its contract security guards as full-time employees entitled to the same benefits as other workers, echoing a similar step made last year by Google. What's more, shuttle bus drivers for popular Silicon Valley contractors Loop Transportation and Compass Transportation have joined the Teamsters union, which is negotiating for better pay and benefits...
Handi-Van Management, Drivers' Union At Odds Over Customer Complaint Calls  KHNL   ...The disagreement centers over a small card that the Hawaii Teamsters Local 996 distributed to its drivers to give to their passengers, which includes the phone numbers for the offices of the mayor, city manager and transportation. The drivers started giving out the cards last November, a month after the city changed the HandiVan reservation system, resulting in long waits and irate customers...
Sysco Extends Merger Pact With U.S. Foods To May  Wall Street Journal   ...The food-distributor said the termination date for the accord, initially reached in December 2013, was moved to May 7 from March 8, in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Court hearings are set to begin May 5 on the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust lawsuit against the merger of Sysco and U.S. Foods, the nation’s two largest food distributors...
Trade
Secret Treaties: Why I'm Against the TPP  Huffington Post   ...The TPP masquerades as a "free-trade" agreement when in reality its designed to make it even easier for colossal corporations to ship American jobs overseas by dismantling organized labor, undercutting workers' rights and shirking environmental regulations...
State Battles
Scott Walker Signs Right-To-Work Bill  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...Gov. Scott Walker has signed the right-to-work legislation passed last week by the state Legislature...
Senate Committee Pushes Vote On Labor Bills To Tuesday  Santa Fe New Mexican   ...The weekslong debate over whether New Mexico should outlaw compulsory union fees will go on for at least two more days...
Raimondo To Seek Minimum Wage Hike  Providence Journal   ...Governor Raimondo campaigned for office on a promise to back an increase in the state's minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. On Monday, she will call on state lawmakers to help her fulfill that campaign pledge by raising the minimum wage from $9 to $10.10 an hour in 2016...
Bills On Workers' Comp Bias And Ride-Sharing Safety Are Resurrected  Los Angeles Times   ...Lawmakers once again are grappling with complaints from injured workers that insurers unfairly slash their disability payments. A bill by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) would partially address the problem of alleged bias against women hurt on the job. The bill has strong backing from labor unions...
War on Workers
The 21st century has been terrible for working Americans  Washington Post   ...Of all the scary stats you've heard about the U.S. economy over the last few years, this might be the scariest: Almost two-thirds of American households earn less money today than they did in 2002...
Poll: Fox News most trusted network  Politico   ...In comparison rankings, 29 percent responded that they trust Fox News the most. CNN follows with 22 percent, CBS News and NBC News are at 10 percent, ABC News at 8 percent and MSNBC at 7 percent...
Wrecks Hit Tougher Oil Railcars  Wall Street Journal   ...In a string of recent oil train derailments in the U.S. and Canada, new and sturdier railroad tanker cars being built to carry a rising tide of crude oil across the continent have failed to prevent ruptures...
NYCHA Employee Dies After Plunge While On Job At Coney Island Public Housing Complex  New York Daily News   ...A New York City Housing Authority employee died in a Coney Island public housing complex building Saturday — the victim of an apparent fall, cops said...
Miscellaneous
Credit-Reporting Giants Agree To Overhaul  Wall Street Journal   ...Under an agreement announced Monday with New York state, Equifax Information Services LLC, Experian Information Solutions Inc. and TransUnion LLC will be more proactive in resolving disputes over information contained in credit reports—a process federal watchdogs and consumer advocates have long decried as being stacked against individuals...

Jon Stewart takes on Fox News' poor bashing

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Here's a great clip from a recent 'Daily Show' in which Jon Stewart explains how JPMorgan pushes people onto food stamps, then profiteers from the food stamp system, all the while employing cheap laborers in India to help run the business.

We also liked Stewart's comment:

What I'm getting from Fox is this: exploiting government largess while reprehensive and morally corrupting for an individual, is A-okay for a corporations. So, maybe this will help. Don't think of food stamps and Head Start - programs like that - as feeding and helping a small child. Think about it as investing in a promising start up with a liquidity problem.

