Teamsters
NYCLASS flyers aim to convince New Yorkers that horse-carriage ban supports Bill de Blasio’s ‘progressive agenda’ New York Daily News ...“There’s nothing progressive about taking away jobs for 300 families,” said George Miranda, the head of Teamsters Joint Council 16...
Trade
A New Threat Looms on the Horizon: TISA Economy in Crisis ...The Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) covers 50 countries and 68.2 percent of world trade in services. The U.S. and the European Union (EU) are the main proponents of the agreement. If enacted, the agreement would severely limit the ability of the U.S. to regulate the financial sector...
War on Workers
Why New Credit Cards May Fall Short on Fraud Control Wall Street Journal ...Big U.S. banks are steering clear of an advanced security measure used in credit cards around the world, opting for a system that is more convenient for shoppers but may leave them vulnerable to fraud...
Tax Inversion Remains (Huge) naked capitalism ...The recent Treasury measures raised legal obstacles, but the heart of the problem remains unaddressed...
Coca-Cola’s anti-American outsourcing scheme: How Big Soda gets the public to shoulder its costs Salon ...“Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola capitalism,” traces the history of Coke’s empire through the company’s reliance on offloading its costs and risks in precisely this way, tapping into public goods like curbside recycling and municipal water systems while eschewing ownership of the resources and infrastructure needed to produce its iconic beverage...
Anti-terror plan to spy on toddlers 'is heavy-handed’ The Telegraph ...Nursery school staff and registered childminders must report toddlers at risk of becoming terrorists, under counter-terrorism measures proposed by the [British] Government...
U.S. health worker arrives in Nebraska for Ebola evaluation Reuters ...An American health care worker possibly exposed to the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone arrived at a hospital in Omaha on Sunday for evaluation and any necessary treatment, an official said...
Miscellaneous
Jaguar Demos a Car That Keeps an Eye on Its Driver Technology Review ...An Australian company called Seeing Machines is turning sensing inward with technology that focuses on drivers themselves in hopes of reducing distracted and drowsy driving...
Auto Industry Galvanized After Record Recall Year New York Times ...More than 60 million vehicles have been recalled in the United States, double the previous annual record in 2004. In all, there have been about 700 recall announcements — an average of two a day — affecting the equivalent of one in five vehicles on the road...
The Future of Getting Arrested The Atlantic ...Several cities have recently put in place networks of microphone-based gunshot sensors, and others are likely to adopt similar systems. When a sensor picks up a suspicious noise, a computer program analyzes the sound and, if it resembles gunfire, determines its point of origin to within a few yards...
Princeton graduate, 30, 'who shot dead his $200m hedge fund founder father, 70, in NYC apartment' arrested after he 'went on the run and barricaded himself in his Manhattan home' Daily Mail ...A Princeton graduate has been arrested after he allegedly executed his multimillionaire hedge-funder father at the family's Manhattan apartment on Sunday...
Showing posts with label corporate tax evasion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label corporate tax evasion. Show all posts
Monday, January 5, 2015
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Today's Teamster News 12.14.14
Teamsters
Teamsters Denounce Senate Passage Of Omnibus Spending Bill teamster.org ..."With the passage of the omnibus spending bill by the Senate, we have witnessed the latest attack by corporate interests on working families. Big business and Wall Street have bought and paid for influence and access that has allowed them to continue to enrich corporations at the expense of the middle class....
The end of horse-drawn carriages in New York City? Pet Today ...Video: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says he’s sticking to his election promise to outlaw one of the city’s most iconic images, horse-drawn carriages...
Schwebel's eyes first quarter of 2015 for closure of Cuyahoga Falls plant Falls News Press …Of the 119 employees, 100 are represented by either Teamsters Local 377 (Drivers), Teamsters Local 336 or Teamsters Local 52; the other 19 are not in a union, according to the letter...
Trade
Column: What you should to know about hushed negotiations taking place between the EU and US thejournal.ie ...There are huge concerns regarding the secrecy in which the TTIP negotiations have been shrouded. We only became aware of the mandate for the negotiations through a leaked document and subsequent public pressure forced the European Commission, an undemocratically appointed body, to make it publicly available...
Don’t fast track TPP My San Antonio ...Unbelievably, they want this fast track legislation passed before we or Congress know what is in the TPP, which is being negotiated in secrecy. The fast tracking of the trade agreement bears scrutiny because it will be worse than the failed North American Free Trade Agreement passed in 1994...
War on Workers
Americans are 40% poorer than before the recession MarketWatch ...The net worth of American families — the difference between the values of their assets, including homes and investments, and liabilities — fell to $81,400 in 2013, down slightly from $82,300 in 2010, but a long way off the $135,700 in 2007, according to a new report...
Why America's middle class is lost Washington Post ...Workers today produce nearly twice as many goods and services per hour on the job as they did in 1989, but as a group, they get less of the nation’s economic pie. In 81 percent of America’s counties, the median income is lower today than it was 15 years ago...
‘Enough is enough’: Elizabeth Warren’s launches fiery attack after Congress weakens Wall Street regs Washington Post ...in recent years, many Wall Street institutions have exerted extraordinary influence in Washington’s corridors of power, but Citigroup has risen above the others. Its grip over economic policymaking in the executive branch is unprecedented...
Warren to banks: We should have ‘broken you into pieces’ The Hill ...Warren argues the repeal of the provision is a hand out to powerful banks that would leave taxpayer holding the bag again if risky investments fall through. “I agree with you Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect,” Warren said. “It should have broken you into pieces...
Senate Passes $1.1 Trillion Spending Bill Associated Press ...The vote was 56-40 in favor of the measure, which funds nearly the entire government through the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year. It also charts a new course for selected shaky pension plans covering more than 1 million retirees, including the possibility of benefit cuts...
New Leak Reveals Luxembourg Tax Deals for Disney, Koch Brothers Empire International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ...Disney and Koch Industries, a U.S.-based energy and chemical conglomerate, both created tangles of interlocking corporations in Luxembourg that may have helped them slash the taxes they pay in the U.S. and Europe, according to the documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists...
How to stop wage stagnation? Stronger collective bargaining, says new report Left Foot Forward ...The reports says that average wage growth in developed economies has fluctuated around 1 per cent per year since 2006 and then slowed further in 2012 and 2013 to only 0.1 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively...
3 workers killed in fire at Dallas high-rise USA Today ...The fire broke out in the garage of the 50-story glass tower just before 11 a.m., forcing about 2,800 people to evacuate. The three workers who died were subcontractors working on the air conditioning system in the basement garage, Dallas Fire Rescue spokesman Jason Evans said...
Teamsters Denounce Senate Passage Of Omnibus Spending Bill teamster.org ..."With the passage of the omnibus spending bill by the Senate, we have witnessed the latest attack by corporate interests on working families. Big business and Wall Street have bought and paid for influence and access that has allowed them to continue to enrich corporations at the expense of the middle class....
The end of horse-drawn carriages in New York City? Pet Today ...Video: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says he’s sticking to his election promise to outlaw one of the city’s most iconic images, horse-drawn carriages...
Schwebel's eyes first quarter of 2015 for closure of Cuyahoga Falls plant Falls News Press …Of the 119 employees, 100 are represented by either Teamsters Local 377 (Drivers), Teamsters Local 336 or Teamsters Local 52; the other 19 are not in a union, according to the letter...
Trade
Column: What you should to know about hushed negotiations taking place between the EU and US thejournal.ie ...There are huge concerns regarding the secrecy in which the TTIP negotiations have been shrouded. We only became aware of the mandate for the negotiations through a leaked document and subsequent public pressure forced the European Commission, an undemocratically appointed body, to make it publicly available...
Don’t fast track TPP My San Antonio ...Unbelievably, they want this fast track legislation passed before we or Congress know what is in the TPP, which is being negotiated in secrecy. The fast tracking of the trade agreement bears scrutiny because it will be worse than the failed North American Free Trade Agreement passed in 1994...
War on Workers
Americans are 40% poorer than before the recession MarketWatch ...The net worth of American families — the difference between the values of their assets, including homes and investments, and liabilities — fell to $81,400 in 2013, down slightly from $82,300 in 2010, but a long way off the $135,700 in 2007, according to a new report...
Why America's middle class is lost Washington Post ...Workers today produce nearly twice as many goods and services per hour on the job as they did in 1989, but as a group, they get less of the nation’s economic pie. In 81 percent of America’s counties, the median income is lower today than it was 15 years ago...
‘Enough is enough’: Elizabeth Warren’s launches fiery attack after Congress weakens Wall Street regs Washington Post ...in recent years, many Wall Street institutions have exerted extraordinary influence in Washington’s corridors of power, but Citigroup has risen above the others. Its grip over economic policymaking in the executive branch is unprecedented...
Warren to banks: We should have ‘broken you into pieces’ The Hill ...Warren argues the repeal of the provision is a hand out to powerful banks that would leave taxpayer holding the bag again if risky investments fall through. “I agree with you Dodd-Frank isn’t perfect,” Warren said. “It should have broken you into pieces...
Senate Passes $1.1 Trillion Spending Bill Associated Press ...The vote was 56-40 in favor of the measure, which funds nearly the entire government through the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year. It also charts a new course for selected shaky pension plans covering more than 1 million retirees, including the possibility of benefit cuts...
New Leak Reveals Luxembourg Tax Deals for Disney, Koch Brothers Empire International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ...Disney and Koch Industries, a U.S.-based energy and chemical conglomerate, both created tangles of interlocking corporations in Luxembourg that may have helped them slash the taxes they pay in the U.S. and Europe, according to the documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists...
How to stop wage stagnation? Stronger collective bargaining, says new report Left Foot Forward ...The reports says that average wage growth in developed economies has fluctuated around 1 per cent per year since 2006 and then slowed further in 2012 and 2013 to only 0.1 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively...
3 workers killed in fire at Dallas high-rise USA Today ...The fire broke out in the garage of the 50-story glass tower just before 11 a.m., forcing about 2,800 people to evacuate. The three workers who died were subcontractors working on the air conditioning system in the basement garage, Dallas Fire Rescue spokesman Jason Evans said...
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Today's Teamster News 11.13.14
Teamster News
Trade Agreement Could Cost Michigan Jobs (opinion) Detroit News ...A lame-duck session of Congress convenes this week, and Capitol Hill lawmakers could consider fast-track trade promotion authority in the coming weeks that would jeopardize thousands of jobs in Michigan and nationwide...
Twinkie Maker’s Success Story Tempting Entenmann’s New York Post ...Members of Teamsters Local 802, which represents roughly 300 Entenmann’s drivers in New York and northern New Jersey, are preparing for the worst and have authorized union leaders to call a strike...
NetJets Threatens To Fire Middle Class Workers On Behalf Of The Global Super-Rich teamster.org ...Berkshire Hathaway’s [BRK/B] NetJets, Inc. is threatening to fire workers over the International Brotherhood of Teamsters decision to publicize the names of wealthy customers who stand to benefit from the company’s attack on the wages, benefits and working conditions of middle class employees...
Sysco Doesn’t Expect US Foods Deal to Close This Year Wall Street Journal ...Sysco Corp. , the nation’s biggest food distributor by sales, again pushed back the timeline for completing its acquisition of rival US Foods Inc., saying talks with antitrust regulators are taking longer than expected...
Sysco Expands; Buys Pacific Star Foodservice In Mexico Zacks ...this leading foodservice distributor of North America is rapidly expanding in Latin America. Apart from Latin America, Sysco has expanded in Canada, Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Bahamas....
Trade
House Dems say trade bills have no chance of passing The Hill ...A trio of House Democrats said Wednesday that neither fast-track nor an Asia-Pacific trade deal have any chance of passing in the lame-duck session or in the next Congress...
China Suspected Of Breaching U.S. Postal Service Computer Networks Washington Post ...Chinese government hackers are suspected of breaching the computer networks of the United States Postal Service, compromising the data of more than 800,000 employees — including the postmaster general’s...
State Battles
Appeals court upholds conviction of Kelly Rindfleisch, former aide to Scott Walker Wisconsin State Journal ...Rindfleisch, 46, was sentenced to six months in jail with work release privileges and three years of probation for doing campaign work on county time, but that sentence was stayed pending appeal...
State Street, Governor Elect Rauner Both Implicated in Pay-to-Play Scandals naked capitalism ... Illinois governor elect Bruce Rauner, who comes out of the private equity industry, took over $140,000 in campaign contributions from executives at funds that manage state money, which violates state and federal laws, since Rauner will be appointing pension system trustees...
Detroit Emerges From Bankruptcy, Yet Pension Risks Linger New York Times ...foundations, the state of Michigan, the Detroit Institute of Arts and even the city’s water and sewer system have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to bolster the municipal pension system and give the art collection new, bankruptcy-proof ownership. In return, retired workers accepted reductions to their monthly checks and other cutbacks...
War on Workers
Jobs Growth Far from Strong: It Will Be 2018 Before the Economy Looks like 2007 Economic Policy Institute ...if we extrapolate this rate of jobs growth into the future, it will be 2018 before we return to a labor market resembling the one we had before the recession began...
FedEx Pilots Picket for 'Respect' WIBC ...Dozens of pilots descended on Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis Wednesday. They're among some 800 picketing pilots across the nation. They're represented by the Air Line Pilots Association. They say they've been in contract talks for nearly four years with FedEx...
Apple’s iTunes earnings mostly untaxed Australian Financial Review ...More than two-thirds of the money Apple’s iTunes makes outside North America goes through the group’s Luxembourg holding company where it is not taxable, thanks to an intra-group fees agreement signed in 2008...
Banks Reach Settlement In Foreign-Exchange Probe Wall Street Journal ...Six banks agreed Wednesday to pay a total of about $4.2 billion to U.S., British and Swiss regulators to resolve allegations that for years they worked together to try to manipulate the vast foreign-exchange market to boost their profits...
