Teamsters
Teamsters At Northwest Steel And Pipe Vote Unanimously To Strike teamster.org ...Teamster warehouse workers, operators, and drivers at Northwest Steel and Pipe voted unanimously to strike last night. The strike vote took place Tuesday evening outside the company’s facility in Tacoma...
Teamsters Urge Support For Sen. Sanders' Pension Amendment teamster.org ...“Sen. Sanders is trying to do the right thing for retired Americans who receive benefits from a multiemployer pension plan like thousands of Teamsters do...
US Foods Volume Declines While Waiting For Merger With Sysco Chicago Tribune ...Sysco's attempt to buy US Foods for $3.5 billion was dealt a blow in February when the Federal Trade Commission, on a 3-2 vote, sought to block the deal along with 11 attorneys general. A district court hearing on the preliminary injunction is set to begin in Washington on May 5...
Students’ mosaic to Light up the Night at autism gala Boston Herald ...Longtime supporters of the Teamsters Local 25
Autism Gala know to
expect a dazzling piece of artwork at tomorrow’s Light up the Night party. And judging from the
effort the autistic students in Chris Hall’s art class put into their 54,000-piece
mosaic, they won’t be disappointed...
EXCLUSIVE: NYCHA quietly sold off supplies needed for repairs and cleanup New York Daily News ..."They'd say they didn't have material to clean with. It was a continuous complaining and concern. They didn't have mops. They didn't have buckets," said Greg Floyd, president of Teamsters Local 237, which represents 8,000 NYCHA workers. "Now to find out that the Housing Authority was sitting on all of these things? Some of my members didn't have uniforms. Come to find out they had uniforms. They were warehousing all this material."...
Teamsters, ITF Warn Of Possible Disruptions Of LAN Airline Flights Aero News Network ...A number of flights of South American LAN Airlines could be affected as the unions of LAN Airlines began a series of actions on Wednesday, March 25th in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Miami...
Trade
Despite Leak Of TPP Text, Obama Officials Say Trade Deal Will Not Let Companies Overturn US Laws International Business Times ...Less than three weeks after a classified draft of its proposed 12-nation trade pact included provisions that critics say empower foreign companies to overturn domestic regulations, the Obama administration explicitly declared that the deal would not permit such actions...
Germany’s SPD Won’t Back Down In US Trade Talks The Nation ...Germany’s economy minister has promised to block any clauses in a trade deal between the European Union and the United States that go against the ideals of his centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), including investor protection clauses wanted by the Americans...
State Battles
A Rare Victory for Black Voting Rights in the South The Nation ...Today the Court, in a 5-4 decision written by Justice Breyer, sided with the black plaintiffs and ordered a district court in Alabama to reexamine whether specific districts, like Ross’s, were improperly drawn with race as the predominant factor...
Indiana income growth slows Indianapolis Star ...The income Hoosiers received last year grew slightly slower than the national average, dropping the state from 38th to 39th in per capita income, according the Bureau of Economic Analysis...
Dayton Pushes For $10 Minimum Wage For Airport Workers Minneapolis Star Tribune ...“They deserve it, the airline industry can afford it, and one thing about raising the minimum wage at the airport is it’s not going to be a threat to move to South Dakota or China or somewhere else. It’s our airport, it’s a public facility and it ought to better reflect the values of the citizenry.”...
War on Workers
Yes, You Should Ask For A Raise (opinion) U.S. News and World Report ...In 2015, nearly 5 million American workers might get a pay raise. By joining together to ask for one. Through a union. Minimum wage hikes, overtime expansion, paid sick leave and other policy improvements are important to raise wages in America. But the best way for workers to get a raise is by asking for one with a collective voice. That’s what workers do – bargain together in unions to improve our lives...
Household Debt Is A National Crisis (opinion) Truthout ...Family debt is no personal failing — it's a national crisis. Even as unemployment declines, the debt crisis is holding back a full economic recovery and pushing more people into poverty...
Connecticut Farm Worker Dies After Corn Collapses On Him New York Daily News ...A Connecticut farm worker died Monday after a pile of milled corn collapsed and buried him, police said. Donald Merchant, 54, was using equipment to move corn from a large mound at the Square A Farm in Lebanon when some of it toppled onto him when he got off the vehicle...
North Carolina DOT Worker Dead In Accident In Wayne County WTVD ...State officials said a North Carolina Department of Transportation worker was killed in an accident on U.S. Highway 70 in Wayne County Monday. It happened just before 11 a.m. at Capps Bridge Road. The area is west of Goldsboro...
A Campaign Finance Idea Whose Time Has Come (opinion) Washington Post ...The bill — also known as the Government by the People Act — would provide House candidates with a way to raise funds without auctioning off themselves to Wall Street and K Street. If candidates chose to limit contributions to their campaigns to no more than $1,000, every contribution they received of $150 or less from residents of their state would trigger a contribution of public funds at a 6-to-1 ratio: A $100 donation would yield $600 in public funds; a $150 donation, $900. To qualify for matching funds, candidates would also have to reject contributions from political action committees, unless those PACS also raised their money in contributions of $150 or less...
Miscellaneous
Showing posts with label debt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label debt. Show all posts
Friday, March 27, 2015
Saturday, December 13, 2014
Today's Teamster News 12.13.14
Teamster News
While Cromnibus Waits, Teamsters Object to Pension Plan Roll Call ...the Senate might not be able to hold its final vote on the measure until Monday...Teamsters Object. With the fiscal 2015 spending bill on track for action, the Teamsters union is weighing in with a last-ditch effort to get lawmakers to reject the measure. A statement from Teamsters President Jim Hoffa pointed to pension changes in the measure, which the union said would result “in an untold number of retirees losing a substantial percentage of their fixed income should reductions be required.” The Teamsters are also objecting to the controversial hours of service rules in the bill...
34-Hour Restart Changes: House Passes Spending Bill; Eyes On Senate Commercial Carrier Journal ...First, it removes the requirement that drivers’ 34-hour restarts include two 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. periods. Second, it removes the one-per-week limit of the restart’s use. It also requires FMCSA to produce a study to show how the restart provisions improve safety. The stay of enforcement of the rules will end after Sept. 30, 2015, and after FMCSA provides its report justifying the rules...
Reid Announces Weekend Votes After Blockade (Updated) Roll Call ...Reid also said that absent an agreement, the Senate would vote at 1 a.m. Sunday to limit debate on the cromnibus spending package...
CRomnibus Disaster Signals a Sad New Normal in D.C. The Fiscal Times ...Under the bill, trustees would be enabled to cut pension benefits to current retirees, reversing a 40-year bond with workers who earned their retirement packages...
Sysco Poised To Complete $8.2B Merger With US Foods New York Post ...Sysco is poised to complete the $8.2 billion merger with its closest rival, US Foods, but at a much stiffer price than expected, The Post has learned. America’s biggest food-service provider, Sysco is selling assets worth $5 billion to Performance Food Group (owned by Steve Schwarzman-led Blackstone Group) to win regulatory approval, two sources said. That is equal to roughly one-quarter of US Foods’ revenue...
Congressman Urges Cooperation Between Teamsters And Giant Eagle Distributor WFMJ ...Representative Ryan as sent letters pleading with the Tamarkin Company and Teamsters Local 377 to “quickly and efficiently negotiate a fair resolution to the ongoing labor dispute. The result of an impasse is simply not in the best interests of the workers, the company or this community,” writes Ryan...
State AFL-CIO opposes Bill de Blasio's horse carriage ban New York Daily News ... A resolution passed Friday by the state AFL-CIO says New York City's carriage industry provides 300 good middle-class jobs. The major statewide labor coalition is the latest of several union groups to vow to fight the mayor's proposal...
Trade
Growing U.S. trade deficit with China cost 3.2 million jobs between 2001 and 2013, with job losses in every state Economic Policy Institute ...a growing U.S. goods trade deficit with China has the United States piling up foreign debt, losing export capacity, and losing jobs, especially in the vital but under-siege manufacturing sector...
Obama 'more optimistic' about Pacific trade deal The Hill ...President Obama said Thursday he believes the odds for striking a Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement are "significantly higher than 50-50" in a meeting Thursday with his export council...
State Battles
Warren County Votes To Become Right To Work County WBKO ...Fiscal Court approved a right to work ordinance on the first reading Thursday morning with a vote of 5-1, democrat Tommy Hunt was the lone magistrate against it...
Jury still out on Michigan's growth, lack of since becoming right-to-work state WNEM.com …Woods said right-to-work isn't creating jobs in Michigan. "Michigan still ranks in the top 10 states in unemployment rate at 7.1 percent," she said...
Rex Sinquefield’s million-dollar donation heralds new craziness in Missouri Kansas City Star ...many Missouri Republicans are very nervous about Sinquefield’s ostentatious bankrolling of his personal slate of candidates for the 2016 statewide ticket...
NJ AFL-CIO supports ‘Buy America’ bills PolitickerNJ ...Urgently needed legislation that will give American-made products and U.S. workers a fair shake in the domestic marketplace cleared another legislative hurdle on Thursday, December 11, when it was released by the Assembly Budget Committee...
GOP may seek last push for Pa. action TribLive ...[Pennsylvania] Lawmakers could make a final push to privatize state liquor stores, reform the public pension system and end government collection of union dues from paychecks — proposals Wolf opposes...
The Koch Wall Street Crusade To Rob Pensions Is Underway PoliticusUSA ...despite sending his state into an economic tailspin after squandering a budget surplus and cutting services to provide unimaginable tax cuts for the rich, Kansas governor Sam Brownback is robbing employee pensions to cover the state’s devastating budget shortfalls...
Koch brothers group files suit against Calif. AG, refuses to disclose donors Legal Newsline ...nonprofit group founded by the Koch brothers is challenging California Attorney General Kamala Harris’ threat to take its state tax-exempt status unless it discloses the identities of its donors...
War on Workers
Ruling Lets Work Email Be Used To Organize Unions New York Times ...Calling that ruling “clearly incorrect,” the current majority noted how technology had transformed daily habits. “The workplace is ‘uniquely appropriate’ and ‘the natural gathering place’ for such communications,” the board wrote, “and the use of email as a common form of workplace communication has expanded dramatically in recent years.”...
The Vanishing Male Worker: How America Fell Behind New York Times ...Working, in America, is in decline. The share of prime-age men — those 25 to 54 years old — who are not working has more than tripled since the late 1960s, to 16 percent. More recently, since the turn of the century, the share of women without paying jobs has been rising, too. The United States, which had one of the highest employment rates among developed nations as recently as 2000, has fallen toward the bottom of the list...
Wage Theft Costing Workers Millions of Dollars RH Reality Check ...The lost wages in those two states represent $20 million in lost income per week in New York and $29 million in lost income per week in California...
Construction Worker Killed After Roof Collapsed WGTU ...A 51-year-old West Branch man was killed after falling through the roof of a building...
Miscellaneous
Verizon's New, Encrypted Calling App Comes Pre-Hacked For The NSA Bloomberg Businessweek ...Verizon is the latest big company to enter the post-Snowden market for secure communication, and it's doing so with an encryption standard that comes with a way for law enforcement to access ostensibly secure phone conversations...
While Cromnibus Waits, Teamsters Object to Pension Plan Roll Call ...the Senate might not be able to hold its final vote on the measure until Monday...Teamsters Object. With the fiscal 2015 spending bill on track for action, the Teamsters union is weighing in with a last-ditch effort to get lawmakers to reject the measure. A statement from Teamsters President Jim Hoffa pointed to pension changes in the measure, which the union said would result “in an untold number of retirees losing a substantial percentage of their fixed income should reductions be required.” The Teamsters are also objecting to the controversial hours of service rules in the bill...
34-Hour Restart Changes: House Passes Spending Bill; Eyes On Senate Commercial Carrier Journal ...First, it removes the requirement that drivers’ 34-hour restarts include two 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. periods. Second, it removes the one-per-week limit of the restart’s use. It also requires FMCSA to produce a study to show how the restart provisions improve safety. The stay of enforcement of the rules will end after Sept. 30, 2015, and after FMCSA provides its report justifying the rules...
