Teamster News
Republic Services Struggles To Gain Trust As It Deals With Landfill Headache St. Louis Post Dispatch ...the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents about 9,000 of Republic’s workers and has had a contentious relationship with the company over the years, joined the chorus calling for buyouts and removal of the waste...
Printing And Production Workers At Seattle Times Join Teamsters teamster.org ...Printing and production workers at the Seattle Times newspaper as well as some specialty printers in the Seattle area have voted to merge with Teamsters Local 117...
UAW President Dennis Williams, U.S. VP Joe Biden And Teamsters President James Hoffa Kick Off Labor Day Parade In Detroit UAW ...Thousands of union members and supporters gathered in Detroit for the historic Labor Day Parade down Michigan Avenue today, pledging to activate voters with the November election approaching with the theme "Together We WILL WIN!"...
Hawaii Teamsters union endorses Hannemann for governor khon2 ...Hawaii Independent Party gubernatorial candidate Mufi Hannemann received a big boost Tuesday when he was endorsed by the Hawaii Teamsters and Allied Workers Union, Local 996...
Trade
Time To Get Children Out Of Factories And Into Schools (opinion) CNN ...In a small village in central Afghanistan, 13-year-old Basma is about to start her first day of school –- ever.... Only weeks before, Basma was found working on a carpet loom. Her weaving fingers already showed signs of arthritis from holding tools since the age of nine, tying knots for 14 hours a day...
"Fast Track" Foes Sound Off in Oregon Politico ...Foes of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement will visit the Oregon offices of Sen. Ron Wyden (D) today to deliver petitions signed by nearly 5,000 people, urging him to ensure his new “smart track” version of trade promotion authority is “not outdated ‘fast track’ legislation in disguise...
Free trade promises, but it’s failed to deliver (opinion) The Bellingham Herald ... We’ve heard these promises before: Trade agreements will level the playing field, create jobs and even promote world peace. So far, their track record has been the opposite...
State Battles
Federal Court Upholds Right to Work, Local Labor Leaders Focused on State Cases tristatehomepage.com ...In a split decision, a federal appeals court has ruled Indiana's Right to Work law does not violate federal labor laws or the United States Constitution. The appellate court's ruling comes as the Indiana Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments on the same topic later this week. While the federal decision didn't come as a surprise, the focus now shifts to the state Supreme Court's decision, said Chuck Whobrey, the president of Teamsters Local 215...
Local Teamsters president speaks out on right-to-work ruling WFIE ...A federal appeals court has upheld Indiana's right-to-work law banning mandatory union fees in a split decision. The local Teamsters represent thousands of union workers. President Chuck Whobrey says this ruling will certainly effect the way the union operates...
GOP Tries Yet Again to Disenfranchise Ohio Voters with Photo ID Bill Moving Ohio Forward ...Today, a group of Republican legislators again pushed for passage of legislation requiring photo IDs to be shown at polling places in order to vote, despite evidence that demonstrates over 1.2 million Ohio voters would be directly disenfranchised from exercising their voting rights...
Texas Voter ID Law Heads To Trial In U.S. Court Huffington Post ...A U.S. court in Texas will hear arguments on Tuesday in a case over a law requiring voters to present photo identification, a move the state's Republican leaders say will prevent fraud while plaintiffs call it a veiled attempt at suppressing minority turnout...
Garcetti Calls For $13.25 Minimum Wage By 2017 Los Angeles Times ...Mayor Eric Garcetti on Monday launched an ambitious campaign to impose a $13.25-an-hour minimum wage requirement for all workers in Los Angeles by 2017, calling it the "largest anti-poverty program in the city's history."...
North Carolina Union Files SEC Pay-to-Play Complaint Against Erskine Bowles International Business Times ...A union representing 55,000 North Carolina current and retired state workers Tuesday filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission alleging that former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and his wife, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) director, may have violated federal pay-to-play rules in a major North Carolina pension contract...
War On Workers
The "40-Hour" Workweek Is Actually Longer -- by Seven Hours Gallup ...half of all full-time workers indicate they typically work more than 40 hours, and nearly four in 10 say they work at least 50 hours...
Fast food workers plan nationwide strike on Thursday MSNBC ...Thousands of fast food workers across the United States will once again go on strike this Thursday, representatives of the Fight for 15 movement announced Monday night...
America’s Exploding Oil Train Problem Moyers and Company ...If you reside in the US, there’s around an eight percent chance that you live in an oil train’s blast zone. And there’s a fight going on at the state and federal levels, between monied interests and regulatory agencies, over efforts to ensure that these trains — which have shown a tendency to burst into flames — will be relatively safe...
Police: Arrest made in case of Popeye's worker killed in Anne Arundel Baltimore Sun ...Anne Arundel police said they have made an arrest in the case of a Popeye's employee who was found dead at the restaurant early Sunday morning...
CPUC Fines PG&E $1.4 Billion in Connection with San Bruno Pipeline Explosion Associated Press ...California regulatory judges have issued a $1.4 billion penalty against the state's largest utility for a 2010 gas pipeline explosion that engulfed a suburban San Francisco neighborhood in fire, killing eight people and prompting national alerts about aging pipelines...
Russian bank hires two former U.S. senators The Center for Public Integrity ...Gazprombank GPB (OJSC), a Russian bank targeted with sanctions by President Obama over the Ukraine crisis, has hired two former U.S. senators to lobby against those sanctions, according to a new disclosure filed with the Senate…. former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and former Senator John Breaux, D-La., are listed as the main lobbyists...
