Today's Teamster News 01.07.15

Teamsters
Agreement between Los Angeles, Long Beach port truck drivers, Carson firm allows Teamsters to enter negotiations  San Jose Mercury News   ...Drivers with Carson-based Shippers Transport Express, a wholly owned subsidiary of SSA Marine, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and their supporters plan to host a press conference in Wilmington on Friday to validate their union authorization cards, opening the door for the Teamsters to begin negotiating a contract, according to Justice for Port Drivers and the Teamsters...
Teamsters Local 728 Reaches Tentative Agreement With First Student  WTOC   ...A representative with Teamsters Local 728 Union has told WTOC it has reached a tentative agreement with First Student after months of negotiations...
Trade
Why The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Is A Pending Disaster  Huffington Post   ...Republicans who now run Congress say they want to cooperate with President Obama, and point to the administration's Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, as the model. The only problem is the TPP would be a disaster...
Stopping the Biggest Corporate Power Grab in Years  Foreign Policy in Focus   ...How fighting back against one arcane, Nixon-era trade negotiating procedure could put a stop to a global corporate coup...
Austerity Killing You? How About A Trade Deal?  Huffington Post   ...It is a mark of the delusion of Europe's leaders that the EU is putting its chips on a trade deal with the U.S. -- the so-called Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. TTIP is not really a trade deal at all but a series of measures intended to promote further deregulation of economic, financial, health, labor, safety, privacy, and environmental protections on both sides of the Atlantic. TTIP was designed by corporations to weaken labor and government -- and would do just about nothing to get Europe out of its austerity trap...
State Battles
Republicans Prefile Right-To-Work Legislation In NM House  Albuquerque Business First   ...Three members of the Republican-controlled state House announced Monday they prefiled legislation that would prohibit automatic union membership in New Mexico and give workers the right to join or financially contribute to a union — or not...
Butler County Discusses Right-To-Work Ordinance  Bowling Green Daily News   ...Butler County Judge-Executive David Fields said he expects the Fiscal Court to take a vote on a right-to-work ordinance, but that vote might not come until February...
Fischer Signs $9 Minimum Wage Ordinance  Louisville Courier Journal   ...Mayor Greg Fischer signed the ordinance increasing the minimum wage to $9 an hour in Jefferson County on Friday. The law increases the wage to $7.75 by July 1, to $8.25 by July 2016 and $9 by July 2017, and ties future increases to the Department of Labor's Consumer Price Index for urban cities in the region...
New IRS Rules On Dark Money Likely Won’t Be Ready Before 2016 Election  ProPublica   ...The Internal Revenue Service says it won't come out with new proposed rules for so-called dark money groups until late spring at the earliest, increasing the likelihood that no changes will take effect before the 2016 elections...
War on Workers
New GOP Congress Fires Shot At Social Security On Day One  Talking Points Memo   ...The largely overlooked change puts a new restriction on the routine transfer of tax revenues between the traditional Social Security retirement trust fund and the Social Security disability program. ...experts say it would likely mean any reallocation would have to be balanced by new revenues or benefit cuts...
House Republicans Change Rules on Calculating Economic Impact of Bills  New York Times   ...The change on “dynamic scoring” — ardently sought since the 1990s by Republicans — could ease passage of major tax cuts by showing that their impact on economic growth would substantially reduce their cost to the Treasury. The move is widely seen as a way for Republican leaders to set ground rules for an ambitious overhaul of the entire United States tax code...
Atlanta Stagehands Fight ‘Labor Pimps’ Pushing Temp Work, Low Wages  In These Times   ...while those performances net entertainers and concert venues massive amounts of money, the backstage workers like the ones who made Beyoncé’s live performance July 15 in Atlanta possible can’t say the same. Those employees are now attempting to organize a union, hoping to reverse the trend of eroded wages and benefits for the stagehands and others who make these performances so profitable...
Business Groups File Lawsuit To Block NLRB’s Union-Organizing Rule  Wall Street Journal   ...Several business trade groups filed a lawsuit Monday to block the National Labor Relations Board’s new rule that would speed union-organizing elections, alleging the board overstepped its authority...
Oil plummets, but don't expect lower fares soon  Sydney Morning Herald   ...Oil prices may have plunged to near six-year lows, but travellers are unlikely to see Qantas or Virgin Australia rush to slash fares any time soon  – or lower their much maligned fuel surcharges on international flights...
In the US, one lesson from oil prices: rich people win, again  Guardian   ...The most visible economic impact is in gasoline prices, with regular pump prices down about 70 cents a gallon from year ago levels, according to AAA. Consumers across the board benefit from this by having a little more disposable income, but Harris said the impact on households is uneven. Rich people win, again. About 56% of the expense savings goes to households in the top two-fifths of the income distribution versus only 24% to families in the bottom two-fifths…
Mercedes-Benz says will move U.S. headquarters to Atlanta  Reuters   ...Mercedes-Benz will move its U.S. headquarters to Atlanta from northern New Jersey, affecting about 1,000 employees, the company said on Tuesday. The Daimler AG unit is moving to cut costs...
Worker Killed in Mill Accident  North Coast Journal   ...A 64-year-old contract worker was killed this morning when his boom lift apparently came into contact with a high voltage line at an Arcata mill...
Miscellaneous
Why Uber Will—And Should—Be Regulated  Slate   ...Nothing is new under the sun, and that includes the Uber controversy. Price regulation of taxis was thrown into disarray in the 1920s when mass production drove down the cost of cars. When that happened, anyone, including part-timers, could pick up a passenger for a high fare during times of peak demand, depriving the taxis of fares from low-cost trips that they needed to survive and reintroducing price confusion. Governments invented the medallion system to block the part-timers from unraveling the market by siphoning off the lowest-cost fares...