Reid Announces Weekend Votes After Blockade (Updated) Roll Call ...Reid also said that absent an agreement, the Senate would vote at 1 a.m. Sunday to limit debate on the cromnibus spending package...
CRomnibus Disaster Signals a Sad New Normal in D.C. The Fiscal Times ...Under the bill, trustees would be enabled to cut pension benefits to current retirees, reversing a 40-year bond with workers who earned their retirement packages...
Sysco Poised To Complete $8.2B Merger With US Foods New York Post ...Sysco is poised to complete the $8.2 billion merger with its closest rival, US Foods, but at a much stiffer price than expected, The Post has learned. America’s biggest food-service provider, Sysco is selling assets worth $5 billion to Performance Food Group (owned by Steve Schwarzman-led Blackstone Group) to win regulatory approval, two sources said. That is equal to roughly one-quarter of US Foods’ revenue...
Congressman Urges Cooperation Between Teamsters And Giant Eagle Distributor WFMJ ...Representative Ryan as sent letters pleading with the Tamarkin Company and Teamsters Local 377 to “quickly and efficiently negotiate a fair resolution to the ongoing labor dispute. The result of an impasse is simply not in the best interests of the workers, the company or this community,” writes Ryan...
State AFL-CIO opposes Bill de Blasio's horse carriage ban New York Daily News ... A resolution passed Friday by the state AFL-CIO says New York City's carriage industry provides 300 good middle-class jobs. The major statewide labor coalition is the latest of several union groups to vow to fight the mayor's proposal...
Trade
Growing U.S. trade deficit with China cost 3.2 million jobs between 2001 and 2013, with job losses in every state Economic Policy Institute ...a growing U.S. goods trade deficit with China has the United States piling up foreign debt, losing export capacity, and losing jobs, especially in the vital but under-siege manufacturing sector...
Obama 'more optimistic' about Pacific trade deal The Hill ...President Obama said Thursday he believes the odds for striking a Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement are "significantly higher than 50-50" in a meeting Thursday with his export council...
State Battles
Warren County Votes To Become Right To Work County WBKO ...Fiscal Court approved a right to work ordinance on the first reading Thursday morning with a vote of 5-1, democrat Tommy Hunt was the lone magistrate against it...
Jury still out on Michigan's growth, lack of since becoming right-to-work state WNEM.com …Woods said right-to-work isn't creating jobs in Michigan. "Michigan still ranks in the top 10 states in unemployment rate at 7.1 percent," she said...
Rex Sinquefield’s million-dollar donation heralds new craziness in Missouri Kansas City Star ...many Missouri Republicans are very nervous about Sinquefield’s ostentatious bankrolling of his personal slate of candidates for the 2016 statewide ticket...
NJ AFL-CIO supports ‘Buy America’ bills PolitickerNJ ...Urgently needed legislation that will give American-made products and U.S. workers a fair shake in the domestic marketplace cleared another legislative hurdle on Thursday, December 11, when it was released by the Assembly Budget Committee...
GOP may seek last push for Pa. action TribLive ...[Pennsylvania] Lawmakers could make a final push to privatize state liquor stores, reform the public pension system and end government collection of union dues from paychecks — proposals Wolf opposes...
The Koch Wall Street Crusade To Rob Pensions Is Underway PoliticusUSA ...despite sending his state into an economic tailspin after squandering a budget surplus and cutting services to provide unimaginable tax cuts for the rich, Kansas governor Sam Brownback is robbing employee pensions to cover the state’s devastating budget shortfalls...
Koch brothers group files suit against Calif. AG, refuses to disclose donors Legal Newsline ...nonprofit group founded by the Koch brothers is challenging California Attorney General Kamala Harris’ threat to take its state tax-exempt status unless it discloses the identities of its donors...
War on Workers
Ruling Lets Work Email Be Used To Organize Unions New York Times ...Calling that ruling “clearly incorrect,” the current majority noted how technology had transformed daily habits. “The workplace is ‘uniquely appropriate’ and ‘the natural gathering place’ for such communications,” the board wrote, “and the use of email as a common form of workplace communication has expanded dramatically in recent years.”...
The Vanishing Male Worker: How America Fell Behind New York Times ...Working, in America, is in decline. The share of prime-age men — those 25 to 54 years old — who are not working has more than tripled since the late 1960s, to 16 percent. More recently, since the turn of the century, the share of women without paying jobs has been rising, too. The United States, which had one of the highest employment rates among developed nations as recently as 2000, has fallen toward the bottom of the list...
Wage Theft Costing Workers Millions of Dollars RH Reality Check ...The lost wages in those two states represent $20 million in lost income per week in New York and $29 million in lost income per week in California...
Construction Worker Killed After Roof Collapsed WGTU ...A 51-year-old West Branch man was killed after falling through the roof of a building...
Miscellaneous
Verizon's New, Encrypted Calling App Comes Pre-Hacked For The NSA Bloomberg Businessweek ...Verizon is the latest big company to enter the post-Snowden market for secure communication, and it's doing so with an encryption standard that comes with a way for law enforcement to access ostensibly secure phone conversations...
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...
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Today's Teamster News 09.13.14
Teamster News
Con-Way Freight Workers in Texas Join Teamsters Local 657 teamster.org ...On September 12, 2014, drivers and dockworkers at Con-Way Freight in Laredo, Texas voted to join Teamsters Local 657...There are 113 workers in the bargaining unit...
Teamsters file lawsuit to halt Quinn layoffs Chicago Tribune ...The Teamsters filed a lawsuit today to block the layoffs of dozens of workers Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration decided to let go...
Teamsters Push For FedEx Freight Union Vote In Indianapolis Memphis Business Journal ...The Teamsters union, as part of a national push to unionize FedEx Corp. employees, could soon ask for a secret vote in Indianapolis, Indiana...
Reading Of LRB Ruling Differs Richmond News ...Anita Dawson, who represents the 300 or so workers belonging to Teamsters Local 213, said talks resumed with the Swedish furniture giant Monday, and bargaining is expected to carry over into next week...
Teamsters Local 371 Endorse Anderson Aledo Times Record ...State Senate Candidate Neil Anderson (Rock Island) is honored to announce that the Teamsters Local 371 has endorsed his candidacy for the 36th District...
Trade
Outrage as EU blocks democratic challenge to US trade deal (opinion) politics.co.uk ...There is something rotten in the state of Europe when an unelected, unaccountable EU body can glibly inform millions of us that we no longer have the right to question its most dangerous and unpopular policies...
Sachs on TPP: "This is a NAFTA Treaty Writ Large" Public Citizen ..."These (trade deals) are largely industry- and lobby-driven activities. They are not yet in any way proved to be in the interest of American people, and this is a matter of significant concern...
State Battles
Federal appeals court reinstates voter ID law Wisconsin State Journal ...In a stunningly fast decision, a federal appeals court in Chicago reinstated Wisconsin’s voter photo identification law on Friday — just hours after three Republican-appointed judges heard arguments on reactivating the hotly debated law in time for the November election...
Uber Ride-Share Service Hits D.M. Today; Officials Balk Des Moines Register ...A popular ride-sharing service will debut today in Des Moines despite opposition from officials who say the company is not welcome unless it goes through the city's permitting process...
In The South, Workers Choosing To Unite And Triumph (opinion) Raleigh News Observer ...According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the five states last year with the most growth in union membership were all in the South...
NJ AFL-CIO files ethics complaint alleging pay-to-play in pension investment decisions by Christie Administration NJ Politicker ...New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech highlighted reports exposing what he sees as a disturbing pattern of big contributions to Christie for Governor or Republican organizations by firms handpicked to manage hundreds of millions in state pension funds...
War On Workers
Employers Are Stealing Billions Of Dollars A Year From Their Workers New Republic ...If wage theft is as prevalent in the rest of the United States as it is in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, then it costs workers more than $50 billion a year...
This Chart Shows How Meager U.S. Minimum Wage Truly Is New Republic ...minimum wage workers can buy much less with their wages than minimum wage workers in other developed countries...
A Showdown on the Pay Gap (opinion) New York Times ...The key vote, which will decide whether the Paycheck Fairness Act is allowed an up-or-down vote on the floor, is expected to occur on Monday....
Temporary foreign worker dies in freak accident, leaves chilling testimony CBC News ...A video uncovered by Radio-Canada paints a grim picture of the working conditions one temporary foreign worker allegedly experienced on an Ormstown, Que., farm...
Markets and Morality: Koch brothers foundation bankrolls Hope College student group MLive ...The Charles Koch Foundation supports more than 300 colleges and universities across the U.S., ranging from large public research institutions like Ohio State University to small private religious schools...
America's Poor, Deeper in Debt Than Ever Bloomberg ...More ominous is a steady increase in installment debt, a category that includes both student and auto loans -- areas that have recently seen a lot of questionable lending to lower-income borrowers...
It’s disgusting, and it’s still about race: Southern Republicans simply don’t want minorities to vote Salon ...the Republicans are actually creating the machinery for a carefully organized campaign to intimidate voters and to frighten members of minority groups from casting their ballots on November 3rd...
Miscellaneous
Wash. State Eyes WHL Teams Over Child Labor Laws USA Today ...Matt Erlich, a spokesman for the Washington Department of Labor and Industries, said that a 2013 complaint to the department pointed to how much money the players were paid in relation to time worked. The allegation hinted that it might be below the state's minimum wage...
Con-Way Freight Workers in Texas Join Teamsters Local 657 teamster.org ...On September 12, 2014, drivers and dockworkers at Con-Way Freight in Laredo, Texas voted to join Teamsters Local 657...There are 113 workers in the bargaining unit...
Teamsters file lawsuit to halt Quinn layoffs Chicago Tribune ...The Teamsters filed a lawsuit today to block the layoffs of dozens of workers Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration decided to let go...
Teamsters Push For FedEx Freight Union Vote In Indianapolis Memphis Business Journal ...The Teamsters union, as part of a national push to unionize FedEx Corp. employees, could soon ask for a secret vote in Indianapolis, Indiana...
Reading Of LRB Ruling Differs Richmond News ...Anita Dawson, who represents the 300 or so workers belonging to Teamsters Local 213, said talks resumed with the Swedish furniture giant Monday, and bargaining is expected to carry over into next week...
Teamsters Local 371 Endorse Anderson Aledo Times Record ...State Senate Candidate Neil Anderson (Rock Island) is honored to announce that the Teamsters Local 371 has endorsed his candidacy for the 36th District...
Trade
Outrage as EU blocks democratic challenge to US trade deal (opinion) politics.co.uk ...There is something rotten in the state of Europe when an unelected, unaccountable EU body can glibly inform millions of us that we no longer have the right to question its most dangerous and unpopular policies...
Sachs on TPP: "This is a NAFTA Treaty Writ Large" Public Citizen ..."These (trade deals) are largely industry- and lobby-driven activities. They are not yet in any way proved to be in the interest of American people, and this is a matter of significant concern...
State Battles
Federal appeals court reinstates voter ID law Wisconsin State Journal ...In a stunningly fast decision, a federal appeals court in Chicago reinstated Wisconsin’s voter photo identification law on Friday — just hours after three Republican-appointed judges heard arguments on reactivating the hotly debated law in time for the November election...
Uber Ride-Share Service Hits D.M. Today; Officials Balk Des Moines Register ...A popular ride-sharing service will debut today in Des Moines despite opposition from officials who say the company is not welcome unless it goes through the city's permitting process...
In The South, Workers Choosing To Unite And Triumph (opinion) Raleigh News Observer ...According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the five states last year with the most growth in union membership were all in the South...
NJ AFL-CIO files ethics complaint alleging pay-to-play in pension investment decisions by Christie Administration NJ Politicker ...New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech highlighted reports exposing what he sees as a disturbing pattern of big contributions to Christie for Governor or Republican organizations by firms handpicked to manage hundreds of millions in state pension funds...
War On Workers
Employers Are Stealing Billions Of Dollars A Year From Their Workers New Republic ...If wage theft is as prevalent in the rest of the United States as it is in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, then it costs workers more than $50 billion a year...