Dad’s Disbelief Over Son’s Missing Shows Mexico Reeling Bloomberg ...“It’s impossible for me to believe that they just made 43 students disappear,” Gonzalez, 49, said on Nov. 3 as he looked out over fields at Cesar’s school in the town of Ayotzinapa, Guerrero. “The worst thing,” he said, tears filling his eyes, “is knowing it wasn’t organized crime that instigated this -- this was our own government...”
In Bolivia, A Child's Place Is In The Market And The Mines NPR ...In the Bolivian city of El Alto on a recent day, youngsters shout out the destinations of departing buses to lure passengers. One of these barkers is 15-year-old Luis Canaza. He earns about 12 cents for every bus he fills...
Uzbekistan: Forced To Labor In Cotton Fields, Students Rebel EruAsiaNet ...Third-year male journalism students were ordered to the cotton fields by the rector and faculty deacon, says the letter. It is addressed to Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev; the prosecutor’s office; the National Security Service (SNB); the Higher Education Ministry; and the university rector, Mirzo Mukhamedov...
Construction Worker Killed In Warwick’s Apponaug Section WPRI ...An unidentified man from Fall River died early Wednesday morning after a large piece of equipment fell on him at a construction site in Apponaug...
Private sanitation worker killed by falling dumpster at Staten Island golf course Staten Island Advance ...A private sanitation worker was killed when a dumpster fell and struck him outside the Richmond County Country Club in Dongan Hills Wednesday night, police said...
Miscellaneous
Dan Sullivan Beats Mark Begich In Alaska Politico ...Republican Dan Sullivan has won the Alaska Senate race, ousting Democratic incumbent Mark Begich, according to The Associated Press, which called the race for Sullivan late Tuesday night following the first day of counting early and absentee ballots...
Trade Agreement Could Cost Michigan Jobs (opinion) Detroit News ...A lame-duck session of Congress convenes this week, and Capitol Hill lawmakers could consider fast-track trade promotion authority in the coming weeks that would jeopardize thousands of jobs in Michigan and nationwide...
Twinkie Maker’s Success Story Tempting Entenmann’s New York Post ...Members of Teamsters Local 802, which represents roughly 300 Entenmann’s drivers in New York and northern New Jersey, are preparing for the worst and have authorized union leaders to call a strike...
NetJets Threatens To Fire Middle Class Workers On Behalf Of The Global Super-Rich teamster.org ...Berkshire Hathaway’s [BRK/B] NetJets, Inc. is threatening to fire workers over the International Brotherhood of Teamsters decision to publicize the names of wealthy customers who stand to benefit from the company’s attack on the wages, benefits and working conditions of middle class employees...
Sysco Doesn’t Expect US Foods Deal to Close This Year Wall Street Journal ...Sysco Corp. , the nation’s biggest food distributor by sales, again pushed back the timeline for completing its acquisition of rival US Foods Inc., saying talks with antitrust regulators are taking longer than expected...
Sysco Expands; Buys Pacific Star Foodservice In Mexico Zacks ...this leading foodservice distributor of North America is rapidly expanding in Latin America. Apart from Latin America, Sysco has expanded in Canada, Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Bahamas....
Trade
House Dems say trade bills have no chance of passing The Hill ...A trio of House Democrats said Wednesday that neither fast-track nor an Asia-Pacific trade deal have any chance of passing in the lame-duck session or in the next Congress...
China Suspected Of Breaching U.S. Postal Service Computer Networks Washington Post ...Chinese government hackers are suspected of breaching the computer networks of the United States Postal Service, compromising the data of more than 800,000 employees — including the postmaster general’s...
State Battles
Appeals court upholds conviction of Kelly Rindfleisch, former aide to Scott Walker Wisconsin State Journal ...Rindfleisch, 46, was sentenced to six months in jail with work release privileges and three years of probation for doing campaign work on county time, but that sentence was stayed pending appeal...
State Street, Governor Elect Rauner Both Implicated in Pay-to-Play Scandals naked capitalism ... Illinois governor elect Bruce Rauner, who comes out of the private equity industry, took over $140,000 in campaign contributions from executives at funds that manage state money, which violates state and federal laws, since Rauner will be appointing pension system trustees...
Detroit Emerges From Bankruptcy, Yet Pension Risks Linger New York Times ...foundations, the state of Michigan, the Detroit Institute of Arts and even the city’s water and sewer system have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to bolster the municipal pension system and give the art collection new, bankruptcy-proof ownership. In return, retired workers accepted reductions to their monthly checks and other cutbacks...
War on Workers
Jobs Growth Far from Strong: It Will Be 2018 Before the Economy Looks like 2007 Economic Policy Institute ...if we extrapolate this rate of jobs growth into the future, it will be 2018 before we return to a labor market resembling the one we had before the recession began...
FedEx Pilots Picket for 'Respect' WIBC ...Dozens of pilots descended on Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis Wednesday. They're among some 800 picketing pilots across the nation. They're represented by the Air Line Pilots Association. They say they've been in contract talks for nearly four years with FedEx...
Apple’s iTunes earnings mostly untaxed Australian Financial Review ...More than two-thirds of the money Apple’s iTunes makes outside North America goes through the group’s Luxembourg holding company where it is not taxable, thanks to an intra-group fees agreement signed in 2008...
Banks Reach Settlement In Foreign-Exchange Probe Wall Street Journal ...Six banks agreed Wednesday to pay a total of about $4.2 billion to U.S., British and Swiss regulators to resolve allegations that for years they worked together to try to manipulate the vast foreign-exchange market to boost their profits...
Dad’s Disbelief Over Son’s Missing Shows Mexico Reeling Bloomberg ...“It’s impossible for me to believe that they just made 43 students disappear,” Gonzalez, 49, said on Nov. 3 as he looked out over fields at Cesar’s school in the town of Ayotzinapa, Guerrero. “The worst thing,” he said, tears filling his eyes, “is knowing it wasn’t organized crime that instigated this -- this was our own government...”
In Bolivia, A Child's Place Is In The Market And The Mines NPR ...In the Bolivian city of El Alto on a recent day, youngsters shout out the destinations of departing buses to lure passengers. One of these barkers is 15-year-old Luis Canaza. He earns about 12 cents for every bus he fills...
Uzbekistan: Forced To Labor In Cotton Fields, Students Rebel EruAsiaNet ...Third-year male journalism students were ordered to the cotton fields by the rector and faculty deacon, says the letter. It is addressed to Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev; the prosecutor’s office; the National Security Service (SNB); the Higher Education Ministry; and the university rector, Mirzo Mukhamedov...
Construction Worker Killed In Warwick’s Apponaug Section WPRI ...An unidentified man from Fall River died early Wednesday morning after a large piece of equipment fell on him at a construction site in Apponaug...
Private sanitation worker killed by falling dumpster at Staten Island golf course Staten Island Advance ...A private sanitation worker was killed when a dumpster fell and struck him outside the Richmond County Country Club in Dongan Hills Wednesday night, police said...
Miscellaneous
Dan Sullivan Beats Mark Begich In Alaska Politico ...Republican Dan Sullivan has won the Alaska Senate race, ousting Democratic incumbent Mark Begich, according to The Associated Press, which called the race for Sullivan late Tuesday night following the first day of counting early and absentee ballots...
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Today's Teamster News 08.27.14
Teamster News
Teamsters vow to fight IDOT layoffs State Journal-Register ...Lawyers representing Teamsters Local 916 said Tuesday they want 55 members of the union who were put in Illinois Department of Transportation jobs as staff assistants … to be able to continue working for the agency...
1934 Minneapolis Teamsters Strike, One Key Precursor To Wagner Act People's World ...Wagner wrote the National Labor Relations Act(NLRA), the nation's basic labor law, in early 1935, then convinced a reluctant Roosevelt to support it. The Senate passed the NLRA 63-12, the House approved it by voice vote, and Roosevelt signed it on July 5, 1935...
Trade
Petition to Sen. Wyden — “Smart Track” cannot be “Fast Track” in Disguise Public Citizen ...Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden has been working on what he calls a new form of trade authority. What we need is a replacement for Fast Track — the Nixon-formulated process that allowed presidents to sign “free trade” deals before Congress got to vote on them, and then railroad the deals through Congress in only 90 days with limited debate and no amendments...
Import Competition and the Great U.S. Employment Sag of the 2000s National Bureau of Economic Research ...“Our central estimates suggest net job losses of 2.0 to 2.4 million stemming from the rise in import competition from China over the period 1999 to 2011...”
Registered Lobbyists Elbow Their Way Back Into TPP Committees Electronic Frontier Foundation ...Special interests won a federal court ruling earlier this year, where the judge in the case suggested that President Obama's ban on registered lobbyists serving on federal advisory committees violated those lobbyists' rights...the White House has sent a memo specifying new rules, permitting lobbyists to once again officially serve on federal agencies if they are representing a specific client...
State Battles
John Nichols: Scott Walker, mine money and the 'appearance of corruption' The Cap Times ...Gogebic Taconite moved $700,000 to the Wisconsin Club for Growth, which in turn steered resources to other groups that cheered on Walker and his Republican allies. "Because Wisconsin Club for Growth's fundraising and expenditures were being coordinated with Scott Walker's agents at the time of Gogebic's donation, there is certainly an appearance of corruption in light of the resulting legislation from which it benefited," argued Dean Nickel, the former head of the state Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Unit...
Nearly Half Of Workers In California Don’t Get Paid Sick Days, Analysis Finds Washington Post ...Forty four percent of workers in California don’t get any paid sick days, according to a new analysis...
Angry About Ferguson? Oppose Voter ID Laws Daily Beast ...Even a study that voter ID proponents frequently cite because it minimizes the problem readily admits that that “the adverse effects fall disproportionately on women, African-Americans, and Democrats.”...
O'Connell: Council Can Raise Minimum Wage Louisville Courier Journal ...Scott requested an opinion from the office on whether the council could establish a minimum wage. Council members have not introduced a proposed ordinance, but members of the Democratic majority have voiced their support for an increase...
War On Workers
Burger King swallows Tim Hortons; new firm is Canada-bound Los Angeles Times ...Burger King Worldwide Inc. said Tuesday it would buy the Tim Hortons coffee-and-doughnut chain for about $11.4 billion and place the new firm's headquarters in Canada, where the corporate tax rate is lower than in the U.S...
Burger King Fans Call For Boycott Over Tax Dodge Huffington Post ...People flooded the fast-food chain’s Facebook page on Monday with threats of a boycott after the company announced talks to merge with Canadian coffee and doughnut chain Tim Hortons. The combined company would be headquartered in Canada...
A New Reason to Question the Official Unemployment Rate New York Times ...there seems to have been an increase in the number of people who once would have qualified as officially unemployed and today are considered out of the labor force, neither working nor looking for work...
Contract Worker Killed In Accident At NewPage In Rumford River Valley Sun Journal ...A man was killed in an accident at the NewPage mill Monday afternoon, according to mill spokesman Tony Lyons...
Worker killed, others hurt in July explosion Associated Press ...The U.S. Chemical Safety Board says a fatal July explosion at a fish processing plant on the Mississippi Coast occurred during “hot work” on a tank...The board says no combustible gas testing was done on the contents of the tank before the hot work began...
Poor Door’ in a New York Tower Opens a Fight Over Affordable Housing New York Times ...A 33-story glassy tower rising on Manhattan’s waterfront will … also cater to renters who make no more than about $50,000. They will not share the same perks, and they will also not share the same entrance...
Miscellaneous
Amid job stagnation, a prosperous class grows (opinion) AlJazeera America ...A small group of very well-paid workers is earning a third of the nation’s wages...
Teamsters vow to fight IDOT layoffs State Journal-Register ...Lawyers representing Teamsters Local 916 said Tuesday they want 55 members of the union who were put in Illinois Department of Transportation jobs as staff assistants … to be able to continue working for the agency...
1934 Minneapolis Teamsters Strike, One Key Precursor To Wagner Act People's World ...Wagner wrote the National Labor Relations Act(NLRA), the nation's basic labor law, in early 1935, then convinced a reluctant Roosevelt to support it. The Senate passed the NLRA 63-12, the House approved it by voice vote, and Roosevelt signed it on July 5, 1935...
Trade
Petition to Sen. Wyden — “Smart Track” cannot be “Fast Track” in Disguise Public Citizen ...Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden has been working on what he calls a new form of trade authority. What we need is a replacement for Fast Track — the Nixon-formulated process that allowed presidents to sign “free trade” deals before Congress got to vote on them, and then railroad the deals through Congress in only 90 days with limited debate and no amendments...
Import Competition and the Great U.S. Employment Sag of the 2000s National Bureau of Economic Research ...“Our central estimates suggest net job losses of 2.0 to 2.4 million stemming from the rise in import competition from China over the period 1999 to 2011...”
Registered Lobbyists Elbow Their Way Back Into TPP Committees Electronic Frontier Foundation ...Special interests won a federal court ruling earlier this year, where the judge in the case suggested that President Obama's ban on registered lobbyists serving on federal advisory committees violated those lobbyists' rights...the White House has sent a memo specifying new rules, permitting lobbyists to once again officially serve on federal agencies if they are representing a specific client...
State Battles
John Nichols: Scott Walker, mine money and the 'appearance of corruption' The Cap Times ...Gogebic Taconite moved $700,000 to the Wisconsin Club for Growth, which in turn steered resources to other groups that cheered on Walker and his Republican allies. "Because Wisconsin Club for Growth's fundraising and expenditures were being coordinated with Scott Walker's agents at the time of Gogebic's donation, there is certainly an appearance of corruption in light of the resulting legislation from which it benefited," argued Dean Nickel, the former head of the state Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Unit...
Nearly Half Of Workers In California Don’t Get Paid Sick Days, Analysis Finds Washington Post ...Forty four percent of workers in California don’t get any paid sick days, according to a new analysis...