Rock 'n roll Teamster brothers star in hit TV show, 'The Voice'

Colton and Zach Swon, known as “The Swon Brothers” on NBC’s hit series “The Voice,” recognize that their success didn’t happen without help.

“No matter how great you are, without friends it doesn’t work,” said Zach Swon, 28, in a recent interview. The Swon Brothers should know about teamwork.

Their father, Kelly Swon, is the secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 516 in Muscogee, Okla. Teamsters there are already supporting the Swon Brothers in the competition, but they need your support if they’re going to win.

“The Voice” is a singing competition/reality show that airs on Monday and Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. (EST) on NBC. It’s one of the most-watched shows on television, but the Swon Brothers need your help in spreading the word that they’re not only talented singers—they’re also the children of a Teamster principal officer who drove a UPS truck in Oklahoma for 25 years.

“We never know when they’re going to be on. They keep it quiet,” said Kelly Swon, explaining that people often ask him the next time his boys will appear on the show.

In their last appearance, they advanced to the knockout rounds, which are set to air on April 29 and 30. In advancing, they became the first duo in the show’s four-season history to make it past the battle rounds. 

Kelly said his sons play music full time and “they’ve done it basically all their lives. They both sing lead and play multiple instruments.” They can also play and sing any style of music, he said. The brothers got started at a young age singing in a gospel group called Exodus, their father said. The boys then went on to perform in a country music show with about 30 other people in it.

 Zach recently attributed the brothers’ success to the fact that their parents made them sing together starting early in their lives. “Zach, the oldest, started playing drums professionally when he was 7 years old,” Kelly  said. “After they did the music show for several years, they boys wanted to venture out on their own.” 

Colton, 24, even made it to the finals of the 2008 season of “American Idol.” The brothers have said that a support system of fans, family and friends has given them an edge in this competition. “Really, we don’t have any secrets or tips. But the main thing that we did before every battle is pray. We have relied on praying through this whole thing. And believe it or not, you know, it’s calmed our nerves. It’s got us through all the stress. And that is the God-honest truth,” Colton said in a recent interview.

“We’re not the best duo that’s ever been on the show, I’m sure, but I think we are just so comfortable with each other, it really helps us when it comes to high-pressure situations, you know. And I know that I could not be on that stage without him, and I wouldn’t want to,” Zach recently said.