TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Across the United States Join Worker Campaigns for Justice Teamster.org ...Teamsters across the United States participated in actions today to support workers who are waging courageous battles for fair wages, decent benefits and improved working conditions. Nationally, workers from different industries and occupations walked off the job in 270 cities and rallied outside city halls in support of the “Fight for $15” movement. Teamsters at scores of locations handed out leaflets near FedEx Freight terminals...
Hoffa: TPP a punch to the gut of U.S. workers The Detroit News ...The much-awaited text of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was finally released for public consumption last week. But sunshine and scrutiny of the pact isn’t making the deal look any brighter for workers in Michigan or around the country. As the Teamsters and others long suspected, the TPP text contains many of the most controversial items included in past lousy trade agreements...
Teamsters Applaud Senate Motion to Keep Double 33-Foot Trailers Off the Road Teamster.org ...The Senate today scored a victory for highway safety by passing a motion by a 56-31 margin which instructs Senate negotiators of a long-term highway bill to oppose any federal mandate that would force states to allow an increase in length of tractor trailers at this time. “On behalf of our more than 700,000 members who turn a key for a living I would like to thank the 56 senators that took a stand today for highway safety,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa...
Allstate Power Vac Workers Join Teamsters Teamster.org ...On Monday, November 9, employees at Allstate Power Vac, Inc. in New York City voted by an overwhelming margin of nearly 98 percent to join Teamsters Local 813 in an election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board. The 61 environmental waste removal workers are looking forward to improving their working conditions, including gaining fairness and respect from their employer...
Teamsters claim victory in push to unionize city’s private carting industry Capital New York ...The Teamsters have notched their first official New York City win in an ongoing battle to unionize the city's private carting and waste management industry. Employees at Allstate Power Vac, a New Jersey-based company with a shop in Brooklyn, voted by a 98-percent margin to join Teamsters Local 813 after complaints of low wages, lack of benefits and poor treatment, union officials said...
Teamsters Shine Light On Veterans' Health Care, Protest High Costs To Workers Morning Star ...On Wed., Nov. 11, Teamsters will protest outside Florida VA hospitals in the afternoon on behalf of McKesson distribution workers in Lakeland, Fla., including Army veteran Claude Hickerson, who cannot afford health coverage for his family. McKesson has been the prime vendor for the VA since 2004, bringing in about $4 billion a year. "America's veterans should not have to struggle for health care," said Ken Wood, Teamsters International Vice President and President of Teamsters Local 79, and a veteran...
Voting Underway for EVSC Teamsters Contract Talks TriState Homepage ...Teamsters president Chuck Whobrey says four of five employee groups have voted on the contract. No word on how the votes are falling. There is still one more group to go -- that will take place Thursday. Nearly 680 EVSC employees -- represented by Teamsters-- have been without a contract since June 30th...
Kentucky EMS workers renew push for line of duty death benefits WDRB ...Emergency Medical Technician Arthur Cash, with members of Teamsters Local Union No. 783, are pushing to change that with a bill in Frankfort -- currently known as BR 91. “This will cover every EMT who works for a government or non-profit agency. Also, rescue squad members,” said Arthur Cash, Chief Steward for Teamsters Local Union No. 783...
Crow Wing County Board: Board withdraws from CMCC, approves probation integration Brainerd Dispatch ...A probation partnership spanning more than four decades will soon come to an end. The Crow Wing County Board Tuesday unanimously voted to withdraw from Central Minnesota Community Corrections. Erik Skoog, business agent with the Teamsters Local No. 320, interrupted and began addressing the board. The Local No. 320 represent CMCC probation officers along with all employees in community services except management...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Striking Greeks take to tension-filled streets in austerity protest Reuters ...Striking Greeks took to the streets on Thursday to protest austerity measures, setting Alexis Tsipras' government its biggest domestic challenge since he was re-elected in September promising to cushion the impact of economic hardship. Flights were grounded, hospitals ran on skeleton staff, ships were docked at port and public offices stayed shut across the country...
Quebec's Strike Wave Rolls Toward a Showdown Truthout ...Workers in the Canadian province of Quebec are mobilizing the largest struggle against austerity in North America. Public-sector workers across Quebec have hit the picket lines for a wave of strikes to defend jobs, wages, working conditions and public services. In the first round of rotating regional strikes from October 26-29, more than 400,000 unionists organized in the Common Front shut down schools, hospitals and government offices...
Pacific trade deal could limit affordable drugs Malaysian Insider ...A massive trade pact between 12 Pacific rim countries could limit the availability of affordable medicines, the head of the World Health Organisation said Thursday, joining a heated debate on the impact of the deal. Margaret Chan told a conference there were "some very serious concerns" about the Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Why Obama says TPP is historic for workers — and why US labor unions hate it Vox ...The Obama administration is crowing about the labor protections in the Trans-Pacific Partnership — the full text of which were finally released last week. But skeptics aren't convinced. First, they say, the labor protections are similar to those in previous trade agreements, rather than truly game changing. And second, they argue that though the commitments sound nice on paper, they may not make much of a difference in the real world...
Currency manipulation plan gets key endorsement The Hill ...A currency manipulation plan connected to a far-reaching Pacific Rim trade pact received a key endorsement from the architects of a widely cited proposal to crack down on the practice. Critics of the currency provisions argue that while the side agreement requires more data from countries such as Malaysia, the deal won't force violating nations to change policies they have already agreed to follow...
US farm lobby group campaigning against the Trans Pacific Partnership ABC ...One of the largest farm groups in the United States is stepping up its campaign against the Trans Pacific Partnership. The 12-country deal seeks to make it cheaper, and easier, to trade throughout the Pacific rim. But the National Farmers' Union fears currency manipulation threatens to wipe out all the gains the deal might make...
How the secret TTIP trade deal could enable companies to sue countries The Conversation ...One of the most controversial elements of TPP is the “investor-state dispute settlement” clause (or ISDS) – and the inclusion of intellectual property under its remit. Should a similar clause be included in the TTIP, companies could use it within the EU to usurp the will of both national and EU courts. And this could be very costly indeed...
Portugal Rejoices as Anti-Austerity Left Coalition Forms to Oust Right Wing Common Dreams ...In a surprising development for Europe's anti-austerity movement, Portugal's three reigning leftist parties on Tuesday formed an unexpected coalition to oust the country's center-right government from power and end years of punishing cuts and economic hardship. The moderate Socialist Party forged what is being called "an unprecedented alliance"...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Cuomo to Raise Minimum Wage to $15 for All New York State Employees New York Times ...Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Tuesday that he would unilaterally establish a $15 minimum wage for all state workers, making New York the first state to set such a high wage for its public employees. The increase will place the pay of New York’s state employees far ahead of the current minimum wage in other states, and positions Mr. Cuomo at the vanguard of a national movement to address stagnant pay...
Almost Half of All American Workers Make Less Than $15 an Hour The Nation ...We’ve come a long way since that crisp November day three years ago when a small group of New York City fast-food workers launched a strike with the slogan “Fast Food Forward.” Today, the movement continues its forward march with the viral hashtag #FightFor15. On November 10, workers in hundreds of cities again went on strike and rallied, this time with an especially militant overtone...
Virginia Is The First State In The Country To End Veteran Homelessness Think Progress ...On Veterans Day, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) and President Obama announced that the state is the first in the country to end veteran homelessness. That means that every veteran who wants housing has been offered a place after the state says it has helped more than 1,400 veterans get into permanent housing in the last year...
ALEC's Fingerprints on Harsh New North Carolina Immigration Law Truthout ...At the end of October, North Carolina joined the ranks of states with harsh immigration policies when Gov. Pat McCrory (R) signed into law HB 318. North Carolina's law was passed amidst a conservative backlash against community trust initiatives nationwide sparked by this summer's murder of Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco. But language in North Carolina's sanctuary city ban predates Steinle's death: It comes from a model bill, titled "No Sanctuary Cities for Illegal Immigrants," crafted in 2009 by the American Legislative Exchange Council...
City of Pittsburgh workers' minimum wage going up to $15 WTAE ...Mayor Bill Peduto issued an executive order Tuesday raising all city employees' minimum wage to $15 an hour by the year 2021, a move that comes as a handful of large U.S. cities have enacted or moved toward a $15 minimum wage. Peduto's order doesn't raise the minimum wage of non-city employees who work in Pittsburgh, though it does call for City Council to draft legislation next year...
Donald Trump thinks you make too much money Fusion ...Donald Trump kicked off the fourth GOP debate by boldly proclaiming that “wages [are] too high.” The comment went relatively unnoted by moderators as several other candidates proceeded to critique federal minimum wage policy. Yet, Trump’s position is far outside even Republican mainstream thinking on the topic...
Ben Carson Is As Wrong About Wage Hikes As He Was About the Pyramids The Nation ... Of course Dr. Ben Carson was wrong when he claimed in the fourth Republican presidential debate that “Every time we raise the minimum wage, the number of jobless people increases.” Minimum-wage hikes are not always associated with immediate spikes in employment; especially in recessionary moments. But PolitiFact notes that “[of the] five minimum wage hikes that occurred when a recovery was under way, joblessness declined four of those times”...
U.S. LABOR
Voting begins Thursday on UAW-Ford contract MLive ..The some 52,000 rank-and-file UAW workers at Ford Motor Co.'s U.S. facilities begin voting Thursday on a new, four-year contract agreement. Voting is expected to last through next week. Struck last Friday, the proposed agreement includes $9 billion in U.S. product commitments and 8,500 jobs created or retained...
Unions Push to Establish Bloc of Low-Wage Voters Wall Street Journal ...The Fight for $15 movement is seeking not just to influence Americans’ paychecks, but also the country’s upcoming elections. Fast-food workers and other supporters are protesting in many cities on Tuesday, demanding a $15 an hour minimum wage and the right to form a union without retaliation. The rallies are organized by the Service Employees International Union and other labor organizations...
Fast Food Strikes Hit Cities Throughout The Country Huffington Post ...Nearly three years after launching its first worker strike, the Fight for 15 was reaping the fruits of its labor on Tuesday. The union-backed campaign aimed at boosting the minimum wage held what organizers described as its largest mass demonstration yet, with fast-food and other service-sector workers taking part in strikes and protests in scores of cities around the country...
Fight For $15: Nationwide Protests Aim To Inject Minimum Wage Hikes Into Presidential Campaign IBTimes ...Protesters hit the streets Tuesday -- a full year before Election Day 2016 -- in a move designed to pressure presidential candidates to embrace the movement’s twin demands of $15 and union representation. The early-morning march in Brooklyn kicked off the latest round of nationwide demonstrations held by the so-called Fight for 15...
Bernie Sanders picks up his biggest union endorsement yet: U.S. postal workers are feeling the Bern Salon ...“Politics as usual has not worked. It’s time for a political revolution,” the president of the American Postal Workers’ Union declared when he announced the 200,000-member strong organization’s endorsement of Bernie Sanders. Sanders’ largest union endorsement yet is welcome news as a New York Times/CBS News released on Thursday shows rival Hillary Clinton maintaining her substantial national lead...
After Video of Calif. Police Breaking Up Teachers Union Meeting Goes Viral, School Apologizes In These Times ...In a video widely circulated on social media, Alameda County sheriff’s deputies can be seen interrupting a lunchtime union meeting held at San Lorenzo High on October 20 for local teachers in the midst of a contract bargaining dispute with their employer, the San Lorenzo Unified School District (SLUSD)...
County reaches tentative pact with AFSCME NC New Online ...A Lawrence County courthouse union has reached a tentative agreement with the county for a three-year contract. County administrator James Gagliano told the commissioners yesterday that the prospective contract is in the hands of the representative for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2902. The bargaining unit includes 63 employees...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Wall Street is finally getting its comeuppance: Why new global regulations are a vital step in the right direction Salon ...Public outrage has gradually driven a more robust post-crisis response as we get further and further away from the event, an unusual and encouraging scenario. The latest action, from the global banking regulator known as the Financial Stability Board (FSB), would force the world’s 30 biggest banks to raise over $1 trillion in additional funds that can be used to absorb losses in a downturn...
Beyond Mizzou: Fight for Racial Justice Spreads to Campuses Nationwide Common Dreams ...Empowered by successful campus organizing at the University of Missouri, where protests over racial tensions culminated Monday in the resignation of University president Tim Wolfe, students and faculty at schools across the country are seizing their moment to amplify the call for racial justice...
