Teamsters
Teamsters Call On Apple, Yahoo, Ebay, Zynga, Genetech, Amtrak To Support Compass Trans. Drivers teamster.org ...Rome Aloise, International Vice President and President of Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif., sent letters to the CEOs of six East Bay-area companies this week, asking them to support the unionization efforts of the drivers that transport their employees. The drivers, employees of Compass Transportation, are seeking union representation and a contract...
More Silicon Valley Shuttle Drivers Look To Unionize USA Today ...The Teamsters have contacted the CEOs of six Silicon Valley-area companies — Amtrak, Apple, eBay, Genentech, Yahoo and Zynga — to tell them that its drivers want to join a union...
Teamsters vote to authorize strike over commercials contract Los Angeles Times ...A contract dispute between commercial producers and Teamsters Local 399 has escalated, raising the prospect of the first Hollywood strike by the union in nearly two decades...
State, Owner Negotiate Next Steps Involving Landfill Fire St. Louis Public Radio ...Bridgeton Landfill owner Republic Services has agreed to install two temperature monitoring probes in the landfill's north quarry, near radioactive waste at the adjacent West Lake Landfill. The agreement came after Attorney General Chris Koster took more legal action against Republic Services this week, out of concern that the underground fire in the landfill's south quarry might be spreading north, closer to the area of radioactivity...
Trade
Voters Not Congress Should Decide TPP Trade Pact (opinion) truthout ...We need to slow the TPP (Trans Pacific Pact) approval process down until after the 2016 elections. After the final full terms are made public, the voters should decide this issue using our democratic electoral processes. We need this to be a campaign issue in the Senate, House and Presidential elections. It will increase voter turnout (which is good for American democracy) and give the decision real legitimacy...
State Battles
Contractors unite to fight right-to-work Milwaukee Business Times ...More than 300 private businesses and private-sector skilled trade representatives from across Wisconsin have joined forces to support the newly formed Wisconsin Contractor Coalition and oppose so-called right-to-work legislation...
Steven Walters: Right-to-work fight would "distract" from Walker presidential bid Gazette Xtra ...Controversy over any right-to-work bill wouldn't end in Wisconsin's Capitol but could undercut his all-but-announced candidacy for president...
As White House defends unions, states go on the attack alJazeera America ...In state legislatures around the country, newly strengthened Republican majorities are expected to push right-to-work legislation and other policy initiatives feared by the labor movemen. Wisconsin, long considered a union stronghold, will also consider right-to-work legislation this year. So might New Mexico, West Virginia and Missouri, among others...
From Awful To Calamitous: Sam Brownback’s Second Term Is Off To A Terrible Start Salon.com ...the anti-tax crusader has little choice but to contemplate revenue increases — and according to the Wichita Eagle, Brownback is considering a range of options, including increased taxes on cigarettes and alcohol, ending some exemptions for sales and income taxes, increasing sales taxes, delaying further income tax cuts, and altering his tax law’s requirement that tax rates go down further if revenue increases by more than two percent...
War on Workers
House Budget Chair Signals Big Social Security Reforms A-Coming Talking Points Memo ...[U.S. Rep. Tom] Price, whose predecessor Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) never put forward major reform proposals in his otherwise ambitious budgets, offered means-testing and increasing the eligibility age as possibilities. He also hinted at privatizing Social Security...
United Studies Outsourcing Up To 2,000 Airport Jobs Wall Street Journal ...United Continental Holdings Inc. on Monday said it may outsource up to 2,000 jobs at 28 U.S. airports, including Atlanta, Miami, St. Louis and West Palm Beach, Fla., to vendors who would perform the duties at lower cost...
The US 'manufacturing renaissance' doesn't exist, says new report The Guardian ...the United States may have added only about one new manufacturing job in the last few years for every five that were lost during the financial crisis and the recession that followed...
Buffett’s BNSF Railway Considering Safer Oil Tank Cars Insurance Journal ...BNSF Railway Co., the railroad owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., is reconsidering a plan to buy 5,000 oil-tank cars built to new safety standards after some customers voiced concern about the initiative...
DuPont Workers May Have Been Exposed to Toxic Gas for Years Associated Press ...Records show that employees at a Houston-area pesticide plant where a poisonous gas killed four workers in November may have been exposed to dangerous fumes for years...
Miscellaneous
U.S. bus lines added routes in 2014, airline flights fell: study Reuters ...Stagnating middle-class incomes and the widening income gap in America have boosted business at bus companies, which cost less than flying or driving. ...[and] a significant part of the boost in bus business comes from younger Americans, who are turned off by extra security at airports and "are used to traveling on a shoestring budget."...
Barney Frank: Unions key to income equality (opinion) Portland Press Herald ...for capitalism to thrive, society must not have more economic inequality than is necessary; at some point too much inequality becomes economically damaging – and potentially destabilizing as well. America has been in that latter situation for more than a decade…
Showing posts with label CCA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CCA. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Today's Teamster News 03.12.14
Teamster News
Teamsters Back School Bus Drivers in Fight Against ‘Rampant’ Wage Theft In These Times ...More than 350 Baltimore-area bus drivers, who are members of Teamsters Local 570, are preparing to celebrate victory in a $1.25 million wage theft case against Durham School Services, an Illinois-based bus-contracting company with operations across much of the country...
Teamsters Stand Up for Port Truck Drivers at Skechers teamster.org ...Join port truck drivers who are standing up for their rights by signing this online petition. They were fired by Skechers' trucking contractor, Green Fleet Systems, after they exercised their rights on the job...
Illinois Teamsters Training Fund Certifies 1,300 Drivers in 2013 teamstersjc25.com ...For the third consecutive year, more than 1,000 truck drivers, students and military veterans across Illinois completed safety and licensing training with Teamsters Joint Council 25...
Teamsters Taxi Association Turn Up the Heat in D.C. Politics teamster.org ...In an effort to gain more information to help us fight for D.C. taxi drivers’ interests, the Washington, D.C. Taxi Operators Association has sent a survey to D.C. mayoral candidates and to D.C. City Councilmembers. See the survey here...
UK Pension Funds Join With Teamsters Union In Submitting Resolution To National Express Annual General Meeting teamster.org ...The shareholder proposal calls for the Board to expand the role and responsibilities of its Safety and Environment Committee to provide quality oversight of the company's human capital management and to adopt a meaningful and enforceable workplace human rights policy...
Trade
NAFTA Report Warns Of Trade Deal Environmental Disasters Huffington Post ...A report aims to offer an object lesson to President Barack Obama: Free trade deals have high costs in unintended consequences for the environment, people's way of life, and local sovereignty...
Trans-Pacific Partnership Reveals Deadly Cost of American Patents naked capitalism ... a cancer specialist in New Zealand (one of the TPPA counties) warned that the TPPA would prolong the high cost of treating breast cancer because of new rules to protect biotechnology-based cancer drugs from competition from generics. And this will affect the lives of cancer patients...
Ford to Move Production of Large Trucks from Mexico to Ohio Fox Business ...The automaker said it will invest $168 million in the Cleveland-area facility, which currently makes Ford’s E-series vans. Ford expects the plant to begin production of the F-650 and F-750 commercial trucks early next year before they go on sale in the spring of 2015...
Chinese components found in B-1 bombers and F-16 fighters RT ...A Pentagon investigation has found that despite prohibitions by federal law, multiple US aircraft and weaponry are housing Chinese parts and raw materials...
State Battles
Pennsylvania GOP aims to end legal exemptions for unions Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ..."It would criminalize members engaged in protected activity," he continued, "such as organizing drives and picket lines..."
How the GOP ambushed the VW union election The Hill ...One local group, Southern Momentum, played a critical role in this frenzy of anti-unionism. Southern Momentum claims to represent ordinary Volkswagen workers, but surprisingly for a grassroots organization, it engaged the services of Projections, Inc., one of the nation’s leading union avoidance firms...
Moral Mondays call for change WBNG 12 Action News ...Binghamton, NY community members are pushing for a state budget that works more for the middle class. Opposition to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's budget extended Monday from religious leaders and labor groups to parents and working families...
