Today's Teamster News 08.31.14

Teamsters
Wage Watch: Court ruling could upend FedEx's business model  Fortune   ...In a ruling with the potential to upend the logistics industry, a three-judge panel on Wednesday decided that FedEx Ground and FedEx Home Delivery drivers are employees of the company and not independent contractors, as FedEx had characterized them...
Trade
Top TPP negotiators to meet in Hanoi for 10-day trade talks  Japan Times   ...Top trade negotiators from 12 countries will hold 10-day talks in Hanoi from Monday, aiming to clinch a broad accord on a proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership pact by the end of November...
Wake up America Champions  Trade Reform   ...Post World War II we had about 19 million people employed directly in manufacturing – a sector where producers work.  That was roughly 10% of the population.  Today there are about 330 million people living in the United States.  About 3.5% of the population makes the stuff we consume. ..

State Battles
John Ketzenberger: Right to work and unions  The Star Press   ...The Indiana Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a case Sept. 4 from Lake County that found the right-to-work law unconstitutional. Another Lake County judge ruled the law unconstitutional in July. Both decisions hinge on the "particular services" clause of the state Constitution, which states "no person's particular services shall be demanded without just compensation."...
Who's Getting a Raise? Minimum Wage Hikes Gain Steam in States, Cities  NBC News   ...“Because Congress hasn’t acted, states and cities are doing it instead; $10.10 is the new starting point...”
Michigan hourly minimum wage rises to $8.15 on Labor Day  Oakland Press   ...It’s scheduled to increase regularly over the next few years before topping out Jan. 1, 2018 at $9.25...
War on Workers
Private equity's giant collusion case is over, as Carlyle folds  Fortune   ...The plaintiffs had argued that Carlyle and its co-defendants had conspired to not bid against each other on eight large “take-private” buyouts that occurred prior to the financial crisis...
Skydiving event in memory of worker killed in propeller accident  Journal-News   ...Sarah Rhoads, 24, of Miamisburg, died after being critically injured when she accidentally walked into an operating airplane propeller this past June...
More Jobs That Pay Decent Wages: How To Fight Poverty In The United States  IMF   ...nearly 40 percent of American adults will spend at least one year in poverty by the time they reach 60. During 1968–2000, the risk was less than 20 percent. More devastatingly, 1 in 5 children currently live in poverty and, during their childhood, roughly 1 in 3 Americans will spend at least one year living below the poverty line...
The Unprecedented Failure to Regulate Citigroup Continues  Wall Street on Parade   ...Wall Street’s self-regulator, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), charged Citigroup with cheating its customers out of fair prices on preferred stock trades — 22,000 times. Citigroup was fined a meager $1.85 million, ordered to pay $638,000 in restitution, allowed to neither deny or admit the charges, and sent on its merry way to loot the next unwary investor...

Today's Teamster News 07.27.14

Trade
GOP congressman rips Chamber of Commerce and gives back award  Washington Post   ...The Chamber of Commerce is beholden to special interests and has long since forgotten the main street businesses that struggle everyday to make payroll and keep their company afloat,” said Bentivolio. “It is with great pride that I reject their award, and call on them to stand on the side of America, instead of on the side of China and corporate interests seeking to exploit people for profit....”
State Battles
ALEC Picked Up Tab for Texas Lawmakers' Junkets Common Cause ...Five Texas lawmakers have accepted more than $7,600 in corporate-funded “scholarships” to cover the cost of air fares, hotel rooms and other travel expenses to attend meetings of the American Legislative Exchange Council, (ALEC), a corporate lobbying group, according to new research by Common Cause...
Right-to-work may get new life next year WMUR ...Right-to-work, a measure that allows workers to get union benefits without joining or paying dues, could come up again in the Legislature next session, depending on what happens in the November elections...
Ohio tries to diffuse controversy over charter-school whistle-blowers Akron Beacon Journal ...he four former teachers, who worked at Horizon Science Academy Dayton from 2004 to 2013, alleged at the July 15 state school board meeting that sexual games were played by students and condoned by other educators, and surveillance footage captured students having oral sex at a school function...
Koch brothers’ new racial gambit: What’s really behind a quiet battle with AFSCME Salon ...“The Koch brothers want a government-free society,” Saunders says. “Public service has enabled African-Americans to move into the middle class, but the Kochs are trying to dismantle that...”
State to pay nearly $1.7 million to identify buildings to sell Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...The idea has been controversial, with critics saying they fear the state could make a short-term gain but a long-term loss. They fear getting rid of the heating and cooling plants could be costly because state prisons and University of Wisconsin campuses would have buy heating and cooling on the private market...
War on Workers
Federal regulators let utilities gouge customers David Cay Johnston ...Now the first in a raft of cases asserting that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is letting utilities gouge customers by setting egregiously high rates of return may finally get a hearing...
Private Equity's Free Pass New York Times ...But while private equity firms often operate like Goldman and Morgan Stanley, they are not uniformly subject to the same broker-dealer regulatory regime...
The Typical Household, Now Worth a Third Less New York Times ...The inflation-adjusted net worth for the typical household was $87,992 in 2003. Ten years later, it was only $56,335, or a 36 percent decline, according to a study financed by the Russell Sage Foundation...
NLRB ruling further expands 'micro unions' Washington Examiner ...In a case involving a Macy's department store cosmetics counter, the National Labor Relations Board on Tuesday further expanded its recent precedents allowing for so-called "micro-unions." The ruling will make it easier for unions to organize individual parts of an employer's workforce...
WHY THE ECONOMY SUCKS: Because American Companies And Their Owners Are Greedier Now Than At Any Time In History Business Insider ...Five years after the recovery began, unemployment remains high. And the Americans who are lucky enough to be working are getting paid less as a percent of the economy than they ever have in history. Meanwhile, America's corporations and their owners have never had it better...

