Teamster News
Teamsters, Human Rights Groups Decry Inaction By Salvadoran Government On Gilberto Soto Murder teamster.org ...A full-page ad scheduled for publication in tomorrow’s edition of El Salvador’s largest daily newspaper denounces the government for its continued inaction on the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Gilberto Soto, a representative of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Soto was killed while visiting El Salvador to establish fraternal relations with transport workers there and throughout Central America...
Rep. Marcy Kaptur celebrates victory at Teamsters Hall NBC24.com ...Rep. Kaptur arrived at the Teamsters Hall around 10 p.m. to thunderous applause from the crowd of about 100 that were assembled...
Voting No On 1 To Repeal AO 37 Will Save Anchorage Millions (opinion) Alaska Dispatch News ...Each year, Anchorage receives millions of dollars in federal grants that finance much of our public transit system. Since 2007, Anchorage has been awarded over $31 million in federal transit grants. If AO 37 remains law, Anchorage will lose eligibility for that funding, but will not lose the expense of replacing buses and maintaining bus stops...
ArcBest Sees Increase In Third-Quarter Revenue, Production Levels Fort Smith Times Record ...McReynolds said the new labor deal between ABF Freight and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters ratified last October is “tracking as expected” and the savings of $55 million to $65 million would be realized...
Sysco Keeps Planning For US Foods Merger Amid Delay Houston Chronicle ...The Teamsters Union is worried that jobs will be cut in regions where Sysco and US Foods overlap. The group represents more 7,600 Sysco warehouse workers and drivers and 4,000 US Foods warehouse workers. It said in its October newsletter that 2,500 jobs are at stake...
Trade
Agribusiness: TPP Won’t Be Decided This Month WHO ...U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman says the final agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will not be made at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit this month in Beijing...
State Battles
Republican Scott Walker wins Wisconsin governor race Capital Gazette ...Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker has won re-election, Reuters/Ipsos projected on Tuesday, prevailing in a tough fight against Democratic challenger Mary Burke...
Gov. Paul LePage wins a second term; Michaud concedes Bangor Daily News ...Paul LePage, the outspoken former businessman who rode a Republican wave into the governor’s mansion and late-night talk show jokes in 2010, has won re-election in Maine...
Kasich, GOP roll in Ohio election Newark Advocate ...Gov. John Kasich led a Republican statewide trouncing of Democrats Tuesday night, assuring Kasich's spot in the discussion about GOP presidential candidates...
Wolf Ousts Corbett in Pa. Governor's Race NBCDFW.com ...Democrat Tom Wolf, who gave $10 million of his own money to underwrite an early TV ad campaign that endeared the businessman and first-time candidate to voters, unseated Gov. Tom Corbett on Tuesday, sending the unpopular incumbent to a historic defeat...
Republican Gov. Rick Scott Defeats Democrat Charlie Crist in Florida Wall Street Journal ...Republican Gov. Rick Scott of Florida won re-election Tuesday, fending off a vigorous challenge from Democrat Charlie Crist and providing the GOP a boost in a key swing state ahead of the 2016 presidential election...
GOP Gov. Rick Snyder Defeats Democrat Mark Schauer in Michigan Wall Street Journal ...Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, who acknowledged voters’ discontent with the state’s economy recovery, locked up his re-election Tuesday on a promise to help place workers in better-paying jobs...
Brownback Wins in Kansas, Keeping Alive Tax-Cut Crusade Bloomberg ...Kansas Governor Sam Brownback won a second term, surviving a backlash to an anti-tax crusade that pitted him against fellow Republicans and tested voters’ patience for the Tea Party agenda...
California Voters Deal Blow To Prisons, Drug War Huffington Post ...Nonviolent felonies like shoplifting and drug possession will be downgraded to misdemeanors under the ballot measure, Proposition 47. As many as 10,000 people could be eligible for early release from state prisons, and it's expected that courts will annually dispense around 40,000 fewer felony convictions...
War on Workers
Riding Wave of Discontent, G.O.P. Takes Senate New York Times ...Propelled by economic dissatisfaction and anger toward the president, Republicans grabbed Democratic Senate seats in North Carolina, Colorado, Iowa, West Virginia, Arkansas, Montana and South Dakota to gain their first Senate majority since 2006...
To Angry Voters, Washington Comes Out the Biggest Loser New York Times ...Optimism about the future was in short supply in this a-pox-on-all-your-houses climate. And the sense of pessimism appears greater than in the last big election: Nearly two-thirds of voters say the nation is on the wrong track, up from a little over half in 2012...
Construction Worker Killed In Turnpike Crash WMTW ...A worker has been killed in an accident at a construction site on the Maine Turnpike in York, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration...
Uber And Its Shady Partners Are Pushing Drivers Into Subprime Loans ValleyWag ...Instead of mortgages, this time a bubble has formed around auto loans, and reliably ruthless Uber is in the thick of it. Two "partners" in Uber's vehicle financing program are under federal investigation, but Uber hasn't slowed its aggressive marketing campaign to get drivers with bad credit to sign up for loans...
Chipotle Faces Wage Theft Allegations From Workers Franchise Herald ...Chipotle employees from Colorado and Minnesota are alleging that the company often makes workers continue their services "off the clock" without pay. Several of these employees wrote official court statements explaining that they had to continue to clean up their restaurant locations despite the time keeping system clocking them out at 12:30 a.m...
Judge Orders Joseph Esposito To Sit For Deposition After Ebola, ISIS Excuses Were Deemed ‘Not Satisfactory’ New York Daily News ...City lawyers contended that Emergency Management Commissioner Joseph Esposito was too busy to be deposed for an Occupy Wall Street-related civil suit last week because of the Ebola crisis....Esposito, 64, was slated to answer questions under oath last week for a suit brought by a woman who says she was wrongly arrested during the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011...
Miscellaneous
NSA Chief Bet Money On AT&T As It Spied On You Daily Beast ...At the same time Gen. Keith Alexander was running the National Security Agency, the United States’ biggest spying outfit, he was also trading stocks in an obscure technology company that had a sweetheart deal with one of the NSA’s most important sources of intelligence—the global phone and Internet giant AT&T...
Showing posts with label PA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PA. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Today's Teamster News 08.26.14
Teamsters
Teamsters concerned about cameras monitoring Massena town employees Watertown Daily Times ...Teamsters Union business agent Mickey S. Smith claims that town officials have refused to negotiate the use of security cameras in public areas throughout the town, but Supervisor Joseph D. Gray sees it differently...
Trade
UPS, Fedex get approval for express services in more Chinese cities Reuters ...After years of waiting, United Parcel Service Inc and FedEx Corp have received licenses in China to extend domestic express package services to Beijing and other cities without needing joint-venture partners...
State Battles
New Doe document links Walker campaign, two national groups Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...A newly released document alleges Gov. Scott Walker's campaign illegally coordinated with two national groups on political advertising in a way that went further than what had been previously known...
WEDC board OK'd Ashley Furniture getting $6 million tax credit, cutting 1,900 jobs Wisconsin State Journal ...The board overseeing the state’s flagship job-creation agency has quietly approved a $6 million tax credit for Ashley Furniture Industries with a condition allowing the company to eliminate half of its state workforce...
6 Reasons Why Rick Scott Is One of the Worst Candidates for Working Families in the 2014 Elections AFL-CIO ...Scott rejects policies that would raise wages. “When I hear a politician say that we have to raise the minimum wage so working families can make ends meet, I cringe,” he said...
Companies that hire disabled ordered to pay back wages The Morning Call ...The U.S. Department of Labor has ordered Pennsylvania organizations to pay $118,000 in back wages to workers with disabilities since 2011, according to records PublicSource obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The workers, who mostly have intellectual and developmental disabilities, already were earning far below minimum wage because the employers have a special license to pay people with disabilities less...
The Con Artistry of Charter Schools In These Times ...Charter schools are such a racket, across the nation they are attracting special attention from the FBI, which is working with the Department of Education’s inspector general to look into allegations of charter-school fraud...
Missourians Fight ALEC Over Big Agriculture’s “Right to Farm” Mint Press News ...the conflict was essentially between large agricultural factories and consumers increasingly concerned with the sustainability and ethics behind the food they eat...
Educators protest corporate influence on public education The Legislative Gazette ...Protestors from New York State United Teachers demonstrated on the steps of the State Education Department building, shredding a Pearson testing contract while speaking out against what they call the growing corporate influence on teaching and learning in New York's public schools and colleges...
Ride-sharing firms shift into overdrive to kill insurance bill Los Angeles Times ...The fight pits companies such as Uber and Lyft against insurers, taxicab firms and some consumer advocates. At issue is how much and what kind of insurance should be required for ride-sharing drivers in case of an accident...
War on Workers
Retirees' Social Security checks garnished for student loans CNN Money ...It's a growing national trend. Last year, 156,000 Americans had their Social Security checks garnished because of student loans they had defaulted on. It's tripled in number from 47,500 in 2006...
Amazon at odds with Germany over strong union tradition Seattle Times ...Unions are a part of the cultural fabric in Germany. For Amazon, that poses a persistent challenge as thousands of its German warehouse workers fight for union recognition, striking occasionally to demonstrate their commitment...
Indiana county highway worker killed when hit by tire rim Associated Press ...State safety officials are investigating the death of a northwestern Indiana county highway department worker who was killed when a tire rim blew off a road grader...
McDonald's maintenance worker Jose Carillo, 81, won't let his age keep him from waging the fight for fair wages for fast-food workers New York Daily News ...Peruvian immigrant Castillo is paid $8.10 an hour at a Midtown McDonald's and can't afford to retire. He is one of hundreds of fast-food workers campaigning to have their wages raised to $15 an hour...
Despite Economic Recovery, Millions Of Workers Stuck In Part-Time Jobs NPR ...Americans who'd like to have full-time jobs are often working two or more part-time jobs to make ends meet. Some are hamstrung by increasingly difficult labor tactics used by their employers...
Taco Bell Owners Sued For Forcing Workers to Give Fake Money as Change Jezebel ...The operators of two Manhattan Taco Bells have been handed a class-action lawsuit alleging they forced underage workers to hand out counterfeit $20 bills to customers as change...
The Kochs' commercial appeal Politico ...This cycle, Koch-affiliated groups, such as Americans for Prosperity, are expected to spend up to a staggering $290 million to support conservative causes and candidates, much of it on advertising...