Car sharing service Uber banned in Germany Guardian ... The online car-sharing service Uber has vowed to continue operating across Germany after its mobile app was banned by a Frankfurt regional court...
Miscellaneous
We Need A Serious, Federal Digital Privacy Law (opinion) Huffington Post ...If anything good is to come from this weekend's celebrity phone hack, let's hope it's federal action that finally takes seriously the problem of non-consensual online sexual exploitation -- along with all other forms of digital privacy invasion...
Ruling On Keystone XL Pipeline Could Come Down To Two Key Points Omaha World-Herald ...The Nebraska Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Friday morning on a constitutional challenge involving one of the most bitterly fought environmental battles in a generation. President Barack Obama is awaiting a ruling from Nebraska before moving closer to deciding the fate of the massive oil pipeline...
Home Depot Investigating Possible Payment Card Data Breach Wall Street Journal ...Home Depot Inc. is working with banks and law enforcement agencies to investigate a potential breach of customer credit- or debit-card data.The home-improvement retailer said on Tuesday it is looking into what it called unusual activity and said that if it confirms a breach occurred, it will immediately notify customers...
Showing posts with label lobbying. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lobbying. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Study: The majority does not rule in America
Researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page studied 1,779 changes in government policy between 1981 and 2002. They chose policies that the public was asked about in a national poll. They compared what happened with the preferences of three groups: the median American, at the 50th percentile of income; with affluent Americans, at the 90th percentile of income; and with the position of powerful interest and lobbying groups.
What they found was something we've been noticing:
...economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence.Sometimes ordinary Americans and rich Americans want the same things from government, and they get it. When that happens, notes our friend Hamilton Nolan at Gawker,
...regular people tend to think that their political interests are being represented when they see the triumph of some political position that they agree with. In fact, the researchers say, this is a mere coincidence. Yes, the average American will see their interests represented—as long as their interests align with the interests of the wealthy.Ordinary Americans and interest groups that spend a lot of money on lobbying do not want the same thing from government, according to the researchers:
Some particular U.S. membership organizations – especially the AARP and labor unions – do tend to favor the same policies as average citizens. But other membership groups take stands that are unrelated (pro-life and pro-choice groups) or negatively related (gun owners) to what the average American wants. Some membership groups may reflect the views of corporate backers or their most affluent constituents. Others focus on issues on which the public is fairly evenly divided. Whatever the reasons, all mass-based groups taken together simply do not add up, in aggregate, to good representatives of the citizenry as a whole. Business-oriented groups do even worse.Depressed yet? If not, consider this conclusion by the researchers:
In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule.
Monday, April 14, 2014
Today's Teamster News 04.14.14
Teamsters
Teamsters’ opposition to growler sales could stall Sunday booze bill Minnesota Public Radio ...Teamsters Union political director Ed Reynoso said the union started lobbying against Sunday growler sales after he learned a company that distributes alcohol and employs members of the union suggested the law would allow them to reopen their labor contracts because of it...
Keep the Carriage Horses (opinion) New York Times ...Let the carriages and the horses alone. Let this small business survive. Side with the drivers and do not add fleets of new cars, electric or not, into the streets and parks...
Darden gets sued over bylaw changes Orlando Sentinel ...A Teamsters fund that invests in Darden Restaurants stock has sued the company over recent changes to its bylaws. Darden last month added language allowing it to delay its annual shareholder meeting and making it tougher for unhappy investors to push for changes…
Trade
Vietnam Releases Dissidents Amid U.S. Trade Talks Time ...Vietnam has granted early release to two more high profile dissidents. The unusual moves come as the country is negotiating a free trade deal with the United States. Washington has said that it would be hard to get the deal past Congress unless Vietnam made some meaningful steps toward improving its human rights record...
US-Japan deadlock points to no April TPP deal for Obama Financial Times ...An impasse between the US and Japan over import tariffs means Barack Obama’s visit to Tokyo this month looks unlikely to yield the prize that some had hoped for: the key to uniting a dozen Pacific Rim economies in one trade zone...
State Battles
11 Missouri lawmakers in right-to-work spotlight Associated Press ...That's the number of Republicans who didn't vote last week when the chamber gave initial approval to a proposed ballot measure that would ask voters to prohibit union fees from being a condition of employment...
The War on Workers
You Know What Doesn’t Work So Well? Private Prisons Working America ...The myth put forth by private prison corporations like Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group that private prisons are cheaper than public prisons is shattered by a new report from In the Public Interest, thus undercutting the primary rationale for prison privatization efforts across the country...
Pay for Performance? It Depends on the Measuring Stick New York Times ...The median compensation for C.E.O.s at the 100 largest companies that have filed so far was $13.9 million, according to the Equilar 100 C.E.O. Pay Study, conducted by Equilar, an executive compensation data firm. That’s up 9 percent from 2012...
Jamie Dimon to JPMorgan Shareholders: Don’t Believe Your Lying Eyes Wall Street on Parade ...Out of total deposits of $1.3 trillion, Dimon says that a mere $19 billion of credit was extended to U.S. small businesses last year. And yet, that’s a key U.S. engine of job growth. In contrast, the bank “provided $274 billion of credit to consumers,” raising the concern that the weak job market and stagnating wages are forcing more households into deeper debt...
Charles Koch’s public message represents rhetorical spin at its flimsiest (opinion) Kansas City Star ...Koch’s analysis is that he and his brother ought to be free to run their vast pipeline, fossil-fuels and other businesses without restraint. What he declines to recognize is the idea that government can serve to protect citizens from the wanton, unregulated forces of corporate actions that spew toxic materials into our air and water, limit the economic power of American people and otherwise endanger our daily lives...
