Today's Teamster News 10.24.13

Local 700 Member Saves 19-Month-Old, Receives Life Saving Award  Teamsters Local 700   ...East Hazel Crest Police Officer Mitchell Drake was responding to a gas leak when a dispatcher called and redirected him to help a family whose baby stopped breathing...
Voting on grocery deal expected to take 2 weeks  The Olympian   ...Puget Sound union grocery workers, including Teamsters, will decide over the next two weeks whether to accept a new contract proposal from four major grocers or head back to the bargaining table...
Lansing approves wage hikes, benefit cuts for 200 workers  Lansing State Journal   ...Lansing City Council has approved a new three-year contract with its public service employees that call for wage increases and reduced pension and healthcare benefits. The city is now is negotiating contracts with Lansing firefighters and with city workers represented by Teamsters Local 580...
Unions Back MGM Plan For Casino  WBAL News   ...The unions, including Teamsters Local 639, that represent construction and labor workers in Prince George's County, Maryland are throwing their support behind a plan by MGM to build a casino at the National Harbor...
Ohio unions remain steady as opposition postures ‘support’ for Right to Work  Beverly Hills Courier   ...As Right to Work supporters ramped up efforts to take the law into their own hands and force the controversial Right to Work agenda onto a statewide ballot in 2014, unions say they are not only ready to fight but believe they have common sense and the public on their side...
Lawsuit holding up sale dates to errant newspaper toss  Telegram and Gazette   ...The lawsuit stalling billionaire John W. Henry's $70 million purchase of two Massachusetts newspaper stems from whether newspaper carriers classified as independent contractors should really be considered employees...
Diebold Charged With Bribery, Falsifying Docs, 'Worldwide Pattern of Criminal Conduct'  BradBlog   ...One of the world's largest ATM manufacturers and, formerly, one of the largest manufacturers of electronic voting systems, has been indicted by federal prosecutors for bribery and falsification of documents ... a U.S. Attorney says the latest charges are in response to "a worldwide pattern of criminal conduct" by the company....
Video: McDonald’s tells workers to get food stamps  Salon   ...A new recording captures the fast food giant's worker 1-800 number touting public assistance...
The number of families with children living in deep poverty has gone up 130 percent since 1996  Salon   ... the number of families with children living on $2 a day or less has gone up nearly 130 percent...
Americans spend less now than in '73, report says  McClatchy   ...Even with the added cost of smartphones and other technology, American families spend less of their total income today than 40 years ago, according to new research. But people aren't saving that extra money...The roughly 14 percent of unaccounted-for income today may go toward expenses such as debt, but it's impossible to be sure...
Bangladesh workers could get 50% raise – but that’s just 9 cents more  The Salon   ...While strikes may garner improvements for garment workers, the real decision maker will be Western retailers...
New York Sets Work Rules for Young Models  New York Times   ...Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed legislation on Monday night that will recognize fashion models under the age of 18 as child performers. The new law, which is expected to go into effect in 30 days, will have a significant impact on the casting of models for the next New York Fashion Week in February...
US Free Trade Agreements Are Bad Not Just For The Economy, But For The Environment, Too  Techdirt   ...Far from boosting US exports and creating more jobs as purported by the politicians, both the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and KORUS, the free trade agreement with South Korea, actually did the opposite. They increased the US trade deficit with those countries, and destroyed hundreds of thousands of American jobs...
BP Oil Refinery Waste Stored At Koch Brothers-Owned Site Polluting Nearby Chicago Neighborhoods  Huffington Post   ...Residents in several lower-income Chicago neighborhoods say a dirty oil byproduct from a nearby BP refinery is creating environmental and health hazards -- and no one is doing enough to stop it...
Food stamp benefits going down before the holidays  NBC News   ...Millions of American families could face a sparse holiday table when food stamps benefits get reduced in November, and that could be just the start of deeper cuts to the program to feed poor families...

