Another example of corporate welfare run amok

Again and again, local and state governments have chosen to give millions in handouts to multi-national corporations so they will come and bring jobs. But repeatedly those efforts have failed.

The latest example is featured in a fine piece by The Washington Post looking at the practice in the Deep South, where the tax breaks have been large and the jobs have largely paid little. Workers there (and elsewhere) pay for these deals on the front end and then get screwed on the back end!

The article details the decision by Chinese company Golden Dragon Precise Copper Tube Group to build  and open a factory in Wilcox County, Ala. last year after much lobbying from local officials. Oh yeah, and approximately $200 million in corporate welfare tax breaks, infrastructure improvements and cash payments.

When the deal was announced in 2013, the average worker was expected to make $15 to $17 an hour. But even the company itself only places that rate at $13 an hour. Meanwhile, those throughout the state are paying the price, as the article explains:

Company executives visiting the region were greeted with imported Chinese tea and Mandarin video messages. Alabama’s state workforce team explained how, if chosen for the job, they would visit Golden Dragon’s Chinese headquarters, study the process, and make videos and training courses for the new U.S. employees. In Alabama, Golden Dragon wouldn’t pay taxes for 20 years; it would get free roads and land. 

Alabama also did something no other state was willing to try: Its legislature passed the “Made in Alabama” act, a tailored law that allowed the state to reimburse Golden Dragon for several prior years of tariffs. A version of the law had first been drafted by [company consultant Raymond] Cheng and a lawyer, according to Cheng and a lawmaker who sponsored the bill. 

Ultimately, the company was given the choice of the reimbursements or an extra $20 million in cash. Golden Dragon chose the cash.

This grand payout, mind you, takes place against the backdrop of a community that is undereducated and impoverished. And elected officials there seem to take advantage of this fact, as the Post noted:

In wide swaths of the Deep South, public schools struggle, turning out workers who lack basic skills. Agricultural work has long faded, while job opportunities in once-prosperous industries such as textiles and timber have been lost to cheaper options in Latin America or automation at home. Politicians say they must give freebies to lure companies here, or offer nothing at all and watch the region — which already lags behind the rest of the country on most measures of well-being — fall even further behind.

So what was the answer in the case of Golden Dragon? Workers late last year voted to unionize. Obviously, they must know that union jobs pay better and provide a real path towards a middle-class lifestyle.

The real solution, however, is to stop giving sweetheart deals to rich corporations. Investment in people, not the powerful.

Today's Teamster News 04.21.15

Teamsters
Longtime Union Activist Rodney Smith Helps Organize Facebook Shuttle Drivers  Contra Costa Times   ...As a union organizer for Teamsters Local 853 based in San Leandro, Smith played a key role in winning the drivers their first union contract. In the process, the father of two helped pull off a precedent-setting vote that targets the growing income gap in Silicon Valley...
Pilots Fault Allegiant on Safety as Talks Stall  New York Times   ...But Allegiant’s scrappy success is now being questioned by its pilots, who say they are worried about repeated mechanical problems with the airline’s fleet of older planes, poor maintenance operations and a culture where profits come before safety. All the claims were reported by the pilots and compiled by the Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition on behalf of the pilots’ union, the Airline Professionals Association Teamsters Local 1224...
PCC unions question change on carpenters, Teamsters   Philly.com  ...Marino wrote a letter saying he would dismiss complaints - primarily on technical grounds - by the Metropolitan Council of Regional Carpenters and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which said they had been improperly shut out of work last May at the Convention Center. On Thursday, Marino reversed course, saying he would hear arguments in the case...

Global Labor & Trade
‘Fast Track’ Trade Bill Taps Tension In Ohio  Wall Street Journal   ...Rep. Tim Ryan doesn’t need to travel far from home to see the damage he ascribes to bad trade deals. “You can see how it’s hollowed out,” said the Democratic lawmaker, pointing to empty or underutilized steel plants on a recent tour of his district in northeast Ohio. “Global trade regimes aren’t fairly written if this is the end result.”...
Japan says trade talks with US are close to deal   The Hill   ...Abe said he and Obama must play a leadership role to wrap a deal and “ultimately, what needs to happen is for both countries to make a political decision” to tackle difficult remaining issues. A U.S.-Japan bilateral agreement is a major step toward completing the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Progressive Coalition Tells Lawmakers: 'Don't Trade Away Our Future' with Fast Track  Common Dreams   ...With members of Congress set to debate Fast Track authority this week, hundreds of environmentalists, consumer advocates, nurses, labor leaders, and elected officials stood shoulder-to-shoulder at a Washington, D.C. rally on Monday, pleading with lawmakers: 'Don't Trade Away Our Future!'
AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka explains why labor unions hate Obama’s trade deal  Vox  ...The TPP has created some strange bedfellows: the Obama administration has found itself with many GOP allies in promoting the trade deal, while unions and liberals like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders staunchly oppose it. Vox spoke with Trumka recently about why he opposes the pact...
Don't Let TPP Gut State Laws  (opinion) Politico   ...State laws and regulators are increasingly important as gridlock in Washington makes broad federal action on important issues an increasingly rare event. From environmental protection to civil rights to the minimum wage, the action is at the state level. Ironically, one thing that may get done soon in Washington is a trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which has the potential to undermine a wide range of state and local laws...
Fast Tracking Democracy To Hell  (opinion) Huffington Post   ...The Congressional free traders want to Fast Track authorization of the TPP. Fast Track enables Congress to abdicate its constitutionally mandated duty to regulate international trade. Instead of scrutinizing, amending and improving proposed trade deals, lawmakers use Fast Track to gloss over the specifics and simply vote yea or nay on the entire package as presented...

