Today's Teamster News 02.27.14

Teamster News
Teamster Feed Manufacturer Increasing Union Workforce in Illinois  Teamsters Joint Council 25   ...Teamster membership at Hubbard Feeds is expanding this month as the Canadian-based animal feed manufacturer hires more union labor to meet the demands of production. The workers are represented by Teamsters Local 722...
Teamsters get details on inmate paving plan  WKBN   ...Mahoning County Engineer Pat Ginnetti wants to try out a new program to fill all those pesky potholes we’ve all been complaining about and save the county some money at the same time…It sounds like a good idea, but Ginnetti admits he didn’t run it by union leaders first. Road crews in Mahoning County are represented by the Teamsters…
John H. Cleveland, A Teamster’s Life  teamster.org   ...In 2006, the Teamsters Union started a biography series on past Teamster leaders, who made a huge difference, with the story of John Cleveland, the first African-American International Vice President of the Teamsters, who broke through barriers and devoted his life to improving society at all levels for all people—a true Teamster...
Teamsters Hold Pipeline Stewards School  teamster.org   ...More than 200 stewards, business agents and principal officers from Teamster local unions with pipeline projects across the country attended the 2nd Annual Pipeline Stewards School held this week...
Hoffa Slams Job-Killing Pacific Rim Trade Deal  teamster.org    ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa blasted the secret negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) at a Capitol Hill press conference Wednesday and warned of further hemorrhaging of U.S. jobs if the trade deal is approved...
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Talks Hit Doldrums: Will Obama Visit To Japan In April make A Difference?  International Business Times   ...Labor unions oppose free-trade agreements because they believe companies will go where the labor is cheapest and manufacturers of low-wage goods will undercut producers in the U.S., where wages and costs of living are higher...
State Battles
Wisconsin Justices To Decide On Criminal Probe Involving Their Own Campaign Donors  ThinkProgress   ...A criminal probe in Wisconsin targets several major spenders on state supreme court races. Yet the justices who benefited from that spending will likely get to decide whether this probe moves forward...
Illinois Considering Bill Mandating Students Learn the History of Labor Unions  TheBlaze   ...The Illinois state Senate is considering legislation that would make it mandatory for public school students to learn the history of labor unions and the collective bargaining process...
Ohio Early Voting Will No Longer Take Place On Sundays, Weekday Evenings  Huffington Post   ...Ohio voters will no longer be able to take part in early voting on Sundays or weekday nights, according to hours set by Secretary of State Jon Husted...
War on Workers
Report: 75 percent of corporate subsidies soaked up by richest companies  Raw Story   ... eight out of the top 20 firms receiving  subsidies are not  U.S. companies, meaning American taxpayers are subsidizing foreign firms...
Study: More than half of U.S. housing wealth concentrated in 10 percent of communities  Washington Post   ...By contrast, the bottom 40 percent held 8 percent of the wealth, or $700 billion...
Foreclosures Surging in New York-New Jersey Market  Bloomberg   ...The epicenter of the U.S. foreclosure crisis is shifting to New Jersey and New York, threatening a housing rebound in one of the country’s most densely populated areas...
South by Southwest’s unpaid labor problem: Why it’s risking a class action lawsuit  Salon   ...Company running the hip festival relies on 3000 volunteers. Experts say that violates minimum wage laws...
Florida woman living off the grid forced to connect to city utilities  Salon   ...A judge ruled that it's illegal to disconnect from the city's water system...
30,000 Protesters Take To The Streets in Nantes, France  The Prudent Investor   ...the economic crisis erupts into fire in the heartland of the Eurozone. 30,000 protesters took to the streets in Nantes, France on Saturday, in an ongoing struggle to prevent the building of a new airport...
South Korean Labor and Civic Groups Stage Strike  Global Voices   ...about 40 thousand South Koreans (police estimate 15 thousand) held protests across the country. The demonstration, spearheaded by Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, calls halt to a clampdown on labor groups, the government's move towards privatization of public sector and cover-up of the presidential election manipulation scandal...
Greek port workers strike over privatization plans  Associated Press ...Greek dock workers across the country walked off the job Wednesday in a 24-hour strike to protest plans to sell a stake in the Piraeus Port Authority, the country’s largest port...
Sen. Corker outs himself as a lying dirt bag on unions  Press TV   ...Know how southern Republican politicians who support “right to work” laws claim they’re not against unions as such — just against closed shop contracts that force workers to join a union as a condition of employment? They’re liars. The negative outcome of the recent UAW certification vote at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga proves that, if you needed any more proof...
Detroit public safety union leaders say pension cuts 'crippling,' 'unacceptable'  The Detroit News   ...Officials with Detroit’s public safety unions on Monday blasted the city’s “brutal and unreasonable” plan to cut pensions as it aims to shed about half of its estimated $18 billion in debt...
Walmart’s Big Push to Go Small—and Destroy Your Neighborhood Dollar Store  Time   ...After months of subpar sales, the prototypical big-box retailer is embracing the idea that one size does not fit all...
Miscellaneous
Bank Of America Faces Probe Over Federal Housing Program  Reuters   ...Bank of America Corp said on Tuesday that federal investigators are looking into whether the bank violated certain requirements of a government housing program...
House Republican unveils sweeping tax reform with focus on Wall Street  The Guardian   ... Dave Camp, a Michigan Republican who chairs the House ways and means committee, larger banks would have to pay a penalty for receiving government bailouts, and would face a new tax on their worldwide assets. Wall Street’s private equity barons would also be hit hard by a proposal to end the controversial ‘carried interest’ rule which lets them avoid income tax by paying themselves through profits treated as capital gains and taxed under lower rates than those to which income is typically subject...
Western Union Investigation: FTC Launches Probe Over Fraud-Induced Money Transfers  Reuters   ...Money-transfer company Western Union Co is being probed by the Federal Trade Commission and a U.S. district court over fraud-induced money transfers, the company said in a regulatory filing on Monday...
Lawsuit: Attempted Entrapment of Activists by Military Officer & Further Evidence of Domestic Spying  Fire Dog Lake   ...A lawsuit challenging domestic military spying against citizens engaged in antiwar activism and acts of civil disobedience obtained a public record that further confirms the United States Army was involved in targeting “leftists” or “anarchists” as domestic terrorists in 2007...