Angry About Ferguson? Oppose Voter ID Laws Daily Beast ...Even a study that voter ID proponents frequently cite because it minimizes the problem readily admits that that “the adverse effects fall disproportionately on women, African-Americans, and Democrats.”...
O'Connell: Council Can Raise Minimum Wage Louisville Courier Journal ...Scott requested an opinion from the office on whether the council could establish a minimum wage. Council members have not introduced a proposed ordinance, but members of the Democratic majority have voiced their support for an increase...
War On Workers
Burger King swallows Tim Hortons; new firm is Canada-bound Los Angeles Times ...Burger King Worldwide Inc. said Tuesday it would buy the Tim Hortons coffee-and-doughnut chain for about $11.4 billion and place the new firm's headquarters in Canada, where the corporate tax rate is lower than in the U.S...
Burger King Fans Call For Boycott Over Tax Dodge Huffington Post ...People flooded the fast-food chain’s Facebook page on Monday with threats of a boycott after the company announced talks to merge with Canadian coffee and doughnut chain Tim Hortons. The combined company would be headquartered in Canada...
A New Reason to Question the Official Unemployment Rate New York Times ...there seems to have been an increase in the number of people who once would have qualified as officially unemployed and today are considered out of the labor force, neither working nor looking for work...
Contract Worker Killed In Accident At NewPage In Rumford River Valley Sun Journal ...A man was killed in an accident at the NewPage mill Monday afternoon, according to mill spokesman Tony Lyons...
Worker killed, others hurt in July explosion Associated Press ...The U.S. Chemical Safety Board says a fatal July explosion at a fish processing plant on the Mississippi Coast occurred during “hot work” on a tank...The board says no combustible gas testing was done on the contents of the tank before the hot work began...
Poor Door’ in a New York Tower Opens a Fight Over Affordable Housing New York Times ...A 33-story glassy tower rising on Manhattan’s waterfront will … also cater to renters who make no more than about $50,000. They will not share the same perks, and they will also not share the same entrance...
Miscellaneous
Amid job stagnation, a prosperous class grows (opinion) AlJazeera America ...A small group of very well-paid workers is earning a third of the nation’s wages...
Monday, August 25, 2014
Today's Teamster News 08.25.14
Trade
Cambodian rat meat: A growing export market BBC News ...A unique harvest is under way in the rice fields of Cambodia where tens of thousands of wild rats are being trapped alive each day to feed a growing export market for the meat of rural rodents...
Steel Institute, Others Visit South Carolina to Address Currency Manipulation Trade Reform ...unfair currency policies hurt American job creation and economic growth – impacting the more than 3,000 steel jobs in South Carolina...
State Battles
Troubled New York Hedge Fund Billionaire Sent Scott Walker $1 Million Political Environment ...The firm’s founder, Steven A. Cohen, has so far escaped criminal charges. But the firm that bore his initials agreed in November to plead guilty to an array of insider trading allegations and to pay overall penalties totaling $1.8 billion...
War on Workers
The US Is One Of The Last Developed Countries Where It Can Still Take Days For Money To Show Up In Your Bank Account Business Insider ...while regulators and some financial institutions are finally recognizing this should no longer be the case, it will likely take years for any reforms to take effect...
Study: Overtime rules could benefit 6M The Hill ...Regulations now under construction at the Labor Department could expand the sphere of workers eligible for overtime pay by more than 6 million, according to a new study from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI)...
No to Walmart-Style Classrooms Making Change at Walmart ...the Walton family, who owns Walmart, is also trying to spread the Walmart business model to our classrooms...
Dollar stores in battle to double down on the poor Reuters ... Family Dollar Stores,, which operates about 8,200 stores in mainly urban sections of the U.S., is the target of an $9 billion cash takeover offer from rival Dollar General and an $8.5 billion cash and stock offer from Dollar Tree. Both competitors are betting not only on the health of the deep discount retail sector but also on the intractability of poverty in America...
Burger King the Latest to Jump on the Corporate Tax Inversion Bandwagon naked capitalism ...Burger King Worldwide Inc. is in talks to buy Canadian coffee-and-doughnut chain Tim Hortons Inc., a deal that would be structured as a so-called tax inversion and move the hamburger seller’s base to Canada...
Robots Able to Pick Peppers, Test Soil, and Prune Plants Aim To Replace Farm Workers Singularity Hub ...Farm robots are increasingly capable of autonomously performing complex tasks including plowing, plant and soil surveillance, and even the harvesting of fruit and vegetables...
Cambodian rat meat: A growing export market BBC News ...A unique harvest is under way in the rice fields of Cambodia where tens of thousands of wild rats are being trapped alive each day to feed a growing export market for the meat of rural rodents...
Steel Institute, Others Visit South Carolina to Address Currency Manipulation Trade Reform ...unfair currency policies hurt American job creation and economic growth – impacting the more than 3,000 steel jobs in South Carolina...
State Battles
Troubled New York Hedge Fund Billionaire Sent Scott Walker $1 Million Political Environment ...The firm’s founder, Steven A. Cohen, has so far escaped criminal charges. But the firm that bore his initials agreed in November to plead guilty to an array of insider trading allegations and to pay overall penalties totaling $1.8 billion...
War on Workers
The US Is One Of The Last Developed Countries Where It Can Still Take Days For Money To Show Up In Your Bank Account Business Insider ...while regulators and some financial institutions are finally recognizing this should no longer be the case, it will likely take years for any reforms to take effect...
Study: Overtime rules could benefit 6M The Hill ...Regulations now under construction at the Labor Department could expand the sphere of workers eligible for overtime pay by more than 6 million, according to a new study from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI)...
No to Walmart-Style Classrooms Making Change at Walmart ...the Walton family, who owns Walmart, is also trying to spread the Walmart business model to our classrooms...
Dollar stores in battle to double down on the poor Reuters ... Family Dollar Stores,, which operates about 8,200 stores in mainly urban sections of the U.S., is the target of an $9 billion cash takeover offer from rival Dollar General and an $8.5 billion cash and stock offer from Dollar Tree. Both competitors are betting not only on the health of the deep discount retail sector but also on the intractability of poverty in America...
Burger King the Latest to Jump on the Corporate Tax Inversion Bandwagon naked capitalism ...Burger King Worldwide Inc. is in talks to buy Canadian coffee-and-doughnut chain Tim Hortons Inc., a deal that would be structured as a so-called tax inversion and move the hamburger seller’s base to Canada...
Robots Able to Pick Peppers, Test Soil, and Prune Plants Aim To Replace Farm Workers Singularity Hub ...Farm robots are increasingly capable of autonomously performing complex tasks including plowing, plant and soil surveillance, and even the harvesting of fruit and vegetables...
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Today's Teamster News 08.10.14
Teamsters
Unions That Used to Strike Jacobin ...In early July, 120 mostly poor and immigrant port truckers set up picket lines at three trucking companies in LA-Long Beach Harbor, extending their longstanding campaign to unionize. … Following the rules of their own contract, the union told its members to cross the truckers’ pickets and return to their jobs. This action was in line with the ILWU’s informal pact with the PMA to maintain the flow of work after their contract had run out, and it snuffed out any potential the embryonic solidarity of the longshore workers and port truckers might have had to shift the balance of power between themselves and their employers...
Teamsters Boycotting Hollywood Trucking Firm Quixote Variety ...A branch of the Intl. Brotherhood of Teamsters has launched a boycott of the non-union Quixote Studios, one of Hollywood’s largest operators of truck and trailer fleets...
Teamsters, prominent Hollywood vendor in high-profile standoff Los Angeles Times ...“We're trying to bring production back to California, but we want it to be union production and that's what we're trying to do,” Dayan said. “We're trying to organize the unorganized and to help those individuals maintain a middle-class livelihood. That's what we do...”
Trade
End in Sight for U.S.-Japan TPP Talks On Agriculture Market Access, Oe Says Bloomberg BNA ...Oe said that during two days of intensive, substantive negotiations, the areas where compromises are to be made have been clearly identified but that those compromises remain to be realized...
War on Workers
Flipping Schools: The Hidden Forces Behind New Jersey Education Reform truthout ...Real estate concerns and facilities funding increasingly drive neighborhood school closings and the expansion of privately managed charter schools. By allocating millions of dollars in little-known bonds exclusively to charters while imposing austerity on public facilities, the state has quietly stacked the deck for charters, leaving neighborhood schools to molder in decline...
Bare shelves for Market Basket as employees and shoppers unite in profit-sharing fight PBS Newshour ...The owners of a successful New England grocery store chain are in a family feud over whether company profits should go to shareholders or to employees, some of whom have abandoned their shifts and hit the streets...
How rural poverty is changing: Your fate is increasingly tied to your town Washington Post ... If your hometown went south, you probably did with it, unless you managed to get out and had the wherewithal to not come back...
“A Financial Casino Would Be a Step Up From What We Have” naked capitalism ...casinos are well aware of the fact that the house can lose and they monitor gamblers intensively to make sure that no one is engaging is sleight of hand. Thus if we treated our banking system like the financial casino that it has become, we’d be much better off than we are now...
A Corporate Tax Break That’s Closer to Home New York Times ...the Internal Revenue Service, officials have recently opened the window to another (corporate tax break). They did so in a ruling disclosed late last month by Windstream Holdings, a telecommunications company based in Little Rock, Ark. The ruling allows Windstream to spin off its copper and fiber network into a real estate investment trust, or REIT. That sounds pretty ho-hum until you realize it means that Windstream won’t have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes...
Unions That Used to Strike Jacobin ...In early July, 120 mostly poor and immigrant port truckers set up picket lines at three trucking companies in LA-Long Beach Harbor, extending their longstanding campaign to unionize. … Following the rules of their own contract, the union told its members to cross the truckers’ pickets and return to their jobs. This action was in line with the ILWU’s informal pact with the PMA to maintain the flow of work after their contract had run out, and it snuffed out any potential the embryonic solidarity of the longshore workers and port truckers might have had to shift the balance of power between themselves and their employers...
Teamsters Boycotting Hollywood Trucking Firm Quixote Variety ...A branch of the Intl. Brotherhood of Teamsters has launched a boycott of the non-union Quixote Studios, one of Hollywood’s largest operators of truck and trailer fleets...
Teamsters, prominent Hollywood vendor in high-profile standoff Los Angeles Times ...“We're trying to bring production back to California, but we want it to be union production and that's what we're trying to do,” Dayan said. “We're trying to organize the unorganized and to help those individuals maintain a middle-class livelihood. That's what we do...”
Trade
End in Sight for U.S.-Japan TPP Talks On Agriculture Market Access, Oe Says Bloomberg BNA ...Oe said that during two days of intensive, substantive negotiations, the areas where compromises are to be made have been clearly identified but that those compromises remain to be realized...
War on Workers
Flipping Schools: The Hidden Forces Behind New Jersey Education Reform truthout ...Real estate concerns and facilities funding increasingly drive neighborhood school closings and the expansion of privately managed charter schools. By allocating millions of dollars in little-known bonds exclusively to charters while imposing austerity on public facilities, the state has quietly stacked the deck for charters, leaving neighborhood schools to molder in decline...
Bare shelves for Market Basket as employees and shoppers unite in profit-sharing fight PBS Newshour ...The owners of a successful New England grocery store chain are in a family feud over whether company profits should go to shareholders or to employees, some of whom have abandoned their shifts and hit the streets...
How rural poverty is changing: Your fate is increasingly tied to your town Washington Post ... If your hometown went south, you probably did with it, unless you managed to get out and had the wherewithal to not come back...
“A Financial Casino Would Be a Step Up From What We Have” naked capitalism ...casinos are well aware of the fact that the house can lose and they monitor gamblers intensively to make sure that no one is engaging is sleight of hand. Thus if we treated our banking system like the financial casino that it has become, we’d be much better off than we are now...
A Corporate Tax Break That’s Closer to Home New York Times ...the Internal Revenue Service, officials have recently opened the window to another (corporate tax break). They did so in a ruling disclosed late last month by Windstream Holdings, a telecommunications company based in Little Rock, Ark. The ruling allows Windstream to spin off its copper and fiber network into a real estate investment trust, or REIT. That sounds pretty ho-hum until you realize it means that Windstream won’t have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes...
Friday, August 1, 2014
Today's Teamster News 08.01.14
Teamster News
Fired McKesson Worker Loses Fight On CEO's Exit Package Bloomberg News ...Hammergren stands to receive $292 million under a so-called change in control at the San Francisco-based company, which distributes pharmaceuticals and medical products. The Teamsters union put a measure before shareholders at McKesson’s annual meeting today that would have urged the board to reduce that amount...
Teamsters Endorse Tom Wolf For Governor teamster.org ...Democratic candidate for governor, Tom Wolf joined representatives from the Pennsylvania Conference of Teamsters and the Carpenters Union today to accept their endorsements in his gubernatorial race against incumbent Gov. Tom Corbett...
Teamsters Praise Obama Crackdown On Companies That Abuse Workers teamster.org ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters strongly supports President Obama’s executive order to crack down on corporations that break laws but still win government contracts...
Trade
EU Ombudsman Demands More TTIP Transparency EurActiv ...The European Ombudsman today (31 July) opened two investigations into the EU Council and Commission over a lack of transparency around the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)...
Russia might ban US chickens, Greek fruit The Hill ...The agency’s head, Sergey Dankvert, told ITAR-TASS that his team discovered listeria, salmonella, lead and anaerobic microorganisms in U.S. poultry. Dankvert said he will discuss the issue with U.S. officials early next week and possibly impose a ban...
WTO Fails to Ratify Trade Agreement Wall Street Journal ...The WTO reached an agreement in December on the Indonesian resort island of Bali to streamline customs procedures. The deadline to ratify that agreement was Thursday, but India declined to do so without a parallel agreement allowing developing countries more freedom to subsidize and stockpile food...
