Today's Teamster News 01.03.15

Teamsters
Dunkin' Donuts Delivery Drivers in Chicago Join the Teamsters  Teamsters Joint Council 25   ...By a 2-to-1 margin, approximately 30 drivers who make deliveries to Chicago-area Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants recently voted to join Teamsters Local 734...

BLET reaches tentative agreement with Norfolk Southern  BLET   ...The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) has reached a tentative contract agreement with Norfolk Southern (NS) governing rates of pay and work rules for more than 4,500 locomotive engineers...
Inaugural Toledo Walleye Winter Brewfest is a hit  The Blade   ...Toledo firefighter Jenny Hill fist-bumps Mark Sobczak, vice president of Teamsters Local 20, as she dispenses beer during the inaugural Toledo Walleye Winter Brewfest...
McGrain to head Ingham Board of Commissioners  Lansing State Journal   ...In other business, the board … Approved a 2015 wage reopener that calls for a 2.5 percent boost to the current salary schedule of members of Teamsters Local 580, the Potter Park Zoo supervisory unit...
Trade
Obama’s Trade Chief, Undaunted by Odds, Pushes for Trans-Pacific Partnership  New York Times   ...the deal’s completion is certainly not guaranteed. Republicans inclined to give the president trade-negotiating authority are still seething at his executive action deferring deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants. Many conservatives are in no mood to give Mr. Obama anything, said Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, and a former United States trade representative in the George W. Bush administration...
The President Set a Goal of Doubling Exports by 2014—Why Haven’t We?  Economic Policy Institute   ...Total U.S. goods and services exports increased by less than 50 percent ($766 billion, or 48.4 percent) between 2009 and 2014 (estimated), as shown in the figure below. Meanwhile, imports increased by an even larger $883.8 billion, and as a result, the U.S. trade deficit increased by $117.0 billion...
Trade's big breakout  Politico   ...Republicans and President Barack Obama are both eager to act on a massive Asia-Pacific deal, an even bigger agreement with the European Union and legislation that would fast-track their approval by Congress — all of which have a shot of moving next year...
TTIP: Chemical corporations against safety protections  Ecologist   ...Under the TTIP US-EU trade agreement, the world's largest chemical corporations would be able to attack US states' attempts to regulate for chemical safety, writes Patrick Gleeson. In both the US and the EU, corporate rights - asserted in secret courts - would trump democracy and attempts to raise health, safety and welfare standards...
State Battles
EBay parts ways with controversial political group ALEC  Reuters   ...Critics fault ALEC, a coalition of state lawmakers and companies, for promoting measures to deny the existence of climate change, defund public services, oppose Internet neutrality and limit workers' protections...
Sweatshops in California Guilty of Wage Theft  Law Firm Newswire   ...lothing made in California for outlets such as Macy’s, JC Penney and Kohl’s, actually comes from local sweatshops where some employers routinely unplug the clock intended to keep track of worker’s hours...
War on Workers
Koch-Funded News Outlet Defends Dark-Money Organizations  Media Matters for America   ...Conservative news outlet Watchdog.org released a six-part series defending dark-money organizations -- politically focused groups that conceal the identities of their donors -- but failed to disclose its own funding from the Koch brothers and other conservative dark-money players...
Pay-disclosure advocates chafe at SEC rule delays  MarketWatch   ...Supporters of a rule that would require public companies to disclose the ratio between executive and median employee pay say the Securities and Exchange Commission should move soon to enact the regulation....
Worker dies after falling into well  WESH.com   ...Thomas Wood, 41, was working at a gas station under construction on U.S. 1 and Beville Road when he fell into the 6-foot fuel tank well...
Refinery worker dies in accident in Gibbstown  Associated Press   ...An air compressor line broke and struck 63-year-old Gary Grimming, who was sandblasting a tank at the time. Grimming was employed by a Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based company...
Miscellaneous
U.S. slaps new sanctions on North Korea after Sony hack  CNN   ...The United States is hitting North Korea with a new set of economic sanctions after determining the country was behind last month's computer hack at Sony...
Why Airlines Want to Make You Suffer  The New Yorker   ...In 2013, the major airlines combined made about $31.5 billion in income from fees, as well as other ancillaries, such as redeeming credit-card points...
Falling oil prices both good and bad for manufacturers  Fortune   ...On one hand, a steep decline in the cost of oil leads to lower expenses. But on the other, business may suffer because of lower spending by oil and chemical companies on big-ticket items like computers and new machinery...

Today's Teamster News 12.17.14

Teamster News
More Than 400 Sysco Workers in Atlanta Win Teamster Representation  teamster.org   ...Sysco workers have voted to join Teamsters Local 528 in Atlanta. With 423 workers in the bargaining unit, the vote for Teamster representation is the biggest at Sysco in years...
Workers At Selland Auto Transport Vote To Join Teamsters Union  teamster.org   ...A group of about 240 drivers, owner-operators and shop employees at Selland Auto Transport have voted to join the Teamsters Union in California, Washington, Oregon, Montana and Utah. Ballots were counted today at the National Labor Relations Board in Seattle...
National Labor Relations Board Rules In Favor Of Teamster School Bus Workers  teamster.org   ...School bus drivers and monitors in Santa Rosa County, Fla., who are members of Teamsters Local 991 in Mobile, Ala., have won another victory in a decision handed down by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) [which] orders the workers’ employer, Durham School Services, to “cease and desist” failing and refusing to recognize and bargain....
Minnesota Attorney General Questions Sysco, US Foods Merger  St. Louis Post Dispatch   ...Minnesota's attorney general has expressed concern about the merger of food distribution giants Sysco Corp. and US Foods, saying it was questionable whether any divestiture could restore competition lost to the transaction...
Teamsters, Consumers, Community To Protest UNFI Shareholders Meeting  Morningstar Advisor   ...On Wednesday, December 17, Teamsters, organic food consumers, supply chain workers and community members will protest the unsustainable practices of United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI) and its retail partner Whole Foods Market, at UNFI's annual shareholders meeting in Sacramento... 
Unionized Niles Police To Stay Teamsters  Journal And Topics   ...Rank and file Niles police officers will remain members of the Teamsters union after a vote of unionized police officers Thursday (Dec. 11)...
Akron's Jobs For Sewers Program Packs The House  WSKU   ...Some 250 people showed up at a program on Akron’s east side that had expected to draw about half that many. “OK, guys. I’m from the Teamsters. Who’s got questions?’ And for the better part of the next two hours, the questions -- and answers – flew...
Pension Fund Run By Wall Street Cited In Push To Cut Retiree Benefits  International Business Times   ...lawmakers have inserted language that would give private pension plans the power to cut benefits to thousands of current retirees whose pension savings were decimated by investment losses from the financial collapse of 2008...
Trade
How “Citibank Budget” Push Foreshadows “Fast Track” For Trade Deals  Campaign for America's Future   ...After the budget, Congress’ will push to pass “fast track” legislation, to grease the skids for the TPP. Fast track trade promotion authority rigs the legislative process, essentially pre-approving “trade” deals like TPP before they are even finalized — before members of Congress even know what is in the treaties...
'Fast Track' To Nowhere: Congress Shouldn't Give Obama Power To Ram Through TPP (opinion)  Forbes   ...The kumbaya trade agreement cheerleader crowd has convinced itself that 40 years of trade deficits don’t matter, even as the shrinkage of GDP growth has rendered the U.S. a dwindling superpower teetering on the brink of second class economy status...
Bad Trade  Huffington Post   ...Under billions of tons of imports, the American dream is suffocating. The American people have lost faith. They know that bad trade has bled factories, middle class jobs and wage increases from the country...
State Battles
Simpson County Approves Right to Work Ordinance  WBKO   ...5-0, a unanimous decision for Simpson County (Ky.) to become a right to work county, with four democratic magistrates voting for it...Simpson County falls in line with Warren and Fulton Counties having approved a right to work measure on the first reading...
Audit: 1.7 million unemployment hotline calls blocked last year because lines were full  Wisconsin State Journal   …Nearly 1.7 million calls, or three out of five, to the state’s automated unemployment hotline were blocked last year because the system was too busy handling other calls, according to an audit released Tuesday....
Secretive groups ran $25M in ads for state races  Associated Press   ...Shadowy outside groups broadcast an estimated $25 million worth of political ads on local TV stations with a goal of shaping state-level elections this year, and their full roster of donors is unlikely to ever be known, according to an analysis released Wednesday...
Mayor Vows Veto Of Minimum Wage Hike To $10.10  Louisville Courier Journal   ...Just hours after a Metro Council committee backed a plan to raise the local minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, Mayor Greg Fischer promised to veto it...
War on Workers
Wal-Mart must pay $188 million in workers' class action  Reuters   … The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered Wal-Mart Stores Inc to pay $188 million to employees who had sued the retailer for failing to compensate them for rest breaks and all hours worked...
Southwest Airlines employees protest work conditions, delays  Indianapolis Star   ...As Southwest Airlines on Wednesday prepares to announce new departures from Indianapolis, its baggage handlers are contending that increased flights are causing unprecedented delays and overworked employees...
Patriot coal worker dies in Kentucky mine after hit by vehicle  Mineweb   ...A worker was killed today in a Kentucky mine owned by Patriot Coal Co., the company’s third such fatality this year...
Miscellaneous
David Koch: I'm not an evil billionaire, I'm socially liberal!  Ring of Fire   …… Their critics say David Koch and his brother are responsible for secretly financing the tea party, polluting the environment, funding candidates who deny climate change, and buying elections with buckets of dough.”...
Foreign lobbying oversight found lax  Politico   …Lobbyists working on behalf of foreign interests regularly evade laws that require registration and disclosure of their activities, a new report charges, and the Justice Department lets many violations slide...

