Romney running for union-buster-in-chief

We've told you all about Mitt Romney's anti-union record and his promise to make union-busting a White House priority if he becomes president.

Today our friends at IBEW posted a video that shows just how proud Romney is of his crusade against working families.

From his commitment to kill project labor agreements to his desire to make right-to-work-for-less a national policy, Romney’s union-busting agenda is outlined brilliantly in the video – by Romney himself. His recorded comments were delivered last spring to the anti-union Associated Builders and Contractors. So unlike his more recent attempts to reinvent himself as a champion for the middle class two weeks before the election, the Romney in this video was comfortable.

The Transport Workers Union also has a great video it made last week which goes a little deeper, including Romney's repeated commitments to cut funding for Amtrak.

Check out IBEW's video. And if you know any union members out there who are planning to vote for Romney, ask them if they like being a union member.

Then ask them to watch this video.
                                                                             --Union Thug

Romney demanded, and got, a $10M government bailout

Mitt Romney extracted a $10 million bailout from the federal government for a floundering consulting firm, but still doesn't think much of people who depend on the government.

Go figure.

Rolling Stone reported the story late last month. Short version: Bain & Co.was defaulting on its debt after its founders looted its treasury. Romney took a leave of absence from Bain Capital to rescue Bain & Co., his former employer. He got loans from four banks to repay Bain & Co.'s debts.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation had to sign off on the deal because it controlled one of the banks that Bain owed money to. The FDIC also allowed a loophole in the deal. It said Bain could give its cash to Bain's officers before paying off its debt.

(How did that happen? Well, Bill Seidman was then chairman of the FDIC and former finance chairman to Romney's father's presidential campaign in 1968. Can you say "crony capitalist"?)

Rolling Stone reports Romney decided to let the government bail out the company. He threatened to loot Bain & Co. by handing out bonuses to officers if the FDIC didn't forgive $10 million in Bain's debt. Writes Rolling Stone:

The FDIC agreed to accept nearly $5 million in cash to retire $15 million in Bain's debt – an immediate government bailout of $10 million.

Even The Economist -- hardly a left-wing propaganda organ -- concluded the evidence shows Romney extorted a $10 million bailout from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. (The FDIC, by the way, is in the business of shoring up banks, not consulting firms like Bain & Co.)  The Economist reports Romney has some 'splaining to do:

If Bain & Company was just such a "loser" with too big an appetite, and got a handout to keep its loans above water, Mr Romney has some awkward explaining to do. And "it was perfectly legal" will not do the trick. "Legal but stomach-turning" is all too common in American finance these days. Mitt Romney can ill afford to be more closely associated with dealings like that.

Yup.

Mitt Antoinette wants a return to 18th-century France

Mitt Romney and his family have had many "Marie Antoinette" moments. Ever since his first Senate run in 1994 (against Edward M. Kennedy), they've sounded like French aristocrats rather than American Republicans.

Nearly 20 years ago, Ann Romney was interviewed by Jack Thomas of the Boston Globe. She actually said that when they were first married she and Mitt were "struggling" students. And this:

...we had no income except the stock we were chipping away at. We were living on the edge, not entertaining. 

More recently, Mitt Romney aroused a furor when he made the "I'm not concerned about the very poor" comment. That seems to be the one that inspired the graphic above.

And now David Cay Johnston explains how Romney, as Republican presidential nominee, wants America to look like Europe in the 1700s:

Their approach favors dynastic wealth with largely tax-free (Romney) or completely tax-free (Ryan) lifestyles, encouraging future generations of shiftless inheritors. What we need instead is a tax system that encourages strivers in competitive markets, not a perpetual oligarchy...

Under Romney’s plan your economic future would be determined the same way it was in 18th Century France - primarily by who you picked as your parents, not by hard work, perseverance and that illusive element of luck. 

