Global Labor & Trade
Unions, Progressives Pressure Democrats To Oppose Trade Deals Business Journals ...Labor unions and progressive organizations are sending a message to Democrats: If you support fast-tracking trade deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, don’t be surprised if we oppose you in your next Democratic primary...
U.S., Japan Seek Trade Deal in Advance of Abe Washington Visit Bloomberg Business ...U.S. and Japanese negotiators are rushing to complete a trade agreement they can unveil during Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Washington later this month, something they hope will pave the way for a broader Asia-Pacific pact involving 10 other countries...
Trade bill timeline could push Senate to act Politico ...Senate aides have circulated a tentative date of mid-April for advancing “fast-track” trade legislation in the recognition that Sens. Orrin Hatch and Ron Wyden have to move quickly to finalize a deal on the bill or risk losing their chance to get it passed by the end of the spring session...
Astroturf Warning: TPP Critics Call Out Fake 'Progressive' Group Pushing Corporate Trade Agenda Common Dreams ...Critics of the corporate-friendly Trans-Pacific Partnership are lining up against what they call an "astroturf" operation claiming to represent progressives in favor of Fast Tracking the sweeping and secretive trade deal. No such progressives exist, they say...
A Turning Point For Chinese Workers In These Times ...As unions have struggled and strikes have declined in the United States in recent years, labor militancy has surged in other parts of the world—and nowhere more so than China. Now the movement appears to be starting to achieve significant institutional reform...
State & Living Wage Battles
Rand Paul’s Favorite Union-Buster Bloomberg ...Yessin, who’s represented companies in more than 200 conflicts with unions, says the NLRA doesn’t block states from letting local officials regulate some union activities. Yessin’s ideas offer conservatives a path forward on anti-union legislation known as “right-to-work” laws...
Packed House As Oswego Discusses Rauner 'Right-To-Work' Proposal Chicago Tribune ...Rauner's office has asked cities and villages across the state to support his initiatives aimed to "get the house in order" by changing how Illinois does business. One of the changes Rauner wants involves letting local communities enact "right-to-work" zones, which would allow voters to decide whether or not employees should be forced to join a union as a condition of employment...
Indiana’s Highway To Hell: Welcome To The Sick New Corporate Order Salon.com ...It’s the “circle of life,” neoliberal style: Enter into “free trade” deals which benefit global investors, then watch as wages stagnate and jobs disappear. Cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations, depriving the nation of funds for infrastructure. Make under- and unemployed residents of cities like Gary, Indiana, pay tolls to make up the shortfall, and jeopardize the retirement security of middle-class Americans in sketchy privatization deals to replace lost infrastructure funding...
McDonald's Is Raising Wages For Some Workers Huffington Post ...McDonald's is finally giving some of its workers a raise. The fast-food giant on Wednesday announced plans to give employees a 10 percent pay bump and some extra benefits. The raise will affect about 90,000 workers at a small fraction of McDonald’s stores. Employees at franchises, which make up the majority of the burger chain's locations, won't be affected...
Seattle begins to phase in $15 minimum wage Union Bulletin ...Most workers in Seattle will see the minimum wage increase to $11 an hour this week. Some small businesses will get a $1 credit for employees who earn tips or get health insurance and will pay $10 an hour. It will take until 2017 for Seattle workers at large companies and chains to earn $15 an hour...
Fight “Right to Work” in Oregon Counterpunch ...There is justifiable dread that anti-union “Right to Work” laws will be purchased into existence by out-of-state billionaires championing the laws around the country. Fortunately, an antidote to Right to Work is also being publicly debated in Oregon, where there is pending legislation to push the state’s minimum wage to $15...
Candidates Who Mock The Law (opinion) Washington Post ...Mr. Bush seems to have adopted every dark-money trick in the book. Will others now follow? As it is, the presidential campaign will begin under a dark-money cloud. Americans want a president with the right stuff, and that does not mean bags of secret cash...
U.S. Labor
Philadelphia airport workers strike over wages and benefits Boston Globe ...A few dozen baggage handlers, airplane cleaners and other non-union workers went on strike at Philadelphia’s airport Thursday, demanding higher wages, benefits, and an end to what they say are unfair labor practices...
CSX Worker Struck, Killed By Train At Rail Yard WTRV ...An investigation is underway after a CSX worker was struck and killed by a train early Wednesday morning. Henrico police said the industrial accident happened around just before 3 a.m. at the ACCA train yard in the 2100 block of Westwood Avenue...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Factories Slow For Fifth Month In Row, But Economists See Rebound Wall Street Journal ...The Institute for Supply Management on Wednesday said its purchasing managers index fell for the fifth consecutive month in March, to 51.5 from 52.9 in February. The index is at its lowest reading since May 2013, though it’s still above the 50 level that reflects expansion...
When Will The NSA Stop Spying On Innocent Americans? The Atlantic ...Unless Congress acts, Americans will soon benefit from one of the Patriot Act's most important safeguards against abuse: Language in Section 215 of the law is scheduled to expire in June, depriving the FBI and NSA of a provision they've used to justify monitoring the phone calls of tens of millions of innocents...
Showing posts with label dark money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dark money. Show all posts
Friday, April 3, 2015
Monday, March 30, 2015
Today's Teamster News 03.30.15
Trade
Wikileaks papers reveal TPP's huge corporate giveaway Ecologist ...Leaked papers reveal that the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal would represent a historic transfer of power and money from the US and other governments to corporations...
Wyden Shows Connection Between Rigged Trade & Rigged Government The People's Voice ...the US already has trade deals with most of the countries involved in the TPP so it will make little difference on Oregon’s exports. What is will do is give these foreign corporations the ability to move to locations with cheaper labor and resources as well as the power to sue if Oregon takes action in the public interest to protect people and planet...
Marriage Made in Corporatist Heaven Slams into Resistance Wolf Street ...Even the U.S.’s ever-faithful ally and fellow Five-Eye member, the United Kingdom, is beginning to express reservations about TTIP. Earlier this week an all-party committee of Members of Parliament released a scathing report on the trade agreement. The Business, Innovation and Skills committee said the government needed “stronger evidence” to back up its claim that TTIP would bring a boost of £100bn a year to the UK...
State Battles
Rauner’s ‘right-to-work’ proposal focus of larger debate on business climate GateHouse Media Illinois ... even the business groups that support right-to-work laws and empowerment zones say the governor can’t get that done...
After Months Of Scandalizing Clinton Foundation Donations, Press Silent On Walker's Reported Pay-For-Play Media Matters ...The press has almost entirely ignored the revelation that after the "richest man in Wisconsin" made secret donations benefitting Republican Governor Scott Walker, his company received special tax credits for that same donor's company...
Wisconsin Republicans abandoning Scott Walker Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative ...On March 25, 2015, former editor of the Waukesha Freeman and conservative Pete Kennedy published an opinion piece in the paper urging Wisconsin conservatives to not only reject Scott Walker, but to hold him accountable for the damage he has done to the state...
War on Workers
Walmart, Lowe's, Safeway, and Nordstrom Are Bankrolling a Nationwide Campaign to Gut Workers' Comp Mother Jones ...Nearly two dozen major corporations, including Walmart, Nordstrom, and Safeway, are bankrolling a quiet, multistate lobbying effort to make it harder for workers hurt on the job to access lost wages and medical care—the benefits collectively known as workers' compensation...
Fracking Town’s Desperate Laid-off Workers: ‘They Don’t Tell You It’s All a Lie’ Alternet ...The boom and bust in North Dakota has trapped people there, with little hope of work or escape...
Scientist Pretends Monsanto Products Are Totally Safe to Drink Gawker ...Monsanto pesticides are safe enough to drink in a glass of water, says an honest-to-goodness scientist who immediately refuses an offer to drink a glass of Monsanto pesticides. Not because Monsanto pesticides aren't safe, no, but because he's "not stupid" and the interviewer is "a complete jerk."...
Class Struggle In The USA Angry Bear ... none of the important 2016 candidates has expressed any willingness to raise taxes on the rich. The Republicans want to cut them and Clinton (and a spokesperson) dodge the question...
Farm worker dies after being buried under pile of corn CBS News ...Police say the collapse happened when 54-year-old Donald Merchant, of South Windham, was using equipment to move corn from a large mound at the Square A Farm on Monday. When he got off the equipment, some of it toppled onto him...
DOT worker hit by alleged impaired driver laid to rest in Kenly ABC News ...Family and friends remembered a DOT worker killed while on the job in Wayne County...
Friends, family rally in support of Delfino Velazquez, worker killed in Dana Ford Lincoln ceiling collapse (video) Staten Island Live ...Velazquez, a native of Mexico, was killed there on Nov. 28, 2014, when the building's mezzanine collapsed during an unpermitted demolition. The 43-year-old husband and father suffocated under heavy debris. He's the second Formica employee or subcontractor to die on the job in the past dozen years...
Wikileaks papers reveal TPP's huge corporate giveaway Ecologist ...Leaked papers reveal that the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal would represent a historic transfer of power and money from the US and other governments to corporations...
Wyden Shows Connection Between Rigged Trade & Rigged Government The People's Voice ...the US already has trade deals with most of the countries involved in the TPP so it will make little difference on Oregon’s exports. What is will do is give these foreign corporations the ability to move to locations with cheaper labor and resources as well as the power to sue if Oregon takes action in the public interest to protect people and planet...