Miscellaneous
Google, once disdainful of lobbying, now a master of Washington influence Washington Post ...Google — once a lobbying weakling — has come to master a new method of operating in modern-day Washington, where spending on traditional lobbying is rivaled by other, less visible forms of influence. That system includes financing sympathetic research at universities and think tanks, investing in nonprofit advocacy groups across the political spectrum and funding pro-business coalitions cast as public-interest projects...
Teamsters’ opposition to growler sales could stall Sunday booze bill Minnesota Public Radio ...Teamsters Union political director Ed Reynoso said the union started lobbying against Sunday growler sales after he learned a company that distributes alcohol and employs members of the union suggested the law would allow them to reopen their labor contracts because of it...
Keep the Carriage Horses (opinion) New York Times ...Let the carriages and the horses alone. Let this small business survive. Side with the drivers and do not add fleets of new cars, electric or not, into the streets and parks...
Darden gets sued over bylaw changes Orlando Sentinel ...A Teamsters fund that invests in Darden Restaurants stock has sued the company over recent changes to its bylaws. Darden last month added language allowing it to delay its annual shareholder meeting and making it tougher for unhappy investors to push for changes…
Trade
Vietnam Releases Dissidents Amid U.S. Trade Talks Time ...Vietnam has granted early release to two more high profile dissidents. The unusual moves come as the country is negotiating a free trade deal with the United States. Washington has said that it would be hard to get the deal past Congress unless Vietnam made some meaningful steps toward improving its human rights record...
US-Japan deadlock points to no April TPP deal for Obama Financial Times ...An impasse between the US and Japan over import tariffs means Barack Obama’s visit to Tokyo this month looks unlikely to yield the prize that some had hoped for: the key to uniting a dozen Pacific Rim economies in one trade zone...
State Battles
11 Missouri lawmakers in right-to-work spotlight Associated Press ...That's the number of Republicans who didn't vote last week when the chamber gave initial approval to a proposed ballot measure that would ask voters to prohibit union fees from being a condition of employment...
The War on Workers
You Know What Doesn’t Work So Well? Private Prisons Working America ...The myth put forth by private prison corporations like Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group that private prisons are cheaper than public prisons is shattered by a new report from In the Public Interest, thus undercutting the primary rationale for prison privatization efforts across the country...
Pay for Performance? It Depends on the Measuring Stick New York Times ...The median compensation for C.E.O.s at the 100 largest companies that have filed so far was $13.9 million, according to the Equilar 100 C.E.O. Pay Study, conducted by Equilar, an executive compensation data firm. That’s up 9 percent from 2012...
Jamie Dimon to JPMorgan Shareholders: Don’t Believe Your Lying Eyes Wall Street on Parade ...Out of total deposits of $1.3 trillion, Dimon says that a mere $19 billion of credit was extended to U.S. small businesses last year. And yet, that’s a key U.S. engine of job growth. In contrast, the bank “provided $274 billion of credit to consumers,” raising the concern that the weak job market and stagnating wages are forcing more households into deeper debt...
Charles Koch’s public message represents rhetorical spin at its flimsiest (opinion) Kansas City Star ...Koch’s analysis is that he and his brother ought to be free to run their vast pipeline, fossil-fuels and other businesses without restraint. What he declines to recognize is the idea that government can serve to protect citizens from the wanton, unregulated forces of corporate actions that spew toxic materials into our air and water, limit the economic power of American people and otherwise endanger our daily lives...
Miscellaneous
Google, once disdainful of lobbying, now a master of Washington influence Washington Post ...Google — once a lobbying weakling — has come to master a new method of operating in modern-day Washington, where spending on traditional lobbying is rivaled by other, less visible forms of influence. That system includes financing sympathetic research at universities and think tanks, investing in nonprofit advocacy groups across the political spectrum and funding pro-business coalitions cast as public-interest projects...
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?...
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Today's Teamster News 02.04.14
Teamsters join thousands in action against Fast Track TeamsterNation ...Teamsters, techies and tens of thousands of people took action Friday to oppose a Fast Track bill that would grease the Congressional skids for so-called 'trade deals' like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
'Strongest' union head: Put Sanitation plows on the streets, not private plowers Staten Island Advance ...(Teamsters Local 631) Union chief Harry Nespoli called the expense of hiring private contractors and paying them to be on stand-by "foolish" and "a waste taxpayer money."...
New York liquor warehousing law in the works, may cost small dealers big New York Daily News ...George Miranda, president of Teamsters Joint Council 16, said the bill could create up to 1,000 warehouse jobs in the state. “It is just the right thing to do,” Miranda said...
De Blasio’s horse-carriage ban stalls Capital New York ...as the Council holds its second meeting of the new year under the leadership of de Blasio's ally and fellow carriage opponent, Melissa Mark-Viverito, a bill to ban them has yet to appear on the Council's agenda. A spokesman for Mark-Viverito would not say when the bill will be introduced...
YRC announces $300 million debt reduction plan after Teamsters labor agreement CCJ ...YRC Worldwide (No. 3 in CCJ’s Top 250) has closed a deal to attempt to reduce its debt by $300 million, per an announcement from the company Jan. 31, in which it will issue $250 million in new stock and convert $50 million in convertible notes to common stock and use the proceeds to reduce its roughly $1 billion of debt...
CN Rail to meet with union over stalled labor deal Reuters Canada ...Union members have "a lot of mistrust" with Canada's largest railway, Teamsters Canada Rail Conference General Chairman Roland Hackl told Reuters, and will need assurances that CN will respect rest provisions for workers in the current agreement...
