Teamsters
Hoffa: No Time To Waste In Letting Public, Lawmakers Know About Fast Track Huffington Post ...congressional leaders want to move on fast track, and soon. That means those standing up for the interests of hardworking Americans must step up their efforts. After all, not everyone is aware of the consequences that a quick up-or-down vote on the 12-nation Pacific Rim trade deal will bring. It will devastate not only wage earners, but their families as well...
Teamsters Score Second Drayage Victory Journal of Commerce ...The Teamsters are gaining more traction in their attempt to unionize Southern California drayage truckers after drivers at an SSA Marine subsidiary chose a union local as their exclusive bargaining representative...
Open For Business Journal of Commerce ...The U.S. Department of Transportation’s decision to finally open the border to Mexican trucking companies — a stipulation of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement stymied by opponents for two decades — resolves none of the political controversy over allowing Mexican trucks on U.S. highways and still faces severe political backlash from critics, including the Teamsters union...
Trade
Protests As Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks Resume In New York Today Crooks & Liars ...Negotiators working on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) convened today in New York City. Even the location was kept secret until the last possible minute, but hundreds of trade, labor, environmental, health, communities of color, anti-GMO and food justice, anti-fracking, animal and other activists still showed up in the big blizzard to protest the secret trade agreement and "fast track" trade promotion authority (TPA)...
U.S. says final contours of Pacific trade pact coming into focus Reuters …The final form of an ambitious Pacific trade pact is coming into focus, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said on Tuesday as he urged Congress get behind the U.S. trade agenda...
The TPP Will Sink the Middle Class Thom Hartmann …we now know that the TPP would give big pharmaceutical companies virtual monopoly patent power, let corporations sue countries in international courts over regulations that those corporations don’t like, and gut environmental and financial rules.
The One Power Democrats Don’t Want Obama To Have The Hill ...Democrats and some Republicans are adamant that trade promotion authority (TPA) would give Obama’s trade team too much control over negotiations, and are making their opposition known in a barrage of press conferences on Capitol Hill...
State Battles
Gov. Mike Pence's state-run news outlet will compete with media Indianapolis Star …Gov. Mike Pence is starting a state-run taxpayer-funded news outlet that will make pre-written news stories available to Indiana media, as well as sometimes break news about his administration, according to documents obtained by The Indianapolis Star...
Right To Work Support In Legislature Backing Down Badger Herald ...Right-to-work legislation, which looks to limit unions’ governing power, is losing pull as a priority issue in Wisconsin’s Legislature this session. Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said in a statement this month he no longer expects right-to-work legislation to be brought up any time soon, a dramatic shift from his earlier statements that he intended to make the movement a priority this session...
Dropkick Murphys ‘literally hate' Scott Walker for using their song at Iowa convention New York Daily News ...The Dropkick Murphys have no problem dropping the hate word when it comes to politicians using their music at events especially when Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker entered the Iowa Freedom Summit to the song ‘I’m Shipping Up to Boston.’...
Kentucky: A New Frontier for Right-to-Work Laws? The National Law Review ... this appears to be the first time efforts by smaller units of “state government” (i.e., counties) have been undertaken on this front. While the NLRA allows “states” to pass and implement right-to-work laws, it is not clear if smaller units of local government can pass these laws or not...
Michigan Union Membership Dropped Significantly In 2014, First Full Year Under Right-To-Work Law MLive ...Overall, 14.5 percent of wage and salary workers in Michigan were members of a union in 2014, down from 16.3 percent in 2013, according to federal statistics released Friday...
Wage theft rampant in Colorado The Durango Herald ...From telemarketers to tortilla manufacturers, workers in myriad industries have suffered from employers failing to pay them wages they are owed, a Rocky Mountain PBS I-News investigation has found...
Oregon Strippers Prepare to Fight For Workplace Protection Laws Willamette Week ...Nude dancers who want more rights and better workplace protections are pushing forward with bills to create new rules for Oregon strip clubs. A coalition of dancers, social workers and other advocates have drafted two bills they hope will get a hearing in Salem when lawmakers reconvene in February...
Will Sandoval Use The Bill To Achieve Collective Bargaining Reform? Las Vegas Review Journal ...Assemblyman Randy Kirner, R-Reno, is requesting the most comprehensive measure ...It would clarify the rules that exclude supervisors from collective bargaining, prohibit using government funds to pay employees engaged in union activities, require employees to seek union deductions before they would be collected by a government entity and make agreements retroactive to the date of the expiration of the previous contract. It also would require a final contract offer to be made public...
Possible Ballot Measure Could Be Bargaining Chip In Minimum-Wage Debate Seattle Times ...Democrats in Olympia are making one thing clear about a new proposal to raise the minimum wage: If it doesn’t pass this year, be ready for a ballot initiative...