Immigration advocates aren’t letting a court ruling on deportations get in their way Washington Post ...President Obama’s plan to shield millions of illegal immigrants from deportation may be in legal limbo, but that’s not stopping advocates for the undocumented, who are planning a new wave of events celebrating the initiative’s one-year anniversary. Even as a federal appeals court ruled this week against Obama’s program, advocates were stepping up their preparations and finalizing plans to hold vigils, news conferences and “naturalization workshops”...
Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Today's Teamster News 11.05.15
TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Suspend Safeway Protests - For Now DC Labor ...Teamsters locals 730 and 639 have agreed to suspend their protests over the threatened closure of the Safeway Distribution Center in Upper Marlboro after State Senator Anthony Muse on Wednesday asked representatives of Safeway and Collington Services (which operates the center), along with the Teamsters, to participate in discussions aimed at preserving jobs at the center. The companies have until November 10 to respond to Muse’s request...
Despite Coca-Cola’s Regressive Proposals, Union Works to Fix Overtime Issues in Negotiations Local 727 ...As Coca-Cola management continued to drag its feet, the Teamsters Local 727 Bargaining Committee worked to tackle major non-economic issues during contract negotiations on Wednesday, November 4. The union revisited its proposal to clarify overtime assignments and ensure Coca-Cola effectively communicates with workers when posting mandatory overtime. The Teamsters’ proposal also establishes and guarantees 40-hour workweek schedules...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Pacific partners release TPP details Reuters ...The long-awaited text of a landmark US-backed Pacific trade deal has been released. It reveals the details of a pact aimed at freeing up commerce in 40 per cent of the world's economy but is criticised for its opacity. If ratified, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will be a legacy-defining achievement for US President Barack Obama and his administration's pivot to Asia, aimed at countering China's rising economic and political influence...
TPP trade deal: text published online The Guardian ...New Zealand has put the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) online, offering the first detailed look at the world’s largest free trade deal, the most ambitious effort in years to remove barriers to commerce. The New Zealand government, which signed on to the deal, put the contents of the agreement on its website on Thursday, saying it would continue to undergo legal review...
Full Text of TPP Released to Public... And It's Horrible Common Dreams ...It's a disaster for people, the planet, democracy, and the future of the global economy. That was the immediate assessment of informed critics as world governments, including the United States, on Thursday morning made the full text of the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) available to the public for the first time...
What to Look for When the Trans-Pacific Partnership Text Is Released Huffington Post ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has been completed. The agreement is a big deal. It is said it writes the rules for doing business in the 21st century and covers 40 percent of the world's economy. The agreement will determine whether the giant corporations will increase their domination or if regular people will instead be able to fight back...
Trans-Pacific Partnership critics concerned about environment, IP clauses in trade pact's fine print ABC ...Critics of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) warn the full text of the agreement highlights serious concerns about environmental protections and intellectual property rights. For the first time the fine print of the agreement — which would eliminate 98 per cent of all tariffs between the 12 nations including Australia — has been released...
TPP leaders to meet on sidelines of APEC forum summit in Philippines Japan Times ...The leaders of 12 countries involved in the recently sealed Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade initiative will meet later this month in the Philippines to ensure early implementation of the pact, a government source said Wednesday. The meeting will be held on the sidelines of a two-day summit...
Thousands expected in student protest against austerity CBC ...Thousands of students from CEGEPs and universities are expected to take part in a large demonstration today against austerity measures imposed by the Quebec government. Close to 20 student associations representing more than 50,000 students have a strike mandate for the province-wide protest on Nov. 5...
Brazil President’s Own Party Resists Her Austerity Plans Wall Street Journal ...Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who is struggling to get the country’s Congress to pass legislation meant to curb a widening budget gap, faces more resistance from members of her own party than almost any other grouping, according to a recent survey of lawmakers. Ms. Rousseff’s left-wing Workers’ Party is reluctant to embrace spending cuts...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Fast-food workers plan new strike, aim to sway election USA Today ...Fast-food workers, already a potent political force, are planning their largest nationwide strike yet next week and this time will leverage their crusade for a $15-an-hour wage in a bid to sway the 2016 presidential election. The group representing the workers, Fight for $15, plans on Tuesday to stage protests at restaurants in 270 cities, the most since it began organizing the demonstrations three years ago...
Missouri House sponsor of bill backers call ‘paycheck protection’ wants to bring it back in 2016 Missourinet ...The House sponsor of what supporters call “paycheck protection” and opponents call “paycheck deception” wants to file that bill again in 2016. A “right-to-work” bill was vetoed this year by Governor Nixon and supporters fell 13 votes short of overturning that veto in the state House. Some Republicans are now debating whether it should be brought back up in 2016...
400,000 People Could Lose Their Health Care Because No One Turned Out To Vote Think Progress ...If you live in Kentucky, you probably didn’t vote yesterday. Turnout in Tuesday’s gubernatorial election was simply dreadful. According to the state’s chief elections officer, preliminary results show that only 30.7 percent of voters actually cast a ballot in this off-off-year election. That compares with 45.9 percent of voters in 2014...
Will State Courts Fill a Void on Voting Rights? The Atlantic ...In recent years, as the U.S. Supreme Court has limited its protections of the right to vote, some state courts have stepped in to fill the void. State judges have looked to their state constitutions—which are more explicit in conferring the right to vote—to provide relief from onerous election laws. And, in doing so, they have shown how these documents can be powerful tools to improve America’s democracy...
Paid Sick Leave Wins At The Voting Booth Think Progress ...On Tuesday, voters in Elizabeth, New Jersey approved a paid sick days law that guarantees all residents the right to earn leave. Once it goes into effect, the city’s 25,000 private sector workers will be able to earn an hour of sick time for every 30 they work, capped at five days a year for those at companies with 10 or more employees and at three days at smaller companies, to care for themselves or a sick family member...
Campaign to raise Maine's minimum wage tops 90K signatures WCSH ...A proposal to raise Maine's minimum wage is set to appear on next year's ballot. The group "Mainers For Fair Wages" has collected more than 90,000 signatures, which is well over the minimum requirement to get the issue on the ballot. The proposal for the statewide ballot would raise Maine's minimum wage to $9 an hour in 2017...
Tacoma, Washington, Passes $12 Minimum Wage Huffington Post ...Residents of Tacoma, Washington, are ready to raise the minimum wage -- just not too quickly. Voters in the city of 200,000 appear to have approved a ballot measure this week that would gradually raise the minimum wage in the city to $12 per hour. At the same time, they seem to have turned down a more ambitious measure...
U.S. LABOR
UAW Warns of General Motors Strike If Workers Fail to Approve Contract Wall Street Journal ...United Auto Workers leaders are pressing members to ratify a proposed contract from General Motors Co. after a handful of factories turned it down in initial rounds of voting, with union officials saying a costly strike is likely unavoidable if the deal fails, according to several people familiar with the matter. The UAW’s voting on GM’s proposed agreement to 52,700 of its U.S. factory workers began late last week and ends Saturday...
UAW-GM agreement reportedly en route to ratification MLive ...A new, four-year contract between General Motors and 52,600 UAW workers in the U.S. appears headed for ratification. The Detroit Free Press reports that workers at GM's Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly, three sites in Pontiac and large plants in Missouri and Tennessee all gave the new contract clear majorities on Wednesday...
B&H Photo Warehouse Employees Vote to Join USW Union PR Newswire ...Today, workers at two B&H warehouses in Bushwick and in the Brooklyn Navy Yard voted by a 200-to-88 margin for representation by the United Steelworkers (USW) union. Workers had complained that they had been forced to work long hours in unsafe environments without proper training, while subject to discrimination...
NLRB Rejects Target’s Petition to Invalidate Union Vote in Brooklyn Wall Street Journal ...A small group of Target Corp. pharmacy workers in New York City are one step closer to becoming the retailer’s first ever union. The National Labor Relations Board on Tuesday rejected Target’s appeal to invalidate the group’s September vote to unionize. In a letter denying the appeal, the NLRB said Target hadn’t raised any “substantial issues warranting review”...
Oxfam Calls Out ‘Big Chicken’ for Rampant Labor Abuses In These Times ...One of the world’s most prominent hunger-fighting organizations has launched a publicity campaign aimed at improving wages and workplace safety in U.S. chicken processing plants. Oxfam kicked off the campaign with a report released October 26 that details substandard wages and benefits, unsafe working conditions, and a culture of hostility to labor rights for the estimated 250,000 workers employed in chicken plants...
Elizabeth Warren Wants to Give Seniors a Raise Mother Jones ...Elizabeth Warren wants to give seniors the same pay raise enjoyed by CEOs—and to raise taxes on some executive pay in the process. The liberal senator from Massachusetts is introducing a bill on Thursday to boost Social Security payments for 2016 with a one-time bump in benefits...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Half Of Black Millennials Know A Victim Of Police Violence. What That Means For The 2016 Election. Think Progress ...Far before the Black Lives Matter movement was launched and before high-profile cases of police brutality permeated the national media, more than half of black millennials said in 2009 that they knew a victim of police violence. The University of Chicago released a report titled “Black Millennials in America” with the 2009 survey data that highlights how many people of color know victims of police violence...
With Historic Release of Drug Offenders & Help for Re-entry, US Takes "First Step" on Prison Crisis Democracy Now ...In the largest one-time release of federal prisoners in U.S. history, more than 6,000 inmates have been freed early under a resentencing effort for people convicted of nonviolent drug crimes. Decisions by the U.S. Sentencing Commission last year reduced prison terms for certain drug offenses and applied those changes retroactively...
America’s Prison Population Is Falling, but Too Slowly to Undo Decades of Growth Mother Jones ...Here’s the good news: The number of prisoners in the United States dropped last year to its lowest point since 2005, a trend likely to continue following the release of about 6,000 inmates from federal prisons in the past few days. And here’s the bad: The prison population still only dropped by 1 percent in 2014...
Teamsters Suspend Safeway Protests - For Now DC Labor ...Teamsters locals 730 and 639 have agreed to suspend their protests over the threatened closure of the Safeway Distribution Center in Upper Marlboro after State Senator Anthony Muse on Wednesday asked representatives of Safeway and Collington Services (which operates the center), along with the Teamsters, to participate in discussions aimed at preserving jobs at the center. The companies have until November 10 to respond to Muse’s request...
Despite Coca-Cola’s Regressive Proposals, Union Works to Fix Overtime Issues in Negotiations Local 727 ...As Coca-Cola management continued to drag its feet, the Teamsters Local 727 Bargaining Committee worked to tackle major non-economic issues during contract negotiations on Wednesday, November 4. The union revisited its proposal to clarify overtime assignments and ensure Coca-Cola effectively communicates with workers when posting mandatory overtime. The Teamsters’ proposal also establishes and guarantees 40-hour workweek schedules...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Pacific partners release TPP details Reuters ...The long-awaited text of a landmark US-backed Pacific trade deal has been released. It reveals the details of a pact aimed at freeing up commerce in 40 per cent of the world's economy but is criticised for its opacity. If ratified, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will be a legacy-defining achievement for US President Barack Obama and his administration's pivot to Asia, aimed at countering China's rising economic and political influence...
TPP trade deal: text published online The Guardian ...New Zealand has put the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) online, offering the first detailed look at the world’s largest free trade deal, the most ambitious effort in years to remove barriers to commerce. The New Zealand government, which signed on to the deal, put the contents of the agreement on its website on Thursday, saying it would continue to undergo legal review...
Full Text of TPP Released to Public... And It's Horrible Common Dreams ...It's a disaster for people, the planet, democracy, and the future of the global economy. That was the immediate assessment of informed critics as world governments, including the United States, on Thursday morning made the full text of the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) available to the public for the first time...
What to Look for When the Trans-Pacific Partnership Text Is Released Huffington Post ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has been completed. The agreement is a big deal. It is said it writes the rules for doing business in the 21st century and covers 40 percent of the world's economy. The agreement will determine whether the giant corporations will increase their domination or if regular people will instead be able to fight back...
Trans-Pacific Partnership critics concerned about environment, IP clauses in trade pact's fine print ABC ...Critics of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) warn the full text of the agreement highlights serious concerns about environmental protections and intellectual property rights. For the first time the fine print of the agreement — which would eliminate 98 per cent of all tariffs between the 12 nations including Australia — has been released...
TPP leaders to meet on sidelines of APEC forum summit in Philippines Japan Times ...The leaders of 12 countries involved in the recently sealed Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade initiative will meet later this month in the Philippines to ensure early implementation of the pact, a government source said Wednesday. The meeting will be held on the sidelines of a two-day summit...
