America needs to keep its pension promise to workers!

Teamsters VP John Murphy speaks at press event

Today Teamsters and other labor allies stood with Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) in Washington DC to support new legislation that would protect the hard-earned pensions of workers and strengthen multi-employer pension plans.

Called the "Keep Our Pension Promises Act," the measure would:

...roll back provisions slipped into the fiscal 2015 spending bill approved by Congress last year that made earned pensions benefits vulnerable to cuts. The measure would restore anti-cutback rules so that recipients in financially troubled multi-employer pension plans will be protected from having their benefits cut.

The new legislation would also create a fund within the Pension Benefit  Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) to help ensure retirees whose pension systems were abandoned by companies will continue to receive their earned benefits.

How will the government pay to cover these workers suffering the broken promise of a well-deserved retirement? By closing tax loopholes abused by some of the same corporate forces and wealthy elites looting workers' pensions across America.

As Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said,

Retirees and workers who have played by the rules should receive the benefits they were promised. The Teamsters thank Sen. Sanders and Rep. Kaptur for taking steps to ensure the government repairs some of the damage done by big banks to these retirement plans.

Teamsters Vice President John Murphy also spoke at this morning's press conference where the bill - sponsored by Sanders and Kaptur - was unveiled:

Government actions like deregulation, bad trade deals and bailing out the big banks have all played a role in the pension crisis. The solutions to the problem should not rest on workers who have worked hard for their pensions.

Also at today's event was Frank Bryant, a retired UPS Teamster driver of 31 years. Bryant is 74 years old and is worried about his pension. He and others see the "Keep Our Pension Promises Act" as an important response to Congress's shameless betrayal of 1.5 million retirees whose troubled multi-employer plans are now open to severe cuts of 30 percent or more.

Our country made a commitment to hardworking Americans and that commitment needs to be met. We can't allow Wall Street to plunder workers' retirements security and government to renege on its promises to the men and women who make our economy run.

It's about time Congress shows the same level of concern for workers' lives - on the job and in retirement - as it shows for corporate welfare.

The fight goes on to keep tired truckers off the road

At least one U.S. senator vows to follow the public's wishes to keep tired truckers off the road.

Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal said he will try to restore the 70-hour limit that truck drivers can work in a week. Congress extended those house to 82 in the hideous CRomnibus bill. The CRomnibus also lets already earned benefits be cut for retirees, allows Wall Street banks to gamble with taxpayer-insured dollars and permits rich people to spend much, much more on political campaigns.

President Obama signed the bill into law last night.

What's especially galling about the dangerous increase in the number of hours truckers may drive is how it passed. First, Maine Sen. Susan Collins sneaked it onto a spending bill -- one larded, by the way, with gifts for the wealthy (like the trucking industry) at the expense of the many.

Second, Collins did it two days before a Walmart driver who hadn't slept in 24 hours slammed into a limousine, killing James McNair and critically injuring Tracy Morgan.

Third, the measure was passed without hearings or debate. (Tracy Morgan is suing Walmart for its lax safety practices.) If members of Congress had openly deliberated about the dangerous increase in the number of hours truckers may drive, they would have found 80 percent of the public wants truck drivers' hours limited to 70 hours a week.

As the Commercial Carrier Journal reported:

The survey by Lake Research Partners shows 80 percent of the public oppose Congress “raising the number of hours a semi-truck driver is allowed to work in a week from 70 to 82 hours,” which is “more than twice the normal work week for most people,” as the poll question reads. 

“This survey reveals a clear disconnect between what the public wants and what special trucking interests want from Congress at the expense of public safety for everyone,” Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety President Jackie Gillan said in conference call. “We urge Congress to reject this anti-safety change and heed the public’s correct assessment of the dangers.” 

Pollster Joshua Ulenberry called the results “remarkable” and “impressive.” 

“You do not get to 80 percent opposed in any question unless you have really wide and deep support,” he said, noting the bipartisan breakdown of the survey responses.

