Teamsters
NEW: Teamsters Organize Workers at Daniele Foods in RI GoLocalProv ...The Teamsters Local 251 have announced that they have organized the shipping and receiving departments, as well as drivers, at Daniel Foods in Pascoag, RI...
Trade
House Republican Bloc Poses a Threat to Pacific Trade Deal Wall Street Journal ...A diverse bloc of House Republicans is threatening to join Democrats in opposition to the White House’s trade push, imperiling an effort long seen as one of the few prospects this year for bipartisan cooperation...
Lawmakers Say TPP Meetings Classified To Keep Americans in the Dark eNewsParkForest ...Lawmakers in Congress who remain wary of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement are raising further objections this week to the degree of secrecy surrounding briefings on the deal, with some arguing that the main reason at least one meeting has been registered "classified" is to help keep the American public ignorant about giveaways to corporate interests and its long-term implications...
Obama trade agenda becomes problem for Hillary Clinton The Hill ...President Obama's pro-trade agenda is a problem for Hillary Clinton, who is under pressure from liberals to oppose her former boss’s push for fast-track authority as she prepares to run for the White House...
Rep. Tim Ryan hopes President Obama sees trade agreement consequences during Cleveland visit Cleveland.com ... Rep. Tim Ryan hopes President Barack Obama takes a good look around Northeast Ohio on Wednesday as visits Cleveland to deliver a speech to the City Club on middle-class economics. Ryan believes such an examination would show Obama that trade agreements harmed the region's economy...
TPP Is Only Secret From You – But Trust Us, It’s Good For You Campaign for America's Future ...“We have to see TPP. It may not be the final agreement, but we have to see what it is,” Pelosi told reporters after the first of several House Democratic Caucus meetings to dig into details about the proposed pact with Japan and 10 other countries in the Asia-Pacific region...
Intellectual Property Issues Hinder TPP Talks In Hawaii Japan News ...Chief negotiators from Japan, the United States and 10 other countries in Trans-Pacific Partnership multilateral free trade talks failed to iron out differences in their one-week meeting that ended Sunday...
State Battles
'Right to work' means right to leave Wisconsin KY3 ...The owner of a Wisconsin construction company is taking his business to Minnesota because of the passage of ‘right-to-work’ legislation in Wisconsin. His company employs 200 union workers...
Oregon is first state to adopt automatic voter registration Associated Press ...Seventeen years after Oregon decided to become the first state to hold all elections with mail-in ballots, it took another pioneering step on Monday to broaden participation by automatically registering people to vote...
Tampa Bay Democrats ramping up wage-theft laws Tampa Bay Times ...Local Tampa Bay Democrats, supported by unions, are pushing ordinances to intervene when employees say an employer has shorted their pay. The proposals are the exact kind of local "wage theft" ordinances that Republicans and retail groups have sought unsuccessfully to outlaw in Tallahassee saying they place an unfair burden on business...
Legislation Would Require Private Student Loans Be Forgiven If Borrower Dies Consumerist ...New York Senator Chuck Schumer announced today that he would push for legislation – called “Andrew’s Law” – that would require private student loan companies to forgive outstanding debt if a borrower dies...
War on Workers
Obama Likely To Veto Resolution To Overturn NLRB Rule Wall Street Journal ...If Mr. Obama were to veto the resolution, there wouldn’t be enough votes in the Senate to override his opposition, said a Democratic aide. Senate Republicans control 54 of the chamber’s seats, short of the 67 needed to override a veto...
Fixed Fortunes: Biggest corporate political interests spend billions, get trillions Sunlight Foundation ...Between 2007 and 2012, 200 of America’s most politically active corporations spent a combined $5.8 billion on federal lobbying and campaign contributions. A year-long analysis by the Sunlight Foundation suggests, however, that what they gave pales compared to what those same corporations got: $4.4 trillion in federal business and support...
Middle-Class Betrayal? Why Working Hard Is No Longer Enough in America NBC News ...even with more education, working 18-to-34 year old adults are earning less than they did 15 years ago...
Worker Killed At Plastics Plant In Cartersville Atlanta Journal Constitution ...A 40-year-old man was cleaning a plastics mixing machine at Syncot Plastics on South Erwin Street around 7 a.m. when he got caught in a roller bar and was dragged through the machine, said Cartersville police spokesman Maj. Mark Camp...
Va. Mine Worker Killed By Falling Rock Richmond Times Dispatch ...Alpha Natural Resources Inc. says a worker at one of its affiliate mines in southwest Virginia has died after being struck by falling rock. According to the Bristol, Virginia-based company, the incident occurred Monday morning at Deep Mine 41 near McClure. The mine is run by Paramont Coal Co...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Oil Prices Fall To Six-Year Low New York Times ...Oil prices fell to six-year lows on Monday in the face of concerns that a glut in the United States was outpacing already-brimming storage facilities. Additionally, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries published a report suggesting that the cartel remained reluctant to intervene to prop up prices...
Drop In Manufacturing Takes Shine Off Small Gain In Industrial Production Wall Street Journal ...Industrial production, which measures the output of manufacturers, utilities and mines, rose a seasonally adjusted 0.1% from the prior month, the Federal Reserve said Monday. Utility output surged during unusually cold weather, but factory and mining production declined, reflecting weaker demand and cuts in the oil and gas sector...
Texas Bill Would Turn Off Power To Massive NSA Surveillance Facility Tenth Amendment Center ...Rep. Jonathan Stickland (R) introduced House Bill 3916 (HB3916) on March 13. The legislation would prohibit any political subdivision in Texas from providing water or electricity to any federal agency “involved in the routine surveillance or collection and storage of bulk telephone or e-mail records or related metadata concerning any citizen of the United States and that claims the legal authority to collect and store the bulk telephone or e-mail records or metadata concerning any citizen of the United States without the citizen’s consent or a search warrant that describes the person, place, or thing to be searched or seized.”...
Showing posts with label oil prices. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oil prices. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Friday, March 6, 2015
Today's Teamster News 03.06.15
Teamsters
Teamsters at ProJo File Federal Complaint Against Newspaper’s Owner GateHouse GoLocalProv …The labor union representing Providence Journal employees who work as inserters for the paper have filed federal charges against new owner GateHouse Media. Business Agent Matthew Maini with the Teamsters Local 251, which represents the nearly 60 inserters in the Journal's production side, said that the charges were recently made with the federal government's National Labor Relations Board against the new owners…
Giant Eagle: Distribution center not staying in Austintown WKBN …As of Thursday, Giant Eagle is still planning to close its Tamarkin Distribution Center in Austintown, putting 200 jobs in jeopardy. Thursday, the Mahoning County Commissioners said they want Giant Eagle and the Teamsters union to hammer out a new agreement…
CP Rail will use management to maintain 100 per cent capacity in event of another strike: Harrison Calgary Herald …Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd.’s practice of training managers to drive and load trains means the company will be able to operate without a hitch in the event of a future rail strike, said CEO Hunter Harrison on Wednesday...
Trade
Anti-Fast-Track Momentum Builds Huffington Post …Opponents of fast track and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are gaining momentum. In spite of a virtual media blackout, public awareness of the coming trade deal is increasing...
State Battles
Wisconsin close to becoming 25th right-to-work state Associated Press …With Wisconsin positioned to become the third Midwestern state in as many years to enact a right-to-work law, proponents are touting job growth in Indiana as reason for optimism while detractors say union membership slides in Michigan signal potential problems...
Effort to 'blast' right-to-work out of committee, onto Senate floor falls flat The Taos News …Republicans tried but failed Thursday to move the bill they call "right-to-work" straight to the full New Mexico Senate, saying they did not want it bottled up in committees controlled by Democrats...
War on Workers
BNSF oil train derails in rural Illinois; two cars aflame Reuters …A BNSF Railway [BNISF.UL] train loaded with crude oil derailed and caught fire on Thursday afternoon in a rural area south of Galena, Illinois, according to local officials and the company...
Energy Price Plunge Hits Jobs Boston Globe …Plunging oil prices have led to consumer friendly prices at the pump, but the trend is proving to be a double edged sword. Jobs in energy related fields are getting whacked..
Contractor cited after 31-year-old worker dies in cave-in in Birmingham al.com …If the general contractor who employed 31-year-old LeDonte McCruter had followed national labor rules, McCruter wouldn't have died in a cave-in in August, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission said Thursday...
Worker killed at Ace Pole recalled as ‘family’ The Blackshear Times …“They were loading logs into the kiln to be kiln-dried and the victim was somehow caught and crushed between some logs,” said Bennett...
Miscellaneous
Ringling Bros. Eliminating Elephant Acts Associated Press …Animal rights groups took credit for generating the public concern that forced the company to announce its pachyderm retirement plan on Thursday. But Ringling Bros.' owners described it as the bittersweet result of years of internal family discussions...