Fox News fires anti-union provocateur

You may remember this jackass from the Teamsters' battle over right-to-work-for-less in Michigan nearly a year ago. His name is Steven Crowder. Last year he went to the protest outside the Capitol, he tried to cause trouble and he made a phony video that showed 'union violence' at a protest outside the capitol. Then Fox News aired the video -- over and over. Now Fox fired him.

The bad news is that Crowder didn't get fired for doctoring videos to make union members look bad. It was because he criticized Sean Hannity. Or maybe it was because he just wasn't that funny, and he criticized Hannity as the door was slamming him in the butt.

Whatevs. It is with absolutely no sorrow that we note the death of Steven Crowder's career.

Today's Teamster News 10.21.13

Tea Party Rep. Farenthold To Disabled Vets Hurt By GOP Shut-Down: ‘You have to Make Sacrifices!’  aatp.org   ...Congressman Blake Farenthold (R- Texas...) told veterans about to lose their disability checks due to the government shutdown, that they would have to make sacrifices...
Why Democrats Might Cave On Social Security Cuts  Huffington Post   ...Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Sunday opened the door to Social Security cuts as part of a budget deal with congressional Republicans...
Farmworkers Hit NYC to Protest Wendy’s Labor Practices  The Nation   ...The members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) had just arrived in the city from Immokalee, Florida, and were gathered to pressure Wendy’s to sign on to CIW’s Fair Food Program (FFP), an initiative that ensures fast-food chains purchase tomatoes from ethical produce suppliers...
How stores use your phone’s WiFi to track your shopping habits  Washington Post   ...in a retail environment, other in-store equipment can pick up your WiFi card, learn your device's unique ID number and use it to keep tabs on that device over time as you move through the store...
(In)Direct Slavery: We’re All Guilty  Pivotfarm   ...There are 29.8 million slaves in the world. They mostly work in developing and emerging countries producing goods that are destined for the Western world and our own markets...
Mexico cartel honcho reportedly killed by gunmen dressed as clowns  Los Angeles Times   ...Gunmen dressed as clowns burst into a children’s party and shot to death the eldest brother of one of Mexico’s erstwhile largest and feared drug-trafficking families, Mexican officials and press said Saturday...
In Greece, wisdom of privatizations under question  Ekathimerini   ...Unions have long warned that the planned offloading of stakes in utility and transport companies will impose higher water and gas prices to a population already struggling through a six-year recession. Wages have fallen by over 22 percent since 2010 according to state statistics, and unemployment has soared to over 27 percent of the active workforce...
The birth of Fox News  Salon   ...From day one, Rupert Murdoch's baby was louder and angrier than its competitors. The media has never recovered...
Meat So Cheap You Could Die  Other Words   ...The first known salmonella cases from this latest bout of bad chicken occurred in March. They continued through at least late September. That means consumers bought and ate contaminated meat for at least seven months before they learned that something might be amiss. Since it takes a few weeks to report and confirm a new case, it’s likely more people will get sick than the early numbers indicated....
The Abject Failure of Reaganomics (opinion)  Consortium News   ...If a large segment of the American public continues to buy into the Tea Party’s fake reality, then it is likely that both the political damage and the economic decline will continue apace, with fewer good-paying jobs, a shrinking middle class and more of the bitter alienation that has fed the Tea Party’s growth in the first place. In other words, the United States will remain in a vicious circle that is also a downward spiral...
Ohio's Hidden Bob Evans Subsidies  CleveScene   ... a just-released study … found that more than one in every eight Bob Evans employees qualifies for Medicaid, food assistance, or cash assistance from the state. The taxpayer cost is pegged at $14 million annually…

All you need to know about Fox News

A new book called "An Atheist in a FOXhole" tells the story of a liberal who worked at Fox News for eight years. Salon published excerpts from the book, but you don't even need to read all of those.

The muffin story is all you really need to know about Fox News:

In summer 2011, a story surfaced on the right-wing blogs that an auditor for the Justice Department had found out some DOJ employees attending a meeting at the Capital Hilton in Washington, DC, had been served refreshments, including muffins for which the hotel charged sixteen dollars apiece. 

It’s no surprise that the story spread like wildfire on the blogs and was soon picked up by cable news. It was a great story for the right, reinforcing preexisting notions of government excess and willingness to waste taxpayer money, the incompetence of the Obama Justice Department, etc. 

One problem: It wasn’t true. 

