Teamsters
City Council Stands In Way Of Carriage Horse Ban, de Blasio Tells Activists New York Times ...Mayor Bill de Blasio made a promise as a candidate to animal-rights activists that he would end the Central Park horse-carriage industry on the first day of his administration. Nearly 600 days into his tenure, the horses are still clopping. And the mayor has a new message for activists: Talk to somebody else...
Strike Out Tucson Weekly ...Shortly after his return, he had an altercation with a bus rider who snuck in a beer. The man ended up throwing the beer in Kirk's face, after Kirk asked him to get rid of it. "Passengers realize that there is no accountability ... the disrespect ... they don't have to abide by any rules," he says. All-in-all, there have been 22 assaults on bus drivers in the past 13 months, according to the Teamsters Local Union 104, which is leading the strike. That includes beer-throwing, spitting and more violent incidents...
Bus Service Resumes To Normal In Loudoun County Washington Post ...Teamsters Local 570 and Transdev have been in talks over a collective bargaining agreement for the past six months, according to Loudoun County officials...
Global Labor & Trade
Chinese Shares Trade Lower Again After Days Of Volatility BBC News ...The mainland's benchmark Shanghai Composite was 1.5% down to 3,735.92 points. The negative open comes after the index had seen strong volatility since the beginning of the week...
Russia Used To Have A Powerful Weapon In Its Energy Sector. Not Anymore. Washington Post ...For years, Russia’s ability to choke off energy shipments any time tensions spiked with the West was a potent threat, one that could force much of Europe to shiver during the wintertime. But with energy prices swooning, the Kremlin’s pipeline politics are looking a lot less threatening...
State & Living Wage Battles
Unions Press Congress To Take Off On FAA Bill The Hill ...The AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department is pushing Congress to approve a new round of funding for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) when lawmakers return to Washington next month. The FAA bill, which includes funding for air traffic controllers, is scheduled to expire on Sept. 30...
Missouri Orders New Measures To Prevent Spread Of Bridgeton Landfill Fire St. Louis Post Dispatch ...Missouri regulators are ordering the owner of the smoldering Bridgeton Landfill to add more safeguards and develop a backup plan to prevent the spread of an underground fire past existing defenses...
Landfill Fire Slowing, Closer To Radioactive Waste KMOX ...The Pattonville Fire Protection District is keeping a close eye on the Bridgeton Landfill, after new data shows the underground fire may be getting closer to nuclear material buried in the nearby Westlake Landfill...
Justice Dept. Presses Civil Rights Agenda In Local Courts New York Times ...Burlington, Wash., was a small city fighting what seemed like a local lawsuit. Three poor people said that their public lawyers were too overworked to adequately represent them in municipal court cases. The dispute went mostly unnoticed for two years, until the Obama administration became involved. Unannounced, the Justice Department filed documents in the case and told the judge that he had broad authority to demand changes in Burlington and nearby Mount Vernon. The judge quickly agreed and ordered the cities to hire a new public defense supervisor. He also said he would monitor their legal aid program for three years...
After Criticism, HUD Says It’s Trying To Give The Boot To Public Housing Families Who Earn Too Much Money Washington Post ...In response to an unsparing audit by its watchdog, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has flipped its stance and now says it is urging housing authorities nationwide to evict tenants who earn too much to qualify for government subsidies...
Court Documents: Legal Challenge To N.C. Voter ID Could Be Settled Winston-Salem Journal ...The recent federal trial on North Carolina’s Voter Information Verification Act that ended about two weeks ago did not deal with the state’s photo ID requirement that goes into effect in 2016. It only dealt with other provisions of the law, which reduced the early voting period, eliminated same-day voter registration, prohibited county election officials from counting ballots cast in the wrong precinct but correct county, and abolished preregistration for 16- and 17-year-olds...
KC City Council To Meet, Clarify Minimum Wage Issues WDAF ...Workers in Kansas City could get some clarity on the minimum wage issue Thursday afternoon after the City Council meets to discuss the ordinance. The council meets at 3 p.m...
U.S. Labor
Uber Missed Criminal Records Of Drivers, Prosecutors Assert New York Times ...For more than a year, regulators in various cities have questioned whether Uber, the ride-hailing service, vets its drivers for criminal backgrounds as carefully as traditional taxi companies. Now the district attorneys of San Francisco and Los Angeles have offered perhaps the most concrete evidence to date that people convicted of murder, sex offenses and various property crimes have driven for Uber, despite assurances from the company that it employs “industry-leading” screening...
Private Prison Firms Buy Access To Public Officials At Lavish Industry Conferences Truthout ...The prison industry in the United States has grown so large that there are no less than seven professional associations for people who work at prisons and jails. The industry conferences held by these associations provide a perfect venue for private corrections companies to influence government officials with little public oversight, according to a recent report by the watchdog group In The Public Interest (ITPA)...
Social Justice & Other News
U.S. Consumer Prices Rise For Sixth Straight Month Wall Street Journal ...The consumer-price index, which reflects what Americans pay for everything from razors to radishes, rose a seasonally adjusted 0.1% in July from a month earlier, the Labor Department said Wednesday. From a year earlier, prices are up a very mild 0.2%, but when excluding volatile food and energy categories, the gain in the so-called core index was a more solid 1.8%...
The Military’s Outdated Gender Standards Are Finally Breaking Down Think Progress ...While women still face numerous obstacles when it comes to serving in the military, one barrier is soon to be broken. In an interview with the Navy Times Tuesday Adm. Jon Greenert said women would soon be welcome to participate in one of the military’s most elite units: – the Navy SEALs...
Goldman Sachs' New Loan Program Enters Underregulated, Potentially Abusive Loan Marketplace Truthout ...Though the bank itself hadn't directly seeded high-interest mortgages into communities of color around the country, like Countrywide or other banks that offered mortgages directly had done, Goldman Sachs had profited from selling subprime mortgage-backed securities - and from betting on the failure of these same products. "That was one of the reasons the [financial] crisis really took off," Murray said...
Ohio Planned To Import Death Penalty Drug Illegally Mother Jones ...The state of Ohio planned to illegally import sodium thiopental, a drug used for executions, according to a Food and Drug Administration letter obtained by BuzzFeed through a Freedom of Information Act request...
A Regulator’s Deal With Promontory Skirts A Big Problem New York Times ...Since by necessity it focuses on specific allegations, it leaves untouched a larger problem that goes beyond breaches of consultants’ supposed independence: the increasing extent to which regulators and prosecutors have come to rely on consultants to investigate suspected bank wrongdoing, rather than devoting the time and resources to do investigations themselves...
Black Lives Matter Isn't Stopping Politico ...Memo to 2016 candidates from Black Lives Matter: We will continue to disrupt your events no matter what you do or say, and we won’t stop anytime soon...
Obama Administration Plans To Overhaul Rules On Student Debt Forgiveness Washington Post ...The Obama administration said Wednesday it will overhaul the loan forgiveness process for students who believe they have been defrauded by their colleges, in light of the collapse of controversial for-profit Corinthian Colleges...
Showing posts with label housing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label housing. Show all posts
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Monday, August 10, 2015
Today's Teamster News 08.10.15
Teamsters
Picketers At Calgary BURNCO Location Protest Employee Lockout Global News ...The lockout affects members of Teamsters Union Local 362, which covers employees at plants in Airdrie, Springbank and Okotoks.The union says the biggest sticking point with the negotiations is seniority, which employees don’t want to give up...
Sun Tran Strike: Day 5 Arizona Daily Star ...Teamsters want a pay raise and improved workplace safety conditions. Sun Tran says its offer “amounts to an increase of $2.7 million over the recommended three-year contract, while the offer issued by Teamsters Local Union 104 amounts to a $20.3 million increase.” Sun Tran also says it’s working with the union to address assaults on drivers and a mold issue in a maintenance building...
Teamster: Even The Top Guys In UFC Are Underpaid SB Nation ...While Thursday's announced garnered plenty of attention, details were still a little vague. To get a better idea of what exactly the Teamsters and UNITE HERE were trying to accomplish I spoke last Friday with Chris Griswold, Secretary-Treasurer of the Teamsters, Local 986...
Global Labor & Trade
Child Labor On The Rise In West Africa As Demand For Cocoa Grows Wall Street Journal ...Despite nearly 14 years of government and industry efforts aimed at combatting child labor in cocoa production, 21% more children are illegally laboring on cocoa farms in Ghana and Ivory Coast than five years ago, according to a Tulane University study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Labor...
How El Salvador’s Supreme Court Is Undermining Democracy—With Washington’s Help The Nation ...In fact, plans to undermine leftist governance in El Salvador go back years before the election of Sánchez Cerén, the first guerrilla leader of the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) party to become president of El Salvador. The strategy centers on the country’s Supreme Court—and the US government has been in on it from the beginning...
Greece And Creditors In Final Push For Bailout Huffington Post ...Greece and international creditors sought to put final touches on a multi-billion euro bailout accord on Monday to keep the country financially afloat and meet an important debt repayment to the European Central Bank within days...
State & Living Wage Battles
Washington State Poised To Become Leader In Oil Train Safety Ahead Of Massive Increase In Traffic Puget Sound Business Journal ...Washington state is quickly becoming a leader in crude oil train safety standards. That's good because the state is gearing up to become a high-traffic zone for the controversial trains...
Corps Of Engineers Should FUSRAP-Up West Lake's Toxic Waste St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...The best solution for cleaning up radioactive waste buried at the West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton is to give control of the site to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers...
California Effort To Issue Driver’s Licenses To Immigrants Receives Surge Of Applicants New York Times ...When Alberto Fraire drives past a police car these days, he no longer worries about steep fines, or perhaps being hauled to jail and tangling with the immigration system. When California began issuing driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants this year, he was one of the first in line...
Amid Push For Higher Minimum Wage, Concern Rising About Workers Cheated Out Of Proper Pay U.S. News & World Report ...As a campaign to raise the minimum wage as high as $15 has achieved victories in such places as Seattle, Los Angeles and New York, it has bumped up against a harsh reality: Plenty of scofflaw businesses don't pay the legal minimum now and probably won't pay the new, higher wages either...
Another Sign That Momentum Is Building On Paid Parental Leave In The U.S. Huffington Post ...In the latest sign that support for paid family leave is growing in the U.S., Adobe on Monday announced a big expansion of benefits, including up to half a year of paid time off for new mothers...
U.S. Labor
The Outrageous Ascent Of CEO Pay Huffington Post ...For the last thirty years almost all incentives operating on American corporations have resulted in lower pay for average workers and higher pay for CEOs and other top executives. Consider that in 1965, CEOs of America's largest corporations were paid, on average, 20 times the pay of average workers. Now, the ratio is over 300 to 1...
Sysco Profit Drops, Hurt By US Foods-Related Costs Wall Street Journal ...Sysco Corp. said profit in its latest quarter fell, as the company booked charges stemming from its abandoned plan to acquire rival US Foods Inc...
Twisting Words To Make ‘Sharing’ Apps Seem Selfless New York Times ...Of course, marketing by its very nature involves concocting the most appealing expressions to attract consumers. But start-ups that enable consumers to summon drivers, lunch deliveries or domestic help at the tap of an app have added incentives to portray themselves in feel-good terms. Government regulators, legislators and courts in the United States have started scrutinizing the app-mediated service sector with the idea of determining whether longstanding consumer protection and labor rules apply to these new delivery models...
AT&T, Union Continue Negotiations After Contracts Expire Bloomberg Business ...AT&T Inc. and the Communications Workers of America continued talks on new labor contracts as current agreements covering more than 24,000 employees in the southeast U.S. expired...
CTU President: Contract Talks Haven’t Broken Down WBBM ...Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis disagrees contract talks with school officials have reached the “acrimonious” stage. She says meetings with public school officials have been very cordial and teachers have even been willing to take a pay freeze...
Social Justice & Other News
Virginia Recalling Specialty License Plates With Confederate Flag NPR ...Virginia's Department of Motor Vehicles will begin recalling specialty license plates depicting the Confederate battle flag following a federal judge's decision last week to dissolve an injunction that barred officials from blocking such plates...
