Today's Teamster News 06.01.15

Teamsters
Strike at Del. soft drink distributor slows soda flow  Delaware Online  ...A nearly two-week strike by workers at a soft drink distribution center in New Castle shows no signs of ending soon, leaving some stores running low on certain brands of soda and bottled water. "The last offer the company put forward didn't have any of the changes the workers were looking for," said Joe Smith, president of Teamsters Local 326, which represents the striking workers...
Tracy Morgan Settles In Fatal Tractor-Trailer Crash As House Works To Make Highways More Dangerous  Think Progress  ...Whether its pay-per-mile, sleep rules, or the physical arrangement of a truck, the FMCSA’s job is to create a system that addresses those lowest common denominators — but the regulator won’t be free to do so if the current House transportation funding bill becomes law...

Global Labor & Trade
Obama's Trade Agenda Faces Tougher Odds Heading Into House  Associated Press  ...After several near death experiences in the Senate, the trade agenda that President Barack Obama is pushing as a second term capstone faces its biggest hurdle yet in the more polarized House. Anti-trade forces have struggled to ignite public outrage over Obama's bid to enact new free-trade agreements, but Democratic opposition in Congress remains widespread...
House trade vote will be tight, like in 2001  Politico  ...House Republicans hoped to avoid a replay of the gut-wrenchingly close vote on fast track trade legislation that took place in 2001, but stiff Democratic opposition makes it likely history will repeat itself. The bill is expected to hit the floor in coming weeks, but with a number of Democratic and Republican votes still up in the air, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy was non-committal on Friday about the exact timing...
Obama Seeks Rare Business Support  Wall Street Journal  ...President  Barack Obama, who frequently has tussled with corporate America, now is relying heavily on an array of large U.S. companies to help enact a major Pacific trade deal. From Hollywood studios to drug makers and manufacturers, such as  Caterpillar Inc.,  some major American companies are lending key support in the complicated push to negotiate the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership...

Obama’s Trade Deal Faces Bipartisan Peril in the House  New York Times  ...The bruising battle over President Obama’s push for the power to negotiate two potentially far-reaching trade pacts will shift this week to the House, where the White House faces entrenched opposition from Democrats and the stirring of rebellion from the Republicans’ right flank...
Arguments for TPP don’t make sense  (opinion) Boston Globe  ...It is absurd to imagine that TPP could wrest China — soon to be the world’s largest economy — from a preeminent role in Asia. The United States is far more likely to buttress its influence in Asia by leveraging rising Chinese prosperity and working with China than by ignoring it or attempting to bypass it...
Obama is no progressive: Why Teddy Roosevelt is grousing in his grave  (opinion) Salon  ...Given that reality, insisting that “TPP will end up being the most progressive trade agreement in our history” – in the most benevolent interpretation — is at best an attempt to engage in focus-grouped wordsmithing. Ultimately, Mr. Obama leaves no other conclusion than that at heart he is an unabashed corporatist, protecting the interests of large corporations...
The Limited ''Victory'' Won by Mexican Farm Workers  Truthout  ...The farm workers of the San Quintin Valley have gotten the federal government to commit to facilitating negotiations for a wage hike, the central demand of the more than 80,000 agricultural laborers in this region of Baja California. But Lucila Hermandez, a spokesperson for the movement, warns that the agreement is still not a clear victory...
Network Rail strike talks to go into fourth day  BBC  ...Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union members are set to hold a 24-hour strike from 17:00 BST on 4 June and a 48-hour strike from 17:00 BST on 9 June. On Thursday the union rejected a fresh pay offer by Network Rail. Both sides have been talking with conciliation service Acas since Friday...

