Today's Teamster News 04. 28.14

Trade
Najib cites ‘sensitivities’ as Obama struggles to push trade pact  The Malaysian Insider   ...Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today that he and US President Barack Obama had agreed to upgrade bilateral relations but suggested that his country remains far from ready to sign a US-led trade pact due to domestic "sensitivities"...
U.S. did not "bully" Malaysia into TPP, Obama says  Global Post   ...There have been a series of protests in Malaysia against the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade initiative in the days leading up to Obama's arrival on Saturday for a three-day visit...
State Battles
House Republicans Still Seeking Needed Votes For 'Right-To-Work' Ballot Proposal  St. Louis Public Radio   ...After two weeks of vigorous lobbying, Republican leaders in the Missouri House acknowledge that they have yet to obtain the extra four votes needed to send to the state Senate a measure to put a right-to-work proposal on the August ballot...
Wall Street’s Pension Gamble  In These Times   ...In a new report for the union representing ...(North Carolina) public employees, former Securities and Exchange Commission investigator Ted Siedle documents how secrecy is allowing financial firms to bilk the Teachers' and State Employees' Retirement System, which is the seventh largest public pension fund in America...
War on Workers
Recovery Has Created Far More Low-Wage Jobs Than Better-Paid Ones  New York Times   ...But job losses and gains have been skewed. Higher-wage industries — like accounting and legal work — shed 3.6 million positions during the recession and have added only 2.6 million positions during the recovery. But lower-wage industries lost two million jobs, then added 3.8 million...
One Year After Rana Plaza, Safety Issues in Walmart Supply Chain Persist  ...a compensation fund for victims was set up to enable retailers to donate to the impacted workers, but only $15 million—one-third of the $40 million goal—has been raised by the International Labor Organization (ILO), which chairs the fund. The corporate community’s inaction has left survivors scrambling to make a living without adequate healthcare or wages, according to a report by Human Rights Watch…
My protesting isn’t terrorism: How Big Ag teamed with lawmakers to criminalize speech  Salon   ...Activists are being prosecuted for challenging the interests of business. I should know — I spent 40 months in jail...
Supreme Court Taking Up Police Searches of Data Troves Known as Cellphones  New York Times   ...In a major test of how to interpret the Fourth Amendment in the digital age, the Supreme Court on Tuesday will consider two cases about whether the police need warrants to search the cellphones of the people they arrest...
'Happy Days’ no more: Middle-class families squeezed as expenses soar, wages stall  New York Times   ...A recent poll conducted by the Washington Post and the Miller Center at the University of Virginia found that 40 percent of those calling themselves middle class felt less financially secure than they were just a few years ago. Forty-five percent said they worry “a lot” about having enough money stashed away for retirement, and 57 percent said they worry about meeting their bills. Less than half said they expect their kids to do any better...
Miscellaneous
The Koch Attack on Solar Energy  New York Times   ...At long last, the Koch brothers and their conservative allies in state government have found a new tax they can support. Naturally it’s a tax on something the country needs: solar energy panels...

Today's Teamster News 08.04.13

Teamsters: We Did Not Raid American -- We Were Invited In  Forbes   ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters says it did not raid mechanics and related workers at American Airlines, but rather was invited in by the incumbent union...
Teamsters Local 25 Endorses Boston City Council Candidates  Charlestown Patch   ...Endorsements for the at-large race went to incumbent Ayanna Pressley, former city councilor Michael Flaherty and newcomers Jack Kelly, a Charlestown resident, and Michelle Wu...
Teamsters union hall is first Los Angeles County Property Assessed Clean Energy-funded project  Long Beach Press-Telegram   ...Every month, Teamsters Local 848 pays an average of about $2,500 in energy bills to power its meeting hall on the 3800 block of Cherry Avenue. But when it's done with its energy-efficient project, the group representing some 7,000 delivery and bus drivers and warehouse workers can see that cost shrink to as low as $10 a month...
Teamsters, strikers call on community  Record-Bee   ... Teamsters, Paratransit employees and members of the community gathered Friday at noon in front of City Hall to picket, address the media and call on county leaders and Lake Transit to take action on the public transportation issue...
"We Are Slowly Dying": Fast-Food Workers Launch Strike for Living Wage and Right to Unionize  Democracy Now   ...A national strike for a living wage and the right to unionize in the fast-food and retail sectors has spread across seven cities...
Recession Forever? 10 Reasons American Workers Are Screwed  Alternet   ... real median wages fell by about 2.8% between 2009 and 2012...
GOP Pushing More Low-Paying Guestworker Visas  Economic Populist   ...The House will propose nearly 400,000 new H-2B visas for temporary foreign guest workers in non-agricultural work (for unskilled and semi-skilled labor.)...
U.S. Manufacturing Gains Only 6,000 jobs in July 2013.  TradeReform   ...Our trade deficit with China is rising. Public investment in construction and infrastructure is declining. Aggregate demand is weak...
U.S. Cuts Take Increasing Toll on Job Growth  New York Times   ...the economy continued to add jobs in July and that the unemployment rate fell to 7.4 percent, from 7.6 percent. But the pace of job growth slowed somewhat from the first half of the year and remains modest enough that the economy is years away from a full recovery. Contributing to the hangover from the worst financial crisis in decades is a wave of cuts in domestic and military spending, known collectively as the sequester, which is causing government furloughs as well as job losses and curtailed hours among federal contractors...
How Vast Error-Prone Databases Are Trashing Our Economic Lives  American Prospect   ...more than a million low-income Americans have been denied the opportunity to open bank accounts because of little-known databases that penalize them for sometimes minor banking mistakes in their past, including bouncing checks, overdrawing bank accounts, and accumulating fees...
Scott Walker's Crackdown on Free Speech Backfires  Huffington Post   ...As the news of the mass arrests at the singalong attracts the attention of national cable news networks, Walker's approval rating has taken a plunge in the latest polls...
What's next for Moral Mondays?  Facing South   ...The first action planned outside Raleigh will take place in Asheville on Aug. 5 and is being billed as Mountain Moral Monday, with Rev. Barber as a featured speaker...
The Comments Detroit's Emergency Manager Will Wish To Take Back  Forbes   ...“For a long time the city was dumb, lazy, happy and rich,”...