Photos: Teamster boots on the ground (and ears on the phones) all over the USA

Working people don't have as much money as the squillionaires trying to buy our democracy, but there are more of us than there are of them. We have boots on the ground to combat the influence of big money in politics. 

Here, for example, are just a few photos of Teamsters getting out the vote all over the country. We're pulling out all the stops to elect pro-worker candidates for office on November 4: phone-banking, handbilling, rallying, registering, hosting candidates. And we're campaigning for candidates seeking local office in the City of Tracy, Calif., all the way up to Alison Grimes, who's challenging Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

 

Above, Brother Doug Bloch from Teamsters Joint Council 7 in Northern California sent us this photo of Teamsters from Locals 150, 439 and 601 phone-banking in Tracy. Our California brothers are working to elect Ray Morelos to be the first Latino mayor in the city's history. It's important because Tracy is home to Taylor Farms, which harasses and intimidates its mostly Latino workers who are fighting against poverty wages.

Congressman Tim Ryan, a staunch friend of working people, was invited to speak at Teamsters Joint Council 41 in northern Ohio. Afterwards, Tim tweeted:

Thanks to @Teamsters Joint Council No. 41 for having me out to speak!

Above, Teamsters stand with Nina Turner, a secretary of state candidate who will protect Ohioans' right to vote. The current administration is pulling all kinds of tricks to make it easier for its own supporters to vote. Standing to the left of Nina is Al Mixon, an international vice president and president of Teamsters Local 507.

Ohio Teamsters are also working hard for Connie Pillich, a pro-worker candidate for state treasurer. Lost-timers are up and at 'em early every day. Thanks to Brother Fred Crow for this photo.

Above, Georgia Teamsters are working hard to win for working families this November. Members of Teamsters Local 728 are fanning out to work sites, determined to make a difference in the race for governor. They're especially hopeful that Jason Carter will restore an honest state government that works for everyone, not just friends and campaign donors. Brother Eric Robertson sent us this photo from a YRC yard.

There are plenty more photos of Teamster boots on the ground to come!

Georgia Teamsters fight against voter suppression

Georgia's secretary of state has a new way to enforce Jim Crow voting laws: He just doesn't process tens of thousands of voter registration forms. And then he tries to intimidate a nonpartisan group registering new Georgia voters.

At a press conference in Georgia's state capital yesterday, leaders of the New Georgia Project called on the secretary of state to put registrants on the voter rolls. Our brothers and sisters from Teamsters Local 728 were among the civil rights and religious leaders who attended the event.

Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa, a strong opponent of voter suppression, issued a statement:

We are supposed to be a nation of one person and one vote. But how can that be when citizens trying to exercise their right to vote are being disenfranchised? The state of Georgia is engaging in voter suppression, plain and simple. No matter one’s political affiliation, that is not right and cannot be tolerated. I call on Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp to do his job and process all valid applications so the people’s voice can be heard.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported

The New Georgia Project brought bins holding copies of more than 51,000 unprocessed voter applications to the state Capitol on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014. Secretary of State Brian Kemp has put the group under investigation for alleged voter registration fraud, but group leaders said it was a “witch hunt” to intimidate their efforts...

With the state’s Oct. 6 registration deadline quickly approaching, state House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, D-Atlanta,and more than a dozen civil rights and religious leaders who support the New Georgia Project called on Kemp —the state’s top elections official — to focus on ensuring ballot access to thousands of new voters they and others have signed up this election year. 

Speaking at the state Capitol ahead of the 3 p.m. special meeting of the Georgia Election Board, the leaders stood before 13 plastic bins filled with copies of applications they said have not been processed despite being turned in, in some cases, months ago. 

“You don’t have to wear a hood or be a member of the Ku Klux Klan to be engaged in voter suppression,” said the Rev. Raphael Warnock, the pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. “Mr. Secretary of State, stop this dog and pony show, all these accusations and fear campaigning, and do the job you were [elected] to do.” 

