Disappointed filibuster reformers: We'll be back!

Reformers pledge to return in two years to try again to reform Senate filibuster rules. Yesterday, their campaign crashed and burned to make senators, you know, actually take the floor and talk in order to stall bills.

New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall, one of the lead reformers, told Greg Sargent at The Washington Post that he'd be back when the next Senate organizes for business. Udall said,

When I started this three years ago, it was pretty lonely. But there are millions of Americans who now want to see a changed Senate. They understand it’s broken. They understand we have to change the way we do business. The Senate is now a graveyard for good ideas, and we need to change that.

Sargent said some good things came out of the effort to restore the talking filibuster:

There is now an infrastructure of outside groups and activists that has shown the ability to mobilize at least some public concern about an extremely arcane problem, dramatizing the need for better governance and the dangerous consequences of having a Senate that has functionally ceased to be a democratic body. What’s more, we’ve now seen that the ongoing influx of energetic and liberal reform-minded Senators has proven able to force the old lions to embrace some reform and to pay lip service to the need to change the way the Senate operates. If reformers maintain that outside infrastructure, and elect more energetic Dems to the Senate, that could boost the possibility of more reform later.

The Fix the Senate Now coalition, to which the Teamsters belong, yesterday expressed disappointment.

...we know enough to sum up the agreement as follows: a missed opportunity to provide meaningful filibuster reform, while advancing some decent procedural improvements.

 Here's how Fix the Senate Now mobilized public concern about the do-nothing Senate:

To support the push for real reform, dozens of organizations involved in the Fix the Senate Now coalition sent over 2.5 million emails to members on the importance of fixing the Senate, leading to 100,000 phone calls and nearly one million petition signatures delivered to Senate offices. The coalition, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of Americans who contacted their Senators supporting real change, views the minor reforms likely to take hold as a missed opportunity to deliver a truly functional, deliberative, and accountable U.S. Senate.

The coalition statement recognized the three Democratic senators who advocated tirelessly for reform: Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley and Udall.

Send them a thank you if they represent you!

Today's Teamster News 01.25.13

U.S. business urges Obama to pursue new trade negotiating power  Reuters  ...A leading U.S. business group urged President Barack Obama on Thursday to build on trade successes of the past two years by seeking legislation that would allow him to submit trade deals to Congress for straight up-or-down votes without amendments...
Senate Leaders Finalize Scaled-Back Filibuster Deal  Talking Points Memo  ...The final details of the deal struck by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), which make only minor changes to the filibuster rules in the Senate, show why leading reformers are so disappointed in the outcome...
U.S.weekly jobless claims drop to 5-year low of 330,000  AP  ...The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid fell last week to the lowest level in five years, evidence that employers are cutting fewer jobs and may step up hiring…
Data Points to Slow Recovery in Euro Zone   New York Times  ...The euro zone economy took a step closer to recovery this month as the rate of decline in the bloc’s private sector eased more than expected, a business survey showed on Thursday...
Spanish Jobless Rate Hits Record  Bloomberg  ...Spanish unemployment rose to a record in the final quarter of 2012 as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government imposed the deepest budget cuts in the country’s democratic history. The number of jobless approached 6 million people, or 26.02 percent, from 25.01 percent in the previous three months...
GOP senators seek constitutional amendment on union elections  Northwest Indiana Times ...Having prevailed last year in putting right-to-work into state law, some Republican senators now want to amend the Indiana Constitution to make it even more difficult for labor unions to organize...On a party-line vote Wednesday, the Republican-controlled Senate Pensions and Labor Committee approved a proposed constitutional amendment requiring secret ballots be used for any union representation decision...
Virginia Republicans move forward on plan to give GOP more electoral votes  The Hill  ...Republicans in the Virginia state Senate are moving forward with a plan that would give the GOP presidential nominee a big boost at winning most of the state's electoral votes even if the Democratic candidate won the statewide vote...
California unions grow, bucking U.S. trend  LA Times  ...The latest snapshot of the U.S. working class shows that unions are in trouble...But California and a few nearby states in the Southwest are showing a vastly different picture - labor's ranks are on an upswing...
Union leader: We don’t like the Republic Airlines deal, but we expected it  Dallas Morning News  ...Tony Gutierrez, who heads the Air Line Pilots Association unit at American Eagle, criticized American Airlines’ deal to send commuter-airline flying to Republic Airlines. But, the chairman of ALPA’s Eagle master executive council, told ALPA members that the deal like this was expected...
New York City school bus strike continues as feds investigate  Queens Chronicle  ...Washington may soon intervene in the school bus strike that has left parents of about 150,000 New York City school children scrambling for alternative transportation since last week...
Teamsters forced to authorize bus driver strike  People's World  ...The unyielding bargaining stance of a private school bus company in South Carolina forced two groups of Charleston-area school bus drivers, represented by Teamsters Local 509, into unanimous strike authorization votes...
SC Board of Education Authorizes Strikebreaking Bus Drivers  North Charleston Patch  ...The State Board of Education has unanimously authorized an emergency measure to aid in student transportation in two districts with privatized school bus workforces that are threatening to strike. The districts have contracted with private company Durham School Services to provide transportation services. Durham's employees are unionized under Teamsters 509 and authorized a strike last week and this week as negotiations with the company stalled... 

