Today's Teamster News 10.27.15

TEAMSTERS
Teamsters Local 1205 Members at Baumann Buses Overwhelmingly Approve Contract  Teamster.org  ...In a secret ballot vote that was completed this afternoon, by a margin of 84 percent to 16 percent, Teamsters Local 1205 members working for Baumann/Acme Buses approved a new three-year union contract. This new contract, with its complex details, was recommended by the elected rank-and-file negotiating committee...
Baltimore Sun Drivers, Mailers, Pressmen Ratify New Teamster Contract  Teamster.org  ...After two years of difficult negotiations, tentative agreements for three departments at the Baltimore Sun represented by Local 355 and Local 888 were ratified at a jointly-held membership meeting Saturday, Oct. 24, 2015. The company had sought to shift the full burden of healthcare premium costs to workers, among other regressive demands, but bargaining committee members representing drivers and printers (Local 355) and mailers (Local 888) endorsed agreements that preserve current healthcare contributions and enhances job security...
Trucker strike begins at ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles  Press-Telegram  ...A group of truck drivers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach went on strike Monday, but port officials said the labor action had minimal impact on cargo operations. The “unfair labor practice” strike includes drivers “misclassified as independent contractors” rather than employees by Pacific 9 Transportation and XPO Logistic, said Barb Maynard of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters...

GLOBAL LABOR & TRADE
President says Indonesia intends to join TPP trade deal  Reuters  ...Indonesian President Joko Widodo, speaking after a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday, said his Southeast Asian country intends to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal the United States has forged with 11 other nations. "We are the largest economy in Southeast Asia," Widodo said through a translator. "And Indonesia intends to join the TPP"...    
Chamber holds off on endorsing trade deal  Washington Examiner  ...Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue held off on endorsing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade deal the White House recently concluded negotiations on, stating that even he was not certain what was in the fine print of the deal. The Chamber is one of the leading advocates for free-trade policies, and its support will be crucial to getting the deal approved by Congress...
The TPP: An Attack on the Internet  Counterpunch  ...Wikileaks, the on-line bible of revealed secrets, published several leaked sections of what its editors believe is the final edition and the collective groan morphed into an outcry. It was, as the Electronic Frontier Foundation puts it, “all that we feared.” The TPP internationalizes some of the worst inequities and abuses specific signing governments are currently committing and nowhere is that more true than with surveillance and communications repression...
Years after the Rana Plaza tragedy, too many of Bangladesh’s factories are still “death traps”  Quartz  ...The 2013 garment factory collapse at Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza, which killed at least 1,133 people, was seen around the world as a wake-up call. There had already been several deadly tragedies in the country’s massive and growing garment industry, such as the 2012 Tazreen Fashions fire, but the deaths at Rana Plaza were on a new scale. Nobody could ignore the dire conditions that workers toiled in any longer...
17,000 workers strike at Egypt’s largest public textile factory  Al Bawaba  ...A strike by 17,000 workers at Egypt’s largest public sector textile company entered its sixth day Monday, making it the largest and longest-lasting Mahallah workers action since ex-army general Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took office over a year ago. Labor Minister Gamal Sorour said after meetings on Monday with officials in Gharbiya province, home to the beleaguered Misr Spinning and Weaving Company, that workers must resume production immediately...
Portugal's Democracy Cracks Under Weight Of Austerity  Huffington Post  ...Elections in Portugal this week offered the latest sign that when an individual European nation’s voters challenge eurozone austerity policies, the monetary union -- and the international creditors it represents -- takes precedence. Portugal’s president, Anibal Cavaco Silva, fueled an ongoing debate about the future of European democracy on Thursday when he reappointed an outgoing center-right prime minister despite election results...

STATE & LIVING WAGE BATTLES
Group challenges $1M drive to repeal prevailing wage  Detroit Free Press  ...The ballot committee Protect Michigan Jobs filed a challenge Monday to a $1-million business-backed petition drive to repeal Michigan's prevailing wage law, saying more than 40% of the signatures submitted are duplicates or otherwise invalid. The group pushing to repeal the law, Protecting Michigan Taxpayers, disputes the finding, and now it will be up to the state Board of Canvassers -- and possibly the courts -- to decide the issue...
Voter ID lawsuit hearing tentatively set for January Daily  Tarheel  ...A federal judge refused to dismiss challenges to North Carolina’s Voter ID law during a court hearing on Friday, and set a new tentative hearing for Jan. 16. The N.C. General Assembly passed the law two years ago, requiring voters to have photo ID when voting in-person. It would go into effect in 2016, possibly influencing the upcoming presidential primaries...
Why Are So Many Food Charities Shutting Down In Ohio?  Think Progress  ...As the Thanksgiving season starts, Ohio’s food charities are in rocky shape. About 40 food pantries in the state have been forced to close down or merge with another outfit in the past 16 months. Despite the closures, Ohioans can still turn to more than 1,700 individual food pantries around the state. But the contraction in food charities’ presence is a reminder of how precarious the nation’s volunteer-driven anti-hunger efforts are these days...
Supporters of higher minimum wage in capital seek compromise as vote looms  Sacramento Bee  ...Proponents of an embattled plan to raise Sacramento’s minimum wage are rushing to craft a new compromise in advance of Tuesday’s scheduled City Council vote, but it is far from certain that a deal can be reached. The plan would gradually hike the minimum wage in the city to $12.50 an hour by 2020...