Marriage Made in Corporatist Heaven Slams into Resistance Wolf Street ...Even the U.S.’s ever-faithful ally and fellow Five-Eye member, the United Kingdom, is beginning to express reservations about TTIP. Earlier this week an all-party committee of Members of Parliament released a scathing report on the trade agreement. The Business, Innovation and Skills committee said the government needed “stronger evidence” to back up its claim that TTIP would bring a boost of £100bn a year to the UK...
State Battles
Rauner’s ‘right-to-work’ proposal focus of larger debate on business climate GateHouse Media Illinois ... even the business groups that support right-to-work laws and empowerment zones say the governor can’t get that done...
After Months Of Scandalizing Clinton Foundation Donations, Press Silent On Walker's Reported Pay-For-Play Media Matters ...The press has almost entirely ignored the revelation that after the "richest man in Wisconsin" made secret donations benefitting Republican Governor Scott Walker, his company received special tax credits for that same donor's company...
Wisconsin Republicans abandoning Scott Walker Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative ...On March 25, 2015, former editor of the Waukesha Freeman and conservative Pete Kennedy published an opinion piece in the paper urging Wisconsin conservatives to not only reject Scott Walker, but to hold him accountable for the damage he has done to the state...
War on Workers
Walmart, Lowe's, Safeway, and Nordstrom Are Bankrolling a Nationwide Campaign to Gut Workers' Comp Mother Jones ...Nearly two dozen major corporations, including Walmart, Nordstrom, and Safeway, are bankrolling a quiet, multistate lobbying effort to make it harder for workers hurt on the job to access lost wages and medical care—the benefits collectively known as workers' compensation...
Fracking Town’s Desperate Laid-off Workers: ‘They Don’t Tell You It’s All a Lie’ Alternet ...The boom and bust in North Dakota has trapped people there, with little hope of work or escape...
Scientist Pretends Monsanto Products Are Totally Safe to Drink Gawker ...Monsanto pesticides are safe enough to drink in a glass of water, says an honest-to-goodness scientist who immediately refuses an offer to drink a glass of Monsanto pesticides. Not because Monsanto pesticides aren't safe, no, but because he's "not stupid" and the interviewer is "a complete jerk."...
Class Struggle In The USA Angry Bear ... none of the important 2016 candidates has expressed any willingness to raise taxes on the rich. The Republicans want to cut them and Clinton (and a spokesperson) dodge the question...
Farm worker dies after being buried under pile of corn CBS News ...Police say the collapse happened when 54-year-old Donald Merchant, of South Windham, was using equipment to move corn from a large mound at the Square A Farm on Monday. When he got off the equipment, some of it toppled onto him...
DOT worker hit by alleged impaired driver laid to rest in Kenly ABC News ...Family and friends remembered a DOT worker killed while on the job in Wayne County...
Friends, family rally in support of Delfino Velazquez, worker killed in Dana Ford Lincoln ceiling collapse (video) Staten Island Live ...Velazquez, a native of Mexico, was killed there on Nov. 28, 2014, when the building's mezzanine collapsed during an unpermitted demolition. The 43-year-old husband and father suffocated under heavy debris. He's the second Formica employee or subcontractor to die on the job in the past dozen years...
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
How foreign money helped defeat a U.S. constitutional amendment
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It shouldn't be a surprise that corporate lobbyists last year helped defeat a constitutional amendment to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. The court ruled corporations are people and can spend as much as they want on influencing elections.
Common Cause recently analyzed who lobbied against the amendment. The list includes the usual suspects: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Koch brothers, the National Association of Manufacturers.
What's alarming about the list is that these groups represent the interests of businesses outside the United States. In other words, the corporations that the Supreme Court ruled are people aren't really American people.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce (which has some nerve putting 'U.S.' in its name) has on its board of directors representatives from
- DHL, a German stock company,
- Pfizer, which held $74 billion overseas in 2014 to avoid paying U.S. taxes,
- Accenture, which moved its headquarters to Dublin, Ireland, after splitting from scandal-plagued Arthur Andersen,
- Deloitte, a United Kingdom private company that has offices throughout the world,
- Sanofi U.S. Services, a subsidiary of the French multinational pharmaceutical company Sanofi.
And who can forget the Koch brothers' disloyalty to the United States when they sold oil equipment to Iran, flouting a ban on trade with that sponsor of terrorism.
The National Association of Manufacturers would more properly be called the International Association of Manufacturers. Its board of directors is filled with representatives of multinational corporations like Exxon Mobil Corp., General Electric Co., BP America; our old friends Pfizer, Deloitte and Sanofi from the Chamber; and a slew of companies that offshore jobs like Whirlpool, Westinghouse, Ford and General Motors.
U.S. law does allow foreign corporations to form political action committees (PACs) so long as they're formed by U.S. citizens employed by the corporation, and so long as the U.S. citizens are contributing the money and the foreign corporations don't finance them.
What could possibly go wrong?
As WNYC pointed out,
The worry is that domestic subsidiaries would put their foreign parent company's political and economic interests ahead of their country's. (Note: Ya think?) Even with the prescribed separation of the U.S. subsidiary’s political activities from the foreign parent, it’s easy to imagine a situation in which those rules are bent or broken. It’s even easier to imagine this happening in a post-Citizens United world. In his 2010 State of the Union address, President Obama said that the Supreme Court had “reversed a century of law that…will open the floodgates for special interests—including foreign corporations—to spend without limit in our elections.”Be very concerned.
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Today's Teamster News 01.03.15
Teamsters
Dunkin' Donuts Delivery Drivers in Chicago Join the Teamsters Teamsters Joint Council 25 ...By a 2-to-1 margin, approximately 30 drivers who make deliveries to Chicago-area Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants recently voted to join Teamsters Local 734...
Dunkin' Donuts Delivery Drivers in Chicago Join the Teamsters Teamsters Joint Council 25 ...By a 2-to-1 margin, approximately 30 drivers who make deliveries to Chicago-area Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants recently voted to join Teamsters Local 734...
BLET reaches tentative agreement with Norfolk Southern BLET ...The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) has reached a tentative contract agreement with Norfolk Southern (NS) governing rates of pay and work rules for more than 4,500 locomotive engineers...
Inaugural Toledo Walleye Winter Brewfest is a hit The Blade ...Toledo firefighter Jenny Hill fist-bumps Mark Sobczak, vice president of Teamsters Local 20, as she dispenses beer during the inaugural Toledo Walleye Winter Brewfest...
McGrain to head Ingham Board of Commissioners Lansing State Journal ...In other business, the board … Approved a 2015 wage reopener that calls for a 2.5 percent boost to the current salary schedule of members of Teamsters Local 580, the Potter Park Zoo supervisory unit...
Trade
Obama’s Trade Chief, Undaunted by Odds, Pushes for Trans-Pacific Partnership New York Times ...the deal’s completion is certainly not guaranteed. Republicans inclined to give the president trade-negotiating authority are still seething at his executive action deferring deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants. Many conservatives are in no mood to give Mr. Obama anything, said Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, and a former United States trade representative in the George W. Bush administration...
The President Set a Goal of Doubling Exports by 2014—Why Haven’t We? Economic Policy Institute ...Total U.S. goods and services exports increased by less than 50 percent ($766 billion, or 48.4 percent) between 2009 and 2014 (estimated), as shown in the figure below. Meanwhile, imports increased by an even larger $883.8 billion, and as a result, the U.S. trade deficit increased by $117.0 billion...
Trade's big breakout Politico ...Republicans and President Barack Obama are both eager to act on a massive Asia-Pacific deal, an even bigger agreement with the European Union and legislation that would fast-track their approval by Congress — all of which have a shot of moving next year...
TTIP: Chemical corporations against safety protections Ecologist ...Under the TTIP US-EU trade agreement, the world's largest chemical corporations would be able to attack US states' attempts to regulate for chemical safety, writes Patrick Gleeson. In both the US and the EU, corporate rights - asserted in secret courts - would trump democracy and attempts to raise health, safety and welfare standards...
State Battles
EBay parts ways with controversial political group ALEC Reuters ...Critics fault ALEC, a coalition of state lawmakers and companies, for promoting measures to deny the existence of climate change, defund public services, oppose Internet neutrality and limit workers' protections...
Sweatshops in California Guilty of Wage Theft Law Firm Newswire ...lothing made in California for outlets such as Macy’s, JC Penney and Kohl’s, actually comes from local sweatshops where some employers routinely unplug the clock intended to keep track of worker’s hours...
War on Workers
Koch-Funded News Outlet Defends Dark-Money Organizations Media Matters for America ...Conservative news outlet Watchdog.org released a six-part series defending dark-money organizations -- politically focused groups that conceal the identities of their donors -- but failed to disclose its own funding from the Koch brothers and other conservative dark-money players...
Pay-disclosure advocates chafe at SEC rule delays MarketWatch ...Supporters of a rule that would require public companies to disclose the ratio between executive and median employee pay say the Securities and Exchange Commission should move soon to enact the regulation....
Worker dies after falling into well WESH.com ...Thomas Wood, 41, was working at a gas station under construction on U.S. 1 and Beville Road when he fell into the 6-foot fuel tank well...
Refinery worker dies in accident in Gibbstown Associated Press ...An air compressor line broke and struck 63-year-old Gary Grimming, who was sandblasting a tank at the time. Grimming was employed by a Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based company...
Miscellaneous
U.S. slaps new sanctions on North Korea after Sony hack CNN ...The United States is hitting North Korea with a new set of economic sanctions after determining the country was behind last month's computer hack at Sony...
Why Airlines Want to Make You Suffer The New Yorker ...In 2013, the major airlines combined made about $31.5 billion in income from fees, as well as other ancillaries, such as redeeming credit-card points...
