How one man forced a greedy corporation to do the right thing by leaking a memo

If you do something careless or stupid or illegal that costs other people money, you should reimburse them, right?

Even though corporations are people, some of them get away with breaking the law or costing other people money. They destroy the environment and make other people pay for the cleanup, or they pay their workers so little they rely on taxpayer-funded government assistance.

Carl Pope, president of the Sierra Club, once forced a greedy corporation to do the right thing simply by exposing its plans to evade the law.

The Sierra Club, by the way, has for years fought with the Teamsters against opening the border to unsafe, polluting Mexican trucks.

Pope, writing in EcoWatch, points out that hikers in Sierra County, Calif., have to reimburse the county if they are evacuated by air for a medical emergency. That could cost more than $5,000. A climber air lifted from Yosemites cliffs can easily run $85,000. "But that’s fair—we ought to pay for the costs we create," he wrote.

So how much did the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fine Freedom Industries, the company whose sloppy handling of the toxic chemical MCHM caused 10,000 gallons to spill into the Elk River, poisoning the water supply of hundreds of thousands of Charleston, West Virginia residents? Pathetically, a measly $11,000, less than the cost of a single burst appendix helicopter ambulanced in Sierra County. This when 300,000 people had to find alternative water supplies for ten days.

BP is no different. Nor are the banks, or pharmaceutical companies or automakers. The law sets penalties so low that the corporations shrug them off as the cost of doing business.

Pope explained how it was done in one case. Early in his career, he was slipped a memo about an oil company that had a natural gas field partly in federal waters and therefore subject to federal price controls:

The memo boasted a complex decision tree complete with % estimates of how likely the feds were to discover the liability on their own, what the oil company’s chances of winning in court were (less than half) and finally what were the odds of jail terms for company employees. Each of these had a dollar value attached, and the final conclusion was—don’t report. I shared the leaked document with federal energy regulators. The oil company observed the price controls. 

If only more stories about corporate greed had happy endings like that.

Today's Teamster News 07.04.14

Teamster News
Hinckley Springs Workers Go Out On Strike  Des Plaines Valley News   ...Union representatives and local employees said that negotiations with ownership, DS Services of America Inc., broke down June 25. Employees said that the company refused to negotiate with the union and have indicated that they want members to take a pay cut while taking on more responsibilities. That has union members angry...
Mike's Hard Lemonade Is Too Sour, Say Ohio Teamsters  teamster.org   ...At Columbus’ Independence Day celebration, “Red, White and Boom,” Teamsters who work at Heidelberg Distributing gave information to the public today about anti-worker behavior by the company, which is the distributor of Mike’s Hard Lemonade products in Ohio...
Teamsters Local 988 Welcomes Houston Laundry Drivers into Union  teamster.org   ...Laundry drivers at Angelica Linen voted 9-5 yesterday in favor of union representation with Teamsters Local 988 in Houston, Texas. There are 14 drivers in the new bargaining unit...
Trade
Trans Pacific Partnership Meeting Switched From Vancouver To Ottawa, Ducking Critics  BoingBoing   ...What could make the secretive Trans Pacific Partnership process even less legit? Moving it at the last minute, under cover of darkness, from Vancouver to Ottawa, in order to avoid critics of the treaty and how it is being negotiated...
State Battles
Governor Patrick Signs Domestic Workers Bill Of Rights Into Law  Boston Globe   ...Governor Patrick signed into law a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights on Wednesday, making Massachusetts the fourth state in the country to provide protections for nannies and housekeepers that most employees at companies take for granted...
Realtors asked for budget provision expanding foreign ownership of state land  The Cap Times   ...Wisconsin Realtors look to be next in line to benefit from Gov. Scott Walker’s “Wisconsin is open for business” vow. While there has been no shortage of speculation behind what is driving Walker’s proposal to loosen restrictions on land purchases by buyers from outside the U.S., Thomas Larson, vice president of legal and public affairs with the Wisconsin Realtors Association, takes some of the credit...
New Delaware Law Will Ensure Employers Can't Force Workers To Have Unsafe Pregnancies  Think Progress   ...On Monday, the Delaware House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill that would protect pregnant workers from discrimination after the Senate had previously done the same...
States That Raised Their Minimum Wage Are Experiencing Faster Job Growth  Think Progress   ...Think a higher minimum wage is a job killer? Think again: The states that raised their minimum wages on January 1 have seen higher employment growth since then than the states that kept theirs at the same rate...
War On Workers
32 states lag U.S. in job recovery  Associated Press   ...Even though economists declared the recession over in June 2009, Illinois is still down 184,000 jobs from pre-recession levels. New Jersey is down 147,000. Both states were hurt by layoffs at factories. Florida is down 170,000 in the aftermath of its real estate market collapse...
June Full-Time Jobs Plunge By Over Half A Million, Part-Time Jobs Surge By 800K, Most Since 1993  zero hedge   ...Is this the reason for the blowout, on the surface, payroll number? In June the BLS reports that the number of full-time jobs tumbled by 523K to 118.2 million while part-time jobs soared by 799K to over 28 million!...
How the South is becoming a solid band of poverty: One in three live in poor neighborhoods  Daily Mail   ...The number of Americans living in poor neighborhoods has skyrocketed in the last decade - and nowhere is the trend more prominent than in the South, where more than 30percent of the population is concentrated in an area with high poverty...
The War On Workers (opinion)  New York Times   ...All of Illinois’s in-home care providers benefit from union representation. Until Monday, all were required to pay a modest fee for those services. But now workers can “free ride.”...
Once Again, The Roberts Court Rules Against American Workers  The Hill   ...In both the public and private sectors, non-member employees who pay fair-share fees enjoy a well-established and longstanding right to opt out of paying for a union's political activities. Rather, this case was simply a partisan effort by anti-union forces to destroy the collective rights of public employees...
Miscellaneous
If you read Boing Boing, the NSA considers you a target for deep surveillance  Boing Boing   ...In a shocking story on the German site Tagesschau (Google translate), Lena Kampf, Jacob Appelbaum and John Goetz report on the rules used by the NSA to decide who is a "target" for surveillance...

