Political con artist's goal in RTW4Less exposed in one of greatest editorials ever

The St. Louis Post Dispatch exposes the greedy political con artists who deliberately sow nastiness and partisanship by pushing right-to-work-for-less in state legislatures.

Teamsters rallying against RTW4Less in Missouri recently

In a classic of editorial writing, the Post Dispatch explains what's really at work behind the right-to-work controversy in Missouri: Money.

Here's the short version: Missouri House Speaker Tim Jones is term limited. He needs money to run for statewide office. Political grifter Grover Norquist funnels dark money -- undisclosed contributions from billionaires and corporations -- to politicians like Jones. The Post-Dispatch explains:

Mr. Norquist uses ... his access to big money donors like the Koch brothers, and his ability — honed during his alliance with ex-lobbyist-turned-felon Jack Abramoff — to obscure the source of that money by running it through various shell organizations.

This is what will happen because Tim Jones brought right-to-work to a vote on the House floor last week, knowing it would fail because of strong bipartisan opposition:

Mr. Norquist and his friends now have the names of 30 Republicans who refused to do their bidding. They can ask their donors for money to target those Republicans with advertisements, to recruit future candidates for nasty primaries, to make Missouri even more divided than it already is. Eventually they hope to find 82 stooges who will pass legislation turning the state into their vision of an oligarchical utopia, a reverse Robin Hood society in which the rich take from the poor. 

There will now be Missouri political consultants — oxpeckers, we like to call them — lining up to take on those 30 members of the GOP. Many are from the St. Louis region, where they represent businesses and workers who care about middle-class jobs and wages. They will be under pressure to throw their constituents under the bus...

This is the Missouri Legislature that Grover Norquist, Washington insider, wants. It has nothing to do with Missouri and it has less than nothing to do with improving the state’s economy. 

It is about a hungry vulture looking for a carcass to feed his insatiable hunger.

Read the whole thing here.