Today's Teamster News 01.23.13

U.N. Agency Warns of Rising Unemployment  New York Times  ...More than 197 million people worldwide are jobless, and an additional 39 million have simply given up looking for work, a United Nations agency said on Monday, warning that government budget-balancing was hurting employment and would probably lead to more job losses soon...
11 European Countries Adapted A Financial Transactions Tax, And the U.S. Should Too (opinion)  Think Progress  ... 11 members of the Eurozone today received the go-ahead to apply a financial transactions tax to trades of stocks and derivatives that occur within their countries…As former Labor Secretary Robert Reich tweeted, “Most of Europe will now tax financial transactions, generating billions for hard-pressed budgets. U.S. should do same.”...

Hyundai plant one of 100 factories shutting down in wake of Beijing pollution scare  autoblog   ...the area's children's hospitals are receiving up to 10,000 patients per day with respiratory ailments...
Greece charges statisticians over size of deficit  FT   ...Greece has brought criminal charges against the official responsible for measuring the country’s debt, thereby calling into question the validity of its €172bn second bailout by the EU and International Monetary Fund...
Goldman, Other Welfare Queens Tell Us Forget Social Security-Medicare Until 70  Agonist.org  ...A long standing Money Party front, the Business Roundtable, wants you to wait until you’re 70 years old before you get Social Security and Medicare benefits. This is just a reprise of the November 2012 dictate from the king of corporate cronyism, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein...

House Republicans unveil measure to suspend debt ceiling until May 19  The Hill …House Republicans on Monday unveiled legislation that will suspend the debt ceiling until mid-May, setting the stage for a floor vote as soon as Wednesday... 

Reid warns of ‘nuclear option’ on filibuster  Politico  ...Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says Democrats will take the unprecedented step of changing filibuster rules on a party-line vote if Republicans don’t agree to a bipartisan deal this week...

'Right to Work' in Michigan: Depleting Unions, Dashing Dreams  Jurist  ...RTW regimes set in motion a relentless downward spiral: RTW laws lead to weaker unions, and weaker unions lead to worsening economic conditions for those who can least afford it. Michigan, regardless of its pro-union traditions and culture, is now headed into that vortex...

Kansas Unions Bill Seeks To Undercut Labor's Political Power  Huffington Post  ...The battle over labor unions has reached a new state, with Kansas legislators due to start discussing a proposal that would curtail unions' political power on Wednesday. The Kansas legislation would specifically prohibit public-employee unions from establishing automatic deductions from employee paychecks to pay for political activities... 
Another Walker Aide Sentenced to Prison in Secret "John Doe" Investigation  PR Watch  ...Another top official to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker during his tenure as Milwaukee County Executive has been sentenced to two years in prison for embezzling funds intended for families of veterans...
PPP: Maine Gov. LePage Extremely Unpopular  Talking Points Memo   ...Fifty-five percent of voters in the state said they disapprove of LePage's performance as governor, compared with 39 percent who approve...

Summerville School Bus Workers Vote To Authorize Strike At Durham  IBT  ...School bus drivers and monitors who transport students for Durham School Services in Summerville's Dorchester School District 2 have voted 77-0 to authorize a strike. The drivers and monitors, members of Teamsters Local 509, join Charleston County Durham drivers who also voted unanimously, 186-0, on Jan. 15 to authorize a strike...

Teamsters March In Atlanta To Demand Justice For Sanitation Workers  IBT  ...At the annual Martin Luther King Day march yesterday, more than 400 sanitation workers and Teamster allies joined workers from the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike to demand that Republic Services/Allied Waste [NYSE: RSG] treat its workers equally and with respect. They were joined by sanitation workers in Dekalb County who are fighting to form a union...