Teamsters concerned about cameras monitoring Massena town employees Watertown Daily Times ...Teamsters Union business agent Mickey S. Smith claims that town officials have refused to negotiate the use of security cameras in public areas throughout the town, but Supervisor Joseph D. Gray sees it differently...
Trade
UPS, Fedex get approval for express services in more Chinese cities Reuters ...After years of waiting, United Parcel Service Inc and FedEx Corp have received licenses in China to extend domestic express package services to Beijing and other cities without needing joint-venture partners...
State Battles
New Doe document links Walker campaign, two national groups Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...A newly released document alleges Gov. Scott Walker's campaign illegally coordinated with two national groups on political advertising in a way that went further than what had been previously known...
WEDC board OK'd Ashley Furniture getting $6 million tax credit, cutting 1,900 jobs Wisconsin State Journal ...The board overseeing the state’s flagship job-creation agency has quietly approved a $6 million tax credit for Ashley Furniture Industries with a condition allowing the company to eliminate half of its state workforce...
6 Reasons Why Rick Scott Is One of the Worst Candidates for Working Families in the 2014 Elections AFL-CIO ...Scott rejects policies that would raise wages. “When I hear a politician say that we have to raise the minimum wage so working families can make ends meet, I cringe,” he said...
Companies that hire disabled ordered to pay back wages The Morning Call ...The U.S. Department of Labor has ordered Pennsylvania organizations to pay $118,000 in back wages to workers with disabilities since 2011, according to records PublicSource obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The workers, who mostly have intellectual and developmental disabilities, already were earning far below minimum wage because the employers have a special license to pay people with disabilities less...
The Con Artistry of Charter Schools In These Times ...Charter schools are such a racket, across the nation they are attracting special attention from the FBI, which is working with the Department of Education’s inspector general to look into allegations of charter-school fraud...
Missourians Fight ALEC Over Big Agriculture’s “Right to Farm” Mint Press News ...the conflict was essentially between large agricultural factories and consumers increasingly concerned with the sustainability and ethics behind the food they eat...
Educators protest corporate influence on public education The Legislative Gazette ...Protestors from New York State United Teachers demonstrated on the steps of the State Education Department building, shredding a Pearson testing contract while speaking out against what they call the growing corporate influence on teaching and learning in New York's public schools and colleges...
Ride-sharing firms shift into overdrive to kill insurance bill Los Angeles Times ...The fight pits companies such as Uber and Lyft against insurers, taxicab firms and some consumer advocates. At issue is how much and what kind of insurance should be required for ride-sharing drivers in case of an accident...
War on Workers
Retirees' Social Security checks garnished for student loans CNN Money ...It's a growing national trend. Last year, 156,000 Americans had their Social Security checks garnished because of student loans they had defaulted on. It's tripled in number from 47,500 in 2006...
Amazon at odds with Germany over strong union tradition Seattle Times ...Unions are a part of the cultural fabric in Germany. For Amazon, that poses a persistent challenge as thousands of its German warehouse workers fight for union recognition, striking occasionally to demonstrate their commitment...
Indiana county highway worker killed when hit by tire rim Associated Press ...State safety officials are investigating the death of a northwestern Indiana county highway department worker who was killed when a tire rim blew off a road grader...
McDonald's maintenance worker Jose Carillo, 81, won't let his age keep him from waging the fight for fair wages for fast-food workers New York Daily News ...Peruvian immigrant Castillo is paid $8.10 an hour at a Midtown McDonald's and can't afford to retire. He is one of hundreds of fast-food workers campaigning to have their wages raised to $15 an hour...
Despite Economic Recovery, Millions Of Workers Stuck In Part-Time Jobs NPR ...Americans who'd like to have full-time jobs are often working two or more part-time jobs to make ends meet. Some are hamstrung by increasingly difficult labor tactics used by their employers...
Taco Bell Owners Sued For Forcing Workers to Give Fake Money as Change Jezebel ...The operators of two Manhattan Taco Bells have been handed a class-action lawsuit alleging they forced underage workers to hand out counterfeit $20 bills to customers as change...
The Kochs' commercial appeal Politico ...This cycle, Koch-affiliated groups, such as Americans for Prosperity, are expected to spend up to a staggering $290 million to support conservative causes and candidates, much of it on advertising...
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Today's Teamster News 08.24.14
Trade
John Birch Society CEO Exposes Trade Schemes on Alex Jones Show The New American ...the TPP and TTIP negotiations are still proceeding apace. However, they are flying under the radar in stealth mode, with the compliant assistance of the mainstream media, which dutifully keeps the American public distracted from the profoundly destructive effect these agreements would have on our constitutional Republic and our entire way of life...
WTO Panel Decides Against U.S. in Meat-Labeling Dispute Wall Street Journal ...The U.S. has lost a key round at the World Trade Organization in a trade dispute with Canada and Mexico over meat labeling, according to people familiar with the WTO's findings...
State Battles
Measure 3 support kicks off with labor union rally in Fairbanks News Miner ...The chants of the crowd filled the air at Myrtle Thomas Park in Fairbanks on Thursday afternoon during the rally officially launching the Measure 3 campaign to raise and inflation-proof Alaska’s minimum wage...
Charter schools making big profits for private companies WTSP ...10 Investigates found a much bigger pot of money CUSA has been able to tap into: rent. When the company helps open a new school, its development arm, Red Apple Development, acquires land and constructs a school. Then, CUSA charges the school high rent...
Labor Day Parade organizers tell Gov. Corbett he's not welcome Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ...“I told them he wasn't invited,’’ said Jack Shea, the veteran Labor Council president. “You can’t be trying to do away with us for 364 days a year and then want to march with us.’’...
North Carolina judge rules private school voucher program unconstitutional Jurist ...The plaintiffs—public schools grades K through 12 and the taxpayers of North Carolina—will suffer irreparable harm if the state is not permanently enjoined from making unconstitutional disbursement of taxpayer funds to parents for the enrollment of their children in private schools...
New Quarterly Gross State Product Series: Wisconsin and Minnesota Econbrowser ...Minnesota per capita income has been statistically significantly higher than Wisconsin since end 2011 (equivalently, Wisconsin’s per capita income lower than Minnesota’s)...
War on Workers
It's Hard To Get Good Help: Trucking Industry Edition Center for Economic Policy and Research ...If we had more skilled people running trucking companies they would realize that they could bid away drivers from their competitors and get more people to learn to drive trucks if they offered higher pay...
The Housing Being Built in New York Doesn’t Meet the Needs of New Yorkers New York Observer ...The city demands cheaper, smaller housing units, with 57 percent of all adults in the city identifying as “single,” according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and 54.5 percent of the city’s population classified as rent-burdened—or paying more than 30 percent of their income on rent—in 2011, up from 40.7 percent in 2000...
Highway worker killed in St. Michaels work-zone crash Baltimore Sun ...A contracted highway worker for the State Highway Administration died Thursday evening after being struck by a vehicle in a work zone in St. Michaels, according to the SHA and Maryland State Police...
Worker killed in fall from I-40 bridge Commercial Appeal ...A 52-year-old worker was killed in a fall from the Interstate 40 bridge Friday near West Memphis...
Worker killed after explosion in Northwest Houston ABC 13 News ...Police say an explosion caused a large piece of metal to fall on top of employees. One person died, and there are no reports of anyone else injured...
Those Koch Attacks Are Working Wall Street Journal ...Democratic Super PACs and party campaign committees are outraising the Republicans...
John Birch Society CEO Exposes Trade Schemes on Alex Jones Show The New American ...the TPP and TTIP negotiations are still proceeding apace. However, they are flying under the radar in stealth mode, with the compliant assistance of the mainstream media, which dutifully keeps the American public distracted from the profoundly destructive effect these agreements would have on our constitutional Republic and our entire way of life...
WTO Panel Decides Against U.S. in Meat-Labeling Dispute Wall Street Journal ...The U.S. has lost a key round at the World Trade Organization in a trade dispute with Canada and Mexico over meat labeling, according to people familiar with the WTO's findings...
State Battles
Measure 3 support kicks off with labor union rally in Fairbanks News Miner ...The chants of the crowd filled the air at Myrtle Thomas Park in Fairbanks on Thursday afternoon during the rally officially launching the Measure 3 campaign to raise and inflation-proof Alaska’s minimum wage...
Charter schools making big profits for private companies WTSP ...10 Investigates found a much bigger pot of money CUSA has been able to tap into: rent. When the company helps open a new school, its development arm, Red Apple Development, acquires land and constructs a school. Then, CUSA charges the school high rent...
Labor Day Parade organizers tell Gov. Corbett he's not welcome Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ...“I told them he wasn't invited,’’ said Jack Shea, the veteran Labor Council president. “You can’t be trying to do away with us for 364 days a year and then want to march with us.’’...
North Carolina judge rules private school voucher program unconstitutional Jurist ...The plaintiffs—public schools grades K through 12 and the taxpayers of North Carolina—will suffer irreparable harm if the state is not permanently enjoined from making unconstitutional disbursement of taxpayer funds to parents for the enrollment of their children in private schools...
New Quarterly Gross State Product Series: Wisconsin and Minnesota Econbrowser ...Minnesota per capita income has been statistically significantly higher than Wisconsin since end 2011 (equivalently, Wisconsin’s per capita income lower than Minnesota’s)...
War on Workers
It's Hard To Get Good Help: Trucking Industry Edition Center for Economic Policy and Research ...If we had more skilled people running trucking companies they would realize that they could bid away drivers from their competitors and get more people to learn to drive trucks if they offered higher pay...
The Housing Being Built in New York Doesn’t Meet the Needs of New Yorkers New York Observer ...The city demands cheaper, smaller housing units, with 57 percent of all adults in the city identifying as “single,” according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and 54.5 percent of the city’s population classified as rent-burdened—or paying more than 30 percent of their income on rent—in 2011, up from 40.7 percent in 2000...
Highway worker killed in St. Michaels work-zone crash Baltimore Sun ...A contracted highway worker for the State Highway Administration died Thursday evening after being struck by a vehicle in a work zone in St. Michaels, according to the SHA and Maryland State Police...
Worker killed in fall from I-40 bridge Commercial Appeal ...A 52-year-old worker was killed in a fall from the Interstate 40 bridge Friday near West Memphis...
