Is your 'representative' a feudal serf for rich people?

Dale Schultz is a rare bird: a reasonable Republican in Wisconsin's state Legislature.

So of course he's retiring.

In 2011, Schultz was the only Senate Republican to vote against job-killer Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's Act 10, which sparked the 2011 Wisconsin protests. Schultz said he intended to offer a compromise amendment to the bill, but Walker misled him into leaving the Senate chamber. (No shock there.)

The Daily Page praised Schultz recently for fighting attempts to eradicate Wisconsin's public school system, commenting,

His affability, his seriousness about crafting good public policy and his sense that his job is to represent his constituents, not out-of-state business interests, puts Schultz badly out of step.

Schultz alluded to Wisconsin's notorious stink tank, the Bradley Foundation, which is pushing ALEC's pro-corporate school agenda.

And in a line that should be carved in stone over every statehouse door, Schultz said,

"When some think tank comes up with the legislation and tells you not to fool with it, why are you even a legislator anymore?" he asks. "You just sit there and take votes, and you're kind of a feudal serf for folks with a lot of money."

Sadly, that describes a lot of our state lawmakers these days. Want to find out if your state legislator is a feudal serf for some rich guy? Check it out at the ALECExposed website here.

Today's Teamster News 12.20.13

Teamsters And Fired Taylor Farms Workers Mount Unfair Labor Practice Strike, Demand Respect For Immigrant Workers  teamster.org   ...Today, Teamster members and fired Taylor Farms workers launched a one-day Unfair Labor Practice strike in protest against gross workers’ rights violations being committed by Taylor Farms at its facilities in Tracy, Calif...
D.C. Taxi Drivers Achieve Major Victory: Passenger-Console Deadline Extended  teamster.org   ...Due to the strength and unity of the Washington, D.C. Taxi Operators Association, affiliated with Teamsters Local 922, the Washington, D.C. government has extended the passenger-console deadline from Dec. 1, 2013 to Jan. 15, 2014...
Get Ready for the 2014 Trade Tsunami  Public Citizen   ...In the first months of 2014, Congress will decide whether it will maintain its constitutional authority over trade or succumb to White House and corporate demands to give away its power to save us from more damaging “trade” deals...
Report Suggests NSA Engaged In Financial Manipulation, Changing Money In Bank Accounts  techdirt   ...Governments should not use their offensive cyber capabilities to change the amounts held in financial accounts or otherwise manipulate the financial system...
The State Policy Network's Cozy Relationship With Big Tobacco  truthout   ......The State Policy Network (SPN), a web of right-wing "think tanks" in every state across the country, has close ties with the tobacco industry…SPN, its member affiliates, and SPN-related entities such as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the Heritage Foundation, and the Cato Institute,  continued to receive funding from the tobacco industry that has continued through at least 2012, according to Altria/Phillip Morris documents…
New Commodity Trading Rules Good for Big Oil  oil price   ...The move by banking and securities regulators to ban proprietary trading at financial institutions could put an end to Wall Street’s dominance in the commodity hedging game, giving greater advantage to oil majors, but make it difficult for smaller oil and gas producers to lock in future prices to mitigate risk, industry experts say...
Ted Mitchell, Education Dept. Nominee, Has Strong Ties to Pearson, Privatization Movement  The Nation   ...As the administration continues to reshuffle its team, and confront new regulatory challenges, some view Mitchell’s nomination as a move towards greater privatization. In the coming months, the Department of Education will release “gainful employment” rules to rein in for-profit colleges, an experiment in proprietary education that many see as an unmitigated disaster...
Economic Opportunity Is Lowest In the Republican Bible Belt, Major Study Finds  Alternet   ...virtually all of this nation’s class-rigidity still remains in the U.S. South, even after the Civil War. New Dixie has replaced the aristocracy’s black slaves of Old Dixie, by the local (white) aristocracy’s institutionalized bigotry against poor people, now of all ethnic groups...
After Bangladesh Factory Collapse, Bleak Struggle for Survivors  New York Times   ...while the Rana Plaza disaster stirred an international outcry — and shamed many international clothing companies into pledging to help finance safety improvements in other Bangladeshi factories — the people most directly affected are still living without any guarantees of help or financial compensation...
Credit Shouldn't Be A Barrier for Job Seekers (opinion)  teamster.org   ...Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) unveiled legislation this week that would prevent employers from discriminating against potential hires who have poor credit...
Quest to restrict union fees targets 3 new states  Associated Press   ... Buoyed by recent successes in the Midwest, conservatives and business groups are targeting at least three additional states for new efforts that could weaken labor unions by ending their ability to collect mandatory bargaining fees...
Zoeller asks Supreme Court to restore right to work law  NWI Times   ...he Indiana Supreme Court has begun receiving written arguments over whether Lake Superior Judge John Sedia correctly ruled the state's 2012 right-to-work law unconstitutional...
OH judge says efficiency not good case for cameras  Associated Press   ...An Ohio judge rebuffed an argument Thursday that traffic cameras make law enforcement more efficient, stating sharply that violating motorists' rights isn't the American way...