The Confederate Flag Just Came Down In ‘The Last Capitol Of The Confederacy’ Think Progress ...According to GoDanRiver.com, the Danville city council voted 7-2 last week to remove the Third National flag of the Confederacy from the lawn of the Sutherlin Mansion, a historic building which houses a museum paid for with public funds. The flag was erected in 1995 on the house’s lawn to commemorate its historical significance — namely, that it hosted the last official meeting of the Confederate presidential cabinet, making it the “Last Capitol of the Confederacy.”...
Congress’s Cybersecurity Plan Has Some Major Flaws Think Progress ...One complaint privacy advocates have is that CISA, as written, undercuts existing privacy laws that give citizens power to hold companies responsible for any digital recklessness...
Segregation 101 Huffington Post ...Surveys of black families have found that most would prefer to live in racially integrated neighborhoods. But black families face a variety of obstacles in finding houses to buy or apartments to rent in such areas. Moreover, racial segregation isn't simply a byproduct of the fact that blacks have, on average, lower incomes than whites. Even middle-class African-American families tend to live in racially segregated areas; they, too, face discrimination when looking for apartments to rent or houses to buy...
Fox News v. Donald Trump: It’s Hard To Destroy A Monster Of Your Own Creation Salon.com ...For years, Fox News provided Donald Trump a platform to talk about politics to an audience of conservative voters. The network’s employees constantly bombarded him with questions and encouragement regarding his presidential ambitions. When he finally did run, Fox promoted and defended his candidacy in the face of near universal criticism. His presence at Fox News’ debate helped make it the most-watched primary debate in history. And after all that, when he finally got up on stage, Fox News shivved him...
A Gaggle Of Future Governors Just Had A Great Time In Maui Huffington Post ...Last month, a group of state attorneys general flew to Maui for the annual meeting of the Conference of Western Attorneys General. For several days, the top law enforcement officers -- who are often referred to as "aspiring governors" because of their tendency to run for and win higher elected office -- attended panels and swapped legal expertise on issues facing their states. They also mixed with executives, lawyers and lobbyists at a Waldorf Astoria resort that boasts tropical gardens, a swim-up bar and a grand view of Wailea Beach...
Picketers At Calgary BURNCO Location Protest Employee Lockout Global News ...The lockout affects members of Teamsters Union Local 362, which covers employees at plants in Airdrie, Springbank and Okotoks.The union says the biggest sticking point with the negotiations is seniority, which employees don’t want to give up...
Sun Tran Strike: Day 5 Arizona Daily Star ...Teamsters want a pay raise and improved workplace safety conditions. Sun Tran says its offer “amounts to an increase of $2.7 million over the recommended three-year contract, while the offer issued by Teamsters Local Union 104 amounts to a $20.3 million increase.” Sun Tran also says it’s working with the union to address assaults on drivers and a mold issue in a maintenance building...
Teamster: Even The Top Guys In UFC Are Underpaid SB Nation ...While Thursday's announced garnered plenty of attention, details were still a little vague. To get a better idea of what exactly the Teamsters and UNITE HERE were trying to accomplish I spoke last Friday with Chris Griswold, Secretary-Treasurer of the Teamsters, Local 986...
Global Labor & Trade
Child Labor On The Rise In West Africa As Demand For Cocoa Grows Wall Street Journal ...Despite nearly 14 years of government and industry efforts aimed at combatting child labor in cocoa production, 21% more children are illegally laboring on cocoa farms in Ghana and Ivory Coast than five years ago, according to a Tulane University study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Labor...
How El Salvador’s Supreme Court Is Undermining Democracy—With Washington’s Help The Nation ...In fact, plans to undermine leftist governance in El Salvador go back years before the election of Sánchez Cerén, the first guerrilla leader of the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) party to become president of El Salvador. The strategy centers on the country’s Supreme Court—and the US government has been in on it from the beginning...
Greece And Creditors In Final Push For Bailout Huffington Post ...Greece and international creditors sought to put final touches on a multi-billion euro bailout accord on Monday to keep the country financially afloat and meet an important debt repayment to the European Central Bank within days...
State & Living Wage Battles
Washington State Poised To Become Leader In Oil Train Safety Ahead Of Massive Increase In Traffic Puget Sound Business Journal ...Washington state is quickly becoming a leader in crude oil train safety standards. That's good because the state is gearing up to become a high-traffic zone for the controversial trains...
Corps Of Engineers Should FUSRAP-Up West Lake's Toxic Waste St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...The best solution for cleaning up radioactive waste buried at the West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton is to give control of the site to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers...
California Effort To Issue Driver’s Licenses To Immigrants Receives Surge Of Applicants New York Times ...When Alberto Fraire drives past a police car these days, he no longer worries about steep fines, or perhaps being hauled to jail and tangling with the immigration system. When California began issuing driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants this year, he was one of the first in line...
Amid Push For Higher Minimum Wage, Concern Rising About Workers Cheated Out Of Proper Pay U.S. News & World Report ...As a campaign to raise the minimum wage as high as $15 has achieved victories in such places as Seattle, Los Angeles and New York, it has bumped up against a harsh reality: Plenty of scofflaw businesses don't pay the legal minimum now and probably won't pay the new, higher wages either...
Another Sign That Momentum Is Building On Paid Parental Leave In The U.S. Huffington Post ...In the latest sign that support for paid family leave is growing in the U.S., Adobe on Monday announced a big expansion of benefits, including up to half a year of paid time off for new mothers...
U.S. Labor
The Outrageous Ascent Of CEO Pay Huffington Post ...For the last thirty years almost all incentives operating on American corporations have resulted in lower pay for average workers and higher pay for CEOs and other top executives. Consider that in 1965, CEOs of America's largest corporations were paid, on average, 20 times the pay of average workers. Now, the ratio is over 300 to 1...
Sysco Profit Drops, Hurt By US Foods-Related Costs Wall Street Journal ...Sysco Corp. said profit in its latest quarter fell, as the company booked charges stemming from its abandoned plan to acquire rival US Foods Inc...
Twisting Words To Make ‘Sharing’ Apps Seem Selfless New York Times ...Of course, marketing by its very nature involves concocting the most appealing expressions to attract consumers. But start-ups that enable consumers to summon drivers, lunch deliveries or domestic help at the tap of an app have added incentives to portray themselves in feel-good terms. Government regulators, legislators and courts in the United States have started scrutinizing the app-mediated service sector with the idea of determining whether longstanding consumer protection and labor rules apply to these new delivery models...
AT&T, Union Continue Negotiations After Contracts Expire Bloomberg Business ...AT&T Inc. and the Communications Workers of America continued talks on new labor contracts as current agreements covering more than 24,000 employees in the southeast U.S. expired...
CTU President: Contract Talks Haven’t Broken Down WBBM ...Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis disagrees contract talks with school officials have reached the “acrimonious” stage. She says meetings with public school officials have been very cordial and teachers have even been willing to take a pay freeze...
Social Justice & Other News
Virginia Recalling Specialty License Plates With Confederate Flag NPR ...Virginia's Department of Motor Vehicles will begin recalling specialty license plates depicting the Confederate battle flag following a federal judge's decision last week to dissolve an injunction that barred officials from blocking such plates...
The Confederate Flag Just Came Down In ‘The Last Capitol Of The Confederacy’ Think Progress ...According to GoDanRiver.com, the Danville city council voted 7-2 last week to remove the Third National flag of the Confederacy from the lawn of the Sutherlin Mansion, a historic building which houses a museum paid for with public funds. The flag was erected in 1995 on the house’s lawn to commemorate its historical significance — namely, that it hosted the last official meeting of the Confederate presidential cabinet, making it the “Last Capitol of the Confederacy.”...
Congress’s Cybersecurity Plan Has Some Major Flaws Think Progress ...One complaint privacy advocates have is that CISA, as written, undercuts existing privacy laws that give citizens power to hold companies responsible for any digital recklessness...
Segregation 101 Huffington Post ...Surveys of black families have found that most would prefer to live in racially integrated neighborhoods. But black families face a variety of obstacles in finding houses to buy or apartments to rent in such areas. Moreover, racial segregation isn't simply a byproduct of the fact that blacks have, on average, lower incomes than whites. Even middle-class African-American families tend to live in racially segregated areas; they, too, face discrimination when looking for apartments to rent or houses to buy...
Fox News v. Donald Trump: It’s Hard To Destroy A Monster Of Your Own Creation Salon.com ...For years, Fox News provided Donald Trump a platform to talk about politics to an audience of conservative voters. The network’s employees constantly bombarded him with questions and encouragement regarding his presidential ambitions. When he finally did run, Fox promoted and defended his candidacy in the face of near universal criticism. His presence at Fox News’ debate helped make it the most-watched primary debate in history. And after all that, when he finally got up on stage, Fox News shivved him...
A Gaggle Of Future Governors Just Had A Great Time In Maui Huffington Post ...Last month, a group of state attorneys general flew to Maui for the annual meeting of the Conference of Western Attorneys General. For several days, the top law enforcement officers -- who are often referred to as "aspiring governors" because of their tendency to run for and win higher elected office -- attended panels and swapped legal expertise on issues facing their states. They also mixed with executives, lawyers and lobbyists at a Waldorf Astoria resort that boasts tropical gardens, a swim-up bar and a grand view of Wailea Beach...
Friday, July 11, 2014
Today's Teamster News 07.11.14
Teamster News
Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello Performs, Joins Picketing Truck Drivers At Port Of Los Angeles Terminal Long Beach Press Telegram ...Tom Morello, original member of rock bands Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, took to a different stage Wednesday when he performed on the picket line at Evergreen Container Terminal at the Port of Los Angeles...
Retailers Step Up Holiday Imports In Case Of A West Coast Port Strike Forbes Magazine ...The dispute extended to the docks when ILWU workers temporarily honored the Teamster pickets and shut down container terminals at both ports on Tuesday, July 8...
Port Truckers’ Strike Sends Ripples Through Labor World MSNBC ...In terms of sheer numbers, the port truckers’ strike is not a major action. Only about 120 drivers walked off the job on Monday, when the strike began. Yet in terms of significance to the labor movement, this small workplace disruption is a national event...
6 minutes a day for bathroom breaks? Union cries foul Chicago Tribune ...Members of the Teamsters Local 743 who build sink stations at WaterSaver Faucet Co. and its sister company Guardian Equipment Inc. said that workers have been disciplined for exceeding their allotted bathroom time of 30 minutes per week, or 6 minutes per workday...
Trade
You have until July 21 to prevent deception in gov’t trade data Trade Reform ...Under a proposed federal rule, an iPhone made in China and sold to Europe could be falsely considered an American export! This dangerous rule would allow the federal government to magically shrink the trade deficit by claiming foreign manufacturing by foreign companies and workers is really USA-made...
GM says defective ignition switch made in China Trade Reform ...The No. 1 U.S. automaker said in a filing on Tuesday with U.S. safety regulators that the switch used in the Chevrolet Impala and Monte Carlo, Buick LaCrosse and Lucerne, and Cadillac DeVille and DTS cars that were recalled on June 16 was made by China-based Dalian Alps Electronics Co. Ltd. The switch problem is similar to the defect linked to at least 13 deaths...
Despite a Pledge by Samsung, Child Labor Proves Resilient New York Times ...they were part of a “labor dispatch system” that often funnels child laborers to factories during the summer to help meet a surge in orders that comes just ahead of the fall and winter shopping seasons in the United States and Europe. They were hired as temporary workers, they said, and paid through an agency that has recruitment channels in poor regions...
EFF, Reddit And Others Unite To Fight The Trans Pacific Partnership The Inquirer ...Two letters have been sent, and each takes on a related but different issue with the secretive trade agreement. Each letter has different signatures, and shows the broad, diverse opposition to the TPP...
State Battles
Gov. Scott Walker’s Campaign Violations New York Times ... According to state prosecutors, he was at the helm of a broad and illegal fund-raising effort that involved coordinating with outside spending groups and even controlling them...
Tipped Workers Seek Higher Wage Albany Times Union ...Seven other states have raised the tipped wage to the state minimum wage, including some states with the highest minimum wages in the country, such as Washington. Three of the states have indexed their minimum wage to inflation, something advocates also have called for in New York. Jack Temple, a policy analyst with the National Employment Law Project, said those states with some of the highest minimum wages for all workers also have some of the fastest restaurant industry growth...