Today's Teamster News 09.18.14

Teamster News
For the First Time in North America, Teamsters Successfully Organize Workers at FedEx Freight  teamster.org   ...In a historic first, dock associates at FedEx Freight in Surrey, British Columbia have joined Teamsters Local 31. Read Teamsters Canada press release, here. It’s a North American first for these workers at FedEx. Before this victory, the only unionized FedEx employees were the company’s U.S.-based pilots...
Oxford schools reach contract with Teamsters  Daily Local News   ...The Oxford Area School District has reached a contract agreement with its service and support staff who are members of Teamsters’ Local 384...
Teamsters Endorse McClain For County Prosecutor  Chinook Observer   ...Teamsters Joint Council No. 28, representing local teamsters throughout Washington, Idaho and Alaska have endorsed Mark McClain for Pacific County prosecutor...
Coroner IDs Security Guard Killed On Set Of TNT’s ‘Falling Skies’  Deadline Hollywood   ...The Teamsters security guard killed Monday in Vancouver on the set of the TNT sci-fi drama Falling Skies has been identified as Amrik Singh Gill, 59, of Delta, BC. Gill was crushed to death when an unattended five-ton truck rolled down a hill and pinned him against a tree...
Trade
U.S. launches antidumping, countervailing duty probe against China’s boltless steel shelving  Trade Reform   ...The investigations are in response to a request from Edsal Manufacturing Company based in the state of Illinois. The company alleged that the products from China were sold below the fair value of the products in the U.S. market with dumping margin of 40 percent to 211 percent, and Chinese producers and exporters also received improper government subsidies...
As President’s Export Council Meets, No Chance to Meet Obama’s Export Doubling Goal; Export Growth Falls Under Free Trade Agreements  Public Citizen   ...Obama’s efforts to push more-of-the-same trade policies has been sidelined by the dismal outcomes of his 2011 U.S.-Korea FTA, with the U.S. goods trade deficit with Korea up 50 percent and U.S. exports to Korea down 5 percent in the first two years of the pact...
Business groups keep passage of fast-track high on list of priorities  The Hill   ...Business Roundtable and the National Association of Manufacturers are among the slew of groups that are aggressively pushing for action on fast-track authority before this Congress closes up shop for the year...
State Battles
State says 25 voter applications of 85,000 “confirmed” forgeries  Atlanta Journal Constitution   ...The New Georgia Project brought bins holding copies of more than 51,000 unprocessed voter applications to the state Capitol on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014. Secretary of State Brian Kemp has put the group under investigation for alleged voter registration fraud, but group leaders said it was a “witch hunt” to intimidate their efforts...
Why Rick Scott Is Facing a Tea Party Revolt in Florida  Mother Jones   ...Scott soon discovered that governing like a tea partier made him one of the nation's most unpopular governors...
A dark-money cloud obscures issues that matter in Michigan  MLive.com   ...through Labor Day, the campaigns for governor and U.S. Senate had spent a total of nearly $30 million on advertising, mostly TV. In both cases, much of the spending is “dark money,” money for so-called issue-based advertising, in which the identity of those paying for the ads can legally be unreported and therefore effectively secret...
Portland Mayor Won’t Push For Higher Minimum Wage For Tipped Workers; Council Could See Proposal Next Month  Bangor Daily News   ...Mayor Michael Brennan last week said a proposed ordinance to raise the minimum wage in the city might be vetted next week by a City Council committee, and could go before the full council for consideration next month...
Virginia Sues 13 Big Banks, Claiming Mortgage Securities Fraud  Washington Post   ...Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring on Tuesday announced a $1.15 billion lawsuit against 13 of the nation’s biggest banks, accusing them of misleading a state retirement fund about the quality of bonds made up of residential mortgages...
Absentee Ballot Mailings Halted In Push To Restart Voter ID Law  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...Local clerks and state elections officials are putting their absentee ballot mailings on hold as they hustle to reinstate Wisconsin's photo ID requirement for voters in the wake of Friday's federal appeals court decision...
New Rules Coming For Uber, Lyft  Memphis Flyer   ...New rules for Lyft and Uber are on the way as the Memphis City Council began formalizing them Tuesday but taxi companies protested that the rules did not go far enough to level the playing field...
War On Workers
Five Years Of Recovery Haven’t Boosted The Median Household Income  FiveThirtyEight   ...The income of the median U.S. household was $51,900 in 2013, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. That’s essentially unchanged from 2012, after adjusting for inflation, and is 8 percent lower than in 2007, before the recession began...
Drowning In Debt, Younger Workers Feeling Disillusioned With American Dream  CBS Detroit   ...“Their unemployment levels are double that of the average, they’re drowning under debt whether it’s credit card debt – just to survive or the debt they accumulated trying to get a college degree and now can’t find a job to pay it off,” said Shuler...
Multinational Companies Court Lower-Income Consumers  New York Times   ...For years, multinational companies had little interest in lower-end consumers, figuring no money was to be made. Now, they are increasingly attractive to all types of industries, from consumer product makers to technology businesses...
Child Laborers. In America. In 2014.  Politico Magazine   ...Lax federal labor laws allow kids as young as 12 to work in tobacco fields, despite mounting evidence that they can contract acute nicotine poisoning from handling tobacco leaves. Even some tobacco growers and companies take the position that U.S. laws and regulations aren’t strong enough...
Worker Killed After Being Electrocuted Under NW OKC House  Newson6.com   ...One person was killed after being accidentally electrocuted while working under a home in northwest Oklahoma City, Wednesday morning...

2014: The year the states began to de-privatize

In 2014, taxpayers began to halt runaway privatization of government services. Maryland's Legislature passed a law banning private contractors from contracting with the state if they broke the law. In Oregon, Nebraska and Connecticut, legislatures passed laws requiring more supervision of private contracts.

Today, dozens of cities, counties and school districts are set to impose more control over private contractors, according to a new report by In The Public Interest.  And a total of 19 states had legislation introduced that would let taxpayers reclaim control of public services.

The rush to privatize government services began in the 1970s with claims the private sector could do it 'better, faster and cheaper,' than the government. But by now citizens are finding out 'privatization' often means private contractors looting the public treasury.

In, Chicago, residents rebelled against the privatization of the city's 36,000 parking meters. According to the Atlantic Monthly,

Parking-meter rates had suddenly gone up as much as fourfold. Some meters jammed and overflowed when they couldn't hold enough change for the new prices. In other areas, new electronic meters had been installed, but many of them didn't give receipts or failed to work entirely. And free parking on Sundays was a thing of the past. 

The new meter regime sparked mass outrage. People held protests and threatened to boycott. But there was little recourse: The city had leased its 36,000 meters to a private Morgan Stanley-led consortium in exchange for $1.2 billion in up-front revenue. The length of the lease: 75 years.

It got worse: an inspector general's report found the city's taxpayers overpaid the Morgan Stanley consortium by $974 million.

Here's another example: 65 percent of state contracts with private prison company CCA guarantee 90 percent of the prison beds will be filled, or the state will pay CCA for the difference.

Teamsters have successfully fought privatization of public services when it will replace Teamsters with low-paid, poorly trained contract workers and higher costs to taxpayers. The Teamsters represent several hundred thousand public sector workers.

The In the Public Interest report describes some sensible proposals to let taxpayers take more control of government spending on private contracts:

• In California, a resolution passed the Assembly that said lawmakers opposed any outsourcing of public services and assets that did not meet standards of transparency, accountability, shared prosperity and competition. 
• In Georgia, a bill was introduced requiring contracts to demonstrate a 10 percent cost savings to taxpayers. Minnesota lawmakers considered a bill to require a 15 percent savings from a private contractor.
• A Tennessee proposal would ban contract language that guarantees corporate profits at taxpayers' expense, including 'lockup quotas.'
• A Vermont will would make it easier for taxpayers to cancel a contract if the company doesn't deliver quality services and cost savings. 
• A West Virginia lawmaker proposed a bill that would ban companies that evade taxes or broke the law from receiving state contracts. It would also require fair pay and reasonable benefits. 