Today's Teamster News 09.06.14

Teamster News
US Foods Workers In Corona, California Vote To Join Teamsters Local 63  IBT   ...On Thursday, Sept. 4, US Foods warehouse workers in Corona, Calif. voted by more than a 2-1 margin to join Teamsters Local Union 63 in Covina, Calif. The workers are concerned about job security as Sysco attempts to acquire their employer...
Teamsters, LA trucker clash over alleged firings  Journal of Commerce   ...A Teamsters-affiliated organization accused a Southern California drayage company of firing at least 33 drivers who filed wage and hour claims against the carrier, an accusation the company said is not truthful...
Tentative Agreement Reached Between MV Transportation, Teamsters  KOLO8   ...Drivers, mechanics and dispatchers for RTC RIDE and their employer, MV Transportation, have reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement...
Teamsters Launch Campaign Against Republic Services’ Discrimination In The South  IBT   ...Teamsters who work at Republic Services, Bill Gates’ giant trash corporation [NYSE: RSG], are fighting back against discrimination. Republic workers wore stickers in six states today to protest Republic’s wage discrimination system. In Atlanta, new hires are paid less at all levels for doing the same job as workers hired previously...
Teamsters Rally In Chicago To Support Gov. Quinn, Stand With Workers  IBT   ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said that corporate-backed candidates waging war on workers should be worried about November’s election. “They may have more money but they can’t outwork us,” Hoffa said. “We have the boots on the ground and those boots are going to go walking to the polls.”...
Trade
Negotiators Struggle To Find Benefits For Public Health In TTIP  EurActiv   ...More than a year after the launch of the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks, negotiators from both sides of the Atlantic still struggle to prove the positive impact of the potential deal on public health...
State Battles
Federal Judge Orders Ohio To Undo Cuts To Early Voting  New York Times   ...The preliminary injunction issued by Judge Peter C. Economus was a setback for Gov. John R. Kasich, a Republican and vocal proponent of the measures, and could affect the upcoming elections in Ohio, a closely contested swing state...
Indiana Supreme Court considers right-to-work challenge  Post-Tribune   ...The Indiana Supreme Court heard oral arguments Thursday morning over Indiana’s right-to-work case and whether it violates the state constitution clause requiring fair payment in return for services provided...
MEA: Fewer than 5,000 members opted-out of union during August window  MLive   ...The Michigan Education Association says less than 5,000 of its 110,000 active members left the union during a controversial August opt-out period, as allowed under the state’s new right-to-work law...
Koch-backed ALEC infiltrates local governments  Wisconsin Gazette   ...The American Legislative Exchange Council is taking an interest in local governments, which troubles the progressives who demonstrated for days outside the ALEC’s annual conference in Dallas earlier this summer...
War On Workers
U.S. Payroll Rise Is Weakest This Year at 142,000 for August  Bloomberg   ...American employers hired fewer workers than forecast in August and the jobless rate dropped because people left the workforce, bolstering those on the Federal Reserve who want to be more deliberate in removing monetary stimulus...
Pace of Job Growth Slows Further in August  Center for Economic Policy and Research   ...The falloff was widespread across industries.…In percentage terms, the motion pictures sector continues to be a big job loser, shedding 6,000 jobs in August -- 2.0 percent of total employment…
Don’t Blame Boomers For Unemployed Workers Leaving The Labor Force  Five Thirty Eight   ...The unemployment rate for Americans younger than 25 was 13 percent in August, compared to 4.6 percent for those 55 and older. So it makes sense that younger workers would make up an outsize share of those abandoning their job searches...
Worker Killed In Accident At Metro Airport  WXYZ   ...Prospect Airport Services says one of their workers has died after being injured on the job at Metro Airport...
Trump Taj Mahal Could Be The Next Atlantic City Casino To Close, Owners Say  NorthJersey.com   ...The owners of Trump Taj Mahal are warning that it could join the roster of closed casinos in Atlantic City, based on the company’s comments in a recent filing to the state Division of Gaming Enforcement...
One Reason Women Fare Worse in Negotiations? People Lie to Them.  Slate   ...new research supports my fear: The stereotype that women are incompetent makes people more likely to lie to them during negotiations...
Miscellaneous
Fake Cell Towers Allow The NSA And Police To Keep Track Of You  Newsweek   ...The Internet is abuzz with reports of mysterious devices sprinkled across America—many of them on military bases—that connect to your phone by mimicking cell phone towers and sucking up your data. There is little public information about these devices, but they are the new favorite toy of government agencies of all stripes; everyone from the National Security Agency to local police forces are using them...