U.S. LABOR
A Significant Deal for Automakers and Unions  The Atlantic  ...For nearly a decade, new workers hired at unionized auto plants across the country have started their jobs knowing a troubling fact: They made less than their colleagues, sometimes half as much. And no matter how hard they worked, they could never earn the wages of the people standing next to them on the assembly line. But, in a deal reached Sunday night, the UAW and GM announced that they had hammered out an agreement that would get rid of the two-tier wage system...
UAW members anxiously await details of GM contract  Detroit Free Press  ...One down, another close to the finish line and one more to go. That's pretty much where things stand in the UAW's contract talks with the Detroit Three. The UAW reached a new tentative agreement with General Motors shortly before midnight on Sunday but that agreement still has a long way to go before it becomes official...
UFCW 8-Golden State Members Ratify Agreements with Rite Aid  Business Wire  ...Concluding two years of collective bargaining, members of UFCW 8-Golden State have voted overwhelmingly to ratify new agreements with the Rite Aid drug store in the northern and southern regions of the state. UFCW 8-Golden State President Jacques Loveall praised the agreements, which cover approximately 2,500 Rite Aid Clerks and Pharmacists between the Oregon border and Kern County...
Union elections are rigged against workers  The Hill  ...Over the past couple of years, low-wage McDonalds, Wal-Mart and federal contract workers have been striking to win a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour and the right to form a union. Some people ask us, “Why don’t you stop striking and just hold a union election?” The truth is America’s low-wage workers are striking because union election rules are rigged against us...
The Hellish Conditions Facing Workers At Chicken Processing Plants  Think Progress  ...In a report released on Tuesday, Oxfam America is launching a new campaign to address what it says are rampant health and safety issues, as well as low pay and few benefits, that face the people who process chicken in the country’s plants. Consumer demand has been growing. That demand has come with increased pressure on processing line speeds, which are twice as fast today as they were in 1979...
Latest GOP Buzzword for Turning Social Security Into A Welfare Program: Means-Testing  Salon  ...Means-testing Social Security is a popular position among Republican presidential candidates this election cycle—if not among prospective voters. That means, essentially, turning the nation’s retirement system into a welfare program, targeted at those with real hardships. If they get their way, not only will Social Security benefits be slashed for millions, but something fundamental will have changed: our national retirement system will be transformed from a social insurance program to a welfare program...
Top-Secret Pentagon Program Exploited Aid Workers as Covert Spies  Common Dreams  ... A new investigation published Monday reveals that the U.S. Pentagon for years funneled millions to a charity organization employing it to serve as the front group for global espionage—very real revelations that experts warn could have dangerous implications for aid workers worldwide...

SOCIAL JUSTICE & OTHER NEWS
In Student Victory, U. of Mississippi Removes State Flag with Confederate Emblem  Democracy Now ...Early Monday morning, three campus police officers at the University of Mississippi removed the state flag with its Confederate emblem from the grounds of the school’s campus in Oxford. The move comes after the student government voted to remove the flag. Mississippi’s flag is the latest Confederate symbol to be targeted for removal from a public space since a white supremacist killed nine African-American worshipers in Charleston, South Carolina, four months ago...
Disturbing Video Shows School Cop Body Slam and Drag a Black Female Student  Mother Jones  ...Authorities in Richland County, South Carolina, are investigating a video that surfaced Monday showing a uniformed officer aggressively confronting a high school student. The video, which appears to have been recorded on a cellphone by a classmate, shows a white male officer standing over a black female student...