Falling oil prices both good and bad for manufacturers Fortune ...On one hand, a steep decline in the cost of oil leads to lower expenses. But on the other, business may suffer because of lower spending by oil and chemical companies on big-ticket items like computers and new machinery...
Inaugural Toledo Walleye Winter Brewfest is a hit The Blade ...Toledo firefighter Jenny Hill fist-bumps Mark Sobczak, vice president of Teamsters Local 20, as she dispenses beer during the inaugural Toledo Walleye Winter Brewfest...
McGrain to head Ingham Board of Commissioners Lansing State Journal ...In other business, the board … Approved a 2015 wage reopener that calls for a 2.5 percent boost to the current salary schedule of members of Teamsters Local 580, the Potter Park Zoo supervisory unit...
Trade
Obama’s Trade Chief, Undaunted by Odds, Pushes for Trans-Pacific Partnership New York Times ...the deal’s completion is certainly not guaranteed. Republicans inclined to give the president trade-negotiating authority are still seething at his executive action deferring deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants. Many conservatives are in no mood to give Mr. Obama anything, said Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, and a former United States trade representative in the George W. Bush administration...
The President Set a Goal of Doubling Exports by 2014—Why Haven’t We? Economic Policy Institute ...Total U.S. goods and services exports increased by less than 50 percent ($766 billion, or 48.4 percent) between 2009 and 2014 (estimated), as shown in the figure below. Meanwhile, imports increased by an even larger $883.8 billion, and as a result, the U.S. trade deficit increased by $117.0 billion...
Trade's big breakout Politico ...Republicans and President Barack Obama are both eager to act on a massive Asia-Pacific deal, an even bigger agreement with the European Union and legislation that would fast-track their approval by Congress — all of which have a shot of moving next year...
TTIP: Chemical corporations against safety protections Ecologist ...Under the TTIP US-EU trade agreement, the world's largest chemical corporations would be able to attack US states' attempts to regulate for chemical safety, writes Patrick Gleeson. In both the US and the EU, corporate rights - asserted in secret courts - would trump democracy and attempts to raise health, safety and welfare standards...
State Battles
EBay parts ways with controversial political group ALEC Reuters ...Critics fault ALEC, a coalition of state lawmakers and companies, for promoting measures to deny the existence of climate change, defund public services, oppose Internet neutrality and limit workers' protections...
Sweatshops in California Guilty of Wage Theft Law Firm Newswire ...lothing made in California for outlets such as Macy’s, JC Penney and Kohl’s, actually comes from local sweatshops where some employers routinely unplug the clock intended to keep track of worker’s hours...
War on Workers
Koch-Funded News Outlet Defends Dark-Money Organizations Media Matters for America ...Conservative news outlet Watchdog.org released a six-part series defending dark-money organizations -- politically focused groups that conceal the identities of their donors -- but failed to disclose its own funding from the Koch brothers and other conservative dark-money players...
Pay-disclosure advocates chafe at SEC rule delays MarketWatch ...Supporters of a rule that would require public companies to disclose the ratio between executive and median employee pay say the Securities and Exchange Commission should move soon to enact the regulation....
Worker dies after falling into well WESH.com ...Thomas Wood, 41, was working at a gas station under construction on U.S. 1 and Beville Road when he fell into the 6-foot fuel tank well...
Refinery worker dies in accident in Gibbstown Associated Press ...An air compressor line broke and struck 63-year-old Gary Grimming, who was sandblasting a tank at the time. Grimming was employed by a Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based company...
Miscellaneous
U.S. slaps new sanctions on North Korea after Sony hack CNN ...The United States is hitting North Korea with a new set of economic sanctions after determining the country was behind last month's computer hack at Sony...
Why Airlines Want to Make You Suffer The New Yorker ...In 2013, the major airlines combined made about $31.5 billion in income from fees, as well as other ancillaries, such as redeeming credit-card points...
Falling oil prices both good and bad for manufacturers Fortune ...On one hand, a steep decline in the cost of oil leads to lower expenses. But on the other, business may suffer because of lower spending by oil and chemical companies on big-ticket items like computers and new machinery...
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Today's Teamster News 11.08.14
Teamster News
Teamsters Applaud U.S. Appeals Court Decision Reinstating Misclassified Port Truck Drivers teamster.org ...In a landmark victory for misclassified “independent contractors” across America, two previously fired port truck drivers have returned to work today as employees of Green Fleet Systems (GFS) in Long Beach, Calif. Earlier misclassified as independent contractors by GFS...
Waste Workers In Houston Vote To Join Teamsters Local 988 teamster.org ...Workers at WCA Waste Corporation in Houston, who are seeking fair wages, job security and safer working conditions, voted today to join Teamsters Local 988. The vote was 90 to 28...
Trade
Thousands rally against trade agreement TVNZ ...There's been an outcry against secretive trade talks, with thousands joining rallies around [New Zealand]. The target of the protesters' anger in 17 towns and cities is the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement...
What the 2014 Election Results Mean for Trade Policy Public Citizen ...The GOP takeover of the U.S. Senate probably reduces the chances that President Barack Obama gets Fast Track at all before his presidency is over or that a deal is completed on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
State Battles
One Community Beat Big Money On Election Day. Here's How They Did It. Huffington Post ...Voters in Florida's capital city overwhelmingly approved an extraordinary ethics and campaign finance reform ballot initiative that fights money in politics corruption, reclaims local government for the people, and provides a path to victory for national reform efforts...
Kansas Governor’s Grand Tax Cut Experiment Is Gutting His State’s Services Think Progress ...Kansas brought in $23 million less in tax revenue in October than the state had predicted, continuing a pattern of serious shortfalls that began when Gov. Sam Brownback’s (R) massive tax cuts went into effect in 2012...
Wingnut Voter ID Group Fails Again: “Voter Integrity” Outfit Unable To Find Midterm Fraud Salon.com ...Despite army of monitors, Catherine Engelbrecht's discredited organization uncovers 0 polling place impersonations...
Former Mississippi Prisons Head Charged With Getting Kickbacks, Bribes On Prison Contracts Slate ...A 49-count federal indictment unsealed on Thursday charges the head of prisons in Mississippi, Christopher Epps, with orchestrating a massive corruption scheme where he pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from private prison companies in return for contracts to work in the Mississippi prison system...
War on Workers
U.S. labor market tightens, but wages still anemic Reuters ...Average hourly earnings rose only three cents last month, leaving the year-on-year increase at 2.0 percent, the level it has been around for the last few years. The muted wage growth partly reflects the types of jobs being created. In October, about a fifth of the new jobs were in the food services sector...
The hidden truth about job growth, lost amidst the statistical noise & optimists’ hopes Fabius Maximus ...The key thing to know about the latest job report is the same thing to know about all 2014’s job reports: there has been no change to the trend. No sign of the acceleration so confidently forecast by so many. This confirms the other economic indicators, amidst the slowing world economy...
Whole Foods Employees Ask For a Union Gawker ... There is now an official movement on to unionize at least one Whole Foods store on 4th street in San Francisco. A press release that went out yesterday says that 20 workers held a rally and "initiated a temporary work stoppage to deliver a petition to Whole Foods management demanding a $5 an hour wage increase for all employees and no retaliation against workers for organizing a union."...
Facebook Conducted ‘Psychological Experiment’ On Users To Manipulate US Election Turnout Addicting Info ...The company admits that it deliberately suppressed personal posts from people on your friend’s list, while promoting other posts, in an experiment designed to exploit users emotional response in relation to the 2012 election...
Lawsuit: Chicago Futures Market Creates “Guaranteed Winners and Guaranteed Losers” Wall Street on Parade ...Last week three futures traders told a Federal court in Chicago that it’s not just the high frequency trading firms that are reaping a windfall but the exchanges who are engaged in a conspiracy with them to create “guaranteed winners and guaranteed losers.”...
Citizens United Boss: Supreme Court Ruling Handed Midterm Elections To Republicans Raw Story ...“Citizens United, our Supreme Court case, leveled the playing field, and we’re very proud of the impact that had in last night’s election,” said David Bossie, chairman of the conservative advocacy organization...
Explosive Oil Transported Through Indiana Counties Without Notice WISH ...For months, trains hauling millions of gallons of highly flammable crude oil passed through at least 12 Indiana counties with no advanced warning to firefighters, hazardous materials directors or local emergency managers, an I-Team 8 investigation has found...
More Employers Are Hiring But They Aren’t Raising Pay FiveThirtyEight ...7 in 10 Americans said in exit polls that the economy is in bad shape, and only 28 percent said their financial situation had improved in the past two years. Dissatisfaction with the state of the economy was widely cited as a principal reason for Republicans’ big gains...
Maintenance Worker Dead After Being Trapped In Machine At Fairfield Bowling Alley WCPO ...A maintenance worker at a Butler County bowling alley died Thursday afternoon after getting caught in a machine he was trying to repair...
Miscellaeous
Nation's first soda tax is passed USA Today ...Berkeley, Calif., became the first U.S. city to pass a law taxing sugary drinks including sodas...
Mexico scraps high-speed rail project won by China over corruption worries McClatchy ...Perceptions that Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto rewarded friends with a share of a $4.3 billion high-speed rail contract won by a Chinese-led consortium led this week to a stunning decision by Mexico to scrap the deal and start over with new bidding...
Teamsters Applaud U.S. Appeals Court Decision Reinstating Misclassified Port Truck Drivers teamster.org ...In a landmark victory for misclassified “independent contractors” across America, two previously fired port truck drivers have returned to work today as employees of Green Fleet Systems (GFS) in Long Beach, Calif. Earlier misclassified as independent contractors by GFS...