Today's Teamster News 08.02.14

Teamster News
Workers: AGY Union Approves Contract  Aiken Standard   ...Employees of Aiken's AGY plant are expected to return to work on Monday, after the plant's labor union voted on Thursday to approve a new labor contract...
4 More LAUSD Bargaining Units Ratify Contracts, Secure Salary Raises  CBS News   ...Four Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) bargaining units have ratified their contracts, providing salary raises to employees for the first time in several years...
Rail Traffic Controllers And Canadian Pacific Reach Tentative Agreement  Wall Street Journal   ...Canadian Pacific and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference Rail Canada Traffic Controllers announced today that they have reached a tentative six-year labour agreement covering approximately 135 employees rail traffic controllers in Canada...
Teamsters contract extended, school buses will run as planned  Memphis Commercial Appeal   ...Durham School Services and the Teamsters school bus drivers agreed late Friday to a 30-day extension of its current contract while negotiations continue, said Teamsters business agent Edward Houston...
Teamsters 'outraged' about BlueCross BlueShield urgent care decision  insurancenewsnet.com   ..."The Local Union is constantly receiving calls from members on this chaotic BCBS decision and the members are outraged," wrote James Todd, a business agent for the Teamsters Local Union in West Columbia. "Particularly, our UPS members are mad as hell..."
Trade
Central America Crisis Belies CAFTA’s Empty Promises  Public Citizen   ...the 67 members of Congress’ Progressive Caucus ... included CAFTA in their recent summary of the root causes of the refugee crisis occurring along the U.S.-Mexico border: “free trade agreements, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) have led to the displacement of workers and subsequent migration from these countries...”
Changing Asia: China’s high-speed railway diplomacy  The Strategist   ...‘high-speed railway diplomacy’ … is used to describe the mechanisms by which China’s burgeoning capacities in high-speed railway (HSR) construction are being used in China’s international relations....
House Lawmakers Are Seeing The Light On ‘Buy American’  teamster.org   ...Lawmakers signed onto two different letters this week that called on the Obama administration to protect the more than 80-year-old program from being phased out as a condition included in the Pacific Rim trade agreement...
State Battles
Some ALEC Funders Flee, but Koch, Big Tobacco, and PhRMA Remain Loyalists  Center for Media and Democracy   ...the petrochemical giant Koch Industries gave ALEC $504,700 between 1995 and 1998. This is in addition to nearly a million dollars that foundations controlled by the billionaire Koch brothers gave ALEC outright between 1998 and 2012, and a nearly $500,000 loan that the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation gave ALEC in 1996...  
Fresno Cabbies Want Uber, Lyft Rideshare Services Off The Road  Fresno Bee   ...Fresno cabbies are asking City Hall to get on-demand ridesharing companies Uber and Lyft off the city's roads...
Only Case Of Voter Fraud Cited In Wisconsin Voter ID Ruling Involved A Scott Walker Fan  Huffington Post   ...The only example of voter fraud that the Wisconsin Supreme Court cited Thursday when it upheld a state voter ID law signed by Gov. Scott Walker (R) was allegedly committed by a Walker supporter....
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder To Gov. Rick Scott: We're Watching You  Tampa Bay Times   ...U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder sent a scathing letter to Gov. Rick Scott over voting changes in Florida and issued a warning that the Justice Department is "carefully monitoring" the state...
After Gov. Rick Scott’s Secret Trip To King Ranch, He Tapped A Ranch Executive For State Regulatory Board  Miami Herald   ...A month after Gov. Rick Scott took a secret hunting trip to the King Ranch in Texas last year ... Scott picked a corporate executive named Mitchel A. “Mitch” Hutchcraft...
War On Workers
Driverless Cars on UK Public Streets Starting January; Transforming Personal Mobility; Taxi and Truck-Drivers Targeted  Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis   ...Google's cars come equipped with elaborate sensors that can see 600 feet in every direction, are fully electric, and have a range of about 100 miles, perfect for city use, especially driverless taxi cabs. Google plans for 2017 operation...
The ‘meh’ economy: What it means for 2014  Politico Pro   ...Over the past two years, per-capita income adjusted for inflation has risen just 1.16 percent, down from 2.54 percent in the first two years of the recovery. Average hourly earnings rose just 1 cent to $24.45 in the latest jobs report...
Drunk Driver Kills Construction Worker, FHP Says  Sarasota Herald-Tribune   ...One construction worker was killed and another seriously injured Wednesday night when a drunk driver ran into them with his sedan, the Florida Highway Patrol reports...
Miscellaneous
The Other Aging of America: The Increasing Dominance of Older Firms  Brookings   ...The share of firms aged 16 years or more was 23 percent in 1992, but leaped to 34 percent by 2011—an increase of 50 percent in two decades. The share of private-sector workers employed in these mature firms increased from 60 percent to 72 percent during the same period...
BitTorrent Unveils NSA-Proof Online Calling And Messaging Software  Los Angeles Times   ...BitTorrent Inc., the San Francisco company behind the most popular technology for sharing files online, is branching out into a new arena: snoop-proof calling and texting...

Today's Teamster News 07.09.14

Teamster News
Teamsters Local Union No. 340 inks deal in Eliot  seacoastonline.com   ...The Board of Selectmen recently signed a contract between the town and a new union. The contract is with Teamsters Local Union No. 340, representing employees of the Public Works Department and the transfer station. Contract negotiations with a second new union of town office employees are ongoing, also with Local 340...
Teamster Statement on Horse Carriage Heat Regulations  Teamsters Joint Council 16   ..."Those who are in favor of banning the trade have a long history of harassing our members and
using sensational statements to the press and derogatory language to carriage drivers while they
are working. This situation is no exception..."
Longshoremen Ordered Back To Work After Joining Trucker Strike Backed By Teamsters  International Business Times   ...Amid delicate negotiations that will determine the flow of a third of all U.S. cargo container traffic for the coming months, dozens of longshore workers at two of the country’s busiest ports were ordered back to work Tuesday after they walked off the job in solidarity with a group of fed-up truck drivers...
Teamster Walkout Could Disrupt Economy 'Far And Wide'  CNN Money   ...A Teamster strike that disrupt the U.S. economy "far and wide" is underway on the West Coast. About 120 truck drivers for three transport companies have walked off the job at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The drivers claim the companies are treating them unfairly and have intimidated them...
Port Drivers Begin Strike  Orange County Register   ...“We are prepared to go a long time, and do this for however long it takes,” said Fred Potter, director of the Port Division of the Teamsters and an executive vice president...
Los Angeles Port Truckers Strike To Join Union, Spokeswoman Says  Transport Topics   ...The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the busiest U.S. trade complex, were struck by about 120 truck drivers protesting low wages and their employers’ refusal to let them join a union, a spokeswoman said...
Port Of Savannah Truck Drivers Plan Protest For Better Working Conditions  GPB News   ...Truck drivers who haul goods in and out of the Port of Savannah are planning their second protest in several months for Tuesday morning. This time, they’re calling on Georgia Ports Authority officials to meet with drivers to discuss their requests for better working conditions, including better pay and benefits...
Trade
Citizens’ Group Concerned About Secrecy Around Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Talks In Ottawa  Ottawa Citizen   ...Like most trade talks, the meetings are not open to the public, but the Council of Canadians says the government has barely even acknowledged the talks are being held in Ottawa. The council is questioning why there is so much secrecy around the latest round of negotiations...
Mainstream Monopoly Keeps Us From Finding Out the Truth  Economy in Crisis   ...Why aren’t we hearing about the TPP from the mainstream media? These large corporations want this deal, even though it will have a major negative impact. ..
State Battles
Evidence piling up against "Wrong-Way Walker" (opinion)  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...Published and authoritative data collected in the very manner Gov. Wrong-Way previously praised show job growth here trails the rest of the Midwest and two-thirds of the country...
Missouri lawmakers didn't even read this ALEC bill they passed  TeamsterNation   ...Missouri lawmakers didn't even bother to read an ALEC bill they passed, so blindly did they follow the group's anti-worker, vote-suppressing, corporate-empowering agenda...
Mistrust In North Carolina Over Plan To Reduce Precincts  New York Times   ...Voting rights advocates fear that these local changes — combined with a number of new state laws restricting ballot access and requiring voters to show picture IDs — amount to a concerted effort to reduce voting by minority groups...
War On Workers
No Job Loss in Most States That Raised Minimum Wage  Fiscal Times   ...Of the 13 states that raised their minimum wages, all but one saw job growth in the first five months of 2014...
Statistical Analysis Shows that Violence, Not Deferred Action, Is Behind the Surge of Unaccompanied Children Crossing the Border  Center for American Progress   ...Whereas Central American countries that are experiencing high levels of violence have seen thousands of children flee, others with lower levels of violence are not facing the same outflow...
Uber Kindly Agrees to Stop Price Gouging During Emergencies  Valley Wag   ...in case of nuclear bombs falling across Brooklyn or a heavy blizzard, it will no longer cost you $300 to get a ride home...
Luxury Rolls-Royce car sales soar worldwide  Economic Times   ...The Britain-based manufacturer said Tuesday that global sales in the first half of the year were up 33 percent compared with the same period in 2013...
Miscellaneous
NASCAR And Unions: A Tumultuous History  Fox Sports   ...In 1961, Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa and star NASCAR driver Curtis Turner tried to create the Federation of Professional Athletes, a union that would prominently feature NASCAR drivers. The Teamsters offered loans to save Charlotte Motor Speedway, which was on the verge of failure because of massive cost overruns incurred in building the track...
Like His Dad, Charles Koch Was a Bircher (New Documents)   The Progressive   ...Charles Koch was not simply a rank and file member of the John Birch Society in name only who paid nominal dues. He purchased and held a "lifetime membership" until he resigned in 1968. He also lent his name and his wealth to the operations of the John Birch Society in Wichita, aiding its "American Opinion" bookstore -- which was stocked with attacks on the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King, and Earl Warren as elements of the communist conspiracy...