Vermont Governor Shumlin calls for wage increase Associated Press ...Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin called on lawmakers Monday to raise the state minimum wage but details about how it will be implemented have yet to be finalized. Shumlin is proposing an incremental increase to $10.10 by 2017...
Wisconsin big business interests back campaign finance bill The Cap Times ...A campaign finance bill that would ease a number of political contribution rules and expand the time period during which lobbyists can contribute to state campaigns is backed by two of the biggest special interest groups in Wisconsin...
FBI investigating Idaho prison run by Corrections Corporation of America VT Digger ...The FBI is investigating Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) after its Idaho prison was so violent inmates dubbed it “Gladiator School,” according to a report by the Associated Press...
War on Workers
Obama Will Seek Broad Expansion of Overtime Pay New York Times ...On Thursday, the president will direct the Labor Department to revamp its regulations to require overtime pay for several million additional fast-food managers, loan officers, computer technicians and others whom many businesses currently classify as “executive or professional” employees to avoid paying them overtime...
Deal reached to protect retiree committee in Detroit bankruptcy case The Detroit News ...The city’s lawyers Tuesday announced they have reached a deal that will protect members of a retiree committee from lawsuits associated with Detroit’s bankruptcy case...
Port trucking almost at a halt behind Unifor pickets Vancouver Sun ...Trucking operations at Port Metro Vancouver container terminals ground to a near-halt Monday as about 300 unionized terminal truck drivers set up pickets to join more than 1,000 non-union drivers who withdrew their services more than a week ago...
5 reasons slaves still catch your seafood dinner The Salon ...The $7.3 billion seafood industry in Thailand still use slave labor. What's worse: America keeps giving it a pass...
Americans' Views on Quality Job Prospects Still Recovering Gallup ...Twenty-seven percent of Americans say it is now a good time to find a "quality job." This is up from the low levels between 2009 and 2012, but the last time Americans' optimism about job prospects reached 30% was January 2008...
Safety Flaws Found in New Inspections of Factories in Bangladesh New York Times ...A team plans to assess 1,500 garment factories by early September. Reports on the first 10 factories ... found that some factories lacked adequate fire doors, did not have required sprinkler systems and had dangerously high weight loads on several floors...
The Democrats Stand Up to the Kochs (Opinion) New York Times ...Democrats have for too long been passive in the face of the vast amounts of corporate money, most of it secret, that are being spent to evict them from office and dismantle their policies...
Miscellaneous
ALEC Launches New Effort To Influence Local Government Policy ThinkProgress ...The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization known for helping to advance corporate interests by writing and then pushing to pass conservative legislation at the state level, has created a new initiative. The new project “will offer corporate America a direct conduit into the policy making process of city councils and municipalities"...
Greek tax inspectors get anger management classes amid no ease in austerity measures The Republic ...Greek tax inspectors are being offered anger management classes after the government said they would have to continue enforcing a deeply unpopular emergency tax...
Teamsters Back School Bus Drivers in Fight Against ‘Rampant’ Wage Theft In These Times ...More than 350 Baltimore-area bus drivers, who are members of Teamsters Local 570, are preparing to celebrate victory in a $1.25 million wage theft case against Durham School Services, an Illinois-based bus-contracting company with operations across much of the country...
Teamsters Stand Up for Port Truck Drivers at Skechers teamster.org ...Join port truck drivers who are standing up for their rights by signing this online petition. They were fired by Skechers' trucking contractor, Green Fleet Systems, after they exercised their rights on the job...
Illinois Teamsters Training Fund Certifies 1,300 Drivers in 2013 teamstersjc25.com ...For the third consecutive year, more than 1,000 truck drivers, students and military veterans across Illinois completed safety and licensing training with Teamsters Joint Council 25...
Teamsters Taxi Association Turn Up the Heat in D.C. Politics teamster.org ...In an effort to gain more information to help us fight for D.C. taxi drivers’ interests, the Washington, D.C. Taxi Operators Association has sent a survey to D.C. mayoral candidates and to D.C. City Councilmembers. See the survey here...
UK Pension Funds Join With Teamsters Union In Submitting Resolution To National Express Annual General Meeting teamster.org ...The shareholder proposal calls for the Board to expand the role and responsibilities of its Safety and Environment Committee to provide quality oversight of the company's human capital management and to adopt a meaningful and enforceable workplace human rights policy...
Trade
NAFTA Report Warns Of Trade Deal Environmental Disasters Huffington Post ...A report aims to offer an object lesson to President Barack Obama: Free trade deals have high costs in unintended consequences for the environment, people's way of life, and local sovereignty...
Trans-Pacific Partnership Reveals Deadly Cost of American Patents naked capitalism ... a cancer specialist in New Zealand (one of the TPPA counties) warned that the TPPA would prolong the high cost of treating breast cancer because of new rules to protect biotechnology-based cancer drugs from competition from generics. And this will affect the lives of cancer patients...
Ford to Move Production of Large Trucks from Mexico to Ohio Fox Business ...The automaker said it will invest $168 million in the Cleveland-area facility, which currently makes Ford’s E-series vans. Ford expects the plant to begin production of the F-650 and F-750 commercial trucks early next year before they go on sale in the spring of 2015...
Chinese components found in B-1 bombers and F-16 fighters RT ...A Pentagon investigation has found that despite prohibitions by federal law, multiple US aircraft and weaponry are housing Chinese parts and raw materials...
State Battles
Pennsylvania GOP aims to end legal exemptions for unions Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ..."It would criminalize members engaged in protected activity," he continued, "such as organizing drives and picket lines..."
How the GOP ambushed the VW union election The Hill ...One local group, Southern Momentum, played a critical role in this frenzy of anti-unionism. Southern Momentum claims to represent ordinary Volkswagen workers, but surprisingly for a grassroots organization, it engaged the services of Projections, Inc., one of the nation’s leading union avoidance firms...
Moral Mondays call for change WBNG 12 Action News ...Binghamton, NY community members are pushing for a state budget that works more for the middle class. Opposition to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's budget extended Monday from religious leaders and labor groups to parents and working families...
Vermont Governor Shumlin calls for wage increase Associated Press ...Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin called on lawmakers Monday to raise the state minimum wage but details about how it will be implemented have yet to be finalized. Shumlin is proposing an incremental increase to $10.10 by 2017...
Wisconsin big business interests back campaign finance bill The Cap Times ...A campaign finance bill that would ease a number of political contribution rules and expand the time period during which lobbyists can contribute to state campaigns is backed by two of the biggest special interest groups in Wisconsin...
FBI investigating Idaho prison run by Corrections Corporation of America VT Digger ...The FBI is investigating Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) after its Idaho prison was so violent inmates dubbed it “Gladiator School,” according to a report by the Associated Press...
War on Workers
Obama Will Seek Broad Expansion of Overtime Pay New York Times ...On Thursday, the president will direct the Labor Department to revamp its regulations to require overtime pay for several million additional fast-food managers, loan officers, computer technicians and others whom many businesses currently classify as “executive or professional” employees to avoid paying them overtime...
Deal reached to protect retiree committee in Detroit bankruptcy case The Detroit News ...The city’s lawyers Tuesday announced they have reached a deal that will protect members of a retiree committee from lawsuits associated with Detroit’s bankruptcy case...
Port trucking almost at a halt behind Unifor pickets Vancouver Sun ...Trucking operations at Port Metro Vancouver container terminals ground to a near-halt Monday as about 300 unionized terminal truck drivers set up pickets to join more than 1,000 non-union drivers who withdrew their services more than a week ago...
5 reasons slaves still catch your seafood dinner The Salon ...The $7.3 billion seafood industry in Thailand still use slave labor. What's worse: America keeps giving it a pass...
Americans' Views on Quality Job Prospects Still Recovering Gallup ...Twenty-seven percent of Americans say it is now a good time to find a "quality job." This is up from the low levels between 2009 and 2012, but the last time Americans' optimism about job prospects reached 30% was January 2008...
