Workers deserve a share of corporate profits

Big business shouldn't monopolize all the gains.

There was a time many politicians told the public they would benefit from companies earning huge profits. Trickle-down economics, it was called. But even the most deceitful of leaders no longer brings it up. Why? Because it's a big, fat lie.

The people have realized they've been duped. Income inequality is at levels not seen in some 90 years. Big business is taking big bucks to the bank, but few are going back in the wallets of their workers. That's got to change. And the Center for American Progress (CAP) has some ideas how.

A new report released this month says companies need to share more with their employees. It notes the typical workers is almost 60 percent more productive than a worker 25 years ago but has seen only half of their extra work translate into higher wages. While the top 20 percent of families have seen their average worth increase by 120 percent between 1983 and 2010, the middle 20 percent only grew 13 percent, and the bottom fifth saw debts exceed their assets.

It's time for that to change, CAP says:

Broad-based sharing programs—such as granting workers an ownership stake or a share of profits based on workers’ collective performance—can help ensure that workers are rewarded for the wealth they generate. Advocates for these programs refer to this type of sharing by a number of names, including broad-based profit sharing and inclusive capitalism. Collectively, these programs hold the potential not only to benefit workers: Research shows that firms and investors also receive tangible benefits from sharing with their workers.

Calls to revamp this nation's busted economy are getting more frequent. Earlier this year, the Roosevelt Institute released a report of their own written by noted economist Joseph Stiglitz that demanded similar change to revamp the U.S. economic model.

Writing about the document earlier this month in the Huffington Post, Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said it provides a blueprint that workers must insist lawmakers adopt:

Working Americans are being tested by the state of today's economy. But it is not one they can pass on their own. Regular people have led the charge in raising awareness about these issues and taking to the streets all across this country to let elected officials know that the minimum wage is too low, Wall Street is making too much and trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership offer too large of a handout for big business at the expense of workers.

This nation needs systematic change. ... It is time for more lawmakers to declare their independence from big banks and corporate cronies who bend their ears and fill their campaign coffers with cash. Their constituents deserve to have members of Congress who hear their concerns and institute policies to make change happen.

It's great that most elected officials now accept the failings of the past. But if workers want justice, they need to to raise their voices and demand it. Otherwise, too many elected officials will continue to serve their corporate cronies instead.