Today's Teamster News 06.23.14

Teamsters
NLRB orders Anderson Lumber to negotiate with Teamsters  Business Management   ...The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ordered a Sacramento-area lumber company to restart contract negotiations with the union that represents its employees...
Trade
TPP unlikely to be finalised this year - PM  New Zealand Herald   ...Hopes of hammering out a final deal on the 12-country Trans Pacific Partnership agreement this year appear to be fading, Prime Minister John Key indicated this afternoon...
Wikileaks brings much-needed scrutiny to secret trade talks  The Conversation   ... TISA is part of an interlocking web of new super-deals that are being negotiated under similar conditions of secrecy...all documents other than the final text would be withheld for five years after the agreement came into force...
No to 'Boehner' Trade, No to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (opinion)  Huffington Post   ...The House Democratic Caucus is challenging President Obama, saying, "Which side are you on... ours or Republican House Speaker Boehner's?"...
Income gap widens as American factories shut down  Associated Press   ...The downfall of manufacturing in the U.S. has done more than displace workers and leave communities searching for ways to rebuild devastated economies....
State Battles
For Scott Walker, jobs count may be bigger headache than John Doe  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...In each of Walker’s first three years, Wisconsin has added private-sector jobs more slowly than the nation as whole, and the gap is sizable...
Doe Documents Indicate "David Koch" Call Part of Case Against Walker  Uppity Wisconsin   ...Walker was "enticed" into a criminal conspiracy with someone he believed to be David Koch because "David Koch" asked "What do you need"?  And "publicity efforts"?  No, Walker specifically asked for "ads" in "swing areas" for Senators likely to be recalled...
War on Workers
Asiana Crash Debate Goes Beyond Pilots to Automation  Bloomberg   ...U.S. investigators are debating whether to blame a Boeing Co. (BA) jetliner’s design for helping cause a cascade of pilot mistakes in last year’s Asiana Airlines Inc. (020560) crash that killed three Chinese teenagers...
God Save the United States From This Anti-Democratic Court (opinion)  Daily Beast   ...it has degraded the other institutions by clearing a broad path for big money to enter politics...
US to Fine BNP $8+ Billion, Suspend Access to Dollar Clearing  naked capitalism   ...the bank would pay $8 billion to $9 billion and accept other punishment based on what investigators say is evidence the bank intentionally hid $30 billion of financial transactions that violated U.S. sanctions   (the deal)  would include a guilty plea to a criminal charge of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act...
The Case of the Missing White-Collar Criminal (opinion)  Bloomberg   ...Prosecutors often argue that while executives may have acted recklessly and made mistakes, that doesn’t mean they committed crimes. If so, then the 2008 crisis would be unique in its immaculate conception. After the savings-and-loan bust of the 1980s, more than 1,000 people were charged, and more than 100 company officers and directors served prison terms...

Walker's claims of innocence in corruption case depend on Koch-linked judge

There's a teensy problem with Wisconsin job-killer
Gov. Scott Walker's claim that he isn't at the center of a criminal scheme because a federal judge said he isn't.

It was revealed yesterday that prosecutors are charging Walker with criminal conspiracy to break state campaign finance laws. Walker says federal Judge Rudolph Randa already exonerated him in a previous ruling.

Problem is Judge Randa is a Koch hack. He took things of value from the Koch brothers. And he didn't manage to stop the Walker prosecution.

Randa attended a number of all-expenses-paid junkets funded by Koch brothers' groups who oppose campaign finance laws. The Koch brothers poured money into the same pro-Walker groups at the heart of the criminal investigation.

And Judge Randa didn't just try to halt the criminal investigation into Walker's campaign. He originally ordered prosecutors to destroy their evidence. But according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "the appeals court found he couldn't issue such an irreversible order in the early stages of the case."

Plus, Randa's assistant is married to a Walker campaign attorney.

Walker is currently campaigning for re-election against Mary Burke. If corruption charges against Walker don't sink him, his destruction of Wisconsin's economy should.

Yesterday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wisconsin's economy created jobs at half the national rate. Ever since Walker took office, the state has lagged the nation and the Midwest in commercial activity.

Like a baby with a hammer, Scott Walker pursued anti-worker, pro-Koch brother policies that are destroying Wisconsin's middle class.

That's the real crime.

Today's Teamster News 05.11.14

Teamster News
Employees of local bus company seek to join union  Bennington Banner   ...Employees of the Green Mountain Express may soon become part of the Teamsters Union...
Trade
TPP Is Another Upward Transfer of Wealth  naked capitalism   ...As with NAFTA, the TPP will benefit U.S. companies relocating jobs to low-wage, high-repression nations...
U.S. steelmakers ‘under assault’ from dumped imports  NWI Times   ...Steel dumping poses a real threat to jobs in Northwest Indiana, and policy-makers in Washington need to take heed, industry officials said...
War on Workers
Is the true unemployment rate 23.2%?   Trade Reform   ...The SGS unemployment rate for April 2014, unfortunately still dependent on government data, is: 23.2% — this being more consistent with the experience of live citizens... 
The Rise of the Gig Economy  truthout   ...Using the BLS definition, which includes independent contractors, temporary workers, on-call workers, and workers provided by contract firms, contingent workers made up over 11% of the labor force in 2005...
Now Trending: Whistleblowers in Low-Wage Jobs Turn to Social Media  Jobs With Justice   ...This recent step in the right direction comes after years of pressure from OUR Walmart, the association of current and former Walmart employees who have demanded more hours and stable work schedules from the retailer...
401(k)s are retirement robbery: How the Koch brothers, Wall Street and politicians conspire to drain Social Security  Salon   ... Thirty-five percent of total retirement contributions in the United States are made to Social Security, which puts them beyond the reach of the private market. The more that Social Security can be privatized, the more new profit opportunities the financial services industry will have...
The NSA’s Corporate Collaborators  Counterpunch   ...”There almost is no division between the private sector and the NSA, or the private sector and the Pentagon, when it comes to the American national security state. They really are essentially one...”
Getting past economic development subsidy hype  Angry Bear   ...The EU’s state aid rules guarantee transparency, restrict location subsidies to the poorest regions, and cap the amount of subsidy a project can receive based on two principles: 1) The richer the region, the lower the maximum subsidy allowed (with 0 as the maximum in many regions)...
Miscellaneous 
Federal Data: Americans keeping vehicles longer since start of recession  Washington Post   ...the average age of household autos increased from 10.1 years about 11.3 years between 2007 and 2012, while the average household income rose from $63,091 per year to $65,596 during the same period...
Target’s CEO didn’t leave because of a cybersecurity breach  Washington Post   ... The business model isn't working anymore, and it's going to take a serious overhaul to bring up to speed, when competitors are already far ahead...

