Today's Teamster News 05.20.14

Teamster News
Park Ridge Police Department Chooses Teamsters Representation  teamster.org   ...Teamsters Local 700’s law enforcement membership continues to expand as 40 members with the Park Ridge Police Department join the Teamsters...
Seattle Transportation Network Drivers Vote To Form Association With Teamsters  teamster.org   ...Uber and UberX drivers met in Tukwila, Wash., to begin the process of forming an association which will work with Teamsters Local 117 yesterday...
Trade
Dog Illnesses and Deaths Linked to Imported Pet Treats From China  Alternet   ...the USDA will soon allow U.S. chickens to be sent to  China for processing before being shipped back to the states for human consumption...
Trans-Pacific Partnership: Another Trade Liberalization Scam  Truthout   ...The gathering pressure for Congress to "fast track" the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) demonstrates yet again that trade liberalization is one of the few aspects of economic policy about which there is agreement across the mainstream of the political spectrum...
Steelworkers to D.C.: Enforce our trade laws  Trade Reform   ...About 200 steel industry supporters and steel workers gathered at Civic Park Friday to protest the recent flood of imported steel from South Korea because it jeopardizes jobs within the city’s largest employer. The United Steelworkers Local 1899 in Granite City, which represents most of the 2,500 employees at U.S. Steel’s plant in Granite City, organized the rally because the South Korean steel imported into this country is sold below market value, making it difficult for U.S. steel mills to compete...
State Battles
More states, cities raising minimum wage  USA Today   ...The fast-food walkouts Thursday are part of a broader nationwide effort to raise the minimum wage for millions of low-income workers, a campaign that's notching growing success in states and cities across the USA...
Connecticut Public Retirement Plan Passes, More or Less  The Baseline Scenario   ...a proposal in Connecticut (would) create a new tax-preferred retirement plan that would, by default, include almost all workers who don’t currently have access to an employment-based plan (like a 401(k)). That proposal took some major steps forward when it was included in an end-of-session bill that was passed by the Connecticut legislature...the bill authorizes a feasibility study and implementation plan for the new retirement option...
War On Workers
Congratulations To The Class Of 2014, Most Indebted Ever  Wall Street Journal   ...As college graduates in the Class of 2014 prepare to shift their tassels and accept their diplomas, they leave school with one discouraging distinction: They're the most indebted class ever...
Credit Suisse pleads guilty to criminal charges in US tax evasion settlement  The Guardian   ...Credit Suisse Group has pleaded guilty to criminal charges that it helped Americans evade taxes, becoming the first bank in more than a decade to admit to a crime in the US. It will now pay a long-expected fine of $2.5bn (£1.5bn)...
It's Time to Break Up With Sallie Mae!  Jobs With Justice   ...Despite mounting evidence showing how Sallie Mae has been ripping off federal student loan borrowers for years, it's still possible the Department of Education will renew its multimillion-dollar contract with the shady company next month...
NSA Collects All Phone Calls from One of World’s Most Secretive Tax Havens, But Doesn’t Track That  empty wheel   ...NSA/DEA don’t appear to be using this facility to track money launderers...
Turkey Erupts Over Mining Tragedy; Many Blame Privatization   In These Times   ...Protesters, numbering in the thousands in some major cities, continued to spill into the streets throughout the week holding placards that read, "This is not an accident, it's a massacre.” In Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, police intervened with tear gas and water cannons...
Occupy Wall Street Protester Cecily McMillan Sentenced To Three Months In Jail  Huffington Post   ...A New York City judge sentenced Occupy Wall Street protester Cecily McMillan on Monday to three months in jail and five years probation...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Charges Five Chinese Military Hackers for Cyber Espionage Against U.S. Corporations and a Labor Organization for Commercial Advantage  US Department of Justice   ...A grand jury in the Western District of Pennsylvania (WDPA) indicted five Chinese military hackers for computer hacking, economic espionage and other offenses directed at six American victims in the U.S. nuclear power, metals and solar products industries...

