Today's Teamster News 05.03.13

"Fix the Debt" CEOs Enjoy Taxpayer-Subsidized Pay  Institute for Policy Studies   ...A new report by IPS and Campaign for America's Future shows that America’s top CEOs are pocketing massive taxpayer subsidies at the same time they’re pushing austerity cutbacks in government programs that benefit ordinary citizens...
Foreclosure Settlement Checks Significantly Smaller Than Regulators Forecasted: Homeowners  Huffington Post   ...Adam Crain reckoned he was due $125,000. That amount would come as compensation for losing his Oak Harbor, Wash., home to foreclosure while he was serving aboard a naval vessel in the Middle East. He calculated that sum using a table distributed by federal regulators. Eight hundred dollars was all he received...
US Manufacturing Growth Slows; Construction Spending Falls  Reuters   ...The pace of U.S. manufacturing growth slowed in April as the sector expanded only modestly, an industry report showed on Wednesday. A separate report showed that construction spending fell in March...
Clinton waiting in the wings, Democratic group paves way for a woman president  NBC News   ...With former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton waiting in the wings, a prominent Democratic group launched an effort Thursday to pave the way for electing America's first woman president...
Koch brothers making Cassidy Senate campaign a 2014 priority  Times-Picayune   ...The conservative billionaire Koch brothers, who poured millions of dollars into the 2012 elections, have given their largest single political action committee donation for the 2014 mid-term races to Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, who is challenging Sen. Mary Landrieu, the three-term Democratic incumbent, in next year's Louisiana Senate race...
GOP Senator: I Voted Against Equal Pay For Women Because We Have Enough Laws  Think Progress   ...Women in full-time year-round jobs earned 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man. Yet, at a town hall earlier this week, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) claimed that Congress has done enough to ensure that women receive equal pay for equal work. Indeed, she justified her vote against legislation intended to prevent employers from dodging federal equal pay law…
US flag-covered spire hoisted to NY's WTC roof  Associated Press   ...Adorned with an American flag that flapped in the breeze, the last pieces of a silver spire were hoisted to the top of the World Trade Center on Thursday as construction workers cheered its ascent...
A Single Garment Of Destiny’ For American And Bangladeshi Workers  Shanker Blog   ...“Injustice anywhere,” Martin Luther King famously wrote in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, “is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” Two recent events which might seem worlds apart provide evidence that working people around the globe are indeed tied together in King’s “single garment of destiny.”...
US trade deficit drops to $38.8 billion in March as flow of crude oil falls to 17-year low  Associated Press   ...The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in March for a second month as the daily flow of imported crude oil dropped to the lowest level in 17 years. The deficit with China hit a three-year low...
Rep. Chris Taylor: Judge astonished at Scott Walker's attack on rights  The Cap Times   ...Gov. Scott Walker boasts about having the courage to stand up to public workers. He’ll tell right-wing audiences that crowds of 100,000 protesters outside of his office didn’t rattle him. Yet Walker has spent the last eight months, and thousands of taxpayer dollars, issuing $200 citations to individuals for peacefully singing, holding signs and, in some instances, walking in circles around the rotunda...
Europe's workers cry May Day against austerity  The Guardian   ...May Day is traditionally a time when European workers would pause to celebrate labor rights and the reforms which were won from employers and governments in earlier days. But with more people out of work across Europe than ever before, there has been an outpouring of anger over the region's financial plight...
Texas state officials tell legislators that educating West residents about plant was local responsibility   Dallas Morning News   …Texas Department of Public Safety officials told state lawmakers that educating residents in West – and in other Texas towns – about possible dangers of chemicals stored in nearby facilities falls to local officials…
NC Senators Force ALEC Bill Through Committee Without Even Counting Votes  Nation of Change   ...ALEC and the SPN groups have made killing clean energy incentives a national priority this year; after failing in Kansas, facing delays in Ohio and having a rough start in North Carolina...
Tom Morello Liberates Four 'Union Town' Songs for May Day  SPIN   ...Get 'em while they're free. To commemorate International Workers' Day, a.k.a. May Day (May 1), political firebrand/'90s rock icon Tom Morello has partnered with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to share tracks from the Union Town EP, the 2011 release from Morello's Nightwatchman project...
Huge Response To Teamsters’ Tom Morello Labor Music Giveaway Crashed The Servers – But We’re Back!  IBT   ...Wow! The response to our Tom Morello “Union Town” music giveaway at Teamster.org was so overwhelming, it crashed the web servers! Luckily, we’re back up and running...
UPS driver honored for 30 years of safe deliveries  Yakima-Herald   ...Peggy Larson is too polite to tell us how to drive. But if more of us drove like she does, the roads would be a lot safer. Larson, 54, of Port Orchard last month completed her 30th accident-free year as a driver for United Parcel Service...