Johnston points out we've already tried the Romney-Ryan proposal to cut taxes for the rich -- under George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.  It hasn't worked, except to make the rich richer.

The Romney tax plan is Bush II on steroids. The Paul Ryan plan is Romney supersized.

Johnston quotes tax experts who say the Romney-Ryan plan would increase most Americans' tax burdens by 50 percent. The rich would pay less in income and capital taxes. Sounds lovely -- if you're already a multimillionaire.

Read Johnson's whole piece here. And if you're not a voter, please register to be a voter.

Romney’s ties to illegal union busting

Mitt Romney touts his background as a private equity tycoon -- something that's supposed to help him manage the U.S. economy. But along with firing workers and outsourcing jobs, Romney’s business experience includes union busting.

A recent report in the Financial Times says a Bain-controlled company ran an illegal campaign in the 1980s to stop employees from organizing:

Key Airlines, an early investment for the private equity firm founded by a young Mitt Romney and two associates, broke the law by attempting to coerce and then dismiss two pilots who tried to organize a union. Two months after a union vote failed, Bain agreed to sell Key Airlines at a large profit.

Key Airlines was not just guilty of unfair labor practices. A federal judge said the company was engaged in willful and repeated violations of the Railway Labor Act while Romney was a director and shareholder of the airline.

The 21 pilots who were trying to form a union were motivated mainly by safety concerns. But Key responded by holding coercive meetings and intimidating the workers. Two of the pilots were told to sign resignation letters as punishment for their organizing efforts.

So what’s Romney’s response to revelations about his link to union busting? Mr. One Percent railed against Obama:

"Despite unemployment over 8 percent for more than three years, President Obama continues to put the interests of labor bosses ahead of the interests of Americans looking for work," added Michele Davis, a spokeswoman for the campaign.

Um, what do pilots trying to improve safety and other conditions on the job have to do with the unemployment rate and labor leaders? The answer is nothing – unless you’re trying to become a president who puts the interests of Wall Street bosses ahead of the interests of working Americans.

Romney’s anti-union business experience is by no means surprising. But it gives us yet another reason to fear a Mitt Romney presidency.

-- Union Thug

The Romney-Ryan war on workers (video)

They want YOU to pay for Mitt's tax cut.

Romney’s tax dodging exposed?

Poor widdle Mitt Romney just can’t seem to get anything right. Even when he does release a few tax returns, they reveal damning evidence about his tax avoidance schemes.

Naked Capitalism has a piece today that breaks down a revealing analysis by tax expert Lee Sheppard. Questions about Romney’s refusal to release most of his tax returns overshadow questions about the two years of returns he has released. Do they reveal shady dealings?

One question involved his $3 million Swiss bank account. It's already outrageous that Romney moved his money offshore to avoid taxes. But it turns out he may not have even reported it properly in his 2010 returns:

A Romney grantor trust had a $3 million Swiss bank account at UBS that the trustee closed in 2010. Romney's campaign said that the account was disclosed on foreign bank account reports and that U.S. tax was paid on the interest from it. Nondisclosure was common among rich people before the 2010 enactment of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act…Very few FBARs were filed before 2010.

Like many of his peers, Romney has not been audited in the past decade, according to his campaign.

Then there’s the issue of Romney’s massive IRA. As Sheppard writes,

Romney has a gigantic IRA, which may hold as much as $100 million in assets. We do not know what it contains. We can only speculate. Given the applicable contribution limits, it is hard to see how the IRA got so big, even if Bain deals were hugely profitable. Regardless of what is in the IRA, serious valuation and self-dealing questions are raised.

Sheppard also points to Romney’s Bain Capital private equity funds stowed away in tax havens like Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. Beyond Romney’s own assets in the Cayman Islands, Bain’s use of the tax shelter means investors can also evade taxes by lying about income generated by their investments. The tax expert explains:

Mainstream newspapers howl that Romney has assets in the Caymans, but the reality is worse. Bain Capital invests in the United States and other countries, including China, but it organizes its funds in the Caymans to keep investor lists secret while availing itself of British corporate law. Every other investment fund does the same thing.