Today's Teamster News 02.08.13

Register Now for the JRHMSF Golf and Poker Tournaments   teamster.org   ...Sign up for the James R. Hoffa Memorial Scholarship Fund's 12th Annual "Drive for Education" Invitational Golf Tournament  and 8th Annual "All In For Education" Texas Hold 'Em Poker Tournament in early May. The proceeds benefit children and financially dependent grandchildren of Teamster members...
Private Prisons Are a Net Loser for the Public  teamster.org   ...Governments, pressed by the corporate class, have in recent years increasingly looked for ways to outsource duties and services that could provide them with income. The growth in private prisons, as a result, has soared...
Black History Month: T.A. Stowers and the Early Teamsters Union   teamster.org  ...In August 2014, it will have been 112 years since a joint convention of the Team Drivers’ International Union and the Teamsters’ National Union was held in Niagara Falls, NY. At that convention in 1903, history was made for a number of reasons...
The Heated Politics of Free Trade Bring No Smoke, Plenty of Fire  National Journal   ...Biden, Madigan, and Schneiderman …  joined 39 other states’ attorneys general in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman protesting emerging provisions in the Trans-Pacific trade pact that they fear would exempt U.S. tobacco companies from complying with state tobacco laws and regulations...
Local Lawmakers Weigh In on Right to Work Bills  The Missourian   ...A House bill seeks to have a public vote on whether Missouri should become a right to work state...
Evidence Mounting that Walker Campaign Is at Center of Criminal Probe  Center for Media and Democracy   ...Newly-unsealed court documents and media leaks add to a growing body of evidence that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s campaign is at the center of a wide-ranging secret probe into campaign finance violations during the state's contentious 2011 and 2012 recall elections...
Kasich floats ‘deregulation’ for schools  Columbus Dispatch   ...He could seek to ease licensing requirements for teachers to make it easier for business professionals to come into classrooms and teach, or establish some sort of formal tie between the state Board of Education and the business community so that business leaders could have a more-direct influence on curriculum...
More than a dozen communities in California could run out of water in months  AFP   ...California’s State Water Project announced for the first time in its 54-year history that it cannot deliver anything beyond the bare minimum to maintain public health and safety...
Weak Job Growth, but Declining Unemployment Give Mixed Picture in January  Center for Economic and Policy Research   ...The establishment survey showed the economy created just 113,000 jobs in January. Coupled with the 75,000 increase reported for December, this is the weakest two-month stretch since December, 2010-January 2011...
Payroll Data Shows a Lag in Wages, Not Just Hiring  New York Times   ...Wages are stuck, and barely rose at all in 2013. They were up 1.9 percent last year, or a mere 0.4 percent after accounting for inflation. Not only was that increase even smaller than the one recorded in 2012, it was half the normal rate of wage gains in the two decades before the last recession...
Chart of the Day #2: The Madness of Austerity  Mother Jones   ...If public sector employment had been growing normally during this period, we'd have about a million more jobs than we do now and the unemployment rate would probably be below 6 percent...
U.S. consumer credit posts biggest jump in 10 months  Reuters   ...U.S. consumer credit in December grew by the most in nearly a year due to a sharp increase in credit card usage...
I'm a Member of the American 'Used-to-Haves'  Huffington Post   ...I used to have a house. I used to go on vacations. I used to shop at department stores, get my hair done and even enjoy pedicures. Now, I don't. I'm a member of the American "Used-to-Haves."...
Privacy Activists' Nuclear Option: Suing Oakland Over Spy Center's Nuclear Weapons Contractors  truthout   ...The $10.9 million surveillance center is being built in stages and funded primarily through a Department of Homeland Security grant. The center will integrate the Oakland Police Department's license-plate scanners and gunshot detectors as well as social media feeds, mapping systems, feeds from hundreds of public and private cameras all over the city and other monitoring technologies into a centralized hub...
Brave Domino's Workers Successfully Win Back Stolen Wages  ThinkProgress ...NYC Domino's workers win $1.3 million in settlement over withholding pay...
Union: IBM cuts coming again to New York  Burlington Free Press   ...An IBM employees’ union is warning workers to expect more job cuts in Vermont and New York later this month...
Ford steps up criticism of currency manipulation  Detroit News   ...Ford Motor Co. stepped up its campaign to convince the Obama administration to include provisions to block currency manipulation in a proposed 12-nation free trade agreement...
Rio fare protesters seize main station and let commuters travel free  The Guardian   ...After street protests, station invasions and turnstile vandalism, Rio de Janeiro’s free public transport movement finally got what it wanted for a few hours on Thursday night with a takeover of the city’s main train and bus hub...
Poverty Wages Unraveling Cambodia’s Garment Industry  Inter Press Service   ...Cambodia’s garment industry is regularly plagued with strikes and protests. But when armed security forces opened fire on striking workers in the capital city of Phnom Penh on Jan. 3, killing five and injuring dozens, it suddenly became clear that there is no end in sight for the crisis...
Democratic groups counter Kochs’ Senate push  Politico ...A collection of Democratic-aligned groups are launching a coordinated push in 2014 Senate races to counter heavy spending from the powerfully funded conservative organization Americans for Prosperity, Democratic strategists said Thursday evening...
Federal Lawsuit Filed Against FEC Seeks to Shed Light on Karl Rove's "Dark Money" Donors  truthout   ...The votes by the three Republican FEC Commissioners effectively quashed any further official investigation into the allegations that Rove's group violated the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (FECA) when it spent the majority of its money during the 2010 election cycle on electioneering, but failed to register as a "political committee" with the FEC, as required by law...

