Teamsters
San Bernardino Public Employees Vote To Become Teamsters Teamster.org ...San Bernardino County public employees have voted to affiliate with the Teamsters Union, paving the way for more than 13,500 workers to have a more secure future, Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa announced today. About 61 percent voted in favor of Teamster representation. The workers had been solely represented by the San Bernardino Public Employees Association (SBPEA), but now they have the added benefits of Teamster representation...
Air Canada Teamsters Ratify New Contract TeamsterAir.org ...A new contract covering more than 500 U.S.-based Air Canada employees was ratified by Teamster members who voted 200-to-101 in favor of the agreement. The seven-year contract includes wage increase, job security and improved benefits...
Hoffa: When ‘open skies’ means unfair advantage Detroit News ...Unfair labor practices are once again hurting U.S. workers and threatening jobs here in Michigan and across America. This time, the threat is coming from overseas, as three airlines from the Middle East — Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways and Emirates — are embracing shady financial practices and anti-worker policies to undercut U.S. companies...
Maryland Teamsters Endorse Chris Van Hollen Washington Post ...Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) has scored the first union endorsement in the race to replace Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), winning support from a Maryland branch of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The Baltimore-based union represents about 10,000 families in the state...
Helen Gym Receives Three More Labor Endorsements Politics PA ...Helen Gym, candidate for Philadelphia City Council At-Large, today announced the endorsements of three new labor groups. The former teacher scored endorsements from the Teamsters Local 502 - the Commonwealth Association of School Administrators; AFT Local 2026 - the Faculty and Staff Federation of Community College of Philadelphia; and the AFSCME District Council 47...
Judge Supports Sandpiper Pipeline In Northern Minnesota Minneapolis Star Tribune ...Enbridge Energy’s plans for a new pipeline to carry North Dakota crude oil across northern Minnesota got a major boost Monday when an administrative judge concluded that the Sandpiper project is needed — and that other proposed routes are not as good...
Conductor Dies On The Job At Saskatchewan Rail Yard Occupational Health & Safety Canada ...The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) sent a team of investigators to the scene of the incident, according to a press release. The release noted that the incident had involved the death of a Canadian National Rail (CN) employee, but no other information was available from the TSB as of press time...
Global Labor & Trade
Inside The White House’s War On The Left Over Trade Buzzfeed ...The story is just one of many from recent weeks as the White House executes an aggressive, furious, localized effort to break progressive opposition to one of its top priorities: President Obama’s trade agenda. Unions, activists, and progressive lawmakers have united against the “fast track” authority Obama seeks to put back into place...
Battle for Oregon highlights Obama's free-trade challenge Reuters ...With 44 percent of Oregon's exports already heading to the Trans Pacific Partnership countries and an estimated one in five jobs dependent on trade, local businesses are lobbying for the 12-nation pact. Yet scars from two decades of globalization and fears that big business will hijack the agenda make even many of those who may benefit from more trade apprehensive...
Leading House Democrat Will Oppose TPP Fast Track The Nation ...As legislation to fast-track congressional approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership gets ready to finally make its debut in Congress this week, Representative Chris Van Hollen, the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, wrote in a letter to the ranking member of the House Ways & Means Committee that he would oppose fast-track authority...
As Bills Advance, Will Grassroots Resistance Finally Overcome Fast Track Push? Common Dreams ...Signaling that loud grassroots resistance may be working, congressional Democrats are failing to get behind the White House's push for unilateral authority over the secretive 12-nation trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), according to news reports on Tuesday...
TTIP: MEPs Differ On Safeguards For Data, Services, Environment And Investment European Parliment News ...Eight hundred and ninety-eight amendments to a draft resolution on progress in talks with the US on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) were debated by the International Trade Committee on Monday...
The Worst Deal You’ve Never Heard Of – Outrage, Please! (opinion) Ben & Jerry's ...Hey, what is the global economy for, anyway? Creating profits for a few, or prosperity for everyone? We don’t like the looks of the two trade agreements currently being negotiated in secret by corporations and governments around the world. And this week Congress may make a BIG mistake – putting these agreements on the ‘Fast Track’ to becoming a reality...
State & Living Wage Battles
Nevada Minimum Wage Change Bills Dead In Legislature KRNV ...Two proposed constitutional changes to Nevada's minimum wage will not go forward. SJR 6 and SJR 8 would have changed Nevada's constitutionally required minimum wage but both resolutions didn't receive a committee vote by Friday's deadline...
Reeling from Gov. Pence's 'religious freedom' debacle, Indiana hires global PR firm to repair image Daily Kos ...Here's something Indiana lawmakers probably didn't account for in their annual budget -- spending $2 million on a global public relations firm to stanch the bleeding from the "right to discriminate" bill they enacted...
Campaign to begin for a $15 minimum wage in D.C. Washington Post ...A coalition of labor and social justice groups plan to kick off a ballot-measure campaign Wednesday for a $15 minimum wage in the nation’s capital, an hourly rate more than twice the federal minimum that could make D.C. ground zero in a growing national debate over income inequality...
NH voter ID law imperils privacy (opinion) The Telegraph ...What hasn’t received much attention is an ill-conceived policy change that would place new financial and logistical hardships on already overburdened election officials, violate the privacy rights of voters and all but guarantee a patchwork, unequal application of our election laws from one polling place to another...
Fast-food strikes widen into social-justice movement USA Today ...Organizers are calling it the largest-ever mobilization of U.S. workers seeking higher pay. That's yet to be determined. But what began on Tuesday with several low-wage worker protests and marches in Boston and Detroit started seriously expanding nationwide on Wednesday beginning shortly after 6 a.m. at a McDonald's in New York City...
The Courage of Low-Wage Workers On Strike In These Times ...Hedges, the fired Delta worker, put it another way: “a lot of the better paid workers also understand that the bottom has to be raised otherwise the top is going to fall as well.” If for no other reason than self-interest, join the gutsy minimum-wage workers at a Fight for $15 event Wednesday...
Women Still Earn A Lot Less Than Men (opinion) New York Times ...In 1963, when President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, a woman working full time year-round typically made 59 cents for every dollar paid to her male counterpart. By 2013, the latest year of available census data, it was 78 cents on the dollar. Another measure of the wage gap, computed by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, shows that, in 2014, the ratio of female-to-male weekly earnings was 82.5 percent...
U.S. Labor
DoubleTree Hotel Workers Approve Unionization The Harvard Crimson ...Following a campaign of more than two years that included demonstrations, a strike, and a boycott, workers at the Soldiers Field Road DoubleTree Hotel, a Hilton Hotels enterprise housed in a building owned by Harvard, have organized with the UNITE HERE! Local 26 union, according to workers and union representatives...
One Year Later, NLRB Still Hasn't Ruled On Appeal Of Whether College Football Players May Unionize Forbes ...More than one year after the National Labor Relations Board’s 13th Region ruled that college athletes are employees and thus may unionize, Northwestern University’s appeal of the regional board decision remains unresolved. Although the full National Labor Relations Board has decided numerous more recent disputes, there is still no word on when a decision can be expected in this very important case...
USW Members Voting on LyondellBasell Contract Today Houston Press ...More than two months in, the United Steelworkers oil refinery strike still isn't technically over, but things could wrap up soon for the USW District 227 workers at LyondellBasell in Pasadena. By putting down this last, best and final offer, the company is calling on USW 227 members to actually vote on the contract. If the majority votes yes, then company officials and union reps will start working out a return-to-work agreement...