The practical effect of Cayman registration is that if investors were of a mind to lie to their home governments about the existence of or income from their Bain investments, the secrecy of investor lists makes it easier to do so.

Finally, there’s Ann Romney’s business – or her horse, Rafalca:

Before the Romneys can claim any passive loss deduction for Ann Romney’s share of Rafalca’s expenses, the LLC that owns the horse, Rob Rom Enterprises, has to be engaged in a trade or business. For that, it has to satisfy the hobby loss rule for horses, which has a rebuttable presumption of a business if there is a profit in two out of seven years (section 183(c)). Rob Rom has owned Rafalca for six years.

Moreover, the prize money in dressage competitions doesn’t come close to covering the roughly $120,000 per year for Rafalca’s upkeep and transportation from California to European competitions. So it is unlikely she would ever make a profit for her owners

None of this is terribly surprising given Romney’s oligarchic worldview. With his pick of the anti-worker and die-hard Ayn Rand cult follower premium wine enthusiast Paul Ryan as his running mate, Romney has reasserted his philosophy about how the rich ought to pay very little while workers should pay more.

But how can someone who so meticulously exploits every angle and loophole when it comes to paying taxes be trusted to lead a government that is supposed to enforce the law?

-- Union Thug

Romney tells Colorado workers to lose their ‘boondoggle’ jobs

Mitt Romney is all for tax credits to boost windfall profits, but not wind-energy production and the thousands of jobs it provides. Earlier in the week, his campaign confirmed that if elected he would allow a tax credit for wind-energy companies to expire.

So it was a little awkward Thursday when Mitt stopped for a visit in Colorado, a state where up to 5,000 people are employed in wind industry jobs. Romney breezed through the meaningless rigmarole of another stump speech peppered with lame jokes and followed by routine applause and handshakes.

But a lot of Coloradoans aren’t interested in going through the motions with Mitt. Phillip Bump at the Grist wrote:

Some of the people in Colorado don’t want to clap for Romney. They don’t want to shake his hand. Why are they being so rude? Because Mitt Romney doesn’t care if they lose their jobs.

Romney’s visit came just days after his campaign said he was against extending the wind-energy production tax credit, which three of the four Republican congressmen in Colorado support.

According to the Denver Post:

Conservative U.S. Reps. Mike Coffman, Cory Gardner and Scott Tipton have joined Democrats in Colorado’s congressional delegation in urging Congress to extend the credit, saying in a joint letter earlier this year that allowing it to expire this year could cause Colorado to lose “thousands” of jobs.

So what is Romney’s reasoning for opposing the tax credit for wind-energy jobs? Well, those jobs are apparently unnecessary. His campaign spokesperson in Iowa explained:

He will allow the wind credit to expire, end the stimulus boondoggles, and create a level playing field on which all sources of energy can compete on their merits.

Subsidies for fossil fuels are currently six times greater than subsidies for wind energy, so we’re not really sure what Romney thinks a “level playing field” is.

But here’s the point: Mitt Romney says he knows how to create jobs, but as far as we can tell he just doesn’t want to. He’s more interested in telling people their work is a “boondoggle” and they should be fired.