Today's Teamster News 07.08.14

Teamster News
Port Truck Drivers Picket Harbor-Area Trucking Companies  Los Angeles Times   ...More than 120 truck drivers at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports walked off the job Monday morning, organizers said, launching an indefinite protest against what they say are widespread workplace violations...
Teamsters Initiate Labor Action At LA-Long Beach In Midst Of Longshore Talks  Journal of Commerce   ...The Teamsters union, in the latest salvo in its long-sought plan to organize port truckers, took advantage of a critical juncture in contract negotiations for a new West Coast longshore agreement to set up pickets against three drayage companies operating at Los Angeles-Long Beach...
California Truck Drivers Go On Strike  MSNBC   ...California truck drivers at three major transportation companies went on strike Monday morning, demanding an end to purported labor law violations such as misclassification and intimidation. ...
California Truck Drivers Go On Indefinite Strike  Think Progress   ...The core complaint underlying the union drive is that companies like Total Transportation Services, Inc. (TTSI), Green Fleet Systems, and Pacific 9 Transportation deem their drivers “independent contractors” in order to avoid paying overtime and prevent their workers from enjoying various other labor law protections...
Teamsters Joint Council 16 Makes Three State Senate Endorsements  New York Observer   ...The union backed ex-Councilman Leroy Comrie’s bid against indicted Queens State Senator Malcolm Smith, Dell Smitherman’s campaign against indicted Brooklyn State Senator John Sampson and Bronx State Senator Gustavo Rivera’s re-election campaign against Councilman Fernando Cabrera...
Teamsters union demands action from Ga. Ports Authority  WJCL News   ...Teamsters Local Union 728 out of Atlanta announced this week that it has called on the Georgia Ports Authority to come out publicly condemning the classification of port truck drivers as contract employees rather than full-time...
Trade
NE Ohio steelmakers keeping close eye on Commerce Department ruling  Trade Reform   ...July 11 …(is) the date when the U.S. Department of Commerce is set to decide whether to put new import duties on tubular steel — the type generally referred to as “oil country tubular goods” or “OCTG.”...
Steel Institute Joins Autos and Other Industries in Joint Outreach to Administration on Currency Manipulation  Steel Guru   ...The American Iron and Steel Institute and a dozen other pro manufacturing groups impacted by unfair trade practices have asked the Obama Administration to make sure strong and enforceable provisions prohibiting currency manipulation are included in all future US free trade agreements, including the Trans Pacific Partnership currently under negotiation...
State Battles
No Job Loss In Most States That Raised The Minimum Wage  Fiscal Times   ...Of the 13 states that raised their minimum wages, all but one saw job growth in the first five months of 2014. To be sure, that’s a small achievement in an environment where the national economy is adding something on the order of 250,000 jobs per month. The really interesting finding is that the states that raised the minimum wage saw job growth that was, on average, higher than states that did not...
War On Workers
Why You Feel Poorer  zero hedge   ...Wages are not keeping up with inflation, even the understated numbers reported by government. In short, the decline of a once-great economic power is well underway. The country is no longer growing enough to raise everyone’s standard of living...
American Workers Die Needlessly In The Heat Every Year  Washington Post   ...Over the past 10 years, the average is 36 deaths and 2,810 heat-related illnesses each year. While that’s bad enough, OSHA officials think the true numbers are higher, because autopsies aren’t usually performed on the victims and many heat-related deaths are listed as heart attacks...
Where Does $2 Trillion in Subsidies for the Wealthiest Hide in Plain Sight? Capital Gains Tax Breaks.  Next New Deal   ...Under current law, the federal government will deliver an estimated $1.34 trillion in subsidies to investors over the next 10 years in the form of reduced tax rates for capital gains and dividends. Sixty-eight percent of that money will go to the top 1 percent. Stiglitz argues that there is “no justification for taxing those who work hard to earn a living at a higher rate than those who derive their income from speculation...”
REVEALED: Court docs show role of Pixar and Dreamworks Animation in Silicon Valley wage-fixing cartel  Pando Daily   ...Private emails sent by Pixar’s president and co-founder, Ed Catmull, and found by Pando amongst court documents, clearly state that Katzenberg’s Dreamworks Animation was party to the same secret non-solicitation agreements that the Department of Justice deemed were illegal antitrust violations that served to suppress workers’ wages. Catmull’s deposition in 2013 for the class action lawsuit further demonstrates that Dreamworks Animation was party to the illegal wage theft conspiracy...
Positively Un-American Tax Dodges  Fortune Magazine   ...Yes, leaving the country–a process that tax techies call inversion–is perfectly legal. A company does this by reincorporating in a place like Ireland, where the corporate tax rate is 12.5%, compared with 35% in the U.S. Inversion also makes it easier to divert what would normally be U.S. earnings to foreign, lower-tax locales ... mass inversion is a whole other thing, and that’s where we’re heading...
Miscellaneous
The NSA Said Edward Snowden Had No Access To Surveillance Intercepts. They Lied.  Mother Jones   ...In fact, he provided the Washington Post with a cache of 22,000 intercept reports containing 160,000 individual intercepts. The Post has spent months reviewing these files and estimates that 11 percent of the intercepted accounts belonged to NSA targets and the remaining 89 percent were "incidental" collections from bystanders...