Worker killed after explosion in Northwest Houston ABC 13 News ...Police say an explosion caused a large piece of metal to fall on top of employees. One person died, and there are no reports of anyone else injured...
Those Koch Attacks Are Working Wall Street Journal ...Democratic Super PACs and party campaign committees are outraising the Republicans...
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Today's Teamster News 07.01.14
Teamster News
Union Representing RTC Workers Authorizes Strike Reno Gazette-Journal ...A labor union local representing Washoe County public transit system employees voted overwhelmingly Sunday to authorize a strike, but a contract extension until July 31 is possible, the union said...
Horizon Air Aircraft Technicians, Fleet Service Agents Ratify New Six-Year Contract Aviation Pros ...Horizon Air's aircraft technicians and fleet service agents have ratified a new six-year contract, the airline and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) announced today...
Contract Between EVSC and Teamsters Expires at Midnight Tristatehomepage.com ...For months, the school system and local union have been working on a new contract. But no agreements were reached. The contract applies to a union made up of bus drivers, custodians, secretaries, and others...
Medford Residents Win Teamster Scholarships Medford Transcript ...Medford residents Olivia Stewart and Tristan Whalen were recently awarded $2,000 scholarships each by Teamsters Local 25...
What Happens If Uber Drivers Start Organizing Too? BuzzFeed ...More than 1,000 D.C. cabbies on Wednesday drove through the streets and refused to pick up passengers in protest of popular ridesharing apps like Uber and Lyft — companies they say are unfairly breaking the law and taking away their business. Their protest is just the latest in cities in the United States and worldwide, as Uber in particular continues its massive expansion from boutique service to a major company, valued at just over $18 billion this year...
Trade
Japan, U.S. resume bilateral TPP talks before Ottawa meeting Mainichi ...Japan and the United States on Monday resumed bilateral talks on a Pacific free trade pact in Tokyo, aiming to bridge remaining differences as far as possible before officials from all 12 negotiating members gather in Canada later this week...
State Battles
Michigan's minimum-wage bill could render your vote null and void (opinion) Michigan Radio ...Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, believes in democracy, except when he doesn’t. In the past, Richardville has staunchly supported Michigan voters’ decisions to outlaw gay marriage and affirmative action. But he doesn’t want to allow voters to vote to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour...
AFT Pennsylvania Position Payroll Deduction/Paycheck Deception AFT Pennsylvania ...Legislation prohibiting payroll deduction would wipe out collective bargaining rights that public employees have held for decades. It deprives teachers, nurses, college professors, school bus drivers and other public employees of their right to negotiate payroll deductions for union dues and voluntary political contributions to their union political action committees...
War On Workers
Ruling Against Union Fees Contains Damage to Labor New York Times ...The Supreme Court dealt a limited blow to organized labor on Monday by ruling that some government employees did not have to pay any fees to the unions representing them. But the court declined to strike down a decades-old precedent that required many public sector workers to pay union fees...
SCOTUS Ruling Doesn’t Gut Public Unions, But Creates New Challenges for Care Workers The Next New Deal ...The decision in Harris v. Quinn blocks the right-wing assault against one of the most important pillars of progressive infrastructure, public employee unions, but will add to the challenge of raising wages and benefits in the surging low-wage workforce...
Corporations Are People, And They Have More Rights Than You Huffington Post ... the Supreme Court endorsed corporate personhood -- holding that business firms have rights to religious freedom under federal law. Not only do corporations have rights, their rights are stronger than yours...
A Grieving Father Pulls a Thread That Unravels Illegal Bank Deals New York Times ...A bus bombing two decades ago — and a New Jersey father’s quest for justice — inadvertently set off a chain of events that led American prosecutors to accuse some of the world’s biggest banks of transferring money for nations like Iran. On Monday, that crackdown culminated with the guilty plea of BNP Paribas, which admitted to doing billions of dollars in deals with Iran ...
The Implications of Flat or Declining Real Wages for Inequality Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta ...what we thought had been a decade of essentially flat real wages (since 2002) has actually been a decade of declining real wages...
For Tipped Workers, A Different Minimum Wage Battle NPR ...according to a White House report, tipped workers are more than twice as likely as other workers to experience poverty...
Facebook's massive psychology experiment likely illegal BoingBoing ...there's a federal law that prohibits universities from conducting this kind of experiment without explicit, separate consent (none of this burying-consent-in-the-fine-print bullshit). Two of the three researchers who worked on this were working for federally funded universities with institutional review boards, and the project received federal funds...
Wyden Releases Details of Backdoor Searches of Americans’ Communications Ron Wyden ...When the FBI says it conducts a substantial number of searches and it has no idea of what the number is, it shows how flawed this system is and the consequences of inadequate oversight. This huge gap in oversight is a problem now, and will only grow as global communications systems become more interconnected...
Rio’s Maracanã Stadium is Privatized The Rio Times ...Taking into account the R$304 million of taxpayer money spent on renovations for the 2007 Pan-American games, this brings the total amount spent by the state on Maracanã to about R$1.4 billion, compared to the R$775.6 million it will have received (or not had to spend) after 35 years...
Miscellaneous
Americans Losing Confidence in All Branches of U.S. Gov't Gallup ...Americans' confidence in all three branches of the U.S. government has fallen, reaching record lows for the Supreme Court (30%) and Congress (7%), and a six-year low for the presidency (29%)...
Union Representing RTC Workers Authorizes Strike Reno Gazette-Journal ...A labor union local representing Washoe County public transit system employees voted overwhelmingly Sunday to authorize a strike, but a contract extension until July 31 is possible, the union said...
Horizon Air Aircraft Technicians, Fleet Service Agents Ratify New Six-Year Contract Aviation Pros ...Horizon Air's aircraft technicians and fleet service agents have ratified a new six-year contract, the airline and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) announced today...
Contract Between EVSC and Teamsters Expires at Midnight Tristatehomepage.com ...For months, the school system and local union have been working on a new contract. But no agreements were reached. The contract applies to a union made up of bus drivers, custodians, secretaries, and others...
Medford Residents Win Teamster Scholarships Medford Transcript ...Medford residents Olivia Stewart and Tristan Whalen were recently awarded $2,000 scholarships each by Teamsters Local 25...
What Happens If Uber Drivers Start Organizing Too? BuzzFeed ...More than 1,000 D.C. cabbies on Wednesday drove through the streets and refused to pick up passengers in protest of popular ridesharing apps like Uber and Lyft — companies they say are unfairly breaking the law and taking away their business. Their protest is just the latest in cities in the United States and worldwide, as Uber in particular continues its massive expansion from boutique service to a major company, valued at just over $18 billion this year...
Trade
Japan, U.S. resume bilateral TPP talks before Ottawa meeting Mainichi ...Japan and the United States on Monday resumed bilateral talks on a Pacific free trade pact in Tokyo, aiming to bridge remaining differences as far as possible before officials from all 12 negotiating members gather in Canada later this week...
State Battles
Michigan's minimum-wage bill could render your vote null and void (opinion) Michigan Radio ...Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, believes in democracy, except when he doesn’t. In the past, Richardville has staunchly supported Michigan voters’ decisions to outlaw gay marriage and affirmative action. But he doesn’t want to allow voters to vote to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour...
AFT Pennsylvania Position Payroll Deduction/Paycheck Deception AFT Pennsylvania ...Legislation prohibiting payroll deduction would wipe out collective bargaining rights that public employees have held for decades. It deprives teachers, nurses, college professors, school bus drivers and other public employees of their right to negotiate payroll deductions for union dues and voluntary political contributions to their union political action committees...
War On Workers
Ruling Against Union Fees Contains Damage to Labor New York Times ...The Supreme Court dealt a limited blow to organized labor on Monday by ruling that some government employees did not have to pay any fees to the unions representing them. But the court declined to strike down a decades-old precedent that required many public sector workers to pay union fees...
SCOTUS Ruling Doesn’t Gut Public Unions, But Creates New Challenges for Care Workers The Next New Deal ...The decision in Harris v. Quinn blocks the right-wing assault against one of the most important pillars of progressive infrastructure, public employee unions, but will add to the challenge of raising wages and benefits in the surging low-wage workforce...
Corporations Are People, And They Have More Rights Than You Huffington Post ... the Supreme Court endorsed corporate personhood -- holding that business firms have rights to religious freedom under federal law. Not only do corporations have rights, their rights are stronger than yours...
A Grieving Father Pulls a Thread That Unravels Illegal Bank Deals New York Times ...A bus bombing two decades ago — and a New Jersey father’s quest for justice — inadvertently set off a chain of events that led American prosecutors to accuse some of the world’s biggest banks of transferring money for nations like Iran. On Monday, that crackdown culminated with the guilty plea of BNP Paribas, which admitted to doing billions of dollars in deals with Iran ...
The Implications of Flat or Declining Real Wages for Inequality Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta ...what we thought had been a decade of essentially flat real wages (since 2002) has actually been a decade of declining real wages...
For Tipped Workers, A Different Minimum Wage Battle NPR ...according to a White House report, tipped workers are more than twice as likely as other workers to experience poverty...
Facebook's massive psychology experiment likely illegal BoingBoing ...there's a federal law that prohibits universities from conducting this kind of experiment without explicit, separate consent (none of this burying-consent-in-the-fine-print bullshit). Two of the three researchers who worked on this were working for federally funded universities with institutional review boards, and the project received federal funds...
Wyden Releases Details of Backdoor Searches of Americans’ Communications Ron Wyden ...When the FBI says it conducts a substantial number of searches and it has no idea of what the number is, it shows how flawed this system is and the consequences of inadequate oversight. This huge gap in oversight is a problem now, and will only grow as global communications systems become more interconnected...
Rio’s Maracanã Stadium is Privatized The Rio Times ...Taking into account the R$304 million of taxpayer money spent on renovations for the 2007 Pan-American games, this brings the total amount spent by the state on Maracanã to about R$1.4 billion, compared to the R$775.6 million it will have received (or not had to spend) after 35 years...
Miscellaneous
Americans Losing Confidence in All Branches of U.S. Gov't Gallup ...Americans' confidence in all three branches of the U.S. government has fallen, reaching record lows for the Supreme Court (30%) and Congress (7%), and a six-year low for the presidency (29%)...
