Today's Teamster News 02.10.14

Vt. lawmakers balk at no-media trade talks  Associated Press   ...Vermont lawmakers are refusing to meet a demand from the office of the U.S. trade representative that they conduct secret talks over the impacts of a proposed international trade agreement...
Obama signs farm bill that trims food stamps  Associated Press   ...President Barack Obama on Friday signed into law an agriculture spending bill that will spread benefits to farmers in every region of the country, while trimming the food stamp program that inspired a two-year battle over the legislation...
If You Thought You Couldn't Go To Jail For Debt Anymore, You're Wrong  Business Insider   ...n Ohio, the practice has been dealt a major blow ... The Ohio Supreme Court released a "bench card" to every state and municipal court judge in Ohio explaining how they must avoid sending people to jail who are too poor to pay their court fines. This bench card is the first of its kind in the nation...
Chinese Official Made Job Plea to JPMorgan Chase Chief  New York Times   ...Federal authorities are now investigating whether the hiring at JPMorgan — and at least six other big banks — was done explicitly to win business from Chinese companies. The authorities could decide to bring charges against individuals or a bank if they find such activity to be in violation of anti-bribery laws...
Suspicious Death of JPMorgan Vice President, Gabriel Magee, Under Investigation in London  Wall Street on Parade   ...No solid evidence exists currently to suggest that the death was a suicide. In fact, there is a strong piece of evidence pointing in the opposite direction...
Tapering of Quantitative Easing Is Throwing Emerging Markets into Chaos - And Big Banks Are Getting Richer  The Real News   ...the economy is growing, but it's growing in a very dysfunctional way... it is growing out of proportion. It is not growing in areas that affect Main Street, small businesses, wages...
Decades of Greed: Behind the Scenes With An Angry Walmart Manager  Gawker   ...How come in 1999 Walmart could pay me over $10 an hour but in 2014 I hire people in at $8.00 an hour?...
Crybabies of the 1 Percent: The Rich Complain While Getting Away With Everything  Alternet   ...Consider the case of a Texas teenager who  killed four people and severely injured two others while drunk-driving in his father’s pickup truck. Prosecutors wanted to send him to prison for 20 years, but a judge decided to give him no jail time at all after an expert witness for the defense testified that the defendant was suffering from “affluenza.” This affliction, the psychologist testified, was a product of the defendant having spent his life in the lap of luxury...
Group: Bangladesh Workers Threatened Over Union  Associated Press   ...dozens of workers who said they were beaten, lost their jobs or forced to resign after trying to organize unions...
Author: When It Comes To High-Speed Internet, U.S. 'Falling Way Behind'  NPR   ...American Internet service is falling behind other nations because cable companies have such dominance in many markets, and that will undermine our ability to compete in a global economy...
Subway Takes Chemical Out of Sandwich Bread After Protest  ABC News   ...Subway said today it is removing a chemical used in yoga mats and shoe soles from the bread of it its popular sandwiches after a food blogger got more than 50,000 signatures in a petition drive...
Right-to-work push (LTE)   Kansas City Star   ...Right to work is really the right to work for less. Sen. Ed Emery confirmed this when he said, “One of the things that will be advocated by the unions is look at all these right-to-work states, average wages all go down. Sure they go down.”...