This Chart Shows How Meager U.S. Minimum Wage Truly Is New Republic ...minimum wage workers can buy much less with their wages than minimum wage workers in other developed countries...
A Showdown on the Pay Gap (opinion) New York Times ...The key vote, which will decide whether the Paycheck Fairness Act is allowed an up-or-down vote on the floor, is expected to occur on Monday....
Temporary foreign worker dies in freak accident, leaves chilling testimony CBC News ...A video uncovered by Radio-Canada paints a grim picture of the working conditions one temporary foreign worker allegedly experienced on an Ormstown, Que., farm...
Markets and Morality: Koch brothers foundation bankrolls Hope College student group MLive ...The Charles Koch Foundation supports more than 300 colleges and universities across the U.S., ranging from large public research institutions like Ohio State University to small private religious schools...
America's Poor, Deeper in Debt Than Ever Bloomberg ...More ominous is a steady increase in installment debt, a category that includes both student and auto loans -- areas that have recently seen a lot of questionable lending to lower-income borrowers...
It’s disgusting, and it’s still about race: Southern Republicans simply don’t want minorities to vote Salon ...the Republicans are actually creating the machinery for a carefully organized campaign to intimidate voters and to frighten members of minority groups from casting their ballots on November 3rd...
Miscellaneous
Wash. State Eyes WHL Teams Over Child Labor Laws USA Today ...Matt Erlich, a spokesman for the Washington Department of Labor and Industries, said that a 2013 complaint to the department pointed to how much money the players were paid in relation to time worked. The allegation hinted that it might be below the state's minimum wage...
Thursday, August 28, 2014
Today's Teamster News 08.28.14
Teamster News
Teamsters At Fred Meyer Warehouse Vote To OK Strike The Stand ...Teamster warehouse workers employed at the Fred Meyer grocery distribution center in Puyallup voted overwhelmingly over the weekend to authorize a strike. The final vote was 241-2. Voting took place at the Teamsters Union hall in Tukwila...
Safety Agents and de Blasio Administration Reach Labor Deal New York Times ...Mayor Bill de Blasio and Teamsters Local 237, the municipal union representing school safety agents and special officers, announced a tentative contract and the proposed settlement of a pay equity lawsuit on Tuesday that would distribute $38 million in back pay to current and former school safety agents who are overwhelmingly female...
City Pays $38M To Settle Equal Pay Lawsuit From Female Safety Agents Being Paid Far Less Than Male Counterparts New York Daily News ...In a move timed to Women’s Equality Day, the city announced Monday it had settled a four-year-old lawsuit from a group of safety agents who were paid far less than their male counterparts. The suit was settled for $38 million as part of a new labor agreement with Teamsters Local 237...
Mayor’s Office: Union Contract Means Pay Equity For Largely Female School Safety Agents CBS News ...The deal with Teamsters Local 237, which represents both the largely female school safety agents and special officers, was reached Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office announced...
Union Employees Air Contract Dispute On MDI Bangor Daily News ...Municipal employees of three Mount Desert Island towns who are members of the Teamsters labor union are airing their grievances as they try to reach a new labor contract with the towns...
Contract Disputes Lead To Demonstrations On Mount Desert Island Maine Public Broadcasting ...Members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters are demonstrating on Mount Desert Island this afternoon to draw attention to ongoing contract disputes with three area towns...
Weary U.S. Workers Are Still Experiencing Hard Times (opinion) Huffington Post ...Despite a dip in unemployment during the past few years, low pay continues to plague many employees while their corporate bosses rake in record profits...
Trade
TPP: Expansive Rights for Big Pharma, Expensive Medicines for U.S. Consumers Public Citizen ...Leaked draft intellectual property texts for the TPP reveal broad monopoly protections for pharmaceutical corporations, which elevate the costs of medicines and medical procedures...
Turkish Firms Hit By Anti-Dumping Duties On Steel Pipes To US Todays Zaman ...The US International Trade Commission (USITC) decided to impose anti-dumping duties on Turkish steel pipes last week following an investigation into export prices, a development that is likely to hurt Turkish pipe exporters to this country...
State Battles
Minimum Wage Bump Would Help Close Wealth Gap For 23% In S.F. San Francisco Chronicle ...If San Francisco voters approve raising the minimum wage law in November, 142,000 workers - or 23 percent of the city's workforce - would get a raise by the time it fully kicks in to $15 an hour by 2018...
Scott Walker, J.B. Van Hollen Again Ask Court To Reinstate Voter ID Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...Gov. Scott Walker and Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen are asking a federal court to reinstate Wisconsin's voter ID law, but they have not finalized a plan to comply with a different court's decision requiring the state to provide IDs to people who don't have birth certificates...
War On Workers
Market Basket Revolt Ends as Arthur T. Demoulas Wins Bid Bloomberg ...Arthur T. Demoulas, the ousted chief executive officer of the Market Basket supermarket chain whose employees gained national attention in a revolt to get him back, won his bid to buy the company...
Why America’s Workers Need Faster Wage Growth—And What We Can Do About It Economic Policy Institute ...Comparing the first half of 2014 with the first half of 2013, real (inflation-adjusted) hourly wages fell for workers in nearly every decile—even for those with a bachelor’s or advanced degree...
The Expanding World of Poverty Capitalism (opinion) New York Times ...Sentinel Offender Services … oversees case management, including breath alcohol and drug-testing services, “all at no cost to county taxpayers.”…Sentinel is a part of the expanding universe of poverty capitalism. In this unique sector of the economy, costs of essential government services are shifted to the poor...
Caught on Tape: What Mitch McConnell Complained About to a Roomful of Billionaires (Exclusive) The Nation ...At a secret meeting of elite donors convened by the Koch brothers, McConnell laid out his plan for shrinking the federal government and whined about having to vote on minimum wage bills...
At Koch Retreat, Top GOP Senate Candidates Credited Koch Network For Their Rise Huffington Post ...Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst and Arkansas Rep. Tom Cotton directly credited donors present at the June 16 retreat in Dana Point, California, for propelling them forward. Colorado Rep. Cory Gardner told attendees that his race would likely be decided by the presence of "third party" money -- an obvious pitch for generosity from the well-heeled crowd...
Argentina Set for Second National Strike as Economic Woes Deepen Bloomberg ...Argentina is bracing for a day of road blocks and disruption as labor unions stage a second national strike in less than five months while July’s bond default threatens to fuel inflation and undermine growth...
40 Percent of Restaurant Workers Live In Near-Poverty Mother Jones ...The industry's wages have stagnated at an extremely low level. Restaurant workers' median wage stands at $10 per hour, tips included—and hasn't budged, in inflation-adjusted terms, since 2000...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Budget Gap Narrows to Smallest Since 2007, CBO Says Bloomberg ...The projected shortfall will be $506 billion in the 12 months ending Sept. 30, compared with an April prediction for $492 billion and a $680 billion gap posted last year, the nonpartisan CBO said today in a report. In 2015 it’s projected to shrink for a sixth straight year, to $469 billion, capping the longest stretch of fiscal improvement since 2000, near the end of an era of surpluses...
Teamsters At Fred Meyer Warehouse Vote To OK Strike The Stand ...Teamster warehouse workers employed at the Fred Meyer grocery distribution center in Puyallup voted overwhelmingly over the weekend to authorize a strike. The final vote was 241-2. Voting took place at the Teamsters Union hall in Tukwila...
Safety Agents and de Blasio Administration Reach Labor Deal New York Times ...Mayor Bill de Blasio and Teamsters Local 237, the municipal union representing school safety agents and special officers, announced a tentative contract and the proposed settlement of a pay equity lawsuit on Tuesday that would distribute $38 million in back pay to current and former school safety agents who are overwhelmingly female...
City Pays $38M To Settle Equal Pay Lawsuit From Female Safety Agents Being Paid Far Less Than Male Counterparts New York Daily News ...In a move timed to Women’s Equality Day, the city announced Monday it had settled a four-year-old lawsuit from a group of safety agents who were paid far less than their male counterparts. The suit was settled for $38 million as part of a new labor agreement with Teamsters Local 237...
Mayor’s Office: Union Contract Means Pay Equity For Largely Female School Safety Agents CBS News ...The deal with Teamsters Local 237, which represents both the largely female school safety agents and special officers, was reached Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office announced...
Union Employees Air Contract Dispute On MDI Bangor Daily News ...Municipal employees of three Mount Desert Island towns who are members of the Teamsters labor union are airing their grievances as they try to reach a new labor contract with the towns...
Contract Disputes Lead To Demonstrations On Mount Desert Island Maine Public Broadcasting ...Members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters are demonstrating on Mount Desert Island this afternoon to draw attention to ongoing contract disputes with three area towns...
Weary U.S. Workers Are Still Experiencing Hard Times (opinion) Huffington Post ...Despite a dip in unemployment during the past few years, low pay continues to plague many employees while their corporate bosses rake in record profits...
Trade
TPP: Expansive Rights for Big Pharma, Expensive Medicines for U.S. Consumers Public Citizen ...Leaked draft intellectual property texts for the TPP reveal broad monopoly protections for pharmaceutical corporations, which elevate the costs of medicines and medical procedures...
Turkish Firms Hit By Anti-Dumping Duties On Steel Pipes To US Todays Zaman ...The US International Trade Commission (USITC) decided to impose anti-dumping duties on Turkish steel pipes last week following an investigation into export prices, a development that is likely to hurt Turkish pipe exporters to this country...
State Battles
Minimum Wage Bump Would Help Close Wealth Gap For 23% In S.F. San Francisco Chronicle ...If San Francisco voters approve raising the minimum wage law in November, 142,000 workers - or 23 percent of the city's workforce - would get a raise by the time it fully kicks in to $15 an hour by 2018...
Scott Walker, J.B. Van Hollen Again Ask Court To Reinstate Voter ID Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...Gov. Scott Walker and Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen are asking a federal court to reinstate Wisconsin's voter ID law, but they have not finalized a plan to comply with a different court's decision requiring the state to provide IDs to people who don't have birth certificates...
War On Workers
Market Basket Revolt Ends as Arthur T. Demoulas Wins Bid Bloomberg ...Arthur T. Demoulas, the ousted chief executive officer of the Market Basket supermarket chain whose employees gained national attention in a revolt to get him back, won his bid to buy the company...
Why America’s Workers Need Faster Wage Growth—And What We Can Do About It Economic Policy Institute ...Comparing the first half of 2014 with the first half of 2013, real (inflation-adjusted) hourly wages fell for workers in nearly every decile—even for those with a bachelor’s or advanced degree...
The Expanding World of Poverty Capitalism (opinion) New York Times ...Sentinel Offender Services … oversees case management, including breath alcohol and drug-testing services, “all at no cost to county taxpayers.”…Sentinel is a part of the expanding universe of poverty capitalism. In this unique sector of the economy, costs of essential government services are shifted to the poor...
Caught on Tape: What Mitch McConnell Complained About to a Roomful of Billionaires (Exclusive) The Nation ...At a secret meeting of elite donors convened by the Koch brothers, McConnell laid out his plan for shrinking the federal government and whined about having to vote on minimum wage bills...
At Koch Retreat, Top GOP Senate Candidates Credited Koch Network For Their Rise Huffington Post ...Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst and Arkansas Rep. Tom Cotton directly credited donors present at the June 16 retreat in Dana Point, California, for propelling them forward. Colorado Rep. Cory Gardner told attendees that his race would likely be decided by the presence of "third party" money -- an obvious pitch for generosity from the well-heeled crowd...
Argentina Set for Second National Strike as Economic Woes Deepen Bloomberg ...Argentina is bracing for a day of road blocks and disruption as labor unions stage a second national strike in less than five months while July’s bond default threatens to fuel inflation and undermine growth...
40 Percent of Restaurant Workers Live In Near-Poverty Mother Jones ...The industry's wages have stagnated at an extremely low level. Restaurant workers' median wage stands at $10 per hour, tips included—and hasn't budged, in inflation-adjusted terms, since 2000...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Budget Gap Narrows to Smallest Since 2007, CBO Says Bloomberg ...The projected shortfall will be $506 billion in the 12 months ending Sept. 30, compared with an April prediction for $492 billion and a $680 billion gap posted last year, the nonpartisan CBO said today in a report. In 2015 it’s projected to shrink for a sixth straight year, to $469 billion, capping the longest stretch of fiscal improvement since 2000, near the end of an era of surpluses...