Today's Teamster News 11.21.13

Cook County Corrections Officers Vote to Remain Teamsters  teamstersjc25.com   ...Officers at the Cook County Department of Corrections voted last week to remain members of Teamsters Local 700, the strongest union in Cook County...
Why Port Truckers Are Striking: 12-Hour Shifts, Noxious Fumes and $12.90 Paychecks  In These Times   ...The drivers have filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board charging that the company retaliated against them for pushing forward with a drive to join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
Wall Street Boom Doesn’t Lessen Workers’ Gloom  teamster.org   ...A key Wall Street indicator, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, crossed above 16,000 for the first time this week. But for Teamsters and other working Americans concerned about economic security, the news meant damn near nothing...
CEOs With Massive Retirement Fortunes Push Social Security Cuts  The Nation   ...“I find it hypocritical to see CEOs sitting on massive retirement fortunes of their own saying that the solution to the country’s fiscal challenge is to put an even greater burden on retirees, many of whom already struggling,”...
Inequality is (Literally) Killing America  The Nation   ...“The lower people’s income, the earlier they die and the sicker they live,”...
Fact Check: Social Security Does Not Increase the Deficit  Alternet   ...Bought politicians and pundits continue to spread nonsense about America's best-loved program...
Poll: Voters want Social Security expanded, not cut  Salon   ...A new poll from the Democratic-aligned Public Policy Polling (PPP) and MoveOn.org has found that by overwhelming margins, voters want Social Security expanded — not cut...
Meet the Koch funded “stink tanks” that are influencing policy  Salon   ...By disguising corporate propaganda as legitimate research they're pushing a hard-right agenda...
In an Attack Ad, an Alaskan Voter Is Really an Actress From Maryland  New York Times   ...In a tough new advertisement from the Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity, an unnamed woman looks directly into the camera and upbraids Senator Mark Begich, Democrat of Alaska...
Gov't finds merit in labor claims against Wal-Mart  Associated Press   ...Federal officials said Monday they are prepared to file formal complaints against Wal-Mart for allegedly violating the legal rights of protesting workers last year...
How can you study when you can’t eat? The invisible problem of hunger on campus  Salon   ...Thousands of students around the country are homeless or hungry, and their classmates and colleges might never know...
David Beats Goliath!: How the Little Guy Beat A Mega-Corporation  AlterNet   ...Target publicly announced it would “ban the box” on all its employment applications nationwide. This is great news for hundreds of thousands of job seekers across the country who have criminal histories, people who, in this economy, need access to jobs more than ever...
Man claims Bank of America gave him heart attack, files lawsuit  WSOC-TV   ...A man is suing Bank of America claiming the bank gave him a heart attack. He said their mistake caused him stress and he collapsed in a local branch and had to be rushed to the hospital...
US to advise Puerto Rico on economy  Associated Press   ... The U.S. government is sending a team of federal officials to help Puerto Rico manage an economic crisis as the U.S. territory braces for its eighth year of recession...
Hundreds of Chinese workers protest after Microsoft Nokia deal  Reuters   ...Hundreds of workers shouted slogans on Wednesday outside a Nokia factory in southern China to protest against what they called nfair compensation after the company sold its mobile telephones business to Microsoft Corp...
The reality of hungry schoolchildren  EnetEnglish   ...Based on a sample of 16,000 (Greek) households last year, research funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation found that 60% faced food insecurity, while 23% were experiencing food insecurity accompanied by hunger...
Supreme court prosecutor says former finance minister should face criminal charges  EnetEnglish   ...Former finance minister George Papaconstantinou should be tried by a special court over his handing of the so-called Lagarde list of over 2,000 suspected Greeks with undeclared cash deposits in a Swiss bank, a supreme court prosecutor recommended on Wednesday...
Japan Pitches Its High-Speed Train With An Offer To Finance  New York Times   ...They are trying to bring a maglev train to the crowded Northeast Corridor that will cruise between New York and Washington at more than twice the 150-mile-an-hour top speed of Amtrak’s Acela, the fastest train in the United States. Maglev trains could make the journey in an hour, compared with just under three hours, on a good day, for Acela...
Anheuser-Busch provides relief to tornado victims  Packaging Digest   ...Anheuser-Busch is providing 2,156 cases of emergency drinking water-or 51,744 cans-for use by residents affected by the recent storms in Washington, Pekin and East Peoria, IL...
Utah town forgets to hold election — again  Salt Lake City Tribune   ..."Wallsburg never advertised or prepared for an election this year, so no one signed up," said Wasatch County Clerk Brent Titcomb. "They’re going to have to appoint the current mayor and council for two more years and they’ll advertise and have people elected [in 2015]."...
Detroit accused of exaggerating $18bn debts in push for bankruptcy  The Guardian   ...A Demos thinktank report ... lays the blame for the city's woes at the feet of falling revenues, Wall Street banks and "extreme assumptions" calculated to make its problems worse than they are...
How Wall Street — not pensioners — wrecked Detroit  Salon   ...Detroit’s bankruptcy was primarily caused by a severe decline in revenue and exacerbated by complicated Wall Street deals that put its ability to pay its expenses at greater risk...
Non-Union Contractors Hit with $400k Fine in Deadly Philly Building Collapse  The Building Trades   ...Because of the lack of safety procedures in place by Campbell Construction and S&R Contracting, the demolition project of a vacant four-story structure went disastrously wrong; resulting in a large masonry wall collapsing onto an adjacent Salvation Army store next door to the project...
Ohio Senate votes to reduce days for early voting, eliminate so-called 'Golden Week"  Cleveland Plain Dealer   ...In a party-line vote, the Ohio Senate on Wednesday approved a bill to shorten early voting to eliminate the so-called “Golden Week” that allowed people to both register to vote and cast early in-person absentee ballots at the same time...