Today's Teamster News 06.21.14

Teamster News
Safety Report On Tracy Morgan Crash Raises New Questions  MSN   ..."The NTSB's preliminary findings in this case clearly show that truck drivers are pushing beyond the limits of the current hours of service rules," Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa said....
Commissioners Approve Employee Communications Consultants In Wake Of Union Petition  The Sentinel   ...The Cumberland County commissioners voted 2-1 Thursday afternoon to approve a contract addendum allowing labor council Campbell, Durrant, Beatty, Palombo & Miller to engage consultants for communications with employees...
Labor Relations Board Judge To Hear Claims Against Rancho Dominguez Trucking Firm  Long Beach Press-Telegram   ...A National Labor Relations Board judge in August will hear allegations by Los Angeles and Long Beach port truck drivers and their supporters that a Rancho Dominguez trucking firm committed more than 50 labor law violations...
Temporary Workers, Paid Sick Days, Back Wages Lead California Labor Priorities  Sacramento Bee   ...Paid sick days. Tougher penalties for employers who withhold back wages. More liability for corporations that use subcontractors. The priority list of organized labor, a formidable force in the Legislature, begins with these three items...
Teamsters: NLRB Complaint Issued Against Green Fleet Systems  teamster.org   ...In a tremendous victory for Los Angeles/Long Beach port truck drivers who have gone on three “Unfair Labor Practice” strikes in the last eleven months, Region 21 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has issued a consolidated complaint alleging a myriad of over 50 egregious labor law violations against one of the larger drayage companies, Green Fleet Systems (GFS) (the company also has operations at the Port of Savannah, Georgia)...
Kraft Foods workers in Avon ratify new contract  Democrat & Chronicle   ...After nearly 13 months of negotiations, members of Teamsters Local 118 have ratified a new four-year contract with Kraft Foods...
Vermont Bus Maintenance Workers Ratify Teamster Contract  teamster.org   ...Maintenance workers in Vermont's Chittenden County bus system have ratified a new contract with Teamsters Local 597...
Trade
Pocan calls for end to Brunei negotiations over new anti-LGBT laws  Gay Politics   ...U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, along with over 100 other House members, called on Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman to stop any further negotiations with the government of on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement until Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah revokes a newly adopted penal code that is in gross violation of human rights...
Dear Defense Contractor CEOs: Why Is the Pentagon Buying Weapons With Chinese Parts Instead of US Parts?  truthout   ...At least 80 of our nation's primary weapon systems wouldn't work at all without Chinese-sourced rare earth materials...
State Battles
Wisconsin Employment Flatlines  Econbrowser   ...State-level employment figures released this morning by the BLS indicate indicate that as US (and regional peer Minnesota) employment powers along, Wisconsin lags. As does Kansas. Hence, the negative correlation between the ALEC-Laffer economic outlook index and actual economic activity persists...
4 Key Takeaways About Scott Walker's Alleged "Criminal Scheme"  Mother Jones   ...Prosecutors are probing whether Walker and two of his aides illegally coordinated with outside groups—including the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity—to fend off a wave of recall elections in 2011 and 2012...
It's Official. Big Food Sues Vermont  truthout   ...Monsanto and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) filed a lawsuit in federal the U.S. District Court, State of Vermont, to overturn Vermont’s recently passed GMO labeling law...
Audit finds 'intentional misuse' of funds by Elevate Ventures  Indianapolis Business Journal   ...The Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Treasury Department says Elevate Ventures “intentionally misused” almost $500,000 in taxpayer funds when the state contractor invested in a company run by its board chairman...
SEC Charges Private Equity Firm With Pay-to-Play Violations Involving Political Campaign Contributions in Pennsylvania  SEC   ...The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a Philadelphia-area private equity firm with violating “pay-to-play” rules by continuing to receive advisory fees from the city and state pension funds following campaign contributions made by an associate in 2011 to the governor of Pennsylvania and a candidate for mayor of Philadelphia...
Keurig and Coca-Cola Brew Jobs in Georgia  manufacture this   ...The two beverage companies will create 550 new jobs in Douglasville, Georgia (a suburb of Atlanta) and invest $337 million into the facility in the next five years. The new manufacturing center will produce pods for the company’s new Keurig Cold Platform...
War On Workers
Supreme Court Gives Public Workers 1st Amendment Shield  Los Angeles Times   ...The Supreme Court shielded public employees from being fired or disciplined if they testify in court against their superiors, ruling Thursday that the 1st Amendment protects citizens who are called upon to tell the truth...
Local cops can track your phone, and the government doesn’t want you to know how  Columbia Journalism Review   ...Police departments around the country increasingly are using sophisticated technology to surveil American citizens by monitoring cellphone data, in many cases carefully hiding those activities from the public and the press...
Miscellaneous
The Dead-End Of Financialization: Innovation Is Slumping For A Reason  David Stockman's Contra Corner   ...monetary policy is not neutral as proclaimed, but rather ... there are innumerable and immeasurable changes due to persistent monetary intrusions that depress economic potential ... The fullest expression of that is the complete infiltration of “easy money” as an expectation – it erodes everything from what we expect from stocks (doubling your money every year is normal!) to actual work ethic (“put your money to work”) to resource allocation (day traders and house flippers, not to mention Wall Street mathematicians and lawyers, rather than industrial entrepreneurs)...

Today's Teamster News 05.18.14

Trade
TPP ministers to seek progress in Singapore but deal unlikely  global post   ...Hopes have grown that talks for an ambitious Pacific trade deal will advance when ministers from 12 countries gather in Singapore on Monday and Tuesday after Japan and the United States moved closer on thorny issues, but observers say reaching a broad deal at the upcoming meeting is unlikely...
Brussels authorities help silence opposition to the ‘Great Transatlantic Market’ (TTIP)  The Economic Voice   ...over a thousand people were in the streets of Brussels, attempting to peacefully protest against austerity and the proposed great transatlantic market (TTIP) which were being discussed in the absence of citizens at the European Business Summit. In an unprovoked move 281 people were violently arrested said the Corporate Europe Observatory, including Belgian and European parliamentarians and candidates, senior trade union officials, farmers and many elderly citizens...
State Battles
In Georgia, Lawmakers Taking Pride in Policies That Hurt the Poor  Next New Deal   ...lawmakers in Georgia have been systematically dismantling the state’s social safety net. Of the 300,000 Georgian families living below the poverty line, only 19,000 receive TANF and more than three quarters of those cases involve children only. That means that fewer than seven percent of low-income Georgians are able to get the welfare assistance they badly need...
‘Right-to-work’ is actually just a right to freeload  The Athens News   ...But why should they bother with the transparent ruse of right-to-work laws when they can just offer legislation to ban unions? That's what they really want...
Come to North Dakota for the paycheck, lose your life  Los Angeles Times   ...The state had the highest rate of worker fatalities in the nation--17.7 per 100,000 workers, or more than five times the national average. The union calculated the toll as "one of the highest state job fatality rates ever reported for any state," and observed that it had more than doubled from the rate in 2007...
ALEC fires back, but proves its 'pro-business' state index is bogus  Los Angeles Times   ...Plainly stung by the chorus of ridicule that has greeted their latest attempt to paint anti-union policies and tax cuts for the rich as pathways to economic nirvana, the folks at the American Legislative Exchange Council have struck back with a "response to the critics..."
War on Workers
A guide to the VA health care controversy  Washington Post   ...Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki faced tough questions from a Senate panel Thursday about the state of his department after allegations that some VA health clinics have cooked their books to cover up treatment delays...
The Deep Roots of Skilled Labor Shortages: Anti-Union, Anti-Worker Corporations  Economic Policy Institute   ...Oil giants like Chevron can afford to have their construction contractors pay well for skilled work, but they resist. Organizations they fund, such as the Business Roundtable, have led a decades-long campaign to weaken or destroy the building trades unions that actually train the greatest number of skilled tradesmen. Chevron, Koch Industries, ExxonMobil and many other energy industry corporations fund the American Legislative Exchange Council and its legislative efforts to kill unions and eliminate labor standards...
G.M. Is Fined Over Safety and Called a Lawbreaker  New York Times   ...Saying that safety practices at General Motors were “broken,” federal regulators on Friday imposed the biggest punishment they could on the automaker and condemned it over its failure to promptly report a defect that G.M. has linked to 13 deaths...
GM suggested engineers avoid ‘judgment words’ like ‘death trap,’ ‘grenade-like’  Politico Pro   ...GM told engineers to avoid using dozens of words when communicating about vehicle problems that could potentially lead to recalls, including everything from “safety” to “Kevorkianesque...”
Shocker: Cable TV prices went up four times the rate of inflation  ars technica   ...US homes on average receive 189.1 cable TV channels and only watch 17.5 of them...
Wal-Mart Says It Won't Oppose Increase in Minimum Wage  Wall Street Journal   ...Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it wouldn't oppose an increase in the federal minimum wage, its most explicit comment yet on the controversial debate to move past the $7.25-an-hour minimum...
Miscellaneous
Over 3000 Chinese Evacuated (By Boat & Plane) As Vietnam's Anti-China Riots Escalate; Taiwan Also On "High Alert"  zero hedge   ...China began evacuating hundreds of its nationals from Vietnam (via at least 2 planes and 5 ships) as the anti-China protests have become increasingly deadly following Beijing's attempt to deploy an oil drill in Vietnamese dispuited waters...

