Chamber goons: "Dam it feels good to be a gangsta…..”

More details on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's efforts to run an undercover smear campaign against its critics who don't like its agenda of making it easier for multinational corporations to send jobs overseas and destabilize American working families by lowering wages:

ThinkProgress reports that three security firms were pitching the Chamber's lobbyists for what they hoped was a $2 million spy-and-disinformation operation. (Didn't Richard Nixon resign in humiliation because he did something similar?) The firms conspired to extract private, personal information from Facebook and LinkedIn in order to spread lies and false accusations against critics of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Earlier we learned that the spies targeted the families of a former Change to Win employee and a blogger who criticized the Chamber.

Reports ThinkProgress:

...A key service that attracted the Chamber’s lawyers to the corporate spies — Palantir Technologies, Berico Technologies, and HBGary Federal — was the ability of HBGary’s CEO Aaron Barr to use computer programs to “scrape” personal information from the websites of Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media sites.

Leaked emails show that Berico, Palantir, and HBGary conspired to store information scraped from social media sites on Palantir’s servers. On November 11, Barr sent Facebook data about the supporters and leaders of Change To Win, CodePink, US Chamber Watch and other organizations to Berico, who then passed the “scrapes” with “mugshots” along to Palantir...

Lovely, isn't it?

The blogger emptywheel makes an important point: These goons wanted to charge $2,000 a day! Writes emptywheel:

To put it in even more stark perspective, consider one ultimate target of the campaign: the men and women SEIU organizes pushing back against the anti-worker policies of the Chamber. Many of these workers–the kind of people who keep your building clean or care for you when you’re sick–make as little $12/hour or less (though the wages for nurses and other skilled medical care providers are higher).

These corporate spook assholes–in addition to targeting Americans for political activism–also think they’re worth 20 times as much as the people who care for the sick.

As one goon said to another, “Most of all that we are the best money can buy! Dam it feels good to be a gangsta…..”

Very, very nice.

Woo hoo! Good guys win one over the U.S. Chamber

TeamsterNation is blown away that the U.S. Supreme Court voted 8-0 AGAINST the U.S. Chamber and the Spanish company it backed and FOR an employee whistleblower. (Yes, you may be wondering why the U.S. Chamber is spending members' dues defending a Spanish company against an American worker. It's because the Chamber's loyalty is to the international plutocracy, not the United States nor the U.S. worker.)

Anyway, we're blown away by the unanimous decision because big corporations have some good friends on the high court.

The New York Times has the story:

Firing a worker’s fiancé in retaliation for a sex discrimination claim filed by the worker is itself unlawful, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday.

Here's what happened: In 2002, Miriam Regalado complained to the EEOC that her employer, North American Stainless, paid her less than her male counterparts and twice demoted her because she's a woman. Her fiancé, who also worked at the company, was fired after the company learned about Regalado's complaint. The fiance sued the company, and the Supreme Court ruled yesterday that he had the right to do so.

North American Stainless, in Ghent, Ky.,  is owned by Spanish-based Acerinox. The U.S. Chamber and other business groups backed the company.


This case matters to more people than you may think. According to the Wall Street Journal,

Earlier this month, the EEOC reported that nearly 100,000 discrimination complaints were filed in the year ended Sept. 30, an all-time high. Retaliation was the most frequently filed charge, at 36,228 complaints, for the first time edging out racial discrimination.

Chalk one up for the good guys!

New hope for Zadroga 9/11 bill

Teamsters working at Ground Zero.

It looked all but hopeless as Congress winds down for the year, but it turns out there's still a chance the Zadroga Act will become law.

The bill would pay for monitoring and treating the 9/11 first responders who suffer health problems -- like terminal cancer, pulmonary fibrosis and heart disease. It's named after a NYPD officer who died of respiratory disease attributed to working at Ground Zero.