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Blumenthal pushed an amendment to keep the existing hours of service limits. Blumenthal said he'll fight on:

I certainly will make an effort legislatively to reverse the rollback. All of the folks who have an interest in transportation safety are dismayed and disheartened by this rollback of common-sense safety rules, everyone from the Teamsters and the truck drivers to the safety advocates.

The CRomnibus fiasco, or how the many end up giving to the few

The hideous CRomnibus bill is now awaiting President Obama's signature over the Teamsters' strident opposition. 

The CRomnibus bill would allow already-earned pension benefits to be cut, extend the hours a truck driver may work to 82 a week, lets Wall Street gamble with taxpayer-insured funds and lets rich people spend more money on political campaigns.

If you want to tell President Obama to veto the CRomnibus, you can email him at www.whitehouse.gov/contact.  (The White House comments line has been shut down.)

David Cay Johnston points out how the CRomnibus is yet another example of Congress taking from the many and giving to the few. Unlike most journalists, Johnston focuses on the possible pension cuts rather than the Wall Street giveaway. Writes Johnston in National Memo.

In what could have been a scene in the Hunger Games movies, the big banks and our elected leaders joined together to steal from blue-collar workers. 

For the first time in 40 years, since the Employee Retirement Income Security Act was adopted in 1974 to ensure workers would collect pay they deferred into pension plans for their old age, Congress decided that benefits already earned can be taken away.

Johnston calls out the elitism of the mainstream media in ignoring the pension debacle:

This historic shift got one sentence in The New York Times: “It allows certain multi-employer pension plans to shore up their finances by cutting retirees’ benefits.”...

That this provision got almost no news coverage shows just how much our leading news organizations cater to economic elites favored by advertisers, and how the current generation of reporters at the best news organizations comes heavily from the upper economic tiers of American society. 

Reporters and editors whose parents were coal miners, truck drivers and clerks have given way to those with degrees from elite schools, some with trust funds that insulate them from the realities of American life for the vast majority. With that shift comes a predicable change in perspective, from “there is plenty that needs fixing” to “the world generally seems quite just.” 

In the late 1990s I suggested a story about how a family gets by on two grand a month. A prosperous colleague at The Times said, “No one in New York City lives on $25,000.” When I offered to take my colleague to the subway stop at 74th St. and Roosevelt Ave. in Queens, saying we could easily find such people on the streets, the reply shifted to this: “Oh, those people. Nobody cares about those people.” 

 Please remember to send that email and ask President Obama to veto the CRomnibus.

