ALEC's right to work for less bill filed in Missouri today

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.

ALEC member Donna Lichtenegge, a state representative, sponsored the bill, and the former state ALEC co-chair Speaker Tim Jones is lead sponsor. The bill text is not yet available.

We Are Missouri issued a statement opposing the bill, saying extremists are starting the 2014 session with a step in the wrong direction:

“Missouri’s elected leaders should work together to create jobs here in our state,” said Mike Louis, Secretary Treasurer of the Missouri AFL-CIO. “While it isn’t a surprise that extremist politicians would instead file a ‘right to work’ bill on the first day of session, it is shameful that they would make this unnecessary and confusing bill their first priority for 2014. It is time for our elected officials to work together to create good jobs and safe work places instead of trying to micromanage relationships between businesses and their employees.”   

“It is simple – “right to work” bills are wrong for Missouri. It's a corporate power grab that's in the best interests of CEOs - not our state. Studies have shown that 'Right to Work' means less jobs, lower wages and more dangerous workplaces,” said Bobby Dicken, utility line crew foreman from Poplar Bluff. “I’m disappointed that SEMO area State Representative Donna Lichtenegger and Speaker Tim Jones seem to be more concerned with doing the bidding of special interest groups like ALEC instead of helping middle class Missouri families.” 

“This bill won’t create a single job,” said Vicki Hurt, who works for the Missouri Children’s Division in Branson. “These unnecessary attacks on working people hurt our middle class families, harm our public schools and put our safety at risk. Right to Work' is a divisive partisan political issue meant to punish labor unions that puts our everyday heroes in danger.”

Buy union, buy Made in America (or Canada) this holiday season

We know we don't have to remind you to shop at Costco, buy union-made beer and ship your holiday packages by UPS. And if you're looking for a specific union-made product, Labor 411 is the place to go.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has two -- count 'em -- two stores from which you can buy union-made Teamster gear. The Team Fund store offers Teamster Power golf shirts, Teamster flip flops, Teamster earrings and even a Teamster trailer hitch cover. The Teamsterwear store offers a variety of apparel, from "Feel the Strength" infant one-pieces to "I Love Teamsters night shirts to the 'I'm A Friend of Hoffa' collection.

The ManufactureThis blog also offers 51 ideas for gifts that were made in America. Some of them are a little over the top -- an Airstream trailer is beyond most budgets -- but it's a fun list, with an item for each state.

Here are some of our favorites:

• Idaho: For much of the country the cold weather has settled in, Balm Shot lip balm makes for a useful little gift. The balm’s shotgun shell exterior is designed to stay put in pockets.
• Nebraska: Bison makes basketball, volleyball, soccer and football gear in Lincoln. Some perfect gifts for the budding athletes in your life!
• Oregon: For all your friends and family in danger of getting snowed in this winter, Pendelton Woolen Mills makes beautiful blankets that are perfect for staying warm on the couch and binge-watching television.
• Wisconsin: For either the Packers fan or cheese lover in your life, Foamation’s cheesehead hats and sombreros.

Read the whole list here.

What does your state's economy look like?

Look at all that green!

Every month the Philadelphia Federal Reserve takes a look at economic indicators in each state to see which states are thriving and which states are not. The dark green areas are booming, light green represents modest improvement, and red is shrinking. How does your state look?

Things improved for 44 states in October. And over the past three months, according to Calculated Risk:

...the indexes increased in 45 states and decreased in five...This map was all red during the worst of the recession, and all green at times during the recovery.

Of course, the map doesn't show wage increases...

This is what we union thuggs do with our SUVs

Teamsters Local 853 membership meeting. 

We fill them with food, clothing and blankets and deliver them to the Eastmont Garden of Hope, which helps families struggling financially.

Our Teamster sisters from Teamster Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif., raised $1,200 at their last meeting and spent it all at Costco. They bought diapers, food, toothpaste, gloves, pillows and sleeping bags. Then they hauled it all to the social services center.

Inside Bay Area reported on our Teamster sisters:

Pertrena Coleman wore a big smile as she watched members of the Teamsters Local 853 women's committee Sisters in Solitary unload three SUVs filled with food, clothing, blankets and other necessities to give struggling families a head start for the holidays. 