A few days after the story broke, a representative from Hilton Hotels came out and said that the auditor had misread the bill, that the sixteen dollars referred to a full breakfast—coffee, tea, fruit, muffins, plus tax and gratuity. Not a bargain by any means, but also not too bad for a hotel continental breakfast. 

A producer named Steiner Rudolf was line producing — assembling the stories in the rundown and making sure they all timed out correctly — on the day that Bill wanted to include the muffin anecdote in a Talking Points Memo. “Actually, Bill, the muffin thing got debunked,” Steiner started to tell him. “A guy from the hotel came out and said —” 

“I don’t give a shit what the guy said,” Bill interrupted, suddenly angry. “It’s the same old thing. They come out and deny it, but the story is there. We know it’s true. We have the proof.” 

Steiner tried gamely one more time to convince Bill to drop the story, explaining that he didn’t have the proof, but O’Reilly was adamant. He’d latched on to the story, and pesky things like “facts” weren’t going to convince him otherwise. The muffins went into the Talking Points. Over the next few weeks, he repeated the story several times on his own show, on Jon Stewart’s show, on David Letterman’s show, and on Good Morning America. 

Just when you thought the Billionaires' News Network couldn't get worse...

We've noted from time to time that there's a news network devoted to empowering billionaires and impoverishing 99 percent of Americans.

It's about to get bigger.

The New York Post and Fox News, owned by billionaire Rupert Murdoch, are the best known and most hated of the Billionaire Empowerment Network. There's plenty more, though: Glenn Beck's Blaze website, for example, is practically a subsidiary of the billionaire astroturf group FreedomWorks. The Franklin Center, which has a statehouse news service in four states, gets its funding from the shadowy billionaire group called Donor's Trust.

Last week's coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing and manhunt was a spectacular disaster for the Billionaire Empowerment Network, though. Eric Boehlert gives us the lowlights at Huffington Post:

It was a memorable week in which the conservative media's highest profile newspaper, Rupert Murdoch's New York Post, seemed committed to getting as many stories wrong about the Boston attack as possible. 

The hapless Post somehow managed to completely botch the simplest Journalism 101 fact of how many people were killed in the Patriot's Day attack. But hey, according to beleaguered Post editor Col Allan the Post tried its best and that's all that really matters.

Then there's Glenn Beck:

Glenn Beck on April 18 announced that his website, The Blaze, was breaking news about the Boston Marathon bombing: A Saudi national student on a student visa was "absolutely involved" in the Patriot's Day blast was being deported by the U.S. government for security reason. 

Beck went further, claiming the student, or "dirt bag," as the host described him, was "possibly the ringleader" in the bombing that killed three people and injured more than one hundred, and the government was deliberately covering it up. 

Beck urged listeners to spread the breaking news via Twitter and Facebook because, he warned, the mainstream media would ignore the revelation. But the right-wing media would pick up the slack. Fox News' Sean Hannity helped launch the story on April 17 and continued to fan it yesterday, claiming the student had previously "been involved with a terrorist or terror activity," while a swarm of right-wing sites pushed the paranoid tale. 

So the news that the Benedict Arnold Koch brothers want to buy some of the biggest and most reputable newspapers in the country does not bode well for the state of journalism. They are reportedly salivating over the prospect of buying the Tribune Company, which includes the Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Hartford Courant and The Orlando Sentinel. Their goal is to make sure the "libertarian" voice is heard.

Let's be clear. There's nothing "libertarian" or "conservative" about the Koch brothers. It's misleading to put that label on what is basically a gigantic ripoff of American taxpayers and an attempt to restrict the rights and independence of ordinary people.

They are relentlessly trying to squash First Amendment rights through ag-gag laws promoted by ALEC, the corporate escort service for state lawmakers they fund. That's not libertarian and it's not conservative.

Through ALEC, they want to eradicate public education so privatized education companies can loot taxpayers for their shareholders' benefit. That's not conservative and it's not libertarian. It's piracy.

They want to ranch and log on public lands owned by U.S. taxpayers for their next to nothing. That's not conservative and it's not libertarian.  It's pillage.

They want the government to seize private property by the power of eminent domain for their pipelines. That sure as hell isn't libertarian.

We could go on about the Koch brothers, but we'll leave it for another day. Or days.