War on Workers
Koch Brothers’ Budget of $889 Million for 2016 Is on Par With Both Parties’ Spending New York Times …The political network overseen by the conservative billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch plans to spend close to $900 million on the 2016 campaign, an unparalleled effort by coordinated outside groups to shape a presidential election that is already on track to be the most expensive in history...
The State Of The Unions: Membership Is Up, But Density Still Drops Washington Post ...What's interesting about this is that union membership actually went up last year, with 41,000 new union members in the private sector and 8,000 in public. But the number of people working increased much more than that. The long-term trend has been that union membership in the public sector -- meaning government employees -- has grown, while private sector membership has dropped...
As inequality soars, the nervous super rich are already planning their escapes Guardian ...“I know hedge fund managers all over the world who are buying airstrips and farms in places like New Zealand because they think they need a getaway,” he said...
Woman, age 30, killed during robbery at Sunhouse store Sunday night myhorrynews.com ...On Sunday night at around 10 p.m., a female clerk was shot and killed at the Sunhouse on Cultra Road between Highway 701 and Highway 501 in Conway, Horry County Deputy Coroner Tony Hendrick has confirmed...
State Patrol: Army veteran, ER worker killed when a driver ran a stop sign BringMeTheNews …A 47-year-old emergency room manager and Gulf War veteran was killed after police say he was broadsided by a car that ran through a stop sign...
Miscellaneous
Regulators Advance Plans For Truck Driver Training Journal of Commerce ...The amount of time future truck drivers must spend in training and how rigorous a program they must complete will be determined not by federal fiat but through negotiations. Federal regulators are proceeding with a negotiated rule-making on minimum national truck driver training standards, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said in December...
FOIA Documents Reveal Massive DEA Program to Record American’s Whereabouts With License Plate Readers ACLU …The Drug Enforcement Administration has initiated a massive national license plate reader program with major civil liberties concerns but disclosed very few details, according to new DEA documents obtained by the ACLU through the Freedom of Information Act...
Showing posts with label KY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label KY. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
3 Kentucky counties advance illegal right to work laws
Politico reported Simpson County on Tuesday joined two others -- Warren and Fulton -- to advance a local right-to-work measure.
Kentucky’s highest court already ruled right-to-work laws can only be made at the state level. These local ordinances are illegal.
They also aren't what they seem. Grossly misnamed right-to-work laws actually decrease wages, lower median household income, increase poverty, and undermine workplace safety in the county.
CEOs and billionaires want to push wages down, ship jobs overseas, and take away freedoms at work in order to make even more obscene profit and exercise even more power over workers' lives.
Sometimes right-to-work supporters actually admit what they're up to. The sponsor of a right-to-work bill in Missouri actually said that wages may drop by 'two to three dollars an hour' if right to work passes.
And in Wisconsin, a spokesman for the National Right to Work Committee admitted right to work laws don't create jobs. He said, 'we’re not purporting to prove that right-to-work produces superior economic performance.'
Instead of passing frivolous, illegal ordinances that only benefit the rich and powerful, Kentucky officeholders should be solving the problems of falling wages and rising joblessness.
Politico has more details about the out-of-state special interest that's still trying to push a radical out-of-state agenda in Kentucky:
...a new offshoot of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) called the American City Council Exchange (ACCE) recently joined forces with the Heritage Foundation to press cities and counties to pass right-to-work legislation at the local level. The groups targeted Kentucky in particular because of what one attorney who works with ACCE termed its “favorable demographics.” It’s not clear these ordinances will pass legal muster, however, because the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, which enabled states to pass right-to-work laws, refers only to a “state or territory.” Kentucky is not a right-to-work state (though it would have likely become one had Democrats lost control of the Kentucky House in the midterms).
In all three counties, right-to-work passed a first “reading,” or vote, and must pass a second to become law. In Warren County (which includes Bowling Green’s UAW-organized Corvette plant) the final reading will be Dec. 19. In Fulton County, the final reading is Dec. 29, and in Simpson County the final reading is Dec. 30.
Saturday, November 1, 2014
Today's Teamster News 11.01.14
Teamster News
FedEx Freight Workers In New Jersey Vote To Join Teamsters Local 701 teamster.org ...A group of 113 drivers at FedEx Freight’s South Brunswick, N.J., terminal voted today to join Teamsters Local 701. The vote was 66 to 42...
Teamsters Local 988 Laundry Drivers Ratify Contract teamster.org ...Laundry drivers and members of Teamsters Local 988 in Houston have voted unanimously to ratify a two-year contract with Angelica Textile...
The Ballot Box Is The Great Equalizer For Workers (opinion) Huffington Post ...There are real consequences for workers if they don't make it to the ballot box,...
NYC Carriage Horses Clip-Clop Away While De Blasio Stalls Bloomberg Businessweek ...New York Mayor Bill de Blasio assured animal-rights activists during his run for City Hall that he would rid Central Park of horse-drawn carriages, which he called inhumane….Now, 10 months into his term, tourists still pay $50 for a 20-minute trot through the park, while at City Hall, a draft for legislation has yet to be written and no one is saying why....