Safety Flaws Found in New Inspections of Factories in Bangladesh New York Times ...A team plans to assess 1,500 garment factories by early September. Reports on the first 10 factories ... found that some factories lacked adequate fire doors, did not have required sprinkler systems and had dangerously high weight loads on several floors...
The Democrats Stand Up to the Kochs (Opinion) New York Times ...Democrats have for too long been passive in the face of the vast amounts of corporate money, most of it secret, that are being spent to evict them from office and dismantle their policies...
Miscellaneous
ALEC Launches New Effort To Influence Local Government Policy ThinkProgress ...The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization known for helping to advance corporate interests by writing and then pushing to pass conservative legislation at the state level, has created a new initiative. The new project “will offer corporate America a direct conduit into the policy making process of city councils and municipalities"...
Greek tax inspectors get anger management classes amid no ease in austerity measures The Republic ...Greek tax inspectors are being offered anger management classes after the government said they would have to continue enforcing a deeply unpopular emergency tax...
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Today's Teamster News 11.07.13
D.C. Taxi Operators Sue to Stop Fines, Towings teamster.org ...The Teamster-affiliated Washington, D.C. Taxi Operators Association has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the city’s more than 6,000 cab drivers, demanding that the District stop towing and impounding taxis and issuing fines to drivers who have been unable to install new dome lights or credit card machines...
Teamsters,Wegmans Meet With Federal Mediator teamster.org ...Teamsters Local 118 representatives and Wegmans resumed discussions Tuesday to resolve an ongoing contract dispute, this time joined by a mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS.) Previous efforts to engage FMCS were thwarted by a 16-day government shutdown...
eBay CEO Shares Lessons from His First Job as a Teamster EcommerceBytes.com ...eBay’s CEO John Donahoe talks about his job after high school working for his friend's father's beer distribution company as a Teamster, which taught him two great leadership lessons…
Planned layoffs jumped in October on drug, financial firm cutbacks Los Angeles Times ...Planned layoffs by U.S. employers jumped 13.5% last month, led by cutbacks at pharmaceutical and financial services firms, according to a report Wednesday...
Planned treaties cause pain for citizens; pleasure for corporations (opinion) Lebanon Daily News ...If you don't know what the TPP and the TTIP are, you can be forgiven. The governments and corporations involved don't want you to know because these international agreements they are negotiating are that good for them and that bad for you...
South Carolina Ports Launch Clean Trucks Program Truckinginfo ...The South Carolina Ports Authority has announced a new Clean Truck Certification Program to take effect on Jan. 1, 2014 that would require trucks serving the container terminals to have engines manufactured in 1994 or later...
One by One, States Are Pushing Bans on Sick Leave Legislation Economic Policy Institute ...Nearly 40 million Americans—almost 40 percent of the private-sector workforce—lack the right to even a single day of paid sick leave. These employees commonly go to work sick, or leave sick children home alone, out of fear of dismissal...
California Wal-Mart workers strike, following stunning Florida victory The Salon ...West Coast Wal-Mart workers walked off the job as the union-backed campaign says Florida strikers won major changes...
Next Time You're Tempted To Give A Bad Tip, Consider This Huffington Post ...The federal minimum wage for tipped workers is only $2.13 per hour...
The Biggest, Baddest Prison Profiteer of Them All Huffington Post ..."CCA" has become a dirty word. Because profiting off mass incarceration is a dirty business. When private prison company Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) squanders taxpayer money and runs facilities rife with human rights abuses, it's dragging its own name through the mud...
The super-rich no longer need a middle class AlterNet ...They now inhabit a privatized economy and have left us at the mercy of the market...
Inside the Psyche of the 1% -- Many Actually Believe Their Ideology of Greed Makes for a Better World AlterNet ...If the 1% are to develop the same level of understanding of others that the 99% has, they will need to walk in their shoes...
US Tax Policy In One Chart: Rising Individual Income Taxes; Falling Corporate Income Taxes Zero Hedge ...Because those record offshore (tax-haven arbitraged) corporate cash balances will not grow themselves, obviously...
Apple discloses government data requests -- what little it can Los Angeles Times ...The company released a report Tuesday that provided some general information about requests for information it receives from governments. But seeking full disclosure is an effort in futility...
Euro Crisis Takes Major Toll On Life Satisfaction Reuters ...Ordinary people's satisfaction with life has plunged in the euro zone countries worst hit by the financial crisis as faith in their governments' ability to ease the strain has shrunk according to a recent study...
Consumer watchdog targets debt collectors Los Angeles Times... The federal government's consumer financial watchdog plans to crack down on the nation's 4,500 debt collectors with new rules to rein in the companies' aggressive tactics...
It’s Time To Stop Starving U.S. Investment teamster.org ...An analysis of infrastructure spending by the Financial Times shows U.S. public investment is at its lowest level since World War II. Public sector investment is now just 3.6 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, and austerity is hurting everything from building roads to investing in science and education...
Teamsters,Wegmans Meet With Federal Mediator teamster.org ...Teamsters Local 118 representatives and Wegmans resumed discussions Tuesday to resolve an ongoing contract dispute, this time joined by a mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS.) Previous efforts to engage FMCS were thwarted by a 16-day government shutdown...
eBay CEO Shares Lessons from His First Job as a Teamster EcommerceBytes.com ...eBay’s CEO John Donahoe talks about his job after high school working for his friend's father's beer distribution company as a Teamster, which taught him two great leadership lessons…
Planned layoffs jumped in October on drug, financial firm cutbacks Los Angeles Times ...Planned layoffs by U.S. employers jumped 13.5% last month, led by cutbacks at pharmaceutical and financial services firms, according to a report Wednesday...
Planned treaties cause pain for citizens; pleasure for corporations (opinion) Lebanon Daily News ...If you don't know what the TPP and the TTIP are, you can be forgiven. The governments and corporations involved don't want you to know because these international agreements they are negotiating are that good for them and that bad for you...
South Carolina Ports Launch Clean Trucks Program Truckinginfo ...The South Carolina Ports Authority has announced a new Clean Truck Certification Program to take effect on Jan. 1, 2014 that would require trucks serving the container terminals to have engines manufactured in 1994 or later...
One by One, States Are Pushing Bans on Sick Leave Legislation Economic Policy Institute ...Nearly 40 million Americans—almost 40 percent of the private-sector workforce—lack the right to even a single day of paid sick leave. These employees commonly go to work sick, or leave sick children home alone, out of fear of dismissal...
California Wal-Mart workers strike, following stunning Florida victory The Salon ...West Coast Wal-Mart workers walked off the job as the union-backed campaign says Florida strikers won major changes...
Next Time You're Tempted To Give A Bad Tip, Consider This Huffington Post ...The federal minimum wage for tipped workers is only $2.13 per hour...
The Biggest, Baddest Prison Profiteer of Them All Huffington Post ..."CCA" has become a dirty word. Because profiting off mass incarceration is a dirty business. When private prison company Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) squanders taxpayer money and runs facilities rife with human rights abuses, it's dragging its own name through the mud...
The super-rich no longer need a middle class AlterNet ...They now inhabit a privatized economy and have left us at the mercy of the market...
Inside the Psyche of the 1% -- Many Actually Believe Their Ideology of Greed Makes for a Better World AlterNet ...If the 1% are to develop the same level of understanding of others that the 99% has, they will need to walk in their shoes...
US Tax Policy In One Chart: Rising Individual Income Taxes; Falling Corporate Income Taxes Zero Hedge ...Because those record offshore (tax-haven arbitraged) corporate cash balances will not grow themselves, obviously...
Apple discloses government data requests -- what little it can Los Angeles Times ...The company released a report Tuesday that provided some general information about requests for information it receives from governments. But seeking full disclosure is an effort in futility...
Euro Crisis Takes Major Toll On Life Satisfaction Reuters ...Ordinary people's satisfaction with life has plunged in the euro zone countries worst hit by the financial crisis as faith in their governments' ability to ease the strain has shrunk according to a recent study...
Consumer watchdog targets debt collectors Los Angeles Times... The federal government's consumer financial watchdog plans to crack down on the nation's 4,500 debt collectors with new rules to rein in the companies' aggressive tactics...
