Today's Teamster News 07.25.14

Teamster News
Union Official: GET Board Rejects Offer, Strike To Continue  KBFX   ...Union drivers, mechanics and other support staff went on strike July 15, unhappy with pay and the part-time status of more than half of their GET drivers. The union was asking for a 4 percent wage increase every year over a three-year deal...
Latino Express Bus Drivers Still Fighting For Rights In Chicago  teamster.org   ...For more than three years, Teamsters Local 777 has continued to fight for approximately 100 school bus drivers in Chicago who want nothing more than fair working conditions...
Teamsters Grievance Prompts Cook County Sheriff to Conduct Manpower Study  teamster.org   ... Teamsters Local 700, Cook County's largest public employee union, has learned the Sheriff's Office has enlisted college-age interns to oversee a critical new study on manpower shortages facing the department...
Trade
Administration Plans Orwellian Statistics Fudge to Make Offshored Production Look Like US Made  naked capitalism   ...If the factoryless goods proposal were to be implemented, the value of U.S. brand-name products made outside of the United States and imported here would be counted as manufacturing “services” imports, not imported goods...
State Battles
Seattle Minimum Wage Referendum Effort Fails  Daily Caller   ...Forward Seattle, a group which represents local businesses in Seattle, announced Wednesday that they failed to collect enough signatures to subject the city’s $15 minimum wage to a November vote...
Recent Report Points To Job Growth Despite Minimum Wage Increase  Oakland Press   ...New data released by the Department of Labor points toward job growth in states that have raised the minimum wage, something still being debated in Michigan...
Republican lawmakers push 'paycheck protection' in Pa.  Pocono Record    ...Republican supporters of so-called "paycheck protection" legislation moved bills in both houses last week that would prevent government employee unions, such as the Service Employees International Union and the Pennsylvania State Education Association from deducting union dues and political contributions from members' checks...
Davis And State Dems Planning To Monitor For Voter Suppression, Discrimination  Texas Public Radio   ...Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis and the Texas Democratic Party are launching a voter protection program to monitor voter suppression and discrimination on Election Day...
Christie: Public workers' benefits must be cut  Asbury Park Press   ...It was the first time Gov. Chris Christie had come to any event in Republican-red Ocean County where the protesters outnumbered his supporters. And these were not just ordinary protesters — they were police officers and firefighters in the hundreds from all over New Jersey, outraged that Christie on Tuesday had come to use a municipal park their fraternal brothers and sisters had built for local children...
War On Workers
The Pay-For-Performance Myth  Bloomberg Businessweek   ...The trend line—the average of how much a CEO’s ranking is affected by stock performance—shows that a CEO’s income ranking is only 1 percent based on the company’s stock return. That means that 99 percent of the ranking has nothing to do with performance at all. (The size and profitability of companies didn’t affect the random patterns.)...
Obama Seeks to Close Loophole That Firms Use to Shield Profits Abroad  New York Times   ...President Obama on Thursday called for Congress to strip away tax advantages that have encouraged a rush of mergers and acquisitions that give companies an overseas base while they maintain their presence in the United States...
IMF Cuts US and Global Growth Forecasts for 2014  Associated Press   ...The International Monetary Fund foresees the global economy expanding less than it had previously forecast, slowed by weaker growth in the United States, Russia and developing economies...
Koch High: How The Koch Brothers Are Buying Their Way Into The Minds Of Public School Students  Huffington Post   ...The official mission of Youth Entrepreneurs is to provide kids with "business and entrepreneurial education and experiences that help them prosper and become contributing members of society." The underlying goal of the program, however, is to impart Koch's radical free-market ideology to teenagers. In the last school year, the class reached more than 1,000 students across Kansas and Missouri...
Norfolk Southern sues to block disclosure of crude oil shipments  McClatchy   ...A major hauler of crude oil by rail has sued the state of Maryland to stop the public release of information about the shipments, according to court documents...
Stability Is Good For Employees And Bosses (opinion)  New York Times   ...Unpredictable, unstable work hours, over which workers may have little control, make it difficult for any employee, at any level of income, to combine or schedule caregiving for family members, education, participation in civic and religious organizations or another job...
Volatile Schedules Exacerbate Inequality (opinion)  New York Times   ...Across the economy, workers are either employed for too few hours or far too many in an ever-changing workweek that demands 24/7 availability, without guarantees of equal treatment or employee input...
Road Construction Worker Killed In Reno County  KAKE   ...The Kansas Highway Patrol says a construction worker died after being hit by a trash truck in Reno County...
Miscellaneous
Walmart U.S. CEO Bill Simon Is Out  Huffington Post   ...Walmart’s U.S. chief Bill Simon is leaving the company after a rough four years. The 54-year-old will be replaced by Greg Foran, 53, Walmart’s current president and CEO in Asia...