Today's Teamster News 02.23.14

Teamster News
Horse and Carriage Controversy Threatens Small Carriage Owners  Small Business Trends   ...for the moment, city council seems to have stopped the mayor in his tracks and the issue has yet to even make it to the council’s agenda...
Mayor de Blasio Says He'll Visit NYC Stables Before Banning Horse Carriages  New York Daily News   ...Facing criticism for not visiting stables before banning the horse and carriage industry, Mayor de Blasio Thursday promised to go and see the animals in their home environment - but insisted it wouldn’t change his mind...
Georgia: Government Not by the People or for the People  AFL-CIO   ...The Georgia House Committee on Industry and Labor voted on a straight party line to move forward a bill that would make contract employees of private companies that work with schools ineligible for unemployment benefits...
State Battles
Scott Walker urged county staff, campaign aides to promote him online  Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel   ... In the heat of the 2010 governor's race, Scott Walker urged both county employees and campaign aides to go to news websites and post comments promoting him and his record, newly unsealed documents show. It was just such anonymous posts by a county worker on campaign issues that prompted prosecutors to expand a secret "John Doe" investigation — launched to probe into missing money in a veterans fund — to also examine whether taxpayer dollars were being used illegally to finance political operations...
Wis. Assembly ends government minimum wage  WMTV   ...Assembly Republicans have approved a bill ending minimum wage mandates for local government workers and contractors in Madison and Milwaukee...
Delaware considers banning the box  Newsworks   ...Delaware is considering a statewide "ban the box" bill that would remove the criminal history check-off box from state, county and city jobs, among other public agencies...
Ga. Senate OKs bill to privatize some state child welfare services; bill now heads to House  Associated Press   ...Democrats opposed the bill, arguing the reforms wouldn't address the underlying issues in those deaths, or improve the system...
Idaho gov orders police to investigate CCA prison  Associated Press   ...Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter has ordered the state police to conduct a criminal investigation of understaffing and falsified documents at a private prison operated by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA)...
Legislative Update 2.21.14  Indiana AFL-CIO   ...House Bill 1126 was amended significantly on Wednesday. As amended the legislation no longer allows employers to charge employees for “use” of equipment. The bill now only allows employers the ability to garnish up to $2,500 per year from an employee’s paycheck for the “purchase” of equipment or uniforms. Measures were also adopted to limit the amount of wages that could be deducted per pay check; cap the interest rate employers can charge employees who purchase uniforms or equipment through the company; ban employers from requiring prospective employees to pay for training as a condition of employment and; restores some protections against wage theft...
Speak Up For Free Speech  Michigan AFL-CIO   ...The Michigan House of Representatives are taking up House Bill 4643 that creates civil fines of up to $10,000 per day for picketing...Labor Labor unions push back against Right to Work efforts in Missouri, Pennsylvania  Beverly Hills Courier   ...The efforts are from Republicans and, as they have in the past, they are ramping up the rhetoric while promoting new rounds of Right to Work bills, commonly referred to as “Paycheck Protection” legislation in those respective states...
Fighting wage theft is pro-business  Washington State Legislative Update   ...the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives has passed four bills designed to discourage wage theft, level the playing field for honest employers, and recover state revenue lost due to the deliberate misclassification of workers as independent contractors...
Trade
Fast-track foes say they’re winning  Politico Pro   ...The anti-fast-track coalition includes many labor, environmental and consumer groups that are veterans of trade battles over the last 20 years...
Administration Desperate to Announce Deal at TPP Ministerial, But What Is a Real Deal?  Public Citizen   ...“There is a sense that whether or not any real deal is finalized, there may be an announcement of one, if only to portray the talks as not unraveling despite growing opposition to the TPP in some of the countries involved,”...
Zombies’ protest against TPPA  The Malaysian Insider   ...A group of “zombies” attracted the attention of passers-by outside a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur where they gathered today to protest against the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) that Putrajaya is keen to sign...
The War on Workers
Change the Rules on Secret Money (opinion)  New York Times   ...Secret money has become the scourge of the political system and needs to be eliminated regardless of the inconvenience to nonprofit groups, whatever their ideology. Republicans have blocked Congress from dealing with the problem, so now it is up to the I.R.S. to do its job...
The Increasingly Unequal States of America  Economic Policy Institute   ...In four states (Nevada, Wyoming, Michigan, and Alaska), only the top 1 percent experienced rising incomes between 1979 and 2007, and the average income of the bottom 99 percent fell...
When Millennials Can't Move Out of Their Parents' Basements the Entire Economy Suffers  New Republic   ...The recent explosion in student debt—now held by one in five U.S. households—coincided with the Great Recession’s awful job market. Millennials have come of age amid stagnant wages, high unemployment, a lack of quality jobs (44 percent of recent graduates work in positions that don’t require a college degree), and, for those fortunate enough to attend college, an average of nearly $30,000 in debt...
Banks Fight Revised U.S. Plan to Monitor Checking Overdraft Fees  Bloomberg   ...U.S. banks are seeking to shield from scrutiny the $30 billion they collect annually in checking-account fees, saying a proposed requirement for periodic reports is unacceptable even if it exempts small institutions...