It’s Time To Stop Starving U.S. Investment teamster.org ...An analysis of infrastructure spending by the Financial Times shows U.S. public investment is at its lowest level since World War II. Public sector investment is now just 3.6 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, and austerity is hurting everything from building roads to investing in science and education...
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Private prisons’ profit scheme: lockup quotas and “low-crime taxes”
65 percent of the private prison contracts ITPI received and analyzed included occupancy guarantees in the form of quotas or required payments for empty prison cells (a “low-crime tax”). These quotas and low-crime taxes put taxpayers on the hook for guaranteeing profits for private prison corporations.
Arizona, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Virginia are locked in contracts with the highest occupancy guarantee requirements, with all quotas requiring between 95% and 100% occupancy. Though crime has dropped by a third in the past decade, an occupancy requirement covering three for-profit prisons has forced taxpayers in Colorado to pay an additional $2 million.
When the big house is big business, low crime hurts the bottom line, so private prison corporations have cooked up all kinds of schemes to keep their jails full. The ITPI report, titled “Criminal: How Lockup Quotas and 'Low-Crime Taxes' Guarantee Profits for Private Prison Corporations,” says three private prisons in Arizona are administered by contracts that require 100 percent capacity. That's right – the state is obligated by the corporation to keep these prisons full or pay a fee for unused beds.
Hmm, do you think this kind of system would encourage or discourage criminalization? Well, it doesn’t matter – as long as corporate profits are high.
That’s why CCA pitched the idea to dozens of states last year:
In 2012, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest for-profit private prison company in the country, sent a letter to 48 state governors offering to buy their public prisons. CCA offered to buy and operate a state’s prison in exchange for a 20-year contract, which would include a 90 percent occupancy rate guarantee for the entire term. Essentially, the state would have to guarantee that its prison would be 90 percent filled for the next 20 years (a quota), or pay the company for unused prison beds if the number of inmates dipped below 90 percent capacity at any point during the contract term (a “low-crime tax” that essentially penalizes taxpayers when prison incarceration rates fall).
When policymakers received the 2012 CCA letter, some worried the terms of CCA’s offer would encourage criminal justice officials to seek harsher sentences to maintain the occupancy rates required by a contract inserting occupancy guarantee provisions into prison privatization contracts.Ya think! And even as they work to force states to keep their prisons full, private prison companies push for more draconian sentencing laws. Andy Kroll writes in Mother Jones:
Private prison companies have supported and helped write "three-strike" and "truth-in-sentencing" laws that drive up prison populations. Their livelihoods depend on towns, cities, and states sending more people to prison and keeping them there.Occupancy quotas protect the private companies from changes in the prison population and fluctuations in the crime rate. Meanwhile, they put taxpayers on the hook for reduced incarceration rates – all in the name of sustaining an industry that thrives on throwing people behind bars.
Michele Deitch, a criminal justice expert at the University of Texas, told Huffington Post:
It's really shortsighted public policy to do anything that ties the hands of the state. If there are these incentives to keep the private prisons full, then it is reducing the likelihood that states will adopt strategies to reduce prison costs by keeping more people out. When the beds are there, you don't want to leave them empty.
We’ve reported a lot on the horrible safety record and criminal mismanagement of privately-run prisons. These contracts show once again why privatized prisons are such a bad idea.
Unlike state-run prisons, which are actually accountable to taxpayers and not driven by profit, private prison companies are the worst offenders when it comes to poor safety standards, including low staffing and other violations. They’re not in the business of keeping communities safe. They’re in the business of big business – by locking up more and more people and doing it on the cheap.
And that’s why private prison corporations like to claim that privatization saves money. But occupancy guarantees prove they do just the opposite. When the prison companies cut corners, the savings go to private profits, not taxpayers who pay more for prisons that are less safe.
And that’s why private prison corporations like to claim that privatization saves money. But occupancy guarantees prove they do just the opposite. When the prison companies cut corners, the savings go to private profits, not taxpayers who pay more for prisons that are less safe.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Today's Teamster News 09.18.13
Teamsters VP Potter Calls Out NJ Gov. Christie for Misclassification Law Veto Leslie Marshall Show ...Teamsters International Vice President Fred Potter tells labor radio host Leslie Marshall that New Jersey Gov. Christie’s priority is not workers since port workers and others are being cheated by misclassification...
Teamsters Union Takes New Tack On Drayage Carriers Journal of Commerce ...When long-haul and local truck drivers at Toll Global Forwarding's Cartaret, N.J., location voted this summer in favor of representation by the Teamsters, it was the union's latest successful bid to organize workers on the waterfront...
Drive Up Standards Newsletter Now Available driveupstandards.org ...Read the latest issue of the Teamsters school bus campaign newsletter here...
U.S. to Include Home Care Workers in Wage and Overtime Law New York Times ...Advocates for low-wage workers have pushed for this change, asserting that home care workers, who care for elderly and disabled Americans, were wrongly classified into the same “companionship services” category as baby sitters — a group that is exempt from wage and overtime coverage...
Labor unions oppose privatizing TVA Times Free Press ...Organized labor may have backed President Obama, but America’s biggest unions don’t like the idea he floated in April to consider selling the Tennessee Valley Authority...
Youth takes on Moral Monday movement Duke Chronicle ...Demonstrators carrying three empty coffins led a long, silent procession of more than 200 to Gov. Pat McCrory’s executive mansion Monday...
Google Knows The WiFi Passwords Of Every Android User: Report Huffington Post ...Google might have access to WiFi passwords...
U.S. must take tobacco out of global trade talks (opinion) San Francisco Chronicle ...Tobacco companies continue to aggressively market their deadly products across the country and around the world, through insidious ad campaigns. And they have found a new arena to exploit their deadly products: international trade agreements...
Hacker group in China linked to big cyber attacks Reuters ...Researchers have discovered a group of highly sophisticated hackers operating for hire out of China, a U.S. computer security company said on Tuesday, and it linked them to some of the best-known espionage attacks in recent years...
The typical American family makes less than it did in 1989 Washington Post ...The Census Bureau is out with the annual report on incomes and poverty. And while you might think that after years of stagnant incomes and elevated poverty rates, we would be inured to the depressing facts contained therein, it still somehow has the power to shock...
U.S. Banks Say They Are Now Safer (By Their Own Measure) Reuters ...The biggest U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co and Bank of America Corp, said that by their own reckoning they are better equipped to withstand global downturns now than they were in March...
Greek Doctors Join Civil Service Strike As Workers Protest Austerity Cuts To Hospitals, Schools Huffington Post ...Greek hospital doctors have embarked on a three-day strike, joining high school teachers who walked off the job a day earlier in a week of public sector strikes protesting planned job cuts...
California Legislature votes to end retroactive tax on investors Los Angeles Times ...California lawmakers have sent the governor a bill that would end state efforts to collect a retroactive tax increase from investors. A signature by Gov. Jerry Brown would relieve about 2,000 taxpayers from having to pay $120 million in back taxes...
Americans Are 110 Times More Likely to Die from Contaminated Food Than Terrorism Alternet ...In 2011, the year of Osama bin Laden's death, the State Department reported that 17 Americans were killed in all terrorist incidents worldwide. The same year, a single outbreak of listeriosis from tainted cantaloupe killed 33 people in the United States. Foodborne pathogens also sickened 48.7 million, hospitalized 127,839 and caused a total of 3,037 deaths. This is a typical year, not an aberration...
Teamsters Union Takes New Tack On Drayage Carriers Journal of Commerce ...When long-haul and local truck drivers at Toll Global Forwarding's Cartaret, N.J., location voted this summer in favor of representation by the Teamsters, it was the union's latest successful bid to organize workers on the waterfront...
Drive Up Standards Newsletter Now Available driveupstandards.org ...Read the latest issue of the Teamsters school bus campaign newsletter here...
U.S. to Include Home Care Workers in Wage and Overtime Law New York Times ...Advocates for low-wage workers have pushed for this change, asserting that home care workers, who care for elderly and disabled Americans, were wrongly classified into the same “companionship services” category as baby sitters — a group that is exempt from wage and overtime coverage...