Today's Teamster News 01.19.13

Big win for labor in Chicago  Salon   ...By a unanimous vote on Thursday, Chicago’s City Council passed one of the strongest “wage theft” laws in the United States...
Poverty increasingly means the employed  Salon   ...For a growing segment of workers, a middle-class life is slipping out of reach...
Harry Reid seeks middle path on filibuster  Politico   ...Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) doesn’t plan to advance a “talking filibuster” proposal envisioned by liberals who want sweeping changes to the stodgy Senate...
787 grounding puts Boeing’s outsourcing in focus  Trade Reform   ...Some 70 per cent of the plane is outsourced...
New study finds China gaining advantage in setting technology standards  manufacture this   ... while U.S. firms place a high value on intellectual property protection, China has adopted a fundamentally different approach to intellectual property rights that can disadvantage U.S. companies...
GOP takes off the suicide bomb vest  Washington Post   ...The GOP leadership is prepared to agree to a three month debt ceiling hike. This is a major de-escalation of the crazy and effectively means Republicans have all but taken the threat of default off the table completely...
GOP Memo: Gerrymandering Won Us The House Majority  Talking Points Memo   ...even as they took a beating in the races for Senate and the White House, House Republicans ended up with a 33-seat majority, thanks to friendly district maps drawn by their own state colleagues. As the RSLC memo admits, “Democratic candidates for the U.S. House won 1.1 million more votes than their Republican opponents...”
Right to Work gaining momentum in legislature  News-Leader   ...In just a few weeks, Right to Work has gone from a dream of Republicans in the Missouri statehouse to an issue that appears headed for a debate on the House floor and one that may even receive a vote...
Judge refuses to dismiss Fla. redistricting case  Associated Press   ...Democrats, the League of Women Voters of Florida and other plaintiffs ...  contend the map "as applied" violates anti-gerrymandering restrictions in the Florida Constitution...
Unions look ahead on fight over right-to-work  Associated Press   ...Union leaders looking for an olive branch from Gov. Rick Snyder in his third State of the State address say he left them empty-handed, but they vow to keep fighting to bring down right-to-work legislation enacted last month...
Columbus Democrat wants voting rights cemented in Constitution  Columbus Dispatch   ...Saying he wants to better secure the right to vote in the Ohio Constitution, Rep. Michael Stinziano is proposing a ballot issue that he says would establish that the right should be paramount above other administrative issues...
Ohio Gov. John Kasich Gets First Positive Approval Rating   The Cleveland Leader   ...(The) latest statewide survey of Ohio registered voters by Quinnipiac University shows that Governor John Kasich, a Republican, has a positive job-approval rating for the first time since he took office in 2011, with 45 percent approving and 35 percent disapproving...
Democrats launch $500,000 plan against Walker, other Republicans  Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel   ...party Chairman Mike Tate called the effort a "72-county plan" and said it would focus on one-on-one voter contact and technology investments...
Teamsters, ABF continue labor negotiations  Kansas City Business Journal   ...Negotiations between ABF Freight Systems Inc. and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters continued in Kansas City this week, and the two parties are no closer to an agreement, a release from the union said...

Fix the Senate. Call 202-224-3121

He had to work to filibuster a bill. 

The Employee Free Choice Act would be the law of the land today if it weren't so easy to block legislation.

That's exactly what a minority of anti-worker senators have done. Last year, only 2.8 percent of all bills introduced in the Senate passed. The filibuster choked debate on 400 bills passed by the House.

One way to fix the problem at the national level is filibuster reform, as Teamsters President Jim Hoffa argues in a recent Detroit News op-ed. It's way too easy for irresponsible senators in the minority to block legislation that doesn't suit the whims of the billionaires and CEOs who back them.

Hoffa argues the Senate rules should be changed to make it harder to bottle up bills.  For starters, anyone who wants to filibuster a bill must hold the floor and debate it. Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Tom Udall of New Mexico are proposing to do just that. Next week, the new Senate may decide to take up Senate Resolution 4, a bill to reform the filibuster process.

If enacted, senators would be required to speak and debate publicly on the floor of the Senate in order to keep a filibuster going, just like Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. As it stands now, a Senator can simply send an email to continue a filibuster. We need more accountability of our elected officials, and if they wish to block legislation, they should be required to put real time and energy into it.

Call your Senators TODAY and ask that they fix the Senate by fixing the filibuster! Tell them to vote FOR Senate Resolution 4.  You can reach your Senators by calling the U.S. Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.

Let the majority rule. End the silent filibuster

Our brothers and sisters at the Communications Workers of America this week are launching the ad above even as the Teamsters are fighting for filibuster reform.

Teamster General President Jim Hoffa wrote an op-ed in the Detroit News last week explaining why. He wrote,

The Employee Free Choice Act would be the law of the land today if it weren't for the modern filibuster. 

The Employee Free Choice Act, or EFCA, would have made it easier to organize a union. In 2008, it easily passed the House of Representatives. A solid majority of U.S. senators supported the bill. But they never got a chance to vote on it, and EFCA died. 