V & V Supremo Workers Benefit from Teamsters Local 703 Contract teamster.org ...Represented by the Teamsters since 2001, the workers at V&V Supremo continue to receive annual wage increases, fair and equitable benefits and the protection of the Teamsters’ grievance procedure due to their contract with Local 703...
Teamsters Applaud Green Light for Keystone XL Pipeline teamster.org ...Following the U.S. State Department’s analysis that the Keystone XL pipeline project provides a safe and correct process for the transport of Canadian oil to the U.S. Gulf region, the Teamsters Union is pleased that the project, which will directly create 20,000 good jobs for American workers, is one step closer to reality...
Allegheny County workers to strike Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ...Nearly 50 Allegheny County workers, mainly truck drivers in the Public Works Department, will strike after members of Teamsters Local 249 overwhelmingly voted Sunday to reject the county's proposals for a new contract, their union leader said...
States Are Feeling the Pinch from Lost Unemployment Revenues teamster.org ...Americans who want to work but can’t find a job after months of unemployment are being hit hard by the cut off of long-term unemployment benefits by Republicans in Congress. But their epic policy blunder is hurting everyone, even if they don’t realize it...
New National Poll: Voters Blame Lawmakers for Weak Job Growth Trade Reform ...By an overwhelming margin, voters say job creation should be a top priority, beating out deficit reduction by a 2-1 margin (65% vs. 31%)...
2014 stock market selloff intensifies USA Today ...The financial turbulence that began in emerging markets and engulfed Wall Street intensified Monday, leaving U.S. stock investors bracing for the possibility of the first 10% market drop since 2011...
Wall Street Journal Exposes Entirely New Private Equity Tax Scam naked capitalism ...so-called “monitoring fees” that PE firms levy on the companies they’ve bought should actually be recognized as dividends for corporate tax purposes. This is is significant because fees are a tax deductible expense to the companies while the dividends aren’t, so the effect of this ruse is to shortchange Uncle Sam, and hence ordinary taxpayers to the PE funds’ benefit...
A Rash of Deaths and a Missing Reporter – With Ties to Wall Street Investigations Wall Street On Parade ...In a span of four days last week, two current executives and one recently retired top ranking executive of major financial firms were found dead. Both media and police have been quick to label the deaths as likely suicides. Missing from the reports is the salient fact that all three of the financial firms the executives worked for are under investigation for potentially serious financial fraud...
Businesses gather more information than they need from consumers Los Angeles Times ...Strong rules for collection and use of people's personal data should be enacted...
Edward Snowden speaks: US blackout of interview Jonathan Turley ... the interview appears to have been blocked intentionally by US government authorities. In fact, the media in the US appears to have gone to ‘radio silence’ about it. … He says his “breaking point” was “seeing Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, directly lie under oath to Congress.”...
Microsoft, Facebook, Google and Yahoo release US surveillance requests The Guardian ...Tens of thousands of accounts associated with customers of Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Yahoo have their data turned over to US government authorities every six months as the result of secret court orders, the tech giants disclosed for the first time on Monday....
Newly Wary, Shoppers Trust Cash ...New York Times ...Like dieters vowing to trade cupcakes for carrots, a number of American shoppers are making a new pledge: cash only...
Factory, construction spending data hint at slowing economy Reuters ...U.S. manufacturing activity slowed sharply in January on the back of the biggest drop in new orders in 33 years while construction spending barely rose in December, pointing to some loss of steam in the economy...
Calif. Bill Targets Discrimination Against Caregivers Associated Press ...If you don't get a job because you're a woman, or you get fired because you're black, or you get transferred to the night shift because you're gay, there's a law for that. But if you're punished at work because you need time to take your child to the doctor or talk to your confused elderly mother, you might be out of luck...
Olive Garden offers free babysitting to increase sales Philadelphia Inquirer ...The "Italian dining experience" inspired restaurant chain has worked on revamping its menu, but on Friday is offering something not many other dining establishments offer: free babysitting...
VW Workers to Decide Whether to Join UAW uaw.org From Feb. 12-14, Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tenn., will decide the issue of union representation by the United Auto Workers in a secret ballot election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board...
'Strongest' union head: Put Sanitation plows on the streets, not private plowers Staten Island Advance ...(Teamsters Local 631) Union chief Harry Nespoli called the expense of hiring private contractors and paying them to be on stand-by "foolish" and "a waste taxpayer money."...
New York liquor warehousing law in the works, may cost small dealers big New York Daily News ...George Miranda, president of Teamsters Joint Council 16, said the bill could create up to 1,000 warehouse jobs in the state. “It is just the right thing to do,” Miranda said...
De Blasio’s horse-carriage ban stalls Capital New York ...as the Council holds its second meeting of the new year under the leadership of de Blasio's ally and fellow carriage opponent, Melissa Mark-Viverito, a bill to ban them has yet to appear on the Council's agenda. A spokesman for Mark-Viverito would not say when the bill will be introduced...
YRC announces $300 million debt reduction plan after Teamsters labor agreement CCJ ...YRC Worldwide (No. 3 in CCJ’s Top 250) has closed a deal to attempt to reduce its debt by $300 million, per an announcement from the company Jan. 31, in which it will issue $250 million in new stock and convert $50 million in convertible notes to common stock and use the proceeds to reduce its roughly $1 billion of debt...
CN Rail to meet with union over stalled labor deal Reuters Canada ...Union members have "a lot of mistrust" with Canada's largest railway, Teamsters Canada Rail Conference General Chairman Roland Hackl told Reuters, and will need assurances that CN will respect rest provisions for workers in the current agreement...