Today's Teamster News 06.16.14

Teamsters
With strike over, SEPTA riders exude relief  Philly.com   ...SEPTA's 13 Regional Rail lines returned to normal after the one-day strike by rail engineers and electrical workers, the first in 31 years. President Obama intervened Saturday, signing an executive order to appoint an emergency board to mediate the dispute between SEPTA and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen plus the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers...
Court blocks Teamsters’ bid to thwart company sale  Business Management Daily  ...A court has ruled that the Teamsters union can’t scuttle the sale of Will Poultry, a Buffalo food distributor. The company had been looking for a buyer for three years when it finally found one. The sale agreement called for terminating all employees and allowing the new owner to determine which ones it would bring back. The new owner would not be obligated to honor the existing collective bargaining agreement or recognize the Teamsters union, which represented workers...
Trade
Financial services off the table at next round of TTIP talks  EurActive.com   ... The inclusion or otherwise of financial services in the free trade agreement negotiations is a major point of disagreement between the US and the EU. While the EU insists financial services should be included in any deal, the US Treasury has argued firmly against working with the Europeans to regulate their financial sector...
State Battles
Trade groups sue VT over GMO labeling law  Burlington Free Press   ...Four national organizations whose members would be affected by Vermont's new labeling law for genetically engineered foods filed a lawsuit Thursday in federal court challenging the measure's constitutionality...
North Carolina Treasurer, Accused of Malfeasance , Defends Secrecy of Private Equity Investments  naked capitalism   ...the current Treasurer, Janet Cowell, in her role as sole trustee for the state pension (is accused of) ... of supporting a “pay to play” system as well as failing to curb abuses and promoting a secrecy system essential to hiding them. He also estimates that her oversight failures have cost North Carolina $6.8 billion during her term in office...
War on Workers
This Is What Barely Making Ends Meet In America Sounds Like  Huffington Post   ...According to U.S. Census data, more than 7 percent of workers live below the federal poverty line, with many more above the cutoff but still struggling...
The Question on People Leaving the Labor Force is 41-Year-Olds, Not 61-Year-Olds  Center for Economic Policy and Research  ... the unemployment rate is considerably lower than would otherwise be the case because so many people have simply given up looking for work and are therefore not counted as being unemployed...
Amazon Is Planning A Way To Let You Hire Babysitters And Plumbers  Reuters   ...The move takes direct aim at consumer review sites Yelp Inc and Angie's List Inc as well as U.S. home improvement chains Home Depot Inc and Lowe's Companies Inc, which have both invested in ways to connect customers with local plumbers, painters and other service providers...
Miscellaneous
Starbucks to Provide Free College Education to Thousands of Workers  New York Times   ...Starbucks will provide a free online college education to thousands of its workers, without requiring that they remain with the company, through an unusual arrangement with Arizona State University...

