Today's Teamster News 04.01.15

Teamsters
Teamsters Applaud Veto Of Senate Joint Resolution To Overturn NLRB Election Modernization Rule  teamster.org   ...The Teamsters Union today applauded President Obama’s decision to veto a destructive resolution backed by Republicans in Congress that would overturn modest reforms issued by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to help streamline and modernize representation case procedures...
Teamsters Local 853 Begins Negotiations for Tech Company Shuttle Drivers  teamster.org   ...Negotiations on a union contract for Silicon Valley tech company drivers will begin today. Representatives for the drivers’ union, Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif., will meet with Transdev, which operates as Compass Transportation, and employs drivers at Apple, eBay, Yahoo, Zynga, Genentech, Amtrak and Evernote...
St. Vincent technicians seek to align with union  Worcester Business Journal   ...The employees have applied to the Boston bureau of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to join Teamsters Local 170 in Worcester...
Open & Fair Skies Report: Reconsidering the U.S.-UAE Aviation Relationship  teamster.org   ... the Gulf carriers receive ‘stunning and unprecedented’ financial support from the UAE that dramatically upends the aviation marketplace.  As more experts study this case and the evidence, we are encouraged that they are supporting our request for the U.S. government to open consultations with the UAE under the Open Skies agreement...
Local 399 Casting Director Profiled In New Yorker  teamster.org   ...Allison Jones, the casting director, was reading the scene with actors trying out for the Stewart role, who faced a decision: audition with a real banana, or just pretend to eat one? Jones works out of a bungalow in the quaint Larchmont neighborhood of Los Angeles. The rooms of the house are airy and filled with mementos of her thirty-year-long career in Hollywood: bobble-heads of characters from “The Office,” which Jones cast; a bulletin board collaged with head shots...
Travel Industry Leaders Urge Maryland Governor To Reject Burdensome Tax On Travel  eTurboNews   ...Concerned industry participants comprise major corporations, travel management companies, travel agencies, travel industry advocates, travel associations, travel consortia and organized labor. Signatories to the letter include ...the Teamsters National Airline Division...
Cesar Chavez Day March Shines Light On LA Produce Workers' Rights  KABC   ...Teamsters marching Tuesday are in support of unionization for workers at the L.A. Produce Market. They say there are 1,000-2,000 workers at the market who lack union representation...
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership Treaty Will Help Neither Workers Nor Consumers (opinion)  Washington Post   ...now a significant portion of our trade is intra-corporate trade, an exchange between one branch of a multinational and another. Multinationals have different interests than national companies. They profit even if U.S. workers suffer...
State Battles
Most Americans Want Their State To Make Voter Registration Easier  Huffington Post   ...A 54 percent majority of Americans say they'd favor an automatic registration law in their state, a new HuffPost/YouGov poll finds, while 55 percent favor allowing eligible citizens to register on the day of an election...
Colorado House Gives Initial OK To Pair Of Minimum-Wage Bills  Denver Post   .. the Colorado House gave initial approval Monday to two bills that could grant pay hikes to the state's lowest-wage earners. One bill would allow elected officials in cities and counties to set minimum wages apart from the state standard; the other would create a 2016 ballot measure to allow voters to decide on a formula to raise it from the current $8.23 an hour to $12.50 by 2020...
War on Workers
Cheap oil prices chop jobs by thousands  USA Today   ...Planned oil industry layoffs in the U.S. are approaching 100,000 in the past four months with more likely to come...
The Shrinking Middle Class, Mapped State by State  The Pew Charitable Trusts   .... A new Stateline analysis shows that in all 50 states, the percentage of “middle-class” households—those making between 67 percent and 200 percent of the state’s median income—shrunk between 2000 and 2013...
Even After Walmart Got Busted in Court for Stealing Workers' Wages, It's Trying Not to Pay Up  Alternet   ...Walmart employees have over $187 [million] in damages they can collect from a successful wage theft lawsuit, but the company is arguing that each victim should get their own lawyer...
‘Wealth creators’ are robbing our most productive people  Guardian   ...A report by the Resolution Foundation reveals that two-thirds of frontline care workers receive less than the living wage. Ten percent, like Carole, are illegally paid less than the minimum wage. This abuse is not confined to the UK: in the US, 27% of care workers who make home visits are paid less than the legal minimum...
Income Inequality: It’s Also Bad For Your Health  New York Times   ...the effect of inequality was statistically significant, equivalent to a difference of about 11 days of life between high- and low-inequality places. The differences were small, but for every increment that a community became more unequal, the proportion of residents dying before the age of 75 went up...
The Rise Of The Working Poor And The Non-Working Rich (opinion)  Huffington Post   ...While poverty declined in the early years of welfare reform when the economy boomed and jobs were plentiful, it began growing in 2000. By 2012 it exceeded its level in 1996, when welfare ended....
Losing A Job Is Always Terrible. For Workers Over 50, It’s Worse  Washington Post   ...although older people often found the working conditions at their new jobs were better than their old one, nearly half found that the new job paid less....
Contractor Killed In Industrial Accident At Marcus Hook Refinery  Philadelphia Inquirer   ...A contractor working at the former Sunoco refinery in Delaware County was killed Monday afternoon in an industrial accident, officials said...
Miscellaneous
Wintry Hit Seen In Soft Spending  Wall Street Journal   ...Consumer spending barely rose in February, increasing a seasonally adjusted 0.1% from the prior month after two consecutive declines, the Commerce Department said Monday. Spending on goods and services, when adjusted for inflation, actually declined slightly for the first time in 10 months...