Today's Teamster News 12.14.14

Teamsters
Teamsters Denounce Senate Passage Of Omnibus Spending Bill  teamster.org   ..."With the passage of the omnibus spending bill by the Senate, we have witnessed the latest attack by corporate interests on working families. Big business and Wall Street have bought and paid for influence and access that has allowed them to continue to enrich corporations at the expense of the middle class....
The end of horse-drawn carriages in New York City?  Pet Today   ...Video: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says he’s sticking to his election promise to outlaw one of the city’s most iconic images, horse-drawn carriages...
Schwebel's eyes first quarter of 2015 for closure of Cuyahoga Falls plant  Falls News Press   …Of the 119 employees, 100 are represented by either Teamsters Local 377 (Drivers), Teamsters Local 336 or Teamsters Local 52; the other 19 are not in a union, according to the letter...
Trade
Column: What you should to know about hushed negotiations taking place between the EU and US  thejournal.ie   ...There are huge concerns regarding the secrecy in which the TTIP negotiations have been shrouded. We only became aware of the mandate for the negotiations through a leaked document and subsequent public pressure forced the European Commission, an undemocratically appointed body, to make it publicly available...
Don’t fast track TPP   My San Antonio   ...Unbelievably, they want this fast track legislation passed before we or Congress know what is in the TPP, which is being negotiated in secrecy. The fast tracking of the trade agreement bears scrutiny because it will be worse than the failed North American Free Trade Agreement passed in 1994... 
War on Workers
Americans are 40% poorer than before the recession  MarketWatch   ...The net worth of American families — the difference between the values of their assets, including homes and investments, and liabilities — fell to $81,400 in 2013, down slightly from $82,300 in 2010, but a long way off the $135,700 in 2007, according to a new report...
Why America's middle class is lost  Washington Post   ...Workers today produce nearly twice as many goods and services per hour on the job as they did in 1989, but as a group, they get less of the nation’s economic pie. In 81 percent of America’s counties, the median income is lower today than it was 15 years ago...
‘Enough is enough’: Elizabeth Warren’s launches fiery attack after Congress weakens Wall Street regs  Washington Post   ...in recent years, many Wall Street institutions have exerted extraordinary influence in Washington’s corridors of power, but Citigroup has risen above the others. Its grip over economic policymaking in the executive branch is unprecedented...
Warren to banks: We should have ‘broken you into pieces’  The Hill   ...Warren argues the repeal of the provision is a hand out to powerful banks that would leave taxpayer holding the bag again if risky investments fall through. “I agree with you Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect,” Warren said. “It should have broken you into pieces...
Senate Passes $1.1 Trillion Spending Bill  Associated Press   ...The vote was 56-40 in favor of the measure, which funds nearly the entire government through the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year. It also charts a new course for selected shaky pension plans covering more than 1 million retirees, including the possibility of benefit cuts...
New Leak Reveals Luxembourg Tax Deals for Disney, Koch Brothers Empire  International Consortium of Investigative Journalists   ...Disney and Koch Industries, a U.S.-based energy and chemical conglomerate, both created tangles of interlocking corporations in Luxembourg that may have helped them slash the taxes they pay in the U.S. and Europe, according to the documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists...
How to stop wage stagnation? Stronger collective bargaining, says new report  Left Foot Forward   ...The reports says that average wage growth in developed economies has fluctuated around 1 per cent per year since 2006 and then slowed further in 2012 and 2013 to only 0.1 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively...
3 workers killed in fire at Dallas high-rise  USA Today   ...The fire broke out in the garage of the 50-story glass tower just before 11 a.m., forcing about 2,800 people to evacuate. The three workers who died were subcontractors working on the air conditioning system in the basement garage, Dallas Fire Rescue spokesman Jason Evans said...