Today's Teamster News 03.06.14

Teamster News
PA Teamsters Stand Against Paycheck Deception Bill  teamster.org   ...Teamster members and leaders joined with York County legislators to denounce what has been termed the ‘Paycheck Deception Bill’ (House Bill 1507) at a press conference yesterday...
Teamsters: Workers, Not the Rich, Need a Hand Up  teamster.org  ...The growing disparity in incomes between the “haves” and the “have nots” is a real problem for America, and one that is being felt in many corners of this country...
Deadline Rapidly Approaches for JRH Scholarship Applications  teamster.org   ...March 31st is the deadline to apply for the James R. Hoffa Memorial Scholarship that's been set up to benefit children or financially dependent grandchildren of Teamsters. For more details and downloadable materials, click here...
Trade
Is Japan Playing Ball with the US on the TransPacific Partnership?  naked capitalism   ...expect to hear the Trade Representative’s office to bray that considerable progress was made on the TPP as a result of Obama’s visit. Remember, in negotiating, the impression that progress is being made is critical. But anyone who has been following this beat and isn’t in the can for the Administration is certain to tell you otherwise...
USDA Ignores Food Safety, Hell Bent on Importing Brazilian Beef  Trade Reform   ...Brazil is to the U.S. beef industry what China is to the steel industry (and many other industries)… they are the goliath.  They are really big.  They will flood our market with potentially contaminated meat...
US: Administration outlines international trade goals  just-style   ....The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has outlined the US President's international trade goals and policies for 2014 - which include completing TPP negotiations, continuing T-TIP talks and working on eliminating trade barriers...
Controversial anti-smuggling trade agreement between China and the United States renewed   Art Media Agency   ...A controversial anti-smuggling trade agreement established between China and the United States in 2009 has been renewed for five years...
State Battles
Highest Minimum-Wage State Washington Beats U.S. in Job Creation  Bloomberg News   ...When Washington residents voted in 1998 to raise the state’s minimum wage and link it to the cost of living, opponents warned the measure would be a job-killer. The prediction hasn’t been borne out. In the 15 years that followed, the state’s minimum wage climbed to the highest in the country while job growth continued above the national rate...
Indiana union petitions state Supreme Court to rule Right to Work unconstitutional  Beverly Hills Courier   ...As Right to Work battles continue to wage across the country, labor supporters in Indiana are looking at a decisive victory if the state Supreme Court rules in their favor...
State Supreme Court Moves to Consolidate Pension Law Challenges  NBC News   ...Four lawsuits from the Retired State Employee Association, the Illinois State Employee Association, the We Are One Illinois Coalition and a group of retired school teachers challenging the state's pension law reform will now be heard as one challenge, according to the ruling...|
What ALEC Has Planned For Ohio In 2014: Hurt School Districts And More Tax Cuts For The Wealthy  Plunderbund   ...Despite 40 years of empirical evidence showing that cutting taxes for those at the top does exactly nothing to help anybody else, and, in fact, has helped skyrocket wealth inequality to Gilded Age levels, this “tax reform” push is a top priority...
Federal investigators issue ‘scathing’ report on Indiana OSHA  Indianapolis Star   ...IOSHA failed to investigate an explosion at Indianapolis Power & Light in March 2013, even as the agency was negotiating a settlement with the utility company over an explosion seven months earlier that killed one worker and injured another...
War on Workers
Companies in U.S. Added Fewer Jobs Than Forecast in February  Bloomberg News   ...Companies added fewer workers than projected in February, a sign that U.S. employers were waiting for a pickup in demand before boosting headcount, a private report based on payrolls showed today...
A Depressingly Simple Explanation For The Weak Recovery  Business Insider   ...income gains have been mediocre for a broad swath of middle income households for some time, and borrowing temporarily masked the demand drag. In combination these factors have been a contributing factor to the slow recovery of U.S. consumption and economic growth...
Researchers Suggest Banks Might Be Rigging Gold Prices  truthout   ...the five banks that set the gold price have now been accused of price manipulation in a class-action lawsuit filed Monday in a U.S. federal court in New York...
Booming Business at Alabama Shipyard Fuels New Union Campaign  In These Times   ...Rapid business growth may be the key to finally unionizing shipbuilding workers in Mobile, Ala., where an Australia-based defense contractor has successfully fought union organizing for more than a decade...
More Than 2 Million Unemployed Workers Are Now Going Without Benefits  ThinkProgress   ...Congress is failing this 40-year nursing veteran (and 2 million others like her)...
New Democratic Strategy Goes After Koch Brothers  New York Times   ...On Thursday, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is starting a digital campaign that will use Internet ads and videos, as well as social media, to tie Republican Senate candidates to the policies and actions of the Koch brothers. Its slogan: “The G.O.P. is addicted to Koch” (pronounced coke)...
Imposing a Starvation Diet on Government Programs Needs to End (Opinion)  Huffington Post   ...As any dietician will attest, starving the body of vital nutrients in an effort to slim down is a recipe for failure. The same is true for federal government programs and services...
Miscellaneous   
Americans Shut Out of Home Market Threaten Recovery: Mortgages  Bloomberg   ...First-time homebuyers hurt by rising prices and tougher credit standards are disappearing from the market, slowing the pace of the three-year recovery. The decline of these buyers, many of whom are young and non-white, also threatens to widen the wealth gap between owners, who benefit from appreciation, and renters, said Thomas Lawler, a former Fannie Mae economist...
Bernanke’s $250,000 fee for speech puts him near top of food chain  Wall Street Journal   ...Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s reported $250,000 for a speech in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday puts him in rarefied air of public speakers, experts said. With one speech, Bernanke exceeded his $199,700 annual salary as Fed chairman in 2013...
The Inverse of Oversight: CIA Spies On Congress  The Intercept   ... the CIA’s inspector general has asked for a criminal investigation into CIA monitoring of computers used by Senate aides who were investigating the agency’s prominent role in the Bush-era torture of detainees...
Rolls-Royce investigated in US over bribery claims  The Telegraph   ...Rolls-Royce is being investigated by the US Department of Justice (DoJ), following allegations that its executives bribed officials in Indonesia, China and India in order to win lucrative contracts...
BP fails to get out of compensating oil spill victims  Salon   ...An appeals court shut down the company's efforts to avoid paying damages...
Frigid U.S. Weather Means Highest Power Prices Since ’08: Energy  Bloomberg News   ...Freezing temperatures gripping the eastern U.S. will result in the highest electricity prices in six years for consumers in Boston, Dallas and San Francisco...
Scary Emerging Scientific Consensus: There's No Such Thing as Safe Plastic  Democracy Now!   ...There is new research suggesting that even BPA-free plastics contain chemicals that can act like estrogen in the body and cause disease. And the plastics industry has a big propaganda denial campaign in the works....

