Today's Teamster News 11.04.14

Teamster News
Sysco Drivers In Missouri Vote To Join Teamsters Local 41  teamster.org   ...Sysco drivers voted to join Teamsters Local 41 in Kansas City, Mo. There are 43 drivers in the bargaining unit and the vote count announced today was 25-14...
Hoffa Makes Final GOTV Push At Worksites Around Detroit  teamster.org   ...Teamster General President Jim Hoffa pounded the pavement today across the Detroit metro area, encouraging hundreds of members to exercise their right to vote in tomorrow's election...
Deadly Driving  Fleet Owner   ...What's so hard about coming up with a rational set of training standards for new commercial truck drivers? Apparently the task is so difficult that the Dept. of Transportation has failed to respond to two specific demands from Congress to up the requirements for obtaining a truck driving license for more than 20 years. It has taken so long that the Teamsters and a few safety interest groups have now turned to the courts for a remedy...
Sysco Doesn't See US Foods Deal Closing This Year  Market Watch   ...Sysco Corp. said Monday that it doesn't expect its pending acquisition of US Foods to close before the first quarter of next year...
Trade
Corporations Aren't People And They Aren't Nation States, Either (opinion)  Huffington Post   ...Despite what some politicians say, corporations aren't people. But, even worse, when it comes to the world's biggest trade deals, corporations are actually treated like nation states. Thankfully, a major storm is brewing that could put a crack in this fundamental pillar of the existing free trade regime...
State Battles
SKW = Scott Walker  Crooks & Liars   ...prosecutors have stated that Walker is at the center of another "criminal scheme". This secondary investigation is about the illegal collaboration between Walker's campaign and dark money groups. Walker hasn't denied doing this...
David Perdue: 'Sure, We Closed Plants All The Time'  Daily Kos   ...Said Perdue: “Sure, we closed down plants all the time. I mean, but it was never in direct relationship to things going on offshore.”...
Even Without Voter ID Laws, Minority Voters Face More Hurdles To Casting Ballots  Mother Jones   ...Nationally, African Americans waited about twice as long to vote in the 2012 election as white people (23 minutes on average versus 12 minutes); Hispanics waited 19 minutes. White people who live in neighborhoods whose residents are less than 5 percent minority had the shortest of all wait times, just 7 minutes...
Kansas Tax Cuts Fail Again, As New Revenue Numbers Plague Sam Brownback But Help Paul Davis (opinion)  Kansas City Star   ..the Brownback tax-cut “experiment” is not working and Kansas voters need to oust him at the polls on Tuesday. The tax cuts are bleeding the state of needed funds to pay for high-quality public services to the people of Kansas. If the revenue problems continue, the next governor is going to have to cut services to the people — and certainly halt proposed bigger tax reductions in their tracks...
Holder sends poll watchers to 18 states  The Hill   ...The Department of Justice plans to send federal monitors to 18 states to watch for discrimination against voters. Monitors will head to Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin...
War on Workers
JP Morgan Under Criminal Investigation for Foreign Exchange Trading Abuses   naked capitalism   ...J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. said the Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation of its foreign-exchange-related matters and bumped up a figure measuring the bank’s potential legal costs by $1.3 billion, according to a regulatory filing that the bank released Monday...
The New York Fed Has Contracted JPMorgan to Hold Over $1.7 Trillion of its QE Bonds Despite Two Felony Counts and Serial Charges of Crimes  Wall Street on Parade   ...During the period in which JPMorgan has been the trusted custodian of a major part of the assets of the U.S. central bank, it has been repeatedly charged with serial crimes...
More Protests, Concern Over Growth Of Oil Trains In Washington  NBC News   ...Thursday's meeting was moved to the Red Lion Hotel on Evergreen Park Drive after it became clear that there wouldn't be enough room to hold it at the Department of Ecology offices in Lacey, said Lisa Copeland, the agency's communications manager. A meeting was held in Spokane earlier this week, a city also seeing growing train traffic...
Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to Senate Filibuster Rule  Wall Street Journal   ...The Supreme Court on Monday declined to review whether the Senate’s filibuster rule violates the Constitution, denying without comment an appeal filed by a public interest group and four House Democrats...
Uber Charges Man $539 For 18-Mile Trip  yahoo.com   ...Many Halloween partiers opted to pay a driver instead of risking the cost of a DUI, but a Denver man who used Uber the popular car service paid a much, much higher price than he ever thought possible...
Worker killed in Marshall power line accident  Charleston Gazette   ...One worker was killed and another seriously hurt in an electric power line accident Monday afternoon in Marshall County, authorities said...
Charlotte-based worker killed by falling tape measure  wsoctv.com   ... A man delivering sheet rock to a construction site in New Jersey was killed Monday when a tape measure fell 50 stories and hit him on the head, authorities said...
Miscellaneous
Voting Information  League of Women Voters   ...Click on the link and enter your address for personalized voting information including the address of your polling place, hours you can vote and voter registration information...
Waiting For Keystone  Al-Jazeera America   ...Baker, a city a few miles from the North Dakota border, home to a little less than 2,000 residents, makes clear why: It’s bustling thanks to the ancillary effects of the oil industry, mainly drilling in eastern Montana and western North Dakota. Hotels are full, real estate prices are high, and the population is slowly growing...
NSA Phone Program Faces Key Court Test  The Hill   ...Along with other high-profile court cases challenging the constitutionality of the NSA’s spying, civil liberties advocates are sensing that the wind is at their backs, even as Congress has failed to push legislation past the finish line...