Teamsters at ProJo File Federal Complaint Against Newspaper’s Owner GateHouse GoLocalProv …The labor union representing Providence Journal employees who work as inserters for the paper have filed federal charges against new owner GateHouse Media. Business Agent Matthew Maini with the Teamsters Local 251, which represents the nearly 60 inserters in the Journal's production side, said that the charges were recently made with the federal government's National Labor Relations Board against the new owners…
Giant Eagle: Distribution center not staying in Austintown WKBN …As of Thursday, Giant Eagle is still planning to close its Tamarkin Distribution Center in Austintown, putting 200 jobs in jeopardy. Thursday, the Mahoning County Commissioners said they want Giant Eagle and the Teamsters union to hammer out a new agreement…
CP Rail will use management to maintain 100 per cent capacity in event of another strike: Harrison Calgary Herald …Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd.’s practice of training managers to drive and load trains means the company will be able to operate without a hitch in the event of a future rail strike, said CEO Hunter Harrison on Wednesday...
Trade
Anti-Fast-Track Momentum Builds Huffington Post …Opponents of fast track and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are gaining momentum. In spite of a virtual media blackout, public awareness of the coming trade deal is increasing...
State Battles
Wisconsin close to becoming 25th right-to-work state Associated Press …With Wisconsin positioned to become the third Midwestern state in as many years to enact a right-to-work law, proponents are touting job growth in Indiana as reason for optimism while detractors say union membership slides in Michigan signal potential problems...
Effort to 'blast' right-to-work out of committee, onto Senate floor falls flat The Taos News …Republicans tried but failed Thursday to move the bill they call "right-to-work" straight to the full New Mexico Senate, saying they did not want it bottled up in committees controlled by Democrats...
War on Workers
BNSF oil train derails in rural Illinois; two cars aflame Reuters …A BNSF Railway [BNISF.UL] train loaded with crude oil derailed and caught fire on Thursday afternoon in a rural area south of Galena, Illinois, according to local officials and the company...
Energy Price Plunge Hits Jobs Boston Globe …Plunging oil prices have led to consumer friendly prices at the pump, but the trend is proving to be a double edged sword. Jobs in energy related fields are getting whacked..
Contractor cited after 31-year-old worker dies in cave-in in Birmingham al.com …If the general contractor who employed 31-year-old LeDonte McCruter had followed national labor rules, McCruter wouldn't have died in a cave-in in August, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission said Thursday...
Worker killed at Ace Pole recalled as ‘family’ The Blackshear Times …“They were loading logs into the kiln to be kiln-dried and the victim was somehow caught and crushed between some logs,” said Bennett...
Miscellaneous
Ringling Bros. Eliminating Elephant Acts Associated Press …Animal rights groups took credit for generating the public concern that forced the company to announce its pachyderm retirement plan on Thursday. But Ringling Bros.' owners described it as the bittersweet result of years of internal family discussions...
Monday, February 23, 2015
Today's Teamster News 02.23.15
Teamsters
Facebook shuttle drivers ratify new Teamsters contract: WSJ Reuters … Loop Transportation, the contractor that employs the drivers and negotiated with Teamsters Local 853, cautioned that the agreement was not finalized and must be approved by Facebook...
Canadian Pacific and Teamsters Canada Rail Conference agree to binding arbitration Transport Intelligence …Canadian Pacific and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference have agreed to enter into binding arbitration to put an end to the work stoppage by CP's locomotive engineers and conductors...
Trade
Obama to make TPP free trade sales pitch to American people Big News Network …US President Barack Obama on Saturday began a major sales pitch to the US public to bring them round to the merits of free trade deals, an area in which he faces stiff resistance from many in his own Democratic party...
Europeans Want TTIP Trade-Deal, though Obama Blocks Making Its Terms Public RINF Alternative News …TTIP is a secretly negotiated trade deal between the U.S. and the EU, and all indications are that it will replace each nation’s drug-safety, product-safety, food-safety, environmental, and worker-protection, regulations and laws, placing them into the hands of panels composed of appointees of large international corporations, no longer in the hands of publicly elected officials, no longer in the hands of elected politicians, who need to face voters periodically in order to stay in power...
State Battles
Wisconsin Could Be Right-To-Work In A Matter Of Days Huffington Post …It's been more than two decades since Gov. Scott Walker (R) first pushed right-to-work legislation as a state lawmaker in Wisconsin. Now, all these years later, the famously anti-union governor may finally be getting his wish -- whether he likes it or not...
Second fight over union rights comes to Wisconsin as right-to-work debate looms Associated Press …The first step is a public hearing Tuesday before the state Senate's Labor Committee before the Senate takes it up for debate on Wednesday...
War on Workers
Trend in Temp Workers may not be Temporary Economic Populist …America's third largest job creator is a temp agency called Kelly Services, which provided employment to 555,000 employees in 2014...
Ex-Im critics pounce after bank yanks data The Hill …Critics of the Export-Import Bank are seething over the removal from a government Web site of previously public data earlier they say helps them detect cronyism…
Amid controversy, oil trains quietly rerouted through Virginia towns Reuters …CSX Corp is temporarily rerouting up to five oil trains through this small riverside town to bypass the site of an explosive oil train derailment that occurred 90 miles north in Mount Carbon, West Virginia, on Monday...
Rent walkouts point to strains in U.S. farm economy Reuters …Across the U.S. Midwest, the plunge in grain prices to near four-year lows is pitting landowners determined to sustain rental incomes against farmer tenants worried about making rent payments because their revenues are squeezed...
Will America's Shale Boomtowns Bust? A Report From the Heart of North Dakota's Fracking Country Fortune …After reaching a 12-month high of $108 last summer, U.S. benchmark petroleum prices have dramatically declined, to a price now hovering near $50 per barrel. That has shaken global markets and energy companies alike, causing oil producers to slash their capital expenditure budgets and announce layoffs...
Worker dies in Canton's second fatal snow-related fall in 5 days WCVB …A worker fell 40 feet to his death Sunday while checking the roof of a building for snow removal...
Facebook shuttle drivers ratify new Teamsters contract: WSJ Reuters … Loop Transportation, the contractor that employs the drivers and negotiated with Teamsters Local 853, cautioned that the agreement was not finalized and must be approved by Facebook...
Canadian Pacific and Teamsters Canada Rail Conference agree to binding arbitration Transport Intelligence …Canadian Pacific and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference have agreed to enter into binding arbitration to put an end to the work stoppage by CP's locomotive engineers and conductors...
Trade
Obama to make TPP free trade sales pitch to American people Big News Network …US President Barack Obama on Saturday began a major sales pitch to the US public to bring them round to the merits of free trade deals, an area in which he faces stiff resistance from many in his own Democratic party...
Europeans Want TTIP Trade-Deal, though Obama Blocks Making Its Terms Public RINF Alternative News …TTIP is a secretly negotiated trade deal between the U.S. and the EU, and all indications are that it will replace each nation’s drug-safety, product-safety, food-safety, environmental, and worker-protection, regulations and laws, placing them into the hands of panels composed of appointees of large international corporations, no longer in the hands of publicly elected officials, no longer in the hands of elected politicians, who need to face voters periodically in order to stay in power...
State Battles
Wisconsin Could Be Right-To-Work In A Matter Of Days Huffington Post …It's been more than two decades since Gov. Scott Walker (R) first pushed right-to-work legislation as a state lawmaker in Wisconsin. Now, all these years later, the famously anti-union governor may finally be getting his wish -- whether he likes it or not...
Second fight over union rights comes to Wisconsin as right-to-work debate looms Associated Press …The first step is a public hearing Tuesday before the state Senate's Labor Committee before the Senate takes it up for debate on Wednesday...
War on Workers
Trend in Temp Workers may not be Temporary Economic Populist …America's third largest job creator is a temp agency called Kelly Services, which provided employment to 555,000 employees in 2014...
Ex-Im critics pounce after bank yanks data The Hill …Critics of the Export-Import Bank are seething over the removal from a government Web site of previously public data earlier they say helps them detect cronyism…
Amid controversy, oil trains quietly rerouted through Virginia towns Reuters …CSX Corp is temporarily rerouting up to five oil trains through this small riverside town to bypass the site of an explosive oil train derailment that occurred 90 miles north in Mount Carbon, West Virginia, on Monday...
Rent walkouts point to strains in U.S. farm economy Reuters …Across the U.S. Midwest, the plunge in grain prices to near four-year lows is pitting landowners determined to sustain rental incomes against farmer tenants worried about making rent payments because their revenues are squeezed...
Will America's Shale Boomtowns Bust? A Report From the Heart of North Dakota's Fracking Country Fortune …After reaching a 12-month high of $108 last summer, U.S. benchmark petroleum prices have dramatically declined, to a price now hovering near $50 per barrel. That has shaken global markets and energy companies alike, causing oil producers to slash their capital expenditure budgets and announce layoffs...
Worker dies in Canton's second fatal snow-related fall in 5 days WCVB …A worker fell 40 feet to his death Sunday while checking the roof of a building for snow removal...
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Today's Teamster News 01.18.15
Teamster News
Teamsters Reach Tentative Contract Deal At Hunts Point teamster.org ...Teamsters Local 202 announced this afternoon that it had reached a tentative contract agreement with Hunts Point Market. The union's 1,300 members at the market, who have the final say, will vote Wednesday on the tentative deal...