State & Living Wage Battles
Workers Allege Walmart Closes Stores To Retaliate Against Strikes  Think Progress  ...Over the weekend, the AFL-CIO and United Food & Commercial Workers International Union filed an injunction on their behalf with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Walmart. “The Board should seek injunctive relief compelling Walmart to rehire every one of the 2200 Associates who have been terminated in all 5 stores,” it says...
David Koch on 2016 GOP Nominee: ‘It Should be Scott Walker.’ But...   The Nation   ...According to several reports from a New York State Republican Party fund-raising event on Monday, David Koch told the big donors: “We will support whoever the candidate is. But it should be Scott Walker.” That sounded like an endorsement. So did what Koch said outside the Manhattan event, at which Walker also spoke. Koch hailed the governor of Wisconsin “a tremendous candidate.”...
TWMP talks Right-to-Work, the budget, and 2016   The Missouri Times   ...Senate Pro Tem Tom Dempsey joined This Week In Missouri Politics to discuss the coming budget fight and his decision to put Right-to-Work legislation on the Senate calendar for debate...
Little Momentum for National Right-to-Work, Despite Support by White House Contestants  Bloomberg News   ...Despite the backing of at least two of the three current Republican presidential candidates and similar laws in place in half the states, right-to-work legislation remains highly unlikely to move at the federal level any time soon, lawmakers and other observers told Bloomberg BNA...
Not just fast food: Full-service restaurant chains pay poverty wages, too  Daily Kos   ...Fast food isn't the only part of the restaurant industry where workers are seriously underpaid. A recent report from the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United shows that many workers in full-service restaurants are also paid so little that they need and get nearly $9.5 billion in public assistance each year...
How a $15 Minimum Wage Helps All Workers   Counterpunch   ...Regardless of their reasoning, the anti-$15 workers are arguing against their own best interest, since a $15 minimum wage would benefit the overwhelming majority of people who make over $15 an hour. This is because a $15 minimum wage would transform the labor market in favor of all working people. Economists have even given a term for this phenomenon, called “compression,” which describes the effects of how rising lower wages puts pressure on employers to raise wages for higher paid workers...
New York City Just Outlawed Running Credit Checks on Job Applicants   The Nation   ...The legislation, which passed last Thursday following an extensive grassroots campaign by local and national labor and community groups, restricts a boss, prospective employer or agency from “us[ing] an individual’s consumer credit history in making employment decisions.”...

U.S. Labor
Safety Regulations Issued For Trains Carrying Oil  New York Times   ...Responding to public pressure to act more quickly after a series of fiery train derailments involving oil shipments, the Transportation Department on Friday issued a series of emergency orders, including a 40-mile-an-hour speed limit for hazardous materials moving through urban areas. The emergency rules also require railroads to provide detailed information about a shipment within 90 minutes of any derailment...
Why Can't America Have Great Trains?  National Journal   ...Along with PBS and the United States Postal Service, Amtrak is perpetual fodder for libertarian think-tankers and Republican office-seekers on the prowl for government profligacy. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush repeatedly tried to eliminate its subsidy, while Mitt Romney promised to do the same. Democrats, for their part, aren't interested in slaying Amtrak, but mostly you get the sense they just feel bad for it...
One-day teacher strikes planned this week  King5.com  ...Teachers in eight school districts, from Arlington to Blaine, announced one-day strikes this week to protest the lack of funding for public schools. They look at their act of civil disobedience as an opportunity to demand that lawmakers to fully fund public schools as mandated by a state supreme court decision, and reduce class size according to the voter approved Initiative 1351...
NLRB Upholds Howard University Docs' Union Vote  Union City   ...Resident physicians at Howard University Hospital and community leaders are calling on hospital officials to come to the table to negotiate a first contract with the residents’ union in the wake of a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling upholding the union election held earlier this year, in which a majority of the 263 Howard resident physicians voted in favor of representation...

Miscellaneous
Corporate Giants Often Get Huge Tax Breaks, While Poor, Undocumented Immigrants Have Paid Billions In State Taxes  New York Daily News   ...The truth is that for corporate giants like General Electric, Verizon, Citigroup, FedEx and others, the only certainty in terms of taxes is that they contribute as little to the country’s coffers as possible. Ironically, while many of these corporate behemoths pay zero taxes, the eternally vilified undocumented immigrants in New York paid $1.1 billion in state taxes in 2012...
Senate Races In 2016 Look Poised To Set Spending Records  Washington Post   ...Yes, the 2016 presidential race will be the most expensive in history. But the battle for control of the U.S. Senate in November 2016 also looks likely to smash spending records...
How Corporate Lobbyists Conquered American Democracy  The Atlantic   ...Today, the biggest companies have upwards of 100 lobbyists representing them, allowing them to be everywhere, all the time. For every dollar spent on lobbying by labor unions and public-interest groups together, large corporations and their associations now spend $34. Of the 100 organizations that spend the most on lobbying, 95 consistently represent business...

Today's Teamster News 04.17.15

Teamsters
Hoffa: Fast Track Is The Wrong Track  Teamster.org   ...Official statement of Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in response to the introduction today in Congress of legislation that would allow Congress to give a quick up-or-down vote to trade agreements: "Leaders in the House and Senate, buoyed by their friends in big business, are moving forward with pushing fast-track trade promotion legislation that would allow secret trade pacts to sail through Congress"...
Congress Is Facing Its Last Call to Stand Up for Fair Trade (Hoffa column) Huffington Post   ...The moment has arrived. Worries about Congress allowing secret trade deals to be enacted with little oversight are no longer theoretical. Legislation that would allow agreements like the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to slide unscathed through Capitol Hill has been introduced and will soon be considered by the Senate Finance Committee. And the consequences are dangerous for all Americans...
Uber Drivers, Teamsters Protest On National Day Of Action For Higher Wages  KUOW.org  ...One of the half-dozen protests in the Seattle area focused on the way drivers for Uber and other taxi-like services are paid. The company sets the fares that drivers can charge. Drivers use their own cars and pay their own expenses. Organizers with the Teamsters Local 117 said the drivers often wind up making less than minimum wage. The Teamsters helped drivers form the App-Based Drivers Association last year...
Guam Foremost Workers Back To Work  Marianas Variety   ...For about two dozen Foremost Foods Inc./Coca Cola Guam employees, it’s back to business and negotiations for fair salaries and benefits are back on the table. On Tuesday, Foremost Foods Inc. management said the 25 strikers who demonstrated along Route 16 on April 2 returned to work. The employees who went on strike were part of the Teamsters 986 union...
Seven Union Leaders Urge Congress To Support Opening Consultations With Qatar And The UAE To Address Unfair Subsidies  Teamster.org   ....The presidents of the Air Line Pilots Association International, the Allied Pilots Association, the Association of Flight Attendants, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, Communications Workers of America, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Transport Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO sent a letter to Congress urging members to call on the U.S. government to open consultations with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates...

