Today's Teamster News 11.02.13

George Miranda Named to Board of the Global Gateway Alliance  teamster.org   ...George Miranda, International Vice President and Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 210, is joining the Board of Directors of the Global Gateway Alliance, an industry coalition dedicated to improving airports in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area...
McDonald's Scam on America  Alternet   ...We're subsidizing the wages and benefits of employees of highly profitable fast food chains. It costs the American taxpayer nearly $7 billion per year...
As Cuts to Food Stamps Take Effect, More Trims to Benefits Are Expected  New York Times   ...millions of Americans receiving food stamps will be required to get by with less government assistance every month, a move that not only will cost them money they use to feed their families but is expected to slightly dampen economic growth as well...
Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement: Job Claims Are Pure Baloney  Economic Policy Institute   ...U.S. trade with Mexico after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has cost the United States nearly 700,000 jobs through 2010. U.S. trade with China has certainly failed to deliver on the promised benefits of growing exports. Since that country entered the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, the U.S. has lost 2.7 million jobs through 2011 due to growing trade deficits with China. And the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) has also resulted in growing trade deficits with that country and the loss of more than 40,000 U.S. jobs...
How the 1 percent always wins: Liberal washing is the right’s new favorite tactic  Salon   ...The famous examples of liberal washing come from the White House. A few decades ago, Democratic President Bill Clinton liberal-washed corporatist schemes like NAFTA and financial deregulation. Today, it is Democratic President Barack Obama liberal-washing the insurance industry’s healthcare initiatives and now joining with a handful of Democratic legislators to liberalwash – and legitimize – the right-wing crusade to slash Social Security benefits...
House Passes Deregulation Bill Written by Citigroup  The Real News   ...the one that was driven by Citibank that would allow a wide range of financial derivatives to be done directly by the bank, which is to say, the insured entity, which is to say, the government would be on the hook if there were losses. And Dodd-Frank was designed to prevent or at least dramatically minimize that. So this is a truly awful bill...
UK Energy Firms Guilty of Market Manipulation to Face Criminal Charges  Oil Price   ...Ed Davey, the Energy Minister, has now stated that the government may charge energy firms that are found guilty of manipulating the markets, with criminal sanctions...
Fannie Mae Sues Banks for $800 Million Over Libor Rigging  Bloomberg   ...Fannie Mae (FNMA) sued nine banks, alleging that their manipulation of the benchmark London interbank offered rate, which four of them have admitted, cost the mortgage-financing company about $800 million...
Wall Street’s favorite Democrat wants your pension  Salon   ...The financial services industry hopes to gain even more control over workers' retirement savings...
North Carolina, Come On and Rise Up  Portside   ...This past summer, "Moral Mondays" in North Carolina emerged as the locus of one of the country's most insistent state-level movements against extremist efforts to slash the social safety net and roll back civil rights...
Top court ruling upholds free speech, union lawyer says  Youngstown Vindicator   ...The Ohio Supreme Court delivered a major victory for labor unions when it ruled in a Mahoning County case. The court ruled that a state law requiring a union to give a public employer and the State Employment Relations Board 10 days’ advance notice of strike picketing does not apply to informational picketing...

Today's Teamster News 01.31.13

Libor Lies Revealed in Rigging of $300 Trillion Benchmark   Bloomberg  ...the manipulation of Libor stands out for its breadth and audacity. Details are only now revealing just how far-reaching the scam was...
Activists shine a light on secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership talks  The Straight  ...“We are talking about allowing, basically, a parallel system that would undermine national sovereignty...It would allow conglomerates to sue citizens, threaten citizens, and remove [Internet] content that they disagree with or that they think is infringing on their intellectual property.”...
GOP's Electoral Vote Scheme Already on Life Support  Talking Points Memo  ...Key Republican officials in Virginia, Ohio, Florida, and Michigan are coming out against a RNC-backed scheme to rig the electoral vote in Democratic-leaning states in order to boost Republican presidential candidates. That leaves just Pennsylvania and Wisconsin ...
States Tax The Richest 1 Percent At Half The Rate Of The Poor  Think Progress  ...The poorest Americans are subject to a tax rate at the state and local level that is twice as high as the tax rate paid by the wealthiest earners... Middle-class taxpayers also pay higher effective rates than the wealthy....
Right-to-work bill back before N.H. Legislators  Associated Press  ...Legislation that would excuse nonunion employees from contract-negotiation fees is up for discussion once again before lawmakers, after two recent failed attempts...
UAW, salaried Chrysler workers receiving bonuses or profit sharing checks  Michigan Live  ...All eligible Chrysler Group LLC’s salaried and hourly workers will receive either a performance bonus or a profit-sharing check ... the Auburn Hills-based automaker’s turnaround ... included a $1.7 billion profit, up from $183 million in 2011...
Hoffa Statement On The Decline In U.S. Gross Domestic Product  IBT   ...the U.S. economy is shrinking due to a fall in government spending. That should tell us that government austerity is not just wrong, it's bad economic policy...
Hoffa Statement On President Obama's Immigration Reform Proposal  IBT ...We're especially concerned that the final result truly protects all workers and isn't reminiscent of guest worker programs of the past...
Nowak Sworn In As New President of Michigan Teamsters Joint Council 43  IBT ...Determined to chart a new course for Michigan Teamsters during the challenging months and years ahead, Teamsters Local 1038 President Greg Nowak was sworn in today...
Durham, Teamsters Negotiate on School Bus Driver Salaries  Mount Pleasant Patch   ...A Durham School Services spokesman said Wednesday the company is offering school bus drivers a 3 percent raise in response to their request for a 12 percent raise, ABC News 4 reported...In response to Durham's press conference Wednesday, Teamsters 509 released this statement: Durham School Services initially told us they did not want to negotiate this contract through the media. We have honored their request despite the fact that they have not done the same...
Sanitation workers end strike against Republic Services  The Commercial Appeal  ...The 180 members of Teamsters Local 984 still don't have a contract with Republic Services; it expired last fall. But they decided to end a three-day strike after learning the company is handing over bonus checks that were two weeks late...
Workers at Avis Budget Group in Florida Join Teamsters Local 385  IBT  ...by a 15-7 vote, workers at the Avis Budget Group chose to join Local 385 in Orlando, Florida. There are 27 workers in the bargaining unit, located at Orlando International Airport...
Arkansas Best Corp. Reports Loss, Seeks End to Teamsters Talk  Arkansas Business Online  ...ABF Freight System Inc. expects contract negotiations with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to be resolved by a March 31 deadline, but the CEO of its parent company said Wednesday that the firm is exploring options in case a new agreement can't be reached...
Union: We offered to suspend NYC school bus strike, but Bloomberg said 'no'  Staten Island Advance ...The striking workers of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181 say they've offered a two-to-three-month "cooling off" period where they would return to their school bus routes...