V & V Supremo Workers Benefit from Teamsters Local 703 Contract teamster.org ...Represented by the Teamsters since 2001, the workers at V&V Supremo continue to receive annual wage increases, fair and equitable benefits and the protection of the Teamsters’ grievance procedure due to their contract with Local 703...
Teamsters Applaud Green Light for Keystone XL Pipeline teamster.org ...Following the U.S. State Department’s analysis that the Keystone XL pipeline project provides a safe and correct process for the transport of Canadian oil to the U.S. Gulf region, the Teamsters Union is pleased that the project, which will directly create 20,000 good jobs for American workers, is one step closer to reality...
Allegheny County workers to strike Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ...Nearly 50 Allegheny County workers, mainly truck drivers in the Public Works Department, will strike after members of Teamsters Local 249 overwhelmingly voted Sunday to reject the county's proposals for a new contract, their union leader said...
States Are Feeling the Pinch from Lost Unemployment Revenues teamster.org ...Americans who want to work but can’t find a job after months of unemployment are being hit hard by the cut off of long-term unemployment benefits by Republicans in Congress. But their epic policy blunder is hurting everyone, even if they don’t realize it...
New National Poll: Voters Blame Lawmakers for Weak Job Growth Trade Reform ...By an overwhelming margin, voters say job creation should be a top priority, beating out deficit reduction by a 2-1 margin (65% vs. 31%)...
2014 stock market selloff intensifies USA Today ...The financial turbulence that began in emerging markets and engulfed Wall Street intensified Monday, leaving U.S. stock investors bracing for the possibility of the first 10% market drop since 2011...
Wall Street Journal Exposes Entirely New Private Equity Tax Scam naked capitalism ...so-called “monitoring fees” that PE firms levy on the companies they’ve bought should actually be recognized as dividends for corporate tax purposes. This is is significant because fees are a tax deductible expense to the companies while the dividends aren’t, so the effect of this ruse is to shortchange Uncle Sam, and hence ordinary taxpayers to the PE funds’ benefit...
A Rash of Deaths and a Missing Reporter – With Ties to Wall Street Investigations Wall Street On Parade ...In a span of four days last week, two current executives and one recently retired top ranking executive of major financial firms were found dead. Both media and police have been quick to label the deaths as likely suicides. Missing from the reports is the salient fact that all three of the financial firms the executives worked for are under investigation for potentially serious financial fraud...
Businesses gather more information than they need from consumers Los Angeles Times ...Strong rules for collection and use of people's personal data should be enacted...
Edward Snowden speaks: US blackout of interview Jonathan Turley ... the interview appears to have been blocked intentionally by US government authorities. In fact, the media in the US appears to have gone to ‘radio silence’ about it. … He says his “breaking point” was “seeing Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, directly lie under oath to Congress.”...
Microsoft, Facebook, Google and Yahoo release US surveillance requests The Guardian ...Tens of thousands of accounts associated with customers of Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Yahoo have their data turned over to US government authorities every six months as the result of secret court orders, the tech giants disclosed for the first time on Monday....
Newly Wary, Shoppers Trust Cash ...New York Times ...Like dieters vowing to trade cupcakes for carrots, a number of American shoppers are making a new pledge: cash only...
Factory, construction spending data hint at slowing economy Reuters ...U.S. manufacturing activity slowed sharply in January on the back of the biggest drop in new orders in 33 years while construction spending barely rose in December, pointing to some loss of steam in the economy...
Calif. Bill Targets Discrimination Against Caregivers Associated Press ...If you don't get a job because you're a woman, or you get fired because you're black, or you get transferred to the night shift because you're gay, there's a law for that. But if you're punished at work because you need time to take your child to the doctor or talk to your confused elderly mother, you might be out of luck...
Olive Garden offers free babysitting to increase sales Philadelphia Inquirer ...The "Italian dining experience" inspired restaurant chain has worked on revamping its menu, but on Friday is offering something not many other dining establishments offer: free babysitting...
VW Workers to Decide Whether to Join UAW uaw.org From Feb. 12-14, Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tenn., will decide the issue of union representation by the United Auto Workers in a secret ballot election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board...
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Today's Teamster News 02.02.14
Real GDP per capita Angry Bear ...Decades of tax cuts have not led to increasing prosperity...
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Poll: Only The Strongest Obama Supporters Want Him To Have Fast Track Authority International Business Times ... Overall, the U.S. public is cooling to the idea of free-trade agreements, believing, unlike they have in the past, that multinational agreements to bring down trade barriers is costing U.S. jobs while favoring large multinational corporations over the interests of small businesses...
Who Wins From Trade? Economic Policy Institute ...multinational companies were the biggest supporters of trade and investment deals with Mexico, Korea and China, deals that have cost U.S. workers nearly four million jobs in the past two decades...
Bolivia ordered to compensate UK power company One News Page ...Government that nationalised power assets in 2010 ordered by international court to payout $41m to Rurelec giving hope to others seeking reparations...
Get Some Sleep, and Wake Up the G.D.P. New York Times ...A survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that one in 25 people admitted to having fallen asleep while driving during the previous month. To put that in perspective, mathematical models based on this data imply that an estimated 15 to 33 percent of all fatal crashes in the United States might involve a drowsy driver...
Law Doesn’t End Revolving Door on Capitol Hill New York Times ...Federal ethics rules are intended to limit lobbying by former senior officials within one year after they leave the government. Yet even after the ethics rules were revised in 2007 following a lobbying scandal, more than 1,650 congressional aides have registered to lobby within a year of leaving Capitol Hill...
Building a Harley Faster New York Times ...Keith Wandell, the chief executive, told me that even during the company’s worst days, management never considered busting its union...