Today's Teamster News 11.29.13

Five Ways to Support Striking Walmart Workers  truthout   ...Join Them! Nothing demonstrates support for striking workers more than actually showing up yourself. Not only do the workers appreciate your display of solidarity, but also the increased turnout signifies to bystanders that this is a legitimate problem worthy of everyone’s concern...
Pizza Hut Employee Fired For Defending Thanksgiving Offered Job Back  firedoglake   ...Rohr, a ten year employee of Pizza Hut, was asked to resign from his position as general manager after he took issue with orders from the owner to keep the store open on Thanksgiving, forcing workers to be away from their families. But instead of resigning Rohr wrote a letter explaining why he thought the decision was wrong. Now, after suffering a two day PR nightmare, Pizza Hut wants Rohr back...
TPP Defenders Take To The Internet To Deliver Official Talking Points; Inadvertently Confirm Opponents' Worst Fears  tech defenders   ...The leaked TPP draft, pried loose from the "open and transparent" grip of the USTR, is generating plenty of commentary all over the web. After getting a good look inside, it's little wonder the USTR felt more comfortable trying to push this through under the cover of darkness...
Good News: Geneva WTO Talks Collapse  Trade Reform   ...It seems that over 100 countries are not going to agree to further give up their sovereignty to the WTO...
Doesn’t Eat, Doesn’t Pray and Doesn’t Love (opinion)  New York Times   ...The question of whether for-profit companies can claim a religious identity, one that exempts them from obeying a generally applicable law, is fully worthy of the attention the Supreme Court is about to give it...
Mexico's booming car industry selling unsafe cars  Associated Press   ...Vehicles destined to stay in Mexico or go south to the rest of Latin America carry a code signifying there's no need for antilock braking systems, electronic stability control, or more than two air bags, if any, in its basic models...
6 of the Top 10 U.S. Billionaires Are Kochs and Waltons  Alternet   ...For the first time ever, according to Forbes magazine, the  400 richest Americanshave more than $2 trillion in combined wealth. And, a fifth of that amount is held by just 10 individuals...
U.S. Student Homelessness Up 10% Since Last Year  naked capitalism   ...the reality, as many here know altogether too well, is that only group that has shown meaningful gains over the last few years is the top 1%...
The Turkey Lobby Helped Block Child Labor Regulations  The Nation   ... counter to the National Turkey Federation’s family-friendly public image ... is the work the group has done to orchestrate opposition to the Obama administration’s child farm labor regulations...
North Carolina Faculty Complain After Conservative Group Seeks Liberal Professor’s Email  Portside   ...A group of law professors at UNC-Chapel Hill is standing behind Gene Nichol, director of the school’s poverty center, after a conservative think tank requested the left-leaning professor’s emails, phone records and calendars...