Today's Teamster News 01.31.14

Hoffa Praises Bill to Discourage Excessive CEO Pay  teamster.org   ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa praised U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, for introducing a bill to end a taxpayer subsidy for excessive CEO pay...
Teamsters Win First Contract at Kennedy Space Center  teamster.org   ...Badging clerks at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center ratified their first union contract on Tuesday as members of Teamsters Local 769. The new pact secures wage increases, improved vacation benefits and protection of full-time jobs in the 10-member bargaining unit...
Teamsters, Fast Track opponents making an impact. You can too.  TeamsterNation   ...Members of Congress are starting to listen to the thousands of Teamsters who are calling, emailing, rallying and telling them face-to-face: Vote NO on Fast Track...
Applications are now being accepted for the JRHMSF  teamster.org   ...The 2014-2015 scholarship for high school seniors has an application deadline of March 31, 2014. Visit the James R. Hoffa Scholarship Fund Information Center for eligibility requirements and application procedures...
Lunches seized from kids in debt at Salt Lake City elementary  The Salt Lake Tribune   ...Up to 40 kids at Uintah Elementary in Salt Lake City picked up their lunches Tuesday, then watched as the meals were taken and thrown away because of outstanding balances on their accounts — a move that shocked and angered parents...
The Danish Government Nearly Collapsed Today Over A Deal With Goldman Sachs  Business Insider   ...Denmark's government is in turmoil after the Socialist People's Party (SF) quit the ruling coalition over a deal with Goldman Sachs, Lars Eriksen of the Guardian reports. The deal involves Goldman purchasing a 19% stake in state-owned utility Dong Energy for $1.5 billion. Denmark’s shareholding would fall to about 60%...
Coal Markets Hit Hard as Emerging Economies Begin to Wobble  Oil Price   ...Slowing growth in developing countries has started to affect the commodities market, especially for coal, as orders are slashed and prices have fallen as much as 10 percent in a month...
Spy Agencies Work On Psychologically Profiling Everyone  Washington's Blog   ...Newly-released documents from Edward Snowden show that the NSA and other spy agencies are tracking people’s psychological and lifestyle traits such as sexual preference, extroversion-versus-introversion, and whether people are leaders or followers...
Beer buzz? FAA grounds plan to deliver 12-packs by drone  Minneapolis Star Tribune   ...The idea seemed ingenious: Delivering 12-packs of beer to the cold, windswept surfaces of popular ice fishing lakes — using a drone...
Lawsuit: KBR transported soldiers' ice in unsanitized morgue trailers  Military Times   ...The Justice Department is suing KBR and two foreign companies for allegedly defrauding the Army. The most shocking accusation: Workers used “refrigerated trailers to transport ice for consumption by the troops that had previously been used as temporary morgues without first sanitizing them.”...
Wall Street’s New Housing Bonanza  New York Times   ... Investment bankers and lawyers are now lining up to finance investors, from big private equity firms to plumbers and dentists moonlighting as landlords, who are buying up foreclosed houses and renting them out...
U.S. West Coast Labor Tensions Push Shippers to Look at Alternative Routes  Journal of Commerce ...Li & Fung Logistics is preparing alternatives to shipping through U.S. West Coast ports, as the global sourcing giant expects some type of International Longshore and Warehouse Union disruption tied to the negotiations for a contract to replace the current one that expires June 30...
States Have Lost $1.76 Billion After Long-Term Unemployment Benefits Lapsed  ThinkProgress   ...State economies have lost $1.76 billion after Congress let the benefits program for the long-term unemployed lapse at the end of last year, according to a calculation from the Democratic Policy & Communications Center...
Citigroup to limit work hours, force bankers to use vacation time  Bloomberg News   ...Citigroup Inc. will require junior bankers to take Saturdays off and use all of their vacation time each year as the firm joins an industry effort to improve working conditions...
State Moves To Make Sure Workers Don’t Lose Pay If They Get The Flu  ThinkProgress   ...On Wednesday, the Washington State House passed a bill that would guarantee workers paid time off for an illness or to care for a sick family member...
U.S. has launched criminal probe into Target cyberattack  Los Angeles Times   ...The Justice Department said Wednesday that it has launched a criminal investigation into the recent cybertheft of more than 110 million Target customers' personal data...
Union Members Overwhelmingly Vote to Ratify Caesars Entertainment Contract  unitehere.org   Members of the Culinary and Bartenders Unions voted yesterday to ratify a new five-year agreement with Caesars Entertainment. The contract covers 13,000 workers in Las Vegas...