Whoa! Fox VP equates ex-cons with unions on Calif. high-speed rail project

Does Fox ever get tired of trying to destroy America?  Last week, another Fox hack smeared unions as part of an attack on California's high-speed project. (Watch it here.)

Kevin Hale, general manager of the Fox affiliate in Los Angeles, actually said this:

What do ex-cons and trade unions in California have in common? They are both getting preferential hiring treatment by the California High Speed Rail Authority. 

Don't believe me? 

Part of the California High-Speed Rail Authority's game plan is to hire "disadvantaged workers."...  

Well they are being defined as disadvantaged because they are primarily young people, just starting out in their careers, working their way up the union ladder.

Um, does he know how many people in California are out of work? The real unemployment rate, U-6, averaged 19.3 percent last year. (U-6 is defined as official unemployed, forced part-timers and those who dropped out of the labor force.)

Employment among California's young people (ages 16 to 24) was the lowest since the 1950s, according to a report published in December. Annenberg TV News reported:

The study conducted by two children’s advocacy organizations, the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Children Now, found that 868,000 Californians ages 16 to 24 neither work nor attend school. This marks a 35 percent increase since 2000.

That's known as a youth unemployment crisis. Fox's idiot general manager should be praising unions for advocating high-speed rail in the first place. Then he should be thanking unions for giving young people that leg up.

It's hard to believe this guy calls for "fresh ideas" in a line of attack on unions that probably started during the administration of Grover Cleveland.

Let's face it, Fox itself offers preferential treatment for any hack willing to lie in the service of billionaire empowerment. Remember the "union violence" in Michigan that Fox "journalists" reported -- over and over and over -- with an obviously doctored video? Never happened.

Fox is on a crusade against high-speed rail, anyway. That's because Fox's billionaire owner Rupert Murdoch and his reactionary billionaire pals want to protect the oil and gas industry. Trust us, you won't ever hear Fox hacks rail against the hundred or so oil companies that drilled in federal (i.e., taxpayer owned) waters without paying royalties. And remember this: the first thing corporate stooge governors did when elected in 2010 was to pull the plug on high-speed rail projects. (That would be Rick Scott in Florida, John Kasich in Ohio and Job-killer Scott Walker in Wisconsin.)

The Teamsters Rail Conference strongly supports the high-speed rail project in California. The conference represents more than 70,000 rail workers employed as locomotive engineers, trainmen and maintenance of way workers as members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division (BMWED).

John Murphy, director of the Teamsters Rail Conference, said the California project will help hundreds of people find good union jobs and provide a viable alternative to highway and plane travel.

And according to a press statement in July, Freddie Simpson, BMWED president, said:

...we have an opportunity to show Californians the skills and hard work our members bring to the rail profession.

Dennis Pierce, president of the Rail Conference and BLET, said California will be a model for other states and cities:

The California high speed rail line will be a beacon of performance on the West Coast and our members look forward to operating the equipment on this state-of-the-art rail line.

And they aren't lying.

Today's Teamster News 12.26.12

Washington’s Serious People Are on the War Path Against Middle-Income and Poor People  Economy in Crisis   ...The Serious People in Washington, such as The Washington Post (both the opinion and news sections), the Wall Street Campaign to Fix the Debt, and the Republican Congressional leadership are in full budget-cutting frenzy. They demand cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and everything else that benefits middle income and poor people because, well, because the market demands it...
Shoppers Disappoint Retailers This Holiday Season  Associated Press   ...U.S. shoppers spent cautiously this holiday season, a disappointment for retailers who slashed prices to lure people into stores and now must hope for a post-Christmas burst of spending...
Why Malls Are Getting Mauled  Jeff Jordan   ...Online retailers are relentlessly gaining share in many retail categories, and offline players are fighting for progressively smaller pieces of the retail pie.  A number of physical retailers have already succumbed to online competition including Circuit City, Borders, CompUSA, Tower Records and Blockbuster, and many others are showing signs of serious economic distress...
Ted Koppel: “Fox News is Bad for America”  The Big Picture   ...He notes that there is no question when watching FoxNews where the ideological bent comes from...
Decline in foreclosure backlog may give false hope  Palm Beach Post   ...More than 40 percent of foreclosures cleared from Florida’s courts in recent months were dismissals, cases that likely will boomerang back into the overloaded judicial system when lenders are better prepared to continue their pursuit...
Teamsters picket Paterson's Crown Roll Leaf  The Record   ...About 50 employees who picketed outside Crown Roll Leaf, Inc. on Monday are preparing for a possible strike later this week to protest proposed new contract terms that call for 10-percent pay cuts and increases to health-care costs, union members said...