State & Living Wage Battles
Will Connecticut Go Robin Hood on Low-Wage Bosses?  The Nation  ...Call it a Robin Hood Tax for big-box stores: take from the rich to give to the poor, by forcing companies that pay unlivable wages to support the public benefits that impoverished workers need to survive. According to one economic assessment, the “true cost” of low-wage jobs in Connecticut amounts to some $486 million per year paid through various public welfare programs. So the logic goes, the most heavily state-subsidized companies should pay their fair share...
Texas Lawmakers Are Busy Making It Harder to Vote  Truthout  ...One measure (HB 1096) that would make it more difficult for voters to confirm their residency recently cleared the House. Another bill approved by the Senate (SB 1934) would eliminate nonexpiring photo identification cards for the state’s senior citizens. Because unexpired photo IDs or IDs that have been expired no more than 60 days are required to vote, this change would make it even harder for Texas seniors to get their ballots counted...
An American workplace war that's reached a tipping point  CNBC  ...With Wisconsin's adoption of so-called right-to-work legislation earlier this year, 25 states now prohibit mandatory union dues, and with legislation being pushed in several more states, the right-to-work movement is talking about a national "tipping point"...
Kansas Republicans Finally Consider Changing Course On Their ‘Tea Party Experiment’  Think Progress  ...Republicans in Kansas, facing a $400 million budget hole due to tax cuts pushed by Gov. Sam Brownback, are now finally considering raising taxes to compensate for the shortfall. Legislators are considering rolling back an exemption on nonwage income for small businesses they passed a few years ago and replacing it with a 1 percent tax credit...

U.S. Labor
If You’re In A Nail Salon In New York, You’ll Now See A Workers’ Bill Of Rights On The Wall  Think Progress  ...All nail salons in New York City will now be required to display a “manicurists’ bill of rights” that’s easily visible to both employees and customers — the latest attempt from city officials to crack down on the rampant labor abuses in the industry detailed in a recent New York Times investigation...
California Walmart Workers Go on Hunger Strike After Stores Closed in ‘Retaliation’ for Organizing  In These Times  ...With tents and sleeping bags in tow, workers set up camp outside a Los Angeles Walmart this week and held a one-day fast to protest the corporation’s retaliation against their organizing. Walmart recently closed five stores, including one in Pico Rivera, California, where workers were especially active in OUR Walmart, the Food and Commercial Workers-backed effort to boost standards at the retail giant...
NLRB Certifies USW Representation for Workers at Golden Dragon Copper  PR Newswire  ...The United Steelworkers (USW) today said that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has certified the union as the exclusive bargaining representative for production, maintenance and warehouse workers at Golden Dragon Copper. In a very close, secret ballot election conducted on Nov. 7, 2014, workers at Golden Dragon voted in favor of USW representation, even after outsiders, including Gov. Robert Bentley, campaigned against the union...
Elizabeth Warren Gets Job Security and the Uber-ization of the Economy Completely Wrong  Alternet  ...Her remarks in response to moderators talking about the rise of Uber-style contract-based part-time work were less inspiring. She dismissed these concerns as primarily about technology, not the nature of work, and then later failed to answer a question asking if Uber-style contract workers should be classified as full-time employees, which would give them greater rights...

Miscellaneous
Foreclosed nation: Wall Street, the dispossessed & the quality of American democracy  Salon  ...Why has the continued crisis of dispossession not been treated as a national emergency? Given the scale of the foreclosure crisis, the policy response has been muted. Congress and the Obama administration have repeatedly rejected demands for a national moratorium on mortgage foreclosures. Legislators in several states introduced foreclosure moratorium bills, but few states enacted them...
Emergency bridge repairs to snarl Virginia-to-D.C. traffic  Daily Kos  ...There are 61,000 structurally deficient bridges in the United States, but transportation is on the long list of things congressional Republicans refuse to invest in. A two-month bill extending the Highway Trust Fund recently passed, but two months of funding makes it more than a little difficult to do long-term planning and investment...

Tax breaks for workers instead of CEO bonuses? Sounds like a plan

Here's a plan to get behind: Fix the U.S. tax code so it rewards people who work instead of CEOs who loot their companies.

The U.S. tax code is truly a disaster. It lets billionaire Warren Buffet pay a lower rate of taxes than his secretary. It gives corporations tax breaks for giving their  shipping jobs overseas and giving CEO's huge bonuses. Between 2007 and 2010, U.S. corporations claimed $66 billion in tax deductions because they gave bonuses to their CEOs and top executives.

No wonder the gap between rich and poor is getting so great in the United States. Of the developed countries, only Chile is more unequal. Mexico, Estonia, Brazil, Slovenia and Greece are just some of the countries where people are more equal than they are in the United States.

Congressional Democrats have some good ideas to change the tax code to reward workers instead of people who are already wealthy.

