Today's Teamster News 01.14.16

TEAMSTERS
Teamsters, West Virginia Workers Stand Strong Against Right to Work  Teamster.org  ...Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall joined hundreds of labor union and community members at the State Capitol today to voice their opposition to right-to-work legislation introduced today in West Virginia. Delegates are expected to move forward on the measure as early as tomorrow...
NLRB Joint-Employer Rule Likely Headed For Appellate Review  Law360  ...The National Labor Relations Board’s new joint-employer standard is likely headed to an appeals court, after the board's ruling on Tuesday that Browning-Ferris and staffing agency Leadpoint, the parties in the case central to the new standard, unlawfully refused to bargain with the Teamsters. The ruling came four months after the NLRB adopted a looser joint-employer test...
Federal Appellate Court Enforces NLRB Ruling Against Chicago Parking Valet  Local 727  ...A federal appellate court judge has enforced a decision and order issued last year by the National Labor Relations Board against Chicago Parking Valet in which the NLRB found the company had engaged in unfair labor practices. Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the NLRB’s decision and once again ordered the company to desist its unfair labor practices...
Teamsters Local 1932 hires new general manager  Examiner ...On Tuesday night at the regular meeting of the San Bernardino Public Employees Association/ Teamsters Local 1932 Board of Directors, General Manager Deidre Rodriguez stepped down. The board voted to hire Randy Korgan as the new manager in her place. Korgan most recently served as Teamsters Joint Council 42 Organizing Director...
Teamsters Members Win Over $70,000 in Overtime Back Pay  Local 2010  ...Christmas came for early for some members of Teamsters Local 2010 working in the UCSD Eye Institute. On December 22, 2015, 19 workers were awarded checks ranging from $126 to $5,074 for back pay owed for unpaid overtime. “If it wasn’t for the Teamsters we would have never gotten paid,” Leslie Medina said.  “With your help, we got what was owed us"...
Treasury Department Announces Additional January Public Sessions for Feedback on CSPF Rescue Plan  Teamster.org  ...The Treasury Department announced the details today for two additional public sessions in January for Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund retirees and participants to offer feedback on the proposed rescue plan. The sessions will be hosted by Treasury appointee Kenneth R. Feinberg...
Large pension cuts topic of Teamsters meeting Thursday  Kansas City Star  ...Kansas City area retired Teamsters will meet Thursday in another effort to head off large cuts to their pension checks set to hit next summer. The Missouri-Kansas City Committee to Protect Our Pensions is holding the afternoon session to educate and mobilize beneficiaries of the Central States Pension Fund. Thursday’s meeting includes an address by Jim Kabell, president of the Missouri-Kansas-Nebraska Conference of Teamsters...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
DuluxGroup workers in Australia strike amid looming job cuts  Sydney Morning Herald   ...More than 100 staff at DuluxGroup have been barricaded from the paint maker's Brisbane factory after they voted to go on strike following the company's refusal to remove a cap on redundancy entitlements.
Dulux - which has branded the strike as "opportunistic" -  has installed temporary fencing on council land near the factory at Rocklea...
In Name of Patient Safety and Future of National Healthcare, UK Doctors Strike  Common Dreams  ...Tens of thousands of junior doctors across the United Kingdom joined in strikes and pickets on Tuesday, protesting what they describe as "a fundamental breakdown in trust...for which the government is directly responsible." The strike stems from a dispute over pay and working conditions, weekend shifts in particular...
Toronto's outside workers union announces strike mandate  Toronto Sun  ...Toronto's outside civic workers have voted to strike if negotiations with the city fail, the union announced late Wednesday. CUPE Local 416, representing 6,000 employees including garbage collectors, sought the strike mandate after the city applied for a provincial conciliator late last month...
Canada won't commit yet to Feb. 4 TPP signing  CBC  ...Canada's international trade minister says her government hasn't decided whether it will participate in an expected signing ceremony for the Trans-Pacific Partnership in Auckland, New Zealand early next month. "We are aware that some of the countries are talking about a signing in New Zealand. Canada hasn't yet taken a decision," Chrystia Freeland told reporters in Vancouver Tuesday...
Trans-Pacific Partnership: Obama's man appeals to Turnbull for help  Sydney Morning Herald  ...The US Ambassador to Australia says he wants Malcolm Turnbull to argue the case for the Trans-Pacific Partnership when he visits Washington next week, where members of Congress are undecided about how to vote. On Wednesday, President Barack Obama used his last State of the Union address to appeal to Congress to approve the 12-nation mega trade deal...
Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia might join TPP, says Miti  The Star  ...Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia have actually expressed interest to be part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), said the International Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti). Miti said this in its written response to issues raised by Dr Jomo Kwame Sundaram recently that countries such as Thailand and the Philippines had opted to distance themselves from this treaty...
Guest of Rep. Peter DeFazio at State of the Union has seen effect of trade agreements firsthand  Register-Guard  ...DeFazio places the blame for Phillips’ troubles squarely on the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which he and other critics say rewarded American companies that moved jobs overseas. NAFTA supporters say the tariff-cutting, investment-encouraging deal has helped boost the economies of the three signatories — the United States, Canada and Mexico. DeFazio has been a long-standing critic, however...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Right to work one of 1st bills out of gate; opposition organized  Metro News  ...Republican legislative leaders are making right to work legislation a top priority for the 2016 Regular Legislative Session. The first bill introduced in the state Senate on Wednesday was the one written to make West Virginia a right to work state. Opponents of the legislation in West Virginia called right to work “destructive” legislation that, in their views, would clear the way for lower wages and the weakening of work protections...
Minimum wage question headed toward 2016 ballot in Maine  Maine Sun Journal  ...Leaders of a statewide referendum campaign to incrementally boost Maine's minimum wage from $7.50 an hour to $12 an hour by 2025 said Wednesday they would deliver more than 80,000 petition signatures to the secretary of state's office Thursday. The campaign, Mainers for Fair Wages, needed just over 61,000 signatures from Maine voters to put the question on the ballot in 2016...
Supporters of redistricting amendment nearing signature goal  The Southern  ...Changing the way Illinois’ legislative districts are drawn is one of Gov. Bruce Rauner’s priorities, and he may get some help this year from outside the General Assembly. Despite the Republican governor’s stance on the issue and his ongoing stalemate with legislative Democrats, putting the once-a-decade redistricting process in the hands of an independent commission has widespread bipartisan support...
Workers In Right To Work States Are Less Likely To Have Access To Retirement Plans  NH Labor News  ...Wide differences in access to and participation in employer-based retirement plans exist across states, with variations by employer size and industry type as well as by workers’ income, age, education, race and ethnicity, according to a report released today by The Pew Charitable Trusts. The report, Who’s In, Who’s Out: A Look at Access to Employer-Based Retirement Plans and Participation in the States, examines the rates of access to and participation in plans in all 50 states...
New York Governor Calls For Paid Family Leave With Moving Story About Caring For His Late Father  Think Progress  ...In his State of the State address on Wednesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) called for the passage of legislation that would ensure that state residents can take 12 weeks of paid family leave for a new child or a serious illness. Toward the end of his speech, he shared the story of caring for his late father, former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, at the end of his life last year...
What's next for new Jersey paid sick leave bill?  NorthJersey.com  ...The failure to advance a sick leave bill feared by business leaders but once touted by state New Jersey Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto as a top legislative priority has left both sides wondering what comes next. The bill, which would have required employers to give their workers paid sick leave, was never even posted for a vote...
NAACP: Postpone NC voter ID trial until after primaries  Journal Now  ...The N.C. NAACP is asking a federal judge to postpone a trial on the state’s photo ID requirement until after the March 15 primary, according to court documents filed Tuesday. The trial is set to start Jan. 25 in U.S. District Court in Winston-Salem. The state NAACP, the U.S. Department of Justice and others sued North Carolina and Gov. Pat McCrory in 2013 after state Republican legislators passed a controversial sweeping elections law known as the Voter Information Verification Act...
Study: Minimum Wage Hikes Don't Hurt the Restaurant Industry  Eater  ...When restaurants raise prices to offset moderate increases to the minimum wage, the industry as a whole is not adversely affected. Like, at all. This is the conclusion of a study (see below) released last month by the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration entitled "Have Minimum Wage Increases Hurt the Restaurant Industry? The Evidence Says No!"...
DC Council to consider bills on low-wage worker schedules  WJLA  ...The D.C. Council is considering two bills that are meant to provide low-wage workers with more predictable work hours. One bill would require the retail and food-service industries in the District of Columbia to provide their employees with written schedules at least 21 days in advance. The other would require janitors and maintenance workers in large office buildings to be given at least 30 hours of work per week...