-- Union Thug

Today's Teamster News 07.15.12

The Romney job record in Massachusetts  Angry Bear   ...The comparisons make clear that state government employment increased 2.8% in Massachusetts, more than twice the national state government employment aggregate of 1.1%. Private sector employment over the same period in Massachusetts increased 1.4%, less than a quarter of the national aggregate of 5.9%...
Ralph Lauren to make 2014 Olympic uniforms in the U.S.  Los Angeles Times   ..."Ralph Lauren promises to lead the conversation within our industry and our government addressing the issue of increasing manufacturing in the United States," the company said...
U.S. Is Building Criminal Cases in Rate-Fixing  New York Times   ...As regulators ramp up their global investigation into the manipulation of interest rates, the Justice Department has identified potential criminal wrongdoing by big banks and individuals at the center of the scandal...
How A Right-Wing Group Is Infiltrating State News Coverage  Media Matters   ...The Franklin Center is a multimillion-dollar organization whose websites and affiliates provide free statehouse reporting to local newspapers and other media across the country. Funded by major conservative donors, staffed by veterans of groups affiliated with the Koch brothers, and maintaining a regular presence hosting right-wing events, the organization boasts of its ability to fill the void created by state newsroom layoffs...
A funny thing happened after the recall – Walker became irrelevant  DailyKos   ...If you visit the Wisconsin State Capitol on any given day, chances are Governor Scott Walker will not be there...he has voluntarily stopped being the Governor of Wisconsin for all intents and purposes. He has set himself up to cash in (think Sarah Palin with a bald spot) and now he don’t need no stinking badgers...
Happy ending follows a rare strike at Sorrento  Buffalo News   ... the number of work stoppages involving at least 1,000 workers fell to 15 in 2008 and just five in 2009, as the economy bottomed out. But we've been seeing more work stoppages since then, rising to 11 in 2010 and 19 last year...

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

Tell Congress: Pass the bill to bring jobs home

A bill to bring jobs back to the U.S. is being pushed in Congress with the strong support of the Teamsters and the AFL-CIO. The Bring Jobs Home Act (S. 2884 and H.R. 5542) would create incentives for American companies to move jobs home.

U.S. companies can now get a tax deduction for certain relocation costs when they move jobs overseas.  At a time when the nation’s unemployment rate is still too high, why are we rewarding companies for shipping our jobs out of the country?

The Bring Jobs Home Act would give a tax break to U.S. companies that move jobs or business operations back to America. And the tax loophole for companies that ship jobs overseas would be closed.

Activists have launched a campaign to promote the bill, which is likely to be taken up after the July 4 recess.

The Teamsters are urging members to tell their senators to vote for it.

Sponsors of the Bring Jobs Home Act include Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J. As Sen. Stabenow says, America should go back to traditions that made this country so great: exporting products, not jobs.

Rep. Pascrell says the bill will,

…stop our tax code from providing corporate welfare by closing the loopholes that encourage outsourcing, and give incentives to businesses to reverse the flow of jobs back home. The light at the end of the economic recovery is powered by manufacturing; we cannot stand around while our manufacturing base continues to erode.

With outsourcing taking on a high profile in the elections, the Bring Jobs Home Act draws the line between American workers and job-killers like Mitt Romney who made careers out of taking jobs away from American workers.

In addition to the Bring Jobs Home Act, labor groups are also pressing Congress to vote on the Call Center Worker and Consumption Act (H.R. 3596), which would deny federal grants and tax breaks to companies that ship call center jobs overseas. The bill would also require companies to inform callers about where their calls are being directed to and give customers the option to be to be transferred back to a U.S. call center.

Communication Workers of American (CWA), which is also mobilizing for the bill, explains:

Foreign call centers not only ship jobs abroad, but they endanger our confidential personal information because they operate without US data regulation.

The Bring Jobs Home campaign is also calling for an end to currency manipulation by countries like China; taxing the overseas income of U.S. companies; and implementing fair trade policies that respect American workers.

Teamsters know what the stakes are in the fight to stop companies from offshoring our jobs. It’s time to correct anti-worker policies that allow corporations to take jobs away from Americans in order to exploit cheap labor for profit.

Romney 2012: Creating jobs...in China

Mitt Romney has talked a big game about how he would put a stop to job outsourcing as president. That’s not unusual talk coming from a presidential candidate, but it is strange coming from the lips of a vulture capitalist private equity mogul who is responsible for so many American jobs lost to China.