State Battles
Eric Holder Takes Voting Rights Battle To Ohio, Wisconsin Wall Street Journal ...In Wisconsin, the Justice Department filed a brief supporting a previous federal court ruling against the state's photo identification requirement, which was deemed unfair to minority voters. In Ohio, the Justice Department weighed in against a law limiting early voting and same day registration...
The Next Big Fight in Income Inequality Is About to Go Down in California The New Republic ...Over time they want to create a regional living wage across eight counties, lifting the fortunes of the working poor...
Outsourcing Jobs...To Low-Wage Wisconsin Cap Times ...What the announcement shows, of course, is how corporations are constantly looking to increase profits by lowering labor costs as much as possible. That can mean outsourcing manufacturing jobs to Asia or, in the case of Alta, providing outsourcing services in Wisconsin...
In 5-2 ruling, Supreme Court issues final word on Act 10 Wall Street Journal ...More than three years after its passage sparked massive protests that jammed the Capitol Square, the state Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a divisive state law that sharply curtailed the collective bargaining rights of most public workers...
Asheville To Host 2nd Mountain Moral Monday On Aug. 4 Citizen-Times ...For the past 64 weeks, Barber has led the civil disobedience campaign called Moral Mondays, criticizing policies enacted by the Republican-led legislature on everything from education funding to fracking to voter ID laws...
War On Workers
Protesters 'Rally Against the Banks' in Punta Gorda WINK News ..."There's a lot of folks in foreclosure that need some relief," said Bradley Burdette, who organized the "Rally Against the Banks" protest...
Road Crew Worker Hit And Killed On Interstate 89 WCAX ...A man working on Interstate 89 as part of a road crew has been hit and killed by a car...
Let's Call 'Corporate Inversion' For What It Is: A Gaping, Unpatriotic Tax Loophole (opinion) Huffington Post ...In 2004, Congress enacted a law to prevent "corporate inversions" in which corporations reincorporate in a foreign country to avoid paying U.S. taxes, but a gaping loophole allows corporations to get around this law by merging with a foreign company. Simply put, it allows corporations to avoid paying taxes when they "renounce their U.S. citizenship" and change their corporate address to a foreign country...
Miscellaneous
Cabbies Show Up At Houston City Hall In Opposition Of Uber And Lyft KTRK ...The taxi cab drivers told Eyewitness News their demand is simple. They want everyone to play by the same rules...
Senate sends highway bill to Obama The Hill ...After the House rejected Senate changes, senators held their noses Thursday and voted 81-13 for a $10.9 billion bill to fund highway projects through May 2015...
CIA director John Brennan apologizes for search of Senate committee’s computers Washington Post ...CIA employees improperly searched computers used by Senate investigators involved in a multi-year probe of the agency’s use of harsh interrogation measures on terrorism suspects, according to the findings of an internal agency inquiry that prompted CIA Director John Brennan to apologize to lawmakers this week...
Fired McKesson Worker Loses Fight On CEO's Exit Package Bloomberg News ...Hammergren stands to receive $292 million under a so-called change in control at the San Francisco-based company, which distributes pharmaceuticals and medical products. The Teamsters union put a measure before shareholders at McKesson’s annual meeting today that would have urged the board to reduce that amount...
Teamsters Endorse Tom Wolf For Governor teamster.org ...Democratic candidate for governor, Tom Wolf joined representatives from the Pennsylvania Conference of Teamsters and the Carpenters Union today to accept their endorsements in his gubernatorial race against incumbent Gov. Tom Corbett...
Teamsters Praise Obama Crackdown On Companies That Abuse Workers teamster.org ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters strongly supports President Obama’s executive order to crack down on corporations that break laws but still win government contracts...
Trade
EU Ombudsman Demands More TTIP Transparency EurActiv ...The European Ombudsman today (31 July) opened two investigations into the EU Council and Commission over a lack of transparency around the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)...
Russia might ban US chickens, Greek fruit The Hill ...The agency’s head, Sergey Dankvert, told ITAR-TASS that his team discovered listeria, salmonella, lead and anaerobic microorganisms in U.S. poultry. Dankvert said he will discuss the issue with U.S. officials early next week and possibly impose a ban...
WTO Fails to Ratify Trade Agreement Wall Street Journal ...The WTO reached an agreement in December on the Indonesian resort island of Bali to streamline customs procedures. The deadline to ratify that agreement was Thursday, but India declined to do so without a parallel agreement allowing developing countries more freedom to subsidize and stockpile food...
State Battles
Eric Holder Takes Voting Rights Battle To Ohio, Wisconsin Wall Street Journal ...In Wisconsin, the Justice Department filed a brief supporting a previous federal court ruling against the state's photo identification requirement, which was deemed unfair to minority voters. In Ohio, the Justice Department weighed in against a law limiting early voting and same day registration...
The Next Big Fight in Income Inequality Is About to Go Down in California The New Republic ...Over time they want to create a regional living wage across eight counties, lifting the fortunes of the working poor...
Outsourcing Jobs...To Low-Wage Wisconsin Cap Times ...What the announcement shows, of course, is how corporations are constantly looking to increase profits by lowering labor costs as much as possible. That can mean outsourcing manufacturing jobs to Asia or, in the case of Alta, providing outsourcing services in Wisconsin...
In 5-2 ruling, Supreme Court issues final word on Act 10 Wall Street Journal ...More than three years after its passage sparked massive protests that jammed the Capitol Square, the state Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a divisive state law that sharply curtailed the collective bargaining rights of most public workers...
Asheville To Host 2nd Mountain Moral Monday On Aug. 4 Citizen-Times ...For the past 64 weeks, Barber has led the civil disobedience campaign called Moral Mondays, criticizing policies enacted by the Republican-led legislature on everything from education funding to fracking to voter ID laws...
War On Workers
Protesters 'Rally Against the Banks' in Punta Gorda WINK News ..."There's a lot of folks in foreclosure that need some relief," said Bradley Burdette, who organized the "Rally Against the Banks" protest...
Road Crew Worker Hit And Killed On Interstate 89 WCAX ...A man working on Interstate 89 as part of a road crew has been hit and killed by a car...
Let's Call 'Corporate Inversion' For What It Is: A Gaping, Unpatriotic Tax Loophole (opinion) Huffington Post ...In 2004, Congress enacted a law to prevent "corporate inversions" in which corporations reincorporate in a foreign country to avoid paying U.S. taxes, but a gaping loophole allows corporations to get around this law by merging with a foreign company. Simply put, it allows corporations to avoid paying taxes when they "renounce their U.S. citizenship" and change their corporate address to a foreign country...
Miscellaneous
Cabbies Show Up At Houston City Hall In Opposition Of Uber And Lyft KTRK ...The taxi cab drivers told Eyewitness News their demand is simple. They want everyone to play by the same rules...
Senate sends highway bill to Obama The Hill ...After the House rejected Senate changes, senators held their noses Thursday and voted 81-13 for a $10.9 billion bill to fund highway projects through May 2015...
CIA director John Brennan apologizes for search of Senate committee’s computers Washington Post ...CIA employees improperly searched computers used by Senate investigators involved in a multi-year probe of the agency’s use of harsh interrogation measures on terrorism suspects, according to the findings of an internal agency inquiry that prompted CIA Director John Brennan to apologize to lawmakers this week...
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Today's Teamster News 07.31.14
Teamster News
Consumer Watchdog Campaign: Teamsters, Transit Workers Back Prop 46 Campaign To Protect Patient Safety Insurance News ...Two powerful labor groups, the California Teamsters Public Affairs Council and the California Conference Board-Amalgamated Transit Union, have joined the growing list of organizations and individuals that support Proposition 46, the patient safety initiative on California's Nov. 4 ballot...
Police Union Endorses Lake County Sheriff’s Challenger, Jason Patt Lake Forester ...The Teamsters Local 700, the union representing corrections officers and supervisors along with lieutenants and sergeants of the Lake County Sheriff’s Highway Patrol Division, has endorsed the sheriff’s opponent in the upcoming election...
Teamsters Applaud Putnam County Decision To Reject Republic Services’ Florida Landfill Bid teamster.org ...The Teamsters Union is lauding the Putnam County (Fla.) Board of Commissioners today on its decision to reject Republic Services’ [NYSE: RSG] bid to buy the Putnam County landfill...
IKEA Canada To Pay Damages To The Teamsters Union teamster.org ...The British Columbia Labour Relations Board … concluded that Ikea violated the law when it negotiated directly with workers and offered to all workers who accepted to cross the picket line better working conditions (including a $2.50 an hour premium and a $500 bonus) than the working conditions that it had offered to the Teamsters at the bargaining table...
NLRB Reviews Local Teamster Petition to Expand Definition of 'Dual Employer' National Legal and Policy Center ...When does being employed by a contractor also mean being employed by the corporation with which it contracts? The National Labor Relations Board currently is reviewing this issue in a potential landmark case. If the board rules in favor of a Teamsters local, unions everywhere could have a powerful organizing weapon...
LA Unified reaches agreement with principals, police, teamsters LA School Report ...Teamsters Local 572, whose members include school administrative assistants, cafeteria managers, area operations supervisors and bus supervisors approved a similar contract with a bonus payment for the last year...
State Battles
Chris Christie Pension Cuts Could Damage Economy: Report International Business Times ...when combined with private pension benefits, the spending generated by the national retirement system supports more than 6 million jobs: 4.4 percent of the total national workforce. The report also says that the economic multiplier effect from retirees spending their pension benefits generates $135 billion a year in federal, state and local tax revenues...
N.J. Unions Update Lawsuits To Block Christie's Pension Cuts Newark Star-Ledger ...More than a dozen public-worker unions have updated their lawsuits aiming to stop Gov. Chris Christie from slashing scheduled payments to New Jersey's pension system for government employees...
In Kansas, Brownback tried a red-state ‘experiment.’ Now he may be paying a political price Washington Post ...Advised by Arthur Laffer, the father of supply-side economics, and supported by special interest groups backed by conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, he pushed through legislation that cut taxes and spending, eliminated state jobs and denied far more applications for welfare assistance...
The Republican Occupation of Detroit Daily Beast ...City agencies and entire school districts have been outsourced or privatized; public employees have been laid off in droves; municipalities have sold off vast swaths of public land; and city employee unions have seen their contracts whittled down to nothing...
Cargill to close Milwaukee beef facility, cut 600 jobs Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ..."It is unfortunate that we must close any beef plant because of the impact to good people, their families and the community...
Democratic Assembly Candidates In Northern Wisconsin Say Act 10 Has Caused ‘Teacher Flight' Wisconsin Public Radio ...Gov. Scott Walker’s Act 10 law, saying it’s causing teachers to leave the state. When Walker pushed Act 10 through the Legislature in his first few months as governor in 2011, he called it a tool for local governments and school boards to balance budgets because it took away almost all union bargaining power...
Sick Leave Policies Pick Up Steam CNN Money ...the San Diego city council was one of two cities -- the other being Eugene, Ore. -- to pass new laws mandating paid sick leave on Monday...
War On Workers
Employees’ Pay in U.S. Is Smaller Slice of Income Pie Bloomberg ...Worker pay was a smaller piece of the U.S. income pie than earlier estimated as some Americans collected significantly more in interest and dividend payments over the past two years...
White Collar Wage Theft Is Trending: Companies Using Jail And Illegal Arrangements To Prevent Employees From Leaving Forbes ...white collar occupations such as engineers and developers are facing intricate wage theft schemes that are obfuscated by backroom deals and threats of criminal prosecution on a national scale...
A Bill to Get the Labor Movement Back on Offense The Nation ...The Ellison-Lewis legislation would amend the National Labor Relations Act to include protections found under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to include labor organizing as a fundamental right. That would give workers a broader range of legal options if they feel discriminated against for trying to form a union...
Banks Cash In On Inversion Deals Intended To Elude Taxes New York Times ...Investment banks are estimated to have collected, or will soon collect, nearly $1 billion in fees over the last three years advising and persuading American companies to move the address of their headquarters abroad (without actually moving)...
The Charter School Profiteers Jacobin ...When we welcome schools that lack democratic accountability (charter school boards are appointed, not elected), when we allow public dollars to be used by those with a bottom line (such as the for-profit management companies that proliferate in Michigan), we open doors for opportunism and corruption...
Construction Worker Killed At FSU Construction Site Tallahassee Democrat ...A 25-year-old construction worker was killed Monday afternoon in a construction elevator accident on Florida State University campus, said Major Jim Russell, Florida State University Police Department spokesman...
Higher Minimum Wage, Faster Job Creation (opinion) New York Times ...The minimum wage has been raised many times without hurting employment...
Miscellaneous
Wall Street Analysts Predict The Slow Demise Of Walmart And Target Huffington Post ...Shoppers are increasingly turning to the web or to smaller, more conveniently located stores, cutting into the market share of big-box retailers like Walmart and Target, the analysts wrote...
Consumer Watchdog Campaign: Teamsters, Transit Workers Back Prop 46 Campaign To Protect Patient Safety Insurance News ...Two powerful labor groups, the California Teamsters Public Affairs Council and the California Conference Board-Amalgamated Transit Union, have joined the growing list of organizations and individuals that support Proposition 46, the patient safety initiative on California's Nov. 4 ballot...
Police Union Endorses Lake County Sheriff’s Challenger, Jason Patt Lake Forester ...The Teamsters Local 700, the union representing corrections officers and supervisors along with lieutenants and sergeants of the Lake County Sheriff’s Highway Patrol Division, has endorsed the sheriff’s opponent in the upcoming election...
Teamsters Applaud Putnam County Decision To Reject Republic Services’ Florida Landfill Bid teamster.org ...The Teamsters Union is lauding the Putnam County (Fla.) Board of Commissioners today on its decision to reject Republic Services’ [NYSE: RSG] bid to buy the Putnam County landfill...
