Saturday, January 14, 2012

Today's Teamster News 01.14.12

America's incredible shrinking labor force  FT Alphaville   ...about 4.8m people have disappeared from the labour force instead of becoming “unemployed”, and this has allowed the unemployment rate to drop from a peak of 10.0 per cent in October 2009 to 8.5 per cent now. If these people had stayed in the labour force, instead of drifting away from it, the unemployment rate would now be about 11.3 per cent...
Japanese lawmakers opposed to Trans-Pacific trade deal visit Washington  Eyes on Trade   ...it will be news to many that the majority of Japanese Members of Parliament (the Diet) also oppose Japan’s joining the NAFTA-style deal...
Right-wing documentary targets Occupy  Salon   ...Film in the making from Citizens United is likely to portray protesters as anti-democratic anarchists...
France Loses AAA Status as S&P Wields Ratings Ax  Bloomberg   ...France and Austria lost their top credit ratings in a string of downgrades that left Germany with the euro area’s only stable AAA grade as Standard & Poor’s warned that crisis-fighting efforts are still falling short...
Indiana Dems: Voters should decide right-to-work  Bloomberg Business Week   ...Benny Harris, (a) 51-year-old Teamsters union member from Lafayette, ...and some of his fellow protesters at the Statehouse on Friday are squarely behind the new bid by Democrats to push the fate of the right-to-work bill from the Republican-dominated Legislature into the hands of voters with a statewide referendum in November...
Teamsters Leader: We'll Fight Latest Bid to Privatize Prisons  Local 2011   ... Ken Wood, Acting President of Teamsters Local 2011, today denounced a Senate panel for releasing a prison-privatization bill this afternoon...
Teamsters Return To Work As Union Suspends National Strike  IBT   ...The two sides will return to active bargaining on predetermined dates over the next three months...
Teamsters Set the Record Straight on Hostess  IBT   ...Hostess achieved less than $2.5 billion in revenues – a huge decline that accounts for all of the company’s cash flow shortfall...