Today's Teamster News 07.13.14

Teamsters
Teamsters: Port Truck Drivers In Los Angeles Agree to "Cooling Off" Period  teamster.org   ...The port drivers agreed to the “cooling off” period after the trucking companies agreed to accept all drivers back to work without retaliation and without being forced to sign away all future rights in new truck leases...
Trade
Enormous, Humongous May Trade Deficit Follows Continuing Pattern  Trade Reform   ...The trade deficit fell 5.6 percent in May, to $44.4 billion. That’s $44.4 billion of orders that could have gone to businesses that make and do things inside the U.S. Those companies would have had to hire hundreds of thousands of people to get that done...
TPP talks make progress, barring thorny issues  Japan News   ...the 12 countries including Japan and the United States are expected to hold a session of chief negotiators again as early as in September to pave the way for an envisioned broad agreement in November...
Why the Chinese Are Snapping Up Real Estate in the U.S.  Five Thirty Eight   ...the Chinese spent $22 billion on U.S. housing in the 12 months through March — 72 percent more than they spent the year before...
State Battles
Scott Walker's job creation program is ineffective (opinion)  Wisconsin State Journal   ...Walker distributed $975 million in grants, loans and tax credits, resulting in limited job creation. Thirty percent of businesses receiving WEDC assistance contributed to Walker's campaign and received 60 percent of funds distributed...
In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker's security detail costs balloon 239 percent  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...taxpayers spent more than $2.23 million in 2013 for the 10 state troopers who protect Walker and his family, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and dignitaries from other states and countries who visit Wisconsin. That was up from $657,457 paid out by Gov. Jim Doyle on security during his last year in office in 2010...
War on Workers
Tracy Morgan Sues Walmart Over Deadly Crash in New Jersey  New York Times   ...the plaintiffs contend that the company should have known how little sleep its driver was operating on, and that it allowed him to commute an unreasonable distance before starting the shift that brought him to New Jersey...
The Economy Is Binging on Fast Food and Low Wages—and It Needs to Change  Ann Arbor Independent   ... lower-wage industries employ 2 million more workers than at the start of the recession, while mid- and higher-wage industries each employ about 900,000 fewer workers...
U.S. Chamber Lobbies To Kill Measure That Would Punish Wage Theft  Huffington Post   ...Despite the lobbying from business groups, the wage theft amendment passed the House with bipartisan support Thursday afternoon … Some of the nation's leading business lobbies (pressured) ... House lawmakers to spike bipartisan legislation that would take government contracts away from firms that have committed wage theft...
Citigroup's $7 Billion Fraud Deal: The Clique's Still Clicking in DC  Huffington Post   ...Citigroup is back in the headlines as the result of a new settlement with the Justice Department over its mortgage fraud, reportedly for the sum of $7 billion. This deal is being trumpeted as a major win for the American people. It's not. The money's not enough (and some of it probably won't be paid out), the wrong people are paying, and there will be no prosecutions for criminal behavior...
Flunking Out, at a Price  New York Times   ...For years, federal and state regulators have done little as dubious operators of for-profit colleges and trade schools have pocketed tuitions funded by taxpayer-backed loans. Many students left these colleges with questionable educations and onerous debt loads that cannot be erased in bankruptcy. Regulators have finally woken up to this ugly reality. And, once again, taxpayers and borrowers will pay the price of regulatory failures...

