Today's Teamster News 05.01.13

CEO Pay 1,795-to-1 Multiple of Wages Skirts U.S. Law  Bloomberg News   ...Former fashion jewelry saleswoman Rebecca Gonzales and former Chief Executive Officer Ron Johnson have one thing in common: J.C. Penney Co. (JCP) no longer employs either. The similarity ends there...
Is the TPP a threat to U.S. auto makers?  Michigan Radio   ...On the surface, it sounds like easing trade restrictions with foreign nations could present new opportunities and more business for American companies like the Detroit Three automakers. But, is there a deeper danger to American jobs in these overseas trade agreements?...
Poll: 42 Percent Unaware That ‘Obamacare’ Is Law Of The Land  Talking Points Memo   ...While a majority is cognizant of the law's current status, a startling percentage of Americans is unaware that the Affordable Care Act — the sweeping new federal health care law widely known as "Obamacare" — remains the law of the land, according to findings in a poll released Tuesday...
Why American Airlines Employees Loathe Management  Forbes …The mistrust that labor harbors for American Airlines management is a feud with a history filled with a powerful vitriol that only duplicitous behavior engenders…
Colbert Busch aggressively challenges Sanford in only debate  Washington Post ...It was a tale of two debate strategies Monday night in South Carolina. A lively Elizabeth Colbert Busch struck early and often against Mark Sanford’s record in Congress and as governor while Sanford hit back with consistent attempts to tie his opponent to Democratic congressional leaders in the only debate in South Carolina’s special election campaign.
California may go forward without a financial reserve  Los Angeles Times   ...Arnold Schwarzenegger persuaded voters nine years ago that if they let him borrow money to cover the budget deficit, California's financial woes would end for good. A key part of his plan was a new rainy-day fund to insulate the state from further crisis. Today, the reserve is empty...
Prison food privatization would eliminate 370 state jobs  Detroit Free Press   ...In a reversal, officials said today they will privatize food service for Michigan's 45,000 state prisoners by awarding a nearly $50 million a year contract to catering giant Aramark...
California Fracking Moratorium Clears Key Committee in Assembly  Bloomberg News   ...A California Assembly panel approved a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing by oil and natural-gas producers until the most populous U.S. state assesses health and environmental concerns...
Scarnati frustrated by the fixation on liquor privatization instead of the Pennsylvania state budget   The Patriot-News   ...It’s a couple of months away from the June 30 deadline for getting an on-time state budget as so many lawmakers and Gov. Tom Corbett pledged to do. But all people seem to want to talk about is liquor privatization, said a frustrated Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati at the Pennsylvania Press Club...
Democrats, Republicans join forces to advocate for Florida ports  Sun Sentinel   ...A bipartisan team from the Florida congressional delegation is banding together to form a "ports caucus" to push the interests of the state's seaports in the nation's capital...
US school bus concerns loom for National Express AGM  International Transport Workers' Federation   ...Concerns over labour practices at its US school bus business subsidiary, Durham School Services, threaten to affect National Express’ Annual General Meeting on May 9 in London...
Interview: Tom Morello Talks to Teamsters, May Day 2013  IBT   ...Every year on May 1, workers around the world celebrate the trials and triumphs of working people. This year, May Day comes with a bold soundtrack thanks to Tom Morello, the Nightwatchman...
Teamsters Warn: Swift Transportation Board Lets CEO Pledge nearly 25 Percent of Outstanding Shares as Collateral for Personal Loans  IBT   ...ISS, the country’s largest proxy voting advisory firm, issued a report Monday recommending that shareholders withhold votes from all members of the Swift Transportation Company Board of Directors’ Audit Committee over concerns about the CEO’s extensive pledging of stock...
Casey Jones, Iconic Locomotive Engineer and American Hero  IBT   ...Next week, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen will celebrate its 150th anniversary at a May 8 event in Detroit. We've been counting down great moments in the history of North America’s oldest union, but April 30 marks a different kind of event—the anniversary of the death of John Luther "Casey" Jones...
Teamsters Local 320 sues Wadena County   Wadena (Minnesota) Pioneer Journal   ...Teamsters Union Local 320, which represents a substantial portion of Wadena County’s workforce, filed a civil lawsuit against the county in the Seventh Judicial District Court in Wadena...