Today's Teamster News 12.13.14

Teamster News
While Cromnibus Waits, Teamsters Object to Pension Plan  Roll Call   ...the Senate might not be able to hold its final vote on the measure until Monday...Teamsters Object. With the fiscal 2015 spending bill on track for action, the Teamsters union is weighing in with a last-ditch effort to get lawmakers to reject the measure. A statement from Teamsters President Jim Hoffa pointed to pension changes in the measure, which the union said would result “in an untold number of retirees losing a substantial percentage of their fixed income should reductions be required.” The Teamsters are also objecting to the controversial hours of service rules in the bill...
34-Hour Restart Changes: House Passes Spending Bill; Eyes On Senate  Commercial Carrier Journal   ...First, it removes the requirement that drivers’ 34-hour restarts include two 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. periods. Second, it removes the one-per-week limit of the restart’s use. It also requires FMCSA to produce a study to show how the restart provisions improve safety. The stay of enforcement of the rules will end after Sept. 30, 2015, and after FMCSA provides its report justifying the rules...
Reid Announces Weekend Votes After Blockade (Updated)  Roll Call   ...Reid also said that absent an agreement, the Senate would vote at 1 a.m. Sunday to limit debate on the cromnibus spending package...
CRomnibus Disaster Signals a Sad New Normal in D.C.  The Fiscal Times   ...Under the bill, trustees would be enabled to cut pension benefits to current retirees, reversing a 40-year bond with workers who earned their retirement packages...
Sysco Poised To Complete $8.2B Merger With US Foods  New York Post   ...Sysco is poised to complete the $8.2 billion merger with its closest rival, US Foods, but at a much stiffer price than expected, The Post has learned. America’s biggest food-service provider, Sysco is selling assets worth $5 billion to Performance Food Group (owned by Steve Schwarzman-led Blackstone Group) to win regulatory approval, two sources said. That is equal to roughly one-quarter of US Foods’ revenue...
Congressman Urges Cooperation Between Teamsters And Giant Eagle Distributor  WFMJ   ...Representative Ryan as sent letters pleading with the Tamarkin Company and Teamsters Local 377  to “quickly and efficiently negotiate a fair resolution to the ongoing labor dispute. The result of an impasse is simply not in the best interests of the workers, the company or this community,” writes Ryan...
State AFL-CIO opposes Bill de Blasio's horse carriage ban  New York Daily News   ... A resolution passed Friday by the state AFL-CIO says New York City's carriage industry provides 300 good middle-class jobs. The major statewide labor coalition is the latest of several union groups to vow to fight the mayor's proposal...
Trade
Growing U.S. trade deficit with China cost 3.2 million jobs between 2001 and 2013, with job losses in every state  Economic Policy Institute   ...a growing U.S. goods trade deficit with China has the United States piling up foreign debt, losing export capacity, and losing jobs, especially in the vital but under-siege manufacturing sector...
Obama 'more optimistic' about Pacific trade deal  The Hill   ...President Obama said Thursday he believes the odds for striking a Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement are "significantly higher than 50-50" in a meeting Thursday with his export council...
State Battles
Warren County Votes To Become Right To Work County  WBKO   ...Fiscal Court approved a right to work ordinance on the first reading Thursday morning with a vote of 5-1, democrat Tommy Hunt was the lone magistrate against it...
Jury still out on Michigan's growth, lack of since becoming right-to-work state  WNEM.com   …Woods said right-to-work isn't creating jobs in Michigan. "Michigan still ranks in the top 10 states in unemployment rate at 7.1 percent," she said...
Rex Sinquefield’s million-dollar donation heralds new craziness in Missouri  Kansas City Star   ...many Missouri Republicans are very nervous about Sinquefield’s ostentatious bankrolling of his personal slate of candidates for the 2016 statewide ticket...
NJ AFL-CIO supports ‘Buy America’ bills  PolitickerNJ   ...Urgently needed legislation that will give American-made products and U.S. workers a fair shake in the domestic marketplace cleared another legislative hurdle on Thursday, December 11, when it was released by the Assembly Budget Committee...
GOP may seek last push for Pa. action  TribLive   ...[Pennsylvania] Lawmakers could make a final push to privatize state liquor stores, reform the public pension system and end government collection of union dues from paychecks — proposals Wolf opposes...
The Koch Wall Street Crusade To Rob Pensions Is Underway  PoliticusUSA   ...despite sending his state into an economic tailspin after squandering a budget surplus and cutting services to provide unimaginable tax cuts for the rich, Kansas governor Sam Brownback is robbing employee pensions to cover the state’s devastating budget shortfalls...
Koch brothers group files suit against Calif. AG, refuses to disclose donors  Legal Newsline   ...nonprofit group founded by the Koch brothers is challenging California Attorney General Kamala Harris’ threat to take its state tax-exempt status unless it discloses the identities of its donors...
War on Workers
Ruling Lets Work Email Be Used To Organize Unions  New York Times   ...Calling that ruling “clearly incorrect,” the current majority noted how technology had transformed daily habits. “The workplace is ‘uniquely appropriate’ and ‘the natural gathering place’ for such communications,” the board wrote, “and the use of email as a common form of workplace communication has expanded dramatically in recent years.”...
The Vanishing Male Worker: How America Fell Behind  New York Times   ...Working, in America, is in decline. The share of prime-age men — those 25 to 54 years old — who are not working has more than tripled since the late 1960s, to 16 percent. More recently, since the turn of the century, the share of women without paying jobs has been rising, too. The United States, which had one of the highest employment rates among developed nations as recently as 2000, has fallen toward the bottom of the list...
Wage Theft Costing Workers Millions of Dollars  RH Reality Check   ...The lost wages in those two states represent $20 million in lost income per week in New York and $29 million in lost income per week in California...
Construction Worker Killed After Roof Collapsed  WGTU   ...A 51-year-old West Branch man was killed after falling through the roof of a building...
Miscellaneous
Verizon's New, Encrypted Calling App Comes Pre-Hacked For The NSA  Bloomberg Businessweek   ...Verizon is the latest big company to enter the post-Snowden market for secure communication, and it's doing so with an encryption standard that comes with a way for law enforcement to access ostensibly secure phone conversations...

