Today's Teamster News 04.20.13

Bombing Suspect in Custody  Boston Globe   ...After a two-hour standoff in Watertown, nineteen-year-old Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, the suspect in Monday’s fatal Marathon bombings, was taken into custody...
Chemical in Texas Blast Has a Well-Known Deadly Potential   Los Angeles Times   ...Massive explosion may have involved large amounts of ammonium nitrate stored at the site. It has caused some of the worst industrial accidents in U.S. history...
Republicans Accuse Labor Nominee Of Fighting For Civil Rights (opinion)  Campaign for America’s Future   ...Where does the Republican Party put its energy? On anything that furthers the interests of the wealthiest. Tax cuts and kicking government are right at the top of that list...
Anti-Sick Time Bill Has Little Public Support, But Lawmaker Says It’s ‘Right Thing’ To Do  Florida Center for INvestigative Reporting   ...HB 655 would prohibit local governments in the state from implementing laws that extend paid sick leave benefits to workers and would prevent local governments from requiring companies to pay workers a living wage. The bill is similar to others backed by the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council...
Pension reforms moving through Florida Legislature  HR.BLR.com   ...The Florida House of Representatives recently passed legislation that would move new employees in the Florida Retirement System (FRS) from a defined benefit pension plan to a 401(k)-type defined contribution plan. The bill moves to the Senate for consideration...
Federal official confirms Maine Labor Department probe; state workers union seeks independent review of LePage  Bangor Daily News   ...Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Seth Harris told Gov. Paul LePage during a telephone call late Wednesday that an audit of the Maine Department of Labor’s handling of unemployment claims came in response to complaints of inconsistencies, not due to comments the governor allegedly made last month during a Blaine House lunch...
Protesters rip efforts touted by governor  Livingston Daily   ...About 70 people Thursday protested Michigan’s right-to-work laws, school funding cuts and business tax breaks— all of which Gov. Rick Snyder later touted as signs of progress nearby inside Crystal Gardens banquet center in Genoa Township...
Senate committee approves bill exempting some schools from paying prevailing wage  MyNWMo.com   ...Some school districts would no longer be required to pay the state prevailing wage on construction projects under a bill approved by the Senate Small Business Committee Wednesday...
CWA protests N.J. lottery privatization plan that could lead to dozens of job losses  NJ.com   ...The New Jersey Treasury Department said today that 63 of the state lottery's 136 public employees could lose their jobs if the Christie administration signs a contract with a private company to take over parts of the lottery, which it said last week it intends to do...
Campaign Pushing "Right to Work" Legislation for Pennsylvania  Your Erie   ...Pennsylvanians for a "right to work" state are launching an aggressive summer campaign...
Judge Rejects Stay in Wis. Police Union Lawsuit  Associated Press ...A police union's lawsuit challenging Gov. Scott Walker's polarizing collective bargaining law will go forward, following a ruling Friday by a Madison judge who refused the state's request to delay proceedings until appeals in another case were settled…
East Chicago Mayor Cancels Furlough Days for Teamsters Local 142 Municipal Employees  NWI Times   ...City employees represented by Teamsters Local 142 will no longer have to take furlough days, Mayor Anthony Copeland announced Thursday. Employees not represented by a union are still required to take furloughs…
Drivers Express Bus Safety Concerns WEAR-TV ABC Pensacola   ...School bus drivers say they've raised safety issues with the buses and their concerns have gone unheard at Durham School Services in Santa Rosa County, Florida...
BLET Urges Investment In Amtrak At Senate Hearing  BLET   ...At a Senate subcommittee hearing on April 17, John Tolman, Vice President and National Legislative Representative of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, made a strong case for the U.S. to make a major investment in Amtrak...
Bon Appetit To Recognize Request for Unionization  The Daily Pennsylvania   ...Workers at Penn Hillel’s Falk Dining Commons might obtain official union recognition with Teamsters Local 929 by the end of the semester...
Dedicated Port Orchard UPS Driver Delivers 30 Years of Safety on the Road   Seattle Times   ...Peggy Larson is too polite to tell us how to drive. But if more of us drove like she does, the roads would be a lot safer...
Teamsters Vow To Continue Fight Against Dangerous Mexican Trucks in Wake of Court Decision  IBT   ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is disappointed in the court’s decision upholding the legality of the pilot program to open our borders to unsafe Mexican trucks. The union is reviewing its options with our attorneys...
Teamsters Demand Global Aviation Board Stop Costly Executive Search, Appoint CEO   IBT   ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents approximately 340 pilots and flight attendants for Global Aviation’s two airlines World Airways and North American Airlines, are calling on the company’s board of directors to take swift and decisive action in selecting a chief executive officer with a proven track record of turning an airline around...