Waste Workers In Houston Vote To Join Teamsters Local 988 teamster.org ...Workers at WCA Waste Corporation in Houston, who are seeking fair wages, job security and safer working conditions, voted today to join Teamsters Local 988. The vote was 90 to 28...
Trade
Thousands rally against trade agreement TVNZ ...There's been an outcry against secretive trade talks, with thousands joining rallies around [New Zealand]. The target of the protesters' anger in 17 towns and cities is the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement...
What the 2014 Election Results Mean for Trade Policy Public Citizen ...The GOP takeover of the U.S. Senate probably reduces the chances that President Barack Obama gets Fast Track at all before his presidency is over or that a deal is completed on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
State Battles
One Community Beat Big Money On Election Day. Here's How They Did It. Huffington Post ...Voters in Florida's capital city overwhelmingly approved an extraordinary ethics and campaign finance reform ballot initiative that fights money in politics corruption, reclaims local government for the people, and provides a path to victory for national reform efforts...
Kansas Governor’s Grand Tax Cut Experiment Is Gutting His State’s Services Think Progress ...Kansas brought in $23 million less in tax revenue in October than the state had predicted, continuing a pattern of serious shortfalls that began when Gov. Sam Brownback’s (R) massive tax cuts went into effect in 2012...
Wingnut Voter ID Group Fails Again: “Voter Integrity” Outfit Unable To Find Midterm Fraud Salon.com ...Despite army of monitors, Catherine Engelbrecht's discredited organization uncovers 0 polling place impersonations...
Former Mississippi Prisons Head Charged With Getting Kickbacks, Bribes On Prison Contracts Slate ...A 49-count federal indictment unsealed on Thursday charges the head of prisons in Mississippi, Christopher Epps, with orchestrating a massive corruption scheme where he pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from private prison companies in return for contracts to work in the Mississippi prison system...
War on Workers
U.S. labor market tightens, but wages still anemic Reuters ...Average hourly earnings rose only three cents last month, leaving the year-on-year increase at 2.0 percent, the level it has been around for the last few years. The muted wage growth partly reflects the types of jobs being created. In October, about a fifth of the new jobs were in the food services sector...
The hidden truth about job growth, lost amidst the statistical noise & optimists’ hopes Fabius Maximus ...The key thing to know about the latest job report is the same thing to know about all 2014’s job reports: there has been no change to the trend. No sign of the acceleration so confidently forecast by so many. This confirms the other economic indicators, amidst the slowing world economy...
Whole Foods Employees Ask For a Union Gawker ... There is now an official movement on to unionize at least one Whole Foods store on 4th street in San Francisco. A press release that went out yesterday says that 20 workers held a rally and "initiated a temporary work stoppage to deliver a petition to Whole Foods management demanding a $5 an hour wage increase for all employees and no retaliation against workers for organizing a union."...
Facebook Conducted ‘Psychological Experiment’ On Users To Manipulate US Election Turnout Addicting Info ...The company admits that it deliberately suppressed personal posts from people on your friend’s list, while promoting other posts, in an experiment designed to exploit users emotional response in relation to the 2012 election...
Lawsuit: Chicago Futures Market Creates “Guaranteed Winners and Guaranteed Losers” Wall Street on Parade ...Last week three futures traders told a Federal court in Chicago that it’s not just the high frequency trading firms that are reaping a windfall but the exchanges who are engaged in a conspiracy with them to create “guaranteed winners and guaranteed losers.”...
Citizens United Boss: Supreme Court Ruling Handed Midterm Elections To Republicans Raw Story ...“Citizens United, our Supreme Court case, leveled the playing field, and we’re very proud of the impact that had in last night’s election,” said David Bossie, chairman of the conservative advocacy organization...
Explosive Oil Transported Through Indiana Counties Without Notice WISH ...For months, trains hauling millions of gallons of highly flammable crude oil passed through at least 12 Indiana counties with no advanced warning to firefighters, hazardous materials directors or local emergency managers, an I-Team 8 investigation has found...
More Employers Are Hiring But They Aren’t Raising Pay FiveThirtyEight ...7 in 10 Americans said in exit polls that the economy is in bad shape, and only 28 percent said their financial situation had improved in the past two years. Dissatisfaction with the state of the economy was widely cited as a principal reason for Republicans’ big gains...
Maintenance Worker Dead After Being Trapped In Machine At Fairfield Bowling Alley WCPO ...A maintenance worker at a Butler County bowling alley died Thursday afternoon after getting caught in a machine he was trying to repair...
Miscellaeous
Nation's first soda tax is passed USA Today ...Berkeley, Calif., became the first U.S. city to pass a law taxing sugary drinks including sodas...
Mexico scraps high-speed rail project won by China over corruption worries McClatchy ...Perceptions that Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto rewarded friends with a share of a $4.3 billion high-speed rail contract won by a Chinese-led consortium led this week to a stunning decision by Mexico to scrap the deal and start over with new bidding...
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Today's Teamster News 09.18.14
Teamster News
For the First Time in North America, Teamsters Successfully Organize Workers at FedEx Freight teamster.org ...In a historic first, dock associates at FedEx Freight in Surrey, British Columbia have joined Teamsters Local 31. Read Teamsters Canada press release, here. It’s a North American first for these workers at FedEx. Before this victory, the only unionized FedEx employees were the company’s U.S.-based pilots...
Oxford schools reach contract with Teamsters Daily Local News ...The Oxford Area School District has reached a contract agreement with its service and support staff who are members of Teamsters’ Local 384...
Teamsters Endorse McClain For County Prosecutor Chinook Observer ...Teamsters Joint Council No. 28, representing local teamsters throughout Washington, Idaho and Alaska have endorsed Mark McClain for Pacific County prosecutor...
Coroner IDs Security Guard Killed On Set Of TNT’s ‘Falling Skies’ Deadline Hollywood ...The Teamsters security guard killed Monday in Vancouver on the set of the TNT sci-fi drama Falling Skies has been identified as Amrik Singh Gill, 59, of Delta, BC. Gill was crushed to death when an unattended five-ton truck rolled down a hill and pinned him against a tree...
Trade
U.S. launches antidumping, countervailing duty probe against China’s boltless steel shelving Trade Reform ...The investigations are in response to a request from Edsal Manufacturing Company based in the state of Illinois. The company alleged that the products from China were sold below the fair value of the products in the U.S. market with dumping margin of 40 percent to 211 percent, and Chinese producers and exporters also received improper government subsidies...
As President’s Export Council Meets, No Chance to Meet Obama’s Export Doubling Goal; Export Growth Falls Under Free Trade Agreements Public Citizen ...Obama’s efforts to push more-of-the-same trade policies has been sidelined by the dismal outcomes of his 2011 U.S.-Korea FTA, with the U.S. goods trade deficit with Korea up 50 percent and U.S. exports to Korea down 5 percent in the first two years of the pact...
Business groups keep passage of fast-track high on list of priorities The Hill ...Business Roundtable and the National Association of Manufacturers are among the slew of groups that are aggressively pushing for action on fast-track authority before this Congress closes up shop for the year...
State Battles
State says 25 voter applications of 85,000 “confirmed” forgeries Atlanta Journal Constitution ...The New Georgia Project brought bins holding copies of more than 51,000 unprocessed voter applications to the state Capitol on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014. Secretary of State Brian Kemp has put the group under investigation for alleged voter registration fraud, but group leaders said it was a “witch hunt” to intimidate their efforts...
Why Rick Scott Is Facing a Tea Party Revolt in Florida Mother Jones ...Scott soon discovered that governing like a tea partier made him one of the nation's most unpopular governors...
A dark-money cloud obscures issues that matter in Michigan MLive.com ...through Labor Day, the campaigns for governor and U.S. Senate had spent a total of nearly $30 million on advertising, mostly TV. In both cases, much of the spending is “dark money,” money for so-called issue-based advertising, in which the identity of those paying for the ads can legally be unreported and therefore effectively secret...
Portland Mayor Won’t Push For Higher Minimum Wage For Tipped Workers; Council Could See Proposal Next Month Bangor Daily News ...Mayor Michael Brennan last week said a proposed ordinance to raise the minimum wage in the city might be vetted next week by a City Council committee, and could go before the full council for consideration next month...
Virginia Sues 13 Big Banks, Claiming Mortgage Securities Fraud Washington Post ...Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring on Tuesday announced a $1.15 billion lawsuit against 13 of the nation’s biggest banks, accusing them of misleading a state retirement fund about the quality of bonds made up of residential mortgages...
Absentee Ballot Mailings Halted In Push To Restart Voter ID Law Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...Local clerks and state elections officials are putting their absentee ballot mailings on hold as they hustle to reinstate Wisconsin's photo ID requirement for voters in the wake of Friday's federal appeals court decision...
New Rules Coming For Uber, Lyft Memphis Flyer ...New rules for Lyft and Uber are on the way as the Memphis City Council began formalizing them Tuesday but taxi companies protested that the rules did not go far enough to level the playing field...
War On Workers
Five Years Of Recovery Haven’t Boosted The Median Household Income FiveThirtyEight ...The income of the median U.S. household was $51,900 in 2013, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. That’s essentially unchanged from 2012, after adjusting for inflation, and is 8 percent lower than in 2007, before the recession began...
Drowning In Debt, Younger Workers Feeling Disillusioned With American Dream CBS Detroit ...“Their unemployment levels are double that of the average, they’re drowning under debt whether it’s credit card debt – just to survive or the debt they accumulated trying to get a college degree and now can’t find a job to pay it off,” said Shuler...