Comfort the comfortable (opinion) Toledo Blade ...fully half of this year's $400 million tax cut will go to the top 5 percent of Ohio's taxpayers...
War On Workers
Fixing the Highway Trust Fund Isn't Rocket Science, but Stakes Are High AFL-CIO Now ...Unless Congress takes action, the fund will be depleted completely in less than one month...
One Of The NSA's Original Whistleblowers Says The Goal Is 'Total Population Control' The Guardian ...“The NSA is mass-collecting on everyone”, Binney said, “and it’s said to be about terrorism but inside the US it has stopped zero attacks..."
Detroit Residents Face Water Crisis as 36 Detroit Businesses Owe Over $4.2 Million in Back Bills firedoglake ...Over 7,000 residents already had their service cut off in June alone, before a single business faced the threat of collection. An estimated 40% of Detroit residents stand to lose water access by the end of the city’s brutal campaign to close delinquent accounts...
Mortgage Bankers: ‘Unsustainable Housing Bubble Is Inflating’ Wolf Street ...Six million homeowners in the U.S. are still underwater on their mortgages, with the average negative equity a whopping 33%. Yet with home prices soaring in many cities, total homeowner equity in the U.S. is at its highest level since late 2007. That doesn’t feel like a healthy, sustainable growth situation...
A Devastating Pattern Of Homelessness Among Late Baby Boomers Could Repeat In Millennials Business Insider ...Every decade, the group facing the highest risk of homelessness was born between 1954 and 1963...they came of age in the late 70s and early 80s in a period of depressed wages for unskilled workers, higher youth and young adult unemployment, and rising rental housing costs. At the same time, they faced a proliferation of crack cocaine, leading to social problems and incarceration...
How Inequality Is Hurting Whole Foods Huffington Post ...After popularizing luxury groceries for the well-off, Whole Foods is trying to take the concept to the masses. But amid growing inequality and a sluggish recovery, those masses have gone missing...
Miscellaneous
Report: U.S. Monitored E-mails Of Prominent Muslim Americans, Including Attorneys Washington Post ...A lengthy article published on the Intercept stated that the National Security Agency and the FBI monitored the e-mails of five Muslim Americans under procedures meant to target foreign terrorists and spies...
Fed Sets October End For Bond Buying Wall Street Journal ...Federal Reserve officials agreed at June's policy meeting to end their bond-buying program in October, putting an explicit end date on the experiment for the first time and closing a controversial chapter in central-banking annals with results still the subject of immense debate...
Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello Performs, Joins Picketing Truck Drivers At Port Of Los Angeles Terminal Long Beach Press Telegram ...Tom Morello, original member of rock bands Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, took to a different stage Wednesday when he performed on the picket line at Evergreen Container Terminal at the Port of Los Angeles...
Retailers Step Up Holiday Imports In Case Of A West Coast Port Strike Forbes Magazine ...The dispute extended to the docks when ILWU workers temporarily honored the Teamster pickets and shut down container terminals at both ports on Tuesday, July 8...
Port Truckers’ Strike Sends Ripples Through Labor World MSNBC ...In terms of sheer numbers, the port truckers’ strike is not a major action. Only about 120 drivers walked off the job on Monday, when the strike began. Yet in terms of significance to the labor movement, this small workplace disruption is a national event...
6 minutes a day for bathroom breaks? Union cries foul Chicago Tribune ...Members of the Teamsters Local 743 who build sink stations at WaterSaver Faucet Co. and its sister company Guardian Equipment Inc. said that workers have been disciplined for exceeding their allotted bathroom time of 30 minutes per week, or 6 minutes per workday...
Trade
You have until July 21 to prevent deception in gov’t trade data Trade Reform ...Under a proposed federal rule, an iPhone made in China and sold to Europe could be falsely considered an American export! This dangerous rule would allow the federal government to magically shrink the trade deficit by claiming foreign manufacturing by foreign companies and workers is really USA-made...
GM says defective ignition switch made in China Trade Reform ...The No. 1 U.S. automaker said in a filing on Tuesday with U.S. safety regulators that the switch used in the Chevrolet Impala and Monte Carlo, Buick LaCrosse and Lucerne, and Cadillac DeVille and DTS cars that were recalled on June 16 was made by China-based Dalian Alps Electronics Co. Ltd. The switch problem is similar to the defect linked to at least 13 deaths...
Despite a Pledge by Samsung, Child Labor Proves Resilient New York Times ...they were part of a “labor dispatch system” that often funnels child laborers to factories during the summer to help meet a surge in orders that comes just ahead of the fall and winter shopping seasons in the United States and Europe. They were hired as temporary workers, they said, and paid through an agency that has recruitment channels in poor regions...
EFF, Reddit And Others Unite To Fight The Trans Pacific Partnership The Inquirer ...Two letters have been sent, and each takes on a related but different issue with the secretive trade agreement. Each letter has different signatures, and shows the broad, diverse opposition to the TPP...
State Battles
Gov. Scott Walker’s Campaign Violations New York Times ... According to state prosecutors, he was at the helm of a broad and illegal fund-raising effort that involved coordinating with outside spending groups and even controlling them...
Tipped Workers Seek Higher Wage Albany Times Union ...Seven other states have raised the tipped wage to the state minimum wage, including some states with the highest minimum wages in the country, such as Washington. Three of the states have indexed their minimum wage to inflation, something advocates also have called for in New York. Jack Temple, a policy analyst with the National Employment Law Project, said those states with some of the highest minimum wages for all workers also have some of the fastest restaurant industry growth...
Comfort the comfortable (opinion) Toledo Blade ...fully half of this year's $400 million tax cut will go to the top 5 percent of Ohio's taxpayers...
War On Workers
Fixing the Highway Trust Fund Isn't Rocket Science, but Stakes Are High AFL-CIO Now ...Unless Congress takes action, the fund will be depleted completely in less than one month...
One Of The NSA's Original Whistleblowers Says The Goal Is 'Total Population Control' The Guardian ...“The NSA is mass-collecting on everyone”, Binney said, “and it’s said to be about terrorism but inside the US it has stopped zero attacks..."
Detroit Residents Face Water Crisis as 36 Detroit Businesses Owe Over $4.2 Million in Back Bills firedoglake ...Over 7,000 residents already had their service cut off in June alone, before a single business faced the threat of collection. An estimated 40% of Detroit residents stand to lose water access by the end of the city’s brutal campaign to close delinquent accounts...
Mortgage Bankers: ‘Unsustainable Housing Bubble Is Inflating’ Wolf Street ...Six million homeowners in the U.S. are still underwater on their mortgages, with the average negative equity a whopping 33%. Yet with home prices soaring in many cities, total homeowner equity in the U.S. is at its highest level since late 2007. That doesn’t feel like a healthy, sustainable growth situation...
A Devastating Pattern Of Homelessness Among Late Baby Boomers Could Repeat In Millennials Business Insider ...Every decade, the group facing the highest risk of homelessness was born between 1954 and 1963...they came of age in the late 70s and early 80s in a period of depressed wages for unskilled workers, higher youth and young adult unemployment, and rising rental housing costs. At the same time, they faced a proliferation of crack cocaine, leading to social problems and incarceration...
How Inequality Is Hurting Whole Foods Huffington Post ...After popularizing luxury groceries for the well-off, Whole Foods is trying to take the concept to the masses. But amid growing inequality and a sluggish recovery, those masses have gone missing...
Miscellaneous
Report: U.S. Monitored E-mails Of Prominent Muslim Americans, Including Attorneys Washington Post ...A lengthy article published on the Intercept stated that the National Security Agency and the FBI monitored the e-mails of five Muslim Americans under procedures meant to target foreign terrorists and spies...
Fed Sets October End For Bond Buying Wall Street Journal ...Federal Reserve officials agreed at June's policy meeting to end their bond-buying program in October, putting an explicit end date on the experiment for the first time and closing a controversial chapter in central-banking annals with results still the subject of immense debate...
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Today's Teamster News 07.10.14
Teamster News
Buy American: It Makes Dollars And Sense Detroit News ...a proposed 12-nation Pacific Rim trade deal could take away the federal government’s ability to enforce a law allowing it to favor American companies when purchasing goods...
Chelsea City Employees Get 2 Percent Raises, City Manager's Contract Extended Chelsea Standard ...Police Officer's Association of Michigan (POAM) and Teamsters Local 214 recently negotiated with the city, in closed sessions, and have reached collective bargaining agreements for fiscal year 2014-15...
Truckers Strike Briefly Shuts 4 Terminals At L.A., Long Beach Ports Los Angeles Times ...On Tuesday picket lines moved to some port terminals ... In a brief escalation of the day-old strike, dockworkers walked off the job at the Evergreen, APL and Yusen terminals in Los Angeles around 9 a.m., and at the Long Beach Container Terminal an hour later...
Labor Dispute Briefly Shuts LA, Long Beach Ports Grand Island Independent ...Nearly 1,000 dockworkers briefly walked off their jobs Tuesday at the massive ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, disrupting the movement of international cargo before a mediator ordered them back..
Union Workers Picket Outside EVSC Administration Building WTVW ...Teamsters Local 215 members take an old school approach to grab attention and a few honks...
GET Drivers Poised To Strike Next Week Bakersfield Californian ...Bakersfield public bus drivers are poised to walk off the job Tuesday unless there is a breakthrough in labor contract negotiations. Members of Visalia-based Teamsters Local #517 voted Sunday to authorize a strike, half a dozen drivers with Golden Empire Transit District said...
Teamsters locals sued over ‘illegal strikes’ Post-Tribune ...International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 142 in Gary and Local 179 in Joliet, Illinois, used several strikes in 2012 to get Roberts Pipeline to use Teamsters members on its construction projects, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Hammond...
Trade
U.S. International Goods and Services Bureau of Economic Analysis ...total May exports of $195.5 billion and imports of $239.8 billion resulted in a goods and services deficit of $44.4 billion, down from $47.0 billion in April, revised...
State Battles
Why is Wisconsin lagging other states on jobs? (opinion) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ... well over 400,000 Wisconsin workers were forced to cut their spending significantly. Some of that reduced spending would have been on goods produced elsewhere ... But much of that reduced spending would have been on locally produced services — restaurant meals, trips to the Dells and hair salon appointments — reducing job growth in Wisconsin. That's where the job gap shows up — in about 30,000 fewer private service-sector jobs than expected, over the past three years...
Courtroom Drama: Voting Rights Paid for in Blood Under Siege in North Carolina American Prospect ...Glazier laid out how his Republican colleagues—with almost no study or debate—stripped away more than a decade’s worth of reforms that had dramatically increased ballot access for African Americans...
L.A. Hotel Workers Could Get $15.37 An Hour - The Highest Minimum Wage In The U.S. CNN Money ...Now, Los Angeles hotel workers might be outdoing them all with the country's highest minimum wage: $15.37 an hour, thanks to a new city ordinance that is expected to pass by Labor Day...
War On Workers
Chinese Hackers Pursue Key Data on U.S. Workers New York Times ...Chinese hackers in March broke into the computer networks of the United States government agency that houses the personal information of all federal employees, according to senior American officials...
Corporate Tax Behavior So Bad Even Fortune Magazine Can’t Stomach It American Prospect ...There is “a new kind of American corporate exceptionalism...: companies that have decided to desert our country to avoid paying taxes but expect to keep receiving the full array of benefits that being American confers, and that everyone else is paying for...
Is wage stagnation keeping homebuyers away? Housing Wire ...In Atlanta, asking prices rose 15.7% while wages only rose 0.8%. In Bakersfield, California, asking prices rose 13.9% while wages actually dropped by 0.3%...
Is Uber Above The Law? Probably Not Bloomberg Businessweek ...The Virginia and Ann Arbor showdowns come amid an escalating series of legislative skirmishes on both sides of the Atlantic, with divergent results. Last week, Pittsburgh judges issued their own cease-and-desist instruction to Uber and Lyft, while a London agency rejected a complaint against the companies brought by taxi drivers, granting Uber a reprieve until courts rule on legal challenges to their operation later this year...