Today's Teamster News 03.22.13

Is JPMorgan a farmer?  Salon   ...How the nation's biggest banks use the little-covered House Agriculture Committee to gut regulations...
Sequester halts new military tuition assistance  KTVZ   ...In response to a call for cuts due to federal sequestration, the Department of Defense has suspended its federal Tuition Assistance program for all military members...
Audit faults Freddie Mac's oversight of mortgage servicers  Los Angeles Times   ...At least eight big providers of mortgage customer service have failed to properly track and resolve serious complaints about servicing fraud, the audit says...
Icelandic bank Kaupthing's top executives indicted over market rigging  Guardian   ...Icelandic banker Sigurdur "Siggi" Einarsson, who ran Kaupthing bank from offices in Mayfair until its collapse five years ago, is among nine former senior staff who have been variously charged in Reykjavik with orchestrating five large-scale market manipulation conspiracies...
In Michigan, GOP governor finds a tax to like  Associated Press   ...confronting one of the automobile-addicted state's most visible problems - crumbling roads - Snyder has roiled conservatives by calling for a major tax increase. He has proposed boosting the gasoline tax from 19 cents to 33 cents a gallon and hiking car license plate fees by 60 percent...
Wisconsin lost more jobs than any other state in 2011 and '12  City Pages   ...The latest BLS numbers make Gov. Scott Walker's February 2010 promise "to bring 250,000 jobs and 10,000 new businesses to Wisconsin by 2015" look increasingly absurd...
Teamsters file complaint against Mt. Diablo school district  Contra Costa Times   ...The Teamsters have filed an unfair labor practices complaint against the Mt. Diablo school district after an attorney told union representatives they couldn't distribute fliers outside district headquarters...
Teamsters To Republic Services: 'Your Abuse Of Communities And Workers Stinks'  IBT   ...At the national Residential Recycling Conference today, the Teamsters Union protested against Republic Services Inc., bringing attention to the company's appalling treatment of communities, workers and the environment...

Detroit's problem: Trade, not debt

Detroit in its heyday. 

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is dead wrong if he thinks a hostile takeover of Detroit will solve that city's problems.

For Snyder to turn Detroit's finances around, he'd have to singlehandedly change U.S. trade policy, eliminate foreign export subsidies and overhaul the tax systems of our trading partners.

Detroit's financial troubles are a trade imbalance masquerading as a debt crisis. Detroit and its people are suffering collateral damage from decades of bad trade deals and trade concessions. There's little Snyder can do to reverse the ravages of misguided Cold War policy.

For decades, the Motor City was the greatest manufacturing city in the world. Then the U.S. government started to dismantle the nation's industrial base in order to achieve foreign policy objectives.

It began in the 1950s, when Detroit's factories shut down like falling dominos. Those were the years when the U.S. government rescued Toyota from bankruptcy by buying its trucks for the Korean War.

Those were also the years when the U.S. made trade concessions to Japan. As economist Judith Stein points out, the U.S. looked the other way while Japan built up its domestic auto industry behind massive trade barriers. The reason? In the aftermath of World War II, the U.S. wanted to control Japan's military and foreign policy and build military bases on its territory. 

The story with Canada was a little different. Canada didn't want to produce a Canadian car but did want to increase Canadian auto employment. So President Lyndon Johnson in 1965 signed a deal with Canada that U.S. companies would manufacture enough cars and parts in Canada to offset 95 percent of the cars and parts made in the U.S. and sold in Canada. (Just FYI, our trade deficit with Canada in January was $4.13 billion, the biggest in four years.) 