Today's Teamster News 01.13.14

UPS Freight Teamsters Overwhelmingly Approve New National Contract  teamster.org   ...UPS Freight Teamsters have voted overwhelmingly to ratify a new national five-year master agreement that increases wages, significantly strengthens pension benefits and takes on the issue of subcontracting...
Ed Emery: Right to work would mean lower wages for Missourians  Progress Missouri   ...ALEC Co-Chair and State Senator Ed Emery finally admitted yesterday what proponents of so-called 'right to work' laws have long been trying to hide from the public, that the legislation would result in lower wages for the middle-class...
U.S. Politicians Want to Fast-Track the Super-Secret, Super-Controversial TPP  Slate   ...“Blindly approving or disapproving agreements that have largely been negotiated in secret would represent a derelict of duty for Congress. If there is nothing to hide in these agreements, we should be allowed to debate and amend these deals in the open...”
Ford “Know[s] Everyone Who Breaks the Law” Using Cars They Made — Why Aren’t They Doing Something About It?  The Volokh Conspiracy   ... Ford executive Jim Farley stated, in a panel discussion: We know everyone who breaks the law, we know when you’re doing it. We have GPS in your car, so we know what you’re doing. By the way, we don’t supply that data to anyone. He later retracted that...
Honeywell under investigation for Chinese-made parts in US warplanes  The Guardian   ...The US Justice Department is investigating export and import procedures at Honeywell International Inc after the firm included Chinese parts in equipment it built for the F-35 fighter jet, three sources familiar with the matter said...
All December Job Gains Went to Women  New York Times   ...Women gained, on net, 75,000 jobs in December; men lost, on net, 1,000 jobs. This was the first time since December 2007 that a month’s job gains were captured entirely by women...
West Virginia chemical spill causes huge disruption for residents  Associated Press   ...Frustration is mounting for many of the 300,000 West Virginia residents who have gone without clean tap water since a chemical spill on Thursday. Business owners with empty dining rooms and quiet aisles of merchandise around West Virginia's capital city were left to wonder how much of an economic hit they will take from the spill...
Meet Freedom Industries, the Company Behind the West Virginia Chemical Spill  Bloomberg Businessweek   ...State records in West Virginia show that a man named Carl L. Kennedy II joined Gary Southern in forming the company years ago. A well-known restaurant owner and man-about-town in Charleston, according to the Gazette, Kennedy is a twice-convicted felon. The paper reported on Sunday that he pleaded guilty in federal court in West Virginia in 2005 to tax evasion and was sentenced to three years in prison, a penalty that was reduced after he agreed to wear a wire and make controlled cocaine buys in a separate investigation...
Data Breaches: Target, Neiman Marcus  Credit Slips   ...We don't know all of the details about what happened at Target and Neiman Marcus, but there's a really obvious weakspot in the US payments infrastructure that should be corrected, irrespective of whether it would have prevented the Target and Neiman Marcus breaches:  the use of two-factor authentication, namely chip-and-PIN cards, which are standard outside the US and have been effective in reducing fraud...
Surveillence of Citizens Is ALWAYS Aimed at Crushing Dissent  Washington Blog   ...Much of the political surveillance of the 1960s and the 1970s and of the period going back to World War I consisted in efforts to identify organizations that were critical of government policies, or that were proponents of various causes the government didn’t like, and to gather information on their adherents...
Private equity and Washington: A love story  Politico   ...This month alone, former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) signed up with Chicago-based Victory Park Capital in an advisory role, while recently departed former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski joined PE giant Carlyle Group. Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will begin full time at Warburg Pincus as president in March...
CN Rail says beavers, rain to blame for Burnaby derailment  CBC News   ...CN Rail has completed its initial investigation into the derailment of nine coal cars in Burnaby, B.C., Saturday morning, and says that heavy rain and the workmanship of beavers are to blame...
Economic Prosperity and Economic Democracy: The Worker Co-Op Solution  Truth-Out   ...Workers' self-directed enterprises (WSDEs) are a response to capitalism's failure to deliver economic prosperity and socialism's failure to deliver economic democracy...
You're Likely Eating Seafood That Came into the US Illegally (And Here's Why That's Really Bad)  Alternet   ...The Marine Mammal Protection Act mandates that all seafood imported into this country be accompanied by proof that it was caught using methods no more harmful to marine mammals than those used by U.S. fisheries. Unfortunately, the National Marine Fisheries Service has never enforced that provision of the law...

Today's Teamster News 04.09.13

U.S. Border Patrol Uniforms Manufactured in Mexico  CNS News   ...U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has granted uniform contracts to VF Imagewear, Inc., an apparel company that relies on manufacturing sites in Mexico for a “significant percentage” of its occupational garments...
The Koch Brothers War On Renewable Energy Is Killing Jobs and Destroying Our Air  Politicususa   ...ALEC is at Koch’s beck and call to grind out templates for Republicans to fill in to kill renewable energy standards in 28 states, as well as keep the money flowing into their coffers from the Kochs...
Critics question investment fund's Sacramento rental venture  Sacramento Bee   ...The giant New York investment fund – with its global portfolio of shopping malls, the Weather Channel and Motel 6 – owns nearly 10 times as many rental homes in Sacramento as any other private landlord, along with thousands of other homes across the nation...
Some 30,000 households a month have power supply cut  Ekathimerini   ...About 1,000 electricity connections are cut every day in Greece as Public Power Corporation customers are increasingly unable to pay their power bills on time, while accumulated debts to the country’s electricity giant stood at more than 1.3 billion euros at the end of 2012. This is not only due to the economic crisis that has eaten into household incomes, but also to the special property tax paid via power bills...
UPS Appeals Decision Blocking TNT Express Takeover  NY Times   ...LONDON — United Parcel Service has appealed a recent decision by European antitrust authorities that blocked its $6.7 billion takeover bid for the Dutch shipping company TNT Express...
State Supreme Court limits union rights in Texas  Statesman   ...Unionized government workers in Texas — including firefighters, police and teachers — don’t have the right to be accompanied by a union representative while being questioned during internal investigations, a divided Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday...
‘Right’ and Wrong (opinion) Toledo Blade   ...if lawmakers didn’t violate the letter of the open-meetings act, they violated its spirit by shoving this highly controversial law through a lame-duck session without a committee hearing or anything that could pass for a real debate....
'Right-to-Work' Bills Die in Committee  Mainebiz   ...Two bills intended to reduce a union's ability to collect dues were defeated in a legislative committee's party-line vote Friday. The Bangor Daily News reported that the Legislature's Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee voted ...
Bobby Jindal Pulls Tax Plan After Outcry  Talking Points Memo   ...Lousiana Governor Bobby Jindal (R) is pulling a plan to replace the income and corporate tax with a new sales tax amid an outcry from groups ranging from clergy to business lobbyists...
Red Cross’ Teamsters ratify new contract  Boston Herald   ...The American Red Cross Massachusetts Blood Services Region received notification yesterday that employees represented by Teamsters Local 25 have voted to ratify a new three-year contract, officials said...
Teamsters Speak Out About National Express  Drive Up Standards   ...Teamster school bus drivers with Durham School Services and Teamster representatives recently traveled to the United Kingdom to call on National Express Group to honor the human rights of its workers in North America. Durham is a subsidiary of National Express, a multinational transportation company headquartered in Birmingham, England...
Teamsters to Observe Workers’ Memorial Day – April 28  IBT   ...The Teamsters Union, and trade unionists around the world, recognize April 28 as Workers' Memorial Day — a day of remembrance and action for workers killed, disabled, injured or made unwell by their work. To help mark this important day, the Teamsters are providing resources to help with the planning of activities at local unions and workplaces...