Today's Teamster News 02.09.14

Horse Hockey  New York Post   ...If Mayor de Blasio insists on destroying a world-renowned tourist attraction that provides livelihoods for a few hundred workers, the least he can do is act openly and through the law...
Privately employed seasonal workers fight to keep unemployment benefits  CBS Atlanta   ...A Georgia House committee, however, approved a bill that would eliminate benefits for Brooks and about 60,000 other seasonal workers...
The Prosecution That Isn’t Happening  Baseline Scenario   ...So why isn’t anyone going after Lloyd Blankfein, Angelo Mozilo (for something other than dumping his own Countrywide stock), Jamie Dimon, or any of the other CEOs who, at best, were unaware that their lieutenants and foot soldiers were ripping off their clients?...
Another Drag on the Post-Recession Economy: Public-Sector Wages  Economic Policy Institute   ...public-sector wages have fallen by about 1.3 percent in inflation-adjusted terms since 2007, where private-sector wages have been essentially flat (an increase of 0.3 percent)...state and local government austerity has been a major drag on job growth and the broader economy...
FLUSH THE TPP! Or, How I Came To Hate The Trans Pacific Partnership Deal  IndyBay   ...Want to eat poisoned food or triple your medication costs? TPP will do that...
STUDY: Media Leave Viewers In The Dark About Trans-Pacific Partnership  Media Matters   ...Over The Past Six Months, Network Evening News Shows Have Completely Ignored The TPP...
The lawless 'end of the land' (opinion)  CNN   ...There are many reasons Alaska's rates of violence against women are thought to be so high -- from the long, dark winters to the culture of silence and the history of colonization. But the most tangible reason is this: Much of Alaska is basically lawless...
Malloy Wants Highest-In-Land Minimum Wage For CT  Hartford Courant   ...now the Democratic governor is leading the charge to raise the hourly rate...
Scott unveils $74.2 billion budget  Tallahassee.com   ...He also proposed privatizing custodial services in state buildings, overhauling health-insurance benefits for state workers, and paying bonuses to high-performing employees in state government...
Indiana Legislative Update 2.7.14  AFL-CIO   ...Of major concern is House Bill 1126, which will be heard by the Senate Pensions and Labor Committee on Wednesday morning. If this legislation becomes law it will bring back company stores by allowing employers to charge employees up to $2,500 a year for “purchase” or “use” of uniforms or equipment necessary to do their jobs...
Maine Unions Pan Gov's "Open for Business Zones" Plan  Maine Public Radio   ...Gov. Paul LePage surprised Democrats and Republicans alike in his State of the State address Tuesday night with a plan to attract large employers to Maine. … Successful firms would be entitled to discounted electricity rates, tax breaks and a union-free work force...
Working Families United for New Jersey, Inc. Launches Statewide Campaign in Support of Earned Sick Time  Working Families United for New Jersey   ...The campaign will seek to educate the public and elected officials about the importance of establishing an earned sick time policy for workers - a policy that brings social and economic justice to the workplace...
Push to increase minimum wage gains momentum  West Virginia Gazette   ...As more and more states vote to increase the minimum wage, some say the time is right for West Virginia to do so, as well...
W. Va. House Passes Bill to Prevent Discrimination Against Pregnant Women In The Workforce  West Virginia Public Broadcasting   ...On Wednesday the House passed bill 4284, also known as the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. The bill’s purpose would be to prevent discrimination against pregnant women in the workplace…
Snowden Used Low-Cost Tool to Best N.S.A.  New York Times   ... Intelligence officials investigating how Edward J. Snowden gained access to a huge trove of the country’s most highly classified documents say they have determined that he used inexpensive and widely available software to “scrape” the National Security Agency’s networks, and kept at it even after he was briefly challenged by agency officials...
More than 4,000 groups sign up to protest the NSA  PC World   ...More than 4,000 groups and websites have signed on to support a day of protest against U.S. National Security Agency surveillance programs, scheduled for Tuesday...
Fake-food scandal revealed as tests show third of products mislabelled  The Guardian   ...(British) Consumers are being sold food including mozzarella that is less than half real cheese, ham on pizzas that is either poultry or "meat emulsion", and frozen prawns that are 50% water, according to tests by a public laboratory.

Iron Mountain workers defy threats, join Teamsters

Welcome to our 24 new Teamster brothers and sisters from who drive shredder trucks for Iron Mountain. They overcame threats and intimidation to join Teamsters Local 728.

The drivers voted today because they want a share in the billions of dollars of profit the company is making. One worker said they are choosing to go union because the company is making changes and all the workers see is more work, with new deadlines and quotes.

Teamsters Local 728 organizer Ben Speight tweeted:

...these brothers stood strong and united today! Proud to be a TEAMSTER!

The new Iron Mountain Teamsters stood up to anti-union lectures, intimidation, threats and the firing of a pro-union worker. A worker recorded one anti-union lecture and shared it with Josh Eidelson at Salon. 

One recording captures a manager telling an activist worker one-on-one, “There’s nothing I don’t know,” “There’s no secrets anymore,” and “I am upset with you personally” for pursuing unionization without telling him. The other captures the same manager telling a group of employees in an Oct. 24 meeting,"We have the right to educate you, and we’re gonna exercise that right.”...

Workers told Eidelson the company's managers are constantly harassing them not to unionize.

Well, they did and we're proud to call them brother and sister. Welcome to the Teamsters!

Another ALEC rep could be in trouble -- in Texas!

ALEC rep. Stephanie Klick

Stephanie Klick, a Texas state representative, doesn't think she needs to obey state open records laws when it comes to her dealings with ALEC. Unfortunately for Rep. Klick, Texas' attorney general thinks she needs to obey the law.