Trade
USTR Still Insists That 'Listening' Is 'Transparency' Even As It Keeps Details Completely Secret tech dirt ...the USTR is really about as transparent as pea soup, with an institutional focus on secrecy. The negotiating positions that it takes on various trade agreements are shrouded in secrecy. When other countries push to be more transparent, the USTR inevitably rejects those pleas. While lobbyists get full access to some of the documents (including the ability to log in and see the latest texts), members of Congress who want to see the details have to go to the USTR, aren't allowed to bring any staffers, and aren't allowed to make any copies or take any notes...
Vanity of Vanities; All Is Vanity: Obama's Vain Search for a TPP "Legacy" (opinion) truthout ...if you're not already familiar with TPP you should be asking yourself, "if the draft agreement is so secret that members of Congress are not permitted to have copies of it, how did the corporations and their attorneys not only get copies of the drafts, but actually craft the drafts for the private benefit of their clients?"...
New AFL-CIO Report: Failed Trade Policy Contributed to Unaccompanied Minors Crisis AFL-CIO … A new, eye-opening report issued by the AFL-CIO sheds light on how failed trade policies contributed to the unaccompanied minor crisis at the U.S. border during last summer...
State Battles
At $37 million and counting, mega-donor Sinquefield says he's not going anywhere St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...“In Jefferson City, the first question legislators ask is not, ‘What do my constituents think?’ It’s, ‘What does Rex think?’,” says [U.S. Sen. Claire] McCaskill, who has made Sinquefield the poster child in her quest to set campaign contribution limits in Missouri. “They’re not saying it out loud, because they’re afraid of him, but everyone is uncomfortable about what’s going on.”...
Several Kentucky counties passing or considering 'right to work' laws Kentucky.com ...Since mid-December, Fulton, Hardin, Simpson, Todd and Warren counties have passed right-to-work ordinances. Cumberland and Pulaski counties have given first readings to similar proposals...
War on Workers
Who Needs Lobbyists? See What Big Business Spends To Win American Minds Huffington Post …Of $3.4 billion in contracts reported by the 144 trade groups from 2008 through 2012, more than $1.2 billion, or 37 percent, went toward advertising, public relations and marketing services, more than any other category. The second-highest total, $682.2 million, or 20 percent of the total, was directed toward legal, lobbying and government affairs...
The Poor Pay More in Taxes Economic Populist …in 2015 the poorest fifth of Americans will pay on average 10.9 percent of their income in state and local taxes, the middle fifth will pay 9.4 percent and the top 1 percent will average 5.4 percent...
Obama Proposes New Tax Hikes on Wealthy to Aid Middle Class Bloomberg …President Barack Obama is proposing new taxes on the wealthiest Americans that would limit their profits from investments and make it harder for them to pass assets to heirs...
Miscellaneous
Falling Oil Prices: Good For Drivers, Bad For Banks NPR …Lending money to energy companies can be pretty profitable, but if oil prices drop enough, the threat of bank defaults becomes real...
Teamsters Reach Tentative Contract Deal At Hunts Point teamster.org ...Teamsters Local 202 announced this afternoon that it had reached a tentative contract agreement with Hunts Point Market. The union's 1,300 members at the market, who have the final say, will vote Wednesday on the tentative deal...
Trade
USTR Still Insists That 'Listening' Is 'Transparency' Even As It Keeps Details Completely Secret tech dirt ...the USTR is really about as transparent as pea soup, with an institutional focus on secrecy. The negotiating positions that it takes on various trade agreements are shrouded in secrecy. When other countries push to be more transparent, the USTR inevitably rejects those pleas. While lobbyists get full access to some of the documents (including the ability to log in and see the latest texts), members of Congress who want to see the details have to go to the USTR, aren't allowed to bring any staffers, and aren't allowed to make any copies or take any notes...
Vanity of Vanities; All Is Vanity: Obama's Vain Search for a TPP "Legacy" (opinion) truthout ...if you're not already familiar with TPP you should be asking yourself, "if the draft agreement is so secret that members of Congress are not permitted to have copies of it, how did the corporations and their attorneys not only get copies of the drafts, but actually craft the drafts for the private benefit of their clients?"...
New AFL-CIO Report: Failed Trade Policy Contributed to Unaccompanied Minors Crisis AFL-CIO … A new, eye-opening report issued by the AFL-CIO sheds light on how failed trade policies contributed to the unaccompanied minor crisis at the U.S. border during last summer...
State Battles
At $37 million and counting, mega-donor Sinquefield says he's not going anywhere St. Louis Post-Dispatch ...“In Jefferson City, the first question legislators ask is not, ‘What do my constituents think?’ It’s, ‘What does Rex think?’,” says [U.S. Sen. Claire] McCaskill, who has made Sinquefield the poster child in her quest to set campaign contribution limits in Missouri. “They’re not saying it out loud, because they’re afraid of him, but everyone is uncomfortable about what’s going on.”...
Several Kentucky counties passing or considering 'right to work' laws Kentucky.com ...Since mid-December, Fulton, Hardin, Simpson, Todd and Warren counties have passed right-to-work ordinances. Cumberland and Pulaski counties have given first readings to similar proposals...
War on Workers
Who Needs Lobbyists? See What Big Business Spends To Win American Minds Huffington Post …Of $3.4 billion in contracts reported by the 144 trade groups from 2008 through 2012, more than $1.2 billion, or 37 percent, went toward advertising, public relations and marketing services, more than any other category. The second-highest total, $682.2 million, or 20 percent of the total, was directed toward legal, lobbying and government affairs...
The Poor Pay More in Taxes Economic Populist …in 2015 the poorest fifth of Americans will pay on average 10.9 percent of their income in state and local taxes, the middle fifth will pay 9.4 percent and the top 1 percent will average 5.4 percent...
Obama Proposes New Tax Hikes on Wealthy to Aid Middle Class Bloomberg …President Barack Obama is proposing new taxes on the wealthiest Americans that would limit their profits from investments and make it harder for them to pass assets to heirs...
Miscellaneous
Falling Oil Prices: Good For Drivers, Bad For Banks NPR …Lending money to energy companies can be pretty profitable, but if oil prices drop enough, the threat of bank defaults becomes real...
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Today's Teamster News 01.06.15
Teamsters
Trade issues are focus of Wyden town hall in Salem Statesman Journal ...Local union leaders and others asked Oregon's senior senator to oppose "fast-track" authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, a proposed free trade treaty with 12 Pacific-rim countries. "I want to know why he feels this is a good idea," Chris Muhs, secretary of Teamsters Local 324, said while holding a sign reading "Fast Track: Wrong Track."...
Trade
Senator Wyden Ends Portland Town Hall After Protesters Take Over Oregon Public Radio ...Protesters with the group Don’t Shoot Portland forced Oregon Senator Ron Wyden to cancel a town hall meeting on Saturday after the first 30 minutes. About 200 people had gathered in an auditorium at the Southeast Portland campus of Portland Community College to speak with the senator, who is holding six town halls across Western Oregon this weekend. Many in the audience held signs opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement the U.S. is negotiating with 11 countries in Asia...
Bernie Sanders' Brutal Letter On Obama's Trade Pact Foreshadows 2016 Democratic Clash Huffington Post ...Progressive unrest over free trade policies is shaping up to be a major issue in the contest for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, if a strongly worded letter from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to the top Obama administration trade official is any sign...
The Growth Projections for the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Pact Are a Joke Center for Economic and Policy Research ... The deal is likely to strengthen patent and copyright protections, leading to higher prices for drugs, software, and other products, all of which will be a drain on consumers and a drag on growth...
State Battles
Delegate Tim Armstead about to make history Charleston Gazette ...[Incoming West Virginia House Speaker Tim] Armstead offered no firm commitments but said a number of longtime Republican proposals would be in play. Making West Virginia a “right to work” state, where employees cannot be required to pay union dues? “That’s certainly being discussed,” Armstead said. A law requiring voters to show some sort of ID at the polls? “That’s another area,” Armstead said. “We don’t want to make it harder to vote, at the same time we want to make sure that each person’s vote counts.”...
Unions see right-to-work bill as political attack Albuquerque Journal ... labor views so-called right-to-work legislation in New Mexico as a political attack from the right, saying the bill would curtail its ability to raise and spend money to influence public policy...
Right-to-work legislation draws buzz, not necessarily votes Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...The leader of the state Senate has called for a quick debate on so-called right-to-work legislation, but it's unclear whether there are enough Republican votes to pass it...
Scott Walker, Starting Second Term as Wisconsin Governor, Resists New Union Battle New York Times ...Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who rose to national prominence in the Republican Party by cutting the collective bargaining rights of most public sector unions, strongly indicated in the final days of his re-election campaign that he had no plans to expand the battle with labor unions that defined his first term...
War on Workers
Even with Recent Low Inflation, Real Wages Continue to Stagnate Economic Policy Institute ... real wage growth has been about zero on average for the last five years, and there is no sign of acceleration...
The Real Winners Of The Recovery: The Superrich firedoglake ...new research shows that the top .1% has broken away from their uber-wealthy peers and amassed more than 22% of the wealth . In other words, the top one-thousandth of the country controls one-fifth of the wealth...
Railroads seek one-person crews for freight trains Associated Press ..."These trains are 7,000 tons going 50 mph. You have to have two people," said J.P. Wright, an engineer for CSX railroad in Louisville, Ky. "It's mind-boggling to me that the railroads would go this far with it."...