Fox flummoxed by honest guest

Author Tom Ricks won't be asked back on Fox News after saying the network  is an arm of the Republican Party. On air.

Fox cut short his interview (above) about Benghazi
after he accused Fox of hyping the issue because of its political bias.

But get this -- Fox later lied and said he apologized.

Politico reports:

Ricks told POLITICO that Michael Clemente, Fox’s executive vice president of news, made the claim he apologized privately because “when the facts aren’t on their side, they attack the person.” 

“Clemente is making it up, and it is sloppy of Hollywood Reporter to not ask him for specifics — what exactly am I alleged to have said? — and also to seek a response from me,” Ricks wrote in an e-mail. “Why are they doing this? Because their MO is that when the facts aren’t on their side, they attack the person.” 

Clemente told The Hollywood Reporter that Ricks apologized privately to the network after the Monday interview.

Jon Stewart's hilarious takedown of Fox News

The Karl Rove meltdown on Fox hasn't gotten old yet.

Jon Stewart tells Fox's Chris Wallace 'You're insane''

Today's must-watch video.

Chaos on Bulls**t Mountain

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Ya gotta see this.

Today's Teamster News 05.26.12

Québec's Student Strike Turning Into a Citizens' Revolt  truthout   ... On its 102nd day, the student movement is growing, as is the awareness of an ever more oppressive and corrupt government...
NO DISCLOSURE: WSJ, Fox Defended ALEC Without Noting News Corp. Is A Member  Media Matters for America   ...The editorial board of The Wall Street Journal and employees of Fox News have repeatedly shielded the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) from criticism without disclosing that parent company News Corp. is a member of that organization...
Senate Armed Services Committee Releases Report on Counterfeit Electronic Parts  Trade Reform   ...A Senate Armed Services Committee investigation discovered counterfeit electronic parts from China in the Air Force’s largest cargo plane, in assemblies intended for Special Operations helicopters, and in a Navy surveillance plane among 1,800 cases of bogus parts, a committee report released today shows...
Dispatches XXII: Wisconsin and US Employment Growth Compared  Econbrowser   ...Wisconsin employment is lagging far, far behind the smooth path implied by Governor Walker's 250,000 increase in private employment...
In recall battle, Wisconsin Gov. Scott says new figures showing job gains are "the final job numbers"  Politifact   ...We rate Walker’s statement False...
CP union members keep vision on track  Northern Life   ...Locomotive engineers and conductors from CP Rail, part of Teamsters Canada Rail Conference Local 308 in Sudbury, have been on the picket line since May 23, and they have no intention of leaving until their requests for maintaining 10-hour shifts and leaving pensions alone are heard...

Fox fails in "gotcha" story on Teamsters, unions

Teamsters' staff at headquarters was not fooled recently when Fox News called and asked to bring cameras to the inside of the building. They were told "gotcha" journalist John Stossel was doing a story on beautiful buildings in Washington, D.C.

Riiiiight. 

Funny how the other beautiful buildings were all occupied by unions, including the AFL-CIO. Here's what they had to say:

Imagine our surprise last week when Fox Business correspondent John Stossel made an unexpected visit to the AFL-CIO building. Stossel’s previous coverage of the labor movement include a special on public education that blames teachers’ unions for the failings of public schools, an interview with Transport Workers (TWU) Local 100 President John Samuelsen, in which Stossel claims unions impede job growth and several entries on his FoxBusiness.com blog where he argues against the minimum wage and against regulations on unpaid internships.

Stossel is well-known for his “gotcha” journalism, so when he claimed he was in our lobby because our building was one of the most beautiful in D.C., we weren’t buying it—neither did the other unions where he showed up unannounced, also to film their "beautiful buildings.” (Think James O'Keefe.)

Interesting, by the way, that he showed up unannounced in the other union buildings -- but only called the Teamsters. Perhaps he's aware we're the STRONGEST union!