The Center for Media and Democracy asked Rep. Klick for records of her communications with ALEC, the corporate dating service for state lawmakers. That apparently unnerved Klick, because she asked the attorney general if she could keep her records secret. She argued that her dealings with corporate lobbyists could be withheld from the public because of her right to freedom of association and something called "deliberative privilege."

Attorney General Greg Abbott didn't buy it. Neither did the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which editorialized:

...she shouldn’t keep her correspondence a secret. As the preamble to the Texas Public Information Act says, the people delegate authority to make laws, but they “do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know.”

Klick isn't the first state lawmaker to stonewall requests for information about ties to ALEC. The Center for Media and Democracy is suing Wisconsin state Sen. Leah Vukmir, ALEC's treasurer, for hiding documents sent from ALEC to legislators.

Another ALEC front, Georgia state Sen. Don Balfour, was indicted recently on 18 counts of corruption.

(No one, by the way, should be surprised at corruption charges against state lawmakers who take money from ALEC to travel to posh resorts where they meet corporate donors.)

Lisa Graves, executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy, came up with the best description of why Rep. Klick couldn't get away with hiding her dealings with ALEC.

You cannot just create a special private club between lobbyists and lawmakers and then claim your communications with legislators cannot be disclosed to the public under state sunshine laws.

Exactly.

Teamster strike against Bill Gates' sanitation co. spreads to 6 cities in OH and GA

Republic Teamsters striking in McDonough, Ga. today

Hundreds more Teamsters today are refusing to cross picket lines extended to six -- count 'em, six -- Republic Services/Allied Waste facilities by 23 striking workers at Republic's Carbon Limestone landfill in Youngstown. They're protesting the company's violations of federal labor law and intimidation of workers.

The picket lines were extended to six Republic locations in five Ohio cities early this morning even as Teamsters at Republic's McDonough, Ga., hauling yard went on strike.

According to the press statement,

The 23 landfill workers, members of Teamsters Local Union 377 in Youngstown, went on an unfair labor practice strike on March 27. 

Close to 600 drivers, helpers and mechanics at Republic’s Youngstown, Columbus, Canton, Elyria and Cleveland hauling yards are refusing to cross the picket lines. The drivers, helpers and mechanics honoring the lines are members of Teamsters Local Unions 377, 284, 92, 20, 244 and 964, respectively. These workers have the legal right to refuse to cross picket lines in support of striking workers at other Republic locations.  

Thousands of Teamsters have now refused to cross picket lines Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and California in support of Local 377's 2-1/2 week strike against Republic. The company's largest shareholder by far is trash tycoon Bill Gates. Though Gates tries to improve his reputation by giving money to improve sanitation overseas, he's reaping enormous profit from a sanitation company with an abysmal environmental record.

Teamster brothers from Local 377, on strike in
Youngstown for 2-1/2 weeks

Gates' labor record at Republic isn't much better. Over the past year, Republic/Allied Waste has forced multiple lockouts and strikes, disrupting trash collection for hundreds of thousands of people across the United States and putting communities at risk. Republic earned profits of more than $572 million in 2012.

The 40 Teamsters employed by Republic in Georgia are striking because Republic broke federal labor laws. The press statement says:

Republic broke federal law when it fired a worker because of his support for the union. The company also broke federal law when it stopped paying drivers for time they work while returning their trucks to the yard.

Randy Brown is president of Teamsters Local 728, which represents the Georgia workers:

Republic Services is one of the most abusive corporations I’ve encountered. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born here in Atlanta, but Republic will not give its workers in McDonough Martin Luther King Day as a paid holiday. This group of workers is 90 percent African-American and have seen no wage increases for four years despite Republic making more than a half a billion dollars in profit each year.

Teamster solidarity is inspiring workers throughout the company to stand together. Renard Henley, a

At Republic's Youngstown
hauling yard

residential driver in McDonough, Ga., said:

I'm on strike because this giant waste corporation thinks it can get away with breaking the law to intimidate us and bully us, and cheat us out of pay for time that we worked. We organized and chose to be represented by the Teamsters in 2011, but the company refuses to bargain in good faith with us for a fair contract. I’ve been talking with other workers on the Facebook page, and we have been following the Youngstown strike closely. We have all had enough of the company’s greed.

In January many of us had to take the day off unpaid to march in the annual Martin Luther King Jr. day march in Atlanta. We marched alongside our colleagues who work for Republic in Memphis, and it became clear very quickly that we all needed to come together as one to be able to stand up to this corporation. Republic’s bullying will end because we, the workers, will stand up as long as it takes to stop it.

Darrell Zeh, a landfill worker and member o Teamsters Local 377 in Youngstown, said he's sick of the $8 billion company breaking the law to bully its own workers.

I've picketed now in three other cities and the support has been overwhelming. Everyone seems to be fed up with this corporation's greed.

Paul Auxer, a driver at Republic’s hauling yard in Columbus, said:

When I started talking to my colleagues from other cities, we realized that Republic treats workers this way everywhere. 

We go on the Facebook page and share photos and stories with each other, and lots of them are asking when it’s going to be their turn to go out. We’ll be out here as long as we need to be. When Round 2 comes – if it comes to that – we’ll be out here again supporting my brothers and sisters however it’s needed.

Now that's some real Teamster solidarity.

This morning in Columbus at Republic.

Great coverage of GA Teamsters organizing the unorganized

Georgia Teamsters in Local 728 are doing a great job organizing the unorganized even in a No Rights At Work state.

About 70 DeKalb County sanitation workers showed up on Tuesday at a County Commission meeting to demand a union. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported:

The turnout of workers in their neon yellow safety shirts — some taking a break from work — was just a fraction of the 411 employees who have petitioned commissioners to recognize Teamsters Local 728, an existing union in the region that DeKalb’s sanitation workers wish to join. Some invoked the (Rev. Martin Luther) King in explaining their main concerns: safety and dignity on the job. 

“I know most people don’t think about the trash when they put it out in the morning, because it’s gone when they come home,” said Angelo Williams, a driver who has worked for DeKalb for more than 12 years. “We do an excellent job in DeKalb. But we need an advocate so we can safely continuously serve this county.”...

It looks as if they'll get what they want:

DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis, who attended Tuesday’s meeting, acknowledged the difficult work during brief comments to workers. Ellis reminded the workers that he had ordered his administrators to allow unionizing efforts and said there would be no repercussions against workers who were involved in the initiative. 

Commissioners, too, said they supported the right to join a union. The real hurdle: the legal question of how to allow union membership while honoring a local law that does not allow dues to be automatically deducted from employee pay. 