Today's Teamster News 04.13.14

Trade
Taiwan protesters end long occupation of parliament over trade deal  Los Angeles Times   ...Hundreds of protesters in Taiwan ended a nearly monthlong blockade of parliament Thursday, giving leaders a fragile reprieve to finish a disputed trade pact with China...
We are in danger of losing our country’s assets!  Trade Reform   ...How many are aware that the chain of  AMC Theaters is now owned by Chinese Corporation? … This means that the Chinese will now be in a position to shape public opinion and mold the minds of our children through entertainment media...
State Battles
Scott Walker campaign asks Supreme Court to intervene in 'John Doe' investigation  Wisconsin State Journal   ...Another legal challenge has been filed in the ongoing investigation into possible illegal campaign activity during Wisconsin’s spate of recalls, this time by the attorney for Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign...
University of Southern Maine, Facing Organized Opposition from Students and Faculty, Rescinds Proposed Cuts  naked capitalism   ...University of Southern Maine President Theodora Kalikow on Friday rescinded the 12 faculty layoffs that had prompted weeks of protests, saying she’s open to alternative plans for finding up to $14 million in cuts...
The War on Workers
Soglin: Ride-sharing companies refuse to meet standards  Channel 3000...Madison Mayor Paul Soglin said ride-sharing companies operating in the city refuse to meet standards, and to date, refuse to respect Madison ordinances. Lyft and Uber, which launched in Madison in recent months, allow customers to order a ride from drivers using a downloadable phone application...
Something To Keep An Eye On: College Enrollment Has Dropped Substantially Since 2012  Economic Policy Institute   ...Enrollment was on a general upward trend since 1985, but peaked in 2012 and has since dropped in each of the last two years...
Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Vexed by Low Demand for Mortgages  Bloomberg   ...New York-based JPMorgan said jobs at its mortgage business declined 14,000, or 30 percent, since the start of last year. Wells Fargo set plans to cut 1,100 positions in the most recent three months, which ranked as its worst first quarter for mortgage revenue since 2008...
Spy planes: Millions of airline passengers using inflight WiFi are being tracked by the NSA… and it could be illegal  Daily Mail   ...Gogo, the main supplier of WiFi to airlines, gives data to U.S. authorities...
Thousands in Paris and Rome Protest Austerity Measures  Al Jazeera America  ...Tens of thousands of people took part in protests in central Paris and Rome, organized by hard-left parties opposed to government economic reform plans and austerity measures...
Why Won't Washington Take on Wall Street's Biggest Crimes?  Atlantic   ...The Justice Department has successfully convicted dozens of bankers for insider trading. But the big banks did something much worse and got away with it...

