Today's Teamster News 09.04.14

Teamsters
Unions press for complete rejection of Norwegian Air US flight bid  The Hill   ...Emboldened by a decision on Tuesday by the Department of Transportation (DOT) to dismiss an attempt by Norwegian Airlines to expedite approval of its bid to gain access to airports in the U.S., labor groups in Washington are pushing the agency now to completely reject the Scandinavian company's request...
Trade
U.S. Sets Steep Preliminary Duties On Chinese Steel Wire Rod Imports  Reuters   ...The U.S. Department of Commerce on Tuesday set preliminary duties of up to 110 percent on imports of carbon and alloy steel wire rod from China after ruling the products were being sold below cost in the U.S. market...
Dear President Clinton: How’s that China free market thing working out?  Trade Reform   ...They could use state-owned enterprises, other industrial subsidies, value added taxes, indigenous innovation requirements, currency manipulation as part of a Chinese Communist Party industrial strategy that was going to penetrate the U.S. consumer market at all costs...
Get Rid Of Provisions In Pact That Will Hit Public Health, TPP Negotiators Told  The Sun Daily   ...Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has called on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiating countries to struck off provisions in the free trade agreement that will severely impact public health of millions of people in Asia...
State Battles
Emanuel To Sign Order Raising Minimum Wage Chicago Contract Workers  ABC News   ...Mayor Rahm Emanuel is expected to sign an executive order that will require Chicago contractors and subcontractors to pay employees at least $13 an hour...
Why Walker should be held to jobs promise (opinion)  Post Crescent   ...Of the 65 promises Walker made, none has received more attention than the promise he made to create 250,000 new jobs for Wisconsin in his first term. Walker has created a little over 100,000 jobs in the state, with only four months remaining in his term. PolitiFact has mercifully ruled the promise as "stalled." Even Walker admits he's not going to hit the number he said he would...
California Bill Would Enable Uber, Lyft Drivers To Finally Get Insurance  KQED   ...AB2293, the ride-service insurance bill that passed the California Legislature last week, could pave the way for drivers for companies like Lyft and Uber to finally get coverage for both personal and commercial use of their vehicles...
Uber Unrest: Drivers In Los Angeles Protest The Slashing Of Rates  Salon.com   ...Over 50 Los Angeles based Uber drivers gathered in a North Hollywood parking lot, on Tuesday, to protest the ride-sharing app’s declining rates. While one driver, Aya Valilar, states that she still loves the app, she concedes that in her year-and-a-half working as an Uber driver, she’s seen rates slashed four times...
War On Workers
Protesters arrested after blocking BNSF oil train  JournalStar.com   ...The protest by about a dozen demonstrators blocked some railroad tracks from 6 a.m. local time until about 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday….A sign on the tripod said: "Cut Oil Trains Not Conductors," an apparent reference to a deal negotiated by BNSF and a union to allow the railroad to run some freight trains with only an engineer on board...
Unemployment Trickles Down to Poorer Workers, Study Finds  Wall Street Journal   ...Unemployment “trickles down” to America’s poorest and most vulnerable because, during recessions, higher-income workers with more education take jobs that are below their qualification level, according to new research...
Apple, Google resume talks with tech workers in hiring lawsuit: filing  Reuters   ...Plaintiffs accused Apple, Google, Intel (INTC.O) and Adobe (ADBE.O) of conspiring to avoid poaching each other's employees. Last month, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California rejected a proposed $324.5 million settlement in the class action case, saying it was too low...
US household food security fails to improve  Aljazeera America   ...More U.S. households are having a hard time putting food on the table than before the recession. But there is a sliver of hope: The numbers are not going up...
Scott Brown: It's Not My Job To Create Jobs (VIDEO)  Talking Points Memo   ...Former Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), now a U.S. Senate candidate in New Hampshire, said that his job isn't to create jobs. That's for other Americans...
Volkswagen Union Could Signal Change For Tennessee  Chattanooga Times Free Press   ...Eric DeLacy ... is among more than 700 workers who have joined a new local union started in March by the United Auto Workers...
Charles Koch Complains He And His Brother Are 'In Front Of The Firing Squad'  Huffington Post   ...It isn't easy being a politically connected billionaire. At a private political strategy summit earlier this year, Charles Koch lamented that he and his brother David were being unfairly persecuted...
Miscellaneous
Keystone XL: Six Years And Still Waiting  Townhall   ...September 19th will mark the sixth anniversary of when TransCanada first applied for a presidential permit to build the Keystone XL Pipeline. Hurt the most are the people whose job it is to build and operate the pipeline...
Tesla chooses Nevada for battery factory: Sources  CNBC   ...Tesla has finally decided that it will build its $5 billion lithium-ion battery plant—dubbed the gigafactory—in Nevada, sources say...
From Russia With Love: JPMorgan Hack May Be Warning, Says Former NSA Chief  Bloomberg   ...Hackers who stole gigabytes of data from JPMorgan Chase & Co. may have been trying to send a message that U.S. financial institutions can be disrupted, the former director of the National Security Agency said...

