Today's Teamster News 11.23.13

Teamsters Kick Off ‘IKEA Hurts Families’ Campaign  teamster.org   ...On Friday, the Teamsters Union launched the ‘IKEA Hurts Families’ campaign that highlights how far IKEA’s Richmond, British Columbia, Canada store has departed from the original values of the Swedish company. IKEA has locked out 350 workers at its Richmond store without pay for more than six months because the workers voted down a contract proposal with a discriminatory two-tiered wage system...
MV Batavia Dispatchers Vote for Teamster Representation  teamsterslocal727.org   ...Dispatchers at MV Transportation Batavia voted unanimously for Teamsters Local 727 representation on Nov. 20...
Hoffa Lauds 'Reid Rule' Allowing Nominations to Move Forward  teamster.org   ...The following is an official statement of Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa on the Senate’s approval Thursday of a filibuster rule change that permits nearly all judicial and executive branch nominations to come to a vote based on the backing of a simple majority of senators...
Agreement Reached to Preserve Live Horse Racing at Illinois Racetracks  teamstersjc25.com   ...Full live racing schedules — and the livelihoods of hundreds of workers — are on their way to being preserved for all five racetracks in Illinois. Teamsters Local 727 represents dozens of racetrack employees at Arlington Park, Hawthorne Racecourse and Maywood Park...
Dying Sooner: America Falls Behind On Longevity  National Memo   ...Life expectancy at birth in America is now a year shorter than the average of 34 modern countries, while in 1970 it was a year longer, a detailed report just released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development shows...
Walmart Protests Promised To Be Even Bigger This Black Friday  Huffington Post   ...Walmart workers and their supporters are planning to kick off this year's holiday shopping season with protests at 1,500 Walmart stores around the country on Nov. 29...
Retailers Agree On Safety Standards For Bangladesh Factories  Reuters   ...North American and European retailers announced Wednesday that they had agreed on fire and safety inspection standards for up to 2,000 factories in Bangladesh that supply such retailers as Gap, Wal-Mart and H&M...
Workers Strike At UC Hospitals, Campuses Over Safe Staffing Issues  CBSLA.com   ...The Strike stems from a coordinated campaign of illegal intimidation and harassment from UC Administrators against frontline service and patient care workers advocating safe staffing standards during a two day UC Hospital Strike in May, the union said...
Expanding Social Security (opinion)  New York Times   ... the elderly poverty rate is highly likely to rise sharply in the future, as the failure of America’s private pension system takes its toll....
Filthy Rich CEOs Are Lobbying to Cut Medicare, Social Security and Push the Retirement Age Back AlterNet ...The loudest calls for Social Security cuts are coming from CEOs who will never have to worry about their own retirement security...
Home-Care Aides at Poverty’s Edge Are Hottest U.S. Jobs  Bloomberg News   ...Two years after the recession was over, 32 percent of working families didn’t earn enough to cover basic necessities, up from 28 percent in 2007, according to a report by the nonprofit Working Poor Families Project that analyzed 2011 U.S. Census data. In the home-care sector, workers make so little that 50 percent depend on some form of government assistance...
FCC chairman: cellphone usage ban on planes 'outdated and restrictive'  The Guardian   ...Rules against making cellphone calls during airline flights are "outdated," and it's time to change them, federal regulators said Thursday, drawing immediate howls of protest from flight attendants, airline officials and others...
Humans shipped across the country: How America exports inmates to private prisons  Salon   ...four states currently entrust their inmates to facilities in other states, all run by the for-profit Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). This year, Vermont sent prisoners to Arizona and Kentucky; Idaho sent prisoners to Colorado; California sent prisoners to Arizona, Oklahoma and Mississippi; and Hawaii sent prisoners to Arizona, about 2,900 miles away...
Son of Mexican cartel leader arrested at US border  Associated Press   ... His indictment filed under seal in San Diego on Sept. 27 offers little detail, saying only that he conspired to bring at least 500 grams of methamphetamine and 5 kilograms of cocaine to the U.S...
Tribune Co. to cut 700 jobs at newspaper division  Associated Press   ...Tribune Co. says it's eliminating about 700 jobs as part of a restructuring of its newspaper business...
Starbucks union-buster is ironic winner after liberals push nuclear option  Salon   ...With GOP obstruction defeated, attorney who helped Starbucks get away with firing union activists headed to bench...

Congressional GOP: Making the US safe for fraud

Four years after reckless bankers nearly brought global business activity to a halt, Republicans in Congress want to give them a chance to do it all over again.

They are filibustering the appointment of Teamster friend Richard Cordray to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. They're also trying to take away the agency's independence -- and its teeth.

Cordray is running the agency now because President Obama made him a recess appointment. (He is also a five-time undefeated Jeopardy champion.)

Paul Krugman explains that the CFPB was a shining example of how to reform banking regulation the right way. He called it "a stand-alone agency with its own funding, charged with protecting consumers against financial fraud and abuse." Writes Krugman:

Why is consumer financial protection necessary? Because fraud and abuse happen. 

Don’t say that educated and informed consumers can take care of themselves. For one thing, not all consumers are educated and informed. Edward Gramlich, the Federal Reserve official who warned in vain about the dangers of subprime, famously asked, “Why are the most risky loan products sold to the least sophisticated borrowers?” He went on, “The question answers itself — the least sophisticated borrowers are probably duped into taking these products.” 

And even well-educated adults can have a hard time understanding the risks and payoffs associated with financial deals — a fact of which shady operators are all too aware. To take an area in which the bureau has already done excellent work, how many of us know what’s actually in our credit-card contracts?