Sunday, August 17, 2014
Today's Teamster News 08.17.14
Trade
Why Germany Is Backing Away From a Trade Deal That Lets Corporations Sue the Government truthout ...Germany might reject a new trade agreement between Canada and the European Union. The deal is called the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA. It's part of a new wave of large, aggressive trade deals that also includes the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the United States and the European Union, and the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) between 12 countries of the Pacific Rim...
State Battles
Get pumped for a Moral Week of Action! NC State AFL-CIO ...Join us for seven consecutive days of action at the North Carolina State Capitol to expose and challenge the destructive laws coming out of Raleigh...
How Zephyr Teachout Became a Contender The Nation ...Andrew Cuomo’s unlikely challenger for Governor of New York is gaining endorsements and giving him a headache...they have managed to tap into some of the profound frustration that people feel with a governor who has come to symbolize the corporate-friendly wing of the Democratic party...
On Wall Street, ‘Right-to-Work’ Means a Wider Gap Between Rich & Poor (opinion) CT News Junkie ...As part of “Employee Freedom Week,” a nationally coordinated effort to convince workers to drop out of their unions, ads are running in Connecticut urging home healthcare workers to opt out. This is a thinly veiled attempt to convince these workers to act against their own self-interest, and could have lethal repercussions in an industry where collective bargaining rights have not only alleviated home health aides’ difficult working conditions, but also have helped prolong their patients’ lives...
War on Workers
Sandwich Artists Unionize In These Times ...On July 18, after a three-month campaign, employees of a Subway franchise in Bloomsbury, N.J. voted 8-5 to join the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU) Local 108...
More Jobs Are Open, but They’re Filling Slowly New York Times ...In a report this week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said that employers reported in June that they had 4.5 million available jobs that they were unable to fill. That is the highest number since 2007, and more than twice as high as the figure in October 2009, when the economy was officially beginning to recover but there were no signs of that in the labor market...
Cry for Argentina: Fiscal Mismanagement or Pillage? truthout ...Paul Singer’s Elliott Management has spent over a decade aggressively trying to force Argentina to pay down nearly $1.3 billion in sovereign debt. Elliott would get about $300 million for bonds that Argentina claims it picked up for $48 million. Where most creditors have accepted payment at a 70% loss, Elliott Management would thus get a 600% return...
Miscellaneous
How High Up Did the Madoff Fraud Go at JPMorgan? Wall Street on Parade ...It is universally agreed among these authors, the prosecutors and the trustee for the Madoff victims’ fund that JPMorgan Chase (or its predecessor banks) stood at the center of the fraud as Madoff’s commercial bank for more than 20 years. It’s the lack of criminal prosecutions against the JPMorgan wrongdoers that has incensed these attorneys to launch the book and web site...
You Can Get Hacked Just By Watching This Cat Video on YouTube The Intercept ...The only thing you need to do to render your computer’s secrets—your private conversations, banking information, photographs—transparent to prying eyes is watch a cute cat video on YouTube, and catch the interest of a nation-state or law enforcement agency that has $1 million or so to spare...
Why Germany Is Backing Away From a Trade Deal That Lets Corporations Sue the Government truthout ...Germany might reject a new trade agreement between Canada and the European Union. The deal is called the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA. It's part of a new wave of large, aggressive trade deals that also includes the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the United States and the European Union, and the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) between 12 countries of the Pacific Rim...
State Battles
Get pumped for a Moral Week of Action! NC State AFL-CIO ...Join us for seven consecutive days of action at the North Carolina State Capitol to expose and challenge the destructive laws coming out of Raleigh...
How Zephyr Teachout Became a Contender The Nation ...Andrew Cuomo’s unlikely challenger for Governor of New York is gaining endorsements and giving him a headache...they have managed to tap into some of the profound frustration that people feel with a governor who has come to symbolize the corporate-friendly wing of the Democratic party...
On Wall Street, ‘Right-to-Work’ Means a Wider Gap Between Rich & Poor (opinion) CT News Junkie ...As part of “Employee Freedom Week,” a nationally coordinated effort to convince workers to drop out of their unions, ads are running in Connecticut urging home healthcare workers to opt out. This is a thinly veiled attempt to convince these workers to act against their own self-interest, and could have lethal repercussions in an industry where collective bargaining rights have not only alleviated home health aides’ difficult working conditions, but also have helped prolong their patients’ lives...
War on Workers
Sandwich Artists Unionize In These Times ...On July 18, after a three-month campaign, employees of a Subway franchise in Bloomsbury, N.J. voted 8-5 to join the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU) Local 108...
More Jobs Are Open, but They’re Filling Slowly New York Times ...In a report this week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said that employers reported in June that they had 4.5 million available jobs that they were unable to fill. That is the highest number since 2007, and more than twice as high as the figure in October 2009, when the economy was officially beginning to recover but there were no signs of that in the labor market...
Cry for Argentina: Fiscal Mismanagement or Pillage? truthout ...Paul Singer’s Elliott Management has spent over a decade aggressively trying to force Argentina to pay down nearly $1.3 billion in sovereign debt. Elliott would get about $300 million for bonds that Argentina claims it picked up for $48 million. Where most creditors have accepted payment at a 70% loss, Elliott Management would thus get a 600% return...
Miscellaneous
How High Up Did the Madoff Fraud Go at JPMorgan? Wall Street on Parade ...It is universally agreed among these authors, the prosecutors and the trustee for the Madoff victims’ fund that JPMorgan Chase (or its predecessor banks) stood at the center of the fraud as Madoff’s commercial bank for more than 20 years. It’s the lack of criminal prosecutions against the JPMorgan wrongdoers that has incensed these attorneys to launch the book and web site...
You Can Get Hacked Just By Watching This Cat Video on YouTube The Intercept ...The only thing you need to do to render your computer’s secrets—your private conversations, banking information, photographs—transparent to prying eyes is watch a cute cat video on YouTube, and catch the interest of a nation-state or law enforcement agency that has $1 million or so to spare...
Monday, July 21, 2014
Today's Teamster News 07.21.14
Trade
TPP risks weaker world trade system - ex WTO boss New Zealand Herald ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a step backwards to the days before the World Trade Organisation when the US and Europe controlled the global trading system to the detriment of developing economies, says a former director-general of the WTO, Supachai Panitchpakdi of Thailand...
Milk Group Wants EU To Move On GI Issue In TTIP WNAX ...European Union negotiators appear to be holding firm on their insistence for having geographical indicators imposed in the Trans Atlantic Trade And Investment Partnership agreement. G-I’s are common food names such as feta, parmesan or munster that the E.U. wants to have exclusive control of...
State Battles
In N.C., conservative donor Art Pope sits at heart of government he helped transform Washington Post ...From the outside, Pope’s family foundation has put more than $55 million into a robust network of conservative think tanks and advocacy groups, building a state version of what his friends Charles and David Koch have helped create on a national level...
Corporate Welfare State: Taxpayers now on the hook for Job Training, while state pushes importing cheaper "Skills Gap" labor! WisDemCurmudgeon ...the President of the Wisconsin Technology Council Tom Still ... (defended) importing cheap foreign labor to fill that mythical "skills gap," but he also bragged those same workers have a "propensity" to start their own businesses. If we lag in jobs created, Still said, it's because we don't have enough foreign workers in Wisconsin...
Senate Candidate Gary Peters To Kochs: Come At Me, Bros Huffington Post ..."I feel like l'm not really running against Terri Lynn Land. I feel like I'm running against the Koch brothers," Peters said at a campaign rally in Detroit on Friday...
War on Workers
Worker killed after being hit by truck near Sahara and Valley View KTNV ...A 57-year-old man who was working in the road was killed Sunday morning near West Sahara Avenue and Valley View Boulevard (in Las Vegas). The incident happened around 9:44 a.m. Police say the man, who was a subcontractor, was in the bus lane in the 3900 block of Sahara, cutting asphalt with a wet saw...
In a Subprime Bubble for Used Cars, Borrowers Pay Sky-High Rates New York Times ...Mr. Durham is one of millions of Americans with shoddy credit who are easily obtaining auto loans from used-car dealers, including some who fabricate or ignore borrowers’ abilities to repay. The loans often come with terms that take advantage of the most desperate, least financially sophisticated customers. The surge in lending and the lack of caution resemble the frenzied subprime mortgage market before its implosion set off the 2008 financial crisis...
NYC gives the green light to the building of apartments with a 'poor door' for tenants living in affordable housing Daily Mail ...The City approved a proposal from Extell, a prominent NYC developer, to install a separate door for tenants living in affordable housing units to enter the building...
Miscellaneous
Train Derailment Prompts Evacuation in Washington County Associated Press ...A fire official says two people are injured and several thousand gallons of diesel fuel have spilled after a train derailment in the town of Slinger, (Wisc.). Slinger Fire Department Chief Rick Hanke says three engines and 10 railcars derailed Sunday, forcing the evacuation of more than 100 nearby homes...
TPP risks weaker world trade system - ex WTO boss New Zealand Herald ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a step backwards to the days before the World Trade Organisation when the US and Europe controlled the global trading system to the detriment of developing economies, says a former director-general of the WTO, Supachai Panitchpakdi of Thailand...
Milk Group Wants EU To Move On GI Issue In TTIP WNAX ...European Union negotiators appear to be holding firm on their insistence for having geographical indicators imposed in the Trans Atlantic Trade And Investment Partnership agreement. G-I’s are common food names such as feta, parmesan or munster that the E.U. wants to have exclusive control of...
State Battles
In N.C., conservative donor Art Pope sits at heart of government he helped transform Washington Post ...From the outside, Pope’s family foundation has put more than $55 million into a robust network of conservative think tanks and advocacy groups, building a state version of what his friends Charles and David Koch have helped create on a national level...
Corporate Welfare State: Taxpayers now on the hook for Job Training, while state pushes importing cheaper "Skills Gap" labor! WisDemCurmudgeon ...the President of the Wisconsin Technology Council Tom Still ... (defended) importing cheap foreign labor to fill that mythical "skills gap," but he also bragged those same workers have a "propensity" to start their own businesses. If we lag in jobs created, Still said, it's because we don't have enough foreign workers in Wisconsin...
Senate Candidate Gary Peters To Kochs: Come At Me, Bros Huffington Post ..."I feel like l'm not really running against Terri Lynn Land. I feel like I'm running against the Koch brothers," Peters said at a campaign rally in Detroit on Friday...
War on Workers
Worker killed after being hit by truck near Sahara and Valley View KTNV ...A 57-year-old man who was working in the road was killed Sunday morning near West Sahara Avenue and Valley View Boulevard (in Las Vegas). The incident happened around 9:44 a.m. Police say the man, who was a subcontractor, was in the bus lane in the 3900 block of Sahara, cutting asphalt with a wet saw...
In a Subprime Bubble for Used Cars, Borrowers Pay Sky-High Rates New York Times ...Mr. Durham is one of millions of Americans with shoddy credit who are easily obtaining auto loans from used-car dealers, including some who fabricate or ignore borrowers’ abilities to repay. The loans often come with terms that take advantage of the most desperate, least financially sophisticated customers. The surge in lending and the lack of caution resemble the frenzied subprime mortgage market before its implosion set off the 2008 financial crisis...
NYC gives the green light to the building of apartments with a 'poor door' for tenants living in affordable housing Daily Mail ...The City approved a proposal from Extell, a prominent NYC developer, to install a separate door for tenants living in affordable housing units to enter the building...
Miscellaneous
Train Derailment Prompts Evacuation in Washington County Associated Press ...A fire official says two people are injured and several thousand gallons of diesel fuel have spilled after a train derailment in the town of Slinger, (Wisc.). Slinger Fire Department Chief Rick Hanke says three engines and 10 railcars derailed Sunday, forcing the evacuation of more than 100 nearby homes...