Global Labor & Trade
Fast Track to Hell: Trade Bill Officially Introduced in Congress  Common Dreams   ...The fight over Fast Track just got real. U.S. House and Senate leaders announced Thursday afternoon that they have reached a deal on legislation aimed at jamming the Trans Pacific Partnership through Congress...
Trade-off: Deal splits Democrats between business, labor  Washington Post  ...The hardest sell for President Barack Obama will be persuading members of his own party to back a bipartisan agreement on global U.S. trade policy. Longtime divisions in the Democratic ranks broke open Thursday when top congressional lawmakers finally reached a long-sought deal that would pave the way for the broadest trade policy pact in years...
U.S. lawmakers' bill holds key to Pacific trade deal  Reuters  ...Senior U.S. lawmakers reached agreement on Thursday on a bill to give the White House "fast track" authority to negotiate a trade pact with 11 other Pacific nations that is central to President Barack Obama's strategic shift toward Asia. The agreement, over six months in the making, sets the stage for a tough legislative battle over the rules for Obama's proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Democrats’ civil war over free trade  Politico   ...The most important trade bill in a decade has pitted Harry Reid against President Barack Obama. Liberal Democrat Rosa DeLauro against moderate Democrat Ron Kind. Labor unions against pro-business Democrats. And Elizabeth Warren against virtually everyone who supports a landmark piece of legislation that would allow the president to close what could be the biggest free-trade deal in history...
Fast Track Introduced: Hatch Bill Would Revive Controversial 2002 Mechanism That Faces Broad Congressional, Public Opposition  Public Citizen   ...The Fast Track bill introduced today would revive the old unacceptable Fast Track process. It would delegate away Congress’ constitutional trade authority and give blank-check powers to whomever may be president during the next three to six years for any agreements he or she may pursue. Instead of establishing a new “exit ramp,” the bill includes the same impossible conditions from past Fast Track bills...
Obama’s Free Trade Deal Lets Corporations Impose Their Will  Think Progress  ...Progressives who usually make up President Obama’s base supporters are mounting loud protests against his newest proposal on international trade, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), as a key Democrat in the Senate reportedly prepares to strike a deal that would send the TPP hurtling toward passage.
“Fast track” bad for America’s manufacturers  (opinion) The Hill  ...For decades, we’ve heard that so-called “free trade” agreements will lead to higher wages, new jobs and more economic development. Free trade was supposed to be the panacea that will cure our nation’s economic ills. But small business owners like me know better...
French public radio strike winds down after four weeks  Reuters   ...A strike at France's public radio operation ran out of steam on Wednesday, journalists at the company said, ending four weeks of daily reminders to listeners that the unpopular Socialist government had been unable to stop it...
After Decades of Struggle, Salvadoran Communities Declare Territory Free of Mining  Truthout.org  ...The Vancouver-based Pacific Rim mining corporation also filed an ICSID lawsuit against El Salvador in 2009, after the permit for operations at its El Dorado gold mining project didn't come through. Both Pacific Rim and Commerce Group Corp cited provisions in the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and Salvadoran investment protection legislation as the legal basis for their cases...

State & Living Wage Battles
‘Right-to-work’ laws hold down wages but don’t create jobs  Richmond Register  ...The effort to promote “right to work” laws with local governments in Kentucky is founded on claims about job and economic growth that are unsupported by the research, according to a new report by the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy. The report looks at the most careful previous studies on RTW that show the law is not associated with an increase in jobs, but with lower wages and benefits for all workers...
Nannies, Aides For Elderly Push For Labor Law Protections  Hartford Courant  ...Nannies, maids, gardeners, personal chefs, chauffeurs and caregivers for the elderly are asking Connecticut to change labor laws to require that they be paid at least the minimum wage. Currently, domestic workers and farm workers are excluded from federal laws that established the right to a minimum wage and to overtime...
Nebraska Becomes the Thirteenth State to Protect Pregnant Workers' Job Security  National Women's Law Center  ...Earlier this week, Governor Ricketts signed the Nebraska Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (LB 267) into law that grants pregnant workers the right to reasonable accommodations, so that no woman will have to choose between the health and safety of her pregnancy and her paycheck...
Stop Corporate Welfare Kings And Tax Escapees From Strip-Mining America (opinion)  Huffington Post   ...In many states, it is a literal race to the bottom for elected officials to offer corporations sweeter tax deals to keep jobs in their locality -- see the 2013 Boeing controversy in the state of Washington, in which the aerospace industry, much of which is made up of Boeing, was awarded $8.7 billion in tax breaks over 16 years to produce the 777X jetliner in-state...
During Fight for 15 Protests, Nearly 50 Chicago Armored Guards Go on Strike  In These Times   ...The Fight for 15 campaign says that yesterday’s protests in over 200 cities around the country were the biggest yet since the movement began almost three years ago. But they have also expanded in ways that no one, including the campaign’s staffers, thought possible—like when nearly 50 drivers and security guards employed by Brink’s, the global security and logistics company known for its armored bulletproof trucks, suddenly decided to walk off the job early Wednesday morning...
Senate Approves Common Wage Repeal  WRTV   ...After almost two hours of debate, the Indiana Senate voted Wednesday to repeal the state's common construction wage...
What It Will Take To Revive The Middle Class  Washington Post   ...This week, the National Employment Law Project reported that fully 42 percent of U.S. workers make less than $15 an hour — a sea of workers that extends beyond such usual suspects as janitors and food servers; even once decently paid employees such as auto assembly-line workers now work for a median hourly wage that has descended to $15.30...
A New Day For The Minimum Wage?  (opinion)  New York Times   ...Real leadership will also require going beyond calling for a robust minimum wage. It also means supporting the protesters’ parallel demand for the right to organize without retaliation, which would lay the groundwork for collective bargaining in service industries...

U.S. Labor
Airline food workers strike at LAX  LA Times ...More than 100 workers who prepare food for airlines flying out of Los Angeles International Airport went on strike Tuesday, saying they are overworked and lack the proper equipment to do their jobs, union organizers said...
The Laws That Could Protect Workers From Chaotic Schedules That No One Knows About  Think Progress  ...New York has a law on the books that requires employers in most industries to pay workers four hours’ worth of pay if they show up to work, even if they’re then sent home due to a lack of demand. Schneiderman is looking into whether these large companies, which include Gap, Target, Abercrombie & Fitch, the owner of T.J. Maxx and Marshall’s, J. Crew, and Sears, are violating the law with on-call shifts...
Unions Still Matter  (opinion) Al-Jazeera   ...The importance of these studies is clear: Unions are the most important institution in the fight against inequality. But for too long, many liberals seemed happy to watch unions disappear. Part of the problem is that they misunderstood unions as primarily economic institutions, interested in parochially negotiating wages and benefits for their members. In reality, unions are far more important as political actors promoting policies that benefit the working class and middle class as a whole...
Why We've Decided to Organize  Gawker  ...Some of us on the Gawker Media editorial staff have decided to try to unionize. There is already a great deal of interest in this idea among editorial employees in New York (and they are all more than capable of speaking for themselves, and I'm sure that they will). The final shape that the union might take, and who exactly will be in it, and what specific goals it will pursue all remain to be seen...
The Dystopian Way Employers Are Ruining Their Workers’ Job Prospects  Salon.com   ...When Emily Brunner and Caitlin Turowski were hired by Jimmy John’s sandwich shop, prominent among their many employee orientation forms were noncompete agreements (NCAs) that they were required to sign. According to court documents, these agreements outlined when, where, how, and by extension, if they could work for "competing food establishments"...

