Abridged funding for infrastructure upgrades hurts all of us

Our nation's infrastructure is rickety, outdated and desperately needs upgrades. America's roads are in dire need of repair, costing the economy over $100 billion annually in lost fuel and time. The country's railroads are laughably obsolete and plans to upgrade them are pigeon-holed in a bureaucratic nightmare. Worst of all, the levees that surround our most vulnerable coastal regions are so decrepit that even the worst storm they've seen in 400 years should be viewed as better than a worst-case scenario, because the levees were weak enough to allow more damage. Why is this situation so severe?

The I-35 Bridge in Minneapolis after its sudden collapse in 2007.

The most important reason for this is the policy surrounding infrastructure dollars is significantly outdated. The gas tax, the primary financial mechanism for this, is just over 18 cents per gallon and has not been raised since 1993. Fuel efficiency in vehicles has been rapidly increasing, thus fewer coins are going into the Department of Transportation's coffers since we are using far less gas than a few decades prior. The fiscal elephant on the road won't get any smaller though: it is estimated that our infrastructure needs an investment of $3.6 trillion dollars by 2020.

Another roadblock to solutions lies in how transportation funding is implemented. Recently, Congress has taken up the disgusting practice of funding the very basic functions of government at the last possible minute. This also applies to transportation funding, which is absolutely crippling for any positive momentum in terms of infrastructure. Real infrastructure improvements rely on long-term planning, timelines that stretch over multiple years, rather than just lurch from month to month. Without stable funding, it is impossible to plan projects that are sorely needed.

Potholes on a road in New Orleans.

Investment in this area of our society is a wonderful idea. The return on investment is massive and it's easy to see why -- safer roads will lower insurance costs for drivers, putting more money in their pockets and the regional and national economies. Likewise for individuals in areas prone to severe storms or flooding, strong levees mean their home insurance will be much less expensive. Regional rail systems save folks money on their commute and drives up property values, increasing property tax intake for the municipality of residence. It creates scores of American jobs. The list of economic benefits goes on and on.

Unions like the Teamsters take a great deal of pride in our country. We're proud to build what makes America work and we would be thrilled to get more workers on the job making our infrastructure the best in the world. It's time for a bipartisan solution to do so.

Today's Teamster News 02.15.15

Teamsters
CP Rail hit by strike by Teamsters  NewsTalk1010   …Some 3,300 locomotive engineers and other train workers have gone on strike at CP Rail...
Teamsters Make Deal With CN, Prepare for Strike at CP  Bloomberg News   …A union representing locomotive engineers reached a tentative contract agreement with Canada’s largest railroad while calling on members to prepare for a strike against Canadian Pacific Railway Co., the second-largest…
Trade
Throw the Truth Out the Door: President Obama Has to Pass a Trade Deal  Center for Economic and Policy Research   …Apparently anything goes when the big corporations want a trade deal. Otherwise serious people will just make stuff up, because hey, the big campaign contributors want a trade deal to make themselves richer. The latest effort in creative myth-making comes from Third Way, which tells us that post-NAFTA trade deals aren't job losers like NAFTA...
TTIP: The mother of all trade deals?  AlJazeera   …political parties and campaigners from across Europe under the banner "Stop TTIP" oppose the deal, saying an accord will undermine European food and environmental laws and give too much power to US corporations...
State Battles
'Right-to-work' bill with 50-cent wage hike moves to House floor in New Mexico  The Santa Fe New Mexican   … the House Judiciary Committee on Friday voted along partisan lines in favor of an amended "right-to-work" measure, with Republicans tacking a small increase in the statewide minimum wage to the controversial labor bill that would ban compulsory union fees...
Right-to-Work Debate  emissourian.com   …The vote was historic in the sense that it was the first time one of the chambers in the General Assembly passed a right-to-work bill. But that doesn’t mean Missouri is poised to become the nation’s 25th right-to-work state. Far from it…
War on Workers
New Milestone: Majority of Public School Students Now Considered Low-Income   Angry Bear   …Students are eligible for free meals if they live in households with no more than 135 percent of the poverty level, and they qualify for reduced-price meals if household income is no more than 185 percent of the poverty level. In 2013, the federal poverty threshold was $23,550 for a family of four...
Right-to-work laws are union-hating Republican’s weapon of choice  Raw Story   …Last week, the Supreme Court announced it would hear a case that could very well finish off American unions in the last bastion where they have any significant presence at all, the public sector . The case, Friedrichs v California Teachers Association, will decide if right-to-work laws (designed to bankrupt unions by encouraging employees who benefit from collective bargaining agreements to not pay for them) will extend to all public employees nationwide – an outcome Justice Samuel Alito has all but promised to deliver...
American labor-union strikes are almost completely extinct  Quartz   …In 2014, there were only 11 strikes or lockouts in the US involving more than 1,000 workers. That was down from 15 the previous year, and tied for the second-lowest total on record, according to just-released numbers from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics...
Feed the Rich and Starve the Poor (Cont.)  Economic Populist   …It didn't take long before the new GOP House began passing a series of deficit-hiking tax cuts that will primarily help the rich at the expense of everybody else. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the new chairman of the Ways and Means Committee (which writes tax legislation), wants to make some previous tax breaks permanent...

Today's Teamster News 01.18.15

Teamster News
Teamsters Reach Tentative Contract Deal At Hunts Point  teamster.org   ...Teamsters Local 202 announced this afternoon that it had reached a tentative contract agreement with Hunts Point Market. The union's 1,300 members at the market, who have the final say, will vote Wednesday on the tentative deal...
Trade
USTR Still Insists That 'Listening' Is 'Transparency' Even As It Keeps Details Completely Secret  tech dirt   ...the USTR is really about as transparent as pea soup, with an institutional focus on secrecy. The negotiating positions that it takes on various trade agreements are shrouded in secrecy. When other countries push to be more transparent, the USTR inevitably rejects those pleas. While lobbyists get full access to some of the documents (including the ability to log in and see the latest texts), members of Congress who want to see the details have to go to the USTR, aren't allowed to bring any staffers, and aren't allowed to make any copies or take any notes...
Vanity of Vanities; All Is Vanity: Obama's Vain Search for a TPP "Legacy" (opinion)  truthout   ...if you're not already familiar with TPP you should be asking yourself, "if the draft agreement is so secret that members of Congress are not permitted to have copies of it, how did the corporations and their attorneys not only get copies of the drafts, but actually craft the drafts for the private benefit of their clients?"...
New AFL-CIO Report: Failed Trade Policy Contributed to Unaccompanied Minors Crisis  AFL-CIO   … A new, eye-opening report issued by the AFL-CIO sheds light on how failed trade policies contributed to the unaccompanied minor crisis at the U.S. border during last summer...
State Battles
At $37 million and counting, mega-donor Sinquefield says he's not going anywhere  St. Louis Post-Dispatch   ...“In Jefferson City, the first question legislators ask is not, ‘What do my constituents think?’ It’s, ‘What does Rex think?’,” says [U.S. Sen. Claire] McCaskill, who has made Sinquefield the poster child in her quest to set campaign contribution limits in Missouri. “They’re not saying it out loud, because they’re afraid of him, but everyone is uncomfortable about what’s going on.”...
Several Kentucky counties passing or considering 'right to work' laws  Kentucky.com   ...Since mid-December, Fulton, Hardin, Simpson, Todd and Warren counties have passed right-to-work ordinances. Cumberland and Pulaski counties have given first readings to similar proposals...
War on Workers
Who Needs Lobbyists? See What Big Business Spends To Win American Minds  Huffington Post   …Of $3.4 billion in contracts reported by the 144 trade groups from 2008 through 2012, more than $1.2 billion, or 37 percent, went toward advertising, public relations and marketing services, more than any other category. The second-highest total, $682.2 million, or 20 percent of the total, was directed toward legal, lobbying and government affairs...
The Poor Pay More in Taxes  Economic Populist   …in 2015 the poorest fifth of Americans will pay on average 10.9 percent of their income in state and local taxes, the middle fifth will pay 9.4 percent and the top 1 percent will average 5.4 percent...
Obama Proposes New Tax Hikes on Wealthy to Aid Middle Class  Bloomberg   …President Barack Obama is proposing new taxes on the wealthiest Americans that would limit their profits from investments and make it harder for them to pass assets to heirs...
Miscellaneous
Falling Oil Prices: Good For Drivers, Bad For Banks  NPR   …Lending money to energy companies can be pretty profitable, but if oil prices drop enough, the threat of bank defaults becomes real...

