Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Today's Teamster News 04.16.13

Our Public Transportation System Is a Sweatshop on Wheels  truthout   ...The deterioration of the nation’s public transportation, like the deterioration of health care, education, social services, public utilities, bridges and roads, is part of the relentless seizing and harvesting of public resources and programs by corporations...
A Tax System Stacked Against the 99 Percent (opinion)  New York Times   ...Leona Helmsley, the hotel chain executive who was convicted of federal tax evasion in 1989, was notorious for, among other things, reportedly having said that “only the little people pay taxes...”
Wal-Mart, Sears Refuse Compensation for Factory Victims  Bloomberg   ...Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) and Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) have so far declined to join Li & Fung Ltd. and other companies in voluntarily compensating victims of a fire last year at a Bangladesh garment factory...
Obama Honors Thatcher with TVA “Privatization” Plan  Naked Capitalism   ...a bombshell buried in Obama’s budget: the proposed privatization of the Tennessee Valley Association...
Former Credit Suisse Executive Pleads Guilty to Inflating the Value of Mortgage Bonds  New York Times   ...A former senior trader at Credit Suisse Group pleaded guilty on Friday to charges that he fraudulently inflated the value of mortgage bonds as the housing market collapsed, becoming one of the highest-ranking Wall Street executives to admit to crimes related to the 2008 financial crisis...
Wall Street Posts Worst Day Since November 7 on Gold's Drop, Boston Blasts
  Reuters   ...Stocks posted their worst day since November 7 on Monday as big declines in the price of gold, oil and other commodities fed a broad selloff in equities. Selling accelerated late in the session as reports of explosions in Boston near the finish line of the Boston Marathon added to investors' nervousness...
Obama's Chained-CPI Social Security Cut is Smart Politics... For the GOP (opinion)   The Nation   ...The most misread—perhaps the proper word is “miscovered”—story of the current budget wrangling in Washington is that of Republican Congressman Greg Walden’s savage condemnation of President Obama’s proposal of the “chained-CPI” Social Security cut...
St. Louis NAACP Teams Up With Labor To Fight Right-To-Work Efforts  KBIA   ...Chapter President Adolphus Pruitt says African-Americans are more likely to be union members than any other ethnicities in the United States, so the partnership makes sense...
'Right-to-work’ petitioners seek November vote  Youngstown Vindicator   ...Backers of a proposed constitutional amendment to make Ohio a “right to work” state have collected about a quarter of the signatures needed to place the issue before voters...
Ethics board fails to curb ALEC shell game  The Cap Times   ...The GAB agreed that some Wisconsin politicians had improperly attended corporate-sponsored events and failed to properly disclose receipt of ALEC “scholarships,” but failed to recognize that the corporate-funded “scholarships” themselves are improper and should be barred...
Alaska Senate approves Parnell's multibillion-dollar oil tax cut  Alaska Dispatch   ...The Alaska Senate has given final approval to an oil tax cut approved by the House of Representatives, handing Gov. Sean Parnell a big victory and the state's big oil producers billions in savings...
Michigan taxpayers take their anger out on Gov. Rick Snyder  Detroit Free Press   ...Gov. Rick Snyder is getting much of the blowback as tax changes he pushed through the Legislature in early 2011 -- such as taxes on pension income and reductions in the Homestead Property Tax Credit -- are affecting Michigan tax returns for the first time...
Republic, Teamsters strike spreads  Youngstown Vindicator   ...Heading into its third week, the strike among 23 sanitation workers at Republic Services/Allied Waste once again ballooned Monday to include all of the company’s Youngstown workers...
Teamsters at Republic Services Strike in McDonough, Georgia  IBT   ...Sanitation workers employed by Republic Services/Allied Waste [NYSE: RSG] are on an unfair labor practice strike in Georgia to protest the company’s violations of federal labor law. Workers at Republic/Allied Waste’s hauling yard in McDonough, Ga. raised a picket line early yesterday morning...
Striking Teamsters at Republic Services Extend Picket Lines to Five Ohio Cities  IBT   ...Picket lines were extended to six Republic Services/Allied Waste locations in five Ohio cities early yesterday morning by striking sanitation workers at Republic’s [NYSE: RSG] Carbon Limestone landfill outside of Youngstown, Ohio...
DMV Unveils News March of Dimes, Teamsters Plates  KTVN-TV   ...Specialty license plates for the March of Dimes and Teamsters Local Union No. 631 are now available for purchase at Nevada DMV offices. The specialty plates will cost an initial $61 and $30 for renewal...