Today's Teamster News 03.28.14

Teamster News
Council Votes To Encourage End To CCTA Strike  WPTZ   ...The Burlington City Council has voted to encourage management with the Chittenden County Transportation Authority and the bus drivers' union, represented by the Teamsters, to end the nearly two-week strike as soon as possible...
Victory at Pasco County, Florida for Teamsters Local 79  teamster.org   ...More than 1,100 Pasco County, Florida public employees will soon be voting on a first Teamster contract now that Local 79, Tampa and the county have agreed on a tentative contract. According to the local union, such issues as seniority, break time, overtime pay, holidays, uniforms and more are addressed in the contract...
Teamsters: The Deadline To Apply For A James R. Hoffa Scholarship Is March 31  teamster.org   ...The Fund will award $800,000 in scholarships this year to children and financially dependent grandchildren of Teamster members...
A Brief Glimpse of Human Rights Advances In The Teamsters  teamster.org   ...Women and minorities have always been active in the labor movement. Much of the crit­ical legislation that has been passed over the years started as grassroots movements from within one or more of these groups, even though they frequently did not receive credit or recognition for their efforts. View the full post, here...
March Madness: Brought to You by the Teamsters  Counterpunch   ...This (NLRB) ruling (which applies only to private colleges and universities, and not public institutions) ... gives college basketball players the right to unionize as well.  Just think about that.  March Madness, brought to you by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters!  Is this a great country, or what?...
Trade
U.S. Steelmakers Accuse South Korea Of Dumping  Independent Business Journal   ...U.S. Steel Corp., the largest U.S. producer of the metal by volume, said South Korea is dumping steel pipes and tubes in the U.S...
NAFTA at 20  AFL-CIO   ...NAFTA pushed small Mexican farmers off their lands, increasing the flow of desperate undocumented migrants...
State Battles
Still No Wage Agreement In Annapolis  Baltimore Sun ...The standoff in Annapolis over raising the minimum wage intensified Tuesday...
Missouri Union Members Rally Against Right To Work  Associated Press   ...About a thousand Missouri union members rallied at the state Capitol to combat legislation that would prohibit labor contracts from requiring that all employees pay union fees...
Minnesota Unions Come To Dakotas' Aid  Twin Cities Daily Planet   ...With more than 20,000 job openings and the nation's lowest unemployment rate, North Dakota is desperately seeking skilled workers to build infrastructure that keeps pace with its oil boom. Despite the conservative state's laws unfriendly to organized labor, six Minnesota-based trade unions are stepping up to help...
Mississippi Senate Gives Final Approval To 3 Anti-Union Bills  Associated Press   ...Bills that aim to restrict union organizing and picketing practices in Mississippi, as well as limit governments' abilities to pressure employers to use unionized workers, are on their way to Gov. Phil Bryant...
Hidden Cameras Catch Lobbyists, AZ Lawmakers Wining And Dining  CBS 5 News   ...CBS 5 Investigates rolled hidden cameras during a membership drive for one of the country's most secretive and controversial organizations. Lobbyists and state lawmakers mingled over steaks and drinks in a private room at the Valley's exclusive Donovan's Steakhouse, an event put on by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)...
Wisconsin GOP Heads Off Criminal Probe Into Corporate Election Spending By Trying To Make It Legal  ThinkProgress   ...Wisconsin’s State Senate Majority Leader, who is reportedly under investigation for his role in a possibly illegal campaign finance scheme, has come up with a novel way to shut down the criminal probe: changing the state law to legalize the activity in question...
War on Workers
The 67 People As Wealthy As The World's Poorest 3.5 Billion  Forbes   ...Each of the 67 is on average worth the same as 52 million people from the bottom of the world’s wealth  pyramid...
Northwestern Football Players Win First Round In Union Battle  Huffington Post ...Football players at Northwestern University have cleared the first major hurdle in their closely watched unionization effort, with an official of the National Labor Relations Board determining that the players are employees and thus eligible to vote in a union election...
GOP States Are The Most Dependent On Government  Huffington Post ...If we learned nothing else during the 2012 election, it is that some of us are makers, hard-working folk solely responsible for America's prosperity, and others are takers, who want the federal government to pay for luxuries like food and health care...
Feds Tally Rollovers Of Payday Loans  The Columbus Dispatch ...About half of all payday loans are made to people who extend the loans so many times that they end up paying more in fees than the original amount they borrowed, a report by a federal watchdog has found...
Walmart Admits Profits Depend Heavily On Corporate Welfare  ZeroHedge   ...It appears that Walmart has admitted the potentially severe adverse impact a reduction in food stamp payments could have on its bottom line...
Hundreds of Students & Faculty Occupy College Campus to Fight Cuts to Public Higher Ed  Real News   ...hundreds of students, faculty, and supporters rallied at University of Southern Maine against the announced layoffs of 20 full-time faculty members...
Miscellaneous
Labor unions saved Ford in our 'darkest' hour: Bill Ford  CNBC   ...the UAW helped the entire industry "get back on its feet..."
US Seniors Shafted By Inflation That Is 170 Percent In Excess Of Savings' Interest  Truthout   ...Lost in the coverage of America's tale of two economies (the 1% who have received 95 percent of the financial gains since they busted the economy in 2008 -- and the rest of us), is that seniors are especially hard hit by the disparity between so-called savings account interest and inflation...
A Government Computer Glitch Forced Thousands Of Families To Go Hungry  Huffington Post   ...Thousands in North Carolina had enough to worry about before a computer glitch began to fray the basic part of the social safety net..
Caterpillar To Cooperate With Tax Investigation  GateHouse Media Illinois   ...Caterpillar Inc. plans to cooperate with a U.S. Senate investigative panel looking into whether the company may have improperly avoided U.S. taxes by moving profits outside the country...
A Massive Chemical Plant Is Poised To Wipe This Louisiana Town Off The Map  Mother Jones   ...SASOL's proposed facility may spell the end for a 224-year-old community founded by freed slaves...