Today's Teamster News 01.26.14

Wal-Mart lays off 2,300 Sam's Club workers  USA Today   ...The layoffs, which cut 2% of the membership club's employee count of about 116,000, mark the largest since 2010, when the Sam's Club unit laid off 10,000 workers as it moved to outsource food demonstrations at its stores.
Bill Durling, a spokesman at Sam's Club, says that a little less than half of the cuts were aimed at salaried assistant managers...
Former Venture Capitalist Worth $8 Billion Compares Criticism Of Rich To Nazi Germany  Buzzfeed   ...Tom Perkins, a founder of the KPCB, compared the current wave of ostracism towards the uber-rich to attacks on Jewish people by the Nazis during World War II. Perkins, of course, is a member of the ultra-wealthy club, with an estimated net worth of $8 billion and ownership of a San Francisco penthouse he spent $9 million to construct.)...
They’re Fast-Tracking the Future, TPP Style – But We Can Stop Them  TradeReform   ...TheWikiLeaks documents show that every other country in the negotiations stood against American intellectual property demands...
Gender Wage Gap for Union Members Is Half the Size of Non-Union Workers' Wage Gap  National Women's Law Center   ...female union members earn over $200 per week more than women who are not represented by unions—an increase that represents a larger union premium than men receive...
Why are US corporate profits so high? Because wages are so low  Reuters   ...Companies have been unable to raise prices much because of the economic recovery has been fragile. But they’ve still managed to boost profits beyond anything ever seen before because they’ve got away with employing as few workers as possible at as low a rate as possible...
GDP By Industry for 2012  Economic Populist   ...Finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing is an astounding 19.5% of GDP which is unchanged from before the recession.  Real estate and rental and leasing by itself actually grew, whereas finance and insurance shrank their percentage of the GDP pie.  Considering this sector was the cause of economic implosion, this is probably not a good thing to have it being almost 20% of the overall economy...
Swarms of drones could be the next frontier in emergency response  NBC News   ...a group at Carnegie Mellon University ... is building a swarm of cheap, small flying helicopters that could come to the aid of officers across the country who find themselves facing off against suspects they can’t always see...
Security Check Firm Said to Have Defrauded U.S.  New York Times   ...The company that conducted a background investigation on the contractor Edward J. Snowden fraudulently signed off on hundreds of thousands of incomplete security checks in recent years, the Justice Department said...
The Federal Government Shouldn’t Directly Contribute To America’s Job-Quality Problem  Economic Policy Institute   ...far too many people working for private firms— but for the benefit of the federal government, with their wages ultimately paid by the taxpayers—are likely working for poverty wages. This is unacceptable; it is damaging to those workers and their families, and it hurts the economy by reducing demand for goods and services—currently a problem of crisis proportions...

Today's Teamster News 12.16.13

Pope Francis In Peace Message Attacks Mega-Salaries With 'Crumbs' For Poor  Huffington Post   ...Pope Francis said in the first peace message of his pontificate that huge salaries and bonuses are symptoms of an economy based on greed and inequality and called again for nations to narrow the wealth gap...
Rich People’s Idea of Charity: Giving to Elite Schools and Operas  Alternet   ...a large portion of the charitable deductions now claimed by America’s wealthy are for donations to culture palaces – operas, art museums, symphonies, and theaters – where they spend their leisure time hobnobbing with other wealthy benefactors...
Is this the end of in-flight phone calls?  Salon   ...There’s a government showdown in the making, and it’s all about cellphones: specifically, if passengers on US flights should be allowed to make phone calls or not...
The 1% is Hogging so much of our Income that it’s Holding the Economy Back  Informed Comment   ...“If the typical American family still got today the same share of income they earned in 1980, they would earn about 25 percent more and have an astounding $13,000 more a year...
Poverty nation: How America created a low-wage work swamp  Salon   ... a quarter of people who have jobs today make so little money that they also receive some form of public assistance, or welfare – a proportion that’s much higher in some of the fastest growing sectors of the workforce. Or that 60 percent of able-bodied adult food-stamp recipients are employed...
IBM faces shareholder lawsuit over cooperation with NSA  CNet   ...IBM's cooperation with a National Security Agency surveillance program caused sales in China to "abruptly halt" and the company's stock price to decline, a shareholder lawsuit claims...
US Government Pays Contractors Twice as Much as Civil Servants for the Same Work  Bill Moyers   ...the budget deal just worked out between the White House and Capitol Hill will prevent a government shutdown and all of its attendant global financial inconveniences. But it does nothing to curtail wasteful spending on companies that are among the nation’s richest and most powerful – from Booz Allen Hamilton, the $6 billion-a-year management-consulting firm, to Boeing, the defense contractor boasting $82 billion in worldwide sales...
Pushing for Justice at Walmart  The Daily Beast   ...Dominic Ware was a charismatic leader in the nationwide Our Walmart campaign, fighting for better working conditions—until he got fired after speaking out for himself and his coworkers...
Amid Healing Labor Market, Long-Term Unemployment Still Dire  US News   ...As Washington fights about jobless benefits, the long-term jobless make up a remarkably high share of the unemployed...