Nicholas Lanzilli Secures Additional Endorsements Medford Transcript ...I am honored to receive additional endorsements by a number of respected groups in the area. ...Teamsters Local 25...
Teamsters Trumpet Unemployment Payout To LA-LB Port Truck Driver Journal of Commerce ...A Los Angeles-Long Beach port truck driver who said she was misclassified as an independent contractor was awarded a check for $9,000 in unemployment benefits by the California Employment Development Department this week, giving Teamsters fuel in their campaign to organize local drayage drivers...
Unfinished Construction Has Protesters Marching Near The West Lake Landfill Fox 2 St. Louis ...Unfinished construction work along St. Charles Rock Road has demonstrators raising public health concerns...
Trade
TTIP Debate Suffering From Lack Of Transparency The Parliament Magazine ...The transatlantic trade and investment partnership (TTIP), currently being negotiated between the EU and the US, is by far the most controversial agreement the EU has ever negotiated. Since the start of discussions, opposition has been growing among the civilian population and certain political parties, despite the fact that the final content of the project cannot be discussed in detail, even one year on...
State Battles
McConnell victory could make Kentucky right-to-work Politico ... “Should the Kentucky House go Republican,” writes Labor & Employment’s Mike Elk, “state Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer has already said that his first priority will be to pass a right-to-work bill.” Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear would likely veto, but to no avail: In Kentucky, all it takes to override a gubernatorial veto is a simple majority of both houses...
Mark Schauer will ax the 'retirement tax' - and Republicans will help him Michigan Live ...If Mark Schauer is elected governor, you can probably kiss the reviled "retirement tax" and other tax hikes goodbye...
All about absentees? Michigan Democratic Party push appears to be paying off in early returns Michigan Live ...One out of every three or four residents who vote in Michigan's general election could do so via absentee ballot before the polls even open on Tuesday, and early indications suggest the trend may benefit Democrats...
Ohio May Disenfranchise Voters For Technical Errors ThinkProgress ...election officials in Ohio can throw out legitimate absentee and provisional ballots that have small errors — such as leaving out a middle name — and in many cases they don’t have to give the voter a chance to fix the problem...
Closing Argument: Kochs Fight To Save Candidate Cronies In Critical Election RealKochFacts ...learn more about Republican candidates who share the Koch agenda and are being propped up by the secretive billionaires in North Carolina, Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Michigan, Oregon,Wisconsin, and Florida...
Midterms 2014: Candidates With Ties To Pension Business May Gain Control Of State Pension Funds International Business Times ...government ethics experts express concern that governors drawn from the ranks of companies that manage pension money could bring an inherent conflict of interest: Their duty to do right by taxpayers and retirees could be pitted against their personal financial interests and their loyalties to longtime Wall Street associates...
“Indescribably insane”: A public school system from hell Salon ...The needs of [Philadelphia] children are secondary, however, to a right-wing governor in Tom Corbett who remains fixated on breaking the district in order to crush the teachers union and divert money to unproven experiments like vouchers and privately run charters. If the city’s children are left uneducated and impoverished among the smoldering wreckage of a broken school system, so be it...
San Francisco To Raise Minimum Wage To $11.05 Per Hour Reuters ...San Francisco will raise the city's minimum wage to $11.05 per hour from the start of next year, up from $10.74 currently, the mayor's office said on Thursday...
Kansas tax cuts fail again, as new revenue numbers plague Sam Brownback but help Paul Davis Kansas City Star ...In October, individual income tax receipts were almost $27 million below what the state had estimated it would take in, or a jarring 15 percent off expectations. Why does that matter? Because this is the tax that Brownback and the Legislature cut in 2012. The promise then was that more jobs would flood Kansas, eventually pumping back up income tax collections. That’s not working — at all...
More Than 750 people Turn Out For Meeting On Oil-Train Study Seattle Times ...State officials are proposing more funding and more regulatory authority to step up oversight of the surging numbers of oil trains carrying crude through Washington, and to better prepare for any possible spills...
Donors get special access to GOP governors as potential 2016 contenders Washington Post ...One key to the [Republican Governors' Association] fundraising prowess is the exclusive donor access effort, called the Executive Roundtable program, which gives wealthy contributors up-close access to governors at quarterly policy seminars. The initiative has helped create a permanent network of high-net-worth donors who augment the group’s funding from corporation...
War on Workers
Judge in Maine Eases Restrictions on Nurse New York Times ...In a victory for a nurse who treated Ebola patients in West Africa, a judge in Maine on Friday rejected arguments by the state that her movements should be firmly restricted, praising her “compassion” even as he acknowledged the public’s fears about the virus...
Casino Closings Take Toll On Atlantic City Travel Press of Atlantic City ...Fewer cars, buses, airport passengers and rail riders are heading to Atlantic City following the shutdown of three casinos in recent weeks, the latest travel figures show...