Today's Teamster News 04.07.14

Trade
USTR Froman’s Attack on Japan Set TransPacific Partnership Negotiations Back Further  naked capitalism   ... heaping criticism – in public! – of Japan in a heavy handed way like Froman did at the Congressional hearing is an unforgivable affront. Such antics will without a shadow of doubt not produce the desired outcome for the US government...
State Battles
Nixon calls for opposition to Right to Work  Springfield News-Leader   ...Ahead of a possible vote this coming week, Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon sought to strike a blow against Right to Work legislation on Saturday night...
Jones promotes right-to-work bill in his own self-interest (LTE)  St. Louis Post-Dispatch   ...Jones’ obvious goal is to line his pockets with Koch brothers' and other out-of-state money at the expense of real working people...
The War on Workers
Can We Safeguard Our Democracy After McCutcheon?  Moyers & Company   ...The Supreme Court’s evisceration of our campaign finance rules is a powerful argument for the cleansing properties of sunlight...
Inflation Watch: Global Food Disruptions, Commodity Prices Soar  Testosterone Pit   ...food prices here in the U.S. are expected to increase by between 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent this year.  If they do break the 3 percent mark, it will likely be the largest increase since 2011 and more than double last year’s 1.4 percent rise...
Fed Up with the Fed Blaming Boomers  Instapopulist   ...Why does the Fed keep claiming Baby Boomers are the main reason for the decline in the labor force? The real reason is because there aren't enough jobs for prime-age workers, and not mostly because older workers are leaving the work force...
Lessons We Must Learn from Charles Keating  The Big Picture   ...A fraudulent CEO doesn’t have to send an email directing a subordinate or “independent professional” to commit or aid and abet accounting fraud – he simply uses compensation and the power to hire and fire to create the perverse financial incentives to commit and aid and abet such frauds...
How Much Is NSA Spying Costing In Lost Productivity?  Washington Blog   ... top computer and internet experts say that NSA spying breaks the functionality of our computers and of the Internet. It reduces functionality and reduces security by – for example – creating backdoors that malicious hackers can get through...

Today's Teamster News 01.13.14

UPS Freight Teamsters Overwhelmingly Approve New National Contract  teamster.org   ...UPS Freight Teamsters have voted overwhelmingly to ratify a new national five-year master agreement that increases wages, significantly strengthens pension benefits and takes on the issue of subcontracting...
Ed Emery: Right to work would mean lower wages for Missourians  Progress Missouri   ...ALEC Co-Chair and State Senator Ed Emery finally admitted yesterday what proponents of so-called 'right to work' laws have long been trying to hide from the public, that the legislation would result in lower wages for the middle-class...
U.S. Politicians Want to Fast-Track the Super-Secret, Super-Controversial TPP  Slate   ...“Blindly approving or disapproving agreements that have largely been negotiated in secret would represent a derelict of duty for Congress. If there is nothing to hide in these agreements, we should be allowed to debate and amend these deals in the open...”
Ford “Know[s] Everyone Who Breaks the Law” Using Cars They Made — Why Aren’t They Doing Something About It?  The Volokh Conspiracy   ... Ford executive Jim Farley stated, in a panel discussion: We know everyone who breaks the law, we know when you’re doing it. We have GPS in your car, so we know what you’re doing. By the way, we don’t supply that data to anyone. He later retracted that...
Honeywell under investigation for Chinese-made parts in US warplanes  The Guardian   ...The US Justice Department is investigating export and import procedures at Honeywell International Inc after the firm included Chinese parts in equipment it built for the F-35 fighter jet, three sources familiar with the matter said...
All December Job Gains Went to Women  New York Times   ...Women gained, on net, 75,000 jobs in December; men lost, on net, 1,000 jobs. This was the first time since December 2007 that a month’s job gains were captured entirely by women...
West Virginia chemical spill causes huge disruption for residents  Associated Press   ...Frustration is mounting for many of the 300,000 West Virginia residents who have gone without clean tap water since a chemical spill on Thursday. Business owners with empty dining rooms and quiet aisles of merchandise around West Virginia's capital city were left to wonder how much of an economic hit they will take from the spill...
Meet Freedom Industries, the Company Behind the West Virginia Chemical Spill  Bloomberg Businessweek   ...State records in West Virginia show that a man named Carl L. Kennedy II joined Gary Southern in forming the company years ago. A well-known restaurant owner and man-about-town in Charleston, according to the Gazette, Kennedy is a twice-convicted felon. The paper reported on Sunday that he pleaded guilty in federal court in West Virginia in 2005 to tax evasion and was sentenced to three years in prison, a penalty that was reduced after he agreed to wear a wire and make controlled cocaine buys in a separate investigation...
Data Breaches: Target, Neiman Marcus  Credit Slips   ...We don't know all of the details about what happened at Target and Neiman Marcus, but there's a really obvious weakspot in the US payments infrastructure that should be corrected, irrespective of whether it would have prevented the Target and Neiman Marcus breaches:  the use of two-factor authentication, namely chip-and-PIN cards, which are standard outside the US and have been effective in reducing fraud...
Surveillence of Citizens Is ALWAYS Aimed at Crushing Dissent  Washington Blog   ...Much of the political surveillance of the 1960s and the 1970s and of the period going back to World War I consisted in efforts to identify organizations that were critical of government policies, or that were proponents of various causes the government didn’t like, and to gather information on their adherents...
Private equity and Washington: A love story  Politico   ...This month alone, former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) signed up with Chicago-based Victory Park Capital in an advisory role, while recently departed former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski joined PE giant Carlyle Group. Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will begin full time at Warburg Pincus as president in March...
CN Rail says beavers, rain to blame for Burnaby derailment  CBC News   ...CN Rail has completed its initial investigation into the derailment of nine coal cars in Burnaby, B.C., Saturday morning, and says that heavy rain and the workmanship of beavers are to blame...
Economic Prosperity and Economic Democracy: The Worker Co-Op Solution  Truth-Out   ...Workers' self-directed enterprises (WSDEs) are a response to capitalism's failure to deliver economic prosperity and socialism's failure to deliver economic democracy...
You're Likely Eating Seafood That Came into the US Illegally (And Here's Why That's Really Bad)  Alternet   ...The Marine Mammal Protection Act mandates that all seafood imported into this country be accompanied by proof that it was caught using methods no more harmful to marine mammals than those used by U.S. fisheries. Unfortunately, the National Marine Fisheries Service has never enforced that provision of the law...