Today's Teamster News 01.09.13

Jim Hoffa on How Fast Track Will Harm Working Families  The Ed Show   ...Check out the January 7 interview with Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa discussing fast-track legislation on MSNBC's The Ed Show...
Madison, Wisconsin, unions near deals  Portage Daily Register   ...The city is close to finalizing labor agreements with all three of the unions, including Teamsters Local 695 in Madison, Wisconsin, that represent city employees...
Hampton, Franklin County talk shared law communications  Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier   ...Hampton and Franklin County have taken another step forward to sharing communication services. The issue of transferring employees, including members of Teamsters Local 238, stalled negotiations last summer...
Dixfield Board of Selectmen chairman responds to union's grievance  River Valley Sun Journal   ...During a recent meeting, the town of Dixfield, Maine's Board of Selectmen Chairman Mac Gill read a prepared statement in response to the prohibitive practice complaint that Teamsters Local 340 filed against the town, claiming that they had showed discrimination and bad-faith bargaining during negotiations with the Public Works Department...
YRC Worldwide Looking to Borrow More Than $1 Billion to Stay Afloat  Truckinginfo.com   ...The financially troubled parent of several trucking companies, including YRC Freight, hopes to borrow $1.15 billion to refinance its debt...
Congress members urge Obama to bar currency manipulation in trade pact  Detroit News   ...Six members of Congress wrote President Barack Obama on Wednesday, urging the White House to include a crackdown on currency manipulation as part of a proposed 12-nation free-trade pact...
Survey: US companies add 238K jobs, most in year  Associated Press   ...A private survey shows businesses added the most jobs in a year in December, powered by a big gain in construction jobs...
Pension freeze for 5,600 Detroit workers delayed  The Detroit News   ...Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr on Monday temporarily halted a Dec. 31 freeze of pension benefits for 5,600 non-uniform employees to give retirees and labor unions more time to negotiate in bankruptcy mediation sessions...
Feds Probe Banks For Mortgage Misdeeds After Financial Crisis  Reuters   ...Federal regulators are probing whether several big banks deliberately mispriced mortgage bonds in the years following the financial crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people close to the inquiry...
Borrowers Hit Social-Media Hurdles  Wall Street Journal   ...More lending companies are mining Facebook, FB +0.54%  Twitter TWTR -3.53%  and other social-media data to help determine a borrower's creditworthiness or identity, a trend that is raising concerns among consumer groups and regulators...
The Government Guide to Screwing Poor Homeowners  American Prospect   ...The expiration of federal mortgage-debt forgiveness at the end of last year means that struggling homeowners now owe unbearable amounts in taxes...
Macy’s Plans to Lay Off 2,500, Though Its Holiday Sales Were Up New York Times ...While it reported solid holiday sales on Wednesday, Macy’s also announced several cost-cutting measures, including plans to lay off 2,500 employees...
1 in 5 homeowners drowning  Housing Wire ...9.3 million U.S. residential properties were deeply underwater, or about 1 in 5 of every property with a mortgage. "Deeply underwater" is defined as worth at least 25% less than the combined loans secured by the property...Dear middle class: Welcome to poverty  AlterNet   ...With income inequality surging, the middle class is disappearing into the chasm...
This Is What Poverty Would Look Like If The GOP Had Its Way  Huffington Post   ...This week marks the 50th anniversary of Lyndon Johnson's declaration of the War on Poverty. Though far from over, and labeled a failure by Republicans who want to end it, the war has been a smashing success, a new study finds...
Soiled by the mud of the street:” Pope Francis and the Working Class  Portside ...Francis is calling for a wider struggle in the defense of the poor and working classes...
Several States Waiving Trucking Rules for Fuel Shipments  Truckinginfo.com   ...Extraordinarily cold weather in part of the U.S. has resulted in more states issuing emergency declarations, waiving mainly hours of service rules, when it comes to hauling various fuels...
"Recall Isn't the Wisconsin Way" Message Bankrolled by Koch Group  Center for Media and Democracy   ...In the final weeks of Wisconsin's 2012 recall elections, a previously-unknown group called Coalition for American Values Action flooded the state's airwaves with over $400,000 in ads that made a unique appeal: "recall is not the Wisconsin way," and to "stop the recall madness" by voting to reelect Walker...
Calls from unemployed workers overwhelm state phone system  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...Unemployed workers who want to file for unemployment compensation are having trouble getting through on the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development's phone lines...
Port of Seattle says it will act by June on airport-wages issue  Seattle Times   ...The Port of Seattle Commission will work toward raising wages at Sea-Tac International Airport after a judge’s ruling that SeaTac’s Proposition 1 cannot be enforced there...

Today's Teamster News 09.06.13

Teamster Mailers Union Respond to Star-Ledger Publisher Threats  teamster.org ...This is the official statement from Steve Grant, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 1100 in Fairfield, N.J. which represents 195 mailer employees at the Star-Ledger newspaper...
Teamsters among grocery workers picket to raise regional awareness  Auburn Reporter   ...Members of three unions representing grocery store workers in the Puget Sound region, including members of Teamsters Local 38, took to the streets on Aug. 28, picketing to raise awareness about ongoing contract negotiations with several local grocery stores, including the Auburn Safeway and Fred Meyer stores...
BMWED’s Western Region Association Holds Annual Meeting  teamster.org   ...Representatives from the Unified System Division;  Atchison, Topeka, Santa Fe, Frisco System Federation; Allied Federation; and Burlington System Division, all part of the Western Region Association, met to conduct an educational conference this week...
Allied Waste drops lawsuit filed against Youngstown Teamsters Union  WFMJ 21 News   ...Allied Waste has dropped a federal lawsuit that was filed against the Teamsters Union during this past spring's walkout against the trash hauler...
Union contract talks continue  Dyersville Commercial  ...The Delaware County (Iowa) board met again with representatives of the sheriff’s department deputies and jailers to further iron out details of a proposed switch over from American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union membership to the Teamsters Union...
JPMorgan Will Stop Making Student Loans  firedoglake   ...Competition from the government may be a factor, another might also be that student loans are in a massive trillion dollar bubble...
Failed Policy — The 401(k) Shrinks In A Growing Economy  The National Memo   ...even though the economy is improving, the number of workers saving out of their paychecks for old age is shrinking. So is the amount they save, down 6 percent in real terms from 2008 to 2010...
Nearly Half Of U.S. Births Are Covered By Medicaid, Study Finds  Kaiser Health News   ...About half the births in the United States are paid for by Medicaid — a figure higher than previous estimates – and the numbers could increase as the state-federal health insurance program expands under the Affordable Care Act, according to a study released Tuesday...
Demonstrators protest against low wages at Walmart store in Lakewood  Denver Post   ...The protest outside the store at West Colfax Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard was one of about 15 demonstrations held nationwide Thursday against the retailer...
24 Walmart Protesters Arrested At Demonstrations In New York And Los Angeles (UPDATED)  Huffington Post   ...The New York Police Department arrested three Walmart protesters in New York City on Thursday during demonstrations against the company's wages and worker conditions...Also on Thursday, 21 protesters were arrested in Los Angeles during a similar demonstration downtown...
New York Unions Might Find a Friend in City Hall  Wall Street Journal   ...Private-sector labor unions could have a strong ally in the next mayor as they embark on new efforts to organize workers in New York City...
Fast-food condemnation  The Economist   ...What do you say to a teenager with a job? Answer: “A Big Mac, fries and a Coke, please.” At least, that was the joke in happier times. Today’s question might be: “What do you say to a single parent with two jobs and no health insurance?...”
Gov. Brown plan exempts thousands of transportation workers from pension limits  Los Angeles Times   ...Brown's proposal comes in response to a federal threat to withhold transit money from California...
Organized labor readies for Kentucky right-to-work battle  Louisville Morning Call   ...Kentucky legislators seeking to curb the power of unions could face major hurdles if a Labor Day event was any indication. About a dozen unions participated in a Louisville picnic for organized labor members, and thousands of people showed up...
Hart Schaffner Marx, Apparel Union Workers Stand In Solidarity Against Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement   Progress Illinois   ...The Chicago-based apparel firm Hart Schaffner Marx, its factory workers and their union say they will collectively fight against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement that is currently under negotiations...
U.S. likely to approve Chinese purchase of Smithfield  Reuters   ...The U.S. government is unlikely to block Chinese meat company Shuanghui International's $4.7 billion deal to buy Smithfield Foods, Inc. on national security grounds, according to one person familiar with the matter...
Female doctors make $56,000 less than male MDs  MSN Money   ...The Journal of the American Medical Association points out the wage gap, which has been getting wider over the years...
Detroit Billionaires Get Arena Help as Bankrupt City Suffers  Bloomberg News   ...In the wake of Detroit becoming the biggest U.S. municipality to declare bankruptcy and raid pensions, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder approved a plan to put public money toward a $450 million downtown arena on behalf of the NHL’s Red Wings and their billionaire owners...
Alabama's job creation struggle: Growth is not only slow, but also low-quality   The Huntsville Times   ...A comparison of job growth in Alabama and Utah published last week looked at changes in unemployment rates and job growth overall. This story goes a level deeper, and looks at the quality of jobs being created in each state...
Signatures collected for Alaska wage initiative  The State   ...Sponsors of an initiative to raise the minimum wage in Alaska said they have collected more than a third of the signatures required to qualify the measure for the ballot...