Labor unions oppose privatizing TVA Times Free Press ...Organized labor may have backed President Obama, but America’s biggest unions don’t like the idea he floated in April to consider selling the Tennessee Valley Authority...
Youth takes on Moral Monday movement Duke Chronicle ...Demonstrators carrying three empty coffins led a long, silent procession of more than 200 to Gov. Pat McCrory’s executive mansion Monday...
Google Knows The WiFi Passwords Of Every Android User: Report Huffington Post ...Google might have access to WiFi passwords...
U.S. must take tobacco out of global trade talks (opinion) San Francisco Chronicle ...Tobacco companies continue to aggressively market their deadly products across the country and around the world, through insidious ad campaigns. And they have found a new arena to exploit their deadly products: international trade agreements...
Hacker group in China linked to big cyber attacks Reuters ...Researchers have discovered a group of highly sophisticated hackers operating for hire out of China, a U.S. computer security company said on Tuesday, and it linked them to some of the best-known espionage attacks in recent years...
The typical American family makes less than it did in 1989 Washington Post ...The Census Bureau is out with the annual report on incomes and poverty. And while you might think that after years of stagnant incomes and elevated poverty rates, we would be inured to the depressing facts contained therein, it still somehow has the power to shock...
U.S. Banks Say They Are Now Safer (By Their Own Measure) Reuters ...The biggest U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co and Bank of America Corp, said that by their own reckoning they are better equipped to withstand global downturns now than they were in March...
Greek Doctors Join Civil Service Strike As Workers Protest Austerity Cuts To Hospitals, Schools Huffington Post ...Greek hospital doctors have embarked on a three-day strike, joining high school teachers who walked off the job a day earlier in a week of public sector strikes protesting planned job cuts...
California Legislature votes to end retroactive tax on investors Los Angeles Times ...California lawmakers have sent the governor a bill that would end state efforts to collect a retroactive tax increase from investors. A signature by Gov. Jerry Brown would relieve about 2,000 taxpayers from having to pay $120 million in back taxes...
Americans Are 110 Times More Likely to Die from Contaminated Food Than Terrorism Alternet ...In 2011, the year of Osama bin Laden's death, the State Department reported that 17 Americans were killed in all terrorist incidents worldwide. The same year, a single outbreak of listeriosis from tainted cantaloupe killed 33 people in the United States. Foodborne pathogens also sickened 48.7 million, hospitalized 127,839 and caused a total of 3,037 deaths. This is a typical year, not an aberration...
Meet Three Billionaires Asking Taxpayers To Buy Them New Stadiums Think Progress ...The NFL has 14 owners on the list, more than any other league. And three of the names should be notable, because they are asking taxpayers in their city to help foot the bill for new stadiums or massive renovation projects...
US super-rich hit new wealth record five years after financial crisis The Guardian ...the 400 wealthiest Americans are worth a record $2.02tn, up from $1.7tn in 2012...
Progress on Predatory Lending New York Times ...Payday loans have long been huge financial traps for cash-strapped, low-income borrowers. Several states have clamped down on these “quick fix” loans, which sometimes carry annual interest rates of 400 percent or more. But a lot more needs to be done...
U.S. Judge: CCA Violated Idaho Contract When It Understaffed Private Prison Boise Weekly ...Following years of controversy, private prison Operator Corrections Corporation of America, which operates Idaho's private prison, was told by a federal judge that it was in contempt of court for understaffing the Idaho Correctional Center...
Kansas won't require citizenship proof for driver's license renewals Associated Press ...Kansas no longer plans to require people renewing driver’s licenses to produce proof that they are living in the U.S. legally, Revenue Secretary Nick Jordan said Monday, confirming a policy shift with implications for the state’s administration of a separate proof-of-citizenship requirement for new voters...
US super-rich hit new wealth record five years after financial crisis The Guardian ...the 400 wealthiest Americans are worth a record $2.02tn, up from $1.7tn in 2012...
Progress on Predatory Lending New York Times ...Payday loans have long been huge financial traps for cash-strapped, low-income borrowers. Several states have clamped down on these “quick fix” loans, which sometimes carry annual interest rates of 400 percent or more. But a lot more needs to be done...
U.S. Judge: CCA Violated Idaho Contract When It Understaffed Private Prison Boise Weekly ...Following years of controversy, private prison Operator Corrections Corporation of America, which operates Idaho's private prison, was told by a federal judge that it was in contempt of court for understaffing the Idaho Correctional Center...
Kansas won't require citizenship proof for driver's license renewals Associated Press ...Kansas no longer plans to require people renewing driver’s licenses to produce proof that they are living in the U.S. legally, Revenue Secretary Nick Jordan said Monday, confirming a policy shift with implications for the state’s administration of a separate proof-of-citizenship requirement for new voters...
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Today's Teamster News 08.06.13
Teamsters, strikers call on Lake Transit, county leaders to take action Lake County Record-Bee ...Teamsters, Paratransit employees and members of the community gathered Friday at noon in front of Lake County’s City Hall to picket, address the media and call on county leaders and Lake Transit to take action on the public transportation issue...
New Hampshire Waste Workers Win Card-Check Recognition to Become Teamsters IBT ...Waste workers with Casella Waste Systems in Brentwood, N.H., will now be represented by the Teamsters Union, after Local 633 in Manchester, N.H., secured a card-check agreement. The workers overwhelmingly signed up to become Teamster members...
Gold Cross Strike Continues for EMTs, Paramedics Imperial Valley Press...Friends, families, and supporters of Teamsters Local 542 picket in front of Gold Cross Ambulance on Sunday afternoon in El Centro. Check out this photo gallery...
U.S. Trustee Objects to AMR Chief's $20 Million Severance, Again Wall Street Journal ...Justice Department officials monitoring the American Airlines bankruptcy case again objected to a proposed $20 million severance package for Tom Horton, AMR's current chief executive, according to a court filing made late Friday...
U.S. Issues New Rail Safety Rules After Quebec Disaster Journal of Commerce ...The Federal Railroad Administration on Friday issued an emergency order aimed at making the hauling of hazardous materials safer, following last month's deadly Quebec fuel train accident...
Politicians must step up and make rail safety a top priority (opinion) Rabble ...Transport Canada's emergency safety directive issued following the Lac-Mégantic rail tragedy is welcome but more can be done...
100 homes evacuated in southern Louisiana after train derails Los Angeles Times ...About 100 homes remained evacuated on Monday as officials worked to clean up the area around the derailment of a train carrying chemicals near the town of Lawtell, Louisiana. The accident took place Sunday and derailed 27 cars of a Union Pacific train...
40 Percent Of U.S. Workers Make Less Than What A Full-Time Minimum Wage Worker Made In 1968 Men's News Daily ...Are American workers paid enough? Back in 1968, the minimum wage in the United States was $1.60 an hour. Using the inflation calculator that the Bureau of Labor Statistics provides, $1.60 in 1968 is equivalent to $10.74 today...
Bernie Sanders: Walmart family’s ‘obscene’ wealth subsidized by taxpayers Raw Story ...Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) appeared on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” on Saturday and scoffed at the idea that major corporations like Walmart can’t afford to pay their workers a living wage and that to raise the U.S. minimum wage would be bad for the economy...
The rich are saving cash at a record pace CNBC ...Since the financial crisis, the wealthy have become the nation's top cash hoarders, filling up deposit accounts and money markets at a rapid clip...
Massive Toxic Black Cloud, Brought To You by the Koch Bros, Blows Over Detroit Common Dreams ...Mind-boggling video of a billowing, high-carbon, high-sulfur cloud from the mountain of petroleum coke - waste from Canadian tar sands shipped from Alberta to Detroit, and the dirtiest potential energy source ever - illegally stored by the Koch Brothers along the Detroit River...
Eight Ways Privatization Has Failed America (opinion) Truth-Out ...Some of America's leading news analysts are beginning to recognize the fallacy of the "free market." They're right. A little analysis reveals that privatization doesn't seem to work in any of the areas vital to the American public...