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Today's Teamster News 06.26.14
Teamster News
Downtown D.C. Traffic Gridlocked As Taxi Drivers Protest Uber, Lyft, Sidecar Washington Post ...Drivers in and around downtown D.C. were gridlocked in traffic Wednesday as a caravan of angry taxi drivers made its way from East Potomac Park to Freedom Plaza — in a protest against app-based ride sharing services such as UberX...
DC Cabbies Join Protest Against Online Services The Hill ... The protest is being organized by the Washington, D.C. Taxi Operators Association, which is affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union. The union said cab drivers in the nation’s capital are upset because Internet-based taxi services don't face the same regulations as rank-and-file operators...
Teamsters hold 'Just Practicing' picket in Mobile to protest waste company's proposed health insurance plan changes AL.com ...Republic wants to be able to change health insurance plans without having to bargain with its workers, even though the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Republic is required to bargain over any changes to workers' health care," Jim Gookins, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 991, said in a press release...
How Do Los Angeles Uber Drivers Protest? They Take a Beach Day Bloomberg ...DeWolf says he and his fellow drivers were spurred by concerns over the company’s refusal to shoulder responsibility for insuring drivers; capricious-seeming policy changes, such as a recent announcement that pre-2010 cars will be phased out for Uber Black or Uber SUV services; and opaque disciplinary procedures...
Teamsters go on strike against concrete company Turnto10 ...Twenty-two men from the Teamsters union in Smithfield and Cranston went on strike Wednesday morning. "We believe in a fair day's work for a fair day's pay," said Stu Mundy, a union supporter...
Teamsters Local 43 Overwhelmingly Votes To Merge With Local 200 Teamsters Local 200 ... Teamsters Local 200 announced that members of Local 43 in Racine, Wisc. overwhelmingly voted to merge with the Milwaukee-based chapter. With the vote, the more than 600 members of Local 43 will join the 3,700 members of Local 200...
Trade
Capitol Hill Shines Spotlight on #SOSJobs manufacture this ...The fight to Save Our Steel Jobs came to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, as the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing looking at how enforcing trade rules can level the playing field for U.S. companies and workers...
Mexican Shale Industry Hoist on Nafta-Induced Gang Violence Petard naked capitalism ...There’s perilous little recognition in the US of how much of the rise in gang violence and drug wars, as well as much harsher economic conditions for ordinary people, is the direct result of Nafta...
State Battles
Union Dues Deduction Bill Advances In Pennsylvania WHTM ...Business-backed legislation that would restrict labor union deductions from the paychecks of unionized public employees is advancing in the Pennsylvania state Legislature...
Under Scott Walker, Wisconsin keeps increasing its long-term borrowing The Cap Times ...Under Walker’s 2013-15 budget, debt service will climb even higher, claiming 5.26% of general fund dollars in 2014 and 4.88% in 2015, according to WISTAX. The state’s historical debt level target has been 4%...
War On Workers
U.S. Economy Shrank in First Quarter by Most in Five Years Bloomberg ...Gross domestic product fell at a 2.9 percent annualized rate, more than forecast and the worst reading since the same three months in 2009, after a previously reported 1 percent drop, the Commerce Department said today in Washington...
Microsoft lawyer says future is ‘bleak’ because of NSA surveillance RT ...Microsoft’s top lawyer doesn’t see much reason to be optimistic going forward if the National Security Agency doesn’t stop its bulk collection of private data, pointing to a “bleak future” and a lack of justice and accountability...
Walmart Flunks Its Fact-Check: The Truth Behind Its Sarcastic Response To The Times Salon.com ...Walmart isn’t going away and any conversation about wages, manufacturing and the reliance on public benefits by the employees of America’s largest corporations is ultimately going to include its participation. This latest salvo seems to indicate it remains intent on making it as unproductive a conversation as possible...
Miscellaneous
Supreme Court Issues Bold Ruling On Cell Phone Privacy Think Progress ...As of today, in nearly all circumstances, the police must obtain a warrant before they can search through your cell phone...
Fifty Years After Freedom Summer, The Voting Rights Act Is Needed More Than Ever (opinion) Moyers & Company ...All across the country, we’re seeing the most significant push to restrict voting rights since Reconstruction...
Downtown D.C. Traffic Gridlocked As Taxi Drivers Protest Uber, Lyft, Sidecar Washington Post ...Drivers in and around downtown D.C. were gridlocked in traffic Wednesday as a caravan of angry taxi drivers made its way from East Potomac Park to Freedom Plaza — in a protest against app-based ride sharing services such as UberX...
DC Cabbies Join Protest Against Online Services The Hill ... The protest is being organized by the Washington, D.C. Taxi Operators Association, which is affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union. The union said cab drivers in the nation’s capital are upset because Internet-based taxi services don't face the same regulations as rank-and-file operators...
Teamsters hold 'Just Practicing' picket in Mobile to protest waste company's proposed health insurance plan changes AL.com ...Republic wants to be able to change health insurance plans without having to bargain with its workers, even though the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Republic is required to bargain over any changes to workers' health care," Jim Gookins, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 991, said in a press release...
How Do Los Angeles Uber Drivers Protest? They Take a Beach Day Bloomberg ...DeWolf says he and his fellow drivers were spurred by concerns over the company’s refusal to shoulder responsibility for insuring drivers; capricious-seeming policy changes, such as a recent announcement that pre-2010 cars will be phased out for Uber Black or Uber SUV services; and opaque disciplinary procedures...
Teamsters go on strike against concrete company Turnto10 ...Twenty-two men from the Teamsters union in Smithfield and Cranston went on strike Wednesday morning. "We believe in a fair day's work for a fair day's pay," said Stu Mundy, a union supporter...
Teamsters Local 43 Overwhelmingly Votes To Merge With Local 200 Teamsters Local 200 ... Teamsters Local 200 announced that members of Local 43 in Racine, Wisc. overwhelmingly voted to merge with the Milwaukee-based chapter. With the vote, the more than 600 members of Local 43 will join the 3,700 members of Local 200...
Trade
Capitol Hill Shines Spotlight on #SOSJobs manufacture this ...The fight to Save Our Steel Jobs came to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, as the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing looking at how enforcing trade rules can level the playing field for U.S. companies and workers...
Mexican Shale Industry Hoist on Nafta-Induced Gang Violence Petard naked capitalism ...There’s perilous little recognition in the US of how much of the rise in gang violence and drug wars, as well as much harsher economic conditions for ordinary people, is the direct result of Nafta...
State Battles
Union Dues Deduction Bill Advances In Pennsylvania WHTM ...Business-backed legislation that would restrict labor union deductions from the paychecks of unionized public employees is advancing in the Pennsylvania state Legislature...
Under Scott Walker, Wisconsin keeps increasing its long-term borrowing The Cap Times ...Under Walker’s 2013-15 budget, debt service will climb even higher, claiming 5.26% of general fund dollars in 2014 and 4.88% in 2015, according to WISTAX. The state’s historical debt level target has been 4%...
War On Workers
U.S. Economy Shrank in First Quarter by Most in Five Years Bloomberg ...Gross domestic product fell at a 2.9 percent annualized rate, more than forecast and the worst reading since the same three months in 2009, after a previously reported 1 percent drop, the Commerce Department said today in Washington...
Microsoft lawyer says future is ‘bleak’ because of NSA surveillance RT ...Microsoft’s top lawyer doesn’t see much reason to be optimistic going forward if the National Security Agency doesn’t stop its bulk collection of private data, pointing to a “bleak future” and a lack of justice and accountability...
Walmart Flunks Its Fact-Check: The Truth Behind Its Sarcastic Response To The Times Salon.com ...Walmart isn’t going away and any conversation about wages, manufacturing and the reliance on public benefits by the employees of America’s largest corporations is ultimately going to include its participation. This latest salvo seems to indicate it remains intent on making it as unproductive a conversation as possible...
Miscellaneous
Supreme Court Issues Bold Ruling On Cell Phone Privacy Think Progress ...As of today, in nearly all circumstances, the police must obtain a warrant before they can search through your cell phone...
Fifty Years After Freedom Summer, The Voting Rights Act Is Needed More Than Ever (opinion) Moyers & Company ...All across the country, we’re seeing the most significant push to restrict voting rights since Reconstruction...
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Today's Teamster News 03.15.14
Teamster News
Donora OKs four-year Teamster contract for police Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ...The Donora, Penn. council unanimously approved a tentative four-year contract with Teamsters Local 205 that includes a wage increase and one-time bonuses for four full-time officers and several part-time officers...
Teamsters Secure New Contract with Richland Township Penn Live ...Richland Township employees will receive a raise of at least 75 cents per hour for this year, approved March 5, the same night that township supervisors endorsed a new five-year contract with Teamsters Local 205, based in White Oak, Penn., which represents six full-time public-works employees...
Food contracts cycle underway again for Southern Calif. Teamsters, UFCW People's World ...A historic core industry of the two major unions (Teamsters and UFCW) in Southern California, retail food, has begun its every-five-years-or-so cycle of bare-knuckle contract negotiations...
3 Labor Organizations Endorse Deb Goldberg for MA Treasurer GoLocalWorchester ...Deb Goldberg's campaign for Massachusetts Treasurer received a boost Thursday after receiving endorsements from Teamsters Local 25, Painters DC #35 and Brookline Fire Fighters Local 950, citing her dedication to wage equality and respect for workers...
Time for Congress to Move on Income Inequality teamster.org ...A Senate committee took up discussion of income inequality during a hearing this week focused on how to improve the lives of working families. But unfortunately, not everyone agreed that Capitol Hill needed to lend a hand to lift wages...
Trade
Teamsters: U.S.-Korea Trade Deal Marks Two Years of Failure teamster.org ...On the two-year anniversary of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS), the Teamsters Union denounces the pact as another failed trade deal that enriches global corporations while eliminating middle-class jobs in the United States...
REPORT: NAFTA’s Deadly Legacy: Corporate Profits Over People And Planet MintPress News ...Ahead of Transatlantic and Transpacific trade deals, report authors warn: 'Remember NAFTA'...
State News
Attack on Labor The Tribune-Review ...In Harrisburg, legislation has been proposed to prevent the automatic withholding of union dues from public employees' paychecks...This legislation serves only to undermine the timely, efficient payment of monies that are rightfully due to unions. Automatic withholding is routinely used by employers to collect money owed for charitable contributions, for insurance premiums, for child support and for taxes...
Alabama House approves payday loan database Associated Press ...The Alabama House of Representatives on Thursday voted to create a state database to enforce an existing $500 limit on how much people can borrow at one time from the short-term lenders...