Today's Teamster News 01.04.13

The Walmart Revolt  In These Times   ...at a time of growing unrest among low-paid workers, the Walmart campaign could help the labor movement take a giant leap forward...
2012 ends strongly for manufacturing sector  manufacture this   ...Despite hitting a 40-month low in November, manufacturing activity not only rose, but expanded in December, concluding the year with a positive sign of growth...
An Eyes Wide Open Look at U.S. Manufacturing  Trade Reform   ...“The fate of the U.S. economy will be decided in the next four to five years. The question is: Do we continue on the course to becoming a third-world country, importing finished goods and exporting raw materials, or will we rebuild our manufacturing base and once again become the premier industrial leader?”...
Japan plans 'nationalisation' of factories to save industry  The Telegraph   ...Japan's government is to take the unprecedented step of buying factories and machinery directly with taxpayer funds, the latest in a series of radical steps to lift the country out of its deep slump...
Small business recession explains poor sentiment  Sober Look   ...after a gradual recovery since 2009, US small business revenues have been consistently declining for most of 2012. Recent declines have lasted for 9 consecutive months … and are visible across all major industries...
The Big Fiscal Cliff Deal Winners: Hedge Fund And Private Equity Moguls  Forbes   ...hedge fund and private equity moguls will continue to be taxed relatively lightly after the new fiscal cliff legislation...
At $250B, costs of occupational injury and illness exceed costs of cancer   Economic Policy Institute   ...Occupational injuries and illnesses are overlooked contributors to the overall national costs of all diseases, injuries, and deaths...
Lost day: NHL, union don't meet Thursday for full bargaining session  The Republic   ...Any momentum gained from a long night of negotiations between the NHL and the players' association seemed to have been lost Thursday when the sides remained mostly apart...
State inks deal to privatize S. Fla. inmate health care  Tampa Bay Times   ...Gov. Rick Scott's administration announced Thursday the state has signed a contract with a Pennsylvania based company, Wexford Health Sources, to outsource all medical care to more than 15,000 inmates in several South Florida prisons...
United Natural Foods, Teamsters to hold dispute talks  just-food.com   ...United Natural Foods and the Teamsters trade union will hold fresh talks as customers voice disquiet over the ongoing worker strike in Washington state...

Romney donor bankrupts companies, endangers workers

Mitt Romney insulted 47 percent of Americans for freeloading off the government while at the home of a multimillionaire who freeloads off the government.

No doubt you heard by now of the secret video in which Romney dumped on nearly half of U.S. citizens because they didn't pay income taxes during the Great Recession. (Note: They paid plenty of other taxes.)

Romney was speaking at a fundraiser hosted by Marc Leder, notable for hosting sexy parties and making 25 companies go bankrupt in four years. Leder founded Sun Capital, a private equity firm called out last year for destroying economic value, undermining worker safety and destabilizing communities. (Read the report here.)

Sun Capital threw tens of thousands of employees out of work, endangered lives, and fobbed its pension obligations onto the federal government.

Quick history: Sun Capital Partners in 2006 formed Emerald Performance Materials, a chemical company, after a series of acquisitions. The workers at Emerald's plant in Henry, Ill., then joined the Teamsters because they believed Sun Capital's cost-cutting was dangerous. Safety standards had eroded, a worry for workers who handle such toxic chemicals as sulfuric acid, formaldehyde, methyl cyanide and caustic soda.

The Teamsters Capital Strategies Department reported last September that:

...management locked out 42 workers on March 27, 2011, leaving them with no jobs and no health insurance for nearly six months. The workforce was locked out after they rejected daunting and unsustainable cuts coupled with continued degradation of health and safety conditions, including a 30-percent cut in average pay, slashed vacation and overtime pay, outsourcing of the quality control lab, and elimination of the health and safety operator position.

Memo to Mitt Romney: Locking people out of their jobs makes it less likely they'll be paying income tax.

But more about Marc Leder's despicable business practices at Sun Capital:

• Sun Capital and partners bought  Mervyn's department stores in 2004 through a leveraged buyout. They loaded the company with debt and stripped the retail chain of its real estate assets. In just 4 years, 30,000 jobs were destroyed. 
• Sun Capital bought Jevic Transportation in 2006. Less than two years later, Jevic shut down, fired 1,200 workers and filed for bankruptcy. "Truck drivers were left on the road with no way to get home and, for some, their final check bounced. Health insurance coverage was stopped almost immediately for the drivers and their families. One driver had to stop chemotherapy treatment for cancer and died less than three months later."
• Sun Capital bought British kitchen and bath company Homeform in 2007. Four years later, Sun Capital laid off most UK employees with no notice. They lost up to 6 weeks of accrued pay and other benefits.
• Sun Capital bought March supermarkets in 2006; in February 2010 it was charged by the NLRB with breaking federal labor law by "threatening, intimidating, interrogating and coercing workers to discourage them from forming a union; two employees were fired for union activity."

Balloon Juice reminds us of Sun dumping pension obligations on the government, from a New York Times story earlier this year.

Among the losers was Friendly’s, the restaurant chain known for its Jim Dandy sundaes and Fribble shakes... 

FOR more than 28 years, Helen Smolak worked at the Friendly’s in Denham, Mass. Day in and day out, she served Big Beef Burgers and Fribbles, collected tips and made a decent living. 