Today's Teamster News 12.17.13

Teamsters Urge Dialogue, Caution Around Sysco/US Foods Deal  teamster.org   ...Sysco’s acquisition of US Foods announced last week raises serious concerns for workers, stakeholders and customers as the combined company becomes the country’s largest institutional/restaurant food service provider...
Locked Out Teamsters Buy 'Christmas Carol' Tickets for Corporate Funeral Scrooge SCI  teamster.org   ...After 170 days of being humbugged by Service Corporation International [NYSE: SCI], locked out Teamster funeral directors and drivers hope to bring some Christmas cheer to SCI CEO Thomas L. Ryan with two tickets to the Goodman Theatre’s production of  “A Christmas Carol...
Teamsters deliver Christmas  West Virginia Metro News   ...The staff at the Children’s Home Society in Charleston got an early Christmas gift Monday. The Teamsters Local 175 delivered a tractor trailer filled with toys and non-perishable food to the Davis Child Center...
Revelations That Ikea Spied on Its Employees Stir Outrage in France  New York Times   ...A regional court in Versailles, near Paris, is now examining whether Ikea executives in France broke the law by ordering personal investigations — not only of Ms. Paulin but of hundreds of other people over the course of a decade...
Finally paying for Wal-Mart’s sins: Wage theft settlement yields millions  Salon   ...Workers at a California Wal-Mart warehouse are owed $4.7 million for alleged theft of their wages, under a proposed settlement approved this week by a federal judge. The 568 workers were employed by the Wal-Mart contractor Schneider...
White House: Trans Pacific Partnership ‘remains a top priority’ for Obama  Agence France-Presse   ...The White House sent a strong signal Monday of its desire to create a huge Pacific free trade area, despite the slippage of its year-end deadline for the 12-nation project...
The Financial Crisis: Why Have No High-Level Executives Been Prosecuted?  New York Review of Books   ...In striking contrast with these past prosecutions, not a single high-level executive has been successfully prosecuted in connection with the recent financial crisis, and given the fact that most of the relevant criminal provisions are governed by a five-year statute of limitations, it appears likely that none will be...
Amazon workers in Germany launch strike over wages  Al-Jazeera America   ...Hundreds of workers at Amazon.com in Germany have walked off the job in an effort, times to coincide with the busy pre-Christmas period, to pressure the American online retailer to settle a months-long dispute over pay...
Independent Labor Candidates Win Two Dozen City Council Seats in Ohio  The Real News   ...Two dozen city candidates on an independent labor ticket were recently elected as city counselors of Lorain County, Ohio. Most of the candidates were union members of the AFL-CIO who chose to run after they felt that the traditional Democratic leadership failed...