Today's Teamster News 08.16.14

Teamster News
Teamsters Battle Senator’s Scheme To Lengthen Truckers’ Hours Behind The Wheel  People's World   ...Saying that lengthening the consecutive hours truckers could stay behind the wheel endangers both truckers and other drivers, the Teamsters are battling a Republican senator's scheme to do just that...
Teamsters Reach Deal Ending Quixote Studios Boycott  Deadline Hollywood   ...The deal, which covers about 30 drivers, also calls for an election to see if the company’s 80 warehouse workers want to be represented by the union as well...
Tom O’Donnell Replaces Leo Reed As Director Of Teamsters  Deadline Hollywood   ...Tom O’Donnell, the current president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 817 in New York, has been named director of the Teamsters Motion Picture and Theatrical Trades Division, replacing the venerable Leo Reed, who left the post in January after 25 years at the helm...
Battle Lines Drawn As J.R. Simplot And Teamsters Local 120 Continue To Square Off  Valley News Live   ...The Union members today overwhelmingly voted down some new changes to their contracts this afternoon and say they will continue to walk the picket line 24/7. The Union’s contract expired June 1st. They were hoping for a new deal, but they say it never came...
Teamsters Hispanic Caucus Brings Fight Against Republic Services To Denver  MarketWatch   ...Tonight, Teamsters in Denver attending the Teamsters Hispanic Caucus Convention went to the Colorado Rockies game to educate Denver residents about the illegal actions of Republic Services...
Trade
Certification Allows US Trade Negotiators to Rewrite TPP Copyright Rules  EFF   ...The United States, exclusively amongst the dozen negotiating partners, is reserving the right to vet other countries' implementation of the agreement before its own obligations come into effect. This has worrying implications for other countries planning to take advantage of whatever flexibilities remain in the TPP text after the negotiations are finished...
State Battles
U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Joins Lawsuit Against 'Discriminatory' Seattle Minimum Wage Hike  Huffington Post   ...The U.S. Chamber of Commerce signed onto an amicus brief Tuesday in support of the International Franchise Association's (IFA) lawsuit against a “discriminatory” provision in Seattle’s recently passed minimum wage increase...
Federal Judge Denies Stay Of Wisconsin Voter ID Ruling  Jurist   ...A federal judge on Wednesday denied a request by Wisconsin's Attorney General JB Van Hollen to stay the his April ruling against the state's voter identification law. The April ruling found that the Act 23 requirement that all residents present photo ID when voting violated the Voting Rights Act and the US Constitution...
War On Workers
In the sharing economy, a rift over worker classification  Boston Globe   ...A class-action lawsuit filed this summer in Massachusetts and California courts is challenging that. The suit asserts that Uber improperly classifies its drivers, who own their cars and use Uber’s smartphone app to get work, as independent contractors. No sick time, no health insurance, no 401k contributions...
NC Forest Service Employee Dies In Tree Accident  WSOC   ...Tuttle State Educational Forest in Lenoir was closed Thursday after a North Carolina Forest Service employee died in an accident there Wednesday afternoon...
Bank Of America Could Get Tax Break On Part Of $16 Billion Mortgage Settlement  Charlotte Observer   ...As Bank of America prepares for a possible multibillion-dollar settlement with the government, the deal is expected to share a feature common to similar settlements with other banks – a big portion that’s tax-deductible as a business expense...
Miscellaneous
NSA Cyberwarfare Could Pick The Wrong Targets, Snowden Says  Fox News   ...Snowden described MonsterMind as problematic, noting that cyberattacks are often routed through computers in “innocent” third countries. This raises the possibility of U.S. counter attacks against the wrong targets.  “You could have someone sitting in China, for example, making it appear that one of these attacks is originating in Russia,” he said. “And then we end up shooting back at a Russian hospital. What happens next?”...

Today's Teamster News 07.27.14

Trade
GOP congressman rips Chamber of Commerce and gives back award  Washington Post   ...The Chamber of Commerce is beholden to special interests and has long since forgotten the main street businesses that struggle everyday to make payroll and keep their company afloat,” said Bentivolio. “It is with great pride that I reject their award, and call on them to stand on the side of America, instead of on the side of China and corporate interests seeking to exploit people for profit....”
State Battles
ALEC Picked Up Tab for Texas Lawmakers' Junkets Common Cause ...Five Texas lawmakers have accepted more than $7,600 in corporate-funded “scholarships” to cover the cost of air fares, hotel rooms and other travel expenses to attend meetings of the American Legislative Exchange Council, (ALEC), a corporate lobbying group, according to new research by Common Cause...
Right-to-work may get new life next year WMUR ...Right-to-work, a measure that allows workers to get union benefits without joining or paying dues, could come up again in the Legislature next session, depending on what happens in the November elections...
Ohio tries to diffuse controversy over charter-school whistle-blowers Akron Beacon Journal ...he four former teachers, who worked at Horizon Science Academy Dayton from 2004 to 2013, alleged at the July 15 state school board meeting that sexual games were played by students and condoned by other educators, and surveillance footage captured students having oral sex at a school function...
Koch brothers’ new racial gambit: What’s really behind a quiet battle with AFSCME Salon ...“The Koch brothers want a government-free society,” Saunders says. “Public service has enabled African-Americans to move into the middle class, but the Kochs are trying to dismantle that...”
State to pay nearly $1.7 million to identify buildings to sell Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...The idea has been controversial, with critics saying they fear the state could make a short-term gain but a long-term loss. They fear getting rid of the heating and cooling plants could be costly because state prisons and University of Wisconsin campuses would have buy heating and cooling on the private market...
War on Workers
Federal regulators let utilities gouge customers David Cay Johnston ...Now the first in a raft of cases asserting that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is letting utilities gouge customers by setting egregiously high rates of return may finally get a hearing...
Private Equity's Free Pass New York Times ...But while private equity firms often operate like Goldman and Morgan Stanley, they are not uniformly subject to the same broker-dealer regulatory regime...
The Typical Household, Now Worth a Third Less New York Times ...The inflation-adjusted net worth for the typical household was $87,992 in 2003. Ten years later, it was only $56,335, or a 36 percent decline, according to a study financed by the Russell Sage Foundation...
NLRB ruling further expands 'micro unions' Washington Examiner ...In a case involving a Macy's department store cosmetics counter, the National Labor Relations Board on Tuesday further expanded its recent precedents allowing for so-called "micro-unions." The ruling will make it easier for unions to organize individual parts of an employer's workforce...
WHY THE ECONOMY SUCKS: Because American Companies And Their Owners Are Greedier Now Than At Any Time In History Business Insider ...Five years after the recovery began, unemployment remains high. And the Americans who are lucky enough to be working are getting paid less as a percent of the economy than they ever have in history. Meanwhile, America's corporations and their owners have never had it better...