Police: Construction worker killed by dump truck DelawareOnLine ...State troopers and emergency crews are on the scene of a fatality in Lewes where a construction worker was hit by a dump truck, police said...
Lafayette construction worker dies on the job KLFY ...Scott Police responded to a 911 call just before 9 a.m. Tuesday regarding a Scott Materials employee that was fatally injured on the job...
Miscellaneous
Starbucks to deliver coffee to your desk starting in 2015 Los Angeles Times ...The delivery service will be available through Starbucks Corp.’s mobile app, which currently lets customers pay at the store through their phone, Schultz said...
Lack of mechanics threatens U.S. Air Force target date for F-35 Reuters ...The U.S. Air Force may miss its target of August 2016 to start using the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jet in combat if Congress blocks the service's plan to retire its A-10 tank-killer aircraft, a top U.S. general said...
FedEx Freight Workers In New Jersey Vote To Join Teamsters Local 701 teamster.org ...A group of 113 drivers at FedEx Freight’s South Brunswick, N.J., terminal voted today to join Teamsters Local 701. The vote was 66 to 42...
Teamsters Local 988 Laundry Drivers Ratify Contract teamster.org ...Laundry drivers and members of Teamsters Local 988 in Houston have voted unanimously to ratify a two-year contract with Angelica Textile...
The Ballot Box Is The Great Equalizer For Workers (opinion) Huffington Post ...There are real consequences for workers if they don't make it to the ballot box,...
NYC Carriage Horses Clip-Clop Away While De Blasio Stalls Bloomberg Businessweek ...New York Mayor Bill de Blasio assured animal-rights activists during his run for City Hall that he would rid Central Park of horse-drawn carriages, which he called inhumane….Now, 10 months into his term, tourists still pay $50 for a 20-minute trot through the park, while at City Hall, a draft for legislation has yet to be written and no one is saying why....
Nicholas Lanzilli Secures Additional Endorsements Medford Transcript ...I am honored to receive additional endorsements by a number of respected groups in the area. ...Teamsters Local 25...
Teamsters Trumpet Unemployment Payout To LA-LB Port Truck Driver Journal of Commerce ...A Los Angeles-Long Beach port truck driver who said she was misclassified as an independent contractor was awarded a check for $9,000 in unemployment benefits by the California Employment Development Department this week, giving Teamsters fuel in their campaign to organize local drayage drivers...
Unfinished Construction Has Protesters Marching Near The West Lake Landfill Fox 2 St. Louis ...Unfinished construction work along St. Charles Rock Road has demonstrators raising public health concerns...
Trade
TTIP Debate Suffering From Lack Of Transparency The Parliament Magazine ...The transatlantic trade and investment partnership (TTIP), currently being negotiated between the EU and the US, is by far the most controversial agreement the EU has ever negotiated. Since the start of discussions, opposition has been growing among the civilian population and certain political parties, despite the fact that the final content of the project cannot be discussed in detail, even one year on...
State Battles
McConnell victory could make Kentucky right-to-work Politico ... “Should the Kentucky House go Republican,” writes Labor & Employment’s Mike Elk, “state Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer has already said that his first priority will be to pass a right-to-work bill.” Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear would likely veto, but to no avail: In Kentucky, all it takes to override a gubernatorial veto is a simple majority of both houses...
Mark Schauer will ax the 'retirement tax' - and Republicans will help him Michigan Live ...If Mark Schauer is elected governor, you can probably kiss the reviled "retirement tax" and other tax hikes goodbye...
All about absentees? Michigan Democratic Party push appears to be paying off in early returns Michigan Live ...One out of every three or four residents who vote in Michigan's general election could do so via absentee ballot before the polls even open on Tuesday, and early indications suggest the trend may benefit Democrats...
Ohio May Disenfranchise Voters For Technical Errors ThinkProgress ...election officials in Ohio can throw out legitimate absentee and provisional ballots that have small errors — such as leaving out a middle name — and in many cases they don’t have to give the voter a chance to fix the problem...
Closing Argument: Kochs Fight To Save Candidate Cronies In Critical Election RealKochFacts ...learn more about Republican candidates who share the Koch agenda and are being propped up by the secretive billionaires in North Carolina, Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Michigan, Oregon,Wisconsin, and Florida...
Midterms 2014: Candidates With Ties To Pension Business May Gain Control Of State Pension Funds International Business Times ...government ethics experts express concern that governors drawn from the ranks of companies that manage pension money could bring an inherent conflict of interest: Their duty to do right by taxpayers and retirees could be pitted against their personal financial interests and their loyalties to longtime Wall Street associates...
“Indescribably insane”: A public school system from hell Salon ...The needs of [Philadelphia] children are secondary, however, to a right-wing governor in Tom Corbett who remains fixated on breaking the district in order to crush the teachers union and divert money to unproven experiments like vouchers and privately run charters. If the city’s children are left uneducated and impoverished among the smoldering wreckage of a broken school system, so be it...