Today's Teamster News 06.06.14

Teamster News
Teamsters Caution FTC Sysco-US Foods Merger Could Harm Competition, Consumers, Workers  IBT   ...On Wednesday, the Teamsters cautioned the Federal Trade Commission staff and state attorneys general investigating Sysco's proposed acquisition of US Foods for anti-trust issues that a merger of the top two U.S. food service providers could limit competition...
Trade
Chicken from China? Your Seafood is Already Being Processed There  Trade Reform   ...fish processors in the Northwest, including Seattle-based Trident Seafoods, are sending part of their catch of Alaskan salmon or Dungeness crab to China to be filleted or de-shelled before returning to U.S. tables...
OMB Bureaucratic Fraud: Foreign Goods to Be Classified as U.S. Produced!  Trade Reform   ...…Apple iPhones built by Foxconn in China and sold in Japan will be counted a U.S. export!...
State Battles
R.I. Senate Committee Oks Bill Raising Minimum Wage  Providence Journal   ...Rhode Island's minimum wage moved one step closer to a one-dollar hike Wednesday. By a unanimous vote, the Senate Labor Committee passed a bill that raises the minimum wage from $8 an hour to $9 an hour, effective Jan. 1, 2015...
Ohio Proposal Aimed At Barring College Athletes From Unionizing Heads To Gov In Budget Bill  U.S. News   ...Ohio lawmakers have passed a bill that says college athletes are not public employees under state law. The idea cleared the state legislature Wednesday as part of a broader bill now headed to the governor's desk...
Study finds strong evidence for discriminatory intent behind voter ID laws  Washington Post   ...State legislators who support voter ID laws are motivated in no small part by racial bias, according to a new study from the University of Southern California...
Some states already lashing at climate rule  Politico Pro   ...Kentucky has gone even further, enacting a law this spring that could block the state from complying with EPA’s rule. West Virginia and Kansas have new laws taking aim at the regulation one way or another, and states like Ohio, Louisiana and Missouri are considering similar measures...
War On Workers
Who Is Behind the National Right to Work Committee and Its Anti-Union Crusade?  Truthout   ...If the court follows National Right to Work's lead, every state in the country would essentially turn into an anti-union "right to work" state, which would be a significant blow to public sector unions' collective bargaining efforts and also complicate thousands of existing contracts between organized workers and municipalities, cities, counties, and states across the country...
Well-Paid Workers Strengthen Local Economies  New York Times   ...Orthodox economists and trickle-down dogmatists are sputtering in disbelief over Seattle's new $15 minimum wage, convinced it will destroy our economy. As House Speaker John Boehner is fond of saying, "If you raise the price of employment, guess what happens? You get less of it." They are wrong...
Three New Ways The Koch Brothers Are Screwing America  Rolling Stone   ...The fourth-richest men in America target low-wage workers, minority voters and unions...
Walmart Workers Strike Today, As Report Says Women Hardest Hit By Retail's Low Wages  Cleveland Plain-Dealer   ...Women are disproportionately impacted by the low wages and often erratic work schedules in the retail industry, says a new report...
Walmart's Executive Tax Bonuses Have Cost Taxpayers $104 Million Since 2009  Think Progress   ...Since 2009, Walmart has ducked $104 million in taxes by exploiting a tax loophole around bonus payments to just eight top executives, according to a report from the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS)...
McDonald's CEO: 'We Will Support' A Minimum Wage Hike  Huffington Post   ...McDonald's CEO Don Thompson recently suggested his company would support a bill, proposed by President Barack Obama, raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour from $7.25...
Miscellaneous
Unions Set High Goal: Collective Bargaining For All Workers  Wall Street Journal   ...Organized labor has embarked on a project to develop legislation that would expand collective bargaining rights of private sector workers, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said...
UAW Elects Dennis Williams President In A Landslide: 'I Feel The Energy'  Detroit Free Press   ...The UAW elected Dennis Williams its 11th president Wednesday in a landslide, putting him in charge of a union struggling to regain bargaining leverage, rebuild its finances and restore political clout...
The Snowden Effect: 8 Things That Happened Only Because Of The NSA Leaks  Huffington Post   ...Brazil gave a massive fighter jet contract to Saab instead of the American company Boeing...