Today's Teamster News 11.18.13

Is a stealth Right to Work effort brewing in Columbus? Thomas Suddes  Cleveland Plain Dealer   ... fretting about whether this General Assembly will spring so-called Right to Work (for Less) on Ohioans isn’t a symptom of paranoia. Instead, it may be common-sense caution...
ALEC’s Latest Trojan Horse: The Attack on Standards and Safeguards Moves to the States  Center for Effective Government   ..., these pieces of legislation serve as a Trojan horse designed to quietly shut down state efforts to establish public protections that ensure all their residents enjoy safe and healthful lives...
The 10 Companies Paying Americans The Least: 24/7 Wall Street  Huffington Post   ...CEOs at nine of these 10 companies are paid more than $10 million annually, while Michael Duke and Howard Schultz, CEOs of Walmart and Starbucks, each receive more than $20 million per year...
Three Million More in Poverty than Previously Estimated  The Real News   ...the West now becomes the area that has the highest poverty rate, at about 25 percent of their population being counted as poor...
Deadly tornadoes hit US Midwest states  BBC News   ...Powerful tornadoes have swept through the US Midwest, destroying buildings and overturning vehicles in the states of Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky...
The People Can Defeat the Trans-Pacific Partnership  Counterpunch   ...The broad bi-partisan opposition announced this week shows that winning Fast Track has very little support in Congress.  In fact, the letters may be the death knell for such legislation...
Qatar migrant workers 'treated like animals' - Amnesty  BBC News   ...Amnesty says migrant workers are often subjected to non-payment of wages, dangerous working conditions and squalid accommodation. The rights group said one manager had referred to workers as "animals"...
Rights group: Gulf must increase worker protection  Associated Press   ...Riots have broken out in Saudi Arabia as authorities crack down on laborers without proper visas. In Qatar, rights groups and others have raised concerns about living and working conditions for crews building venues for the 2022 World Cup. ...
Mexico officials find 8 bodies in border city home  Associated Press   ...the bodies were found early Sunday and apparently were members of the same extended family. He said exact ages were not yet available but three of the dead appeared to be children and five were adults...
Something stinks in Wisconsin  Center for Media and Democracy   ...Wisconsin is home to two SPN right-wing think tanks: the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI) and the MacIver Institute for Public Policy. While WPRI and the MacIver Institute claim to be focused on issues important to the people of Wisconsin, both push a right-wing agenda dictated by their right-wing funders and partners, such as the Bradley Foundation...
Workers Standing Together to Demand Respect at Taylor Farms  Labor's Edge   ...at Taylor Farms in Tracy, the bosses are threatening and intimidating workers as part of a campaign to stop those workers from joining a union...