Miscellaneous
U.S. Industrial Production Falters As Oil Sector Weighs  Wall Street Journal   ...U.S. industrial output fell in March and posted the first quarterly decline since the recession ended, signs that a retrenching domestic oil industry and stronger dollar are limiting production. Industrial production, which measures the output of manufacturers, utilities and mines, decreased a seasonally adjusted 0.6% from the prior month, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday...
America’s Over-Criminalization Epidemic: How The Prosecution Of Atlanta Teachers Exposes A Broken System  Salon.com   ...Whether it’s drug laws, mandatory minimums, the disenfranchisement of former felons, the widespread scourge of overcrowding, the death penalty or the continuing use of the abhorrent form of torture called solitary confinement, the number of serious problems can be overwhelming. As we saw this week when a group of former Atlanta public school educators were sentenced to seven years for standardized test cheating, it’s necessary to throw over-criminalization into the mix...
Seventy Years On, Let Us Renew FDR’s Struggle For An Economic Bill Of Rights  The Nation   ...Seventy years after this country lost Franklin Roosevelt and the promise of a final term spent advocating for a realization of the “new goals of human happiness and well-being,” those goals have yet to be realized. The historian Havey Kaye has argued that President Obama should recognize Roosevelt’s vision and present it anew...

Today's Teamster News 04.14.15

Teamsters
Hoffa: Sharon Block Appointment A 'Victory For The Middle Class'  Teamster.org   ...James P. Hoffa, General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on the announcement of Sharon Block’s appointment: "With the announcement of Sharon Block’s installation as Senior Advisor for Labor and Working Families in the White House Office of Public Engagement, the administration has made a real commitment to focusing on the issues that concern middle class Americans"...

Global Labor & Trade
Japan, U.S. aim for Pacific trade pact progress before summit  Reuters   ...Japanese and U.S. officials will meet from Wednesday in a bid to strike a two-way deal giving momentum to a pan-Pacific free-trade pact, the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership. Success, however, depends on whether the U.S. Congress, which returns from recess this week, approves measures to ease passage of trade deals, or trade promotion authority (TPA)...
Obama’s trade pitch falling flat with Dems  The Hill   ...An aggressive effort by the administration to win support for President Obama’s trade agenda appears to be stuck. As few as 15 House Democrats might vote to give the president fast-track authority, according to dozens of Democratic lawmakers, business group representatives and activists on both sides of the trade fight interviewed by The Hill...
How We Can Hold American Companies that Use Sweatshop Labor Accountable  In These Times   ...Without granting workers of the world legal power in American or international courts, union jobs will continue leaving the United States and they will leave Guatemala or Vietnam if workers unionize there. That legal framework isn’t happening tomorrow and it isn’t happening in the next election cycle. But this is the long-term change to labor law we need if we are to give workers around the world a chance to live dignified lives...
U.S. Government Starts Investigation Of Alleged Subsidies To Gulf Airlines  Dallas Morning News   ...Three federal departments said they’ll review charges by the three biggest U.S. airlines, including American Airlines Group, that three Persian Gulf carriers receive $42 billion in unfair subsidies from their governments...
Fast Track a Bad Deal for Farmers and Our Food System, 110+ groups say  IATP   ...Over 110 farm, food and consumer groups urged members of Congress in a letter today to oppose trade promotion authority or “fast track” legislation that would pave the way for trade agreements detrimental to farmers, ranchers and food systems, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Fast Track To Lost Jobs And Lower Wages  (opinion)  Huffington Post   ...Claims that trade and investment deals would support domestic job creation have proven to be empty promises. Expanding exports alone is not enough to ensure that trade adds jobs to the economy. Increases in U.S. exports tend to create jobs in the United States, but increases in imports lead to job loss--by destroying existing jobs and preventing new job creation...
The Public Deserves to Know Exactly What’s in the Trans-Pacific Partnership  (opinion) Slate  ...In the next few weeks, Congress may give special status to a massive “free trade” treaty that you are not allowed to read. Based on leaks of portions of the deal, however, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) appears to be at least partly a grab bag of special favors for corporate interests—among them the entertainment and pharmaceutical industries—and an end-run around domestic law...

State & Living Wage Battles
Unions, angry Republican voters rally in support of Indiana's wage law  News and Tribune   ...Frank Marshall calls himself a lifelong Republican, but on Monday he stood on the steps of the Statehouse and denounced GOP leaders for their efforts to kill Indiana’s 80-year-old common construction wage. He told about 8,000 protesters that he regretted donations to Republicans who want end the system that sets wages for workers on public projects...
Charleston OKs Support Of Right-To-Work Zones  Journal Gazette and Times-Courier   ...Charleston joined a list of several cities including Clinton and Makanda on Tuesday when it endorsed some governmental reforms proposed by Gov. Bruce Rauner, including right-to-work zones...
Oregon minimum wage hike debated  The State-Register   ...Proponents of a big increase in Oregon’s minimum wage — potentially raising it to as much as $15 an hour — got the chance to make their case to state lawmakers on Monday. During a packed evening hearing that followed a brief rally inside the Capitol’s rotunda, low-income workers from throughout the state shared stories of struggling to make ends meet...
Legislator Takes Aim At Automated Union Dues  Houston Chronicle   ...A Senate panel on Monday is expected to vote on a bill that would keep most state employees from paying union and other association dues through payroll deductions...
Rally Backs Fines For Employers Paying Less Than $15 An Hour  Hartford Courant   ...Mayors and legislators on Thursday rallied support for a bill that would fine large employers who pay their employees less than $15 an hour to reimburse the cost to the state for social services those employees are using...
Report: US Taxpayers Bear 'Hidden Cost' of Poverty Wages  Common Dreams   ...Stagnant wages and declining employer-provided benefits mean that low-wage workers in the United States are increasingly reliant on federal and state-run public assistance programs...
McMugging The Middle Class: How Corporate Welfare Conquered The American Economy  Salon.com   ...A telling fact: Of the more than 47 million Americans currently receiving food stamps, tens of millions work full time. This is because their jobs at fast food chains such as McDonalds, Dominos and Taco Bell — or at major retailers like Walmart, Target and Rite-Aid — simply don’t pay them enough to support themselves...

U.S. Labor
State AG Probing ‘On-Call’ Shifts’ Impact On Workers  Buffalo News   ...The state Attorney General’s Office is looking into retailers’ use of “on-call shifts,” in which employees are required to check in the night before or even just a few hours ahead of a shift to see if they are needed – and receive no pay if they are told not to show up...
Where The Presidential Candidates Stand On Equal Pay  Think Progress  ...Tuesday is Equal Pay Day, the symbolic day by which women’s earnings catch up to what men earned in a single year last year, given that the gender wage gap means that women who work full-time, year-round made 78 percent of what men make. It also comes as presidential hopefuls are announcing campaigns for 2016, so where do they all stand on this particular issue?...
Can Labor Bring Wall Street Back to Main Street?  The Nation  ...Seven years since Wall Street imploded, it seems the banking sector has rebounded far faster than the communities it has devastated, according to a report published by Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), which builds on a global campaign to advocate for fair labor and corporate accountability in Big Banks...
Bonanza for the Super-Rich: The Fund Managers' Tax Break  (opinion) Truthout.org   ...The reason most of us have seen little gain from economic growth over the last three decades is that the rich have rigged the rules to ensure that money flows upward. Through their control of trade policy, Federal Reserve Board policy, and other key levers of government, they have structured the market to weaken the bargaining power of ordinary workers and benefit the CEOs and Wall Street crew...
1199 Postpones Nursing Home Strike  Hartford Courant  ...One of the state's largest unions has postponed a nursing home strike at the request of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. District 1199 of the Service Employees International Union had voted for a strike against 27 nursing homes, but they have called off the walkout after discussions with Malloy's office...