CEO Who Said He’d Probably Have To Fire Employees If Obama Won Is Now Giving Them Raises ThinkProgress ...Siegel informed Westgate employees that instead of layoffs, he would boost their minimum wage to $10 per hour beginning in 2015...
Nobel Laureate Stiglitz Blocked From SEC Panel After Faulting High-Speed Traders Bloomberg ...Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel laureate economist who called for a tax on high-frequency trading, has been blocked from a government panel that will advise regulators on issues facing U.S. equity markets, according to people familiar with the matter. Stiglitz’s rejection shows the partisan infighting that has bogged down Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White’s plan to set up a panel of experts to advise the agency on topics ranging from rapid-fire stock trading to dark pools...
The protesters who are trying to upend the ‘fantasy world’ of economics Washington Post ...Harrington now runs a campaign called Kick it Over, which aims to combat what it describes as “the fantasy world of neoclassical economics — a faith-based religion of perfect markets, enlightened consumers and infinite growth that shapes the fates of billions.”...
Let the Fed Lend Directly to Cities and States to Save Taxpayers Billions (opinion) Next New Deal ...The Federal Reserve should be allowed to make long-term loans directly to cities, states, school districts, and other public agencies so taxpayers can get low interest rates and avoid predatory Wall Street fees...
Miscellaneous
After two-year delay, construction on California's bullet train is set to start Los Angeles Times ...California's bullet-train agency will officially start construction in Fresno this week on the first 29-mile segment of the system, a symbol of the significant progress the $68-billion project has made against persistent political and legal opposition...
Global stocks fall for second day amid oil, Greece worries Associated Press ...Global stocks sank Tuesday for a second day as slumping oil prices and concern Greece might leave the European currency union fueled unease about the global growth outlook...
Trade issues are focus of Wyden town hall in Salem Statesman Journal ...Local union leaders and others asked Oregon's senior senator to oppose "fast-track" authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, a proposed free trade treaty with 12 Pacific-rim countries. "I want to know why he feels this is a good idea," Chris Muhs, secretary of Teamsters Local 324, said while holding a sign reading "Fast Track: Wrong Track."...
Trade
Senator Wyden Ends Portland Town Hall After Protesters Take Over Oregon Public Radio ...Protesters with the group Don’t Shoot Portland forced Oregon Senator Ron Wyden to cancel a town hall meeting on Saturday after the first 30 minutes. About 200 people had gathered in an auditorium at the Southeast Portland campus of Portland Community College to speak with the senator, who is holding six town halls across Western Oregon this weekend. Many in the audience held signs opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement the U.S. is negotiating with 11 countries in Asia...
Bernie Sanders' Brutal Letter On Obama's Trade Pact Foreshadows 2016 Democratic Clash Huffington Post ...Progressive unrest over free trade policies is shaping up to be a major issue in the contest for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, if a strongly worded letter from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to the top Obama administration trade official is any sign...
The Growth Projections for the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Pact Are a Joke Center for Economic and Policy Research ... The deal is likely to strengthen patent and copyright protections, leading to higher prices for drugs, software, and other products, all of which will be a drain on consumers and a drag on growth...
State Battles
Delegate Tim Armstead about to make history Charleston Gazette ...[Incoming West Virginia House Speaker Tim] Armstead offered no firm commitments but said a number of longtime Republican proposals would be in play. Making West Virginia a “right to work” state, where employees cannot be required to pay union dues? “That’s certainly being discussed,” Armstead said. A law requiring voters to show some sort of ID at the polls? “That’s another area,” Armstead said. “We don’t want to make it harder to vote, at the same time we want to make sure that each person’s vote counts.”...
Unions see right-to-work bill as political attack Albuquerque Journal ... labor views so-called right-to-work legislation in New Mexico as a political attack from the right, saying the bill would curtail its ability to raise and spend money to influence public policy...
Right-to-work legislation draws buzz, not necessarily votes Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ...The leader of the state Senate has called for a quick debate on so-called right-to-work legislation, but it's unclear whether there are enough Republican votes to pass it...
Scott Walker, Starting Second Term as Wisconsin Governor, Resists New Union Battle New York Times ...Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who rose to national prominence in the Republican Party by cutting the collective bargaining rights of most public sector unions, strongly indicated in the final days of his re-election campaign that he had no plans to expand the battle with labor unions that defined his first term...
War on Workers
Even with Recent Low Inflation, Real Wages Continue to Stagnate Economic Policy Institute ... real wage growth has been about zero on average for the last five years, and there is no sign of acceleration...
The Real Winners Of The Recovery: The Superrich firedoglake ...new research shows that the top .1% has broken away from their uber-wealthy peers and amassed more than 22% of the wealth . In other words, the top one-thousandth of the country controls one-fifth of the wealth...
Railroads seek one-person crews for freight trains Associated Press ..."These trains are 7,000 tons going 50 mph. You have to have two people," said J.P. Wright, an engineer for CSX railroad in Louisville, Ky. "It's mind-boggling to me that the railroads would go this far with it."...
CEO Who Said He’d Probably Have To Fire Employees If Obama Won Is Now Giving Them Raises ThinkProgress ...Siegel informed Westgate employees that instead of layoffs, he would boost their minimum wage to $10 per hour beginning in 2015...
Nobel Laureate Stiglitz Blocked From SEC Panel After Faulting High-Speed Traders Bloomberg ...Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel laureate economist who called for a tax on high-frequency trading, has been blocked from a government panel that will advise regulators on issues facing U.S. equity markets, according to people familiar with the matter. Stiglitz’s rejection shows the partisan infighting that has bogged down Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White’s plan to set up a panel of experts to advise the agency on topics ranging from rapid-fire stock trading to dark pools...
The protesters who are trying to upend the ‘fantasy world’ of economics Washington Post ...Harrington now runs a campaign called Kick it Over, which aims to combat what it describes as “the fantasy world of neoclassical economics — a faith-based religion of perfect markets, enlightened consumers and infinite growth that shapes the fates of billions.”...
Let the Fed Lend Directly to Cities and States to Save Taxpayers Billions (opinion) Next New Deal ...The Federal Reserve should be allowed to make long-term loans directly to cities, states, school districts, and other public agencies so taxpayers can get low interest rates and avoid predatory Wall Street fees...
Miscellaneous
After two-year delay, construction on California's bullet train is set to start Los Angeles Times ...California's bullet-train agency will officially start construction in Fresno this week on the first 29-mile segment of the system, a symbol of the significant progress the $68-billion project has made against persistent political and legal opposition...
Global stocks fall for second day amid oil, Greece worries Associated Press ...Global stocks sank Tuesday for a second day as slumping oil prices and concern Greece might leave the European currency union fueled unease about the global growth outlook...
Friday, January 2, 2015
Today's Teamster News 01.02.15
Teamster News
First Student School Bus Workers Choose Teamsters Local 570 Representation teamster.org ...First Student school bus drivers and monitors who transport children attending Baltimore City Public Schools have voted to join Teamsters Local 570 in Baltimore. The 113 school bus workers work out of First Student yards in Baltimore and Severn, Md., and joined the union seeking respect, fair pay and dignity at work...
Travel Management Company Pilots Vote To Join Teamsters teamster.org ...Pilots with Travel Management Company (TMC) voted overwhelmingly, 120-57, today in favor of Teamster representation. After the National Mediation Board (NMB) certifies the election, about 200 TMC pilots will become members of Teamsters Local 1108 in Richmond Heights, Ohio, and join the more than 75,000 airline industry workers currently represented by the Teamsters Airline Division...
Teamsters help Catholic Charities haul huge donation of furniture from Ogunquit inn to sell for food Bangor Daily News ...“Teamsters Local 340 is again sending their Joint Council 10 truck up for three truckload trips to Aroostook County to help out Catholic Charities’ food bank and their ‘Feed the County’ efforts this holiday season,” said Traci Place, a business agent for the union...
Teamsters rail conference calls for limited access to locomotive recordings Progressive Railroading ...The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) is not opposed to the installation of locomotive voice and video recorders (LVVRs), but all recordings should be used pursuant to the Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board Act, union officials announced last week...
Union decries decrease in railroad maintenance crews Bismarck Tribune ...Reductions in maintenance workers on Canadian Pacific tracks could cause more delays, according to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
Snyder County owes $90G to two guards Daily Item ...Snyder County still owes several thousand dollars to two Snyder County Jail guards who won their jobs back in April after being terminated two years earlier for sexual harassment...
Teamsters, Medina Council approve contract Medina Gazette ... Medina City Council approved a new collective bargaining agreement Tuesday with Teamsters Local 436, which represents city service department employees...
Trade
Obama hopes to enlist GOP in push for trade pact, despite Democratic resistance UK Progressive ...President Obama is preparing a major push on a vast free-trade zone that seeks to enlist Republicans as partners and test his premise that Washington can still find common ground on major initiatives...
Obama executive actions put Asia free trade deal at risk Washington Times ...President Obama is preparing a major push on a vast free-trade zone that seeks to enlist Republicans as partners and test his premise that Washington can still find common ground on major initiatives...