Do the Kochs create jobs?

We'd like to be fair to the Benedict Arnold Koch brothers and acknowledge they do create jobs. 

Trouble is, they don't. 

We stumbled across a segment from the Rachel Maddow Show in September, which we thought we'd share. Maddow points out,

...the Koch brothers nearly doubl(ed) their corporate revenues, while decreasing their work force by roughly 20%.

Sourcewatch tells us a 2007 report about Koch Industries says the company employed 80,000 people that year. But in their 2011 company description, they say they have 67,000 employees.

Watch the Maddow segment here.

Today's Teamster News 08.30.12

Bank of America hasn't modified any mortgages so far under settlement  Reuters   ...The agreement required Bank of America, which bought subprime lender Countrywide Financial in 2008, to provide the most consumer relief. But in a securities filing this month it said a significant number of modifications had not yet been completed "due to the time required to underwrite the modified loans." The bank so far has provided no relief through refinancings, according to the report...
California Defies Lower-Tax Texas In Creating More Jobs  Bloomberg   ...California, which sent a delegation to Austin last year to find out how the Lone Star State had beat it in employment growth, surged ahead of Texas to lead the nation in job creation for the last two consecutive months...
Romney Party Yacht Flies Cayman Islands Flag  ABC News   ...Gov. Mitt Romney's campaign toasted its top donors Wednesday aboard a 150-foot yacht flying the flag of the Cayman Islands...
Paul Ryan’s brazen lies  Salon   ...His Republican National Convention speech was stunning for its dishonesty...
Florida Victory: Federal Court Removes New Restrictions on Voter Registration Groups  Brennan Center for Justice   ...Civic groups and Florida voters scored a decisive victory today when a federal judge indicated he will permanently remove controversial restrictions on community-based voter registration drives...
The Party of Lincoln and the Right to Vote  The Atlantic   ...While Republicans convene in Tampa this week to figure out how to win more votes, a three-judge panel of jurists convenes in the nation's capital to evaluate the legality of a new state law that's designed to ensure that fewer registered voters are permitted to cast a ballot...
Teamsters Local 79, Pasco still at odds  Tampa Bay Online   ...Pasco County has rejected a special magistrate's ruling that union employees should get a 3 percent pay raise...

Question for Romney: American bridges or Swiss banks?

This weekend Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley called out Mitt Romney for his un-American offshore bank accounts.

“President Obama isn't running against the Almighty, he's running against the alternative. The alternative in this case is Mitt Romney, who had the 47th worst job creation rate as governor, and also has a penchant - a talent - for offshoring American jobs, sending them overseas and also maintaining offshore bank accounts in Bermuda, Swiss bank accounts,” [O’Malley] said on ABC’s “This Week.” 

“I’ve never known of a Swiss bank account to build an American bridge, a Swiss bank account to create American jobs, or Swiss bank accounts to rebuild the levies to protect the people of New Orleans. That's not an economic strategy for moving our country forward.”

A recent Vanity Fair article details Romney’s many offshore accounts, including some $30 million of Bain Capital cash stashed away in the Cayman Islands.

So the question for Romney is this: American or Swiss? We’re not asking what he wants on his deli sandwich. We’re asking who he is loyal to: American voters or the super-rich who move their money to avoid paying taxes.

As O’Malley explained,

“Mitt Romney bets against America,” O’Malley said. “He bet against America when he put his money in Swiss bank accounts and tax havens and shelters and also set up a secret company, the shell company in Bermuda, which, by the way, in order to avoid disclosure, he put in his wife's name right before he became governor of Massachusetts.”

Investing in infrastructure and jobs should be the nation’s top economic priority. But Romney’s foreign accounts reveal his expertise in depriving America of the funds needed to rebuild our roads and bridges.

-- Union Thug

Anti-stimulus lawmakers love the stimulus

The same deficit hawks in Congress who railed against Obama’s Recovery Act in 2009 continue to promote and take credit for the benefits of the stimulus back in their home states.

Today, Think Progress reports that Pennsylvania Congressman Charlie Dent, who voted against Obama’s stimulus bill because it added to America’s debt and “failed” to create jobs, will be hosting a job fair showcasing the success of the stimulus:

In February of 2009, Dent explained his opposition to the stimulus by claiming that the law “raises America’s debt by a record amount” and by October of that year pronounced that “stimulus funding has failed its original purpose — to stimulate the economy and create jobs.” However, that didn’t stop Dent from urging the Obama administration to use education stimulus dollars for four Pennsylvania state-related universities or relying on employers who benefited from the stimulus to employ his constituents.

On Saturday, July 14, Dent is hosting a Job Fair “open to anyone seeking a change in employment.” “This event aims to bring job seekers together with representatives from a wide range of employers from a variety of fields, seeking talented and capable workers for a diverse range of positions,” his website claims and lists 33 “employers and organizations that will be in attendance.” Six of those companies benefited from the stimulus, a ThinkProgress search of Recovery.gov revealed, receiving a combined total of $6,252,576 from the Recovery Act.