Multinational Companies Court Lower-Income Consumers New York Times ...For years, multinational companies had little interest in lower-end consumers, figuring no money was to be made. Now, they are increasingly attractive to all types of industries, from consumer product makers to technology businesses...
Child Laborers. In America. In 2014. Politico Magazine ...Lax federal labor laws allow kids as young as 12 to work in tobacco fields, despite mounting evidence that they can contract acute nicotine poisoning from handling tobacco leaves. Even some tobacco growers and companies take the position that U.S. laws and regulations aren’t strong enough...
Worker Killed After Being Electrocuted Under NW OKC House Newson6.com ...One person was killed after being accidentally electrocuted while working under a home in northwest Oklahoma City, Wednesday morning...
For the First Time in North America, Teamsters Successfully Organize Workers at FedEx Freight teamster.org ...In a historic first, dock associates at FedEx Freight in Surrey, British Columbia have joined Teamsters Local 31. Read Teamsters Canada press release, here. It’s a North American first for these workers at FedEx. Before this victory, the only unionized FedEx employees were the company’s U.S.-based pilots...
Oxford schools reach contract with Teamsters Daily Local News ...The Oxford Area School District has reached a contract agreement with its service and support staff who are members of Teamsters’ Local 384...
Teamsters Endorse McClain For County Prosecutor Chinook Observer ...Teamsters Joint Council No. 28, representing local teamsters throughout Washington, Idaho and Alaska have endorsed Mark McClain for Pacific County prosecutor...
Coroner IDs Security Guard Killed On Set Of TNT’s ‘Falling Skies’ Deadline Hollywood ...The Teamsters security guard killed Monday in Vancouver on the set of the TNT sci-fi drama Falling Skies has been identified as Amrik Singh Gill, 59, of Delta, BC. Gill was crushed to death when an unattended five-ton truck rolled down a hill and pinned him against a tree...
Trade
U.S. launches antidumping, countervailing duty probe against China’s boltless steel shelving Trade Reform ...The investigations are in response to a request from Edsal Manufacturing Company based in the state of Illinois. The company alleged that the products from China were sold below the fair value of the products in the U.S. market with dumping margin of 40 percent to 211 percent, and Chinese producers and exporters also received improper government subsidies...
As President’s Export Council Meets, No Chance to Meet Obama’s Export Doubling Goal; Export Growth Falls Under Free Trade Agreements Public Citizen ...Obama’s efforts to push more-of-the-same trade policies has been sidelined by the dismal outcomes of his 2011 U.S.-Korea FTA, with the U.S. goods trade deficit with Korea up 50 percent and U.S. exports to Korea down 5 percent in the first two years of the pact...
Business groups keep passage of fast-track high on list of priorities The Hill ...Business Roundtable and the National Association of Manufacturers are among the slew of groups that are aggressively pushing for action on fast-track authority before this Congress closes up shop for the year...
State Battles
State says 25 voter applications of 85,000 “confirmed” forgeries Atlanta Journal Constitution ...The New Georgia Project brought bins holding copies of more than 51,000 unprocessed voter applications to the state Capitol on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014. Secretary of State Brian Kemp has put the group under investigation for alleged voter registration fraud, but group leaders said it was a “witch hunt” to intimidate their efforts...
Why Rick Scott Is Facing a Tea Party Revolt in Florida Mother Jones ...Scott soon discovered that governing like a tea partier made him one of the nation's most unpopular governors...
A dark-money cloud obscures issues that matter in Michigan MLive.com ...through Labor Day, the campaigns for governor and U.S. Senate had spent a total of nearly $30 million on advertising, mostly TV. In both cases, much of the spending is “dark money,” money for so-called issue-based advertising, in which the identity of those paying for the ads can legally be unreported and therefore effectively secret...
Portland Mayor Won’t Push For Higher Minimum Wage For Tipped Workers; Council Could See Proposal Next Month Bangor Daily News ...Mayor Michael Brennan last week said a proposed ordinance to raise the minimum wage in the city might be vetted next week by a City Council committee, and could go before the full council for consideration next month...
Virginia Sues 13 Big Banks, Claiming Mortgage Securities Fraud Washington Post ...Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring on Tuesday announced a $1.15 billion lawsuit against 13 of the nation’s biggest banks, accusing them of misleading a state retirement fund about the quality of bonds made up of residential mortgages...
Absentee Ballot Mailings Halted In Push To Restart Voter ID Law Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...Local clerks and state elections officials are putting their absentee ballot mailings on hold as they hustle to reinstate Wisconsin's photo ID requirement for voters in the wake of Friday's federal appeals court decision...
New Rules Coming For Uber, Lyft Memphis Flyer ...New rules for Lyft and Uber are on the way as the Memphis City Council began formalizing them Tuesday but taxi companies protested that the rules did not go far enough to level the playing field...
War On Workers
Five Years Of Recovery Haven’t Boosted The Median Household Income FiveThirtyEight ...The income of the median U.S. household was $51,900 in 2013, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. That’s essentially unchanged from 2012, after adjusting for inflation, and is 8 percent lower than in 2007, before the recession began...
Drowning In Debt, Younger Workers Feeling Disillusioned With American Dream CBS Detroit ...“Their unemployment levels are double that of the average, they’re drowning under debt whether it’s credit card debt – just to survive or the debt they accumulated trying to get a college degree and now can’t find a job to pay it off,” said Shuler...
Multinational Companies Court Lower-Income Consumers New York Times ...For years, multinational companies had little interest in lower-end consumers, figuring no money was to be made. Now, they are increasingly attractive to all types of industries, from consumer product makers to technology businesses...
Child Laborers. In America. In 2014. Politico Magazine ...Lax federal labor laws allow kids as young as 12 to work in tobacco fields, despite mounting evidence that they can contract acute nicotine poisoning from handling tobacco leaves. Even some tobacco growers and companies take the position that U.S. laws and regulations aren’t strong enough...
Worker Killed After Being Electrocuted Under NW OKC House Newson6.com ...One person was killed after being accidentally electrocuted while working under a home in northwest Oklahoma City, Wednesday morning...
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Today's Teamster News 08.20.14
Teamster News
Teamsters Local Union Ratifies New Agreement With Penn State Penn State News ...Members of Teamsters Local Union No. 8 employed by Penn State have ratified a new collective bargaining agreement with the University to replace the current agreement, which expired June 30. Teamsters Local Union No. 8 represents the bargaining unit consisting of approximately 2,600 technical-service employees at University locations throughout the Commonwealth...
Negotiations Continue Between EVSC And Teamsters WTVW ...While there is still no contract in hand, communication is still open between the EVSC and Teamsters Local 215 Union. ...The Teamsters Union is made up of bus drivers, custodians, and secretaries, or about 20 percent of the EVSC's staff...
Dubuque's unions name grand marshal for annual Labor Day parade KWWL.com ...This year, members of Dubuque's United Labor Participation Committee selected long-time local Teamsters leader Dave Baker as the parade's grand marshal...
Trade
China fines Japanese car parts firms for price-fixing BBC News ...he country's anti-monopoly regulator said the companies were found to have colluded to reduce competition. Japan's Sumitomo Electric and Mitsubishi Electric were among the firms that received the heaviest fines...
If America Won’t Invest in America’s Infrastructure, China Will manufacture this ...there is a big gap between eastern and western China in terms of transportation infrastructure. China will strengthen infrastructure construction in central and western areas while promoting exports in technology and high-speed railway and highway equipment. China is willing to join the United States in upgrading transportation infrastructure...
State Battles
WEDC is marketing industrial properties owned by Walker donors WKOW.com ...The only private properties being marketed through a Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) land development program are owned by companies whose executives have donated extensively to the campaign of Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wisconsin)...
Group Backing Minimum Wage Hike Submits More Signatures Arkansas News ...A group seeking to place on the November ballot an initiated act to raise the state minimum wage submitted what it said were 69,070 additional signatures in support of the measure to the secretary of state’s office Monday...
San Diego Defies Mayor, Raises Minimum Wage CNN Money ...San Diego is the latest city to pass a minimum wage hike despite a veto from Mayor Kevin Faulconer. On Monday, the San Diego City Council overrode his veto to approve a gradual wage increase and paid sick days...
Students Appeal to 4th Circuit for Stay of Voter Suppression Law Camel City Dispatch ...On Monday Students who have filed suit against the state of North Carolina over new voter suppression legislation (HB589 which Republican messaging call a voter ID bill) have filed a notice of appeal of U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder’s August 8 ruling denying a stay of the new law, pending the 2014 elections...
War On Workers
Wendy's Worker Says She Was Fired For Being Sick Huffington Post ...A 6-year veteran Wendy's worker in Alabama is alleging that management fired her for "job abandonment" while she was being treated for an ovarian cyst that would require surgery...
Lawn Worker Killed By Vehicle On McIntosh Road WWSB ...Authorities are investigating the death of a lawn maintenance worker that was struck by a vehicle while he mowed along McIntosh Road Monday morning...
Outside Campaign Spending Jumps In 2014 The Hill ...Outside political groups are on track to eclipse their spending during the 2010 GOP wave election, but only a fraction of that money has been reported to the public. ... outside groups have spent $72 million on independent expenditures in nine Senate races, a pace set to exceed the $97 million that such groups spent on 37 Senate races in the 2010 cycle...