Why Alt-Labor Groups Are Making Employers Mighty Nervous American Prospect ...the Chamber of Commerce, the National Restaurant Association and anti-union coalition groups publicly insist that these new groups are unions, because they want them to be subjected to the same kinds of legal limits that have come to constrain America’s labor unions, such as not being able to strike in sympathy with other workers....
Fury as Mexico's blonde 'cartel princess' posts steamy selfies wearing her drug lord father's Knights Templar gang insignia amid escalating vigilante violence Daily Mail ...The war on Mexico's deadly cartels spread from the streets to the web after the daughter of a notorious drug lord sparked an outrage by posing in an outfit featuring the symbol of her father’s gang...
Scott Walker raised $5 million at end of 2013, paid $86,000 to defense lawyers Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...information spilled out in court records about a secret John Doe investigation into campaign fundraising and spending surrounding Wisconsin's recent recall elections...
Pennsylvania Could Become Ground-Zero in Union Fight Philadelphia Magazine ...Rick Bloomingdale, head of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, declared earlier this month that the bill represents a “war on workers.”...
Fan claims NFL is withholding Super Bowl tickets from public, selling most to companies New York Daily News ...A Jersey guy hopes to sack the NFL over its Super Bowl ticket policy, accusing the league of greedily gouging its biggest fans for seats to its biggest game...
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Poll: Only The Strongest Obama Supporters Want Him To Have Fast Track Authority International Business Times ... Overall, the U.S. public is cooling to the idea of free-trade agreements, believing, unlike they have in the past, that multinational agreements to bring down trade barriers is costing U.S. jobs while favoring large multinational corporations over the interests of small businesses...
Who Wins From Trade? Economic Policy Institute ...multinational companies were the biggest supporters of trade and investment deals with Mexico, Korea and China, deals that have cost U.S. workers nearly four million jobs in the past two decades...
Bolivia ordered to compensate UK power company One News Page ...Government that nationalised power assets in 2010 ordered by international court to payout $41m to Rurelec giving hope to others seeking reparations...
Get Some Sleep, and Wake Up the G.D.P. New York Times ...A survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that one in 25 people admitted to having fallen asleep while driving during the previous month. To put that in perspective, mathematical models based on this data imply that an estimated 15 to 33 percent of all fatal crashes in the United States might involve a drowsy driver...
Law Doesn’t End Revolving Door on Capitol Hill New York Times ...Federal ethics rules are intended to limit lobbying by former senior officials within one year after they leave the government. Yet even after the ethics rules were revised in 2007 following a lobbying scandal, more than 1,650 congressional aides have registered to lobby within a year of leaving Capitol Hill...
Building a Harley Faster New York Times ...Keith Wandell, the chief executive, told me that even during the company’s worst days, management never considered busting its union...
Why Alt-Labor Groups Are Making Employers Mighty Nervous American Prospect ...the Chamber of Commerce, the National Restaurant Association and anti-union coalition groups publicly insist that these new groups are unions, because they want them to be subjected to the same kinds of legal limits that have come to constrain America’s labor unions, such as not being able to strike in sympathy with other workers....
Fury as Mexico's blonde 'cartel princess' posts steamy selfies wearing her drug lord father's Knights Templar gang insignia amid escalating vigilante violence Daily Mail ...The war on Mexico's deadly cartels spread from the streets to the web after the daughter of a notorious drug lord sparked an outrage by posing in an outfit featuring the symbol of her father’s gang...
Scott Walker raised $5 million at end of 2013, paid $86,000 to defense lawyers Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...information spilled out in court records about a secret John Doe investigation into campaign fundraising and spending surrounding Wisconsin's recent recall elections...
Pennsylvania Could Become Ground-Zero in Union Fight Philadelphia Magazine ...Rick Bloomingdale, head of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, declared earlier this month that the bill represents a “war on workers.”...
Fan claims NFL is withholding Super Bowl tickets from public, selling most to companies New York Daily News ...A Jersey guy hopes to sack the NFL over its Super Bowl ticket policy, accusing the league of greedily gouging its biggest fans for seats to its biggest game...
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
ALEC lies again, tries to hold on to shrinking membership
ALEC lying? What a shocker!
But unlike its lies about how great right-to-work-for-less laws are and why suppressing workers’ voting rights is such a swell idea, ALEC’s lies about its tax status suggest the corporate legislative clearinghouse is in real trouble.
Documents released by the Guardian yesterday reveal that ALEC has formed the “Jeffersonian Project,” a new 501(c)(4) group established to shield ALEC from IRS investigations into its current 501(c)(3) charitable status.
But that’s not what ALEC told reporters just before it created the “Jeffersonian Project.” PR Watch reports:
In December of last year, ALEC spokesperson Kaitlyn Buss told Bloomberg News "we have no current plans to operate a 501(c)(4) in the near future.”
When Buss said "the near future" and "current plans," she apparently meant "next week."
Just eight days after the Bloomberg story ran, ALEC formed the 501(c)(4) "Jeffersonian Project," according to a certificate of incorporation obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy. (ALEC also failed to mention to Bloomberg that it had incorporated another 501(c)(4), "ALEC NOW" in July of 2012; that entity was dissolved earlier this year.)ALEC hopes the more flexible lobbying ability of the "Jeffersonian Project" will "provide greater legal protection" and "lessen ethics concerns."
But as our friends at the Center for Media and Democracy point out, this desire sounds like ALEC's admission of what we've known all along: ALEC lobbies way too much to be called a "charity."
ALEC's charitable status had allowed its corporate members to write-off their ALEC membership dues -- which are essentially lobbying expenses -- as tax-deductible charitable contributions.