The President Set a Goal of Doubling Exports by 2014—Why Haven’t We? Economic Policy Institute ...The United States failed to achieve a doubling of exports between 2009 and 2014, as promised in President Obama’s National Export Initiative (NEI). It wasn’t even close. Total U.S. goods and services exports increased by less than 50 percent ($766 billion, or 48.4 percent) between 2009 and 2014 (estimated), as shown in the figure below. Meanwhile, imports increased by an even larger $883.8 billion, and as a result, the U.S. trade deficit increased by $117.0 billion...
Say Goodbye to 'Made in China' Bloomberg ...In November, Hebei Iron & Steel Co Ltd, a provincial-owned company and China’s largest steelmaker by production, announced that it was moving 5 million tons of its annual production -- roughly 11 percent of the 45 million tons of steel it makes every year -- to South Africa. According to press reports, it won’t be going abroad alone...
War on Workers
Map: Where Workers' Pay Has Risen the Most in Past Decade Wall Street Journal ...while the one-third of all counties have seen a decline in annual average pay, those counties hold about 46% of U.S. population. That shows you how densely populated some of those counties are...
Wage stagnation puts the squeeze on ordinary workers (Opinion) Los Angeles Times ...The median net worth of upper-income families reached $639,400 last year. That's nearly seven times as much as for those in the middle and almost 70 times what people at the lower end of the economic spectrum are making...
The Story Behind Wage Fixing in Hollywood Real News ...Wage theft stories aren't only happening at fast food companies like McDonald's, but the computer animation industry is also being accused of fixing employee wages. Major players like Disney, Sony, and many more have been entangled in a conspiracy called Techtopus...
Labor's big comeback Politico ...In a chain of end-of-the-year rulemakings, filings and decisions, the NLRB is exercising more muscle on labor’s behalf than Obama achieved during his previous six years in office...
Epidemic of Violence against Health-Care Workers Plagues Hospitals Scientific American ...Health-care workers are hit, kicked, scratched, bitten, spat on, threatened and harassed by patients with surprising regularity. In a 2014 survey, almost 80 percent of nurses reported being attacked on the job within the past year...
Worker killed in accident at Ford Claycomo Assembly Plant KMBC ...A contract worker died on the job at Ford's Claycomo plant early Tuesday. Investigators said a beam fell on the man as he worked to help build a new assembly line...
Highway 68 construction worker killed by drunk driver Better Roads ...Jesus Fernandez, 51, was just doing his job on Highway 68 in California when a suspected drunk driver took his life...
Racers Mourn for Track Worker Killed in Raceway Accident New Times ...The racing world suffered a loss this past Sunday when an experienced track worker at the Palm Beach International Raceway died during a race when an unmanned, out-of-control motorcycle crashed into him...
Rest stop worker hit and killed on I-40 Fox8 ...A rest stop worker was hit by a car and killed along Interstate 40 near Benson Monday morning...
Miscellaneous
Low Oil Prices Drive US Rig Count Down Oil Prices ...Onshore US drilling rigs fell by 37 to 1,499 in the week ending Dec. 26. Ten rigs were dropped in the previous week and 29 went out of service the week before that...
Q3 2014 GDP Revised Up to a Whopping 5.0% Economic Populist ...This is the highest quarterly GDP since Q3 2003, a full eleven years ago. The reason for the revision blow out was consumer spending and investment...
First Student School Bus Workers Choose Teamsters Local 570 Representation teamster.org ...First Student school bus drivers and monitors who transport children attending Baltimore City Public Schools have voted to join Teamsters Local 570 in Baltimore. The 113 school bus workers work out of First Student yards in Baltimore and Severn, Md., and joined the union seeking respect, fair pay and dignity at work...
Travel Management Company Pilots Vote To Join Teamsters teamster.org ...Pilots with Travel Management Company (TMC) voted overwhelmingly, 120-57, today in favor of Teamster representation. After the National Mediation Board (NMB) certifies the election, about 200 TMC pilots will become members of Teamsters Local 1108 in Richmond Heights, Ohio, and join the more than 75,000 airline industry workers currently represented by the Teamsters Airline Division...
Teamsters help Catholic Charities haul huge donation of furniture from Ogunquit inn to sell for food Bangor Daily News ...“Teamsters Local 340 is again sending their Joint Council 10 truck up for three truckload trips to Aroostook County to help out Catholic Charities’ food bank and their ‘Feed the County’ efforts this holiday season,” said Traci Place, a business agent for the union...
Teamsters rail conference calls for limited access to locomotive recordings Progressive Railroading ...The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) is not opposed to the installation of locomotive voice and video recorders (LVVRs), but all recordings should be used pursuant to the Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board Act, union officials announced last week...
Union decries decrease in railroad maintenance crews Bismarck Tribune ...Reductions in maintenance workers on Canadian Pacific tracks could cause more delays, according to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
Snyder County owes $90G to two guards Daily Item ...Snyder County still owes several thousand dollars to two Snyder County Jail guards who won their jobs back in April after being terminated two years earlier for sexual harassment...
Teamsters, Medina Council approve contract Medina Gazette ... Medina City Council approved a new collective bargaining agreement Tuesday with Teamsters Local 436, which represents city service department employees...
Trade
Obama hopes to enlist GOP in push for trade pact, despite Democratic resistance UK Progressive ...President Obama is preparing a major push on a vast free-trade zone that seeks to enlist Republicans as partners and test his premise that Washington can still find common ground on major initiatives...
Obama executive actions put Asia free trade deal at risk Washington Times ...President Obama is preparing a major push on a vast free-trade zone that seeks to enlist Republicans as partners and test his premise that Washington can still find common ground on major initiatives...
The President Set a Goal of Doubling Exports by 2014—Why Haven’t We? Economic Policy Institute ...The United States failed to achieve a doubling of exports between 2009 and 2014, as promised in President Obama’s National Export Initiative (NEI). It wasn’t even close. Total U.S. goods and services exports increased by less than 50 percent ($766 billion, or 48.4 percent) between 2009 and 2014 (estimated), as shown in the figure below. Meanwhile, imports increased by an even larger $883.8 billion, and as a result, the U.S. trade deficit increased by $117.0 billion...
Say Goodbye to 'Made in China' Bloomberg ...In November, Hebei Iron & Steel Co Ltd, a provincial-owned company and China’s largest steelmaker by production, announced that it was moving 5 million tons of its annual production -- roughly 11 percent of the 45 million tons of steel it makes every year -- to South Africa. According to press reports, it won’t be going abroad alone...
War on Workers
Map: Where Workers' Pay Has Risen the Most in Past Decade Wall Street Journal ...while the one-third of all counties have seen a decline in annual average pay, those counties hold about 46% of U.S. population. That shows you how densely populated some of those counties are...
Wage stagnation puts the squeeze on ordinary workers (Opinion) Los Angeles Times ...The median net worth of upper-income families reached $639,400 last year. That's nearly seven times as much as for those in the middle and almost 70 times what people at the lower end of the economic spectrum are making...
The Story Behind Wage Fixing in Hollywood Real News ...Wage theft stories aren't only happening at fast food companies like McDonald's, but the computer animation industry is also being accused of fixing employee wages. Major players like Disney, Sony, and many more have been entangled in a conspiracy called Techtopus...
Labor's big comeback Politico ...In a chain of end-of-the-year rulemakings, filings and decisions, the NLRB is exercising more muscle on labor’s behalf than Obama achieved during his previous six years in office...
Epidemic of Violence against Health-Care Workers Plagues Hospitals Scientific American ...Health-care workers are hit, kicked, scratched, bitten, spat on, threatened and harassed by patients with surprising regularity. In a 2014 survey, almost 80 percent of nurses reported being attacked on the job within the past year...
Worker killed in accident at Ford Claycomo Assembly Plant KMBC ...A contract worker died on the job at Ford's Claycomo plant early Tuesday. Investigators said a beam fell on the man as he worked to help build a new assembly line...
Highway 68 construction worker killed by drunk driver Better Roads ...Jesus Fernandez, 51, was just doing his job on Highway 68 in California when a suspected drunk driver took his life...
Racers Mourn for Track Worker Killed in Raceway Accident New Times ...The racing world suffered a loss this past Sunday when an experienced track worker at the Palm Beach International Raceway died during a race when an unmanned, out-of-control motorcycle crashed into him...
Rest stop worker hit and killed on I-40 Fox8 ...A rest stop worker was hit by a car and killed along Interstate 40 near Benson Monday morning...
Miscellaneous
Low Oil Prices Drive US Rig Count Down Oil Prices ...Onshore US drilling rigs fell by 37 to 1,499 in the week ending Dec. 26. Ten rigs were dropped in the previous week and 29 went out of service the week before that...
Q3 2014 GDP Revised Up to a Whopping 5.0% Economic Populist ...This is the highest quarterly GDP since Q3 2003, a full eleven years ago. The reason for the revision blow out was consumer spending and investment...
Monday, December 15, 2014
Today's Teamster News 12.15.14
Teamsters
Teamsters Denounce Senate Passage Of Omnibus Spending Bill teamster.org …"With the passage of the omnibus spending bill by the Senate, we have witnessed the latest attack by corporate interests on working families...