Teamsters Local Union Ratifies New Agreement With Penn State Penn State News ...Members of Teamsters Local Union No. 8 employed by Penn State have ratified a new collective bargaining agreement with the University to replace the current agreement, which expired June 30. Teamsters Local Union No. 8 represents the bargaining unit consisting of approximately 2,600 technical-service employees at University locations throughout the Commonwealth...
Negotiations Continue Between EVSC And Teamsters WTVW ...While there is still no contract in hand, communication is still open between the EVSC and Teamsters Local 215 Union. ...The Teamsters Union is made up of bus drivers, custodians, and secretaries, or about 20 percent of the EVSC's staff...
Dubuque's unions name grand marshal for annual Labor Day parade KWWL.com ...This year, members of Dubuque's United Labor Participation Committee selected long-time local Teamsters leader Dave Baker as the parade's grand marshal...
Trade
China fines Japanese car parts firms for price-fixing BBC News ...he country's anti-monopoly regulator said the companies were found to have colluded to reduce competition. Japan's Sumitomo Electric and Mitsubishi Electric were among the firms that received the heaviest fines...
If America Won’t Invest in America’s Infrastructure, China Will manufacture this ...there is a big gap between eastern and western China in terms of transportation infrastructure. China will strengthen infrastructure construction in central and western areas while promoting exports in technology and high-speed railway and highway equipment. China is willing to join the United States in upgrading transportation infrastructure...
State Battles
WEDC is marketing industrial properties owned by Walker donors WKOW.com ...The only private properties being marketed through a Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) land development program are owned by companies whose executives have donated extensively to the campaign of Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wisconsin)...
Group Backing Minimum Wage Hike Submits More Signatures Arkansas News ...A group seeking to place on the November ballot an initiated act to raise the state minimum wage submitted what it said were 69,070 additional signatures in support of the measure to the secretary of state’s office Monday...
San Diego Defies Mayor, Raises Minimum Wage CNN Money ...San Diego is the latest city to pass a minimum wage hike despite a veto from Mayor Kevin Faulconer. On Monday, the San Diego City Council overrode his veto to approve a gradual wage increase and paid sick days...
Students Appeal to 4th Circuit for Stay of Voter Suppression Law Camel City Dispatch ...On Monday Students who have filed suit against the state of North Carolina over new voter suppression legislation (HB589 which Republican messaging call a voter ID bill) have filed a notice of appeal of U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder’s August 8 ruling denying a stay of the new law, pending the 2014 elections...
War On Workers
Wendy's Worker Says She Was Fired For Being Sick Huffington Post ...A 6-year veteran Wendy's worker in Alabama is alleging that management fired her for "job abandonment" while she was being treated for an ovarian cyst that would require surgery...
Lawn Worker Killed By Vehicle On McIntosh Road WWSB ...Authorities are investigating the death of a lawn maintenance worker that was struck by a vehicle while he mowed along McIntosh Road Monday morning...
Outside Campaign Spending Jumps In 2014 The Hill ...Outside political groups are on track to eclipse their spending during the 2010 GOP wave election, but only a fraction of that money has been reported to the public. ... outside groups have spent $72 million on independent expenditures in nine Senate races, a pace set to exceed the $97 million that such groups spent on 37 Senate races in the 2010 cycle...
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Today's Teamster News 04.03.14
Teamster News
Shumlin Calls For End To CCTA Strike Vermont Public Radio ...Gov. Pete Shumlin urged Teamster drivers and management of the Chittenden County Transportation Authority on Tuesday to agree to a contract deal as soon as possible...
Bus Drivers and CCTA Management To Negotiate Again Wednesday Burlington Free Press ...Teamster Drivers with the Chittenden County Transportation Authority will meet with management at 5 pm Wednesday to continue negotiations over a three-year contract, CCTA Board of Commissioners Chairman Tom Buckley told the Burlington Free Press Tuesday afternoon...
California Teamsters Call On US Foods To Recognize Union, Provide Security For Workers teamster.org ...On Tuesday, US Foods warehouse workers in Corona, Calif., called on the company to recognize Teamsters Local Union 63, Los Angeles, as their bargaining representative and to proceed immediately to negotiations for a first contract. The workers are concerned about job security as Sysco attempts to acquire their employer...
Rangel Snags Endorsement From Teamsters Union New York Observer ...Congressman Charlie Rangel, who is facing a tough re-election battle in a rematch against State Senator Adriano Espaillat, has notched another endorsement, this time from the Teamsters union...
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership Update KMA Land ...Japan said last week it would be difficult to achieve a breakthrough in talks with the United States on a pacific trade deal in time for President Barack Obama's trip to Asia next month...
Defense Science Board: Offshoring Of U.S. Manufacturing Has Created National Security Vulnerabilities Trade Reform ...For the first time perhaps ever, a U.S.-government report has stated that the shift of American manufacturing overseas is causing a decline in Americans’ standard of living...
State Battles
Right to Work future still uncertain after late meeting Springfield News-Leader ...The fate of Right to Work remains unclear following a late night meeting of House Republicans after a less controversial Paycheck Protection measure was given early approval Monday...
Emails Show Sen. Corker’s Chief of Staff Coordinated with Network of Anti-UAW Union Busters In These Times ...Leaked documents obtained by Nashville TV station NewsChannel 5 WVTF reveal communications between the employees of two Tennessee Republicans—Sen. Bob Corker and Gov. Bill Haslam—and a network of prominent anti-union professionals during the United Auto Workers' union drive at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga earlier this year...
Union-busting efforts move forward in Mississippi, Michigan MSNBC ...One of the reasons anti-labor forces fought so hard to prevail in February’s fight in Chattanooga was that they wanted to send a message: conservatives are prepared to fight against unionization wherever and whenever they can...
Florida Gov. Rick Scott's 2012 voter purge violated federal law, court rules Tampa Bay Times ...A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Gov. Rick Scott’s administration violated federal law by trying to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls too close to the 2012 presidential election...
Drought in California may hinder job growth for years, economists say Los Angeles Times ...Lack of rain in 2013 could diminish the fishing and manufacturing sectors in California, the UCLA Anderson Forecast says. Even without the weather factor, L.A. is grappling with major problems with its job market...
War on Workers
Power Surge for Donors New York Times ...Big donors, leaders of political parties and candidates with access to wealthy supporters will be the biggest beneficiaries of the Supreme Court decision issued on Wednesday, a ruling that could fundamentally reshape the political terrain in the 2014 elections and beyond...
Supreme Court Strikes Aggregate Donations Caps in Federal Elections Reuters ...On a 5-4 vote, the court struck down the overall limits on how much individuals can give to candidates, parties and political action committees in total during the federal two-year election cycle...
NSA searched Americans’ communications without a warrant, intelligence director says Washington Post ...Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. acknowledged that the National Security Agency has searched for Americans’ communications without warrants in massive databases that gather e-mails and phone calls of foreign targets...
More Americans see middle class status slipping Associated Press ...Nearly five years after the Great Recession ended, more people are coming to the painful realization that they’re no longer part of it...
BLS Issues New Occupational Employment and Wage Report Fire Dog Lake ...According to a new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, both retail clerks and cashiers are occupations highest in employment...
Koch brothers vs. a bus: Why two billionaires hate a transit project in Nashville Salon ...The idea of a public bus transport project in Nashville, Tenn. is under fire as the Koch brothers and their front organization are trying to stop it...
Baltimore's MICA Adjunct Professors Set to Vote on Unionization The Real News ...Maryland Institute College of Art part-time faculty member Hannah Brancato and organizer Maria Maisto discuss the growing nationwide trend of adjunct professors organizing in order to collective bargain for decent salaries and benefits...
U.S. Labor Department Calls NFL Cheerleaders 'Seasonal Amusement' -- Says They Don't Deserve Minimum Wage The Guardian ...With next to no labor rights and making nowhere near the minimum wage, they could use a cheer or two themselves...
Miscellaneous
Greed Kills Reuters ...General Motors Co in 2005 decided not to change an ignition switch eventually linked to the deaths of at least 13 people because it would have added about a dollar to the cost of each car, according to an internal GM document provided to U.S. congressional investigators...
Caterpillar avoided $2.4 billion in taxes, senator says Los Angeles Times ...Sen. Carl Levin, saying it was "long past time" to ensure that multinational U.S. corporations pay taxes on their overseas profits, took Caterpillar Inc. to task for an offshore strategy that helped the company avoid $2.4 billion in income taxes...
Straight From the NSA's Mouth: We Searched You Without a Warrant AlterNet ..NSA Director Clapper finally admitted to senators that the NSA performed warrantless searches...
Shumlin Calls For End To CCTA Strike Vermont Public Radio ...Gov. Pete Shumlin urged Teamster drivers and management of the Chittenden County Transportation Authority on Tuesday to agree to a contract deal as soon as possible...
Bus Drivers and CCTA Management To Negotiate Again Wednesday Burlington Free Press ...Teamster Drivers with the Chittenden County Transportation Authority will meet with management at 5 pm Wednesday to continue negotiations over a three-year contract, CCTA Board of Commissioners Chairman Tom Buckley told the Burlington Free Press Tuesday afternoon...
California Teamsters Call On US Foods To Recognize Union, Provide Security For Workers teamster.org ...On Tuesday, US Foods warehouse workers in Corona, Calif., called on the company to recognize Teamsters Local Union 63, Los Angeles, as their bargaining representative and to proceed immediately to negotiations for a first contract. The workers are concerned about job security as Sysco attempts to acquire their employer...
Rangel Snags Endorsement From Teamsters Union New York Observer ...Congressman Charlie Rangel, who is facing a tough re-election battle in a rematch against State Senator Adriano Espaillat, has notched another endorsement, this time from the Teamsters union...
Trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership Update KMA Land ...Japan said last week it would be difficult to achieve a breakthrough in talks with the United States on a pacific trade deal in time for President Barack Obama's trip to Asia next month...
Defense Science Board: Offshoring Of U.S. Manufacturing Has Created National Security Vulnerabilities Trade Reform ...For the first time perhaps ever, a U.S.-government report has stated that the shift of American manufacturing overseas is causing a decline in Americans’ standard of living...
State Battles
Right to Work future still uncertain after late meeting Springfield News-Leader ...The fate of Right to Work remains unclear following a late night meeting of House Republicans after a less controversial Paycheck Protection measure was given early approval Monday...
Emails Show Sen. Corker’s Chief of Staff Coordinated with Network of Anti-UAW Union Busters In These Times ...Leaked documents obtained by Nashville TV station NewsChannel 5 WVTF reveal communications between the employees of two Tennessee Republicans—Sen. Bob Corker and Gov. Bill Haslam—and a network of prominent anti-union professionals during the United Auto Workers' union drive at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga earlier this year...
Union-busting efforts move forward in Mississippi, Michigan MSNBC ...One of the reasons anti-labor forces fought so hard to prevail in February’s fight in Chattanooga was that they wanted to send a message: conservatives are prepared to fight against unionization wherever and whenever they can...
Florida Gov. Rick Scott's 2012 voter purge violated federal law, court rules Tampa Bay Times ...A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Gov. Rick Scott’s administration violated federal law by trying to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls too close to the 2012 presidential election...
Drought in California may hinder job growth for years, economists say Los Angeles Times ...Lack of rain in 2013 could diminish the fishing and manufacturing sectors in California, the UCLA Anderson Forecast says. Even without the weather factor, L.A. is grappling with major problems with its job market...
War on Workers
Power Surge for Donors New York Times ...Big donors, leaders of political parties and candidates with access to wealthy supporters will be the biggest beneficiaries of the Supreme Court decision issued on Wednesday, a ruling that could fundamentally reshape the political terrain in the 2014 elections and beyond...
Supreme Court Strikes Aggregate Donations Caps in Federal Elections Reuters ...On a 5-4 vote, the court struck down the overall limits on how much individuals can give to candidates, parties and political action committees in total during the federal two-year election cycle...
NSA searched Americans’ communications without a warrant, intelligence director says Washington Post ...Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. acknowledged that the National Security Agency has searched for Americans’ communications without warrants in massive databases that gather e-mails and phone calls of foreign targets...
More Americans see middle class status slipping Associated Press ...Nearly five years after the Great Recession ended, more people are coming to the painful realization that they’re no longer part of it...
BLS Issues New Occupational Employment and Wage Report Fire Dog Lake ...According to a new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, both retail clerks and cashiers are occupations highest in employment...
Koch brothers vs. a bus: Why two billionaires hate a transit project in Nashville Salon ...The idea of a public bus transport project in Nashville, Tenn. is under fire as the Koch brothers and their front organization are trying to stop it...
Baltimore's MICA Adjunct Professors Set to Vote on Unionization The Real News ...Maryland Institute College of Art part-time faculty member Hannah Brancato and organizer Maria Maisto discuss the growing nationwide trend of adjunct professors organizing in order to collective bargain for decent salaries and benefits...
U.S. Labor Department Calls NFL Cheerleaders 'Seasonal Amusement' -- Says They Don't Deserve Minimum Wage The Guardian ...With next to no labor rights and making nowhere near the minimum wage, they could use a cheer or two themselves...
Miscellaneous
Greed Kills Reuters ...General Motors Co in 2005 decided not to change an ignition switch eventually linked to the deaths of at least 13 people because it would have added about a dollar to the cost of each car, according to an internal GM document provided to U.S. congressional investigators...
Caterpillar avoided $2.4 billion in taxes, senator says Los Angeles Times ...Sen. Carl Levin, saying it was "long past time" to ensure that multinational U.S. corporations pay taxes on their overseas profits, took Caterpillar Inc. to task for an offshore strategy that helped the company avoid $2.4 billion in income taxes...
Straight From the NSA's Mouth: We Searched You Without a Warrant AlterNet ..NSA Director Clapper finally admitted to senators that the NSA performed warrantless searches...
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
How to kill unions with lies and rich people's money
Norquist was at CPAC, the notorious 'Conservative Political Action Conference' in Washington where people like Ann Coulter say vulgar things to get attention and sell their latest book.
As Dave Jamison at the Huffington Post reported, Norquist is expanding his con to union busting from his main scam, shrinking government to the size where he can drown it in a bathtub (or, 'turning America into Somalia'). Norquist campaigned against the UAW at the VW plant in Chattanooga, plastering anti-union messages on billboards throughout the city.
At CPAC he was trying to find customers for his union-busting, but he had a hard time raising the spectre of Big Labor because we're not so big anymore -- not anywhere close to as big or as powerful as the sociopathic billionaires who fund him. As Jamison pointed out,
A successful anti-union discussion therefore needs to strike a delicate balance, celebrating unions' diminished state while simultaneously insisting they pose as grave a threat as ever.So here's what Norquist said:
"They're not dead yet -- they're in decline," Norquist said. "They raise maybe $7 billion a year in dues. Imagine how much they spend of that on politics. They are the largest political player in American politics and will be for some time. What can we do about it?"The truth is the Koch brothers and their friends spend twice as much on politicsas the top 10 unions combined. According to the Republic Report,
Koch groups alone spent more than double the combined political spending (including to undisclosed group) for the top ten unions combined.The chart at the top of the page shows union spending on dark money Democratic groups and Koch spending on dark money groups like Americans for Prosperity. Republic Report says:
This undisclosed campaign system is nothing new for the Koch brothers. In 1995 and 1996, Koch set up a shell company called Triad Management to spend millions in secret money to help the Republican Party. Of course, this type of spending never shows up in databases like the one cited by Strassel.
All NRLB-regulated unions, on the other hand, disclose every outside payment. Payments that cannot be found through the FEC can be found on a database maintained by the Labor Department. Individuals and corporations are under no such similar disclosure rules. The Koch money identified recently by the Washington Post, the $407 million, relates only to they money filtered through foundations and nonprofits. The money Koch spends as a corporate entity, which it has in the past, may have gone unreported.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Shareholders to SEC: Expose corporate "dark money" in politics
If you have any retirement savings, you probably own stock in a public corporation. And the CEOs of those corporations can spend your money however they wish on politics -- without telling you.
Since the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision, corporations have been pouring millions of dollars into shadowy groups to influence elections. In the 2012 election, up to $400 million was funneled into these "dark money" groups -- that's 500 percent more than in the previous presidential election before Citizens United.
More often than not, that corporate money is being spent to elect anti-worker candidates to public office.
A new SEC rule being considered would require publicly traded companies to disclose to shareholders the corporate funds spent on political campaigns.
Supporters of the new rule, led by Public Citizen, held an event in Washington yesterday where Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) urged the SEC to shine a light on the "dark money" spent by corporations:
We don't have to have legislation for the SEC to do the right thing. They have the power to do the right thing right now. There is no reason for saying a corporation wants to be able to spend shareholders' money and not tell shareholders how that money is being spent.Advocates for transparency in corporate political spending are also supporting the Shareholder Protection Act, legislation introduced by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) to force the SEC to enact a political disclosure rule. Menendez was also at yesterday's event and said the SEC does not need the legislation to write the new rule now.
Law professor Ciara Torres-Spelliscy wrote in the Los Angeles Times:
There is no rule at the SEC that requires public companies to tell their shareholders what they are up to in partisan elections.
If the law of the land allows corporations to spend unlimited money on politics, investors deserve to know when, why and how much.
As the Sunlight Foundation observes, the recent government shutdown was just one symptom of the dysfunction sewn by the dark money infecting DC -- all in the interests of right-wing fanatics and their corporate sponsors:
Not all that ails our democracy can be blamed on the Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case, but $1.2 billion in spending by outside groups—at least $300 million of that from undisclosed donors—doesn’t help create a working democracy.
Legislation such as the DISCLOSE Act is still the best chance at comprehensive disclosure of all dark money. But an SEC rule will result in greater accountability by companies that decide to spend money on politics, it will inform investors about how a company spends its profits, and it will help the public identify the messenger behind many of the political ads they see.
A new SEC rule wouldn't solve all of our problems. It probably won't even reduce corporate political spending all that much. But it would be a nice change from the secrecy that shrouds political spending.
And it will give us a chance to hold CEOs accountable when they spend money on politicians who attack working people.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Kochs’ vast dark money network exposed
Our friends at the Center for Media and Democracy have the story:
The Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce's tax filing also lists the names and amounts of all of the entities it funded between late 2011 and the eve of the 2012 elections. Here is the list of the top five groups to which the Kochs' Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce funneled millions:
- "Corner Table LLC," known as the "Center to Protect Patient Rights" (CPPR): three infusions of cash totaling $114,678,000. CPPR is at the center of a probe by the California Elections Board on "dark money" spent through shell groups to influence two ballot initiatives, among other concerns that have been raised about it.
- "PR Dist LLC," described as "Americans for Prosperity," which is directed by David Koch: two infusions totaling $31,600,000.
- "The 60 Plus Association Inc.," $15,660,000
- "American Future Fund," $13,600,000
- "Concerned Women for American Legislative Action Committee," $8,150,000
Freedom Partners’ tax report also shows it owns five other shell game groups that all share the same Washington DC street address: “American Entrepreneur Fund LLC,” “American Enterprise Group LLC,” “American Strategies Group LLC,” “MIC LLC,” and “American Strategic Innovations LLC."
