Today's Teamster News 4.03.13

No, American Corporations Aren’t Paying The World’s Highest Tax Rate  ThinkProgress   ...even as profits for American corporations hit a 60-year high in 2011, their effective tax rate hit a 40-year low, and the U.S. collects less in taxes as a percent of the total economy than every industrialized country in the world save Iceland...
Judge Questions Fairness Of Citigroup's $590 Million Settlement  Reuters   ...A Manhattan federal judge on Monday signaled he will not rubber-stamp Citigroup Inc's proposed $590 million settlement of a shareholder lawsuit accusing it of hiding tens of billions of dollars of toxic mortgage assets...
Factory Orders Rise 3%, Biggest Increase in Five Months  Transport Topics   ...The trucking industry relies on factory orders and shipments for much of its business....
Wal-Mart Customers Complain Bare Shelves Are Widespread  Bloomberg   ...More than 1,000 e-mailed complaints signal that Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s (WMT) restocking challenges are more widespread than the world’s largest retailer has said...
Eurozone joblessness stays at record high  FT   ...Unemployment in the eurozone remained at a record high in February, highlighting the human cost of the debt crisis and adding pressure on the European Central Bank to cut interest rates to stimulate growth across the 17-country bloc...
SB 213 may hurt Indiana Workers  kokomoperspective.com   ...Senate Bill 213 bans cities, towns, counties, and townships in Indiana from requiring employers within their jurisdictions to provide terms and conditions of employment or worker benefits that exceed the minimums established by federal or state law...
The Truth About the Mackinac Center  Michigan Education Association   ...One of its primary goals is to dismantle public education in Michigan, replacing traditional public schools with profit-making institutions...
Victory! The Stopping of Owlcatraz  The Nation   ...In a victory for social justice, human decency and those who stand against the private prison industry and its nihilistic agenda of mass incarceration, GEO Group will no longer hold naming rights of the football stadium at Florida Atlantic University.
GOP senators on proposed budget deficit: No way!  The Cap Times   ...the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau released a memo projecting a $664 million structural deficit resulting from Gov. Scott Walker’s budget proposal...
Teamsters weigh unfair labor charge  The Times Herald   ...Teamsters Local 214 (in Michigan) is on the verge of filing an unfair labor practices complaint against St. Clair County regarding contract negotiations for the juvenile detention officers...
Safety Study for all Commercial Drivers  IBT   ...Attention IBT members: Give your thoughts on distracted driving and enter to win an iPAD...
Upcoming Pipeline Trainings In April  IBT   ...The National Pipeline Training Fund has scheduled two CSA/Driver Safety Presentations for Teamster Pipeliners...
Teamsters Local 777 Overwhelmingly Ratifies Contract at RTS Packaging  Teamsters Joint Council 25 News   ...By an overwhelming margin of 5-to-1,Teamsters Local 777 members with RTS Packaging voted to ratify a new four-year contract on Saturday, March 23...
Outrage Over National Express  John’s Labour Blog   ...Pension fund overseers are concerned with National Express’s anti-worker behavior at its U.S. subsidiary, Durham School Services...

FAU students protest naming stadium after GEO Group

The news that Florida Atlantic University's football stadium would be named after a private prison company provoked quite a lot of criticism since the announcement on Tuesday.

The Miami Herald reports,

Noor Fawzy, a political science student at FAU whose parents are Palestinian immigrants, is not so happy with the news. 

“The fact that they are locking up people of color and immigrants like my parents is shameful,” said the 22-year-old, who is an elected member of the student government. “We don’t want our university to be associated with an entity that is being investigated for human rights abuses.” 

Besides the United States, GEO Group also has private prisons in South Africa, the United Kingdom and Australia, where in 2003 it lost a contract after evidence was found that children detained in its facilities suffered cruel treatments, The New York Times reported in 2011. The company, which controls thousands of beds in private prisons and is worth almost $3 billion, is now in the middle of a multimillion-dollar lawsuit about mistreatment of prisoners.

The Associated Press adds,

GEO owns the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach. The center, about 10 miles from the stadium, has recently been a center of controversy after people detained there complained about not getting proper care.

The New York Times quoted Bob Libal, the executive director of Grassroots Leadership, a social justice group that opposes private prison systems.

Libal said the GEO Group “poured enormous resources” in recent years into “attempting to take over a large portion of the Florida prison system.” He said the company’s usual practices included lobbying and charitable donations, often in areas where it operated facilities or planned to. To that end, this move could represent a way for the company to rebrand itself in Florida, he added. 

“It’s startling to see a stadium will be named after them,” Libal said. “It’s like calling something Blackwater Stadium. This is a company whose record is marred by human rights abuses, by lawsuits, by unnecessary deaths of people in their custody and a whole series of incidents that really draw into question their ability to successfully manage a prison facility.”

You can sign a petition to demand that FAW reverse its decision here.