It's politics that determines union density

The folks at the Center for Economic Policy Research came up with this chart to refute the argument that technological change and globalization made unions obsolete.

The study, called Politics Matter, points out that it's the political climate that makes the difference.

If globalization and technological change made unions obsolete, you would expect union membership to fall at the same rate across countries with the same level of globalization and technology change. Writes CEPR:

Instead, for 21 rich economies, including the United States, what we see over the last five decades is a wide range of trends in union membership and collective bargaining. 

Concludes CEPR:

Countries strongly identified during the postwar period with social democratic parties – Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland – have generally seen small increases in union coverage and only small decreases in union membership since 1980.

Over the same period, countries typically described as “liberal market economies” – the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada, and Japan – have generally seen sharp drops in union coverage and membership.

Countries in the broad Christian democratic tradition, sometimes referred to as “coordinated market economies” or “continental market economies” – Germany, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Switzerland – typically have had outcomes somewhere in between the social democratic and liberal market economies, with small drops in union coverage and moderate declines in union membership.

These patterns are consistent with the view that national politics are a more important determinant of recent trends in unionization than globalization or technological change. 

 Read the whole thing here.

Today's Teamster News 01.11.14

Teamsters Joint Council 16 Applauds Governor Cuomo's Signing of New York State Commercial Goods Industry Fair Play Act  Teamsters Joint Council 16   ...Teamsters Joint Council 16 expressed their thanks to Gov.  Andrew Cuomo for signing the New York State Commercial Goods Industry Fair Play Act (A5237B/S5867) and giving the Empire State the strongest worker misclassification legislation in the country...
Teamsters overwhelmingly reject YRC contract extension  Kansas City Star   ...YRC said it would operate normally despite the vote’s outcome...
Liam Neeson lambastes call to ban horse-drawn carriages  New York Post   ...Hollywood badass Liam Neeson went one-on-one with killjoy Mayor de Blasio, slamming Hizzoner for vowing to ban the city’s 220-plus clip-clopping, carriage-pulling equines from city streets and Central Park...
Teamsters, World Airways Fail To Reach Concessionary Agreement  teamster.org   ...Today, Teamster representatives of the Flight Attendants and Pilots of World Airways announced that bankruptcy discussions with their employer failed to yield an agreement on concessions their carrier was seeking...
Trade bill to open debate on globalization as Congress demands more oversight  Washington Post Lawmakers have proposed a bill that would narrow the Obama administration’s room to negotiate new free-trade agreements, demanding that sensitive issues such as currency ma­nipu­la­tion be covered in future treaties and deepening congressional oversight of the process...
20 years of NAFTA show why TPP must be stopped  Raw Story   ...The post-NAFTA era has been marked by growing inequality, declining job security and new leverage for corporations to attack government regulations enacted in the public interest...
The Majority Of Congresspeople Are Millionaires For The First Time Ever  ThinkProgress   ...More than half of all members of Congress had a net worth of more than a million dollars in 2012, according to a review by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP). It is the first time in American history that a majority of federal lawmakers have been millionaires, the group said...
U.S. Economy Added Only 74,000 Jobs in December  New York Times   ...The latest data from the Labor Department suggests that the economy lost some momentum, even as the unemployment rate dropped to 6.7 percent...
People Not In Labor Force Soar To Record 91.8 Million; Participation Rate Plunges To 1978 Levels  zero hedge   ...in December the civilian labor force did what it usually does in the New Normal: it dropped from 155.3 million to 154.9 million, which means the labor participation rate just dropped to a fresh 35 year low...
300,000 Without Water After Coal Industry Chemical Spill In W. Virginia  crooksandliars   ...A chemical spill into West Virginia's Elk River has led to a tap water ban for up to 300,000 people, shut down bars and restaurants and led to a run on bottled water in some stores as people looked to stock up...
How is Privatization Failing America?  The Real News   ... From healthcare to education, research shows an increase in privatization leaves the public with the losses and corporations with the gains...
How the Big Cell Phone Companies Are Getting Away with Ripping You Off Each Month  AlterNet   ...If you live in America, there’s a good chance you’ve not been overjoyed by your wireless plan. Simply by using a device essential to your daily life, you have been screwed...
Life in the Electronic Concentration Camp: The Many Ways That You're Being Tracked and Controlled  Truthout   ...“A security camera doesn’t respond to complaint, threats, or insults. Instead, it just watches you in a forbidding manner. But we don’t even scream back because technology companies have convinced us that we need to be connected to them to be happy...
We Need Privacy Laws for the Digital Era  The Salon   ...Updating the Fourth Amendment has been done before, to address the invention of cars, phones and GPS. It’s time to do it again...
Swiss Bank Helped 400 Americans Dodge Taxes On $600 Million  ThinkProgress   ...Swiss bank Julius Baer told hundreds of Americans how to evade U.S. taxes on a total $600 million in wealth, according to a court ruling published Wednesday in Switzerland...
Wall Street Predicts $50 Billion Bill to Settle U.S. Mortgage Suits  New York Times   ...Wall Street could pay nearly $50 billion to buy peace from federal authorities who are taking aim at the banks over their role in the mortgage crisis...
The Income Inequality Implications of Job Automation: Over 47 Percent of Jobs May Be at Risk  Huffington Post ...Researchers have pointed out that our nation's growing income inequality is indicative of increased automation. When will the exponential growth of computing technology allow for jobs that may be viewed as safe to be taken over?...
Why it’s Great to Be the Boss  Pew Research Center   ...In addition to bigger paychecks, America’s bosses are more satisfied with their family life, jobs and overall financial situation than are non-managerial employees, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey...
Target says up to 70 million customers had data stolen in holiday breach  Associated Press   ...Retail giant revises previous estimate of 40m customer accounts, which included credit cards as well as phone numbers and emails...
Georgia GOPer Attacking Free School Lunch Expensed $4,200 In Meals  Talking Points Memo   ..."Kingston and his staff expensed nearly $4200 in meals for business purposes to his congressional office, paid for by the American taxpayer," WSAV 3's Dan Kartunen reported. The amount could have purchased nearly 2,000 Georgia school lunches...
Alaska moves step closer to vote on legalizing recreational marijuana use  The Guardian   ...A citizens' group hoping to make Alaska the third state in the nation to legalize recreational use of marijuana took a step closer Wednesday, submitting more than 46,000 signatures to the state election office...
Boeing machinists allege unfair labor practices, seek revote  Reuters   ...Angry Boeing machinists have filed eight unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board alleging their union's top leaders manipulated a recent contract vote, and demanding that ballots be recast...
The Boeing kleptocracy  Corrente   ...CEO Jim McNerney dumped 282,037 shares this past August. This is not management, it is asset stripping...