Devlin Barrett at the Wall Street Journal reports,

New York lawmakers said Sunday they have crafted a scaled-down version of a health-care bill for sick Ground Zero workers that should garner enough Republican support to pass...Supporters of the bill believe that the smaller price tag—the overall cost was cut to $6.2 billion from $7.4 billion—combined with a different method of paying for the legislation, will be enough to win yes votes from Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Mark Kirk of Illinois and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska...

New York political leaders are holding a press conference right now to urge Congress to pass the bill.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has lobbied against the bill because it's paid for by eliminating a tax loophole for foreign corporations. According to Think Progress,

The Chamber fought to help kill the 9/11 compensation bill because it was funded by ending a special tax loophole exploited by foreign corporations doing business in the United States...In September, the Chamber sent a letter officially opposing the 9/11 first responders bill, called the “James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010.” The Chamber warned that ending the tax loophole would “damage U.S. relationships with major trading partners” and “aggravate already unsettled financial markets.” A lobbying disclosure filed with the Senate confirms the Chamber contacted lawmakers to help kill the bill. In typical fashion, the Chamber has not revealed which of its foreign members had asked them to kill the 9/11 bill.

One more thing: If you haven't seen the tremendous video of Jon Stewart and four 9/11 first responders reacting to the Senate filibuster of the bill, you must. Watch it here.

Today's Teamster News 12.19.10

Maine FedEx drivers sue over employment status  Bangor Daily News   ...A group of eight people who worked as delivery drivers for FedEx affiliates in Maine have filed a class-action lawsuit, saying they were misclassified...
Justices Offer Receptive Ear to Business Interests  New York Times   ...the percentage of business cases on the Supreme Court docket has grown in the Roberts years, as has the percentage of cases won by business interests...
McWeasel Blasts 9/11 Health Bill  Political Animal  ... the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been quietly lobbying against it because it's financed by closing tax loopholes for foreign businesses that do business in the United States...
13 Products Most Likely To Made By Child Or Forced Labor (PHOTOS)  Huffington Post  ...There are some 128 goods among the products that most commonly use child labor...
Bodyguard business is booming Los Angeles Times   ...demand for bodyguards has soared in lockstep with increasing global unrest spurred by wars and economic turmoil...

"Not one positive thing to say" about U.S. Chamber

The Greater Hudson Chamber of Commerce in Nashua, N.H., has left the U.S. Chamber.

Why? Because the New Hampshire chamber doesn't want to have anything to do with the U.S. Chamber's ads attacking Democratic candidates.

Jerry Mayotte, executive vice president of the New Hampshire chamber, had a few choice words about the U.S. Chamber.

“We didn’t like the fact that the U.S. Chamber was supporting particular candidates. We don’t think it’s good business practice to do so...As far as I’m concerned, I could not find one positive thing to say about being involved in the U.S. Chamber."

Chamber of Commerce makes the coward's argument

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce still won't tell anyone how much foreign money it's funneling to run misleading ads against candidates it doesn't like.

ThinkProgress broke the story about the Chamber's illegal political activity. The blog reported today that the Chamber's own documents showed that it collected $885,000 from over 80 foreign companies. That money went into the same account used to pay for political attack ads.

The Chamber's top lobbyist, Bruce Josten, flat-out told CNN's Chuck Todd that they would continue to stonewall.

Here's the exchange:

TODD: Are you guys eventually going to disclose?

JOSTEN: No!
[…]

TODD: So your donors are afraid of a public backlash?

JOSTEN: Absolutely. […] Corporations, as I said, have employees, vendors, suppliers, and shareholders of all political stripes. They’re not trying to alienate anybody. They’re looking for representative organizations, such as mine and thousands of others, to be an express organization to advocate for them on their behalf.

It's what the Sunlight Foundation calls the "coward's argument against transparency."

Chamber can't or won't prove it isn't funneling foreign money to U.S. elections

Of COURSE the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is soliciting money from foreign countries (who by and large want to take our jobs) and spending it on mostly Republican political candidates. Which is, by the way, against the law.

The Chamber claims it "segregates" the money but won't explain how. Some Democrats actually think it's a bad idea to attack the Chamber for an activity that's loathsome to most voters.