The Force Behind Bills To Lower Wages and Suppress Workers’ Rights? You Guessed It: ALEC In These Times ...As working Americans speak out for higher wages, better benefits and respect in the workplace, a coordinated, nationwide campaign to silence them is mounting—and ALEC is at the heart of it...
Report: State workers need raise to match private sector Denver Post ...Colorado's roughly 32,000 state workers need a 3.8 percent raise to catch up to their counterparts in the private sector, the state Department of Personnel and Administration said...
Washington Post to be sold to Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon Washington Post ...Ultimately, the paper’s financial challenges prompted the company’s board to consider a sale, a step once regarded as unthinkable by insiders and the Graham family...
Indiana senator to push for municipal bankruptcy law Associated Press ...A northwestern Indiana lawmaker says he will push a measure next year that would change state law to allow local governments to file for bankruptcy like Detroit did in July...
Judge to open documents in Idaho prison lawsuit Associated Press ...A federal judge has ordered that several documents be unsealed in a lawsuit between Idaho inmates and Corrections Corporation of America just days before a hearing is set over whether the private prison company should be held in contempt of court...
Four-day bus strike in suburbs east of Phoenix ends Associated Press ...First Transit bus drivers in the Phoenix suburbs tentatively reached an agreement Sunday with a national bus company to end a four-day strike by the drivers that would let bus service resume in time for Monday morning's commute...
BART strike averted as Governor orders inquiry Associated Press ...Hundreds of thousands of San Francisco Bay area commuters got at least a temporary reprieve from a massive transit strike today when Gov. Jerry Brown ordered an inquiry into a labor contract dispute...
New Hampshire Waste Workers Win Card-Check Recognition to Become Teamsters IBT ...Waste workers with Casella Waste Systems in Brentwood, N.H., will now be represented by the Teamsters Union, after Local 633 in Manchester, N.H., secured a card-check agreement. The workers overwhelmingly signed up to become Teamster members...
Gold Cross Strike Continues for EMTs, Paramedics Imperial Valley Press...Friends, families, and supporters of Teamsters Local 542 picket in front of Gold Cross Ambulance on Sunday afternoon in El Centro. Check out this photo gallery...
U.S. Trustee Objects to AMR Chief's $20 Million Severance, Again Wall Street Journal ...Justice Department officials monitoring the American Airlines bankruptcy case again objected to a proposed $20 million severance package for Tom Horton, AMR's current chief executive, according to a court filing made late Friday...
U.S. Issues New Rail Safety Rules After Quebec Disaster Journal of Commerce ...The Federal Railroad Administration on Friday issued an emergency order aimed at making the hauling of hazardous materials safer, following last month's deadly Quebec fuel train accident...
Politicians must step up and make rail safety a top priority (opinion) Rabble ...Transport Canada's emergency safety directive issued following the Lac-Mégantic rail tragedy is welcome but more can be done...
100 homes evacuated in southern Louisiana after train derails Los Angeles Times ...About 100 homes remained evacuated on Monday as officials worked to clean up the area around the derailment of a train carrying chemicals near the town of Lawtell, Louisiana. The accident took place Sunday and derailed 27 cars of a Union Pacific train...
40 Percent Of U.S. Workers Make Less Than What A Full-Time Minimum Wage Worker Made In 1968 Men's News Daily ...Are American workers paid enough? Back in 1968, the minimum wage in the United States was $1.60 an hour. Using the inflation calculator that the Bureau of Labor Statistics provides, $1.60 in 1968 is equivalent to $10.74 today...
Bernie Sanders: Walmart family’s ‘obscene’ wealth subsidized by taxpayers Raw Story ...Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) appeared on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” on Saturday and scoffed at the idea that major corporations like Walmart can’t afford to pay their workers a living wage and that to raise the U.S. minimum wage would be bad for the economy...
The rich are saving cash at a record pace CNBC ...Since the financial crisis, the wealthy have become the nation's top cash hoarders, filling up deposit accounts and money markets at a rapid clip...
Massive Toxic Black Cloud, Brought To You by the Koch Bros, Blows Over Detroit Common Dreams ...Mind-boggling video of a billowing, high-carbon, high-sulfur cloud from the mountain of petroleum coke - waste from Canadian tar sands shipped from Alberta to Detroit, and the dirtiest potential energy source ever - illegally stored by the Koch Brothers along the Detroit River...
Eight Ways Privatization Has Failed America (opinion) Truth-Out ...Some of America's leading news analysts are beginning to recognize the fallacy of the "free market." They're right. A little analysis reveals that privatization doesn't seem to work in any of the areas vital to the American public...
The Force Behind Bills To Lower Wages and Suppress Workers’ Rights? You Guessed It: ALEC In These Times ...As working Americans speak out for higher wages, better benefits and respect in the workplace, a coordinated, nationwide campaign to silence them is mounting—and ALEC is at the heart of it...
Report: State workers need raise to match private sector Denver Post ...Colorado's roughly 32,000 state workers need a 3.8 percent raise to catch up to their counterparts in the private sector, the state Department of Personnel and Administration said...
Washington Post to be sold to Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon Washington Post ...Ultimately, the paper’s financial challenges prompted the company’s board to consider a sale, a step once regarded as unthinkable by insiders and the Graham family...
Indiana senator to push for municipal bankruptcy law Associated Press ...A northwestern Indiana lawmaker says he will push a measure next year that would change state law to allow local governments to file for bankruptcy like Detroit did in July...
Judge to open documents in Idaho prison lawsuit Associated Press ...A federal judge has ordered that several documents be unsealed in a lawsuit between Idaho inmates and Corrections Corporation of America just days before a hearing is set over whether the private prison company should be held in contempt of court...
Four-day bus strike in suburbs east of Phoenix ends Associated Press ...First Transit bus drivers in the Phoenix suburbs tentatively reached an agreement Sunday with a national bus company to end a four-day strike by the drivers that would let bus service resume in time for Monday morning's commute...
BART strike averted as Governor orders inquiry Associated Press ...Hundreds of thousands of San Francisco Bay area commuters got at least a temporary reprieve from a massive transit strike today when Gov. Jerry Brown ordered an inquiry into a labor contract dispute...
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Today's Teamster News 07.18.13
Bangladesh Government Allows Workers To Form Unions ThinkProgress ...Bangladesh’s government approved a labor law on Monday that would make it easier for workers to form unions. The legislation also included provisions that create a fund to improve workers’ living standards and require companies to deposit 5 percent of profits into employee welfare funds...
License plate cameras track millions of Americans Washington Post ...The spread of cheap, powerful cameras capable of reading license plates has allowed police to build databases on the movements of millions of Americans over months or even years, according to an American Civil Liberties Union report released Wednesday...
The 1 Move That Could Suddenly Pull 300,000 Workers Out Of Poverty Huffington Post ...Legislation introduced in both the Senate and the House of Representatives could pull hundreds of thousands of the country's working poor out of poverty, according to a new study by the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities...
Barclays fights US electricity price manipulation fine through the courts Guardian ...Barclays has pledged to fight a $470m (£300m) penalty for allegedly manipulating electricity prices in California by taking the case through the US judicial system...
Jack Lew: Delaying Dodd-Frank Rules Raises Threat Of More Bank Bailouts Associated Press ...U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew says delays in writing rules to put the financial overhaul law into effect have raised the prospect that taxpayers might again have to bail out big banks that fail...
U.S. seeks new tactic in financial crisis prosecutions Reuters ... U.S. federal prosecutors are considering a new strategy for criminally charging Wall Street bankers who packaged and sold bad mortgage loans at the height of the housing bubble, according to a federal official familiar with the investigation...
IRS cancels one furlough day, cuts costs elsewhere Reuters ...The Internal Revenue Service said it was cancelling an agency shutdown that had been scheduled for Monday and required by federal budget cuts...
Big Money Makes State and Federal Politics Powerful (opinion) New York Times ...Art Pope invested heavily in local North Carolina elections, which ultimately resulted in the redistricting of 13 Congressional and 170 legislative districts...