Today's Teamster News 11.26.13

United Airlines Mechanics Call for Pension Reinstatement During Informational Pickets at Airports Across the U.S.  teamster.org   ...On Monday, United Airlines (UAL) professional aviation mechanics represented by the Teamsters Union held informational pickets at 10 major airports around the country to let the public know they may be forced to strike if the company refuses to keep its promise to reinstate the workers’ pension plans...
BLET Urges Support For Two-Person Crew Bill  ble-t.org   ...The BLET, working jointly with SMART-Transportation Division (formerly the United Transportation Union), made nearly 150 visits to members of the U.S. House of Representatives last week in support of H.R. 3040, the Safe Freight Act...
Thanksgiving Openings Show Lack of Respect for Workers  teamster.org   ...“Many of them are underperforming and desperate for every dollar of sales.”...
Walmart Strikes Hit Three More Cities In Florida And California  ThinkProgress   ...Walmart workers went on strike on in Miami on Monday morning, following strikes in Tampa on Saturday and in Sacramento, CA on Friday...
National, Iowa Right to Work Groups Subsidized State Candidates, Misled IRS, Former Employee Charges  Open Secrets   ...A former political operative with the National Right to Work Committee who was involved with the 2008 and 2012 Ron Paul presidential campaigns has accused the anti-union group of running a sprawling off-the-books mass-mailing operation that violated state campaign finance laws and is at odds with the group's statements to the IRS...
WTO talks fail to agree on global trade deal text  Reuters   ...Marathon talks on the World Trade Organization's first-ever worldwide trade reform in Geneva failed early on Monday to agree on a text to put to ministers who meet in Bali next month...
Why Globalization Is Going Into Reverse  Bloomberg   ...A new study shows that cross-border investment and trade flows declined worldwide in 2012, ending a two-year recovery after the global financial crisis...
Bold Boeing workers refuse to screw over next generation  The Salon   ...By rejecting a contract that amounted to corporate extortion, employees have taken a stand for the middle class...
The Corporate Bully Whose Front Groups, Willful Distortions and Hate-Mongering Has Poisoned U.S. Politics: Meet Richard Berman  AlterNet   ...“Why don’t we know one of the most powerful people in America is? What he has done? Why '60 Minutes' called him Dr. Evil?” asks Saru Jayaraman, a leader in a growing national movement of restaurant workers demanding better pay and working conditions...
H&M: 'Living Wage' Coming To Textile Workers By 2018  Reuters   ...Hennes & Mauritz, the world's second-largest clothing retailer, laid out a plan on Monday to pay a fair "living wage" to some 850,000 textile workers by 2018, saying governments were acting too slowly...
4 Ways the Koch Brothers' Wealth Is Beyond Comprehension  Alternet   ...In 2012, David and Charles Koch made enough money in one second to pay the food bill for an entire year for a homeless woman named Beverly...
10 Biggest Myths About Retail Workers  The Guardian   ...The average age of a retail worker is  37 years old (pdf), and more than half of year-round retail workers  contribute a significant portion (pdf) of their family's total income. For example, researchers found that  a third (pdf) of New York City retail workers support at least one dependent...
Hungry Americans Less Productive as Budget Cuts Deepen: Economy  Bloomberg   ...Hunger costs the U.S. at least $167.5 billion each year in lost economic productivity and earnings, health-care expenses that could have been avoided by better nutrition and the value of charity to keep families fed...
Unions to address austerity measures  Kenora Online   ...Ontario Federation of Labour gathers in Toronto this week to address austerity measures, including anti-union legislation...
A tale of two states  MSNBC   ...After the 2010 elections, Wisconsin got to work targeting collective bargaining, tax cuts, and reduced spending. After the 2010 elections, Minnesota got to work raising taxes on the wealthy and making new in-state investments in areas such as education and infrastructure….Three years into Mr. Walker’s term, Wisconsin lags behind Minnesota in job creation and economic growth...
Heart of Darkness: Criminal Investigation of WI Recall $  Center for Media and Democracy   ...The post-Citizens United dark money showdown is underway in Wisconsin...
Herring wins Virginia attorney general race, elections board announces  Washington Post   ...The State Board of Elections on Monday declared Democrat Mark R. Herring Virginia’s next attorney general, capping a dramatic three-week certification process in the closest statewide race in Virginia history...