Coleman is a social services worker who runs the Eastmont Garden of Hope project at Alameda's County Social Services Agency's Eastmont Self Sufficiency Center. On Monday, the center was full of Sisters in Solitary who wheeled in carts packed with much needed supplies that Coleman and several volunteers will distribute to social services clients. 

"This big donation has helped us a lot," she said. "We get donations on a daily basis, but we service over 400 people a month. The donations are really needed from the community." 

The Sisters in Solidarity, which started two years ago, is among the biggest donors for the Eastmont Garden of Hope project.

Sister Stacy Alvelais said they tried to cover all bases. Sister Pamela Talavera said her goal was to help out because she'd been on the street herself.

Proud of you, sisters!

Thanks to Brother Terry Post for sharing this with us.

And remember: THUGGS stands for 'those helpful union guys and gals.'

Today's Teamster News 12.02.13

 Commuter train derailment kills 4 in NYC  USA Today   ...A commuter train heading into the city derailed in the Bronx on Sunday, killing four people and injuring more than 60 as rail cars tumbled to within inches of the Hudson and Harlem rivers...
Amazon Reveals It Wants To Deploy Delivery Drones. No Joke.  Huffington Post   ...Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos revealed the giant online store is developing a drone-based delivery service called Prime Air. According to Bezos, Prime Air would be able to get customers their products only a half-hour after they click the "buy" button. His "optimistic" estimate to "60 Minutes" was that Prime Air will be available to customers within 4 to 5 years...
Hardships pile up as Ikea-vs.-Teamsters dispute drags on at Richmond store  The Province   ...For the union, the main issue in the dispute initially was a two-tier wage system for long-term and newer employees demanded by the company in its first offer. In its second, mediated offer, Ikea revised the two-tier system by offering lump-sum payments and a complex system of percentage pay hikes based on what the union calls unrealistic sales targets...
Wage Strikes Planned at Fast-Food Outlets  New York Times   ...Seeking to increase pressure on McDonald’s, Wendy’s and other fast-food restaurants, organizers of a movement demanding a $15-an-hour wage for fast-food workers say they will sponsor one-day strikes in 100 cities on Thursday and protest activities in 100 additional cities...
How Walmart Shortchanges Employees Who Work Thanksgiving  ThinkProgress   ...the company calculates holiday pay differently from other retailers and manipulates staff schedules so they’re paid less on Thanksgiving than the retailer implies...
Black Friday Weekend Spending Drop Pressures U.S. Stores  Bloomberg   ...The first spending decline on a Black Friday weekend since 2009 reinforced projections for a lackluster holiday, increasing chances retailers will extend the deep discounts already hurting their profit margins...
Germany, Austerity’s Champion, Faces Some Big Repair Bills  New York Times   ... Its infrastructure — roads, bridges, train tracks, waterways and the like — is aging in a way that experts say could undermine its economic growth for years to come. As it has been preaching austerity to its neighbors, Germany itself has kept a tight rein on spending at home...
Peter Buffett: Big Philanthropy and Philanthro-Feudalism  truthout   ..."Poverty, hunger, the environment, education, health - all those things are symptoms of a larger problem of nobody really wanting to get in there and blow some things up," Buffett says...

Another Teamster arrested in Black Friday protest

Our Teamster brother Darryl Sullivan goes to jail for justice.

Our Teamster Brother Darryl Sullivan from Local 745 in Dallas was arrested on Black Friday in a peaceful act of civil disobedience to protest Walmart's low wages and employee abuse.

"Going to jail for justice," Brother Sullivan posted on the Teamsters Facebook page.

He's the fourth (that we know of) Teamster to go to jail for protesting the giant retailer's poverty wages and abuse of workers. Three brothers from Teamster Local 396 -- business agent Gilbert Castillo and UPS shop stewards Juan Gutierrez and Ruben Tiscareno -- took arrests a few weeks ago in Los Angeles.