Victims of Misclassification (opinion)  New York Times   ...In 2000, a United States Department of Labor study estimated that up to 30 percent of employers misclassify workers. This year, the Treasury Department’s inspector general concluded that the problem had worsened...
NSA phone surveillance program likely unconstitutional, federal judge rules  The Guardian   ...A federal judge in Washington ruled on Monday that the bulk collection of Americans’ telephone records by the National Security Agency is likely to violate the US constitution, in the most significant legal setback for the agency since the publication of the first surveillance disclosures by the whistleblower Edward Snowden...
Center For American Progress Discloses Corporate Donors After Investigations  firedoglake   ...A review of CAP’s research track record shows that the group’s work is dictated by two simple mainsprings: its obvious and overwhelming fealty to the Democratic Party, and the pursuit of corporate cash…
Unemployment Benefits End Right After Christmas. Here’s What Happens Next.  National Journal   ...On Jan. 6, Majority Leader Harry Reid will reconvene the Senate and attempt to pass a retroactive extension of the benefits as emergency spending. That means the bill won't have an offset and would raise the deficit—sheer blasphemy to most Republicans. It's not clear that it will pass...

Today's Teamster News 12.14.13

Teamsters look to organize local law enforcement and correctional officers  philly.com   ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters hopes to consolidate resources and expand its base in Pennsylvania by forming a statewide association of law enforcement and correctional officers, union leaders announced Thursday...
Teamsters: SCI Admits to Labor Law Violations in Lockout of Funeral Workers  teamster.org   ...Funeral industry giant Service Corporation International (NYSE: SCI) has acknowledged its violation of several federal labor laws in its treatment of 59 locked out Chicago-area funeral employees...
Budget Deal Misses Big on Unemployment  teamster.org   ...A proposed congressional budget compromise approved by the House late Thursday, while generally a good first step for America, whiffed when it came to the long-term unemployed in this country...
Cameras Are Not the Answer   Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen   ...Cameras are essentially an accident investigation tool; they are not an accident prevention tool...
Corporate Extortion: States Are Giving Billions to Corporations That Don’t Create Jobs  Alternet   ...a dozen blue and red state governors are in a bidding war recklessly offering to spend billions for tax breaks and other public-paid subsidies to lure the corporate giant Boeing to build its next-generation aircraft factory...
US judge approves $5.7bn Visa and Mastercard settlement  BBC News   ...The two firms were accused of fixing the credit card fees charged to merchants each time a credit or debit card was used...
What Dodd-Frank Didn’t Fix: The Most Dangerous Aspects of Wall Street  Wall Street on Parade   ...Nothing has stopped the high frequency traders from fleecing the little guy who is trying to sell his 100 shares at a fair price. Nothing has stopped Wall Street from fleecing as much as two-thirds of your 401(k) over your working career through hidden fees and commissions...
$2.75 an Hour?! The Shocking Secret of Goodwill  Alternet   ...Goodwill CEOs make over $400,000 a year. But some of its disabled employees are paid less than $3 an hour...
This Deal Could Make You Sick: A Backdoor for Food Contamination  Public Citizen   ...U.S. and EU TAFTA negotiators, advised by the world’s largest agribusinesses, have used coded language in pushing for TAFTA rules that could roll back food safety standards...
Peripheral Europe's New Normal: 50 Applicants For One Minimum Wage Job  zero hedge   ...what is emerging as Europe's magic number, namely, 1 in 50, or what an unemployed person's chances are of getting a minimum wage job...