Calif. counties suing big banks for rigging interest rates

Some will rob you with a six-gun,
some with a fountain pen. 

Antitrust lawsuits against banks for rigging the LIBOR interest rate were filed in three federal courts last week by San Diego and San Mateo counties, the city of Riverside and the municipal utility district of Oakland.

We told you about the LIBOR lawsuits last fall, which claim the criminals who rigged LIBOR cost American taxpayers billions of dollars.

Here's why: LIBOR (the London Interbank Offered Rate) is used to set the terms for interest rate swaps, which many state and local governments entered into. The rate rigging lowered returns on financial contracts that state and municipal governments entered into. For example, small governments entered into interest rate swaps, which lowered the cost of their debt. If LIBOR was rigged to be lower, those governments receive smaller payments.

So now California governments are joining in the lawsuits against the banks. (Baltimore, for example, is leading a class-action suit against banks including Barclays, Bank of America, HSBC, JP Morgan and UBS.)

And Alison Frankel, writing for Reuters, tells us that,

The Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association, represented by Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann, filed a class action on Dec. 21 that included allegations based on the UBS materials.

She writes the new suits "portend messy complications for the banks."

What a shame.

Today's Teamster News 08.28.12

Libor Scandal's Potential Costs Exploding To $88 Billion Or More  Huffington Post   ...The high-end estimate of the potential cost to the 16 banks being investigated in the Libor probe has risen to $176 billion, the WSJ writes, citing a July report by Australian firm Macquarie Research...
Unilever sees 'return to poverty' in Europe  The Telegraph   ...Unilever will adopt marketing strategies used in developing countries in order to drive future growth in Europe, as the head of its European business warned that poverty will rise in the region as a result of the debt crisis...
Appeals court rejects challenge to collective-bargaining-rights ballot proposal  Detroit Free Press   ...The Michigan Court of Appeals rejected this afternoon a challenge to a ballot proposal aimed at enshrining collective bargaining rights in the state constitution...
Frequent Capitol protesters face crackdown  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...Erwin recently met with legislative aides who were feeling threatened or intimidated by protesters who have come into the aides' offices to berate them and have followed them to their cars. He suggested they try filming a demonstrator and, if that didn't work, punching the person with their free hand...
Teamsters Local 399 will start talks next week  Variety   ...Casting directors ratified a one-year successor contract last September following negotiations between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and Local 399 of the Intl. Brotherhood of Teamsters...
Teamsters locked out by SuperMom's  Minneapolis Star Tribune   ...Twenty-two Teamsters drivers for SuperMom's bakery in St. Paul Park have been locked out of their jobs in a contract dispute. While a small work stoppage, it's part of growing national wave of labor lockouts initiated by corporations...

US taxpayers ripped off in LIBOR scandal

Some rob you with a 6-gun, some with a fountain pen.

If you aren't already, you will soon be hearing plenty about pension obligations causing budget shortfalls for municipal governments. You'll hear a lot less about the criminals who rigged the London Interbank Offered Rate, or LIBOR. But their crimes may cost American taxpayers billions of dollars.

Here's why: LIBOR is used to set the terms for interest rate swaps, which many state and local governments entered into. Reuters explained:

States can also make the case that rate rigging harmed state finances by lowering returns on financial contracts with banks, such as interest rate swaps which help small governments manage the cost of their debt. If Libor is artificially lowered, the state receives smaller payments.

