Friday, February 28, 2014

Today's Teamster News 02.28.14

Teamster News
Teamsters not happy with inmates filling potholes  WFMJ.com   ...The Teamsters union, representing employees with the Mahoning County engineer's office, is considering filing a grievance after seeing inmates filling potholes...
Teamster School Bus News  teamster.org   ...Baltimore school bus workers win $1.25 million wage settlement; Teamsters Local 445 drivers and monitors in New York win fight for fair contract at Durham; what to do when your bus equipment is defective – all these stories and more are in the latest issue of the Drive Up Standards newsletter...
Nashville Chapter of TNBC Honors Leaders  teamster.org   ...The Nashville Middle TN Valley Chapter of the Teamsters National Black Caucus (TNBC) held its second annual awards banquet titled “Education and Accountability” on February 22, 2014 in Nashville...
Liam Neeson: NYC Mayor Is a Horse Nazi  TMZ   ...Liam Neeson is PISSED OFF at New York City's new mayor for trying to kill the Central Park horse industry...
Will Academy Award nominees speak up for the workers who make the Oscars?  Pando Daily   ...The Teamsters Local 743 in Chicago has been unable to reach an agreement with R.S. Owens & Company, the local awards shop that has exclusively manufactured the familiar gold statuettes for the last three decades...
D.C. Taxi Drivers' Voices Are Being Heard  teamster.org   ...Over the past few months, Washington, D.C. taxi drivers have joined together with the Washington, D.C. Taxi Operators Association, affiliated with Teamsters Local 922, for one strong voice...
Teamster Tells Lawmakers How TPP Will Damage Workers  teamster.org   ..."this is about American families and these trade deals have brutalized the American economy,” he said. “A trade agreement is not an agreement. It is a gun to the head of the American worker...”
BLET tells House: Don’t extend deadline for Positive Train Control  BLET News   ...BLET Vice President & National Legislative Representative John P. Tolman made a strong case for the timely implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC) and other measures to boost rail safety and improve the quality of life for BLET members during testimony delivered at a House subcommittee hearing on February 26...
Trade
NPPC: Japan's Offer On TPP Unacceptable to U.S. Agriculture  National Hog Farmer   ...The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) says U.S. acceptance of the recent Japanese offer, made as part of the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade talks,  would be a radical departure from previous U.S. free trade agreements (FTAs) and could potentially set an unacceptable precedent for future trade deals...
Japanese activist: TPP will affect food security  FMT News   ...The TPP will not only widen the economic disparity between the rich and the poor, but also deny poor nations the power to secure food import, says a Japanese activist...
Ending currency manipulation would create jobs  ABC, Sioux Falls   ...Policy change could bring 20,000 jobs to South Dakota...
State Battles
Protestors gather as Republicans unveil Right to Work legislation  WAVE News   ...Protesters gathered in Frankfort on Thursday as Kentucky Republicans introduced right to work legislation, even though the legislation has dim chances of success this year...
Vermont Citizens Push to Form a State Bank, But Will Ratings Agencies Kill the Idea?  naked capitalism   ...The objective is not to set up a retail bank (say along the lines of a Post Office bank) but to save the fees that are now paid to large financial institutions and to fund public projects...
The War on Workers
Household wealth still down 14 percent since recession  EurekAlert   ...the mean net worth of American households in mid-2013 was still about 14 percent below the pre-recession peak in 2006. Their analysis suggested that middle-aged people took the biggest hit...
Wal-Mart Ad Celebrates American Workers With A Canadian Band's Song About A Guy Who Hates His Job  Business Insider   ...Wal-Mart has been running a high-profile advertising campaign to promote its recent pledge to purchase $250 billion of American-made products over the next 10 years...Rush was strange choice of soundtrack for an ad celebrating American manufacturing given that the band is not just Canadian, but famously Canadian...
Underemployment Piles On Problems For Low-Wage Workers  CBS   ...The state Labor Department says there are about 276,000 Pennsylvanians in the category “working part time for economic reasons.” They include 47,900 people who usually work full-time but are working part-time, and 228,000 people who usually work part-time but are working less than they normally would...
GOP blocks veterans bill  The Hill   ...Senate Republicans stopped Democrats from advancing a bill that would have expanded healthcare and education programs for veterans...
Miscellaneous
Federal Budget Deficit Falls to Smallest Level Since 2008  New York Times   ...Closing the books on a fiscal year in which the federal budget deficit fell more sharply than in any year since the end of World War II, the Treasury Department reported on Thursday that the deficit for 2013 dropped to $680 billion, from about $1.1 trillion the previous year...