Banks screwing students the way they screwed homeowners

Once again, family finances are in danger from big banks.  Thousands of students with loans are complaining their student loan companies are breaking laws in the same way mortgage servicers did during the foreclosure crisis. That's according to a newly released Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) report that warns of increased fees and financial trouble to come:

Many of the private student loan complaints mirror the problems heard from consumers in the mortgage market following the wake of the financial crisis.

In the past year, CFPB received 3,800 complaints from student loan borrowers. Eight servicing companies received 87 percent of the complaints, including Sallie Mae, Wells Fargo, Citi and JPMorgan Chase.

Lenders pay other companies, called servicers, to process loans.  These subcontractors make the least money when people pay back the loan on time -- and the most when people are struggling, since the subcontractors keep all of the late fees for themselves.

CFPB's report suggests a pattern of lawbreaking by student loan servicers. And why not? Wall Street saw how profitable foreclosing on families was.  Although millions of Americans lost their homes due to criminal behavior, banks were just handed tax-deductible fines and banned from messing with the housing market like that again.  But the student loan market remained open -- and  too-big-to-fail banks knew they could get away with it again.

As David Dayen points out in Salon: 

the past performance of regulators on mortgage servicing has been pretty toothless. And that’s why student loan servicers believe they have a license to steal.

Here's what the student loan services are up to, according to the CFPB report:

• Violating the Truth in Lending Act by charging student lenders fees for prepaying their private student loans. 
• Forcing military borrowers -- including those in combat zones -- to resubmit unnecessary paperwork and then charging higher interest rates when they can't come up with the paperwork.
• Making it too complicated and difficult for most struggling graduates to refinance their loans.

It's no surprise over 14 percent of 2010 graduates defaulted on their loans within three years. Without reform and actual enforcement of lending laws, the default rate is only going to rise.  We just wonder why this is still legal.

Today's Teamster News 10.05.13

Wegmans, Teamsters to talk  Democrat & Chronicle   ...Following Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy’s plea for resolution, Wegmans Food Markets and Teamsters Local 118 representatives have agreed to return to negotiations October 11...
Sikorsky union rep prepares workers for furloughs  San Francisco Chronicle   ...Rocco Calo is angry, but even as head of Teamsters Local 1150 that represents employees at Sikorsky Aircraft, he cannot do anything to prevent the furlough of 2,000 workers from the expansive plant that manufactures helicopters for the U.S. military...
Labour dispute drags on at Richmond Ikea  Canadian Labour Reporter   ...There is no end in sight for the labour dispute between the Richmond, B.C., Ikea and its union, Teamsters Local 213. The two parties even disagree on what to call the dispute — the union refers to the past 70 days as a lockout while the company is calling it a strike...
The Loss of U.S. Pre-eminence (opinion)  New York Times   ...The United States won its global predominance in a short period … Now the groundwork has been laid for its decline with political polarization, a longstanding tax revolt and a well-orchestrated campaign to undermine the legitimacy of the federal government...
Government Close Down - Another Grand Betrayal in the Works?   The Real News   ...is the outcome here not that (Obama)  gives up on health care, but he gives another important concession somewhere else, and then everybody calls it a victory--Obama saved health care, but the Republicans actually get some other big cut ... in the social safety net…?
Washington’s Z-Burger Shuts Down Shutdown Special  Wall Street Journal   ...The chain Z-Burger, which has been offering free burgers to furloughed workers, said it has ended the  promotion, citing overwhelming demand in the first three days of the government shutdown. Peter Tabibian, Z-Burger’s owner, said the chain gave out 15,840 hamburgers during the promotion, the equivalent of more than $88,000 at retail prices...
"A Corporate Trojan Horse": Obama Pushes Secretive TPP Trade Pact, Would Rewrite Swath of U.S. Laws  Democracy Now   ...While the text of the treaty has been largely negotiated behind closed doors and, until June, kept secret from Congress, more than 600 corporate advisers reportedly have access to the measure, including employees of Halliburton and Monsanto...
Obama Cancels Trip to Asia Trade Summit as Elected, Labor and Business Leaders Detail TPP Trade Pact Problems  Public Citizen   ...President Obama has now announced that due to the government shutdown, he will not be attending the summit next week in Indonesia that his administration had (mis)identified as a deadline for concluding the long-lingering negotiations for the sprawling Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) "trade" pact...
Why are Nurses at Vanderbilt Medical Center Cleaning Bathrooms? Health care's Fight Between Labor and Capital  Portside   ...Hospital budget cuts became viscerally visible earlier this month when Vanderbilt Medical Center announced that nurses must now perform housekeeping duties - cleaning patients' rooms and bathrooms...
Adobe Hacked: Cyber-Thieves Accessed Credit Card Information Of Nearly 3 Million Customers   Associated Press   ...Adobe Systems Inc. said a cyber attack on its systems has exposed credit-card information of 2.9 million customers. The maker of Photoshop and other software said Thursday that the attacker accessed Adobe customer IDs and passwords on its systems...
CFPB Pledges To Enforce Consumer Protection Laws Over Mandatory Payroll Cards  MintPress News   ...Mandatory payroll cards force employees to consent to a bank fee structure as a condition of employment, ranging from $1.75 to $7. In other words, making the workers pay to be paid. And the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants to put a stop to that type of abuse…
Michigan turns down idea of prison privatization  WIN 98.5 News   ...It’s hard to say yet what it could mean for the future of prisons in the state, but the Michigan Department of Management and Budget on Thursday declined to put prisoners in a privately run correctional facility after bids came in at nearly $6 million over the state's current cost...
Illinois Says Banks to Improve Loan-Modification Process  Bloomberg News   ...Bank of America Corp. and the four other biggest U.S. mortgage servicers will put in place new procedures to improve the process for borrowers to seek loan modifications, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said...
As Missouri Lt. Gov. digs in on Right to Work policy, unions mobilize to fight  PR News   ...With state lawmakers in Missouri back in session, the Show-Me state is once again front and center in the controversial Right to Work battle...
MBTA, union sue over arbitrator's pay award  Associated Press   ...Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority management and the union representing some workers have filed dueling lawsuits in a dispute over an arbitrator's award that would increase workers' salaries by an average of more than 10 percent...
Government Shutdown Reduces OSHA Inspection Force by More Than 90 Percent  Bloomberg News   ...The Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration furloughed more than 90 percent of its inspectors as a result of the Oct. 1 shutdown of the federal government, leaving the agency with only enough personnel to respond to the most serious workplace emergencies...