The Black Friday protests, bigger than last year's, escalated pressure on Walmart to raise wages and respect workers. About 1,500 rallies and demonstrations in the U.S. on Friday are just part of a wave of social protest against low-wage employers including port trucking companies, warehouses, fast-food and retail chains and government contractors.

Short, sudden one-day strikes are a feature of the uprising, which is garnering public support. The Ronald McDonald balloon at the annual Macy's Parade inspired chants of "Pay your workers."

The strikes have been accompanied by shocking revelations that Walmart and McDonald's are among the country's biggest welfare queens, requiring massive government handouts for their employees. Walmart employees in Ohio recently held a food drive for needy Walmart employees, and McDonald's advises workers to sell their Christmas presents and break their food into small pieces so they won't feel so hungry.

The Black Friday protest in Balch Springs, Texas.

Teamsters recognize corporations that consign their workers to poverty drive down wages for everyone and depress commercial activity throughout the country. Teamsters have been out in protesting Walmart in Brooklyn, Ohio, Sterling Heights, Minn., Louisville, Ky., Seattle, Wash., Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Los Angeles, and, of course, in the Dallas suburb of Balch Springs, where Brother Sullivan got arrested.

The Associated Press reported:

While Black Friday shoppers loaded up inside Wal-Mart stores, some employees and supporters staged protests outside the retailer, demanding higher wages and more full-time work. 

About 100 people protested Friday morning outside the Balch Springs store, one of many sites targeted across the country on the traditional kickoff to the holiday shopping season. 

Police arrested 13 people associated with the protest in Balch Springs. Union representatives said there were arrests in eight other cities, including Chicago, Washington, Los Angeles, Seattle and Sacramento, Calif...

According to union representatives, 26 people were arrested in St. Paul, Minn., 15 people were arrested in both Sacramento and Seattle, and 13 were arrested in Secaucus, N.J. 

In Balch Springs, officials said the protesters were blocking the east and westbound traffic on the 12300 block of Lake June Road. Police said officers asked protesters to move out of the road, but they did not comply.

Proud of you, Brother Sullivan.

Today's Teamster News 12.01.13

United Airlines parent plans to cut costs by $2 billion a year  Chicago Tribune   ...The United Airlines parent said it will reduce fuel use, increase productivity and improve maintenance processes, among other methods. It said the cuts will not include layoffs...
Black Friday protests demand improved conditions from Walmart  The Guardian   ...the wave of protests will mark a dramatic increase in the opposition to Walmart's pay structure from Black Friday 2012, when similar events were staged in about 1,000 stores...
Social Security is a family protection program (opinion)  Des Moines Register   ... It protects working men and women of all ages from risks in life that can lead to the loss of livelihood, such as from death or disability. We may not think of Social Security as a family protection plan — but that’s exactly what it is...
Pacific Rim trade talks’ secrecy doesn’t help chances for a deal  Seattle Times   ...Among the biggest disputes concerns the unprecedented secrecy surrounding the talks, where even most members of Congress and congressional staffers have been barred from examining drafts of the agreement...
South Korea moves closer to joining TPP trade talks  Reuters   ...The world's seventh-largest exporter said after a meeting of top economic officials that it would soon enter negotiations with the United States, Japan, Canada and nine others already in the group...
Brewing Signs of Housing Trouble  Economic Populist   ...U.S. borrowers are increasingly missing payments on home equity lines of credit they took out during the housing bubble, a trend that could deal another blow to the country's biggest banks.  The loans are a problem now because an increasing number are hitting their 10-year anniversary, at which point borrowers usually must start paying down the principal on the loans as well as the interest they had been paying all along...
A focus on poverty obscures the need to tackle inequality  Tax Justice Network   ...the focus on poverty also allows the rich (should they wish to try and help) to disport themselves across the domestic and world stage as a force for good. This further obscures the root problem of their excessive share of income and wealth which is left largely unexamined and unquestioned. All of which probably explains why some rich people are keen to tackle poverty but most of them do not want to talk about inequality...
When HSBC Closes Your Bank Account Without Telling You  Huffington Post   ...This is not a story simply on a customer service failure, or a communications failure, but the story of an organization who has not yet realized it is the 21st Century...