Corporate America wants even more freedom to buy elections

An upcoming Supreme Court case could make it a lot easier for anti-worker billionaires to buy elections -- not that it's exactly difficult for them to do so already.

It seems the 2010 Citizens United decision declaring money is speech and flooding our democracy with corporate cash just isn't enough. McCutcheon v. FEC could allow the super-rich to pour millions of dollars directly into the campaign coffers of their preferred candidates.

The Huffington Post explains: 

An Alabama millionaire named Shaun McCutcheon is challenging a long-standing law on how much money individual donors can give directly to candidates and party committees. If Mr. McCutcheon wins his case, a single wealthy individual could give a total of more than $2.4 million to his or her favorite candidates, and another million-plus dollars to the party committee of their choice - for a total of 3.5 million dollars.

Mr. McCutcheon claims money is speech and that any legislative measure which hinders his dollar offends "liberty." But irrespective of the patriotic rhetoric, what McCutcheon is really suing for is the right to buy elections. Because 93 percent of the time, the candidate who raises the most money, wins.

Call it Citizens United II. Except this time corporations and billionaires want even more freedom to rig elections, Wall Street-style.

According to Constitution Daily:

In 2010, the Supreme Court delivered its controversial 5-4 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which set the stage for enormous sums of money to be spent in elections through super PACs and other independent entities.

On Tuesday, October 8—less than three years after deciding Citizens United—the Supreme Court will hear arguments in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, a case which has the potential to flood millions of dollars more into United States elections—and this time, directly into the coffers of candidates for elected office.

This graphic from the Center for Responsive Politics shows what's at stake in the McCutcheon case. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of McCutcheon, it would have a multiplying effect on the impact of wealthy donors:

One of the first things that would surely happen without overall limits would be a wave of newly created PACs focused on specific candidates' campaigns, which would allow donors to give $5,000 to any number of committees that would then give the money directly to the candidates.   

In 2012, 78 percent of election spending was attributed to the massive influx of outside money that Citizens United injected into the political process. That's $933 million more in political spending.

And in states like Wisconsin, campaign spending has tripled since Citizens United. The recall election against union-busting Gov. Scott Walker was the most expensive election in Wisconsin's history, with Walker raising over $30.5 million -- seven times more than his opponent.

McCutcheon v. FEC threatens to accelerate the damage that Citizens United has already done to our democracy. While arguments in the case will be heard tomorrow in front of the Supreme Court, hundreds of workers, labor activists and others will be outside the Court rallying against big money in politics. 

As a wealthy GOP backer, McCutcheon argues that limiting individuals' campaign donations is a restriction on their free speech. But for most people, the biggest limitation on their campaign contributions is their wallets. It's too bad then that McCutcheon isn't trying to overturn economic inequality instead of campaign finance restrictions.

Citizens United and McCutcheon are leading a national conspiracy to make corporations into people in the eyes of the law. Of course, if corporations are "people," then real people like us are made to be less than people in our political system.

The 9 most insane laws proposed by extremist Republicans

A Missouri Democrat filed a bill last week that would make it a crime to propose No Rights At Work legislation.

Rep. Jeff Roorda wasn't really serious. He was responding to a bill filed by Republican state Rep. Mike Leara that would make it a crime to propose legislation to restrict gun ownership.

The Republican was probably serious given the long list of loony bills the GOP is promoting these days (many with the help of ALEC, the billionaire-backed dating service for state lawmakers and corporations).

The following proposals should make your head spin:

1. Ban paid overtime in the United States: U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor wants to get rid of  paid overtime.  Reports DailyKos, In Eric Cantor's February 2013 speech, he said he wanted to propose Federal Law that would end overtime pay for hourly workers. 

2. Give corporations the right to vote.  Montana Rep. Steve Lavin would give corporations that own property within a city to vote in a municipal election. ThinkProgress reports his bill would allow the president, vice president or designee to cast a ballot. 