U.S. LABOR
ArcelorMittal could idle some lines at Indiana Harbor  NWI Times  ...ArcelorMittal, one of Northwest Indiana's largest employers, may want to idle more operations at its steelmaking operations at Indiana Harbor in East Chicago. ArcelorMittal is currently discussing operations in East Chicago with the United Steelworkers union, as the two sides try to reach a new three-year labor pact...
Labor talks between Sonoma County, SEIU heading toward impasse  Press Democrat  ...Labor negotiations between Sonoma County and its largest union — representing more than half of the county’s 4,100 public employees — are nearing a stalemate that could drag out contract talks for months. The county has initiated impasse proceedings with the Service Employees International Union Local 1021, which staged a three-day strike in November that disrupted some county services...
Sweet'N Low Workers Rally Outside Fort Greene Packing Plant to Save Jobs  DNA Info  ...Workers are saying “hell no” to Sweet’N Low manufacturer Cumberland Packing after the company announced last week it would end production at its Fort Greene plant. “We’re outraged, to say the least,” said UFCW Local 2013 President Louis Mark Carotenuto. Carotenuto said the workers, who have been called part of the Cumberland family, have since received little information about what’s going to happen to their jobs...
Mega-fleet XPO the latest to be hit with misclassification suit from port drivers  CCJ  ...Truck operators for three drayage carriers owned by carrier conglomerate XPO Logistics have filed a class action lawsuit seeking payment over alleged misclassification as contractors instead of employees, which led to lower wages and denial of state mandated breaks, plaintiffs claim...
Will St. Paul, Minnesota Teachers Soon Be Out on Strike?  In These Times  ...St. Paul teachers union organizer Patrick Burke says that the union has been practicing proactive behavior prevention strategies for a while now, with virtually no support from the district. The latest round of shocking school-based incidents, then, stand as more of a final straw than first steps on the road to a walk out. The union and district began contract negotiations in May of 2015, and Burke says the St. Paul Federation of Teachers put 25 proposals on the table...
UFW informs workers of undocumented rights in wake of ICE raids  Turnto23  ...One by one members of the UFW foundation approached people in Lamont passing out red cards that have the Fourth and Fifth Amendment on them in Spanish. The two amendments give workers constitutional protection from unlawful searches and the right to remain silent. On the other side of the card there are three statements that the UFW says the workers can say to the ICE agent...
Bar Associations Are Much More Like Unions Than Friedrichs’ Attorney Acknowledged  OnLabor  ...If the Supreme Court overturns Abood, it is not clear how States could continue to require lawyers to pay dues to State Bars.  Clearly much of what State bars do to regulate the legal profession involves questions of public policy.  And just as some teachers may disagree with the union’s position on teacher tenure or class size, some lawyers disagree with the bar association’s position on multi-jurisdictional practice or referral fees...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Myth of the middle class: Most Americans don’t even have $1,000 in savings  Salon  ...What exactly is the middle class? A new study suggests that the U.S. hardly even has one. More than half of Americans — 56 percent, to be exact — have less than $1,000 combined in their checking and savings accounts, according to a recent survey, Forbes reported...
Obama’s Immigration Raids Are Turning Latino Communities Into Ghost Towns  Think Progress  ...Even though the raids have so far been concentrated in Texas, North Carolina, and Georgia, there has been a ripple effect across the country. Latino immigrants in other states — afraid of becoming the next individuals arrested in what they perceive to be random targetings — are resorting to hiding in their homes, keeping their children home from school, and calling on legal residents to do their grocery shopping for them...
The influence of special interests extends to local editorial pages  Sunlight Foundation  ...The editorial pages of local newspapers still remain a key gathering place for debates about local and regional matters of importance. It is also a place where industries and individuals alike seek to influence policymakers at the local level. Alaska Dispatch News columnist Dermot Cole recently took this tactic to task after an op-ed on the seemingly obscure topic of occupational licensing was placed in the Dispatch News by Mark Holden, a senior vice president at Koch Industries...
Koch Daddy and the Nazis, a Revealing History from Jane Mayer  PR Watch  ...Mayer uncovers new information about how Fred Koch joined forces with a genuine Nazi sympathizer from the U.S. to build a refinery personally approved by Adolf Hitler himself, one of the three largest refineries in the Third Reich, which was used to create fuels for Hitler's deadly attacks on peaceful nations. While Mayer does not call Fred Koch a "Nazi sympathizer" himself, readers may disagree when reading Fred Koch's public praise for Germany under Hitler, as well as the other Axis powers, Japan and Italy...