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Today's Teamster News 06.17.14
Teamster News
EVSC School Board extends 'final offer' to Teamsters Local 215 employee groups Evansville Courier & Press ...The Evansville Vanderburgh School Board voted Monday night to extend their original contract offer to employee groups represented by Teamsters Local 215 — bus drivers, bus aides, custodians, special education assistants and secretaries — after those members who voted on it earlier this month overwhelmingly rejected it; and then made a counter-offer...
Trade
Bipartisan Group of 150+ Members of Congress Urge Commerce Department to Act on Dumping of Steel Pipe Trade Reform ...the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) praised a bipartisan group of more than 150 Members of Congress for signing a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker urging a thorough investigation of the dumping of Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG) steel pipe in the U.S. market by South Korea...
State Battles
San Francisco Leads The Way With $15 Minimum Wage Ballot Measure Los Angeles Times ...Unlike in Seattle, San Francisco employers would have to comply regardless of their companies' size and receive no credit for sick or healthcare pay they already provide. Workers who receive tips are included....
Who In Maine Benefits From A $10.10 Minimum Wage? Bangor Daily News ...112,000 workers in Maine, 20.2% of workers, would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage to $10.10...
Low-Income Restaurant Workers Want Gov. Cuomo And State Labor Dept. To Help Them Wage War Against Wage Theft New York Daily News ...it is estimated that low-income workers are robbed of more than $1 billion every year. Yet the law puts no resources toward enforcement, which means that in the rare instances workers win their wage theft complaints, they seldom collect...
War On Workers
Hell on Wheels: Are bad trucking laws partially to blame for Tracy Morgan's accident? The New Republic ...Two days before Kevin Roper crashed his Walmart big rig into Tracy Morgan’s limousine, critically injuring the comedian and killing his colleague James McNair, the Senate Appropriations Committee quietly loosened the laws governing truckers’ hours on the road...
Kochs launch new super PAC for midterm fight Politico ...The new group aims to spend more than $15 million in the 2014 midterm campaigns — part of a much larger spending effort expected to total $290 million...
Cantor Shocker and New Survey Put Anger at Wall Street at Center of Political Debate Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research ...A 64 percent majority believes "the stock market is rigged for insiders and people who know how to manipulate the system..."
The coming 'tsunami of debt' and financial crisis in America (opinion) The Guardian ...the debt held by American households is rising ominously. And unless our economic policies change, that debt balloon, powered by radical income inequality, is going to become the next bust...
Without Highway Bill, 700,000 Jobs at Risk AFL-CIO Now ...If Congress doesn’t act soon, more than 700,000 middle class jobs building the nation’s highways, bridges and transit systems will be at risk. While the legislation authorizing the spending for those vital projects doesn’t expire until Sept. 30, the Highway Trust Fund that helps states pay for transportation construction and upkeep is running out of money and layoffs could begin later next month...
EVSC School Board extends 'final offer' to Teamsters Local 215 employee groups Evansville Courier & Press ...The Evansville Vanderburgh School Board voted Monday night to extend their original contract offer to employee groups represented by Teamsters Local 215 — bus drivers, bus aides, custodians, special education assistants and secretaries — after those members who voted on it earlier this month overwhelmingly rejected it; and then made a counter-offer...
Trade
Bipartisan Group of 150+ Members of Congress Urge Commerce Department to Act on Dumping of Steel Pipe Trade Reform ...the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) praised a bipartisan group of more than 150 Members of Congress for signing a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker urging a thorough investigation of the dumping of Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG) steel pipe in the U.S. market by South Korea...
State Battles
San Francisco Leads The Way With $15 Minimum Wage Ballot Measure Los Angeles Times ...Unlike in Seattle, San Francisco employers would have to comply regardless of their companies' size and receive no credit for sick or healthcare pay they already provide. Workers who receive tips are included....
Who In Maine Benefits From A $10.10 Minimum Wage? Bangor Daily News ...112,000 workers in Maine, 20.2% of workers, would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage to $10.10...
Low-Income Restaurant Workers Want Gov. Cuomo And State Labor Dept. To Help Them Wage War Against Wage Theft New York Daily News ...it is estimated that low-income workers are robbed of more than $1 billion every year. Yet the law puts no resources toward enforcement, which means that in the rare instances workers win their wage theft complaints, they seldom collect...
War On Workers
Hell on Wheels: Are bad trucking laws partially to blame for Tracy Morgan's accident? The New Republic ...Two days before Kevin Roper crashed his Walmart big rig into Tracy Morgan’s limousine, critically injuring the comedian and killing his colleague James McNair, the Senate Appropriations Committee quietly loosened the laws governing truckers’ hours on the road...
Kochs launch new super PAC for midterm fight Politico ...The new group aims to spend more than $15 million in the 2014 midterm campaigns — part of a much larger spending effort expected to total $290 million...
Cantor Shocker and New Survey Put Anger at Wall Street at Center of Political Debate Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research ...A 64 percent majority believes "the stock market is rigged for insiders and people who know how to manipulate the system..."
The coming 'tsunami of debt' and financial crisis in America (opinion) The Guardian ...the debt held by American households is rising ominously. And unless our economic policies change, that debt balloon, powered by radical income inequality, is going to become the next bust...
Without Highway Bill, 700,000 Jobs at Risk AFL-CIO Now ...If Congress doesn’t act soon, more than 700,000 middle class jobs building the nation’s highways, bridges and transit systems will be at risk. While the legislation authorizing the spending for those vital projects doesn’t expire until Sept. 30, the Highway Trust Fund that helps states pay for transportation construction and upkeep is running out of money and layoffs could begin later next month...
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Today's Teamster News 04.26.14
Teamster News
Republic Nuclear Dump Fire Threatens Investors, Workers Huffington Post ...Since 2010, a landfill fire has been moving toward 8,700 tons of unlined illegally dumped radioactive waste in Bridgeton, Missouri. The site is in the middle of working-class neighborhoods, right next to the Saint Louis airport, and near a hospital, schools and a great number of businesses. The Teamsters believe Bill Gates and other investors in Republic Services, Inc. should take a closer look...
Chicago Art Handlers Vote To Become Teamsters, Today Art World ...Art handlers with Mana-Terry Dowd LLC may set an industry precedent this month by being the first employees of a major art transportation company in Chicago to unionize...
Mayor de Blasio Laughs Off Idea Central Park Horse-Carriage Drivers Will Be Offered Taxi Cab Medallions New York Daily News ...Mayor de Blasio laughed off a report the city is offering tax cab medallions in exchange for their handsome cab licenses. Asked Thursday if a proposal was on the table, de Blasio gave a one word answer: "No."
Trade
Even Without Deal, U.S., Japan Play Up TPP Talks Wall Street Journal ...The U.S. and Japan tried to put their best face on their failure to reach a trade deal during President Barack Obama's Tokyo visit, saying major progress was made during nearly round-the-clock talks...
State Battles
Missouri House Republican leaders continue to push for 'right to work' bill St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...The prospects of a second vote on “right to work” remain uncertain, but state House Republican leaders said they continue to work on trying to gather enough votes to advance the measure...
Hicks receives warm understanding and support from colleagues and constituents after RTW vote Missouri Times ...Hicks initially felt alienated when he took the vote against RTW, but now feels more validated. “When I stood up and voted no, I went against my party for the first time...
The Kochs' Alternative GOP Comes Out Against Columbus Zoo Animals The Wire ...Ohio's chapter of American's for Prosperity, the Koch-brothers funded activist zoo group, sent out a mailer opposing a tax increase for the Columbus, Ohio zoo...
Koch Brothers Group Wipes Cliven Bundy Support From Social Media Accounts Huffington Post ...Americans for Prosperity Nevada, the state affiliate of the Koch Brothers-backed group, appears to have hastily deleted social media posts expressing support for Cliven Bundy, the renegade rancher who exposed himself as a racist in recent press conferences...
Republican Senator proposes Michigan minimum wage increase to undermine ballot proposal Michigan Live ...State Sen. Rick Jones (R-Grand Ledge) on Thursday said he introduced a bill to increase the minimum wage from $7.40 an hour to $8.15 per hour starting Dec. 1, 2014. It also would raise the minimum rate for tipped employees from $2.65 per hour to $2.75 per hour...
Lawmakers advance minimum wage bill KHON2 ...Lawmakers advanced a bill today to raise Hawaii’s minimum wage for the first time since 2007...
Murray says minimum-wage agreement will take more time Seattle Times ...Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said there’s still a few more weeks before a drop-dead deadline for an accord on a $15 minimum-wage proposal...
War on Workers
Northwestern University Football Players To Vote On Union Amid Debate Over Labor Rights Washington Post ...Northwestern University football players are scheduled to vote Friday whether to join a union, part of a labor battle that is drawing intense scrutiny from colleges with major athletic programs, national labor leaders and higher education lobbyists in Washington...
Miscellaneous
Americans Have Fewer Credit Cards And Less Debt FiveThirtyEight ...A new poll from Gallup suggests that Americans are less reliant on credit cards than any time since 2001. The survey, which was based on a random sample 1,026 adults, found that 29 percent of Americans do not own any credit cards...
Occupy Amazon: Elizabeth Warren, Thomas Piketty, Michael Lewis Books Surging Online Huffington Post ...If Amazon's top-sellers list is any indication, Americans are fed up with rising income inequality. As of Thursday evening, Sen. Elizabeth Warren's new memoir, A Fighting Chance is the number two best-selling book on Amazon...
Republic Nuclear Dump Fire Threatens Investors, Workers Huffington Post ...Since 2010, a landfill fire has been moving toward 8,700 tons of unlined illegally dumped radioactive waste in Bridgeton, Missouri. The site is in the middle of working-class neighborhoods, right next to the Saint Louis airport, and near a hospital, schools and a great number of businesses. The Teamsters believe Bill Gates and other investors in Republic Services, Inc. should take a closer look...
Chicago Art Handlers Vote To Become Teamsters, Today Art World ...Art handlers with Mana-Terry Dowd LLC may set an industry precedent this month by being the first employees of a major art transportation company in Chicago to unionize...
Mayor de Blasio Laughs Off Idea Central Park Horse-Carriage Drivers Will Be Offered Taxi Cab Medallions New York Daily News ...Mayor de Blasio laughed off a report the city is offering tax cab medallions in exchange for their handsome cab licenses. Asked Thursday if a proposal was on the table, de Blasio gave a one word answer: "No."
Trade
Even Without Deal, U.S., Japan Play Up TPP Talks Wall Street Journal ...The U.S. and Japan tried to put their best face on their failure to reach a trade deal during President Barack Obama's Tokyo visit, saying major progress was made during nearly round-the-clock talks...
State Battles
Missouri House Republican leaders continue to push for 'right to work' bill St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...The prospects of a second vote on “right to work” remain uncertain, but state House Republican leaders said they continue to work on trying to gather enough votes to advance the measure...
Hicks receives warm understanding and support from colleagues and constituents after RTW vote Missouri Times ...Hicks initially felt alienated when he took the vote against RTW, but now feels more validated. “When I stood up and voted no, I went against my party for the first time...
The Kochs' Alternative GOP Comes Out Against Columbus Zoo Animals The Wire ...Ohio's chapter of American's for Prosperity, the Koch-brothers funded activist zoo group, sent out a mailer opposing a tax increase for the Columbus, Ohio zoo...
Koch Brothers Group Wipes Cliven Bundy Support From Social Media Accounts Huffington Post ...Americans for Prosperity Nevada, the state affiliate of the Koch Brothers-backed group, appears to have hastily deleted social media posts expressing support for Cliven Bundy, the renegade rancher who exposed himself as a racist in recent press conferences...
Republican Senator proposes Michigan minimum wage increase to undermine ballot proposal Michigan Live ...State Sen. Rick Jones (R-Grand Ledge) on Thursday said he introduced a bill to increase the minimum wage from $7.40 an hour to $8.15 per hour starting Dec. 1, 2014. It also would raise the minimum rate for tipped employees from $2.65 per hour to $2.75 per hour...
Lawmakers advance minimum wage bill KHON2 ...Lawmakers advanced a bill today to raise Hawaii’s minimum wage for the first time since 2007...
Murray says minimum-wage agreement will take more time Seattle Times ...Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said there’s still a few more weeks before a drop-dead deadline for an accord on a $15 minimum-wage proposal...