Some cities are already suing. Baltimore is leading a class-action suit in federal court against the banks that conspired to lower the rate. Oakland walked away from its swap contract and refused to pay the penalty to Goldman Sachs.

And the Chicago Sun-Times reports:

An international banking hoax may have cost Illinois taxpayers millions of dollars...Illinois and area government agencies that used interest rate swaps, financial agreements designed to manage exposure to fluctuating interest rates, are checking if they lost money on swaps contracts, which were often tied to the LIBOR interest rate, due to manipulation. Further, public pension fund investment portfolios, which account for billions in assets, likely received less interest on retirees’ money. 

“This is as big a mess as you can get,” says Dale W.R. Rosenthal, assistant professor of finance at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who adds that Illinois and local government agencies may have lost millions because of the LIBOR controversy.

Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York are also investigation. And in Wisconsin,

The Community Bank & Trust of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, filed a RICO lawsuit in May against mega-banks' manipulation of interest rates, naming Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and others, for their rigging of LIBOR, and demanding compensation for damages ... the Sheboygan bank claims that the low-rigging of LIBOR lost Sheboygan $64,000 in interest income on $8 million floating-rate loans in 2008 (if the LIBOR rate was depressed by just 80 points that year).

Stay tuned.

UK bankers may go to jail for rigging interest rates

Some will rob with a 6-gun, some with a fountain pen.

When the former head of the World Bank says some bankers should be in jail for lowering your standard of living causing the financial meltdown, well, maybe SOMEONE OUGHT TO PUT THEM IN JAIL.

Joseph Stiglitz is a Nobel Prize winner,  a former Clinton White House official and supporter of Occupy Wall Street.

Stiglitz harshly criticizes "rent-seeking," which means taking resources from someone else rather than creating wealth. Like those hidden fees on your checking account.

Here's what Stiglitz recently told The Independent:

He argues that breaking the economic and political power that has been amassed by the financial sector in recent decades, especially in the US and the UK, is essential if we are to build a more just and prosperous society. The first step, he says, is sending some bankers to jail. " That ought to change. That means legislation. Banks and others have engaged in rent seeking, creating inequality, ripping off other people, and none of them have gone to jail." 

Next, politicians need to stop spending so much time listening to the financial lobby, which, according to Stiglitz, demonstrates its spectacular economic ignorance whenever it claims that curbs on banks' activities will damage the broader economy.

The good news is that the UK is likely to prosecute the bankers who manipulated the LIBOR rate, which is likely to have cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars. Reports FT Adviser,

The Serious Fraud Office announced today (30 July) that criminal charges could be brought in regards to the conduct exhibited by those who manipulated the London interbank offered rate. 

David Green QC, director of the SFO, said that he is “satisfied that existing criminal offences are capable of covering conduct in relation to the alleged manipulation of Libor and related interest rates”. 

The investigation, announced on 6 July, involves a number of financial institutions including Barclays who has already been fined £290m by global regulators and whose chief executive Bob Diamond has stepped down, as well as HSBC, which confirmed today that it was being investigated.

Go get 'em.

Today's Teamster News 07.15.12

The Romney job record in Massachusetts  Angry Bear   ...The comparisons make clear that state government employment increased 2.8% in Massachusetts, more than twice the national state government employment aggregate of 1.1%. Private sector employment over the same period in Massachusetts increased 1.4%, less than a quarter of the national aggregate of 5.9%...
Ralph Lauren to make 2014 Olympic uniforms in the U.S.  Los Angeles Times   ..."Ralph Lauren promises to lead the conversation within our industry and our government addressing the issue of increasing manufacturing in the United States," the company said...
U.S. Is Building Criminal Cases in Rate-Fixing  New York Times   ...As regulators ramp up their global investigation into the manipulation of interest rates, the Justice Department has identified potential criminal wrongdoing by big banks and individuals at the center of the scandal...
How A Right-Wing Group Is Infiltrating State News Coverage  Media Matters   ...The Franklin Center is a multimillion-dollar organization whose websites and affiliates provide free statehouse reporting to local newspapers and other media across the country. Funded by major conservative donors, staffed by veterans of groups affiliated with the Koch brothers, and maintaining a regular presence hosting right-wing events, the organization boasts of its ability to fill the void created by state newsroom layoffs...
A funny thing happened after the recall – Walker became irrelevant  DailyKos   ...If you visit the Wisconsin State Capitol on any given day, chances are Governor Scott Walker will not be there...he has voluntarily stopped being the Governor of Wisconsin for all intents and purposes. He has set himself up to cash in (think Sarah Palin with a bald spot) and now he don’t need no stinking badgers...
Happy ending follows a rare strike at Sorrento  Buffalo News   ... the number of work stoppages involving at least 1,000 workers fell to 15 in 2008 and just five in 2009, as the economy bottomed out. But we've been seeing more work stoppages since then, rising to 11 in 2010 and 19 last year...