Teamsters
Union and company reach contract for Facebook shuttle drivers USA Today …Facebook shuttle bus drivers can expect higher wages and better working conditions as part of a new contract agreement reached today. More than two-thirds of about 90 drivers voted unanimously Saturday to accept a contract negotiated by the Teamsters and South San Francisco-based Loop Transportation…
Trade
TPP accord no longer expected before April Japan Times …Japan and the United States had hoped the 12-member TPP talks would conclude as early as March, assuming the two countries could clinch an accord at a bilateral meeting in late February or early March. The delay reflects slow progress in U.S. congressional procedures to grant President Barack Obama trade promotion authority...
State Battles
Right-to-work effort winds around Great Lakes into Wisconsin Milwaukee Journal Sentinel …This week, the right-to-work debate moves front and center in Wisconsin...
NEW INFORMATION: Wisconsin Senate leader lays out timeline for right-to-work Associated Press …Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said Friday that a public hearing will be held Tuesday on the measure by the Senate Labor Committee. Debate will begin Wednesday in the Senate and continue until there's a vote...
Can Labor Survive Nevada's Republican Party? The Atlantic …For the first time in decades, the GOP controls the state's assembly, the senate, and the governor's mansion—and they're targeting unions...
Udall speaks against right-to-work, urges more funds for early ed Santa Fe New Mexican …U.S. Sen. Tom Udall used his pulpit during a joint session of the New Mexico Legislature on Friday to weigh in on two of the most divisive issues facing state lawmakers this session...
War on Workers
America, Land of Low Pay -- The Numbers Will Surprise You Alternet …Each American produced an average of $140,000 in goods in 2013, but median wages were less than $28,000. Who's getting that money?...
U.S. Oil Workers' Union Expands Biggest Plant Strike Since 1980 Bloomberg News …The United Steelworkers, which represents 30,000 U.S. oil workers, called on four more plants to join the biggest strike since 1980 as talks dragged on with Royal Dutch Shell Plc, negotiating a labor contract for oil companies...
This is the scariest chart in the American economy today Vox …The unemployment rate has come down a lot, but the share of unemployed workers who've been unemployed a long time is still at historic levels...
Inmates riot at Willacy County prison Valley Star …Complaints over medical service led about 2,000 prisoners to riot Friday at the so-called tent-city prison here, setting fire to a tent-like dome while guards fired tear gas to try to control what Willacy County Sheriff Larry Spence called the prison’s worst disturbance since it opened nearly 10 years ago.Two officers and a prisoner suffered minor injuries before officials tried to settle the uprising late Friday afternoon at the Willacy County Correctional Center, said Issa Arnita, spokesman for Management & Training Corp., the Utah company that operates the low security-level prison for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons…
The Rich Benefit the Most From Tax Breaks Designed to Help People Build Wealth Bloomberg …The federal government spent $384 billion in 2013 on tax incentives that encourage savings, linked mainly to home ownership and retirement plans. Most of that money went to the rich...
Investment Charges When Mexico Privatized Social Security Conversable Economist …"Fund managers charged an average load (a fee taken as a share of account contributions at the time of contribution) of 23 percent and an annual fee on assets under management of 0.63 percent, implying that a 100-peso deposit earning a 5 percent annual real return would only be worth 95.4 pesos after five years."...
Big tech companies cause income inequality — but not in the ways you think Pando Daily … these companies invest huge portions of their annual revenues into buying back stock to line the pockets of shareholders, not to mention keep the bulk of global profits safely offshore and out of the reach of US tax collectors. And because stock performance is often used as a key factor in determining executive compensation, buyback schemes may also boost a CEO’s take-home pay...
Coroner: Worker dies when rock falls in Pennsylvania mine WPXI …ndiana County Coroner Jerry L. Overman Jr. says in a news release that the man — 29-year-old Todd Trimble of Gallitzin — was installing roof bolts at Rosebud Heilwood mine on Friday afternoon when the rock fell and he was trapped underneath...