How Corporate Tax Cheats Still Get Billions In Government Business Think Progress ...Despite supposed bans on companies that move offshore to avoid paying U.S. taxes getting federal contracts, more than a dozen large off-shored companies get more than $1 billion a year from government work, according to a Bloomberg News investigation...
Miscellaneous
NSA Spied On Five Politically Active Citizens, The Intercept Reports Huffington Post ...The National Security Agency spied on five American citizens despite a lack of any finding that they posed a threat to national security, The Intercept, an investigative outlet co-founded by Greenwald, is reporting Wednesday...
US military studied how to influence Twitter users in Darpa-funded research The Guardian ...The activities of users of Twitter and other social media services were recorded and analysed as part of a major project funded by the US military, in a program that covers ground similar to Facebook’s controversial experiment into how to control emotions by manipulating news feeds...
Buy American: It Makes Dollars And Sense Detroit News ...a proposed 12-nation Pacific Rim trade deal could take away the federal government’s ability to enforce a law allowing it to favor American companies when purchasing goods...
Chelsea City Employees Get 2 Percent Raises, City Manager's Contract Extended Chelsea Standard ...Police Officer's Association of Michigan (POAM) and Teamsters Local 214 recently negotiated with the city, in closed sessions, and have reached collective bargaining agreements for fiscal year 2014-15...
Truckers Strike Briefly Shuts 4 Terminals At L.A., Long Beach Ports Los Angeles Times ...On Tuesday picket lines moved to some port terminals ... In a brief escalation of the day-old strike, dockworkers walked off the job at the Evergreen, APL and Yusen terminals in Los Angeles around 9 a.m., and at the Long Beach Container Terminal an hour later...
Labor Dispute Briefly Shuts LA, Long Beach Ports Grand Island Independent ...Nearly 1,000 dockworkers briefly walked off their jobs Tuesday at the massive ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, disrupting the movement of international cargo before a mediator ordered them back..
Union Workers Picket Outside EVSC Administration Building WTVW ...Teamsters Local 215 members take an old school approach to grab attention and a few honks...
GET Drivers Poised To Strike Next Week Bakersfield Californian ...Bakersfield public bus drivers are poised to walk off the job Tuesday unless there is a breakthrough in labor contract negotiations. Members of Visalia-based Teamsters Local #517 voted Sunday to authorize a strike, half a dozen drivers with Golden Empire Transit District said...
Teamsters locals sued over ‘illegal strikes’ Post-Tribune ...International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 142 in Gary and Local 179 in Joliet, Illinois, used several strikes in 2012 to get Roberts Pipeline to use Teamsters members on its construction projects, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Hammond...
Trade
U.S. International Goods and Services Bureau of Economic Analysis ...total May exports of $195.5 billion and imports of $239.8 billion resulted in a goods and services deficit of $44.4 billion, down from $47.0 billion in April, revised...
State Battles
Why is Wisconsin lagging other states on jobs? (opinion) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ... well over 400,000 Wisconsin workers were forced to cut their spending significantly. Some of that reduced spending would have been on goods produced elsewhere ... But much of that reduced spending would have been on locally produced services — restaurant meals, trips to the Dells and hair salon appointments — reducing job growth in Wisconsin. That's where the job gap shows up — in about 30,000 fewer private service-sector jobs than expected, over the past three years...
Courtroom Drama: Voting Rights Paid for in Blood Under Siege in North Carolina American Prospect ...Glazier laid out how his Republican colleagues—with almost no study or debate—stripped away more than a decade’s worth of reforms that had dramatically increased ballot access for African Americans...
L.A. Hotel Workers Could Get $15.37 An Hour - The Highest Minimum Wage In The U.S. CNN Money ...Now, Los Angeles hotel workers might be outdoing them all with the country's highest minimum wage: $15.37 an hour, thanks to a new city ordinance that is expected to pass by Labor Day...
War On Workers
Chinese Hackers Pursue Key Data on U.S. Workers New York Times ...Chinese hackers in March broke into the computer networks of the United States government agency that houses the personal information of all federal employees, according to senior American officials...
Corporate Tax Behavior So Bad Even Fortune Magazine Can’t Stomach It American Prospect ...There is “a new kind of American corporate exceptionalism...: companies that have decided to desert our country to avoid paying taxes but expect to keep receiving the full array of benefits that being American confers, and that everyone else is paying for...
Is wage stagnation keeping homebuyers away? Housing Wire ...In Atlanta, asking prices rose 15.7% while wages only rose 0.8%. In Bakersfield, California, asking prices rose 13.9% while wages actually dropped by 0.3%...
Is Uber Above The Law? Probably Not Bloomberg Businessweek ...The Virginia and Ann Arbor showdowns come amid an escalating series of legislative skirmishes on both sides of the Atlantic, with divergent results. Last week, Pittsburgh judges issued their own cease-and-desist instruction to Uber and Lyft, while a London agency rejected a complaint against the companies brought by taxi drivers, granting Uber a reprieve until courts rule on legal challenges to their operation later this year...
How Corporate Tax Cheats Still Get Billions In Government Business Think Progress ...Despite supposed bans on companies that move offshore to avoid paying U.S. taxes getting federal contracts, more than a dozen large off-shored companies get more than $1 billion a year from government work, according to a Bloomberg News investigation...
Miscellaneous
NSA Spied On Five Politically Active Citizens, The Intercept Reports Huffington Post ...The National Security Agency spied on five American citizens despite a lack of any finding that they posed a threat to national security, The Intercept, an investigative outlet co-founded by Greenwald, is reporting Wednesday...
US military studied how to influence Twitter users in Darpa-funded research The Guardian ...The activities of users of Twitter and other social media services were recorded and analysed as part of a major project funded by the US military, in a program that covers ground similar to Facebook’s controversial experiment into how to control emotions by manipulating news feeds...
Monday, July 7, 2014
Today's Teamster News 07.07.14
Trade
TPP deal 'unlikely' without Japan Radio New Zealand News ...He said while Japan has been reluctant to open its market fully, New Zealand continues to push for open access to Japan's markets for farmers...
TPP talks in full gear as chief negotiators join working-level meeting Mainichi ...the chief negotiators discussed legal and institutional matters as well as labor, and made some progress on forging a framework for curbing serious labor problems...
State Battles
Students Joining Battle to Upend Laws on Voter ID New York Times ...Under the North Carolina law passed last year, the period for early voting was shortened and same-day registration was eliminated. Beginning in 2016, voters will need to show photo identification, and student ID cards, including those issued by state universities, will not be acceptable. In most instances, neither will an out-of-state driver’s license...
War on Workers
As Jobs Surge, Hurdles Linger Wall Street Journal ...Consumer spending remains weak, a consequence of a labor market delivering new jobs but skimpy wage growth. And the share of Americans working or looking for work—the so-called labor-force participation rate—is near its lowest levels since the late 1970s, despite steady hiring...
Face of U.S. unions shifting more to public-sector workers, women Associated Press ...Unions representing government workers are expanding while organized labor has been shedding private-sector members over the past half-century...
Investors Are Pushing Starter-Home Prices Up New York Times ...WALL STREET is driving up home prices again, but this time it is not by granting mortgages to customers who cannot afford houses. Instead, institutional investors have been buying up relatively inexpensive homes, particularly in areas hard hit by foreclosures during and after the Great Recession...
Miscellaneous
Rail Traffic Is Growing Like Crazy Business Insider ...Year-over-year monthly carload growth averaged 4.9 percent from March 2014 through June 2014, the highest average for any four-month period since December 2010 through March 2011...
Enhanced security measures at certain airports overseas TSA ...During the security examination, officers may also ask that owners power up some devices, including cell phones. Powerless devices will not be permitted onboard the aircraft. The traveler may also undergo additional screening...
TPP deal 'unlikely' without Japan Radio New Zealand News ...He said while Japan has been reluctant to open its market fully, New Zealand continues to push for open access to Japan's markets for farmers...
TPP talks in full gear as chief negotiators join working-level meeting Mainichi ...the chief negotiators discussed legal and institutional matters as well as labor, and made some progress on forging a framework for curbing serious labor problems...
State Battles
Students Joining Battle to Upend Laws on Voter ID New York Times ...Under the North Carolina law passed last year, the period for early voting was shortened and same-day registration was eliminated. Beginning in 2016, voters will need to show photo identification, and student ID cards, including those issued by state universities, will not be acceptable. In most instances, neither will an out-of-state driver’s license...
War on Workers
As Jobs Surge, Hurdles Linger Wall Street Journal ...Consumer spending remains weak, a consequence of a labor market delivering new jobs but skimpy wage growth. And the share of Americans working or looking for work—the so-called labor-force participation rate—is near its lowest levels since the late 1970s, despite steady hiring...
Face of U.S. unions shifting more to public-sector workers, women Associated Press ...Unions representing government workers are expanding while organized labor has been shedding private-sector members over the past half-century...
Investors Are Pushing Starter-Home Prices Up New York Times ...WALL STREET is driving up home prices again, but this time it is not by granting mortgages to customers who cannot afford houses. Instead, institutional investors have been buying up relatively inexpensive homes, particularly in areas hard hit by foreclosures during and after the Great Recession...
Miscellaneous
Rail Traffic Is Growing Like Crazy Business Insider ...Year-over-year monthly carload growth averaged 4.9 percent from March 2014 through June 2014, the highest average for any four-month period since December 2010 through March 2011...
Enhanced security measures at certain airports overseas TSA ...During the security examination, officers may also ask that owners power up some devices, including cell phones. Powerless devices will not be permitted onboard the aircraft. The traveler may also undergo additional screening...
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Today's Teamster News 06.29.14
Teamsters
Teamsters contract with Washoe transit system expires Monday; extension possible KRNV ... "Contact talks between the company and the union have been making progress, although too much remains to finalize an agreement by midnight on Monday," Local 533 President Gary Watson, the union's lead negotiator said...
Trade
Anti-Fast Track/TPP Rallies And Events Next Week Trade Reform ...There will be a number of rallies and other events over the July 4 Congressional recess, focused on members of Congress in their home districts. These events will be to protest the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the proposed “fast track” process that essentially bypasses Congress to get it signed into law...
State Battles
Tax cuts in Kansas have cost the state money — and job creation’s been terrible Washington Post ...job growth in Kansas has actually lagged behind the U.S. average, especially in the years following the first round of Brownback tax cuts in 2012...
War on Workers
Harris v. Quinn: Will the Supreme Court Abolish Public Sector Unions on Monday naked capitalism ...Joel Rogers, a professor of law and sociology at the University of Wisconsin, calls it “the most important labor law case the court has considered in decades...”
When a Health Plan Knows How You Shop New York Times ...The Pittsburgh health plan, for instance, has developed prediction models that analyze data like patient claims, prescriptions and census records to determine which members are likely to use the most emergency and urgent care … But the insurer recently bolstered its forecasting models with details on members’ household incomes, education levels, marital status, race or ethnicity, number of children at home, number of cars...
Housing Improving but Rental Crisis Looms Mortgage News Daily ...Tight credit, still elevated unemployment, and mounting student loan debt among young Americans are responsible for moderating growth and keeping millennials and other first-time homebuyers out of the market...
If Women Want Better Pay, They Should Support Unions Huffington Post ...Women in unions make 12.9 percent more, on average, than their non-union counterparts, according to the study. For women with just a high school diploma, that difference is 15 percent. Women in unions with a college degree make 13.4 percent more than their non-union colleagues, the study found...
Facebook Conducted Psychological Experiments On Unknowing Users ThinkProgress ...The study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. was successful. It found that, indeed, manipulating the algorithm to show more “positive” posts in your news feed will actually inspire you to write more “positive” posts yourself...
Miscellaneous
The C.E.O. Is My Friend. So Back Off. New York Times ...when social relationships were disclosed as part of director-independence regulations, board members didn’t toughen their oversight of their chief-executive pals. Rather, the directors went easier on the C.E.O., perhaps believing that they had done their duty by disclosing the relationship...
Teamsters contract with Washoe transit system expires Monday; extension possible KRNV ... "Contact talks between the company and the union have been making progress, although too much remains to finalize an agreement by midnight on Monday," Local 533 President Gary Watson, the union's lead negotiator said...