Creepy!
CMD reports that the “National Federation of Independent Business” received $2.5 from the Koch-funded “Freedom Partners” group. The NFIB claims to represent the interests of small business owners, yet it’s getting millions from the Kochs’ big corporation ... which would just as soon crush the small businesses that try to compete with it.
Creepy!
CMD reports that the “National Federation of Independent Business” received $2.5 from the Koch-funded “Freedom Partners” group. The NFIB claims to represent the interests of small business owners, yet it’s getting millions from the Kochs’ big corporation ... which would just as soon crush the small businesses that try to compete with it.
And in case you needed a reminder of how intricate and well-funded the right-wing anti-worker arsenal is, there’s more:
Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce spent another $50 million on other groups, cumulatively, some of which are well known and some of which have flown below the public's radar:
- "American Commitment," $6,260,000
- "Partnership for Ohio's Future," $500,000
- "West Michigan Policy Forum," $1,000,000
- "American Energy Alliance," $1,460,000 (has previously been connected to the Kochs)
- "American Values Action," $230,000 (spent $14 million on "independent expenditures" including phone calls against Obama during the 2012 election; donors unknown/not registered as a PAC)
- "Common Sense Issues, Inc.," $50,000
- "Heritage Action for America, Inc.," $500,000 (connected to the Heritage Foundation, which has deep Koch connections)
- "ORRA LLC (EVANGCH4 Trust)," $5,055,000
- "POFN LLC (Public Notice)," $5,466,250
- "Republican Jewish Coalition," $700,000
- "RION LLC (Center for Shared Service Trust), $2,738,000 (closely connected to the Charles Koch Foundation)
- "SLAH LLC (Public Engagement Trust)," $1,500,000 (Arlington)
- "State Tea Party Express," $600,000 (operates out of Willows, California)
- "STN LLC (Themis Trust)," $5,781,000
- "TONA LLC (Libre Initiative Trust)," $3,112,000
- "Tea Party Patriots," $200,000 (operating out of Woodstock, Georgia)
- "TRGN LLC (Generation Opportunity), $5,040,000 (a group aimed at Gen X that tries to pin the economic crash that began under President George W. Bush on Democrats)
- "The National Right to Work Committee," $1,000,000 (which pushes anti-worker, union-busting measures)
The next time you hear about a “grassroots” organization of concerned citizens whining about “big government” and “big labor” while calling for things like “right to work” for less laws and financial deregulation, odds are that those ordinary folks are in fact right-wing billionaire goons – or at least they’re getting paid by right-wing billionaire goons.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Today's Teamster News 02.21.13
U.S. Banks Bigger Than GDP as Accounting Rift Masks Risk Bloomberg News ...Applying stricter accounting standards for derivatives and off-balance-sheet assets would make the banks twice as big as they say they are -- or about the size of the U.S. economy...
JPMorgan Leads U.S. Banks Lending Least Deposits in 5 Years Bloomberg News ...The biggest U.S. banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. are lending the smallest portion of their deposits in five years as cash floods in from savers and a slow economy damps demand from borrowers...
The European debt crisis claims a new victim: Bulgaria Marketplace ...The government of Bulgaria has quit after nationwide protests against austerity measures...
Watchdog Group Sues IRS Over Dark Money Rules Talking Points Memo ...Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) ... sue(d) the IRS, accusing the agency of creating a loophole that has allowed groups like the American Action Network to flourish...
U.S. Ups Ante for Spying on Firms Wall Street Journal ...The White House threatened China and other countries with trade and diplomatic action over corporate espionage as it cataloged more than a dozen cases of cyberattacks and commercial thefts at some of the U.S.'s biggest companies...
Michigan Weighs Detroit Takeover Wall Street Journal ...This city inched closer to a state takeover on Tuesday after a review team appointed by Michigan's governor concluded Detroit was in a state of financial emergency with no realistic plan to resolve the crisis...
Risky business tax breaks cost Maine $100 million per year Portland Press Herald ...Reducing or eliminating what critics call corporate welfare has proved difficult because of the political clout of businesses, experts say...
Right-to-work law doesn't apply to us, state employees unions say in lawsuit Detroit Free Press ...Several state employee unions are asking the Michigan Court of Appeals to formally declare that new right-to-work laws do not apply to labor agreements that affect the 34,500 unionized state workers...
Dayton signs bill ratifying state employee contracts Minnesota Public Radio ...The contracts give a two percent across-the-board pay increase to 35,000 state workers...
Beer distributors oppose privatization TribLive.com ...A new proposal by Gov. Tom Corbett's administration to privatize wine and liquor sales and expand where beer is sold could pose the greatest threat to businesses like (Cox Distributors) since the 1930s...
Teachers, unions cry foul over legislators' surprise move to prevent dues collections Evansville Courier & Press ...A House panel advanced a measure Tuesday that would bar schools from deducting union fees from teachers’ paychecks — a move backed by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce...
Rick Scott's first job creator, Vision Airlines, charged with grand theft Miami Herald ...The airline abandoned its flights to Fort Walton Beach in less than two years. It also, local officials say, abandoned its contractual obligations to the area. In December, county commissioners sued the company for nearly $150,000 in unpaid airline fees...
Prison Unions Skeptical as Bipartisan 'Smart Justice Bill' Filed in Legislature Sunshine State News ...As many as 1,200 prisoners could get a new lease on life if two of the Florida Legislature's leading figures on criminal justice issues have their way; one of the state's largest unions is supporting the gist of the reform package, but taking strong issue with its prison privatization component...
Anti-union bills held back in Arizona Legislature Phoenix Business Journal ...Two anti-union bills in the Arizona Legislature are being held back after drawing concerns from police and firefighter groups...
Senior Flexonics Workers Overwhelmingly Join Teamsters Local 330 Teamsters Joint Council 25 ...By a 3-to-1 margin, approximately 350 automotive, energy, medical and aerospace supply manufacturers in suburban Chicago voted to join Teamsters Local 330 on Feb. 15...
Teamsters Local 237 Backs Incumbent Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes New York Daily News ... The Teamsters' biggest local is backing Brooklyn DA Joe Hynes for election to a seventh term...
JPMorgan Leads U.S. Banks Lending Least Deposits in 5 Years Bloomberg News ...The biggest U.S. banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. are lending the smallest portion of their deposits in five years as cash floods in from savers and a slow economy damps demand from borrowers...
The European debt crisis claims a new victim: Bulgaria Marketplace ...The government of Bulgaria has quit after nationwide protests against austerity measures...
Watchdog Group Sues IRS Over Dark Money Rules Talking Points Memo ...Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) ... sue(d) the IRS, accusing the agency of creating a loophole that has allowed groups like the American Action Network to flourish...
U.S. Ups Ante for Spying on Firms Wall Street Journal ...The White House threatened China and other countries with trade and diplomatic action over corporate espionage as it cataloged more than a dozen cases of cyberattacks and commercial thefts at some of the U.S.'s biggest companies...
Michigan Weighs Detroit Takeover Wall Street Journal ...This city inched closer to a state takeover on Tuesday after a review team appointed by Michigan's governor concluded Detroit was in a state of financial emergency with no realistic plan to resolve the crisis...
Risky business tax breaks cost Maine $100 million per year Portland Press Herald ...Reducing or eliminating what critics call corporate welfare has proved difficult because of the political clout of businesses, experts say...
Right-to-work law doesn't apply to us, state employees unions say in lawsuit Detroit Free Press ...Several state employee unions are asking the Michigan Court of Appeals to formally declare that new right-to-work laws do not apply to labor agreements that affect the 34,500 unionized state workers...
Dayton signs bill ratifying state employee contracts Minnesota Public Radio ...The contracts give a two percent across-the-board pay increase to 35,000 state workers...
Beer distributors oppose privatization TribLive.com ...A new proposal by Gov. Tom Corbett's administration to privatize wine and liquor sales and expand where beer is sold could pose the greatest threat to businesses like (Cox Distributors) since the 1930s...
Teachers, unions cry foul over legislators' surprise move to prevent dues collections Evansville Courier & Press ...A House panel advanced a measure Tuesday that would bar schools from deducting union fees from teachers’ paychecks — a move backed by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce...
Rick Scott's first job creator, Vision Airlines, charged with grand theft Miami Herald ...The airline abandoned its flights to Fort Walton Beach in less than two years. It also, local officials say, abandoned its contractual obligations to the area. In December, county commissioners sued the company for nearly $150,000 in unpaid airline fees...
Prison Unions Skeptical as Bipartisan 'Smart Justice Bill' Filed in Legislature Sunshine State News ...As many as 1,200 prisoners could get a new lease on life if two of the Florida Legislature's leading figures on criminal justice issues have their way; one of the state's largest unions is supporting the gist of the reform package, but taking strong issue with its prison privatization component...
Anti-union bills held back in Arizona Legislature Phoenix Business Journal ...Two anti-union bills in the Arizona Legislature are being held back after drawing concerns from police and firefighter groups...
Senior Flexonics Workers Overwhelmingly Join Teamsters Local 330 Teamsters Joint Council 25 ...By a 3-to-1 margin, approximately 350 automotive, energy, medical and aerospace supply manufacturers in suburban Chicago voted to join Teamsters Local 330 on Feb. 15...
Teamsters Local 237 Backs Incumbent Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes New York Daily News ... The Teamsters' biggest local is backing Brooklyn DA Joe Hynes for election to a seventh term...
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