Today's Teamster News 01.07.15

Teamsters
Agreement between Los Angeles, Long Beach port truck drivers, Carson firm allows Teamsters to enter negotiations  San Jose Mercury News   ...Drivers with Carson-based Shippers Transport Express, a wholly owned subsidiary of SSA Marine, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and their supporters plan to host a press conference in Wilmington on Friday to validate their union authorization cards, opening the door for the Teamsters to begin negotiating a contract, according to Justice for Port Drivers and the Teamsters...
Teamsters Local 728 Reaches Tentative Agreement With First Student  WTOC   ...A representative with Teamsters Local 728 Union has told WTOC it has reached a tentative agreement with First Student after months of negotiations...
Trade
Why The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Is A Pending Disaster  Huffington Post   ...Republicans who now run Congress say they want to cooperate with President Obama, and point to the administration's Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, as the model. The only problem is the TPP would be a disaster...
Stopping the Biggest Corporate Power Grab in Years  Foreign Policy in Focus   ...How fighting back against one arcane, Nixon-era trade negotiating procedure could put a stop to a global corporate coup...
Austerity Killing You? How About A Trade Deal?  Huffington Post   ...It is a mark of the delusion of Europe's leaders that the EU is putting its chips on a trade deal with the U.S. -- the so-called Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. TTIP is not really a trade deal at all but a series of measures intended to promote further deregulation of economic, financial, health, labor, safety, privacy, and environmental protections on both sides of the Atlantic. TTIP was designed by corporations to weaken labor and government -- and would do just about nothing to get Europe out of its austerity trap...
State Battles
Republicans Prefile Right-To-Work Legislation In NM House  Albuquerque Business First   ...Three members of the Republican-controlled state House announced Monday they prefiled legislation that would prohibit automatic union membership in New Mexico and give workers the right to join or financially contribute to a union — or not...
Butler County Discusses Right-To-Work Ordinance  Bowling Green Daily News   ...Butler County Judge-Executive David Fields said he expects the Fiscal Court to take a vote on a right-to-work ordinance, but that vote might not come until February...
Fischer Signs $9 Minimum Wage Ordinance  Louisville Courier Journal   ...Mayor Greg Fischer signed the ordinance increasing the minimum wage to $9 an hour in Jefferson County on Friday. The law increases the wage to $7.75 by July 1, to $8.25 by July 2016 and $9 by July 2017, and ties future increases to the Department of Labor's Consumer Price Index for urban cities in the region...
New IRS Rules On Dark Money Likely Won’t Be Ready Before 2016 Election  ProPublica   ...The Internal Revenue Service says it won't come out with new proposed rules for so-called dark money groups until late spring at the earliest, increasing the likelihood that no changes will take effect before the 2016 elections...
War on Workers
New GOP Congress Fires Shot At Social Security On Day One  Talking Points Memo   ...The largely overlooked change puts a new restriction on the routine transfer of tax revenues between the traditional Social Security retirement trust fund and the Social Security disability program. ...experts say it would likely mean any reallocation would have to be balanced by new revenues or benefit cuts...
House Republicans Change Rules on Calculating Economic Impact of Bills  New York Times   ...The change on “dynamic scoring” — ardently sought since the 1990s by Republicans — could ease passage of major tax cuts by showing that their impact on economic growth would substantially reduce their cost to the Treasury. The move is widely seen as a way for Republican leaders to set ground rules for an ambitious overhaul of the entire United States tax code...
Atlanta Stagehands Fight ‘Labor Pimps’ Pushing Temp Work, Low Wages  In These Times   ...while those performances net entertainers and concert venues massive amounts of money, the backstage workers like the ones who made Beyoncé’s live performance July 15 in Atlanta possible can’t say the same. Those employees are now attempting to organize a union, hoping to reverse the trend of eroded wages and benefits for the stagehands and others who make these performances so profitable...
Business Groups File Lawsuit To Block NLRB’s Union-Organizing Rule  Wall Street Journal   ...Several business trade groups filed a lawsuit Monday to block the National Labor Relations Board’s new rule that would speed union-organizing elections, alleging the board overstepped its authority...
Oil plummets, but don't expect lower fares soon  Sydney Morning Herald   ...Oil prices may have plunged to near six-year lows, but travellers are unlikely to see Qantas or Virgin Australia rush to slash fares any time soon  – or lower their much maligned fuel surcharges on international flights...
In the US, one lesson from oil prices: rich people win, again  Guardian   ...The most visible economic impact is in gasoline prices, with regular pump prices down about 70 cents a gallon from year ago levels, according to AAA. Consumers across the board benefit from this by having a little more disposable income, but Harris said the impact on households is uneven. Rich people win, again. About 56% of the expense savings goes to households in the top two-fifths of the income distribution versus only 24% to families in the bottom two-fifths…
Mercedes-Benz says will move U.S. headquarters to Atlanta  Reuters   ...Mercedes-Benz will move its U.S. headquarters to Atlanta from northern New Jersey, affecting about 1,000 employees, the company said on Tuesday. The Daimler AG unit is moving to cut costs...
Worker Killed in Mill Accident  North Coast Journal   ...A 64-year-old contract worker was killed this morning when his boom lift apparently came into contact with a high voltage line at an Arcata mill...
Miscellaneous
Why Uber Will—And Should—Be Regulated  Slate   ...Nothing is new under the sun, and that includes the Uber controversy. Price regulation of taxis was thrown into disarray in the 1920s when mass production drove down the cost of cars. When that happened, anyone, including part-timers, could pick up a passenger for a high fare during times of peak demand, depriving the taxis of fares from low-cost trips that they needed to survive and reintroducing price confusion. Governments invented the medallion system to block the part-timers from unraveling the market by siphoning off the lowest-cost fares...