U.S. middle class ranks 27th in wealth

America is the richest country in the world.

Not.

A new study shows the U.S. ranks 27th in the world when it comes to middle-class wealth.

Here's more bad news: Wages fell faster in the first quarter of 2013 than they have at any time in the last 65 years.

Though the U.S. ranks first in overall wealth, average Americans don't get a fair share of the wealth they create.

AlterNet came up with a list that explains why:

• Weak labor laws undermine unions and give large corporations more power to keep wages and benefits down. Unions now represent less than 7 percent of all private sector workers, the lowest ever recorded. 

• America encourages globalization of production so that workers here are in constant competition with the lower-wage workers all over the world as well as with highly automated technologies.

• Our minimum wage is pathetic, especially in comparison to other developed nations. (We’re #13.) Nobody can live decently on $7.25 an hour. Our poverty-level minimum wage puts downward pressure on the wages of all working people.

• Wall Street is out of control. Once deregulation started 30 years ago, money has gushed to the top as Wall Street was free to find more and more unethical ways to fleece us. 

• Higher education puts our kids into debt. In most other countries higher education is practically tuition-free. Indebted students are not likely to accumulate wealth anytime soon. 

• The wealthy dominate politics. Nowhere else in the developed world are the rich and their corporations able to buy elections with such impunity.

(Read the whole list here.)

Today's Teamster News 06.17.13

France lifts block on EU-US trade negotiations  Euronews   ...France has lifted it’s objection to trade talks between the European Union and the United States, clearing the way for the world’s most ambitious free trade agreement...
G8 summit: exclusion zone extended in Northern Ireland  The Guardian   ...With Black Hawk attack helicopters already deployed in the lakeland area to protect Barack Obama and the other G8 leaders, and a ring of steel erected to prevent demonstrators getting anywhere near the summit, the security forces in Northern Ireland are also intensifying pressure on dissident republicans...
New Report: Corporate Pirates of the Caribbean  Institute for Policy Studies   ...Fix the Debt member corporations stand to gain as much as $173 billion in windfalls if Congress adopts their proposal for a territorial tax system...
Student loans are big business for government, bringing billions in profit  Detroit Free Press   ...The U.S. government projects to make more money off student loans this fiscal year than ExxonMobil, Apple, J.P. Morgan Chase or Fannie Mae made on their respective businesses last year, a new analysis shows...
Former Bank of America workers allege it lied to home owners  Reuters   ...Six former Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) employees have alleged that the bank deliberately denied eligible home owners loan modifications and lied to them about the status of their mortgage payments and documents...
As Public Concerns Grow, Congress Spooked Over Spying  truthout   ...The American people are growing increasingly concerned about reports of domestic spying. And Congress isn’t sure how to respond...
How Tea Party Favorite Rick Scott Helped Cook Up a Sweetheart Deal for His Florida Friends  Vanity Fair   ...Scott is calling for a major realignment of the state policy on insurance to address a far-fetched scenario. And what is the solution? Why, enrich the private insurance companies with state money! And guess who has been receiving large campaign contributions from one of the biggest winners of Scott’s largesse?...
Pew Center: Ohio barely created any jobs in past twelve months  Plunderbund   ...Ohio ranks 47th in private sector job creation over the past month when you measure by percentage increase in new jobs (which is a fairer way to measure as it accounts for differences in population)...
Bills to dissolve Michigan schools in financial trouble are put on fast track  Detroit Free Press   ...Three districts — Buena Vista, Inkster and Pontiac — were cited during a legislative hearing Tuesday as being likely candidates for dissolution...
Mo. bill lets banks compete with payday lenders  Associated Press   ...A bill pending before Gov. Jay Nixon would raise the fees that Missouri-based banks could charge for short-term, cash advances — a move intended to make it worth their while financially to start offering such products...
California high-speed rail gets a green light  McClatchy   ...California’s high-speed rail project can start rolling without waiting for potentially time-consuming approvals from a federal board...

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/06/13/5495325/california-high-speed-rail-gets.html#storylink=cpy

12 scary facts about globalization

A blog called The Economic Collapse today posted a list of 22 frightening facts about the U.S. trade imbalance. We thought we'd share the 12 that scared us the most. But first, we're sharing a bit of a good rant from TEC:

Since 1975, the United States has bought more than 8 trillion dollars more stuff from the rest of the world than they have bought from us.  We are the only economy on earth that could have had 8 trillion dollars drained out of it and still be standing.  Instead of leaving the country, those 8 trillion dollars could have gone to U.S. businesses and U.S. workers.