Local UAW-GM Tiff May Herald Fractious Contract Talks  Wards Auto  ...General Motors and the United Auto Workers resolve a shop-floor dispute at the automaker’s Wentzville, MO, assembly plant, but the underlying tensions that erupted are symptomatic of a rising tide of discontent among workers at GM, Ford and FCA US that will play out during contract negotiations this year...
Kroger Ratifies Agreement with UFCW 227  MarketWatch   ...The Kroger Co. associates working at Kroger in the Louisville division have ratified a new labor agreement with UFCW Local 227. The contract covers nearly 14,000 associates working in 89 stores in the Louisville and Southern Indiana areas...

Miscellaneous
The New Segregation (opinion)  Huffington Post   ...50 years ago, President Lyndon Johnson passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as part of his War on Poverty. The law recognized the power of an education to lift any student, regardless of background, out of poverty. But what I and the authors of the ESEA also recognized was that not every student is the same. Low-income, immigrant, or disabled students often require additional supports...
The NSA Wants Tech Companies To Give It 'Front Door' Access To Encrypted Data  The Verge   ...The National Security Agency is embroiled in a battle with tech companies over access to encrypted data that would allow it to spy (more easily) on millions of Americans and international citizens. Last month, companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple urged the Obama administration to put an end to the NSA's bulk collection of metadata...

Today's Teamster News 03.31.14

Teamster News
CCTA strike heads into third week, board to explore options  WPTZ News 5   ...negotiations between management and the Teamsters Union is the top priority, but there are other options to explore. They include legal remedies, such as asking for a judge to step in and file an injunction requiring union members work during the negotiations...
CCTA offers proposal to drivers  Vermont Digger   ...On Friday, March 28, CCTA and the Union engaged in negotiations for over 17 hours. The negotiations resulted in CCTA delivering another complete written compromise contract proposal to the Union...
Trade
Cokie Roberts Picked a Fight With Alan Grayson on the TransPacific Partnership. Guess Who Won?  naked capitalism   ...“Fast Track” legislation simply is a ploy to jam the resulting surrender to multinational corporations through Congress, without hearings, without mark-ups, without amendments and even without significant debate...
State Battles
Raising the Minimum Wage Does not ‘Kill Jobs’ – Preliminary Evidence from 2014  Center for Economic Policy and Research   ...At the beginning of 2014, thirteen states increased their minimum wage…. Goldman Sachs compared the employment change … They concluded that … the group of states that had hikes at the start of 2014 in fact performed better than states without hikes...
Right-to-work takes away employer choice (opinion)  St. Louis Post Dispatch   ... A good wage creates a consumer that with a disposable income that can purchase a good or service from local businesses investing in the local community...
Voters May Decide 'Right to Work' Issue; Controversy Builds  Ozarks First   ...Sen. Eric Burlison, a Republican representing Springfield, says the "Right to Work" bill he introduced may ultimately be decided by Missouri voters...
New G.O.P. Bid to Limit Voting in Swing States  New York Times   ...Pivotal swing states under Republican control are embracing significant new electoral restrictions on registering and voting that go beyond the voter identification requirements that have caused fierce partisan brawls...
The War on Workers
80 percent of U.S. adults face near-poverty, unemployment, survey finds (old)  Associated Press  ...Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream...
A Nation of Takers? (opinion)  New York Times   ...Here are five public welfare programs that are wasteful and turning us into a nation of “takers.” First, welfare subsidies for private planes...
The New Billionaire Political Bosses  Robert Reich   ...So far in the 2014 election cycle, “Americans for Prosperity,” the Koch brother’s political front group, has aired more than 17,000 broadcast TV commercials, compared with only 2,100 aired by Republican Party groups...
United Autoworkers membership grows slightly  Associated Press   ...The United Auto Workers said its membership grew by nearly 9,000 people last year, the union said in a filing with Department of Labor, the fourth-straight year that the union has rebuilt...
Plutocracy without end: Why the 1 percent always defeats the middle class  (opinion)  Salon   ...Plutocracy shocks us every day with its viciousness, but that doesn’t mean God will strike it down. The middle-class model worked much better for about ninety-nine percent of the population, but that doesn’t make it some kind of dialectic inevitability...
Waves of Nationwide Actions Planned at Key Historic Moment  Alternet   ...The #WaveOfAction extends from the day Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated to Independence Day. The campaign will begin with candlelight vigils around the world at the time of MLK’s assassination, which was 7:05 pm EST on April 4...
California Farmers Short of Labor, and Patience  New York Times   ...the powerful Western Growers Association, a group based in Irvine, Calif., that represents hundreds of farmers in California and Arizona, says many of its members may withhold contributions from Republicans in congressional races because of the party’s stance against a comprehensive immigration overhaul...
Miscellaneous
Adelson Wooed by Republican Presidential Prospects at Vegas Meet  Bloomberg   ...Three Republican governors eyeing the White House, including embattled New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, were in Las Vegas yesterday to court Sheldon Adelson, a billionaire casino owner who could give any of their eventual campaigns a major financial boost...