One Company’s New Minimum Wage: $70,000 A Year New York Times ...If it’s a publicity stunt, it’s a costly one. Mr. Price, who started the Seattle-based credit-card payment processing firm in 2004 at the age of 19, said he would pay for the wage increases by cutting his own salary from nearly $1 million to $70,000 and using 75 to 80 percent of the company’s anticipated $2.2 million in profit this year...
Chris Christie Pitches Social Security Cuts That Would Help Wall Street Take Over Retirement System Think Progress ...Christie has a track record in New Jersey of making big promises to retirees and then walking away from them. And this newest, national promise isn’t even a particularly effective one. Opponents of benefit cuts denounced the governor’s approach as the first stage in a gradual assault on an immensely popular program...
Miscellaneous
The Numbers Are Staggering: U.S. Is 'World Leader' in Child Poverty Alternet ...America's wealth grew by 60 percent in the past six years, by over $30 trillion. In approximately the same time, the number of homeless children has also grown by 60 percent. Over half of public school students are poor enough to qualify for lunch subsidies, and almost half of black children under the age of six are living in poverty...
U.S. Budget Deficit Widens, Ending Run Of Shrinkage Wall Street Journal ...The U.S. budget deficit widened slightly during the first half of the 2015 fiscal year, ending a streak of sustained declines. The Treasury ran a deficit of $439 billion during the first half of the fiscal year begun Oct. 1, up 6% from a year earlier, the Treasury Department said Monday in its monthly report...
Showing posts with label budget deficit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label budget deficit. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Today's Teamster News 01.28.15
Teamsters
Robert Morales IBT ...We are saddened to report the death of Robert Morales, who passed away on January 26, 2015...
Credentialing Crunch American Legion ...Starting this winter, the Teamsters – with logistical support and backing from The American Legion – will begin offering civilian CDL training to enlisted military truck drivers. The training-to-placement program will set up shop on military bases and offer drivers the opportunity to earn their civilian CDLs before they are discharged...
Turbulance Ahead At Allegiant Air As Pilots Prepare For Strike Global Travel Industry News ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters will host a call to update Allegiant Travel Company investors, industry analysts, customers and press regarding the current status of contract negotiations for Allegiant Air pilots, their recent strike authorization vote and the union's request for a proffer of arbitration from the National Mediation Board...
Teamsters Protest Labatt Beer At NHL All-Star Game teamster.org ...At the National Hockey League’s All-Star Game on Sunday, Teamsters who work at Heidelberg Distributing provided information to fans about anti-worker behavior by the company, which distributes Labatt Beer products in Ohio...
Leaked Memo: YRC Seeks To Outsource Unprofitable Runs Kansas City Business Journal ...A Dec. 18, 2014, memo obtained by the Kansas City Business Journal, details a change-of-operations request to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters that would allow the company to increase its use of interline carriers — third-party transportation providers — in areas currently served by YRC Worldwide Inc. employees...
Trade
TTIP Is Sputtering, But Other 'Trade' Deals Threaten Our Sovereignty Ecologist ...So far the talks have achieved little in terms of reaching agreement for specific market sectors. And they are facing increasing scepticism because of TTIP's plans to deregulate goods and services like health through 'harmonisation' of EU and US standards - something that in practice usually means levelling down...
Anti-Trade Deal Protesters Hijack Senate TPP Hearing RT ...Protesters opposed to a major, multi-national trade deal being negotiated in secret by a dozen countries – including the United States – hijacked a US Senate hearing early Tuesday to speak out against the proposal. Capitol Police removed no fewer than three demonstrators Tuesday morning during testimony delivered before the Senate Committee on Finance by US Trade Representative Michael Froman concerning the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP...
State Battles
Ky. attorney talks right-to-work Politico ...The conservative push to pass right-to-work ordinances at the county level has as its ultimate aim passage of right-to-work at the state level, according to Warren County, Kentucky’s public attorney...
Union says it won’t stand by as GOP attacks collective bargaining Las Vegas Sun ...Republicans are attacking working families with their proposals to upend collective bargaining in Nevada, Danny Thompson, executive vice treasurer of the Nevada AFL-CIO, said at a press conference this morning...
War on Workers
Middle Class Shrinks Further As More Fall Out Instead Of Climbing Up New York Times ...In the late 1960s, more than half of the households in the United States were squarely in the middle, earning, in today’s dollars, $35,000 to $100,000 a year. Few people noticed or cared as the size of that group began to fall, because the shift was primarily caused by more Americans climbing the economic ladder into upper-income brackets. But since 2000, the middle-class share of households has continued to narrow, the main reason being that more people have fallen to the bottom...
This Map Reveals Just How Unequal The So-Called Recovery Is Huffington Post ...In 39 U.S. states, the top 1 percent of earners gobbled up at least half of all of the income gains between 2009 and 2012. And in 17 of those states, the top earners got every bit of the income growth in those years...
Wall Street's Threat To The American Middle Class (opinion) Huffington Post ...Presidential aspirants in both parties are talking about saving the middle class. But the middle class can't be saved unless Wall Street is tamed. The Street's excesses pose a continuing danger to average Americans. And its ongoing use of confidential corporate information is defrauding millions of middle-class investors. Yet most presidential aspirants don't want to talk about taming the Street because Wall Street is one of their largest sources of campaign money...
Miscellaneous
CBO: Deficit To Narrow, Then Widen In ’18 Wall Street Journal ...Existing budget restraints and stronger economic growth will chip away at the federal deficit into 2017 before the gap begins to widen again, the Congressional Budget Office said, providing ammunition for both parties ahead of the White House’s first budget proposal to the Republican-controlled Congress...
Robert Morales IBT ...We are saddened to report the death of Robert Morales, who passed away on January 26, 2015...
Credentialing Crunch American Legion ...Starting this winter, the Teamsters – with logistical support and backing from The American Legion – will begin offering civilian CDL training to enlisted military truck drivers. The training-to-placement program will set up shop on military bases and offer drivers the opportunity to earn their civilian CDLs before they are discharged...
Turbulance Ahead At Allegiant Air As Pilots Prepare For Strike Global Travel Industry News ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters will host a call to update Allegiant Travel Company investors, industry analysts, customers and press regarding the current status of contract negotiations for Allegiant Air pilots, their recent strike authorization vote and the union's request for a proffer of arbitration from the National Mediation Board...
Teamsters Protest Labatt Beer At NHL All-Star Game teamster.org ...At the National Hockey League’s All-Star Game on Sunday, Teamsters who work at Heidelberg Distributing provided information to fans about anti-worker behavior by the company, which distributes Labatt Beer products in Ohio...
Leaked Memo: YRC Seeks To Outsource Unprofitable Runs Kansas City Business Journal ...A Dec. 18, 2014, memo obtained by the Kansas City Business Journal, details a change-of-operations request to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters that would allow the company to increase its use of interline carriers — third-party transportation providers — in areas currently served by YRC Worldwide Inc. employees...
Trade
TTIP Is Sputtering, But Other 'Trade' Deals Threaten Our Sovereignty Ecologist ...So far the talks have achieved little in terms of reaching agreement for specific market sectors. And they are facing increasing scepticism because of TTIP's plans to deregulate goods and services like health through 'harmonisation' of EU and US standards - something that in practice usually means levelling down...