Extremist 'business friendly' governors destroying their states' economies

Sluggish job growth and lower wages are the result of state government cuts to corporate taxes and public services, according to new data.

We've already noted that two states with extreme governors, Kansas and Wisconsin, are hurting economically. Talking Points Memo noticed it too. In a story today, TPM points out that Gov. Sam Brownback has been like a baby with a nail gun on Kansas' economy:

His biggest experiment in his laboratory has been a series of major tax bills that shift the impact of taxes down the income spectrum, cutting income taxes and corporate taxes and leaning more heavily on sales taxes. 

The only problem? The fiscal disaster his changes created: 

“Kansas is now hundreds of millions of dollars short in revenue collection, its job growth has lagged the rest of the nation, and Moody's has cut the state's bond rating. ‘Governor Brownback came in here with an agenda to reduce the size of government, reduce taxes, and create a great economic boom,’ says University of Kansas professor Burdett Loomis. ‘Now there's been a dramatic decline in revenues, no great increase in economic activity, and we've got red ink until the cows come home.’”

Gov. Rick Perry claims a 'Texas Miracle' results from low taxes, low regulation, tort reform, and “don’t spend all the money.” Some miracle. According to Washington Monthly,

The state may offer low housing prices compared to California and an unemployment rate below the national average, but it also has low rates of economic mobility, minimal public services, and, unless you are rich, taxes that are as high or higher than most anywhere else in America. And worse, despite all the oil money sloshing around, Texas is no longer gaining on the richest states in its per capita income, but rather getting comparatively poorer and poorer.

And then there's Wisconsin. TPM notes,

Finally, no description of the failed experiments of conservative governors is complete without noting the sad record of Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, who went to great and campaign-finance-law-stretching lengths to gain and hold his office. He promised that his agenda would deliver economic growth and bountiful new jobs; the reality has fallen far short. As Marc Levine writes, not only have Walker’s policies not delivered the 250,000 jobs he claimed they would, they may have actually held back job growth in the state, as Wisconsin’s economy falls behind those of its neighbors.

Today's Teamster News 06.12.14

Teamster News
Teamsters: THUD Amendments Will Weaken Highway Safety Standards  TheTrucker.com   ...Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa Monday denounced two potential floor amendments to the Transportation Housing and Urban Development (THUD) FY ’15 Appropriations bill that the Teamsters say will weaken highway safety standards by putting fatigued drivers on the road in bigger, heavier trucks...
Teamsters come out against hours changes, ATA still supportive  Overdrive   ...The Teamsters Union has voiced its opposition to recent Congressional action to roll back the 2013 changes to federal hours-of-service restart provisions, but American Trucking Associations head Bill Graves is holding strong on the group’s support for suspending the changes...
Official Statement of the Teamsters Union on the Worldwide Taxi Drivers' Protests Against Uber  teamster.org   ..."I express our solidarity with today’s protests by taxi drivers in city after city across Europe. The drivers are calling for fairness and asking that if the private sedan services are allowed to operate that they do so on a level playing field. Uber is currently operating without having to comply with the same rules and regulations that taxi drivers do..."
Teamsters Local 142 Wants To Bid On Chesterton Police Officers' Health Care  Chesterton Tribune   ...The officers of the Chesterton Police Department and their brothers in Teamsters Local 142 filled the meeting room of the town hall on Monday night, to hear a union attorney accuse the Town Council of fiduciary irresponsibility. At issue: the Teamsters is interested in bidding its healthcare plan to CPD officers...
Teamsters Against HoS Restart Charges  Truck News   ...The accident involving a Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. driver and comedian Tracy Morgan’s entourage has yet another industry organization weighing in about potential hours of service changes. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters sent an open letter to the US House of Representatives saying any steps to “delay, revise or replace the current hours of service 34-hour restart provision” or allow increases in truck size and weight, “especially they size of double trailers from the current 28-ft. to 33-ft.” should be opposed...
Coral Gables Employees To Get One Time Bonus  Miami Herald   ...The Coral Gables City Commission approved a two-year contract with the city’s general employees union Tuesday that includes a one-time bonus and lower pension contributions from employees during the first year...

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/06/10/4169720/coral-gables-employees-to-get.html#storylink=cpy

Trade
Comment: Shrouded in secrecy, opposition to TPP mounts  SBS   ...They want to reassure us that we don’t need to worry about spiralling drug costs or curtailed internet freedom, but they’re not willing to let us see the text of the deal to back up their claims...
Livestock Groups Show Concern for TPP During D.C. Hearing  Farm Futures   ...Japan's TPP requests to exempt certain "sensitive" products – including pork and beef, dairy, sugar, wheat and barley, and rice and starch – from tariff elimination has big impacts on future trade deals and the ag industry's ability to benefit from the agreement, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association said during a hearing before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee...
Anger by US farmers threatens ambitious Pacific trade pact  Reuters   ...U.S. farmers are in an uproar over signs Japan will maintain some barriers to agricultural exports under a Pacific trade pact, which threatens to unravel a deal that is central to U.S. efforts to retain economic and security influence in the region...
State Battles
Repeal the pension tax on Michigan seniors  Detroit News   ...a retired couple born after 1952 with more than $50,000 in income, including $48,000 in pension benefits, paid $1,930 more in taxes than they would have if pensions weren’t taxed...
New Jersey's soaring subsidy program doing little to boost struggling economy  The Guardian   ...Study says New Jersey badly trailing other states' economic recovery despite corporate credits rising sevenfold under Christie...
Council Votes Again To End Collective Bargaining  Fort Wayne Journal Gazette   ...City Council members again voted along party lines Tuesday to end collective bargaining for all city workers except police and firefighters...
San Francisco Voters Will Weigh In On A $15 Minimum Wage  Think Progress   ...A question on San Francisco’s November ballot will ask city residents whether they want to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by July 2018...
Why that ruling against teacher tenure won't help your schoolchildren (opinion)  Los Angeles Times   ... one should be "suspicious of wealthy and powerful individuals and groups whose advocacy for children leads to 'reforms' that won’t cost a cent, but will weaken labor."...
Numbers put lie to state growth strategy (opinion)  Journal Gazette   ...Light taxation and regulation haven’t raised living standard (in Indiana)...
War On Workers
Walmart Associate: 'Give The Workers Dignity And Respect We Deserve'  WBUR   ...Charmaine Givens-Thomas ... is a sales associate who has worked at Walmart for eight years. She makes $23,000 a year and has trouble paying rent and putting food on the table. She says Walmart should pay its employees a living wage...
Cantor’s Loss a Triumph for Anti-Corporate Right-Wing Populism  naked capitalism   ...conservative economics professor David Brat succeeded in channeling a strain of right-wing populism to target Cantor, and plausibly so, as a corporate stooge and progenitor of crony capitalism...
Clauses That Hurt Workers  New York Times   ...Many businesses have long required that executives and other important employees agree not to work for a competitor for a year or two after they leave. Now some employers are unfairly imposing that requirement on all kinds of workers, including lower-wage employees like camp counselors, interns and yoga instructors...
Here's Why Amazon Is More Brutal Than Walmart  Time   ...The recent dustup between Amazon and publisher Hachette reminds us that retail is a brutal business — tough on employees, really hard on suppliers. Walmart, the largest physical retailer, and Amazon, the largest retailer online, illustrate the pain produced in the effort to make consumers’ prices as low as possible...
Miscellaneous
Occupy Wall Street Protesters Win Lawsuit Over Arrests  Washington Post   ...New York City has agreed to pay nearly $600,000 to settle allegations that police wrongfully arrested a group of Occupy Wall Street protesters, marking what their lawyers Tuesday called the largest settlement to date in a single Occupy-related civil rights case...