Today's Teamster News 12.12.13

Teamsters Join Delegation Calling On IKEA To End Lockout  teamster.org   ...A representative from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters joined a delegation in Sweden this week to ask IKEA to end the abuse of its workers and stop the lockout...
Hoffa: Detroit Bankruptcy Doesn't Change Pension Obligations  Detroit News   ...Mayor-elect Mike Duggan and the City Council, elected by Detroit residents, should be put in charge of crafting a plan that will protect pensioners and give them both security and certainty going forward...
It's Time to End the Secrecy Surrounding TPP Huffington Post   ...The Teamsters, other unions and fair trade advocates have for years criticized a proposed Pacific Rim trade deal for its lack of transparency...
Study: Labor violations don't stop government contracts  Associated Press   ...The study from Democratic leaders on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee found that nearly 30 percent of companies hit with the highest penalties for federal labor law violations from 2007 to 2012 were also federal contractors...
Airline Deregulation: How Ideology Triumphed Over Evidence in the U.S. Airline Industry  Alternet   ...any rational cost-benefit analysis must conclude that deregulation has been a failed experiment...
Cellphone data spying: It's not just the NSA  USA Today   ...Local police are increasingly able to scoop up large amounts of cellphone data using new technologies, including cell tower dumps and secret mobile devices known as Stingrays...
Pensions Become Less Certain For Government Workers  Northeast Indiana Public Radio   ...The budget agreement announced Tuesday — if it passes — would raise revenue by making employees contribute more toward their pensions...
Americans Say Dream Fading as Income Gap Hurts Chances  Bloomberg   ...By almost two to one -- 64 percent to 33 percent -- Americans say the U.S. no longer offers everyone an equal chance to get ahead...
16-Year-Old Drunk Driver Who Killed Four Escapes Jail — Because He Is Rich  Alternet   ...Couch's attorney argued his parents were responsible for the teen’s actions because they had raised him to believe that wealth and privilege could shield him from consequences.  ... Apparently the judge bought that argument...
Billions of Tax Dollars Later, No New Jobs for New York  taxanalysts.com   ...Over nine years, the state of New York gave businesses roughly $10 billion, or almost $1,400 from each household, in a jobs program that eliminated 175,000 jobs at an average cost of $57,000. And that's just state-level subsidies, not those from industrial development agencies...
Pensions Aren't the Source of Detroit's Woes  Portside   ...Since 2008, Detroit has reduced its spending by more than $400 million. In the same period, city revenues have fallen by nearly $260 million, with a steep decline after 2011.  … And yet there is one expense that has, so far, been spared: service fees on derivatives that were sold to the city by banks backed by UBS and Bank of America. In fact, these fees are the only significant increase in spending over the past five years...
Far-Right Lobby Group ALEC Brags That All Politicians in Two State Legislatures Are Members  Alternet   ...Iowa has 150 in each column, and South Dakota has 105 in each column...