Thousands expected in student protest against austerity CBC ...Thousands of students from CEGEPs and universities are expected to take part in a large demonstration today against austerity measures imposed by the Quebec government. Close to 20 student associations representing more than 50,000 students have a strike mandate for the province-wide protest on Nov. 5...
Brazil President’s Own Party Resists Her Austerity Plans Wall Street Journal ...Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who is struggling to get the country’s Congress to pass legislation meant to curb a widening budget gap, faces more resistance from members of her own party than almost any other grouping, according to a recent survey of lawmakers. Ms. Rousseff’s left-wing Workers’ Party is reluctant to embrace spending cuts...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Fast-food workers plan new strike, aim to sway election USA Today ...Fast-food workers, already a potent political force, are planning their largest nationwide strike yet next week and this time will leverage their crusade for a $15-an-hour wage in a bid to sway the 2016 presidential election. The group representing the workers, Fight for $15, plans on Tuesday to stage protests at restaurants in 270 cities, the most since it began organizing the demonstrations three years ago...
Missouri House sponsor of bill backers call ‘paycheck protection’ wants to bring it back in 2016 Missourinet ...The House sponsor of what supporters call “paycheck protection” and opponents call “paycheck deception” wants to file that bill again in 2016. A “right-to-work” bill was vetoed this year by Governor Nixon and supporters fell 13 votes short of overturning that veto in the state House. Some Republicans are now debating whether it should be brought back up in 2016...
400,000 People Could Lose Their Health Care Because No One Turned Out To Vote Think Progress ...If you live in Kentucky, you probably didn’t vote yesterday. Turnout in Tuesday’s gubernatorial election was simply dreadful. According to the state’s chief elections officer, preliminary results show that only 30.7 percent of voters actually cast a ballot in this off-off-year election. That compares with 45.9 percent of voters in 2014...
Will State Courts Fill a Void on Voting Rights? The Atlantic ...In recent years, as the U.S. Supreme Court has limited its protections of the right to vote, some state courts have stepped in to fill the void. State judges have looked to their state constitutions—which are more explicit in conferring the right to vote—to provide relief from onerous election laws. And, in doing so, they have shown how these documents can be powerful tools to improve America’s democracy...
Paid Sick Leave Wins At The Voting Booth Think Progress ...On Tuesday, voters in Elizabeth, New Jersey approved a paid sick days law that guarantees all residents the right to earn leave. Once it goes into effect, the city’s 25,000 private sector workers will be able to earn an hour of sick time for every 30 they work, capped at five days a year for those at companies with 10 or more employees and at three days at smaller companies, to care for themselves or a sick family member...
Campaign to raise Maine's minimum wage tops 90K signatures WCSH ...A proposal to raise Maine's minimum wage is set to appear on next year's ballot. The group "Mainers For Fair Wages" has collected more than 90,000 signatures, which is well over the minimum requirement to get the issue on the ballot. The proposal for the statewide ballot would raise Maine's minimum wage to $9 an hour in 2017...
Tacoma, Washington, Passes $12 Minimum Wage Huffington Post ...Residents of Tacoma, Washington, are ready to raise the minimum wage -- just not too quickly. Voters in the city of 200,000 appear to have approved a ballot measure this week that would gradually raise the minimum wage in the city to $12 per hour. At the same time, they seem to have turned down a more ambitious measure...
U.S. LABOR
UAW Warns of General Motors Strike If Workers Fail to Approve Contract Wall Street Journal ...United Auto Workers leaders are pressing members to ratify a proposed contract from General Motors Co. after a handful of factories turned it down in initial rounds of voting, with union officials saying a costly strike is likely unavoidable if the deal fails, according to several people familiar with the matter. The UAW’s voting on GM’s proposed agreement to 52,700 of its U.S. factory workers began late last week and ends Saturday...
UAW-GM agreement reportedly en route to ratification MLive ...A new, four-year contract between General Motors and 52,600 UAW workers in the U.S. appears headed for ratification. The Detroit Free Press reports that workers at GM's Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly, three sites in Pontiac and large plants in Missouri and Tennessee all gave the new contract clear majorities on Wednesday...
B&H Photo Warehouse Employees Vote to Join USW Union PR Newswire ...Today, workers at two B&H warehouses in Bushwick and in the Brooklyn Navy Yard voted by a 200-to-88 margin for representation by the United Steelworkers (USW) union. Workers had complained that they had been forced to work long hours in unsafe environments without proper training, while subject to discrimination...
NLRB Rejects Target’s Petition to Invalidate Union Vote in Brooklyn Wall Street Journal ...A small group of Target Corp. pharmacy workers in New York City are one step closer to becoming the retailer’s first ever union. The National Labor Relations Board on Tuesday rejected Target’s appeal to invalidate the group’s September vote to unionize. In a letter denying the appeal, the NLRB said Target hadn’t raised any “substantial issues warranting review”...
Oxfam Calls Out ‘Big Chicken’ for Rampant Labor Abuses In These Times ...One of the world’s most prominent hunger-fighting organizations has launched a publicity campaign aimed at improving wages and workplace safety in U.S. chicken processing plants. Oxfam kicked off the campaign with a report released October 26 that details substandard wages and benefits, unsafe working conditions, and a culture of hostility to labor rights for the estimated 250,000 workers employed in chicken plants...
Elizabeth Warren Wants to Give Seniors a Raise Mother Jones ...Elizabeth Warren wants to give seniors the same pay raise enjoyed by CEOs—and to raise taxes on some executive pay in the process. The liberal senator from Massachusetts is introducing a bill on Thursday to boost Social Security payments for 2016 with a one-time bump in benefits...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Half Of Black Millennials Know A Victim Of Police Violence. What That Means For The 2016 Election. Think Progress ...Far before the Black Lives Matter movement was launched and before high-profile cases of police brutality permeated the national media, more than half of black millennials said in 2009 that they knew a victim of police violence. The University of Chicago released a report titled “Black Millennials in America” with the 2009 survey data that highlights how many people of color know victims of police violence...
With Historic Release of Drug Offenders & Help for Re-entry, US Takes "First Step" on Prison Crisis Democracy Now ...In the largest one-time release of federal prisoners in U.S. history, more than 6,000 inmates have been freed early under a resentencing effort for people convicted of nonviolent drug crimes. Decisions by the U.S. Sentencing Commission last year reduced prison terms for certain drug offenses and applied those changes retroactively...
America’s Prison Population Is Falling, but Too Slowly to Undo Decades of Growth Mother Jones ...Here’s the good news: The number of prisoners in the United States dropped last year to its lowest point since 2005, a trend likely to continue following the release of about 6,000 inmates from federal prisons in the past few days. And here’s the bad: The prison population still only dropped by 1 percent in 2014...
Monday, October 26, 2015
Today's Teamster News 10.26.15
TEAMSTERS
Teamster Aviation Maintenance Technicians to Vote on United Contract Teamster.org ...The International Brotherhood Teamsters today announced an agreement to put a proposed joint contract out for ratification for members working at United Airlines. The deal, if approved, would cover the company’s aviation maintenance technicians and related workers. The proposed contract would combine the subsidiary groups of workers formerly associated with Continental and Continental Micronesia with United...
United agrees to tentative deal with Teamsters Chicago Tribune ...United Airlines said Friday morning that it has agreed to a deal with the Teamsters to put the carrier's 8,600 technicians and related employees under a single contract. The proposed deal — which has yet to be ratified by rank-and-file members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters — is United's first major deal since recently appointed CEO Oscar Munoz went on medical leave...
Port Truck Drivers Strike Over Wage Theft Capital & Main ...Truck drivers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will begin a strike at 6 a.m. today against local subsidiaries of XPO Logistics, a Connecticut-headquartered freight transportation company. Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa will bring a national spotlight to the fight later this week as he joins local union forces in support of the drivers...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
TPP deal is bad for the auto sector, Ford Canada chief says Globe and Mail ...Key automotive provisions of the Trans-Pacific trade agreement are bad for Canada, so the new Liberal government needs to take a careful look at the deal before approving it, says Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd. chief executive officer Dianne Craig. “We see [the Trans-Pacific Partnership] as a setback,” Ms. Craig said...
Indonesia to Decide on Joining Transpacific Partnership New York Times ...The Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, said he would decide whether Southeast Asia's largest economy would join the United States-led Pacific trade agreement after his meeting with President Obama at the White House on Monday. In an interview before a four-day visit to the United States this week, Mr. Joko also said that his government was rapidly stripping away cumbersome protectionist trade regulations that foreign businesses had long chafed at...
PM’s inaction on TTIP ‘means NHS at risk’ The National ...Party leaders from throughout the UK have signed to pledge to make sure the NHS is protected from TTIP, but there is one notable name missing: David Cameron. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership could put the future of the health service at risk, union leaders have claimed, with the nature of the trade deal opening the door for US investment in public services...
Monster march in Berlin says no to the bosses’ TTIP treaty Socialist Worker ...Up to 250,000 people marched through Berlin last Saturday against the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). It was Germany’s biggest demonstration since protests against the Iraq war in 2003. TTIP is a planned treaty to create the world’s biggest free trade area, involving the European Union (EU) and the US...
Canadian election rejects austerity: Paul Krugman Oregon Live ...On Monday, Canadian voters swept the ruling Conservatives out of power, delivering a stunning victory to the center-left Liberals. And while there are many interesting things about the Liberal platform, what strikes me most is its clear rejection of the deficit-obsessed austerity orthodoxy that has dominated political discourse across the Western world. The Liberals ran on a frankly, openly Keynesian vision, and won big...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Both Sides of Right-To-Work Mobilize For Governor’s Race WFPL ...Kentucky’s next governor will face a bevy of issues, ranging from a declining coal industry to a struggling pension system. Then there’s right-to-work. Right-to-work laws — which prohibit union dues as a condition of employment — have been adopted in 25 states. Proponents want to make Kentucky the 26th...
Labor Dept. To Set New 'Prevailing Wages' For Construction Projects In New Hampshire New Hampshire Public Radio ...The U.S. Department of Labor is looking to gather wage data for New Hampshire’s building and construction industries. The department is surveying firms about wages and benefits on a range of projects in order to set so-called prevailing wage rates for federal projects in the state...
Colorado Pushes for Universal Health Care That's Governed by the People Truthout ...First pot, now health. In November 2012, Colorado voters approved a ballot initiative that made recreational use of marijunana legal, despite a federal ban. In November of next year, the state will have the opportunity to lead the way again - this time, by opting out of Obamacare and replacing it with ColoradoCare, a universal health care system governed by those who rely on it...
Washington-area airport workers join fight for $15-an-hour minimum wage Washington Post ...A push for a $15-an-hour minimum wage for the lowest-paid airport workers across the United States has landed in Washington. Workers at Reagan National and Dulles International airports have joined a growing national campaign for better pay and benefits, bringing attention to hourly wages that are as low as $6.75...
Judge refuses to dismiss NC voter ID challenge Charlotte Observer ...A federal judge on Friday refused a request from state lawmakers to dismiss a challenge to the N.C. voter ID law. U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder set the issue for a trial, tentatively in January. Attorneys for state lawmakers argued that a 2015 change to the ID provision of an election law overhaul made the 2013 legal challenge moot...
Elizabeth Warren Rips the Obama Administration on Puerto Rico Mother Jones ...After months of facing indifference from Congress, the people of Puerto Rico might finally be making progress on getting some help with the island's massive debt crisis from both the Obama administration and Congress. Last Wednesday, the Obama administration outlined a proposal that would allow the island's entities to restructure debts. After Obama finally rolled out a plan, Sen. Warren calls on the government to do more for the US colony...
Walmart’s Wage Increase Is Hurting Its Stock Price—and That’s OK The Nation ...The company created some real waves when it announced earlier this year that it planned to raise its starting wages to $9 an hour by April and $10 an hour by February of next year. A few months later, it reported that it had already reduced turnover. But it also just released its financial results forecasting a drop in annual profit in the near term...
U.S. LABOR
Deadline looms for auto workers' strike threat against GM Business Insider ...The United Auto Workers union and General Motors Co. have reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract, avoiding a strike for now. The UAW said the agreement was reached at 11:43 p.m. Sunday, 16 minutes before the deadline it had set to either reach an agreement or call a strike at GM's U.S. plants. Details of the proposed contract weren't immediately available...