Today's Teamster News 12.13.13

Funeral Giant SCI Refuses Interest Arbitration  teamster.org   ...SCI, which operates under the Dignity Memorial brand name, rejected the arbitration deal after turning down an unconditional offer to return to work made by Teamsters Local 727 in September. The lockout affects 59 funeral directors and livery drivers at 16 Dignity Memorial funeral homes...
Teamsters Announce Formation Of Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Association  Teamsters Pennsylvania Conference   ...The association will represent the more than 2,000 law enforcement officers working in over 100 Pennsylvania borough and county departments who already belong to the Teamsters Union...
Teamsters Rally for Justice, Fair Election at Ohio Bottle Manufacturer  teamster.org   ...Teamsters Local 377 Secretary-Treasurer Sam Cook talks about the fight for a fair and free election for workers who manufacture aluminum bottles at EXAL Corp. in Youngstown, Ohio--a fight that the Teamsters recently took all the way to Canada...
Canadian IKEA Employees in Sweden to Appeal to Kamprad  Sveriges Television   ...300 workers at an IKEA store in Canada have been without a job for seven months during a protracted conflict between the union and the employer. The company has lost its Swedish values, they say, and now they visit Sweden to meet IKEA's founder Ingvar Kamprad...
House Passes Budget Bill to Increase Spending, Reverse Some Automatic Cuts  Time   ...Although Democrats are upset that unemployment benefits will not be extended in the deal, the agreement drafted by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Washington) drew  bipartisan support in a fiercely divided Congress...
The Top 10 Threats of the Trans-Atlantic “Trade” Deal To U.S. Consumers  Public Citizen   ...A “trade” deal only in name, TAFTA, which corporate proponents have tried to rebrand as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), would require the United States and EU to conform domestic food and product safety standards, financial regulations, climate policies, data privacy protections and other non-trade policies to TAFTA rules – rules being negotiated in secret...
Iceland Sends Four Bank Bosses to the Slammer  truthdig   ...The onetime CEO of Iceland’s Kaupthing bank, one Hreidar Mar Sigurdsson, is going to jail for five and a half years for his part in his firm’s downfall—which also helped his country’s economy bottom out in 2008. He’ll be in good company. Three other former high-level Kaupthing execs, including ousted board Chairman Sigurdur Einarsson, will join Sigurdsson for shorter stints in prison for aiding in the cover-up of a sham deal with a Qatari financier that sank the firm late that year...
Ford to hire 11,000 workers in US and Asia in 2014  BBC News   ...About 5,000 workers will be hired in the US and 6,000 in Asia, where Ford is opening two plants in China next year...
Feds To Examine NY commuter rail line for 2 months  Associated Press   ...Federal experts will spend the next two months examining safety compliance and safety culture at a commuter railroad that operated a train that derailed and killed four people this month...
Grass-roots economic protests spread across Italy  Associated Press   ...Students are marching through cities and towns, small business owners are blocking highway entrances and demonstrators have even tried to close the border with France. Their singular aim: To send all the politicians home in hopes of ending the country's malaise...
Orr: Detroit pensions still at risk in bankruptcy  Associated Press   ...Orr, appointed by the governor last spring to run Detroit, said he "absolutely" supports a campaign to tap foundations and wealthy people to prevent the possible sale of city-owned art and preserve pensions. But he warned that the "expectations of the retiree community should be sober..."
Group’s conservative funding questioned  Nashua Telegraph   ...A left-leaning interest group charged that the Concord-based, Josiah Bartlett Center was secretly bankrolled by national conservatives and promoting a national corporate agenda...