Trade
Anti-Fast Track/TPP Rallies And Events Next Week Trade Reform ...There will be a number of rallies and other events over the July 4 Congressional recess, focused on members of Congress in their home districts. These events will be to protest the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the proposed “fast track” process that essentially bypasses Congress to get it signed into law...
State Battles
Tax cuts in Kansas have cost the state money — and job creation’s been terrible Washington Post ...job growth in Kansas has actually lagged behind the U.S. average, especially in the years following the first round of Brownback tax cuts in 2012...
War on Workers
Harris v. Quinn: Will the Supreme Court Abolish Public Sector Unions on Monday naked capitalism ...Joel Rogers, a professor of law and sociology at the University of Wisconsin, calls it “the most important labor law case the court has considered in decades...”
When a Health Plan Knows How You Shop New York Times ...The Pittsburgh health plan, for instance, has developed prediction models that analyze data like patient claims, prescriptions and census records to determine which members are likely to use the most emergency and urgent care … But the insurer recently bolstered its forecasting models with details on members’ household incomes, education levels, marital status, race or ethnicity, number of children at home, number of cars...
Housing Improving but Rental Crisis Looms Mortgage News Daily ...Tight credit, still elevated unemployment, and mounting student loan debt among young Americans are responsible for moderating growth and keeping millennials and other first-time homebuyers out of the market...
If Women Want Better Pay, They Should Support Unions Huffington Post ...Women in unions make 12.9 percent more, on average, than their non-union counterparts, according to the study. For women with just a high school diploma, that difference is 15 percent. Women in unions with a college degree make 13.4 percent more than their non-union colleagues, the study found...
Facebook Conducted Psychological Experiments On Unknowing Users ThinkProgress ...The study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. was successful. It found that, indeed, manipulating the algorithm to show more “positive” posts in your news feed will actually inspire you to write more “positive” posts yourself...
Miscellaneous
The C.E.O. Is My Friend. So Back Off. New York Times ...when social relationships were disclosed as part of director-independence regulations, board members didn’t toughen their oversight of their chief-executive pals. Rather, the directors went easier on the C.E.O., perhaps believing that they had done their duty by disclosing the relationship...
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Today's Teamster News 04.08.2014
Teamster News
Teamsters seek contract at Corona food warehouse Press-Enterprise ...Union leaders in Southern California are asking U.S. Foods, the second-largest food supplier in the country and the subject of a huge proposed merger deal, to begin contract negotiations with workers at a Corona distribution center...
Trade
What The Heck Is The Trans-Pacific Partnership And Why Should I Be Concerned? Consumerist ...It's 2014, and we're living in an increasingly globalized economy. International trade has been ramping up for centuries and a carefully plotted web of agreements keeps goods, services and money moving around the world...
Colombia's Anti-Union Violence Remains Rampant after Three Years of the FTA-Enabling Labor Action Plan Public Citizen ... 73 Colombian unionists have been murdered, according to a report released today by Colombia’s National Union School, a group recognized by the LAP as an authoritative source of monitoring data. There were more four more unionist murders in 2013 than in 2012...
Congress needs to act on China’s unfair trade practices Indianapolis Star ...America ran a $456 billion trade deficit in 2013, $318 billion of which came from trade with China alone. This doesn’t happen naturally. China illegally subsidizes for its state-run businesses to encourage these deficits. And it manipulates its currency to make its goods cheaper and competing American goods more expensive...
U.S. Expresses Support For Taiwan's TPP Bid Radio Taiwan International ...Taiwan's foreign ministry says the United States has openly expressed its support for Taiwan's bid to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
State Battles
More Lawmakers Pushing Identical Bills Written By National Groups AZ Central ...Arizona lawmakers introduced six bills this session seeking a U.S. Constitutional Amendment to impose new fiscal restraints on the federal government...
Exploited Temp Workers May Finally Get Some Relief Salon ...California could become one of the first states in the nation to hold companies legally responsible for wage and safety violations by their subcontractors and temp agencies if a bill proposed Friday becomes law...
War on Workers
More Than 20 Striking Students Arrested, Belying University of California’s Era of ‘Labor Peace’ In These Times ...The work stoppage, staged in protest of past alleged attempts by UC to intimidate graduate workers for labor organizing, was quickly met with what workers say was a further attempt at intimidation: The arrest of 20 students at UC Santa Cruz who were picketing early Wednesday morning...
Paid-For Legislature Takes Teacher Tenure From Thousands In Kansas firedoglake ...Weekend, overnight exploits by purchased ideologues and rank amateurs in the Kansas State legislature stripped KS public school teachers of due process rights...
I Looked Up The Fastest-Growing Jobs In America, And Boy Was It Depressing Business Insider ...secretaries, food workers, and caretakers. The median salary for the fastest-growing raw-numbers occupations, shown in the table below, is $30,000...
Hot Air Hisses Out Of Housing Bubble 2.0: Even Two Middle-Class Incomes Aren’t Enough Anymore To Buy A Median Home Testosterone Pit ...in 40 large cities, only 10% of the homes are affordable on one median salary … and … “just 41% of homes currently for sale across 40 US cities are affordable for a family earning two median incomes…”
The Money Against The Minimum Wage Open Secrets ...The minimum wage debate is back on Capitol Hill, and the usual suspects -- trade groups in industries that hire a lot of low-wage workers …have laid out huge amounts of money … giving more than $5.5 million to Congress over the past two election cycles and spending more than $91 million on lobbying just last year...
If the New York Stock Exchange is a “High-Frequency Brothel” then the SEC is its Pimp Wall Street on Parade ...Not only are the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq allowing high frequency traders to co-locate their computers next to the main computers of the exchanges to gain a speed advantage over other customers at a monthly cost that only the very rich can afford to pay but they’re now tacking on infrastructure charges that price everyone out of efficient use of the exchanges except the very top tier of trading firms...
All Work And No Pay Moyers & Company ...You've heard about the wave of recent protests calling on fast food chains like McDonald's and Burger King to raise wages for their employees, who are forced to live on next to nothing. But did you know that many workers in sit-down restaurants may be faring even worse?...
Corker Must Come Clean On The Volkswagon Union Election The Hill ...Sen. Bob Corker's problems concerning his intrusion in February's union election at Volkswagon in Chattanooga just got more serious. Confidential e-mails obtained this week by a Nashville television station...
Labor Secretary Will "Respect" NLRB Ruling Granting Northwestern Football Players Right To Unionize Des Moines Register ...U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez will respect the decision by the National Labor Relations Board last week that Northwestern football players have the right to unionize, he said at a news conference in Des Moines Saturday...
Miscelleneous
Young People Understand Unions Can Solve Problems U.S. News and World Report ...Last week, the National Labor Relations Board's Chicago Regional Director issued a notable finding: football players at Northwestern University are employees of the university for purposes of federal labor law...
Teamsters seek contract at Corona food warehouse Press-Enterprise ...Union leaders in Southern California are asking U.S. Foods, the second-largest food supplier in the country and the subject of a huge proposed merger deal, to begin contract negotiations with workers at a Corona distribution center...
Trade
What The Heck Is The Trans-Pacific Partnership And Why Should I Be Concerned? Consumerist ...It's 2014, and we're living in an increasingly globalized economy. International trade has been ramping up for centuries and a carefully plotted web of agreements keeps goods, services and money moving around the world...
Colombia's Anti-Union Violence Remains Rampant after Three Years of the FTA-Enabling Labor Action Plan Public Citizen ... 73 Colombian unionists have been murdered, according to a report released today by Colombia’s National Union School, a group recognized by the LAP as an authoritative source of monitoring data. There were more four more unionist murders in 2013 than in 2012...
Congress needs to act on China’s unfair trade practices Indianapolis Star ...America ran a $456 billion trade deficit in 2013, $318 billion of which came from trade with China alone. This doesn’t happen naturally. China illegally subsidizes for its state-run businesses to encourage these deficits. And it manipulates its currency to make its goods cheaper and competing American goods more expensive...
U.S. Expresses Support For Taiwan's TPP Bid Radio Taiwan International ...Taiwan's foreign ministry says the United States has openly expressed its support for Taiwan's bid to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
State Battles
More Lawmakers Pushing Identical Bills Written By National Groups AZ Central ...Arizona lawmakers introduced six bills this session seeking a U.S. Constitutional Amendment to impose new fiscal restraints on the federal government...
Exploited Temp Workers May Finally Get Some Relief Salon ...California could become one of the first states in the nation to hold companies legally responsible for wage and safety violations by their subcontractors and temp agencies if a bill proposed Friday becomes law...
War on Workers
More Than 20 Striking Students Arrested, Belying University of California’s Era of ‘Labor Peace’ In These Times ...The work stoppage, staged in protest of past alleged attempts by UC to intimidate graduate workers for labor organizing, was quickly met with what workers say was a further attempt at intimidation: The arrest of 20 students at UC Santa Cruz who were picketing early Wednesday morning...
Paid-For Legislature Takes Teacher Tenure From Thousands In Kansas firedoglake ...Weekend, overnight exploits by purchased ideologues and rank amateurs in the Kansas State legislature stripped KS public school teachers of due process rights...
I Looked Up The Fastest-Growing Jobs In America, And Boy Was It Depressing Business Insider ...secretaries, food workers, and caretakers. The median salary for the fastest-growing raw-numbers occupations, shown in the table below, is $30,000...
Hot Air Hisses Out Of Housing Bubble 2.0: Even Two Middle-Class Incomes Aren’t Enough Anymore To Buy A Median Home Testosterone Pit ...in 40 large cities, only 10% of the homes are affordable on one median salary … and … “just 41% of homes currently for sale across 40 US cities are affordable for a family earning two median incomes…”
The Money Against The Minimum Wage Open Secrets ...The minimum wage debate is back on Capitol Hill, and the usual suspects -- trade groups in industries that hire a lot of low-wage workers …have laid out huge amounts of money … giving more than $5.5 million to Congress over the past two election cycles and spending more than $91 million on lobbying just last year...
If the New York Stock Exchange is a “High-Frequency Brothel” then the SEC is its Pimp Wall Street on Parade ...Not only are the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq allowing high frequency traders to co-locate their computers next to the main computers of the exchanges to gain a speed advantage over other customers at a monthly cost that only the very rich can afford to pay but they’re now tacking on infrastructure charges that price everyone out of efficient use of the exchanges except the very top tier of trading firms...
All Work And No Pay Moyers & Company ...You've heard about the wave of recent protests calling on fast food chains like McDonald's and Burger King to raise wages for their employees, who are forced to live on next to nothing. But did you know that many workers in sit-down restaurants may be faring even worse?...
Corker Must Come Clean On The Volkswagon Union Election The Hill ...Sen. Bob Corker's problems concerning his intrusion in February's union election at Volkswagon in Chattanooga just got more serious. Confidential e-mails obtained this week by a Nashville television station...
Labor Secretary Will "Respect" NLRB Ruling Granting Northwestern Football Players Right To Unionize Des Moines Register ...U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez will respect the decision by the National Labor Relations Board last week that Northwestern football players have the right to unionize, he said at a news conference in Des Moines Saturday...
Miscelleneous
Young People Understand Unions Can Solve Problems U.S. News and World Report ...Last week, the National Labor Relations Board's Chicago Regional Director issued a notable finding: football players at Northwestern University are employees of the university for purposes of federal labor law...
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Mortgage applications at lowest level in 20 years
Mortgage applications are at their lowest levels in 20 years, according to this chart brought to us by The Center of the Universe blog.
People can't afford to buy houses, especially all those millennials living with their parents.
This is what the decline of the middle class looks like.
People can't afford to buy houses, especially all those millennials living with their parents.
This is what the decline of the middle class looks like.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Today's Teamster News 02.24.14
State Battles
Wisconsin’s Legacy for Unions New York Times ...Mr. Walker’s landmark law — called Act 10 — severely restricted the power of public-employee unions to bargain collectively, and that provision, among others, has given social workers, prison guards, nurses and other public employees little reason to pay dues to a union that can no longer do much for them. Members of Mr. Beil’s group, the Wisconsin State Employees’ Union, complain that their take-home pay has fallen more than 10 percent in recent years, a sign of the union’s greatly diminished power...