IKEA Canada To Pay Damages To The Teamsters Union teamster.org ...The British Columbia Labour Relations Board … concluded that Ikea violated the law when it negotiated directly with workers and offered to all workers who accepted to cross the picket line better working conditions (including a $2.50 an hour premium and a $500 bonus) than the working conditions that it had offered to the Teamsters at the bargaining table...
NLRB Reviews Local Teamster Petition to Expand Definition of 'Dual Employer' National Legal and Policy Center ...When does being employed by a contractor also mean being employed by the corporation with which it contracts? The National Labor Relations Board currently is reviewing this issue in a potential landmark case. If the board rules in favor of a Teamsters local, unions everywhere could have a powerful organizing weapon...
LA Unified reaches agreement with principals, police, teamsters LA School Report ...Teamsters Local 572, whose members include school administrative assistants, cafeteria managers, area operations supervisors and bus supervisors approved a similar contract with a bonus payment for the last year...
State Battles
Chris Christie Pension Cuts Could Damage Economy: Report International Business Times ...when combined with private pension benefits, the spending generated by the national retirement system supports more than 6 million jobs: 4.4 percent of the total national workforce. The report also says that the economic multiplier effect from retirees spending their pension benefits generates $135 billion a year in federal, state and local tax revenues...
N.J. Unions Update Lawsuits To Block Christie's Pension Cuts Newark Star-Ledger ...More than a dozen public-worker unions have updated their lawsuits aiming to stop Gov. Chris Christie from slashing scheduled payments to New Jersey's pension system for government employees...
In Kansas, Brownback tried a red-state ‘experiment.’ Now he may be paying a political price Washington Post ...Advised by Arthur Laffer, the father of supply-side economics, and supported by special interest groups backed by conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, he pushed through legislation that cut taxes and spending, eliminated state jobs and denied far more applications for welfare assistance...
The Republican Occupation of Detroit Daily Beast ...City agencies and entire school districts have been outsourced or privatized; public employees have been laid off in droves; municipalities have sold off vast swaths of public land; and city employee unions have seen their contracts whittled down to nothing...
Cargill to close Milwaukee beef facility, cut 600 jobs Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ..."It is unfortunate that we must close any beef plant because of the impact to good people, their families and the community...
Democratic Assembly Candidates In Northern Wisconsin Say Act 10 Has Caused ‘Teacher Flight' Wisconsin Public Radio ...Gov. Scott Walker’s Act 10 law, saying it’s causing teachers to leave the state. When Walker pushed Act 10 through the Legislature in his first few months as governor in 2011, he called it a tool for local governments and school boards to balance budgets because it took away almost all union bargaining power...
Sick Leave Policies Pick Up Steam CNN Money ...the San Diego city council was one of two cities -- the other being Eugene, Ore. -- to pass new laws mandating paid sick leave on Monday...
War On Workers
Employees’ Pay in U.S. Is Smaller Slice of Income Pie Bloomberg ...Worker pay was a smaller piece of the U.S. income pie than earlier estimated as some Americans collected significantly more in interest and dividend payments over the past two years...
White Collar Wage Theft Is Trending: Companies Using Jail And Illegal Arrangements To Prevent Employees From Leaving Forbes ...white collar occupations such as engineers and developers are facing intricate wage theft schemes that are obfuscated by backroom deals and threats of criminal prosecution on a national scale...
A Bill to Get the Labor Movement Back on Offense The Nation ...The Ellison-Lewis legislation would amend the National Labor Relations Act to include protections found under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to include labor organizing as a fundamental right. That would give workers a broader range of legal options if they feel discriminated against for trying to form a union...
Banks Cash In On Inversion Deals Intended To Elude Taxes New York Times ...Investment banks are estimated to have collected, or will soon collect, nearly $1 billion in fees over the last three years advising and persuading American companies to move the address of their headquarters abroad (without actually moving)...
The Charter School Profiteers Jacobin ...When we welcome schools that lack democratic accountability (charter school boards are appointed, not elected), when we allow public dollars to be used by those with a bottom line (such as the for-profit management companies that proliferate in Michigan), we open doors for opportunism and corruption...
Construction Worker Killed At FSU Construction Site Tallahassee Democrat ...A 25-year-old construction worker was killed Monday afternoon in a construction elevator accident on Florida State University campus, said Major Jim Russell, Florida State University Police Department spokesman...
Higher Minimum Wage, Faster Job Creation (opinion) New York Times ...The minimum wage has been raised many times without hurting employment...
Miscellaneous
Wall Street Analysts Predict The Slow Demise Of Walmart And Target Huffington Post ...Shoppers are increasingly turning to the web or to smaller, more conveniently located stores, cutting into the market share of big-box retailers like Walmart and Target, the analysts wrote...
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Today's Teamster News 07.29.14
Teamster News
AEI Teamsters Overwhelmingly Approve National Agreement teamster.org ...Teamsters working at AEI/Danzas across the country overwhelmingly approved the new tentative National Master Agreement. Likewise, all but two of the supplements were approved by the affected membership...
Avis Shuttle Drivers Join Teamsters Local 839 teamster.org ...The unit of 12 drivers came together to win the same benefits enjoyed by their Teamster coworkers who are Avis customer service staff and car washers...
Trade
With TTIP Consumer Protection Will Be A Privilege Of The Rich RT ...For some time now civil society and environmental organizations have been raising concerns over whether genetically-modified food will be labeled appropriately; whether antibiotics will be allowed in our food; or, whether chlorine-rinsed chicken will find its way onto Europe’s domestic market. Surprise! Surprise! Nowhere does the document address these...
State Battles
U.S. Labor Dept: Wisconsin Again Ranked #1 in Workers Lost Due To Outsourcing Uppity Wisconsin ...For the third year in a row, Wisconsin takes home the dubious crown of the nation's biggest per-capita outsourcer...
A Look At Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback's Economic Claims McClatchy DC ...A casual listener - or voter - might conclude that Brownback faced a $500 million budget shortfall in June 2011, six months after he took office. He did not...
ALEC Agenda in Dallas: Evisceration of Medicaid, School Privatization and Expansion of Gas Exports Center for Media and Democracy ...Also at this year's meeting, ALEC's task forces will consider bills to make it virtually impossible to enroll in Medicaid, expand charter schools to further bankrupt traditional public schools, expand exports of "natural gas" from fracking, and undermine the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Clean Air and Clean Water Act regulations...
Another Ohio City To Layoff Fire Fighters. Thanks John Kasich! Plunderbund ...Butler County has lost $31.6 million in local government funding thanks to Governor John Kasich’s budgets. Warren County lost $15.2 million. In Middletown, these cuts left the city struggling to find enough funding to pay for proper police and fire protection...
Thousands of disabled workers in Pa. paid far below minimum wage Daily Times ...About 13,000 disabled Pennsylvanians are earning an average of $2.40 an hour in a legal use of subminimum wages...
Unions gaining power in Mass. Boston Globe ...Among the victories unions are savoring: the highest minimum wage in the nation, new workplace protections for state employees, a bill of rights for housekeepers and other domestic workers, limits on nurse-to-patient ratios in intensive care units, and, nearing passage, a $1 billion expansion of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center...
Unions ready to fight Christie pension system plan ABC 27 ...the Democrats who control the Legislature and their union allies say they aren't interested in hearing proposals from Christie after he unilaterally cut the state's contributions to pension funds for the last two fiscal years...
Monsanto Ordered To Pay $93 Million For Poisoning People Axis Of Logic ...The West Virginia State Supreme Court finalized a big blow to the biotech giant Monsanto this month, finishing a settlement causing Monsanto to pay $93 million to the tiny town of Nitro, West Virginia for poisoning citizens with Agent Orange chemicals...
Right to work makes city look cheap, ruthless (opinion) Fort Wayne Journal Gazette ...I would rather that my city employees are well paid, that they can come to address issues and concerns as required and that they’re professionals we pay to do a job for us...
Right To Work Not Decreasing Union Membership Indiana Public Radio ...Two years after Indiana became a right-to-work state, the membership decline unions feared hasn‘t happened. Unionization slipped from one in nine Hoosier workers in 2011 to one out of 11 in 2012, when right-to-work took effect. But union membership had been sliding for years before that, and in the first full year of right-to-work, membership actually rebounded by two-tenths of a percent...
Seattle City Council Appeals To Bezos Over Subcontracted Amazon Security Bloomberg Businessweek ...Seattle’s nine city council members declared themselves “deeply concerned” over alleged mistreatment of subcontracted security workers who patrol the company’s headquarters there...
War On Workers
This Congressman Wants To Give You The Right To Sue Union Busters Huffington Post ...If your boss tramples on your right to organize in the workplace, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) believes you should be able to sue for damages in federal court...
Fast-Food Workers Intensify Fight For $15 An Hour New York Times ...In its most recent strike in mid-May, workers walked out at restaurants in 150 cities nationwide, with solidarity protests held in 30 countries. The focus increasingly includes unionizing; the movement’s motto has become “$15 and a union.”...
Market Basket Workers Violated Some Workers' Rights Lawsuit Says Boston Globe ...The management team of the much-loved supermarket president, whose recent firing has inspired a massive uprising of employees demanding his return, violated the law by locking in workers overnight and requiring them to take unpaid breaks, according to two former employees who are suing the company...
Obama Could Curb Corporate 'Inversions' On His Own: Ex-U.S. Official Reuters ...By invoking a 1969 tax law, Obama could bypass congressional gridlock and restrict foreign tax-domiciled U.S companies from using inter-company loans and interest deductions to cut their U.S. tax bills, said Stephen Shay, former deputy assistant Treasury secretary for international tax affairs in the Obama administration...
Miscellaneous
FAA Proposes to Fine Southwest Airlines $12M Associated Press ...The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday it is proposing a $12 million civil fine against Southwest Airlines for failing to comply with safety regulations related to repairs on Boeing 737 jetliners...
AEI Teamsters Overwhelmingly Approve National Agreement teamster.org ...Teamsters working at AEI/Danzas across the country overwhelmingly approved the new tentative National Master Agreement. Likewise, all but two of the supplements were approved by the affected membership...
Avis Shuttle Drivers Join Teamsters Local 839 teamster.org ...The unit of 12 drivers came together to win the same benefits enjoyed by their Teamster coworkers who are Avis customer service staff and car washers...
Trade
With TTIP Consumer Protection Will Be A Privilege Of The Rich RT ...For some time now civil society and environmental organizations have been raising concerns over whether genetically-modified food will be labeled appropriately; whether antibiotics will be allowed in our food; or, whether chlorine-rinsed chicken will find its way onto Europe’s domestic market. Surprise! Surprise! Nowhere does the document address these...
State Battles
U.S. Labor Dept: Wisconsin Again Ranked #1 in Workers Lost Due To Outsourcing Uppity Wisconsin ...For the third year in a row, Wisconsin takes home the dubious crown of the nation's biggest per-capita outsourcer...
A Look At Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback's Economic Claims McClatchy DC ...A casual listener - or voter - might conclude that Brownback faced a $500 million budget shortfall in June 2011, six months after he took office. He did not...
ALEC Agenda in Dallas: Evisceration of Medicaid, School Privatization and Expansion of Gas Exports Center for Media and Democracy ...Also at this year's meeting, ALEC's task forces will consider bills to make it virtually impossible to enroll in Medicaid, expand charter schools to further bankrupt traditional public schools, expand exports of "natural gas" from fracking, and undermine the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Clean Air and Clean Water Act regulations...
Another Ohio City To Layoff Fire Fighters. Thanks John Kasich! Plunderbund ...Butler County has lost $31.6 million in local government funding thanks to Governor John Kasich’s budgets. Warren County lost $15.2 million. In Middletown, these cuts left the city struggling to find enough funding to pay for proper police and fire protection...
Thousands of disabled workers in Pa. paid far below minimum wage Daily Times ...About 13,000 disabled Pennsylvanians are earning an average of $2.40 an hour in a legal use of subminimum wages...
Unions gaining power in Mass. Boston Globe ...Among the victories unions are savoring: the highest minimum wage in the nation, new workplace protections for state employees, a bill of rights for housekeepers and other domestic workers, limits on nurse-to-patient ratios in intensive care units, and, nearing passage, a $1 billion expansion of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center...
Unions ready to fight Christie pension system plan ABC 27 ...the Democrats who control the Legislature and their union allies say they aren't interested in hearing proposals from Christie after he unilaterally cut the state's contributions to pension funds for the last two fiscal years...
Monsanto Ordered To Pay $93 Million For Poisoning People Axis Of Logic ...The West Virginia State Supreme Court finalized a big blow to the biotech giant Monsanto this month, finishing a settlement causing Monsanto to pay $93 million to the tiny town of Nitro, West Virginia for poisoning citizens with Agent Orange chemicals...
Right to work makes city look cheap, ruthless (opinion) Fort Wayne Journal Gazette ...I would rather that my city employees are well paid, that they can come to address issues and concerns as required and that they’re professionals we pay to do a job for us...
Right To Work Not Decreasing Union Membership Indiana Public Radio ...Two years after Indiana became a right-to-work state, the membership decline unions feared hasn‘t happened. Unionization slipped from one in nine Hoosier workers in 2011 to one out of 11 in 2012, when right-to-work took effect. But union membership had been sliding for years before that, and in the first full year of right-to-work, membership actually rebounded by two-tenths of a percent...
Seattle City Council Appeals To Bezos Over Subcontracted Amazon Security Bloomberg Businessweek ...Seattle’s nine city council members declared themselves “deeply concerned” over alleged mistreatment of subcontracted security workers who patrol the company’s headquarters there...
War On Workers
This Congressman Wants To Give You The Right To Sue Union Busters Huffington Post ...If your boss tramples on your right to organize in the workplace, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) believes you should be able to sue for damages in federal court...