Dent’s double-speak on the stimulus may seem schizophrenic, but this is really the same-old, same-old for anti-worker politicians. They can’t stand the idea that the government can and should create jobs, but they can’t get enough of the jobs it creates:

Publicly, the GOP claims that the policy has “failed” and “made things worse,” but privately even Republicans have tried to take credit for some of its success. A 2010 report from ThinkProgress found that over half of the GOP caucus, 110 lawmakers — from the House and Senate — returned to their home states to claim credit for popular stimulus programs, attended “ribbon cuttings for the same projects that you voted against,” and even sought more stimulus funds for their states.

At least we know politicians like Dent aren't completely against job growth – they're just against leaders that make it happen.

-- Union Thug

State and local austerity killing job growth

If state and local governments hadn't cut their work forces since the recession, there would be 2.3 million more jobs today, according to our friends at the Economic Policy Institute.

And half those jobs would be in the private sector.

The EPI figures that state and local governments cut 627,000 jobs since June 2009. It also figures 505,000 public sector jobs should have been created since then to make up for population gain.

Now here's how cutting public sector jobs hurts private sector jobs:

...public-sector job cuts also cause job loss in the private sector, for a couple of reasons. First ...Firefighters need trucks and hoses, police officers need cars and radios, and teachers need books and desks. When public-sector jobs are lost, it stands to reason that the inputs into these jobs will fall as well, and indeed research shows that for every public-sector job lost, roughly 0.43 supplier jobs are lost. 

Second, the economic “multiplier” of state and local spending (not including transfer payments) is large – around 1.24. This means that for every dollar cut in salary and supplies of public-sector workers, another $0.24 is lost in purchasing power throughout the rest of the economy. Teachers and firefighters stop going to restaurants and buying cars if they’re laid off, which reduces demand for waitstaff and autoworkers and so on. Add these two influences together (supplier jobs and jobs supported by this multiplier impact) and roughly 0.67 private sector jobs are lost for every public sector job cut.   This means that the public sector being down 1.1 million jobs has likely cost the private sector 1.1 million*0.67 = 751,000 jobs.

Finally, cuts in transfer payments (such as food stamps, unemployment insurance) cost jobs for much the same reason.


EPI concludes:

To reduce these job losses and the suffering for American families they cause, Congress should provide aid to state and local governments to keep austerity in that sector from continuing to weigh down the recovery.

Better than giving the money to the banks.

Today's Teamster News 10.24.11

Kasich continues push to preserve union law  Associated Press   ...In opposition to the law and the governor's appearance, 35 protesters gathered outside of the convention center, holding up signs with messages such as "Where are the jobs, John Kasich?" and "Stop the War on Workers..."
Scott and State Republicans Are on The Wrong Track (opinion)  The Ledger   ...Gov. Rick Scott and the supermajority of Republicans in the state Senate and House of Representatives have done an atrocious job of increasing employment here in central Florida...
Rick Perry’s Record On Jobs  Talking Points Memo   ...Over his eight years as Texas’ farmer-in-chief, Perry oversaw a loan guarantee program with so many defaults that the state had to stop guaranteeing bank loans to startups in agribusiness and eventually bailed out the program with taxpayer money...
Lack of jobs leaves more suburban, middle class sliding into poverty  Chicago Sun-Times   ...nearly 193,000 people who’ve been added to the ranks of the poor in Illinois since the Great Recession began and among the nearly 440,000 that have been added since 1999, bringing the state total to 1.73 million, according to the latest 2010 Census data...
Screw the Big Banks and the Corporate Welfare Pony They Rode in on (opinion)  Wauwatosa Patch   ...We spent $5 BILLION tax-payer dollars bailing-out Citigroup and Bank of America and what have we gotten in return...
Survey: Fewer US companies expected to hire workers as pessimism settles in  Associated Press   ...Nearly 85 percent of economic experts surveyed expect the economy to grow at a meager 2 percent or less over the next 12 months, according to the National Association for Business Economists...

Chinese deal stymies 'Made in Missouri' bill

Missouri lawmakers this week rejected something that sounded like a helluva good idea: A "Made in Missouri" law to provide incentives for job creation. According to Hugh McVey, president of Missouri's AFL-CIO, the bill would,

Invest in exporting Missouri products across the globe ... Bring new science and technology companies to Missouri ... Build high-tech computer centers that will create construction jobs across the state ... bolster and streamline job-training programs.

What's not to like? The bill passed the Senate with bipartisan support. This week, though, it failed to move in the House, which is winding down its special session.

Lawmakers may have gotten cold feet because "Made in Missouri" offered business deals like one with a Chinese company that just went bad.

It was in the old railroad town of  Moberly, population 14,000.  The town had hoped to generate more than 700 good-paying jobs by helping to build an artificial sweetener plant for a Hong Kong company called Mamtek.

The city announced the deal in July 2010. Private investors would put in $8 million. Moberly backed $39 million in bonds and the state provided another $17 million in tax credits and other incentives.

At first the project went well, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Soon after Mamtek broke ground,

It opened an office on the top floor of a building across from City Hall, hired a few managers and started soliciting job applications at the local unemployment office. It received 3,742.

Then things slowed down. The challenge of reconfiguring Chinese plant designs to fit U.S. regulations delayed construction, Mamtek said. So did nasty winter weather. The spring opening date got pushed back to summer. Still, work was under way. The plant was getting built...

The project kept moving forward, until Sept. 1. That was the day UMB Bank put out a statement saying Mamtek had missed the first $2.2 million payment on city-backed bonds. A reserve fund covered the bill, but the city was put on notice: Fix this or be in default on the whole $39 million.

Not to worry, city officials said. They own the land the plant is on and hold Mamtek's formula for sucralose. And while the bonds are in Moberly's name, the fine print states the city doesn't have to keep paying them if Mamtek doesn't hold up its end — though it's unclear who would pay them or how a default would affect the city's credit rating.

No one appears to be saying much, except UMB Financial Corp., which is based in Kansas City. In a disclosure statement, the bank said,

Mamtek is severely financially distressed and has very little cash." The company said it would need an additional $20 million to $44.5 million to finish the project. And, what's more, the company said that "intellectual property escrowed in connection with the financing" — the sucralose formula that was to be collateral on the bonds — "has very little value."