One World Trade Center

The spire of One World Trade Center was scheduled to be placed atop the under-construction building, but bad weather forced workers to reschedule. But that didn’t put a damper on the spirits of thousands of union men and women, including many Teamsters, who built the 104-floor skyscraper that replaces the fallen Twin Towers.

High winds forced the postponement, but when the spire is in place, the building's official height will be 1,776 feet. One World Trade Center is scheduled to open for business in 2014.

More than 1,200 Teamsters work on the site on any given day, mainly delivering materials. They have played a big role in the construction of the skyscraper and in 2011, Teamster magazine covered the progress. Here are some highlights from that story:

In World War I, Teamsters taught soldiers to drive trucks when the military was moving from a cavalry to motorized units. During a polio outbreak in the 1950s, Teamsters jumped into action to make and deliver vaccinations to the entire American population. In World War II, Teamsters raised money for war bonds, started scrap metal and rubber drives to assist the war effort, and more than 125,000 Teamsters served in the military during the war. The union immediately worked to help families, communities and employers who were devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Sept. 11, 2001, was a day like no other in our nation’s history, but Teamsters reacted with characteristic solidarity. Local unions and Joint Councils in the metro areas of New York City and Washington, D.C. all played a part in the rescue, recovery and cleanup efforts, and the International Union also took action to make sure members were protected from the economic fallout and health risks of the terrorist attacks. Teamsters from across North America donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Teamsters Disaster Relief Fund to help those in need. Today, Teamsters are working on rebuilding the site.

“I have heard our members describe their work on the World Trade Center site as an honor,” said Jim Hoffa, Teamsters General President. “We have never taken on a challenge that we can’t conquer. The World Trade Center project is a testament to the courage of our members on the day of the tragedy, and their commitment to the vision the planners have for making the site a crowning jewel of the nation’s largest city. As we work side by side with operating engineers, carpenters, electricians and more, the solidarity and strength of belonging to a union brotherhood shines ever brighter.”

“Our city suffered a devastating blow on Sept. 11, but I am so proud to know that our union brothers and sisters stepped up, dove in and worked to first excavate the site, dig the foundations for the new structures and now are helping raise the structures up into the air,” said George Miranda, International Vice President and President of Joint Council 16…

Teamster members have not stopped working at the Ground Zero site since the day of the attacks 10 years ago, and they now have a huge part in the rebuilding of the neighborhood.

“I believe the strength of our union brotherhood has been a good counter-balance to the despair and pain borne by the families of the victims of Sept. 11,” said Tom Gesauldi, President of Local 282, which is actively involved in construction at Ground Zero. “Our members are deeply committed to the rebuilding, or actually, the rebirth of the World Trade Center. Their commitment began on the first day of cleanup and continues today.”

“I worked on the cleanup, the excavation, of this site,” said John Mazzola. “Before my work here I was a concrete driver for 20 years. On 9/11 I was working on a construction site nearby.” Mazzola is an on-site steward for Local 282 and coordinates the deliveries to Towers 2, 3 and 4.

Teamsters also bring equipment to the site, such as mobile or crawler cranes. Kenny Montoux is a 28-year Teamster who has worked as a crane driver for 16 years. “I started work here two days after the towers came down,” Montoux said. “The construction here is a tribute back to New York. Bringing back the glory of what it once was.”

“It’s a shame what happened here, but I think we are building something beautiful,” said Billy Petrino, the on-site steward for Tower 3. “My father was a Teamster, too. I’m glad to be working here.”