Fast-Food Workers Intensify Fight For $15 An Hour New York Times ...In its most recent strike in mid-May, workers walked out at restaurants in 150 cities nationwide, with solidarity protests held in 30 countries. The focus increasingly includes unionizing; the movement’s motto has become “$15 and a union.”...
Market Basket Workers Violated Some Workers' Rights Lawsuit Says Boston Globe ...The management team of the much-loved supermarket president, whose recent firing has inspired a massive uprising of employees demanding his return, violated the law by locking in workers overnight and requiring them to take unpaid breaks, according to two former employees who are suing the company...
Obama Could Curb Corporate 'Inversions' On His Own: Ex-U.S. Official Reuters ...By invoking a 1969 tax law, Obama could bypass congressional gridlock and restrict foreign tax-domiciled U.S companies from using inter-company loans and interest deductions to cut their U.S. tax bills, said Stephen Shay, former deputy assistant Treasury secretary for international tax affairs in the Obama administration...
Miscellaneous
FAA Proposes to Fine Southwest Airlines $12M Associated Press ...The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday it is proposing a $12 million civil fine against Southwest Airlines for failing to comply with safety regulations related to repairs on Boeing 737 jetliners...
Monday, July 28, 2014
Today's Teamster News 07.28.14
Trade
Report: Germany To Reject EU-Canada Trade Deal Globe and Mail ...Germany is to reject a multi-billion free trade deal between the European Union and Canada which is widely seen as a template for a bigger agreement with the United States, a leading German paper reported on Saturday. Citing diplomats in Brussels, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung said Berlin objects to clauses outlining the legal protection offered to firms investing in the 28-member bloc. Critics say they could allow investors to stop or reverse laws...
Apocalypse Preview: Chinese River Turns Blood-Red zero hedge ...An inner city waterway in the eastern city of Wenzhou was found to have been inundated by an influx of blood-red water this morning...
The Factory in the China Food Scandal Is Foreign-Owned. That Could Have Made It a Target Time ...An undercover investigation by a Chinese TV station, which aired on Sunday, claimed that a factory in Shanghai owned by Illinois-based OSI Group was shipping the fast-food giants expired meat. Later, coffee-shop chain Starbucks in China and McDonald’s outlets in Japan got dragged into the mess, as they, too, had meat from the suspect factory in their products...
State Battles
Ohio Has Lost 25,000 Local Government Jobs Under John Kasich Plunderbund ...Ohio has seen “nearly 25,000 jobs lost in local government” since John Kasich has been governor of Ohio. And “median incomes in Ohio have fallen about $7,000 over the past decade...”
City seeks $2M from unions Racine Journal Times ...Looking for help to close a projected a $4.6 million deficit next year, administration officials at City Hall are seeking $2 million in concessions from police and fire unions...
War on Workers
Steel jobs have plummeted by a third since 2000 NWI Times ...Northwest Indiana's steel industry, which once drew immigrants from the world over and put bread on many tables for generations, has lost a third of its jobs since 2000...
Corporate Artful Dodgers (opinion) New York Times ...The federal government still gets a tenth of its revenue from corporate profits taxation. But it used to get a lot more — a third of revenue came from profits taxes in the early 1950s, a quarter or more well into the 1960s...
World of Resistance Report: IMF, World Bank, Giant Consultants Admit the Storm is Coming truthout ...three issues are prevalent in terms of assessing the fears and threats facing the global elite: 1) growing inequality, 2) decline of public trust in institutions of all kinds, and 3) the resulting social unrest...
Financial Predators Move On From Foreclosure Rescue, Enter Student Debt, Military Lending Spaces naked capitalism ... These scams are basically all the same: empty promises about obtaining a modification in exchange for up-front cash, with all the promises broken down the road. In this case, the offending parties happen to be law firms, who made the impression on the victims that they would provide legal representation in securing a modification...
Mike Mathieu: Big Data is Watching You Next New Deal ...In a darker turn, we begin to see a loss of human freedoms as behavior is increasingly predicted, tracked, and incentivized according to data models...
NSA Helps Crush Dissent at Home and Abroad Washington Blog ...The National Security Agency last year significantly expanded its cooperative relationship with the Saudi Ministry of Interior, one of the world’s most repressive and abusive government agencies. An April 2013 top secret memo provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden details the agency’s plans “to provide direct analytic and technical support” to the Saudis on “internal security” matters...
Auto shop worker killed when car falls on him WIVB ...The accident happened Friday afternoon at Yuya Complete Auto Repair on Skillen Street in Buffalo...
Miscellaneous
Outside money drives a deluge of political ads New York Times ... An explosion of spending on political advertising on television — set to break $2 billion in congressional races, with overall spots up nearly 70 percent since the 2010 midterm election — is accelerating the rise of moneyed interests and wresting control from the candidates’ own efforts to reach voters...
Report: Germany To Reject EU-Canada Trade Deal Globe and Mail ...Germany is to reject a multi-billion free trade deal between the European Union and Canada which is widely seen as a template for a bigger agreement with the United States, a leading German paper reported on Saturday. Citing diplomats in Brussels, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung said Berlin objects to clauses outlining the legal protection offered to firms investing in the 28-member bloc. Critics say they could allow investors to stop or reverse laws...
Apocalypse Preview: Chinese River Turns Blood-Red zero hedge ...An inner city waterway in the eastern city of Wenzhou was found to have been inundated by an influx of blood-red water this morning...
The Factory in the China Food Scandal Is Foreign-Owned. That Could Have Made It a Target Time ...An undercover investigation by a Chinese TV station, which aired on Sunday, claimed that a factory in Shanghai owned by Illinois-based OSI Group was shipping the fast-food giants expired meat. Later, coffee-shop chain Starbucks in China and McDonald’s outlets in Japan got dragged into the mess, as they, too, had meat from the suspect factory in their products...
State Battles
Ohio Has Lost 25,000 Local Government Jobs Under John Kasich Plunderbund ...Ohio has seen “nearly 25,000 jobs lost in local government” since John Kasich has been governor of Ohio. And “median incomes in Ohio have fallen about $7,000 over the past decade...”
City seeks $2M from unions Racine Journal Times ...Looking for help to close a projected a $4.6 million deficit next year, administration officials at City Hall are seeking $2 million in concessions from police and fire unions...
War on Workers
Steel jobs have plummeted by a third since 2000 NWI Times ...Northwest Indiana's steel industry, which once drew immigrants from the world over and put bread on many tables for generations, has lost a third of its jobs since 2000...
Corporate Artful Dodgers (opinion) New York Times ...The federal government still gets a tenth of its revenue from corporate profits taxation. But it used to get a lot more — a third of revenue came from profits taxes in the early 1950s, a quarter or more well into the 1960s...
World of Resistance Report: IMF, World Bank, Giant Consultants Admit the Storm is Coming truthout ...three issues are prevalent in terms of assessing the fears and threats facing the global elite: 1) growing inequality, 2) decline of public trust in institutions of all kinds, and 3) the resulting social unrest...
Financial Predators Move On From Foreclosure Rescue, Enter Student Debt, Military Lending Spaces naked capitalism ... These scams are basically all the same: empty promises about obtaining a modification in exchange for up-front cash, with all the promises broken down the road. In this case, the offending parties happen to be law firms, who made the impression on the victims that they would provide legal representation in securing a modification...
Mike Mathieu: Big Data is Watching You Next New Deal ...In a darker turn, we begin to see a loss of human freedoms as behavior is increasingly predicted, tracked, and incentivized according to data models...
NSA Helps Crush Dissent at Home and Abroad Washington Blog ...The National Security Agency last year significantly expanded its cooperative relationship with the Saudi Ministry of Interior, one of the world’s most repressive and abusive government agencies. An April 2013 top secret memo provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden details the agency’s plans “to provide direct analytic and technical support” to the Saudis on “internal security” matters...
Auto shop worker killed when car falls on him WIVB ...The accident happened Friday afternoon at Yuya Complete Auto Repair on Skillen Street in Buffalo...
Miscellaneous
Outside money drives a deluge of political ads New York Times ... An explosion of spending on political advertising on television — set to break $2 billion in congressional races, with overall spots up nearly 70 percent since the 2010 midterm election — is accelerating the rise of moneyed interests and wresting control from the candidates’ own efforts to reach voters...
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Today's Teamster News 07.06.14
Teamsters
Southern California port truck drivers loading up on wage-theft cases Los Angeles Times ...the state Department of Industrial Relations has ruled in recent months that nearly 40 drivers were improperly designated as contractors, which denied them significant workplace protections. So far, $4.3 million in back pay and penalties has been awarded to drivers...
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership talks going on in Ottawa CBC News ...Trade officials from Canada and other Asia-Pacific nations are meeting behind closed doors in Ottawa to discuss the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive free-trade proposal that could create one of the world's largest trading blocks...
War on Workers
Rupture-Prone Oil Trains Keep Rolling After Quebec Crash Bloomberg ...two-thirds of the tank cars in use today are still older models that safety experts say are vulnerable to puncture. The July 6 derailment last year in Quebec and seven other major ones in the U.S. and Canada since then have spilled more than 3 million gallons of oil, with some cars catching fire or exploding...
The Missing Part of the Unemployment Story Economic Policy Institute ...Unemployment rate if missing workers were looking for work: 9.6%...
Trends in Part-Time Employment Center for Economic and Policy Research ...The number of people working part-time involuntarily is down by 640,000 from its year ago level and by more than 1.6 million from its peak in 2010...
Wal-Mart’s big July 4 lie: This is how it really treats veterans Salon ...on my way to work, I tried to save the lives of several people from a gunman who was behaving erratically and waving a gun at a busy intersection. I still went to work my shift at Wal-Mart. The very next day, I was abruptly fired for making an 18 cent mistake on a workers’ discount card. My manager knew what happened the day before, but it didn’t matter...
On This Fourth of July, Meet Your Unpatriotic Corporations The Nation ...Walgreens, The New York Times reported, is looking to relocate from Illinois to Switzerland, in the process merging with a Swiss corporation and reincorporating itself as a foreign entity. It is, bluntly, an old-fashioned tax dodge, aimed at trimming eleven percentage points off the company’s corporate tax rate. Americans for Tax Fairness estimates that the move will cost US taxpayers more than $4 billion over the next five years...
On the Characteristics of Those Covered under Some Government Programs Econbrowser ...more than half of SNAP recipients are children or the elderly. For the remaining working-age individuals, many of them are currently employed. At least forty percent of all SNAP beneficiaries live in a household with earnings...
Hospitals Are Mining Patients' Credit Card Data to Predict Who Will Get Sick Bloomberg ...Imagine getting a call from your doctor if you let your gym membership lapse, make a habit of buying candy bars at the checkout counter, or begin shopping at plus-size clothing stores. For patients of Carolinas HealthCare System, which operates the largest group of medical centers in North and South Carolina, such a day could be sooner than they think...
Going Without Water in Detroit New York Times ...The average monthly water bill in Detroit is $75 for a family of four — nearly twice the United States average — and the department is increasing rates this month by 8.7 percent...
In NSA-intercepted data, those not targeted far outnumber the foreigners who are Washington Post ...Ordinary Internet users, American and non-American alike, far outnumber legally targeted foreigners in the communications intercepted by the National Security Agency from U.S. digital networks, according to a four-month investigation by The Washington Post...
Southern California port truck drivers loading up on wage-theft cases Los Angeles Times ...the state Department of Industrial Relations has ruled in recent months that nearly 40 drivers were improperly designated as contractors, which denied them significant workplace protections. So far, $4.3 million in back pay and penalties has been awarded to drivers...
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership talks going on in Ottawa CBC News ...Trade officials from Canada and other Asia-Pacific nations are meeting behind closed doors in Ottawa to discuss the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive free-trade proposal that could create one of the world's largest trading blocks...
War on Workers
Rupture-Prone Oil Trains Keep Rolling After Quebec Crash Bloomberg ...two-thirds of the tank cars in use today are still older models that safety experts say are vulnerable to puncture. The July 6 derailment last year in Quebec and seven other major ones in the U.S. and Canada since then have spilled more than 3 million gallons of oil, with some cars catching fire or exploding...
The Missing Part of the Unemployment Story Economic Policy Institute ...Unemployment rate if missing workers were looking for work: 9.6%...
Trends in Part-Time Employment Center for Economic and Policy Research ...The number of people working part-time involuntarily is down by 640,000 from its year ago level and by more than 1.6 million from its peak in 2010...
Wal-Mart’s big July 4 lie: This is how it really treats veterans Salon ...on my way to work, I tried to save the lives of several people from a gunman who was behaving erratically and waving a gun at a busy intersection. I still went to work my shift at Wal-Mart. The very next day, I was abruptly fired for making an 18 cent mistake on a workers’ discount card. My manager knew what happened the day before, but it didn’t matter...
On This Fourth of July, Meet Your Unpatriotic Corporations The Nation ...Walgreens, The New York Times reported, is looking to relocate from Illinois to Switzerland, in the process merging with a Swiss corporation and reincorporating itself as a foreign entity. It is, bluntly, an old-fashioned tax dodge, aimed at trimming eleven percentage points off the company’s corporate tax rate. Americans for Tax Fairness estimates that the move will cost US taxpayers more than $4 billion over the next five years...
On the Characteristics of Those Covered under Some Government Programs Econbrowser ...more than half of SNAP recipients are children or the elderly. For the remaining working-age individuals, many of them are currently employed. At least forty percent of all SNAP beneficiaries live in a household with earnings...
Hospitals Are Mining Patients' Credit Card Data to Predict Who Will Get Sick Bloomberg ...Imagine getting a call from your doctor if you let your gym membership lapse, make a habit of buying candy bars at the checkout counter, or begin shopping at plus-size clothing stores. For patients of Carolinas HealthCare System, which operates the largest group of medical centers in North and South Carolina, such a day could be sooner than they think...