Trade
Fast Track to Nowhere: America’s Failed Trade Policy Campaign for America's Future ...Froman’s strategy now is to try to move the negotiations over the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) towards completion, using the treaty to convince legislators to pass fast track. Administration officials are reportedly hoping that they can mobilize enough Wall Street and corporate America muscle to cobble together sufficient votes in a lame duck session after the elections to move forward...
Tariff, intellectual property on agenda on 3rd day of TPP talks Global Post ...Countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade talks will tackle contentious issues including tariff removal and intellectual property rights on the third day of a ministerial conference Monday in Singapore...
Most wanted drug lord captured in Mexico Associated Press ...Guzman was hit with multiple federal drug trafficking indictments in the U.S. as his drug empire stretched throughout North America and extended branches into Europe and Australia. Guzman’s play for power against local cartels caused a bloodbath in Tijuana and made Ciudad Juarez one of the deadliest cities in the world. In 2013, he was named “Public Enemy No. 1″ by the Chicago Crime Commission, only the second person to get that distinction after U.S. prohibition-era crime boss Al Capone...
The War on Workers
You Need to Work at Least 67 Hours a Week to Afford Rent While Making the Minimum Wage AFL-CIO Now ... In more than half the states, you'd have to work more than 80 hours a week...
Scandal of Europe's 11m empty homes Guardian ...Housing campaigners denounce 'shocking waste' of homes lying empty while millions cry out for shelter...
Detroit automakers worry about UAW money struggles Associated Press ...They worry that the 382,000-member UAW could be absorbed by a more hostile union. Such a merger could disrupt a decade of labor-management peace that has helped America's auto industry survive the financial crisis and emerge much stronger, according to a person with knowledge of executive discussions...
IMF Fires a Warning Shot at the Fed on Deflation Wall Street on Parade ...The IMF is clearly worried about the onset of the kind of intractable deflation that plagued the U.S. and the global economy during the Great Depression of the 30s...
Americans rising up against government: Column USA Today ..."The most plausible explanation is that someone up top at the DHS or ICE suddenly realized that publicly calling for bids on a nationwide surveillance system while nationwide surveillance systems are being hotly debated was ... a horrible idea..."
San Francisco Protesters Take Aim at Twitter’s Tax Breaks In These Times ... SEIU, the largest public sector union in San Francisco, is taking renewed aim at Twitter over the major tax break it received from City Hall in 2011...
Wisconsin’s Legacy for Unions New York Times ...Mr. Walker’s landmark law — called Act 10 — severely restricted the power of public-employee unions to bargain collectively, and that provision, among others, has given social workers, prison guards, nurses and other public employees little reason to pay dues to a union that can no longer do much for them. Members of Mr. Beil’s group, the Wisconsin State Employees’ Union, complain that their take-home pay has fallen more than 10 percent in recent years, a sign of the union’s greatly diminished power...
Trade
Fast Track to Nowhere: America’s Failed Trade Policy Campaign for America's Future ...Froman’s strategy now is to try to move the negotiations over the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) towards completion, using the treaty to convince legislators to pass fast track. Administration officials are reportedly hoping that they can mobilize enough Wall Street and corporate America muscle to cobble together sufficient votes in a lame duck session after the elections to move forward...
Tariff, intellectual property on agenda on 3rd day of TPP talks Global Post ...Countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade talks will tackle contentious issues including tariff removal and intellectual property rights on the third day of a ministerial conference Monday in Singapore...
Most wanted drug lord captured in Mexico Associated Press ...Guzman was hit with multiple federal drug trafficking indictments in the U.S. as his drug empire stretched throughout North America and extended branches into Europe and Australia. Guzman’s play for power against local cartels caused a bloodbath in Tijuana and made Ciudad Juarez one of the deadliest cities in the world. In 2013, he was named “Public Enemy No. 1″ by the Chicago Crime Commission, only the second person to get that distinction after U.S. prohibition-era crime boss Al Capone...
The War on Workers
You Need to Work at Least 67 Hours a Week to Afford Rent While Making the Minimum Wage AFL-CIO Now ... In more than half the states, you'd have to work more than 80 hours a week...
Scandal of Europe's 11m empty homes Guardian ...Housing campaigners denounce 'shocking waste' of homes lying empty while millions cry out for shelter...
Detroit automakers worry about UAW money struggles Associated Press ...They worry that the 382,000-member UAW could be absorbed by a more hostile union. Such a merger could disrupt a decade of labor-management peace that has helped America's auto industry survive the financial crisis and emerge much stronger, according to a person with knowledge of executive discussions...
IMF Fires a Warning Shot at the Fed on Deflation Wall Street on Parade ...The IMF is clearly worried about the onset of the kind of intractable deflation that plagued the U.S. and the global economy during the Great Depression of the 30s...
Americans rising up against government: Column USA Today ..."The most plausible explanation is that someone up top at the DHS or ICE suddenly realized that publicly calling for bids on a nationwide surveillance system while nationwide surveillance systems are being hotly debated was ... a horrible idea..."
San Francisco Protesters Take Aim at Twitter’s Tax Breaks In These Times ... SEIU, the largest public sector union in San Francisco, is taking renewed aim at Twitter over the major tax break it received from City Hall in 2011...
Friday, January 31, 2014
Today's Teamster News 01.31.14
Hoffa Praises Bill to Discourage Excessive CEO Pay teamster.org ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa praised U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, for introducing a bill to end a taxpayer subsidy for excessive CEO pay...
Teamsters Win First Contract at Kennedy Space Center teamster.org ...Badging clerks at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center ratified their first union contract on Tuesday as members of Teamsters Local 769. The new pact secures wage increases, improved vacation benefits and protection of full-time jobs in the 10-member bargaining unit...
Teamsters, Fast Track opponents making an impact. You can too. TeamsterNation ...Members of Congress are starting to listen to the thousands of Teamsters who are calling, emailing, rallying and telling them face-to-face: Vote NO on Fast Track...
Applications are now being accepted for the JRHMSF teamster.org ...The 2014-2015 scholarship for high school seniors has an application deadline of March 31, 2014. Visit the James R. Hoffa Scholarship Fund Information Center for eligibility requirements and application procedures...
Lunches seized from kids in debt at Salt Lake City elementary The Salt Lake Tribune ...Up to 40 kids at Uintah Elementary in Salt Lake City picked up their lunches Tuesday, then watched as the meals were taken and thrown away because of outstanding balances on their accounts — a move that shocked and angered parents...
The Danish Government Nearly Collapsed Today Over A Deal With Goldman Sachs Business Insider ...Denmark's government is in turmoil after the Socialist People's Party (SF) quit the ruling coalition over a deal with Goldman Sachs, Lars Eriksen of the Guardian reports. The deal involves Goldman purchasing a 19% stake in state-owned utility Dong Energy for $1.5 billion. Denmark’s shareholding would fall to about 60%...
Coal Markets Hit Hard as Emerging Economies Begin to Wobble Oil Price ...Slowing growth in developing countries has started to affect the commodities market, especially for coal, as orders are slashed and prices have fallen as much as 10 percent in a month...
Spy Agencies Work On Psychologically Profiling Everyone Washington's Blog ...Newly-released documents from Edward Snowden show that the NSA and other spy agencies are tracking people’s psychological and lifestyle traits such as sexual preference, extroversion-versus-introversion, and whether people are leaders or followers...
Beer buzz? FAA grounds plan to deliver 12-packs by drone Minneapolis Star Tribune ...The idea seemed ingenious: Delivering 12-packs of beer to the cold, windswept surfaces of popular ice fishing lakes — using a drone...
Lawsuit: KBR transported soldiers' ice in unsanitized morgue trailers Military Times ...The Justice Department is suing KBR and two foreign companies for allegedly defrauding the Army. The most shocking accusation: Workers used “refrigerated trailers to transport ice for consumption by the troops that had previously been used as temporary morgues without first sanitizing them.”...
Wall Street’s New Housing Bonanza New York Times ... Investment bankers and lawyers are now lining up to finance investors, from big private equity firms to plumbers and dentists moonlighting as landlords, who are buying up foreclosed houses and renting them out...
U.S. West Coast Labor Tensions Push Shippers to Look at Alternative Routes Journal of Commerce ...Li & Fung Logistics is preparing alternatives to shipping through U.S. West Coast ports, as the global sourcing giant expects some type of International Longshore and Warehouse Union disruption tied to the negotiations for a contract to replace the current one that expires June 30...
States Have Lost $1.76 Billion After Long-Term Unemployment Benefits Lapsed ThinkProgress ...State economies have lost $1.76 billion after Congress let the benefits program for the long-term unemployed lapse at the end of last year, according to a calculation from the Democratic Policy & Communications Center...
Citigroup to limit work hours, force bankers to use vacation time Bloomberg News ...Citigroup Inc. will require junior bankers to take Saturdays off and use all of their vacation time each year as the firm joins an industry effort to improve working conditions...
State Moves To Make Sure Workers Don’t Lose Pay If They Get The Flu ThinkProgress ...On Wednesday, the Washington State House passed a bill that would guarantee workers paid time off for an illness or to care for a sick family member...
U.S. has launched criminal probe into Target cyberattack Los Angeles Times ...The Justice Department said Wednesday that it has launched a criminal investigation into the recent cybertheft of more than 110 million Target customers' personal data...
Union Members Overwhelmingly Vote to Ratify Caesars Entertainment Contract unitehere.org Members of the Culinary and Bartenders Unions voted yesterday to ratify a new five-year agreement with Caesars Entertainment. The contract covers 13,000 workers in Las Vegas...
Teamsters Win First Contract at Kennedy Space Center teamster.org ...Badging clerks at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center ratified their first union contract on Tuesday as members of Teamsters Local 769. The new pact secures wage increases, improved vacation benefits and protection of full-time jobs in the 10-member bargaining unit...
Teamsters, Fast Track opponents making an impact. You can too. TeamsterNation ...Members of Congress are starting to listen to the thousands of Teamsters who are calling, emailing, rallying and telling them face-to-face: Vote NO on Fast Track...
Applications are now being accepted for the JRHMSF teamster.org ...The 2014-2015 scholarship for high school seniors has an application deadline of March 31, 2014. Visit the James R. Hoffa Scholarship Fund Information Center for eligibility requirements and application procedures...
Lunches seized from kids in debt at Salt Lake City elementary The Salt Lake Tribune ...Up to 40 kids at Uintah Elementary in Salt Lake City picked up their lunches Tuesday, then watched as the meals were taken and thrown away because of outstanding balances on their accounts — a move that shocked and angered parents...
The Danish Government Nearly Collapsed Today Over A Deal With Goldman Sachs Business Insider ...Denmark's government is in turmoil after the Socialist People's Party (SF) quit the ruling coalition over a deal with Goldman Sachs, Lars Eriksen of the Guardian reports. The deal involves Goldman purchasing a 19% stake in state-owned utility Dong Energy for $1.5 billion. Denmark’s shareholding would fall to about 60%...
Coal Markets Hit Hard as Emerging Economies Begin to Wobble Oil Price ...Slowing growth in developing countries has started to affect the commodities market, especially for coal, as orders are slashed and prices have fallen as much as 10 percent in a month...
Spy Agencies Work On Psychologically Profiling Everyone Washington's Blog ...Newly-released documents from Edward Snowden show that the NSA and other spy agencies are tracking people’s psychological and lifestyle traits such as sexual preference, extroversion-versus-introversion, and whether people are leaders or followers...
Beer buzz? FAA grounds plan to deliver 12-packs by drone Minneapolis Star Tribune ...The idea seemed ingenious: Delivering 12-packs of beer to the cold, windswept surfaces of popular ice fishing lakes — using a drone...
Lawsuit: KBR transported soldiers' ice in unsanitized morgue trailers Military Times ...The Justice Department is suing KBR and two foreign companies for allegedly defrauding the Army. The most shocking accusation: Workers used “refrigerated trailers to transport ice for consumption by the troops that had previously been used as temporary morgues without first sanitizing them.”...
Wall Street’s New Housing Bonanza New York Times ... Investment bankers and lawyers are now lining up to finance investors, from big private equity firms to plumbers and dentists moonlighting as landlords, who are buying up foreclosed houses and renting them out...