All that changed one evening last October. That was when Ms. Smolak’s supervisor called to tell her the restaurant was shutting down — immediately. 

“It was my family. That was my home,” said Ms. Smolak, 56. “Friendly’s always came first. I was supposed to retire with these people and with this company.” 

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the federal agency that helps safeguard corporate pensions, wasn’t so sure. It accused Sun Capital in bankruptcy court filings of using the bankruptcy to shift Friendly’s pension burden onto the agency.

Another Sun Capital affiliate then bought Friendly's mere months after it had offloaded its pension obligations onto the taxpayer. Dean Baker writes,

...in an unusual move, PBGC accused Sun Capital of fraud and announced that it will fight Sun Capital's attempt to stick US taxpayers with the bill. PBGC objects to what appears to be a transparent effort by Sun Capital to take advantage of the bankruptcy process to abandon pension obligations while continuing to keep its ownership of Friendly's.

And about those parties ... the New York Post reported,

It was as if the Playboy Mansion met the East End at a wild party at private-equity titan Marc Leder's Bridgehampton estate, where guests cavorted nude in the pool and performed sex acts, scantily dressed Russians danced on platforms and men twirled lit torches to a booming techno beat. 

The divorced Sun Capital Partners honcho rented a sprawling beachfront mansion on Surf Side Road for $500,000 for the month of July. Leder's weekly Friday and Saturday night parties have become the talk of the Hamptons -- and he ended them in style last weekend with his wildest bash yet... 

...the revelry hit a frenzied point the next day before midnight when a male guest described as a "chubby white meathead" and a "tanned" female guest stripped and hopped into the pool naked. 

"The guy hopped in first in his briefs and the girl standing on the perimeter of the pool took her top off," a witness said. "The next thing you know, her bra is off. Then she took her bottom off and was butt-naked and jumped in the pool." 

Another attendee said, "They were in the pool swimming together. Then they started making out." Multiple witnesses say the naked pair continued their show outside the pool and performed sex acts on a chair in front of astonished guests.

None of this sounds elegant to us.

Today's Teamster News 09.03.12

N.Y. attorney general opens probe into private equity firms, including Bain  Associated Press   ...Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman is examining whether the firms used a tax strategy to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes. The practice involved converting some fees collected for managing accounts into fund investments, resulting in a tax rate of 15 percent instead of 35 percent...
Labor tries to soften image with 'hug a union thug' booth in Charlotte  The Hill   ...In Charlotte, people will be asked to “hug a union thug” at a CarolinaFest booth sponsored by the North Carolina State AFL-CIO the day before the Democratic National Convention officially begins. Also in honor of Monday, videos are being posted online thanking workers while actors and athletes will use Twitter to express support for union rights...
New labor law pinches unions  Post-Tribune   ...It’s only been about six months since Indiana legislators passed the so-called right-to-work bill and already its adverse effects are being felt at the union hall and negotiating table, according to union leaders and labor experts...
Union angst at Supervalu  Star-Tribune   ...As the big grocery company puts itself up for sale, its 80,000 union workers wonder what the future holds...
U.S. Steel, USW union reach tentative labor deal  MarketWatch   ...The United Steelworkers said late Sunday that the union has reached a tentative agreement on a three-year contract with United States Steel Corp. X +0.67%  covering more than 16,000 workers at its U.S. facilities...
Teamsters leader shaped by Lincoln County  Charleston Gazette-Mail   ... Every day is Labor Day for the working-class Lincoln County boy who rose to the second highest post in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a success story that amazes even the man who lived it...
Teamsters local beefs up presence in parade and new headquarters  Akron Beacon Journal   ...Teamsters Local 24 President Travis Bornstein talks about their new office location at Rolling Acres Mall in Akron...

Today's Teamster News 08.09.12

Chinese telecoms giants are taking over the world. Should we be scared?  informed comment   ...Huawei is not yet a household name in the UK – for one thing, there is confusion over how to pronounce it – but the Chinese telecommunications giant is spreading its reach around the world. But accompanying its global expansion are worrying whispers of covert surveillance and espionage...
Mitt Romney Started Bain Capital With Money From Families Tied To Death Squads  Huffington Post   ...The sitting U.S. ambassador to El Salvador charged that several families, including at least one that invested with Bain, were living in Miami and directly funding death squads...
For Unpaid College Loans, Feds Dock Social Security  Smart Money  ...From January through August 6, the government reduced the size of roughly 115,000 retirees' Social Security checks on those grounds. That's nearly double the pace of the department's enforcement in 2011; it's up from around 60,000 cases in all of 2007 and just 6 cases in 2000...
Report: Low-Wage Jobs Are Flooding Florida  Florida Center for Investigative Reporting   ...Florida is poised to become a state of mostly low-wage and/or low-skilled jobs. Experts have noticed that as the state sees jobless numbers decrease, a lot of the new jobs tend to be low-skilled jobs that pay less than the jobs they replace...
Privatization of Voting Machines Threatens Wisconsin Election Integrity  Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative   ...In Wisconsin, as elsewhere in the nation, there has been a concerted push by corporate interests to eliminate the public counting of votes. This privatization of our election processes has been advanced by laws and rules...
Teamsters Take On TPG, Again  Wall Street Journal   ...The Teamsters Union and TPG Capital LP are locked in a labor dispute once again. For the second time in less than two years, the Teamsters are threatening a TPG-backed company with the threat of a walkout over contract negotiations following an acquisition by the private equity firm...

