Today's Teamster News 01.25.13

U.S. business urges Obama to pursue new trade negotiating power  Reuters  ...A leading U.S. business group urged President Barack Obama on Thursday to build on trade successes of the past two years by seeking legislation that would allow him to submit trade deals to Congress for straight up-or-down votes without amendments...
Senate Leaders Finalize Scaled-Back Filibuster Deal  Talking Points Memo  ...The final details of the deal struck by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), which make only minor changes to the filibuster rules in the Senate, show why leading reformers are so disappointed in the outcome...
U.S.weekly jobless claims drop to 5-year low of 330,000  AP  ...The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid fell last week to the lowest level in five years, evidence that employers are cutting fewer jobs and may step up hiring…
Data Points to Slow Recovery in Euro Zone   New York Times  ...The euro zone economy took a step closer to recovery this month as the rate of decline in the bloc’s private sector eased more than expected, a business survey showed on Thursday...
Spanish Jobless Rate Hits Record  Bloomberg  ...Spanish unemployment rose to a record in the final quarter of 2012 as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government imposed the deepest budget cuts in the country’s democratic history. The number of jobless approached 6 million people, or 26.02 percent, from 25.01 percent in the previous three months...
GOP senators seek constitutional amendment on union elections  Northwest Indiana Times ...Having prevailed last year in putting right-to-work into state law, some Republican senators now want to amend the Indiana Constitution to make it even more difficult for labor unions to organize...On a party-line vote Wednesday, the Republican-controlled Senate Pensions and Labor Committee approved a proposed constitutional amendment requiring secret ballots be used for any union representation decision...
Virginia Republicans move forward on plan to give GOP more electoral votes  The Hill  ...Republicans in the Virginia state Senate are moving forward with a plan that would give the GOP presidential nominee a big boost at winning most of the state's electoral votes even if the Democratic candidate won the statewide vote...
California unions grow, bucking U.S. trend  LA Times  ...The latest snapshot of the U.S. working class shows that unions are in trouble...But California and a few nearby states in the Southwest are showing a vastly different picture - labor's ranks are on an upswing...
Union leader: We don’t like the Republic Airlines deal, but we expected it  Dallas Morning News  ...Tony Gutierrez, who heads the Air Line Pilots Association unit at American Eagle, criticized American Airlines’ deal to send commuter-airline flying to Republic Airlines. But, the chairman of ALPA’s Eagle master executive council, told ALPA members that the deal like this was expected...
New York City school bus strike continues as feds investigate  Queens Chronicle  ...Washington may soon intervene in the school bus strike that has left parents of about 150,000 New York City school children scrambling for alternative transportation since last week...
Teamsters forced to authorize bus driver strike  People's World  ...The unyielding bargaining stance of a private school bus company in South Carolina forced two groups of Charleston-area school bus drivers, represented by Teamsters Local 509, into unanimous strike authorization votes...
SC Board of Education Authorizes Strikebreaking Bus Drivers  North Charleston Patch  ...The State Board of Education has unanimously authorized an emergency measure to aid in student transportation in two districts with privatized school bus workforces that are threatening to strike. The districts have contracted with private company Durham School Services to provide transportation services. Durham's employees are unionized under Teamsters 509 and authorized a strike last week and this week as negotiations with the company stalled... 

SC's War on Workers = 9.6% unemployment rate

Mismanaging SC's economy.

TeamsterPower's morning commute on public transit was nastily disrupted by a loud conversation among South Carolina jackasses businessmen. They were praising their union-hating governor, Nikki Haley, because "she has a real nice manner and she's done a great job with economic development."

About that nice manner: Haley was widely reported to have said,

There’s no secret I don’t like the unions. We are a right-to-work state. I will do everything I can to defend the fact we are a right-to-work state. We are pro-business by nature. I want us to continue being pro-business. If they don’t like what I said, I’m sorry, that’s how I feel.

Charming. And guess how well her pro-business nature is working? Not so well, regardless of what those jackasses on the train think. South Carolina has the sixth worst unemployment rate in the country. Reported the Associated Press last week,

South Carolina's jobless rate held fast at 9.6 percent in August, essentially remaining the same as in July, the state Department of Employment and Workforce reported Friday. 

The July rate had inched up from a 9.4 percent rate in June... 

Nationally, the unemployment rate decreased from 8.3 percent in July to 8.1 percent in August...

And it's no surprise that wages have gone down in South Carolina since Haley took office last year. Economy News reports,

When Haley took office average weekly pay for a SC worker was $775. The latest data from the BLS shows that 2011 third quarter average SC weekly pay is now $746. Nearly a 4% decrease in weekly wages over a year’s span.

And just last week, medical device manufacturer Covidien announced it's shutting down its Seneca, S.C., plant and moving it to Costa Rica. Six hundred jobs will be lost.

Heckuva job, Nikki.

Wingnut senators call NLRB 'thugs'

Two addle-brained senators from South Carolina raised hell on the Senate floor yesterday because the NLRB filed a complaint against The Boeing Co. Sen Jim. DeMint, R-Crazytown, said,

The administration, I believe, is acting like thugs that you might see in a third-world country, trying to bully and intimidate employers.

Boeing had announced plans to move production from Puget Sound in Washington to South Carolina, a right-to-work (to destroy unions) state. The NLRB said the company was illegally retaliating against workers because they'd threatened to strike.