Today's Teamster News 05.15.13

Fast-food workers stage protests for higher wages  USA Today   ...A recent wave of strikes by fast-food employees in four cities is expected to spread to Milwaukee Wednesday as demands for higher pay shake up an industry previously insulated from worker unrest...
Tougher drunken driving threshold weighed  Associated Press  ...Federal accident investigators were weighing a recommendation Tuesday that states reduce their threshold for drunken driving from the current .08 blood alcohol content to .05, a standard that has been shown to substantially reduce highway deaths in other countries...
Walmart Sues Labor Organizations Over 'Disorderly Conduct' That Helped Spark National Protests  Huffington Post ...Walmart is accusing two labor organizations of "disorderly conduct" during a protest at a Los Angeles-area Walmart last year that helped set off a chain of demonstrations nationwide against the retail giant...
Gap, Walmart Fail To Endorse Bangladesh Safety Accord Backed By Europe's Biggest Retailers  Reuters   ...Major U.S. retailers, including Gap Inc, declined to endorse an accord on Bangladesh building and fire safety backed by Europe's two biggest fashion chains, a trans-Atlantic divide that may dilute garment industry reform efforts...

Eight top fashion retailers fail to sign Bangladesh safety accord  The Guardian   ..."Are 1,200 dead workers not enough to make them realise something needs to be done?"...
DOD poised to trim furlough days, add exemptions  Associated Press   ...The Defense Department is poised to trim the number of civilian furlough days from 14 to 11 and will allow the military to exempt thousands of additional workers from the unpaid day off requirements, according to defense officials...
CBO Update: Deficit Shrinking Rapidly  Calculated Risk   ...The rapidly declining deficit might provide policymakers some room to alter the ill-conceived sequestration budget cuts. But at the least, this takes all short term (next 2 to 3 years) deficit reduction proposals off the table... 
Elizabeth Warren Pushes Feds For Answer On Big Bank Enforcement  Huffington Post   ...Sen. Elizabeth Warren raised the stakes of her quest to find out why a single Wall Street bank has not been prosecuted in the aftermath of the financial crisis Tuesday, sending a letter to the heads of three federal agencies...
New Amtrak Engines Unveiled for Northeast  New York Times   ...Amtrak rolled out three new locomotives on Monday, the first step in the railroad’s plan to modernize its aging fleet of trains...
Former Florida GOP Hispanic outreach director switches to Democrat  Miami Herald   ...Pablo Pantoja, who was at one time employed as the RNC's Hispanic outreach director in Florida but has switched to Democrat, citing "the culture of intolerance surrounding the Republican Party…
Officials mark new W.Va. pipeline safety law  Associated Press   ...State and local officials are marking West Virginia's new pipeline safety law. The legislation raises state penalties for safety violations to federal levels...
NJ Governor Vetoes Early Voting Bill  FMF News   ...New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) vetoed a bill on Thursday that would have created 14 days of in-person early voting in New Jersey...
Workers strike at IKEA Richmond store  CBC News   ...IKEA's Richmond store is behind picket lines after the Teamsters union served the company with a strike notice last week. Teamsters Local 213 in Vancouver, BC — which represents 350 store employees — takes issue with the company's contract offers, rejected twice by members, which proposed a return to a tiered-wage system...