Today's Teamster News 11.24.13

Teamsters contract to bring less than 2 percent raises  Ironton Tribune   ...The first Teamsters contract for employees of the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office will bring them raises over the next three years...
Anheuser-Busch InBev, Teamsters Conclude Round of Contract Talks  CBS St. Louis   ...Teamsters Local 6 Principal Officer Ron Shy says the three-week-long local talks wrapped up last night with what he says are a “couple of unresolved issues” they will take to the national talks that open in St. Petersburg, Florida on December 2...
Middletown Boro, Teamsters local reach agreement on holiday decoration volunteers  Fox 43   ...Earlier this fall, Arnold announced the Borough would be forced to suspend the decorating activities this year after members of Teamsters Local 776 filed grievances seeking compensation for the work the volunteers did last year...Under the terms of the settlement agreement, the union recognizes the Borough’s right to use volunteers so long as such use does not result in employee layoffs...
Walmart Protests Promised To Be Even Bigger This Black Friday  Huffington Post   ...Walmart workers and their supporters are planning to kick off this year's holiday shopping season with protests at 1,500 Walmart stores around the country on Nov. 29...
Civil Society Groups Demand Transparency and User Protections in TPP  Electronic Frontier Foundation   ...Civil society groups are coming out in force against the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, following Wikileaks' publication of the “Intellectual Property” chapter...
An Orgy of Thieves  Counterpunch   ...There was indeed a vast criminal class coming to full vicious potential in the 1990s: a group utterly vacant of the most elementary instincts of social propriety, devoid of moral fiber, selfish to an almost unfathomable degree. The class comes in the form of our corporate elite...
Analysis: U.S. businesses back Tea Party Republicans after shutdown  Reuters   ...Eight of the most active business PACs wrote checks totaling $84,750 to 56 Republicans in the Senate and the House of Representatives after they voted against an October 16 deal to re-open the government that had been shut down since October 1 and avert an imminent debt default...
End the 1 percent’s free ride: Taxing land would solve America’s biggest problems  Salon   ...Just tax the stuff that humans had nothing to do with creating, and therefore have no basis to claim ownership over at all. You’ll find that almost all of it is “owned” by the fabled 1 percent...
Robert Samuelson Is Upset that the Government Gives One Thousand Times as Much Money to Billionaires Like Peter Peterson as It Does to Poor Children  Center for Economic Policy and Research   ...we should look at the billions of dollars in interest paid out on government bonds to rich people like Peter Peterson without taking account of the fact that Peterson and his billionaire friends paid for these bonds...
Watch economic insecurity spread like a virus over a quarter-century  Washington Post   ...the two great transformations of the economy over the late 20th century have been the rise in inequality and the increasing risk that households and workers bear...
Caught in a Revolving Door of Unemployment  New York Times   ... joblessness lasting more than six months is a major factor preventing people from getting rehired, with potentially grave consequences for tens of millions of Americans...
Susan J. Demas: How the Democrats blew it after Right to Work (opinion)  Michigan Live   ...they filed a couple long-shot lawsuits and essentially decided to give up...
Ohio unions optimistic about shifting Right to Work landscape  Keep Ohio's Heritage   ...Following this month’s colossal failure of the Ohioans for Workplace Freedom Election Day signature push, labor groups believe that Ohio voters are beginning to make their choice clear at the ballots...

How tech companies abuse visas to hire cheap foreign labor, offshore jobs

The H-1B visa program lets high-tech companies like Microsoft bring foreign workers to America and pay them less than they'd pay qualified U.S. citizens.

Defenders of the program say it recruits the best and brightest from overseas, allowing U.S. firms to develop innovative technology.

That's baloney.

Foreign students in computer science now working in the U.S. are on average less talented than Americans, according to a study released in February by the Economic Policy Insttitute. But they are cheaper.

The EPI study concluded:

...employers prefer to hire foreign workers over similarly qualified U.S. workers, because legal loopholes in how the “prevailing wage” is calculated let them save on labor costs. The H-1B visa also ties workers to their employer, effectively rendering them captive for the duration of their visa. 

What's worse, U.S. employers don't even have to try to hire qualified Americans for high-tech jobs before hiring someone from overseas.

And there's something even more sinister at work:  the H-1B worker learns the job and then rotates back to the home country and takes the work with him, another EPI report found. The top 10 companies using H-1B visas ALL have major operations overseas.

Last week, Indian technology company Infosys paid a $34 million settlement to the U.S. Department of Justice for alleged H-1B visa fraud, according to ABC News. Prosecutors say Infosys,

...unlawfully used H-1B visa holders to fill skilled labor jobs that the Justice Department says would "otherwise be performed by U.S. citizens or require legitimate H-1B visa holders."  

Here are the top 10 recipients of H-1B visas in the US:

1. Cognizant. H1-B Visas Received: 17,964
2. Tata Consultancy. H1-B Visas Received: 9,083
3. Wipro. H1-B Visas Received: 8,726
4. Infosys. H1-B Visas Received: 6,550
5. Accenture. H1-B Visas Received: 5,799
6. Microsoft. H1-B Visas Received: 4,766
7. IBM. H1-B Visas Received: 3,770
8. Larsen & Toubro. H1-B Visas Received: 3,286
9. HCL. H1-B Visas Received: 3,074
10. Deloitte. H1-B Visas Received: 2,850

Only three of them -- Microsoft, IBM and Deloitte -- are headquartered in the U.S.

Yeah, we're pretty steamed about it too.