Today's Teamster News 03.16.15

Teamsters
County public employees to vote for Teamsters affiliation  Daily Press   ... Ballots have been mailed out to more than 15,000 San Bernardino County, city and agency employees to vote on whether they want to join Teamsters, officials said...
Trade
Ron Wyden's internet freedom allies fret he'll abandon them on trade pact  The Oregonian   ...Sen. Ron Wyden was greeted Friday morning at his Umatilla town hall meeting by a 30-foot-long blimp urging him to oppose an upcoming trade pack that critics say could curb internet freedom...
Wyden faces wide scope of question  East Oregonian   ...Education and international trade were on the minds of citizens who showed up to a town hall meeting hosted by Sen. Ron Wyden in Umatilla Friday...
TPP clock ticks as Congress dallies on trade authority  Japan Times   ... Negotiations on a contested Pacific free trade pact have apparently hit a new snag — a U.S. legislative delay in bringing forward a bill viewed as crucial to concluding the deal. Dashing earlier expectations, the U.S. Congress has yet to submit a bill that would grant what is called Trade Promotion Authority to President Barack Obama so he can sign trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership without deep legislative scrutiny...
Getting It Wrong on Trade: TPP Is Not Good for Workers  Beat the Press   ...What part of getting kicked in the face do you not understand?...
State Battles
'Right to work' laws aren't about jobs or rights. They're about power.  The Week   ... If you're an average worker who just wants to make more money, should you oppose "Right to Work" statutes? Absolutely...
Prevailing Wage Laws: Why Are They An Increasingly Popular Target For Republican State Legislators?  International Business Times   ... This session, Nevada has already repealed prevailing wages for school construction projects. A bill that scales back West Virginia’s system awaits the signature of the governor. Indiana nears a repeal. Michigan mulls a similar proposal. Some Wisconsin Republicans see it as the next step after right-to-work...
War on Workers
Working Minority Families Are Twice As Likely To Be Low-Income As Whites  Wall Street Journal   ... Racial and ethnic minorities made up 40% of all working families, but accounted for 58% of working families that are low-income...
NYU Graduate Students Win Historic Victory  The American Prospect   ...the Graduate Students Organizing Committee of the United Autoworkers, or GSOC, reached a historic, tentative agreement with administrators at New York University, averting a strike that was scheduled to begin just hours later...
Worker killed after being thrown from machine  Equipment World   ...Law enforcement and Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials are investigating the death of a construction worker on a jobsite in Rutherford County, North Carolina...
Miscellaneous
The rise of luxury toilet paper  Washington Post   ...Sales in the United States of what the industry calls "luxury" rolls — anything quilted, lotioned, perfumed or ultra-soft, from two- to four-ply — climbed to $1.4 billion last year, outpacing all other kinds of toilet paper for the first time in nearly a decade...