Anti-Trade Deal Protesters Hijack Senate TPP Hearing RT ...Protesters opposed to a major, multi-national trade deal being negotiated in secret by a dozen countries – including the United States – hijacked a US Senate hearing early Tuesday to speak out against the proposal. Capitol Police removed no fewer than three demonstrators Tuesday morning during testimony delivered before the Senate Committee on Finance by US Trade Representative Michael Froman concerning the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP...
State Battles
Ky. attorney talks right-to-work Politico ...The conservative push to pass right-to-work ordinances at the county level has as its ultimate aim passage of right-to-work at the state level, according to Warren County, Kentucky’s public attorney...
Union says it won’t stand by as GOP attacks collective bargaining Las Vegas Sun ...Republicans are attacking working families with their proposals to upend collective bargaining in Nevada, Danny Thompson, executive vice treasurer of the Nevada AFL-CIO, said at a press conference this morning...
War on Workers
Middle Class Shrinks Further As More Fall Out Instead Of Climbing Up New York Times ...In the late 1960s, more than half of the households in the United States were squarely in the middle, earning, in today’s dollars, $35,000 to $100,000 a year. Few people noticed or cared as the size of that group began to fall, because the shift was primarily caused by more Americans climbing the economic ladder into upper-income brackets. But since 2000, the middle-class share of households has continued to narrow, the main reason being that more people have fallen to the bottom...
This Map Reveals Just How Unequal The So-Called Recovery Is Huffington Post ...In 39 U.S. states, the top 1 percent of earners gobbled up at least half of all of the income gains between 2009 and 2012. And in 17 of those states, the top earners got every bit of the income growth in those years...
Wall Street's Threat To The American Middle Class (opinion) Huffington Post ...Presidential aspirants in both parties are talking about saving the middle class. But the middle class can't be saved unless Wall Street is tamed. The Street's excesses pose a continuing danger to average Americans. And its ongoing use of confidential corporate information is defrauding millions of middle-class investors. Yet most presidential aspirants don't want to talk about taming the Street because Wall Street is one of their largest sources of campaign money...
Miscellaneous
CBO: Deficit To Narrow, Then Widen In ’18 Wall Street Journal ...Existing budget restraints and stronger economic growth will chip away at the federal deficit into 2017 before the gap begins to widen again, the Congressional Budget Office said, providing ammunition for both parties ahead of the White House’s first budget proposal to the Republican-controlled Congress...
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Today's Teamster News 01.15.15
Teamsters
Hoffa To Members: A New Day For Our Great Union teamster.org ...Today, the United States of America represented by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York entered into an agreement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters whereby in consideration of its terms and conditions the United States of America upon order from the court will dismiss its action against the International Brotherhood of Teamsters sounding in provisions of the Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, 18 U.S.C. Section 1964 and will thereby extinguish the consent order of March 14, 1989...
Hoffa: Obama Should Bend On Keystone Pipeline Detroit News ...It is time for Obama to change his positions on trade and the pipeline. To do otherwise risks hobbling thousands of middle-class workers just trying to support their families and potentially taking the shine off his admirable job-growth legacy. No one wants that to happen...
Teamsters Seek To Organize More Tech-Shuttle Drivers Wall Street Journal ...The union hopes to make Facebook and Loop a model for the other companies. It is pressuring the brand-name companies, even though they don’t employ the bus drivers, in the hope that they will support unionization and agree to pay more to the bus operators, so that they in turn can raise wages. The union says the drivers now make $18 to $20 per hour, but typically are forced to work separate morning and evening shifts that extend their workday to 12 hours or more...
Trade
Japan and US Resume TPP Talks Today MarketPulse ...The fresh round of bilateral negotiations come after the Trans-Pacific Partnership countries failed to see major progress at their leaders’ summit held in November in Beijing, with Japan and the United States, the largest economies in the framework, struggling to fill gaps over the contentious issues...
Espey: US deserves better transparency from TPP (opinion) The Des Moines Register …The American people and those we elect to represent us deserve more than the thin promise of job creation and increased economic activity. If the TPP is so good for America and our economy, then its backers would have no need to hide behind a curtain like the Wizard of Oz, pulling whatever lever is within reach...
Idea For Tackling Inequality #27,653: Stop Subsidizing It (opinion) Huffington Post ...It isn't hard to identify these policies. A trade policy that is intended to put U.S. manufacturing workers in direct competition with low-paid workers in countries like Mexico and China has the predicted and actual effect of lowering their wages. It also lowers the wages of non-college educated workers more generally, as displaced manufacturing workers crowd into other sectors of the economy...
State Battles
Michigan Supreme Court Presses Both Sides On Right-To-Work Detroit Free Press ...Considering if the state's right-to-work law applies to state workers, Michigan Supreme Court justices this morning pressed attorneys for both sides to establish whether collective bargaining is a working condition or merely a process to establish those conditions...
Hardin Fiscal Court approves right-to-work ordinance The News-Enterprise …Hardin County became the fifth Kentucky county to join the right-to-work movement with adoption of a local ordinance Tuesday afternoon...
Legislative Preview Santa Fe Reporter …While we’re already bracing for important debates on spending for education, increasing the state’s minimum wage, economic development, hemp farming, right-to-work and other issues, New Mexicans can also expect some lightweight fare and doomed-to-failure ideas to surface...
Right-to-work booster Diane Hendricks gave $1 million to Wisconsin Republicans in 2014 The Cap Times …Now with some GOP legislators pushing a right-to-work bill in the upcoming session, a watchdog group is reporting that Hendricks donated $1 million to the Republican Party of Wisconsin in advance of the 2014 election...
Evenly Divided 7th Circuit Rejects En Banc Review of Indiana's Right to Work Act The National Law Review …The even split means the three-judge panel’s decision from September, 2014 upholding the statute under the United States Constitution stands...
War on Workers
Want To Be Happy? Join A Union (opinion) New York Times ...The study authors, Patrick Flavin, an assistant professor at Baylor University, and Gregory Shufeldt, an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, used data from five different years between the early 1980s and mid-2000s, conducted in the United States, of the World Values Survey, a research project focusing on people’s beliefs. As they write in the report, they found that “union members are more satisfied with their lives than those who are not members and that the substantive effect of union membership on life satisfaction is large and rivals other common predictors of quality of life.”...
First Step in Republican Campaign Against Bank Reform: HR 37 Passed in House naked capitalism …Dodd-Frank supporters fear Republicans will try to tack Wednesday’s bill and others on to larger pieces of legislation that it will be harder for the president to reject...
How Expanding the 1964 Civil Rights Act Can Save America's Dying Labor Movement Alternet …In July 2014, U.S. Representatives Keith Ellison and John Lewis, stalwarts for civil rights and labor, introduced the Employee Empowerment Act to extend civil rights remedies to labor organizers, and reinforce the connection between civil rights and worker rights...
Rep. Chris Van Hollen's Bold Attack on Inequality Huffington Post …Another potential revenue raiser would disallow corporations from deducting bonuses above $1 million if they're cutting the jobs and pay of their workforce. Note that the plan doesn't restrict "performance pay" above $1 million. It just says you can't deduct it from your taxes unless you're also providing raises to employees (or more directly sharing profits)...
More Evidence That Public Beats Private in Education truthout …except for the debilitating effects of poverty, our public school system may be the best in the world. The most recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reveal that the U.S. ranked high, relative to other OECD countries, in reading, math, and science (especially in reading, and in all areas better in 4th grade than in 8th grade)…
Why Wages Won't Rise (opinion) Huffington Post ...The growing use of outsourcing abroad and of labor-replacing technologies, the large reserve of hidden unemployed, the mounting economic insecurities, and the demise of labor unions have been actively pursued by corporations and encouraged by Wall Street. Payrolls are the single biggest cost of business. Lower payrolls mean higher profits...