Clinton, Sanders and O'Malley Address Police Violence and White Privilege at Brown and Black Forum  Truthout  ...Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley fielded pointed questions about police violence, racial justice, reparations, white privilege and deportations at the Iowa Brown & Black Forum on Monday night. The Iowa Brown & Black Forum has been bringing presidential candidates to one of the whitest states in the country in order for them to speak on issues of diversity since 1984...

Today's Teamster News 01.12.16

TEAMSTERS
D.C. Taxi Drivers Accuse Police Of Harassment In Barrage Of Tickets  WAMU  ...Officers in the Metropolitan Police Department’s Fifth District were responsible for writing 1,368 tickets to cabbies from Jan. through Oct. 2015, more than three times the 394 tickets written in the city’s other six police districts combined, according to data obtained by the Teamsters Union Local 922 and shared with WAMU 88.5. The Teamsters’ lawyers are defending the drivers in court, claiming many of the tickets are bogus...
Teamsters, Carhaul Employers to Resume Contract Negotiations  Teamster.org  ...The Teamsters National Automobile Transporters Industry Negotiating Committee (TNATINC) and carhaul employer representatives will reconvene this Wednesday, Jan. 13 and Thursday, Jan. 14 in Detroit to discuss and exchange proposals for a new national contract. In December, both sides made progress toward a new tentative agreement. While several of the outstanding contract issues have been largely resolved, both sides are still evaluating serious and difficult economic issues...
School district support staff union to challenge Teamsters election victory  Review Journal  ...A nearly 15-year fight to unseat the labor union that represents more than 11,000 bus drivers, custodians and other support staff who work for the Clark County School District again will head to court soon.
Thanks to a change in rules governing public-sector unions in Nevada, the Teamsters Local 14 claimed a landslide victory. But a lawyer for the Education Support Employees Association, which represents school support staff, promised to "promptly" challenge that in state court...
Minnesota Teamsters Endorse Angie Craig for 2nd Congressional District  Teamster.org  ...Today, Teamsters across Minnesota endorsed Angie Craig for Congress in the 2nd Congressional seat race set for this fall. “We are pleased to put our support behind Angie Craig who we know will be a strong advocate for working men and women across Minnesota and our country,” said Teamsters Joint Council 32 President Larry Yoswa...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
Tensions rise as workers for Apple contractor in Indonesia plan strike  Jakarta Post  ...Authorities in Batam, Riau Islands, have called on thousands of workers from a major local company to drop plans to begin a three-week strike on Monday. Batam Free Trade Zone Management Agency public relations and promotions director Purnomo Andiantono said the concerns emerged after some 2,000 workers from PT Amtek Engineering Batam last week announced a plan to stage a collective strike...
UK Transport Union Announces Three 24-Hour Underground Strikes  Sputnik News  ...The United Kingdom's biggest Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union announced on Monday that London Underground staff were to stage three 24-hour strikes and a week of industrial action in two separate disputes over pay and night tube services. According to the RMT statement, Underground workers will strike for 24 hours on January 26, February 15 and February 17 over disputes about pay...
Tug boat workers' strike to disrupt shipping industry  Financial Review  ...Delays are expected to plague Australia's big east coast ports on Tuesday and Wednesday, with workers planning to walk off the job after an agreement could not be struck with tug boat engineers. The industrial action is protected and is over a new enterprise agreement between the Australian Institute of Marine and Power Engineers and operator Svitzer Australia...
Ontario correctional workers give up right to strike to reach deal  CBC  ...Ontario's correctional workers and the government have agreed to move to binding arbitration within the next 60 days — and to designate the province's nearly 6,000 jail guards, parole and probation officers as essential service workers. That means the union agreed to give up its right to strike, not just for this contract but for successive ones...
Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal to be signed in NZ  NZ Herald  ...The controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal will be signed into existence in New Zealand. Chile let the cat out of the bag early by announcing the signing last week, before officials were ready, leading to swift backpedaling from organisers. But the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has just confirmed an event will be held in Auckland in early February...
DeLauro defies Obama on State of the Union issue  CT Mirror  ...Once again, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro is defying President Obama as he prepares to deliver his State of the Union address. Once again, the split is over trade. DeLauro, D-3rd District, is leading a fight against one of the things Obama wants to leave as part of his legacy – a Trans-Pacific Partnership with 11 other nations that ring the Pacific Ocean...
Trans-Pacific Partnership could be worth almost nothing to Australia  Mashable  ...Over the five years it was negotiated, the potential economic impact of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), set to become one of the biggest free trade deals of all time, has been condemned and praised with equal ferocity. Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb claimed the TPP would deliver "enormous benefits" to Australia. Now the World Bank has looked into the matter, and as it turns out, all that secrecy has added up to very little for Australia...
Tamil National Alliance backs austerity, pro-investor policies in Sri Lanka  WSWS.org  ...As the year began, the Tamil nationalist organizations in Sri Lanka escalated their support for austerity and the use of Sri Lankan workers as cheap labor for international capital. Mavai Senathirajah, a leading parliamentarian of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), told the media, “we are expecting several development projects and economic zones in the North-East”...
Greece Renews Challenge to Creditors’ Austerity Policies  Wall Street Journal  ...Greece’s left-led government renewed its challenge to its creditors’ austerity policies on Tuesday, vowing to resist further pension cuts while calling on Europe to let Greece meet budget targets mainly via economic growth, not belt-tightening. “The best way to fill this gap [in Greece’s budget] isn't by reducing, but by increasing the economy,” Labor Minister George Katrougalos said...
Haiti Earthquake Anniversary: Garment Workers Still Struggle to Survive  Solidarity Center  ...Six years after a major earthquake devastated the Haitian capital and its environs and the international community promised to “build back better,” Haitian workers say their daily lives are a struggle for survival, with their meager wages insufficient to cover basic expenses. In recent interviews, Haitian garment workers told the Solidarity Center that they are worse off today than before the quake...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
How Corporate Political Spending Will Stay Secret in Wisconsin  PR Watch  ...Wisconsin Republicans are insisting that they didn't intend to allow corporate political donations to remain secret under the recent overhaul of the state's campaign finance laws. But secrecy, in fact, has become the distinguishing characteristic of Wisconsin elections. And that is by design. Sweeping campaign finance changes signed into law by Governor Scott Walker last month allowed corporations to donate up to $12,000 directly to "segregated funds"...
State ballot measure filed to raise minimum wage to $13.50  Seattle Times  ...Supporters of raising Washington state’s minimum wage filed a ballot measure Monday that seeks to incrementally raise Washington’s minimum wage to $13.50 an hour over four years starting in 2017, as well as provide paid sick leave to employees without it. The initiative was announced at a news conference by a coalition of workers and union members...
Are Neighboring States Putting Pressure on N.H. Lawmakers to Boost Minimum Wage?  NHPR  ...The new legislative session kicked off last week, as lawmakers began the process of again sifting through the hundreds of new bills. Many of these proposals would affect New Hampshire’s business community, including raising the state’s minimum wage, an issue that hasn’t gone anywhere in the past...
House Committee Hears Voter ID Proposal Today  Ozarks First  ...Two voter photo ID proposals will be heard Tuesday by the Missouri House’s Elections committee. Representative Tony Dugger (R-Hartville) is proposing a constitutional amendment that would ask voters to approve requiring a photo ID at the polls. A companion bill sponsored by Representative Justin Alferman (R-Hermann) would create the structure for voter photo ID if the ballot issue passes...
Kasich: New mothers should work at home online, not get paid family leave  Daily Kos  ...Screw paid parental leave. Republican presidential candidate (yes, still) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich thinks new mothers and fathers should rely on their employers to “try to be creative” instead of being required to offer paid leave. And if the extent of their employers’ creativity is “come to work or you’re fired,” as it is for so many Americans, oh well...
Is Ohio headed for 'right-to-work' anyway?  Cincinnati.com  ...Remember that political grudge match called Senate Bill 5? A U.S. Supreme Court case on whether government workers must pay union dues against their wills could upend a key part of Ohioans' decisive vote against the anti-collective bargaining law. If the court rules against unions – and it's looking like it might – Ohio's public workers could become "right-to-work" overnight...
Michigan Knew Last Year That Flint’s Water Might Be Poisoned But Decided Not to Tell Anyone  Slate  ...Michigan governor Rick Snyder declared last week that the poisonously high levels of lead in drinking water in Flint, Michigan constitute a state of emergency. Reporting by Michigan Radio and research by the ACLU, though, alleges that the state government itself may have broken laws last year to cover up evidence of high lead levels that were turned up in tests it was supervising...