U.S. West Coast Labor Tensions Push Shippers to Look at Alternative Routes Journal of Commerce ...Li & Fung Logistics is preparing alternatives to shipping through U.S. West Coast ports, as the global sourcing giant expects some type of International Longshore and Warehouse Union disruption tied to the negotiations for a contract to replace the current one that expires June 30...
States Have Lost $1.76 Billion After Long-Term Unemployment Benefits Lapsed ThinkProgress ...State economies have lost $1.76 billion after Congress let the benefits program for the long-term unemployed lapse at the end of last year, according to a calculation from the Democratic Policy & Communications Center...
Citigroup to limit work hours, force bankers to use vacation time Bloomberg News ...Citigroup Inc. will require junior bankers to take Saturdays off and use all of their vacation time each year as the firm joins an industry effort to improve working conditions...
State Moves To Make Sure Workers Don’t Lose Pay If They Get The Flu ThinkProgress ...On Wednesday, the Washington State House passed a bill that would guarantee workers paid time off for an illness or to care for a sick family member...
U.S. has launched criminal probe into Target cyberattack Los Angeles Times ...The Justice Department said Wednesday that it has launched a criminal investigation into the recent cybertheft of more than 110 million Target customers' personal data...
Union Members Overwhelmingly Vote to Ratify Caesars Entertainment Contract unitehere.org Members of the Culinary and Bartenders Unions voted yesterday to ratify a new five-year agreement with Caesars Entertainment. The contract covers 13,000 workers in Las Vegas...
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Today's Teamster News 01.05.14
Welcome to the New America: Low-Wage Nation Common Dreams ...More and more, Americans are trapped in the uncertainty and injustice that immigrant workers know all too well, whether they’re here on temporary work visas cleaning luxury condos or undocumented and scrambling for daily construction jobs. Increasingly, from an economic standpoint, office parks and store aisles in America are coming to resemble the street corners where day laborers gather and the labor camps where guest workers are trapped...
The Strange Case of American Inequality Project Syndicate ...unless something – and it will need to be something major – returns the US to its pre-2008 growth trajectory, future economic historians will not regard the Great Depression as the worst business-cycle disaster of the industrial age. It is we who are living in their worst case...
The Skills Shortage Myth: A Public Relations Tool for Bad Corporate Citizens Economic Policy Institute ...the existence of skill shortages ... exists mostly in the minds of those wanting access to low-wage, indentured servants or public subsidy for the training that firms should be doing themselves...
NSA statement does not deny 'spying' on members of Congress The Guardian ...The National Security Agency on Saturday released a statement in answer to questions from a senator about whether it “has spied, or is … currently spying, on members of Congress or other American elected officials”, in which it did not deny collecting communications from legislators of the US Congress to whom it says it is accountable...
Bankruptcy Filings Fall 13% in 2013 Credit Slips ...The monthly decline continues a long-term trend of falling bankruptcy filing rates. Filings are currently running around 3.3 per 1,000 persons...
Manufacturing Growth to Help Propel U.S. Expansion: Economy Bloomberg ...Factory purchasing managers said orders were the strongest since April 2010, helping explain why companies such as General Motors Co. (GM) and Ford Motor Co. (F) are taking on more workers in response to rising sales...
Forget Mega-Corporations, Here’s The Mega-Network TechCrunch ...Corporations are arguably more powerful today than ever before. But the economy isn’t dominated by a handful of megalithic conglomerates. it consists of hundreds or thousands of smaller, more specialized firms...
The Secrets of White Collar Prisons DuJour ...Bernie Kerik, Jack Abramoff and Dennis Kozlowski—three of the most high-profile men to be on the inside—smash the perception that prison life is anything like "Club Fed"...
Brother, Can You Spare $91.44 Billion? Economic Populist ...Wall Street got $91.44 billion in bonuses for 2013. The 98% of us want those bonuses paid back to the victims of the financial crisis...
Outsourcing Pays Big to Private Companies While Americans Suffer Economic Populist ...These same contractors obtaining overpriced contracts through privatization pay their workers little. There are now two contract workers per federal employee and that ratio is getting worse. ... Privatization of government is creating a nation of wage slaves...
An Error Message for the Poor New York Times ...students of anti-poverty programs remember a litany of automation and contracting meltdowns — some of them prolonged, even epic. Florida, 1992-93. Michigan, 1998-99. Colorado, 1998-2002. Texas, 2006-7. Indiana, 2007-9. The Colorado Benefits Management System is particularly memorable: When first implemented, it reportedly refused food stamps to anyone who did not have a driver’s license from Guam...
OP-ED: NAFTA’s 20 Years of Unfulfilled Promises Inter Press Service ...Under NAFTA, cheap subsidised corn from the United States flooded Mexico, making it impossible for millions of Mexican farmers to compete. Government support previously given to small farmers was withdrawn and directed to big agricultural exporting corporations instead...
Boeing machinists approve contract securing 777X jet Reuters ...Boeing's machinists on Friday narrowly approved a crucial labor contract that secured thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of economic activity for Washington state but will cost workers their pensions...
Housing tear-downs on the rise as real estate rebounds Los Angeles Times ...The rebounding housing market has sparked the demolitions. In November, the median price for a home in Southern California was $385,000, up nearly 20% compared with the same month a year earlier, according to research firm DataQuick...
The Strange Case of American Inequality Project Syndicate ...unless something – and it will need to be something major – returns the US to its pre-2008 growth trajectory, future economic historians will not regard the Great Depression as the worst business-cycle disaster of the industrial age. It is we who are living in their worst case...
The Skills Shortage Myth: A Public Relations Tool for Bad Corporate Citizens Economic Policy Institute ...the existence of skill shortages ... exists mostly in the minds of those wanting access to low-wage, indentured servants or public subsidy for the training that firms should be doing themselves...
NSA statement does not deny 'spying' on members of Congress The Guardian ...The National Security Agency on Saturday released a statement in answer to questions from a senator about whether it “has spied, or is … currently spying, on members of Congress or other American elected officials”, in which it did not deny collecting communications from legislators of the US Congress to whom it says it is accountable...
Bankruptcy Filings Fall 13% in 2013 Credit Slips ...The monthly decline continues a long-term trend of falling bankruptcy filing rates. Filings are currently running around 3.3 per 1,000 persons...
Manufacturing Growth to Help Propel U.S. Expansion: Economy Bloomberg ...Factory purchasing managers said orders were the strongest since April 2010, helping explain why companies such as General Motors Co. (GM) and Ford Motor Co. (F) are taking on more workers in response to rising sales...
Forget Mega-Corporations, Here’s The Mega-Network TechCrunch ...Corporations are arguably more powerful today than ever before. But the economy isn’t dominated by a handful of megalithic conglomerates. it consists of hundreds or thousands of smaller, more specialized firms...
The Secrets of White Collar Prisons DuJour ...Bernie Kerik, Jack Abramoff and Dennis Kozlowski—three of the most high-profile men to be on the inside—smash the perception that prison life is anything like "Club Fed"...
Brother, Can You Spare $91.44 Billion? Economic Populist ...Wall Street got $91.44 billion in bonuses for 2013. The 98% of us want those bonuses paid back to the victims of the financial crisis...
Outsourcing Pays Big to Private Companies While Americans Suffer Economic Populist ...These same contractors obtaining overpriced contracts through privatization pay their workers little. There are now two contract workers per federal employee and that ratio is getting worse. ... Privatization of government is creating a nation of wage slaves...
An Error Message for the Poor New York Times ...students of anti-poverty programs remember a litany of automation and contracting meltdowns — some of them prolonged, even epic. Florida, 1992-93. Michigan, 1998-99. Colorado, 1998-2002. Texas, 2006-7. Indiana, 2007-9. The Colorado Benefits Management System is particularly memorable: When first implemented, it reportedly refused food stamps to anyone who did not have a driver’s license from Guam...
OP-ED: NAFTA’s 20 Years of Unfulfilled Promises Inter Press Service ...Under NAFTA, cheap subsidised corn from the United States flooded Mexico, making it impossible for millions of Mexican farmers to compete. Government support previously given to small farmers was withdrawn and directed to big agricultural exporting corporations instead...
Boeing machinists approve contract securing 777X jet Reuters ...Boeing's machinists on Friday narrowly approved a crucial labor contract that secured thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of economic activity for Washington state but will cost workers their pensions...
Housing tear-downs on the rise as real estate rebounds Los Angeles Times ...The rebounding housing market has sparked the demolitions. In November, the median price for a home in Southern California was $385,000, up nearly 20% compared with the same month a year earlier, according to research firm DataQuick...
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Housing problems still not solved, 50 years later
Between the struggle for better jobs and political freedom was a fight that hit closer to home.
Marchers demanded access to equal housing opportunities, as African-Americans across the country struggled to find affordable and safe housing equivalent to the options that white households had.
They demanded that the president sign “an Executive Order banning discrimination in all housing supported by federal funds” and that decent housing would be guaranteed to all Americans in a “comprehensive and effective civil rights legislation from the present Congress.”
Discriminatory housing was so prevalent across the country that a satellite protest for the March on Washington in Seattle focused exclusively on expanding open housing.
In response to public pressure, both demands were met – and exceeded. The Civil Rights Act was expanded in 1968 to guard against racial, sexist, religious, and other forms of discrimination in all sectors of the housing market. Various executive orders have also strengthened the federal government’s commitment to ending housing discrimination. Today, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Fair Housing Program focuses on providing equal access to housing for all Americans.
Although housing discrimination is now illegal, segregated communities are commonplace, especially in denser areas. Cities have been devastated by the housing crisis that began with banks' predatory lending and concluded with aggressive, often illegal foreclosures. The National Community Reinvestment Coalition reports that more than 10.5 million properties went into foreclosure in the 53 months beginning January 1, 2007. And,
...up to 12 million more foreclosures were projected from the fourth quarter of 2008 to 2014... .As of December 12, 2010, 1,762,694 borrowers were seriously delinquent (i.e., over 60 days delinquent, or over 30 days delinquent in case of bankruptcy) ... The total equity lost by families with recently foreclosed properties is estimated at $5.6 trillion... In addition, an estimated $502 billion in property value has been lost due to nearby foreclosures.... The effects of the economic crisis have been enormous, both nationally and globally, and the confidence Americans once had in homeownership as a path to wealth has been shaken. Current and future generations will be impacted for decades to come.Fifty years after protesting for an end to housing discrimination in the city, a 2011 fair housing test in Seattle found that over half of the properties tested showed evidence of illegal discrimination. Two-thirds of properties gave better terms to white homebuyers and renters.
The US Department of Justice says on its website that:
Race discrimination in housing continues to be a problem. The majority of the Justice Department's pattern or practice cases involve claims of race discrimination. Sometimes, housing providers try to disguise their discrimination by giving false information about availability of housing, either saying that nothing was available or steering homeseekers to certain areas based on race.Because potential homeowners are often not aware of the manipulation, it becomes very difficult to fight the discrimination.Regardless of how illegal housing discrimination has been for decades, race is still more predictive of housing status than income.
African-American, American Indian, and Latino children are between six and nine times more likely than white children to live in areas with a high concentration of poverty.
Forty-five percent of black children live in areas where over one in three people live in poverty, while only 12 percent of white children live in similar areas.
The effects are very clear. Neighborhoods with high levels of poverty have fewer educational opportunities, higher crime rates and higher costs for private investment and businesses – exactly where families do not want to live.
Continued housing discrimination, especially a generation after the government supposedly solved it, is a disgrace. It is time to march again.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Today's Teamster News 05.07.13
Austerity Has Cost The U.S. Economy 2.2 Million Jobs: Study Huffington Post ...There are more than 2 million unemployed Americans who might have jobs today if not for austerity...
Across The Country, Renters Are Getting Crushed By Housing Costs Business Insider ...In the grand scheme of personal finances, your take home pay is like an apple pie. Your bills are the hungry flock of kids banging their fists on the table to get their share. For renters in America, housing is usually the hungriest of the bunch...
Unemployment Benefit Cut Adds to Drag on U.S. Spending: Economy Bloomberg News ...Dentral Smith had to say no when her granddaughter asked for a treat on the way home from school. The government’s cut in unemployment payments leaves her with less spending money...
Online sales tax bill seen stalling in House Chicago Tribune ...Observers expect legislation that would give power to U.S. states to collect sales tax from online purchases will stall in the House. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill Monday although it has little chance of survival in the House, controlled by Republicans highly opposed to new taxes...
