Friday, February 24, 2012

Today's Teamster News 02.24.12

Union sues to stop Indiana "right-to-work" law  Reuters   ...The suit, filed on Wednesday, claims the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution by requiring dues-paying members to furnish free representation to people who refuse to join the union and pay dues, also known as "free riders."...
Political Notebook: Supporters of Right-to-Work amendment trying to rally public support  PostBulletin.com   ...Backers of a proposed Right-to-Work constitutional amendment (in Minnesota) have launched an aggressive campaign to win over supporters in hopes of pressuring enough state senators and representatives to get on board...
Gov. Chris Christie's budget plan would help rich, hurt middle class (opinion)   Newark Star-Ledger   ...(The governor's proposed income tax cut) for the rich, this would be enough for a family vacation in the south of France every year. For the typical middle-class family ... it wouldn’t be enough to buy the kids new shoes...
Corporate Lobby Group Gave Cash Awards to Cantor, 21 State Lawmakers  Common Cause   ...A lobbying group funded by some of the nation's richest corporations appears to have given ethically and perhaps legally dubious cash awards to nearly two dozen state and federal lawmakers, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Common Cause said today...
Big Banks Squeeze Billions in Profits from Public Budgets  SEIU   ...The banks have already taken as much as $28 billion from state and local governments. Now, during the worst public budget crisis in memory, the big banks seek to collect billions more from toxic deals that local and state governments are trapped into and are forcing layoffs and cuts to services to cover payments to banks...
Teamsters Testify About Workers' Rights Violations at Loomis
IBT   ...Teamsters and legal and security experts testified about workers' rights violations by Loomis, an armored car guard company, before a public hearing at the UC Berkeley Labor Center on Tuesday...