Today's Teamster News 12.11.13

Teamsters Call On Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan To Stop Abuse Of U.S. Workers  teamster.org  ...Teamsters rallied outside the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (Teachers’) offices today, publicly calling on Teachers’ to stop worker and human rights abuses at EXAL Corp., an aluminum bottle manufacturer in Youngstown, Ohio. EXAL is owned and actively managed by the Canadian pension plan...
Another Missed TPP Deadline Calls Pact's Agenda Into Question  teamster.org   ..."We cannot rely on unconfirmed leaks to find out what is in this deal," said James P. Hoffa, General President of the Teamsters...
Walmart Contractor Agrees To $4.7 Million Settlement Over Wage Theft Allegations  Huffington Post   ...A group of warehouse workers accused Schneider Logistics, which operates a major Walmart distribution center in Mira Loma, Calif., of failing to pay them for overtime and illegally deducting wages from their paychecks, among other claims. Schneider will not admit fault under the settlement, but it will dish out millions of dollars to as many as 568 workers who handled Walmart goods at the warehouse...
Supreme Court drops case on employer-union ‘neutrality agreements’  Washington Post   ...The case was about “neutrality agreements.” In such accommodations, an employer might remain neutral during a union organizing campaign and even grant access to company grounds or lists of employees. In return, the union might agree to give up the right to strike or throw its support behind a matter important to the company...
Look at the stats: America resembles a poor country  Salon   ...Three decades of trickledown economics; the monopolization, privatization and deregulation of industry; and the destruction of labor protection has resulted in 50 million Americans living in abject poverty, while 400 individuals own more than one-half of the nation’s wealth...
Ron Formisano: Attacking labor movement is same as attacking middle class (opinion)  Lexington Herald-Leader   ...Unions in their heyday from the 1940s through the 1960s contributed greatly to building the middle class, but an unfortunate amnesia and anti-union propaganda has obscured that history for too many, even though Gallup reported that 54 percent of adults 18 and older now approve of organized labor...
World's leading authors: state surveillance of personal data is theft  The Guardian   ...More than 500 of the world's leading authors, including five Nobel prize winners, have condemned the scale of state surveillance revealed by the whistleblower Edward Snowden and warned that spy agencies are undermining democracy and must be curbed by a new international charter...
U.S. job openings reach 5-year high, a hopeful sign  Associated Press   ...U.S. employers advertised the most job openings in more than five years in October, and the number of people quitting also reached a five-year high...
Volkswagen Tied to Another Anti-Union Group  In These Times   ...Volkswagen America supports a second group engaged in anti-UAW activity in Chattanooga: the Chattanooga Regional Manufacturer Association (CRMA). The local industry group boasts VW as a member, and the CEO of Volkswagen America’s Chattanooga Operation, Frank Fischer, sits on its board of directors...
Worker Deaths Raise Questions at an Apple Contractor in China  New York Times   ...Labor rights activists say Pegatron has failed to explain at least five deaths. They say workers interviewed by China Labor Watch, a nonprofit group that monitors working conditions, have complained about long working hours and harsh working conditions at Pegatron, including some of the same pressures that in previous years led to safety problems at Foxconn Technology, Apple’s biggest contract supplier in China...
New bipartisan plan to 'only' cut food stamp benefits for 1.7 million  Daily Kos   ...Congressional Democrats reportedly think they've found just the food stamp cut—one that they can sell as a not completely heartless "administrative fix" yet will satisfy enough Republicans to pass a farm bill...
Despite warnings, Pentagon kept ties to controversial helicopter firms  Reuters   ...After almost four years of allegations that two related helicopter companies in Lithuania and Russia were doing substandard work and should be banned from new contracts, the Pentagon continued to give them business...
NTSB: Upgrade likely could have prevented NY crash  Associated Press   ...The National Transportation Safety Board said a tool called positive train control would have required the engineer to slow the train to an appropriate speed. If he had failed to do so, the technology would have stopped the train, "likely preventing the derailment," the board said...
Chicago’s ‘Smart Card’ Debacle and Privatisation  The Nation   ... under the old system, rich investors didn’t get a piece of the action. Under this one, they most decidedly do...

Surveillance, retaliation and anti-union lectures

We told you about the Iron Mountain workers who were forced to sit through intimidating captured audience meetings because they want to become Teamsters.

But we didn't do as good a job telling you about it as Josh Eidelson at Salon did. Eidelson spoke to workers who told him the company's managers are constantly harassing them not to unionize. And he has more quotes from managers recorded from the meeting: 

>One recording captures a manager telling an activist worker one-on-one, “There’s nothing I don’t know,” “There’s no secrets anymore,” and “I am upset with you personally” for pursuing unionization without telling him. The other captures the same manager telling a group of employees in an Oct. 24 meeting,"We have the right to educate you, and we’re gonna exercise that right.”...

It's legal for employers to campaign against unions, but it's illegal to threaten retaliation or interfere with organizing. Iron Mountain may well have crossed that line.