Trade
Call for release of Trans-Pacific Partnership text ComputerWorld ...Forty-eight non-government organisations have issued a call for the release of the draft text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement...
State Battles
Early federal sentencing recommendation for McDonnell: At least 10 years in prison Washington Post ...The federal agency that will play a pivotal role in guiding the sentence of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell has recommended that the onetime Republican rising star spend at least 10 years and a month in prison, according to several people familiar with the matter...
War on Workers
Cromnibus Pension Provisions Gut Forty Years of Policy, Allow Existing Pensions to Be Slashed naked capitalism …[The] measure included in Congress’s mammoth spending bill permits benefit cuts for retirees in one type of pension plan, a big shift that lawmakers and others believe could set a precedent for other troubled retirement programs. Lawmakers and experts, while divided over the merits of the change, largely agreed that it could well be the first of many...
Study: For every $1 corporations spend on elections, they get $760 from government Ring of Fire …From 2007 to 2012, 200 American corporations spent about $5.8 billion on federal lobbying and campaign contributions, but that number is mere chump change when compared to what those same corporations got in return — about $4.4 trillion in federal business and support, according to a study by the Sunlight Foundation...
What's Complicated About a Government That Works to Benefit Rich People? Center for Economic Policy and Research ...we have had a government committed to redistributing income upward for the last three decades...
Congress Again Rewards Tax Dodgers with a Tax Cut Economic Policy Institute ...If a $1 budget reduction yields a $10.60 reduction in enforcement collections, then the $191 million reduction in the IRS enforcement budget could prove to be a $2 billion tax cut for tax cheats. There appears to be a disconnect between what Congress enacts and what the American public wants...
Transport strike likely to shut down much of Belgium Agence France-Press ...Belgium risks coming to a virtual standstill tomorrow as the biggest national strike for years grounds all flights, halts public transport and severs international train links in a protest over the new government's austerity policies...
Smoke killed Thanksgiving Tower workers trapped in deep tank, officials say Dallas Morning News ...Three workers killed in a Thanksgiving Tower fire died of smoke inhalation while trapped in a “dilapidated” 35-foot-deep chiller tank, authorities said Friday. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Dallas Fire-Rescue are investigating Thursday’s blaze. A city official said it appeared that the workers did not follow proper safety procedures, nor did they have the proper permit to do work with a torch, although officials still haven’t confirmed what started the fire...
Miscellaneous
Will cheap oil kill Keystone? Politico Pro …The same collapse in oil prices that is pumping dollars into motorists’ wallets also risks undermining the case for building the 1,179-mile pipeline in two crucial ways: It’s squeezing the western Canadian oil industry that has looked to Keystone as its most promising route to the Gulf Coast...
Dancing around data The Hill …A recent Pew study found that ninety-one percent of Americans say that they have “lost control” over how their personal information is collected or used by companies...
Teamsters Denounce Senate Passage Of Omnibus Spending Bill teamster.org …"With the passage of the omnibus spending bill by the Senate, we have witnessed the latest attack by corporate interests on working families...
Trade
Call for release of Trans-Pacific Partnership text ComputerWorld ...Forty-eight non-government organisations have issued a call for the release of the draft text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement...
State Battles
Early federal sentencing recommendation for McDonnell: At least 10 years in prison Washington Post ...The federal agency that will play a pivotal role in guiding the sentence of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell has recommended that the onetime Republican rising star spend at least 10 years and a month in prison, according to several people familiar with the matter...
War on Workers
Cromnibus Pension Provisions Gut Forty Years of Policy, Allow Existing Pensions to Be Slashed naked capitalism …[The] measure included in Congress’s mammoth spending bill permits benefit cuts for retirees in one type of pension plan, a big shift that lawmakers and others believe could set a precedent for other troubled retirement programs. Lawmakers and experts, while divided over the merits of the change, largely agreed that it could well be the first of many...
Study: For every $1 corporations spend on elections, they get $760 from government Ring of Fire …From 2007 to 2012, 200 American corporations spent about $5.8 billion on federal lobbying and campaign contributions, but that number is mere chump change when compared to what those same corporations got in return — about $4.4 trillion in federal business and support, according to a study by the Sunlight Foundation...
What's Complicated About a Government That Works to Benefit Rich People? Center for Economic Policy and Research ...we have had a government committed to redistributing income upward for the last three decades...
Congress Again Rewards Tax Dodgers with a Tax Cut Economic Policy Institute ...If a $1 budget reduction yields a $10.60 reduction in enforcement collections, then the $191 million reduction in the IRS enforcement budget could prove to be a $2 billion tax cut for tax cheats. There appears to be a disconnect between what Congress enacts and what the American public wants...
Transport strike likely to shut down much of Belgium Agence France-Press ...Belgium risks coming to a virtual standstill tomorrow as the biggest national strike for years grounds all flights, halts public transport and severs international train links in a protest over the new government's austerity policies...
Smoke killed Thanksgiving Tower workers trapped in deep tank, officials say Dallas Morning News ...Three workers killed in a Thanksgiving Tower fire died of smoke inhalation while trapped in a “dilapidated” 35-foot-deep chiller tank, authorities said Friday. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Dallas Fire-Rescue are investigating Thursday’s blaze. A city official said it appeared that the workers did not follow proper safety procedures, nor did they have the proper permit to do work with a torch, although officials still haven’t confirmed what started the fire...
Miscellaneous
Will cheap oil kill Keystone? Politico Pro …The same collapse in oil prices that is pumping dollars into motorists’ wallets also risks undermining the case for building the 1,179-mile pipeline in two crucial ways: It’s squeezing the western Canadian oil industry that has looked to Keystone as its most promising route to the Gulf Coast...
Dancing around data The Hill …A recent Pew study found that ninety-one percent of Americans say that they have “lost control” over how their personal information is collected or used by companies...
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Today's Teamster News 12.09.14
Teamster News
Horse carriage ban introduced in City Council, sparks dueling rallies New York Daily News ...Supporters and opponents of banning the city’s horse drawn carriages battled at dueling rallies Monday as the bill was finally introduced in the City Council - and more Council members came out against the controversial ban. A dozen unions joined horse carriage drivers on the City Hall steps to blast the proposal they say will kill the livelihoods of 300 drivers...
City Councilman Who Previously Agreed To Support Ban On Horse Carriages Flips Sides New York Daily News ...A city councilman who was endorsed by the animal rights group NYCLASS and agreed to back a ban on horse-drawn carriages under certain conditions has come out against Mayor de Blasio’s bill to outlaw the carriage industry...
Horse Nonsense From City Hall (opinion) New York Times ...Why wipe out a well-loved, well-regulated, law-abiding part of the tourist economy? So many tough questions. One simple answer: Dump the bill. Keep the horses...
Franklin Park Public Works Employees Ratify First Teamsters Contract teamster.org …Public works employees in the Village of Franklin Park, Ill., ratified their first Teamsters contract after unanimously voting to join the Teamsters...
Cook DuPage Transport Puts Paratransit Services, Teamsters Local 727 Members at Risk teamster.org ...Paratransit services in Cook and DuPage counties are in danger of being suspended due to a possible work stoppage because of Cook DuPage Transport’s bad faith bargaining for a first contract...
Trade
Activists In Washington Protest Against TPP Public Citizen ...An hour of loud chanting and noisemakers ensured that chief negotiators involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks on Tuesday were aware of growing US public opposition to the TPP and the dim prospects that US President Barack Obama will obtain Fast Track trade authority, Public Citizen said...
TPP Negotiators Come to DC and are Met By People Telling Them ‘Fast Track’ Is Dead and Make the TPP Text Public Popular Resistance ...On Monday morning members of Popular Resistance held a ‘Sit-in to End the Secrecy’ on the front steps of the USTR office . As Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiators and USTR staff arrived for their first day of meetings this week, demonstrators demanded that they stop hiding the text of the trade agreement and instead make it available to the public telling them “secret negotiations are anti-democratic.”...
House Democrats vow to block Obama on Asia trade pact Washington Post ...House Democrats from the nation's manufacturing heartland are vowing to fight President Obama's push for a major trade deal in the Asia Pacific, saying the pact will harm U.S. jobs and charging that the administration has not been transparent with Congress in its negotiations...
Obama Ready To Defy Base In Order To Advance Trans-Pacific Partnership MintPress News ...In a speech before CEOs of major U.S. corporations, Obama indicates he's ready to go head-to-head with Democrats, labor unions, and environmentalists on trade deals...
Growing Trans-Pacific Trade Deficits Set the Stage for Growing Trade-Related Job Displacement Economic Policy Institute ...The United States has a large and growing trade deficit with the 11 other countries in the proposed TPP. This deficit has increased from $110.3 billion in 1997 to an estimated $261.7 billion in 2014, as shown in the figure below. With trade deficits already on the rise, it makes no sense to sign a deal that would exacerbate them further...
Hardship On Mexico's Farms, A Bounty For U.S. Tables Los Angeles Times ...for thousands of farm laborers south of the border, the export boom is a story of exploitation and extreme hardship...
