Today's Teamster News 05.30.13

Smithfield Foods to be bought by Chinese firm  The Washington Post   ...Smithfield Foods, whose signature hams helped make it the world’s largest pork producer, is being taken over by a Chinese firm in a deal is the biggest takeover that might raise sensitive issues about Chinese involvement in the U.S. food supply...
Shell Admits Real Reason Coast Guard Had To Rescue Its Arctic Drilling Rig: Failed Tax Avoidance Scheme  ThinkProgress   ...The main reason an offshore oil rig ran aground off the coast of Alaska late last year was because oil company Royal Dutch Shell was trying to depart state waters to avoid paying millions in taxes...
Americans Now Know More About Often Pathetic Personal Finances  mni   ...Fewer than half, 41%, of Americans spend less than they make...
Case-Shiller Shows Home Prices Are Skyrocketing Back to the Bubble Years  Economic Populist ...The March 2013 S&P Case Shiller home price index shows a 10.9% price increase from a year ago for over 20 metropolitan housing markets and a 10.3% change for the top 10 housing markets from March 2012...
16 Countries Where People Work the Longest Hours  The Fiscal Times   ...When it comes to annual hours worked in 2010, the U.S. tied with Italy for 13th place among the OECD countries...
ALEC: Shining Sunlight on a Secretive Lobby Group  The Pilot   ...the Republican supermajority in the North Carolina General Assembly is getting many of its worst ideas for how to change our state from the Washington, D.C.-based American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Every citizen needs to know more about ALEC and its stealth efforts to undermine our modern-day democracy...
House Democrats gear up for Affordable Care Act outreach  Politico   ...Democrats on Capitol Hill are beginning a significant outreach effort to get lawmakers prepared for Obamacare enrollment, which will begin Oct. 1...
The World's Richest 8% Earn Half of All Planetary Income  AlterNet   ...The top 1 per cent has seen its real income rise by more than 60 per cent over those two decades...
Income Inequality Gets Worse When You Slash Taxes On The Rich: Study  Huffington Post   ...The rich just keep getting richer -- not only by gobbling up more income, but also by paying less in taxes. That means less support for the poor, who are getting increasingly poorer relative to the top one percent...
Apple’s U.S. revenue should be taxed (opinion) Washington Post …The open secret of many global corporations’ success — and occasionally, downfall — is to fall between the cracks. Apple, which is based in Cupertino, Calif., created an Irish subsidiary with no employees, into which it funneled roughly $30 billion between 2009 and 2012 on which neither Ireland nor the United States levied taxes...
Switzerland Weighs Deal in Tax Cases   Deal Book   ...The Swiss government is considering a proposal to disclose bank client names and pay a multibillion-dollar fine to the United States to help resolve a long-running dispute between the two countries over the handling of tax-evasion cases...
Proposed law would allow state to check, freeze private bank accounts to recover overpayments to jobless  Wisconsin State Journal   ...A bill that is speeding through the state Legislature would require jobless people to provide more proof that they are seeking work, and make it easier for the state to recover overpayments — including those made because of government errors — by allowing officials to peek into unemployed people’s bank accounts...
County-by-county details: How badly Wisconsin trails the nation in job-creation  Institute for Wisconsin's Future   ...private-sector wages in Wisconsin falling at 2% a year, twice the national rate. Wisconsin ranked 44th out of 50 in wage growth...
Giants Fans Bring Their Own Lunches To Support Concessions Workers’ Strike  In These Times   ...After three years without a contract, and on one of the busiest weekends of the season, hundreds of concessions workers at the San Francisco Giants’ ballpark staged a one-day strike. As baseball fans arrived on Saturday afternoon to watch the Giants take on the Colorado Rockies, strikers asked them not to buy food and drink inside the stadium...
After going nowhere in 2013, supporters hope to bring “right to work” back next year  The Missouri Times   ...Though prevailing wage and “paycheck protection” bills passed both chambers, another labor-related topic that saw minimal action this session was the “right to work” issue...
No mere luxury: Liquor privatization is about much more  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette   ...Concern is rising in the General Assembly, particularly among Democrats, that House Republicans may be linking a bill to end the government's liquor monopoly with a measure to increase transportation funding...
Teamsters Power Consumer Electronics Show   IBT   ...Every year, Las Vegas is visited by an average of nearly 5 million conventioneers as the city plays host to more than 21,000 shows. Local 631 in Las Vegas represents more than 3,000 trade show and convention workers that help to keep shows on track and on time...
Teamsters Offer Free Disability Services to Military Veterans  Teamsters Joint Council 25  ...An offshoot of the national Helmets to Hardhats program, the Teamsters Military Assistance Program (TMAP) provides disability assistance for all military veterans and job placement opportunities for veterans in the construction industry...
Stop Cuts To Public Safety And Economic Growth  IBT   ...Sequestration is more than a confusing term being debated in Washington. There is immediate and future impact that many Americans will feel based on significant reductions in funding numerous government programs that touch the lives of all segments of our society...

Today's Teamster News 02.03.13

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

This is what we union THUGGs do for military veterans

We help them get good jobs in the building and construction industry.

The Teamsters Military Assistance Program (TMAP) sponsors courses that can help veterans get jobs. They include a 200-hour Teamsters/Military CDL Licensing program and a Teamster Construction Apprenticeship program. It's associated with Helmets to Hardhats.

Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa says he's especially proud of TMAP:

The brave men and women who defend our country deserve as much help as we can give them when they return from their tour of duty.

The Deming, N.M., Headlight recently reported on the program in an article titled, "Helping veterans get job certification." It said,

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters began working with the DoD to establish a pilot program for qualifying veterans. The focus is on industries critically short of trained applicants, including trucking, health care, supply and logistics, automotive repair and airplane mechanics.

And here's a ringing endorsement from Lt. General Jack C. Stultz, Commanding General, United States Army Reserve:

The Teamsters/Military CDL Licensing Program is by far the most productive program we have seen in transitioning military skills into the civilian sector. It will be utilized as a role model program for many of the transitioning and certification workforce efforts. We must work together as a military and civilian community to define the best solutions necessary so that those who have honorably served will endure a career path that will best suit the skills they have developed while serving their country. It is a collaborative effort and I commend the Teamsters for the partnering support to our military and for the commitment they have made to the men and women who have honorably served this great nation.

For more information, email tmap@teamster.org. You can fill out a registration form here.

Helmets-to-Hardhats puts vets to work on One World Trade Center

The AFL-CIO produced this neat video about the Helmets-to-Hardhats program in New York. Teamsters, of course, are also working on One World Trade Center. And Teamsters support the Helmets-to-Hardhats program as well. Read more about it here.

This is what we union thugs do: Help veterans get good jobs (video)

Watch this great video about two veterans who got good jobs as Teamster apprentices through the Helmets to Hardhats program.  They're in the Mojave desert working on a renewable energy project, and their involvement was made possible through a project labor agreement.

The only thing that isn't inspirational about this video is the news that veterans come back from Afghanistan and Iraq and go on unemployment.