Today's Teamster News 06.07.2014

Teamster News
Descendants Of 1934's Teamster Strike Carry Proud Legacy  Twin Cities Daily Planet   ...The 10 or so people gathering in a 1920's home in St. Paul might have been meeting for the first time, but they forged an instant bond. Their parents or grandparents 80 years ago stood together and fought in the streets of Minneapolis for the right to organize a union during 1934's Teamsters strikes...
MetraPark Workers Will See Pay Raise Under New Contract  Billings Gazette   ...The Teamsters Local 190 and Yellowstone County have settled negotiations for MetraPark workers in a deal that calls for a five-year contract...
Union Representing JCPS Bus Drivers Puts Up Billboard  WHAS   ...When you drive down the Watterson Expressway you'll soon see something different. A new billboard is going up in an effort to protect Jefferson County Public School bus drivers...
Trade
Enormous, Humongous Trade Deficit Up In April  Trade Reform   ...Imagine American factories and other businesses receiving an additional $44.2 billion in orders last month, and every single month, and you can visualize the effect of this trade deficit. How many people would be hired due to an additional $44.2 billion in orders? How many suppliers would get a boost in orders? How many local businesses surrounding these thriving factories would be getting extra business?...
Statistics that Spin: Foreign Goods to Be Considered U.S. Goods?   Economic Policy Institute   ...the proposal, if adopted, would create a statistical fiction that companies that are American in name only, which outsource 100 percent of their production, assembly and services to other countries like China, will be deemed to be manufacturers...
USDA Approves Checkoff Advertisements Featuring “North American Beef”  Trade Reform   ...
“USDA is sanctioning consumer deception by approving government-mandated advertisements that mislead consumers into believing that their Wendy’s burger may have originated in El Salvador or Panama...
State Battles
Virginia DMV orders Lyft, Uber to stop operating  PilotOnLine.com   ...The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles sent cease-and-desist orders Thursday to Lyft and Uber, telling the two taxi-like services they must stop operating in violation of state law or face fines against their drivers...
War On Workers
Wal-Mart: ‘Headed Toward a Dark Place’  Barron's   ...Shares of Wal-Mart have gained just 2.7% during the past 12 months, lagging the S&P 500′s 20% rise during the same period...
Walmart Plans Family Succession As Low-Wage Worker Plea Voted Down At Meeting  Forbes   ...something is wrong when the richest family in America pays hundreds of thousands of associates so little they cannot survive without relying on food stamps, on public health insurance, and on the charity of co-workers...
One Percent's Twisted New Heist  Salon.com   ...A new study from In the Public Interest, a think tank focused on how privatization, (shows) the routine practice of outsourcing government functions is another important reason why the middle class is shrinking as those at the very top reap more and more of the fruits of our economy...
Farm Workers' Low Wages Hinder San Joaquin Valley's Economy  NPR   ...If you look at the jobs picture across the U.S., one place stands out for high levels of unemployment: Central California's San Joaquin Valley. It's been called the Appalachia of the West...
Economy Added 217,000 Jobs In May; Unemployment Unchanged At 6.3 Percent  Think Progress   ...The economy added 217,000 jobs in May while the unemployment rate remained at 6.3 percent, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics...
Jobs Report Won't Juice Unemployment Situation  Huffington Post   ...Gersley Kendricks figures Congress has given up on him. Kendricks, 63, has been unemployed since early last year and without an income since Congress declined to renew long-term unemployment insurance at the end of December. He's one of nearly 3 million people who have missed out on compensation since then...
Taxes: Who Pays How Much In Eight Charts  Moyers and Company   ...Ideological arguments about whether taxes are too high or low miss the crucial question of who ends up bearing how much of the burden of financing our public sector...
What America Could Buy With Offshore Tax Money  Moyers and Company   ...The federal government forgoes billions of dollars in revenue each year due to corporate tax write-offs and loopholes enshrined in America's tax code...

Today's Teamster News 05.07.14

Teamster News
AGY Seeks 'Collective Bargaining Agreement'  Aiken Standard   ...AGY released a statement in response to a demonstration by employees that was initially called a strike, but is now being called a "lockout". Employees of the plant began standing outside the plant entrances on Wagener Road and U.S. 78 on Friday...
Teamsters back cutting Swift CEO voting power with stock structure changes  Overdrive   ...The Teamsters union is pushing a plan to change Swift Transportation’s dual-class stock structure in order to give stockholders equal voting power...
Jeff Klein Snags Teamsters Endorsement  New York Observer   ...State Senator Jeff Klein, who is facing a Democratic primary challenge, is set to snag the endorsement of the teamsters union later this morning–marking one of his largest union nods so far...
Convention Center: Teamsters, Carpenters could be out by weekend  Philly.com   ...THE TEAMSTERS and carpenters who set up exhibits at the Pennsylvania Convention Center could find themselves out of work by Saturday, after refusing yesterday to sign a labor agreement that changes their work rules...
Trade
U.S. Trade Deficit Drops 3.6 Percent In March  ABC News   ...The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in March as exports rebounded to the second highest level on record, led by strong gains in sales of aircraft, autos and farm goods...
State Battles
Missouri Senate Looks To Curb Union Fee Collection  The Missourian   ...The Missouri Senate is expected to debate legislation this week that would curb the ability of public employee unions to collect fees from workers' paychecks...
Surprise! 'Pro-business' policies hurt state economic growth (opinion)  Los Angeles Times   ...What's worst about these ALEC policies, Chinn reports, is that the relentless budget-cutting they require leave crucial state services, particularly education, gasping for breath. That's a formula for long-term decline, not growth...
Tax Breaks Abound in Wisconsin, but Job Growth Remains Slow  Wisconsin Budget Project   ...Wisconsin lawmakers have cut taxes 43 times since 2011, reducing revenue by $1.9 billion over that period and limiting investments in Wisconsin’s schools, workforce, and transportation networks. Despite – or because of – the substantial tax cuts, private sector job growth in Wisconsin has been slower than the national average...
Companies Ramp Up Fight Against $10.10 Wage  CNN Money   ...Businesses are pulling out all the stops to fight a federal minimum wage increase to $10.10 from $7.25 an hour. A new commercial went up on cable news channels last week from the Employment Policies Institute...
War On Workers
Even Millionaires Think The Rich Should Pay Higher Taxes  Huffington Post   ...In the heated debate of inequality, the wealthy are usually portrayed as the cause rather than the solution. But CNBC's first-ever Millionaire Survey reveals that 51 percent of American millionaires believe inequality is a "major problem" for the U.S. and nearly two-thirds support higher taxes on the wealthy...
Billionaires try to convince Americans it’s good to import foreign workers, increase immigration  Bangor Daily News   ...Since 2007, political lobbies spent a whopping $1.5 billion to expand immigration, according to the watchdog Sunlight Foundation...
Jungle Jack Frustrated With The Koch Brothers Involvement In Columbus Zoo Levy  WBNS   ...One of the most recognized faces in Central Ohio - Jack Hanna, Director Emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium - says he is frustrated by the involvement of a Washington, DC based group and it's efforts to defeat the Columbus Zoo levy...
Koch Group Tries To Sink Ohio Zoo’s Tax Proposal: ‘There Is No Issue We Won’t Get Involved In’  Think Progress   ...a proposal for a modest tax increase to fund the zoo’s programs has attracted the attention of Americans for Prosperity, a national group funded by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch...
Bombshell Report: $100 Million in Taxpayer $$ Wasted or Stolen by Deregulated Charter Industry  Diane Ravitch's Blog   ...A new report reveals massive waste, fraud, and corruption in the charter industry, where private corporations control public funds with minimal oversight or accountability...
Oregon Woman Wins 3-Year Fight Against Wells Fargo Foreclosure  ABC News   ... her mortgage payments have been deposited by Wells Fargo. Despite efforts to clear up the mistake and paying more than $12,000 in attorney fees, her home went into judicial foreclosure...
Miscellaneous
The World Will Have Its First Trillionaire Within 25 Years  Think Progress   ...Billionaires will finally have someone to envy by 2040. The world will mint its first trillionaire within 25 years as the wealthiest people's investment gains push global inequality wider and wider...
How the Middle Class Lifestyle Became Unaffordable  oftwominds.com   ...As the real economy stagnated, the state (which includes the Federal Reserve) incentivized financialization and speculative credit bubbles to keep the money flowing to feed its own spending...
Oh, Good: More Sports Teams Asking Taxpayers To Pay For Their Stadiums  Mother Jones   ...Cleveland's professional sports teams have poured more than a million dollars into a fight they're hoping will end in victory on Tuesday. The end goal isn't a championship, though--it's a municipal tax extension...