Surplus celebrated as poverty grows (opinion) Fort Wayne Journal Gazette ...Around the same time state leaders were boasting that Indiana was closing its June books with $1.9 billion in reserves, a report from the Indiana Institute for Working Families was released showing poverty in Indiana is sharply increasing...
Statehouse gan throws Ohio in reverse (opinion) Toledo Blade ...The new state budget is equally regressive as economic and social policy...
Unions wage legal fight against Michigan’s right-to-work law Washington Times ...The legal battle over Michigan’s new right-to-work law shows no signs of flagging. Right-to-work proponents suffered a small setback when Michigan’s Supreme Court declined to weigh in on the legality of the law...
GOP Lawmaker In Utah Wants To End Compulsory Education In The State Talking Points Memo ...State Sen. Aaron Osmond (R) argued that certain "parents act as if the responsibility to educate, and even care for their child, is primarily the responsibility of the public school system..."
State Dept. approves ND-to-Alberta gas pipeline Associated Press ...The U.S. State Department has approved construction of the North Dakota portion of a gas pipeline from Tioga into the Canadian province of Alberta, Sen. John Hoeven said Tuesday...
CCA asks judge to bar media from joining lawsuit Associated Press ...Private prison company Corrections Corporation of America is asking a federal judge to deny a request from Idaho news organizations to keep documents open in a lawsuit over conditions at a CCA-run prison...
Teamsters Call For Quick Approval Of Administration Nominees IBT ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa today congratulated Senate Leader Harry Reid for forging a compromise that allows consideration of nominees for key administration posts...
Port Truck Drivers In New Jersey Reject Company’s Lies And Vote YES To Form A Union IBT ...Truck drivers employed by Australia-based Toll Group at the company’s New Jersey division voted overwhelmingly – by a margin of nearly 70 percent – to form a union and affiliate with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 469...
Buffalo EMTs, Paramedics’ Victory Spotlighted On Leslie Marshall Show Leslie Marshall Show ...Kevin Drysdale, president of Teamsters Local 375 in Buffalo spoke with radio show host Leslie Marshall about new, tentative agreement for EMTs and paramedics working for Rural/Metro. Download the audio here...
City, Teamsters Find Common Ground With Approval of Long-Awaited Collective Bargaining Agreement Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Patch ...Lake Forest Park City Council unanimously approved a long-awaited collective bargaining agreement with the Teamsters Local 117 representing maintenance workers at its recent meeting...
PolyOne plans to close Donora plant Pittsburgh-Tribune Review ...On Tuesday, the PolyOne’s plant supervisors announced that the company will close its facility in Donora, Pennsylvania by fall 2014. Teamsters Local 205 represents the roughly 100 employees at the plant...
License plate cameras track millions of Americans Washington Post ...The spread of cheap, powerful cameras capable of reading license plates has allowed police to build databases on the movements of millions of Americans over months or even years, according to an American Civil Liberties Union report released Wednesday...
The 1 Move That Could Suddenly Pull 300,000 Workers Out Of Poverty Huffington Post ...Legislation introduced in both the Senate and the House of Representatives could pull hundreds of thousands of the country's working poor out of poverty, according to a new study by the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities...
Barclays fights US electricity price manipulation fine through the courts Guardian ...Barclays has pledged to fight a $470m (£300m) penalty for allegedly manipulating electricity prices in California by taking the case through the US judicial system...
Jack Lew: Delaying Dodd-Frank Rules Raises Threat Of More Bank Bailouts Associated Press ...U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew says delays in writing rules to put the financial overhaul law into effect have raised the prospect that taxpayers might again have to bail out big banks that fail...
U.S. seeks new tactic in financial crisis prosecutions Reuters ... U.S. federal prosecutors are considering a new strategy for criminally charging Wall Street bankers who packaged and sold bad mortgage loans at the height of the housing bubble, according to a federal official familiar with the investigation...
IRS cancels one furlough day, cuts costs elsewhere Reuters ...The Internal Revenue Service said it was cancelling an agency shutdown that had been scheduled for Monday and required by federal budget cuts...
Big Money Makes State and Federal Politics Powerful (opinion) New York Times ...Art Pope invested heavily in local North Carolina elections, which ultimately resulted in the redistricting of 13 Congressional and 170 legislative districts...
Surplus celebrated as poverty grows (opinion) Fort Wayne Journal Gazette ...Around the same time state leaders were boasting that Indiana was closing its June books with $1.9 billion in reserves, a report from the Indiana Institute for Working Families was released showing poverty in Indiana is sharply increasing...
Statehouse gan throws Ohio in reverse (opinion) Toledo Blade ...The new state budget is equally regressive as economic and social policy...
Unions wage legal fight against Michigan’s right-to-work law Washington Times ...The legal battle over Michigan’s new right-to-work law shows no signs of flagging. Right-to-work proponents suffered a small setback when Michigan’s Supreme Court declined to weigh in on the legality of the law...
GOP Lawmaker In Utah Wants To End Compulsory Education In The State Talking Points Memo ...State Sen. Aaron Osmond (R) argued that certain "parents act as if the responsibility to educate, and even care for their child, is primarily the responsibility of the public school system..."
State Dept. approves ND-to-Alberta gas pipeline Associated Press ...The U.S. State Department has approved construction of the North Dakota portion of a gas pipeline from Tioga into the Canadian province of Alberta, Sen. John Hoeven said Tuesday...
CCA asks judge to bar media from joining lawsuit Associated Press ...Private prison company Corrections Corporation of America is asking a federal judge to deny a request from Idaho news organizations to keep documents open in a lawsuit over conditions at a CCA-run prison...
Teamsters Call For Quick Approval Of Administration Nominees IBT ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa today congratulated Senate Leader Harry Reid for forging a compromise that allows consideration of nominees for key administration posts...
Port Truck Drivers In New Jersey Reject Company’s Lies And Vote YES To Form A Union IBT ...Truck drivers employed by Australia-based Toll Group at the company’s New Jersey division voted overwhelmingly – by a margin of nearly 70 percent – to form a union and affiliate with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 469...
Buffalo EMTs, Paramedics’ Victory Spotlighted On Leslie Marshall Show Leslie Marshall Show ...Kevin Drysdale, president of Teamsters Local 375 in Buffalo spoke with radio show host Leslie Marshall about new, tentative agreement for EMTs and paramedics working for Rural/Metro. Download the audio here...
City, Teamsters Find Common Ground With Approval of Long-Awaited Collective Bargaining Agreement Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Patch ...Lake Forest Park City Council unanimously approved a long-awaited collective bargaining agreement with the Teamsters Local 117 representing maintenance workers at its recent meeting...
PolyOne plans to close Donora plant Pittsburgh-Tribune Review ...On Tuesday, the PolyOne’s plant supervisors announced that the company will close its facility in Donora, Pennsylvania by fall 2014. Teamsters Local 205 represents the roughly 100 employees at the plant...
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Today's Teamster News 07.10.13
The recovery: Not jobless, but full of McJobs manufacture this ...195,000 new jobs would be great if they were the kind on which you could build a recovery. But they aren’t. Roughly a third of those jobs are in the leisure and hospitality sector; another 37,000 of them are in the retail sector. And these jobs don’t pay well. In fact, they pay even less than they did only a few years ago...
Ensure that American infrastructure is repaired with American materials and by American workers. White House Petitions ...The Verrazano Bridge in New York city is going to be repaired with Steel made in China...
The secret weapon that could save the Voting Rights Act MSNBC ...Voting rights advocates are testing whether a little-used provision of the Voting Rights Act could limit the damage of the Supreme Court ruling that struck down a key part of the landmark civil rights law...
Shocker: Only 1% of So Called Terrorists Nabbed by the FBI Were Real Alternet ... there has yet to be a case of some Al-Qaeda operative providing the means for a wannabe terrorist to do an act of terrorism. It’s only the FBI that’s providing the means through these sting operations...
Walmart Threatening to Pull Plans for D.C. Stores NBC Washington ...Walmart, Inc. is threatening to pull its plans to build three urban stores in Washington, D.C. if Mayor Vincent Gray signs a new living wage bill into law that would force the large retailer to pay its employees and subcontractors at least $11.75 per hour...