Now the stats:

1. In 2001, American consumers spent 102 billion dollars on products made in China.  In 2011, American consumers spent 399 billion dollars on products made in China.
2. The Chinese undervalue their currency by about 40 percent in order to gain a critical advantage over foreign competitors.  This means that many Chinese companies are able to absolutely thrive while their competition in the United States goes out of business...
3. A Jeep Grand Cherokee that costs $27,490 in the United States costs about $85,000 in China thanks to all the tariffs, according to the New York Times.
4. The U.S. trade deficit with China during 2011 was 295.4 billion dollars.  That was the largest trade deficit that one nation has had with another nation in the history of the world.
5. Back in 1985, our trade deficit with China was only about 6 million dollars (million with an "m") for the entire year.
6. U.S. consumers spend about 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that Chinese consumers spend on goods and services from the United States.
7. The United States has actually lost an average of about 50,000 manufacturing jobs a month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.
8. According to the Economic Policy Institute, America is losing about half a million jobs to China every single year.
9. The United States has lost more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities since 2001.
10. During 2010 alone, an average of 23 manufacturing facilities closed their doors in America every single day.
11. 95 percent of the jobs lost during the last recession were middle class jobs.
12. Due in part to the globalization of the labor pool, only about 24 percent of all jobs in the United States are "good jobs" at this point.

It isn't the debt, stupid, it's globalization

We live in a time when up is down. Victims of financial crimes are portrayed as the perps. And the biggest financial crime is unfair trade.

Working people in America and Greece (and all over Europe, in fact) are being painted as profligate. The reality is that globalization has so depressed wages -- and the banks have figured out so many ways to siphon money from the poor and middle class -- that people are falling into debt they can't escape from. Today, one in seven Americans is pursued by a debt collection agency.

The story we've heard so often in the U.S. is that Americans bought houses they couldn't afford and then used them as ATMs to buy SUVs. That caused the housing bubble to burst and the poor widdle banks are left with all those bad mortgages.

Trouble is, it isn't true. Americans are borrowing no more now than they did 30 years ago. They have more debt, but that isn't because they've borrowed more.

A new study by two economists, Josh Mason and Arjun Jayadev, shows that Americans borrowed at the same rate or less from 1929 to the present, with the exception of 2000-06. The reason Americans have more debt is that wages and inflation fell while interest rates rose. Interest rates on credit cards, for example, were a lot lower in 1982 than they are now. And that doesn't even account for the fees banks are now charging.

And why are wages falling? Because of globalization.
 
Greece is also the victim of an economic fable. The story goes that Greece paid too much for a social safety net that it can't afford. The reality is that Greece's economic problems result from its currency integration with the rest of Europe -- aka, "globalization."
 
As economist Paul Krugman points out in a recent New York Times op-ed,

By introducing a single currency without the institutions needed to make that currency work, Europe effectively reinvented the defects of the gold standard — defects that played a major role in causing and perpetuating the Great Depression.

More specifically, the creation of the euro fostered a false sense of security among private investors, unleashing huge, unsustainable flows of capital into nations all around Europe’s periphery. As a consequence of these inflows, costs and prices rose, manufacturing became uncompetitive, and nations that had roughly balanced trade in 1999 began running large trade deficits instead. Then the music stopped.

If the peripheral nations still had their own currencies, they could and would use devaluation to quickly restore competitiveness. But they don’t, which means that they are in for a long period of mass unemployment and slow, grinding deflation. Their debt crises are mainly a byproduct of this sad prospect, because depressed economies lead to budget deficits and deflation magnifies the burden of debt.

Today's Teamster News 02.26.12

Locked-out workers on 6-state trip Journal Gazette ...Eight locked-out union members have embarked on a six-day, six-state trip designed to increase public awareness of their situation. The travelers represent workers at American Crystal Sugar Co. in North Dakota and Cooper Tire and Rubber Co. in Findlay, Ohio, in what they’re calling a “1,000-mile journey for justice.”...
Get a real job! The note with 1 per cent tip left by wealthy banker after $133 lunch as an insult to the 99 per cent Daily Mail ...After dining on a meal at a boutique Newport Beach, California restaurant, the banker left only $1.33 on a $133.54 tab. Adding insult to injury, he gave the server, Breanna, another tip: ‘Get a real job.’...
Workers attack factory Phnom Penh Post ...A fourth day of protests by garment workers in Kampong Cham turned unruly yesterday, as nearly 2,000 workers shattered the windows of their factory with stones...
Have Labour Will Travel Macrobusiness ...governments in developed economies are caught in a vice. To keep the work force in employment, the workers have to be able to compete with much cheaper labour forces in the emerging world. If they try to compete on price, it leads to a Catch 22 — to keep the nation’s standard of living up you have to cut workers’ standard of living...
Length of Unemployment is Worst Since World War II Middle Class Political Economist ...The current average of over 40 weeks is completely unprecedented historically...
Why are Gas Prices Skyrocketing? Economic Populist ...soaring oil prices literally can cripple the entire economy. When will the people override Wall Street and stop this insanity?...