Today's Teamster News 03.24.13

Bye, Bye American Dream! U.S. Economic Inequality Is Permanent, Study Finds  Alternet   ... But this study suggests that there are irreconcilable gaps in income, lifetime wealth, consumption and the resulting health between the haves and have-nots in America. It also suggests progressive taxation can buffer those inequalities a bit, but not make up for the gaps...
Budget Deal Opens ‘Age of Austerity’ for Federal Agencies  Bloomberg   ...Lawmakers approved the so-called continuing resolution March 21 averting a government shutdown while giving a handful of agencies more flexibility to meet the mandated reductions under sequestration...
Thousands Sign Petition Opposing Potential Koch Brothers L.A. Times Bid  Hollywood Weekly   ..."It would be a travesty to the fourth estate if the Koch brothers are allowed to purchase one of the most respected newspapers in the country in order to peddle their discredited ideas and right-wing propaganda"...
Protect personal accounts from confiscation for bank bailouts  White House Petition   ...during recent events in Cyprus, the European Union sought to confiscate personal accounts, including insured accounts, for a bank bailout...
Referendum reform awaits one signature  Toledo Blade   ...A bill that critics contend would weaken the people’s power to use the ballot box to directly confront actions of their government is headed for Gov. John Kasich’s desk...
Scores of critics denounce emergency financial manager for Detroit  Detroit Free Press   ...Plans were announced to have protesters possibly line Orr's travel route to the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center his first day Monday. A rally is planned near the "Spirit of Detroit" for 11 a.m. that day, and busloads of protesters are expected to leave from Eastern Market on Monday to travel to Cleveland, where Orr's former law firm, Jones Day, has an office...
Pa. liquor bill likely to be pulled over in Senate  Philadelphia Inquirer   ...the Republican chairman of the Senate Law & Justice Committee, Sen. Charles McIlhinney, and its ranking Democrat, Sen. Jim Ferlo, have competing proposals that would keep the state stores open and preserve thousands of union-represented jobs...

Today's Teamster News 03.23.13

Fed's Raskin Bemoans Low-Wage Nature of Jobs Recovery  Reuters   ...Too much of the recent growth in employment has been concentrated in low-wage and temporary jobs, leaving the recovery on shaky ground, a top Federal Reserve official said Friday...
While Cyprus Sinks, France and Slovenia Start to Founder  naked capitalism   ...As the Cyprus restructuring drama has moved into high gear, it’s obscured news of a serious deterioration in the French economy and the weakened condition of Slovenia, which has a population and GDP roughly 1.5 times as large as that of Cyprus...
Friends of Wells Fargo Typo Victim Larry Delassus Suing For Wrongful Death  LA Weekly   ...A disabled Navy veteran who was in and out of the hospital, Delassus began receiving notices in March of 2009 stating that he was delinquent on Los Angeles County property taxes on his home … The bank was wrong -- Delassus was paid ahead by nearly six months...
Illinois gets $808 million train business Walker destroyed here  The Political Environment   ...When Scott Walker and his legislative supplicants killed high-speed train development and expansion for Wisconsin in 2011, they also broke a contract to build train equipment for several states at a developing Milwaukee factory in the economically-depressed 30th. St. corridor...
Pension overhaul hurts middle class (LTE)  Tampa Bay Times   ...about 800,000 Floridians benefit from the Florida Retirement System pension plan. Rational businessmen should be wary of a proposal that undercuts the spending power of 800,000 Floridians...
LePage: Gas project excludes workers  Portland Press Herald   ...Gov. Paul Le-Page on Thursday criticized a natural gas company that plans to invest $350 million to bring a natural gas pipeline through central Maine, saying a labor agreement the company adopted will favor unions and discriminate against most Maine construction workers...
The Prevailing Wage is now on Snyder's menu  Detroit News   ...With the ink barely dry on Michigan’s new right to work law, Mitten State media seem hungry for another knock-down, drag out fight between the state’s Republican Majority of Everything and Big Labor – this time over the state’s prevailing wage law...
Citizens Gather to Oppose ‘Anti-Worker’ Legislation  KSMU   ...A small group of Springfield citizens gathered in front of the Chamber of Commerce Thursday to discuss what they call anti-worker legislation...
House Passes Liquor Bill  PoliticsPA   ...Following seven hours of debate on Thursday, the Pennsylvania House approved HB 790 105-90.  This is the furthest that any legislation has made it through the Pennsylvania General Assembly since the end of Prohibition eighty years ago...
Reverend Jesse Jackson and two Michigan congressmen challenge emergency financial manager law  ABC News   ...Democrats John Conyers and Gary Peters sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office asking for an audit. The letter suggests emergency managers mismanaged other cities in Michigan and perhaps, federal funds...

