Saturday, August 25, 2012

Today's Teamster News 08.25.12

Big Income Losses for Those Near Retirement  New York Times   ...The typical household income for people age 55 to 64 years old is almost 10 percent less in today’s dollars than it was when the recovery officially began three years ago...
Unemployment woes hit hard for displaced workers, Labor Dept. study shows  Washington Post   ...
Only about a quarter of the 6.1 million workers displaced from 2009 to 2011 found new work that paid as well or better. The others remained unemployed, stopped looking for work or accepted jobs at lower wages...
Growing U.S. trade deficit with China cost more than 2.7 million jobs between 2001 and 2011, with job losses in every state  Economic Policy Institute   ...China is the most important source of downward wage pressure from trade with less-developed countries because it pays very low wages and because its products make up such a large portion of U.S. imports...
Iceland’s recovery continues, declared ‘impressive’  IceNews   ...Unlike the US and several countries in the eurozone, Iceland allowed its banking system to fail in the global economic downturn and put the burden on the industry’s creditors rather than taxpayers...
Teachers speak up to refute claims of reformers  Diane Ravitch's Blog   ...If unions were “the problem,” we would expect to find high (academic) performance in right to work states.  But we don’t. On the NAEP, the highest performing states are Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey, all strong union states (up until now). The lowest performing states do not permit collective bargaining...
UPS, Teamsters to Restructure New England Pension Plan  Business Wire   ...UPS (NYSE:UPS) today announced an agreement with the New England Teamsters and Trucking Industry Pension Fund (NETTI) to restructure pension liabilities for approximately 10,200 UPS employees...Subject to approval by local unions, the withdrawal will be effective Sept. 16, 2012...