'The Fighter' won't back anti-union Sen. Scott Brown

Micky Ward speaking to the Teamsters convention last year.

Our Teamster brother Micky Ward, proud member of Local 25 and subject of the film 'The Fighter," likes Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown.

But he can't endorse him for re-election.

Brown wants to take away collective bargaining rights. Surely a sad state of affairs considering his Senate seat was long held by Edward M. Kennedy, a true champion of labor.

Evan Lips at the Lowell Sun has the story of Ward's brief endorsement and then un-endorsement of Brown:

Mill City ring king Micky Ward found himself backed into a corner Thursday when word trickled out that he was supporting U.S. Senator Scott Brown’s re-election campaign. 

It started with a tweet from Republican National Convention in Florida. Then came word from Brown’s camp that the Wrentham Republican would be making an appearance Friday morning at Ward’s favorite gym, Forever Fitness in Chelmsford. 

Reached on his cell, Ward said he admired Brown’s spirit and respected the way he could “go out there and listen and talk like a guy who is positive and wants to do right by us...” 

Roughly a half-hour after Ward confirmed he was backing Brown, ‘The Fighter’ called back. He said he had given his endorsement a little more thought. 

“I can’t support Scott Brown,” Ward said. “I just can’t do it.”... 

“I found out Scott (Brown) is anti-union and I’m a Teamster guy,” said Ward. “I found out he’s also against gay marriage and I say if you love someone you should have the same rights no matter who you are.”

Atta boy, Micky!

Good question

Bob Kuttner asks why the Tea Party is giving a free ride to Republicans protecting bankers.

In today's Huffington Post he writes,

Two years and counting into the most severe financial collapse in nearly a century, bankers still rule. Republicans protect bankers from reform, yet amazingly masquerade as the party of populist backlash. If Democrats let the right play this double game, shame on them. It's only possible because too many Democrats are too cozy with the same bankers.

Kuttner was prompted to write because he's rightly concerned that financial reform may not make it through Congress. What looked like a sure thing a few weeks ago is now in jeopardy because of the death of Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia and the wavering of several Republican senators who previously voted for the bill.

Kuttner tells us

...sure enough, three of the four Republican supporters have gone wobbly. Olympia Snowe of Maine voted for the Senate bill, but is now making equivocal noises about whether she'll support the conference bill (which is weaker in some respects than the Senate's version.) Likewise Chuck Grassley of Iowa.

The always wily Scott Brown of Massachusetts threatened to withhold his vote until the House and Senate leaders agreed to scrap a $19 billion tax on large banks. He voted for the senate bill, but now Brown is warning that he may vote against the final bill anyway. Apparently there is no honor among thieves. The financial industry was the largest donor to Brown's Senate campaign.

The bill isn't perfect, but it's a desperately needed improvement. Prudent regulation would have averted the global economic crisis. Without it, we may well see another financial meltdown.