Working out that process could take months. So, too, could the separate question of one-time raises for the lowest-paid county workers, including haulers who can earn as little as $20,000 a year. 

Stand strong and stand together!

Police restrain hungry Americans as food loaded into dumpsters

WJBF-TV ABC 6  Augusta-Aiken News, Weather, Sports

In a scene reminiscent of a Dickens' novel, police recently held back poor, hungry Georgians as the bank-owned contents of a supermarket were dumped into the garbage.

SunTrust evicted the owner of Laney's supermarket from the building it owned, according to WJBF News. On March 23, poor community members helped remove the contents of the building and clean it up. The store owner told them they could help themselves to anything. Then, this:

Tuesday afternoon, hundreds of people were waiting outside of Laney Supermarket... all hoping to stuff garbage bags with free food. The merchandise was piled up outside of the building after the store owner was evicted early Tuesday morning. But before anyone could grab anything, the Sheriff showed up. 

"The normal process is once law enforcement leaves, it becomes public property. But again, with 400 people out with items such as these. These were brand new items from the store. We saw that the potential for a riot was extremely high," says Sheriff Richard Roundtree.

Umm...so you mitigate the possibility of a riot by taking food from hungry people and throwing it into a dumpster?

Global Research suggests the real reason they threw the food away: SunTrust ordered it.

Teresa Russell, chief deputy of the Marshal’s Office in Richmond County, said the owner of the building ordered that the food be taken to the landfill.

By the way we just love what SunTrust says about "supporting our communities:"

At SunTrust we believe that philanthropy is essential to building and sustaining our communities. Our mission to help people and institutions prosper demonstrates the importance of philanthropy to our business...SunTrust and our teammates deliver the promise behind our brand.

Some promise.

Today's Teamster News 04.05.13

Obama Budget Reviving Offer of Compromise With Cuts  New York Times   ...President Obama next week will take the political risk of formally proposing cuts to Social Security and Medicare in his annual budget in an effort to demonstrate his willingness to compromise with Republicans and revive prospects for a long-term deficit-reduction deal...
Seattle Times columnist: "Uncle Sam wearing a 'kick me' sign."  manufacture this   ..."The decline of American manufacturing was not an act of God or even a result of that murky word “globalization.” It has followed bad trade deals and Uncle Sam wearing a “kick me” sign while nations from China to Japan and Germany protected their manufacturing sectors..."
Banks are not complying with mortgage settlement, survey finds  Los Angeles Times   ...Banks aren't living up to pledges they made in last year's landmark government settlement of mortgage servicing and foreclosure abuses, according to an advocacy group's survey of California housing counselors and lawyers...
Efforts to Deliver 'Kill Shot' to Paid Sick Leave Tied to ALEC  Huffington Post   ...Corporate-backed bills have passed at the state level in Wisconsin, Louisiana, and Mississippi that would preempt (or as one GOP operative put it, "deliver the kill shot" to) local paid sick leave laws. Similar bills are on the legislative docket in Florida, Arizona, Indiana, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Washington...
Judicial Amendments And The Attack On Worker Rights  Truthout   ...Labor activists regularly bemoan the weak state of the NLRA - the National Labor Relations Act. Many of them think that Congress enacted the NLRA with remedies and rights that, from the beginning, were too weak to protect employees who tried to organize unions and bargain collectively. However, that is not the case...
State to Pay Millions in Denied Jobless Benefits  Atlanta Journal-Constitution   ...Georgia will pay more than $8 million in unemployment benefits to more than 4,000 seasonally jobless workers who were denied payments last year by the commissioner of labor, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned...
Judge chides Republican legislators for right-to-work laws  Detroit Free Press   ...Ingham County Circuit Judge William Collette took a verbal shot Wednesday at the Legislature over Michigan's new right-to-work laws, saying he was "amazed" legislators would create laws "to avoid me..."
Detroit union contracts will be honored under emergency manager  Detroit Free Press   ...Bing's labor relations director, Lamont Satchel, told the Free Press that earlier reports saying Detroit would no longer honor labor contracts with police and fire unions were incorrect...
The Outskirts of Hope: How Ohio’s Debtors’ Prisons Are Ruining Lives and Costing Communities  ACLU   ...The stark reality is that, in 2013, Ohioans are being repeatedly jailed
simply for being too poor to pay fines...
N.H. Drops Effort to Privatize Prisons  Concord Monitor   ...The state announced yesterday that it has dropped its bid to privatize the state’s prisons because none of the four companies that wanted the job showed they could meet court-ordered requirements for inmate care. The private prison companies also proposed wages and benefits that are half what security staff at the prisons earn now...
Fact Check Shows Self Serving Scott Walker Editorial Ignores Reality  Green Bay Progressive   ...Presidential candidate Scott Walker published a self-serving editorial today about his budget in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that was constituted of evasions, misrepresentations and outright fibs...
Teamsters At Republic Services/Allied Waste Extend Picket Lines To California   IBT    ...Workers on strike at Republic Services/Allied Waste extended picket lines to five Northern California locations today, on the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., who was killed in Memphis supporting striking waste workers...
BLET Official Gives Rail Perspective On Sequester  IBT   ...John Tolman, BLET Vice President and National Legislative Representative, spoke recently with America’s Workforce Radio about the effects of the sequester on rail employees...
Cincinnati Coca Cola Workers Join Teamsters  IBT   ...Employees of Coca Cola in the greater Cincinnati area working in the Vending Service Department recently joined Teamsters Local 1199...

Woot! Paycheck deception, picket restrictions ruled unconstitutional in Ariz.

Call it ALEC overreach.

A federal judge ruled earlier this week that two anti-worker laws in Arizona are unconstitutional. One restricts picketing, which the judge ruled infringes on the right of free speech. The other forbids some employers from honoring employees' requests to have their union dues deducted from their paychecks (also known as paycheck deception). That violates the right to equal protection under the law, the judge found.

Both of these laws are linked to ALEC, the escort service for corporations and state lawmakers that's supported by the Benedict Arnold Koch brothers. Paycheck deception and picketing restrictions have been introduced in other states. The Missouri Legislature, for example, is moving a paycheck deception bill that Gov. Jay Nixon is expected to veto. Georgia's Legislature tried to pass a restriction on picketing last year, but failed.

Efforts to roll back ALEC-inspired anti-worker bills are succeeding in other states for the same reasons cited by the judge in Arizona. Wisconsin Job-killer Gov. Scott Walker's union-busting Act 10 has been partially struck down (for now at least) on the grounds of free speech and equal protection under the law. Legal questions are being raised about equal protection under Michigan's No Rights At Work law because it doesn't affect all employees.