Today's Teamster News 10.04.13

Teamsters Across Washington Support Local Grocery Store Workers  teamster.org   ...The Joint Council of Teamsters No. 28, which represents more than 50,000 members and their families across Washington, Alaska and Northern Idaho, says it will honor a grocery worker strike if one occurs...
Agreement reached with public works, police talks go on  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette   ...Public works and parks employees, who are represented by Teamsters Local 249 in Pittsburgh, have reached a contract with the borough of Franklin Park, Pennsylvania...
Report Suggests Commercial Waste Management Reform  Epoch Times   ...“Growing up, jobs in the sanitation industry were good paying jobs with good pension plans. Now the majority of private owners pay very low wages and little in benefits. Many break the most basic health and safety regulations,” said Sean Campbell, a former garbage truck driver and current president of Teamsters Local 813...
Corporate Profits Are Soaring, But You're Not Feeling It  Huffington Post   ...real wages have declined by nearly seven percent in the past seven years, while, corporate profits have increased by 18.6 percent over the past year...
Democrats Balk at Obama’s Fast-Track on Pacific Trade  Bloomberg News   ...Some Democrats in Congress, whose support Barack Obama needs for trade accords, want to put the brakes on a Pacific-region deal just as the president prepares to meet with leaders of nations drafting the pact...
Sorry Charlie? American-made tuna claim questioned  manufacture this   ...”Foreign flag vessels, using who knows what gear type, no traceability, canned in Samoa. Hilarious..."
FMCSA Taking Comments on Mexican Truck Program Applicant  Transport Topics   ...The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is allowing the public to comment on an application by Transportation and Cargo Solutions S de RL de CV to participate in the Mexican cross-border trucking pilot program...
Thousands march to mark anniversary of infamous Mexico City protest  AFP   ...Protesters clashed with riot police in Mexico City, leaving dozens injured as thousands of people marched to mark the anniversary of the 1968 massacre of students...
Happy 100th Birthday Income Taxes! Or How the Rich Have Gamed the System to Pay a Smaller Share  AlterNet   ...October 3 marked the 100th anniversary of the federal income tax. That is, the income tax that we have today – the first US tax raised on earned incomes was a temporary one imposed to help pay for the War of 1812. Another helped pay for the Civil War, but was allowed to expire in 1872...
Google and ExxonMobil run rings around outdated tax laws  The Conversation   ... ExxonMobil (has a) ... Spanish subsidiary (that) operated for a while from the same address as its auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers. The Spanish company apparently had one employee on an annual salary of €55,000, but it reported net profits of €9.9 billion for the period 2009 to 2011. The key to this was a strategy designed to take advantage of Spanish laws for attracting foreign investment...
Coal Use Falling, Proof of Progress to Low-Carbon Future  Oil Price   ...The vehemence in this pace of growth has led the IEA to project that coal consumption will challenge oil as the top global energy source by 2017. From this point, however, its reign will wane as an increasing emphasis is placed on other more clean-burning fuels...
Now the Government Shutdown Is Stopping Blood Drives  Mother Jones   ... in just two days, four federal agency blood drives scheduled by one DC-area health care system have been canceled. The regional Red Cross has had to cancel six others in the Washington region...
The Republican Hardliners Aren't Conservatives, They're Radicals  The Atlantic   ...The legislators driving the direction of the GOP aren't interested in smart, limited government. They're aiming to eviscerate even the parts that work well...
NSA director admits to misleading public on terror plots  Salon   ...The Vermont Democrat then asked the NSA chief to admit that only 13 out of a previously cited 54 cases of foiled plots were genuinely the fruits of the government’s vast dragnet surveillance systems...