Worker Dies After Fall At Citgo Corpus Christi Refinery Yahoo News ...A worker has died from injuries sustained in a fall on Monday night at Citgo Petroleum Corp's Corpus Christi, Texas, refinery, said sources familiar with the plant's operations...
Miscellaneous
Yep, Gasoline Lead Explains the Crime Decline in Canada Too Mother Jones …Canada saw a substantial decrease in violent crime that started about 20 years after lead emissions began to drop, which is exactly what you'd expect...
U.S. Racks Up Smallest Deficit Since 2007 Wall Street Journal ...The U.S. last year racked up its smallest budget deficit since 2007, marking an economic shift of fortunes as President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans prepare to face off over legislative priorities this year...
Hoffa To Members: A New Day For Our Great Union teamster.org ...Today, the United States of America represented by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York entered into an agreement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters whereby in consideration of its terms and conditions the United States of America upon order from the court will dismiss its action against the International Brotherhood of Teamsters sounding in provisions of the Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, 18 U.S.C. Section 1964 and will thereby extinguish the consent order of March 14, 1989...
Hoffa: Obama Should Bend On Keystone Pipeline Detroit News ...It is time for Obama to change his positions on trade and the pipeline. To do otherwise risks hobbling thousands of middle-class workers just trying to support their families and potentially taking the shine off his admirable job-growth legacy. No one wants that to happen...
Teamsters Seek To Organize More Tech-Shuttle Drivers Wall Street Journal ...The union hopes to make Facebook and Loop a model for the other companies. It is pressuring the brand-name companies, even though they don’t employ the bus drivers, in the hope that they will support unionization and agree to pay more to the bus operators, so that they in turn can raise wages. The union says the drivers now make $18 to $20 per hour, but typically are forced to work separate morning and evening shifts that extend their workday to 12 hours or more...
Trade
Japan and US Resume TPP Talks Today MarketPulse ...The fresh round of bilateral negotiations come after the Trans-Pacific Partnership countries failed to see major progress at their leaders’ summit held in November in Beijing, with Japan and the United States, the largest economies in the framework, struggling to fill gaps over the contentious issues...
Espey: US deserves better transparency from TPP (opinion) The Des Moines Register …The American people and those we elect to represent us deserve more than the thin promise of job creation and increased economic activity. If the TPP is so good for America and our economy, then its backers would have no need to hide behind a curtain like the Wizard of Oz, pulling whatever lever is within reach...
Idea For Tackling Inequality #27,653: Stop Subsidizing It (opinion) Huffington Post ...It isn't hard to identify these policies. A trade policy that is intended to put U.S. manufacturing workers in direct competition with low-paid workers in countries like Mexico and China has the predicted and actual effect of lowering their wages. It also lowers the wages of non-college educated workers more generally, as displaced manufacturing workers crowd into other sectors of the economy...
State Battles
Michigan Supreme Court Presses Both Sides On Right-To-Work Detroit Free Press ...Considering if the state's right-to-work law applies to state workers, Michigan Supreme Court justices this morning pressed attorneys for both sides to establish whether collective bargaining is a working condition or merely a process to establish those conditions...
Hardin Fiscal Court approves right-to-work ordinance The News-Enterprise …Hardin County became the fifth Kentucky county to join the right-to-work movement with adoption of a local ordinance Tuesday afternoon...
Legislative Preview Santa Fe Reporter …While we’re already bracing for important debates on spending for education, increasing the state’s minimum wage, economic development, hemp farming, right-to-work and other issues, New Mexicans can also expect some lightweight fare and doomed-to-failure ideas to surface...
Right-to-work booster Diane Hendricks gave $1 million to Wisconsin Republicans in 2014 The Cap Times …Now with some GOP legislators pushing a right-to-work bill in the upcoming session, a watchdog group is reporting that Hendricks donated $1 million to the Republican Party of Wisconsin in advance of the 2014 election...
Evenly Divided 7th Circuit Rejects En Banc Review of Indiana's Right to Work Act The National Law Review …The even split means the three-judge panel’s decision from September, 2014 upholding the statute under the United States Constitution stands...
War on Workers
Want To Be Happy? Join A Union (opinion) New York Times ...The study authors, Patrick Flavin, an assistant professor at Baylor University, and Gregory Shufeldt, an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, used data from five different years between the early 1980s and mid-2000s, conducted in the United States, of the World Values Survey, a research project focusing on people’s beliefs. As they write in the report, they found that “union members are more satisfied with their lives than those who are not members and that the substantive effect of union membership on life satisfaction is large and rivals other common predictors of quality of life.”...
First Step in Republican Campaign Against Bank Reform: HR 37 Passed in House naked capitalism …Dodd-Frank supporters fear Republicans will try to tack Wednesday’s bill and others on to larger pieces of legislation that it will be harder for the president to reject...
How Expanding the 1964 Civil Rights Act Can Save America's Dying Labor Movement Alternet …In July 2014, U.S. Representatives Keith Ellison and John Lewis, stalwarts for civil rights and labor, introduced the Employee Empowerment Act to extend civil rights remedies to labor organizers, and reinforce the connection between civil rights and worker rights...
Rep. Chris Van Hollen's Bold Attack on Inequality Huffington Post …Another potential revenue raiser would disallow corporations from deducting bonuses above $1 million if they're cutting the jobs and pay of their workforce. Note that the plan doesn't restrict "performance pay" above $1 million. It just says you can't deduct it from your taxes unless you're also providing raises to employees (or more directly sharing profits)...
More Evidence That Public Beats Private in Education truthout …except for the debilitating effects of poverty, our public school system may be the best in the world. The most recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reveal that the U.S. ranked high, relative to other OECD countries, in reading, math, and science (especially in reading, and in all areas better in 4th grade than in 8th grade)…
Why Wages Won't Rise (opinion) Huffington Post ...The growing use of outsourcing abroad and of labor-replacing technologies, the large reserve of hidden unemployed, the mounting economic insecurities, and the demise of labor unions have been actively pursued by corporations and encouraged by Wall Street. Payrolls are the single biggest cost of business. Lower payrolls mean higher profits...
Worker Dies After Fall At Citgo Corpus Christi Refinery Yahoo News ...A worker has died from injuries sustained in a fall on Monday night at Citgo Petroleum Corp's Corpus Christi, Texas, refinery, said sources familiar with the plant's operations...
Miscellaneous
Yep, Gasoline Lead Explains the Crime Decline in Canada Too Mother Jones …Canada saw a substantial decrease in violent crime that started about 20 years after lead emissions began to drop, which is exactly what you'd expect...
U.S. Racks Up Smallest Deficit Since 2007 Wall Street Journal ...The U.S. last year racked up its smallest budget deficit since 2007, marking an economic shift of fortunes as President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans prepare to face off over legislative priorities this year...
Friday, February 28, 2014
Today's Teamster News 02.28.14
Teamster News
Teamsters not happy with inmates filling potholes WFMJ.com ...The Teamsters union, representing employees with the Mahoning County engineer's office, is considering filing a grievance after seeing inmates filling potholes...
Teamsters not happy with inmates filling potholes WFMJ.com ...The Teamsters union, representing employees with the Mahoning County engineer's office, is considering filing a grievance after seeing inmates filling potholes...