GM Reaches Tentative Deal With UAW Workers, Avoiding Strike Bloomberg ...General Motors Co. and the United Auto Workers reached a tentative four-year agreement that is expected to provide raises across the board, averting a potential strike. The union announced the deal in an e-mailed statement without giving details. Local union leaders at Detroit-based GM are set to vote on Wednesday whether to send the accord to rank-and-file members for ratification...
U.S. lawmakers call for more oversight of workers’ comp Salon ...Ten prominent Democratic lawmakers, including presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, are urging the U.S. secretary of labor to come up with a plan to ensure that state workers’ compensation programs are properly caring for injured workers. The lawmakers’ letter, sent Tuesday, was prompted by an investigation by ProPublica and NPR...
'Good' Jobs Aren't Coming Back The Atlantic ...Outsourcing decimated American manufacturing in the 1980s and 1990s, erasing nearly six million jobs between 1989 and 2009. But the number of manufacturing jobs has started to slowly grow again, and about 700,000 jobs have been added since 2010. “Onshoring,” as it’s called, is at this stage delivering just a trickle of new jobs, but states such as Tennessee are offering companies generous incentives to try and speed up the process...
Teaching While Poor: Adjunct Professors and the Fight for Fair Wages The Nation ...If there’s one area that isn’t contributing to our historic levels of student debt, it’s adjunct professor’s pay. More than half of all college professors in the United States are adjuncts, working only “part-time.” One out of three of them live near or below the poverty line, and one out of four is on some form of public assistance...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
The Debt Ceiling Is Coming! Slate ...The debt ceiling deadline has been moved up two days to Nov. 3, according to the most recent estimate from Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. That is 11 days from now and considerably fewer legislative days. So far the House hasn’t moved a bill, and neither has the Senate. There’s another problem emerging in the House of Representatives, too, if you can believe it: The votes supposedly aren’t there...
Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chair Joins Chorus Questioning Legality of Drone Killing Program Common Dreams ...Sparked by an exposé on the Obama administration's drone war, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) has echoed human rights groups and called into question the legality of the killing program. Based on documents leaked to The Intercept by an anonymous intelligence source, The Drone Papers offers an unprecedented look at the global killing program...
Voices of Rise Up October: Victims' Families Decry Police Violence Truthout ...On Saturday, thousands rallied in New York City against police brutality as part of three days of protest called "Rise Up October." Some 40 families across the country impacted by police violence participated in the event alongside scholars such as Dr. Cornel West and Chris Hedges, as well as celebrities including playwright Eve Ensler and filmmaker Quentin Tarantino...
Pro-Immigration Protester Violently Dragged Out Of Trump Rally Huffington Post ...Pro-immigration protesters and Donald Trump supporters clashed at a rally in Miami on Friday, leading to one protester being forcefully dragged out by his collar to chants of "USA! USA!" At least three separate protest groups showed up to the Republican presidential candidate's rally at his Trump National Doral Miami resort, with some bearing signs reading "Dignity" and "Equality"...
Teamster Aviation Maintenance Technicians to Vote on United Contract Teamster.org ...The International Brotherhood Teamsters today announced an agreement to put a proposed joint contract out for ratification for members working at United Airlines. The deal, if approved, would cover the company’s aviation maintenance technicians and related workers. The proposed contract would combine the subsidiary groups of workers formerly associated with Continental and Continental Micronesia with United...
United agrees to tentative deal with Teamsters Chicago Tribune ...United Airlines said Friday morning that it has agreed to a deal with the Teamsters to put the carrier's 8,600 technicians and related employees under a single contract. The proposed deal — which has yet to be ratified by rank-and-file members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters — is United's first major deal since recently appointed CEO Oscar Munoz went on medical leave...
Port Truck Drivers Strike Over Wage Theft Capital & Main ...Truck drivers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will begin a strike at 6 a.m. today against local subsidiaries of XPO Logistics, a Connecticut-headquartered freight transportation company. Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa will bring a national spotlight to the fight later this week as he joins local union forces in support of the drivers...
GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
TPP deal is bad for the auto sector, Ford Canada chief says Globe and Mail ...Key automotive provisions of the Trans-Pacific trade agreement are bad for Canada, so the new Liberal government needs to take a careful look at the deal before approving it, says Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd. chief executive officer Dianne Craig. “We see [the Trans-Pacific Partnership] as a setback,” Ms. Craig said...
Indonesia to Decide on Joining Transpacific Partnership New York Times ...The Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, said he would decide whether Southeast Asia's largest economy would join the United States-led Pacific trade agreement after his meeting with President Obama at the White House on Monday. In an interview before a four-day visit to the United States this week, Mr. Joko also said that his government was rapidly stripping away cumbersome protectionist trade regulations that foreign businesses had long chafed at...
PM’s inaction on TTIP ‘means NHS at risk’ The National ...Party leaders from throughout the UK have signed to pledge to make sure the NHS is protected from TTIP, but there is one notable name missing: David Cameron. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership could put the future of the health service at risk, union leaders have claimed, with the nature of the trade deal opening the door for US investment in public services...
Monster march in Berlin says no to the bosses’ TTIP treaty Socialist Worker ...Up to 250,000 people marched through Berlin last Saturday against the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). It was Germany’s biggest demonstration since protests against the Iraq war in 2003. TTIP is a planned treaty to create the world’s biggest free trade area, involving the European Union (EU) and the US...
Canadian election rejects austerity: Paul Krugman Oregon Live ...On Monday, Canadian voters swept the ruling Conservatives out of power, delivering a stunning victory to the center-left Liberals. And while there are many interesting things about the Liberal platform, what strikes me most is its clear rejection of the deficit-obsessed austerity orthodoxy that has dominated political discourse across the Western world. The Liberals ran on a frankly, openly Keynesian vision, and won big...
STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Both Sides of Right-To-Work Mobilize For Governor’s Race WFPL ...Kentucky’s next governor will face a bevy of issues, ranging from a declining coal industry to a struggling pension system. Then there’s right-to-work. Right-to-work laws — which prohibit union dues as a condition of employment — have been adopted in 25 states. Proponents want to make Kentucky the 26th...
Labor Dept. To Set New 'Prevailing Wages' For Construction Projects In New Hampshire New Hampshire Public Radio ...The U.S. Department of Labor is looking to gather wage data for New Hampshire’s building and construction industries. The department is surveying firms about wages and benefits on a range of projects in order to set so-called prevailing wage rates for federal projects in the state...
Colorado Pushes for Universal Health Care That's Governed by the People Truthout ...First pot, now health. In November 2012, Colorado voters approved a ballot initiative that made recreational use of marijunana legal, despite a federal ban. In November of next year, the state will have the opportunity to lead the way again - this time, by opting out of Obamacare and replacing it with ColoradoCare, a universal health care system governed by those who rely on it...
Washington-area airport workers join fight for $15-an-hour minimum wage Washington Post ...A push for a $15-an-hour minimum wage for the lowest-paid airport workers across the United States has landed in Washington. Workers at Reagan National and Dulles International airports have joined a growing national campaign for better pay and benefits, bringing attention to hourly wages that are as low as $6.75...
Judge refuses to dismiss NC voter ID challenge Charlotte Observer ...A federal judge on Friday refused a request from state lawmakers to dismiss a challenge to the N.C. voter ID law. U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder set the issue for a trial, tentatively in January. Attorneys for state lawmakers argued that a 2015 change to the ID provision of an election law overhaul made the 2013 legal challenge moot...
Elizabeth Warren Rips the Obama Administration on Puerto Rico Mother Jones ...After months of facing indifference from Congress, the people of Puerto Rico might finally be making progress on getting some help with the island's massive debt crisis from both the Obama administration and Congress. Last Wednesday, the Obama administration outlined a proposal that would allow the island's entities to restructure debts. After Obama finally rolled out a plan, Sen. Warren calls on the government to do more for the US colony...
Walmart’s Wage Increase Is Hurting Its Stock Price—and That’s OK The Nation ...The company created some real waves when it announced earlier this year that it planned to raise its starting wages to $9 an hour by April and $10 an hour by February of next year. A few months later, it reported that it had already reduced turnover. But it also just released its financial results forecasting a drop in annual profit in the near term...
U.S. LABOR
Deadline looms for auto workers' strike threat against GM Business Insider ...The United Auto Workers union and General Motors Co. have reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract, avoiding a strike for now. The UAW said the agreement was reached at 11:43 p.m. Sunday, 16 minutes before the deadline it had set to either reach an agreement or call a strike at GM's U.S. plants. Details of the proposed contract weren't immediately available...
GM Reaches Tentative Deal With UAW Workers, Avoiding Strike Bloomberg ...General Motors Co. and the United Auto Workers reached a tentative four-year agreement that is expected to provide raises across the board, averting a potential strike. The union announced the deal in an e-mailed statement without giving details. Local union leaders at Detroit-based GM are set to vote on Wednesday whether to send the accord to rank-and-file members for ratification...
U.S. lawmakers call for more oversight of workers’ comp Salon ...Ten prominent Democratic lawmakers, including presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, are urging the U.S. secretary of labor to come up with a plan to ensure that state workers’ compensation programs are properly caring for injured workers. The lawmakers’ letter, sent Tuesday, was prompted by an investigation by ProPublica and NPR...
'Good' Jobs Aren't Coming Back The Atlantic ...Outsourcing decimated American manufacturing in the 1980s and 1990s, erasing nearly six million jobs between 1989 and 2009. But the number of manufacturing jobs has started to slowly grow again, and about 700,000 jobs have been added since 2010. “Onshoring,” as it’s called, is at this stage delivering just a trickle of new jobs, but states such as Tennessee are offering companies generous incentives to try and speed up the process...
Teaching While Poor: Adjunct Professors and the Fight for Fair Wages The Nation ...If there’s one area that isn’t contributing to our historic levels of student debt, it’s adjunct professor’s pay. More than half of all college professors in the United States are adjuncts, working only “part-time.” One out of three of them live near or below the poverty line, and one out of four is on some form of public assistance...
SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
The Debt Ceiling Is Coming! Slate ...The debt ceiling deadline has been moved up two days to Nov. 3, according to the most recent estimate from Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. That is 11 days from now and considerably fewer legislative days. So far the House hasn’t moved a bill, and neither has the Senate. There’s another problem emerging in the House of Representatives, too, if you can believe it: The votes supposedly aren’t there...
Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chair Joins Chorus Questioning Legality of Drone Killing Program Common Dreams ...Sparked by an exposé on the Obama administration's drone war, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) has echoed human rights groups and called into question the legality of the killing program. Based on documents leaked to The Intercept by an anonymous intelligence source, The Drone Papers offers an unprecedented look at the global killing program...
Voices of Rise Up October: Victims' Families Decry Police Violence Truthout ...On Saturday, thousands rallied in New York City against police brutality as part of three days of protest called "Rise Up October." Some 40 families across the country impacted by police violence participated in the event alongside scholars such as Dr. Cornel West and Chris Hedges, as well as celebrities including playwright Eve Ensler and filmmaker Quentin Tarantino...
Pro-Immigration Protester Violently Dragged Out Of Trump Rally Huffington Post ...Pro-immigration protesters and Donald Trump supporters clashed at a rally in Miami on Friday, leading to one protester being forcefully dragged out by his collar to chants of "USA! USA!" At least three separate protest groups showed up to the Republican presidential candidate's rally at his Trump National Doral Miami resort, with some bearing signs reading "Dignity" and "Equality"...
Friday, September 18, 2015
Today's Teamster News 09.18.15
Teamsters
Hoffa Statement of Support of Bipartisan Effort to Repeal Excise Tax on High-Quality Health Plans Teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in response to the announcement of the introduction of a bipartisan companion bill in the Senate to HR 2050 which would repeal an excise tax set to be charged on those enrolled in high-quality health care plans: “The Teamsters support this bipartisan effort to repeal the destructive excise tax that is set to take effect in 2018"...
No deal after latest talks between Baumann & Sons Buses, Acme Buses and Teamsters Local 1205 Newsday ...Talks continued early Friday morning between a Long Island school bus contractor and its workers to end a labor dispute and head off a strike that could leave 15,000 students scrambling for other forms of transportation. As of 2:30 a.m. Friday, negotiators for Teamsters Local 1205 and Ronkonkoma-based Baumann & Sons Buses Inc. still remained locked in discussions at the union's Farmingdale headquarters...
Teamsters Protest as Treasury Debates Allowing Pension Cuts for 1.5 Million Retirees In These Times ...About 300 angry Teamsters descended on Washington, D.C., September 10, demanding federal action to protect the pensions of union members threatened with benefit cuts. The retired Teamsters are among a group of as many as 1.5 million retirees from a long list of different labor unions nationwide that could see their pensions slashed under a new law quietly approved late last year...