Chamber of Commerce gets most of its $169B in campaign donations from just 64 donors

The Chamber's interest in jobs is outsourcing them. 

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce isn't getting as much attention as it used to, mostly because its attempt to turn America into a feudal serfdom has been dwarfed by the Koch brothers and their greedy billionaire cohorts. But Public Citizen recently shone a light on the Chamber's activities recently, and it's worth taking a look.

Public Citizen issued a report that shows more than half of the Chamber's $169.4 million in political contributions came from just 64 donors in 2012.

The Chamber claims it represents "the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions. Our members range from mom-and-pop shops and local chambers to leading industry associations and large corporations."

That just isn't true. The Chamber is primarily a front group for multinational corporations. It not only has directors who represent domestic multinational corporations that have sent hundreds of thousands of American jobs overseas, it actually has directors who represent foreign multinationals from Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, Bermuda, Belfium, the U.K. and the Netherlands.

Several years ago, there was a controversy over the possibility the Chamber was using foreign money to influence elections. It actually has an office in india where it helps U.S. companies outsource good American jobs to that country. 

The Chamber hasn't met a corporate-empowering, job-killing trade deal it hasn't loved. And guess where the Chamber stands on Fast Track...

High court is corporate America's best friend

The Supreme Court means business when it issues a decision. Big business, that is.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce during the just-ended court session won more cases than ever, prevailing in 13 of the 16 appeals in which it took a position. The latest examples came this week when the nation's top corporate lobbying group won three cases that shield big business from existing law.

Two of the cases made it easier for companies to strike back at workers who allege they are victims of discrimination. The other granted legal immunity to a generic drug manufacturer whose product reportedly caused severe burns to a patient's body.

In one instance, the high court went even further than the government officials who initially put the policy in place. Per Think Progress:

Notably the Court deferred so completely to the Chamber [this week] that it adopted a harsh rule limiting sexual and racial harassment claims even though the attorney arguing that case on behalf of the defendant — a former Solicitor General under George W. Bush — would not endorse the rule himself while he was arguing the case. So the five conservative justices sided with the Chamber even though no party before the Court agreed with the Chamber’s position.

That is not good news for the nation's workers. Fortunately, not everyone involved in the lawmaking process has it out for us. Rep. Alan Grayson introduced legislation that would expand the legal remedies available to non-union workers who are punished for workplace activism. Beyond seeking redress from the National Labor Relations Board, it would allow most employees to sue their boss in civil court for retaliating, and the chance to seek an injunction to swiftly reverse the alleged retaliation.

Sadly there is little chance the legislation will be taking up during the current Congress. The House Republican leadership ensures it. But we hail policymakers who take a stand on behalf of middle-class families. And we live to fight another day.

Today's Teamster News 04.06.11

Ryan to 32M Americans: No Insurance for You  The New Republic   ..."the Ryan plan’s Medicaid changes would profoundly impair health care coverage for seniors, people with disabilities, and people with low incomes."...
Wis. court election too close to call amid anger over union rights law  Associated Press   ...The contest was close enough that a recount appeared likely...
Chris Abele Elected Milwaukee County Executive In Blow To Scott Walker  Huffington Post   ...Abele used the recent controversy surrounding Walker to build support for his campaign...
Two more business withdraw from the regional chamber over support of SB 5  WFMJ   ...They join Turning Technologies and Fireline Incorporated who recently resigned from the chamber over its endorsement of Senate Bill 5...
Firefighters, Teachers, Police Speak Out Against FL Chamber  WCTV   ...The groups say the Florida Chamber of Commerce is releasing a misleading TV ad that says workers are struggling because of union dues being deducted. The workers say the truth is the low pay by the state and no raises...
Senate Holds Hearing On Right-To-Work Bill  WMUR   ...The (NH) governor and labor commissioner are also opposed to the bill, saying right-to-work means the right to work for less money...