"In forming a 501(c)(4) arm, it appears that ALEC is on notice that it's not going to get away with abusing our nation's charitable tax laws much longer," said [Steve] Spaulding, [Staff Counsel at Common Cause].
Yesterday's leaked documents also show that ALEC has been lying to its own legislative members about the group's dwindling number of corporate backers. But hey, at least they're considering a "loyalty" pledge to keep ALEC lawmakers subservient to that shrinking body of corporate masters. Yep, the Guardian documents reveal:
[There] is a plan to have the legislators who serve as ALEC State Chairs sign a pledge of "loyalty" and agree to "put the interests of [ALEC] first." This proposal underscored concerns that some ALEC politicians have been putting the interests of ALEC (and its corporate backers) ahead of their constituents, and ahead of their commitment to upholding their state constitution.This week ALEC is having its "State & Nation Policy Summit" in Washington, DC. Given all the news about ALEC's lies to cover up IRS trouble and its schemes to survive amid lost members and money, we can't imagine the meetings are going too well.
So workers and activists plan to liven things up tomorrow by crashing the summit with a rally and march against ALEC.
Its been precisely the work of activists and workers that have helped weaken ALEC's war against workers and democracy. So let's keep it up!
Monday, April 8, 2013
Today's Teamster News 04.08.13
America Is Ruled by Billionaires, and They Are Coming After the Last Shreds of Our Democracy Alternet ...Between 2000 and 2012, the real net worth of 90% of Americans has declined by 25%...
The Fries-With-That Economy New York Times ...food services and drinking places ... have been adding jobs for 37 consecutive months. ... As a result of all this cumulative hiring, the industry accounted for almost one in 13 of all American jobs in March. That is the highest share it has held...
Tax Lobby Builds Ties to Chairman of Finance Panel New York Times ...At least 28 aides who have worked for Mr. Baucus, Democrat of Montana, since he became the committee chairman in 2001 have lobbied on tax issues during the Obama administration -- more than any other current member of Congress...
Mexico to back Japan joining TPP AFP ...Visiting Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto will likely announce his support for Japan's plan to join talks on forging a huge Pacific-wide free trade zone on Monday, officials said...
Britain's biggest unions put weight behind plan for general strike The Independent ...Plans for the first general strike in modern British history have been backed by the country’s two biggest unions. The proposed 24-hour walkout would be the first time since 1926 that private and public-sector workers have co-ordinated a nationwide mass action...
No Doomsday but Ontario Takes Out the Knives Real News Network ...In Ontario, Canada, the Ontario government is pursuing, like most other governments around the industrialized world, austerity policies...
Chiquita sues to block release of documents related to terror group payments Charlotte Observer ...Charlotte-based Chiquita sued the Securities and Exchange Commission, seeking to block the release of documents related to payments the company made to terrorist groups in Colombia to protect its banana-growing interests...
Bank Of America To Pay $36.8 Million To Military Members For Improper Foreclosures ThinkProgress ...Bank of America was already paying 142 military members under the original 2011 agreement, but a further review required by the settlement found 155 additional military homeowners who were subject to improper foreclosures...
Taping of Farm Cruelty Is Becoming the Crime New York Times ...Some of the legislation appears inspired by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a business advocacy group with hundreds of state representatives from farm states as members...
Crackdown on Dissent Intensifies as DoJ Usurps Authority of Capitol Police Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative ...After a two-month lull, the Walker Administration’s crackdown on dissent in the Wisconsin State Capitol has kicked back into high gear...
The Fries-With-That Economy New York Times ...food services and drinking places ... have been adding jobs for 37 consecutive months. ... As a result of all this cumulative hiring, the industry accounted for almost one in 13 of all American jobs in March. That is the highest share it has held...
Tax Lobby Builds Ties to Chairman of Finance Panel New York Times ...At least 28 aides who have worked for Mr. Baucus, Democrat of Montana, since he became the committee chairman in 2001 have lobbied on tax issues during the Obama administration -- more than any other current member of Congress...
Mexico to back Japan joining TPP AFP ...Visiting Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto will likely announce his support for Japan's plan to join talks on forging a huge Pacific-wide free trade zone on Monday, officials said...
Britain's biggest unions put weight behind plan for general strike The Independent ...Plans for the first general strike in modern British history have been backed by the country’s two biggest unions. The proposed 24-hour walkout would be the first time since 1926 that private and public-sector workers have co-ordinated a nationwide mass action...
No Doomsday but Ontario Takes Out the Knives Real News Network ...In Ontario, Canada, the Ontario government is pursuing, like most other governments around the industrialized world, austerity policies...
Chiquita sues to block release of documents related to terror group payments Charlotte Observer ...Charlotte-based Chiquita sued the Securities and Exchange Commission, seeking to block the release of documents related to payments the company made to terrorist groups in Colombia to protect its banana-growing interests...
Bank Of America To Pay $36.8 Million To Military Members For Improper Foreclosures ThinkProgress ...Bank of America was already paying 142 military members under the original 2011 agreement, but a further review required by the settlement found 155 additional military homeowners who were subject to improper foreclosures...
Taping of Farm Cruelty Is Becoming the Crime New York Times ...Some of the legislation appears inspired by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a business advocacy group with hundreds of state representatives from farm states as members...
Crackdown on Dissent Intensifies as DoJ Usurps Authority of Capitol Police Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative ...After a two-month lull, the Walker Administration’s crackdown on dissent in the Wisconsin State Capitol has kicked back into high gear...