Going Without Water in Detroit New York Times ...The average monthly water bill in Detroit is $75 for a family of four — nearly twice the United States average — and the department is increasing rates this month by 8.7 percent...
In NSA-intercepted data, those not targeted far outnumber the foreigners who are Washington Post ...Ordinary Internet users, American and non-American alike, far outnumber legally targeted foreigners in the communications intercepted by the National Security Agency from U.S. digital networks, according to a four-month investigation by The Washington Post...
Monday, May 5, 2014
Today's Teamster News 05.05.14
Trade
Block the Trans Pacific Partnership (opinion) Quad City Times ...For anyone not familiar with TPP, it is yet another bad trade deal that does not take human rights, consumer rights, worker rights and environmental standards into adequate consideration...
Pacific partners should push back against TPP until U.S. shows respect for financial reforms The Japan Times ...One big risk that may be a deal breaker is U.S. insistence that TPP partners surrender their right to regulate global finance...
State Battles
With Unlimited Financial Campaign Contributions, One Robber Baron Can Control a State Truthout ...If you want to see how just one Wall Street robber baron can squash democracy for the sake of greed and privatization, just look to the Missouri legislature…."Sinquefield and his wife spent more than $28 million in disclosed donations in state elections since 2007, plus nearly $2 million more in disclosed donations in federal elections since 2006, for a total of at least $30 million..."
War on Workers
Recovery Has Created Far More Low-Wage Jobs Than Better-Paid Ones New York Times ...The deep recession wiped out primarily high-wage and middle-wage jobs. Yet the strongest employment growth during the sluggish recovery has been in low-wage work, at places like strip malls and fast-food restaurants...
Homeless and working for Amazon: the trap of the seasonal job cycle Guardian ...Since Amazon opened its warehouse in Jeffersonville, one homeless shelter, Haven House, has been a home to between two and six of its employees at all times...
Deride and Conquer: Dismantling the USPS Truthout ...Since the 1970s, the right has patiently tried to wrest control of the US Postal Service from the government using a three-step strategy characterized by: a) ideologically legitimizing its effort through scholarship cooked up in Koch-funded think tanks like Cato and the American Enterprise Institute; b) politically codifying it in generic, legal templates drawn up in legislative boiler rooms like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and c) economically executing their plan by forcing USPS to operate in a commercial arena where it would be squeezed on one side by government constraints, and, on the other, forced to compete with global private carriers like FedEx and UPS not subject to the same legislative mandates...
LEAKED: Docs obtained by Pando show how a Wall Street giant is guaranteed huge fees from taxpayers on risky pension investments Pando ...An increasing number of those pension funds are being stealthily diverted into high-fee, high-risk “alternative investments” that deliver spectacular rewards for the Wall Street firms paid to manage them – but not such great returns for pensioners and taxpayers...
Jobless Benefits Are Disappearing Much Faster Than Jobs Are Appearing Five Thirty Eight ...Fewer Americans are receiving unemployment benefits than any time in nearly six years. And yet there are 2 million more people unemployed than there were back then...
Too Big to Jail Continues: DOJ May Charge Two Banks with Criminal Acts, But Not Hold Them Criminally Accountable Truthout ...The Department of Justice might make an agreement with banks in which they would plead guilty to criminal activity without, it appears, holding them criminally responsible beyond fines and perhaps some temporary restrictions...
U.S. Firms With Irish Addresses Get Tax Breaks Derided as ‘Blarney’ Bloomberg ...The technique these companies use to lower their tax bills -- shifting legal addresses to low-tax Switzerland, Ireland, and Bermuda -- was in the spotlight last week. Pfizer Inc., the largest U.S. drugmaker, said it’s seeking a British address, a move that might save more than $1 billion a year in U.S. taxes...
Miscellaneous
Circus Audience Initially Thought Accident Was Part of the Act ABC News ...Authorities are trying to determine what caused a support frame to collapse during an aerial hair-hanging stunt during a circus performance Sunday, sending eight acrobats crashing to the ground and injuring 11...The incident happened about 45 minutes into a performance of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus' legends show … in Providence, R.I...
Block the Trans Pacific Partnership (opinion) Quad City Times ...For anyone not familiar with TPP, it is yet another bad trade deal that does not take human rights, consumer rights, worker rights and environmental standards into adequate consideration...
Pacific partners should push back against TPP until U.S. shows respect for financial reforms The Japan Times ...One big risk that may be a deal breaker is U.S. insistence that TPP partners surrender their right to regulate global finance...
State Battles
With Unlimited Financial Campaign Contributions, One Robber Baron Can Control a State Truthout ...If you want to see how just one Wall Street robber baron can squash democracy for the sake of greed and privatization, just look to the Missouri legislature…."Sinquefield and his wife spent more than $28 million in disclosed donations in state elections since 2007, plus nearly $2 million more in disclosed donations in federal elections since 2006, for a total of at least $30 million..."
War on Workers
Recovery Has Created Far More Low-Wage Jobs Than Better-Paid Ones New York Times ...The deep recession wiped out primarily high-wage and middle-wage jobs. Yet the strongest employment growth during the sluggish recovery has been in low-wage work, at places like strip malls and fast-food restaurants...
Homeless and working for Amazon: the trap of the seasonal job cycle Guardian ...Since Amazon opened its warehouse in Jeffersonville, one homeless shelter, Haven House, has been a home to between two and six of its employees at all times...
Deride and Conquer: Dismantling the USPS Truthout ...Since the 1970s, the right has patiently tried to wrest control of the US Postal Service from the government using a three-step strategy characterized by: a) ideologically legitimizing its effort through scholarship cooked up in Koch-funded think tanks like Cato and the American Enterprise Institute; b) politically codifying it in generic, legal templates drawn up in legislative boiler rooms like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and c) economically executing their plan by forcing USPS to operate in a commercial arena where it would be squeezed on one side by government constraints, and, on the other, forced to compete with global private carriers like FedEx and UPS not subject to the same legislative mandates...
LEAKED: Docs obtained by Pando show how a Wall Street giant is guaranteed huge fees from taxpayers on risky pension investments Pando ...An increasing number of those pension funds are being stealthily diverted into high-fee, high-risk “alternative investments” that deliver spectacular rewards for the Wall Street firms paid to manage them – but not such great returns for pensioners and taxpayers...
Jobless Benefits Are Disappearing Much Faster Than Jobs Are Appearing Five Thirty Eight ...Fewer Americans are receiving unemployment benefits than any time in nearly six years. And yet there are 2 million more people unemployed than there were back then...
Too Big to Jail Continues: DOJ May Charge Two Banks with Criminal Acts, But Not Hold Them Criminally Accountable Truthout ...The Department of Justice might make an agreement with banks in which they would plead guilty to criminal activity without, it appears, holding them criminally responsible beyond fines and perhaps some temporary restrictions...
U.S. Firms With Irish Addresses Get Tax Breaks Derided as ‘Blarney’ Bloomberg ...The technique these companies use to lower their tax bills -- shifting legal addresses to low-tax Switzerland, Ireland, and Bermuda -- was in the spotlight last week. Pfizer Inc., the largest U.S. drugmaker, said it’s seeking a British address, a move that might save more than $1 billion a year in U.S. taxes...
Miscellaneous
Circus Audience Initially Thought Accident Was Part of the Act ABC News ...Authorities are trying to determine what caused a support frame to collapse during an aerial hair-hanging stunt during a circus performance Sunday, sending eight acrobats crashing to the ground and injuring 11...The incident happened about 45 minutes into a performance of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus' legends show … in Providence, R.I...
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Today's Teamster News 04.10.14
Teamster News
Teamsters Reach Settlement With UPS Over Fired Local 804 Members teamster.org ...The parties have come to a settlement regarding the termination of 250 Local 804 members that occurred after a job action that took place in February...
After protests, Teamsters take over an art fair Crain's New York Business ...After facing protests last year, the Randall's Island art fair has agreed to employ Teamsters and theater union members to set up tents and temporary galleries for the show that begins May 9...
Frieze New York, Unions Reach Agreement in Art Fair Labor Dispute New York Observer ... Frieze has agreed to incorporate partial union labor in the upcoming fair, running May 9 through 12 on Randall’s Island, and to only use union labor for the 2015 edition of the fair. “It was a great win,” said George Miranda, president of Teamsters Joint Council 16, who chaired the talks...
Milford Police Trade In Fraternal Order Of Police For Teamsters The Milford Beacon ...Officers in the Milford Police Department recently switched unions with just a few months before their three year labor contract with the city is set to expire...
Michigan Lawmakers Should Put Public First Detroit News ...Serving in the government is not always easy. There are myriad issues that the public wants solved and limited dollars to do so. There is partisan gridlock...
Trade
Japan, U.S. Fail To Move Closer Over TPP Before Obama Visit The Japan Times ...Japan and the United States failed Wednesday to move closer over outstanding issues in their bilateral talks related to a Pacific regional trade pact...
State Battles
Right-To-Work Fails To Get 82 Votes In House The Missouri Times ...Today the House failed to get the 82 required for the final passage of the controversial "right-to-work" legislation. The bill was perfected today by a vote of 78-68...
Outside Special Interests Lean on MO Legislators to Push ALEC’s Anti-Worker Agenda Center for Media and Democracy ...Last week, the Missouri House of Representatives passed a measure to put an anti-union "paycheck protection" measure...
War on Workers
Meet The 31 Corporations and Banks Who Dodged $128 Billion in US Taxes PoliticusUSA ...the 31 corporations and banks have dodged $128 billion in taxes by setting up offshore tax havens. They have received $6.5 billion in tax refunds, and $2.5 trillion in taxpayer bailout money...
University students will be repaying loans into their 50s, say researchers Guardian ...The majority of undergraduates now at university will be paying off their student loans well into their 40s and 50s, with three-quarters of them unable to clear the debt before it is written off after 30 years...
As Parents Struggle To Repay College Loans for Their Children, Taxpayers Also Stand To Lose Truthout ...default rates, while still modest, have nearly tripled over the last four years. About five percent of loans originated in fiscal year 2010 were in default three years later. The default rate at for-profit colleges is much higher, at 13 percent....
Those Who Serve Tech Billionaires Lunch are Facing Eviction Gawker ...At Google, the people who spoon out gourmet lunches to the Mountain View struggle to feed themselves. At Tesla Motors, chariot-builders of the geek elite, working at the corporate cafeteria means you might not be able to afford your own home...
$772 Million Penalty for Bank of America Credit Card Practices New York Times ...Bank of America has been ordered to pay roughly $772 million in refunds to customers and fines to federal regulators to settle allegations that the bank used deceptive marketing and billing practices involving credit card products...
Bank of America to cut 3,000 overseas jobs Associated Press ...Bank of America says it's cutting about 3,000 jobs overseas as part of ongoing reviews of its global operations...
Miscellaneous
Report Finds a Los Angeles in Decline New York Times ...The Los Angeles 2020 Commission presented a catalog of failings that it said were a unique burden to the city: widespread poverty and job stagnation, huge municipal pension obligations, a struggling port and tourism industry and paralyzing traffic that would not be eased even with a continuing multibillion-dollar mass transit initiative...
Teamsters Reach Settlement With UPS Over Fired Local 804 Members teamster.org ...The parties have come to a settlement regarding the termination of 250 Local 804 members that occurred after a job action that took place in February...
After protests, Teamsters take over an art fair Crain's New York Business ...After facing protests last year, the Randall's Island art fair has agreed to employ Teamsters and theater union members to set up tents and temporary galleries for the show that begins May 9...
Frieze New York, Unions Reach Agreement in Art Fair Labor Dispute New York Observer ... Frieze has agreed to incorporate partial union labor in the upcoming fair, running May 9 through 12 on Randall’s Island, and to only use union labor for the 2015 edition of the fair. “It was a great win,” said George Miranda, president of Teamsters Joint Council 16, who chaired the talks...
Milford Police Trade In Fraternal Order Of Police For Teamsters The Milford Beacon ...Officers in the Milford Police Department recently switched unions with just a few months before their three year labor contract with the city is set to expire...
Michigan Lawmakers Should Put Public First Detroit News ...Serving in the government is not always easy. There are myriad issues that the public wants solved and limited dollars to do so. There is partisan gridlock...
Trade
Japan, U.S. Fail To Move Closer Over TPP Before Obama Visit The Japan Times ...Japan and the United States failed Wednesday to move closer over outstanding issues in their bilateral talks related to a Pacific regional trade pact...
State Battles
Right-To-Work Fails To Get 82 Votes In House The Missouri Times ...Today the House failed to get the 82 required for the final passage of the controversial "right-to-work" legislation. The bill was perfected today by a vote of 78-68...
Outside Special Interests Lean on MO Legislators to Push ALEC’s Anti-Worker Agenda Center for Media and Democracy ...Last week, the Missouri House of Representatives passed a measure to put an anti-union "paycheck protection" measure...
War on Workers
Meet The 31 Corporations and Banks Who Dodged $128 Billion in US Taxes PoliticusUSA ...the 31 corporations and banks have dodged $128 billion in taxes by setting up offshore tax havens. They have received $6.5 billion in tax refunds, and $2.5 trillion in taxpayer bailout money...
University students will be repaying loans into their 50s, say researchers Guardian ...The majority of undergraduates now at university will be paying off their student loans well into their 40s and 50s, with three-quarters of them unable to clear the debt before it is written off after 30 years...
As Parents Struggle To Repay College Loans for Their Children, Taxpayers Also Stand To Lose Truthout ...default rates, while still modest, have nearly tripled over the last four years. About five percent of loans originated in fiscal year 2010 were in default three years later. The default rate at for-profit colleges is much higher, at 13 percent....