And even if Iron Mountain management acted within the letter of the law, that doesn't make it any less intimidating. Reported Eidelson:

“It made you scared to speak up and say anything, you know,” the employee told Salon. “Especially with management being so ‘disappointed,’ as they said they were.” He said that “the most intimidating part to me” was seeing how one of his anti-union co-workers “was able to voice how he felt about it” in the meeting, but a pro-union worker was “shot down” quickly by management when he tried to offer a counterpoint.

Al-Jazeera America has another good story on the steep price workers pay for trying to unionize.  Iron Mountain fired Wayne Walker, a driver, for union activities. He is filing a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.

Reports Al-Jazeera: 

Workers say the plant has changed for the worse in recent years, with demands to meet new deadlines and quotas. 

“We are choosing to go union because the company is making changes and we are left behind. The company is talking about billions of dollars of profit, but we haven’t seen it. All we see is extra work,” a current Iron Mountain employee told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.

What's especially troubling about the story is that Iron Mountain has contracts to destroy records at the U.S. Department of Defense and Environmental Protection Agency. 

You really have to ask, is this the kind of company U.S. taxpayers should be supporting?

Corporate takeover of social services rips off states, starves families

We need to have a serious conversation about government spending. No, not the kind that John Boehner and right-wing extremists want to talk about. Rather, the money government is spending to outsource essential social services, paying inflated costs for inefficient corporate management.

Our friends at the Center for Media and Democracy have a new report on the corporate frenzy to defraud state and local governments and deny services to vulnerable communities -- all to collect huge profits:

As private corporations like ACS and Maximus rake in hundreds of millions of dollars in massive contracts, and their executives rake in colossal compensation packages, shareholder profits and warped incentives detract from the standards of care provided by these corporations.

The CMD report looks at a recent bill passed in Mississippi allowing the state's Department of Health Services to privatize government functions such as child protective services and food programs for senior citizens.

Mississippi tried this before: it previously hired outside firm Maximus, Inc. to collect overdue child support payments. Maximus charged higher costs while collecting less than the state did in child support payments, according to CMD.

So maybe it's just a problem in Mississippi? Definitely not:

The Denver Post found a shocking pattern of abuse when it conducted an in-depth investigation of the privatization of Colorado’s foster care system a decade ago. The Post reported that numerous children were molested, abused, and even died in foster homes after the state started contracting with businesses that failed to ensure they were placed in safe homes. The state also paid three times as much to place a child in private foster care as it did in homes that were supervised by the counties.  

Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), another private firm, won a $1.16 billion contract from the state of Indiana in 2006. By 2008 there was a huge jump in the number of families and senior citizens incorrectly denied food stamps and Medicaid.

But these errors, as devastating as they are, weren't simply the result of computer glitches. Instead, they are built into the for-profit framework of corporate-run social services:

Many question whether these services -- aimed at helping the elderly, single parents, and foster children -- should ever be delivered with a profit motive. As Bob Jacobson of the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families put it, "If you’re a corporation whose very mission is to increase shareholder value, that is automatically in conflict with a social service agency whose sole purpose is to meet the needs of people in the program."

Jacobson noted that in the early days of privatizing social services in Wisconsin, contracts with Maximus and others were set up in such a way that "the profit motive was built in to deny benefits." That is, whatever money Maximus saved the government by not enrolling eligible individuals, it got to keep. "There was all sorts of money being siphoned off to build big houses for CEOs and it was perfectly legal."  

Despite its reputation of billing the state of Wisconsin for questionable expenses related to its privatized welfare-to-work program, Maximus won another $21 million bid in 2011 to management the state's foster care services for the next five years.

Earlier this year, the state of California's $69 million contract with ACS failed 37,000 people whose food stamp benefits disappeared.

And it isn't just state governments being swindled by private companies to prey on vulnerable families. CMD reports that Maximus just won a contract with the Department of Education to process federal student loan payments -- and it could run taxpayers as much as $848.4 million!

It's no surprise then that Maximus's CEO took home $4 million last year and his company made over a billion in revenue. ACS's parent company, Xerox, made $22.3 billion last year and has awarded top executives over $120 million since 2008.

Maybe that wouldn't be so bad if either company actually provided reliable services in exchange for the contracts they get from taxpayers. But that's the point: public services and private profits just don't mix.