U.S. LABOR
UAW Donating Water To Flint Residents  WILX  ...Members of the United Auto Workers union are donating drinking water to Flint residents affected by the city's water crisis. The Flint Journal reported Saturday that bottled water would be brought to the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan in a caravan of trucks. An emergency has been declared in Flint where water drawn from the Flint River leached lead from old plumbing for months...
USW: NLRB Issues Third Consolidated Complaint against Asarco  PR Newswire  ...The United Steelworkers (USW) today said that Region 28 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has issued a third consolidated complaint against Asarco, LLC, which includes an allegation that the company unlawfully implemented portions of its so-called "last, best and final" contract proposal on Dec. 1, 2015, in the absence of a bargaining impasse...
National Labor Board takes McDonald’s to court  Al Jazeera  ...Current and former McDonald’s workers who accuse the fast-food giant of illegal union-busting will get their day in court on Monday, when an administrative law judge is expected to begin hearing arguments in a major unfair labor practice suit. The Obama administration's National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will represent the workers in a case that could have wide-ranging consequences for the McDonald’s franchising model...
Graduate Students at Private Universities Could Soon Have the Right to Unionize  The Nation  ... Late last year, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) finally agreed to review the cases of Columbia University and New School graduate students who have been campaigning for years to form an official union on their campus. Their pending decision could overturn a precedent that has hamstrung labor organizing on private college and university campuses for over a decade...
Detroit Teachers Hold Sick-Out to Demand Fixes to School's "Abominable" Problems  Common Dreams  ...Detroit teachers on Monday organized a "sick-out" to call attention to the school district's "abominable" problems, including filthy buildings and overwhelmingly large class sizes, and called on officials to follow through on long-held promises to salvage the city's educational system. Ivy Bailey, interim president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT), said Monday, "The deplorable conditions in our schools have created a serious environmental and educational crisis"...
Why Transportation Workers Should Care About Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association  TTD.org  ...Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association (CTA) is an orchestrated, malicious attack on workers’ rights. This case isn’t just about teachers in California—it’s about weakening the rights of workers, specifically those employed in the public sector. The group behind the court case is the Center for Individual Rights, which has ties to greedy CEOs and wealthy special interests...
This is why you’re burning out: Science proves being on call is just as stressful as working  Salon  ...A recent study links extended work availability with decreased calmness, mood, and energy levels. By looking at industries from technical services to nursing, the study evaluated the effects of being on-call — that is, not at work, but being expected to remain available by phone for questions or customer requests...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
Powerball’s $1.3 Billion Swindle Of Americans  Think Progress  ...In October, the consortium of states that runs Powerball approved a series of rule changes that made it much harder to win the jackpot. The purpose of this change was to increase the chances that there would be no grand prize winner for any given drawing. The purpose of creating massive jackpots is because they induce more people to play. The prospect of big payouts spark a flood of free media attention. For all the money Americans spend, they get very little in return — particularly the poorest...
Clinton calls for stopping immigration raids  USA Today  ...Hillary Clinton on Monday called on the Obama administration to end raids that target undocumented immigrants who recently arrived from Central America. Clinton, whose statement came during the Iowa Black and Brown forum, said that enforcement efforts should be "humane." "We have laws and we must be guided by those laws, but we shouldn't have armed federal officers showing up at peoples' homes, taking women and children out of their beds in the middle of the night"...
A Pill That Cures Hepatitis Costs Just $4, but If You Live in America It's $1,000  Alternet  ...Nearly one year after receiving FDA approval, on October 10, 2014, Gilead Sciences Inc. patented Harvoni, which is Solvaldi combined with one of these inhibitors. Global demand for Harvoni quickly skyrocketed as,according to the World Health Organization, there are currently 130-150 million people living with chronic hepatitis C, globally...
The defining American crisis our corporate media still can’t be bothered to cover  Salon  ...Of the five Republican debates and of the three Democratic debates, not one moderator has asked a question involving the words “poverty” or “poor.” In the GOP debates, the candidates only bring up the topic as a way to swipe President Obama, which is fair enough but is not a discussion of poverty much less a good-faith attempt to mitigate it. By comparison, the Democratic debate moderators brought up “ISIS” or “Terrorism” 21 times total in all three debates...
White Nationalist PAC Blankets Iowa With Robocalls For Trump  TPM  ...Some registered voters in Iowa received robocalls Saturday from a white nationalist super PAC that urged them to support Donald Trump in the 2016 election: “I urge you to vote for Donald Trump because he is the one candidate who points out that we should accept immigrants who are good for America. We don’t need Muslims. We need smart, well-educated white people who will assimilate to our culture"...
Historic Settlement over NYPD's Anti-Muslim Spying Imposes Oversight & Bars Ethnic-Based Targeting  Democracy Now  ...In a major legal victory, New York City will appoint an independent civilian monitor to oversee the New York Police Department’s counterterrorism activities. The announcement comes after two lawsuits challenged the NYPD’s programs of spying on Muslims and religious centers. The suits argued the NYPD violated the U.S. and New York state constitutions by singling out and stigmatizing entire communities based on their religion...