Today's Teamster News 03.21.14

Teamster News
Striking VT Teamsters Fend Off Binding Arbitration, Enjoy Support of Local Community, Gov’t
The We Party   ...In Burlington, Vermont nearly 70 bus drivers have gone on strike hoping to receive a fair contract from management. The drivers are represented by Teamsters Local 597 and work for the Chittenden County Transportation Authority (CCTA). Chittenden County is Vermont’s most populated county...
Trade
Conn. suffers losses under U.S.-Korea trade treaty  Stamford Advocate   ...U.S. monthly net exports to Korea of helicopters -- Connecticut's second largest export -- have plummeted 81 percent on average under the FTA...
Tech Companies Urge Senator Wyden to Reject Fast Track and Bring Transparency to TPP   Electronic Frontier Foundation   ...More than 25 leading technology companies have joined a public letter urging Senator Ron Wyden, the newly appointed Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, to firmly oppose any form of "fast track" authority for trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
In Trade Talks, It's Countries vs. Companies  Bloomberg   ...to many people, arbitration looks profoundly undemocratic. Countries that sign the treaties give away a lot: The arbitration panels are unelected tribunals of three experts (usually lawyers, one chosen by each side and one picked by mutual consent or a third party) that are empowered to overrule a nation’s highest authorities. The panels have come under attack from environmental groups, labor unions, and developing nations including Venezuela, Ecuador, and South Africa....
Rights group alarmed by Colombian port killings  Associated Press   ... illegal armed groups have forcibly disappeared scores if not hundreds of people in Colombia's main Pacific port of Buenaventura in the past two years, killing and dismembering some in so-called "chop-up houses."… the situation is among the most alarming it has seen in years…
State Battles
New York law makes it illegal to misclassify truckers  Land Line   ...Employers who misclassify truckers in New York face civil and criminal penalties under a new law that takes effect April 10. Classification has ramifications not only for employee drivers but also for owner-operators and leased operators...
Judge: Arizona can require proof of citizenship from new voters  Capitol Media Services   ...A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Election Assistance Commission to require would-be Arizona voters to provide proof of citizenship when they register...
Governors siphoning mortgage settlement money: It's disgusting  Los Angeles Times ...Gov. Jerry Brown diverted more than $350 million from California's share of the 2012 national mortgage settlement with the banking industry to reduce the state's 2013 budget deficit. A coalition of homeownership advocates and religious organizations has filed suit against the state to force Brown to restore the money...
Md. Senate chair seeks pay raise for workers who care for developmentally disabled  Washington Post   ...The chairman of a key Maryland Senate Committee said Wednesday that he does not plan to act on a bill to raise the minimum wage until a related issue is resolved involving the way the state reimburses workers who care for the developmentally disabled...
Michigan Plan Would Allow Students to Attend College 'For Free'   Newsmax   ...Students would be able to initially attend college for free under a new plan introduced recently in the Michigan Legislature, but they would have to pay for it down the road...
Pennsylvania among states to block food stamp cuts  Pittsburgh Tribune-Review   ...Pennsylvania will join more than a half-dozen states and the District of Columbia to block as much as $1.2 billion in food stamp cuts, relying on a wrinkle in federal law to preserve aid for millions of people...
Wisconsin Poised to Pass ALEC's Deadly Asbestos Bill  Center for Media and Democracy   ...Wisconsin could become the latest state to narrow access to the courts for asbestos victims in a bill up for a vote on March 20, joining a national coordinated effort that can be traced back to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce...
Gov Haley fires back after machinists union opens office for Boeing employees  WCSC News 5   ...South Carolina's Governor Nikki Haley responds to a machinists union opening an office in North Charleston to educate workers at Boeing...
War on Workers
Koch Group, Spending Freely, Hones Attack on Government  New York Times   ...Americans for Prosperity — the group backed by David H. and Charles G. Koch that has been pouring millions of dollars into competitive Senate races...
Google Sued For Data-Mining Kids' Emails in Its Education App  Alternet   ...Google admitted in a sworn statement that it scans millions of students’ email messages to compile keywords for advertisements, despite not displaying any visual ads on its app...
Just 11% of US long-term unemployed find jobs  Associated Press   ...The number of people unemployed for more than six months has tripled since the recession began at the end of 2007...
This J.C. Penney Worker Was Fired For Telling The Truth About Its 'Fake' Prices  Huffington Post   ...J.C. Penney is going to war against a former employee who outed the department store for its questionable discounting practices...
Chicago voters support raising minimum wage  The Chicago Reporter   ...A symbolic victory on the non-binding referendum gives advocates and progressive aldermen the boost needed to press for an ordinance raising Chicago's minimum wage...
Walmart workers in China blockade store in protest at closure plan  USI   ...Nearly 150 workers have been picketing a Walmart store in the central Chinese city of Changde for two weeks, after management announced 4 March that the store would close down on 19 March...
Miscellaneous
New Report: Fortune 100 Companies Have Received $1.2 Trillion in Corporate Welfare Recently  AlterNet   ..Military contractors, oil companies and banks are the biggest 'welfare queens' around...
Starbucks to expand evening beer and wine service  Guardian   ...The chain first offered beer and wine after 4pm at one of its Seattle cafes in 2010. The drinks are now in about 26 cafes, with plans to reach 40 by the end of the year...
Residents Still Not Drinking Tap Water Two Months After West Virginia Spill  Truthout   ...It was a harsh start to 2014 for West Virginia, though in this state, events over the last two months have been only the latest twists in a long and familiar story...
NSA: Tech Companies Knew About PRISM The Whole Time  Huffington Post   ...Since leaked documents revealed that Internet companies like Apple, Facebook and Google were giving the National Security Agency vast access to people's online information under a scheme codenamed PRISM, those Silicon Valley titans have taken pains to deny participation in such a program. But now, the NSA's top lawyer says that just isn't true...
Bad news about American retirement  McCook Daily Gazette   ...How much do you have put away for retirement? A million dollars? Five hundred thousand? Five hundred dollars? If you're like a third of Americans, the final answer is closer to the truth...