So the next time tea party radicals tell you we have a spending problem, tell them to blame privatization and corporate greed.

It's not just robbing taxpayers -- it's killing the poor.

Today's Teamster News 10.22.12

Psst, taxes go up in 2013 for 163 million workers  Associated Press   ...A temporary reduction in Social Security payroll taxes is due to expire at the end of the year and hardly anyone in Washington is pushing to extend it. Neither Obama nor Romney has proposed an extension, and it probably wouldn't get through Congress anyway, with lawmakers in both parties down on the idea...
Looming federal cuts big risk to small companies  Associated Press   ...many in Washington believe that the budget reductions will be put off. But if a deal falls through, it's estimated that 10 percent of the federal budget will be cut. No one knows yet where exactly the cuts might be made, but many economists and lawmakers expect they would have a devastating effect on small companies and slow an already lumbering economy...
Fighting waste and abuse in defense contractor pay  Economic Policy Institute   ...Current law permits federal contractors to charge the government up to $763,029 a year for their employees, while even federal cabinet secretaries are paid no more than $200,000 a year, and the president is paid only $400,000 a year. Manchin’s amendment would lower the cap on maximum allowable compensation paid by government funds to all DoD contract employees from $763,029 to $230,700...
British protesters demand end to "failing" austerity  Reuters   ...Tens of thousands of British protesters marched through London on Saturday calling for an end to public spending cuts and tax rises launched by a government they accuse of elitism and ignorance about the plight of recession-hit voters...
Armed Forces Show Overwhelming Support for Obama  OpenSecrets.org   ...the president has received $536,414 from military donors, compared to Paul's $399,274 and Romney's $287,435, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics...
Inside Bain's Chinese Sensata Factories, Where Workers Put in 12-Hour Days for $.99-$1.35 an Hour  Alternet   ...They'll get a small tax break for relocating the plant – the one Mitt Romney insisted did not exist during the first debate – and then use those offshore funds to defer taxes on some of the income the company generates...

The myth of Romney's "we did it ourselfers"

Motto: "We became wealthy by ourselves."

Oh this is rich.

Mitt Romney's been making a big deal of President Obama's "you didn't build that" comment. But more than half of the "we did it ourself" companies he's featuring on campaign stops depend heavily on the government. They've borrowed money from, benefited from tax credits by and sold refrigerator magnets and boat propulsion systems to the federal government.

To back up a little, here's what Obama said:

If you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

Romney immediately pounced. And now he's holding 24 "We Did Build This" events in battleground states. And guess what? The companies featured got lots of government help. The Miami Herald reports that Romney's campaign featured two government contractors from Tampa who said they didn't need government.

Think Progress reports:

Ball Office Products hosted the “We Did Build This” event in Richmond, Virginia. The company received a loan of $635,000 through the Small Business Administration in 2012, according to USASpending.gov. The company was also awarded a lucrative $52,525 contract with the General Services Administration just a year after its founding.

Midwest Tape, a media distributor of Holland, Ohio, was showcased at a local event and has been contracted by the Department of Defense since 2008, earning a cumulative $13,659.

Columbus Truck and Equipment was featured in a neighboring event and has received $6,643 in contracts with the Department of Defense.

Cranston Material Handling Equipment Corporation, the owner of which spoke Wednesday morning at a campaign event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has reaped a total of $61,729 in contracts with the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs since 2007.

Systems Engineering Co.The owner of Systems Engineering has received a total of $180,200 in DOD contracts, as recently as last year.

Brady Industries in Las Vegas has received $54,425 in contracts with Veterans Affairs since 2009.

Pennsylvania business PRL Industries Inc. received a $167,847 contract through the Department of Homeland Security for ship and boat propulsion components for the U.S. Coast Guard in August 2008... 

An Iowa event featured Competitive Edge, Inc. which was contracted by Veterans Affairs for $3,543 to make informational refrigerator magnets.

J & W Cycles of Missouri was awarded $25,808 in contracts from the DOD and Department of Interior.

Total Resource, featured in a Sparks, Nevada campaign event, has been a federal contractor since 2010, and received a $11,200 contract from the DOD in 2009.

Applegate Insulation, which hosted one of the events in Michigan, benefited from an energy saving federal tax credit worth 30 percent of the installation project, up to $1,500.

