Today's Teamster News 05.14.15

Teamsters
BLET/Teamsters statement on fatal Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia  BLET.org   ...As federal investigators in Philadelphia begin to piece together what happened leading up to the horrific Amtrak derailment that occurred on May 12, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) extends our most heartfelt sympathy to the grieving families who lost a loved one in the accident, and also to the many victims who suffered serious injuries...
Teamsters, allies voice outrage at attempts to gut truck safety laws  Teamster Nation   ...Teamsters joined forces today with safety advocates, crash victims, and law enforcement allies for a press event on Capitol Hill to speak out against proposed rollbacks of major truck safety regulations. The event was held as the Appropriations Committee considers the House Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations Bill for 2016, which includes "riders" that will force truck drivers to work longer hours and drive larger, heavier trucks...
Teamsters trying to organize at north Strip hotel  CBS Las Vegas  ...The union representing Las Vegas valet workers are protesting what they say is unfair treatment at the SLS Las Vegas hotel and casino on the Strip. Teamsters Local 986 said the group and supporters protested outside SLS Monday. The union wants to organize the casino-hotel’s 50 valet employees...

Global Labor & Trade
Senate compromise revives fast-track bill, but an uphill slog looms in House  Washington Post  ...One day after Democrats defied their own president with a filibuster that temporarily blocked a key trade measure, Senate leaders said they had reached an agreement to move forward with a series of votes that would break the impasse...
Obama vs. Warren: Trade spat turns personal  Reuters  ...President Barack Obama's swing at liberal favorite Elizabeth Warren has stirred a controversy that may complicate the chances of a pan-Pacific trade pact and could make it harder for the White House to get its way in future legislative battles. Facing stiff opposition to the trade deal from sections of his own Democratic Party, Obama launched a personalized criticism of Warren's efforts to lead the fight against giving the administration "fast-track" negotiating authority...
White House changes tone on trade  The Hill  ...Knowing it has to win over more Democrats, the White House shifted its tone on the Massachusetts senator. Earnest sought to downplay the scope of the Obama-Warren rift, emphasizing they agree on a wide array of issues from Wall Street reform to raising the minimum wage, even though they disagree on trade...
Barack Obama's Battle With Senate Democrats Is Over. For Now.  National Journal   ...Of the Senate's 46 Democrats, exactly one voted Tuesday to support a bill that Obama calls vital to the economy. But then, after a day of lousy news coverage and hand-wringing about a president who couldn't even get the support of his own party, it all blew over, and things were pretty much where Obama and his aides predicted they would be heading into Monday...
Democrats yield in Senate trade deal  Politico   ...After Democrats engineered a stunning defeat of President Barack Obama’s push for new trade deals on Tuesday, negotiators hashed out a compromise that offered both parties a way to save face without scuttling the administration’s trade agenda. At the least, the agreement means the Senate is likely to pass new powers for the president to fast-track trade pacts through Congress...
Fast Track will empower GOP president, McConnell says  Washington Post   ...In an interview with John Harwood, McConnell said that Republicans should support Fast Track authority, explicitly because — and here’s the rub — it will empower the next GOP president to negotiate trade deals more easily, despite Democratic opposition to them in Congress...
The secret corporate takeover of trade agreements  (opinion) The Guardian   ...Rules and regulations determine the kind of economy and society in which people live. They affect relative bargaining power, with important implications for inequality, a growing problem around the world. The question is whether we should allow rich corporations to use provisions hidden in so-called trade agreements to dictate how we will live in the 21st century...
Egypt outlaws workers’ right to strike  Al-Monitor  ...The ruling issued April 28 by the Supreme Administrative Court headed by Judge Labib Halim to criminalize strikes and penalize striking public workers by forcing them into retirement caused an uproar in legal circles and provoked the anger of those interested in labor and human rights...
Mexican Auto Workers Fired After Protesting Sexual Harassment  In These Times  ...In March, workers on a subassembly line organized a work-to-rule slowdown. That grabbed management’s attention. A meeting was held. Management and the union agreed to handle the problem with the supervisor. “We were informed that we weren’t going to be punished for the demonstration,” said Edgar Capetillo. They were fired without explanation. All 20 of the workers were male...
Dozens Feared Dead After Fire Consumes Factory In Philippines  Common Dreams  ...At least 65 people have been reported missing or dead after a fire consumed a rubber slipper factory in a suburb of the Philippine capital of Manila on Wednesday. Rex Gatchalian, mayor of the suburb of Valenzuela where the disaster took place, reportedly said that it took fire fighters four hours to quell the blaze and bodies were found inside the building...