Today's Teamster News 10.30.13

Newsday drives off with new union pact  New York Post   ...Just two weeks after rejecting a new labor contract, workers, who are members of the IBT/Graphic Communications Conference at Newsday, ratified the same pact that cuts 25 driver jobs but hikes pay for the remaining workers by 6 percent over four years...
Grocery worker contract vote begins Tuesday  KIRO TV   ...Voting on the proposed contract will take place at several locations Tuesday and Wednesday for the unionized grocery workers, including members of Teamsters Local 38...
YRC requests meeting with Teamsters for company update   Kansas City Business Journal ...YRC Worldwide Inc. is calling its members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to Dallas to talk about the company's future...
UPS TCI Supplement Passes   teamster.org   ...The UPS TCI Supplement has passed by a vote of 87 to 12. That brings the total number of revoted local supplements and riders that have been approved by members to seven...
Rail optimistic on union deal as strike deadline nears  Reuters   ...Canadian National Railway Co., the country's largest railroad, said on Monday it is still talking with the union representing about 3,300 conductors and other workers and expects the two sides will be able to avoid a strike...
U.S. sham corporations aid drug lords  CNN   ... the Russian "Merchant of Death" Victor Bout used a global network of shell companies to move the funds of his international outfit, which authorities say provided weapons used to fuel conflicts throughout Africa, South America and the Middle East. At least 12 shell companies in Texas, Florida and Delaware have been linked to him...
Dutch Rabobank fined $1 billion over Libor scandal  Reuters   ...U.S. and European regulators have fined Dutch lender Rabobank $1 billion for rigging benchmark interest rates, making it the fifth bank punished in a scandal that has helped to shred faith in the industry...
'We got away with murder': £2.2m avoidance boast of Gordon Ramsay's tax expert in leaked memo  Daily Mail   ...Gordon Ramsay ‘really got away with murder’ as his company hid ‘incriminating evidence’ of alleged fraud from the taxman, a leaked memo claims...
The Coming Food Stamp Cut Will Hit 900,000 Veterans  ThinkProgress   ...Benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), otherwise known as food stamps, will automatically drop come Friday thanks to the loss of additional funds from the 2009 stimulus bill. That cut will hit about 900,000 of the country’s veterans...
Senate OKs Obama pick for NLRB general counsel  The Guardian   ...Senators voted 62-37 Tuesday to end Republican delaying tactics against Richard Griffin, who Obama nominated to be NLRB general counsel...The general counsel investigates and prosecutes cases before the board. Griffin is a Democrat and long-time labor lawyer...
Another View: Americans' appetite for Amtrak service growing (opinion)  Des Moines Register   ...On the heaviest traveled passenger rail corridor in the nation, the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak keeps breaking ridership records...
Municipal workers, nurses, pensioners protest against austerity  Cyprus Mail   ...Tuesday, in the Republic of Cyprus, was a day of protests outside parliament and the finance ministry as nurses, pensioners and municipality workers all gathered to voice their discontent at government imposed cuts. Municipality workers from trade unions PEO and DEOK went on strike for four hours to protest against a further 12 per cent cut to state funding for 2014...
8 Scary Facts About The Trans-Pacific Partnership   BuzzFeed   ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, is a massive, secret trade agreement being negotiated behind the backs of Congress and the American people...
Brunei Sultan Raises More Worries About TPP   teamster.org   ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has rightfully come under fire for its potential to make things worse for workers and consumers both in the U.S. and the 11 other countries which are currently involved in negotiations...
Snyder rejected pension fund conditions  Detroit News   ...Gov. Rick Snyder’s testimony Monday in Detroit's historic Chapter 9 case marked a dramatic turn, featuring a sitting governor forced to defend a series of decisions likely to set a national precedent for union protections and pension rights in municipal bankruptcy...
Republican Says He'd Bring Back Slavery If His Constituents Asked Him To  AlterNet   ...A Nevada Republican sparked outrage after he told members of the GOP that he’d bring back slavery if that’s what his constituents wanted...
More follies from the Kasich circus! Toledo Blade   ...A Blade investigation of Ohio’s taxpayer-funded job-creation efforts discovered that businesses did not create thousands of jobs that state documents said they did. The probe also revealed that Ohio development officials awarded tens of millions of dollars to companies they knew little about. Much of that money is now lost...
Gov. Walker says he cannot yet comment on alleged discrepancies in his book  WKOW   ...Governor Scott Walker (R-Wisconsin) says he cannot yet comment on alleged discrepancies between what is reportedly published in his upcoming book and the recording of a phone conversation he had with a blogger posing as billionaire Republican donor David Koch on February 22, 2011...