Home Instead Senior Care supported Romney in Roanoke, Virginia, even though home health care companies receive 75 percent of their funding from public programs like Medicare and Medicaid. Home Instead franchises in Virginia have received at least $3,613,549 in federal funding through the Department of Veterans Affairs since 2008.

Perhaps Romney should go to Somalia to see how well people fare without a strong central government. Good luck with the warlords.

Pentagon buys overseas, costs 620K U.S. jobs

Hello? Anyone at home in the Pentagon? The U.S. Department of Defense granted 161,711 waivers from "Buy American" requirements for defense contracts over four years. Isn't our military supposed to be defending America?

Rep. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, released a report last week that shows exemptions to the Buy America laws for military contracts cost 620,000 American jobs and sent $53.5 billion overseas since 2007.

There may have been a time -- shortly after World War II -- when it made sense for the U.S. to encourage manufacturing in Germany and Japan so those countries would become and remain our allies. But it sure doesn't make sense any more.

A company called Colonial Bronze is based in Torrington, Conn. The Air Force needs bronze products. The Air Force tried to buy bronze products in  China. Here's what Jamie Gregg, the president of Colonial Bronze, has to say about that:

Instead of looking at my company to supply the products that the Air Force needs, they issued a waiver, saying that these products were only made in China.  Careless investigations into American made product availability like these are not only hurting my company and the families we employ, they are destroying U.S. manufacturing.

Our friends at EconomyinCrisis.org aren't pleased either. They point out that when manufacturing goes overseas,

...technology, innovation and know-how tend to follow production. So as manufacturing goes to places like China, India and Mexico, the key technologies, many of them crucial to national security, go with them...

This really isn't rocket science. But perhaps American rocket scientists have all seen their jobs go to China and India because of the Pentagon's procurement policies. 

Prison labor made defective US Army helmets

But that isn't the news. The news is that on Wednesday the Army gave Unicor, the government-owned prison labor company, a new no-bid $20 million contract to make body armor. That's right, after Unicor's protective helmets were recalled last year because they failed ballistics testing.

We suspect that the prisoners' wages -- as low as 23 cents an hour -- just might affect the quality of their products.

The Army is apparently comfortable with ordering slave-labor-made vests because they're for Pakistani troops (if we were Pakistani soldiers we'd be pissed).  The Army also seems to be comfortable with using prison labor when 13.7 million Americans are out of work.  

We took a look at Unicor's 70+ "factory" locations. There's probably one near you. Take a look at a map here.

At least there's some manufacturing left in the U.S.

U.S. defense contractor uses prison labor

This is just wrong.

Wired magazine reports that prisoners are making Patriot missiles.

This spring, the United Arab Emirates is expected to close a deal for $7 billion dollars’ worth of American arms. Nearly half of the cash will be spent on Patriot missiles, which cost as much as $5.9 million apiece.

But what makes those eye-popping sums even more shocking is that some of the workers manufacturing parts for those Patriot missiles are prisoners, earning as little as 23 cents an hour. (Credit Justin Rohrlich with the catch.)

The work is done by Unicor, previously known as Federal Prison Industries. It’s a government-owned corporation, established during the Depression, that employs about 20,000 inmates in 70 prisons to make everything from clothing to office furniture to solar panels to military electronics.

One of the company’s high-tech specialties: Patriot missile parts.

We can't decide if this is worse than military veterans earning poverty wages working for corporations that make Meals Ready to Eat. We have decided that it's a big mistake for the federal government to rely increasingly on sweatshop labor. Reports the American Prospect:

Under George W. Bush, as government privatized more functions, federal contracting increased by about half, according to the Economic Policy Institute. The EPI also estimates that nearly one-fifth of federal contracted workers did not earn enough to raise a family of four above the poverty line.

How can the U.S. expect to win any war, economic or otherwise, if it encourages  slave labor?

emptywheel makes the point well:

You know how I have argued that our country does have an industrial plan, one that is commonly called the Military-Industrial Complex? The government dumps seemingly unlimited amount of money into selected projects. Defense companies make sure to spread the jobs created by defense contracts around, so members of Congress support those contracts in bipartisan fashion. And then we export things like jets–one of the few things we export anymore.

Only, if we allow defense contractors to use prison labor, then the whole scheme sort of breaks down.

It's sickening.