Today's Teamster News 02.03.14

Rethinking Economics: From the UK, a Global Student Movement Takes Shape  truthout   ...When the financial crisis hit in 2007, economics students at respected institutions around the world found that theories handed down in classrooms failed to explain the reality outside, and an international movement began to demand a change in the way economics is taught...
Maryland Joins Continent-Wide Protests Against the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Unjust Trade  The Real News   ...More than 50 cities across the U.S., Mexico and Canada participated...
Globalists Panic; New Details on 'One World' Trade Deal  American Free Press   ...In a clear sign that populist nationalism is a growing force in the western world, United Kingdom (UK) Chancellor George Osborne gave an important address in mid-January in which he called for major European Union (EU) reforms to safeguard member nations’ sovereignty and revive their lackluster economies...
Fast track stopped, but is it dead?  Trade Reform   ...Since 1992, imported goods have been growing three times faster than exports...
Tariff disagreement with U.S. stands in way of TPP  The Japan Times   ...Amari admitted Friday the two allies remain at odds over Japan’s tariffs on five “sacred” farm product categories, including rice. The U.S. is pushing for full removal...
Hated on the Left, the TPP Draws Conservative Foes  In These Times   ...the American Jobs Alliance and the United States Business and Industry Council—pro-business groups wary of trade’s impact on America’s national interests—joined with Tea Party Nation and the socially conservative Eagle Forum to rail against the TPP...
Coming to a Post Office Near You: Loans You Can Trust? (opinion)  The Huffington Post   ...In the same remarkable report this week, the OIG explored the possibility of the USPS offering basic banking services -- bill paying, check cashing, small loans -- to its customers. With post offices and postal workers already on the ground, USPS could partner with banks to make a critical difference for millions of Americans who don't have basic banking services because there are almost no banks or bank branches in their neighborhoods....
After crash, call for closer oversight of truckers  Associated Press   ...A deadly crash in Illinois involving a truck driver accused of staying at the wheel for more than 35 hours without a long enough break prompted a call Thursday for tougher oversight of drivers and trucking companies...
Old idea for new rail safety problem: slow down trains carrying crude  McClatchy   ...The Federal Railroad Administration proposed in October 1970 that trains carrying flammable cargo in tank cars slow to 25 mph through incorporated communities. The proposal was never adopted as a rule...
The "Skills Gap" Is a Convenient Myth  truthout   ...“If there’s a skills shortage, there has to be rises in wages [for skilled workers]. It’s basic economics.” Yet wages in manufacturing—even for skilled workers—are stagnant at best...
The Rise of 'Insourcing' Gives Internet Companies a New Way to Exploit Workers  The Next New Deal   ...These new “insourced” workers are individuals who contract with large Internet-based companies like Uber and Taskrabbit to perform services here in the United States, either at a rate set by the larger company or in a free-for-all bidding war. As contractors, these workers receive very little protection in terms of minimum wage laws or unions, let alone benefits or insurance for the work they do. And their ranks are growing fast...
How Putin's cronies seized control of Russia's Facebook  The Verge   ... In 2011, the oligarch fired two senior managers for publishing anti-Putin photos in an online newspaper that he owns...
Corruption across EU 'breathtaking' - EU Commission  BBC News   ... in some countries public procurement procedures were vulnerable to fraud, while in others party financing was the main problem, or municipal bodies were badly affected. And in some countries patients have to pay bribes in order to get adequate medical care...
Right to Work bad for state  Springfield News-Leader   ...It is not hard to figure out, however, who would benefit from these efforts. The answer is Republican politicians, who believe that unions provide too much support to Democrats, and their own bankrolling supporters — business interests...

The first honest cable company (VIDEO)

This video is quickly going viral. Bet you can guess why.

Reads around the Internets

One of the most powerful weapons we have to fend off attacks on working people is exposure. We can win when we reveal the extremist billionaires behind campaigns to rob us in the name of fiscal prudence or take away our rights in the name of "worker freedom."

An organization called the Center for Media and Democracy does extremely good work lifting the veil from the phony think tanks and front groups that exist to make it easier for billionaires to loot the middle class. We suggest visiting CMD's website here. They are also responsible for keeping tabs on ALEC, the dating service for corporations and state lawmakers funded by the Benedict Arnold Koch brothers, on their ALEC Exposed website. There you may be able to find if your representative is accepting bribes scholarships from ALEC.

Something else we like on the Internets: The Chasing Sanitation Facebook page. It's dedicated to the Department of Sanitation of New York and features many of our brothers and sisters in Teamsters Local 831. You may also be interested in the Republic Services Teamsters Facebook page.

We would be remiss if we didn't mention Sarah Springer's Facebook page. She posts fascinating labor history nearly every day. On Sunday, for example, we learned that on Jan. 20, 1934,

The Nazis adopt the “Act on the Regulation of National Labor,” replacing independently negotiated collective agreements. The act read, in part, “The leader of the plant makes the decisions for the employees and laborers in all matters concerning the enterprise…. He is responsible for the well-being of the employees and laborers. [They] owe him faithfulness.”

Finally, we recommend the Democratic Underground blog.  It has lots of news of interest to working people.

Happy surfing!