State & Living Wage Battles
Missouri passes right-to-work bill, but governor's veto expected  Reuters  ...Missouri Republican lawmakers passed a bill on Wednesday that would stop workers from being required to join a union or pay dues, but without enough votes to override an expected veto by Democratic Governor Jay Nixon. By a 92-66 vote, the Missouri House of Representatives approved the measure that would allow Missouri to join 25 other states with "right-to-work" laws...
House to vote on Right to Work: 'It's gonna fail. It's meant to fail. And it will fail.'  Chicago Sun Times  ...“Political theater” or a “serious vote” on which legislators must take a stand. Those are the contrasting views of the Illinois House vote scheduled Thursday for Gov. Bruce Rauner’s much trumpeted right-to-work proposal...
Senate panel OKs bills to repeal prevailing wage laws  Detroit News  ...The Senate leader and House Speaker Kevin Cotter, R-Mount Pleasant, are making the repeal legislation a major priority, although Republican Gov. Rick Snyder says he doesn’t favor it. The legislation was sent to the full Senate by its Michigan Competitiveness Committee on 4-1 votes following a hearing that lasted about one-and-a-half hours...
Facebook Just Made Sure Even Their Janitors Are Making At Least $15 An Hour  Think Progress   ...Effective May 1, the new benefits will cover contract employees who work as cooks, janitors, security guards and other support staff at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California. The company plans to extend the benefits to third-party vendors with more than 25 employees at its other 16 campuses in the U.S. over the next year...
Union nursing home caregivers seek 'living wage' in State House rally  Providence Journal  ...With nursing homes and hospitals facing cuts as part of Governor Raimondo's Reinventing Medicaid initiative, Ward and other union health-care workers rallied at the State House on Wednesday to call for better pay and policies that promote better care. They are seeking what they call "a living wage" of $15 an hour...
The Fight For $15 Just Won a Powerful Supporter: Governor Cuomo  The Nation   ...The 99 percent can savor a small victory, as Governor Andrew Cuomo launches a plan to raise fast food workers’ pay to up to $15 an hour in one sweeping executive action. Last week Cuomo rolled out a new Wage Board, featuring three high-profile appointees tasked with reviewing labor conditions in the industry, with a mandate to secure “honor and justice” for the state’s 200,000 fast-food workers...
L.A. City Council committee votes to raise minimum wage to $15 by 2020  LA Daily News  ...Amid a national discussion over economic inequality and following months of heated debate, Los Angeles is poised to dramatically hike the citywide minimum wage. A unanimous vote Wednesday by the seven-member Economic Development Committee laid out a series of increases over five years. Hourly pay would reach $10.50 next year, $12 by 2017, $13.25 by 2018 and $14.25 by 2019 under the plan...

U.S. Labor
Unions call attention to protracted labor negotiations with Southwest  Dallas Morning News   ...Unions representing pilots and ramp workers at Southwest Airlines sought Tuesday to call attention to their protracted labor negotiations with the Dallas-based carrier. The ramp workers, who are working under a contract that became amendable in June 2011, announced plans to picket outside Southwest’s annual meeting Wednesday in downtown Houston...
AT&T, CWA reach tentative wireline labor agreement  Fierce Telecom  ...AT&T and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) have hammered out tentative agreements covering nearly 17,000 wireline employees in the Midwest. These tentative agreements cover union employees that work for AT&T Midwest and AT&T Corp...
UAW protests at Lear annual meeting  Auto News  ...The UAW protested outside Lear's annual shareholder meeting today near Detroit, calling attention to safety issues at the company's seat plants in the South. “Workers at auto parts plants nationwide are standing up and speaking out against low wages and unsafe conditions that now define far too many of America’s auto jobs," UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada said in a statement today...
Strike energizes organized labor before contract talks  NWI Times  ...Now the strike is over. But contract talks are coming up later this year at Northwest Indiana's big steel mills and at Ford's factories just across the state line, and organized labor in the Calumet Region has a new energy. "The strike helped bring some solidarity to Northwest Indiana," USW District 7 Director Mike Millsap said...