Teamsters expose chemical company’s OSHA violations

We all know how private equity firms swoop in, buy up companies and plunder them until there's nothing left. Worker safety is often one of the first things to go.

Well, Teamsters at Nexeo Solutions – a chemical distribution company purchased by private equity firm TPG Capital – protested a hazardous materials seminar run by the company in Salt Lake City today. They distributed leaflets explaining how Nexeo's is endangering its workers and the public.

According to the press release,

Since private equity titan TPG Capital took over Texas-based Nexeo, the company has been the subject of safety complaints and has agreed to pay thousands of dollars to settle with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for mishandling hazardous chemicals.

OSHA cited Nexeo’s warehouse in Tewksbury, Mass., for subjecting employees to hazardous conditions “likely to cause death or serious physical harm.” Employees were “exposed to fire hazards created by the incompatible storage of flammable liquids and organic peroxides,” the agency

Nexeo’s new TPG owners aren’t just cutting corners when it comes to safety:

TPG’s corporate raiders have also loaded Nexeo with $600 million in debt to inflate its investment returns. It also slashed Nexeo workers’ pension and insurance plans, threatening employees’ retirement security and health.

Teamsters work at Nexeo facilities throughout the country. Business agent Neil Messino at Local 705 is outraged that the company would put peoples’ lives at risk:

“It is unconscionable that Nexeo’s new owners would be taking such risks with people’s livelihoods. Our members and the communities that surround Nexeo facilities deserve better.”

Once again, Teamsters are on the front line in the fight against bosses who put greed over public safety and fairness for workers.

-- Union Thug

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.

Today's Teamster News 05.30.12

Flat U.S. Wages Help Fuel Rebound in Manufacturing  Wall Street Journal   ...The celebrated revival of U.S. manufacturing employment has been accompanied by a less-lauded fact: Wages for many manufacturing workers aren't keeping up with inflation...
A revalued Chinese currency would benefit U.S. economy  Manufacture This   ... the U.S. Department of the Treasury released its “Semi-Annual Report to Congress on International Economic and Exchange Rate Policies.”  The report did NOT cite China as a currency manipulator...
War hero, 91, targeted in Florida's purge of voter rolls  Stars and Stripes   ...Using an American war veteran as the face of their cause, two South Florida congressmen called on the governor Tuesday to immediately stop the state’s purge of the voter rolls...
MJS Report Says Scott Walker is at the Heart of Criminal Corruption Probe  The Lakeland Times   ...A breaking investigative report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel suggests that Scott Walker is at the heart of the John Doe criminal corruption probe that has charged six Walker associates with 15 felonies. The report discusses an email exchange between Walker and longtime adviser, John Hiller, over a County contract that is under investigation for potential bid-rigging...
Conservatives fast tracked CP Rail back-to-work bill  City News   ...Back-to-work legislation that will end a week-long strike by CP Rail workers was put on Parliament's equivalent of a red-eye bullet train...
Teamsters Demand US Small Business Administration Cut Ties with Private Equity Fund Westbury Partners  GCC-IBT Local 1-L   ...Today, dozens of Teamsters, construction workers and community members protested outside the Small Business Administration's regional office in downtown Manhattan calling on the federal agency to pull its investment from private equity firm Westbury Partners in response to ongoing workers' rights violations and anti-union activity at its portfolio company AFL Web Printing...

Today's Teamster News 02.23.12

The “Can’t Find Workers” Meme  Columbia Journalism Review   ...These young folks don’t want to spend a lot of money and time training to do a specific job they might not get only to get laid off when some private-equity slicks (where the real money’s at) buy out the company and ship the jobs to China...
WikiLeaks: Saudis often warned U.S. about oil speculators  McClatchy   ...Saudi Arabia suspected that "speculation represented approximately $40 of the overall oil price when it was at its height."...
Chinese Open First Car Plant in Europe  Der Spiegel   ...Just as the Japanese and Koreans did decades ago, Chinese automakers are hoping to gain strong positions in the longer term in the Western European and United States markets...
Do-Over Season  New York Times   ...Is there really a chance that the Supreme Court might reconsider Citizens United? A week ago, I wouldn’t have thought so, and I still think it’s an extreme long shot. But a provocative statement last Friday by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer makes this crazy idea worth pondering – which is undoubtedly what the two justices intended...
Wisconsin GOP Attempts to Ram Through Special Interest Mining Bill  PR Watch   ...Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald are pushing for radical changes in Wisconsin’s current mining law to benefit a single out-of-state company...
Clients Continue Exodus as Nuveen Investments Seeks Another Billion Dollar Refinancing, Teamsters Say  IBT   ...As Nuveen Investments seeks to refinance $1.1 billion in debt – just barely a year after the firm's last billion dollar refinancing – the International Brotherhood of Teamsters is urging clients carefully to consider the firms suitability as an asset manager in light of its highly leveraged financial condition, as well as its oversight and control by private equity owners Madison Dearborn Partners...

Romney's Bain problem: Teamsters know all about it

Teamsters well know what happens when a private equity company takes over a profitable business. The private equity company siphons as much cash as it can from the business, fires its workers and then drives it into the ground.

That's pretty much what Mitt Romney did as CEO of Bain Capital -- before he became a politician 18 years ago.