Another big problem: discrimination by countries that impose the Value-Added Tax. The VAT is the reason a U.S. car that's almost the same as a German model will cost at least $12,000 more than the German car in Germany. It's the reason German automakers get a rebate on every vehicle exported to the U.S. And it's the reason U.S. automakers pay a tax on cars exported to Germany, plus a tax on the cost of transport, insurance, docking and duties.  (A good explainer can be found here.)

No need to go into the giant sucking sound created by NAFTA. But you probably haven't heard much about the trade deal with South Korea that's now almost a year old. Remember how it was supposed to increase U.S. auto exports? We just learned the trade gap with South Korea is the highest it's been since November 2004.

Snyder has had several years to appoint an emergency financial manager in Detroit. He seems to be hesitating. We're pretty sure why: He knows Detroit's budget problems won't be solved simply by cutting spending and selling off a few assets. Detroit's problems will only be solved by a massive infusion of good jobs. 

Today's Teamster News 02.26.13

Eric Cantor will propose Federal Law that Ends Overtime Pay for hourly workers  Democratic Underground   ...Eric Cantor wants to end the Federal law that mandates certain workers get paid overtime for the extra hours they labor. ..
Italian Voters Stage 'Rebellion', Markets Plunge  Business Insider   ...The markets were hoping for the liberal leader Pier Luigi Bersani to win easily, allowing him to form a coalition government with technocrat leader Mario Monti. This would have paved the way for more unpopular austerity and reforms...But the voters had a different idea...
Nary a positive word heard on liquor privatization during PA budget talks  PhillyBurbs.com    ...The Senate Appropriations Committee met with Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board officials to talk about its 2013-14 line item, but they only talked about keeping the PLCB around...The sight of some two dozen members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776 dressed in bright yellow T-shirts may have kept Republicans from publicly pushing Corbett’s plan...
How Much Support Does "Smart Justice" Bill Really Have?  WFSU   ...A Republican-backed proposal to reduce the number of former inmates going back into Florida’s prisons is now taking shape in the form of a bill. But, some unions and even some Republicans may not be on board with the “Smart Justice” idea...
Snyder defends right-to-work, urges GOP to stay unified in surprise appearance  Detroit Free Press   ...In 2014, all state and legislative offices will be on the ballot. Snyder hasn’t publicly declared his intention to seek a second term as governor, but political observers say it’s all but certain he will, especially given public remarks like his 7-minute address before the GOP faithful on Saturday...
Unions shouldn't have to protect 'squatters' who don't want to pay for services (Letter)  Michigan Live   ...A person shouldn’t have to join a union to be employed, but they also shouldn’t be allowed to enjoy benefits they’re not willing to pay for them, from a union they don’t believe in...
Republicans in Missouri Legislature are out to destroy unions (Letter)  St. Louis Post-Dispatch   ...the Republicans are not interested in jobs or workers rights. Their initiative is a scam. They are interested in destroying unions in order to cut off funding to the Democratic Party so Republicans can gain complete control with little opposition...
Montana Bill Would Give Corporations The Right To Vote  ThinkProgress   ...Provision for vote by corporate property owner.... if a firm, partnership, company, or corporation owns real property within the municipality, the president, vice president, secretary, or other designee of the entity is eligible to vote in a municipal election...
Christie Fails to Pull Off New Jersey 'Comeback'  Newsmax   ...New Jersey, the 11th most populous state, is still in need of a comeback. It has the fourth highest unemployment rate of any U.S. state, at 9.6 percent, nearly 2 percentage points above the national rate. It was one of three states to report late in 2012 that revenues were lagging expectations...
Scott Walker’s job-free austerity  The Cap Times   ...When Walker assumed the governorship two years ago, Wisconsin was holding its own economically. Job growth was competitive with neighboring states and the nation. No more. Since Walker began implementing his austerity agenda, growth has stalled...
American, US Airways unions still have lots to settle  Fort Worth Star-Telegram   ..."American Airlines mechanics came to us and said, 'We want new representation,' and they have been working very hard since June of last year to make that a reality," Teamsters spokesman Chris Moore said...   
Drivers and Monitors Unite for Better Safety, Working Conditions  IBT   ...School bus drivers and monitors with Durham School Services in Jay, Pace, Navarre and Milton, Fla., have voted overwhelmingly to join Teamsters Local 991 in Mobile, Ala. The 204 workers are seeking improved safety and working conditions...