United States To Investigate Potential Steel Dumping NWI Times ...The U.S. International Trade Commission voted 6-0 last week to investigate an estimated $601 million in annual Korean and Turkish imports of carbon and alloy welded API line pipe, which is used in oil and gas pipelines. The agency will look into whether the steel products are being sold at less than fair value, if it's hurting domestic steelmakers and if duties should be imposed...
State Battles
Our view: Right-to-work not the right priority (opinion) LaCrosse Tribune ...It’s apparently so important that Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald announced Thursday that he will put the issue on the fast track and a bill addressing the issue will be brought forth in the Assembly...
More than 3,800 state workers paid under federal poverty level Richmond Times-Dispatch ...The jobs of the state employees in the poverty zone include hospital food service workers and housekeepers, school security officers, mental health workers, deputy sheriffs, corrections workers, secretaries, researchers and associate professors. In some respects, their plight is not surprising, given the number of state workers who are dependent on federal assistance. That number has increased more than 150 percent — from 892 in 2011 to 2,287 in 2013, according to statistics compiled by the state Department of Human Resources Management...
NC education department used Koch-funded group for proposed history lessons Charlotte News Observer ...State high school social studies teachers would be encouraged to use curriculum materials prepared by an institute funded by the conservative Koch family, under a proposal the Department of Public Instruction presented...
ALEC Fumes: Transparency Threatens Corporate Free Speech! Center for Media and Democracy ...After spending hundreds of millions of undisclosed funds on state and federal elections, the corporate members of the American Legislative Exchange Council are demanding that state legislators preserve their "right" to anonymously spend money on politics and curry favor with elected officials, and to thwart shareholder efforts to hold the corporations they own accountable...
More Corporations Flee as ALEC Rolls Out Its Legislative Agenda Center for Media and Democracy ...Only nine funders of the American Legislative Exchange Council's annual winter meeting in Washington, DC, are listed on ALEC's conference brochure this year...
Economist: Jobs Regained In Kansas Not The Same Ones Lost In Recession Wichita Eagle ...it has gained back only 600 of approximately 29,000 manufacturing jobs it lost, said Tyler Tenbrink, a senior labor economist with the Department of Labor...
War on Workers
Judge Calls Cablevision’s Raises an Anti-Union Act New York Times ...A judge with the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Cablevision’s chief executive officer, James L. Dolan, gave raises illegally to company technicians in the Bronx to improperly sway them to vote against unionizing...
Oil Falls to 5-Year Low, and Energy Companies Start to Retrench New York Times ...The price of crude oil continued to collapse on Monday, plunging to a five-year low, as oil giants began to scale back their drilling ambitions and pare the ranks of their workers...
Inside the Koch data mine Politico ...The Koch brothers and their allies are pumping tens of millions of dollars into a data company that’s developing detailed, state-of-the-art profiles of 250 million Americans, giving the brothers’ political operation all the earmarks of a national party...
Worker dies in accident at Henderson plastics factory KVVU-TV ...Initial reports indicate a large object fell on the victim. The death is being investigated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration...
Worker dies from injuries in Boeing accident Associated Press ...A worker for a Boeing supplier has died, weeks after sustaining injuries while working on a passenger seat inside a Boeing 777 passenger jet...
Mexico Identifies Remains Of 1 Of 43 Missing Students Time ...Officials have identified the remains of one of 43 missing Mexican students whose disappearance in September sparked worldwide outrage over the country’s drug violence and corruption...
Horse carriage ban introduced in City Council, sparks dueling rallies New York Daily News ...Supporters and opponents of banning the city’s horse drawn carriages battled at dueling rallies Monday as the bill was finally introduced in the City Council - and more Council members came out against the controversial ban. A dozen unions joined horse carriage drivers on the City Hall steps to blast the proposal they say will kill the livelihoods of 300 drivers...
City Councilman Who Previously Agreed To Support Ban On Horse Carriages Flips Sides New York Daily News ...A city councilman who was endorsed by the animal rights group NYCLASS and agreed to back a ban on horse-drawn carriages under certain conditions has come out against Mayor de Blasio’s bill to outlaw the carriage industry...
Horse Nonsense From City Hall (opinion) New York Times ...Why wipe out a well-loved, well-regulated, law-abiding part of the tourist economy? So many tough questions. One simple answer: Dump the bill. Keep the horses...
Franklin Park Public Works Employees Ratify First Teamsters Contract teamster.org …Public works employees in the Village of Franklin Park, Ill., ratified their first Teamsters contract after unanimously voting to join the Teamsters...
Cook DuPage Transport Puts Paratransit Services, Teamsters Local 727 Members at Risk teamster.org ...Paratransit services in Cook and DuPage counties are in danger of being suspended due to a possible work stoppage because of Cook DuPage Transport’s bad faith bargaining for a first contract...
Trade
Activists In Washington Protest Against TPP Public Citizen ...An hour of loud chanting and noisemakers ensured that chief negotiators involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks on Tuesday were aware of growing US public opposition to the TPP and the dim prospects that US President Barack Obama will obtain Fast Track trade authority, Public Citizen said...
TPP Negotiators Come to DC and are Met By People Telling Them ‘Fast Track’ Is Dead and Make the TPP Text Public Popular Resistance ...On Monday morning members of Popular Resistance held a ‘Sit-in to End the Secrecy’ on the front steps of the USTR office . As Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiators and USTR staff arrived for their first day of meetings this week, demonstrators demanded that they stop hiding the text of the trade agreement and instead make it available to the public telling them “secret negotiations are anti-democratic.”...
House Democrats vow to block Obama on Asia trade pact Washington Post ...House Democrats from the nation's manufacturing heartland are vowing to fight President Obama's push for a major trade deal in the Asia Pacific, saying the pact will harm U.S. jobs and charging that the administration has not been transparent with Congress in its negotiations...
Obama Ready To Defy Base In Order To Advance Trans-Pacific Partnership MintPress News ...In a speech before CEOs of major U.S. corporations, Obama indicates he's ready to go head-to-head with Democrats, labor unions, and environmentalists on trade deals...
Growing Trans-Pacific Trade Deficits Set the Stage for Growing Trade-Related Job Displacement Economic Policy Institute ...The United States has a large and growing trade deficit with the 11 other countries in the proposed TPP. This deficit has increased from $110.3 billion in 1997 to an estimated $261.7 billion in 2014, as shown in the figure below. With trade deficits already on the rise, it makes no sense to sign a deal that would exacerbate them further...
Hardship On Mexico's Farms, A Bounty For U.S. Tables Los Angeles Times ...for thousands of farm laborers south of the border, the export boom is a story of exploitation and extreme hardship...
United States To Investigate Potential Steel Dumping NWI Times ...The U.S. International Trade Commission voted 6-0 last week to investigate an estimated $601 million in annual Korean and Turkish imports of carbon and alloy welded API line pipe, which is used in oil and gas pipelines. The agency will look into whether the steel products are being sold at less than fair value, if it's hurting domestic steelmakers and if duties should be imposed...
State Battles
Our view: Right-to-work not the right priority (opinion) LaCrosse Tribune ...It’s apparently so important that Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald announced Thursday that he will put the issue on the fast track and a bill addressing the issue will be brought forth in the Assembly...
More than 3,800 state workers paid under federal poverty level Richmond Times-Dispatch ...The jobs of the state employees in the poverty zone include hospital food service workers and housekeepers, school security officers, mental health workers, deputy sheriffs, corrections workers, secretaries, researchers and associate professors. In some respects, their plight is not surprising, given the number of state workers who are dependent on federal assistance. That number has increased more than 150 percent — from 892 in 2011 to 2,287 in 2013, according to statistics compiled by the state Department of Human Resources Management...
NC education department used Koch-funded group for proposed history lessons Charlotte News Observer ...State high school social studies teachers would be encouraged to use curriculum materials prepared by an institute funded by the conservative Koch family, under a proposal the Department of Public Instruction presented...
ALEC Fumes: Transparency Threatens Corporate Free Speech! Center for Media and Democracy ...After spending hundreds of millions of undisclosed funds on state and federal elections, the corporate members of the American Legislative Exchange Council are demanding that state legislators preserve their "right" to anonymously spend money on politics and curry favor with elected officials, and to thwart shareholder efforts to hold the corporations they own accountable...
More Corporations Flee as ALEC Rolls Out Its Legislative Agenda Center for Media and Democracy ...Only nine funders of the American Legislative Exchange Council's annual winter meeting in Washington, DC, are listed on ALEC's conference brochure this year...
Economist: Jobs Regained In Kansas Not The Same Ones Lost In Recession Wichita Eagle ...it has gained back only 600 of approximately 29,000 manufacturing jobs it lost, said Tyler Tenbrink, a senior labor economist with the Department of Labor...
War on Workers
Judge Calls Cablevision’s Raises an Anti-Union Act New York Times ...A judge with the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Cablevision’s chief executive officer, James L. Dolan, gave raises illegally to company technicians in the Bronx to improperly sway them to vote against unionizing...
Oil Falls to 5-Year Low, and Energy Companies Start to Retrench New York Times ...The price of crude oil continued to collapse on Monday, plunging to a five-year low, as oil giants began to scale back their drilling ambitions and pare the ranks of their workers...