David Dayen at firedoglake has a good take on the controversy:

It’s incredible that anyone would call the charges about the Chamber “baseless.” The Chamber solicits donations from abroad. That money goes into an account. The Chamber then spends $75 million dollars from that same account. They say that the money is segregated but refuse to show any documentation backing that up. Nobody disputes any of this. Why is it at all out of bounds to point it out?

But some battered-wife-syndrome Democrats think that defending themselves during an election is just terribly partisan and not at all what the God-fearing voters in real America want.

Voters in America want jobs in America. The Chamber wants to raise money by helping foreign multinationals move jobs overseas.

Seems pretty cut and dried.

Chamber funnels foreign money to influence U.S. elections

TeamsterNation has always maintained that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce should take "U.S." out of its name. The organization not only has directors who represent domestic multinational corporations that have sent hundreds of thousands of American jobs overseas, it actually has directors who represent foreign multinationals from Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, Bermuda, Belfium, the U.K. and the Netherlands.

Now the U.S. China Chamber is embroiled in a fundraising scandal that it dismisses at its peril. The organization allegedly funneled foreign money to pay for attack ads against Democratic candidates.

ThinkProgress has the story:

...the Chamber funds its political attack campaign out of its general
account, which solicits foreign funding. ... According to legal experts consulted by ThinkProgress, the Chamber is likely skirting longstanding campaign finance law that bans the involvement of foreign corporations in American elections.

The Chamber is funding attack ads against candidates the Teamsters strongly support: Jerry Brown for governor of California, Barbara Boxer for senator from California, Jack Conway for Senator from Kentucky.

The U.S. Chamber actually has an office in Bahrain, called “U.S.-Bahrain Business Council” (USBBC). ThinkProgress tells us:

...the U.S. Chamber of Commerce raises well over $100,000 a year in money from foreign businesses through its operation in Bahrain...

It also has an office in India, where it boasts it can help U.S. companies outsource jobs and collects $200,000 a year. And it has an affiliate in Egypt. And it has a secret relationship with an affiliate in Russia, but we can guess what that's all about.

Here's why the Chamber is able to gather so much money from foreign companies (and, we suspect, foreign government-owned companies):

The Chamber has repeatedly sent out issue alerts attacking Democratic efforts to encourage businesses to hire locally rather than outsource to foreign counties. The Chamber has also bitterly fought Democrats for opposing unfettered free trade deals.

A reminder to the Chamber: it's against the law for foreign entities to contribute to political races here in America.

Today's Teamster News 10/07/10

Teamsters step up, waive raises, save Indian River County union jobs slated for demise TC Palm ...Daniee Jarratt ... was one of 17 employees facing the latest round of county layoffs...But his fellow ... Teamsters ... were able to save his job and nine others...

Christie's Silence Spurs Worries for Train Tunnel New York Times ...(there are) rumors that Mr. Christie is about to withdraw the state funds (which would) ... effectively scuttle the biggest transit project under way in the country...

An Unexpected Decrease in Filings for Jobless Benefits Associated Press ...layoffs are declining...

Foreclosure Cover for Banks Seen in Bill at Obama's Desk Reuters ...A bill that homeowners advocates warn will make it more difficult to challenge improper foreclosure attempts by big mortgage processors is awaiting President Barack Obama's signature after it quietly zoomed through the Senate last week...

Chamber of Commerce Denies Foreign Money Funding Campaign Ads CBS News ...The U.S. Chamber of Commerce ... is denying a report from a liberal group that it is using money from foreign corporations on campaign ads...

Baltimore teachers union is the hero, not the villain Washington Post ...The Baltimore contract, on which teachers will vote Oct. 14, bases pay on acombination of professional development training, joint management-teacher evaluation and measured student achievement...

Feds OK Union Vote for FreshDirect The Queens Gazette ...The National Labor Relations Board last week approved a request by a group of FreshDirect employees to hold a (Teamsters) union election at FreshDirect’s Long Island City warehouse...