Yesterday the Washington Post reported that Romney’s firm, Bain Capital, has owned and invested in companies that specialize in offshoring jobs to low-wage countries like China and India:

During the nearly 15 years that Romney was actively involved in running Bain, a private equity firm that he founded, it owned companies that were pioneers in the practice of shipping work from the United States to overseas call centers and factories making computer components, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

And the response from the Romney team? They say the Washington Post incorrectly used the word "outsourcing" when it meant "offshoring." Think Progress reports:

Rather than dispute the substance of the article, the Romney campaign has responded to the Post piece by parsing words, claiming that the story is “fundamentally flawed” for not differentiating between the technical definitions of “outsourcing” and “offshoring.”

Workers at the Sensata Technologies plant in Freeport, Ill. were hoping to get a visit from Romney earlier in the week to ask the candidate to stop shipping their jobs to China. Romney was in the area as part of his “Every Town Counts” bus tour.

As John Nichols of The Nation wrote:

[T]he real story of Romney’s tour is the towns that don’t count with him. Romney did not stop in Freeport, a town that…has been hard hit by trade and fiscal policies that encourage corporations to shutter US factories and ship jobs overseas. Employees of Freeport’s Sensata Technologies plant gathered in front of the factory with handmade signs that read: “Romney! Stop Bain Outsourcing to China.”

Sensata workers tell a familiar story. And it’s a story that will become even more familiar if Romney and his Bain Capitalist buddies have their way.

According to Sensata employee Cheryl Randecker,

This used to be a very high-volume plant and now it’s pretty much a ghost town…and by the end of the year it will be a ghost town.

Cheryl started a petition telling Romney to stop moving their jobs to China. She explains:

I don’t know what I’m going to do if I lose my job. My company used to offer a full year of severance pay, but that was cut to six months. It’s all about money for Bain and Romney, but for us, it’s about how we make a living and feed our families.

What I do know is that I’m not alone. There’s 165 of us getting laid off just in my plant. And millions of other workers who have been laid off—or will be laid off—unless Romney and other businessmen stop shipping jobs overseas just to make a bigger profit.

Romney wants to help people by firing them

Remember being in school and the teacher asking you what you wanted to be when you grew up? And remember how she ridiculed you when you said you wanted to be a firefighter, or a police officer…or a teacher? Neither do we.

But if it were up to people like Mitt Romney or Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, that teacher would’ve talked some sense into you – right before having her own job cut.

The graph pictured here shows how differently public workers fared in previous recessions. Where government jobs were once seen as a solution in economic hard times (which actually helped to improve the economy), today they are depicted as burdensome and targets ripe for union-busting.

Anti-worker politicians have been betting on a strategy aimed at demonizing public workers for quite some time. But on the heels of the Wisconsin recall election, the right wing is ramping up its efforts to popularize scorn toward professions that were once considered noble.

On Sunday, Gov. Daniels called for the elimination of public sector unions and claimed that government somehow works better without them. Romney was more specific last week when he said,

“[Obama] says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers. Did he not get the message in Wisconsin? The American people did. It’s time for us to cut back on government and help the American people.”

Cutting public services to help the American people? Sounds a little odd.

This morning Romney tried to clarify his position, saying he doesn’t want to lay off firefighters, teachers and cops. He just wants other people to do it:

Of course, teachers and firemen and policemen are hired at the local level and also by states. The federal government doesn't pay for teachers, firefighters or policemen. [Obama's] got a new idea, though, and that is to have another stimulus and to have the federal government send money to try and bail out cities and states.

It was only a few months ago that a National Journal poll found 70 percent in favor of providing funds to help states and local governments save jobs. Still, the enemies of working people have been winning with their message about “spoiled” public workers, as evidenced by the latest recall election in Wisconsin.