War on Workers
Northwestern University Football Players To Vote On Union Amid Debate Over Labor Rights Washington Post ...Northwestern University football players are scheduled to vote Friday whether to join a union, part of a labor battle that is drawing intense scrutiny from colleges with major athletic programs, national labor leaders and higher education lobbyists in Washington...
Miscellaneous
Americans Have Fewer Credit Cards And Less Debt FiveThirtyEight ...A new poll from Gallup suggests that Americans are less reliant on credit cards than any time since 2001. The survey, which was based on a random sample 1,026 adults, found that 29 percent of Americans do not own any credit cards...
Occupy Amazon: Elizabeth Warren, Thomas Piketty, Michael Lewis Books Surging Online Huffington Post ...If Amazon's top-sellers list is any indication, Americans are fed up with rising income inequality. As of Thursday evening, Sen. Elizabeth Warren's new memoir, A Fighting Chance is the number two best-selling book on Amazon...
Monday, March 3, 2014
Today's Teamster News 03.03.14
Trade
As TPP Opposition Soars, Corporate Media Blackout Deafening Common Dreams ...Opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership—dubbed 'NAFTA on steroids'—is receiving unprecedented popular opposition and nearly no news coverage by major outlets...
State Battles
While Duke Energy Dodges Taxes, Its Pollution Costs the Public Dearly truthout ...The investor-owned company earned over $9 billion in profits during those years but received tax rebates totaling $299 million...
The War on Workers
Thrown in jail for being poor: the booming for-profit probation industry The Guardian ...Many poor Americans face jail when they can’t pay steep fines for nonviolent crimes, like $1,000 for stealing a $2 beer...
Income Inequality Hurts Economic Growth, But Fixing It Doesn’t ThinkProgress ...the conservative policy notion that a rising economic tide will lift even the poorest people’s boats is not supported by the data. It is “a mistake to focus on growth and let inequality take care of itself,” they write, in part because inequality impairs the growth poor people need to make gains...
Deficit Is Falling Because Of Government Austerity, Not Economic Recovery The Real News ...the deficit has been falling, as you mentioned, at its fastest clip since the end of World War II, and it's actually been falling at a pretty rapid clip for quite a long time now...
India's tea firms urged to act on slave trafficking after girls freed The Guardian ...Plantations pay below minimum wage, which campaigners say strengthens hand of slavers who take girls as young as 11...
Discover Faces Investigation Into Student Loan Debt Collection Practices Amid Rising Delinquencies Buzzfeed ...Discover Financial Services, one of the biggest providers of private student loans, is facing an investigation from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over its loan servicing practices...
Miscellaneous
Where Have All the Lobbyists Gone? The Nation ...On paper, the influence-peddling business is drying up. But lobbying money is flooding Washington, DC like never before. What’s going on?...
As TPP Opposition Soars, Corporate Media Blackout Deafening Common Dreams ...Opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership—dubbed 'NAFTA on steroids'—is receiving unprecedented popular opposition and nearly no news coverage by major outlets...
State Battles
While Duke Energy Dodges Taxes, Its Pollution Costs the Public Dearly truthout ...The investor-owned company earned over $9 billion in profits during those years but received tax rebates totaling $299 million...
The War on Workers
Thrown in jail for being poor: the booming for-profit probation industry The Guardian ...Many poor Americans face jail when they can’t pay steep fines for nonviolent crimes, like $1,000 for stealing a $2 beer...
Income Inequality Hurts Economic Growth, But Fixing It Doesn’t ThinkProgress ...the conservative policy notion that a rising economic tide will lift even the poorest people’s boats is not supported by the data. It is “a mistake to focus on growth and let inequality take care of itself,” they write, in part because inequality impairs the growth poor people need to make gains...
Deficit Is Falling Because Of Government Austerity, Not Economic Recovery The Real News ...the deficit has been falling, as you mentioned, at its fastest clip since the end of World War II, and it's actually been falling at a pretty rapid clip for quite a long time now...
India's tea firms urged to act on slave trafficking after girls freed The Guardian ...Plantations pay below minimum wage, which campaigners say strengthens hand of slavers who take girls as young as 11...
Discover Faces Investigation Into Student Loan Debt Collection Practices Amid Rising Delinquencies Buzzfeed ...Discover Financial Services, one of the biggest providers of private student loans, is facing an investigation from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over its loan servicing practices...
Miscellaneous
Where Have All the Lobbyists Gone? The Nation ...On paper, the influence-peddling business is drying up. But lobbying money is flooding Washington, DC like never before. What’s going on?...
Monday, January 6, 2014
Today's Teamster News 01.06.14
Better Than Expected US Economic Data The Big Picture ...Generally, the data supports the view that US manufacturing should improve this year...
Meet the Americans Who've Lost Their Unemployment Benefits: "I'm Thoroughly Petrified" Mother Jones ..."When you apply for a job at 50 people laugh at you. When you apply for a job at 65 people just look at you like you are crazy..."
The New Financial Scam Driving Workers Deep Into Debt Alternet ... there is a new game in town. It’s called “workplace loans” but in many cases they should be called “company store loans...”
Once Upon a Time We Were Winning the War on Poverty CEPR ...The rise in inequality over the last three decades explains the lack of progress on reducing poverty...
How Many Constitutional Rights Have Americans Lost? Washingtons Blog ...This post explains the liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights – the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution – and provides a scorecard on the extent of the loss of each right...
The Exciting New Trend In Citizenship Programs Q Experts' Blog ...Citizenship by Investment, also known as Economic Citizenship, has gained popularity in recent years as a means of acquiring a second passport. One of the achievements of the “immigration consultancy” business as a whole has definitely been to make the whole process more respectable...
Proof that offshore banking is the key to embezzling billions Quartz ...Four countries’ legal systems are trying to recoup billions from Ablyazov, who used his position as chairman of the bank to make more than $1.7 billion in loans to holding companies in the British Virgin Islands that were never repaid. Those companies are allegedly controlled by Ablyazov...
TAFTA: 'The Global Corporate Coup', Part Two The BRAD BLOG ...Don't care for the secretly-negotiated Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal? You're not gonna like the Trans-Atlantic 'Free Trade' Agreement (TAFTA) much better...
Chinese dam builders rush to Latin America China Business ...China's growing involvement in hydropower development in the region boosts clout but also leads to allegations of poor corporate responsibility...
Right-to-work laws do nothing to increase jobs (opinion) Statesman-Journal ...How inevitable is a right-to-work fight in Oregon? Our sense is that it is almost as if a big red X has been affixed to a map of our state by outside influences who have decided in secret that we are to be the next target in their misinformation campaign...
Oregon County Won't Raise Taxes, Resorts to Posse Economic Populist ...These people do not have the money to pay more taxes and if you want to blame anyone, blame Congress for stopping timber payments to rural regions where jobs are scarce. It's no surprise areas with poverty rates above 20% reject an increase in mandatory taxes under these circumstances. Bottom line, these rural areas are returning to the wild west and vigilante justice is sure to follow...
Meet the Americans Who've Lost Their Unemployment Benefits: "I'm Thoroughly Petrified" Mother Jones ..."When you apply for a job at 50 people laugh at you. When you apply for a job at 65 people just look at you like you are crazy..."
The New Financial Scam Driving Workers Deep Into Debt Alternet ... there is a new game in town. It’s called “workplace loans” but in many cases they should be called “company store loans...”
Once Upon a Time We Were Winning the War on Poverty CEPR ...The rise in inequality over the last three decades explains the lack of progress on reducing poverty...
How Many Constitutional Rights Have Americans Lost? Washingtons Blog ...This post explains the liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights – the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution – and provides a scorecard on the extent of the loss of each right...
The Exciting New Trend In Citizenship Programs Q Experts' Blog ...Citizenship by Investment, also known as Economic Citizenship, has gained popularity in recent years as a means of acquiring a second passport. One of the achievements of the “immigration consultancy” business as a whole has definitely been to make the whole process more respectable...
Proof that offshore banking is the key to embezzling billions Quartz ...Four countries’ legal systems are trying to recoup billions from Ablyazov, who used his position as chairman of the bank to make more than $1.7 billion in loans to holding companies in the British Virgin Islands that were never repaid. Those companies are allegedly controlled by Ablyazov...
TAFTA: 'The Global Corporate Coup', Part Two The BRAD BLOG ...Don't care for the secretly-negotiated Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal? You're not gonna like the Trans-Atlantic 'Free Trade' Agreement (TAFTA) much better...
Chinese dam builders rush to Latin America China Business ...China's growing involvement in hydropower development in the region boosts clout but also leads to allegations of poor corporate responsibility...
Right-to-work laws do nothing to increase jobs (opinion) Statesman-Journal ...How inevitable is a right-to-work fight in Oregon? Our sense is that it is almost as if a big red X has been affixed to a map of our state by outside influences who have decided in secret that we are to be the next target in their misinformation campaign...
Oregon County Won't Raise Taxes, Resorts to Posse Economic Populist ...These people do not have the money to pay more taxes and if you want to blame anyone, blame Congress for stopping timber payments to rural regions where jobs are scarce. It's no surprise areas with poverty rates above 20% reject an increase in mandatory taxes under these circumstances. Bottom line, these rural areas are returning to the wild west and vigilante justice is sure to follow...
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Today's Teamster News 10.06.13
Families hoard cash 5 yrs after crisis Associated Press ...An Associated Press analysis of households in the 10 biggest economies shows that families continue to spend cautiously and have pulled hundreds of billions of dollars out of stocks, cut borrowing for the first time in decades and poured money into savings and bonds that offer puny interest payments, often too low to keep up with inflation...
Revere Copper chairman blasts trade negotiations Observer Dispatch ...The agreement will do nothing to curb border adjustable taxes or prevent currency manipulation, said O’Shaughnessy — chairman of Revere Copper Products in Rome and co-chairman of the Coalition for a Prosperous America – practices that put United States’ manufacturers at a huge disadvantage...
“Trade Facilitation” and “harmonization” mean getting sick from food Trade Reform ...“Trade facilitation” is a euphemism. Its re-branding a strategy of underfunded and failed border inspections. It means you can bring in unsafe food without testing. You can bring avoid duties by trans-shipping your product through another country, or mis-labeling your containers, because Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) won’t check...
Canadian-Based Company Sues Canada Under NAFTA, Saying That Fracking Ban Takes Away Its Expected Profits techdirt ...Free trade critics say a $250-million damage suit being pursued as a result of Quebec's moratorium on fracking is proof Canada needs to be careful in negotiating trade pacts around the world. That's because TPP and TAFTA/TTIP, as well as Canada's bilateral treaty with Europe, CETA, all have ISDS clauses in them -- at least as far we know, given the obsessive secrecy that surrounds their negotiation...
Buy Low, Sell High New York Times ...Now that housing prices are coming back, investors who bought at fire-sale prices are able to flip those houses for big profits...
Blackstone, big investors slow their $800 million Tampa Bay home-buying binge Tampa Bay Times ...After an $800 million binge on Tampa Bay homes, big investors are finally catching their breath, pulling back on buying due to rising prices and market doubts, a Tampa Bay Times analysis has found...
Notices of default spiked in days before Homeowners Bill of Rights kicked in Las Vegas Review-Journal ...Banks, title companies and processors used September’s waning days to mount a record-setting foreclosure push before a Homeowners Bill of Rights took effect Tuesday...
Inside the GOP: Report on focus groups with Evangelical, Tea Party, and moderate Republicans Democracy Corps ...while few explicitly talk about Obama in racial terms, the base supporters are very conscious of being white in a country with growing minorities. Their party is losing to a Democratic Party of big government whose goal is to expand programs that mainly benefit minorities. Race remains very much alive in the politics of the Republican Party...
A Truth Slips Past MSM Gatekeepers heteconomist.com ...the public debt is a fiction and the debt ceiling a sham...
Economist: "There's Absolutely Nothing Resembling A Debt Crisis In The US" The Real News ...the debt-crisis debate is really not about the debt crisis per se; it's about the Republicans' efforts to destroy the minimal welfare state that we already have and the minimal benefits that are already provided the government...