If past is prologue, the Mamtek hucksters are on another continent, the bank will be made whole and the taxpayers of Moberly will end up on the hook for the defaulted bonds, paying for jobs they never got.

Anti-stimulus candidates campaign at stops that got stimulus $. How awkward.



Got $200K in stimulus. Supports anti-stimulus candidate. Go figure.

Pop quiz: What do these have in common?

A. Screen Machine Industries, in Pataskala, Ohio
B. Citronics, in Milford, N.H.
C.Vermeer, in Pella, Iowa
D. Trident Technical College, in North Charleston, S.C.

The photo probably gave it away. All four received money from President Obama's stimulus. All four hosted Republican presidential candidates who campaigned against the stimulus.

It just makes the head spin.

Thanks to a terrific Associated Press story by Steve Peoples, we now know of the difficulty Republican candidates are having in their quest to destroy the middle class. As they travel the country calling for less government and more jobs, the incoherence of their position becomes clear. They keep campaigning in places that were able to hire workers because of stimulus money.

Writes Peoples,

...with an awkward frequency, these same candidates are campaigning at businesses that benefited from the president’s landmark stimulus package.

With the cameras rolling, the Republicans celebrate the hard work of local entrepreneurs in places like Pella, Iowa, and Milford, N.H., while later condemning the federal resources that helped those entrepreneurs navigate the economic downturn...

"There was a tremendous amount of money that went to all sectors. It would be very hard for a Mitt Romney, or a presidential candidate from any party, to go to any manufacturer and find someone who was not directly, or indirectly, affected somehow," said Steven Cohen, president of Ohio-based Screen Machine Industries, which hosted a Romney event in July and received stimulus contracts worth nearly $220,000.

A photo on Screen Machine Industries' website actually shows Romney speaking to the employees under a sign that says, "More Jobs, Better Jobs." 

The stimulus created or saved as many as 3.3 million jobs and lowered the unemployment rate by 1.8 percentage points, according to the most recent estimates by the Congressional Budget Office. 

What's not to like about that?

Today's Teamster News 09.11.11

NYC labor parade mixed with reflections of Sept. 11  Associated Press   ...About 800 members of Teamsters Local 282 — 44-year-old Vigilante is a member — drove trucks that hauled debris from the site...
Auction House Opens Its Fall Season With Chinese Art, Teamster Protests  Local 814   ...Teamster members and supporters protested outside Sotheby's Manhattan showroom today as the company (NYSE: BID) opened its fall auction season with its annual media preview of Chinese paintings and ceramics to be auctioned next week...
Where are the jobs, Governor? (No, literally, where?)  Plunderbund   ...Today, a crowd of roughly 400, mostly labor members, protested outside of Governor Kasich’s office building... people have been fleeing Ohio’s labor market since May...
Michigan governor ready to launch fall agenda  Bloomberg   ...The fall session also could bring potentially divisive topics such as right-to-work laws...Snyder has said such legislation is not part of his agenda, and it's unclear how many Republican lawmakers would support the bills...
Nixon won’t endorse cutting credit  Columbia Daily Tribune   ...Gov. Jay Nixon declined yesterday to endorse plans to end a tax credit used by 100,000 elderly and disabled Missourians to support an air freight hub in St. Louis, the key trade-off in a package of tax breaks for businesses pending in the General Assembly...
Mica Punts On Anti-Union FAA Issue, Unions Celebrate  Talking Points Memo   ...Unions were breathing a sigh of relief Friday morning after House Republicans punted a contentious anti-union issue preventing funding for the Federal Aviation Administration to the end of December, providing back pay to agency workers and giving opponents more time to organize and fight GOP-backed anti-labor provisions...

Good jobs are good for the economy

Teamsters President Jim Hoffa explains why unions benefit all workers -- not just union workers -- in a Huffington Post op-ed today.

It's something many people don't understand. A recent Gallup poll showed

Americans clearly believe unions mostly benefit workers who are members of unions, and mostly harm workers who are not union members...

Hoffa points out that good jobs create more good jobs.

Labor unions raise workers' wages, give them a voice on the job and protect them from financial and medical insecurity. They help turn a job into a good job. Good jobs create more jobs. Well-paid, secure workers spend money in their communities. They support local businesses, which can then grow and hire more workers.

One of the reasons the U.S. economy created zero jobs in the past month is the severe cuts to state budgets, which resulted in 340,000 jobs lost in the past year. Writes Hoffa,

Good government jobs do exactly what good union jobs do - they stimulate the economy. It is nonsense to suggest they don't. The current willingness to sacrifice government jobs at the state and federal level is, I'm afraid, a failure to learn from the lessons of the past.

That's why, Hoffa says, we need stimulus right now, not austerity. Read the whole thing here. 

It's past time to put America back to work

A guest post from the peerless Bob Herbert:

The biggest domestic policy failure has been the refusal of top officials in the White House and in Congress to recognize the severity of the employment crisis that has settled like a plague over American workers.

There is no longer any excuse for believing that the Great Recession and its aftermath was a more or less typical economic downturn to be followed by a robust recovery. That’s a pipedream. What we are experiencing is an economic disaster, the worst reversal to hit the U.S. since the 1930s. The human suffering is profound. Some 14 million Americans are officially counted as unemployed. Nearly half have been out of work for six months or more, and many have been jobless for a year or two or longer.

Poverty is once again on the march, moving like Patton’s Third Army through communities that had never had more than a tenuous hold on the American dream. The few jobs now being created too often pay a pittance, the minimum wage or just above, not nearly enough to pry open the doors to a middle class standard of living.

Starved of tax revenues, the federal budget is submerged in a vast ocean of red ink. One of the tragic results is that social services are under furious attack at the same time that the need for such services has grown enormously. If dramatic steps are not soon taken to put millions of jobless Americans back to work, the quality of life for much, if not most, of the population will be irreparably damaged. The American dream itself is at risk.

Politicians have given little more than lip service to this terrible turn of events. If there was but one message that I would try to get through to the nation’s leadership, it is that we cannot begin to get the United States back on track until we begin to put our people back to work.

And there is so much work to be done. Start with the crying need to rebuild the nation’s aging, deteriorating infrastructure – its bridges and highways, airports and air traffic control systems, its sewer and wastewater treatment facilities, the electrical grid, inland waterways, public transportation systems, levees and floodwalls and ports and dams, and on and on. Lawrence Summers, until recently President Obama’s top economic adviser, has pointed out that 75 percent of America’s public schools have structural deficiencies. Twelve percent of the nation’s bridges have been rated structurally deficient and another 15 percent are functionally obsolete.