Those Who Serve Tech Billionaires Lunch are Facing Eviction Gawker ...At Google, the people who spoon out gourmet lunches to the Mountain View struggle to feed themselves. At Tesla Motors, chariot-builders of the geek elite, working at the corporate cafeteria means you might not be able to afford your own home...
$772 Million Penalty for Bank of America Credit Card Practices New York Times ...Bank of America has been ordered to pay roughly $772 million in refunds to customers and fines to federal regulators to settle allegations that the bank used deceptive marketing and billing practices involving credit card products...
Bank of America to cut 3,000 overseas jobs Associated Press ...Bank of America says it's cutting about 3,000 jobs overseas as part of ongoing reviews of its global operations...
Miscellaneous
Report Finds a Los Angeles in Decline New York Times ...The Los Angeles 2020 Commission presented a catalog of failings that it said were a unique burden to the city: widespread poverty and job stagnation, huge municipal pension obligations, a struggling port and tourism industry and paralyzing traffic that would not be eased even with a continuing multibillion-dollar mass transit initiative...
Friday, April 4, 2014
Today's Teamster News For April 4, 2014
Teamster News
CCTA strike ends; Service resumes Friday WPTZ.com ...The Chittenden County Transit Authority Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a three-year contract for its bus drivers Thursday afternoon, effectively restoring service...
Trade
Vietnamese Fish are Unsafe for American Consumption, but the WTO Won’t Let Us Protect Ourselves Economy in Crisis ...U.S. production is half of what once was. 60 percent of all catfish in U.S. markets is imported from Vietnam, which has driven half of all American catfish farms out of production. These imported fish are often raised in polluted water and have been found to contain illegal antibiotics and harmful substances such as pesticides and fungicides...
Japan, And The Trans-Pacific Partnership: All In, Or Out? Roll Call ...U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman will give Congressional lawmakers an update on the Obama administration's trade agenda Thursday, including its efforts to close out Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations...
U.S. Trade Deficit Hits $42.3 Billion In February ABC News ...The U.S. trade deficit climbed to the highest level in five months in February as demand for American exports fell while imports increased slightly...
State Battles
House Gives Initial Approval To Paycheck Legislation OzarksFirst ...The Missouri House of Representatives has given initial passage to legislation that is alternately called "paycheck protection" by its supporters and "paycheck deception" by its opponents...
Public Sector Unions Protest Changes To Dues Collection Missourian ...Public employee union members tried to knock out two birds with one stone Wednesday afternoon. The Communication Workers of America and the Service Employees International Union fanned out across the Capitol for their annual public workers' lobby day...
Interfaith Partnership Opposes "Right-To-Work" Legislation St. Louis Review ...The Cabinet of the Interfaith Partnership of Greater St. Louis has issued a statement opposing all proposed right-to-work/freedom-to-work legislation or calls for referendum being considered by the Missouri Legislature...
War on Workers
Ruling’s Breadth Hints That More Campaign Finance Dominoes May Fall New York Times ... there is no reason to think that the march toward deregulating election spending will stop with the ruling in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission...
Do-Nothing Congress Does Something: Gives GE A Big Tax Break Testosterone Pit ...Congress is infamous for doing nothing, as people who have lost their unemployment benefits viscerally know. However, today the Senate Financial Services Committee started the process of enacting the “Expiring Provisions Improvement Reform and Efficiency (EXPIRE) Act.”...
Congressional Progressive Caucus Calls For Stronger Action Against Wage Theft Washington Post ...The leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus this week sent a letter to Labor Secretary Thomas Perez urging the Labor Department to step up its enforcement actions against wage theft...
Hamburgled: Nine Out Of Ten Fast Food Workers Have Experienced Wage Theft Think Progress ...A new poll finds that 89 percent of fast food workers nationwide say they experience wage theft. That means 9 out of 10 fast food workers don't get the pay they earned...
Miscellaneous
Northwestern Football Players To Vote On Union April 25 Chicago Tribune ...Northwestern football players are set to vote April 25 on whether they want to be represented by a union...
Rogue alcoholic court reporter kept writing ‘I hate my job’ New York Post ...An alcoholic Manhattan court stenographer went rogue, channeling his inner “Shining” during a high-profile criminal trial and repeatedly typing, “I hate my job, I hate my job” instead of the trial dialogue...
CCTA strike ends; Service resumes Friday WPTZ.com ...The Chittenden County Transit Authority Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a three-year contract for its bus drivers Thursday afternoon, effectively restoring service...
Trade
Vietnamese Fish are Unsafe for American Consumption, but the WTO Won’t Let Us Protect Ourselves Economy in Crisis ...U.S. production is half of what once was. 60 percent of all catfish in U.S. markets is imported from Vietnam, which has driven half of all American catfish farms out of production. These imported fish are often raised in polluted water and have been found to contain illegal antibiotics and harmful substances such as pesticides and fungicides...
Japan, And The Trans-Pacific Partnership: All In, Or Out? Roll Call ...U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman will give Congressional lawmakers an update on the Obama administration's trade agenda Thursday, including its efforts to close out Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations...
U.S. Trade Deficit Hits $42.3 Billion In February ABC News ...The U.S. trade deficit climbed to the highest level in five months in February as demand for American exports fell while imports increased slightly...
State Battles
House Gives Initial Approval To Paycheck Legislation OzarksFirst ...The Missouri House of Representatives has given initial passage to legislation that is alternately called "paycheck protection" by its supporters and "paycheck deception" by its opponents...
Public Sector Unions Protest Changes To Dues Collection Missourian ...Public employee union members tried to knock out two birds with one stone Wednesday afternoon. The Communication Workers of America and the Service Employees International Union fanned out across the Capitol for their annual public workers' lobby day...
Interfaith Partnership Opposes "Right-To-Work" Legislation St. Louis Review ...The Cabinet of the Interfaith Partnership of Greater St. Louis has issued a statement opposing all proposed right-to-work/freedom-to-work legislation or calls for referendum being considered by the Missouri Legislature...
War on Workers
Ruling’s Breadth Hints That More Campaign Finance Dominoes May Fall New York Times ... there is no reason to think that the march toward deregulating election spending will stop with the ruling in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission...
Do-Nothing Congress Does Something: Gives GE A Big Tax Break Testosterone Pit ...Congress is infamous for doing nothing, as people who have lost their unemployment benefits viscerally know. However, today the Senate Financial Services Committee started the process of enacting the “Expiring Provisions Improvement Reform and Efficiency (EXPIRE) Act.”...
Congressional Progressive Caucus Calls For Stronger Action Against Wage Theft Washington Post ...The leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus this week sent a letter to Labor Secretary Thomas Perez urging the Labor Department to step up its enforcement actions against wage theft...
Hamburgled: Nine Out Of Ten Fast Food Workers Have Experienced Wage Theft Think Progress ...A new poll finds that 89 percent of fast food workers nationwide say they experience wage theft. That means 9 out of 10 fast food workers don't get the pay they earned...
Miscellaneous
Northwestern Football Players To Vote On Union April 25 Chicago Tribune ...Northwestern football players are set to vote April 25 on whether they want to be represented by a union...
Rogue alcoholic court reporter kept writing ‘I hate my job’ New York Post ...An alcoholic Manhattan court stenographer went rogue, channeling his inner “Shining” during a high-profile criminal trial and repeatedly typing, “I hate my job, I hate my job” instead of the trial dialogue...
Monday, January 20, 2014
Today's Teamster News 01.20.14
Group Focused on Government Ethics Puts Scott Walker on List of “Worst Governors in America” Center for Media and Democracy ...Walker made the list of most ethically challenged public officials due to poor marks in several categories, including cronyism, scandal, mismanagement and excessive partisanship. The report reviews his promotion of the Koch Brothers' agenda -- the Kochs are some of his biggest campaign donors...
Rising Tide of Public Outrage on the Verge of Stopping a Shady Corporate Deal in Washington Alternet ...Turn up the heat: election years are a terrible time to pass anything controversial and the Trans-Pacific Partnership is becoming politically toxic...
US trade debate prompts fears of delay in talks Financial Times ...A heated debate over trade in the US Congress risks stalling two trade negotiations that cover 70 per cent of the global economy, senior international officials have warned...
7 Reasons We Don’t Want ‘Fast Track’ Trade Deals Buzzfeed ...It’s a policy designed to ensure that Congress passes any and all trade deals the administration negotiates. Kind of like if your teacher had to give you an A no matter how pathetic your work actually was...
NYC Politicians and Workers Ready to Battle Over Horse-Drawn Carriages skift.com ...It’s one of the first items on New York City Mayor Bill) de Blasio’s to-do list, but his efforts to ban the carriages could bring up much larger issues of employment and the importance of tourism...
Palmer farm against ending NYC horse carriages WWLP.com ..."We believe it's going to add to a current terrible crisis in homelessness with the horses we already have in the country,” said Pamela Rickenbach. "And more than the horses losing their jobs, the families that would lose their jobs also."...
The Undeserving Rich (opinion) New York Times ...for the past three decades and more the main obstacle facing the poor has been the lack of jobs paying decent wages...
‘Dark money’ and corruption, here and abroad (opinion) Washington Post ...A surge in independent spending is invading the election of state supreme court justices, and much of it comes from hidden sources. ... (In 2011-12) special-interest groups spent an unprecedented $15.4 million on TV ads and other election materials in state judicial campaigns during that period...
US tech firms make eleventh-hour attempt to halt tax avoidance reforms The Guardian ...Silicon Valley has launched a last-ditch attempt to derail plans devised by the G20 group of countries to close down international loopholes that are exploited by the likes of Google, Amazon and Apple to pay less tax in the UK and elsewhere...
The robots are coming for white-collar jobs Macrobusiness ...Take, for example, the autonomous driverless cars under development by Google. They are a prime example of a how a human worker, such as long-haul truck and taxi drivers, could soon be replaced by machines – just like a scene from the 1990s futuristic movie Total Recall or the 2000s film Artificial Intelligence...
Walmart under fire after customer takes photos of tanks full of dead and dying fish Daily Mail ...A New Jersey Walmart customer has become the owner of a number of fish she purchased after discovering a dozen dirty fish tanks filled with dead and dying fish at her local store...
Google is hiring security guards to protect its work buses in San Francisco following protests over tech workers driving up city rents Daily Mail ...In San Francisco, many long-time residents believe the influx of richly compensated workers at Google and other big technology companies such as Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc has pushed rents to unaffordable levels in neighborhoods that once were homes to the working class...
Moral Monday A Branding Exercise Blaming Republicans for Stuff Democrats Helped Them Do (opinion) Black Agenda Report ...The problem is that Democrats enabled and helped Republicans to enact the immoral policies which Moral Monday spokespeople inveigh against in the first place...
What Happens When the Poor Receive a Stipend? (opinion) New York Times ...a little extra money may confer long-lasting benefits on poor children...
Rising Tide of Public Outrage on the Verge of Stopping a Shady Corporate Deal in Washington Alternet ...Turn up the heat: election years are a terrible time to pass anything controversial and the Trans-Pacific Partnership is becoming politically toxic...
US trade debate prompts fears of delay in talks Financial Times ...A heated debate over trade in the US Congress risks stalling two trade negotiations that cover 70 per cent of the global economy, senior international officials have warned...
7 Reasons We Don’t Want ‘Fast Track’ Trade Deals Buzzfeed ...It’s a policy designed to ensure that Congress passes any and all trade deals the administration negotiates. Kind of like if your teacher had to give you an A no matter how pathetic your work actually was...
NYC Politicians and Workers Ready to Battle Over Horse-Drawn Carriages skift.com ...It’s one of the first items on New York City Mayor Bill) de Blasio’s to-do list, but his efforts to ban the carriages could bring up much larger issues of employment and the importance of tourism...
Palmer farm against ending NYC horse carriages WWLP.com ..."We believe it's going to add to a current terrible crisis in homelessness with the horses we already have in the country,” said Pamela Rickenbach. "And more than the horses losing their jobs, the families that would lose their jobs also."...
The Undeserving Rich (opinion) New York Times ...for the past three decades and more the main obstacle facing the poor has been the lack of jobs paying decent wages...
‘Dark money’ and corruption, here and abroad (opinion) Washington Post ...A surge in independent spending is invading the election of state supreme court justices, and much of it comes from hidden sources. ... (In 2011-12) special-interest groups spent an unprecedented $15.4 million on TV ads and other election materials in state judicial campaigns during that period...
US tech firms make eleventh-hour attempt to halt tax avoidance reforms The Guardian ...Silicon Valley has launched a last-ditch attempt to derail plans devised by the G20 group of countries to close down international loopholes that are exploited by the likes of Google, Amazon and Apple to pay less tax in the UK and elsewhere...
The robots are coming for white-collar jobs Macrobusiness ...Take, for example, the autonomous driverless cars under development by Google. They are a prime example of a how a human worker, such as long-haul truck and taxi drivers, could soon be replaced by machines – just like a scene from the 1990s futuristic movie Total Recall or the 2000s film Artificial Intelligence...
Walmart under fire after customer takes photos of tanks full of dead and dying fish Daily Mail ...A New Jersey Walmart customer has become the owner of a number of fish she purchased after discovering a dozen dirty fish tanks filled with dead and dying fish at her local store...
Google is hiring security guards to protect its work buses in San Francisco following protests over tech workers driving up city rents Daily Mail ...In San Francisco, many long-time residents believe the influx of richly compensated workers at Google and other big technology companies such as Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc has pushed rents to unaffordable levels in neighborhoods that once were homes to the working class...
Moral Monday A Branding Exercise Blaming Republicans for Stuff Democrats Helped Them Do (opinion) Black Agenda Report ...The problem is that Democrats enabled and helped Republicans to enact the immoral policies which Moral Monday spokespeople inveigh against in the first place...
What Happens When the Poor Receive a Stipend? (opinion) New York Times ...a little extra money may confer long-lasting benefits on poor children...
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