Today's Teamster News 03.29.14

Teamster News
Truckers at Pratt Logistics in Lower Macungie Unioninze  The Morning Call   ...Truck drivers at a Lower Macungie cardboard box-maker now are represented by the Teamsters after a union vote taken nearly two years ago was unsealed and certified earlier this month...
CCTA: Contract Proposal from Drivers is Next Step Toward Compromise  Burlington Free Press   ...A contract proposal was offered Wednesday evening by Teamster bus drivers to the Chittenden County Transportation Authority management as the next installment in the contract negotiation saga...
20 Teamsters jobs in the balance with possible new sanitation contract  Cumberland Times-News   ...Bids for a new three-year garbage collection contract with the city of Cumberland are under review with the future of 20 city sanitation workers with Teamsters Local 453 hanging in the balance...
NetJets Unions Form Coalition, Start Picketing Campaign  AIN Online   ...The NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots and International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 284 executive boards launched the NetJets Union Coalition last week...
Trade
Hundreds protest against trade deal  msn.nz   ...Hundreds attended protest rallies across the country in opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal. About 15 rallies were held from 1pm on Saturday in cities and towns from Invercargill to Hokianga...
NZNO Joining Rally Against TPP  Voxy   ...The New Zealand Nurses Organization is joining the international rally against the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement...
U.S. Trade Deficits Have Grown More Than 440% with FTA Countries, but Declined 16% with Non-FTA Countries  Public Citizen   ...The aggregate U.S. goods trade deficit with Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partners is more than five times as high as before the deals went into effect...
Labor Crisis Begets Violence on Colombia’s Pacific Coast  In These Times   ...The Pacific port city of Buenaventura handles around two-thirds of the country’s maritime foreign trade and connects Colombia to 300 ports around the world. But Buenaventura is better known as an epicenter of narco-paramilitary activity, making it one of Colombia’s many sites of rampant poverty and violence, death and hopelessness...
State Battles
St. Louis Religious Leaders Declare Opposition To 'Right-To-Work' Law  St. Louis Public Radio   ...Top religious leaders in St. Louis — led by Catholic Archbishop Robert J. Carlson — announced Friday that they oppose legislative efforts to pass “right-to-work’’ measures that would restrict labor rights...
Missouri Senate endorses unemployment change  Associated Press   ...The amount of time Missourians can receive unemployment benefits would be tied to the state's jobless rate under legislation endorsed by the state Senate on Wednesday...
Leah Vukmir agrees to turn over ALEC documents to settle open records lawsuit  Wisconsin State Journal   ...The agreement comes as part of a lawsuit settlement between Sen. Leah Vukmir, R-Wauwatosa, and the Center for Media and Democracy, a liberal advocacy group, over documents it sought related to the American Legislative Exchange Council. It includes $15,000 in payments from the state on behalf of Vukmir...
Good news for Connecticut’s governor: He got the highest state minimum wage  Washington Post   ...Connecticut’s Gov. Dan Malloy can breathe a little easier: he just landed the minimum wage hike he’s been pushing so hard for. The new bill will raise the minimum wage by 2017 to $10.10, the highest among any state...
Illinois House gets millionaire tax plan moving  Daily Herald   ...Illinois lawmakers chose to advance an additional income tax on millionaires over a broader shift of taxes toward the wealthy Thursday, setting the tone for months of debate over how much people should pay to help the state stabilize its finances...
NY AG Settles Labor Violations with 6 Domino's Franchisees  Blue MauMau   ...New York's Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced settlements with six Domino’s franchisees over labor violations, requiring them to pay $448,000 in restitution to 750 employees...
FedEx loses another driver misclassification case, in Maine  People's World   ...FedEx, notorious for misclassifying its drivers as "independent contractors" - barring them from labor law protection and avoiding paying Social Security, Medicare and workers' comp taxes, lost another misclassification case, in Maine...
War on Workers
U.S. Government Charges Kellogg With Serious Violations of Federal Law  bctgm.org   ...The U.S. government charged the Kellogg Company with multiple and serious violations of federal law stemming from its October 22, 2013 lockout of more than 220 workers at the company's Memphis cereal production facility...
Class-action lawsuit seeks back pay for cabdrivers    Chicago Sun-Times   ...Chicago taxicab companies are “misclassifying” their drivers as independent contractors and should consider them employees eligible for overtime and the state’s $8.25-an-hour minimum wage, a federal class-action lawsuit claimed Wednesday...
Walmart Gets More Heat for Low Pay  AOL Jobs   ...The pressure on Walmart is growing from within, as workers tell behind-the-scenes tales of overwork and underpayment at America's largest employer. But there's another, potentially more damaging source of growing criticism: the media, including the financial media that covers events from the investor's perspective...
SEPTA union boss Willie Brown: We're not afraid to strike  Philadelphia Inquirer   ...The chances of a transit strike against SEPTA are "very good," union president Willie Brown said Wednesday...
The troubling reason Americans are so depressed  AlterNet   ...Our unhappiness can be traced to feelings of "learned helplessness" -- and corporations, in part, may be to blame...
Michigan State Univ. should end union organizing seminars, say anti-union lawmakers and builders    Michigan Live   ...The Associated Builders and Contractors of Michigan is demanding that Michigan State University cancel its Building Trades Academy program on the grounds that it encourages "organizing in non-union construction companies"...
Greek unions to hold general strike on April 9 to protest latest austerity measures  Associated Press   ...Greece's largest public sector union says it will join a nationwide general strike April 9 to protest austerity measures. The move means that the walkout will affect all private and public sector services...
Miscellaneous
Social Security launches expedited process for Veterans’ disability claims  Belvoir Eagle
Social Security claims from veterans with a Veterans Affairs Department disability compensation rating of 100 percent permanent and total have a new process that will treat their applications as high priority and issue expedited decisions...