Today's Teamster News 09.17.15

Teamsters
Bipartisan Coalition Upholds Gov. Nixon Veto of Right-to-Work in Victory for Working Families  Teamster.org  ...Today, a bipartisan group of state legislators in the Missouri House and Senate came together to protect working families by voting to sustain Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of so-called right-to-work legislation. “I would like to thank the state legislators who put aside their partisan differences and came together to uphold Gov. Nixon’s veto,” said Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa...
Teamsters Support Murray-Scott Legislation to Strengthen Worker Protections Under NLRA  Teamster.org  ...The Teamsters applaud today’s introduction of the Workplace Action for a Growing Economy (WAGE) Act by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA). The WAGE Act is a positive step forward, addressing the shortcomings of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in the areas of workers protections and penalties for employers that violate workers’ rights...
Tucson bus strike ends after union vote  Arizona Daily Star  ...The 42-day Tucson bus strike ended Wednesday when drivers, mechanics and other members of Teamsters Local 104 voted to accept a new contract. The vote was 351-41, an 89 percent approval, said Teamsters Local 104 President Andy Marshall. Everyone gets a raise under the new contract, he said, but he wouldn’t release contract details, saying he didn’t want to inflame opinions...
Bus Strike Ends! The Teamsters Approve Sun Tran's Two-Year Deal  Tucson Weekly  ...With a vote of 351 to 41, the bus drivers and mechanics who have been picketing for six weeks approved a deal between the Teamsters Local Union 104 and Professional Transit Management—the company contracted by the city of Tucson to oversee Sun Tran. The two had reached a tentative agreement early Wednesday morning...

Global Labor & Trade
Obama upbeat on prospects for Pacific trade deal  Reuters  ...U.S. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he was confident Pacific Rim nations could nail down an agreement on a free-trade pact this year although approval by the U.S. Congress was not guaranteed. Speaking to a group of corporate executives, Obama said trade ministers should soon have an opportunity to close a deal on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Ministers to reconvene TPP talks in late September  Japan Times  ...Ministers from 12 Pacific Rim countries will meet in late September in Atlanta as they look to conclude years of negotiations on creating one of the world’s biggest free-trade zones, negotiation sources said Thursday. A meeting of chief negotiators from the United States, Japan, Canada and nine other member countries involved in the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership talks will begin from Sept. 26...
Final push for Pacific Rim pact set for end of September  Globe and Mail  ...An effort to land a massive Pacific Rim free trade agreement within weeks is under way, raising the prospect the wide-ranging Trans-Pacific Partnership could dominate the final stretch of the Canadian election campaign. Chief negotiators for the 12 countries involved, including Canada, will begin meeting in Atlanta on Sept. 26...
Chilean Airport Workers Strike, Leave Thousands Stranded  Aviation Pros  ...On the heels of strikes in throughout Europe last month and Seattle just last week, Chilean airport workers have begun a 24-hour strike that has left an estimated 70,000 travelers stranded in the South American country, according to a report from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The airport strike is led by air traffic controllers and ground support staff demanding better retirement benefits...
Worker Rights under Siege at Oil Refinery in Kyrgyzstan  Solidarity Center  ...The recent firing of a union leader at a Chinese-owned oil refinery in Kyrgyzstan is the company’s latest attempt in the past two years to prevent workers from forming a union, according to the global union IndustriALL and workers. Zhanaydar Ahmetov, leader of the trade union committee at China Petrol Company Zhongda was fired and locked out of the plant on August 29, the second union leader dismissed in two years, factory workers say...
Border Force workers strike over wages  Daily Mail  ...Strikes by Department of Immigration and Border Protection employees are expected to cause a week of disruptions at international and domestic airports across the country. The employees, including those from Border Force, began the protected industrial action in Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia on Wednesday and plan more until Wednesday next week. The action comes as Community and Public Sector Union members vote on a proposed enterprise agreement...