The tragedy of EFCA was how easy it was for anti-worker senators to prevent a vote on the legislation. All they had to do was threaten to block it, forcing the Senate Leader to come up with 60 votes rather than a simple majority. No one had to stand on the Senate floor and talk around the clock the way Jimmy Stewart did in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." No one had to miss even one fundraiser. 

The modern filibuster makes it far too easy for a tyrannical minority to strangle the democratic process. It's time to reform it and restore majority rule.

Read the whole thing here.

Today's Teamster News 01.03.12

U.S. now on pace for European levels of austerity in 2013  Washington Post   ...after this week’s fiscal cliff deal, the United States is now on pace to engage in about as much fiscal consolidation in 2013 as many European nations have been doing in recent years — and more than countries like Britain and Spain...
Euros discarded as impoverished Greeks resort to bartering  The Guardian   ...in the heart of Greece's most fertile plain, locals have come up with a novel way of dealing with austerity – adopting their own alternative currency, known as the Tem. As the country struggles with its worst crisis in modern times, with Greeks losing up to 40% of their disposable income as a result of policies imposed in exchange for international aid, the system has been a huge success...
Portugal warns EU-IMF troika to back off on austerity demands  The Telegraph   ...Portugal's president has ordered a legal inquiry into the country’s austerity policies and threatened a showdown with creditors over the draconian terms of its EU-IMF bail-out...
Payroll Tax Hike Erases Paycheck Gains For Minimum Wage Workers  Huffington Post   ...Many of the nation's poorest workers were looking forward to a modest pay hike on New Year's Day, when 10 states implemented higher minimum wages. In the end, those workers' increased earnings may have lasted all of a few hours...
Congress Vacations While Sandy Victims Freeze  firedoglake   ...People in New York and New Jersey are huddled in the cold and dark and apparently the US Congress cannot manage to vote for Superstorm Sandy relief before they go on their vacations...
Reid will postpone filibuster reform  The Hill   ...Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will postpone filibuster reform until later this month, giving him time to negotiate a deal with Republicans...
As Swing Districts Dwindle, Can a Divided House Stand?  New York Times   ...Most members of the House now come from hyperpartisan districts where they face essentially no threat of losing their seat to the other party. Instead, primary challenges, especially for Republicans, may be the more serious risk...
Thanks To Gerrymandering, Democrats Would Need To Win The Popular Vote By Over 7 Percent To Take Back The House  ThinkProgress   ...Democratic House candidates earned 49.15 percent of the popular vote, while Republicans earned only 48.03 percent ... Nevertheless, thanks largely to partisan gerrymandering, Republicans have a solid House majority in the incoming 113th Congress...
Stalemate Over Teamsters Continues in Putnam Valley  The Putnam County News and Recorder   ...On December 27 the Putnam Valley Town Board ... held a hearing regarding the two-year-long contract renegotiation between the Town’s Local 456 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters bargaining unit, which includes 25 workers for the Putnam Valley Highway Department...

Tell your senators today: Let the majority rule in the Senate

The Employee Free Choice Act would be the law of the land today if it weren't for the modern filibuster. In 2008, the bill making it easier to organize a union passed the House and had majority support in the Senate. But it was extremely easy for anti-worker senators to prevent a vote on the bill. All they had to do was to get 41 people to vote to continue debate. No one had to stand up and talk ... and talk ... and talk ... to kill a bill.

It wasn't just EFCA that got bottled up in the Senate. The House in 2008-09 passed 435 pieces of legislation, many of them helpful to working people. They weren't discussed for a second in the Senate because anti-worker extremists in the Senate easily prevented it.

In other words: The majority doesn't rule in the Senate any more.

Our brothers and sisters at the Communications Workers of America want to change that. Today is a call-in day to Fix the Filibuster. Call the Senate switchboard at 202-224-3121 and tell your Senator to end silent filibusters.

The Teamsters are supporting the Fix the Senate Now proposal, which would require senators to actually stand up and talk -- the way Jimmy Stewart did in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."

Here's what else the Fix the Senate Now proposal would do:

Those objecting to legislation should only have one opportunity to filibuster legislation. Specifically, the ability to bring up a bill for simple debate (the motion to proceed) should not be subjected to a filibuster.

Those wishing to filibuster legislation must actually hold the floor and be required to actually debate the legislation. It would end "silent" filibusters where one Senator quietly objects and is not required to take the Senate floor.

Instead of the burden required to break a filibuster being on the majority to deliver 60 votes, those objecting to the legislation and wishing to filibuster must produce 41 votes to sustain a filibuster.

The process for approving nominations should be streamlined, including shortening the amount of time required for debate once a nomination is brought to the Senate floor.