Think Progress reviewed what actually happened: 

As labor journalist Mike Elk explained, “in 2007, Boeing announced it would create a second production line to produce three 787 Dreamliner planes a month in the Pudget Sound, in addition to the production that was already occurring in Pudget Sound. Then in October 2009, it was announced that suddenly the company would move the second production line to a nonunion plant in South Carolina.” And the company’s officials made it clear that the move was made because workers in Washington had decided to strike, which, whether Republicans like it or not, is illegal.


As the Washington Post’s Steve Pearlstein wrote, “given the public statements of Boeing officials, there is nothing radical about the NLRB’s decision.”

Here's what we want to know: The administration awarded Boeing a $35 billion contract for refueling tankers in 2011. How is it "thug-like" to give a company $35 billion?

In reality, aerospace companies can't exist without government contracts, also known as "taxpayer money." That's probably why you aren't hearing much from Boeing about the NLRB complaint.

Today's Teamster News 04.10.11

As Services For Main Street Are Gutted, Richest Pay Lowest Taxes In A Generation  ThinkProgress   ...the top 400 taxpayers — who have more wealth than half of all Americans combined — are paying lower taxes than they have in a generation...
Wisconsin Common Cause: Count Every Vote in Contested Supreme Court Race  Huffington Post   ...If Wisconsin is not to irreparably harm its reputation as a functional and relatively noncorrupt state, many cheeseheads believe that a statewide recount is a necessity...
Union supporters launch effort to overturn SB5 with rally  Columbus Dispatch   ...With chants of "We are Ohio," an estimated 11,000 union supporters rallied at the Statehouse yesterday to launch the effort to overturn the law that would weaken public workers' bargaining power...
Thousands gather for Chicago pro-union rally  Chicago Tribune   ...'This is no longer a state movement. This is an international movement on behalf of working families,'...
Anti-war, pro-union rallies hit NYC  ABC News   ...Thousands of pro-labor demonstrators chanted "We are one, we are one"...
Politicians work to shut out unions  The State   ...State lawmakers are considering a bill to exempt S.C. businesses from a proposed federal rule that would require them to notify workers of their rights to unionize...
Poll puts Scott and Legislature on notice  Sarasota Herald-Tribune   ...Scott's approval rating was an anemic 35 percent, and 48 percent of those polled disapproved of the way he is handling his job as governor...

WOW rally recap: Almost too many to keep track of

If it hasn’t come to your state, it is going to be coming to your state real soon. You need to stand proud. You need to stand strong. There are a lot of Governor Walkers out there. There’s probably one in your state right now.

Those are the words of Sen. Jon Erpenbach, one of the 14 Wisconsin Democratic state senators who left the state in an attempt to block Koch whore Gov. Scott Walker’s bill. He was speaking to the IAFF legislative conference on Monday, according to The Hill.

It has come to Tennessee, where people protested the Legislature's attempt to strip teachers of their collective bargaining rights.

Troopers forcibly carried out seven union supporters from the Tennessee's legislative office complex on Tuesday after their protest disrupted a Senate committee hearing

The disruption occurred after hundreds of labor supporters gathered for a midday protest near the Capitol to denounce a bill to strip teachers of their collective bargaining rights. The seven arrested were among those who stood up during the hearing and began chants about "union busting" by the Legislature.

Most demonstrators left the hearing room after a half-hour, but a small group tried to lock arms to keep from being removed.

Rally Girl tells us where else it has arrived:

In Eugene, Ore. on Friday, hundreds of residents took to the streets in the name of justice. Protesting against corporate greed, both public and private sector employees marched in solidarity with Wisconsin.

Two thousand miles away in Medina, Ohio, more than 500 people gathered to protest Senate Bill 5, which, if passed, would rewrite collective bargaining laws for public employees.

U.S. Rep. (and Teamster good friend) Betty Sutton, (D-Copley Township), spoke to attendees, calling the bill an attack on workers and the middle class.

It is the middle class that makes this country strong. We have to say "enough is enough."

In New Haven, Conn., Al Sharpton greeted protestors rallying against Mayor John DeStefano, who, in the name of budget cuts laid off dozens of city employees including 16 police officers.

And Democracy Now has more:

In South Carolina, thousands of teachers, religious leaders and state workers gathered at the capitol building on Sunday in opposition to cuts targeted at education, healthcare and other state services. In Austin, Texas, more than 10,000 protesters swarmed the grounds of the capitol Saturday to denounce Gov. Rick Perry’s proposal to fire educators, increase class sizes and cut programs. On Friday, protesters in Maine filled the capitol building to take a stand against Gov. Paul LePage’s plan to strip $18 million from the state’s Fund for a Healthy Maine. Also on Friday, concerned parents and citizens in Maryland’s Prince George’s County gathered at a local school to protest budget cuts that could leave hundreds of low-income, magnet high school students without school buses. Meanwhile, protests in response to Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s plan to tax the public and private pensions of senior citizens are scheduled for Tuesday in Lansing.

SC's new governor is proud to hate unions

Nikki Haley hates unions. She's South Carolina's new governor and a nightmare for the labor movement.  Haley appointed a union buster to run the state's labor agency in order to keep unions out of the Boeing plant in N. Charleston. The IAM and AFL-CIO yesterday asked for a court order to shut Haley up requiring Haley to remain neutral. When asked about the suit, Haley said,

There's no secret I don't like the unions. We are a right-to-work state. I will do everything I can to defend the fact we are a right-to-work state. We are pro-business by nature. I want us to continue to be pro-business. If they don't like what I said, I'm sorry, that's how I feel.

TeamsterNation would like to remind Gov. Haley of Martin Luther King's words about right-to-work (for LESS):

In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as 'right-to-work.' It provides no 'rights' and no 'works.' Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining…. We demand this fraud be stopped.