State & Living Wage Battles
'Right to work' measure dies in Missouri House  St. Louis Post-Dispatch  ...Applause erupted in the the House chamber Wednesday as Republican leaders' goal to make Missouri the 26th "right to work" state died when members failed to vote to override Gov. Jay Nixon's veto. The measure, which prohibits companies from requiring union membership or dues as conditions of employment, was pushed through the legislative session in May as Republicans used aggressive tactics...
Union members relieved after right-to-work legislation fails  Columbia Missourian  ...The Missouri House of Representatives voted 96-63 to uphold the governor's veto, falling 13 votes short of an override. House Bill 116 would have made it illegal for employers to require employees to join a union as a condition of employment. The victory for organized labor was watched closely nationwide. The bill would have made Missouri the 26th right-to-work state in the country, and its failure was cheered by dozens of union members in the House galleries...
Oregon's minimum wage will stay $9.25 in 2016  KATU  ...Oregon's minimum wage will stay the same in 2016. The wage is re-calculated each year because of a state law passed by voters in 2002 that ties it to inflation. The wage will remain stuck at $9.25 this January because it is pegged to the Consumer Price Index, which showed little inflation, Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian said Wednesday. The Legislature considered several bills earlier this year that would have raised the minimum wage — each lacked sufficient support...
Missouri legislators block cities from raising minimum wage  Business Journal  ...Missouri legislators voted Wednesday to override Gov. Jay Nixon's veto of a measure to stop municipalities from raising minimum wages above the ceiling set by the state. The Missouri House voted 114-46, and later in the day the Senate voted 23-9 to override the veto. That exceeded the two-thirds majority needed to override the Democratic governor's July veto of House Bill 722...
California Workers Could See More Protection Against Wage Theft  RH Reality Check  ...While California has some of the strongest wage theft laws in the country, regulators have little authority to enforce those laws. That may change after a bill passed last week by the Democratic-led state legislature. SB 588, sponsored by Sen. Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles), would give the California labor commissioner such authority...
Bill seeks to raise minimum wage to $15 per hour in Florida  Click Orlando  ...As the debate over minimum wage continues across the country, two local bills could soon change the minimum wage in Florida. Two Florida state senators on Thursday will call on legislators to sign bills that would raise the minimum wage in the state to $15 per hour. Both bills would nearly double the state's current minimum wage, which is $8.05...

U.S. Labor
Seattle teachers back in the classroom after tentative deal ends strike  Daily Kos   ...Seattle teachers went back to work Wednesday to prepare for schools to open on Thursday after the Seattle Education Association and school district management reached a tentative deal to end the teachers strike that delayed the scheduled start of the school year. The teachers were pushing for improved pay after six years without a cost of living increase, as well as for mandatory recess, equity teams in all schools, and limits on the influence of standardized testing...
FCA-UAW contract sets new wage range for 2nd tier  Detroit Free Press  ...Both new and longtime autoworkers at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles represented by the UAW will receive wage increases under a new four-year contract if they vote to ratify it in the coming weeks, the Free Press has learned. A new tentative agreement between the UAW and Fiat Chrysler would set a new wage range for entry-level workers of more than $17 an hour to more than $25 per hour over a period of several years...
Healthcare Workers at Chapman Global Medical Center Vote to Join SEIU-UHW  OC Weekly  ...In a surprisingly quick campaign, hundreds of healthcare workers at Chapman Global Medical Center in Orange decided to unionize. The vote to join the Service Employee International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) passed Tuesday by a dominating three-to-one margin. Two-hundred and twenty nurses, cooks, medical records clerks, janitors and others will now experience the benefits of being in a union...
Labor law has been frozen for 60 years. Democrats are trying to crack it open.  Washington Post  ...A new attempt by Democrats to boost worker bargaining power has a lot of failure behind it. The American workplace has changed a whole lot over the past half century. But the major law that governs how workers and employees interact — the National Labor Relations Act — has been essentially frozen since 1947, when the law was reformed to constrain worker power. Liberal legislators are trying to make the law a tool for collective action again...
How Unions Boost Democratic Participation  American Prospect  ...As part of ongoing research, James Feigenbaum, an economics PhD candidate at Harvard, ran a regression using American National Election Studies data suggesting that union members are about 4 percentage points more likely to vote and 3 points more likely to register (after controlling for demographic factors) and individuals living in a union household are 2.5 points more likely to vote and register...
America’s Poverty Problem Hasn’t Changed  The Atlantic  ...On Wednesday, the Census Bureau released its latest data on income and poverty for the country, and despite a falling unemployment rate and a rising GDP—two promising macroeconomic signs—things haven’t improved all that much for American families in the past year. America’s poverty problem is basically the same. So the biggest news in the data dump was the shifting methodology behind it all...

Social Justice & Other News 
'Perilously' Outdated Voting Machines Threaten 2016 Election, Report Finds  Common Dreams  ...Electronic voting machines in 43 states are at least a decade old, "perilously close to the end of most systems' expected lifespan," and could pose a risk to the 2016 election, a new study from the the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law finds. After a 10 month probe that included interviews with over 100 election officials and experts in every state, the investigators concluded that the threat also extends to "significant percentages of machines" in swing states...
#NoHateDebate: GOP candidates met with protest over their anti-immigrant rants  RT  ...Hours before Republican presidential candidates are to clash in a televised debate, dozens of protesters rallied in Los Angeles to express their anger over GOP rhetoric on immigration. The rally occupied streets near the Ronald Reagan Library, where the debate is to start at 8 p.m. EST. Some of the protesters got their anger out on a giant effigy of the leading candidate Donald Trump, slapping and punching it...
Many Jails Are Illegal Debtors' Prisons  Truthout  ...Congress outlawed debtors' prisons nearly 200 years ago. Since then, federal courts have made it clear that indigent people can not be jailed for being unable to pay legal debts. Still, legal advocates estimate that thousands of low-income people in the South and across the United States are illegally jailed every year because they are unable to pay off legal debts to municipal courts, even when they are trying hard to do so. Debtors' prison practices have an especially heavy impact on communities of color...
Arrest of Muslim Teen for Bringing Clock to School 'Inevitable Byproduct of Culture of Fear'  Common Dreams  ...A Muslim teen with dreams of becoming an engineer brought a clock he made to his Texas high school on Monday. Then this happened: the teen, 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, sporting a NASA t-shirt, was arrested, handcuffed, and suspended for three days. The ACLU says the arrest has sparked questions about racial profiling...
Huckabee Says Kim Davis Should Be Able To Discriminate Because Muslim Inmates Can Grow Beards  Think Progress  ...Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has been the most vocal supporter of Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk jailed for refusing to issue same-sex marriages licenses. He has said he would go to jail on her behalf and has used her situation to argue for strengthening “religious liberty.” But during Wednesday night’s GOP debate, he proved he doesn’t actually understand the meaning of religious freedom...