Today's Teamster News 04.02.11

Wis. Dems file 1st petition to recall GOP senator  Associated Press   ...Wisconsin Democrats say they've collected enough signatures to trigger a recall election for one of eight Republican state senators ... but they will have to wait at least a month before election officials verify the names...
Breaking news: Summer shocker for GOP in Wisconsin recall battle  The Hill   ...This summer the recall battle in Wisconsin will bring a great national drama, with the potential to lead to a resounding defeat for the forces of extreme Republicanism...
Justice-for-Sale Lobbyists Raising 'Unlimited and Undisclosed' Donations To Buy Supreme Court Seat  ThinkProgress   ...Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC...is rewarding him by raising “unlimited and undisclosed” funds to keep David Prosser on the state supreme court...
Turning Technologies, Its CEO Resign from Regional Chamber  The Business Journal   ...Broderick('s) ...  resignation follows yesterday's...meeting of the chamber board, where Broderick urged directors to rescind the board's endorsement of Senate Bill 5...
Protest Against Removing Labor Mural Gains Momentum  The Free Press   ...There is more than art at stake here ... It is the notion that business should be organized and call the shots when it comes to working conditions and pay, but that workers should not be organized, but stand alone...
Lawmaker says constituents asked for process to remove Maine governor  The Bangor Daily News   ...Anger over Republican Gov. Paul LePage led to a proposal in the Maine House on Thursday to create a process for recalling the governor, legislators and constitutional officers...
UAW membership up in 2010 for 1st time since 2004  Associated Press   ...UAW President Bob King said the gains were due to more hiring in the auto industry as it recovered from the recession...
Gov. Rick Snyder sticking to proposal to tax pensions  Detroit Free Press   ...Snyder said it's not fair to exempt retiree pensions while low-income and older workers who are not retired continue to pay state taxes...
Mine workers rally in Pa. for public employees  Lebanon Daily News   ...Nearly 3,000 union mine workers are rallying in southwestern Pennsylvania on behalf of public employees in other states...
Cops, firefighters turn on GOP  Politico   ...It’s a political shift that could have significant repercussions, and not just because these right-leaning union members vote for Republicans in sizable numbers...

Today's Teamster News 02.24.11

Indiana Right-To-Work Bill Now Moved to Study Committee  IndianaNewsCenter.com  ...President Pro Tem of the Indiana State Senate David Long says the Right to Work Bill is dead this legislative session...
Indiana Official: "Use Live Ammunition" Against Wisconsin Protesters  Mother Jones   ...The Indiana attorney general's office has confirmed to Mother Jones that Jeff Cox was terminated Wednesday...
Teamsters President Arrives in Madison  WISN  ...Hoffa arrived in Madison on Wednesday today, shaking hands with protesters...
Ohio public worker collective bargaining fight wins support of Rev. Jesse Jackson   kypost.com   ...In a Columbus Teamsters Hall gathering that was part revival and part rally, Rev. Jackson urged 200 union members to continue their fight against Senate Bill 5...
Union Protests Continue in Lansing  Interlochen Public Radio   ...Hundreds of unionized firefighters and police officers marched on the Capitol, calling on the Legislature to reject a bill that would repeal the requirement that puts local government labor disputes into binding arbitration...
VP defends unions against conservative 'social agenda'  The Hill   ...Unions are not the cause of the country's economic woes, Vice President Biden said Wednesday...
The Most Dangerous Union in the World  unsettling economics   ...we can call the Chamber of Commerce a union. This union is so powerful that the present United States must come before as a humble supplicant. This union was at the forefront of the deconstruction of the New Deal...
Top Six Revelations in the Call Between Fake David Koch and Governor Scott Walker  Huffington Post   ...1. Walker and the Senate Republicans are conspiring to withhold Democratic lawmakers' paychecks.
Colorado School Bus Drivers Choose Teamsters Union  IBT   ...School bus drivers with First Student in Pueblo West, Rye, Mesa and Beulah, Colo., have voted to become members of Teamsters Local 455 in Denver...

"Middle class needs jobs, not economic warfare"

Memphis sanitation workers strike, 1968

There is a war on the middle class, and the middle class is losing. If you had any doubts about that yesterday, they should have been dispelled over the past 24 hours. Not only has a multinational front group been caught hiring spies to run an undercover smear campaign against unions and other working-class groups, but the governor of Wisconsin has threatened to call out the National Guard if government workers balk at his insane budget proposal.

My boss, Jim Hoffa, is asking state and local chambers of commerce to break away from the U.S. Chamber. Here's what he had to say:

It isn’t right for politicians to attack the thousands of dedicated public servants who make our government run instead of big banks and big corporations that caused our economic problems. Gov. Walker’s attack on working families in Wisconsin is part of a concerted, coordinated war on the middle class. It’s funded by billionaires like the Koch brothers and multinational corporations represented by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and it’s just wrong.