Getting Older, Growing Poorer (opinion) New York Times ...budget proposals to cut Social Security’s cost-of-living benefit, ill advised in any case, would be especially unwise and untimely...
Government Caught Lying About Spying Again The Big Picture ...The government is spying on essentially everything we do. “Spies … can now, for the first time, monitor everything about us, and they can do so with a few clicks of a mouse and – to placate the lawyers – a drop-down menu of justifications“...
Police: Man on fire at National Mall dies The Hill ...The fire came a day after Capitol Hill was put on lock down after police opened fire on a woman who attempted to break through a security barrier near the Capitol...
Another Koch connection in Scott Suder saga The Cap Times ...Critics of Gov. Scott Walker and the Wisconsin Legislature's Republican leadership have made a hobby out of finding evidence of the Koch brothers' influence over conservative politics in the state. In the case of Scott Suder's recent activities, it hasn't been difficult...
Mandel's ties to donor revealed Dayton Daily News ...Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel wrote two letters advocating for Suarez Corporation Industries’ business interests in California at the same time that company founder Ben Suarez was raising $100,000 for Mandel’s campaign for U.S. Senate, according to records released by Mandel’s office to the Dayton Daily News...
Revere Copper chairman blasts trade negotiations Observer Dispatch ...The agreement will do nothing to curb border adjustable taxes or prevent currency manipulation, said O’Shaughnessy — chairman of Revere Copper Products in Rome and co-chairman of the Coalition for a Prosperous America – practices that put United States’ manufacturers at a huge disadvantage...
“Trade Facilitation” and “harmonization” mean getting sick from food Trade Reform ...“Trade facilitation” is a euphemism. Its re-branding a strategy of underfunded and failed border inspections. It means you can bring in unsafe food without testing. You can bring avoid duties by trans-shipping your product through another country, or mis-labeling your containers, because Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) won’t check...
Canadian-Based Company Sues Canada Under NAFTA, Saying That Fracking Ban Takes Away Its Expected Profits techdirt ...Free trade critics say a $250-million damage suit being pursued as a result of Quebec's moratorium on fracking is proof Canada needs to be careful in negotiating trade pacts around the world. That's because TPP and TAFTA/TTIP, as well as Canada's bilateral treaty with Europe, CETA, all have ISDS clauses in them -- at least as far we know, given the obsessive secrecy that surrounds their negotiation...
Buy Low, Sell High New York Times ...Now that housing prices are coming back, investors who bought at fire-sale prices are able to flip those houses for big profits...
Blackstone, big investors slow their $800 million Tampa Bay home-buying binge Tampa Bay Times ...After an $800 million binge on Tampa Bay homes, big investors are finally catching their breath, pulling back on buying due to rising prices and market doubts, a Tampa Bay Times analysis has found...
Notices of default spiked in days before Homeowners Bill of Rights kicked in Las Vegas Review-Journal ...Banks, title companies and processors used September’s waning days to mount a record-setting foreclosure push before a Homeowners Bill of Rights took effect Tuesday...
Inside the GOP: Report on focus groups with Evangelical, Tea Party, and moderate Republicans Democracy Corps ...while few explicitly talk about Obama in racial terms, the base supporters are very conscious of being white in a country with growing minorities. Their party is losing to a Democratic Party of big government whose goal is to expand programs that mainly benefit minorities. Race remains very much alive in the politics of the Republican Party...
A Truth Slips Past MSM Gatekeepers heteconomist.com ...the public debt is a fiction and the debt ceiling a sham...
Economist: "There's Absolutely Nothing Resembling A Debt Crisis In The US" The Real News ...the debt-crisis debate is really not about the debt crisis per se; it's about the Republicans' efforts to destroy the minimal welfare state that we already have and the minimal benefits that are already provided the government...
Getting Older, Growing Poorer (opinion) New York Times ...budget proposals to cut Social Security’s cost-of-living benefit, ill advised in any case, would be especially unwise and untimely...
Government Caught Lying About Spying Again The Big Picture ...The government is spying on essentially everything we do. “Spies … can now, for the first time, monitor everything about us, and they can do so with a few clicks of a mouse and – to placate the lawyers – a drop-down menu of justifications“...
Police: Man on fire at National Mall dies The Hill ...The fire came a day after Capitol Hill was put on lock down after police opened fire on a woman who attempted to break through a security barrier near the Capitol...
Another Koch connection in Scott Suder saga The Cap Times ...Critics of Gov. Scott Walker and the Wisconsin Legislature's Republican leadership have made a hobby out of finding evidence of the Koch brothers' influence over conservative politics in the state. In the case of Scott Suder's recent activities, it hasn't been difficult...
Mandel's ties to donor revealed Dayton Daily News ...Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel wrote two letters advocating for Suarez Corporation Industries’ business interests in California at the same time that company founder Ben Suarez was raising $100,000 for Mandel’s campaign for U.S. Senate, according to records released by Mandel’s office to the Dayton Daily News...
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Today's Teamster News 09.05.13
UAL Flight Simulator Techs Vote For Teamster Representation teamster.org ...flight simulator technicians at United Airlines voted for sole representation by the Teamsters Union. The 98 technicians were previously represented by the Teamsters at United in Denver and the Transport Workers Union at Continental in Houston prior to the 2010 merger...
TeamCare Improvements Announced for UPS Teamsters teamster.org ...Local union leaders representing UPS Teamsters who currently receive TeamCare health care benefits and those moving into the TeamCare plan met in Chicago today to learn about improvements made since the UPS National Master Agreement was ratified in June...
Workers plan major nationwide protest against Walmart for September 5th Workday Minnesota ...Workers in more than a dozen cities, including St. Paul, plan protests Thursday against Walmart’s treatment of its employees. Organizers expect thousands to participate in the demonstrations...
Paid Vacation’s Decline New York Times ...In 1992-93, 82 percent of American workers reported receiving paid vacation days. Today the share is down to 77 percent...
Minimum Wage Workers Largely Live In The South, Are Women Huffington Post ...Even in Hanson County, South Dakota, America’s cheapest county, a single full-time worker needs to earn $10.20 per hour -- nearly $3 more than the federal minimum wage -- to afford basic needs...
As austerity lifts, so does Europe macrobusiness ...Another good week for Europe as the latest PMI data shows the tentative recovery is gaining pace...
One In Seven American Families Faces Food Insecurity ThinkProgress ...An average of 11 percent of families were food insecure from 1998 to 2007, but in 2008 the rate spiked above 14 percent...
Budget Debates Matter: The Difference in GOP and Democratic Levels of Discretionary Spending for 2014 Translates into Nearly 1 Million Jobs Economic Policy Institute ...just as the intellectual case for austerity has fallen away, American policy is now set on an extremely austere auto-pilot that will slow growth and employment, all while the economy remains very far from recovered from the Great Recession...
The Failure of Free-Market Finance Project Syndicate ...high debt burdens, relentlessly rising for several decades – in the private sector even more than in the public sector – were a major threat to economic stability...
What we don't know about the $1.2 trillion student loan problem Reuters ...$28,000 -- The typical 2012 college graduate’s debt load upon Graduation Day, according to Hamilton Place Strategies...
The U.S. Trade Deficit Returns in July 2013 Economic Populist ...The real news is the monthly China trade deficit just hit a new all time high of $30.1 billion...
Injunction preventing hundreds of RI foreclosures is lifted HousingWire ...A Rhode Island federal judge lifted a blanket injunction, which initially blocked foreclosures in 825 different cases...
Wealthy New Yorkers Call De Blasio’s Tax Plan Offensive Bloomberg ...When New York mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio first proposed taxing the rich so every child in the city could attend all-day preschool, it was October and he had support from fewer than 10 percent of Democrats in polls. Now he leads the pack...
TeamCare Improvements Announced for UPS Teamsters teamster.org ...Local union leaders representing UPS Teamsters who currently receive TeamCare health care benefits and those moving into the TeamCare plan met in Chicago today to learn about improvements made since the UPS National Master Agreement was ratified in June...
Workers plan major nationwide protest against Walmart for September 5th Workday Minnesota ...Workers in more than a dozen cities, including St. Paul, plan protests Thursday against Walmart’s treatment of its employees. Organizers expect thousands to participate in the demonstrations...
Paid Vacation’s Decline New York Times ...In 1992-93, 82 percent of American workers reported receiving paid vacation days. Today the share is down to 77 percent...
Minimum Wage Workers Largely Live In The South, Are Women Huffington Post ...Even in Hanson County, South Dakota, America’s cheapest county, a single full-time worker needs to earn $10.20 per hour -- nearly $3 more than the federal minimum wage -- to afford basic needs...
As austerity lifts, so does Europe macrobusiness ...Another good week for Europe as the latest PMI data shows the tentative recovery is gaining pace...
One In Seven American Families Faces Food Insecurity ThinkProgress ...An average of 11 percent of families were food insecure from 1998 to 2007, but in 2008 the rate spiked above 14 percent...
Budget Debates Matter: The Difference in GOP and Democratic Levels of Discretionary Spending for 2014 Translates into Nearly 1 Million Jobs Economic Policy Institute ...just as the intellectual case for austerity has fallen away, American policy is now set on an extremely austere auto-pilot that will slow growth and employment, all while the economy remains very far from recovered from the Great Recession...
The Failure of Free-Market Finance Project Syndicate ...high debt burdens, relentlessly rising for several decades – in the private sector even more than in the public sector – were a major threat to economic stability...
What we don't know about the $1.2 trillion student loan problem Reuters ...$28,000 -- The typical 2012 college graduate’s debt load upon Graduation Day, according to Hamilton Place Strategies...
The U.S. Trade Deficit Returns in July 2013 Economic Populist ...The real news is the monthly China trade deficit just hit a new all time high of $30.1 billion...
Injunction preventing hundreds of RI foreclosures is lifted HousingWire ...A Rhode Island federal judge lifted a blanket injunction, which initially blocked foreclosures in 825 different cases...
Wealthy New Yorkers Call De Blasio’s Tax Plan Offensive Bloomberg ...When New York mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio first proposed taxing the rich so every child in the city could attend all-day preschool, it was October and he had support from fewer than 10 percent of Democrats in polls. Now he leads the pack...
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Today's Teamster News 08.15.13
38th TNBC Conference Kicks Off in Atlanta IBT ...Hundreds of African-American Teamster leaders and members have gathered together in the heart of downtown Atlanta on Peachtree Street at the 38th Annual Educational Conference and Banquet of the Teamsters National Black Caucus (TNBC), which runs August 14-18. Stay tuned for daily highlights and photos from the conference...
Striking Gold Cross Teamsters Ask IC Board of Supervisors to Help Resolve Negotiations KYMA-TV ...El Centro, Calif., EMTs and paramedics who are members of Local 542 on strike against Gold Cross Ambulance faced the board of supervisors yesterday to request that the board pressure Gold Cross to come to an agreement...
Hoffa: A Global Revolution Against Poverty IBT ...Corporations are squeezing workers across the globe to maximize profits and minimize wages. But workers are standing up and fighting back. Whether it’s fast-food workers in Detroit and Flint walking off the job or mass protests across Europe, one thing is clear – workers are no longer keeping quiet while being abused by big business...
Labor Day picnic blood drive called off due to labor dispute NW Labor Press ...A contract dispute between Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) and the Oregon Trail Chapter of the American Red Cross has resulted in the cancellation of this year’s Labor Day blood drive at Oaks Park. The Teamsters local that represents 150 workers there pledges support in solidarity with the ONA members…
UPS jet crashes near Birmingham airport, killing 2 and scattering wreckage over neighborhood Associated Press ...A UPS cargo plane crashed and burned Wednesday morning on the outskirts of an Alabama airport, killing two crew members and scattering boxes and charred debris across the grassy field, officials said...
Teamsters at Clean Harbors ratify first collective agreement Canadian HR Reporter ...After allegations of bullying and harassment, 600 workers at an Albertan hazardous waste management company, who are members of Teamsters Local 362, have ratified their first collective agreement. New deal puts an end to bullying, harassment, union says...