Treasury Says Mere Prospect of Default May Harm Economy  New York Times   ...The debt-limit impasse could cause credit markets to freeze, the dollar to plummet and interest rates to rise precipitously with catastrophic effects, according to a Treasury Department released Thursday...
Apple now hoards 10% of US corporate cash  Money Control   ...After the technology sector, the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry is the next most cash-flush sector, according to Moodys. Pfizer for example, is sitting on a USD 50 billion cash pile...
BP wins appeal of spill claims ruling  Associated Press   ...A federal appeals court on Wednesday revived BP’s claims that a judge’s interpretation of a settlement over its 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could force the company to pay billions of dollars for bogus or inflated claims by businesses...
Florida prison healthcare providers sued hundreds of times  Miami Herald   ...The Florida Department of Corrections awarded a five-year, $1.2 billion contract to provide medical care for thousands of state prisoners in North and Central Florida to a Tennessee company that was sued 660 times for malpractice in the past five years...
New RTW Battles in Michigan and Ontario  Democracy Tree   ...Two new right-to-work threats to report: one in Michigan against the non-union, dues-based State Bar of Michigan, and another across the border in Ontario. Michigan attorneys are firing back against the shadowy forces behind RTW. The Koch brothers should be warned: Don’t piss-off 43,600 lawyers...
Detroit residents cope with bankruptcy in daily lives  USA TODAY   ...Here are some far-reaching effects of the city’s lack of operating funds on both its citizens and workers...
Trade unions rail against non-union worksite  Philadelphia Inquirer   ...Philadelphia Trade unions have taken their dispute with developers Michael and Matthew Pestronk to a new level, producing a sleek documentary that accuses the brothers of safety and health violations at their signature project, the unfinished Goldtex building...

Today's Teamster News 06.21.13

One million march across Brazil in biggest protests yet  Reuters   ...An estimated 1 million people took to the streets in cities across Brazil on Thursday as the country's biggest protests in two decades intensified despite government concessions meant to quell the demonstrations...
Warren on Trans-Pacific Partnership: If people knew what was going on, they would stop it  Raw Story   ..."If transparency would lead to widespread public opposition to a trade agreement, then that trade agreement should not be the policy of the United States...”
Emails show Detroit emergency manager enjoys perks while taxpayers foot bill   Click On Detroit   ...Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr is promised a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week security team staffed by Michigan State Police officers...
Illinois state workers to see pay raises, but no backpay  Associated Press   ...Gov. Pat Quinn's administration on July 1 will start paying the wage rate that was promised to thousands of unionized government workers in 2011 and 2012, although Illinois lawmakers didn't approve extra funding for back wages owed, officials said Wednesday...
Scaled-back 'Equal Pay for Women Act' to cover Louisiana state workers  Times-Picayune   ...Gov. Bobby Jindal has signed into law a version of the Equal Pay for Women Act that applies only to state workers. While provisions in Louisiana's Constitution already prohibit discrimination based on gender for government employees, state workers are nonetheless welcoming the effort to reiterate the need to ensure equal pay for equal work...
Who's Getting All Those Tax Breaks?  Courthouse News Services   ...Gov. Jerry Brown urged lawmakers to overhaul California's 27-year-old business incentive program, which he says has cost taxpayers $4.8 billion and is shrouded in secrecy...
Nevada attorney general says report shows more work required by mortgage servicers   Las Vegas Review-Journal   ...Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto said a recent report shows that more work needs to be done by the largest U.S. mortgage servicers, who are failing to comply with several key aspects designed to regulate how struggling homeowners are treated.