Don't take our word for it. Here's what Bloomberg reported:

A Bloomberg News review of several Bain deals during Romney’s tenure found that not all of Bain’s investments were beneficial for workers. Several ran into trouble, dismissing hundreds of workers, filing for bankruptcy or facing lawsuits from shareholders who said they were misled by management.
One such example was Dade Behring Inc., a Deerfield, Illinois-based medical-testing company, where Bain cut at least 1,600 jobs after taking over the company.

People who've actually worked in finance criticize the private equity industry as a whole. Zero hedge, for example, shows how private equity deals (aka leveraged buyouts, or LBOs) destroy companies by loading them up with debt, firing as many workers as possible and then kicking them to the curb:

Moody's has compiled a useful report, entitled "$640 billion & 640 days later: how companies sponsored by big private equity have performed during the U.S. recession." The track record is simply abysmal: Of the top 10 deals, only Hertz, HCA and First Data are considered "stable" which is actually saying a lot ("stable" by Moody's means these firms are likely about to have an alien burst out of their ribcage). ...Therefore one can say that virtually all of the blockbuster LBO deals are on the verge of collapse/bankruptcy/default/insolvency, etc.

Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa wrote a terrific takedown of private equity firms in The Huffington Post last year. He's what he wrote,

...when financial services firms actually undermine our society's goal of economic growth, they should not be granted favors, privileges or protections. And now that tax season is over, it's a good time to remind people that private equity firms that destroy productive companies should not receive special tax treatment.

But they do. Private equity fund managers pay a much lower tax rate than ordinary Americans.

A loophole in the tax law lets them treat most of their income as capital gains, and so they pay a 15 percent tax rate on those gains. That's less than half the 35 percent rate that ordinary Americans pay on income from their paychecks.

And that's wrong. Private equity firms don't deserve special tax treatment because they choke economic growth by wrecking healthy companies.

They do it by draining a company's cash so it can no longer afford to pay decent wages, buy new machinery, invest in technology or compete in the marketplace. Nearly half of all companies owned by private equity firms in 2009 were on the verge of collapse, default or insolvency, according to Moody's Investor Service.

Fast-buck artists KKR, CD&R push IL Teamsters to strike at US Foods

Chaz is right. No one wants to strike, but US Foods in Streator, Ill., forced our Teamster brothers to take action yesterday. Maintenance workers went on strike, and drivers and warehouse workers refused to cross the strike line. Hundreds of Teamsters at US Foods facilities are expected to show solidarity, too. 

Things have been nasty at US Foods ever since it was bought by fast-buck artists KKR & Co. and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice four years ago. They looted the company of as much cash as they could even as they waged a vicious war on their own workers. In Boston, US Foods took $900,000 in government tax subsidies, then had the stones to close a massive new union facility. They cut 114 good union jobs in Boston and shipped the work to out-of-state facilities.

@longhairedfool from Boston tweets of his bitter experience with the company:

Worked there 28 yrs since it was MonarchFood, then JP foodservice used to be a great place to work they cared about us then

Support you from Boston South!!!bastards locked us out and closed. STAY STRONG!!

these are the bastards who tried to exclude active military members from severance when shutting us down#Teamster

Under the corporate predators KKR and CD&R, union and non-union workers were harassed and intimidated throughout the country. In Streator, management refused to bargain in good faith -- and then retaliated against the bargaining committee. They tried to take away workers’ ability to honor picket lines if a sister facility struck. They tried to freeze the pay of drivers and warehouse workers. They demanded unprecedented increases in health care costs. The company's unfair labor practices finally pushed the maintenance workers from Local 722 into a strike.

It goes on and on. In Reno, Nev., U.S. Foods refused to bargain with Teamsters Local 533. They tried to force workers to accept a substandard agreement that would have undercut the standard set by Sysco. They forced workers to accept potentially unlimited health care cost increases and drastically expanded management’s right to change working conditions.

In Arizona, Region 28 of the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint of almost 200 unfair labor practices. The NLRB said the conduct of U.S. Foods prior to a union election in Arizona was “so serious and substantial that the possibility of erasing the effects…by the use of traditional remedies is slight.” In May 2009, U.S. Foods agreed to recognize the union, hire back 14 illegally fired workers, and provide more than $163,000 to 22 workers who had faced discrimination.

They've tried the same thing against workers trying to join a union in Ohio, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and California.

In Alabama, the company interfered with workers' rights to join the Teamsters -- including firing a non-union worker for supporting a Teamsters organizing drive, holding anti-union meetings, printing ugly anti-union lies and making implied threats about jobs and pay.

In Florida, the company hired Ogletree Deakins, a pricey union-busting law firm, to illegally interfere with workers' rights to join a union.  
 
Read more at the new US Foods website, US FoodsWorkers.org.