San Francisco To Raise Minimum Wage To $11.05 Per Hour Reuters ...San Francisco will raise the city's minimum wage to $11.05 per hour from the start of next year, up from $10.74 currently, the mayor's office said on Thursday...
Kansas tax cuts fail again, as new revenue numbers plague Sam Brownback but help Paul Davis Kansas City Star ...In October, individual income tax receipts were almost $27 million below what the state had estimated it would take in, or a jarring 15 percent off expectations. Why does that matter? Because this is the tax that Brownback and the Legislature cut in 2012. The promise then was that more jobs would flood Kansas, eventually pumping back up income tax collections. That’s not working — at all...
More Than 750 people Turn Out For Meeting On Oil-Train Study Seattle Times ...State officials are proposing more funding and more regulatory authority to step up oversight of the surging numbers of oil trains carrying crude through Washington, and to better prepare for any possible spills...
Donors get special access to GOP governors as potential 2016 contenders Washington Post ...One key to the [Republican Governors' Association] fundraising prowess is the exclusive donor access effort, called the Executive Roundtable program, which gives wealthy contributors up-close access to governors at quarterly policy seminars. The initiative has helped create a permanent network of high-net-worth donors who augment the group’s funding from corporation...
War on Workers
Judge in Maine Eases Restrictions on Nurse New York Times ...In a victory for a nurse who treated Ebola patients in West Africa, a judge in Maine on Friday rejected arguments by the state that her movements should be firmly restricted, praising her “compassion” even as he acknowledged the public’s fears about the virus...
Casino Closings Take Toll On Atlantic City Travel Press of Atlantic City ...Fewer cars, buses, airport passengers and rail riders are heading to Atlantic City following the shutdown of three casinos in recent weeks, the latest travel figures show...
Police: Construction worker killed by dump truck DelawareOnLine ...State troopers and emergency crews are on the scene of a fatality in Lewes where a construction worker was hit by a dump truck, police said...
Lafayette construction worker dies on the job KLFY ...Scott Police responded to a 911 call just before 9 a.m. Tuesday regarding a Scott Materials employee that was fatally injured on the job...
Miscellaneous
Starbucks to deliver coffee to your desk starting in 2015 Los Angeles Times ...The delivery service will be available through Starbucks Corp.’s mobile app, which currently lets customers pay at the store through their phone, Schultz said...
Lack of mechanics threatens U.S. Air Force target date for F-35 Reuters ...The U.S. Air Force may miss its target of August 2016 to start using the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jet in combat if Congress blocks the service's plan to retire its A-10 tank-killer aircraft, a top U.S. general said...
Friday, February 28, 2014
Today's Teamster News 02.28.14
Teamster News
Teamsters not happy with inmates filling potholes WFMJ.com ...The Teamsters union, representing employees with the Mahoning County engineer's office, is considering filing a grievance after seeing inmates filling potholes...
Teamsters not happy with inmates filling potholes WFMJ.com ...The Teamsters union, representing employees with the Mahoning County engineer's office, is considering filing a grievance after seeing inmates filling potholes...
Teamster School Bus News teamster.org ...Baltimore school bus workers win $1.25 million wage settlement; Teamsters Local 445 drivers and monitors in New York win fight for fair contract at Durham; what to do when your bus equipment is defective – all these stories and more are in the latest issue of the Drive Up Standards newsletter...
Nashville Chapter of TNBC Honors Leaders teamster.org ...The Nashville Middle TN Valley Chapter of the Teamsters National Black Caucus (TNBC) held its second annual awards banquet titled “Education and Accountability” on February 22, 2014 in Nashville...
Liam Neeson: NYC Mayor Is a Horse Nazi TMZ ...Liam Neeson is PISSED OFF at New York City's new mayor for trying to kill the Central Park horse industry...
Will Academy Award nominees speak up for the workers who make the Oscars? Pando Daily ...The Teamsters Local 743 in Chicago has been unable to reach an agreement with R.S. Owens & Company, the local awards shop that has exclusively manufactured the familiar gold statuettes for the last three decades...
D.C. Taxi Drivers' Voices Are Being Heard teamster.org ...Over the past few months, Washington, D.C. taxi drivers have joined together with the Washington, D.C. Taxi Operators Association, affiliated with Teamsters Local 922, for one strong voice...
Teamster Tells Lawmakers How TPP Will Damage Workers teamster.org ..."this is about American families and these trade deals have brutalized the American economy,” he said. “A trade agreement is not an agreement. It is a gun to the head of the American worker...”
BLET tells House: Don’t extend deadline for Positive Train Control BLET News ...BLET Vice President & National Legislative Representative John P. Tolman made a strong case for the timely implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC) and other measures to boost rail safety and improve the quality of life for BLET members during testimony delivered at a House subcommittee hearing on February 26...