Today's Teamster News 03.28.14

Teamster News
Council Votes To Encourage End To CCTA Strike  WPTZ   ...The Burlington City Council has voted to encourage management with the Chittenden County Transportation Authority and the bus drivers' union, represented by the Teamsters, to end the nearly two-week strike as soon as possible...
Victory at Pasco County, Florida for Teamsters Local 79  teamster.org   ...More than 1,100 Pasco County, Florida public employees will soon be voting on a first Teamster contract now that Local 79, Tampa and the county have agreed on a tentative contract. According to the local union, such issues as seniority, break time, overtime pay, holidays, uniforms and more are addressed in the contract...
Teamsters: The Deadline To Apply For A James R. Hoffa Scholarship Is March 31  teamster.org   ...The Fund will award $800,000 in scholarships this year to children and financially dependent grandchildren of Teamster members...
A Brief Glimpse of Human Rights Advances In The Teamsters  teamster.org   ...Women and minorities have always been active in the labor movement. Much of the crit­ical legislation that has been passed over the years started as grassroots movements from within one or more of these groups, even though they frequently did not receive credit or recognition for their efforts. View the full post, here...
March Madness: Brought to You by the Teamsters  Counterpunch   ...This (NLRB) ruling (which applies only to private colleges and universities, and not public institutions) ... gives college basketball players the right to unionize as well.  Just think about that.  March Madness, brought to you by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters!  Is this a great country, or what?...
Trade
U.S. Steelmakers Accuse South Korea Of Dumping  Independent Business Journal   ...U.S. Steel Corp., the largest U.S. producer of the metal by volume, said South Korea is dumping steel pipes and tubes in the U.S...
NAFTA at 20  AFL-CIO   ...NAFTA pushed small Mexican farmers off their lands, increasing the flow of desperate undocumented migrants...
State Battles
Still No Wage Agreement In Annapolis  Baltimore Sun ...The standoff in Annapolis over raising the minimum wage intensified Tuesday...
Missouri Union Members Rally Against Right To Work  Associated Press   ...About a thousand Missouri union members rallied at the state Capitol to combat legislation that would prohibit labor contracts from requiring that all employees pay union fees...
Minnesota Unions Come To Dakotas' Aid  Twin Cities Daily Planet   ...With more than 20,000 job openings and the nation's lowest unemployment rate, North Dakota is desperately seeking skilled workers to build infrastructure that keeps pace with its oil boom. Despite the conservative state's laws unfriendly to organized labor, six Minnesota-based trade unions are stepping up to help...
Mississippi Senate Gives Final Approval To 3 Anti-Union Bills  Associated Press   ...Bills that aim to restrict union organizing and picketing practices in Mississippi, as well as limit governments' abilities to pressure employers to use unionized workers, are on their way to Gov. Phil Bryant...
Hidden Cameras Catch Lobbyists, AZ Lawmakers Wining And Dining  CBS 5 News   ...CBS 5 Investigates rolled hidden cameras during a membership drive for one of the country's most secretive and controversial organizations. Lobbyists and state lawmakers mingled over steaks and drinks in a private room at the Valley's exclusive Donovan's Steakhouse, an event put on by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)...
Wisconsin GOP Heads Off Criminal Probe Into Corporate Election Spending By Trying To Make It Legal  ThinkProgress   ...Wisconsin’s State Senate Majority Leader, who is reportedly under investigation for his role in a possibly illegal campaign finance scheme, has come up with a novel way to shut down the criminal probe: changing the state law to legalize the activity in question...
War on Workers
The 67 People As Wealthy As The World's Poorest 3.5 Billion  Forbes   ...Each of the 67 is on average worth the same as 52 million people from the bottom of the world’s wealth  pyramid...
Northwestern Football Players Win First Round In Union Battle  Huffington Post ...Football players at Northwestern University have cleared the first major hurdle in their closely watched unionization effort, with an official of the National Labor Relations Board determining that the players are employees and thus eligible to vote in a union election...
GOP States Are The Most Dependent On Government  Huffington Post ...If we learned nothing else during the 2012 election, it is that some of us are makers, hard-working folk solely responsible for America's prosperity, and others are takers, who want the federal government to pay for luxuries like food and health care...
Feds Tally Rollovers Of Payday Loans  The Columbus Dispatch ...About half of all payday loans are made to people who extend the loans so many times that they end up paying more in fees than the original amount they borrowed, a report by a federal watchdog has found...
Walmart Admits Profits Depend Heavily On Corporate Welfare  ZeroHedge   ...It appears that Walmart has admitted the potentially severe adverse impact a reduction in food stamp payments could have on its bottom line...
Hundreds of Students & Faculty Occupy College Campus to Fight Cuts to Public Higher Ed  Real News   ...hundreds of students, faculty, and supporters rallied at University of Southern Maine against the announced layoffs of 20 full-time faculty members...
Miscellaneous
Labor unions saved Ford in our 'darkest' hour: Bill Ford  CNBC   ...the UAW helped the entire industry "get back on its feet..."
US Seniors Shafted By Inflation That Is 170 Percent In Excess Of Savings' Interest  Truthout   ...Lost in the coverage of America's tale of two economies (the 1% who have received 95 percent of the financial gains since they busted the economy in 2008 -- and the rest of us), is that seniors are especially hard hit by the disparity between so-called savings account interest and inflation...
A Government Computer Glitch Forced Thousands Of Families To Go Hungry  Huffington Post   ...Thousands in North Carolina had enough to worry about before a computer glitch began to fray the basic part of the social safety net..
Caterpillar To Cooperate With Tax Investigation  GateHouse Media Illinois   ...Caterpillar Inc. plans to cooperate with a U.S. Senate investigative panel looking into whether the company may have improperly avoided U.S. taxes by moving profits outside the country...
A Massive Chemical Plant Is Poised To Wipe This Louisiana Town Off The Map  Mother Jones   ...SASOL's proposed facility may spell the end for a 224-year-old community founded by freed slaves...