But the attack on public workers isn’t just an effective way to divide workers against each other rather than directing our outrage at the real culprit of the down economy (Wall Street). It’s also really bad economic policy. As the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein points out

Since Obama was elected, the public sector has lost about 600,000 jobs. If you put those jobs back, the unemployment rate would be 7.8 percent.

Teamsters President Hoffa had a good response to Gov. Daniels’ anti-union comments:

Gov. Daniels’ opinion on the value of public sector unions is insulting to the men and women that work hard every day to strengthen our communities across the country. His views do not reflect the beliefs of the millions of people who fought against the attacks on the public sector in Wisconsin and Ohio.

Job-killer Mitt Romney trashes unions

Today in Lansing, Mich., Mitt "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" Romney bleated out a jaw-dropping comment that unions kill jobs.

Liberalism once taught that unions would ensure lasting prosperity for workers. Instead, they too often contributed to disappearing companies, disappearing industries, and disappearing jobs. But like many politicians of the past, the President takes his marching orders from union bosses, rails against right to work states, fights to win union elections by eliminating the right to vote by secret ballot, and even denies an American company the right to build a factory in the American state of its choice.

Isn't that charming? Need we remind you that it was Mitt Romney who killed good union jobs as the CEO of the vulture capitalist firm Bain Capital. He bought up healthy companies, closed their factories and sent their jobs to China, all the while yanking out cash from them as early and as often as he could. Then he stashed the money in a Swiss bank account so he wouldn't have to pay his fair share of taxes.

The nerve.

He delivered another howler yesterday in Ohio, when he told a radio interviewer he'd "take a lot of credit" for the revival of the U.S. auto industry. Really. Here are his exact words:

I'll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry has come back.

Our good friend UAW President Bob King went ballistic, by way of The Hill:

...King said Tuesday that "none of this would have happened if Romney had been the one making the decisions. 

 

"Romney has been vocally opposed to the auto loans for the past three years," King said in a statement. "He criticized President Obama as recently as February 2012 in his opinion article in the Detroit News saying, 'The president tells us that without his intervention things in Detroit would be worse. I believe that without his intervention things there would be better.' But now he's claiming credit for President Obama's intervention to save the industry."

Mitt Romney's overseas finances

Just a little something to think about.

Today's Teamster News 03.29.12

JOBS Act benefits financial criminals (Opinion)  Marketwatch  ...Criminal minds must be working overtime now, because the new legislation — which seemingly every investor- and consumer-protection group has railed against — effectively makes it open season on small investors...
US employs Vinnie the Kneecapper to collect student debt  Automatic Earth   ...With $67 billion of student loans in default, the Education Department is turning to an army of private debt-collection companies to put the squeeze on borrowers. Working on commissions that totaled about $1 billion last year, these government contractors face growing complaints that they are violating federal laws...
Bill banning picketing of homes unites unlikely Ga. coalition of tea partiers, labor unions  Associated Press   ...State lawmakers must decide Thursday on the final day of their session whether to pass legislation that targets labor unions. A range of groups who don't often agree with organized labor — libertarian tea partyers, small-government Republicans, anti-abortion activists and others — want it rejected, saying the bill fixes a problem that doesn't exist and would harm their free speech rights, too...
Mitt Romney amuses Wisconsin voters with yarn about Michigan losing an auto plant  Detroit Free Press   ...Mitt Romney told a jokey anecdote on a conference call today with Wisconsin primary voters that had Michigan – and the closing of an auto plant – as part of the punch line...
Public safety concerns amid probation cutbacks  ABC 7   ...The Teamsters Local Union 2011, which represents most Florida corrections officers, filed an administrative petition, challenging the decision on grounds it violates Florida law and endangers its communities. Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott calls the decision regrettable, noting "folks are generally better behaved when they know they are being watched."... 
Teamsters join in the protest against selling off Ontario Northland assets  Timmins Times   ...Queen’s Park has alternatives to selling off the 106-year-old Ontario Northland Railway and killing jobs and negatively impacting thousands of lives in Northern Ontario, according to the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference Maintenance of Way Employees, which represents 200 ONR workers...

