Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Today's Teamster News 10.23.12

Workers accuse Wal-Mart of breaking wage, OT laws  Chicago Tribune   ...Twenty-one individuals named in the suit allege that from early 2009 and continuing through today, Wal-Mart, Brookfield, Wis.-based QPS Employment Group Inc. and Labor Ready Midwest Inc., a division of Tacoma, Wash.-based True Blue Inc., failed to keep accurate records of  workers' time and provide workers with forms verifying hours worked, thereby making it "impossible for workers to make claims that they were not paid by the temp agencies for all of the hours they worked," according to the suit...
Money Changers in the Temple  The Mudflats   ...The event was to raise money to buy access to a new database sold by the reactionary Koch Brothers. The database actually marries church records and Internet shopping histories to better target voters likely to oppose — in the present case — the Alaska Senate Bipartisan Working Group. Minnery explained that this little invasion of privacy was for “the Glory of God and to get conservatives in power...”
NPR Sets Straight All Those Silly People Who Thought Unemployment Was the Country's Biggest Problem  Beat the Press   ...lmost five years after the start of the recession we still have close to 25 million people who are unemployed, underemployed, or who have given up work altogether. Given that this is ruining the lives of millions of workers and their children we might think that this is the country's most important problem. Fortunately, we have National Public Radio (NPR) to set us straight...
Across Corn Belt, Farmland Prices Keep Soaring  New York Times   ...farmland prices have continued to rise. From Nebraska to Illinois, farmers seeking more land to plant and outside investors looking for a better long-term investment than stocks and bonds continue to buy farmland, taking advantage of low interest rates...
A Real Foreign Policy Debate Should Talk Trade and Human Rights (opinion)  The Nation   ...the political and media elites ... don’t like it when foreign policy discussion turn to trade issues, and they especially don’t like it when the focus turns to the way in which bad trade policies harm American workers and communities...
Wis. judge rejects request to reinstate union law  Associated Press   ...A Wisconsin judge refused Monday to put on hold his earlier decision repealing major parts of Gov. Scott Walker's law effectively ending collective bargaining for most public workers...
Teamsters tell Uniontown Hospital 'no,' authorize work stoppage  Uniontown Herald Standard   ...Members of the Teamsters Local 491 employed at Uniontown Hospital voted Sunday to reject the hospital’s contract offer...