Teamster School Bus News teamster.org ...Baltimore school bus workers win $1.25 million wage settlement; Teamsters Local 445 drivers and monitors in New York win fight for fair contract at Durham; what to do when your bus equipment is defective – all these stories and more are in the latest issue of the Drive Up Standards newsletter...
Nashville Chapter of TNBC Honors Leaders teamster.org ...The Nashville Middle TN Valley Chapter of the Teamsters National Black Caucus (TNBC) held its second annual awards banquet titled “Education and Accountability” on February 22, 2014 in Nashville...
Liam Neeson: NYC Mayor Is a Horse Nazi TMZ ...Liam Neeson is PISSED OFF at New York City's new mayor for trying to kill the Central Park horse industry...
Will Academy Award nominees speak up for the workers who make the Oscars? Pando Daily ...The Teamsters Local 743 in Chicago has been unable to reach an agreement with R.S. Owens & Company, the local awards shop that has exclusively manufactured the familiar gold statuettes for the last three decades...
D.C. Taxi Drivers' Voices Are Being Heard teamster.org ...Over the past few months, Washington, D.C. taxi drivers have joined together with the Washington, D.C. Taxi Operators Association, affiliated with Teamsters Local 922, for one strong voice...
Teamster Tells Lawmakers How TPP Will Damage Workers teamster.org ..."this is about American families and these trade deals have brutalized the American economy,” he said. “A trade agreement is not an agreement. It is a gun to the head of the American worker...”
BLET tells House: Don’t extend deadline for Positive Train Control BLET News ...BLET Vice President & National Legislative Representative John P. Tolman made a strong case for the timely implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC) and other measures to boost rail safety and improve the quality of life for BLET members during testimony delivered at a House subcommittee hearing on February 26...
Trade
NPPC: Japan's Offer On TPP Unacceptable to U.S. Agriculture National Hog Farmer ...The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) says U.S. acceptance of the recent Japanese offer, made as part of the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade talks, would be a radical departure from previous U.S. free trade agreements (FTAs) and could potentially set an unacceptable precedent for future trade deals...
Japanese activist: TPP will affect food security FMT News ...The TPP will not only widen the economic disparity between the rich and the poor, but also deny poor nations the power to secure food import, says a Japanese activist...
Ending currency manipulation would create jobs ABC, Sioux Falls ...Policy change could bring 20,000 jobs to South Dakota...
State Battles
Protestors gather as Republicans unveil Right to Work legislation WAVE News ...Protesters gathered in Frankfort on Thursday as Kentucky Republicans introduced right to work legislation, even though the legislation has dim chances of success this year...
Vermont Citizens Push to Form a State Bank, But Will Ratings Agencies Kill the Idea? naked capitalism ...The objective is not to set up a retail bank (say along the lines of a Post Office bank) but to save the fees that are now paid to large financial institutions and to fund public projects...
The War on Workers
Household wealth still down 14 percent since recession EurekAlert ...the mean net worth of American households in mid-2013 was still about 14 percent below the pre-recession peak in 2006. Their analysis suggested that middle-aged people took the biggest hit...
Wal-Mart Ad Celebrates American Workers With A Canadian Band's Song About A Guy Who Hates His Job Business Insider ...Wal-Mart has been running a high-profile advertising campaign to promote its recent pledge to purchase $250 billion of American-made products over the next 10 years...Rush was strange choice of soundtrack for an ad celebrating American manufacturing given that the band is not just Canadian, but famously Canadian...
Underemployment Piles On Problems For Low-Wage Workers CBS ...The state Labor Department says there are about 276,000 Pennsylvanians in the category “working part time for economic reasons.” They include 47,900 people who usually work full-time but are working part-time, and 228,000 people who usually work part-time but are working less than they normally would...
GOP blocks veterans bill The Hill ...Senate Republicans stopped Democrats from advancing a bill that would have expanded healthcare and education programs for veterans...
Miscellaneous
Federal Budget Deficit Falls to Smallest Level Since 2008 New York Times ...Closing the books on a fiscal year in which the federal budget deficit fell more sharply than in any year since the end of World War II, the Treasury Department reported on Thursday that the deficit for 2013 dropped to $680 billion, from about $1.1 trillion the previous year...
Nashville Chapter of TNBC Honors Leaders teamster.org ...The Nashville Middle TN Valley Chapter of the Teamsters National Black Caucus (TNBC) held its second annual awards banquet titled “Education and Accountability” on February 22, 2014 in Nashville...
Liam Neeson: NYC Mayor Is a Horse Nazi TMZ ...Liam Neeson is PISSED OFF at New York City's new mayor for trying to kill the Central Park horse industry...
Will Academy Award nominees speak up for the workers who make the Oscars? Pando Daily ...The Teamsters Local 743 in Chicago has been unable to reach an agreement with R.S. Owens & Company, the local awards shop that has exclusively manufactured the familiar gold statuettes for the last three decades...
D.C. Taxi Drivers' Voices Are Being Heard teamster.org ...Over the past few months, Washington, D.C. taxi drivers have joined together with the Washington, D.C. Taxi Operators Association, affiliated with Teamsters Local 922, for one strong voice...
Teamster Tells Lawmakers How TPP Will Damage Workers teamster.org ..."this is about American families and these trade deals have brutalized the American economy,” he said. “A trade agreement is not an agreement. It is a gun to the head of the American worker...”
BLET tells House: Don’t extend deadline for Positive Train Control BLET News ...BLET Vice President & National Legislative Representative John P. Tolman made a strong case for the timely implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC) and other measures to boost rail safety and improve the quality of life for BLET members during testimony delivered at a House subcommittee hearing on February 26...
Trade
NPPC: Japan's Offer On TPP Unacceptable to U.S. Agriculture National Hog Farmer ...The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) says U.S. acceptance of the recent Japanese offer, made as part of the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade talks, would be a radical departure from previous U.S. free trade agreements (FTAs) and could potentially set an unacceptable precedent for future trade deals...
Japanese activist: TPP will affect food security FMT News ...The TPP will not only widen the economic disparity between the rich and the poor, but also deny poor nations the power to secure food import, says a Japanese activist...
Ending currency manipulation would create jobs ABC, Sioux Falls ...Policy change could bring 20,000 jobs to South Dakota...
State Battles
Protestors gather as Republicans unveil Right to Work legislation WAVE News ...Protesters gathered in Frankfort on Thursday as Kentucky Republicans introduced right to work legislation, even though the legislation has dim chances of success this year...
Vermont Citizens Push to Form a State Bank, But Will Ratings Agencies Kill the Idea? naked capitalism ...The objective is not to set up a retail bank (say along the lines of a Post Office bank) but to save the fees that are now paid to large financial institutions and to fund public projects...
The War on Workers
Household wealth still down 14 percent since recession EurekAlert ...the mean net worth of American households in mid-2013 was still about 14 percent below the pre-recession peak in 2006. Their analysis suggested that middle-aged people took the biggest hit...
Wal-Mart Ad Celebrates American Workers With A Canadian Band's Song About A Guy Who Hates His Job Business Insider ...Wal-Mart has been running a high-profile advertising campaign to promote its recent pledge to purchase $250 billion of American-made products over the next 10 years...Rush was strange choice of soundtrack for an ad celebrating American manufacturing given that the band is not just Canadian, but famously Canadian...
Underemployment Piles On Problems For Low-Wage Workers CBS ...The state Labor Department says there are about 276,000 Pennsylvanians in the category “working part time for economic reasons.” They include 47,900 people who usually work full-time but are working part-time, and 228,000 people who usually work part-time but are working less than they normally would...