Taxpayers To Help Pay JPMorgan’s Fine For Causing 2008 Financial Crisis  Fire Dog Lake   ...Feeling generous? You should because you are about to help pay for JPMorgan’s $13 billion fine for causing the 2008 financial crisis... Justice Department Misrepresents JP Morgan Settlement  The Real News   ..."it's a $6 billion deal,” said Black. “That still, of course, is a large number, but compared to how much wealth was extracted by the senior officers and directors, it's actually not that big a deal, and compared to the losses they caused to the world through these frauds that drove the financial crisis, it's actually a pittance...” Countrywide defrauded Fannie and Freddie, federal prosecutor says  Bloomberg News   ...Bank of America Corp.'s Countrywide unit defrauded Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by selling them thousands of loans known to be defective, an attorney for the U.S. said in closing arguments in a lawsuit against the lender…

IRS delays start of tax season due to government shutdown  Associated Press   ...Here's more fallout from the government's partial shutdown: Early tax filers will have to wait an extra week or two to get tax refunds next year...
This 1 Chart Makes Gordon Gekko Look Like An Average Joe  Huffington Post   ...In 1987 … our typical Wall Street character brought home some $69,550, which was easily more than double the $26,750 of the typical non-Wall Street employee in New York City… That is, until you consider 2012, by which time those two numbers had jumped to $360,700 and $69,200, respectively...
Social Security Pumps $2 Into US Economy for Every Benefit Dollar Spent  Truthout   ...Just as food stamps stimulate the economy by creating about $1.80 of economic activity for every dollar of food stamps spent, Social Security pumps up job-generating and business activity by about $2 for every dollar recipients spend...
Is Detroit really broke? Crucial bankruptcy trial to begin  Associated Press   ...A judge starts exploring that question in an unusual trial to determine whether Detroit indeed is eligible to scrub its books in the largest public bankruptcy in U.S. history. Unions and pension funds are claiming the city failed to negotiate in good faith before filing for Chapter 9 protection in July...
Zoos Get Pandas, China Gets Uranium: Is This a Fair Trade?  Truthout   ...China’s central government seems, more than ever, to be using its monopoly on pandas as a valuable bargaining chip to gain resources including uranium (to power nuclear plants) and access to renewable energy technology...
As many as 300,000 jobless affected by state software snags  Los Angeles Times   ...Problems are growing worse for the state's Employment Development Department after a new computer system backfired, leaving some Californians without much-needed benefit checks for weeks...
Alabama makes plan for issuing free voter IDs  Associated Press   ...The secretary of state's plan for implementing Alabama's photo ID requirement for voting includes making free ID cards available at many locations throughout the state...
Report: Scott Walker decisions drove insurance rates much higher in Wisconsin than in Minnesota  The Cap Times   ...Gov. Scott Walker’s rejection of federal Medicaid money and the state’s hands-off approach to rate regulation has pushed health care exchange rates up to 99 percent higher than in neighboring Minnesota...

Staggering CEO pay smashes all previous records

CEO pay reached astronomical levels last year, according to a new report whose author said he's never seen anything like it.

The 10 highest paid CEOs all took home more than $100 million, and two 'earned' more than $1 billion in a single year, according to GMI Ratings' 2013 Pay Survey.

"I have never seen anything like that," the report's author, Greg Ruel, told the Guardian. "Usually we have a few CEOs at the $100m-plus level but never the entire top 10."

Median workers' pay in the U.S. fell 9 percent since 1999.

McKesson CEO John Hammergren, who took home $131.2 million in 2011, didn't even make this year's list. Perhaps that's because investors said 'no' to his exorbitant pay package this year.

According to The Guardian,

...median household income, adjusted for inflation, was $51,017 in 2012, broadly unchanged from 2011. Wages for the average household have fallen about 9% from an inflation-adjusted peak of $56,080 in 1999. The census figures show a sharp recovery for those at the top of the wage scale as those at the bottom continue to see falls. 

Here are the top 10:

1. Facebook, Inc., Mark Zuckerberg, $2,278,668,214 
2. Kinder Morgan, Inc., Richard D. Kinder, $1,116,685,089 
3. Sirius XM Radio Inc., Mel Karmazin, $255,355,676 
4. Liberty Media Corporation, Gregory B. Maffei, $254,890,638 
5. Apple Inc., Timothy D. Cook, $143,828,867 
6. Dick’s Sporting Goods, Inc., Edward W. Stack, $142,052,496 
7. Liberty Interactive Corporation, Gregory B. Maffei, $136,450,484 
8. Starbucks Corporation, Howard Schultz, $117,562,601 
9. salesforce.com, inc., Marc Benioff, $109,544,875 
10. Verisk Analytics, Inc., Frank J. Coyne, $100,432,117 

The report doesn't disclose the gap between the CEO's pay and the average worker's pay.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposes companies disclose the gap, and the Teamsters support that proposal. Take, for example, Hammergren. During his tenure as CEO at McKesson, the company paid nearly $1 billion in fines for Medicaid fraud and price fixing, while newly organized Teamsters at the company's Lakeland, Fla., warehouse can't afford health insurance.