3. Eliminate child labor laws: Utah Sen. Mike Lee thinks child labor laws should be illegal. So does former Missouri state Sen. Jane Cunningham, who filed a bill in the last session that would eliminate the prohibition on employment of children under age 14. Maine and Wisconsin's two wackadoodle governors, Paul LePage and Job-killer Scott Walker, have both signed laws that roll back child labor protections.  

4. Force unions to pay for non-union members' benefits. Last year, Michigan and Indiana passed No Rights At Work bills that will weaken unions, increase poverty, lower their citizens' standard of living and kill more people at work.  Republicans tried and failed to pass No Rights At Work in Kentucky and New Hampshire, but they're still at it in Missouri and Maine.

5. Raise taxes on everyone but the rich. Republican governors in Ohio, Louisiana, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Nebraska are proposing tax hikes on the vast majority of citizens in order to cut taxes for the wealthy few.  

6. Prohibit living wage and minimum wage laws. Florida state Sen. Stephen Precourt filed a bill to overturn local laws in Orlando, Miami Beach and Gainesville that require some employers to pay slightly more than the minimum wage. The bill has passed through committee. 

7. Make it a crime to expose corporate crime. A bill is now moving through the Indiana Legislature that would criminalize the video or audio recording of unethical or illegal behavior on a farm or in a workplace. Similar laws passed already in Iowa, Montana, North Dakota, Kansas and Utah. 

8. Sell the national parks. Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz proposed selling off 3.2 million acres of public lands. Former Florida Rep. Cliff Stearns admitted on camera he wanted to sell off our national parks because we can't afford them anymore.

9. Make it a crime to make theft a crime: Last year, the Florida House of Representatives passed a bill to overturn local laws that make it illegal for employers to steal wages from their employees. It failed in the Senate. 

We fear we've missed a few of the GOP's most outlandish proposals. Sadly, we expect we'll be hearing more.

Do corporate papers count as a person -- in the HOV lane?

Because corporations are people, right?

Sister Larissa Shimkaveg from Local 385 in Orlando shared this priceless item with us from NBC News:

When Jonathan Frieman of San Rafael, Calif., was pulled over for driving alone in the carpool lane, he argued to the officer that, actually, he did have a passenger. 

He waved his corporation papers at the officer, he told NBCBayArea.com, saying that corporations are people under California law. 

Frieman doesn't actually support this notion. For more than 10 years, Frieman says he had been trying to get pulled over to get ticketed and to take his argument to court -- to challenge a judge to determine that corporations and people are not the same. Mission accomplished in October, when he was slapped with a fine -- a minimum of $481. 

Frieman has been frustrated with corporate personhood since before it became a hot button issue in 2010, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporate and union spending may not be restricted by the government under the First Amendment.

Frieman will fight his traffic ticket in court, hoping a judge will strike down California's definition of corporate personhood.

Here's how he made his case in the San Rafael Patch.

Your honor, according to the vehicle code definition and legal sources, I did have a 'person' in my car.  

But Officer 'so-and-so' believes I did NOT have another person in my car. If you rule in his favor, you are saying that corporations are not persons. 

I hope you do rule in his favor. I hope you do overturn 125 years of settled law. 

On the other hand, your honor, if you dismiss the ticket and say I am right, that means anyone can go into the carpool lane alone during restricted hours. That is, you are saying that everyone, riding alone in an automobile in the carpool lane during restricted hours, also has on board a corporation, or, under California law, a 'person' other than them.

Stay tuned. His case may get thrown out if the officer doesn't appear in court (we hope that doesn't happen).