Today's Teamster News 11.17.13

Young and Educated in Europe, but Desperate for Jobs  New York Times   ...Five years after the economic crisis struck the Continent, youth unemployment has climbed to staggering levels in many countries: in September, 56 percent in Spain for those 24 and younger, 57 percent in Greece, 40 percent in Italy, 37 percent in Portugal and 28 percent in Ireland. For people 25 to 30, the rates are half to two-thirds as high and rising...
America’s Student Debt Balance Is Growing And Less Of It Is Getting Paid Back  Buzzfeed   ...Now it’s over $1 trillion, bigger than credit card debt...
Security Expert: “Buy American Doesn’t Sell Well Anymore Because It Means Give A Copy To The NSA”  zero hedge   ...We’ve previously noted that mass surveillance is killing American tech companies. And Cisco just blamed its earnings slump on China’s disdain for NSA spying...
Harsher cuts are on their way  MSNBC   ...Unless Congress reverses the cuts, defense discretionary spending will be cut by an estimated $19 billion in 2014 and non-defense spending will be cut $12 billion more...
Chase's Twitter Gambit Devolves into All-Time PR Fiasco  Rolling Stone   ...I almost couldn't believe it when I heard that JP Morgan Chase was going to do a live Twitter Q&A with the public – you know, all those people around the world they've been bending over and robbing for, oh, the last decade or so...
Feds expand hunt for offshore tax evaders  CNBC   ...Federal judges approved special summonses aimed at getting account data and identifying information of American banking clients of Switzerland's Zurcher Kantonalbank and Bermuda-based N.T. Butterfield & Son, prosecutors said Tuesday...
Bankers' lawsuit jeopardizes U.S. tax dodger crackdown: lawyers  Reuters   ...A court challenge by Texas and Florida bankers threatens to undermine a broad U.S. government crackdown on offshore tax avoidance and jeopardize a web of carefully crafted international agreements, tax lawyers said...
Elizabeth Warren: quiet revolutionary who could challenge Hillary Clinton in Democrats' 2016 race  The Guardian   ...Senator's tough stance against Wall Street is attracting voters on the left who are disenchanted with the party establishment...
Volkswagen Isn’t Fighting Unionization—But Leaked Docs Show Right-Wing Groups Are  In These Times   ...Mike Elk reports that while the company promised not to oppose the United Auto Workers attempts to organize their Chattanooga, TN plant, outside groups disagree with that decision. They're pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into anti-union campaigns...
Boeing, Recipient of the Largest State Tax Subsidy in History, Paid Nothing in State Corporate Income Taxes Over the Past Decade  Citizens for Tax Justice   ...Over the past decade, Boeing has managed to avoid paying even a dime of state income taxes nationwide on $35 billion in pretax U.S. profits...
The Sports Business Can’t Take Any More Money From Its Fans  Buzzfeed   ...The industry’s growth now mostly involves extracting billions from television networks and advertising. Ticket sales and merchandising growth are slowing...
Wisconsin Political Speech Raid  Wall Street Journal   ...In recent weeks, special prosecutor Francis Schmitz has hit dozens of conservative groups with subpoenas demanding documents related to the 2011 and 2012 campaigns to recall Governor Walker and state legislative leaders...
Something stinks in Ohio  Center for Media and Democracy   ...The Buckeye Institute is largely funded by right-wing out-of-state foundations, and does not disclose its donors to the public despite its influence in shaping public policy in Ohio...
Seattle elects Socialist candidate to city council  Associated Press   ...She backed efforts to raise the minimum wage to $15; called for rent control in the city where rental prices keep climbing; and supports a tax on millionaires to help fund a public transit system and other services...