Miscellaneous
Currently Available Technology May Have Prevented Fatal Amtrak Crash. But Congress Never Funded It.  Think Progress  ...Rather than provide the necessary funding to allow Amtrak to meet the rapidly approaching mandate, the GOP-controlled U.S. House Appropriations Committee voted along party lines to cut about a fifth of Amtrak’s annual federal funds. Instead, a bill proposed in March by Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) would extend the deadline for PTC implementation until December 2020...
Private Water Industry Says Water Bills "Have to Go Up"  Truthout  ...The topic that received the most attention was the nation's patchwork of rapidly deteriorating municipal water systems, which are estimated to need more than $1 trillion worth of upgrades. This, water executives said, not only represented a historic opportunity for their businesses, but could also be used as leverage to finally convince Americans to cough up more money for their tap water. It is the classic Shock Doctrine approach - turning a social crisis into a financial shakedown...
MOVE Bombing at 30: "Barbaric" 1985 Philadelphia Police Attack Killed 11 & Burned a Neighborhood  Democracy Now  ...Today marks the 30th anniversary of a massive police operation in Philadelphia that culminated in the helicopter bombing of the headquarters of a radical group known as MOVE. The fire from the attack incinerated six adults and five children, and destroyed 65 homes. Despite two grand jury investigations and a commission finding that top officials were grossly negligent, no one from city government was criminally charged...

Outsourcing: 5 ways corporations grab your tax dollars

Greedy corporations just can't seem to get enough outsourcing, as they take control of public assets like roads, parking meters, schools and prisons.

None of this is news to anyone. But it seems the scope of outsourcing is growing and the pace is accelerating. Just in the past few days we note news items about the corporate takeover of our schools, our water, our prisons and our national air space. Corporations even manage to persuade taxpayers to pay for creating assets -- like football stadiums -- that benefit people who are already wealthy.

Here's a quick rundown:

Charter schools: Forbes reported recently on the corporate grab for local education dollars in a story, "Charter School Gravy Train Runs Express To Fat City." The magazine told it like it is:

On Thursday, July 25, dozens of bankers, hedge fund types and private equity investors gathered in New York to hear about the latest and greatest opportunities to collect a cut of your property taxes.

There are now more than 6,000 charter schools in the United States, 3,500 more than a decade ago, and they're educating 2.3 million children. These corporate schools can pick which students they admit, but local taxpayers pay for them. They're a great way for politicians to reward their cronies. In Ohio, Forbes reports,

...two firms operate 9% of the state’s charter schools and are collecting 38% of the state’s charter school funding increase this year. The operators of both firms donate generously to elected Republicans. 

Sadly, kids in corporate schools don't do any better than kids in public schools.

Air traffic control: Bloomberg tells us "Discussions about removing government management of the U.S. air-traffic control system are the most serious in two decades."

"Privatization is not the answer," responded a commenter identified as Exctyengr:

Most of these knuckleheads never served in the military nor flew in the air traffic system. ... We privatized much of the military and we got Blackwater and Halliburton and Kellogg, Brown and Root and how did that work out?  Did we get our money's worth?  Were there scandals? 