Working people are struggling, and now politicians backed by billionaires and multi-national corporations are trying to cut their wages and benefits. It’s clear that they’ll stop at nothing, including calling in the National Guard and running undercover smear campaigns against unions and other organizations that represent working families

He mentioned the recent revelations that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce paid for private security firms to spy on individuals who work for unions and bloggers who have criticized its agenda, and to spread lies and false accusations to discredit them. Hoffa also said,

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is dominated by multinational corporations that want to send more U.S. jobs overseas and destabilize working families by forcing down wages. It revealed its true anti-worker agenda when it decided to pay for spies and smear campaigns against groups willing to stand up to the big corporations.

I’m calling on state and local chambers of commerce to break from the U.S. Chamber if they haven’t already. That way they can show they’re truly committed to creating jobs and protecting middle-class families.

Call your local chamber and ask if they're part of the U.S. Chamber. You know what to say if they are.

Coincidence? Chamber spies and Koch group both called Themis

Is it a coincidence that a group of private spies hired by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to run an undercover smear campaign has the same name as a group supported by the billionaire Koch brothers? 

Kenneth Vogel is the reporter who the Kochs threatened with arrest at their billionaires' confab in Rancho Mirage last month. Today, Vogel reported in Politico that

...the Kochs don’t control any groups, rather they exert significant influence through their contributions, board positions and patronage of the leaders of outfits that have been prominently featured at their donor conferences, such as Americans for Prosperity and Themis, a fledgling voter micro-targeting initiative spearheaded by former Koch staffer Karl Crow...

Themis is the name used by the three high-tech goon firms that spied on Change to Win (of which the Teamsters are a member), SEIU, ChamberWatch and bloggers such as ThinkProgress. They've all criticized the Chamber's agenda of letting multi-national corporations send more U.S. jobs overseas and destablize working families by forcing down wages even as U.S. unemployment approaches 10 percent.

According to ThinkProgress, emails made public by an activist group of computer hackers showed

...the Chamber hired the lobbying firm Hunton and Williams. Hunton and Williams’ attorney Richard Wyatt ... solicited a set of private security firms — HB Gary Federal, Palantir, and Berico Technologies (collectively called Team Themis) — to develop tactics for damaging progressive groups and labor unions, in particular ThinkProgress, the labor coalition called Change to Win, the SEIU, US Chamber Watch, and StopTheChamber.com...

Is there anything more detestable than a company spy?

Vogel also reported, by the way, that the Kochs plan to spend $88 million on promoting their agenda of turning the United States into a banana republic by busting unions, empowering corporations and eliminating environmental regulation.

Chamber spies targeted opponents' families

In its efforts to turn America into a banana republic, the U.S.  Chamber of Commerce paid for high-tech spies to investigate its political opponents' families. Read more about their dirty tricks here.

Unions and the ThinkProgress blog were the main targets. According to ThinkProgress, new emails have been discovered that show more of what the private spy company was up to. Reports ThinkProgress,

One of the targets was Mike Gehrke, a former staffer with Change to Win. (Note: Change to Win is the labor federation to which the Teamsters belong.) Among the information circulated about Gehrke was the specific “Jewish church” he attended and a link to pictures of his wife and two children...it was a concerted and deliberate effort to use anything possible to smear the Chamber’s political opponents.

Very, very nice. Stay tuned. There's more to come.

Chamber hires "private security firm" to sabotage unions

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce last year hired high-tech goons to run an undercover smear campaign targeting unions and other working class organizations. Ultimately, the Chamber planned to use lies and false accusations to discredit these groups. It was part of a campaign to help push the Chamber's agenda to let multi-national corporations send more U.S. jobs overseas and destablize working families by forcing down wages even as U.S. unemployment approaches 10 percent.

Two of the Chamber's targets are Change to Win (the labor federation to which the Teamsters belong) and the ThinkProgress blog.

Reports ThinkProgress,

...the campaign included an entrapment project. The proposal called for first creating a “false document, perhaps highlighting periodical financial information,” to give to a progressive group opposing the Chamber, and then to subsequently expose the document as a fake to undermine the credibility of the Chamber’s opponents. In addition, the group proposed creating a “fake insider persona” to “generate communications” with Change to Win.

The Chamber hired the lobbying firm Hunton and Williams, which hired three private security firms to conduct the smear campaign. They charged an initial $200,000 for the project and hoped to get $2 million for it.

How ThinkProgress obtained the information is bizarre in itself. Hunton and Williams had been hired by BankAmerica to sabotage Wikileaks, which claimed to have damaging information about Bank of America. Hunton and Williams hired one of the security firms, which claimed to have hacked into Anonymous. (Anonymous is a community of hackers that takes down websites in oppressive regimes such as Tunisia and Egypt.) Anonymous, in retaliation, hacked into the security firm's emails and published them on the Web. That's where the e-mails revealing the Chamber's plot came to light.

The Chamber hates ThinkProgress because it has published a series of articles that exposed the Chamber's efforts to kill financial reform and solicit donations from foreign corporations. ThinkProgress also wrote about the Chamber's participation in the billionaire Koch brothers' secret fundraising meetings.