Today's Teamster News 02.23.12

The “Can’t Find Workers” Meme  Columbia Journalism Review   ...These young folks don’t want to spend a lot of money and time training to do a specific job they might not get only to get laid off when some private-equity slicks (where the real money’s at) buy out the company and ship the jobs to China...
WikiLeaks: Saudis often warned U.S. about oil speculators  McClatchy   ...Saudi Arabia suspected that "speculation represented approximately $40 of the overall oil price when it was at its height."...
Chinese Open First Car Plant in Europe  Der Spiegel   ...Just as the Japanese and Koreans did decades ago, Chinese automakers are hoping to gain strong positions in the longer term in the Western European and United States markets...
Do-Over Season  New York Times   ...Is there really a chance that the Supreme Court might reconsider Citizens United? A week ago, I wouldn’t have thought so, and I still think it’s an extreme long shot. But a provocative statement last Friday by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer makes this crazy idea worth pondering – which is undoubtedly what the two justices intended...
Wisconsin GOP Attempts to Ram Through Special Interest Mining Bill  PR Watch   ...Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald are pushing for radical changes in Wisconsin’s current mining law to benefit a single out-of-state company...
Clients Continue Exodus as Nuveen Investments Seeks Another Billion Dollar Refinancing, Teamsters Say  IBT   ...As Nuveen Investments seeks to refinance $1.1 billion in debt – just barely a year after the firm's last billion dollar refinancing – the International Brotherhood of Teamsters is urging clients carefully to consider the firms suitability as an asset manager in light of its highly leveraged financial condition, as well as its oversight and control by private equity owners Madison Dearborn Partners...

Today's Teamster News 11.24.11

As Work Goes Global, Will Holidays Disappear?  Bloomberg   ...With more and more business conducted across borders, workers find it increasingly difficult to rest on national or religious holidays...
Teamsters sue to keep Mexican trucks out  Detroit News   ..."Opening the border to these dangerous, dirty trucks is an attack on highway safety, an attack on American truckers and warehouse workers, an attack on border security and an attack on our environment," said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa...
Wisconsin led nation in Oct job losses  The Cap Times   ...No press release from the Governor's office on this one...
Fatalism and the American Dream  New York TImes   ...(A) report, which examined economic and social mobility in 10 Western countries, found that Americans actually appear to have less control over their success in life than their counterparts do...
The Average Bush Tax Cut For The 1 Percent This Year Will Be Greater Than The Average Income Of The Other 99 Percent  Think Progress   ... congress’ fiscal super committee failed to craft a deficit reduction package due to Republican refusal to consider tax increases on the super wealthy...
Live Blog for #Occupy Movement: Protests, Events Planned for Black Friday & Thanksgiving  firedoglake   ...With many encampments still setup around the country, it is to be expected that there will be stories of occupations having Thanksgiving at their camps...

Today's Teamster News 11.03.11

A strike at US Foods takes aim at private equity  New York Times   ...The relationship between labor unions and private equity, which has always been chilly, has just gotten colder...
Port closure culminates Oakland protest  The Press-Democrat   ...Semi-truck drivers trying to leave the Port of Oakland stopped as throngs of demonstrators poured in....“It's OK,” said Mann Singh, 42, a truck driver from Pittsburgh who was stuck in the middle of the road with demonstrators climbing on his vehicle. “They are for us, you know. We work 16 hours to make $200...”
Sotheby's arrest 2  youtube   ...Four occupy wall street activists were arrested tonight at Sotheby's auction house in NYC, for distutbing one of sotheby's biggest nights of the year, in support of the locked-out workers...
Teamsters Protest Union-Hostile Law Firm Jackson Lewis  IBT   ...Teamster members protested the anti-union law firm Jackson Lewis, which was hired by Sotheby’s Auction House [NYSE: BID] to help outsource good, middle-class jobs...
Porsche Sells Malbec to Keep Argentine Access  Bloomberg   ...President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who won re- election Oct. 23, is forcing sellers of foreign-made cars to become exporters of everything from bio-diesel to bottled water in return for access to an auto market that’s growing 30 percent a year. Argentina introduced the program in March to boost export, increase investment in local industry and shore up dwindling central bank reserves...
Anonymous retreats from Mexico drug cartel confrontation  The Guardian   ...Plans by the hacker collective Anonymous to expose collaborators with Mexico's bloody Zetas drug cartel – a project it dubbed "#OpCartel" – have fallen into disarray, with some retreating from the idea of confronting the killers while others say that the kidnap of an Anonymous hacker, the incident meant to have spawned the scheme, never happened...