Today's Teamster News 01.11.12

Gov. Mitch Daniels gives last State of State speech to empty chairs, boos  Indianapolis Star   ...Gov. Mitch Daniels’ final State of the State address was like none Indiana had ever seen before, with protesters booing in the Statehouse hallways and empty seats which should have held Democrats...
How US Policies Fueled Mexico's Great Migration  truthout   ...“rather than a free-trade agreement, NAFTA can be described as…a mechanism for the provision of cheap labor. Since NAFTA came into force, the migrant factory has exported [millions of] Mexicans to the United States.”...
GOP: Corporate donation ban unconstitutional  Politico   ...The century-old ban on corporate donations to federal political campaigns should be junked as unconstitutional, the Republican National Committee argued in a legal brief filed Tuesday...
Milwaukee County DA Alleges Scott Walker Website Paid For With Embezzled Funds  Addicting Info   ...Unless the DA’s investigator is wrong (and this is why we have court), these sites were paid for with dirty money stolen from our Veterans...
Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Forces Workers To Strike For Unfair Labor Practices  Local 727   ...Rosemont Hotel Still Refusing To Bargain in Good Faith With Teamsters Local 727...
Teamsters union local president threatens first strike at Hunts Point Produce Market in 25 years  New York Daily News   ...Danny Kane , president of Teamsters Union Local 202, vowed Tuesday to lead a walkout of his members on Jan. 17, when the current labor pact expires, unless the market’s owners offer a respectable pay increase...

Citizens United meets cats and babies

The one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's heinous Citizens' United decision is only 10 days away. The court declared that corporations are people and therefore can spend as much as they want, as secretly as they want, to elect people like Koch whore Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker or run television commercials promoting right-to-work-for-less in Indiana.

Expect protests.

Today's Teamster News 12.07.11

L.A. calls for end to 'corporate personhood'  Los Angeles Times   ...The council resolution includes support for a constitutional amendment that would assert that corporations are not entitled to constitutional rights, and that spending money is not a form of free speech...
ALEC Deems Kids Eating Rat Poison An ‘Acceptable Risk’  ThinkProgress   ...the corporate front group American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has been colluding with the billionaire Koch brothers to privatize government and eliminate environmental regulations that interfere with profits...
Unions Sue to Block Liquor Law  Publicola   ...two unions—the United Food and Commercial Workers local 21 and the Teamsters local 174, who represent the 900-plus state liquor store and distribution workers who will lose their jobs under I-1183, the Costco-backed liquor-privatization measure—have filed suit (against) the initiative, arguing that it violates the “single subject rule” in the state constitution...
The beer is back: Teamsters Local 838 ends strike  Pitch News   ...The Teamsters say County offered a deal that would cut hourly wages and benefits an average of $10,000 to $18,000 a year...
Makers of Academy Awards Strip Wages from Workers  Teamsters Joint Council 25   ...Hollywood's biggest stars will take home golden trophies during the 84th Annual Academy Awards, but the Teamsters who manufacture and polish the coveted statues are being handed something far less glamorous—gutted benefits and drastic wage cuts...
Notre Dame Profs Dismantle Indiana Study Committee’s “Report” in Favor of Right-to-Work  We Party Patriots   ...‘Right to work’ law leads to lower wages for all, the two Higgins Labor Studies Program veterans say the 2011 study is built on vague assumptions and filled with anti-union language...
 

Today's Teamster News 11.21.11

U.S. Sovereignty Usurped by WTO’s COOL Decision  Trade Reform   ...a panel of three foreign diplomats seated by the United Nation’s World Trade Organization (WTO) issued a decision regarding complaints filed against the United States’ country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law that informs U.S. consumers as to the origins of their food...
How Occupy Wall Street Can Restore Clout of the 99%: Scott Turow  Bloomberg   ...I have an unusual suggestion for how they should next deploy their considerable energies: work across the nation for a constitutional amendment requiring Congress to regulate the expenditure of private money on elections...
What the Labor Movement Can Learn From an Art Auction  truthout   ...Occupy Wall Street has clearly injected a new set of more innovative tactics into labor's arsenal here in New York City...
Santorum: Labor Unions Are Force For Good…If You’re Iranian  Talking Points Memo   ...At a campaign stop here yesterday, Rick Santorum proposed offering federal government support for labor unions, which he said created a social good. In Iran...
How municipalities used the tools  LaCrosse Tribune   ...Onalaska Mayor Mike Giese was not impressed with the effectiveness of the “tools” Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill gave the city to deal with cuts in state payments to the city, nor with the general approach Walker took in balancing the state budget...
Study supporting tax measure is flawed  Columbia Tribune   ...In a study that is being used to support overhauling Missouri’s state tax system, conservative economics guru Arthur Laffer mixes state and local taxes and misuses technical terms to create rankings for every state...