No corporate pledge of allegiance from the Chamber

President Obama's walk across the park yesterday to ask the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to create American jobs was a nice gesture. It may even quell some criticism that he's anti-business.

The U.S. Chamber, however, is not a patriotic American organization. Members of its board of directors represent companies headquartered in the Netherlands, the U.K., France, Ireland, Bermuda and Belgium.

The Chamber claimed to share the president's priority of creating American jobs. The Chamber is not telling the truth. There's no way the Chamber's biggest supporters will sign a "corporate pledge of allegiance" to create jobs in the U.S., as Teamsters President Hoffa has suggested.

Teamster friend Bob Kuttner, an economist, explained it nicely in a recent Huffington Post, "Business doesn't need the American worker." Writes Kuttner,

...our most admired corporations -- GE, Apple, Hewlett Packard, Intel -- are creating ever more jobs overseas and relatively fewer at home. This has the double benefit of taking advantage of cheap labor abroad and disciplining workers to accept low wages at home. Along with the high unemployment rates have come declining earnings...

Kuttner in turn quotes Harold Meyerson, who writes,

In 2001, 32 percent of the income of the firms on Standard & Poor's index of the 500 largest publicly traded U.S. companies came from abroad. By 2008, that figure had grown to 48 percent.

Both the Democrats and the Republicans are blind to the fact that American industry is competing against companies in China that operate in a radically different (and more successful, we might add) system, Kuttner says. 

In the past two decades, company after company concluded that the U.S. government didn't really care if we lost our manufacturing base. The Chinese government was making them an offer they couldn't refuse, so one by one they made a separate peace with Beijing.

It's a great piece. Read it here.

Today's Teamster News 01.28.11

St. Louis County Strike Averted. Here's What Really Happened.  Local 320  ...A lot has been said in the press about the alleged walk out of workers in Virginia.  It is unfortunate that County Administration jumped to this conclusion and spread this falsehood without checking the facts...
Goldman Sachs Got Billions From AIG For Its Own Account, Crisis Panel Finds  Huffington Post   ...The fact that a significant slice of the proceeds secured by Goldman through the AIG bailout landed in its own account--as opposed to those of its clients or business partners-- has not been previously disclosed...
YRC to cut 80 jobs in Akron  Journal of Commerce  ...The jobs affected are at the former Roadway headquarters on Gorge Boulevard. The work will be shifted to Buffalo, N.Y., and YRC's headquarters in Overland Park, Kan...
Weather Shield Contract (Local 662)  WJFW  ...The agreement keeps existing benefits with no across the board wage increase until the summer of 2012...
5 percent pay raise suggested for Polk officials Des Moines Register  ...labor agreements ... are expected to result in roughly 1.5 percent pay increases for employees...
Some Sullivan workers to get layoff notices next week  (Local 445)  Times Herald-Record   ...Legislators huddled for five hours Thursday to decide what positions to cut after labor unions refused to defer raises and longevity payments...
Study finds L.A.'s trash disposal system is wasteful and polluting  Los Angeles Times   ...A labor-backed advocacy group issued a study Wednesday that ... called for the adoption of a franchise process that could bolster recycling rates, provide green jobs and increase city revenue...
Teamsters Toledo Local votes to rejoin AFL-CIO  (Local 20)  Toledo Blade   ...the first time the local union has been under the AFL-CIO’s broader labor umbrella since 1957...
Santa Barbara MTD, Teamsters Union to Enter Into Mediation Over Retirement Benefits  (Local 186)  Noozhawk   ...The agency proposes, as a cost-saving measure, increasing the retirement age for employees to be eligible for full health benefits...
Crowell bill would make Missouri right-to-work state  Southeast Missourian   ...This legislative session, and for the past several years, Crowell has filed legislation that would prohibit union-only workplaces...
How The U.S. Chamber Of Commerce’s Egyptian Affiliate Went To Bat For The Egyptian Dictatorship  ThinkProgress   ...the U.S. Chamber of Commerce maintains a network of foreign affiliates known as Amchams, “which are foreign chambers of the Chamber composed of American and foreign companies...”
Brooksley Born of the FCIC: “We may well still be in a financial crisis”  firedoglake   "...We don’t know how solvent a number of institutions are...”

Note to employees: You have a right to unionize

Don't know how we missed this story, but last week the NLRB proposed that companies be required to tell their employees that they have the legal right to form a union.

According to The New York Times,

The National Labor Relations Board said on Tuesday (Dec. 21) that it would require companies to post notices on their bulletin boards — and perhaps send out e-mail— to inform employees of their right to unionize under federal law. A day earlier, the labor board’s acting general counsel said that he would push for stronger action to create a fair atmosphere for unionization drives, perhaps by letting unions post materials on a company’s bulletin board if a company was found to have committed serious violations during such a drive.

This could be good news, if the proposed requirement turns into an actual requirement.