Today's Teamster News 03.21.13

CVS presses workers for medical information  Boston Herald   ...A national data privacy group is seeing red over a new CVS policy that requires workers who use company health insurance to report their weight, and body fat and glucose levels to the insurer — or pay a $600-a-year penalty...
Big Majority Supports Public Spending for Jobs  Political Wire   ...Key findings: 72% support federal spending "to put people to work on urgent infrastructure repairs" and 72% support a "federal jobs creation law that would spend government money for a program designed to create more than 1 million new jobs..."
Workers Lose Jobs As Pink Slips Go Out Due To Sequestration  Huffington Post   ...some in the private sector ... are losing their jobs altogether, underscoring just how much daily life for many people is tied to a functioning government...
Solar Power Soars in United States; Top 10 Solar Projects Under Construction  Forbes   ...The United States added a staggering 3.3 gigawatts of solar power capacity in 2012 ... the solar power capacity added in 2012 was greater than all of the solar power capacity added for the three previous years combined...
Pennsylvania House Votes On Liquor Privatization Today  CBS News   ...The stage is set for a historic vote today in the Pennsylvania House on a bill that would phase out the state store system of selling wine and liquor. But even if the bill passes the House, it would still have to get through the Senate, where support is less certain...
Changes to Ohio's election laws head to governor  Fox News   ...Two bills that make election law changes in the presidential battleground state are headed to the Ohio governor's desk. One measure … would restrict the time groups have to collect extra signatures needed to ensure their ballot issues get before voters…
House approves ban on union pay deductions  Lawrence Journal-World   ...A bill barring public employee unions in Kansas from deducting money from members’ paychecks to help finance political activities cleared the Republican-dominated Legislature on Tuesday...
Court filing: Attorney General Bill Schuette says right-to-work laws apply to state government workers  Michigan Live   ...The filing Tuesday is a response for defendants in a lawsuit filed last month by a coalition of labor unions. The unions argue that Michigan’s right-to-work law should not apply to roughly 35,000 unionized state employees...
Bill that would repeal right-to-work law shelved until December  Detroit Free Press   ...A bill that would have repealed the controversial right-to-work law passed by the Legislature during the last week of lame duck session last year has been shelved until Dec. 28...
Unemployment rises in all 72 Wisconsin counties  Associated Press   ...The state's unemployment rate increased from 6.7 percent to 7 percent...
Ohio Chamber of Commerce Calls Kasich Tax Plan “Unhealthy Shift”  Plunderbund   ...Add the Chamber and NFIB to the list of nearly 20 other business groups opposing the Governor’s tax plan, and we seem to have a consensus here: John Kasich’s sales tax expansion is bad for business in Ohio...
Union workers block Las Vegas Strip travel lanes  Fox News   ...Culinary 226 and Bartenders 165 union members blocked traffic lanes on the Las Vegas Strip during a protest on Wednesday. …  104 protestors received citations for obstructing a roadway….Since opening in December 2010, union members said they haven't been able to form a union contract. They blame (Cosmopolitan Las Vegas) casino owner Deutsche Bank for not allowing fair wages and benefits....
Teamsters' Gala for Autism Tickets Available  Back Bay Patch   ... The Teamsters Local 25 will hold the sixth annual “Light Up the Night” Gala for Autism on Saturday, March 30...