Cleveland Bakers and Teamsters Pension Fund takes on Wall Street bank traders Cleveland Business ...The Cleveland Bakers and Teamsters Pension Fund is among plaintiffs in a lawsuit alleging that banks that deal in government securities rigged trading to boost their own profits. “The same analytical technique that uncovered cheating in currency markets and the Libor rates benchmark — resulting in about $20 billion of fines — suggests the dealers who control the U.S. Treasury market rigged bond auctions for years,” Bloomberg reports in describing a lawsuit...
EVSC Board and Teamsters disagree over form, will meet Friday Courier & Press ...After about a three-week hiatus, the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. and Teamsters Local 215 negotiation teams will meet again Friday to continue working toward a collective bargaining agreement, as well as a new wage authorization form. Earlier this month, the EVSC ceased deducting union dues and representation fees for Local 215 employees...
Global Labor & Trade
Finland Anti-Austerity Strike Shuts Down Public Transport, Flights As Recession Pits Labor Unions Against Government International Business Times ...One of the biggest strikes in Finland's history closed down ports, canceled or delayed flights and disrupted other transportation Friday, amid protests against the government's latest proposed austerity measures. With the Nordic country in a recession for the past three years and on track for a fourth, the leading center-right coalition there has tried to implement cutbacks that include limiting overtime and benefits...
Canada must be part of Pacific pact, automakers might suffer: PM Reuters ...Canada must sign up to a proposed 12-nation Pacific trade pact, even though the country's auto makers might not be happy with some of the conditions, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Thursday. Trade ministers failed to clinch the Trans-Pacific Partnership at a meeting in late July amid disagreements over sectors such as autos and dairy...
Harper Says Trans-Pacific Trade Deal Will End ‘Successfully’ Bloomberg ...Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he’s confident a Pacific trade deal that would stretch from Chile to Japan will be reached. Clinching a deal on the Trans-Pacific Partnership will form the “basis of the global trade network in the Asia Pacific for the generation to come,” Harper said Thursday in a leadership debate for the Oct. 19 Canadian federal election...
Japan has little room left to compromise on TPP deal: Amari Fiscal Times ...Trade ministers from the 12 nations negotiating a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are expected to hold another meeting soon to clinch a deal, after failing to do so in Hawaii last month. The TPP would cover 40 percent of the global economy. "This is our last chance," Amari told a regular news conference. "If we don't have an agreement, a deal may be delayed for years given various uncertainties...
Obama sure of deal as ministers plan end-Sept talks on TPP Today ...Twelve Pacific Rim countries will hold a ministerial meeting later this month in Atlanta in the United States as they look to conclude years of negotiations on creating one of the world’s biggest free trade zones, negotiation sources said yesterday. US President Barack Obama on Wednesday raised hopes that the 12 countries could conclude the sweeping free trade agreement “in the next several weeks”...
Will TTIP be an ‘economic NATO’? Politico ...Back in 2012, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed a proposed transatlantic free trade pact as a job-creating, growth-boosting “economic NATO” that would forge new ties between old allies. Three years later, hopeful presidential candidate Hillary Clinton appears less enthusiastic. “Can you make it go away?” was the only-half-joking response of her campaign chairman, John Podesta, to a recent question on the trade deal now being negotiated between the United States and European Union....
Europe starts putting up walls The Economist ...Hungary declared an emergency, sealed its border with Serbia with barbed-wire fences and began arresting those trying to cross. Police fired tear gas at them; 20 officers and many refugees were hurt. Growing numbers of refugees are now trapped on the Serbian side and have started evading the barrier by marching into Romania and Croatia. Hungary responded by saying it will extend the fence to its Romanian border. The cascade of events is likely to continue...
Migrant Domestic Workers Network a First in Jordan Solidarity Center ...Domestic workers in Jordan are set to celebrate the official formation of a worker rights network that includes migrant workers from Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. The September 19 launch is a first in Jordan and a rare move in the Arab region, where more than 2.4 million migrant domestic workers often toil 12–20 hour days, six or seven days a week cleaning homes, preparing meals and caring for children and the elderly...
State & Living Wage Battles
Poll: Wide support among N.Y. voters for $15 minimum wage CBS ...A new poll finds that New York voters support raising the state's minimum wage to $15 per hour. The poll released Friday by Quinnipiac University found 62 percent of voters supporting a phased-in increase. Thirty-five percent of the respondents opposed the idea. Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo is calling on the state Legislature to approve a $15 minimum wage...
9th Circuit rejects state's appeal, says anti-union law passed in 2011 was invalid Spokesman-Review ...The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals today upheld a federal district court ruling that an anti-union law passed by the Idaho Legislature in 2011 was invalid, as it was pre-empted by the federal National Labor Relations Act. The law, which was immediately enjoined and never took effect, banned “job targeting” or “market recovery” programs, in which unions use funds they collect from workers to subsidize bids by union contractors on jobs...
Archbishop Takes Aim At ‘Right-To-Work’ Laws CBS ...Without mentioning Gov. Bruce Rauner by name, Chicago’s Roman Catholic Archbishop is raising concerns about moves to restrict labor unions. Blase Cupich made his remarks Thursday at the plumbers union hall on the West Side, before a union-heavy audience. He declared a society with a healthy labor movement is a better place than one where powerful economic interests have their way and the voices of workers are diminished...
California Activists Call for Fracking Ban Truthout ...The California Legislature approved an amended version of Senate Bill 350, a measure that legislative leaders and Governor Jerry Brown touted as "landmark climate legislation." In response, anti-fracking activists pointed out the contradiction between Brown's strong support of extreme oil extraction methods and his constant grandstanding about "clean energy" - and called on Brown to use his executive power to ban the environmentally destructive practice of fracking in California...
OUR Walmart Relaunches Its Campaign To Beat the World Retail Giant In These Times ...After four years as a growing, thriving voice of workers at Walmart, the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart) re-launched itself on Thursday. Originally a legally independent, non-union worker organization that the United Food and Commercial Workers founded and funded, OUR Walmart will now have a different, still to-be-defined tie to the UFCW...
Paid Sick Leave, More Overtime Proposed For Mpls. Workers CBS ...Workers in Minneapolis could soon have more flexible schedules and more paid leave. One of the councilmembers behind a proposed ordinance says if it goes through, big changes could start early next year. The proposal would allow workers to know their schedules ahead of time and earn overtime if they work more than eight hours a day...
U.S. Labor
UFCW sees 'difficulty' with Key Food over A&P stores Supermarket News ...New York locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union were scheduled to meet today with officials of Key Food Stores for “the first time in a while” to talk about the A&P units the retailer intends to buy, a union spokesman told SN. He said the union has had “a bunch of difficulty” with Key Food in the past because of the retailer’s desire to cut back the number of full-time jobs in favor of more part-timers at the 17 stores it said it intends to buy...
UAW-FCA agreement reportedly includes $5.3 billion U.S. production investment MLive ...As part of a tentative agreement with the UAW, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is shifting some of its production from Mexico to the U.S. - and vice versa. That's according to multiple reports, such as one in the Detroit Free Press that says FCA plans to commit $5.3 billion to U.S. auto plants over the next four years. That will also reportedly help retain thousands of American jobs...
Target pharmacy workers form union, first in company's history Reuters ...A group of pharmacy workers within Target Corp's store in Brooklyn, New York, have won a vote to form a microunion, making it the first unionized store at the retailer since its inception in 1902. Earlier on Wednesday, Reuters was first to report that a group of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians won an initial ballot, 7-2, to form the union, according to a filing on the National Labor Relations Board website and union officials...
Another Shot Fired in the Great Immigration vs. Wages War Mother Jones ...Does illegal immigration suppress the wages of native-born workers? The evidence suggests that it doesn't—or not much, anyway. One of the data points supporting this is a study done by David Card of the effect of the 1980 Mariel boatlift on workers in Miami. Even though Miami experienced a huge spike in immigrants during the boatlift, Card found no significant impact on wages...
The Fed Keeps Interest Rates Near Zero The Atlantic ...The U.S. Federal Reserve has decided not to raise interest rates at its September Federal Open Market Committee meeting. The committee’s two-day meeting concluded with Fed officials voting to keep interest rates near zero. The U.S. job market has been putting in solid numbers in recent months, data that Fed watchers believed might convince the Fed to hike rates...
Social Justice & Other News
Trump: 'We're Gonna Be Looking Into' How We Can Get Rid of All the Muslims Common Dreams ...In a week that has already seen collective outrage in response to the treatment of a Muslim teenager in Texas who was handcuffed and arrested simply for bringing a homemade clock to school, the pervasiveness of Islamaphobic sentiment was on display once again overnight after Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump fielded a question in New Hampshire about what he planned to do "about getting rid of" all the nation's Muslims...
The Beginning of Trump’s End? Slate ...This debate might mark the beginning of the end for Trump, who struggled to tackle substantive questions on foreign policy, his advisers, and what he’d actually do as president of the United States. More importantly, he faced a confident Carly Fiorina, who slammed and tweaked Trump on his obvious ignorance of key issues. “I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said,” Fiorina said about his remarks on her appearance...
Bernie Sanders Unveils Ambitious Plan To End Private Prisons Think Progress ...Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is officially taking on the country’s private prison industry. By introducing a bill that would ban government contracts with private prisons, the presidential contender is quickly becoming the loudest advocate for criminal justice reform among his competitors. The Justice is Not For Sale Act, co-sponsored by Reps. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ), Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Bobby L. Rush (D-IL), would prohibit the federal government from entering contracts with private prison corporations within two years of the bill’s enactment...
America's Need for a Third Reconstruction The Atlantic ...Ta-Nehisi Coates mournfully excavates how the carceral state is deeply entangled in the racial DNA of the United States, and convincingly demonstrates that, for all the talk of a Kumbaya moment in penal reform between the left and the right, the carceral state remains largely intact with barely a nick. Four decades ago, the U.S. had many similar structural problems found today, but it did not have such an expansive penal system...
Climate Expert James Hansen: The Planet May Become Ungovernable Alternet ...The repercussions of climate disruption are still not being acknowledged fully, warned climatologist Dr. James Hansen. Hansen — formerly NASA’s head climate scientist, now adjunct professor at Columbia University — is probably best known for bringing definitive evidence of global warming to Congress in testimony in 1988...
The recession hasn’t changed a damn thing: Wall Street is still making off like bandits Salon.com ...Just a few years after the financial crisis, a new report tells an important story: Federal prosecution of white-collar crime has hit a 20-year low. The analysis by Syracuse University shows a more than 36 percent decline in such prosecutions since the middle of the Clinton administration, when the decline began...
Hoffa Statement of Support of Bipartisan Effort to Repeal Excise Tax on High-Quality Health Plans Teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in response to the announcement of the introduction of a bipartisan companion bill in the Senate to HR 2050 which would repeal an excise tax set to be charged on those enrolled in high-quality health care plans: “The Teamsters support this bipartisan effort to repeal the destructive excise tax that is set to take effect in 2018"...
No deal after latest talks between Baumann & Sons Buses, Acme Buses and Teamsters Local 1205 Newsday ...Talks continued early Friday morning between a Long Island school bus contractor and its workers to end a labor dispute and head off a strike that could leave 15,000 students scrambling for other forms of transportation. As of 2:30 a.m. Friday, negotiators for Teamsters Local 1205 and Ronkonkoma-based Baumann & Sons Buses Inc. still remained locked in discussions at the union's Farmingdale headquarters...
Teamsters Protest as Treasury Debates Allowing Pension Cuts for 1.5 Million Retirees In These Times ...About 300 angry Teamsters descended on Washington, D.C., September 10, demanding federal action to protect the pensions of union members threatened with benefit cuts. The retired Teamsters are among a group of as many as 1.5 million retirees from a long list of different labor unions nationwide that could see their pensions slashed under a new law quietly approved late last year...
Cleveland Bakers and Teamsters Pension Fund takes on Wall Street bank traders Cleveland Business ...The Cleveland Bakers and Teamsters Pension Fund is among plaintiffs in a lawsuit alleging that banks that deal in government securities rigged trading to boost their own profits. “The same analytical technique that uncovered cheating in currency markets and the Libor rates benchmark — resulting in about $20 billion of fines — suggests the dealers who control the U.S. Treasury market rigged bond auctions for years,” Bloomberg reports in describing a lawsuit...