Today's Teamster News 11.16.13

Supervisors reach agreement with Teamsters  Herald-Standard   ... Supervisors say they "dodged the bullet" regarding a grievance filed with the US. Dept. of Labor and Industry by the Teamsters on behalf of a township employee...
Raritan Township workers get four-year Teamsters contract  Hunterdon County Democrat   ...A four-year contract has been approved for the township’s 18 employees represented by the Teamsters Union. It covers 2012 through 2015...
Caught On Video: DC Taxi Commission Discriminates Against Foreign Speakers at Public Meeting AlterNet   ...Washington D.C. taxi drivers recently joined the Teamsters Union, and judging by this video released by the union, they’ll need all the help they can get considering the questionable practices of the city’s Taxicab Commission...
International Unions To Organize Support For Locked Out Ikea Workers  Left Labor Reporter   ...After conducting a fact finding inquiry, a panel of international trade union representatives said that they would return home and organize support for more than 300 IKEA Teamster workers in Richmond, B.C. locked out since May...
12-year-old children are working — and dying — on America’s farms  Salon   ...the Labor Department’s 2011 attempt to update child labor laws … fell through in the face of pressure from the Farm Bureau and other agricultural lobbies … Since the proposals were scrapped … four farmworkers under the age of 16 died, and 16 others were injured, doing jobs that would have been off-limits…
Is IKEA the New Model for the Conservative Movement  The New Yorker   ...In every state in the country, there is at least one ostensibly independent “free-market” think tank that is part of something called the State Policy Network— there are sixty-four in all, ranging from the Pelican Institute, in Louisiana, to the Freedom Foundation, in Washington State. ... the think tanks are less free actors than a coördinated collection of corporate front groups—branch stores, so to speak—funded and steered by cash from undisclosed conservative and corporate players...
Ted Cruz and Koch Brothers embroiled in shadowy Tea Party scheme  Salon   ...Meet the right-wing group masquerading as a mainstream nonprofit -- but pushing extremist laws across the country...
Walmart Worker Strikes Reach Chicago  The Huffington Post   ...Walmart workers from three separate stores in the Chicago area went on strike Wednesday. The walkouts are the latest in a series of worker demonstrations in protest of what associates describe as the retailer's low wages, unpredictable hours and unjust retaliation against workers...
Next wave of Walmart, low-wage strikes is here  TeamsterNation   ...Another massive wave of low-wage worker strikes may be upon us as labor unrest is rising at the Port of Los Angeles and Walmart workers walked off the job in three cities over the past 10 days...
Colombian union activist murdered; Colombia still not safe for union members  Left Labor Reporter   ...A 25-year employee at the Nestle food processing plant in Bugalagrande and a member of SINALTRAINAL, the Colombian food workers union, was gunned down on November 9 after receiving a death threat from a group described as “a violent drug-running and crime syndicate formed several years ago from disbanded right-wing paramilitary groups.”...
Secret Trade Treaty Exposed  Economic Populist   ...Thank you WikiLeaks and we hope they obtain more parts of trade treaties being crafted in secret by large multinational corporations in future...
151 House Democrats, Bloc of GOP Announce Opposition to ‘Fast Track’ Trade Authority  Public Citizen   ...A letter sent today to President Barack Obama opposing Fast Track authority, signed by 151 House Democrats, signals the end of a controversial Nixon-era procedure used to railroad contentious trade pacts through Congress. Obama has asked Congress to delegate to him its constitutional trade authority via Fast Track for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and other pacts...
Falling Exports under Korea FTA Likely to Bolster Fast Track Opposition  Public Citizen   ...This week's government release of trade data highlights a stunning decline in U.S. exports to Korea, a rise in imports, and a ballooning of the U.S. trade deficit under the Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA)...
Secrecy, Spying Shouldn’t Be Associated With TPP  teamster.org   ...There is no shortage of good reasons to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
The 10 Giant Corporations That Have Taken Over Much of Our Economy  AlterNet   ...There was a time when there was competition in the American marketplace, when one corporation didn't own 200 other companies -- that time is long gone...
JPMorgan Paid Daughter Of Ex-Chinese Prime Minister $75,000 A Month  New York Times
To promote its standing in China, JPMorgan Chase turned to a seemingly obscure consulting firm run by a 32-year-old executive named Lily Chang...
Unemployment in Greece remains over 27%  EnetEnglish   ...A total of 6,557 people joined the dole queues in June, bringing the total number out of work to 1,365,406...
U.S. Postal Service reports $5-billion yearly loss  Los Angeles Times   ...The beleaguered U.S. Postal Service on Friday reported a $5-billion loss in the last fiscal year and again urged Congress to take legislative action that would help the agency shore up its finances...
Walker Donations Undergo Sex Change  Wisconsin Democracy Campaign   ...Governor Scott Walker recently amended his campaign finance report for the first six months of 2013 to lower contributions made by some of his high-end donors in order to protect them from being found in violation of campaign finance law...
A Rare Win for Labor’s Rank and File  Counterpunch   ...Machinists at Boeing resoundingly voted down mid-contract concessions yesterday and then booed the union leaders who had pushed the proposal on a shocked membership...
Unionized state employees protest proposed labor contract as negotiations go to impasse panel  Michigan Live   ...Dozens of state workers held a rally on Wednesday morning, demanding a fair contract as an impasse panel began hearings on disagreements over wages and benefits...
Port of Oakland wants court to stop truckers protesting over pay, CARB  Land Line   ...The Port of Oakland wants a restraining order against truckers who have organized protests there to stay in place...