Today's Teamster News 10.21.11

Car Company Gets U.S. Loan, Builds Cars in Finland  ABC News   ...an electric car company that received a $529 million federal government loan guarantee is assembling its first line of cars in Finland, saying it could not find a facility in the United States capable of doing the work...
GOP Senator Supports ‘Infrastructure’ Spending … In Libya (VIDEO)  TalkingPointsMemo   ...a GOP senator who's up for re-election this cycle (said) on Fox News, "We can go over there and help them build their infrastructure up." That's Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). He wasn't talking about a forlorn corner of the United States, though. He was talking about Libya... 
Hertz fires 25 drivers who refuse to clock out  Seattle Times   ...Hertz has sent termination letters to 25 drivers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport after they refused to agree to clock out for daily breaks, during which they normally pray...Officials with Teamsters Local 117, which represents the workers, said the two sides had tried to negotiate an agreement...
Quinn, Emmanuel expected to announce labor deals at McCormick Place  Chicago Tribune   ...The package -- which would cut crew sizes from three to two workers, give exhibitors the right to unload their own vehicles and lengthen straight-time windows -- is similar to the earlier legislative changes...
Teacher who sparred with Christie runs for office  Politico   ...Marie Corfield, a New Jersey teacher whose clash with Chris Christie at a town hall meeting made big headlines, is running for N.J. state assembly...
Public speaks out against Wisconsin Medicaid cuts  Bloomberg   ...A plan to cut about half a billion dollars from Wisconsin's Medicaid costs put forward by Gov. Scott Walker's administration drew an overwhelmingly negative response at the first of two public hearings Wednesday...
Scott struggles to find good news on jobs front  The Gainesville Sun   ...With Florida's employment market stagnating and budget revenues declining, Gov. Rick Scott jumped on the good economic news he could find Thursday, touting a new biotech company's decision to move to the Tampa Bay area. But the firm's addition of 40 new jobs will hardly put a dent in Scott's promise to create 700,000 positions in seven years, and the billing of Thursday's event as a "major" jobs announcement underscored the yearning for positive economic signs...

Whoa! Hundreds of longshoremen block train in WA

The Associated Press has the story about the longshoremen's third major protest in a week in Washington:

Hundreds of union workers managed to block a mile-long train from delivering grain to the new EGT terminal at the Port of Longview, Wash. The terminal wants to use non-union labor.

The train was rerouted to Vancouver after the Thursday morning standoff. Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad spokesman Gus Melonas says the blockade has prompted BNSF to indefinitely suspend train traffic to the grain terminal.

A hundred (UPDATE: just added dropped word "hundred") longshoremen were arrested on Monday after they pulled down a chain link fence on the railroad's property, according to The Daily News.

Teamsters and longshoremen have a lot at stake in this new global order. Multinationals are just dying to reduce all their workers along the supply chain to serfdom. The grain train standoff, the fight over Mexican trucks, the battle with Royal Ahold and C & S Wholesale Grocers, the dispute with BMW -- they're all part and parcel of the same savage attack on workers.

If you haven't gotten educated and involved yet, better hurry up. They're coming after you soon, if they haven't already.

'We're angry,' says Crumlin at IBT convention (VIDEO)

Teamsters vowed to organize in the face of resistance by anti-union political regimes and by powerful multinationals during the second day of their 28th Convention.

They passed several resolutions about global solidarity, including one that stated,

...the future of working people and the future of our great Union depends on our ability to organize the unorganized and to build alliances with workers throughout the world.

Another resolution honored Mansour Osanloo, the leader of the Tehran Bus Workers Union, by making him an honorary Teamster. Osanloo was sentenced to five years in prison in July 2007 after being dragged from a Tehran bus by Iranian security forces. He was charged with “acting against national security” and “propaganda against the state” because he helped found a democratic trade union for bus drivers in Tehran.

Paddy Crumlin, president of the Maritime Union of Australia, gave a rock 'em, sock 'em speech about sticking together. He said

We are here because we are angry about what is being done to workers and because we want to do something about it.

Together, brothers and sisters of the Teamsters, we are the difference for working people and their future.

Teamsters passed a resolution supporting global solidarity that said, in part,

...the International Brotherhood of Teamsters recognize that the future of working people and the future of our great Union depends on our ability to organize the unorganized and to build alliances with workers throughout the world. We will particularly focus on the global supply chains where we are uniquely positioned to build Teamster power...

Follow convention proceedings here.

Oh joy. Trade gap with China up by 20%

The news just gets better and better. The U.S. trade deficit with China increased 19.4 percent in April, reports the peerless Marty Crutsinger at the Associated Press.

Writes Crutsinger,

The trade deficit with China jumped 19.4 percent to $21.6 billion, a development likely to increase pressure to crack down on Chinese trade practices seen by U.S. critics as unfair to American workers.

So far this year, the deficit is running at an annual rate of $553.4 billion, up 10.6 percent from last year's deficit of $500 billion.

"These deficits will continue crippling American growth and hiring," writes Alan Tonelson, U.S. Business and Industry Council research fellow.

The trade deficit OUGHT to increase pressure on our elected representatives in Washington to reject three so-called "trade deals" (really giveaways and protections to multinationals) -- likely to be sent to Congress soon. The deals are with Colombia, the most dangerous country in the world to be a union member; with Panama, a notorious tax haven and money launderer; and with protectionist South Korea, in the biggest deal since NAFTA.