 

Today's Teamster News 01.18.14

Teamsters Announce Tentative Agreement With YRCW  teamster.org   ...The Teamsters Union announced today that it reached a tentative agreement with YRC Worldwide Inc. (YRCW) that, if ratified by the membership, will provide a pathway for substantial debt reduction and refinancing initiatives that will permit the company to protect and preserve more than 30,000 good American jobs...
Teamsters and YRC hammer out new offer  The Kansas City Star   ...The new proposal will be presented Tuesday to leaders of the many Teamsters locals that represent YRC’s 26,000 union employees throughout the country...
YRC Agrees to Revised Labor Accord With Teamsters Leaders  Bloomberg News   ...YRC Worldwide Inc. (YRCW:US) and Teamsters union leaders reached a revised labor accord that would pave the way for refinancing the trucking company’s $1.4 billion debt and staving off default. The shares surged...
Teamsters Celebrate King’s Legacy  teamster.org   ...Teamsters across the country will honor the legacy of civil rights and labor leader Martin Luther King Jr. on January 20th...
How Walmart Organizers Turned the Internet Into a Shop Floor  In These Times   ...Walmart workers and organizers prove ‘clicktivism’ can evolve into offline activism...
Leaked Walmart Documents Reveal Propaganda Campaign to Fight Workers Attempting to Organize AlterNet   ...The mega-retailer misinforms and tells managers to tattle on employees who discuss organizing...
Missouri ALEC Co-Chair on Wages in RTW States: “Sure They Go Down” (VIDEO) We Party Patriots   ...In a video unveiled by Progress Missouri, State Senator/ALEC Co-chair Ed Emery admits that “Right-to-Work” laws would mean lower wages for Missourians. But don’t get your hopes up: this is a gotcha moment, not a rejection of anti-worker policy...
AB InBev, KKR in talks on $4.5 billion Oriental Brewery deal  Reuters   ...Anheuser-Busch InBev SA is in advanced discussions to buy South Korea's Oriental Brewery from private equity owners KKR & Co LP and Affinity Equity Partners for more than $4.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter...
U.S. Steps Up Scrutiny of Freight Train Safety  New York Times   ...After meeting with federal regulators on Thursday, officials from the rail and petroleum industries agreed to examine quick ways to improve the safety of freight trains carrying crude oil following a spate of fiery accidents in recent months...
Safety violations found at another Freedom chemical facility  Salon   ...The company responsible for contaminating West Virginia’s tap water had been improperly storing chemicals at more than one location...
Freedom Industries files for bankruptcy  The Charlestown Gazette   ...Freedom owes $3.6 million to its top 20 unsecured creditors, according to bankruptcy documents. The company also owes more than $2.4 million in unpaid taxes to the Internal Revenue Service, and the IRS has placed at least three liens on Freedom's property, demanding payment...
Fear Is Why Workers in Red States Vote Against Their Economic Self-Interest  Truthdig   ...Last week’s massive spill of the toxic chemical MCHM into West Virginia’s Elk River illustrates another benefit to the business class of high unemployment, economic insecurity, and a safety-net shot through with holes...
Millionaire Ga. GOPer Backs Wall Street Bailout -- Not Detroit's   Talking Points Memo   ...A multi-millionaire Georgia Republican Senate candidate wanted to be clear at a recent campaign event: He's against the autoworker bailout but is for the Wall Street bailout...
How Screwing Your Workers Gets You Rated as Top 100 Places to Work  AlterNet   ...Darden Restaurants, which owns chains like Red Lobster, bought its way into a sleazy rankings list...
Amazon hosting most of the net's malware, says security firm  The Guardian   ...Report says net's large cloud providers, including Google and GoDaddy, are unknowingly harbouring ‘on-demand’ malware...
A Sneaky Path Into Target Customers’ Wallets  New York Times   ...Entering through a digital gateway, the criminals discovered that Target’s systems were astonishingly open — lacking the virtual walls and motion detectors found in secure networks like many banks’...
America's Real Welfare Queens  Truthout   ...In 2012, the average American taxpayer making $50,000 per year paid just $36 towards the food stamps program, while an average American family making $50,000 a year pays a whopping $6,000 a year in subsidies to Republican-friendly corporations...
Restricting bankers’ pay has only made them richer  Quarz   ...thanks to Goldman Sachs’s soaring stock price, its employees are sitting on $600 million … in compensation…
Patrick Replaces Secretary of Labor after Problems Surface  Boston Globe   ...Governor Deval Patrick today announced that he is replacing his state secretary of Labor and Workforce Development, Joanne F. Goldstein, who had been facing questions about the troubled launch of the state’s new online jobless benefits system...
Florida blames its troubled unemployment website entirely on vendor; feds heading here to help  Miami Herald   ...Months after its debut, Florida’s $63 million unemployment benefits website is showing signs of improvement but falls far short of adequately serving claimants who depend on it...
Pennsylvania Judge Strikes Down New Voter ID Law  ThinkProgress   ...In a major victory for proponents of voting rights, a Pennsylvania judge overturned the state’s new voter identification law on Friday...
Plain Talk: Sorry, compared to Minnesotans, we made the wrong choice  The Cap Times   ...While Minnesota's economy has seen robust growth, Wisconsin's has — generously — been called sluggish. Because of differences in how health care is viewed, Minnesotans pay far less in premiums than do Badgers. There are those who contend that the Gopher State is leaving Wisconsin in its dust...
Chicago Alderwoman Proposes City Stop Doing Business With JPMorgan Chase After It Admits to Illegal Actions  Truthout   ...“The bank has violated the city code by making admissions of dishonesty and deceit in the way they dealt with their investors in the mortgage securities and Bernie Madoff Ponzi scandals,” Hairston [said]. “We use this code against city contractors and all the small companies, why wouldn’t we use this against one of the largest banks in the world,” she said...