GOP blocks veterans bill The Hill ...Senate Republicans stopped Democrats from advancing a bill that would have expanded healthcare and education programs for veterans...
Miscellaneous
Federal Budget Deficit Falls to Smallest Level Since 2008 New York Times ...Closing the books on a fiscal year in which the federal budget deficit fell more sharply than in any year since the end of World War II, the Treasury Department reported on Thursday that the deficit for 2013 dropped to $680 billion, from about $1.1 trillion the previous year...
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Austerity: The real winner of the government shutdown
But once again, savage cuts to social spending have won the day. Sure, the conflict may have been a terrible embarrassment for the GOP, but the Wall Street-backed tea party agenda of austerity came out unscathed.
The Los Angeles Times observed:
As the shadow of the shutdown passes, it's proper to be reminded again that this fight involved spending levels that are materially suppressing economic growth and hampering the recovery.
Specifically, the deal soon to be voted on leaves the sequester in place, at least until Jan. 15….The sequester is merely one manifestation of Congress's love for austerity in the post-recession era. From the inception, recovery programs have never been as large or robust as they needed to be, despite evidence that even harsher austerity regimes kept much of Europe mired in slumps.But the deal that was negotiated yesterday to reopen the government and suspend the debt ceiling didn’t just leave the austerity assault in place. It may end up escalating the assault on workers even more. Richard Eskow at the Campaign for America’s Future writes:
This deal will bend the next few months’ deliberations along the same misguided lines that have guided our political discourse for years now. House and Senate members will be encouraged to come up with a “deficit reduction plan” -- in other words, to impose another round of cuts just like those which have already wounded the economy and shredded millions of jobs.Specifically, Congress’s latest deal opens the door to further cuts that will target working Americans by establishing a bipartisan committee to deal with budget issues.
Yeah, another one of those! And you can be sure that this committee will try to hash out a “Grand Bargain,” which is basically Washington-speak for harsher cuts and “entitlement reform” -- “entitlement reform,” by the way, is Washington-speak for gutting Social Security and Medicare.
But austerity was the winner even before that part of the deal was conceived. That’s because the goalposts in Congress’s spending debates have already been moved to austerity’s side of the field.
Think Progress reports:
It may seem like ancient history, but sequestration was originally designed to be so unpalatable to both parties that the threat of its automatic budget cuts to both defense and non-defense programs alike would be enough to force lawmakers to come to a grand bargain budget agreement. As it first went into effect in March, Republicans tried to pin the blame for any negative consequences on President Obama. But they gradually came out in favor of sequestration’s devastating cuts and have now made it the baseline in the fight over funding the government.According to the Center for American Progress, Obama’s original budget for 2014 was $1.203 trillion. In 2010, Republicans took control of the House and deficit hawk Paul Ryan proposed a 2014 budget of $1.095 trillion -- that's 10 percent more than what Congress just passed to end the shutdown.
Outrageously, the justification for all these spending reductions is baseless. The country’s supposedly out-of-control debt has been falling significantly over the last two years.
But for tea party extremists, austerity was never about getting the deficit under control. It’s about shrinking government in a way that punishes workers and the poor. Even during the shutdown, what was deemed “essential” and “non-essential” gives you an idea of what parts of government right-wing elites think is important. So Congress’s gym – complete with heated pools and a sauna – was essential. Food assistance to low-income mothers and children? Non-essential.
Now, the latest agreement sets the stage for another budget and debt limit battle just in time for another round of sequester cuts. As we wrote at Teamster.org:
...our government will be funded at a significantly reduced level than it should be... because of sequester cuts that went into effect last year.For now, we’ve avoided default, reopened the government and hundreds of thousands of locked-out government workers are back to work. That’s definitely a good thing. But now anti-worker zealots in Washington are hoping that sharper austerity measures won't seem so bad compared to the pain caused by the shutdown.
Don’t be fooled.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Today's Teamster News 01.20.12
Ind. unions see Super Bowl leverage in right-to-work battle but hesitate Associated Press ...Facing a legislative vote that would make Indiana a right-to-work state, alarmed union members are thinking about making their case on perhaps the nation’s biggest stage — the Super Bowl...
Correctional Officers Applaud Jefferson County Resolution Against Prison Closure Local 2011 ...Local correctional officers hailed the Jefferson County Board for passing a resolution tonight asking that the Jefferson Correctional Institution remain open. Closure of the facility – the largest local employer -- would ruin the Jefferson County economy and uproot longtime residents...
Don’t Look Now, but the Deficit Is Shrinking! Contrary Indicators ...the deficit so far this fiscal year is running at $321 billion, compared with $369 billion for the first three months of fiscal 2011. That's a decrease of 13 percent...
Inflation Update...Disinflation Continues Pragmatic Capitalism energy dipped 1.3 percent after declining 1.6 percent in November. Gasoline fell 2.0 percent, following a 2.4 percent decline in November. Food price inflation firmed to 0.2 percent after rising 0.1 percent the prior month. Within the core, upward pressure was seen in medical care, recreation, and rent. Declines were seen in used cars & trucks, new vehicles, and apparel...
Higher Deficits Seen in Romney’s Tax Plan, and His Rivals’, Too New York Times ...When Mitt Romney suggested this week that he pays a lower tax rate than most wealthy Americans do, he refocused attention on his tax proposals — which, like those of his major Republican rivals, would largely cut taxes for the rich while driving down tax collections and widening the nation’s deficit...
Teamsters, Community Groups Rally To Demand Safety at LA Waste Facility Joint Council 42 ...Teamster members came in force to rally at the American Reclamation solid waste facility near Glendale today to demand that the company provide safer working conditions for its employees...
Correctional Officers Applaud Jefferson County Resolution Against Prison Closure Local 2011 ...Local correctional officers hailed the Jefferson County Board for passing a resolution tonight asking that the Jefferson Correctional Institution remain open. Closure of the facility – the largest local employer -- would ruin the Jefferson County economy and uproot longtime residents...
Don’t Look Now, but the Deficit Is Shrinking! Contrary Indicators ...the deficit so far this fiscal year is running at $321 billion, compared with $369 billion for the first three months of fiscal 2011. That's a decrease of 13 percent...
Inflation Update...Disinflation Continues Pragmatic Capitalism energy dipped 1.3 percent after declining 1.6 percent in November. Gasoline fell 2.0 percent, following a 2.4 percent decline in November. Food price inflation firmed to 0.2 percent after rising 0.1 percent the prior month. Within the core, upward pressure was seen in medical care, recreation, and rent. Declines were seen in used cars & trucks, new vehicles, and apparel...
Higher Deficits Seen in Romney’s Tax Plan, and His Rivals’, Too New York Times ...When Mitt Romney suggested this week that he pays a lower tax rate than most wealthy Americans do, he refocused attention on his tax proposals — which, like those of his major Republican rivals, would largely cut taxes for the rich while driving down tax collections and widening the nation’s deficit...
Teamsters, Community Groups Rally To Demand Safety at LA Waste Facility Joint Council 42 ...Teamster members came in force to rally at the American Reclamation solid waste facility near Glendale today to demand that the company provide safer working conditions for its employees...
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Cantor fiddling while his disaster-struck constituents suffer
Jim Rowley at Bloomberg News wrote a terrific story about the damage to Louisa County, Va., caused by recent disasters: the earthquake, Hurricane Irene and torrential rain. The epicenter of the Virginia earthquake was the Town of Mineral, squarely in Cantor's district.