Bill targeting predatory lending sent to Maine governor Associated Press ...The Democratic-controlled House and Senate gave final approval to the bill this week that aims to protect Mainers from unlicensed online lenders who offer illegitimate short-term loans that can drain consumers' bank accounts with high interest rates and fees...
New York union membership grows 8% from 2012 to 2013 Long Island Newsday ...Unions in New York State added 145,000 members last year, the first increase since 2007, new federal data show. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday that the ranks of private-sector and government unions in the state totaled nearly 2 million in 2013, a gain of 8 percent from a year earlier...
War on Workers
Wall Street and Multinationals Get Theirs While America Suffers Economic Populist ...corporations are stockpiling cash, tax free, abroad and added $206 billion to their coffers in 2013. The offshore cash holdings now are $1.95 trillion. Three of the biggest labor arbitragers and offshore outsourcers of them all, Microsoft, IBM and Apple, account for 18.2% of the 2013 offshore cash holdings increase. All of these companies have fired top tier Scientists and Engineers and replaced them with cheaper foreign guest workers as well as moved R&D jobs offshore...
Obama: If You 'Work More, You Should Get Paid More' WBNI ...President Obama signed a memo directing his labor secretary to rewrite the rules governing overtime in the country...
People Think We’re in a Recession. Don’t Blame Them. New York Times ... 57 percent still think the economy is in recession... for much of America, despite years of modest gross domestic product growth and strong stock market gains, the economy isn’t good...
A Relentless Widening of Disparity in Wealth New York Times ...the economic forces concentrating more and more wealth into the hands of the fortunate few are almost sure to prevail for a very long time...
Greek unemployment rises to 27.5 percent Associated Press ...Official figures show the unemployment rate in Greece increased to 27.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013 as the economy struggled to emerge from a protracted recession...
New York City transit workers have personal info exposed Associated Press ...The Social Security numbers and other personal information of about 15,000 New York City transit workers has been found on a CD inside a refurbished computer sold by a retailer, according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press...
Bank of America back in court over $2.1 billion fraud penalties Reuters ...A U.S. judge wrestled on Thursday with a U.S. Justice Department request that Bank of America Corp pay $2.1 billion in penalties after being found liable for fraud over defective mortgages sold by its Countrywide unit...
Debt Collectors Go After Service Members Despite Protections Truthout ...Debt collectors are targeting members of the Armed Services by calling their superior officers, threatening reduction in rank and even courts-martial, despite stepped-up efforts to protect them from abuse, according to a government report issued last week...
More Than 900 Workers Have Already Died Building Qatar’s World Cup Facilities Smithsonian ...400 Nepalese migrant workers had already died at building sites. Between 2010 and 2012 more than 700 workers from India lost their lives working on construction sites in Qatar, too...
For the first time in years, contract talks between city and unions show both sides want a deal New York Daily News ...Talks began this week between the de Blasio administration and city unions over labor contracts for 300,000 municipal workers. It was night and day compared to the Bloomberg era...
Donora OKs four-year Teamster contract for police Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ...The Donora, Penn. council unanimously approved a tentative four-year contract with Teamsters Local 205 that includes a wage increase and one-time bonuses for four full-time officers and several part-time officers...
Teamsters Secure New Contract with Richland Township Penn Live ...Richland Township employees will receive a raise of at least 75 cents per hour for this year, approved March 5, the same night that township supervisors endorsed a new five-year contract with Teamsters Local 205, based in White Oak, Penn., which represents six full-time public-works employees...
Food contracts cycle underway again for Southern Calif. Teamsters, UFCW People's World ...A historic core industry of the two major unions (Teamsters and UFCW) in Southern California, retail food, has begun its every-five-years-or-so cycle of bare-knuckle contract negotiations...
3 Labor Organizations Endorse Deb Goldberg for MA Treasurer GoLocalWorchester ...Deb Goldberg's campaign for Massachusetts Treasurer received a boost Thursday after receiving endorsements from Teamsters Local 25, Painters DC #35 and Brookline Fire Fighters Local 950, citing her dedication to wage equality and respect for workers...
Time for Congress to Move on Income Inequality teamster.org ...A Senate committee took up discussion of income inequality during a hearing this week focused on how to improve the lives of working families. But unfortunately, not everyone agreed that Capitol Hill needed to lend a hand to lift wages...
Trade
Teamsters: U.S.-Korea Trade Deal Marks Two Years of Failure teamster.org ...On the two-year anniversary of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS), the Teamsters Union denounces the pact as another failed trade deal that enriches global corporations while eliminating middle-class jobs in the United States...
REPORT: NAFTA’s Deadly Legacy: Corporate Profits Over People And Planet MintPress News ...Ahead of Transatlantic and Transpacific trade deals, report authors warn: 'Remember NAFTA'...
State News
Attack on Labor The Tribune-Review ...In Harrisburg, legislation has been proposed to prevent the automatic withholding of union dues from public employees' paychecks...This legislation serves only to undermine the timely, efficient payment of monies that are rightfully due to unions. Automatic withholding is routinely used by employers to collect money owed for charitable contributions, for insurance premiums, for child support and for taxes...
Alabama House approves payday loan database Associated Press ...The Alabama House of Representatives on Thursday voted to create a state database to enforce an existing $500 limit on how much people can borrow at one time from the short-term lenders...
Bill targeting predatory lending sent to Maine governor Associated Press ...The Democratic-controlled House and Senate gave final approval to the bill this week that aims to protect Mainers from unlicensed online lenders who offer illegitimate short-term loans that can drain consumers' bank accounts with high interest rates and fees...
New York union membership grows 8% from 2012 to 2013 Long Island Newsday ...Unions in New York State added 145,000 members last year, the first increase since 2007, new federal data show. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday that the ranks of private-sector and government unions in the state totaled nearly 2 million in 2013, a gain of 8 percent from a year earlier...
War on Workers
Wall Street and Multinationals Get Theirs While America Suffers Economic Populist ...corporations are stockpiling cash, tax free, abroad and added $206 billion to their coffers in 2013. The offshore cash holdings now are $1.95 trillion. Three of the biggest labor arbitragers and offshore outsourcers of them all, Microsoft, IBM and Apple, account for 18.2% of the 2013 offshore cash holdings increase. All of these companies have fired top tier Scientists and Engineers and replaced them with cheaper foreign guest workers as well as moved R&D jobs offshore...
Obama: If You 'Work More, You Should Get Paid More' WBNI ...President Obama signed a memo directing his labor secretary to rewrite the rules governing overtime in the country...
People Think We’re in a Recession. Don’t Blame Them. New York Times ... 57 percent still think the economy is in recession... for much of America, despite years of modest gross domestic product growth and strong stock market gains, the economy isn’t good...
A Relentless Widening of Disparity in Wealth New York Times ...the economic forces concentrating more and more wealth into the hands of the fortunate few are almost sure to prevail for a very long time...
Greek unemployment rises to 27.5 percent Associated Press ...Official figures show the unemployment rate in Greece increased to 27.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013 as the economy struggled to emerge from a protracted recession...
New York City transit workers have personal info exposed Associated Press ...The Social Security numbers and other personal information of about 15,000 New York City transit workers has been found on a CD inside a refurbished computer sold by a retailer, according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press...
Bank of America back in court over $2.1 billion fraud penalties Reuters ...A U.S. judge wrestled on Thursday with a U.S. Justice Department request that Bank of America Corp pay $2.1 billion in penalties after being found liable for fraud over defective mortgages sold by its Countrywide unit...
Debt Collectors Go After Service Members Despite Protections Truthout ...Debt collectors are targeting members of the Armed Services by calling their superior officers, threatening reduction in rank and even courts-martial, despite stepped-up efforts to protect them from abuse, according to a government report issued last week...
More Than 900 Workers Have Already Died Building Qatar’s World Cup Facilities Smithsonian ...400 Nepalese migrant workers had already died at building sites. Between 2010 and 2012 more than 700 workers from India lost their lives working on construction sites in Qatar, too...
For the first time in years, contract talks between city and unions show both sides want a deal New York Daily News ...Talks began this week between the de Blasio administration and city unions over labor contracts for 300,000 municipal workers. It was night and day compared to the Bloomberg era...
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Today's Teamster News 03.09.14
Teamster News
Pasco, Teamsters close to deal Special magistrate sides with union on OT Tampa Tribune ...After more than three years, Pasco County and the Teamsters Local 79 may be close to approving their first contract following the second pro-union ruling by a special magistrate...
Bus drivers, company seek to stave off strike WPTZ News5 ...The Teamsters Union representing almost 70 Vermont bus drivers is still sequestered in one final negotiating session with the Chittenden County Transportation Authority in hopes of avoiding a strike...
MUA OKs Teamsters Pact Cape May County Herald ...Commissioners voted to ratify a new contract with its employees of Teamsters Local 331. The contract provides salary increases of 1.5 percent for 2013 and 2014, and 2 percent for 2015 and 2016...
Pa. Turnpike Must Use Teamsters For Mowing, Court Says Law 360 ...The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court on Friday affirmed an arbitrator’s ruling that the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission had violated a collective bargaining agreement with the Teamsters by hiring a subcontractor to cut grass, but it overturned a punitive damages award...
Teamsters file grievance over road work by Mahoning County inmates Youngstown Vindicator ...their use of day-reporting sheriff’s inmates to help fill the potholes should have been discussed in advance with Teamsters Local 377, which has filed a grievance concerning the use of free labor by the inmates...
Trade
In the Real World the Trade Deficit Is More Important Than the Budget Deficit Center for Economic and Policy Research ...The trade deficit matters hugely to the economy and to ordinary workers, there is no excuse for not giving it a substantial amount of coverage...
The War on Workers
'They're Not Dead Yet': Planning The Demise Of Labor Unions At CPAC Huffington Post ...Norquist didn't dwell on his Tennessee victory, instead steering the discussion toward a larger picture: how the right can fundamentally weaken unions through state legislation. That includes collective bargaining rollbacks like the monumental one carried out by Gov. Scott Walker (R) in Wisconsin in 2011, as well as right-to-work laws like those recently passed in Michigan and Indiana...
Which Side Is Your Pension On? Jacobin ... The corporate control of finance is not simply due to the weakness of regulations on the system. Instead, active state intervention since World War II has pushed labor’s finance into the hands of corporate fiduciaries...