Sheriff’s department employees advocate union switch Dyersville (Iowa) Commercial ...Sheriff’s deputies’ consideration of a switch from the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees union (AFSCME) to the Teamsters union, brought two of those deputies before the Delaware County Board of Supervisors’ Aug. 12 meeting...
Forget Student Loans…Introducing Day Care Loans A Lightning War for Liberty ...Now that enough college age Americans have been stuffed with over a trillion dollars in student debt only to get a job a McDonalds and live with their parents, folks in New York City have come up with a brilliant new concept to ensure the production of an entirely new generation of debt slaves. Introducing day care loans...
Eleventh day of mass arrests in the Wisconsin Capitol. Celebrities take notice. blue cheddar ...Department of Administration spokeswoman Stephanie Marquis says police issued 20 citations on Tuesday for gathering in the rotunda without a permit.”...
With So Many Job Openings, Why So Little Hiring? Bloomberg ...A second explanation is that employers are offering jobs at wages that are too low to attract good applicants...
Uneven trade with China = 56,000 jobs lost in Indiana manufacturethis ...Since we granted normalized trade relations to Beijing over a decade ago, we’ve traded production capacity, and about 2.7 million middle-class jobs (including more than 56,000 in Indiana) to China …
Research suggests working-class job instability is leading to decrease in marriage and families manufacturethis ...fewer working-class Americans, without college degrees, are getting married, staying in marriages, and having families...
Pennsylvania joins lawsuit against US Airways-American merger WITF ...Pennsylvania is joining five states and the District of Columbia in a lawsuit to block the merger of American Airlines and US Airways...
Likely Labor regs would aid vets, disabled, unions Associated Press ...With Thomas Perez now confirmed as head of the Labor Department, the agency is expected to unleash a flurry of new regulations that have been bottled up for months — a prospect that has business leaders worried and labor advocates cheering...
The Corporate Tax Shell Game U.S. News & World Report ...The Financial Times reports on a new/old trend in tax avoidance by U.S. corporations: so-called "tax inversions" or "expatriations." In an inversion, a U.S. company reorganizes to make a foreign subsidiary the parent company, with the goal of taking advantage of lower tax rates and non-taxation of foreign profits...
Workers Shorted On Pay Under New Albuquerque Minimum Wage Law Told To Find Private Attorneys Huffington Post ...Workers still shorted on pay seven months after the city of Albuquerque, N.M., raised its minimum wage are being told to find their own lawyers and duke it out with their employers in court, advocates say...
Walmart workers group happy about deal imposed on retail giant People’s World ...Though the fine is small, the leading independent Walmart workers' group, Our Walmart, hailed the monster retailer's settlement with the federal government, which forces job safety measures involving trash compactors and handling hazardous materials at all 2,857 Walmart and Sam's Club stores nationwide...
North Carolina Sued Over Early Voting Law by Women’s Group Bloomberg News ...North Carolina was sued by the League of Women Voters over claims that changes in the state’s election laws restrict early voting, and eliminate same-day voter registration and some provisional ballots...
Malloy Signs Foreclosure Law To Add Protections For Homeowners Fairfield Daily Voice ...Gov. Dannel Malloy was joined by state legislators and bankers Tuesday in Stamford to sign a housing bill into law that is designed to increase protections for homeowners from foreclosure and to streamline the foreclosure process...
Texas struggles to defend discriminatory voting policies MSNBC ...It's been about three weeks since the Justice Department, relying on what's left of the Voting Rights Act, went after voter-discrimination policies in Texas. The U.S. Supreme Court may have severely damaged the VRA, but the Justice Department nevertheless argued that when "intentional voting discrimination" is found, changes to voting rights cannot be permitted to continue...
Striking Gold Cross Teamsters Ask IC Board of Supervisors to Help Resolve Negotiations KYMA-TV ...El Centro, Calif., EMTs and paramedics who are members of Local 542 on strike against Gold Cross Ambulance faced the board of supervisors yesterday to request that the board pressure Gold Cross to come to an agreement...
Hoffa: A Global Revolution Against Poverty IBT ...Corporations are squeezing workers across the globe to maximize profits and minimize wages. But workers are standing up and fighting back. Whether it’s fast-food workers in Detroit and Flint walking off the job or mass protests across Europe, one thing is clear – workers are no longer keeping quiet while being abused by big business...
Labor Day picnic blood drive called off due to labor dispute NW Labor Press ...A contract dispute between Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) and the Oregon Trail Chapter of the American Red Cross has resulted in the cancellation of this year’s Labor Day blood drive at Oaks Park. The Teamsters local that represents 150 workers there pledges support in solidarity with the ONA members…
UPS jet crashes near Birmingham airport, killing 2 and scattering wreckage over neighborhood Associated Press ...A UPS cargo plane crashed and burned Wednesday morning on the outskirts of an Alabama airport, killing two crew members and scattering boxes and charred debris across the grassy field, officials said...
Teamsters at Clean Harbors ratify first collective agreement Canadian HR Reporter ...After allegations of bullying and harassment, 600 workers at an Albertan hazardous waste management company, who are members of Teamsters Local 362, have ratified their first collective agreement. New deal puts an end to bullying, harassment, union says...
Sheriff’s department employees advocate union switch Dyersville (Iowa) Commercial ...Sheriff’s deputies’ consideration of a switch from the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees union (AFSCME) to the Teamsters union, brought two of those deputies before the Delaware County Board of Supervisors’ Aug. 12 meeting...
Forget Student Loans…Introducing Day Care Loans A Lightning War for Liberty ...Now that enough college age Americans have been stuffed with over a trillion dollars in student debt only to get a job a McDonalds and live with their parents, folks in New York City have come up with a brilliant new concept to ensure the production of an entirely new generation of debt slaves. Introducing day care loans...
Eleventh day of mass arrests in the Wisconsin Capitol. Celebrities take notice. blue cheddar ...Department of Administration spokeswoman Stephanie Marquis says police issued 20 citations on Tuesday for gathering in the rotunda without a permit.”...
With So Many Job Openings, Why So Little Hiring? Bloomberg ...A second explanation is that employers are offering jobs at wages that are too low to attract good applicants...
Uneven trade with China = 56,000 jobs lost in Indiana manufacturethis ...Since we granted normalized trade relations to Beijing over a decade ago, we’ve traded production capacity, and about 2.7 million middle-class jobs (including more than 56,000 in Indiana) to China …
Research suggests working-class job instability is leading to decrease in marriage and families manufacturethis ...fewer working-class Americans, without college degrees, are getting married, staying in marriages, and having families...
Pennsylvania joins lawsuit against US Airways-American merger WITF ...Pennsylvania is joining five states and the District of Columbia in a lawsuit to block the merger of American Airlines and US Airways...
Likely Labor regs would aid vets, disabled, unions Associated Press ...With Thomas Perez now confirmed as head of the Labor Department, the agency is expected to unleash a flurry of new regulations that have been bottled up for months — a prospect that has business leaders worried and labor advocates cheering...
The Corporate Tax Shell Game U.S. News & World Report ...The Financial Times reports on a new/old trend in tax avoidance by U.S. corporations: so-called "tax inversions" or "expatriations." In an inversion, a U.S. company reorganizes to make a foreign subsidiary the parent company, with the goal of taking advantage of lower tax rates and non-taxation of foreign profits...
Workers Shorted On Pay Under New Albuquerque Minimum Wage Law Told To Find Private Attorneys Huffington Post ...Workers still shorted on pay seven months after the city of Albuquerque, N.M., raised its minimum wage are being told to find their own lawyers and duke it out with their employers in court, advocates say...
Walmart workers group happy about deal imposed on retail giant People’s World ...Though the fine is small, the leading independent Walmart workers' group, Our Walmart, hailed the monster retailer's settlement with the federal government, which forces job safety measures involving trash compactors and handling hazardous materials at all 2,857 Walmart and Sam's Club stores nationwide...
North Carolina Sued Over Early Voting Law by Women’s Group Bloomberg News ...North Carolina was sued by the League of Women Voters over claims that changes in the state’s election laws restrict early voting, and eliminate same-day voter registration and some provisional ballots...
Malloy Signs Foreclosure Law To Add Protections For Homeowners Fairfield Daily Voice ...Gov. Dannel Malloy was joined by state legislators and bankers Tuesday in Stamford to sign a housing bill into law that is designed to increase protections for homeowners from foreclosure and to streamline the foreclosure process...
Texas struggles to defend discriminatory voting policies MSNBC ...It's been about three weeks since the Justice Department, relying on what's left of the Voting Rights Act, went after voter-discrimination policies in Texas. The U.S. Supreme Court may have severely damaged the VRA, but the Justice Department nevertheless argued that when "intentional voting discrimination" is found, changes to voting rights cannot be permitted to continue...
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Detroit's creditors won't view their mess
Detroit's emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, invited 25 of the city's creditors on a bus tour to actually see the disaster they created. He's hoping they'll forgive some of the debt.
The bankers canceled. You can guess why -- they didn't want to have their pictures taken.
Michigan Live reports,
The bankers canceled. You can guess why -- they didn't want to have their pictures taken.
Michigan Live reports,
Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr's office announced Tuesday afternoon that a bus tour of Detroit planned for 25 bankers who are being asked to forgive the city's debt has been cancelled.
“Unfortunately, the Office of the Emergency Manager will not be sponsoring a city tour for creditors Wednesday,” Orr spokesman Bill Nowling said in a prepared statement. “The city's creditors informed our office that they would like to spend more time conducting due diligence research into the city's financial state while they are in Detroit. It became apparent Tuesday that postponing the tour was necessary."Chris Savage at eclectablog wasn't impressed:
Orr has been trying to get city creditors, who are owed billions, to accept massive concessions in order to prevent bankruptcy and steer city funds away from debt service and instead toward public safety and redevelopment.
Although Orr’s office says they are hoping to reschedule the tour, it’s obviously not going to happen. You can just about guarantee that, as soon as the folks back at the corporate office heard about the tour, they pulled the plug immediately. These creditors, mainly bankers who do not live in Detroit, have no interest in the visuals of wealthy mostly-white, mostly-men in front of the desperation that Orr wanted them to see.Yup.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Private prison hellhole outed in Ohio
Answer: Private prison hellholes for debtors in Ohio.
ThinkProgress today reported on the swift decline of the nation's first privately owned (not just operated) prison in Northern Ohio:
In an unprecedented experiment fueled by budget concerns, Ohio sold a state prison to Corrections Corporation of America, one of the largest private prison corporations in the country, in 2011. Within a year, a state audit of Lake Erie Correctional Institute, the nation’s first privately owned state prison, found rampant abuse and abysmal conditions well below state standards. The CCA prison was given another chance to pass, but flunked another inspection four months later. Independent reports continue to illuminate filthy, broken facilities, as well as much higher rates of crime and violence in and around the prison. On Tuesday, the ACLU of Ohio sent Ohio lawmakers a comprehensive timeline of the prison’s decline since CCA took over.
The Lake Erie prison is now reportedly overcrowded at 130 percent capacity, with single-person cells holding 3 inmates each, according to internal documents obtained by the ACLU. Assaults on guards and other inmates have skyrocketed by 40 percent.
In fact, on the same day the ACLU released their timeline, the Lake Erie prison had to tamp down a series of inmate fights that lead to the confinement of 500 inmates.We've known for a long time that privately operated prisons suck, so it's no surprise that a privately owned prison would suck even worse.
But the recent news that Ohio allows debtor prisons to exist suggests something even more sinister: illegal institutional efforts to imprison poor people for being poor. .... Which creates a whole new population for private prisons!
Here's the expose from US News:
Several courts in Ohio are illegally jailing people because they are too poor to pay their debts and often deny defendants a hearing to determine if they're financially capable of paying what they owe, according to an investigation released Thursday by the Ohio chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The ACLU likens the problem to modern-day debtors' prisons. Jailing people for debt pushes poor defendants farther into poverty and costs counties more than the actual debt because of the cost of arresting and incarcerating individuals, the report said.
"The use of debtors' prison is an outdated and destructive practice that has wreaked havoc upon the lives of those profiled in this report and thousands of others throughout Ohio," the report said.Read the whole thing here.
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