Today's Teamster News 10.30.11

Occupy Oakland: inspiration, frustration at return  San Francisco Chronicle   ...Dozens of new tents sprang up outside Oakland City Hall on Friday, a sight that encouraged some Occupy Wall Street supporters but infuriated others, who expressed frustration at the city's about-face on the encampment...
'Occupy' demonstrators battle wind and cold as storm moves in  CNN   ...Demonstrators encamped in a Lower Manhattan park faced New York's first snow storm of the season Saturday without the benefit of propane tanks and generators that they had been using to cook food and keep warm...
Why the latest eurozone bail-out is destined to fail within weeks  The Telegraph   ...the responses of our politicians to recent financial troubles – hiding behind complexity and kicking the can down the road – have not only failed to temper the volatility, but have actually made it much worse...
Qantas Fleet Grounded for Second Day  New York Times   ...A series of labor disputes has hit the airline, the world’s 10th largest, as employees have voiced concern about jobs being moved out of Australia...
Teamsters Protest Madison Dearborn's War on Workers  IBT   ...More than 100 members of the Teamsters Union, UNITE HERE, Occupy Chicago and religious and community supporters rallied in downtown Chicago today to protest private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners’ bad values and its disregard for American workers...
FL Teacher Faces $1000 Fine for Registering Students to VOTE!  Daily Kos   ...Mrs. Cicciarelli helps her senior class EVERY year with the paperwork to preregister for the voting rolls. But she was on maternity leave in the spring when the Legislature passed a a new voter suppression law that, among other things, requires third parties to register with the state before they help sign up new voters...
Poll: Majority don't like Walker's performance, but state residents split on recall  Wisconsin State Journal   ...Some 56 percent of those polled disapprove of Walker's performance. But only 47 percent want to recall him, compared to 49 percent who don't - a statistical tie...

VIDEO: Mitt Romney, job creator (NOT)

Just watch. It's interesting not only because it reveals that Romney's firm got a $10 million government bailout, but it includes a good 'splainer about the evils of private equity firms -- something Teamsters are dealing with all over the country.

Today's Teamster News 02.11.11

Privately, Public Employees See Cuts as Inevitable  New York Times   ...many also acknowledge that the world they have known and the assumptions they have built their lives on are crumbling before their eyes...
Public-worker unions ready to fight GOP proposals The Columbus Dispatch   ...Senate Republicans unveil plans to eliminate collective bargaining for state workers and significantly weaken local union power. The response from unions was immediate and furious...
Walker to cut union rights in budget  Associated Press   ...he will propose removing nearly all public employee collective bargaining rights to help plug a $3.6 billion budget hole...
Democrats fight Gov. Christie's plan to privatize N.J. government functions  nj.com   ...by calling for a change in the state constitution to put a short leash on agencies that want to hire private firms...
In China, Tentative Steps Toward Global Currency  New York Times   ...Now that it has passed Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy after the United States, China is considering the next step as a world power: making its money a global currency...
Tyson Settles U.S. Charges of Bribery  New York Times   ...When top executives of Tyson Foods discovered that the company’s Mexican chicken plants were paying bribes to government inspectors, they not only allowed the practice to continue, they formed a committee to find a more acceptable way to make the illicit payments... 
Court Revives Suit Over Blackstone I.P.O.   New York Times   ...A Federal Court of Appeals reinstated a lawsuit that accuses the Blackstone Group of inadequately disclosing information in its initial public offering documents...
UPS Says It Is Still Lobbying On Labor Issue, Clarifies Stance  Wall Street Journal   ...it continues to lobby lawmakers to support a labor provision opposed by rival FedEx Corp. (FDX), in an about-face from previous comments by a UPS spokesman...
YRC Worldwide starts up an iPhone app  Kansas City Business Journal   ...If customers of YRC Worldwide Inc.’s YRC subsidiary want to track their shipments but aren’t at their computers, there’s now an app for that...
Pilot union leadership endorses labor pact with Memphis-based FedEx  The Commercial Appeal   ...Union leaders have endorsed a tentative labor agreement between FedEx and its pilots...

Lots of Toxic Toys Still Sold at Toys R Us

Toys R Us is STILL selling toys that can cause cancer and brain damage -- even though they promised two years ago to phase out toys containing lead or phthlates. They also promised to offer more toys that aren't made of PVC.

Guess what -- Toys R Us is still selling plenty of toys made of PVC. Chemicals that can cause learning disabilities, cancer and birth defects were found in toys featuring Buzz Lightyear, Dora the Explorer, Spongebob Squarepants, Batman, Mickey Mouse and more.

You can tell your elected representative in Washington to protect American children by reforming the Toxic Substances Control Act. Here's how.

You might want to mention to your senator or congressman that a report released today said that tests showed seven of nine Toy Story 3 toys were made of PVC. Of 60 randomly chosen toys at Toys R Us, most had chemicals that indicated PVC and only one had a label.  The report lists the toys found to have dangerous chemicals.

Tom Keegel, the Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer, took aim at KKR, the private equity firm that owns Toys R Us. "We don't want you poisoning our kids with toxic toys," he said today in a news conference. "We won't let you profit from poisoning kids at Christmas."

The report was sponsored by the Teamsters Office of Consumer Affairs and  the Center for Health, Environment & Justice.

Today's Teamster News 11/04/10

Republican House Could Re-energize Trade Talks New York Times ...lawmakers with a strong interest in trade would have leading roles in the next Congress...

Fed Fires $600 Billion Stimulus Shot Wall Street Journal ...The Federal Reserve...said it would buy $600 billion of government bonds...to drive down interest rates and encourage more borrowing and growth...

Emerging-Market Countries Criticize Fed Decision New York Times ...the Federal Reserve('s) decision ... they fear ...could escalate the worrisome influx of cash into fast-growing economies around the world...

A Lull in Deals, IPOs, Hits KKR's Earnings Wall Street Journal ...Private equity firms are finding it harder to rack up big gains...

Drugs Seized in Tunnel Near Border New York Times ...the discovery came after officals found 10 tons of marijuana in a tractor-trailer at a freeway checkpoint Tuesday afternoon...

The sad tale of the Democrats who hated the unemployed Salon ...nearly all of them were rewarded with early ... retirement from public service...