Maybe the public will make a stink about Colombia, Panama and South Korea. But most members of Congress don't pay much mind to the voters. They pay attention to the corporate lobbyists, writes University of Oregon professor Gordon Lafer. In a GREAT op-ed today in The Hill, "Choose voters over donors on free trade," Lafer writes,

The majority of Americans opposes NAFTA-style treaties. It’s not just union members; only 27 percent of Republicans think “free trade” helps us. And no wonder: We’ve lost almost 5 million jobs since NAFTA was passed — many of them well-paying manufacturing jobs that were the backbone of the middle class. Millions of families have watched loved ones put out of work by companies who could make more profit in Mexico or China, leaving the public firmly opposed to such deals.

The minority that supports the NAFTA model, however, includes the country’s most powerful corporate lobbies. The strongest advocates of “free trade” are the Chamber of Commerce and multinational corporations such as GE, which sent tens of thousands of jobs overseas and built a profitable business helping others do likewise.

It’s particularly striking to watch Republicans on this issue. John Boehner is portrayed as captive to the Tea Party — but Tea Partiers are more opposed to NAFTA-style treaties than any other group of voters. Yet on this issue, their voices are ignored. When there is a conflict between the passions of their base and the dictates of their funders, Boehner and gang come down squarely on the side of the latter.

Republicans are famous for message discipline, but what’s remarkable right now is the lockstep silence on this issue. From Palin to Boehner to Fox and Rush — conservatives have agreed that it’s best not to alert the base to the fact that their leaders have crossed them.

Maybe someone should tell the Tea Party what their representatives in Congress are voting for.  Oh wait, the Koch brothres fund the Tea Party. Guess it just won't happen.   

WTO rules against U.S. on meat labeling

Very, very nice. The World Trade Organization has secretly (yup, secretly) ruled the U.S. discriminates against Mexican and Canadian ranchers.

Our laws require meat sold in supermarkets to be labeled with the name of the country where the meat came from. That, say the Canadians and the Mexicans, makes it hard for them to sell their beef in the U.S. The WTO agrees with them -- on a preliminary basis.

Reuters reports:

The World Trade Organization has ruled against some U.S. labeling regulations for meat sold in supermarkets, saying they discriminate against foreign suppliers, people close to the case said on Thursday.

The confidential interim ruling, if approved later this year, would deal a partial victory to Mexican and Canadian breeders frustrated in their attempts to export to the United States, and opens the way to scores of similar legal challenges, the sources said.

A WTO spokesman said the interim report -- expected to be largely unchanged in its final version later this year -- was circulated to the United States, Canada and Mexico on May 20. The WTO declined to comment on its contents, citing its confidentiality.

Even worse, Reuters reports similar cases are expected to be filed.

This is just lovely. A secret world court is overruling U.S. laws. You just have to wonder, why on earth would we continue to be part of the WTO???

The U.S. has 60 days to appeal the ruling, something we certainly hope happens. In the meantime, go to this website to find out how to buy U.S. foods -- while you still can: http://www.efooddepot.com/products/grid/24/0/0/0/0/5/6/all.html

Stop the corporate crime wave, says this world-renowned economist

Mea culpa

Jeffrey Sachs has a lot to make up for. He's the economist who introduced shock therapy to Communist countries after they threw over Communism. Shock therapy is the sudden introduction of the "you're on your own" economic doctrine so beloved of Tea Partiers. It includes lifting of price and currency controls, elimination of state subsidies, free trade and large-scale privatization.

Critics say Sachs' shock therapy in the Soviet Union led to

...drastic decreases in industrial output over the ensuing years, a nearly halving of the country's GDP and of personal incomes, a doubling of the suicide rate, and a skyrocketing unemployment rate. The Lancet has recently reported that rapid privatization of the Soviet Union caused a 12.8% death rate increase among males in just two years...

Sachs has quit with the shock doctrine and appears to be making amends for impoverishing so many people. Recently, he railed against the global economy's corporate crime wave in a post for Project Syndicate. He pointed out that not a single financial leader is in jail two years after the global financial crisis caused by their criminal behavior. And he takes apart Pink Slip Rick Scott:

The current governor of Florida, Rick Scott, was CEO of a major health-care company known as Columbia/HCA. The company was charged with defrauding the United States government by overbilling for reimbursement, and eventually pled guilty to 14 felonies, paying a fine of $1.7 billion.

The FBI’s investigation forced Scott out of his job. But, a decade after the company’s guilty pleas, Scott is back, this time as a “free-market” Republican politician.

Sachs attacks Dick Cheney, who ran Halliburton when it illegally bribed Nigerian officials to gain access to their oil fields. The only consequences he paid was to get elected vice president of the United States.

But here's what's important (because Sachs agrees with what we've been saying all along): 

Corporate corruption is out of control for two main reasons. First, big companies are now multinational, while governments remain national. Big companies are so financially powerful that governments are afraid to take them on.

Second, companies are the major funders of political campaigns in places like the US, while politicians themselves are often part owners, or at least the silent beneficiaries of corporate profits. Roughly one-half of US Congressmen are millionaires, and many have close ties to companies even before they arrive in Congress.