Auto Regulators Dismissed Defect Tied to 13 Deaths New York Times ...Federal safety regulators received more than 260 complaints over the last 11 years about General Motors vehicles that suddenly turned off while being driven, but they declined to investigate the problem, which G.M. now says is linked to 13 deaths and requires the recall of more than 1.6 million cars worldwide....
Miscellaneous
London’s Laundry Business New York Times ...Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, gets it: you pay them, you own them. Mr. Putin was absolutely certain that Britain’s managers — shuttling through the revolving door between cabinet posts and financial boards — would never give up their fees and commissions from the oligarchs’ billions. He was right...
The Fat Drug New York Times ...decades of agricultural research has shown that antibiotics seem to flip a switch in young animals’ bodies, helping them pack on pounds...But what if that meat is us? Recently, a group of medical investigators have begun to wonder whether antibiotics might cause the same growth promotion in humans...
Facebook to Buy Drone Company Titan Aerospace for $60 Million NBC News ...Facebook is supposedly interested in Titan because its solar-powered drones — which can reportedly stay airborne for five years — can help Facebook achieve its goal of providing Internet access around the world...
Pasco, Teamsters close to deal Special magistrate sides with union on OT Tampa Tribune ...After more than three years, Pasco County and the Teamsters Local 79 may be close to approving their first contract following the second pro-union ruling by a special magistrate...
Bus drivers, company seek to stave off strike WPTZ News5 ...The Teamsters Union representing almost 70 Vermont bus drivers is still sequestered in one final negotiating session with the Chittenden County Transportation Authority in hopes of avoiding a strike...
MUA OKs Teamsters Pact Cape May County Herald ...Commissioners voted to ratify a new contract with its employees of Teamsters Local 331. The contract provides salary increases of 1.5 percent for 2013 and 2014, and 2 percent for 2015 and 2016...
Pa. Turnpike Must Use Teamsters For Mowing, Court Says Law 360 ...The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court on Friday affirmed an arbitrator’s ruling that the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission had violated a collective bargaining agreement with the Teamsters by hiring a subcontractor to cut grass, but it overturned a punitive damages award...
Teamsters file grievance over road work by Mahoning County inmates Youngstown Vindicator ...their use of day-reporting sheriff’s inmates to help fill the potholes should have been discussed in advance with Teamsters Local 377, which has filed a grievance concerning the use of free labor by the inmates...
Trade
In the Real World the Trade Deficit Is More Important Than the Budget Deficit Center for Economic and Policy Research ...The trade deficit matters hugely to the economy and to ordinary workers, there is no excuse for not giving it a substantial amount of coverage...
The War on Workers
'They're Not Dead Yet': Planning The Demise Of Labor Unions At CPAC Huffington Post ...Norquist didn't dwell on his Tennessee victory, instead steering the discussion toward a larger picture: how the right can fundamentally weaken unions through state legislation. That includes collective bargaining rollbacks like the monumental one carried out by Gov. Scott Walker (R) in Wisconsin in 2011, as well as right-to-work laws like those recently passed in Michigan and Indiana...
Which Side Is Your Pension On? Jacobin ... The corporate control of finance is not simply due to the weakness of regulations on the system. Instead, active state intervention since World War II has pushed labor’s finance into the hands of corporate fiduciaries...
Auto Regulators Dismissed Defect Tied to 13 Deaths New York Times ...Federal safety regulators received more than 260 complaints over the last 11 years about General Motors vehicles that suddenly turned off while being driven, but they declined to investigate the problem, which G.M. now says is linked to 13 deaths and requires the recall of more than 1.6 million cars worldwide....
Miscellaneous
London’s Laundry Business New York Times ...Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, gets it: you pay them, you own them. Mr. Putin was absolutely certain that Britain’s managers — shuttling through the revolving door between cabinet posts and financial boards — would never give up their fees and commissions from the oligarchs’ billions. He was right...
The Fat Drug New York Times ...decades of agricultural research has shown that antibiotics seem to flip a switch in young animals’ bodies, helping them pack on pounds...But what if that meat is us? Recently, a group of medical investigators have begun to wonder whether antibiotics might cause the same growth promotion in humans...
Facebook to Buy Drone Company Titan Aerospace for $60 Million NBC News ...Facebook is supposedly interested in Titan because its solar-powered drones — which can reportedly stay airborne for five years — can help Facebook achieve its goal of providing Internet access around the world...
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
'We're Teamsters, we're Republican and we vote -- but not for anti-worker politicians'
 |
| Republican Teamsters warn PA's GOP lawmakers: 'We're Republican and we vote' |
Fred Wilson, president of Teamsters Local 776, in Harrisburg, Pa., said the bill is nothing more than a flat-out attack on workers' rights. It would prevent employers from honoring employees' voluntary request to deduct dues automatically from their paychecks. Said Wilson:
Attacking middle-class families should never be a partisan issue.
 |
| Local 776 president Fred Wilson speaks |
York's mayor, C. Kim Bracey, and state Rep. Kevin Schreiber joined the Teamsters to discuss the damage H.B. 1507 would do to middle- and working-class families.
According to the Teamsters press release:
“Paycheck Deception is the product of the Koch Brothers, the same guys who have been weakening workers’ rights throughout the country to hurt the struggling American middle-class and outsource our jobs overseas,” Wilson said...
“HB 1507 has one purpose and only one purpose – to weaken unions and to lower our wages,” said Danny Grace, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 830 in Philadelphia.
All of the speakers urged Democrats and Republicans to defeat HB 1507 and work together to create jobs for a struggling middle class and not play politics with workers’ wages.
A non-partisan issue, representatives from Teamsters Local 776, which includes more than 2,800 registered Republicans, stood tall with the rest of the speakers in calling for the defeat of the bill.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
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
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...
Sunday, February 23, 2014
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...
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...
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Why privatizing toll collection is a horrible idea
That's the conclusion of a letter about the downside of privatizing toll operations from U.S. Rep. Albio Sires of New Jersey. We're just posting it in its entirety, as Teamsters represent toll collectors in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Writes Rep. Sires in the Jersey Journal:
I write regarding a proposal to privatize the New Jersey Turnpike toll operations. Two years ago, toll collectors, under the threat of privatization of their jobs, agreed to a union contract that substantially lowered both their wages and benefits, which has resulted in a 30 percent reduction of their standard of living. Full-time jobs that previously supported a family -- $50,000 and $60,000 a year -- became jobs that pay $35,000 and $40,000 a year. Part-time jobs paying $17 an hour were turned into jobs that pay only $12-$14 an hour. Stable middle-class jobs were essentially eliminated.
Now, the same workers through Administrative action are threatened again by layoffs and privatization that could negatively impact nearly 800 jobs. Such action could be particularly devastating given the fact that New Jersey suffers one of America's highest unemployment rates. Toll operations on the New Jersey Turnpike have historically been a public function which has benefited the public good. Should the Turnpike Commission approve privatization, it will be done at the expense of workers that have already taken enormous cuts to pay and benefits.
Tolls in New Jersey bring in more than $ I .6 billion in annual revenue for the state. Moreover, according to the most recent New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA) annual report, the Turnpike Authority provides over $400 million in surplus to the NJTA General Reserve Fund and Transportation Trust Fund. If every Turnpike toll collectors' job was privatized and replaced by a private employee earning $12 an hour, the savings would only be between $5 and $6 million a year. Privatizing toll collectors' jobs is likely to cost far more than it saves. Moreover, it will devastate hundreds of New Jersey families during already difficult economic times.
I have strong concerns regarding the proposal to privatize the New Jersey Turnpike toll operations. I would urge the Commission to strongly investigate the impact that such actions would have on the jobs of those workers on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway, and on the state in general.Well said, congressman.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Pennsylvania starting to look like Wisconsin
 |
| Statehouse rally against paycheck deception in Pennsylvania last month. |
Dee Ives says Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett's attacks on workers are a lot like job-killer Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's attacks on workers three years ago.
She is a nurse in a VA hospital in Wisconsin, a U.S. Air Force veteran, an SEIU member and a former Reagan Republican.
Ives has been watching the turmoil in Pennsylvania over Corbett's 'paycheck deception' proposal, which would prevent employers from honoring employees' voluntary request to withhold union dues. It's viewed as a big step toward right-to-work-for-less. Writes Ives in The Patriot-News:
...it feels like a sequel for what we went through in Wisconsin.
It’s largely the same cast of characters. You’ve got the far right-wing governor like Scott Walker. The outside corporate interests like the Koch brothers and Americans for Prosperity are exactly the same. You also have a handful of legislators who will determine the fate of working people in the state. All that’s missing are the cheese wedge hats!...
... the Koch brothers and other corporate interests ... want to get unions out of the way so that they finally abolish the minimum wage, get rid of Social Security and Medicare and privatize public education. Their only concern is maximizing their profits and they will get rid of anyone, or anything, standing in their way.Here's what happened when Ives' local negotiated its first contract after Walker's anti-worker bill passed:
Because unions are now barred from negotiating working conditions, we have no power to negotiate safe staffing levels to protect our patients. That means that the hospital can work us as many shifts as they want with zero regard for the quality of care we’re able to provide.
New staff training got slashed from six weeks to two weeks and there’s nothing we could do about it. This is the first time in 16 years of taking care of our nation’s heroes that I have felt powerless to advocate for their safety through our contract.Let's hope the Pennsylvania Legislature has the good sense to stand up to the Koch brothers, ALEC and the panoply of billionaire sociopaths lined up against Pennsylvania workers.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Today's Teamster News 02.16.14
Teamster News
Teamsters Celebrate, Remember James R. Hoffa teamster.org ... He was the man who introduced himself as “I’m Jimmy Hoffa and I stand up for the American workers...”
Republic Airways reaches tentative deal with pilots union for its three airlines Dallas Morning News ...According to a Teamsters press release, "The tentative agreement includes increases in pay that will place Republic pilots at or near the top of its regional airline peers. It also includes improvements in work rules, quality of life enhancements and more flexibility in scheduling as well as a significant signing bonus if ratified...
State Battles
Historic election brings outside interference in the vote of Chattanooga Volkswagen workers UAW ...Volkswagen workers voted against joining the union in a vote of 712 to 626. The decision follows three days of voting during an election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board and comes amid a firestorm of interference and threats from special interest groups...