Trade
NPPC: Japan's Offer On TPP Unacceptable to U.S. Agriculture National Hog Farmer ...The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) says U.S. acceptance of the recent Japanese offer, made as part of the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade talks, would be a radical departure from previous U.S. free trade agreements (FTAs) and could potentially set an unacceptable precedent for future trade deals...
Japanese activist: TPP will affect food security FMT News ...The TPP will not only widen the economic disparity between the rich and the poor, but also deny poor nations the power to secure food import, says a Japanese activist...
Ending currency manipulation would create jobs ABC, Sioux Falls ...Policy change could bring 20,000 jobs to South Dakota...
State Battles
Protestors gather as Republicans unveil Right to Work legislation WAVE News ...Protesters gathered in Frankfort on Thursday as Kentucky Republicans introduced right to work legislation, even though the legislation has dim chances of success this year...
Vermont Citizens Push to Form a State Bank, But Will Ratings Agencies Kill the Idea? naked capitalism ...The objective is not to set up a retail bank (say along the lines of a Post Office bank) but to save the fees that are now paid to large financial institutions and to fund public projects...
The War on Workers
Household wealth still down 14 percent since recession EurekAlert ...the mean net worth of American households in mid-2013 was still about 14 percent below the pre-recession peak in 2006. Their analysis suggested that middle-aged people took the biggest hit...
Wal-Mart Ad Celebrates American Workers With A Canadian Band's Song About A Guy Who Hates His Job Business Insider ...Wal-Mart has been running a high-profile advertising campaign to promote its recent pledge to purchase $250 billion of American-made products over the next 10 years...Rush was strange choice of soundtrack for an ad celebrating American manufacturing given that the band is not just Canadian, but famously Canadian...
Underemployment Piles On Problems For Low-Wage Workers CBS ...The state Labor Department says there are about 276,000 Pennsylvanians in the category “working part time for economic reasons.” They include 47,900 people who usually work full-time but are working part-time, and 228,000 people who usually work part-time but are working less than they normally would...
GOP blocks veterans bill The Hill ...Senate Republicans stopped Democrats from advancing a bill that would have expanded healthcare and education programs for veterans...
Miscellaneous
Federal Budget Deficit Falls to Smallest Level Since 2008 New York Times ...Closing the books on a fiscal year in which the federal budget deficit fell more sharply than in any year since the end of World War II, the Treasury Department reported on Thursday that the deficit for 2013 dropped to $680 billion, from about $1.1 trillion the previous year...
Nashville Chapter of TNBC Honors Leaders teamster.org ...The Nashville Middle TN Valley Chapter of the Teamsters National Black Caucus (TNBC) held its second annual awards banquet titled “Education and Accountability” on February 22, 2014 in Nashville...
Liam Neeson: NYC Mayor Is a Horse Nazi TMZ ...Liam Neeson is PISSED OFF at New York City's new mayor for trying to kill the Central Park horse industry...
Will Academy Award nominees speak up for the workers who make the Oscars? Pando Daily ...The Teamsters Local 743 in Chicago has been unable to reach an agreement with R.S. Owens & Company, the local awards shop that has exclusively manufactured the familiar gold statuettes for the last three decades...
D.C. Taxi Drivers' Voices Are Being Heard teamster.org ...Over the past few months, Washington, D.C. taxi drivers have joined together with the Washington, D.C. Taxi Operators Association, affiliated with Teamsters Local 922, for one strong voice...
Teamster Tells Lawmakers How TPP Will Damage Workers teamster.org ..."this is about American families and these trade deals have brutalized the American economy,” he said. “A trade agreement is not an agreement. It is a gun to the head of the American worker...”
BLET tells House: Don’t extend deadline for Positive Train Control BLET News ...BLET Vice President & National Legislative Representative John P. Tolman made a strong case for the timely implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC) and other measures to boost rail safety and improve the quality of life for BLET members during testimony delivered at a House subcommittee hearing on February 26...
Trade
NPPC: Japan's Offer On TPP Unacceptable to U.S. Agriculture National Hog Farmer ...The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) says U.S. acceptance of the recent Japanese offer, made as part of the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade talks, would be a radical departure from previous U.S. free trade agreements (FTAs) and could potentially set an unacceptable precedent for future trade deals...
Japanese activist: TPP will affect food security FMT News ...The TPP will not only widen the economic disparity between the rich and the poor, but also deny poor nations the power to secure food import, says a Japanese activist...
Ending currency manipulation would create jobs ABC, Sioux Falls ...Policy change could bring 20,000 jobs to South Dakota...
State Battles
Protestors gather as Republicans unveil Right to Work legislation WAVE News ...Protesters gathered in Frankfort on Thursday as Kentucky Republicans introduced right to work legislation, even though the legislation has dim chances of success this year...
Vermont Citizens Push to Form a State Bank, But Will Ratings Agencies Kill the Idea? naked capitalism ...The objective is not to set up a retail bank (say along the lines of a Post Office bank) but to save the fees that are now paid to large financial institutions and to fund public projects...