Today's Teamster News 01.01.14

Settlement reached at Northern Tier Refinery in St. Paul Park Minneapolis Star Tribune ...Union and company negotiators reached a tentative agreement about 5 p.m. Tuesday, averting a strike that had been called to begin at midnight at the Northern Tier Refinery in St. Paul Park. The deal, which must still be voted on by about 190 workers, came just in time, said Chris Riley, business agent for Teamsters Local 120. “We went to the edge of the cliff,” Riley said…
Are we heading for the world's first TRILLIONAIRE? Tax Justice Network ...if you're under 60 years of age, you're likely to witness the emergence of the world's first trillionaire...
In No One We Trust (opinion) New York Times ...trust is becoming yet another casualty of our country’s staggering inequality:..
30 Million People Worldwide Are Living As Slaves Huffington Post ...The Global Slavery Index released a shocking report last week, estimating that almost 30 million people worldwide are living as slaves...
US population growing at slowest rate since 1930s, census data shows The Guardian ...“This sharp bump that we've seen in the last few years does suggest that the economy has a lot to do with it.”...
How NAFTA Drove Mexicans into Poverty and Sparked the Zapatista Revolt Alternet ...The North American Free Trade Agreement, passed 20 years ago, has resulted in increased emigration, hunger and poverty...
Case-Shiller Home Prices Double Digit Annual Increase Party May Be Over Economic Populist ...The October 2013 S&P Case Shiller home price index shows a seasonally adjusted 13.6% price increase from a year ago for both the 20 metropolitan housing markets and the top 10 housing markets. This is an incredible price run up and has not been seen since the height of the housing bubble, February 2006...
Only A Quarter Of Unemployed Americans Receiving Benefits After Congress Failed To Act: Data Huffington Post ...The number is the lowest since the Department of Labor began keeping records in 1946. Before Congress let the federal unemployment benefit-assistance plan expire on Dec. 28, 38 percent of unemployed Americans who paid unemployment taxes were receiving unemployment insurance either through their state or the federal government...
Residents allowed to return home after smoky North Dakota rail crash Reuters ...Mandatory evacuation orders were lifted on Tuesday in Casselton, North Dakota, where a fiery oil train crash a day earlier triggered a series of blasts and forced residents from their homes...
Business property tax cut could drive up other taxes, report says Indianapolis Star ...A new legislative report says cutting the business personal property tax could raise taxes for homeowners and workers across the state...
Pot Shops in Denver Open Door to $578 Million in Sales Bloomberg ...Fox’s shop is among 14 in Denver that got state and local licenses in time to sell marijuana to anyone 21 or older starting Jan. 1, just over a year after Colorado and Washington voters made their states the first to legalize recreational use. Washington’s shops are expected to open later in the year. Colorado projects $578.1 million a year in combined wholesale and retail marijuana sales to yield $67 million in tax revenue…
Solidarity Sing Along up; The YMCA of Dane County down Isthmus ...The state's Fourth District Court of Appeals rules that people who were charged for singing in the (Wisconsin) Capitol Rotunda during the noontime protests are allowed to use discovery in their defense, which means they can call witnesses and seek evidence the state has against them...

Today's Teamster News 12.03.13

Iron Mountain Drivers Choose Teamster Representation  teamstersjc25.com   ...Approximately 85 drivers and mobile document shredders with Iron Mountain recently voted overwhelmingly to join Teamsters Local 731...
Massachusetts Highway Workers Choose Teamsters  teamster.org   ...The six staff with the Newbury Highway Department in Newbury, Mass., have joined Teamsters Local 170 in Worcester, Mass., through card-check...
Hazleton city layoffs postponed  Citizens Voice   ...The mayor of Hazleton, Pennsylvania announced that the layoffs of unionized City Hall employees that were to begin Monday have been postponed...
Unemployment benefits will soon expire for 1.3 million workers. Where will they go?  Washington Post   ...Our story so far: Some 1.3 million out-of-work Americans will lose their unemployment insurance unless Congress extends an emergency aid program that's set to expire Dec. 28...
Mass. Senator urges caution on drone deliveries  Associated Press   ...Online retailer Amazon.com’s idea for super-fast delivery of packages by unmanned aerial drone has brought a ‘‘not so fast’’ response from one U.S. senator...
Justices won't hear appeal of NY internet taxation  Associated Press   ...On perhaps the busiest online shopping day of the year, the Supreme Court refused on Monday to wade into a dispute over New York state's taxes on purchases on websites like Amazon.com...
Record crowds shop over holiday weekend, but spending declines  Associated Press   ...Target, Macy’s and other retailers offered holiday discounts in early November and opened stores on Thanksgiving Day in an effort to attract shoppers before Black Friday. But did the retailers shoot themselves in the foot?..
Worker Wage Inequality Myth Exposed  Economic Populist   ...In America today there is a crisis. That crisis is economic inequality. The U.S. workforce has been blamed and dismissed for the growing gap between rich and poor...
Major Corporations Employ Former U.S. Intelligence Agents As Spies  The Real News   ...New report details spying and infiltration carried out by corporations against nonprofits and activists...
Enron’s revenge: Forget about retirement  Frying Pan News  ...A Texas billionaire and an ambitious California mayor are teaming up to undermine pensions...
ALEC's right to work for less bill filed in Missouri today  TeamsterNation   ...Missouri state lawmakers who belong to the anti-worker, corporate-empowerment group ALEC pre-filed a right-to-work-for-less bill in the Legislature today...
Scott Walker: Forget toys for the kids and give money to me  Wisconsin Gazette   ...Gov. Scott Walker's campaign emailed a gift suggestion to his supporters: Skip the long holiday shopping lines and send your money to his reelection campaign...
State school board member from Akron represents nonunion contractors who opened charter school  Akron Beacon-Journal   ...A nonunion building contractors association that charges tuition for adult apprenticeship classes has found a way to give teenagers a jump-start on skilled construction trades at taxpayer expense: A publicly funded charter school...