FitzGerald vows to fight for unions if elected Toledo Blade ...Ed FitzGerald, the leading Democratic candidate to run against Republican Gov. John Kasich this November, told supporters Thursday at the United Auto Workers headquarters in Maumee that if elected, he would veto any right-to-work bill that gets passed...
County Commissioners get into 'Paycheck Protection' fight: Friday Morning Coffee The Patriot-News ...The proxy fight over "Paycheck Protection" being waged by national labor unions and astrotuf groups such as FreedomWorks and the Koch Brothers-funded American Legislative Exchange Council is playing out in the state Legislature with bills in the state House and Senate...
House repeals 2013 election law that angered many Associated Press ...The Arizona House voted Thursday to repeal a sweeping 2013 Arizona election law that included trimming the state's permanent early voting list and a host of other provisions that incensed voter-rights advocates...
Teamsters Celebrate, Remember James R. Hoffa teamster.org ... He was the man who introduced himself as “I’m Jimmy Hoffa and I stand up for the American workers...”
Republic Airways reaches tentative deal with pilots union for its three airlines Dallas Morning News ...According to a Teamsters press release, "The tentative agreement includes increases in pay that will place Republic pilots at or near the top of its regional airline peers. It also includes improvements in work rules, quality of life enhancements and more flexibility in scheduling as well as a significant signing bonus if ratified...
State Battles
Historic election brings outside interference in the vote of Chattanooga Volkswagen workers UAW ...Volkswagen workers voted against joining the union in a vote of 712 to 626. The decision follows three days of voting during an election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board and comes amid a firestorm of interference and threats from special interest groups...
FitzGerald vows to fight for unions if elected Toledo Blade ...Ed FitzGerald, the leading Democratic candidate to run against Republican Gov. John Kasich this November, told supporters Thursday at the United Auto Workers headquarters in Maumee that if elected, he would veto any right-to-work bill that gets passed...
County Commissioners get into 'Paycheck Protection' fight: Friday Morning Coffee The Patriot-News ...The proxy fight over "Paycheck Protection" being waged by national labor unions and astrotuf groups such as FreedomWorks and the Koch Brothers-funded American Legislative Exchange Council is playing out in the state Legislature with bills in the state House and Senate...
House repeals 2013 election law that angered many Associated Press ...The Arizona House voted Thursday to repeal a sweeping 2013 Arizona election law that included trimming the state's permanent early voting list and a host of other provisions that incensed voter-rights advocates...
Estimated Gross State Product for Wisconsin and Minnesota Econbrowser ...Since 2011, Minnesota’s per capita GSP has grown a cumulative 2.1 percentage points (log terms) more than Wisconsin’s...
Trade
Spying by N.S.A. Ally Entangled U.S. Law Firm New York Times ...A top-secret document, obtained by the former N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden, shows that an American law firm was monitored while representing a foreign government in trade disputes with the United States...
Momentum Builds to Stop Fast Track Trade Deals, Thanks to You Trade Reform ...Thanks to the efforts of tens of thousands of people—including people like you—more and more congressional leaders, including Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, are joining the chorus of voices standing up for us—America’s 99%—and saying that Fast Track is wrong...
The War on Workers
Foreclosure Filings Jump as Investors Eye Exits truthout ...The reason prices have been rising is because of the Fed’s loosy-goosey monetary policy (fake rates and QE), inventory suppression, bogus gov mortgage modification programs, and unprecedented speculation. (mainly Private Equity and investors groups) Those are the four legs of the stool propping up housing. Only now it looks like a couple of those legs are in the process of being sawed off which is going to put downward pressure on sales and prices...
Brazil's World Cup courts disaster as delays, protests and deaths mount The Guardian ...Another week, another storm of teargas and rubber bullets at a World Cup host city in Brazil. This time, the clashes were in the capital, BrasÃlia, where 15,000 protesters from the Landless Workers Movement marched from the Mané Garrincha football stadium to the Palácio do Planalto state office of the president, Dilma Rousseff...
California's New 'Dust Bowl': "It's Gonna Be a Slow, Painful, Agonizing Death" For Farmers zero hedge ...For the state that produces one-third of the nation's fruits and vegetables, the driest spell in 500 years has prompted President Obama to make $100 million in livestock-disaster aid available within 60 days to help the state rebound from what he describes is " going to be a very challenging situation this year... and potentially some time to come..."
Rising Inequality – Recovery Occurring Almost Exclusively Among the Wealthy naked capitalism ...America’s income inequality has grown so wide that the current “recovery” is driven primarily by the upper fifth of income earners, as revealed by the latest consumer spending data. Right now, more than 60% of all consumer spending is done by just the top 20% of income earners...
AOL's CEO Proves Women and Children Make Easy Scapegoats in the Workplace Next New Deal ...AOL CEO Tim Armstrong recently ignited a firestorm of criticism when he announced the company would be restructuring its retirement benefits. Armstrong explained that the financial burden of Obamacare and the deliveries of two “distressed babies”, which cost the company $1 million each, had forced the company to reduce 401(k) matching contributions...
Trade
Spying by N.S.A. Ally Entangled U.S. Law Firm New York Times ...A top-secret document, obtained by the former N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden, shows that an American law firm was monitored while representing a foreign government in trade disputes with the United States...
Momentum Builds to Stop Fast Track Trade Deals, Thanks to You Trade Reform ...Thanks to the efforts of tens of thousands of people—including people like you—more and more congressional leaders, including Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, are joining the chorus of voices standing up for us—America’s 99%—and saying that Fast Track is wrong...
The War on Workers
Foreclosure Filings Jump as Investors Eye Exits truthout ...The reason prices have been rising is because of the Fed’s loosy-goosey monetary policy (fake rates and QE), inventory suppression, bogus gov mortgage modification programs, and unprecedented speculation. (mainly Private Equity and investors groups) Those are the four legs of the stool propping up housing. Only now it looks like a couple of those legs are in the process of being sawed off which is going to put downward pressure on sales and prices...
Brazil's World Cup courts disaster as delays, protests and deaths mount The Guardian ...Another week, another storm of teargas and rubber bullets at a World Cup host city in Brazil. This time, the clashes were in the capital, BrasÃlia, where 15,000 protesters from the Landless Workers Movement marched from the Mané Garrincha football stadium to the Palácio do Planalto state office of the president, Dilma Rousseff...
California's New 'Dust Bowl': "It's Gonna Be a Slow, Painful, Agonizing Death" For Farmers zero hedge ...For the state that produces one-third of the nation's fruits and vegetables, the driest spell in 500 years has prompted President Obama to make $100 million in livestock-disaster aid available within 60 days to help the state rebound from what he describes is " going to be a very challenging situation this year... and potentially some time to come..."
Rising Inequality – Recovery Occurring Almost Exclusively Among the Wealthy naked capitalism ...America’s income inequality has grown so wide that the current “recovery” is driven primarily by the upper fifth of income earners, as revealed by the latest consumer spending data. Right now, more than 60% of all consumer spending is done by just the top 20% of income earners...
AOL's CEO Proves Women and Children Make Easy Scapegoats in the Workplace Next New Deal ...AOL CEO Tim Armstrong recently ignited a firestorm of criticism when he announced the company would be restructuring its retirement benefits. Armstrong explained that the financial burden of Obamacare and the deliveries of two “distressed babies”, which cost the company $1 million each, had forced the company to reduce 401(k) matching contributions...
Monday, February 3, 2014
States spend more on corporate tax breaks than worker pensions
In 10 states, the revenue lost to corporations through loopholes and tax breaks is bigger the current cost of pension benefits to state employees, according to a new report by Good Jobs First.
Philip Mattera, research director of Good Jobs First, said politicians are balancing their budgets on the backs of public employees, though Wall Street caused their revenue shortfalls. And:
...our research shows that corporate interests are generally prioritized over teachers, firefighters, police officers, and thousands of other employees who dedicate their lives to public service.No shock there. What is shocking is the size of the corporate subsidies. In Pennsylvania, for example, corporate subsidies and loopholes cost $4 billion every year -- two-and-a-half times the cost of public pensions.
Said Mattera:
As a matter of honest accounting and fair budgeting, state leaders should examine all forms of spending before they single out pensions or any other expense,” said Mattera. “Corporate tax breaks and loopholes are often poorly understood and little-noticed because they do not get debated as appropriations, nor do they often get sunsetted or audited. But over time they add up to hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars per year.Good Jobs First studied 10 states where legislatures are
- Arizona
- California
- Colorado
- Florida
- Illinois
- Louisiana
- Michigan
- Missouri
- Oklahoma
- Pennsylvania.
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Today's Teamster News 02.02.14
Real GDP per capita Angry Bear ...Decades of tax cuts have not led to increasing prosperity...
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Poll: Only The Strongest Obama Supporters Want Him To Have Fast Track Authority International Business Times ... Overall, the U.S. public is cooling to the idea of free-trade agreements, believing, unlike they have in the past, that multinational agreements to bring down trade barriers is costing U.S. jobs while favoring large multinational corporations over the interests of small businesses...
Who Wins From Trade? Economic Policy Institute ...multinational companies were the biggest supporters of trade and investment deals with Mexico, Korea and China, deals that have cost U.S. workers nearly four million jobs in the past two decades...
Bolivia ordered to compensate UK power company One News Page ...Government that nationalised power assets in 2010 ordered by international court to payout $41m to Rurelec giving hope to others seeking reparations...
Get Some Sleep, and Wake Up the G.D.P. New York Times ...A survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that one in 25 people admitted to having fallen asleep while driving during the previous month. To put that in perspective, mathematical models based on this data imply that an estimated 15 to 33 percent of all fatal crashes in the United States might involve a drowsy driver...
Law Doesn’t End Revolving Door on Capitol Hill New York Times ...Federal ethics rules are intended to limit lobbying by former senior officials within one year after they leave the government. Yet even after the ethics rules were revised in 2007 following a lobbying scandal, more than 1,650 congressional aides have registered to lobby within a year of leaving Capitol Hill...
Building a Harley Faster New York Times ...Keith Wandell, the chief executive, told me that even during the company’s worst days, management never considered busting its union...
Why Alt-Labor Groups Are Making Employers Mighty Nervous American Prospect ...the Chamber of Commerce, the National Restaurant Association and anti-union coalition groups publicly insist that these new groups are unions, because they want them to be subjected to the same kinds of legal limits that have come to constrain America’s labor unions, such as not being able to strike in sympathy with other workers....