P.S. Stossel did NOT get inside the building. 

The Muppets respond to Fox News

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

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

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

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

Bill O'Reilly hits activist with umbrella, then asks for his arrest

This is what right-wingers do. They attack the 99 percent and then claim they've been wronged.

In their view, poor people are trying to cheat them with demands for food and health care. They think the jobless have some nerve to ask for a small stipend until they're lucky enough to find employment.

Up-is-down in the world of the 1 percenters and their political acolytes.

That's how poor widdle Diana Taylor, domestic partner of New York's billionaire mayor, can actually act as if 43 art handlers locked out by Sotheby's have made threatening "demands."

That's how the Walmart family, six of whom are as wealthy as 30 percent of the poorest Americans, can fund "charities" that aim to further impoverish the middle class by destroying unions and public education.

That's how Karl Rove can actually attack Elizabeth Warren, a staunch defender of the middle class against predatory banks. Rove claimed Warren, who's running for Senate, “helped pay big bonuses for bank executives while middle class Americans lost out."

It's their dystopia. We only live in it.

Study: Fox News viewers less informed than -- well, just about everyone

This isn't a surprise. According to the LA Times,

A new survey of New Jersey voters comes to a provocative conclusion: Fox News viewers tend to be less informed about current events than those who don't watch any news at all.

You may be surprised that the same survey found viewers of John Stewart's Daily Show are better informed than viewers of cable news shows.

Commenting on the survey, a political science professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University said,  

The results show us that there is something about watching Fox News that leads people to do worse on these questions than those who don't watch any news at all.

Do you suppose that "something" is Fox's practice of doctoring videotape to distort stories to suit its anti-worker agenda?

Today's Teamster News 07.27.11

Walker may face tough recall battle  Eau Claire Leader-Telegram   ...Considering a recent poll, Walker only has a few months to fend off what could be a serious challenge...
GE moving X-ray business to China  Bloomberg News   ... The headquarters will move from Wisconsin amid a broader plan to invest about $2 billion across China, including opening six “customer innovation’’ and development centers...
Kasich can expect a fight on leasing Turnpike  Columbus Dispatch   ...State Rep. Michael Ashford, D-Toledo, and George Tucker, executive director of the Toledo AFL-CIO, cast Kasich's intention to privatize the turnpike as a bad deal for the state, a job killer and likely to gouge drivers with higher tolls...
Snyder: Michigan budget a 'role model' for Washington lawmakers  Detroit News   ...Snyder's first budget — which he says has ended a longstanding structural budget deficit and put the state on a path to fiscal stability — was balanced through a combination of spending cuts and new revenues, which included axing many tax credits and exemptions and making more public and private pension income taxable...
Ind. commerce chief backs right-to-work law push  Associated Press   ...Indiana lawmakers debated right to work legislation Tuesday that sparked a five-week walkout by House Democrats earlier this year and could set a contentious tone when lawmakers reconvene in January...
In face of lawsuit, Gov. Christie makes copy of calendar public, revealing private dinner with Fox News chief  NJ.com   ...John Cook, the Gawker staff writer who filed the records request with Christie’s office, said the administration’s original claim of executive privilege showed the governor appears to be treating the media executive as an adviser...

Prosser Watch: Fox says alleged victim should resign

You can't make this up. Fox News natterer Greta Van Susteren said Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson should resign because Walker clone  Justice David Prosser tried to choke Justice Ann Walsh Bailey.

ThinkProgress has the story:

Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren has called for the resignation not of Prosser but Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson:

And while I have no idea who is off the wall (Justice Prosser or Justice Walsh or both), I do know one thing, CHIEF JUSTICE SHIRLEY ABRAHAMSON sure is not doing her job to lead the court and to give confidence to the people of Wisconsin. She needs to step aside and let someone else attempt to run that zoo.

Abrahamson is a previous victim of Prosser’s abusive behavior. In March, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, “Justice David Prosser exploded at Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson behind closed doors, calling her a ‘bitch’ and threatening to ‘destroy’ her.” While Prosser admitted he “probably overreacted,” he also said his outburst was “entirely warranted.” Bradley, Prosser’s latest alleged victim, wrote an email to the other justices complaining of his behavior.

Isn't that what abusers do -- blame the victim?