Today's Teamster News 01.09.13

Jim Hoffa on How Fast Track Will Harm Working Families  The Ed Show   ...Check out the January 7 interview with Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa discussing fast-track legislation on MSNBC's The Ed Show...
Madison, Wisconsin, unions near deals  Portage Daily Register   ...The city is close to finalizing labor agreements with all three of the unions, including Teamsters Local 695 in Madison, Wisconsin, that represent city employees...
Hampton, Franklin County talk shared law communications  Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier   ...Hampton and Franklin County have taken another step forward to sharing communication services. The issue of transferring employees, including members of Teamsters Local 238, stalled negotiations last summer...
Dixfield Board of Selectmen chairman responds to union's grievance  River Valley Sun Journal   ...During a recent meeting, the town of Dixfield, Maine's Board of Selectmen Chairman Mac Gill read a prepared statement in response to the prohibitive practice complaint that Teamsters Local 340 filed against the town, claiming that they had showed discrimination and bad-faith bargaining during negotiations with the Public Works Department...
YRC Worldwide Looking to Borrow More Than $1 Billion to Stay Afloat  Truckinginfo.com   ...The financially troubled parent of several trucking companies, including YRC Freight, hopes to borrow $1.15 billion to refinance its debt...
Congress members urge Obama to bar currency manipulation in trade pact  Detroit News   ...Six members of Congress wrote President Barack Obama on Wednesday, urging the White House to include a crackdown on currency manipulation as part of a proposed 12-nation free-trade pact...
Survey: US companies add 238K jobs, most in year  Associated Press   ...A private survey shows businesses added the most jobs in a year in December, powered by a big gain in construction jobs...
Pension freeze for 5,600 Detroit workers delayed  The Detroit News   ...Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr on Monday temporarily halted a Dec. 31 freeze of pension benefits for 5,600 non-uniform employees to give retirees and labor unions more time to negotiate in bankruptcy mediation sessions...
Feds Probe Banks For Mortgage Misdeeds After Financial Crisis  Reuters   ...Federal regulators are probing whether several big banks deliberately mispriced mortgage bonds in the years following the financial crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people close to the inquiry...
Borrowers Hit Social-Media Hurdles  Wall Street Journal   ...More lending companies are mining Facebook, FB +0.54%  Twitter TWTR -3.53%  and other social-media data to help determine a borrower's creditworthiness or identity, a trend that is raising concerns among consumer groups and regulators...
The Government Guide to Screwing Poor Homeowners  American Prospect   ...The expiration of federal mortgage-debt forgiveness at the end of last year means that struggling homeowners now owe unbearable amounts in taxes...
Macy’s Plans to Lay Off 2,500, Though Its Holiday Sales Were Up New York Times ...While it reported solid holiday sales on Wednesday, Macy’s also announced several cost-cutting measures, including plans to lay off 2,500 employees...
1 in 5 homeowners drowning  Housing Wire ...9.3 million U.S. residential properties were deeply underwater, or about 1 in 5 of every property with a mortgage. "Deeply underwater" is defined as worth at least 25% less than the combined loans secured by the property...Dear middle class: Welcome to poverty  AlterNet   ...With income inequality surging, the middle class is disappearing into the chasm...
This Is What Poverty Would Look Like If The GOP Had Its Way  Huffington Post   ...This week marks the 50th anniversary of Lyndon Johnson's declaration of the War on Poverty. Though far from over, and labeled a failure by Republicans who want to end it, the war has been a smashing success, a new study finds...
Soiled by the mud of the street:” Pope Francis and the Working Class  Portside ...Francis is calling for a wider struggle in the defense of the poor and working classes...
Several States Waiving Trucking Rules for Fuel Shipments  Truckinginfo.com   ...Extraordinarily cold weather in part of the U.S. has resulted in more states issuing emergency declarations, waiving mainly hours of service rules, when it comes to hauling various fuels...
"Recall Isn't the Wisconsin Way" Message Bankrolled by Koch Group  Center for Media and Democracy   ...In the final weeks of Wisconsin's 2012 recall elections, a previously-unknown group called Coalition for American Values Action flooded the state's airwaves with over $400,000 in ads that made a unique appeal: "recall is not the Wisconsin way," and to "stop the recall madness" by voting to reelect Walker...
Calls from unemployed workers overwhelm state phone system  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...Unemployed workers who want to file for unemployment compensation are having trouble getting through on the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development's phone lines...
Port of Seattle says it will act by June on airport-wages issue  Seattle Times   ...The Port of Seattle Commission will work toward raising wages at Sea-Tac International Airport after a judge’s ruling that SeaTac’s Proposition 1 cannot be enforced there...