Fury as Mexico's blonde 'cartel princess' posts steamy selfies wearing her drug lord father's Knights Templar gang insignia amid escalating vigilante violence Daily Mail ...The war on Mexico's deadly cartels spread from the streets to the web after the daughter of a notorious drug lord sparked an outrage by posing in an outfit featuring the symbol of her father’s gang...
Scott Walker raised $5 million at end of 2013, paid $86,000 to defense lawyers Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...information spilled out in court records about a secret John Doe investigation into campaign fundraising and spending surrounding Wisconsin's recent recall elections...
Pennsylvania Could Become Ground-Zero in Union Fight Philadelphia Magazine ...Rick Bloomingdale, head of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, declared earlier this month that the bill represents a “war on workers.”...
Fan claims NFL is withholding Super Bowl tickets from public, selling most to companies New York Daily News ...A Jersey guy hopes to sack the NFL over its Super Bowl ticket policy, accusing the league of greedily gouging its biggest fans for seats to its biggest game...
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Poll: Only The Strongest Obama Supporters Want Him To Have Fast Track Authority International Business Times ... Overall, the U.S. public is cooling to the idea of free-trade agreements, believing, unlike they have in the past, that multinational agreements to bring down trade barriers is costing U.S. jobs while favoring large multinational corporations over the interests of small businesses...
Who Wins From Trade? Economic Policy Institute ...multinational companies were the biggest supporters of trade and investment deals with Mexico, Korea and China, deals that have cost U.S. workers nearly four million jobs in the past two decades...
Bolivia ordered to compensate UK power company One News Page ...Government that nationalised power assets in 2010 ordered by international court to payout $41m to Rurelec giving hope to others seeking reparations...
Get Some Sleep, and Wake Up the G.D.P. New York Times ...A survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that one in 25 people admitted to having fallen asleep while driving during the previous month. To put that in perspective, mathematical models based on this data imply that an estimated 15 to 33 percent of all fatal crashes in the United States might involve a drowsy driver...
Law Doesn’t End Revolving Door on Capitol Hill New York Times ...Federal ethics rules are intended to limit lobbying by former senior officials within one year after they leave the government. Yet even after the ethics rules were revised in 2007 following a lobbying scandal, more than 1,650 congressional aides have registered to lobby within a year of leaving Capitol Hill...
Building a Harley Faster New York Times ...Keith Wandell, the chief executive, told me that even during the company’s worst days, management never considered busting its union...
Why Alt-Labor Groups Are Making Employers Mighty Nervous American Prospect ...the Chamber of Commerce, the National Restaurant Association and anti-union coalition groups publicly insist that these new groups are unions, because they want them to be subjected to the same kinds of legal limits that have come to constrain America’s labor unions, such as not being able to strike in sympathy with other workers....
Fury as Mexico's blonde 'cartel princess' posts steamy selfies wearing her drug lord father's Knights Templar gang insignia amid escalating vigilante violence Daily Mail ...The war on Mexico's deadly cartels spread from the streets to the web after the daughter of a notorious drug lord sparked an outrage by posing in an outfit featuring the symbol of her father’s gang...
Scott Walker raised $5 million at end of 2013, paid $86,000 to defense lawyers Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...information spilled out in court records about a secret John Doe investigation into campaign fundraising and spending surrounding Wisconsin's recent recall elections...
Pennsylvania Could Become Ground-Zero in Union Fight Philadelphia Magazine ...Rick Bloomingdale, head of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, declared earlier this month that the bill represents a “war on workers.”...
Fan claims NFL is withholding Super Bowl tickets from public, selling most to companies New York Daily News ...A Jersey guy hopes to sack the NFL over its Super Bowl ticket policy, accusing the league of greedily gouging its biggest fans for seats to its biggest game...
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Today's Teamster News 01.30.14
Teamsters Speak Out at Lobby Day in Olympia teamster.org ...Correctional employees teamed up with taxi cab operators, warehouse workers, nurses, cooks and county and city employees for dozens of meetings with legislators...
Whitney Foods Workers Join Teamsters Local 703 teamster.org ...Chicago distribution workers with Whitney Foods are now members of Teamsters Local 703 after the company voluntarily recognized its employees’ right to join the union last fall...
Collective Bargaining: How to Negotiate Strong Teamster Contracts teamster.org ...The IBT Training and Development Department is conducting a Teamsters Leadership Academy on collective bargaining, March 11-14, 2014...
Allegiant Air Pilots to Meet with Investors, Analysts to Discuss Operating, Safety Concerns teamster.org "...the major service disruptions over the last several months, ranging from multiple fleet shutdowns, chronic staffing and equipment shortages, significant ramp-up in 3rd party contracting for scheduled flights and sub-servicing and the shutdown of the company’s training department, all flow from the short-sighted decisions being made at the top.”...
New poll shows voters overwhelmingly oppose Fast Track TeamsterNation ...Voters by a 2-to-1 margin oppose Fast Track authority to pass trade deals, according to a new poll by Hart Research released today...
Reid Deals Body Blow to Obama on Trade Wall Street Journal ...Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid broke publicly with the White House Wednesday on trade policy, instantly imperiling two major international trade deals...
Even Companies Need to Know More about Fast Track, TPP teamster.org ...Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) raised the issue of trade provisions that would allow foreign companies to sue governments before international tribunals
Fight back against currency manipulation McClatchy ...we need to increase sales of goods and services made in the United States, which means expanding exports, reducing imports and shrinking our trade deficit. Currency manipulation, by about 20 countries (mostly in Asia), is the single most important cause of our trade deficit...
Asian Shares Slump After Fed Action Wall Street Journal ...Market turmoil returned to Asia Thursday, with Japanese stocks at one point slumping more than 3%, after the U.S. Federal Reserve said it would scale back further on its stimulus measures...
Is A New Economic Crisis At Hand? TripleCrisis ...AT the end of last week, several developing countries saw sharp falls in their currency as well as stock market values, prompting the question of whether it is the start of a wider economic crisis. The sell-off in emerging economies also spilled over to the American and European stock markets, thus causing global turmoil...
K Street's Fortunes Decline for Third Year OpenSecrets ...For the third straight year, spending on K Street is down, with only a handful of industries spending more on lobbying in 2013 than they did in 2012...
Fortune 50 CEO pay vs. our salaries CNN Money ...With a staggering total compensation package of $378 million for 2011, Apple's Tim Cook takes the cake for the highest Fortune 50 CEO-to-typical-worker pay ratio. Indeed, it takes 6,258 typical Apple worker salaries to match Cook's total pay...
The Stealth Privatization of Pennsylvania's Bridges TruthOut ...Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett's administration has decided to sign a 40-year contract to privatize the state's crumbling bridges, but there has been little to no media coverage of the deal and what it will mean for two generations of Pennsylvanians...
Fun With Scary Pension Numbers in Chicago Center for Economic Policy and Research ...The Chicago Tribune headlined a news story: "Chicago pension tab: $18,596 for every man, woman, child." That's pretty scary. Fortunately my Chicago public school teachers taught me about fractions and denominators. That is what is missing here. The key point is that Chicago does not have to pay this money tomorrow or even over the next year. This is a liability over the next 30 years...
Whitney Foods Workers Join Teamsters Local 703 teamster.org ...Chicago distribution workers with Whitney Foods are now members of Teamsters Local 703 after the company voluntarily recognized its employees’ right to join the union last fall...
Collective Bargaining: How to Negotiate Strong Teamster Contracts teamster.org ...The IBT Training and Development Department is conducting a Teamsters Leadership Academy on collective bargaining, March 11-14, 2014...
Allegiant Air Pilots to Meet with Investors, Analysts to Discuss Operating, Safety Concerns teamster.org "...the major service disruptions over the last several months, ranging from multiple fleet shutdowns, chronic staffing and equipment shortages, significant ramp-up in 3rd party contracting for scheduled flights and sub-servicing and the shutdown of the company’s training department, all flow from the short-sighted decisions being made at the top.”...
New poll shows voters overwhelmingly oppose Fast Track TeamsterNation ...Voters by a 2-to-1 margin oppose Fast Track authority to pass trade deals, according to a new poll by Hart Research released today...
Reid Deals Body Blow to Obama on Trade Wall Street Journal ...Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid broke publicly with the White House Wednesday on trade policy, instantly imperiling two major international trade deals...
Even Companies Need to Know More about Fast Track, TPP teamster.org ...Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) raised the issue of trade provisions that would allow foreign companies to sue governments before international tribunals
Fight back against currency manipulation McClatchy ...we need to increase sales of goods and services made in the United States, which means expanding exports, reducing imports and shrinking our trade deficit. Currency manipulation, by about 20 countries (mostly in Asia), is the single most important cause of our trade deficit...
Asian Shares Slump After Fed Action Wall Street Journal ...Market turmoil returned to Asia Thursday, with Japanese stocks at one point slumping more than 3%, after the U.S. Federal Reserve said it would scale back further on its stimulus measures...
Is A New Economic Crisis At Hand? TripleCrisis ...AT the end of last week, several developing countries saw sharp falls in their currency as well as stock market values, prompting the question of whether it is the start of a wider economic crisis. The sell-off in emerging economies also spilled over to the American and European stock markets, thus causing global turmoil...
K Street's Fortunes Decline for Third Year OpenSecrets ...For the third straight year, spending on K Street is down, with only a handful of industries spending more on lobbying in 2013 than they did in 2012...
Fortune 50 CEO pay vs. our salaries CNN Money ...With a staggering total compensation package of $378 million for 2011, Apple's Tim Cook takes the cake for the highest Fortune 50 CEO-to-typical-worker pay ratio. Indeed, it takes 6,258 typical Apple worker salaries to match Cook's total pay...
The Stealth Privatization of Pennsylvania's Bridges TruthOut ...Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett's administration has decided to sign a 40-year contract to privatize the state's crumbling bridges, but there has been little to no media coverage of the deal and what it will mean for two generations of Pennsylvanians...
Fun With Scary Pension Numbers in Chicago Center for Economic Policy and Research ...The Chicago Tribune headlined a news story: "Chicago pension tab: $18,596 for every man, woman, child." That's pretty scary. Fortunately my Chicago public school teachers taught me about fractions and denominators. That is what is missing here. The key point is that Chicago does not have to pay this money tomorrow or even over the next year. This is a liability over the next 30 years...
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