The War on Workers
Household wealth still down 14 percent since recession EurekAlert ...the mean net worth of American households in mid-2013 was still about 14 percent below the pre-recession peak in 2006. Their analysis suggested that middle-aged people took the biggest hit...
Wal-Mart Ad Celebrates American Workers With A Canadian Band's Song About A Guy Who Hates His Job Business Insider ...Wal-Mart has been running a high-profile advertising campaign to promote its recent pledge to purchase $250 billion of American-made products over the next 10 years...Rush was strange choice of soundtrack for an ad celebrating American manufacturing given that the band is not just Canadian, but famously Canadian...
Underemployment Piles On Problems For Low-Wage Workers CBS ...The state Labor Department says there are about 276,000 Pennsylvanians in the category “working part time for economic reasons.” They include 47,900 people who usually work full-time but are working part-time, and 228,000 people who usually work part-time but are working less than they normally would...
GOP blocks veterans bill The Hill ...Senate Republicans stopped Democrats from advancing a bill that would have expanded healthcare and education programs for veterans...
Miscellaneous
Federal Budget Deficit Falls to Smallest Level Since 2008 New York Times ...Closing the books on a fiscal year in which the federal budget deficit fell more sharply than in any year since the end of World War II, the Treasury Department reported on Thursday that the deficit for 2013 dropped to $680 billion, from about $1.1 trillion the previous year...
Monday, July 1, 2013
How taxpayers are revolting against privatization
State and local governments are starting to end the looting of the taxpayer by for-profit corporations.
So says the Center for Media and Democracy, our indispensable friends who have done so much to expose ALEC as an escort service for corporations and state lawmakers. ALEC relentlessly peddles its influence to turn state and local services over to predatory corporations.
In a recent post by Brendan Fischer, CMD tells us that voters are trying to restore control over public services in New Jersey, Texas, California and Kentucky:
So says the Center for Media and Democracy, our indispensable friends who have done so much to expose ALEC as an escort service for corporations and state lawmakers. ALEC relentlessly peddles its influence to turn state and local services over to predatory corporations.
In a recent post by Brendan Fischer, CMD tells us that voters are trying to restore control over public services in New Jersey, Texas, California and Kentucky:
In New Jersey, legislation to ensure that public services won't be privatized unless it will result in actual savings for taxpayers has passed both chambers of the legislature. In Texas, a bipartisan coalition is fighting against a private prison in Montgomery County, and Kentucky is rejecting private prisons altogether. And in Fresno, California, voters rejected a proposal backed by the city's popular mayor to privatize trash collection services.Here's what's happened:
- In New Jersey, a first-in-the-nation bill to crack down on predatory privatizers is on Gov. Chris Christie's desk. It would ban privatization contracts that save money by cutting services or raising rates, and requires companies to pay workers comparable wages and benefits.
- In Texas, Tea Party groups are joining with others to oppose GEO Group's purchase of a prison in Montgomery County.
- Kentucky is not renewing its contract with the private prison company Corrections Corporation of America, the fifth contract cancellation for CCA in a month.
- Fresno, Calif., voters this month rejected a plan to outsource trash service for the city's 500,000 residents to a private company, which would cut pay for the workers. Opponents of privatization were outspent 3-to-1, but they prevailed anyway.
...when taxpayers see what they lose by handing over control of their roads, prisons and other services, they don’t want anything to do with outsourcing.Yup.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Today's Teamster News 02.19.13
Job-Killing Trade Deficits Soar under "Free Trade" Agreements Public Citizen ... the newly-released government trade data for 2012 shows that job-eroding U.S. trade deficits have ballooned with "free trade" agreement (FTA) partners while declining with the rest of the world...
Mississippi Officially Ratifies the 13th Amendment and Outlaws Slavery Deep South Progressive ...Mississippi had in fact voted to ratify the amendment in a more timely fashion – only 130 years late in 1995 – but because of an "oversight" in which the state never officially notified the US Archivist, it wasn't official. That glaring "oversight" has been corrected...
Incoming SEC head faces early test Financial Times ...A proposal to force public companies for the first time to disclose all their political activity to investors is emerging as an early litmus test for Mary Jo White...
Now A Vast Political Espionage Scandal To Top Off The Sordid Corruption Scandal In Spain Testosterone Pit ...Spain just can’t catch a break—a horrid economy with dizzying unemployment, collapsing banks, a prime minister and ruling party tarred by corruption.... Now a political espionage scandal blew up, scattering debris and money laundering allegations far and wide...
Rally held in Joplin against right-to-work push Joplin Globe ...Jim Kabell, a representative of Teamsters Local 245 in Springfield, was one of the morning’s featured speakers. “This is long-term bad for Missouri workers,” Kabell said...