Three to four trillion dollars worth of improvements will be needed over the next decade just to bring the infrastructure into a reasonable state of repair. Meanwhile, we’ve got legions of unemployed construction workers, manufacturing workers, engineers and others who are ready and eager to step into the breach, to take on jobs ranging from infrastructure maintenance and repair to infrastructure design and new construction. It shouldn’t require a genius to put together those two gigantic pieces of America’s economic puzzle – infrastructure and unemployment.

Yes, it would be expensive. But the money spent would be an investment designed to bring about a stronger, more stable economic environment. Putting people to work bolsters the economy and the newly-employed workers begin paying taxes again. Improving the infrastructure would make American industry much more competitive overall, and would spawn new industries. Creation of a national infrastructure bank that would use government funds to leverage additional investments from the private sector to finance projects of national importance would lead to extraordinary longterm benefits.

But even rebuilding the infrastructure is not enough. The employment crisis facing the U.S. is enormous and is taking a particularly harsh toll on the less well-educated members of the society. We need to take our cue from Franklin Roosevelt who understood during the Depression that nothing short of a federal jobs program was essential. The two-pronged goal was to alleviate the suffering of the unemployed and, as the workers began spending their wages, improve the economy.

Roosevelt put millions of Americans to work, including artists, writers, photographers and musicians. It was an unprecedented undertaking, and it worked.

We need a public jobs program in America now. A number of approaches have been offered, including a particularly thoughtful and comprehensive proposal prepared for Demos by Philip Harvey, a professor of law and economics at Rutgers University. The idea is simple: “Create jobs for the unemployed directly and immediately in public employment programs that produce useful goods and services for the public’s benefit.”
As Harvey’s report explains:

“When jobs program participants spend their wages, and program administrators purchase materials and supplies for program projects, the benefits delivered in the first instance to unemployed workers trickle up to the private sector, inducing private sector job creation that supplements the immediate employment effect of the job creation program itself.”

A crucial aspect of the program is that it would begin to fill the demand gap that is hampering the economic recovery. With so many millions of people out of work, the demand for goods and services is diminished. Consumers are tapped out. Private businesses are not hiring workers because the demand is not there for the additional goods and services they would be producing.

Direct job creation would put people to work quickly, without having to wait many long months, or possibly years, for the economy to fully recover. The money from their paychecks would be pumped immediately into the economy.

Like infrastructure spending, a carefully crafted direct jobs plan would be an investment that would be repaid many times over, just as investments in Hoover Dam, rural electrification, the Works Progress Administration and the G.I. Bill delivered enormous longterm benefits to the society.

F.D.R., in his first inaugural address, told a worried nation that “our greatest primary task is to put people to work.” It was a task, he insisted, that should be treated “as we would treat the emergency of a war.”

The question today, in one of our darkest economic hours, is whether we’re smart enough to heed that essential lesson of history.

Paul Ryan protests spread in WI

Premium wine enthusiast Paul Ryan may be vacationing with his family in Colorado, but those unemployed constituents of his are tormenting his poor widdle staff in Wisconsin. Why, they're sitting in his office and asking to talk to their congressman about jobs!! The nerve!!

Today, Ryan's constituents were blocked from entering his Kenosha office by a police officer. But others are sitting in his Racine office. And a rally is scheduled this afternoon outside his Janesville office.

The backstory is that seven jobless Wisconsinites from Ryan's district sat in his Kenosha office for four consecutive weekdays. The AFL-CIO blog tells us a little bit about who they are:

Some of the participants are lifelong residents of the area, like Scott Page, who was laid off right after training the foreign worker who would replace him when his job was shipped overseas. Others have been unemployed or underemployed for years. Shanon Molina, a single mother who lost her job as an administrative after 10 years with a company, can’t find work at even half of her previous salary.

Paul Ryan has to yet to meet with his constituents. Currently, the only way to talk with Rep. Ryan is to pay for a $15 out-of-district meet and greet event. This is out of reach to many of his constituents.

This morning, our friends at dane101 tell us what happened:

...they were greeted with locked doors and security provided by the City of Kenosha Police Department. Scott Page, one of the constituents seeking an audience with his representative said they were told they aren't allowed to park in the parking lot or enter the building unless they have an appointment with the Congressman. Page said they've tried to call the offices from outside to set up an appointment, but the phones aren't being answered.

A call by dane101 to the posted Ryan office number, (262) 654-1901, at 10:30 a.m. resulted in no answer. 

The Rochester Citizen tells us the wine-loving congressman's staff offered them a conference call.

Shanon Molina, who is an unemployed constituent of Ryan’s said that they were not offered a personal conference call with the Congressman, but they were offered to be able to listen in to a teleconference town hall with hundreds of other people on the call where she may or may not be able to address a question to the Congressman.

Dane 101 is now tweeting

RT @dane101: Confirmed that protesters are now also sitting in at Ryan's Racine office. Information from inside coming soon.

And the Janesville rally is still on for today and tomorrow. Here's a description of the event from their Facebook page:

Wednesday we will be hosting a Where’s Paul Rally to support area residents who will be in Congressman Ryan’s Racine office waiting for their opportunity to ask Congressman Ryan where the jobs are.

Join us Wednesday, August 24 and August 25 at:

Congressman Paul Ryan’s Office 20 S Main St., in Janesville
1:00PM - 5:00PM (Weds and Thursday)

As we ask Congressman Ryan,
“Where are you? And where are the jobs?”

And finally, here's a flickr stream of the protests.

Today's Teamster News 08.22.11

Ohio unlikely to get $176M for jobless benefits  Lancaster Eagle-Gazette   ...As Ohio faced today's deadline to expand unemployment benefits and receive $176 million in federal stimulus money, state officials had not applied for the money and the General Assembly had not scheduled any sessions to take any action...
Scott Walker spends $59,000 flying around Wisconsin  Appleton Post-Crescent   ...with the bulk of the travel coming during the contentious battle over the Republican governor's legislative agenda and budget...
Scott lowers bar for jobs goal  Orlando Sentinel   ...Scott is now lowering the benchmark he set for himself if he counts every job created toward his 700,000 goal...
Michigan Democrats give Rick Snyder insult-laden birthday card calling him a 'dumb a--'  Mlive.com   ...They delivered a birthday card signed from folks who weren't exactly well-wishers, what with people scrawling beautiful sentiments like "Thanks for a new tax on my pension!"; "Happy Recall"; and "Dumb A-- Smarten Up..."
Christie? President? Fuhgeddaboudit! (Opinion)  Newark Star-Ledger   ...CAN WE STOP THE INSANITY? Chris Christie will never be president...
Wall Street Aristocracy Got $1.2 Trillion in Loans from Fed  Bloomberg   ...The largest borrower, Morgan Stanley (MS), got as much as $107.3 billion, while Citigroup took $99.5 billion and Bank of America $91.4 billion, according to a Bloomberg News compilation of data obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, months of litigation and an act of Congress...