Will Senate stand with workers or Wall St. and powerful interests in CRomnibus vote?

The U.S. Senate is poised to pass a spending bill that will make life harder for working people, empowers the wealthy and lets Wall Street gamble with taxpayer-insured money.

It's called the #CRomnibus, and it's horrible.

The House of Representatives passed the bill last night. Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa called out the political cowardice of the members of Congress who voted for it.

I am sure that arms were twisted and promises and threats were made in equal measure to pass a spending bill that is rife with provisions that will only prove damaging to the constituents these officials pledged to represent... 

In one sweep of the pen, pension policies that have protected millions of workers for decades could be irrevocably changed resulting in an untold number of retirees losing a substantial percentage of their fixed income should reductions be required. And who benefits? UPS - a $100 billion, Fortune 50 company that is trying to squirm out of an obligation it agreed to when it withdrew from the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund. 

How did so many pension funds reach this critical stage? The government allowed banks to make risky investments with money from pension funds –the same type of financial gambles that a provision in this spending bill will allow to be made again. 

And while our pension funds are being put at risk by these provisions, trucking companies are pulling the strings of their puppets in Congress to roll back hours of service rules so they can force drivers to work 80 hours a week with insufficient rest.

David Dayen at The Fiscal Times calls it a disaster and lists the many, many ways it harms working people:

...the CRomnibus boosts special interests at the expense of ordinary people in a host of other ways... 

It cuts $60 million from the EPA and a whopping $346 million, about 3 percent, from the IRS, at a time when the agency’s workload will increase with Obamacare. The IRS cuts signal to wealthy earners that they can freely engage in tax avoidance, with little expectation of an audit... 

Under the bill, trustees would be enabled to cut pension benefits to current retirees, reversing a 40-year bond with workers who earned their retirement packages. Voters in the District of Columbia who approved legalized marijuana will see their initiative vaporized, with local government prohibited from taxing or regulating the drug’s sale. Trucking companies can make roads less safe by giving their employees 82-hour work weeks without sufficient rest breaks. Pell grants for college students will be cut, with the money diverted to private student loan contractors who have actively harmed borrowers. Government financiers of overseas projects will be prevented from stopping funding for coal-fired power plants. Blue Cross and Blue Shield will be allowed to count “quality improvement” measures toward their mandatory health spending under Obamacare’s “medical loss ratio” provision, a windfall saving them millions of dollars. 

I’m not done. The bill eliminates a bipartisan measure to end “backdoor” searches by the NSA of Americans’ private communications. It blocks the EPA from regulating certain water sources for farmers. It adds an exception to allow the U.S. to continue to fund Egypt’s military leadership. In a giveaway to potato growers, it reduces nutrition standards in school lunches and the Women, Infant and Children food aid program. It halts the listing of new endangered species. It stops the regulation of lead in hunting ammunition or fishing equipment. It limits contributions to the Green Climate Fund to compensate poor countries ravaged by climate change.

You can help try to stop the disaster from happening. Call your senators at 1-888-979-9806 or follow this link: http://teamster.org/protectpensions. Call NOW!