Today's Teamster News 08.13.14

Teamster News
Working Families Party opposing Bill de Blasio's proposed horse carriage ban  New York Daily News   ...The influential party staked out its position in a letter to City Council members — a rare instance of a key de Blasio ally opposing him on one of his signature issues... 
Wisconsin Teamsters Endorse Rockwood  Urban Milwaukee   ...Teamsters Joint Council 39 has officially endorsed Chris Rockwood‘s campaign to become the United States Representative to Wisconsin’s 5th Congressional District. Teamsters Joint Council 39 comprises all of the local Teamsters Unions in Wisconsin. The endorsement cites Rockwood’s “consistent shared commitment to organized labor, the collective bargaining process and the ongoing fight for worker’s rights.”...
Teamsters Turn Down Contract With Transit Contractor  KRNV   ...Members of Teamsters Union Local 533 voted down a contract offer from MV Transportation, the Texas-based contractor paid to manage the Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County transit system...
MA Charter School Association Skeptical Of Teachers Unionizing  Go Local Worcester   ...After the historic decision by the teachers and guidance councilors of the Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School (AMSA) to join the Teamsters Local 170 in Worcester, many of the major stakeholders were full of comment and emotion...
Doc Teamsters Resoundingly Reject State's Proposal  Local 117   ...Washington State correctional employees, represented by Teamsters Local 117, have voted by an overwhelming margin to reject the State’s Last, Best, and Final proposal for their 2015-2017 collective bargaining agreement...
Trade
TTIP: It's Not About Trade  Atlantic Community   ...The pursuit of free trade is just a cover for the real agenda of the TTIP. The deal is about imposing a regulatory structure to be enforced through an international policing mechanism that likely would not be approved through the normal political processes in each country...
The De-industrialization of America  Paul Craig Roberts   ...Between October 2008 and July 2014 the working age population grew by 13.4 million persons, but the US labor force grew by only 1.1 million. In other words, the unemployment rate among the increase in the working age population during the past six years is 91.8%...
State Battles
With Burke’s win, the three biggest months of Scott Walker’s political career begin  Washington Post   ...Walker, a national conservative star, faces a tough reelection campaign. The general election officially kicked off for him Tuesday with ex-state commerce secretary Mary Burke's easy win in the Democratic primary...
Report: Wage gap growing rapidly in Indy area  Indianapolis Star   ...Wage inequality grew twice as rapidly in the Indianapolis metro area as in the rest of the nation since the recession, according to a new report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The primary culprit: Jobs recovered in the U.S. since 2008 pay $14,000 less on average than the 8.7 million jobs lost since then...
Another Poll Shows Sam Brownback Trails Paul Davis  The Pitch   ...It's difficult to imagine a more troubling campaign year for Gov. Sam Brownback. State finances look more grim with each passing month, two credit rating agencies have downgraded the Kansas bond ratings on the account of the eroding state balance sheet, an FBI probe has targeted one of Brownback's closest associates, and roughly 100 current and former Republican officeholders annoyed with the governor have thrown their support behind Democratic challenger Paul Davis...
Corporate Lobby Sets Its Sights On Your Garbage Man  Bloomberg Businessweek   ...The American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate-funded nonprofit that promotes a free-market agenda through state legislatures, has spawned an offshoot to press its case through local governments...
War On Workers
A Main Street Lobby Group Gets Closer To Big Business  Bloomberg Businessweek   ...The National Federation of Independent Business has been linked to a right-leaning organization with corporate backers. Again...
Jimmy John's Accused of 'Systematic Wage Theft'  Huffington Post   ...In their lawsuit filed Friday in federal court, Karolis Kubelskas and Emily Brunner claim that they were forced to regularly work off the clock because of unreasonably low payroll budgets provided to individual Jimmy John's stores, leading to minimum wage and overtime violations...
Crisis stalks Europe again as deflation deepens, Germany stalls  The Telegraph   ...Portugal has crashed into deep deflation and Italy’s inflation rate has fallen to zero as the eurozone flirts with recession, automatically pushing these countries further towards a debt compound spiral...
Japan's economy shrinks after sales tax rise  BBC News   ...Japan's economy contracted by an annualised 6.8% in the second quarter of the year, the biggest fall since 2011 when it was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami...
U.S. Bank Profits Near Record Levels  Wall Street Journal   ...U.S. banks posted $40.24 billion in net income during the second quarter, the industry's second-highest profit total in at least 23 years, according to data from research firm SNL Financial. The latest profits are just below the record $40.36 billion recorded in the first quarter of 2013...
Even the Upper Middle Class Struggles to Save Money  Bloomberg   ...Just 45 percent of upper-middle-class households (income from $75,000 to $99,999) saved anything in 2012, according to the Fed study. That means the other 55 percent didn’t save for a house, retirement, or education...
Feds Quietly Stop Reporting Some Hospital Errors  DC Medical Malpractice & Patient Safety Blog   ...“The federal government this month quietly stopped publicly reporting when hospitals leave foreign objects in patients' bodies or make a host of other life-threatening mistakes,”...
Hopewell highway worker killed in Farmington crash  WHEC Rochester   ...A 56-year-old who works for the Hopewell town highway department was killed in Tuesday afternoon’s crash in Farmington, Ontario County Sheriff’s deputies stated in a release early Tuesday evening...