They used to make Etch-A-Sketches in OH

Now they make them in Shenzhen, China.

We're quite certain that doesn't surprise you.

Hat tip to Teamsters International Vice President Al Mixon for pointing this out. Mixon, principal officer of Local 507 in Cleveland, gave a speech at the Teamsters convention last year about our misguided trade policy:

Thanks to NAFTA, CAFTA and the PNTR, there are a lot of things we used to make in Ohio that we don’t make anymore. If you remember, the Etch A Sketch toys, the No. 2 pencils, Eveready batteries, Campbell Soup noodles that gets shipped in now, the Amana stoves. They call it free trade. You know what I call it? It’s bad legislation.

Today's Teamster News 03.20.12

As GOP Primaries Numb Your Brain, Congress is Up to More Tricks  Economic Populist   ...the last thing we need is yet another Wall Street gambling casino scam...
Mahlon Mitchell to run for lieutenant governor  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...Firefighter and union leader Mahlon Mitchell said he'll run against Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch in a likely recall election...
Tea Party Stands With Organized Labor On Georgia Anti-Picketing Law  Huffington Post   ...This is not a right or left issue, it is a right or wrong issue. We may not agree with the all of the politics listed in the scenarios above, but we will defend their right to speak and protest, because this is America. If we destroy the First Amendment, we cease to be a free nation...
Romney Admits GOP Education Policy is Intended to Kill Unions  crooks and liars   ...Those federal teachers unions have too much power, in some cases, they overwhelm the states, they overwhelm the local school districts. We have got to put the kids first and put these teacher's unions behind...
Unemployed To Lose Benefits In Several States  Huffington Post   ...The federal Extended Benefits program, which in states with high-unemployment rates grants claimants out of work for a long period of time a final 13 to 20 weeks of benefits, will be phased out on April 7 in Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee and Wisconsin, according to an analysis by the National Employment Law Project...
Teamsters Local 2011 Mourns Death of Florida Corrections Officer  Teamsters Local 2011   ...Teamsters Local 2011 is mourning the death of Sgt. Ruben Thomas, who was stabbed to death by an inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institution Annex on Sunday...

Unions saved the Olympics while Romney spent $1.3B federal bailout

You'll be hearing a lot more about the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics so long as Mitt Romney is running for president. Thanks to We Party Patriots for debunking the myth that Romney "saved" the games when he came in as CEO. A recent blog post notes "the story of who really broke their back to get the games going, and who kept the lights on for the world to watch, needs to be told." Here it is:

Utah’s I-15, a 17-mile highway bisecting the Salt Lake Valley that was impossibly completed in time for the 2002 Olympics by, you guessed it, union labor under a Project Labor Agreement just like the ones Romney assailed in front of the Associated Builders and Contractors yesterday. Not only did this PLA guarantee timely results, it ensured that the largest highway project Utah had ever tackled would benefit residents by hiring locally...

The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) estimated that the reconstruction of I-15 could not be completed until after the Olympics in 2002 and probably would not be done until 2004. Then Utah Governor Mike Leavitt later said, “I told [Tom Warne, Executive Director of UDOT], ‘Tom, we’ve got to find a way to do this faster. We cannot have this community torn up for nine years.’”…

Under design-build, construction could be scheduled to begin in early 1997. Contractors would be expected to work around the clock, six or seven days per week. There would be limits on how many lanes could be closed at any given time as well as how many interchanges could be closed...

In April of 2002, the I-15 reconstruction was declared the top civil engineering achievement of the year by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)...

There's more: The IBEW workers who kept the lights on during the equivalent of 10 Super Bowls every day for 10 days.
the electricians’ union, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 57, was brought on to run the electricity for the games as well:

PacifiCorp, through Utah Power, and Local 57 IBEW will be the electricity provider for the Winter Olympics....PacifiCorp and Local 57 will provide power and logistics for ten competition venues and four noncompetition venues, like the media center. So when the TV goes dark, you know we’ve got big trouble at PacifiCorp.