Today's Teamster News 02.07.14

Senate Fails to Pass Three-Month Extension of Jobless Aid  New York Times   ...The Senate failed to move forward on a three-month extension of assistance for the long-term unemployed on Thursday, leaving it unlikely that Congress would approve the measure soon while undercutting a key aspect of President Obama’s economic recovery plan...
Fast-Track Bill’s Path in Congress Gets Bumpier  Wall Street Journal   ...In 2002, 27 of 222 House Republicans voted “no” on whether to give President George W. Bush fast-track authority. This time, some 60 House Republicans might oppose the legislation, according to estimates from two people following the matter...
Annual U.S. trade deficit with China sets new record in 2013  manufacture this   ...Since 2009, the trade deficit with China has risen by 40%...
Report: For-profit probation industry hurts America’s poorest  Salon   ...in several states, private firms with little-to-no oversight or regulation supervise draconian probation plans, which hits the poorest the hardest. Many of these probation cases relate to unpaid fees in the first, rendering the probation charges disproportionately punitive for the poorest offenders...
Why Walmart is getting too expensive for the middle class  Yahoo Finance   ...Walmart is struggling with weak sales and an underperforming stock price. The company recently cut its profit outlook...
The Highly Educated Working Poor, Toiling at a University Near You  AlterNet   ...They're strategizing, organizing and mobilizing against the immoral economics of inequality being hung around America's neck by the likes of Wal-Mart, McDonald's and colleges...
Private construction payrolls continue to show resilience  Sober Look   ...Over the past 5 months the proportion of jobs from construction has remained unusually stable - from 10 to 15% of total new monthly private payrolls...
Elizabeth Warren: Let's Stop Scamming Our Vets  Mother Jones   ...This week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) introduced legislation along with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) that would protect elderly veterans from financial scams and sketchy financial advisers...
The Top Priority in the Missouri State Legislature? Lowering Your Wages  AFSCME   ...The very first bill to receive a hearing in this year’s legislative session in Jefferson City was HB 1099, a so-called “right-to-work” measure aimed at undermining unions.  It’s just one of many union-busting bills on the calendar this year...
California Drought Impact Seen Spreading From Fires to Food Cost  Bloomberg   ...The drought that’s gripping California may soon have the rest of the country seeking relief. The emergency, which follows the state’s driest year on record, is likely to boost the prices of everything from broccoli to cauliflower nationwide. Farmers and truckers stand to lose billions in revenue, weakening an already fragile recovery in the nation’s most-populous state...
Duke Energy plant reports coal-ash spill  Charlotte Observer   ...Duke Energy said Monday that 50,000 to 82,000 tons of coal ash and up to 27 million gallons of water were released from a pond at its retired power plant in Eden into the Dan River, and were still flowing...
Candidate opposes right-to-work step  The Tribune-Democrat   ...“I don’t really understand the logic behind it. In a democratic system, where the majority of workers vote to join a union, I’m not sure what gives a minority the right to say ‘we’ll take advantage of the benefits of the union, but we’re not going to pay for the cost.’...
Michigan governor's budget includes money for Detroit pensions  Reuters   ...In what would be a major step toward resolving Detroit's historic bankruptcy case, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder on Wednesday unveiled plans to use state funds to help pay for Detroit worker pensions in his proposed $52.1 billion state budget...
Vermont Students, Workers Object to Tuition Dollars Being Used to Fund Poverty Wages  Truthout   ...Rising tuition, faculty cuts and non-living wages for janitors and food workers in Vermont institutions of higher learning are prompting student labor organizers to ask if tuition dollars should be used to exacerbate inequality...

Today's Teamster News 02.01.14

Teamsters, techies, tens of thousands take action against Fast Track in intercontinental day of action  TeamsterNation   ...More than 50 rallies, teach-ins and news conferences are being held on the North American continent, from Edmonton, Canada, to Mexico City. By mid-afternoon, social media drove more than 12,000 phone calls and hundreds of thousands of emails to the U.S. Congress...
Anti-TPP Rally in San Francisco Pressures Pelosi to Take Bolder Stance  IndyBay   ...Protester numbers swelled during a march down Market Street, eventually reaching an estimated 500...One arrested as Teamsters protest Highway 101 project  The Press Democrat   ...The picketers were protesting the delivery of the concrete by Superior Supplies Inc., a company whose drivers they said are not in the Teamsters union. They were striking to encourage the company to allow its employees to be represented by the union, Teamsters Local 665 President Ralph Miranda said... 
Black History Is Teamster History  teamster.org   ...The contributions of black members to the success of the Teamsters Union are numerous, varied and as old as the union itself. Black team drivers attended the first Convention in 1903 and were active in all aspects of the union from the beginning. That commitment remains strong today...
Teamsters Local 657 to Host Training for Pipeline Construction Workers  teamster.org  ...The Teamsters National Pipeline Training Fund in collaboration with Teamsters Local 657 will sponsor a Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) training program on Feb. 16 in Brownswood, Texas...
Report Opens Way to Approval for Oil Pipeline  New York Times   ...The State Department released a report on Friday concluding that the Keystone XL pipeline would not substantially worsen carbon pollution, leaving an opening for President Obama to approve the politically divisive project...
Hated on the Left, the TPP Draws Conservative Foes  Trade Reform   ...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...
Walmart warns: Food stamp cuts hurt our profits  Raw Story   ...Walmart Friday said bad weather and cuts in food stamp support for the poor weighed on US sales and would hit earnings for its November-January fourth quarter...
America's Shopping Malls Are Dying A Slow, Ugly Death  Business Insider   ...Traffic-driving anchors like Sears and JCPenney are shutting down stores, and mall owners are having a hard time finding retailers large enough to replace them...
Corporate welfare costs more than pension obligations  Washington Post ...states often spend more on tax breaks and subsidies for businesses than funding their ... pension plans...
Goldman Awards Blankfein $14.7 Million in Stock Bonus  New York Times   ...Goldman Sachs’s board granted its chief executive, Lloyd C. Blankfein, restricted shares worth $14.7 million as part of his pay package for 2013, according to a filing made public on Thursday..,
The Greedy Leading the Greedy - Multimillionaire Former Johnson and Johnson CEO Approved Huge Compensation for JP Morgan Chase CEO After Company Paid $20 Billion in Legal Settlements  Health Care Renewal   ...The current compensation set by the board of directors of JP Morgan Chase for CEO Jamie Dimon, $20 million a year, has attracted some attention ... especially given the contrast between his raise and the $20 billion or so the company had to pay out last year in settlements of allegations of unethical practices...
NY Judge Approves $8.5 Billion Bank of America Mortgage Settlement  Money News   ...A New York judge on Friday approved most of the $8.5 billion Bank of America settlement over investor losses from mortgage-backed securities ... Critics of the settlement had argued that it represented only a fraction of the losses...
Billionaires Attempt To Convince Society That They Are The Good Guys  In These Times   ...America’s rich see themselves as victims of Nazi-like persecution...
Koch-Tied Groups Funded GOP Effort to Mess With Electoral College Rules  Mother Jones   ...Last election season, a shadowy nonprofit pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into a campaign to change how electoral votes are counted...
Amazon wants to send stuff before you order it. Are other retailers doomed?  Washington Post   ...A couple weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal happened upon a 27-page patent for what Amazon.com calls "anticipatory" or "speculative" shipping, which sounds insane. Here's how it works, in a nutshell...
Reinhart and Rogoff: Great Recession may "surpass in severity" the Great Depression in many Countries  Calculated Risk   ...The policies of austerity in Europe have failed miserably and many countries there are experiencing a worse slump than during the Depression (austerity in the US has held back the recovery too...
Illinois company fires woman hours after learning she has cancer  New York Daily News   ...A Chicago-area women is filing a disability discrimination lawsuit, claiming her boss gave her the boot after realizing she’d have to take significant time off for cancer treatments...