Today's Teamster News 02.07.14

Senate Fails to Pass Three-Month Extension of Jobless Aid  New York Times   ...The Senate failed to move forward on a three-month extension of assistance for the long-term unemployed on Thursday, leaving it unlikely that Congress would approve the measure soon while undercutting a key aspect of President Obama’s economic recovery plan...
Fast-Track Bill’s Path in Congress Gets Bumpier  Wall Street Journal   ...In 2002, 27 of 222 House Republicans voted “no” on whether to give President George W. Bush fast-track authority. This time, some 60 House Republicans might oppose the legislation, according to estimates from two people following the matter...
Annual U.S. trade deficit with China sets new record in 2013  manufacture this   ...Since 2009, the trade deficit with China has risen by 40%...
Report: For-profit probation industry hurts America’s poorest  Salon   ...in several states, private firms with little-to-no oversight or regulation supervise draconian probation plans, which hits the poorest the hardest. Many of these probation cases relate to unpaid fees in the first, rendering the probation charges disproportionately punitive for the poorest offenders...
Why Walmart is getting too expensive for the middle class  Yahoo Finance   ...Walmart is struggling with weak sales and an underperforming stock price. The company recently cut its profit outlook...
The Highly Educated Working Poor, Toiling at a University Near You  AlterNet   ...They're strategizing, organizing and mobilizing against the immoral economics of inequality being hung around America's neck by the likes of Wal-Mart, McDonald's and colleges...
Private construction payrolls continue to show resilience  Sober Look   ...Over the past 5 months the proportion of jobs from construction has remained unusually stable - from 10 to 15% of total new monthly private payrolls...
Elizabeth Warren: Let's Stop Scamming Our Vets  Mother Jones   ...This week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) introduced legislation along with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) that would protect elderly veterans from financial scams and sketchy financial advisers...
The Top Priority in the Missouri State Legislature? Lowering Your Wages  AFSCME   ...The very first bill to receive a hearing in this year’s legislative session in Jefferson City was HB 1099, a so-called “right-to-work” measure aimed at undermining unions.  It’s just one of many union-busting bills on the calendar this year...
California Drought Impact Seen Spreading From Fires to Food Cost  Bloomberg   ...The drought that’s gripping California may soon have the rest of the country seeking relief. The emergency, which follows the state’s driest year on record, is likely to boost the prices of everything from broccoli to cauliflower nationwide. Farmers and truckers stand to lose billions in revenue, weakening an already fragile recovery in the nation’s most-populous state...
Duke Energy plant reports coal-ash spill  Charlotte Observer   ...Duke Energy said Monday that 50,000 to 82,000 tons of coal ash and up to 27 million gallons of water were released from a pond at its retired power plant in Eden into the Dan River, and were still flowing...
Candidate opposes right-to-work step  The Tribune-Democrat   ...“I don’t really understand the logic behind it. In a democratic system, where the majority of workers vote to join a union, I’m not sure what gives a minority the right to say ‘we’ll take advantage of the benefits of the union, but we’re not going to pay for the cost.’...
Michigan governor's budget includes money for Detroit pensions  Reuters   ...In what would be a major step toward resolving Detroit's historic bankruptcy case, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder on Wednesday unveiled plans to use state funds to help pay for Detroit worker pensions in his proposed $52.1 billion state budget...
Vermont Students, Workers Object to Tuition Dollars Being Used to Fund Poverty Wages  Truthout   ...Rising tuition, faculty cuts and non-living wages for janitors and food workers in Vermont institutions of higher learning are prompting student labor organizers to ask if tuition dollars should be used to exacerbate inequality...

Today's Teamster News 01.17.13

Ranks of working poor increasing  Washington Post ...Nearly a third of the nation’s working families earn salaries so low that they struggle to pay for their necessities, according to a new report...
Goldman Sachs pay and bonuses rise to £250,000 each  Guardian  ...Goldman Sachs risked stoking the row over City pay on Wednesday by revealing its bankers were paid an average of $400,000 (£250,000) each last year, a rise of more than $30,000 a head on 2011...
Here's What Happened the Last Time the U.S. Defaulted on Its Debt  The Atlantic ...Once upon a time, Congress didn't want to raise the debt ceiling, and sent the country into default. It was bad, and we shouldn't do it again...
Trade that Hurts  (opinion) Campaign for America's Future  ...If America can’t manufacture No. 2 pencils, how long will it be before it can’t manufacture ballistic missiles? Maybe that’s the pitchfork manufacturing workers need to prod politicians to deal with middle-class job uncertainty...
Wealthy CEOs Want To Force Americans To Retire Later  ThinkProgress  ...The Business Roundtable, a group representing the CEOs of the largest corporations in the nation — including the biggest banks, retailers, and insurance companies — is calling to raise the retirement age to 70...
House approves $50B for Sandy relief  The Hill ...The House approved a $50 billion Sandy relief bill Tuesday evening, after several hours of contentious debate in which scores of Republicans tried unsuccessfully to cut the size of the bill and offset a portion of it with spending cuts...