Over 7,000 press credentials will be issued for the 2002 Winter Olympics. And to try to put that into perspective for you, 500 press credentials are issued for a Super Bowl. And running the Olympics — and as my friends at the IBEW and Georgia Power that went through this in Atlanta — it’s similar to running ten Super Bowls every day for 17 days. Through our joint logistical committee, led by Blaine Newman, business manager of Local 57, we are working together.

Romney is also under fire for accepting $1.3 billion in taxpayer funding for the games. The Democrats have put out a video you can watch here.

Today's Teamster News 02.18.12

Risking union ire, Romney slams Santorum’s labor votes  Boston Globe   ...“I’ve taken on union bosses before, and I’m happy to take them on again because I happen to believe that you can protect the interests of American taxpayers, and you can protect a great industry like automobiles without having to give in to the UAW [United Auto Workers], and I sure won’t,’’ Romney said Wednesday....
Supreme Court blocks Montana ruling against outside group spending  CNN   ... The Supreme Court has blocked enforcement of a ruling by Montana's highest court that upholds the state's century-long restrictions on independent political spending by outside groups in election campaigns...
Why Inequality Matters: 3 Ways the Mortgage Crisis Has Undermined Our Legal System  New Deal 2.0   ...Banks are demonstrating that if you have enough money and influence, you’re not expected to follow the same laws as everyone else...
Reversing Local Austerity  New York Times   ...we could put well over a million people to work directly, and probably around 3 million once you take other effects into account, without any need to come up with new projects; just transfer enough money to state and local governments to let them return to doing the essential business of government, like educating our children...
Judge denies Walker request for extension  Wisconsin State Journal   ...A judge has denied Gov. Scott Walker's request for a two-week extension to review recall petition signatures...
Teamsters threaten to picket Ford plant as Escape production looms  Louisville Courier-Journal   ...The union fears Ford is going to hire only non-Teamsters drivers at lower wages to prepare new sport utility vehicles for shipment to car dealers...
CP Rail seeks conciliation in contract talks with Teamsters  The Star   ...Canadian Pacific Railway is asking the federal labour minister to appoint a conciliator to help push along talks with its main union...

Today's Teamster News 02.01.12

Indiana poised to enter right-to-work era as unions prep protest amid Super Bowl festivities  Associated Press   ...The Indiana Senate scheduled a Wednesday morning vote on the bill that, if passed, would be sent to Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, who has said he will sign it as soon as it arrives on his desk...
Prison privatization plan debated in Senate  Associated Press   ...Faced with opposition from Republicans and Democrats alike, Senate President Mike Haridopolos cut off debate Tuesday on a South Florida prison privatization plan that once seemed likely to be approved and now is being harshly criticized...
In Atlanta, Housing Woes Reflect Nation’s Pain  New York Times   ....In November, prices of single-family homes were down close to 12 percent compared with a year earlier, the largest decline among major metropolitan areas, according to data released on Tuesday in the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index...
Romney’s gift from Congress  Reuters   ...The idea that someone could pay zero gift taxes on contributions to a $100 million trust fund may surprise people who have heard arguments that the wealthy are overburdened by gift and estate taxes. But the Romneys’ gift-tax avoidance strategy is perfectly legal...
The Perils of 2012  Project Syndicate   ...The pragmatic commitment to growth that one sees in Asia and other emerging markets today stands in contrast to the West’s misguided policies, which, driven by a combination of ideology and vested interests, almost seem to reflect a commitment not to grow...
Norwood CertainTeed settles contract with Teamsters Local 25  Norwood Patch   ...The employees voted overwhelmingly, 69-0 to accept the contract offer and will be returning to work today with full shingle and granule production beginning at that time...