He concludes that we live in a culture of impunity, "based on the well-proven expectation that corporate crime pays." And he presents a hell of a good reason NOT to enter into a trade deal with Panama, one of the worst tax havens in the world.

The wealth, power, and illegality enabled by this hidden system are now so vast as to threaten the global economy’s legitimacy, especially at a time of unprecedented income inequality and large budget deficits, owing to governments’ inability politically – and sometimes even operationally – to impose taxes on the wealthy.

Yup.

Welcome to the 3rd World: Danville, VA

The giant Swedish retailer Ikea now cuts labor costs by moving its factory from Eastern Europe to Virginia.

That's right, Danville, Va., USA. Where right-to-work laws make collective bargaining difficult. Where taxpayers sacrificed $12 million to attract a bottom-feeding, union-busting foreign multinational.

The Los Angeles Times reports

Workers complain of eliminated raises, a frenzied pace and mandatory overtime. Several said it's common to find out on Friday evening that they'll have to pull a weekend shift, with disciplinary action for those who can't or don't show up....

Bill Street, who has tried to organize the Danville workers for the machinists union, said Ikea was taking advantage of the weaker protections afforded to U.S. workers.

"It's ironic that Ikea looks on the U.S. and Danville the way that most people in the U.S. look at Mexico," Street said.

Starting pay at the factory is $8 an hour. A union-avoidance law firm is fighting an organizing drive. Six African-American workers filed discrimination complaints. Overtime is mandatory and ordered at the last minute. A third of the workers are temporary and receive no benefits.

The conflict in Danville is front-page news in Sweden, where Ikea is headquartered. The Times reports workers in Sweden can't understand it.

Per-Olaf Sjoo, the head of the Swedish union in Swedwood factories, said he was baffled by the friction in Danville. Ikea's code of conduct, known as IWAY, guarantees workers the right to organize and stipulates that all overtime be voluntary...

Laborers in Swedwood plants in Sweden produce bookcases and tables similar to those manufactured in Danville. The big difference is that the Europeans enjoy a minimum wage of about $19 an hour and a government-mandated five weeks of paid vacation. Full-time employees in Danville start at $8 an hour with 12 vacation days — eight of them on dates determined by the company.

Oh, and IKEA's CEO is either the richest or one of the richest men in the world. Wikipedia reports Ingvar Kamprad is worth as much as $90 billion. That's equivalent to the entire Gross Domestic Product of Bangladesh, which has a population of 162 million people.

Ikea's unionized Canadian workers have it better than their Danville counterparts. Teamsters Local 213 represents workers at IKEA's store in Richmond, B.C. There they have a five-year contract. Base hourly wages range from $11.10 to $21.09 an hour. They have shift differentials, a fair job posting procedure, established breaks, and if there's a mistake in a paycheck the workers get four-hours of overtime pay for picking up the check.

The Richmond store is why Local 313 is trying to organize another Ikea in Coquitlam, B.C. The Danville store is why Teamsters are fighting union-busting in Wisconsin, Ohio and all over the country.

We offshore Triangle Shirtwaist fires now



Bangladeshi workers say they're inspired by workers in Wisconsin and Ohio.

 Gov. Paul LePage ordered a labor history mural removed from the Labor Department in Maine almost 100 years to the day since the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire killed 146 young women. Featured in the mural was Frances Perkins, the first U.S. labor secretary. Perkins happened to be standing on the street when the first Triangle Shirtwaist worker threw herself from the 9th floor window rather than burn to death. Perkins was so horrified by the tragedy that she devoted the rest of her life to improving worker safety.

Today American clothing is made by companies with as little regard for human life as the Triangle Waist Company had 100 years ago.  But no U.S. reformer is ever likely to be standing on the pavement watching as exploited garment workers fling themselves to their deaths.  That's because we've offshored massive worker tragedies to places like Bangladesh and China and India.

The Consumerist reports:

...in Bangladesh in December 2010 ... 29 workers died after a fire swept through the Hameem garment factory. The workers were trapped inside because guards had been ordered to lock the gates in the event of a fire in order to prevent clothes from being stolen during the confusion. The factory made clothes for GAP.

The Bangladeshi workers earn 28 cents an hour, at most, so you can see why they'd be tempted to steal a pair of color-washed denim jeans.

Gap issued a statement saying it was "deeply saddened." Then it spread the blame around by noting that Abercrombie & Fitch, JCPenney, Target, and VF Corporation also do business with the factory in Bangladesh.

Will the fire prompt Gap and Target and JCPenney to raise wages and impose new safety regimens? We think not. They'll hope it goes away. If they're criticized again, they'll say they can't compete if they can't exploit workers. It's the same thing companies said 100 years ago when they fought work safety rules as "cumbersome and costly."

Our economy did just fine with so-called "cumbersome and costly" workplace regulations. Try telling that to Paul LePage, who supports a bill to roll back Maine's child labor laws.

If we don't beat back these anti-worker attacks coming from LePage and the other Governors Gone Wild, we won't be offshoring our Triangle Shirtwaist fires any more. We'll be watching them here again.