Baby steps to banning corporate personhood

Twenty years after Jerry Brown ran for president on an anti-corruption platform, American cities and towns are finally acting on his words.

Brown warned in 1991, 

Our founders’ greatest fear was the danger posed by the merger of economic and political power. Indeed, when 200 years ago Jefferson started the Democratic Party, he proclaimed its purpose thus: “We must put it out of the power of the few to riot on the labors of the many.” The calamity which our forefathers feared most has, in our time, come to pass–an unholy alliance of private greed and corrupt politics. Our deteriorating economy, our collapsing political process, and our eroding system of common values, are the direct consequences of a few allowed to satisfy their appetites for greed and privilege. (Hat tip Joe Costello by way of Dylan Ratigan)

Nineteen years later, the Citizens' United case made things immeasurably worse. According to truthout,

In the 2010 US Supreme Court case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the judges of the highest court in the land narrowly ruled that corporations were "people" with First Amendment free speech rights. The corollary of this judgment is that corporations, as "persons," have the right to contribute unlimited funds to political campaigns as an exercise of their free speech.

On the one-year anniversary of the landmark decision, a survey conducted by Hart Research found that only 22 percent of American voters were even familiar with the Citizens United case. However, the same study showed that nearly four in five (79 percent) of Americans were in favor of passing an amendment to overturn the decision and clarify that corporations should not have the same rights as people.

Cities and towns around the country are trying to stop the corporate corruption of our political process. Recently, the city council of Boulder, Colo., voted to put a referendum on the November ballot to amend the US Constitution to reflect that corporations are not people and money does not equal speech. So did the city council of Missoula, Mont.
 
Last November, Pittsburgh adopted an ordinance that bans fracking and eliminates corporate personhood rights within the city.
 
In York reports that resolutions banning corporate personhood have passed in Madison and Dane County, Wisc., in Humboldt County, Calif., 10 towns in Pennsylvania and two in Maine. Resolutions have also been introduced in the states of Vermont and Minnesota.

Move to Amend is behind many of these efforts. The group posted a map of places around the country where resolutions passed to amend the Constitution to ban corporate personhood here.

There's a long, long way to go before the Constitution gets amended. A proposal has to be approved by Congress or the states, and then it has to be ratified by three-fourths of the states. But the point of the exercise is to build a movement to get corporate money out of politics. And that sure seems worth the effort.

If corporations are people, why aren't their crimes in the statistics?

Thom Hartmann asks that provocative question in his new book, "Unequal Protection: How Corporations Became 'People' and How You Can Fight Back."

Hartmann notes the FBI has never, ever issued an annual report on the number of crimes by corporations, even though they're considered people under the law.

Just ask Mitt Romney.

Writes Hartmann,

...when you ask people how most money and property are stolen, or how most people are killed, they think of burglars and muggers and bank robbers and crimes of passion. They think of human persons.

The reality, though, is that more money and property are stolen by or lost to corporate criminals than to human criminals. Mokhiber’s Corporate Crime Reporter notes that in 1998, when the FBI estimated robberies and burglaries at almost $4 billion, the cost of corporate crimes was in the hundreds of billions... as it is every year.

These include:

•Securities scams that ran around $15 billion that year

•Car-repair fraud that hit around $40 billion

•Insurance swindles and corporate fraud found on your health insurance/HMO/hospital billings that runs between $100 billion and $400 billion a year...a hundred times greater than all the burglaries in the country combined.

Yes, it's a disgrace. Here's what you can do: Sign a petition to amend the Constitution to declare that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights. It's sponsored by the group Move to Amend. Check them out at http://www.movetoamend.org/. You might want to get involved in the movement to repeal corporate "personhood."