Screw U: How For-Profit Colleges Rip You Off  Mother Jones   ...The for-profit college industry makes a killing while handing out expensive degrees that fizzle in the real world...
Where are the jobs? Indiana job numbers still don't add up  WTHR.com   ... Indiana is keeping secrets about hundreds of projects, thousands of missing jobs and millions in taxpayer dollars used to pay for them...
Appeals court allows secret probe into recall elections to proceed  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...The unanimous decision by the Madison-based 4th District Court of Appeals panel is a victory for prosecutors and comes just three weeks after they faced a separate setback by the judge overseeing the investigation. That earlier ruling quashed subpoenas to conservative groups supporting Gov. Scott Walker...
RI lawmakers want to stop banks from evicting tenants in foreclosed properties  Associated Press   ...Two Rhode Island lawmakers are sponsoring legislation to make it harder for banks to evict tenants from foreclosed properties...
Repeal of prevailing wage law would result in a weakened economy, University researchers say  The Daily Illini   ...Pressure from increasing state budget deficits, as well as debt from underfunded pensions, have caused critics to call for the repeal of Illinois’ prevailing wage law for government construction projects. However ... Illinois’ prevailing wage law creates many positive economic and social impacts, and repealing it would not result in any considerable savings for taxpayers or the state...
States Are Feeling the Pinch from Lost Unemployment Revenues  teamster.org   ...more than $1.76 billion has been stripped from state economies across the U.S. since the GOP denied the extension of unemployment insurance...

The rich are as selfish as you think they are

Rich people really are selfish and don't care about other people, according to political scientists who studied the One Percent. Their research answers the question of why our government isn't doing what we want it to do. (It's doing what sociopathic billionaires want it to do.)

The researchers assumed the wealthy have an outsize influence on politics (we know that already). Then they looked at their political preferences. What they found was disturbing.

... they are extremely active politically and ... they are much more conservative than the American public as a whole with respect to important policies concerning taxation, economic regulation, and especially social welfare programs. Variation within this wealthy group suggests that the top one-tenth of 1 percent of wealth-holders (people with $40 million or more in net worth) may tend to hold still more conservative views that are even more distinct from those of the general public. (Emphasis added.)

The researchers found, for example, that the top One Percent oppose anything that will help middle-class and working-class Americans.

Jamelle Bouie at the Daily Beast tells us most of the One Percent oppose a government jobs program, universal health insurance and expanded worker training program.

What the rich do support, however, are policies that would shift burdens to individuals, or introduce some nebulous “competition” into public goods. That includes charter schools (90 percent support), vouchers (55 percent), Social Security privatization (55 percent), and merit pay for teachers (93 percent). 

If this agenda looks familiar, it’s because it’s basically identical to the one pushed by “centrist” deficit hawks in Washington, who have devoted themselves to the consensus positions of business and other economic elites. 

Scientists also find rich people have less compassion for others. In one study, people with less income and education felt more compassion for cancer patients shown in a video than did people with more income and education, according to Scientific American.

In another study, they found:

...less affluent individuals are more likely to report feeling compassion towards others on a regular basis. For example, they are more likely to agree with statements such as, “I often notice people who need help,” and “It’s important to take care of people who are vulnerable.” 

Two Berkeley psychologists watched traffic behavior at a busy intersection and discovered what many Teamsters already know:

They found that luxury car drivers were more likely to cut off other motorists instead of waiting for their turn at the intersection. This was true for both men and women upper-class drivers, regardless of the time of day or the amount of traffic at the intersection. In a different study they found that luxury car drivers were also more likely to speed past a pedestrian trying to use a crosswalk, even after making eye contact with the pedestrian.

Can't say we're surprised. The scientists are describing the entitled jerks -- the Kochs, the DeVoses, the Sheldon Adelsons -- buying off politicians to pass anti-worker laws in the states and cut Social Security, unemployment benefits and food stamps at the federal level.

The billionaires are getting nervous

Nervous billionaire Tom Perkins compared American populists to Nazis and billionaires to their Jewish victims in a recent letter to The Wall Street Journal.

Seriously.

Here's what he wrote:

I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its "one percent," namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the "rich."...This is a very dangerous drift in our American thinking. Kristallnacht was unthinkable in 1930; is its descendant "progressive" radicalism unthinkable now?

Perkins later apologized once he realized he'd gone too far. Even the pro-business Bloomberg News called his letter an 'unhinged Nazi rant.'

Another billionaire, Steve Schwarzman, compared a plan to deprive hedge fund managers of a tax loophole to Hitler invading Poland.

Columnist Paul Krugman detects something else behind the billionaires' insecurity: a sense that they really don't deserve all their wealth and privilege.

I also suspect that today's Masters of the Universe are insecure about the nature of their success. We're not talking captains of industry here, men who make stuff. We are, instead, talking about wheeler-dealers, men who push money around and get rich by skimming some off the top as it sloshes by. They may boast that they are job creators, the people who make the economy work, but are they really adding value? Many of us doubt it - and so, I suspect, do some of the wealthy themselves, a form of self-doubt that causes them to lash out even more furiously at their critics.

Perkins and Schwartzman aren't the only people to fear the billionaires' relentless drive to impoverish workers will result in a violent backlash. The development charity Oxfam recently reported that 85 rich people control more wealth than the poorest half of the world. Oxfam, reported The Guardian,

...fears this concentration of economic resources is threatening political stability and driving up social tensions.

New York Magazine writer Jessica Pressler in the summer of 2012 rode around the Sag Harbor estate of billionaire Jeff Greene in his dune buggy. He showed her his boats, his vast forest of scrubby pine and his private beach. At one point he throttled the engine and paused:

Greene gazes across the bay at the multi-million-dollar houses peeking from behind the trees. I assume he’s quietly contemplating acquiring even more of the shoreline, but then he says something surprising. “If somebody wanted to go after a rich person,” he observes, “they have got their pick of the litter out here.” 

It’s strange to imagine someone like Greene, who counts Mike Tyson as a close friend, and who has a streak that caused the L.A. party girls to refer to him as “Mean Jeff Greene,” feeling vulnerable. It’s hard to think of any superrich person as vulnerable, just as it’s hard to think that a bear with outstretched claws and giant teeth is more afraid than you are. But over the past few months, it’s become clear that rich people are very, very afraid. 

Greene believes America's huge class of impoverished people will rise up someday and take over the country. He thinks rich people have a vested interest in making sure that doesn't happen by paying a few more taxes to give poor kids education, health care and enough to eat.

He had a few words for the Koch brothers, as well:

“I see David Koch a lot of the time. His policies are ridiculous. I don’t think he’s ever been to one of these schools where they have a rolling cart, where one computer has to go to different classrooms, and it can make so much difference, a $700 computer! I don’t think these guys realize, this is what they’re cutting off? To say to those kids, ‘Too bad, every man for himself’?”

From the mouths of billionaires...