Union supporters protest new right-to-work law outside Michigan Capitol before governor's speech  AP ...About 100 union members have gathered outside the Michigan Capitol to protest the passage of right-to-work legislation, two hours before Gov. Rick Snyder's State of the State address...

Rules overhall would make it harder to obtain unemployment benefits  Journal Sentinel  ...A sweeping overhaul of the state's rules being sought by Gov. Scott Walker would rewrite hundreds of regulations, eliminating dozens of them outright and doing everything from tightening the standards for receiving jobless benefits to changing rules to curb acid rain...

Rick Scott shirks the blame for disastrous voting law  MSNBC ...Florida Governor Rick Scott signed the controversial voting legislation that shortened early voting and led to long lines at the polls, but he says that doesn’t mean the law is his fault...

ALPA Asks Congress to Set One Standard of Safety for All Flights AFL-CIO  ...The Air Line Pilots (ALPA) union is asking Congress to pass the Safe Skies Act of 2013, which would set one standard of fatigue rules for all pilots...
Tension Mount as Some Strikers Block School Buses WSJ  ...On the first day of the New York City school bus strike, drivers protesting at some depots tried to stop buses operated by non-striking drivers from leaving the lots, authorities said Wednesday...
Million Air sued in fund dispute  TimesUnion.com  ...The Teamsters union is accusing the company that operates the Million Air hangar at Albany International Airport, Million Air Interlink, of not paying into the health insurance fund for union employees who work there...

Now a word from the working poor (for a change)

There are poor people who work?

Presidential nominee Mitt Romney's disdain for 47 percent of Americans is inexcusable, but it may be understandable.

The 47 percent of Americans who are either retired or earn too little to pay income taxes (though they pay plenty of other taxes) are invisible in the mainstream media.

That's not an accident. Consider that six corporations control all but a tiny fraction of the news and entertainment consumed by Americans. That includes television and radio networks, news programs, movie studios, cartoon producers and cable systems. (FYI the six companies are Walt Disney, CBS, NBC, Time Warner, News Corporation and Viacom.)

The Economic Collapse Blog notes,

...each of us is deeply influenced by the messages that are constantly being pounded into our heads by the mainstream media.  The average American watches 153 hours of television a month.  In fact, most Americans begin to feel physically uncomfortable if they go too long without watching or listening to something.  Sadly, most Americans have become absolutely addicted to news and entertainment and the ownership of all that news and entertainment that we crave is being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands each year.

None of these giant corporations has any interest in informing Americans about wage theft, exploitation, misclassification, wage theft or poverty. So much of what we see and hear is therefore about comfortable, affluent people -- in the news as well as in entertainment. Poor people show up as criminals.

Ignoring half the country that's considered the working poor may explain why journalism is fast shrinking as a career.

So it was a nice surprise to see a McClatchy reporter actually talking to poor people who work their butts off: Andrew Days at the Rock Hill Herald interviewed workers in South Carolina who don't pay income taxes. He introduces us to three women in age or income brackets that exempt them from federal income taxes:

Sandra Brown, 50, fresh off a shift in the steam and heat and sweat of a dry cleaner, sat on the front porch of a house Tuesday and reflected on the politics of the day... 

“I worked since I was 13 years old,” Brown said. “I worked in a mill. Then I worked at dry cleaners. I worked. I never got a welfare check in my life.” 

Next to her sat Terry Lee Boular, 48, who also works on her feet at the dry cleaner on Cherry Road – a street that bureaucrats and editorial boards call “a homely stepsister” to streets where the more well-heeled get clothes cleaned and where those with style do not have to look at the poor who work on their feet all day in miles of businesses and stores. 

In the third chair sat Shirley Mclean, 75, who still works some at the cleaners, too. 

Mclean’s husband of 43 years, Grady, who worked with his back and hands all his life until the back went, lay in a bed inside the tiny house. 

“His health ain’t good,” Mclean said. “Hard work made him old.”

(Read the whole thing here.)

More, please.