Koch Brothers Bought America's Universities, Now the Billionaires Want to Buy Our Free Press (opinion) Huffington Post ...The conservative oil tycoon billionaires, Koch Brothers, are after our free press and the newspapers that could serve as a broader platform for their conservative ideology. Newspapers provide our country with information and coverage that is essential for democracy. This is not a business investment for the billionaire brothers...
N.Y. to sue Bank of America, Wells Fargo over alleged violations of mortgage deal Washington Post ...New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Monday he intends to sue Bank of America and Wells Fargo for failing to help struggling homeowners under the $25 billion national mortgage settlement...
Wisconsin Bill Would Treat Organic Milk, Sharp Cheddar, Brown Eggs as "Junk Food" PRWatch ...Wisconsin ranks 44th in the nation for new job creation. Rather than rolling up their sleeves and finding new and innovative ways to help create jobs, the Wisconsin legislature is spending its time telling people needing food assistance what they should be eating...
Illinois Constitution may impede pension reform effort Reuters ...A House-backed plan to repair Illinois' underfunded pension system, that would increase employee contributions while reducing benefits, may face a Constitutional challenge...
Sanford, Colbert Busch Poll Shows South Carolina Candidates In Tight Race Huffington Post ...Days ahead of Tuesday's special election for South Carolina's open congressional seat, a new poll shows former Gov. Mark Sanford (R) gaining momentum on Democratic rival Elizabeth Colbert Busch, erasing the strong lead she posted in a previous poll...
Chris Christie rakes in $6.2 million Politico ...New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has raised just under $6.2 million for his reelection bid, his campaign announced Monday...
Despite reluctant GOP surrender, unions vow to fight Right to Work in Ohio PR NewsChannel …Two bills that could’ve made Ohio a right-to-work state in both the public and private sectors were stalled in the legislature just hours after they were introduced. Now hundreds of thousands of union workers in the state, many of whom have watched Michigan’s struggles, are being urged to view these recent developments as a wakeup call despite the outcome…
Hoffa: ALEC's War on Workers Huffington Post ...Corporations are upping the ante in their attempt to take control of the political process. Under the guise of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the nation's most powerful are drafting legislation that is appearing in statehouses across the country. And the target is not just union members, but the entire middle class...
Massachusetts Firefighters Join Teamsters Local 170 IBT ...They put their own lives at risk to protect the citizens of Webster, Mass. Now, the 41 part-time firefighters with the Webster Fire Department have their own protection—Teamster representation...
Video: Equal pay issue earns Teamster support for Staten Island City Council candidate Mendy Mirocznik Staten Island Live ...For his vocal support of what he called "equal pay for equal work," Democratic Mid-Island City Council Candidate Mendy Mirocznik Monday earned the endorsement of Teamsters 237, which represents school safety agents...
Across The Country, Renters Are Getting Crushed By Housing Costs Business Insider ...In the grand scheme of personal finances, your take home pay is like an apple pie. Your bills are the hungry flock of kids banging their fists on the table to get their share. For renters in America, housing is usually the hungriest of the bunch...
Unemployment Benefit Cut Adds to Drag on U.S. Spending: Economy Bloomberg News ...Dentral Smith had to say no when her granddaughter asked for a treat on the way home from school. The government’s cut in unemployment payments leaves her with less spending money...
Online sales tax bill seen stalling in House Chicago Tribune ...Observers expect legislation that would give power to U.S. states to collect sales tax from online purchases will stall in the House. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill Monday although it has little chance of survival in the House, controlled by Republicans highly opposed to new taxes...
Koch Brothers Bought America's Universities, Now the Billionaires Want to Buy Our Free Press (opinion) Huffington Post ...The conservative oil tycoon billionaires, Koch Brothers, are after our free press and the newspapers that could serve as a broader platform for their conservative ideology. Newspapers provide our country with information and coverage that is essential for democracy. This is not a business investment for the billionaire brothers...
N.Y. to sue Bank of America, Wells Fargo over alleged violations of mortgage deal Washington Post ...New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Monday he intends to sue Bank of America and Wells Fargo for failing to help struggling homeowners under the $25 billion national mortgage settlement...
Wisconsin Bill Would Treat Organic Milk, Sharp Cheddar, Brown Eggs as "Junk Food" PRWatch ...Wisconsin ranks 44th in the nation for new job creation. Rather than rolling up their sleeves and finding new and innovative ways to help create jobs, the Wisconsin legislature is spending its time telling people needing food assistance what they should be eating...
Illinois Constitution may impede pension reform effort Reuters ...A House-backed plan to repair Illinois' underfunded pension system, that would increase employee contributions while reducing benefits, may face a Constitutional challenge...
Sanford, Colbert Busch Poll Shows South Carolina Candidates In Tight Race Huffington Post ...Days ahead of Tuesday's special election for South Carolina's open congressional seat, a new poll shows former Gov. Mark Sanford (R) gaining momentum on Democratic rival Elizabeth Colbert Busch, erasing the strong lead she posted in a previous poll...
Chris Christie rakes in $6.2 million Politico ...New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has raised just under $6.2 million for his reelection bid, his campaign announced Monday...
Despite reluctant GOP surrender, unions vow to fight Right to Work in Ohio PR NewsChannel …Two bills that could’ve made Ohio a right-to-work state in both the public and private sectors were stalled in the legislature just hours after they were introduced. Now hundreds of thousands of union workers in the state, many of whom have watched Michigan’s struggles, are being urged to view these recent developments as a wakeup call despite the outcome…
Hoffa: ALEC's War on Workers Huffington Post ...Corporations are upping the ante in their attempt to take control of the political process. Under the guise of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the nation's most powerful are drafting legislation that is appearing in statehouses across the country. And the target is not just union members, but the entire middle class...
Massachusetts Firefighters Join Teamsters Local 170 IBT ...They put their own lives at risk to protect the citizens of Webster, Mass. Now, the 41 part-time firefighters with the Webster Fire Department have their own protection—Teamster representation...
Video: Equal pay issue earns Teamster support for Staten Island City Council candidate Mendy Mirocznik Staten Island Live ...For his vocal support of what he called "equal pay for equal work," Democratic Mid-Island City Council Candidate Mendy Mirocznik Monday earned the endorsement of Teamsters 237, which represents school safety agents...
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Today's Teamster News 10.31.12
Northeast residents try to rebound after Sandy's punch, but challenge of rebuilding remains Associated Press ...People in the coastal corridor battered by superstorm Sandy took the first cautious steps to reclaim routines upended by the disaster, even as rescuers combed neighborhoods strewn with debris and scarred by floods and fire...
Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Rise by Most in Two Years: Economy Bloomberg ...The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities rose 2 percent from August 2011, the biggest year-to-year gain since July 2010, after climbing 1.2 percent the prior month, the group said today in New York...
UPS, FedEx Search for an Edge 24/7 Wall Street ...Package delivery giant United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS) said yesterday that it plans to hire 55,000 seasonal workers to sort, load, and help deliver packages during the coming holiday season. The total matches the number that UPS hired last year and that the company had been expected to hire again this year...
Here’s a Memo From the Boss: Vote This Way New York Times ...the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision has freed companies from those restrictions, and now several major companies, including Georgia-Pacific and Cintas, have sent letters or information packets to their employees suggesting — and sometimes explicitly recommending — how they should vote this fall...
Judge strikes down law giving Walker new powers in setting DPI rules Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...A portion of a law giving Gov. Scott Walker veto powers over rules written by the state schools superintendent was struck down Tuesday by a Dane County judge, the latest in a series of legal skirmishes between the GOP governor and public employee unions...
EXCLUSIVE: Romney Campaign Training Poll Watchers To Mislead Voters In Wisconsin ThinkProgress ...Documents from a recent Romney poll watcher training obtained by ThinkProgress contain several misleading or untrue claims about the rights of Wisconsin voters...
Flailing in Ohio, Romney rolls out Jeep ploy: editorial Cleveland Plain Dealer ...Ohio voters know who stepped up when the auto industry was at the abyss -- and it wasn't Romney...
Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Rise by Most in Two Years: Economy Bloomberg ...The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities rose 2 percent from August 2011, the biggest year-to-year gain since July 2010, after climbing 1.2 percent the prior month, the group said today in New York...
UPS, FedEx Search for an Edge 24/7 Wall Street ...Package delivery giant United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS) said yesterday that it plans to hire 55,000 seasonal workers to sort, load, and help deliver packages during the coming holiday season. The total matches the number that UPS hired last year and that the company had been expected to hire again this year...
Here’s a Memo From the Boss: Vote This Way New York Times ...the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision has freed companies from those restrictions, and now several major companies, including Georgia-Pacific and Cintas, have sent letters or information packets to their employees suggesting — and sometimes explicitly recommending — how they should vote this fall...
Judge strikes down law giving Walker new powers in setting DPI rules Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...A portion of a law giving Gov. Scott Walker veto powers over rules written by the state schools superintendent was struck down Tuesday by a Dane County judge, the latest in a series of legal skirmishes between the GOP governor and public employee unions...
EXCLUSIVE: Romney Campaign Training Poll Watchers To Mislead Voters In Wisconsin ThinkProgress ...Documents from a recent Romney poll watcher training obtained by ThinkProgress contain several misleading or untrue claims about the rights of Wisconsin voters...
Flailing in Ohio, Romney rolls out Jeep ploy: editorial Cleveland Plain Dealer ...Ohio voters know who stepped up when the auto industry was at the abyss -- and it wasn't Romney...
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Today's Teamster News 08.18.12
US election: Mitt Romney may have breached ethics laws through company linked to Paul Ryan's brother Telegraph ...Mitt Romney may have breached state ethics laws as Governor of Massachusetts by holding a stake in a company that did lucrative work for his administration and was linked to the family of Paul Ryan, a Daily Telegraph investigation has found...
Analysis: Paul Ryan Voted to Add $6.8 Trillion to the Federal Debt ThinkProgress ...Ryan’s votes in Congress show that he is as guilty as anyone of running up the nation’s debt...
Why the prolonged economic slump? One word: Housing. Bubble Meter ...There is no easy way to replace the massive loss in demand associated with the collapse of the housing sector...
Long-Term Jobless Regroup to Fight the Odds New York Times ...With a state unemployment rate of 10.7 percent, California officials struggle to find ways to get people back to work. In the sprawling suburbs east of Los Angeles that make up the Inland Empire, the job market seems more upbeat than it has been for months, but unemployment remains at 12.6 percent...
Teamsters: Rejecting Hostess contract could end jobs Kennebec Journal ...The Teamsters said it cannot endorse the "final" contract proposal from bankrupt Hostess Brands, but warned members that rejecting it would likely result in the loss of their jobs...
Teamsters National Black Caucus Holds Annual Conference In Charlotte IBT ...More than 400 members of the Teamsters National Black Caucus (TNBC) are meeting this week in Charlotte for the group's 37th annual education conference. The theme of this year's event is "Mobilizing the Movement and Making a Difference."...
Analysis: Paul Ryan Voted to Add $6.8 Trillion to the Federal Debt ThinkProgress ...Ryan’s votes in Congress show that he is as guilty as anyone of running up the nation’s debt...
Why the prolonged economic slump? One word: Housing. Bubble Meter ...There is no easy way to replace the massive loss in demand associated with the collapse of the housing sector...
Long-Term Jobless Regroup to Fight the Odds New York Times ...With a state unemployment rate of 10.7 percent, California officials struggle to find ways to get people back to work. In the sprawling suburbs east of Los Angeles that make up the Inland Empire, the job market seems more upbeat than it has been for months, but unemployment remains at 12.6 percent...
Teamsters: Rejecting Hostess contract could end jobs Kennebec Journal ...The Teamsters said it cannot endorse the "final" contract proposal from bankrupt Hostess Brands, but warned members that rejecting it would likely result in the loss of their jobs...
Teamsters National Black Caucus Holds Annual Conference In Charlotte IBT ...More than 400 members of the Teamsters National Black Caucus (TNBC) are meeting this week in Charlotte for the group's 37th annual education conference. The theme of this year's event is "Mobilizing the Movement and Making a Difference."...
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