Rhode Island: Disabled students forced to work in sweatshop conditions   World Socialist Web Site   ...The US Department of Justice, the State of Rhode Island, and the city of Providence reached an interim settlement regarding a school for developmentally disabled students who had been forced to work for as little as 14 cents per hour...
Wisconsin justice's spouse head of union-busting law firm  Center for Public Integrity ...A Wisconsin Supreme Court justice is preparing to hear the appeal of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Gov. Scott Walker’s union-busting law, despite the fact that her husband is the president of a law firm that helps employers keep their workplaces “union-free.”...
Arizona Gov. Brewer signs election overhaul bill  Associated Press   ...Gov. Jan Brewer signed a sweeping election bill Wednesday that will overhaul the early voting process in Arizona and make it more difficult for third-party candidates to get on the ballot...
Teamsters Local 237 Endorses Bill Thompson  Capital New York   ...After endorsing Mayor Michael Bloomberg four years earlier, Teamsters Local 237, which represents public housing and other municipal workers, endorsed Democratic mayoral candidate Bill Thompson Thursday…
Mobilize, Energize and WIN! Program Scheduled August 13-15   IBT ...Teamsters Local 667 in Memphis, Tennessee, is hosting a Mobilize, Energize and WIN! Program on August 13-15, 2013. This three-day intensive training will go beyond the basic internal organizing model and focus on developing an action plan that will engage members in activities, such as organizing, preparing for contract negotiations, fighting anti-worker legislation, and building support for grievances...
Vote Count For UPS, UPS Freight Contracts Set To Begin  IBT   ...Ballots for the UPS and UPS Freight contracts were picked up from the post office yesterday and are currently being sorted...
Saluting the “Solid Six”  IBT   ...They call themselves the “Solid Six.” These six Teamster school bus drivers at Durham School Services’ Milton yard in Santa Rosa County, Fla., wear their pride on their backs. Their shirts say, “Solid Six,” because they are six organizing committee members who stood strong during a very difficult anti-union campaign...
Australian Transport Giant Toll Group Re-Launches Anti-Union Crusade On Its American Workforce On The East Coast   IBT   ...U.S. workers responsible for safely hauling loads out of Toll Group’s New Jersey facilities filed charges with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), alleging that their Australian-based employer Toll Group is interfering with their right to form their union...