Today's Teamster News 02.01.14

Teamsters, techies, tens of thousands take action against Fast Track in intercontinental day of action  TeamsterNation   ...More than 50 rallies, teach-ins and news conferences are being held on the North American continent, from Edmonton, Canada, to Mexico City. By mid-afternoon, social media drove more than 12,000 phone calls and hundreds of thousands of emails to the U.S. Congress...
Anti-TPP Rally in San Francisco Pressures Pelosi to Take Bolder Stance  IndyBay   ...Protester numbers swelled during a march down Market Street, eventually reaching an estimated 500...One arrested as Teamsters protest Highway 101 project  The Press Democrat   ...The picketers were protesting the delivery of the concrete by Superior Supplies Inc., a company whose drivers they said are not in the Teamsters union. They were striking to encourage the company to allow its employees to be represented by the union, Teamsters Local 665 President Ralph Miranda said... 
Black History Is Teamster History  teamster.org   ...The contributions of black members to the success of the Teamsters Union are numerous, varied and as old as the union itself. Black team drivers attended the first Convention in 1903 and were active in all aspects of the union from the beginning. That commitment remains strong today...
Teamsters Local 657 to Host Training for Pipeline Construction Workers  teamster.org  ...The Teamsters National Pipeline Training Fund in collaboration with Teamsters Local 657 will sponsor a Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) training program on Feb. 16 in Brownswood, Texas...
Report Opens Way to Approval for Oil Pipeline  New York Times   ...The State Department released a report on Friday concluding that the Keystone XL pipeline would not substantially worsen carbon pollution, leaving an opening for President Obama to approve the politically divisive project...
Hated on the Left, the TPP Draws Conservative Foes  Trade Reform   ...the American Jobs Alliance and the United States Business and Industry Council—pro-business groups wary of trade’s impact on America’s national interests—joined with Tea Party Nation and the socially conservative Eagle Forum to rail against the TPP...
Walmart warns: Food stamp cuts hurt our profits  Raw Story   ...Walmart Friday said bad weather and cuts in food stamp support for the poor weighed on US sales and would hit earnings for its November-January fourth quarter...
America's Shopping Malls Are Dying A Slow, Ugly Death  Business Insider   ...Traffic-driving anchors like Sears and JCPenney are shutting down stores, and mall owners are having a hard time finding retailers large enough to replace them...
Corporate welfare costs more than pension obligations  Washington Post ...states often spend more on tax breaks and subsidies for businesses than funding their ... pension plans...
Goldman Awards Blankfein $14.7 Million in Stock Bonus  New York Times   ...Goldman Sachs’s board granted its chief executive, Lloyd C. Blankfein, restricted shares worth $14.7 million as part of his pay package for 2013, according to a filing made public on Thursday..,
The Greedy Leading the Greedy - Multimillionaire Former Johnson and Johnson CEO Approved Huge Compensation for JP Morgan Chase CEO After Company Paid $20 Billion in Legal Settlements  Health Care Renewal   ...The current compensation set by the board of directors of JP Morgan Chase for CEO Jamie Dimon, $20 million a year, has attracted some attention ... especially given the contrast between his raise and the $20 billion or so the company had to pay out last year in settlements of allegations of unethical practices...
NY Judge Approves $8.5 Billion Bank of America Mortgage Settlement  Money News   ...A New York judge on Friday approved most of the $8.5 billion Bank of America settlement over investor losses from mortgage-backed securities ... Critics of the settlement had argued that it represented only a fraction of the losses...
Billionaires Attempt To Convince Society That They Are The Good Guys  In These Times   ...America’s rich see themselves as victims of Nazi-like persecution...
Koch-Tied Groups Funded GOP Effort to Mess With Electoral College Rules  Mother Jones   ...Last election season, a shadowy nonprofit pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into a campaign to change how electoral votes are counted...
Amazon wants to send stuff before you order it. Are other retailers doomed?  Washington Post   ...A couple weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal happened upon a 27-page patent for what Amazon.com calls "anticipatory" or "speculative" shipping, which sounds insane. Here's how it works, in a nutshell...
Reinhart and Rogoff: Great Recession may "surpass in severity" the Great Depression in many Countries  Calculated Risk   ...The policies of austerity in Europe have failed miserably and many countries there are experiencing a worse slump than during the Depression (austerity in the US has held back the recovery too...
Illinois company fires woman hours after learning she has cancer  New York Daily News   ...A Chicago-area women is filing a disability discrimination lawsuit, claiming her boss gave her the boot after realizing she’d have to take significant time off for cancer treatments...

Screw U: How For-Profit Colleges Rip You Off  Mother Jones   ...The for-profit college industry makes a killing while handing out expensive degrees that fizzle in the real world...
Where are the jobs? Indiana job numbers still don't add up  WTHR.com   ... Indiana is keeping secrets about hundreds of projects, thousands of missing jobs and millions in taxpayer dollars used to pay for them...
Appeals court allows secret probe into recall elections to proceed  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...The unanimous decision by the Madison-based 4th District Court of Appeals panel is a victory for prosecutors and comes just three weeks after they faced a separate setback by the judge overseeing the investigation. That earlier ruling quashed subpoenas to conservative groups supporting Gov. Scott Walker...
RI lawmakers want to stop banks from evicting tenants in foreclosed properties  Associated Press   ...Two Rhode Island lawmakers are sponsoring legislation to make it harder for banks to evict tenants from foreclosed properties...
Repeal of prevailing wage law would result in a weakened economy, University researchers say  The Daily Illini   ...Pressure from increasing state budget deficits, as well as debt from underfunded pensions, have caused critics to call for the repeal of Illinois’ prevailing wage law for government construction projects. However ... Illinois’ prevailing wage law creates many positive economic and social impacts, and repealing it would not result in any considerable savings for taxpayers or the state...
States Are Feeling the Pinch from Lost Unemployment Revenues  teamster.org   ...more than $1.76 billion has been stripped from state economies across the U.S. since the GOP denied the extension of unemployment insurance...