Prisons, of course: The Center for Media and Democracy reports prison industry giants like Corrections Corporation of America are making big profits by locking states into occupancy quotas and “low-crime taxes." Some states state are by the corporation to keep prisons full or pay a fee for unused beds. Cost-cutting by private prisons companies "has led to numerous lawsuits and litigation, fines, and increased need for federal oversight, at great cost to taxpayers, communities, inmates and their families." Instead of taxpayer money going to safer communities, it goes to CEO salaries: GEO Group CEO George C. Zoley's compensation was an eye-popping $22,315,704 from 2008-2012, almost all paid for by U.S. taxpayers.

NFL Football: Gregg Easterbrook at The Atlantic argues:

Taxpayers fund the stadiums, antitrust law doesn't apply to broadcast deals, the league enjoys nonprofit status, and Commissioner Roger Goodell makes $30 million a year. It's time to stop the public giveaways to America's richest sports league—and to the feudal lords who own its teams. 

Well, at least the players are allowed to belong to unions.

Water: In Fryeburg, Maine, a local taxpayer named Bruce Taylor doesn't want Nestle getting a sweetheart deal from state regulators to buy water for its Poland Springs bottled water business. Maine's Public Utilities Commission members all have financial ties to the corporate giant (no surprise there). Taylor told al-Jazeera America,

“They’re buying a commodity at a cheap regulated rate from a monopoly they own and are reselling it for a high profit in the form of bottled water you find in your local 7-11,” Taylor said. 

Taylor believes Nestle is paying too little for water and making too much profit off of Maine. He suggested “an inverted water rate for any commercial water that leaves the state of Maine.”

For more about the perils of outsourcing, read the Center for Media and Democracy's series on Outsourcing America Exposed.

MI water privatized; is air next?

Among the distresssing trends brought to us by the Predator State is the privatization of water (along with any other taxpayer asset the crony capitalists can get their hands on).

In Michigan, residents of Pontiac are questioning why their emergency manager struck a deal with a water company that's been indicted for felony violations of the Clean Water Act. Chris Savage at Eclectablog broke the story a few weeks ago:

...in addition to dissolving Pontiac’s Planning Commission and replacing it with hand-picked, unelected members, (Emergency Financial Manager Michael) Stampfler privatized the water treatment services and hired United Water Services to takeover that role...United Water was indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice last December for violating the Clean Water Act...

(If you haven't been following, emergency financial managers are corporate stooges appointed by the governor and given dictatorial power over local governments. It used to be called taxation without representation, now it's called "value for money.")

Pontiac is pissed.  Reports the Oakland Press,

The wastewater treatment plants are a controversial topic in the city, with many people fearful the facilities will be sold off for pennies on the dollar.

Residents have been using Facebook to gripe about the deal, arguing Stampfler is continuing his push to privatize services and eliminate jobs.

“After what he did to our water and sewer department, he should have charges brought against him for conspiracy with United Water services, but then everyone knew Stampfler’s background and work history when they sat back and just let this guy come in and take over,” resident Marcia Battles wrote.

“The (emergency manager) acts like every employee for the city is rotten to the core, doesn’t trust or respect any of us and yet hires a bunch of criminals being brought up on charges for corruption and pays them with our money,” resident and activist Mona Hofmeister wrote.

Savage, bless him, is working to repeal the taxation without representation law. There's a town hall meeting in Ann Arbor on Saturday to talk about it, and a legal challenge will be announced today (stay tuned).

The Italian people are pretty ticked off about water privatization as well. Food & Water Watch reports Italian voters blocked the government's attempt to privatize water earlier this week. According to F&WW,

The Italian government had initially pushed for private sector assistance to repair an aging water system, and they passed a law that would privatize water by the end of the year. But, Italians already had a poor taste of what water privatization would be like after some communities had to deal with mismanaged water resources at the hands of a few multinational corporations. Boosted by support from the Roman Catholic clergy and others who demand that water be treated as a human right, the people of Italy have called for their water to be managed by a public entity.

57 percent of eligible voters turned out to the polls and voted by an astounding 96 percent. This is certainly a victory for water advocates around the globe. Water privatization typically leads to higher consumer costs and services that are managed with an emphasis on profit over quality and safety.

F&WW has a web page about water privatization around the globe. Check it out.