The way it works is this:  The NLRB publishes the proposed rule in the Federal Register. People have 60 days to comment on it. The NLRB then takes into account all the comments and decides what to do. It could scrap the idea, change the proposal or decide the proposal is fine as is and declare it the new rule.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce will go ballistic. They're already suggesting that current enforcement of labor law is "strong" -- BWAAA-HAAAAA-HAAAAAA -- and that it's a "vague" and "arbitrary" idea that employers are to blame for declining union membership.

Stay tuned.

Today's Teamster News 11.19.10

Were the Bush Tax Cuts Good for Growth?  New York Times   ...Every available piece of evidence seems to suggest that the Bush tax cuts did little to lift growth...
Pot growers portrayed as terror threat  Washington Post   ...officials carrying out a counter-terrorism drill in Northern California Wednesday played out a scenario in which local marijuana growers set off bombs and took over the Shasta Dam...
Prime U.S. Mortgage Foreclosures Hit Record as Unemployment Hurts Finances  Bloomberg News
Chamber of Commerce Has Significantly Reduced Membership  firedoglake
...what was a pretty stolid business coalition has become a front for giant multinationals who launder their campaign and lobbying donations through them....
Hoffa: Hold China Accountable for Cheating  IBT   ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa sent a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) explaining why the Teamsters believe China is breaking international trade rules in the renewable energy sector...
Amid Electoral Setbacks, Unions Represent Strength (opinion)  Black Star News  Local 237  ...President Greg Floyd writes "we will fight against any proposals that single out public employees..."

Wonder why insurance premiums are going up?

Maybe it's because insurance companies secretly gave the U.S. Chamber of Commerce $86 million to fight health care reform last year.

Bloomberg reported today that,

The spending reflects the insurers’ attempts to influence the bill after Democrats in Congress and the White House put more focus on regulation of the insurance industry.

The ginormous contribution to the Chamber was revealed in tax returns filed recently.

Today's Teamster News 11/05/10

Productivity Jumps, Jobless Claims Up Wall Street Journal ...Productivity rose in the third quarter as businesses got more out of their employees, while jobless claims reversed course with a sharp increase last week...

Behind a foreclosure, danger and tragedy Miami Herald ...When a toddler wandered into a foreclosed home and drowned in the pool, a host of legal complexities surfaced...

Sen. Patty Murray wins fourth term Seattle Times ...Her victory helped Democrats maintain a majority in the U.S. Senate...

Business gains a friend: Congress Los Angeles Times ...incoming leaders in the GOP-controlled House pledg(ed) less government involvement in the private sector and more scrutiny of new regulations...

Seattle Chamber of Commerce Wants Everyone To Know It Is "Separate and Distinct" From U.S. Chamber ThinkProgress ...The Chamber’s aggressive, hyper-partisan campaign to defeat Democrats in this year’s elections has also run afoul of local Chambers elsewhere in the country...

Today's Teamster News 10/15/10

Chamber of Commerce hits Democratic Senate candidates on union bill The Hill ...The two “issue ads” in Missouri and Pennsylvania target candidates Joe Sestak and Robin Carnahan, respectively, for their support of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)...

Paul, Conway spar over union balloting in Ky. Associated Press ...Paul positioned himself as a staunch opponent of the proposed Employee Free Choice Act ... Conway said he believes employees should be able to form a union if 50 percent of workers want one...

How much can we blame on state pensions? Washington Post ...Pension obligations currently account for 3.8 percent of the average state's spending. That's not where the current crisis is coming from...

Taking a Vote on Union Construction New York Times ...next month, residents of San Diego County, which includes the two cities, will vote on a similar ban against favoring unions in county construction contracts...

As Genesys Regional Medical Center technical workers approve contract, registered nurses prepare for more rough negotiations ahead Flint Journal ...recording secretary Angie Oberman ... (said) “It feels like we’ve been at war for 10 months and now there is justice for it all,” ...

In Cities Fighting Wal-Mart, Target Welcomed Wall Street Journal ...the opposition has caused Wal-Mart to lose ground to competitors—notably Minneapolis-based Target, which has moved into large cities in recent years with comparatively little opposition despite also employing nonunion workers.

Today's Teamster News 10/14/10

Rove, Chamber ads widely debunked as false or misleading Washington Post ...the sheer scale and dimension of dishonesty and distortion coming from the conservative side of this debate is a very big part of the story. And it's largely going untold...

Bankers Ignored Signs of Trouble on Foreclosures New York Times ... all 50 state attorneys general announced that they would investigate foreclosure practices...

U.S. Trade Deficit Widens; Producer Prices Rise Associated Press ...The politically sensitive deficit with China reached an all-time high...

GW’s Gelman Library Opens International Brotherhood of Teamsters Labor History Research Center George Washington University ...Center is first major labor history center to open in the U.S in 30 Years, IBT Archives, dating back to the 1900s, will Peprmanently reside at GW...

Jobless claims rise, topping 460,000 CNN Money.com ...The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits rose last week...