EVSC Board and Teamsters disagree over form, will meet Friday Courier & Press ...After about a three-week hiatus, the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. and Teamsters Local 215 negotiation teams will meet again Friday to continue working toward a collective bargaining agreement, as well as a new wage authorization form. Earlier this month, the EVSC ceased deducting union dues and representation fees for Local 215 employees...
Global Labor & Trade
Finland Anti-Austerity Strike Shuts Down Public Transport, Flights As Recession Pits Labor Unions Against Government International Business Times ...One of the biggest strikes in Finland's history closed down ports, canceled or delayed flights and disrupted other transportation Friday, amid protests against the government's latest proposed austerity measures. With the Nordic country in a recession for the past three years and on track for a fourth, the leading center-right coalition there has tried to implement cutbacks that include limiting overtime and benefits...
Canada must be part of Pacific pact, automakers might suffer: PM Reuters ...Canada must sign up to a proposed 12-nation Pacific trade pact, even though the country's auto makers might not be happy with some of the conditions, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Thursday. Trade ministers failed to clinch the Trans-Pacific Partnership at a meeting in late July amid disagreements over sectors such as autos and dairy...
Harper Says Trans-Pacific Trade Deal Will End ‘Successfully’ Bloomberg ...Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he’s confident a Pacific trade deal that would stretch from Chile to Japan will be reached. Clinching a deal on the Trans-Pacific Partnership will form the “basis of the global trade network in the Asia Pacific for the generation to come,” Harper said Thursday in a leadership debate for the Oct. 19 Canadian federal election...
Japan has little room left to compromise on TPP deal: Amari Fiscal Times ...Trade ministers from the 12 nations negotiating a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are expected to hold another meeting soon to clinch a deal, after failing to do so in Hawaii last month. The TPP would cover 40 percent of the global economy. "This is our last chance," Amari told a regular news conference. "If we don't have an agreement, a deal may be delayed for years given various uncertainties...
Obama sure of deal as ministers plan end-Sept talks on TPP Today ...Twelve Pacific Rim countries will hold a ministerial meeting later this month in Atlanta in the United States as they look to conclude years of negotiations on creating one of the world’s biggest free trade zones, negotiation sources said yesterday. US President Barack Obama on Wednesday raised hopes that the 12 countries could conclude the sweeping free trade agreement “in the next several weeks”...
Will TTIP be an ‘economic NATO’? Politico ...Back in 2012, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed a proposed transatlantic free trade pact as a job-creating, growth-boosting “economic NATO” that would forge new ties between old allies. Three years later, hopeful presidential candidate Hillary Clinton appears less enthusiastic. “Can you make it go away?” was the only-half-joking response of her campaign chairman, John Podesta, to a recent question on the trade deal now being negotiated between the United States and European Union....
Europe starts putting up walls The Economist ...Hungary declared an emergency, sealed its border with Serbia with barbed-wire fences and began arresting those trying to cross. Police fired tear gas at them; 20 officers and many refugees were hurt. Growing numbers of refugees are now trapped on the Serbian side and have started evading the barrier by marching into Romania and Croatia. Hungary responded by saying it will extend the fence to its Romanian border. The cascade of events is likely to continue...
Migrant Domestic Workers Network a First in Jordan Solidarity Center ...Domestic workers in Jordan are set to celebrate the official formation of a worker rights network that includes migrant workers from Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. The September 19 launch is a first in Jordan and a rare move in the Arab region, where more than 2.4 million migrant domestic workers often toil 12–20 hour days, six or seven days a week cleaning homes, preparing meals and caring for children and the elderly...
State & Living Wage Battles
Poll: Wide support among N.Y. voters for $15 minimum wage CBS ...A new poll finds that New York voters support raising the state's minimum wage to $15 per hour. The poll released Friday by Quinnipiac University found 62 percent of voters supporting a phased-in increase. Thirty-five percent of the respondents opposed the idea. Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo is calling on the state Legislature to approve a $15 minimum wage...
9th Circuit rejects state's appeal, says anti-union law passed in 2011 was invalid Spokesman-Review ...The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals today upheld a federal district court ruling that an anti-union law passed by the Idaho Legislature in 2011 was invalid, as it was pre-empted by the federal National Labor Relations Act. The law, which was immediately enjoined and never took effect, banned “job targeting” or “market recovery” programs, in which unions use funds they collect from workers to subsidize bids by union contractors on jobs...
Archbishop Takes Aim At ‘Right-To-Work’ Laws CBS ...Without mentioning Gov. Bruce Rauner by name, Chicago’s Roman Catholic Archbishop is raising concerns about moves to restrict labor unions. Blase Cupich made his remarks Thursday at the plumbers union hall on the West Side, before a union-heavy audience. He declared a society with a healthy labor movement is a better place than one where powerful economic interests have their way and the voices of workers are diminished...
California Activists Call for Fracking Ban Truthout ...The California Legislature approved an amended version of Senate Bill 350, a measure that legislative leaders and Governor Jerry Brown touted as "landmark climate legislation." In response, anti-fracking activists pointed out the contradiction between Brown's strong support of extreme oil extraction methods and his constant grandstanding about "clean energy" - and called on Brown to use his executive power to ban the environmentally destructive practice of fracking in California...
OUR Walmart Relaunches Its Campaign To Beat the World Retail Giant In These Times ...After four years as a growing, thriving voice of workers at Walmart, the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart) re-launched itself on Thursday. Originally a legally independent, non-union worker organization that the United Food and Commercial Workers founded and funded, OUR Walmart will now have a different, still to-be-defined tie to the UFCW...
Paid Sick Leave, More Overtime Proposed For Mpls. Workers CBS ...Workers in Minneapolis could soon have more flexible schedules and more paid leave. One of the councilmembers behind a proposed ordinance says if it goes through, big changes could start early next year. The proposal would allow workers to know their schedules ahead of time and earn overtime if they work more than eight hours a day...
U.S. Labor
UFCW sees 'difficulty' with Key Food over A&P stores Supermarket News ...New York locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union were scheduled to meet today with officials of Key Food Stores for “the first time in a while” to talk about the A&P units the retailer intends to buy, a union spokesman told SN. He said the union has had “a bunch of difficulty” with Key Food in the past because of the retailer’s desire to cut back the number of full-time jobs in favor of more part-timers at the 17 stores it said it intends to buy...
UAW-FCA agreement reportedly includes $5.3 billion U.S. production investment MLive ...As part of a tentative agreement with the UAW, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is shifting some of its production from Mexico to the U.S. - and vice versa. That's according to multiple reports, such as one in the Detroit Free Press that says FCA plans to commit $5.3 billion to U.S. auto plants over the next four years. That will also reportedly help retain thousands of American jobs...
Target pharmacy workers form union, first in company's history Reuters ...A group of pharmacy workers within Target Corp's store in Brooklyn, New York, have won a vote to form a microunion, making it the first unionized store at the retailer since its inception in 1902. Earlier on Wednesday, Reuters was first to report that a group of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians won an initial ballot, 7-2, to form the union, according to a filing on the National Labor Relations Board website and union officials...
Another Shot Fired in the Great Immigration vs. Wages War Mother Jones ...Does illegal immigration suppress the wages of native-born workers? The evidence suggests that it doesn't—or not much, anyway. One of the data points supporting this is a study done by David Card of the effect of the 1980 Mariel boatlift on workers in Miami. Even though Miami experienced a huge spike in immigrants during the boatlift, Card found no significant impact on wages...
The Fed Keeps Interest Rates Near Zero The Atlantic ...The U.S. Federal Reserve has decided not to raise interest rates at its September Federal Open Market Committee meeting. The committee’s two-day meeting concluded with Fed officials voting to keep interest rates near zero. The U.S. job market has been putting in solid numbers in recent months, data that Fed watchers believed might convince the Fed to hike rates...
Social Justice & Other News
Trump: 'We're Gonna Be Looking Into' How We Can Get Rid of All the Muslims Common Dreams ...In a week that has already seen collective outrage in response to the treatment of a Muslim teenager in Texas who was handcuffed and arrested simply for bringing a homemade clock to school, the pervasiveness of Islamaphobic sentiment was on display once again overnight after Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump fielded a question in New Hampshire about what he planned to do "about getting rid of" all the nation's Muslims...
The Beginning of Trump’s End? Slate ...This debate might mark the beginning of the end for Trump, who struggled to tackle substantive questions on foreign policy, his advisers, and what he’d actually do as president of the United States. More importantly, he faced a confident Carly Fiorina, who slammed and tweaked Trump on his obvious ignorance of key issues. “I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said,” Fiorina said about his remarks on her appearance...
Bernie Sanders Unveils Ambitious Plan To End Private Prisons Think Progress ...Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is officially taking on the country’s private prison industry. By introducing a bill that would ban government contracts with private prisons, the presidential contender is quickly becoming the loudest advocate for criminal justice reform among his competitors. The Justice is Not For Sale Act, co-sponsored by Reps. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ), Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Bobby L. Rush (D-IL), would prohibit the federal government from entering contracts with private prison corporations within two years of the bill’s enactment...
America's Need for a Third Reconstruction The Atlantic ...Ta-Nehisi Coates mournfully excavates how the carceral state is deeply entangled in the racial DNA of the United States, and convincingly demonstrates that, for all the talk of a Kumbaya moment in penal reform between the left and the right, the carceral state remains largely intact with barely a nick. Four decades ago, the U.S. had many similar structural problems found today, but it did not have such an expansive penal system...
Climate Expert James Hansen: The Planet May Become Ungovernable Alternet ...The repercussions of climate disruption are still not being acknowledged fully, warned climatologist Dr. James Hansen. Hansen — formerly NASA’s head climate scientist, now adjunct professor at Columbia University — is probably best known for bringing definitive evidence of global warming to Congress in testimony in 1988...
The recession hasn’t changed a damn thing: Wall Street is still making off like bandits Salon.com ...Just a few years after the financial crisis, a new report tells an important story: Federal prosecution of white-collar crime has hit a 20-year low. The analysis by Syracuse University shows a more than 36 percent decline in such prosecutions since the middle of the Clinton administration, when the decline began...
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Saint Vincent Hospital workers march on boss, request recognition as Teamsters
A majority of the more than 200 workers in the unit signed Local 170 authorization cards. But instead of respecting the wishes of its employees, hospital management refused to recognize the union. Local 170 immediately filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board.
Jennifer Fontaine, who has helped lead her coworkers in the organizing drive, explained on Facebook:
We marched to the CEO'S office with a large group. We had support from our nurses and friends. The secretaries in his office had their jaws on the floor. Our committee member Heather Daniels who made the appointment was ushered into Mr. McLaughlin’s office before he slammed the door in our face. We opened the door and Kim proudly read the demand letter. He stopped her 3/4 of the way in and said he refused to recognize us. Our union head Mike Hogan told the CEO we will see him in 42 days. The CEO said no he wouldn't and Mike stuck HIS hand out and introduced himself. Mike told him to take a good look at us and the CEO said I know some of them. Mike said to the CEO he was going to know us better and we deserve better health care.The tech workers at Saint Vincent Hospital, who are mostly women, are vital to the hospital’s operations. They perform professional technical work in radiology, surgery, respiratory, pharmacy, sterile processing and other departments.
Check out the video from the workers' action:
Saint Vincent is owned by Tenet Healthcare, which makes more than $15 billion in annual revenue. The hospital’s unionized nurses recently settled a contract with management, retaining their strong health insurance. But the techs like Jennifer and her coworkers are stuck with substandard health insurance which has left many of them buried in medical bills, facing debt and heavy workloads.
The irony of poor health care in a hospital is lost on no one, as the workers said in a statement:
How can health care workers like us be subjected to such terrible health care?Donna Franciosa, a 40-year employee at Saint Vincent, said:
We need to be reinstated with the health care coverage afforded to other union members. We deserve a fair wage and benefits package – and fair staffing levels. We have made this hospital the "premier" success for Tenet – now it’s time for our success.As Teamsters, we know coming together and standing up to the boss isn’t easy. And it’s especially scary when you don’t have a union contract protecting you. That's why the courage of Saint Vincent workers is so powerful and inspiring.
While workers around the country are under attack, some workers – like the brave hospital workers in Massachusetts – are fighting back. We can’t wait to welcome these future Teamsters to our union!
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Missouri lawmakers didn't even read this ALEC bill they passed
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| Jay Nixon |
The bill was an effort to harass 'navigators' -- people who help consumers, small businesses and employees figure out the best health care plan for themselves. The ALEC bill would have required a navigator to submit fingerprints to the state highway patrol for a background check. But a glaring mistake was found in the bill, since no one apparently read it before voting for it. The bill was simply cut and pasted from one of ALEC's secret handbooks.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon caught the error. The bill referred to the wrong statute -- Public Law 92-554 instead of 92-544.