Today's Teamster News 01.27.14

Teamsters at YRCW Approve Agreement Aimed At Saving 30,000 Jobs  teamster.org   ...Teamsters at YRCW approved this latest proposal by a vote of 12,267 to 6,314...
 YRC Wins Key Refinancing Ingredient With Teamsters Vote  Bloomberg   ...YRC Worldwide Inc. (YRCW) has the “key ingredient” to refinance $1.4 billion of debt and reduce the risk of bankruptcy after workers voted to accept labor concessions, Chief Executive Officer James Welch said...
Report: Bucking trend, Wisconsin union membership grows  LaCrosse Tribune   ...Wisconsin’s union membership rate -- the percentage of wage and salary workers who belong to unions -- rose from 11.25 percent to 12.34 percent, the seventh biggest gain in the nation. This after 2012, when Wisconsin had the third largest decrease in the nation. The change came as a surprise to union leaders and academics alike...
Don't fast track a polluters' bill of rights  Friends of the Earth   ...TPP and TTIP would allow foreign investors to seek awards of money damages from business-friendly tribunals in compensation for the cost of complying with environmental and consumer regulations -- even the “cost” of lost opportunities for future profits...
FL Cheerleader: We Are Paid Less than $5/hr and Docked Pay if We Gain 5 lbs.  Alternet   ..."Raiderettes are required to attend all of the Raiders' preseason, regular season and postseason home football games," she says in the lawsuit. "They are also required to attend and participate in all practices, rehearsals, fittings, preparations, drills, photo sessions, meetings and workouts, as determined and directed by the Raiders." Raiderettes also have to attend other special events to represent the Raiders, without pay...
Does America need unions? An ex-Wall Streeter says yes  Los Angeles Times   ...without unions, workers don't have the bargaining power necessary to stop employers from paying them as little as the market will allow...
401(k) Breaches Undermining Retirement Security for Millions  Portside   ...A large and growing share of American workers are tapping their retirement savings accounts for non-retirement needs, raising broad questions about the effectiveness of one of the most important savings vehicles for old age...
Snowden: The NSA is also engaged in industrial espionage  Salon   ...“If there is information at Siemens that they think would be beneficial to the national interests, not the national security, of the United States, they will go after that information and they’ll take it...”
The Koch Party (opinion)  New York Times   ...Only a few weeks into this midterm election year, the right-wing political zeppelin is fully inflated with secret cash and is firing malicious falsehoods at supporters of health care reform...
Iowa View: ALEC's strategy of secrecy is wrong for Iowa taxpayers  DesMoines Register   ... there are deceptive organizations with friendly names lurking around the Capitol in Des Moines and in other state capitols. Some of these organizations aren’t as friendly as they seem, and their agendas are not always what’s best for Iowa. One such organization is the American Legislative Exchange Council, commonly known as ALEC...
W. Va. company ordered to remove tanks after spill  Associated Press   ...West Virginia's governor on Saturday ordered the company at the center of a chemical spill that tainted the state capital's water supply to remove all above-ground storage tanks from the Charleston operation...

Today's Teamster News 01.10.14

YRCW Teamsters Reject Extending, Modifying Current Restructuring Agreement  teamster.org   ...Teamsters at YRC Worldwide Inc. (YRCW) rejected the company’s proposal that would have extended and modified the existing memorandum of understanding. Members voted over the past several weeks and ballots were counted today. The proposed extension and modification was voted down 61 percent to 39 percent...
Massive trade deal filed in Congress; you can help stop it  TeamsterNation   ...Legislation was filed today to make it easier to pass job-killing trade deals like NAFTA...
Hoffa: Fast-Track Bill Will Take Congress, Public Out of Process  teamster.org   ...the lack of transparency  in considering TPP and other trade deals will hurt not only workers but families as well...
Workers Need Government Attention Now  teamster.org   ...Middle-class jobs have dwindled due to trade deals like NAFTA...
Millionaires' Club: For First Time, Most Lawmakers are Worth $1 Million-Plus open secrets   ...For the first time in history, most members of Congress are millionaires, according to a new analysis of personal financial disclosure data by the Center for Responsive Politics...
15 Chris Christie Controversies You Missed  Politico   ...Using inflated cost estimates to justifying canceling the ARC tunnel...The Access to the Region’s Core tunnel was a commuter rail project that would have more than doubled the number of trains from New Jersey to Manhattan, easing congestion on the state’s notorious (especially now) highways. After initially endorsing the project, which could have created an estimated 45,000 permanent jobs and 6,000 temporary construction jobs, Christie changed his mind...
Eight Million Jobs Are Still Missing in America  Huffington Post   ...That's how many more people would have jobs today if the economy were truly healthy, according to a new study released Thursday by the Economic Policy Institute...
Bank of America employs 20 full-time social media spies, watches anarchists and occupy protesters  PrivacySOS   ...the powerful financial institution employs a staff of 20 full-time social media spies, and references public-private surveillance efforts directed at activists who aim to hold banks accountable for social crises like the foreclosure disaster....
Employees at Koch-Owned Georgia-Pacific Can Now Tweet About Work Without Fear  In These Times   ...Thanks to a new decree by the National Labor Relations Board, however, employees can now feel free to post about their jobs to Facebook or Instagram without fear of retribution...
Food stamp cuts expected to near $9 billion  Washington Post   ...Negotiations are almost complete on a long-overdue farm bill that will set new spending levels for the federal food stamp program and add yet another wrinkle to the national debate over income inequality as Congress mulls how to help unemployed and low-wage workers...
One in three Americans slipped below the poverty line between 2009 and 2011  Washington Post   ...How many people in the United States are poor? It’s a surprisingly tricky question...
Why Poverty Is A Much Bigger Problem Than The Government Thinks  ThinkProgress   ...A massive new study from the Half in Ten Campaign and the Center for American Progress of American attitudes about work, the war on poverty, and new proposals to fight poverty in the future underscores just how bad the problem is...
No Warrant, No Problem: How the Government Can Get Your Digital Data  ProPublica   ...The government isn't allowed to wiretap American citizens without a warrant from a judge. But there are plenty of legal ways for law enforcement, from the local sheriff to the FBI to the Internal Revenue Service, to snoop on the digital trails you create every day...
The Fed Shifts Ground on Big Banks  New York Times   ...there are signs that top officials are prepared to take a tougher stand on reining in large, complex financial institutions...
Pot Shares Rally 21% to 1,700% as Speculators See Green  Bloomberg News   ...They’ve got high hopes. The chief executive officer of Hemp Inc. (HEMP), who has seen his stock soar 205 percent to 8 cents in the last three days, says investors are suddenly bidding up marijuana companies because they want to find “the next Microsoft.”...
Sen. Elizabeth Warren demands transparency when feds settle claims against big banks  Raw Story   ...A new bill introduced by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) would shine a light on corporate wrongdoing by allowing the public greater access to terms of settlements they reach with the government...
Robert King out as UW System president finalist  Wisconsin State Journal   ...Some on campus and in Madison raised questions about King’s background as a conservative politician in New York and officeholder on the American Legislative Exchange Council...
North Carolina: Battleground State  Truthout   ...First it was Wisconsin. Now it’s North Carolina that is redefining the term “battleground state.” On one side: a right-wing government enacting laws that are changing the face of the state. On the other: citizen protesters who are fighting back against what they fear is a radical takeover...
Maryland Unions Hit Jobs Jackpot with New Casinos  In These Times   ...Labor unions in the Washington, D.C. area got an early Christmas present December 20, when Maryland state officials announced their approval of a plan to build a massive MGM Resorts International casino complex just a few miles from the nation’s Capitol building...
Washington State Boeing Workers Accept Pension Concessions  The Real News Network   ...By a narrow margin, members of the Seattle area machinists union voted to accept the new contract after Boeing threatened to take the production of its new 777X aircraft out of the state...
Union pushes for certification vote at Canada Toyota plants  Reuters   ...Canada's largest private-sector union said on Wednesday it plans to hold an organization vote for about 7,000 workers at two Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc assembly plants in Ontario early this year...
Unions file lawsuits claiming Alberta labour legislation violates Charter of Rights and Freedoms  Edmondton Journal   ...The Alberta government used Bill 46 as a “trump card” that coloured its negotiations with the province’s largest public-sector union, a provincial labour board hearing was told Wednesday...