Making CEO's explain to investors that there's a mind-boggling distance between their pay and their average workers' pay might just shame them into common decency.

Fox News fires anti-union provocateur

You may remember this jackass from the Teamsters' battle over right-to-work-for-less in Michigan nearly a year ago. His name is Steven Crowder. Last year he went to the protest outside the Capitol, he tried to cause trouble and he made a phony video that showed 'union violence' at a protest outside the capitol. Then Fox News aired the video -- over and over. Now Fox fired him.

The bad news is that Crowder didn't get fired for doctoring videos to make union members look bad. It was because he criticized Sean Hannity. Or maybe it was because he just wasn't that funny, and he criticized Hannity as the door was slamming him in the butt.

Whatevs. It is with absolutely no sorrow that we note the death of Steven Crowder's career.

Today's Teamster News 10.23.13

Teamsters Union optimistic for deal with CN Railway this week  Reuters   ...The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference union is optimistic that talks with Canadian National Railway Co, Canada's largest rail operator, will produce a deal this week…
Hershey Medical Center, Teamsters Continue Talks  Lebanon Daily News ...Negotiators for the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Teamsters Local 776 were expected to sit down with a federal mediator to hammer out a new contract...
'Local Union Communications: The Social Art of Educating Members' TLA to be Held December 3-4  teamster.org   ...This two-day Teamsters Leadership Academy (TLA), hosted by Local 986 in Los Angeles, will explore effective ways Teamster affiliates can communicate with members through the use of social networking, flyers, newsletters, websites and media. Don’t forget to register for this program...
Grocery Workers Strike in Puget Sound Averted  Sky Valley Chronicle   ...The large grocery store workers strike that was headed to begin October 21, by some 21,000 union employees against four large grocery chains, was averted at the wire by a tentative agreement reached by the negotiating teams for both sides in the dispute...
Top Five Ways Lobbyists Will Win and We Will Lose If a Major Corporate Trade Deal Goes Through  Alternet   ...The next time you want to share a song or a recipe online, you’d have to ask yourself: Am I a criminal? Interested in writing some fan fiction based on your favourite detective series and sharing it online? Ask yourself that very same question. That’s how TPP provisions could characterize you based on what we know about its Intellectual Property chapter...
Billion Dollar Pay Check? 10 CEOs in America Break All Records for Executive Pay  Alternet   ... the top 10 CEOs in this year's poll took home over $4.7bn between them and for the first time ever none earned less than $100m. "I have never seen anything like that," said Greg Ruel, GMI's senior research consultant and author of the report. "Usually we have a few CEOs at the $100m-plus level but never the entire top 10..."
College campuses see rise in homeless students  USA Today   ...Though hard data are lacking, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid estimates that there are 58,000 homeless students on campuses nationwide...
Plutocrats at Work: How Big Philanthropy Undermines Democracy  Truthout   ...For a dozen years, big philanthropy has been funding a massive crusade to remake public education for low-income and minority children in the image of the private sector...
Tax breaks could ease pain of JPMorgan deal  Politico   ...JPMorgan Chase has struck a tentative deal with the Justice Department to pay a record $13 billion over dodgy mortgage products — but the biggest U.S. bank may be able to slash that bill by paying Uncle Sam less in taxes...
Following Nationwide Strikes, Bangladesh Garment Workers Win Minimum Wage Increase  The Real News   ...Garment workers in Bangladesh are poised to receive a 50 to 80 percent increase in the minimum wage following massive protests in September which closed more than 100 factories and caused a 20 percent decline in national production, according to a Reuters report citing the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association...
Limited service delays BART commuters as strike ends  Los Angeles Times   ...Despite having reached a deal Monday night to end a four-day Bay Area commuter-rail strike, staffing issues made for a rocky start for BART riders Tuesday morning...
Hatred of unions is misplaced, as they created the strong middle class (opinion) Canton Repository   ...I cannot understand why so many Americans have hatred for unions, which gave us a strong and vibrant middle class in the past...
Your prescription history is their business  Los Angeles Times   ...A secretive, for-profit service called ScriptCheck keeps track of all your prescriptions, even those you pay for with cash. Life insurers pay for the data...
More Americans pessimistic about economy after shutdown, poll shows  Los Angeles Times   ...Americans are more pessimistic about the state of the economy after the partial government shutdown and debt limit fight, according to poll results released Tuesday...
Feeding antibiotics to livestock is bad for humans, but Congress won’t stop it   Washington Post   ...The farm and pharmaceutical lobbies have blocked all meaningful efforts to reduce the use of antibiotics in raising livestock in America, a practice that contributes to a major public health risk, according to a study released Tuesday...
Ohio State University has invested millions with friend of Gov. John Kasich and Gordon Gee, but officials won't share details about the deal  Cleveland Plain Dealer   ... Ohio State University has invested tens of millions of dollars in a new, untested fund co-founded by a venture capitalist who enjoys close relationships with recently retired university president E. Gordon Gee and Gov. John Kasich. The deal was done behind closed doors, right around the time trustees changed OSU policy to allow top administrators more leeway over how to invest operating funds...
Court Holds Wisconsin Officials In Contempt For Enforcing Scott Walker’s Anti-Union Law  ThinkProgress   ...A Wisconsin judge who declared Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) union-busting law unconstitutional more than a year ago held the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission in contempt of court on Monday for continuing to enforce that law against school and municipal workers...
Capitol Hill Needs to Save the Middle Class (opinion)  teamster.org   ...America’s ever-shrinking middle class is not only feeling pain in their wallet from lower take-home pay. Many are also witnessing a change in the places they live and the schools their children attend that could alter the fabric of our society for years to come...