Today's Teamster News 03.02.14

Teamster News
Liam Neeson  The Daily Show   ..."Non-Stop" star Liam Neeson questions the American appreciation for tea, and defends New York City's horse and carriage industry...
Trade
Popular sentiment is hardening against free trade  Financial Times   ...Since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement 20 years ago, voters have come to understand them better and like them less...
Trade deals a closely held secret, shared by more than 500 advisers  Washington Post   ...The details of the Obama administration’s proposals for a massive 12-nation trade zone in the Asia-Pacific region are off limits to most Americans, held close by negotiators who worry that too much openness would make it impossible to reach a deal...
State Battles
Ash Spill Shows How Watchdog Was Defanged  New York Times   ...The spill, which coated the river bottom 70 miles downstream and threatened drinking water and aquatic life, drew attention to a deal that the (North Carolina) environmental department’s new leadership reached with Duke last year over pollution from coal ash ponds. It included a minimal fine but no order that Duke remove the ash — the waste from burning coal to generate electricity — from its leaky, unlined ponds...
Trampling on our First Amendment Rights  Michigan AFL-CIO   ...The State House is contemplating the passage of HB 4643, a bill sponsored by Representative Tom McMillin (R). HB 4643 will result in civil fines of up to $10,000 per day for picketing that is deemed illegal; creating a huge chilling effect on your First Amendment rights...
No Attacks on Mississippi Workers  Mississippi AFL-CIO   ...(three) bills would limit the free speech rights of Mississippians and would restrict local governments from being able to hire local, skilled workers for construction projects and let shady contractors take these projects and bring in out-of-state workers to do the job...
Stand up for Missouri's Middle Class: Rally at Missouri State Capitol 3/26/14  Facebook   ...All union members are invited to join The Missouri State Building & Construction Trades for lobby day & rally at Noon...
Casey urges Pa. legislature to sidestep union bill  Associated Press   ...Stepping into a heated political battle, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey is urging Republican leaders of Pennsylvania's legislature not to move forward on a bill that would make it harder for labor unions to collect dues and political action contributions through payroll deductions...
Assembly pares back 'living wage' ordinance  Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel   ...Working into the night as they near the end of the legislative session, Assembly Republicans on Thursday passed bills to sell vacant Milwaukee Public Schools buildings, to pare back a "living wage" ordinance for contractors in Milwaukee County and to redraw the shoreline of Lake Michigan in an attempt to boost a development in Milwaukee...
Walker Violated Public Records Law: So say former AG and Milwaukee supervisor  The Progressive   ...A former Wisconsin attorney general and a Milwaukee county supervisor who was subpoenaed by the John Doe prosecutor are both wondering why Scott Walker wasn’t charged with violating the state’s public records law while he was Milwaukee county executive...
Scott Walker campaign is paying for attorney working to fight John Doe investigation  blue cheddar   ...The attorney for Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign is named in a court order as a lawyer in a case challenging the ongoing secret investigation into possible illegal campaigning...
Wisconsin income gap widening faster than nation as a whole  The Cap Times   ...The top 1 percent in Wisconsin — households with incomes over $283,000 — captured 15.7 percent of all the income generated in the state in 2011. That compares to a 7 percent slice for the top 1 percent four decades ago...
The War on Workers

The Political Underbelly of the Pensions Crisis: What Broke the System, and How Do We Fix It?  Next New Deal   ...Beyond the economic crisis, which put enormous pressure on state and municipal budgets, a range of factors including poor decision-making and the influence of big money interests has led to the underfunding of some state and city public pensions...

Big-Money Donors Demand Larger Say in Party Strategy  New York Times   ...some of the biggest contributors to Republican outside groups in 2012 are now gravitating toward the more donor-centric political and philanthropic network overseen by Charles and David Koch, who have wooed them in part by promising more accountability over how money is spent...