Today's Teamster New 09.09.15

Teamsters
Hoffa: Let’s get America working again  The Detroit News  ...Everyday Americans are facing increased challenges at work and at home. The outsourcing of millions of good-paying jobs overseas has led to lower paychecks here in the U.S. That, in turn, has made it more difficult for many workers to provide for their families. The Teamsters, however, have a plan to help turn the tide. Called “Let’s Get America Working,” it will encourage both Democratic and Republican lawmakers to endorse a pro-worker platform. At the center of the campaign is the need for this country to invest in infrastructure...
Possible bus strike looms in Middle Country district  Long Island News 12  ...A potential bus strike in the Middle Country School District has parents worrying about possible transportation disruptions this week. Timothy Lynch, the president of the Teamsters union that represents bus company workers, says they have been trying for months to come to an agreement with the Baumann and Sons bus company, which includes ACME buses...
School bus strike could affect dozens of LI districts  Newsday  ...A labor dispute between one of Long Island's largest school bus operators and its drivers has some parents worried about a potential strike if the parties fail to reach a resolution at a federal mediation meeting Wednesday. Timothy Lynch is president of Teamsters Local 1205, which represents bus drivers who work for Ronkonkoma-based Baumann & Sons Buses Inc. and its affiliate, ACME Buses...
Strike update: Sun Tran and Teamsters resume talks  Arizona Daily Star  ...The Teamsters and Professional Transit Management, which operates Sun Tran, met with a federal mediator Tuesday. Neither side would discuss the talks. They did not meet for three days during the Labor Day weekend. The Tucson City Council will get a report on the strike and Sun Tran management and operations at its 1:30 p.m. meeting Wednesday at City Hall, 255 W. Alameda...
Alton Agreements with AFSCME, Teamsters Pending  RiverBender.com  ...New agreements between the City of Alton and two of its collective bargaining units will be up for final approval at tonight’s City Council meeting.  The Alton City Council Committee of the Whole gave preliminary approval to contracts with the Teamsters and AFSCME last night.  Both bargaining units have already ratified the contracts...

Global Labor & Trade
Japan PM: One more round of TPP ministers' talks to lead to agreement  Reuters  ...Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the 12 Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) nations are at a stage where one more round of ministerial talks will lead to an agreement on remaining issues, according to the text of a message presented at an event organized by Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Tokyo. Japan and the United States will hold working-level bilateral talks on auto issues from Wednesday in Washington. Japan also plans to meet negotiators from Canada and Mexico...
Mitch McConnell Fights For Tobacco Interests In Trans-Pacific Trade Deal  Forbes  ...There is nothing good about tobacco. It’s addictive, poisonous and lethal. And it can damage the health of people who don’t use it. For those reasons, governments worldwide treat tobacco differently from other agricultural commodities. For example, the 12 governments negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership don’t want the agreement to give the American tobacco industry the same privileges it gives other industries...
Dem pans Obama's new trade liaison  The Hill  ...A House Democrat is calling on the Obama administration to provide more details about global trade agreements and dismissing efforts to create a special liaison to Congress. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) on Friday called Tim Reif’s appointment as the U.S. Trade Representative's (USTR) chief transparency officer this week "a meaningless response to my demands for greater congressional and public access”...
NAFTA auto parts makers mount drive to sweeten terms of TPP deal  Globe and Mail  ...The North American auto industry is increasing the pressure on Canada, the U.S. and Mexico to extract a better deal for NAFTA car makers from a proposed Pacific Rim trade pact. For the first time, auto parts makers in all three countries are speaking publicly with a united voice on the matter – with industry leaders urging Ottawa, Washington and Mexico City to resist Japan’s efforts to water down domestic content rules...
EC President Juncker Calls for Maximum Transparency in TTIP Deal  Sputnik  ...Negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the European Union and the United States, criticized for their confidentiality, should be transparent to the limit, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Wednesday. TIP’s stated goal is to ease the flow of goods and services across the Atlantic. The pact seeks to create the world's largest free trade zone...
Melbourne tram workers to go on strike on Thursday as pay negotiations stall  The Guardian  ...Melbourne’s tram workers will go on strike again on Thursday, with neither the public transport union nor Yarra Trams willing to compromise over a pay dispute that has dragged on for months.
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) is holding a four-hour stoppage between 10am and 2pm.
Yarra Trams held unsuccessful eleventh-hour talks with the union on Wednesday aimed at averting the industrial action...

State & Living Wage Battles
Ballot measure could rekindle right-to-work debate  Argus Leader  ...A proposed constitutional amendment could reignite a decades-cooled debate over South Dakota’s right-to-work law, a union representative said Tuesday. The measure, if signed by enough South Dakotans and approved by a majority of voters in 2016, could “give certain organizations the right to charge fees,” despite the state’s nearly 70-year-old right-to-work law...
Paid Sick Leave Is Fast Becoming A Right -- Not A Privilege  Huffington Post  ...It’s getting harder for your boss to get away with not offering paid sick leave. That’s of course good news for the many workers, mostly hourly and low-paid, who either lose money when they’re ill or wind up coming to work sick. On Labor Day, President Barack Obama announced that starting in 2017, federal contractors must provide workers with paid sick time. Three states and 15 municipalities passed sick leave laws this year and last year, including Massachusetts, California, Oregon, Philadelphia and Newark...
Can Scott Walker Save Himself?  The Atlantic  ...Scott Walker was in Wisconsin for one day last week, but—curiously for a governor who’s been criticized for being away from his home state—he did not show his face publicly. The Wisconsin governor’s presidential campaign is in free fall—a development that puzzles the state he has dominated...
It’s officially impossible to afford NYC rents on the minimum wage  Daily News  ...New York City has closed the door on minimum-wage workers. A study found there is not one Big Apple neighborhood where a worker earning the state minimum can afford the median rent. In fact, a New Yorker would need to make at least $38.80 an hour — or more than four times the $8.75 minimum wage — to afford the city’s median asking rent of $2,690...
More unions ask U.S. Supreme Court to hear pension payment case  NJ.com  ...Another 16 New Jersey public worker unions are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider whether the state's highest court erred by declaring a pension funding agreement between the state and employees unenforceable. In a petition filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, lawyers for 16 labor groups argued that the New Jersey Supreme Court should have applied the protections of the federal Contract Clause to the deal...