Unions speak the truth on Social Security

Social Security, the program that provides over half  of American seniors a majority of their income, is more important than ever. Across America, nearly 58 billion workers and their families rely on Social Security every month to pay the bills.

But once again, the greedy billionaires behind Fix the Debt are trying to cut Social Security benefits so they don't have to pay their fair share of taxes. They don't care that Social Security keeps millions out of poverty. They don't care that it's essential to sustaining what's left of the middle class.

The greedy billionaires are now trying to persuade Congress to cut Social Security (and probably Medicare) when they meet in three months to discuss budget cuts. They're trying to disguise it by calling it "chained CPI," which is nothing but jargon for "cuts."

Unions are out front warning Americans of the looming threat -- just like the last time the billionaires tried to push the cuts through Congress. Teamster General President Jim Hoffa staunchly opposes the cuts, which hurt the oldest and poorest retirees the most:

Social Security does not contribute to the budget deficit and should remain off the table in these year-end budget negotiations.  Americans work all their lives to earn the Social Security benefits they were promised. It would be a terrible mistake to go back on that promise.

Even though less than three-quarters of the fund comes from payroll deductions, Fix the Debt minions have been spreading misinformation, saying that Social Security will cause the US to go bankrupt.  When an anchor from CNBC claimed that the US may well go bankrupt from Social Security, Damon Silver, the AFL-CIO's policy director, set the record straight:

That’s frankly not true. That is a lie put forward by billionaires who don’t want to pay higher taxes....The people who believe what you said are people not counting on those programs and who are worried their very large incomes will be taxed.

Chained CPI is like the vampire of American politics. It keeps being shot through the heart and it keeps reviving. The reason it keeps coming back is because it has billionaires behind it.

Our nation needs to keep the decades-old promise to workers.  There is no such thing as an acceptable cut -- especially when the country has more than enough resources to fund the program that keeps millions of seniors out of poverty.

Four pro-union writers you should follow

UPDATES to correct headline from 'workers' to 'writers.'

Our friends at Labor 411 put together a list of four terrific writers who care about unions, and gave us permission to cross-post their blog about it.