Here's one: The CEO Paycheck Fairness Act. It says corporations cannot continue to take unlimited tax deductions for their CEO and executive bonuses unless they're giving their workers raises for increasing productivity -- and to keep up with the cost of living.

The legislation would let corporations deduct up to $1 million for executive salaries -- but not if they cut workers pay or lay people off. It's very simple. No raises for workers, no tax breaks for corporate bonuses.

As U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, a House Democrat, said earlier this week,

If the tax code can be used to provide preferences for corporate jets and for racehorses, surely we can use the tax code to incentivize corporations to give their employees pay raises or invest in apprenticeship programs that result in better skills and bigger paychecks. 

It's such a good idea that Congressional Republicans are blocking it already. House Speaker John Boehner's flack tweeted:

The last thing we need is a new trillion-dollar tax hike added to the current broken tax code.

What he's referring to is the Robin Hood tax that the Democrats would use to pay for workers' tax breaks. The Robin Hood tax would not affect workers themselves. It would affect high-rollers on Wall Street.

The Robin Hood tax is a teensy little tax on Wall Street's speculative financial transactions. It would raise

Our brothers and sisters at National Nurses United are solidly behind the Robin Hood tax. So are Nobel Prize-winning economists, former US Vice Presidents, founders of Microsoft, Ronald Reagan’s Budget Director, the UN’s Secretary General and the Archbishop of Capetown.
Here's how they explain it:

This small tax of less than ½ of 1% on Wall Street transactions can generate hundreds of billions of dollars each year in the US alone. 

Enough to protect American schools, housing, local governments and hospitals. Enough to pay for lifesaving AIDS medicines. Enough to support people and communities around the world – and deal with the climate challenges we're facing. 

It won't affect ordinary Americans, their personal savings, or every day consumer activity, such as ATMs or debit cards. It's easy to enforce and tough to evade. 

This is a tax on Wall Street, which created the greatest economic crisis in our nation, and globally, since the Great Depression. The same people who have returned to record profits and bonuses while ordinary Americans, the 99%, continue to pay the price of their crisis.

There's another advantage to the Robin Hood tax: It will discourage high-speed trading, which contributes to the instability of the financial system.

Sounds like a plan. A good one.

Nurses rally around country for Robin Hood tax on anniversary of MLK's death

Our sisters (and brothers) at National Nurses United honored Dr. Martin Luther King's memory on Friday by rallying around the country for a tax on Wall Street.

Rallying for the Robin Hood tax in Chicago

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., kicked off the rally in Washington, D.C., one of 24. Ellison is sponsoring a bill that would impose a sales tax on Wall Street speculative trading. He calls it 'The Inclusive Prosperity Act.' You might know it as the Robin Hood Tax. Ellison said it would create hundreds of billions of dollars a year for communities in need. The bill would also discourage the high-frequency trading that rigs the system in favor of insiders and against small investors.

People sometimes forget Dr. King died in the cause of economic justice -- supporting Memphis sanitation workers during a strike. Friday was the anniversary of his assassination.

The nurses' blog about their rallies around the country tells us:

Rev. Rodney Sadler, Moral Monday leader, speaking in DC

Vigils to honor Dr. King’s legacy, and call for enactment of HR 1579 were also held at Congressional offices in 24 cities from coast to coast, and letters of support delivered to Congress members at 44 other offices this day as well. 

In Washington, Bill Lucy, president emeritus of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, who was with King in April, 1968, stood today outside the Capitol with Ellison remembering King and calling for passage of the Ellison Bill.   

"The Inclusive Prosperity Act really is a vehicle to continue the work of Martin Luther King Jr.," said Lucy.  "The sanitation workers of Memphis wanted decency and dignity," he remembered.   "Keith Ellison wants economic fairness.  I applaud him."

There's a reason nurses are the ones who've taken up this cause: They view America as their patient, according to Sandy Falwell, RN, a national vice president of National Nurses United. She said,

Registered nurses are on the front lines of this calamity as many of the patients we care for in hospitals around the country are coming to us with multiple illnesses aggravated by poverty and a delay in seeking care because they simply cannot afford it. They have to choose to eat or get health care. Too many people in this country are forced to choose whether to take medications or try to pay their rent, and in a country such as ours with such tremendous wealth, this is unconscionable.