Writes Rowley,
The 5.8-magnitude earthquake in Republican Eric Cantor’s Virginia congressional district destroyed more than 30 homes, forced two public schools to close and gave the budget-cutting House majority leader a reminder that all politics are local.
Shock waves toppled chimneys and gravestones near the epicenter outside rural Mineral, Virginia, and shut down Dominion Resources Inc.’s North Anna nuclear power station 11 miles away. Louisa County officials estimate the Aug. 23 quake - - which rattled the Capitol and other buildings in Washington and sent tremors beyond New York City -- caused as much as $90 million in damage in the county, said Mineral Town Manager Willie Harper. That exceeds the $85 million non-capital county budget for 2011-2012.The U.S. Senate has passed a $7 billion bill to fund the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which aids disaster victims such as those in Louisa County. The House, under Cantor's leadership, is delaying a vote on half that amount. House Republicans want to attach the FEMA funding to a resolution that continues to fund the federal government beginning on Nov. 18. To complicate and delay matters, Cantor is insisting that funding for disaster relief be offset by budget cuts elsewhere. Note that Cantor doesn't demand offsets for tax cuts or wars.
Reports ABC's The Note,
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., appear to be on a collision course that could once again threaten to shut down the federal government.
At issue is the amount of disaster relief funding Congress should enact to help hurricane, flood and tornado-ravaged communities.Cantor publicly blames the Senate for holding things up -- though it's the House that hasn't passed a disaster relief bill. Meanwhile, back home,
Structural damage forced Louisa County school officials to close the county’s only high school and a nearby elementary school...The county is busing more than 550 students of the damaged Thomas Jefferson Elementary School to modular classrooms set up outside another school 10 miles away...
The county’s 1,400 high school students are attending classes three days a week at the Louisa Middle School. The 1,100 middle-school students are using the classrooms the other two days and alternate Saturdays...
Cantor’s staff has been helpful in answering questions about the application procedure for federal assistance and how the county can qualify, said Robert Dube, the Louisa County administrator.
The delay is frustrating for people who don’t know “what they are going to do when winter sets in” because “they lost their only source of heat” from chimney damage, Dube said. “They don’t have the means to fix it.”
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Hello? Anyone notice there's a JOBS CRISIS??
Expect to hear the word "debt ceiling" a lot this week. That is, if you haven't tuned out the crap coming out of Washington.
Don't expect to hear the word you should be hearing. That would be "jobs."
Sadly, our elected representatives seem more interested in taking an ax to protections for working people than they are in creating jobs and strengthening the economy. Employment numbers remain abysmal month after month -- but is anyone paying attention? Tax cuts for millionaires don't create jobs -- but is anyone paying attention? Wages have stagnated for the past decade -- but is anyone paying attention?
That's the question David Leonhardt asks in Thursday's New York Times:
But policy makers have adopted a position of learned helplessness, he writes: the more they fail to do anything about the jobs crisis, the more they convince themselves that there's nothing they can do. And, he rightfully concludes,
Don't expect to hear the word you should be hearing. That would be "jobs."
Sadly, our elected representatives seem more interested in taking an ax to protections for working people than they are in creating jobs and strengthening the economy. Employment numbers remain abysmal month after month -- but is anyone paying attention? Tax cuts for millionaires don't create jobs -- but is anyone paying attention? Wages have stagnated for the past decade -- but is anyone paying attention?
That's the question David Leonhardt asks in Thursday's New York Times:
The latest economic numbers have not been good. Jobless claims rose last week, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Another report showed that economic growth at the start of the year was no faster than the Commerce Department initially reported — “a real surprise,” said Ian Shepherdson of High Frequency Economics....
An economy that is growing this slowly will not add jobs quickly. For the next couple of months, employment growth could slow from about 230,000 recently to something like 150,000 jobs a month, only slightly faster than normal population growth. That is certainly not fast enough to make a big dent in the still huge number of unemployed people.
Are any policy makers paying attention?Here's another question: Is anyone paying attention to what deficit reduction -- aka austerity -- is doing in Europe? IT ISN'T WORKING. In fact, it's failing miserably. As the Guardian notes, Ireland, Greece and Portugal,
...face years of austerity, yet wage cuts, job losses and crumbling public services will not extricate them from financial crisis. In fact, by driving their economies into an ever deeper slump, it may even make things worse. The pain could just bring more pain.Economist Paul Krugman argues there are things we can do to create jobs. Put people to work on infrastructure. Modify loans for troubled homeowners. Spur inflation.
But policy makers have adopted a position of learned helplessness, he writes: the more they fail to do anything about the jobs crisis, the more they convince themselves that there's nothing they can do. And, he rightfully concludes,
And those of us who know better should be doing all we can to break that vicious circle.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Today's Teamster News 04.05.11
Unions Rally, Linking Their Cause to Dr. King New York Times ...Labor unions and civil rights groups held hundreds of rallies and teach-ins on Monday to defend collective bargaining...
Republicans to Unveil Budget Calling for Sweeping Changes in Tax, Spending Bloomberg ...Ryan’s proposal to end traditional Medicare calls for new beneficiaries, starting in 2022, to instead be provided subsidies to buy private health insurance...
Wisconsin recall drive already making history Washington Post ...the energy and staying power of what has been unleashed in Wisconsin continue to surprise...
Spending suggests tight Supreme Court race Wisconsin State Journal ...both sides consider the outcome a virtual toss-up...
Conservative group denies it masterminded drive to restrict public employee unions Cleveland Plain Dealer ...A nonprofit Washington-DC based association ... is being touted as the brains behind efforts ... to curb the collective bargaining powers of public employees...
Federal lawsuit seeks return of mural to Labor Department Portland Press Herald ...The complaint claims that the Republican governor... (has) violated the free-speech rights of all Mainers and failed in their fiduciary duties as government officials...
Rick Snyder recap: Latest developments on the pension tax, teacher-strike penalties and his support in the polls mlive.com ...Michigan Democrats trash Snyder and the GOP for raising taxes on the working poor and seniors, punishing the newly unemployed and cutting public education...
Standing by the union Concord Monitor ...The proposed budget cuts too deeply into health and human services and promised retirement benefits, and a provision that makes public workers at-will employees if a contract expires before a new one is written is immoral...
Republicans to Unveil Budget Calling for Sweeping Changes in Tax, Spending Bloomberg ...Ryan’s proposal to end traditional Medicare calls for new beneficiaries, starting in 2022, to instead be provided subsidies to buy private health insurance...
Wisconsin recall drive already making history Washington Post ...the energy and staying power of what has been unleashed in Wisconsin continue to surprise...
Spending suggests tight Supreme Court race Wisconsin State Journal ...both sides consider the outcome a virtual toss-up...
Conservative group denies it masterminded drive to restrict public employee unions Cleveland Plain Dealer ...A nonprofit Washington-DC based association ... is being touted as the brains behind efforts ... to curb the collective bargaining powers of public employees...
Federal lawsuit seeks return of mural to Labor Department Portland Press Herald ...The complaint claims that the Republican governor... (has) violated the free-speech rights of all Mainers and failed in their fiduciary duties as government officials...
Rick Snyder recap: Latest developments on the pension tax, teacher-strike penalties and his support in the polls mlive.com ...Michigan Democrats trash Snyder and the GOP for raising taxes on the working poor and seniors, punishing the newly unemployed and cutting public education...