The Center for Media and Democracy tells us how Nixon vetoed the bill:
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has vetoed a bill that included a drafting error copied-and-pasted from American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) model legislation, and criticized ALEC members for having "simply parroted ... the ALEC model act without alteration."
"While some may believe that such an error is 'close enough' for a model act, it cannot be allowed to become the law of this State," Nixon, a Democrat, wrote in his veto message. "Particularly in an area of the law that is the subject of ongoing litigation, a glaring defect such as this cannot be ignored."According to CMD, the bill to harass people who work as 'navigators' was one of several ALEC model bills introduced in the Missouri legislature in 2014. As many as 57 Missouri politicians take advantage of ALEC's secret corporate dating service for state lawmakers.
Nixon pointed out the same mistake was made by Kansas lawmakers, whose devotion to other ALEC policies pretty much destroyed the state's ability to create jobs.
ALEC, by the way, supplies proof that a corporate-friendly agenda doesn't create jobs, doesn't stimulate commercial activity and isn't good for small businesses or entrepreneurs. Just check out Wisconsin, where ALEC darling Scott Walker has one of the worst job-creation records in the country.
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Today's Teamster News 06.12.14
Teamster News
Teamsters: THUD Amendments Will Weaken Highway Safety Standards TheTrucker.com ...Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa Monday denounced two potential floor amendments to the Transportation Housing and Urban Development (THUD) FY ’15 Appropriations bill that the Teamsters say will weaken highway safety standards by putting fatigued drivers on the road in bigger, heavier trucks...
Teamsters come out against hours changes, ATA still supportive Overdrive ...The Teamsters Union has voiced its opposition to recent Congressional action to roll back the 2013 changes to federal hours-of-service restart provisions, but American Trucking Associations head Bill Graves is holding strong on the group’s support for suspending the changes...
Official Statement of the Teamsters Union on the Worldwide Taxi Drivers' Protests Against Uber teamster.org ..."I express our solidarity with today’s protests by taxi drivers in city after city across Europe. The drivers are calling for fairness and asking that if the private sedan services are allowed to operate that they do so on a level playing field. Uber is currently operating without having to comply with the same rules and regulations that taxi drivers do..."
Teamsters Local 142 Wants To Bid On Chesterton Police Officers' Health Care Chesterton Tribune ...The officers of the Chesterton Police Department and their brothers in Teamsters Local 142 filled the meeting room of the town hall on Monday night, to hear a union attorney accuse the Town Council of fiduciary irresponsibility. At issue: the Teamsters is interested in bidding its healthcare plan to CPD officers...
Teamsters Against HoS Restart Charges Truck News ...The accident involving a Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. driver and comedian Tracy Morgan’s entourage has yet another industry organization weighing in about potential hours of service changes. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters sent an open letter to the US House of Representatives saying any steps to “delay, revise or replace the current hours of service 34-hour restart provision” or allow increases in truck size and weight, “especially they size of double trailers from the current 28-ft. to 33-ft.” should be opposed...
Coral Gables Employees To Get One Time Bonus Miami Herald ...The Coral Gables City Commission approved a two-year contract with the city’s general employees union Tuesday that includes a one-time bonus and lower pension contributions from employees during the first year...
Trade
Comment: Shrouded in secrecy, opposition to TPP mounts SBS ...They want to reassure us that we don’t need to worry about spiralling drug costs or curtailed internet freedom, but they’re not willing to let us see the text of the deal to back up their claims...
Livestock Groups Show Concern for TPP During D.C. Hearing Farm Futures ...Japan's TPP requests to exempt certain "sensitive" products – including pork and beef, dairy, sugar, wheat and barley, and rice and starch – from tariff elimination has big impacts on future trade deals and the ag industry's ability to benefit from the agreement, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association said during a hearing before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee...
Anger by US farmers threatens ambitious Pacific trade pact Reuters ...U.S. farmers are in an uproar over signs Japan will maintain some barriers to agricultural exports under a Pacific trade pact, which threatens to unravel a deal that is central to U.S. efforts to retain economic and security influence in the region...
State Battles
Repeal the pension tax on Michigan seniors Detroit News ...a retired couple born after 1952 with more than $50,000 in income, including $48,000 in pension benefits, paid $1,930 more in taxes than they would have if pensions weren’t taxed...
New Jersey's soaring subsidy program doing little to boost struggling economy The Guardian ...Study says New Jersey badly trailing other states' economic recovery despite corporate credits rising sevenfold under Christie...
Council Votes Again To End Collective Bargaining Fort Wayne Journal Gazette ...City Council members again voted along party lines Tuesday to end collective bargaining for all city workers except police and firefighters...
San Francisco Voters Will Weigh In On A $15 Minimum Wage Think Progress ...A question on San Francisco’s November ballot will ask city residents whether they want to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by July 2018...
Why that ruling against teacher tenure won't help your schoolchildren (opinion) Los Angeles Times ... one should be "suspicious of wealthy and powerful individuals and groups whose advocacy for children leads to 'reforms' that won’t cost a cent, but will weaken labor."...
Numbers put lie to state growth strategy (opinion) Journal Gazette ...Light taxation and regulation haven’t raised living standard (in Indiana)...
War On Workers
Walmart Associate: 'Give The Workers Dignity And Respect We Deserve' WBUR ...Charmaine Givens-Thomas ... is a sales associate who has worked at Walmart for eight years. She makes $23,000 a year and has trouble paying rent and putting food on the table. She says Walmart should pay its employees a living wage...
Cantor’s Loss a Triumph for Anti-Corporate Right-Wing Populism naked capitalism ...conservative economics professor David Brat succeeded in channeling a strain of right-wing populism to target Cantor, and plausibly so, as a corporate stooge and progenitor of crony capitalism...
Clauses That Hurt Workers New York Times ...Many businesses have long required that executives and other important employees agree not to work for a competitor for a year or two after they leave. Now some employers are unfairly imposing that requirement on all kinds of workers, including lower-wage employees like camp counselors, interns and yoga instructors...
Here's Why Amazon Is More Brutal Than Walmart Time ...The recent dustup between Amazon and publisher Hachette reminds us that retail is a brutal business — tough on employees, really hard on suppliers. Walmart, the largest physical retailer, and Amazon, the largest retailer online, illustrate the pain produced in the effort to make consumers’ prices as low as possible...
Miscellaneous
Occupy Wall Street Protesters Win Lawsuit Over Arrests Washington Post ...New York City has agreed to pay nearly $600,000 to settle allegations that police wrongfully arrested a group of Occupy Wall Street protesters, marking what their lawyers Tuesday called the largest settlement to date in a single Occupy-related civil rights case...
Teamsters: THUD Amendments Will Weaken Highway Safety Standards TheTrucker.com ...Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa Monday denounced two potential floor amendments to the Transportation Housing and Urban Development (THUD) FY ’15 Appropriations bill that the Teamsters say will weaken highway safety standards by putting fatigued drivers on the road in bigger, heavier trucks...
Teamsters come out against hours changes, ATA still supportive Overdrive ...The Teamsters Union has voiced its opposition to recent Congressional action to roll back the 2013 changes to federal hours-of-service restart provisions, but American Trucking Associations head Bill Graves is holding strong on the group’s support for suspending the changes...
Official Statement of the Teamsters Union on the Worldwide Taxi Drivers' Protests Against Uber teamster.org ..."I express our solidarity with today’s protests by taxi drivers in city after city across Europe. The drivers are calling for fairness and asking that if the private sedan services are allowed to operate that they do so on a level playing field. Uber is currently operating without having to comply with the same rules and regulations that taxi drivers do..."
Teamsters Local 142 Wants To Bid On Chesterton Police Officers' Health Care Chesterton Tribune ...The officers of the Chesterton Police Department and their brothers in Teamsters Local 142 filled the meeting room of the town hall on Monday night, to hear a union attorney accuse the Town Council of fiduciary irresponsibility. At issue: the Teamsters is interested in bidding its healthcare plan to CPD officers...
Teamsters Against HoS Restart Charges Truck News ...The accident involving a Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. driver and comedian Tracy Morgan’s entourage has yet another industry organization weighing in about potential hours of service changes. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters sent an open letter to the US House of Representatives saying any steps to “delay, revise or replace the current hours of service 34-hour restart provision” or allow increases in truck size and weight, “especially they size of double trailers from the current 28-ft. to 33-ft.” should be opposed...
Coral Gables Employees To Get One Time Bonus Miami Herald ...The Coral Gables City Commission approved a two-year contract with the city’s general employees union Tuesday that includes a one-time bonus and lower pension contributions from employees during the first year...
Trade
Comment: Shrouded in secrecy, opposition to TPP mounts SBS ...They want to reassure us that we don’t need to worry about spiralling drug costs or curtailed internet freedom, but they’re not willing to let us see the text of the deal to back up their claims...
Livestock Groups Show Concern for TPP During D.C. Hearing Farm Futures ...Japan's TPP requests to exempt certain "sensitive" products – including pork and beef, dairy, sugar, wheat and barley, and rice and starch – from tariff elimination has big impacts on future trade deals and the ag industry's ability to benefit from the agreement, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association said during a hearing before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee...
Anger by US farmers threatens ambitious Pacific trade pact Reuters ...U.S. farmers are in an uproar over signs Japan will maintain some barriers to agricultural exports under a Pacific trade pact, which threatens to unravel a deal that is central to U.S. efforts to retain economic and security influence in the region...
State Battles
Repeal the pension tax on Michigan seniors Detroit News ...a retired couple born after 1952 with more than $50,000 in income, including $48,000 in pension benefits, paid $1,930 more in taxes than they would have if pensions weren’t taxed...
New Jersey's soaring subsidy program doing little to boost struggling economy The Guardian ...Study says New Jersey badly trailing other states' economic recovery despite corporate credits rising sevenfold under Christie...
Council Votes Again To End Collective Bargaining Fort Wayne Journal Gazette ...City Council members again voted along party lines Tuesday to end collective bargaining for all city workers except police and firefighters...
San Francisco Voters Will Weigh In On A $15 Minimum Wage Think Progress ...A question on San Francisco’s November ballot will ask city residents whether they want to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by July 2018...
Why that ruling against teacher tenure won't help your schoolchildren (opinion) Los Angeles Times ... one should be "suspicious of wealthy and powerful individuals and groups whose advocacy for children leads to 'reforms' that won’t cost a cent, but will weaken labor."...
Numbers put lie to state growth strategy (opinion) Journal Gazette ...Light taxation and regulation haven’t raised living standard (in Indiana)...
War On Workers
Walmart Associate: 'Give The Workers Dignity And Respect We Deserve' WBUR ...Charmaine Givens-Thomas ... is a sales associate who has worked at Walmart for eight years. She makes $23,000 a year and has trouble paying rent and putting food on the table. She says Walmart should pay its employees a living wage...
Cantor’s Loss a Triumph for Anti-Corporate Right-Wing Populism naked capitalism ...conservative economics professor David Brat succeeded in channeling a strain of right-wing populism to target Cantor, and plausibly so, as a corporate stooge and progenitor of crony capitalism...
Clauses That Hurt Workers New York Times ...Many businesses have long required that executives and other important employees agree not to work for a competitor for a year or two after they leave. Now some employers are unfairly imposing that requirement on all kinds of workers, including lower-wage employees like camp counselors, interns and yoga instructors...
Here's Why Amazon Is More Brutal Than Walmart Time ...The recent dustup between Amazon and publisher Hachette reminds us that retail is a brutal business — tough on employees, really hard on suppliers. Walmart, the largest physical retailer, and Amazon, the largest retailer online, illustrate the pain produced in the effort to make consumers’ prices as low as possible...
Miscellaneous
Occupy Wall Street Protesters Win Lawsuit Over Arrests Washington Post ...New York City has agreed to pay nearly $600,000 to settle allegations that police wrongfully arrested a group of Occupy Wall Street protesters, marking what their lawyers Tuesday called the largest settlement to date in a single Occupy-related civil rights case...
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Today's Teamster News 05.01.14
Teamster News
Day 2 Of Truckers Strike At Port Of Long Beach Belmont Shores-Naples Patch ...A 48-hour strike went into its second day at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach today, with contract truckers picketing as part of a Teamsters union backed effort to get hired as full-fledged employees...