Today's Teamster News 02.01.14

Teamsters, techies, tens of thousands take action against Fast Track in intercontinental day of action  TeamsterNation   ...More than 50 rallies, teach-ins and news conferences are being held on the North American continent, from Edmonton, Canada, to Mexico City. By mid-afternoon, social media drove more than 12,000 phone calls and hundreds of thousands of emails to the U.S. Congress...
Anti-TPP Rally in San Francisco Pressures Pelosi to Take Bolder Stance  IndyBay   ...Protester numbers swelled during a march down Market Street, eventually reaching an estimated 500...One arrested as Teamsters protest Highway 101 project  The Press Democrat   ...The picketers were protesting the delivery of the concrete by Superior Supplies Inc., a company whose drivers they said are not in the Teamsters union. They were striking to encourage the company to allow its employees to be represented by the union, Teamsters Local 665 President Ralph Miranda said... 
Black History Is Teamster History  teamster.org   ...The contributions of black members to the success of the Teamsters Union are numerous, varied and as old as the union itself. Black team drivers attended the first Convention in 1903 and were active in all aspects of the union from the beginning. That commitment remains strong today...
Teamsters Local 657 to Host Training for Pipeline Construction Workers  teamster.org  ...The Teamsters National Pipeline Training Fund in collaboration with Teamsters Local 657 will sponsor a Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) training program on Feb. 16 in Brownswood, Texas...
Report Opens Way to Approval for Oil Pipeline  New York Times   ...The State Department released a report on Friday concluding that the Keystone XL pipeline would not substantially worsen carbon pollution, leaving an opening for President Obama to approve the politically divisive project...
Hated on the Left, the TPP Draws Conservative Foes  Trade Reform   ...the American Jobs Alliance and the United States Business and Industry Council—pro-business groups wary of trade’s impact on America’s national interests—joined with Tea Party Nation and the socially conservative Eagle Forum to rail against the TPP...
Walmart warns: Food stamp cuts hurt our profits  Raw Story   ...Walmart Friday said bad weather and cuts in food stamp support for the poor weighed on US sales and would hit earnings for its November-January fourth quarter...
America's Shopping Malls Are Dying A Slow, Ugly Death  Business Insider   ...Traffic-driving anchors like Sears and JCPenney are shutting down stores, and mall owners are having a hard time finding retailers large enough to replace them...
Corporate welfare costs more than pension obligations  Washington Post ...states often spend more on tax breaks and subsidies for businesses than funding their ... pension plans...
Goldman Awards Blankfein $14.7 Million in Stock Bonus  New York Times   ...Goldman Sachs’s board granted its chief executive, Lloyd C. Blankfein, restricted shares worth $14.7 million as part of his pay package for 2013, according to a filing made public on Thursday..,
The Greedy Leading the Greedy - Multimillionaire Former Johnson and Johnson CEO Approved Huge Compensation for JP Morgan Chase CEO After Company Paid $20 Billion in Legal Settlements  Health Care Renewal   ...The current compensation set by the board of directors of JP Morgan Chase for CEO Jamie Dimon, $20 million a year, has attracted some attention ... especially given the contrast between his raise and the $20 billion or so the company had to pay out last year in settlements of allegations of unethical practices...
NY Judge Approves $8.5 Billion Bank of America Mortgage Settlement  Money News   ...A New York judge on Friday approved most of the $8.5 billion Bank of America settlement over investor losses from mortgage-backed securities ... Critics of the settlement had argued that it represented only a fraction of the losses...
Billionaires Attempt To Convince Society That They Are The Good Guys  In These Times   ...America’s rich see themselves as victims of Nazi-like persecution...
Koch-Tied Groups Funded GOP Effort to Mess With Electoral College Rules  Mother Jones   ...Last election season, a shadowy nonprofit pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into a campaign to change how electoral votes are counted...
Amazon wants to send stuff before you order it. Are other retailers doomed?  Washington Post   ...A couple weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal happened upon a 27-page patent for what Amazon.com calls "anticipatory" or "speculative" shipping, which sounds insane. Here's how it works, in a nutshell...
Reinhart and Rogoff: Great Recession may "surpass in severity" the Great Depression in many Countries  Calculated Risk   ...The policies of austerity in Europe have failed miserably and many countries there are experiencing a worse slump than during the Depression (austerity in the US has held back the recovery too...
Illinois company fires woman hours after learning she has cancer  New York Daily News   ...A Chicago-area women is filing a disability discrimination lawsuit, claiming her boss gave her the boot after realizing she’d have to take significant time off for cancer treatments...

Screw U: How For-Profit Colleges Rip You Off  Mother Jones   ...The for-profit college industry makes a killing while handing out expensive degrees that fizzle in the real world...
Where are the jobs? Indiana job numbers still don't add up  WTHR.com   ... Indiana is keeping secrets about hundreds of projects, thousands of missing jobs and millions in taxpayer dollars used to pay for them...
Appeals court allows secret probe into recall elections to proceed  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...The unanimous decision by the Madison-based 4th District Court of Appeals panel is a victory for prosecutors and comes just three weeks after they faced a separate setback by the judge overseeing the investigation. That earlier ruling quashed subpoenas to conservative groups supporting Gov. Scott Walker...
RI lawmakers want to stop banks from evicting tenants in foreclosed properties  Associated Press   ...Two Rhode Island lawmakers are sponsoring legislation to make it harder for banks to evict tenants from foreclosed properties...
Repeal of prevailing wage law would result in a weakened economy, University researchers say  The Daily Illini   ...Pressure from increasing state budget deficits, as well as debt from underfunded pensions, have caused critics to call for the repeal of Illinois’ prevailing wage law for government construction projects. However ... Illinois’ prevailing wage law creates many positive economic and social impacts, and repealing it would not result in any considerable savings for taxpayers or the state...
States Are Feeling the Pinch from Lost Unemployment Revenues  teamster.org   ...more than $1.76 billion has been stripped from state economies across the U.S. since the GOP denied the extension of unemployment insurance...

The real war on Christmas

Brother Benjamin Carlson posted this image of the real war on Christmas on the Teamsters Facebook page. And those SNAP benefits (food stamps) cost a taxpayer making $50,000 a year just $36, according to The Progress Report.  

Corporate welfare, on the other hand, cost that taxpayer $6,000:

When it comes to funding the rest of America’s social safety net programs, the average American taxpayer making $50,000 a year pays just over six dollars a year. 

But the American taxpayer is paying a lot for the billions of dollars the U.S. government gives to corporate America each year. The average American family pays a staggering $6,000 a year in subsidies to big business. 

Where does some of that $6,000 every year actually go? For starters, $870 of it goes to direct subsidies and grants for corporations. This includes money for subsidies to Big Oil companies that are polluting our skies and fueling climate change. 

An additional $870 goes to corporate tax [loopholes that other taxpayers end up paying for] — or twice as much; Citizens for Tax Justice found that the U.S. Treasury lost $181 billion in corporate tax subsidies, which means the average American family could be out as much as $1,600 per year. 

Of that $6,000 for corporations each year, $1,231 of it goes to making up for revenue losses from corporate tax havens. This money goes to recouping losses from giant transnational corporations like Apple and GE that hide their money overseas to boost profits and avoid paying income taxes. 

Merry Christmas.

Fast food workers to strike in 100 cities tomorrow

The low-wage strike wave continues this week as fast-food workers and supporters gear up for tomorrow’s national day of strikes and protests. Fast-food workers are demanding living wages and the right to unionize.

Organizers say widespread walkouts targeting fast-food chains will hit up to 100 cities tomorrow. This latest round of strikes follows last week’s Black Friday strikes against Walmart that saw worker protests at up to 1,500 Walmart stores and resulted in over 100 arrests. It also follows the 36-hour strike by port truck drivers who haul Walmart goods at the Port of Los Angeles starting Nov. 18.

Fast-food workers are hoping Thursday’s strikes will be the largest ever, doubling the reach of mass strikes in August that spread to more than 50 cities.

TIME magazine reports on the upcoming strikes:

An organized labor movement that began at a single New York McDonald’s about a year ago is planned to spread to around 100 cities this week. Fast-food workers nationwide are redoubling their efforts to earn higher wages with a more aggressive set of one-day strikes that organizers say will hit every region of the U.S.

Over the course of the last year, the fast-food protests, which are being backed by union groups such as the Service Employees International Union, have expanded greatly in scope.

Retail and fast-food corporations are raking in billions of dollar while their workers scrape by on poverty wages. Multibillion dollar fast-food giants like McDonald’s cost taxpayers $7 billion a year in public assistance because they pay their workers so little. Meanwhile, a new study released yesterday exposed a tax loophole that allowed fast food chains to reap an extra $64 million over the last two years, feeding more bloated executive pay.