Here at Labor 411 we have to be on top of all the current labor news in the country. Admittedly, that news can often be quite dry, so I rounded up a few guys who love to talk labor, economics and the like, and make the topic accessible and often fun. And we just happen to share a similar point of view. Enjoy!

If there’s a particular author you love, let us know in the comments!

Robert Reich

One of the most well known and vocal proponents for unions and organized labor. Reich served as the Secretary of Labor for the Clinton administration, has authored more than a dozen books, teaches as a professor at UC Berkeley and recently released a full-length documentary currently out in theaters called “Inequality for All.”

His quirky shorts on the economy are entertaining and easy to follow, which makes him very approachable as an educator on an often frustrating topic.

See the trailer for his film, along with all his articles and shorts on his web site.

Harold Meyerson

A long-time friend of labor, Meyerson writes political opinion regularly for the Washington Post, L.A. Times and sits as the editor-at-large for The American Prospect. Organized labor and unions are common topics in his articles, of which he writes several every week. He’s good at what he does, and he’s on our side.

Read his latest articles here (updated weekly).

Paul Krugman

Krugman teaches as a professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University and regularly contributes to the Op-Ed section of the New York Times. Krugman tends to delve pretty deep into the world of economics (he’s a professor in the subject after all), so be prepared to take notes and have a dictionary nearby. He doesn’t explicitly discuss organized labor as much as Reich or Meyerson, but there’s a lot to be learned here.

Krugman at the The New York Times

Gary Cohn

For those in unions in California, Cohn is one of your biggest defenders. A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Cohn writes on politics in California for Frying Pan News. Read his exposé on attacks on the middle class and unions in the Golden State at the link below.

California Exposé at Frying Pan News

How an artist who stands with Teamsters sat in Hoffa's chair

UPDATES to clarify Bowers is not from New York.

An artist who stood with Teamsters in our battle against the Frieze New York Art Fair seized an opportunity to sit in Jimmy Hoffa's chair on a recent trip to Detroit. 

Andrea Bowers openly protested at the Frieze New York Art Fair in May when the show refused to hire local Teamsters at fair wages. She and fellow artist Olga Koumoundouros drove their latest art installation across the country, visiting historic labor sites along the way. Bowers, a former member of the American Federation of Teachers, focuses much of her artwork on the struggle for workers' rights. That's why Bowers was blown away by the chance to sit in the former Teamster leader's chair at Teamsters Local 299. Said Bowers:

It was a rare and amazing opportunity. That room was beautiful.  The whole office was preserved.

At Teamsters Local 299, in Jimmy Hoffa's chair

Shawn Ellis, an International Brotherhood of Teamsters staff member who introduced the artists to Detroit's labor history, said Andrea's smile was a mile wide when she sat in Jimmy Hoffa's chair. 

At the invitation of Joint Council 43 President Greg Nowak, Bowers and Koumoundouros also visited "Transcending," a memorial in downtown Detroit dedicated to the Michigan labor movement.

They also attended a MichiganLabor History Society meeting on the Woolworth strike -- and gave a report on the successful effort to raise the labor standards for art fairs and other events in New York's public parks.

“We actually took notes,” said Bowers.  “It was so rewarding to meet these amazing union members concerned about labor history.  We wanted to stay another week.”

The 1937 Detroit Woolworth strike ignited worker activism across the country during the Great Depression.  It was started by a bunch of teenage and early-20-something women, at a company so huge, “it was like striking Wal-Mart, the Gap, and McDonald’s all at the same time.” The protest improved the jobs of tens of thousands of workers:

On Feb. 27, more than 100 young women workers at (a) Woolworth store demanded raises, time and a half for more than 40 hours, company pay for uniforms, lunch allowances, breaks, (union) recognition and hiring only through the union. The union had only one staff person there.  

The effects of the strike rippled for a year.  In Detroit itself, sit-downs spread among thousands of local workers, from waitresses to kitchen workers to cafeteria, hotel, and factory workers. By year’s end, chain variety stores, grocery and department stores had been organized in St. Paul and Duluth, Minn.; Tacoma and Centralia, Wash.; Superior, Wis.; and San Francisco.

“(The whole trip) was just moving,” said Koumoundouros.  “It was so amazing to see labor history alive.”