How's that austerity working for you, Guvs?

You know all those doofuses who say government doesn't create jobs? The ones who think cutting government spending is the way to spur hiring? Sadly, some of those people are running state government. Their misguided fantasies are killing their economies.

Take Pennsylvania. Gov. Tom Corbett's budget severely cut education and services for the poor. Now the state's jobless rate is rising, to 7.8 percent in July from 7.6 percent in June.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports,

The state's unemployment rate had been falling over the last year, from the recession high of 8.8 percent in April 2010, to the lowest level of the recovery thus far -- 7.4 percent in May. But July marks the second month of a rising unemployment rate.

This may come as a surprise to Corbett. Upon signing his savage budget, he crowed,

No budget is worth the trouble if it doesn't do something to grow the economy and create jobs.

Corbett's administration seems to be a little, um, unfocused on the state's economy. Some of his top appointees have thrown tantrums over parking spots. One sicced the Department of Health on a restaurant when he didn't like his fried egg sandwich. The budget director's wife got a ride home from an on-duty state trooper after she led police on a car chase that resulted in her arrest for drunk driving.

That seems to be the story all over the country with these Governors Gone Wild. They're more interested in dismantling government (while enjoying the perks) than they are in actual, you know, governing. In Florida, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan -- all Governors Gone Wild states -- unemployment rose last month, and it's stayed high in New Jersey, where Chris Christie's job-creation philosophy is to suck up to rich people.

Reality kind of bites, doesn't it?

Govs Gone Wild not so good at creating jobs

All these "Where are the jobs?" protests are making us curious. How well are the Governors Gone Wild doing with their Robin Hood economic schemes? You know, the corporate tax breaks, the slashing of essential services, the job and pay cuts for government workers, the raising of taxes on the poor and middle class? All those enlightened policies were supposed to create jobs.

But....that doesn't seem to be happening.

Koch whore Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker promised to create 250,000 jobs when he ran for office. He's got a long way to go. Wisconsin lost 8,200 jobs last month.

And how about corporate stooge Ohio Gov. John Kasich? He made a big deal about passing a "Jobs Budget" and giving a "toolkit" to local governments to solve their problems.  (All the Guvs Gone Wild like to talk about "toolkits," so be sure to run when you hear the word.)

The Times Bulletin reports Buckeye State unemployment jumped to 8.8 percent from 8.6 percent in May. (Here's what's really scary: House Speaker John Boehner says, ""Washington could certainly learn a thing or two from Ohio."  Aaaargh!!)

In Michigan, Gov. Rick Snyder cut taxes for the rich and raised them for the poor. How's that working out for you, Rick? Not so good, it seems. Reports Bloomberg,

Michigan's unemployment rate hit 10.9 percent in July, up 0.4 points from June...The seasonally adjusted figures ... show that the number of jobless workers topped 500,000 for the first time since January and that the state's labor force dropped by 17,000 workers.

Gov. Pink Slip Rick Scott also passed a "Jobs Budget." There are still almost a million people unemployed in Florida, which boasted a 10.6 percent unemployment rate in June. That's higher than the national rate of 9.2 percent.

Helicopter Chris Christie had a Plan To Get New Jersey Working Again. Maybe he needs a new plan. The  the unemployment rate for New Jersey rose 0.1 percentage points in June 2011 to 9.5 percent, higher than the national rate.

Let's be honest. These guys don't care about jobs. They just want to suck up to corporate billionaires and Wall Street so they can raise more campaign cash.

But you knew that already.

Look closer at TX economy. It sucks.

There can be no doubt that Gov. Goodhair Rick Perry is another vapid corporate stooge running Texas. Perry actually appointed an Enron executive to the state Public Utilities Commission in exchange for a campaign donation of $25,000. 

But what's important about Texas is that shows us the tragic outcome of the corporate economic vision: lousy education, inadequate health care, shitty jobs. And just wait for that Nafta highway to wreak more damage on our country.

Here are a few facts about the Texas economy: The biggest industry in Texas is government. Texas jobs are crappy. And Texas ranks dead last in job creation.

This, from Economic Populist:

Texas is being declared an economic miracle. Yet anyone can quickly calculate a few facts on Texas. Guess which the largest industry in Texas was in 2010? Government. I kid you not, from the BEA:

In 2010, the largest industry in Texas was government. This industry accounted for 11.8 percent of Texas GDP and had 1.7 percent real growth. The second largest industry was mining, which accounted for 9.5 percent of Texas GDP and had 0.8 percent real growth...

Since January 2010 to June 2011, Texas has gained 505,100 jobs. Nationally, jobs gained are 1,792,000. Texas has gained 28.19% of the total jobs created. Seems like a lot, yet in determining what type of jobs we get, they are mainly crappy jobs. Trade, transportation and Utilities includes Retail trade, which are as a whole, low paying service type of jobs.

Writes the New York Times:

...if Mr. Perry were to win the nomination, he would face critics, among them Democrats, who have long complained that the state’s economic health came at a steep price: a long-term hollowing out of its prospects because of deep cuts to education spending, low rates of investment in research and development, and a disparity in the job market that confines many blacks and Hispanics to minimum-wage jobs without health insurance.

And ThinkProgress reports that Texas is dead last in job creation if you account for population growth. Writes ThinkProgress,

While over 126,000 net jobs were created in Texas over the last two and a half years, the labor force expanded by over 437,000, meaning that overall Texas has added unemployed workers at a rate much faster than it has created jobs. And although states like Michigan have lost jobs (29,200 since February 2009), the state’s labor force has shrunk by over 185,000 since then. As a result, while there are fewer jobs, there are significantly less workers looking for them

ThinkProgress also notes that jobs grew faster in Massachusetts than Texas between 2008 and 2010, jobs actually grew at a faster pace in Massachusetts than in Texas.

Meybe Gov. Goodhair should keep his yap shut about the Texas economy.