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Today's Teamster News 01.24.12
Indiana House Dems lose right-to-work referendum vote, possibly resume boycott in labor battle Associated Press ...While Indiana House Republicans were bracing for another possible Democratic boycott in the bruising right-to-work battle, Senate Republicans on Monday were cheering the final passage of the measure in their chamber just a few hundred feet away...
Prison privatization bills move forward in Senate Associated Press ...Dozens of people spoke against the bills, telling senators privatization would put state employees out of work and will reduce public safety...
Romney’s released tax return reveals 13.9% rate, holdings in foreign ‘tax havens’ Reuters ...Romney’s tax rate is below that of most wage-earning Americans because most of his income, as outlined in more than 500 pages of tax documents, flows from capital gains on investments...
‘Licking Their Chops’ on K Street and Capitol Hill Bill Moyers ...“Former senators could expect to earn somewhere between $800,000 and $1.5 million in annual salary next year at lobby firms, while ex-House members could earn between $300,000 and $600,000, headhunters estimated.”...
Settlement with mortgage lenders inadequate, activists say Washington Post ...a significant number of state attorneys general and activist groups fear the pending settlement would allow banks to pay only a fraction of what is warranted and escape legal culpability for a wide range of abuses that have yet to be fully investigated. They also say too lenient a settlement would send a troubling message that the financial giants who helped create the housing bubble won’t be held accountable for their role in the bust...
Teamsters remain on Nichols picket line Quad City Business Journal ...The two sides said they have not communicated since Friday, and no plans for coming back to the negotiating table are scheduled...
Prison privatization bills move forward in Senate Associated Press ...Dozens of people spoke against the bills, telling senators privatization would put state employees out of work and will reduce public safety...
Romney’s released tax return reveals 13.9% rate, holdings in foreign ‘tax havens’ Reuters ...Romney’s tax rate is below that of most wage-earning Americans because most of his income, as outlined in more than 500 pages of tax documents, flows from capital gains on investments...
‘Licking Their Chops’ on K Street and Capitol Hill Bill Moyers ...“Former senators could expect to earn somewhere between $800,000 and $1.5 million in annual salary next year at lobby firms, while ex-House members could earn between $300,000 and $600,000, headhunters estimated.”...
Settlement with mortgage lenders inadequate, activists say Washington Post ...a significant number of state attorneys general and activist groups fear the pending settlement would allow banks to pay only a fraction of what is warranted and escape legal culpability for a wide range of abuses that have yet to be fully investigated. They also say too lenient a settlement would send a troubling message that the financial giants who helped create the housing bubble won’t be held accountable for their role in the bust...
Teamsters remain on Nichols picket line Quad City Business Journal ...The two sides said they have not communicated since Friday, and no plans for coming back to the negotiating table are scheduled...
Friday, December 10, 2010
Today's Teamster News 12.10.10
UPS Expands Photo ID Rule for Retail Shipping as Bombs Spur Security Boost Bloomberg News
Truckers Cruising on Highway to Recovery The Bedford Report ...Even the much-maligned trucking company YRC Worldwide has begun to show signs of stabilizing...
Republicans Block U.S. Health Aid for 9/11 Workers New York TImes
New York gets share of rejected rail funds Albany Times-Union ... The nearly $1.2 billion in federal funds for high-speed rail projects that newly elected governors in Ohio and Wisconsin rejected has been redirected to other states...
New Republican lawmakers are hiring lobbyists, despite campaign rhetoric Washington Post ...Tea party favorite Rand Paul (Ky.) has hired anti-union lobbyist Douglas Stafford...
What Does the "Take This Job and Shove It" Indicator Say About the Economy? Mish's Global Economic Analysis ... an increasing number of people are quitting their jobs, a sign of an upturn in consumer confidence and the economy...
What is Wrong with Cutting Taxes? Baseline Scenario ...we cannot afford to blithely increase our national debt...
Veteran highway department barn closed over air quality concerns Star-Gazette ...Local Teamsters President John Farwell said he had concerns about the health of the workers...
Teamsters Lend a Hand Mississauga News ...Teamsters Local 938 Retirees' Club donated $1,000 and hundreds of toys...
Truckers Cruising on Highway to Recovery The Bedford Report ...Even the much-maligned trucking company YRC Worldwide has begun to show signs of stabilizing...
Republicans Block U.S. Health Aid for 9/11 Workers New York TImes
New York gets share of rejected rail funds Albany Times-Union ... The nearly $1.2 billion in federal funds for high-speed rail projects that newly elected governors in Ohio and Wisconsin rejected has been redirected to other states...
New Republican lawmakers are hiring lobbyists, despite campaign rhetoric Washington Post ...Tea party favorite Rand Paul (Ky.) has hired anti-union lobbyist Douglas Stafford...
What Does the "Take This Job and Shove It" Indicator Say About the Economy? Mish's Global Economic Analysis ... an increasing number of people are quitting their jobs, a sign of an upturn in consumer confidence and the economy...
What is Wrong with Cutting Taxes? Baseline Scenario ...we cannot afford to blithely increase our national debt...
Veteran highway department barn closed over air quality concerns Star-Gazette ...Local Teamsters President John Farwell said he had concerns about the health of the workers...
Teamsters Lend a Hand Mississauga News ...Teamsters Local 938 Retirees' Club donated $1,000 and hundreds of toys...
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
There's a shock
The big banks spent $16 million lobbying against financial reform in the first half of 2010, more than 16 times as much as our side, according to The Huffington Post.
We must have missed it when Fox News reported that financial reform was another thank-you to Big Labor.
We must have missed it when Fox News reported that financial reform was another thank-you to Big Labor.
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