Monday, September 15, 2014

Today's Teamster News 09.15.14

Teamster News
Con-Way Freight Workers in Texas Join Teamsters Local 657  teamster.org   ...On September 12, 2014, drivers and dockworkers at Con-Way Freight in Laredo, Texas voted to join Teamsters Local 657...
Gov. Brown Signs Teamster-Supported Bill to Stop Workplace Abuse  teamster.org   ...Teamsters celebrated as California Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB2053, a Local 2010-sponsored bill addressing workplace abuse, into law on this week, following months of Local 2010 members testifying and meeting with legislators...
Hoffa: Pass Paycheck Fairness  teamster.org   ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa urges Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act...
Trade
The TTIP deal hands British sovereignty to multinationals  The Guardian   ...The actual aim is to strip away obstacles to large corporations making profits – such as regulations that protect our privacy, the environment, food safety and the economy from a rapacious financial sector. And – crucially – TTIP further opens up public services to private companies motivated primarily by profit rather than people’s needs...
Transparency and the TPP (opinion)  The Daily Camera   ...Fast Track should be off the table, here, for one reason alone: The entire process has been shrouded in secrecy, making debate nearly impossible...
State Battles
Gov. Chris Christie Economic Numbers Don't Add Up  International Business Times   ...The discrepancy surfaces amid intensifying criticism of the Christie administration's decision to triple the amount of pension money invested in high-fee private equity, venture capital, hedge fund, real estate and other "alternative investment" firms -- many of whose employees have made financial contributions to Republican organizations backing Christie's election campaigns...
War on Workers
Chevron Shuts Gas Pipeline After Accident  Wall Street Journal   ...A contract worker performing routine maintenance on an offshore gas pipeline was killed Saturday and two other workers were injured, the company said. The accident occurred 6 miles south of Timbalier Bay off the southeast coast of Louisiana, according to the U.S. Coast Guard...
California Home Sales Dive, Prices Hit Wall, Millennials Blamed  naked capitalism   ...92% of millennials who don’t already own a home do not plan on buying one in the future. Ever...
Letting the Rich Take All The Money (opinion)  firedoglake   ..."The current world situation is not nearly so dire, but there are parallels, particularly to 1937. Now, as then, people have been disappointed for a long time, and many are despairing. They are becoming more fearful for their long-term economic future...
Workers in Maine Buy Out Their Jobs, Set an Example for the Nation  truthout   ...More than 60 employees of three retail businesses - Burnt Cove Market, V&S Variety and Pharmacy, and The Galley - banded together to buy the stores and create the largest worker cooperative in Maine and the second largest in New England...
Miscellaneous
Google Driverless Future Vision at Odds With Automakers  Bloomberg   ...Google is sweeping up top talent and research, powered by an almost $400 billion stock-market value that tops those of Toyota Motor Corp., Volkswagen AG and General Motors Co. combined. It’s also keeping a tight grip on its mapping data and potential marketing plans for cars while helping to create what many in the auto industry consider unrealistic expectations for how quickly cars can safely become wholly driverless...
Should Oil Barons Like David Koch Be Funding Our Museums?  Vice   ..."You have more of these donors from the 1 percent who are embedding themselves in our cultural institutions and yet turning around and lobbying for the sequester and budget cuts for those same institutions..."