These corporate welfare queens do more than give crumbs to workers – they directly push their employees onto welfare, give them demeaning tips about how to survive on low pay, and ask low-wage workers to donate to other low-wage workers instead of paying them a living wage.

The rising movement of low-wage workers is growing – and it’s bigger than retail and fast food. Workers in other low-wage industries such as warehouse workers, port truck drivers and government contract workers have been staging protests and strikes, too.

Tomorrow’s fast-food strikes promise to keep the momentum going in the fight against corporate America’s sweatshop economy.

According to the Low Pay Is Not Okay website:

We’ve got their attention, and the fast food giants we work for are going to hear us Thursday. Over the last couple of weeks there has been an amazing – and inspiring – outpouring of support for workers like us who don’t get paid enough to make ends meet.

On Thursday, supporters will be protesting and rallying in solidarity with us across the country!

Mary Coleman, a 59 year-old worker at Popeye’s who relies on food stamps, was quoted in The Nation saying,

I'm tired of working for $7.25. I can't take care of my household; I can't even take care of myself. Everyday struggles are being able to keep food on the table, being able to get the necessities that are needed for everyday living…And then if you need to go to the doctor, you can't afford that either…

I'm very excited about [Thursday’s strikes], and it lets me know people can come together and do what's right.

Teamsters are encouraged to come out tomorrow and stand in solidarity with low-wage workers in the fast-food industry. Click here to find a protest near you!

ALL American workers deserve living wages – not McWages!

Today's Teamster News 02.24.13

Why Should Taxpayers Give Big Banks $83 Billion a Year?  Bloomberg   ...the banks occupying the commanding heights of the U.S. financial industry -- with almost $9 trillion in assets, more than half the size of the U.S. economy -- would just about break even in the absence of corporate welfare. ..
40% of Americans Now Make Less Than 1968 Minimum Wage  The Contributor   ...“If the minimum wage had risen in step with productivity growth [since 1968], it would be over $16.50 an hour today. That is higher than the hourly wages earned by 40 percent of men and half of women...”
'Citizen tide' of protests swamps Spain  AFP   ...Spaniards furious at hardship and corruption scandals in the financial crisis massed in cities across the country on Saturday in a "citizens' tide" of protests...
2 Lucas County officials denounce Kasich's budget  Toledo Blade   ...Lucas County Auditor Anita Lopez and Treasurer Wade Kapszukiewicz ... said the governor's proposed budget would represent a tax increase for middle class and working class Ohioans when the expanded sales tax is taken into account, and leaves less money for local schools and local government services...
State's private-sector job creation slowed, census data shows  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...Just as troubling ... is that Friday's report also shows that average private-sector wages in the July-September period of last year fell 1.2% from the same quarter in 2011...
Teamsters say strike now likely against school bus company  Mid-Hudson News   ...Teamsters Local 445, the union that represents 165 bus drivers and monitors in the Dutchess BOCES and Rhinebeck and Spackenkill school districts, said on Saturday that negotiations broke down this past week...

Today's Teamster News 02.21.13

U.S. Banks Bigger Than GDP as Accounting Rift Masks Risk  Bloomberg News   ...Applying stricter accounting standards for derivatives and off-balance-sheet assets would make the banks twice as big as they say they are -- or about the size of the U.S. economy...
JPMorgan Leads U.S. Banks Lending Least Deposits in 5 Years  Bloomberg News   ...The biggest U.S. banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. are lending the smallest portion of their deposits in five years as cash floods in from savers and a slow economy damps demand from borrowers...
The European debt crisis claims a new victim: Bulgaria  Marketplace   ...The government of Bulgaria has quit after nationwide protests against austerity measures...
Watchdog Group Sues IRS Over Dark Money Rules  Talking Points Memo   ...Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) ... sue(d) the IRS, accusing the agency of creating a loophole that has allowed groups like the American Action Network to flourish...
U.S. Ups Ante for Spying on Firms  Wall Street Journal   ...The White House threatened China and other countries with trade and diplomatic action over corporate espionage as it cataloged more than a dozen cases of cyberattacks and commercial thefts at some of the U.S.'s biggest companies...
Michigan Weighs Detroit Takeover  Wall Street Journal   ...This city inched closer to a state takeover on Tuesday after a review team appointed by Michigan's governor concluded Detroit was in a state of financial emergency with no realistic plan to resolve the crisis...
Risky business tax breaks cost Maine $100 million per year  Portland Press Herald   ...Reducing or eliminating what critics call corporate welfare has proved difficult because of the political clout of businesses, experts say...
Right-to-work law doesn't apply to us, state employees unions say in lawsuit  Detroit Free Press   ...Several state employee unions are asking the Michigan Court of Appeals to formally declare that new right-to-work laws do not apply to labor agreements that affect the 34,500 unionized state workers...
Dayton signs bill ratifying state employee contracts  Minnesota Public Radio   ...The contracts give a two percent across-the-board pay increase to 35,000 state workers...
Beer distributors oppose privatization  TribLive.com   ...A new proposal by Gov. Tom Corbett's administration to privatize wine and liquor sales and expand where beer is sold could pose the greatest threat to businesses like (Cox Distributors) since the 1930s...
Teachers, unions cry foul over legislators' surprise move to prevent dues collections  Evansville Courier & Press   ...A House panel advanced a measure Tuesday that would bar schools from deducting union fees from teachers’ paychecks — a move backed by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce...
Rick Scott's first job creator, Vision Airlines, charged with grand theft  Miami Herald   ...The airline abandoned its flights to Fort Walton Beach in less than two years. It also, local officials say, abandoned its contractual obligations to the area. In December, county commissioners sued the company for nearly $150,000 in unpaid airline fees...
Prison Unions Skeptical as Bipartisan 'Smart Justice Bill' Filed in Legislature  Sunshine State News   ...As many as 1,200 prisoners could get a new lease on life if two of the Florida Legislature's leading figures on criminal justice issues have their way; one of the state's largest unions is supporting the gist of the reform package, but taking strong issue with its prison privatization component...
Anti-union bills held back in Arizona Legislature  Phoenix Business Journal   ...Two anti-union bills in the Arizona Legislature are being held back after drawing concerns from police and firefighter groups...
Senior Flexonics Workers Overwhelmingly Join Teamsters Local 330  Teamsters Joint Council 25   ...By a 3-to-1 margin, approximately 350 automotive, energy, medical and aerospace supply manufacturers in suburban Chicago voted to join Teamsters Local 330 on Feb. 15...
Teamsters Local 237 Backs Incumbent Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes  New York Daily News   ... The Teamsters' biggest local is backing Brooklyn DA Joe Hynes for election to a seventh term...