What's good for corporations isn't (necessarily) good for small businesses

A corporate front group masquerading as an advocate for small business is being exposed as a phony. That's good news for union members, whose interests are aligned with small businesses more often than you might think.

The front group is called the "National Federation of Independent Businesses." The Center for Media and Democracy, which has been so effective in exposing the real agenda of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), just put up the NFIBExposed.org website. The website includes a report  showing the NFIB most often advocates for large corporations and against working people. NFIB is against increasing the minimum wage, against paid sick leave and against collective bargaining rights.

Those aren't always the values of small business owners. Collective bargaining rights and a higher minimum wage bring prosperity to a community -- prosperity that lifts small neighborhood businesses.

According to Dan Froomkin in the Huffington Post, the NFIB Exposed study

...reveals how consistently the NFIB lobbies on issues that favor large corporate interests rather than small-business interests; its thoroughly partisan agenda; and the millions it receives in secret contributions from groups associated with Karl Rove and the Koch Brothers.

Here's one way NFIB doesn't represent small business owners: 98 percent of its political donations go to Republicans. But polls show small business owners are divided in their preferences. A recent poll showed 47 percent of small business owners plan to vote for President Obama, while 39 percent say they'll vote for Mitt Romney.

The NFIB doesn't represent Rick Poore, owner of a custom screen-printing business in Lincoln, Nebraska with 33 employees. Said Poore:

Small business owners deserve to have a voice, but NFIB doesn't speak for me or other small business owners I know. NFIB uses the name of small business to advance an agenda that helps big corporate interests, but actually hurts the interests of real small businesses like mine.

WBA members.

In Wisconsin, small and rural businesses started their own association in direct response to job-killer Gov. Scott Walker's attack on collective bargaining rights.  According to Dane 101, they launched the Wisconsin Business Alliance. At the helm is Lori Compas, who ran against Walker ally and former Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald. Said Compas,

If people don’t have money in their pocket, they can’t spend money–I’m a photographer, photography is the first thing to go. I want people to have disposable income so they use my services. Retailers want people to have disposable income.

Brad Werntz, owner of Boulders Climbing Gym, is one of the founders of the Wisconsin Business Alliance. Reports Dane 101,

...he and the other members of the group had seen too many politicians claiming to do things–including but not limited to the budget repair bill’s union-stripping measures–on behalf of small business. Meanwhile, as businessmen, he said, “We were saying this is not good for business.” 

“If you look at Governor Walker, Scott Fitzgerald, their resumes, they know literally nothing about business,” he went on. “Meanwhile, we’ve got award-winning businessmen standing in this room today.”

John Besmer, owner of Planet Propaganda, is another founder of the group. He told Dane 101:

“Small businesses are basically being left to fend for themselves,” Planet Propaganda owner Besmer said. “Larger companies, their interests are being represented in a variety of ways, and that’s okay.” 

He said small business owners needed a voice to speak up for quality of life and conditions that will attract and foster a high-quality workforce. “The quality of people we can hire dictates the quality of our business,” he said.

None of this should surprise Ohioans or anyone who followed the successful fight to defeat SB5, the bill that took collective bargaining rights away from government workers. Though the NFIB supported SB5, many small businesses in Ohio joined the battle against it. The Columbus Dispatch reported last year:

Small businesses joined these
Teamsters in the successful
fight against SB5 last year.

Mike Patrick, owner of Patrick Solutions Inc., an information technology services provider in Grandview Heights, said he doesn’t have union ties but supports repeal of S.B. 5. He thinks many small-business owners feel that way. 

“The little guys are more connected to the community,” he said. “If services are cut back or people don’t have money to go to the grocery store, it really affects us...” 

Patrick said the outcome of the vote could determine whether he keeps his seven-employee business in Ohio. His concern is that S.B. 5 and school funding cuts Kasich supported will make Ohio a place his teenage children won’t want to live.