Today's Teamster News 06.15.13

America's private prison system is a national disgrace  The Guardian   ... in a recent lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of prisoners at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility (EMCF)...the ACLU contends, the facility, which is operated by private contractors, is rife with horrific abuses...
New Report: How the U.S.-EU Trade Deal would Grant Sweeping Corporate Privileges  Public Citizen   ...Report after report has indicated that the massive U.S.-EU deal is on shaky ground now that the NSA spying scandal has fueled European privacy concerns and botched the hopes of U.S. telecommunications firms to use the deal to downsize data privacy protections...
Senator Warren Presses White House to Release Pacific Trade Text  Bloomberg Business Week   ...President Barack Obama’s administration should release documents the U.S. and 10 other Pacific-region nations are using as they negotiate a new trade agreement, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said...
Another reason to love Costco: better prices for generic prescription drugs   Deseret News   ...Not only does Costco pay its workers decent wages, Los Angeles Times reporter David Lazarus recently reported that Costco's drug prices consistently came in well below those of other leading pharmacies…
Google lambasted over tax avoidance in the U.K  MarketWatch   ...Google Inc. has aggressively avoided paying corporation tax in Britain and its reputation won’t be restored until it begins to pay what is due, a U.K. parliamentary committee said Thursday, in the latest sign that governments around the world are stepping up scrutiny of the tax affairs of multinational firms...
NSA snooping: Facebook reveals details of data requests  BBC News   ...Facebook received 9,000-10,000 requests for user data from US government entities in the second half of 2012...
BofA Gave Bonuses to Foreclose on Clients, Lawsuit Claims  Bloomberg News   ...Bank of America Corp. (BAC), the second-biggest U.S. lender, rewarded staff with cash bonuses and gift cards for meeting quotas tied to sending distressed homeowners into foreclosure, former employees said in court documents...
IT FINALLY COMES OUT: Elite Traders Are Getting Access To Data Before Everyone Else  Business Insider   ...Time after time ahead of major news, there seems to be someone who knows something before it happens — there seem to be trades that hit too hard and fast before the news is actually made...
Banks Slow to Clean Up the Mortgage Mess  CNBC   ...After multiple enforcement actions, lawsuits and multibillion-dollar settlements, state and federal regulators are making sluggish progress in their efforts to prod banks to help mortgage borrowers...
More unpaid interns file lawsuits against employers for pay   Los Angeles Times   ...There are tens of thousands of interns during the summer time, asked to make coffee and shuffle mail for little to no pay, all for a line to add to their resume. But the unpaid internship is under assault, at least in New York, where employment lawyers are filing lawsuit after lawsuit against media companies over unpaid internships – and winning...
MT task force will address wage gap for men and women state workers  KXLH News   ...On Thursday, Governor Steve Bullock signed an executive order establishing a task force to address the issue of the wage gap between men in women in Montana's work force, and they'll be starting internally first...
Connecticut attorney general taking layoff ruling to Supreme Court  Middletown Press   ...Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen vowed Thursday to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that said former Gov. John G. Rowland's administration violated unionized state employees' constitutional rights when he laid off 2,800 of them in 2003...
School district approves raises  News-Leader   ...The Springfield (Missouri) school board approved four 2013-14 collective bargaining contracts during its study session on Tuesday that includes across-the-board pay hikes for employees, including workers represented by Teamsters Local 245...
Stagehands End Protest, Deal Struck with Brookhaven Amphitheater  Port Jefferson Patch   ...Theatrical Teamsters Local 817 and Long Island Stagehands Local 340 IATSE have reached an agreement for their members after protesting outside Brookhaven, New York's Pennysaver Amphitheater...
Peace Wapiti bus drivers to fight mandatory retirement  Peace Country Sun   ...Senior bus drivers with the Peace Wapiti School Division (PWSD) who are represented by Teamsters Local 362 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, are taking a stand against the division’s controversial retirement policy...
L.A. City Council and film industry again clash over green bike lanes  Los Angeles Times   ...The L.A. City Council and the film industry are once again on a collision course over a green-colored bike lane downtown, which has been a bone of contention with location scouts and filmmakers, who complain that bright green color makes it harder to film movies set in a different era along the street and to continue L.A.'s long tradition of playing other cities....

Today's Teamster News 09.02.12

The slowdown is spreading around the world  The Economist   ...The most perturbing aspect of the current slowdown is that the weakness is so widespread, affecting emerging economies as well as rich countries...
Still No Justice for Mortgage Abuses (opinion)  New York Times   ...The economy will not recover and justice will not be done unless and until the mortgage mess is resolved...
The era of cheap food may be over  The Guardian   ...Farmers have been getting more efficient, increasing the yields of land under production, but this has been offset by two negative factors: policies in the US and the EU that divert large amounts of corn for biofuels and poor harvests caused by the weather...
OOPS: Mitt Romney Calls United States A ‘Company’  ThinkProgress   ...Paul Ryan and I understand how the economy works, we understand how Washington works, we will reach across the aisle and find good people who like us, want to make sure this company deals with its challenges...
Isaac Victim Loses Home; Says Mitt Told Her to Go Home and Call 211  Crooks and Liars   ..."He just told me to, um, there's assistance out there," Chiarello said of her conversation with Romney. "He said, go home and call 211." That's a public service number offered in many states...
Hostess hits Workers with Ultimatum  The Indypendent   ...Management at bankrupt Hostess products - maker of Twinkies, cupcakes, Wonder Bread and other baked goods - hit its unions, notably the Teamsters and the Bakery Workers (BCTGM), with a "last, best and final" offer ultimatum on August 16...
Coast Gears: Teamsters Labor Day weekend car show  First Coast News   ...Teamsters Local 512 held a Labor Day weekend car show and cookout at its Lane Avenue location on the Westside Saturday...