KFYI News tells us more about the Arizona cases:

Senate Bill 1365 required employee consent before their employer could deduct money from their paychecks for "political purposes" including lobbying. Judge Murray Snow found the law was unconstitutional because it exempted public safety unions, which the bill's sponsor, former Republican Sen. Frank Antenori, said he had done because public safety unions told him they operate differently from most other unions. 

SB 1365 never took effect because it was put on hold due to the lawsuit against it.  The other measure, SB 1363, limited picketing by striking workers.  Judge Snow ruled that the law limited free speech. 

According to a Pennsylvania brother, these Koch-sponsored anti-worker laws aren't just unconstitutional. They're sinful and evil.

We're inclined to agree.

Today's Teamster News 03.27.13

Real wages decline; literally no one notices  Angry Bear   ...Real wages fell 0.2% in 2012, down from $295.49 (1982-84 dollars) to $294.83 per week, according to the 2013 Economic Report of the President….Yet no one in the media noticed, or at least none thought it newsworthy...
Has trade weighed down wages?  manufacture this   ... trade with less-developed countries lowered wages in 2011 by roughly $1,800 for a full-time, full-year worker earning the average wage for employees without a four-year college degree...
Store Charges Browsing Customers $5 'Just Looking' Fee  Daily Finance   ...A store in Australia is apparently taking an extreme approach to eliminating showrooming, alerting would-be customers that they'll be charged $5 if they come in to browse but don't buy anything...
Customers Flee Wal-Mart Empty Shelves for Target, Costco  Bloomberg   ...Wal-Mart doesn’t have enough bodies to restock the shelves, according to interviews with store workers. In the past five years, the world’s largest retailer added 455 U.S. Wal-Mart stores, a 13 percent increase ... In the same period, its total U.S. workforce, which includes Sam’s Club employees, dropped by about 20,000, or 1.4 percent...
Wal-Mart sues grocery union, others over trespassing in Florida  Reuters   ...Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) has sued a major grocery workers union and others who have protested at its Florida stores, the latest salvo in its legal fight to stop "disruptive" rallies in and around its stores by groups seeking better pay and working conditions...
The Lesson From Cyprus: Europe Is Politically Bankrupt  The Automatic Earth   ...people from Portugal to Spain to Italy to Greece to Cyprus and Ireland are worse off today than they were when they first adopted the euro. Moreover, their economies are all getting worse as we speak and projected to plunge further...
Europe Expands Investigation Into Derivatives Market  New York Times   ...European Union antitrust regulators have expanded their investigation into whether a small network of big banks unfairly controls the derivatives market...
US military veterans face inadequate care after returning from war – report  Guardian   ...Almost half of the 2.2 million troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan report difficulties on their return home, but many receive inadequate care from the US Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs...
Paycheck protection bill: Measure hurts unions, working families (LTE)  News-Leader  ...The paycheck deception bill aims to strip away (Missouri) public sector workers’ right to choose whether or not to have union dues automatically deducted from their paychecks, and it would infringe on these workers’ freedom of speech by making contributing to a political fund more difficult...
Montana Senate backs bill requiring 'dark money' groups to ID donors  Missoulian   ...The Senate, in a vote Monday that exposed the split among Republicans, endorsed an overhaul of Montana’s campaign finance law to require anonymous “dark money” political groups to disclose their donors...
Senate GOP pushes union dues, unemployment changes  Associated Press   ...The Georgia business lobby won another victory as the Senate approved a change on paycheck deductions for union dues and limited unemployment benefits for certain temporary workers...
Proposed Income Tax Cut Likely to Hurt, Rather than Help Wisconsin Economy  Wisconsin Budget Project Blog   ...n the 1990s, the five states with the deepest tax cuts grew at less than a third the rate of all the other states over the next economic cycle...
Kasich signs SB 47, starts clock for opponents to shut down bill  Plain Dealer   ...Gov. John Kasich signed legislation Friday that would make it harder for Ohio voters to repeal laws. Now the clock is ticking for opponents who could void the controversial bill...

Today's Teamster News 01.17.13

Obama Warned On Social Security Reform By House Democrats   Huffington Post   ...White House Press Secretary Jay Carney recently said the president would be open to implementing chained Consumer Price Index (CPI), which would alter the annual adjustment in how benefits are paid to Social Security recipients by using a less generous baseline of inflation...
Equal Opportunity, Our National Myth (opinion)  New York Times   ...Today, the United States has less equality of opportunity than almost any other advanced industrial country...
Financial Crisis Cost Tops $22 Trillion, GAO Says  Huffington Post   ...The agency said the financial crisis toll on economic output may be as much as $13 trillion -- an entire year's gross domestic product. The office said paper wealth lost by U.S. homeowners totalled $9.1 billion. Additionally, the GAO noted, economic losses associated with increased mortgage foreclosures and higher unemployment since 2008 need to be considered as additional costs...
Kansas's Renewable Portfolio Standard Is Under Attack  Natural Resources Defense Council   ...the 19 wind farms currently operating in the state have created more than 12,300 jobs for Kansas citizens, $13.7 million in payments to landowners annually, and $10.4 million in contributions to communities each year. And, according to the Kansas Corporate Commission (Kansas’s public utilities commission), all this has been achieved without any significant increases in electricity costs for ratepayers...
Vorys: John Kasich’s sales tax expansion “a nightmare” for Ohio businesses  Plunderbund   ...“This tax expansion will hit Ohio businesses most directly and hardest.”...
Walker’s budget calls for selling state properties  Channel 3000   ...Walker spokeswoman Jocelyn Webster says proceeds will be used to pay off debt on the properties and raise $200 million to pay for renovations on Milwaukee's Zoo Interchange...
Assembly to drop fundraising prohibition during budget-writing process  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...The vote was taken not in front of television cameras but by a paper ballot with minimal public notice - a growing practice in the Legislature in recent years...
Georgia ALEC/Chamber Puppets Try to Wipe Out Labor (AGAIN)  Daily Kos   ...The minions of ALEC and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce are once again trying double down on "Right to work for less" laws in Georgia by introducing "the son of SB 469" dubbed House Bill 361...
Teamsters union again seeking AA mechanics' vote  Tulsa World   ...The Teamsters Union, which represents about 18,000 airline mechanics at 10 carriers, says it has nearly enough cards signed to bring a representation dispute to the National Labor Relations Board...