Here's what CFPB has done for you already: Gotten rid of misleading add-on products to credit card accounts. Big credit card companies canceled their add-ons after the CFPB dinged Discover, American Express and Capitol One $536.5 million for lying about things like identity theft protection.

And three weeks ago, the agency announced new rules protecting mortgage borrowers from unscrupulous lenders. The rules prohibit mortgage brokers from selling risky loans to unsuspecting borrowers.

Two-thirds of Americans agreed the agency is necessary. Nine out of 10 Americans support requirements that clear explanations of rates, terms and fees be required of banks, lenders and credit card companies. Eighty four percent of small businesses support the CFPB.

Today's Teamster News 02.03.13

GOP to Filibuster Obama's Consumer Watchdog Pick  Mother Jones   ...A little more than a week after Senate Democrats decided not to weaken the filibuster, Republicans are vowing to filibuster President Barack Obama's nominee to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unless its powers are reduced...
Banks, at Least, Had a Friend in Geithner  New York Times   ...“The legal and regulatory framework that Geithner leaves behind for preventing a future financial crisis inspires little confidence, especially amid scandals emerging almost weekly at banks too big and complex to manage, regulate, police and fail....”
Deep Military Cuts Begin as Congress Dawdles  Military.com   ...Congressional leaders appear to have reach consensus that it is safer politically to allow deep and arbitrary cuts to military budgets than it is to negotiate a large debt-reduction deal that would have names attached...
Applebee’s fires waitress who posted receipt from pastor complaining about auto-tip  Yahoo News   ...An Applebee's waitress who posted a receipt with a note from a pastor complaining about the automatic gratuity added to the bill on the Internet was fired on Wednesday after the pastor complained to her manager...
Helmets to Hardhats: Placing soldiers in good jobs  Northwest Indiana Times   ...Programs like the Helmets to Hardhats organization and the Iron Workers Local 395 Apprenticeship Program are working to combat this problem and bring quality careers to America’s troops returning home from overseas...
Union backers say Nissan threatens plant closure  Associated Press   ...Pro-union workers said Tuesday that Nissan Motor Co. has threatened to close its Canton, Miss. assembly plant if workers vote for the United Auto Workers to represent them, though the company denies such threats...
Ford's UAW workers to get $8,300 profit payout  Detroit Free Press   ...UAW members have not had a wage increase in at least eight years, relying on lump-sum payments and profit sharing for between 20% and 25% of their annual pay...
Plan to sell state-owned power plants might be revived  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ..."The plan to sell off some or all of the 37 state government-run power and heating plants was dropped in 2011 amid complaints the bill did not include provisions requiring that they be sold through a competitive bidding process..."

Today's Teamster News 11.29.12

Stand up to so-called Right to Work in Lansing  Michigan State AFL-CIO   ...We NEED you to come to Lansing to join our team of citizen lobbyists talking to legislators about why we don't need a Right-to-Work fight in Michigan Thursday, November 29th. Many Republican legislators and billionaire Dick DeVos are pushing this right wing agenda and we need your help to stop them...
President uses hashtag 'My2K' in fiscal cliff PR effort  CNN   ..."I'm asking Americans all across the country to make your voice heard," Obama said at the event. "Tell members of Congress what a $2,000 tax hike would mean to you. Call your members of Congress. Write them an email, post it on their Facebook walls. You can tweet it using the #My2K..."
Obama On Filibuster Reform: White House Embraces Harry Reid's Rule Changes  Huffington Post   ...Reid has been pushing for a series of changes that would preserve the right of the minority party to hold up legislative matters via a 60-vote threshold, but would make it harder to obstruct Senate business in this manner...
Obama Administration again fails to cite China on currency: Statement from the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM)  manufacture this   ..."We're disappointed that the Treasury Department has once again declined to designate China as a currency manipulator, which it most certainly is. Yes, the Yuan has appreciated somewhat against the dollar, but it is still far below an equilibrium value. The best evidence of that, other than China's massive foreign currency reserves, is our bilateral trade deficit, which is on pace to top last year's record $295 billion...
US bans BP from pitching for new government work  Independent   ...Oil giant is punished for its 'lack of business integrity' over the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster in 2010...
Extending Unemployment Insurance Would Create 300,000 Jobs Next Year  ThinkProgress   ...America’s unemployed are facing a cliff of a different kind. In January, the expanded federal unemployment insurance program will expire, cutting off benefits for millions of Americans...
Spencer Black: GOP stacked deck to control Legislature  The Cap Times   ...Voters also cast 193,000 more votes for Democrats than Republicans in the contests for state Assembly. Yet the Republicans ended up with more than 60 percent of the seats in the Assembly...
The Turning Point in Scott Walker's Little Legal Snag  Esquire   ...Walker keeps telling everyone that he is "confident" that he is not a target of the investigation but, considering that both Rindfleisch and Wink are going to jail because they worked on his campaign while simultaneously working for him in his capacity as county executive, those denials have to be taken with a small mountain of salt...
Waste hauler Republic Services to resume talks with Teamsters  Detroit News   ...Republic Services, a Michigan waste disposal company, said Wednesday it will resume collective bargaining negotiations with Teamsters Local 247 after the union's contract expired over disputes over a pension fund...
Teamster Horsemen's annual party to benefit Toys for Tots  Times Herald Record   ...With their mission in mind, members of the Teamster Horsemen Chapter 16 North and the Local 707 Dockworkers at YRC Freight in Maybrook came up with the idea to help the Marines with their Toys for Tots campaign this holiday season...