Trade
Beijing Pushing For Trans-Pacific Trade Pact To Rival TPP Taipai Times ...China is pressing for a vast Asia-Pacific free trade agreement, a senior official said yesterday, as a rival US-led deal that excludes the Asian giant has yet to reach an agreement...
State Battles
Striking Down Wisconsin Voted ID Law, Judge Finds 'No Rational Person Could Be Worried' About Voter Fraud Think Progress ...A federal judge invalidated Wisconsin's photo ID requirement Tuesday, in at least the third court ruling to strike down the law...
2 high-speed train sets built for Wisconsin set to leave Milwaukee Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...In what appears to be the final chapter of an ill-fated venture in Milwaukee, Spanish train-maker Talgo is vacating its factory on the city's north side, and its two unused high-speed train sets may soon take to the tracks….Talgo was at the center of a roiling debate after Gov. Scott Walker made opposition to a high-speed rail line from Madison to Milwaukee a centerpiece of his 2010 campaign...
Hawaii lawmakers vote to increase hourly minimum wage to $10.10 Reuters ...Hawaii lawmakers voted late on Tuesday to raise the U.S. state's hourly minimum wage to $10.10 from the federal minimum $7.25 at a time of heated national debate over wages and rising income inequality.10.10...
New report exposes ALEC's influence in Kansas and Missouri Progress Missouri ...ALEC has lavished hundreds of thousands of dollars on Kansas and Missouri politicians and those trips have resulted in dozens of bills being introduced on behalf of ALEC’s corporate members...
More than 100 injured in Florida jail explosion USA Today ...An apparent gas explosion killed two and injured more than 100 people Wednesday night at the Escambia County Central Booking and Detention Facility in northwestern Florida...
War On Workers
Union: Don't Force Retroactive Retirement Payments From Federal Workers Washington Post ...A federal labor organization says the federal government should not force workers to make retroactive retirement contributions after the government failed to collect them at the time the payments were due...
Faith Leaders Join Call For A Higher Minimum Wage MSNBC ...One day before the Senate is scheduled to vote on a proposed minimum wage hike, a broad coalition of religious leaders urged Congress to approve the measure in an open letter...
Miscellaneous
White House opens door to tolls on interstate highways, removing long-standing prohibition Washington Post ...With pressure mounting to avert a transportation funding crisis this summer, the Obama administration Tuesday opened the door for states to collect tolls on interstate highways to raise revenue for roadway repairs...
There's One Thing Missing From The Plan To Prosecute Big Banks Huffington Post ...About five years too late, federal prosecutors are talking tough about cracking down on crimes by big banks. But their boasting so far leaves out one important thing: people...
Heath Care Spending Is On The Rise And That's A Good Thing Think Progress ...New federal health care data finds that health care spending increased by 9.9 percent in the first quarter of 2014, representing somewhat of a turnaround in the four-year slow down of health care spending...
Day 2 Of Truckers Strike At Port Of Long Beach Belmont Shores-Naples Patch ...A 48-hour strike went into its second day at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach today, with contract truckers picketing as part of a Teamsters union backed effort to get hired as full-fledged employees...
Trade
Beijing Pushing For Trans-Pacific Trade Pact To Rival TPP Taipai Times ...China is pressing for a vast Asia-Pacific free trade agreement, a senior official said yesterday, as a rival US-led deal that excludes the Asian giant has yet to reach an agreement...
State Battles
Striking Down Wisconsin Voted ID Law, Judge Finds 'No Rational Person Could Be Worried' About Voter Fraud Think Progress ...A federal judge invalidated Wisconsin's photo ID requirement Tuesday, in at least the third court ruling to strike down the law...
2 high-speed train sets built for Wisconsin set to leave Milwaukee Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...In what appears to be the final chapter of an ill-fated venture in Milwaukee, Spanish train-maker Talgo is vacating its factory on the city's north side, and its two unused high-speed train sets may soon take to the tracks….Talgo was at the center of a roiling debate after Gov. Scott Walker made opposition to a high-speed rail line from Madison to Milwaukee a centerpiece of his 2010 campaign...
Hawaii lawmakers vote to increase hourly minimum wage to $10.10 Reuters ...Hawaii lawmakers voted late on Tuesday to raise the U.S. state's hourly minimum wage to $10.10 from the federal minimum $7.25 at a time of heated national debate over wages and rising income inequality.10.10...
New report exposes ALEC's influence in Kansas and Missouri Progress Missouri ...ALEC has lavished hundreds of thousands of dollars on Kansas and Missouri politicians and those trips have resulted in dozens of bills being introduced on behalf of ALEC’s corporate members...
More than 100 injured in Florida jail explosion USA Today ...An apparent gas explosion killed two and injured more than 100 people Wednesday night at the Escambia County Central Booking and Detention Facility in northwestern Florida...
War On Workers
Union: Don't Force Retroactive Retirement Payments From Federal Workers Washington Post ...A federal labor organization says the federal government should not force workers to make retroactive retirement contributions after the government failed to collect them at the time the payments were due...
Faith Leaders Join Call For A Higher Minimum Wage MSNBC ...One day before the Senate is scheduled to vote on a proposed minimum wage hike, a broad coalition of religious leaders urged Congress to approve the measure in an open letter...
Miscellaneous
White House opens door to tolls on interstate highways, removing long-standing prohibition Washington Post ...With pressure mounting to avert a transportation funding crisis this summer, the Obama administration Tuesday opened the door for states to collect tolls on interstate highways to raise revenue for roadway repairs...
There's One Thing Missing From The Plan To Prosecute Big Banks Huffington Post ...About five years too late, federal prosecutors are talking tough about cracking down on crimes by big banks. But their boasting so far leaves out one important thing: people...
Heath Care Spending Is On The Rise And That's A Good Thing Think Progress ...New federal health care data finds that health care spending increased by 9.9 percent in the first quarter of 2014, representing somewhat of a turnaround in the four-year slow down of health care spending...
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Today's Teamster News 12.04.13
2014 Teamsters Leadership Academy (TLA) Course Summary teamster.org ...Below
is a list of the 2014 Teamsters Leadership Academy programs available
from the IBT Training and Development Department for Teamster leaders. Download the schedule here...
Report: ALEC faces financial, possibly legal, problems UPI ...A conservative U.S. lobbying group critics say has undue influence on public policy faces a funding crisis and possible legal trouble, internal documents show...
Ill. Legislature OKs fix for $100B pension crisis Associated Press ...A coalition of unions known as We Are One Illinois, which lobbied heavily against the bill, issued a statement saying the legislation is unfair to workers and retirees who for years made faithful contributions to retirement systems but now will see benefits cut because of government mismanagement. "This is no victory for Illinois, but a dark day for its citizens and public servants," they said. "Teachers, caregivers, police and others stand to lose huge portions of their life savings because politicians chose to threaten their retirement security..."
Judge: Detroit eligible for Chapter 9 bankruptcy Associated Press ...Detroit is eligible to shed billions in debt in the largest public bankruptcy in U.S. history, a judge said Tuesday in a long-awaited decision that now shifts the case toward how the city will accomplish that task...
Missouri Extremists Get an Early Start on Attacking Working Families for 2014 Legislative Session AFL-CIO Now ...Extremist pro-corporate Republicans in Missouri are getting an early start on attacking the rights of working families by pre-filing a "right to work" for less bill for the 2014 legislative session. While there undoubtedly will be similar attacks in other states in 2014, Missouri is the first state to take formal steps to strip working families of their rights...
Scott Walker campaign aide fired after tweets demeaning Hispanics Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ...For the second time in less than four months, Gov. Scott Walker has fired an aide for making demeaning comments about Hispanics on social media...
Fast Food Strikes Will Hit 100 Cities On Thursday ThinkProgress ...Fast food workers will stage a one-day strike against their employers in 100 cities on Thursday ... Strikes will take place for the first time in some cities, such as Charleston, SC; Providence, RI; and Pittsburgh, PA.
They’ll also stage protests in an additional 100 cities, activists say...
Fast food CEOs exploit despicable tax loophole Salon ...Outrageous: In two years, fast food corporations paid out $183 million in deductible "performance pay" to top brass...
Making One Do the Work of Three: My Years at Wal-Mart CounterPunch ...This is the text of a speech given on November 29, in Raleigh, North Carolina by former Wal-Mart worker Patrick Snipes...
Cisco Says NSA Costing Them Major Business Abroad firedoglake ...Cisco Systems, one of the largest networking equipment sellers in the world, has been losing major business in the wake of the NSA spying scandal. The company has publicly blamed the NSA for sowing distrust between American technology companies and the rest of the world – potentially costing them billions...
Race to the Bottom: Declining State Corporate Tax Rates CounterPunch ...Behind the decline in the corporate income tax as a share of total tax revenues lies the growing proliferation of corporate tax exemptions, credits, deferral of payments, and various other ‘loopholes.’...
Global Elites Getting Nervous About Skyrocketing Inequality (But Won't Spare a Nickel to Fix It) AlterNet ...There’s a lot of handwringing, but will elite anxiety bring any changes?...
Survey: Rich kids reap benefits of online courses Bloomberg News ...An international poll casts doubt on the idea that the free online classes will benefit disenfranchised students...
As Hospital Prices Soar, a Single Stitch Tops $500 New York Times ...Hospital pricing is often convoluted, and hospital charges represent about a third of the total United States health care bill...
Report: ALEC faces financial, possibly legal, problems UPI ...A conservative U.S. lobbying group critics say has undue influence on public policy faces a funding crisis and possible legal trouble, internal documents show...
Ill. Legislature OKs fix for $100B pension crisis Associated Press ...A coalition of unions known as We Are One Illinois, which lobbied heavily against the bill, issued a statement saying the legislation is unfair to workers and retirees who for years made faithful contributions to retirement systems but now will see benefits cut because of government mismanagement. "This is no victory for Illinois, but a dark day for its citizens and public servants," they said. "Teachers, caregivers, police and others stand to lose huge portions of their life savings because politicians chose to threaten their retirement security..."
Judge: Detroit eligible for Chapter 9 bankruptcy Associated Press ...Detroit is eligible to shed billions in debt in the largest public bankruptcy in U.S. history, a judge said Tuesday in a long-awaited decision that now shifts the case toward how the city will accomplish that task...
Missouri Extremists Get an Early Start on Attacking Working Families for 2014 Legislative Session AFL-CIO Now ...Extremist pro-corporate Republicans in Missouri are getting an early start on attacking the rights of working families by pre-filing a "right to work" for less bill for the 2014 legislative session. While there undoubtedly will be similar attacks in other states in 2014, Missouri is the first state to take formal steps to strip working families of their rights...
Scott Walker campaign aide fired after tweets demeaning Hispanics Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ...For the second time in less than four months, Gov. Scott Walker has fired an aide for making demeaning comments about Hispanics on social media...
Fast Food Strikes Will Hit 100 Cities On Thursday ThinkProgress ...Fast food workers will stage a one-day strike against their employers in 100 cities on Thursday ... Strikes will take place for the first time in some cities, such as Charleston, SC; Providence, RI; and Pittsburgh, PA.
They’ll also stage protests in an additional 100 cities, activists say...
Fast food CEOs exploit despicable tax loophole Salon ...Outrageous: In two years, fast food corporations paid out $183 million in deductible "performance pay" to top brass...
Making One Do the Work of Three: My Years at Wal-Mart CounterPunch ...This is the text of a speech given on November 29, in Raleigh, North Carolina by former Wal-Mart worker Patrick Snipes...
Cisco Says NSA Costing Them Major Business Abroad firedoglake ...Cisco Systems, one of the largest networking equipment sellers in the world, has been losing major business in the wake of the NSA spying scandal. The company has publicly blamed the NSA for sowing distrust between American technology companies and the rest of the world – potentially costing them billions...
Race to the Bottom: Declining State Corporate Tax Rates CounterPunch ...Behind the decline in the corporate income tax as a share of total tax revenues lies the growing proliferation of corporate tax exemptions, credits, deferral of payments, and various other ‘loopholes.’...
Global Elites Getting Nervous About Skyrocketing Inequality (But Won't Spare a Nickel to Fix It) AlterNet ...There’s a lot of handwringing, but will elite anxiety bring any changes?...
Survey: Rich kids reap benefits of online courses Bloomberg News ...An international poll casts doubt on the idea that the free online classes will benefit disenfranchised students...
As Hospital Prices Soar, a Single Stitch Tops $500 New York Times ...Hospital pricing is often convoluted, and hospital charges represent about a third of the total United States health care bill...
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