U.S. Labor
The Six-State Steelworker Fight Back Against Corporate Lockouts and Exploitation  In These Times  ...Instead of picnicking, Steelworkers in six states spent this Labor Day picketing the gates of a dozen Allegheny Technologies Inc. (ATI) specialty mills. These 2,200 Steelworkers are not on strike. They never even took a strike vote to threaten a walkout. ATI locked them out of their jobs. ATI threw them out of the mills on Aug. 15...
UAW VPs stress patience as contract deadline looms  The Detroit News  ...The United Auto Workers will not release details of contract discussions with the Detroit automakers until tentative agreements are reached. That’s according to two separate messages directed at union workers Tuesday from UAW Vice President Norwood Jewell, who is overseeing talks with Fiat Chrysler, and UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada, head of the union’s General Motors department...
A Teacher's Strike in Seattle  The Atlantic  ...Seattle teachers voted to go on strike Wednesday, the first day of school, over stalled contract negotiations with the city’s school district. “After bargaining until midnight Monday and for most of the day Tuesday, it was clear that a settlement wasn’t close,” the Seattle Education Association, the union that represents about 5,000 teachers, said in a statement...
UAW workers for Ford approve strike authorization  MLive  ...UAW workers for Ford became the last of the Big Three auto workers to give leadership permission to strike. The UAW's National Ford Department said more than 98 percent of its members approved the strike authorization, according to a statement. "I am pleased with both the high margin of support and high turnout as nearly 80 percent of our membership took part in the voting process," said Jimmy Settles, UAW vice president...
The Unionization of Digital Media  The Nation  ...The digital news team at Al Jazeera America announced last week that it wants to go union, following a string of similar campaigns in recent weeks by web-based journalists who have moved toward or formally voted to establish unions at The Guardian US, Vice, Salon, and Gawker. The organizing bump suggests that, while journalism faces a troubled future, on the labor front, there’s good news to tell...

Social Justice & Other News
ICE Program Focused On ‘National Security’ Detains Immigrants With Zero Criminal Convictions  Think Progress  ...Even as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Jeh Johnson has pledged to focus on undocumented immigrants who pose a “demonstrable risk to national security,” a new report shows that federal immigration officials continue to detain people with no criminal record at all. At least two-thirds of targets detained in April by local or state police departments on behalf of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency “had no criminal conviction of any type”... 
Scaring Up the Vote  Slate  ...GOP presidential contenders are blaming Black Lives Matter for crime. It’s a desperate attempt to frighten white voters into supporting them. National rates of violent crime are down to their lowest levels in a generation, with steep drops in gun homicide among all groups. And while violence is still a problem for isolated, low-income black Americans, the overall portrait is good...

Australia’s minimum wage is $16

Say the U.S. businesses can't pay a living wage? One just needs to look at Australia, which already pays workers at least $15 an hour and fast-food employees above $16 an hour, to see that it can be done.

What is the result of paying workers a fair wage? High unemployment? Slow economic growth? Neither. Instead the Land Down Under was the only nation that avoided a catastrophic recession five years ago. All while receiving health care, vacation days and sick days as required by the Australian government.

Salvatore Babones, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney, notes the conditions for working people are just plan better in his country:

I think it's long past the time when Americans should wake up and see, you know, how far along the rest of the world has come. If a $15 minimum wage seems unrealistic, it's only because we're stuck in the 1950s or 1960s idea of how you should live as a worker in America. Ordinary workers, people who do, you know, grocery store checkout or fast food, simply do much better in the rest of the developed world than they do in the United States.

While buddies of big business have long insisted that an increase in wages would only hurt workers, that just hasn’t proven true. Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said economists no longer hold such a point of view:

Why don’t they lose their jobs? In part, because some of the cost of the higher wages comes out of profits, which, as noted, explains the “who and why” of the people fighting the hardest against this idea.

Others agree. Too many companies are simply holding onto cash in an effort to maximize their bottom lines. In the end, they are hurting themselves:

If average Americans don't get paid living wages, they can't spend much money buying products and services. And when average Americans can't buy products and services, the companies that sell products and services to average Americans can't grow. So the profit obsession of America's big companies is, ironically, hurting their ability to accelerate revenue growth.

It is time for corporate America to move beyond the old tired lines it has used for decades. It can afford to pay higher wages without shuttering. Let’s create a system that pays fair wages and allows businesses to profit, too.

Deeply indebted politician mocked for lecturing about debt (VIDEO)

Remember Roger Williams, the Republican congressman from Texas who insisted the federal government must balance its budget just like companies do? It turned out Williams' car dealership has at least $2.5 million in debts. 

Well, the U.S. citizenry isn't the only one subjected to lectures about debt from lightweight politicians and billionaires who made their fortunes on, you know, debt. Politicians and billionaires all over the world are preaching the gospel of austerity.

It took an Australian comedy team less than two minutes to skewer the feebleminded Tony Abbott, leader of the opposition in the Australian House of Representatives.

Steve Keen at the Debtwatch blog shared the video above, noting:

Australia’s unique comedy team The Chaser takes 90 seconds to make a mockery of politicians who obsess about public debt and don’t even consider private debt. Hey, can someone do this in the USA … and the UK … and Europe … and Japan?

Anyone?

Australia, Canada want US workers

Australia wants him.

The Naked Capitalist today notes that Canadian and Australian employers are hiring tens of thousands of skilled American workers to make up for a shortage in their countries.

So much for the problem of American workers lacking skills.

Naked Capitalist, linking to Newsmax, notes Australia this year began recruiting American plumbers, electricians and builders:

Australia has made a plea for American plumbers, electricians and builders to move downunder to fill chronic shortages of skilled workers as the economy struggles to keep up with a resources boom fuelled by demand from China. 

Industry projections from Australia’s employment department show Australia will need 1.3 million extra workers over the next five years, including almost 200,000 more workers for the construction sector. 

Australia will also need around 320,000 more health care and social assistance workers.
Australia has been running immigration seminars in India and Europe to attract skilled workers, and will now target the United States for the first time, with a skills expo set for Houston in Texas on May 19 and 20.

And Canada is targeting unemployed U.S. oil industry workers, according to OilPrice:

Canada is predicting a doubling of oil production by the end of this decade. This means it will have to secure its workforce to the tune of tens of thousands of new laborers. So if you want a job in the energy sector, try your northern neighbor. 

Since 2010 alone, Canadian officials say that some 35,000 US laborers have obtained permits to work in Canada, and there are plans in the works to make permits even easier to obtain. In the meantime, Canadian head hunters are stepping up their efforts at recruitment—taking advantage of the number of jobless in the US. 

Oh, and these jobs tend to come along with an attractive salary, free healthcare, stability and bonuses.

The Naked Capitalist concludes:

America’s continuing push to treat workers as disposable puts US companies at a disadvantage relative to employers in economies where for legal and cultural reasons, employees are treated better than in US. Now admittedly, this trend is taking place only in certain job categories, but twenty years ago, you would have been laughed out of the room if you had suggested that laborers like electricians and plumbers would have a better financial future if they left the US.