Today's Teamster News 11.24.13

Teamsters contract to bring less than 2 percent raises  Ironton Tribune   ...The first Teamsters contract for employees of the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office will bring them raises over the next three years...
Anheuser-Busch InBev, Teamsters Conclude Round of Contract Talks  CBS St. Louis   ...Teamsters Local 6 Principal Officer Ron Shy says the three-week-long local talks wrapped up last night with what he says are a “couple of unresolved issues” they will take to the national talks that open in St. Petersburg, Florida on December 2...
Middletown Boro, Teamsters local reach agreement on holiday decoration volunteers  Fox 43   ...Earlier this fall, Arnold announced the Borough would be forced to suspend the decorating activities this year after members of Teamsters Local 776 filed grievances seeking compensation for the work the volunteers did last year...Under the terms of the settlement agreement, the union recognizes the Borough’s right to use volunteers so long as such use does not result in employee layoffs...
Walmart Protests Promised To Be Even Bigger This Black Friday  Huffington Post   ...Walmart workers and their supporters are planning to kick off this year's holiday shopping season with protests at 1,500 Walmart stores around the country on Nov. 29...
Civil Society Groups Demand Transparency and User Protections in TPP  Electronic Frontier Foundation   ...Civil society groups are coming out in force against the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, following Wikileaks' publication of the “Intellectual Property” chapter...
An Orgy of Thieves  Counterpunch   ...There was indeed a vast criminal class coming to full vicious potential in the 1990s: a group utterly vacant of the most elementary instincts of social propriety, devoid of moral fiber, selfish to an almost unfathomable degree. The class comes in the form of our corporate elite...
Analysis: U.S. businesses back Tea Party Republicans after shutdown  Reuters   ...Eight of the most active business PACs wrote checks totaling $84,750 to 56 Republicans in the Senate and the House of Representatives after they voted against an October 16 deal to re-open the government that had been shut down since October 1 and avert an imminent debt default...
End the 1 percent’s free ride: Taxing land would solve America’s biggest problems  Salon   ...Just tax the stuff that humans had nothing to do with creating, and therefore have no basis to claim ownership over at all. You’ll find that almost all of it is “owned” by the fabled 1 percent...
Robert Samuelson Is Upset that the Government Gives One Thousand Times as Much Money to Billionaires Like Peter Peterson as It Does to Poor Children  Center for Economic Policy and Research   ...we should look at the billions of dollars in interest paid out on government bonds to rich people like Peter Peterson without taking account of the fact that Peterson and his billionaire friends paid for these bonds...
Watch economic insecurity spread like a virus over a quarter-century  Washington Post   ...the two great transformations of the economy over the late 20th century have been the rise in inequality and the increasing risk that households and workers bear...
Caught in a Revolving Door of Unemployment  New York Times   ... joblessness lasting more than six months is a major factor preventing people from getting rehired, with potentially grave consequences for tens of millions of Americans...
Susan J. Demas: How the Democrats blew it after Right to Work (opinion)  Michigan Live   ...they filed a couple long-shot lawsuits and essentially decided to give up...
Ohio unions optimistic about shifting Right to Work landscape  Keep Ohio's Heritage   ...Following this month’s colossal failure of the Ohioans for Workplace Freedom Election Day signature push, labor groups believe that Ohio voters are beginning to make their choice clear at the ballots...

Today's Teamster News 09.19.13

Teamsters Praise SEC For Proposed Rule On Corporate Pay  teamster.org   ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters today applauded the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announcement of a new proposed rule requiring corporations to disclose the ratio between chief executive and worker pay...
Ballots for Seven UPS Supplements/Riders Mailed September 18  teamster.org   ...Ballots for UPS Teamsters covered under the following supplements and riders were mailed yesterday, September 18...
Cardinal Health’s Political Spending Target of Teamsters’ Shareholder Proposal  Columbia Business First   ...Cardinal Health Inc. is the latest public company fielding a shareholder proposal for more reporting on corporate political contributions in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision...
Darigold Walks Out of Federal Mediation  teamster.org   ...Darigold walked out of federal mediation late Monday night setting the stage for a potential lockout or strike at the company’s production facilities in Issaquah and Seattle...|
Jack Cooper Set To Buy Allied Holdings  Automotive Logistics   ...North American vehicle hauler Jack Cooper is to acquire the business of bankrupt rival Allied System Holdings following a successful bid confirmed this week...
Jack Cooper Purchase Clears Another Hurdle; Next Step Is Anti-Trust Review  teamster.org  ...On Tuesday, September 17, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher S. Sontchi approved the sale of most of Allied Systems Holdings assets to Jack Cooper Transport...
Marquez union supporters press on despite setbacks  Hanford Sentinel ...Workers will have another shot at supporting the Teamsters in an election on Oct. 4 despite the company’s decision earlier this month to no longer recognize the union...
Government Hands More Than $1 Trillion to Wealthy While Deficit Is $642 Billion  truthout   ...All tax breaks for individuals will exceed $1 trillion this year, with about 17% of the biggest individual tax breaks going to the top 1% of earners...
China's second richest man has tendons in hand severed after labourer begged for job and was turned down  Daily Mail   ...He sought out Mr Zong near his home after seeing him help impoverished migrant workers on a television programme and asked the self-made billionaire for a job...
Women Waiting Tables Provide Most of Female Gains in U.S.  Bloomberg   ...the gains have been largely in lower-paying industries such as waitresses, in-home health care, food preparation and housekeeping. About 60 percent of the increase in employment for women from 2009 to 2012 was in jobs that pay less than $10.10 an hour, compared with 20 percent for men...
Young People's Unhappiness Comes from Our Broken Economic System -- And They Shouldn't Shut Up About It  Alternet   ...realities are quite harsh — making around $25,000 a year while trying to afford rent and food while paying back their more than $20,000 student loans...
Missouri treasurer wants to ban 'pension advances'  St. Louis Post-Dispatch   ...Missouri State Treasurer Clint Zweifel wants the state to ban “pension advance” offers aimed at state retirees. He says they're bad deals...
Expand Medicaid to help senior citizens  St. Louis Post-Dispatch (opinion)   ...In the editorial “Do no harm" (Sept. 3), the editorial board highlights some of the hardships facing Missouri if we don’t pass Medicaid expansion. The editorial does not specifically mention the especially large burdens of our senior citizens...
Commerce secretary touts opportunities in Mexico, Pacific trade pact  Los Angeles Times  ...Recently installed U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker said trade opportunities with Mexico will expand as economic and security conditions improve in America's southern neighbor...
Will the Supreme Court Stop Cops From Reading Your Text Messages?  Mother Jones   ...In many states, police can rifle through your smartphone—even if you've just been arrested for not putting on your seat belt...
Millions Living Above The Poverty Line Also Struggle To Get By  Huffington Post   ...For nearly 30 years, Elena Keating made a career helping low-income Americans find and keep affordable housing. Now, she's the one struggling and one of millions in this country just scraping by after being out of a job for the past nine months...
Unemployment Gap Between Rich And Poor Widens To A 10-Year Extreme  MintPress News   ...Unemployment gaps between the wealthiest and the poorest Americans have reached their highest level since government officials began tracking the statistic a decade ago...
Workers win wage battle against Victoria’s Secret  Finance Post   ...Victoria’s Secret has apparently had several secrets. Low wages and few hours for part-time workers were among them. However, some employees have taken the secrets public and the result was an increase in wages...
JPMorgan Chase Is Said to Admit Fault in Settlement of Trade Loss  New York Times   ...JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay about $800 million to a host of government agencies in Washington and London — and make a groundbreaking admission of wrongdoing — to settle allegations stemming from a multibillion-dollar trading loss...
Nationwide protests against neonazi murder  Enet English   ...Police fired fired tear gas and deployed water canon at a number of the protests after some protesters set dumpsters on fire and started hurling projectiles at police lines...
In New York, Having a Job, or 2, Doesn’t Mean Having a Home  New York Times   ...With New York City’s homeless population in shelters at a record high of 50,000, a growing number of New Yorkers punch out of work and then sign in to a shelter, city officials and advocates for the homeless say...
Wisconsin: Judge rules state can't enforce parts of Walker law  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel...A Dane County judge ruled Tuesday the state cannot enforce key provisions of a law limiting collective bargaining against local government unions...