Monday, January 27, 2014

Today's Teamster News 01.27.14

Teamsters at YRCW Approve Agreement Aimed At Saving 30,000 Jobs  teamster.org   ...Teamsters at YRCW approved this latest proposal by a vote of 12,267 to 6,314...
 YRC Wins Key Refinancing Ingredient With Teamsters Vote  Bloomberg   ...YRC Worldwide Inc. (YRCW) has the “key ingredient” to refinance $1.4 billion of debt and reduce the risk of bankruptcy after workers voted to accept labor concessions, Chief Executive Officer James Welch said...
Report: Bucking trend, Wisconsin union membership grows  LaCrosse Tribune   ...Wisconsin’s union membership rate -- the percentage of wage and salary workers who belong to unions -- rose from 11.25 percent to 12.34 percent, the seventh biggest gain in the nation. This after 2012, when Wisconsin had the third largest decrease in the nation. The change came as a surprise to union leaders and academics alike...
Don't fast track a polluters' bill of rights  Friends of the Earth   ...TPP and TTIP would allow foreign investors to seek awards of money damages from business-friendly tribunals in compensation for the cost of complying with environmental and consumer regulations -- even the “cost” of lost opportunities for future profits...
FL Cheerleader: We Are Paid Less than $5/hr and Docked Pay if We Gain 5 lbs.  Alternet   ..."Raiderettes are required to attend all of the Raiders' preseason, regular season and postseason home football games," she says in the lawsuit. "They are also required to attend and participate in all practices, rehearsals, fittings, preparations, drills, photo sessions, meetings and workouts, as determined and directed by the Raiders." Raiderettes also have to attend other special events to represent the Raiders, without pay...
Does America need unions? An ex-Wall Streeter says yes  Los Angeles Times   ...without unions, workers don't have the bargaining power necessary to stop employers from paying them as little as the market will allow...
401(k) Breaches Undermining Retirement Security for Millions  Portside   ...A large and growing share of American workers are tapping their retirement savings accounts for non-retirement needs, raising broad questions about the effectiveness of one of the most important savings vehicles for old age...
Snowden: The NSA is also engaged in industrial espionage  Salon   ...“If there is information at Siemens that they think would be beneficial to the national interests, not the national security, of the United States, they will go after that information and they’ll take it...”
The Koch Party (opinion)  New York Times   ...Only a few weeks into this midterm election year, the right-wing political zeppelin is fully inflated with secret cash and is firing malicious falsehoods at supporters of health care reform...
Iowa View: ALEC's strategy of secrecy is wrong for Iowa taxpayers  DesMoines Register   ... there are deceptive organizations with friendly names lurking around the Capitol in Des Moines and in other state capitols. Some of these organizations aren’t as friendly as they seem, and their agendas are not always what’s best for Iowa. One such organization is the American Legislative Exchange Council, commonly known as ALEC...
W. Va. company ordered to remove tanks after spill  Associated Press   ...West Virginia's governor on Saturday ordered the company at the center of a chemical spill that tainted the state capital's water supply to remove all above-ground storage tanks from the Charleston operation...