Canadian train disaster sharpens debate on oil transportation Washington Post ...The railroad put the small lakeside town of Lac-Mégantic on the map. And over the weekend, the railroad wiped part of the town off the map Saturday when an oil-laden train bound for a Saint John refinery derailed and exploded, leaving at least 13 dead and dozens unaccounted for...
Unions turn up the heat on lawmakers as first furlough week arrives Huntsville Times ...A coalition of 20 unions that represents federal workers is turning up the heat on lawmakers in an effort to stave off the 20 percent pay cut that will hit Department of Defense workers in the next three months...
Anonymous Exposes US' Biggest Private Prison Company as a Bad Financial Investment Huffington Post ...The oldest and largest for-profit prison company is not what it would have you believe, at least according to Anonymous. A recently released report concludes that the publicly traded prison operator Corrections Corporation of America is not an efficient, profitable free-market solution -- but a bad investment for shareholders...
Judge Says Capitol Free Speech Restrictions “Create Extraordinary Chilling Effect” ACLU of Wisconsin ...A federal judge yesterday granted a preliminary injunction in the Capitol free speech case, allowing groups of up to 20 people to gather without a permit inside the Capitol...
Indiana working families not advancing on path to prosperity NWI Times ... nearly half of Indiana children and altogether 2.24 million Hoosiers are officially "low income" -- earning less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level, which is $22,980 for an individual or $47,100 for a family of four...
30,000 California prisoners refuse meals in apparent hunger strike Los Angeles Times ...Officials said 30,000 California inmates refused meals Monday at the start of a prison strike involving two-thirds of the state's 33 lockups, as well as four out-of-state facilities...
Nikki Haley Takes Heat After Report Blows Up 'Bogus' Voter Fraud Claims In South Carolina Huffington Post ...For years, South Carolina Republicans have complained about the names of dead voters being used to cast ballots in a broad voter fraud scheme. Now that a recent report by the State Law Enforcement Division has blown up those claims, unable to find a single example of a "zombie voter" committing fraud, one Democrat is demanding that Gov. Nikki Haley (R) apologize for her party's "bogus" crusade...
Local 690 Fights Hard to Win Back Public Employee’s Job IBT ...Local 690 recently came to the defense of one of its public defenders and won her reinstatement complete with back pay, benefits, and sick leave...
Arbitrator Orders DOC to Reinstate Four Monroe Correctional Employees IBT ...An arbitrator has issued a stinging rebuke to the Department of Corrections in a ruling that favors four correctional employees at the Monroe Correctional Complex, who were disciplined by the DOC after the murder of Officer Jayme Biendl in the prison chapel in January 2011...
Rural/Metro pledges to continue EMS service if strike occurs Buffalo Business First ...With a strike set to begin in a little over a week, executives at Rural/Metro Medical Services of Western New York are hoping to avoid a work stoppage but plan to continue coverage of emergency medical services...
Dignity Memorial Solicits Striking Employee To Apply For Funeral Director Job IBT ...Striking Funeral Director Lawrence Mandel was surprised that Dignity Memorial would bother offering him an “opportunity” to become a strikebreaker...
City, Teamsters Local 251 Reach Tentative Contract Deal Cranston Patch ...The city of Cranston (Rhode Island) and the Teamsters Local 251 have reached a tentative deal on a new contract that will run through 2015 and gives municipal workers raises each year...
Have you signed up for the 2013 Teamster Women's Conference yet? IBT ...There is still time left to register for the Teamster Women’s Conference, scheduled for September 19-21, 2013 in New Orleans. Join your Teamster Brothers and Sister for this dynamic gathering...
Ensure that American infrastructure is repaired with American materials and by American workers. White House Petitions ...The Verrazano Bridge in New York city is going to be repaired with Steel made in China...
The secret weapon that could save the Voting Rights Act MSNBC ...Voting rights advocates are testing whether a little-used provision of the Voting Rights Act could limit the damage of the Supreme Court ruling that struck down a key part of the landmark civil rights law...
Shocker: Only 1% of So Called Terrorists Nabbed by the FBI Were Real Alternet ... there has yet to be a case of some Al-Qaeda operative providing the means for a wannabe terrorist to do an act of terrorism. It’s only the FBI that’s providing the means through these sting operations...
Walmart Threatening to Pull Plans for D.C. Stores NBC Washington ...Walmart, Inc. is threatening to pull its plans to build three urban stores in Washington, D.C. if Mayor Vincent Gray signs a new living wage bill into law that would force the large retailer to pay its employees and subcontractors at least $11.75 per hour...
Canadian train disaster sharpens debate on oil transportation Washington Post ...The railroad put the small lakeside town of Lac-Mégantic on the map. And over the weekend, the railroad wiped part of the town off the map Saturday when an oil-laden train bound for a Saint John refinery derailed and exploded, leaving at least 13 dead and dozens unaccounted for...
Unions turn up the heat on lawmakers as first furlough week arrives Huntsville Times ...A coalition of 20 unions that represents federal workers is turning up the heat on lawmakers in an effort to stave off the 20 percent pay cut that will hit Department of Defense workers in the next three months...
Anonymous Exposes US' Biggest Private Prison Company as a Bad Financial Investment Huffington Post ...The oldest and largest for-profit prison company is not what it would have you believe, at least according to Anonymous. A recently released report concludes that the publicly traded prison operator Corrections Corporation of America is not an efficient, profitable free-market solution -- but a bad investment for shareholders...
Judge Says Capitol Free Speech Restrictions “Create Extraordinary Chilling Effect” ACLU of Wisconsin ...A federal judge yesterday granted a preliminary injunction in the Capitol free speech case, allowing groups of up to 20 people to gather without a permit inside the Capitol...
Indiana working families not advancing on path to prosperity NWI Times ... nearly half of Indiana children and altogether 2.24 million Hoosiers are officially "low income" -- earning less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level, which is $22,980 for an individual or $47,100 for a family of four...
30,000 California prisoners refuse meals in apparent hunger strike Los Angeles Times ...Officials said 30,000 California inmates refused meals Monday at the start of a prison strike involving two-thirds of the state's 33 lockups, as well as four out-of-state facilities...
Nikki Haley Takes Heat After Report Blows Up 'Bogus' Voter Fraud Claims In South Carolina Huffington Post ...For years, South Carolina Republicans have complained about the names of dead voters being used to cast ballots in a broad voter fraud scheme. Now that a recent report by the State Law Enforcement Division has blown up those claims, unable to find a single example of a "zombie voter" committing fraud, one Democrat is demanding that Gov. Nikki Haley (R) apologize for her party's "bogus" crusade...
Local 690 Fights Hard to Win Back Public Employee’s Job IBT ...Local 690 recently came to the defense of one of its public defenders and won her reinstatement complete with back pay, benefits, and sick leave...
Arbitrator Orders DOC to Reinstate Four Monroe Correctional Employees IBT ...An arbitrator has issued a stinging rebuke to the Department of Corrections in a ruling that favors four correctional employees at the Monroe Correctional Complex, who were disciplined by the DOC after the murder of Officer Jayme Biendl in the prison chapel in January 2011...
Rural/Metro pledges to continue EMS service if strike occurs Buffalo Business First ...With a strike set to begin in a little over a week, executives at Rural/Metro Medical Services of Western New York are hoping to avoid a work stoppage but plan to continue coverage of emergency medical services...
Dignity Memorial Solicits Striking Employee To Apply For Funeral Director Job IBT ...Striking Funeral Director Lawrence Mandel was surprised that Dignity Memorial would bother offering him an “opportunity” to become a strikebreaker...
City, Teamsters Local 251 Reach Tentative Contract Deal Cranston Patch ...The city of Cranston (Rhode Island) and the Teamsters Local 251 have reached a tentative deal on a new contract that will run through 2015 and gives municipal workers raises each year...
Have you signed up for the 2013 Teamster Women's Conference yet? IBT ...There is still time left to register for the Teamster Women’s Conference, scheduled for September 19-21, 2013 in New Orleans. Join your Teamster Brothers and Sister for this dynamic gathering...
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