Standing by the union Concord Monitor ...The proposed budget cuts too deeply into health and human services and promised retirement benefits, and a provision that makes public workers at-will employees if a contract expires before a new one is written is immoral...
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Today's Teamster News 11.30.10
FedEx closing area facility, eliminating 222 jobs The Pulse-Journal ...Closing the (Ohio) facility is part of a national realignment of FedEx Freight to integrate FedEx National LTL... Teamsters call for dismissal of ABF lawsuit about YRC concessions IBT
Teamsters, Continental Reach Tentative Agreement For Fleet Service Workers IBT
Amid Deficit Fears, Obama Freezes Pay New York Times
NJ must pay $271M for killing tunnel Associated Press ... New Jersey owes the federal government more than $271 million after canceling a rail tunnel connecting the state with New York...
Holder Says U.S. Is Conducting `Very Serious' Investigation of Wall Street Bloomberg ...U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed today that the Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation related to trading on Wall Street...
Food Banks Bracing for End of Extended Unemployment Benefits Huffington Post
Teamsters, Continental Reach Tentative Agreement For Fleet Service Workers IBT
Amid Deficit Fears, Obama Freezes Pay New York Times
NJ must pay $271M for killing tunnel Associated Press ... New Jersey owes the federal government more than $271 million after canceling a rail tunnel connecting the state with New York...
Holder Says U.S. Is Conducting `Very Serious' Investigation of Wall Street Bloomberg ...U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed today that the Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation related to trading on Wall Street...
Food Banks Bracing for End of Extended Unemployment Benefits Huffington Post
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Today's Teamster News 11.20.10
U.S. in Vast Insider Trading Probe Wall Street Journal ...The criminal and civil probes ... could eclipse the impact on the financial industry of any previous such investigation...
Aggressive lobbying defends mortgage-trading system Washington Post
Did the Rich Cause the Deficit? truthout A great rant
A Day After Schooling Banksters, "New Documents" Come to Light in Waters Ethics Case firedoglake
Unions Yield on Two-Tier Wage Scales to Preserve Jobs New York Times ...Even at manufacturing companies that are profitable, union workers are reluctantly agreeing to tiered contracts that create two levels of pay. Sullivan County Teamsters Balk at Wage Freeze Times Herald-Record
Aggressive lobbying defends mortgage-trading system Washington Post
Did the Rich Cause the Deficit? truthout A great rant
A Day After Schooling Banksters, "New Documents" Come to Light in Waters Ethics Case firedoglake
Unions Yield on Two-Tier Wage Scales to Preserve Jobs New York Times ...Even at manufacturing companies that are profitable, union workers are reluctantly agreeing to tiered contracts that create two levels of pay. Sullivan County Teamsters Balk at Wage Freeze Times Herald-Record
Friday, November 19, 2010
Patriotic millionaires want their taxes raised
Forty-seven millionaires asked President Obama to let the Bush tax cuts expire for anyone making more than a million dollars a year. Among the richly blessed who put their country before politics are Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's, trial lawyer Guy Saperstein, real estate developer Robert Bowditch Jr., publisher Win McCormack and hedge fund manager Michael Steinhardt.
They launched a campaign and a website to argue that fiscal responsibility begins with people who can afford it. (That would include members of Congress, more than half of whom are millionaires.)
They sent a letter to Obama that said, in part,
...we are eager to do our fair share. We don’t need more tax cuts, and we understand that cutting our taxes will increase the deficit and the debt burden carried by other taxpayers. The country needs to meet its financial obligations in a just and responsible way.Joe Conasen at Salon reports that some millionaires scoffed at the project.
At least two airily dismissed the Bush tax cuts for millionaires and above -- which will cost well over $700 billion over the coming decade -- as "small potatoes."One super-rich investor said "anyone who has money is made to feel that they're bad" (our hearts are bleeding).
Check out their "Fiscal Strength" website. It reminds us that during the Great Depression, millionaires' top tax rate was 68 percent. Now it's 35 percent -- and for some, 15 percent.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Today's Teamster News 11.17.10
Investing in Driver Health Can Yield Dividends Truckinginfo.com ...longhours, hard labor, and on-the-road living make it hard for drivers to take care of their health...
CN workers ratify contracts Globe and Mail ...The agreements, which are retroactive to July 23, will provide members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference with wage increases and improvements in benefits....
NLRB Invites Briefs on Nonemployee Access And Employer Discrimination Against Unions BNA Daily Labor Report ...(The NLRA asked for briefs on the) question of whether an employer violates the NLRA by refusing to grant nonemployee union representatives access to its premises while permitting other individuals, groups, or organizations to use the employer's premises for their activities.
China's 'State Capitalism' Sparks a Global Backlash Wall Street Journal Terrific primer on China's economy...
One Way to Trim Deficit: Cultivate Growth New York Times ...If the economy grew one half of a percentage point faster than forecast each year over the next two decades ... the country would have to do roughly 40 to 50 percent less deficit-cutting than it now appears...
Ireland: A Textbook Example of the Dangers of Balanced Budgets and Fiscal Responsibility Beat the Press
CN workers ratify contracts Globe and Mail ...The agreements, which are retroactive to July 23, will provide members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference with wage increases and improvements in benefits....
NLRB Invites Briefs on Nonemployee Access And Employer Discrimination Against Unions BNA Daily Labor Report ...(The NLRA asked for briefs on the) question of whether an employer violates the NLRA by refusing to grant nonemployee union representatives access to its premises while permitting other individuals, groups, or organizations to use the employer's premises for their activities.
China's 'State Capitalism' Sparks a Global Backlash Wall Street Journal Terrific primer on China's economy...
One Way to Trim Deficit: Cultivate Growth New York Times ...If the economy grew one half of a percentage point faster than forecast each year over the next two decades ... the country would have to do roughly 40 to 50 percent less deficit-cutting than it now appears...
Ireland: A Textbook Example of the Dangers of Balanced Budgets and Fiscal Responsibility Beat the Press
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
The latest outrage from Alan Simpson
Fresh off apologizing for calling Social Security "a milk cow with 310 million tits," former senator Alan Simpson has done it again.
He actually said that the military veterans who saved this country "are ... not helping us to save the country in this fiscal mess."
Apparently Simpson, who co-chairs President Obama's deficit commission (aka the "Catfood Commission"), was commenting on a report that diabetes is the most frequently compensated ailment among Vietnam veterans.
He actually said that the military veterans who saved this country "are ... not helping us to save the country in this fiscal mess."
Apparently Simpson, who co-chairs President Obama's deficit commission (aka the "Catfood Commission"), was commenting on a report that diabetes is the most frequently compensated ailment among Vietnam veterans.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Links 07/08/10
On Pentagon Wish List: Russian Copters Wall Street Journal
US Workers' Salaries Lost Ground In Past Decade Wall Street Journal (subscription only)
Wal-Mart Fighting $7,000 Fine in Trampling Case New York Times
Greece Approves Pension Overhaul Despite Protests New York Times
Conway wins endorsement of teachers in Senate race Associated Press
Woman denied health insurance over one-cent shortfall Raw Story
US Workers' Salaries Lost Ground In Past Decade Wall Street Journal (subscription only)
Wal-Mart Fighting $7,000 Fine in Trampling Case New York Times
Greece Approves Pension Overhaul Despite Protests New York Times
Conway wins endorsement of teachers in Senate race Associated Press
Woman denied health insurance over one-cent shortfall Raw Story
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