National conservative group's 'model legislation' ends up becoming law in Oklahoma The Oklahoman ...“Model legislation” developed by the American Legislative Exchange Council or shared through conferences the council has hosted, played a part in a 2006 “Stand Your Ground” law that allows Oklahomans to use deadly force when threatened in public places, a 2010 resolution that prohibits any law from compelling a person to purchase health care and a state question that same year that requires voters to show an identification card before receiving a ballot...
GOP Electoral Vote Scheme Still Alive And Kicking In Pennsylvania Talking Points Memo ...State Senate president Dominic Pileggi (R) is pushing a plan to change Pennsylvania’s current winner-take-all allocation of the state’s 20 electoral votes to a system that apportions them proportionally by each candidate’s share of the statewide vote...
NH Voter ID Law Under Attack Lawrence Eagle-Tribune ...A year after New Hampshire asked voters to present photo identifications at the polls, state lawmakers are considering repeal of the new Voter ID Law...
Winds of protest still blow around Wisconsin Capitol USA Today ...Anger over Gov. Scott Walker's union measures hasn't subsided two years later...
DeCesare pushes right-to-work bill The Daily News ...Proposed right-to-work and prevailing wage legislation was filed as a rallying point, not necessarily with the expectation it would immediately pass, a local (Kentucky) lawmaker says...
Right-to-work roils Dem leadership Crain's Detroit Business ...A rift among Michigan Democrats over the future leadership of the party has pitted longtime state party chairman Mark Brewer against challenger Lon Johnson, who has deep ties to Washington...
GOP wary of measures attacking unions Arizona Daily Sun ...House Speaker Andy Tobin is sidelining two anti-union measures rather than bringing them to the floor for a divisive -- and potentially losing -- vote...
American Airlines, US Airways Merger: Teamsters Look To Acquire AA Mechanic Representation At Tulsa Maintenance Base International Business Times ...The Teamsters Airline Division and the Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition is looking to capitalize on the recently announced merger of American Airlines and U.S. Airways (NYSE: LCC)...
Mississippi Officially Ratifies the 13th Amendment and Outlaws Slavery Deep South Progressive ...Mississippi had in fact voted to ratify the amendment in a more timely fashion – only 130 years late in 1995 – but because of an "oversight" in which the state never officially notified the US Archivist, it wasn't official. That glaring "oversight" has been corrected...
Incoming SEC head faces early test Financial Times ...A proposal to force public companies for the first time to disclose all their political activity to investors is emerging as an early litmus test for Mary Jo White...
Now A Vast Political Espionage Scandal To Top Off The Sordid Corruption Scandal In Spain Testosterone Pit ...Spain just can’t catch a break—a horrid economy with dizzying unemployment, collapsing banks, a prime minister and ruling party tarred by corruption.... Now a political espionage scandal blew up, scattering debris and money laundering allegations far and wide...
Rally held in Joplin against right-to-work push Joplin Globe ...Jim Kabell, a representative of Teamsters Local 245 in Springfield, was one of the morning’s featured speakers. “This is long-term bad for Missouri workers,” Kabell said...
National conservative group's 'model legislation' ends up becoming law in Oklahoma The Oklahoman ...“Model legislation” developed by the American Legislative Exchange Council or shared through conferences the council has hosted, played a part in a 2006 “Stand Your Ground” law that allows Oklahomans to use deadly force when threatened in public places, a 2010 resolution that prohibits any law from compelling a person to purchase health care and a state question that same year that requires voters to show an identification card before receiving a ballot...
GOP Electoral Vote Scheme Still Alive And Kicking In Pennsylvania Talking Points Memo ...State Senate president Dominic Pileggi (R) is pushing a plan to change Pennsylvania’s current winner-take-all allocation of the state’s 20 electoral votes to a system that apportions them proportionally by each candidate’s share of the statewide vote...
NH Voter ID Law Under Attack Lawrence Eagle-Tribune ...A year after New Hampshire asked voters to present photo identifications at the polls, state lawmakers are considering repeal of the new Voter ID Law...
Winds of protest still blow around Wisconsin Capitol USA Today ...Anger over Gov. Scott Walker's union measures hasn't subsided two years later...
DeCesare pushes right-to-work bill The Daily News ...Proposed right-to-work and prevailing wage legislation was filed as a rallying point, not necessarily with the expectation it would immediately pass, a local (Kentucky) lawmaker says...
Right-to-work roils Dem leadership Crain's Detroit Business ...A rift among Michigan Democrats over the future leadership of the party has pitted longtime state party chairman Mark Brewer against challenger Lon Johnson, who has deep ties to Washington...
GOP wary of measures attacking unions Arizona Daily Sun ...House Speaker Andy Tobin is sidelining two anti-union measures rather than bringing them to the floor for a divisive -- and potentially losing -- vote...
American Airlines, US Airways Merger: Teamsters Look To Acquire AA Mechanic Representation At Tulsa Maintenance Base International Business Times ...The Teamsters Airline Division and the Teamsters Aviation Mechanics Coalition is looking to capitalize on the recently announced merger of American Airlines and U.S. Airways (NYSE: LCC)...
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