Inside the Koch data mine Politico ...The Koch brothers and their allies are pumping tens of millions of dollars into a data company that’s developing detailed, state-of-the-art profiles of 250 million Americans, giving the brothers’ political operation all the earmarks of a national party...
Worker dies in accident at Henderson plastics factory KVVU-TV ...Initial reports indicate a large object fell on the victim. The death is being investigated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration...
Worker dies from injuries in Boeing accident Associated Press ...A worker for a Boeing supplier has died, weeks after sustaining injuries while working on a passenger seat inside a Boeing 777 passenger jet...
Mexico Identifies Remains Of 1 Of 43 Missing Students Time ...Officials have identified the remains of one of 43 missing Mexican students whose disappearance in September sparked worldwide outrage over the country’s drug violence and corruption...
Monday, December 8, 2014
Today's Teamster News 12.08.14
Teamsters
Unions to rally against Mayor de Blasio’s horse carriage ban on Monday New York Daily News ...Mayor is expected to introduce his carriage bill. But the legislation is opposed by a majority of the public and many unions, including taxi drivers, who objected Sunday...
Trade
TPP talks get back underway in Washington Japan Times ...Chief negotiators from 12 countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership initiative resumed negotiations in Washington after their leaders reaffirmed last month they will conclude an agreement as soon as possible...
TPP/TTIP: A Credibility Problem? (opinion) New Economic Perspectives ...'President Obama's remarks to the Business Roundtable on Trade raise alarm bells for us all, and suggest that he is still pushing his pro-1% agenda for all it is worth. These treaties also attack the capability of signators to adapt to change and tend to lock in present economic and power relationships and ensure that present and ongoing economic injustices will persist into the future...
TPP & TTIP Are Not Your Grandfather's Trade Agreements Center for Economic and Policy Research ...the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Pact (TTIP) will have almost no impact on traditional trade barriers in the form of tariffs or quotas. They are about imposing a regulatory structure on federal, state, and local governments that will be more business friendly...
U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services Bureau of Economic Analysis ...The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, through the Department of Commerce, announced today that the goods and services deficit was $43.4 billion in October...
State Battles
False Claims, False Promises: Why “Right to Work” Is Wrong for Everyone Jobs With Justice ...These laws drive down wages for all workers, including non-union members, women, and people of color...
War on Workers
Corinthian Colleges Campuses In California Will Likely Be Shut Down Buzzfeed ...The state’s lawsuit … alleges that [for-profit college] Corinthian consistently misled students and falsified job placement records, unfairly leading students into tens of thousands of dollars of debt. Corinthian has consistently denied any wrongdoing in the face of legal action. Facing financial distress, Corinthian was given six months to find a buyer for all of its college campuses as part of the shutdown agreement it reached with the Department of Education in July...
Hunting Task Wabbits matter …Overnight, the platform shifted from an open-bidding market — a kind of eBay for jobs — to something much more like a temp agency…
British workers suffer biggest real-wage fall of major G20 countries The Guardian ...wages in the UK have fallen more than in Italy. The biggest fall in UK wages adjusted for inflation came in 2011, when they fell by 3.5%. In Italy, which was one of the countries hit hardest by the eurozone crisis, real pay fell by “only” 1.9%...
Tories seek to avert rift with Church of England over food bank report The Guardian …The Conservative party is seeking to avert one of its biggest rifts with the Church of England for decades as an all-party report on food banks warns that Britain is stalked by hunger caused by low pay, growing inequality, a harsh benefits sanctions regime and social breakdown…
Savar road blocked in protest over death of garments worker in accident bdnews24 ...Ashulia Police OC Sheikh Badrul Alam said a bus filled with workers of the factory ran over Mukta, killing her on the spot. Agitated workers vandalised the bus and set it ablaze...
Miscellaneous
Saudis Cut Oil Prices Again In Bid To Maintain Market Share Oil Price ...For US customers, prices for all grades will decline by between 10 cents and 90 cents...
Unions to rally against Mayor de Blasio’s horse carriage ban on Monday New York Daily News ...Mayor is expected to introduce his carriage bill. But the legislation is opposed by a majority of the public and many unions, including taxi drivers, who objected Sunday...
Trade
TPP talks get back underway in Washington Japan Times ...Chief negotiators from 12 countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership initiative resumed negotiations in Washington after their leaders reaffirmed last month they will conclude an agreement as soon as possible...
TPP/TTIP: A Credibility Problem? (opinion) New Economic Perspectives ...'President Obama's remarks to the Business Roundtable on Trade raise alarm bells for us all, and suggest that he is still pushing his pro-1% agenda for all it is worth. These treaties also attack the capability of signators to adapt to change and tend to lock in present economic and power relationships and ensure that present and ongoing economic injustices will persist into the future...
TPP & TTIP Are Not Your Grandfather's Trade Agreements Center for Economic and Policy Research ...the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Pact (TTIP) will have almost no impact on traditional trade barriers in the form of tariffs or quotas. They are about imposing a regulatory structure on federal, state, and local governments that will be more business friendly...
U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services Bureau of Economic Analysis ...The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, through the Department of Commerce, announced today that the goods and services deficit was $43.4 billion in October...
State Battles
False Claims, False Promises: Why “Right to Work” Is Wrong for Everyone Jobs With Justice ...These laws drive down wages for all workers, including non-union members, women, and people of color...
War on Workers
Corinthian Colleges Campuses In California Will Likely Be Shut Down Buzzfeed ...The state’s lawsuit … alleges that [for-profit college] Corinthian consistently misled students and falsified job placement records, unfairly leading students into tens of thousands of dollars of debt. Corinthian has consistently denied any wrongdoing in the face of legal action. Facing financial distress, Corinthian was given six months to find a buyer for all of its college campuses as part of the shutdown agreement it reached with the Department of Education in July...
Hunting Task Wabbits matter …Overnight, the platform shifted from an open-bidding market — a kind of eBay for jobs — to something much more like a temp agency…
British workers suffer biggest real-wage fall of major G20 countries The Guardian ...wages in the UK have fallen more than in Italy. The biggest fall in UK wages adjusted for inflation came in 2011, when they fell by 3.5%. In Italy, which was one of the countries hit hardest by the eurozone crisis, real pay fell by “only” 1.9%...
Tories seek to avert rift with Church of England over food bank report The Guardian …The Conservative party is seeking to avert one of its biggest rifts with the Church of England for decades as an all-party report on food banks warns that Britain is stalked by hunger caused by low pay, growing inequality, a harsh benefits sanctions regime and social breakdown…
Savar road blocked in protest over death of garments worker in accident bdnews24 ...Ashulia Police OC Sheikh Badrul Alam said a bus filled with workers of the factory ran over Mukta, killing her on the spot. Agitated workers vandalised the bus and set it ablaze...
Miscellaneous
Saudis Cut Oil Prices Again In Bid To Maintain Market Share Oil Price ...For US customers, prices for all grades will decline by between 10 cents and 90 cents...
Monday, December 1, 2014
Today's Teamster News 12.01.14
Trade
TPP Talks Likely to get Ugly Hoosier Ag Today ...One of the tough negotiations noted for New Zealand is promoting dairy exports into countries like Japan because the deal is so broad-based...
State Battles
Wells Fargo Accused of Predatory Lending in Chicago Area Bloomberg ...Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) targets black and Latino borrowers for more costly home loans than their white counterparts in the Chicago area, helping to prolong a local and national foreclosure crisis, the biggest county in Illinois said...
War on Workers
Tampa homeless program uses unpaid, destitute residents as steady labor force, revenue source Tampa Bay Times ...For years, New Beginnings founder and CEO Tom Atchison has sent his unpaid homeless labor crews to Tampa Bay Rays, Lightning and Bucs games, the Daytona 500 and the Florida State Fair. For their shelter, he's had homeless people work in construction, landscaping, telemarketing, moving, painting, even grant-writing...
Black Friday Fizzles With Consumers as Sales Tumble 11% Bloomberg ...Spending tumbled an estimated 11 percent over the weekend, the Washington-based National Retail Federation said yesterday. And more than 6 million shoppers who had been expected to hit stores never showed up...
“Cyber Monday” Will Ship Even More Wealth Overseas Economy in Crisis ...Thanks to our trade deficit, the money we spend on Christmas is basically shuttled directly overseas, bypassing most of our fellow Americans, while enriching an elite few. 70 percent of our economy is now comprised of consumer spending...
West Virginia Coal Country Sees New Era as Donald Blankenship Is Indicted New York Times ...Deadly coal mining disasters are nothing new to West Virginia, but a 2010 explosion is different in one important respect: A C.E.O., Donald L. Blankenship, is being charged over the 29 lives lost...
I quit: Miseries of an Uber driver Salon ...A terrible GPS system and crummy hourly rate while the company reaps huge profits? No more. I’m out...
ISIS-Linked Ansar Beit al-Maqdis Says It Killed U.S. Oil Worker William Henderson NBC News ...A militant organization with ties to ISIS claimed responsibility late Sunday for the death of an American oil worker in Egypt...
Miscellaneous
Suburban businesses cash in when Hollywood comes to town Boston Globe ...While the latest report from the state Department of Revenue indicated that most of the spending attributed to the Massachusetts film tax credit in 2012 went out of state, proponents of the initiative say that an increasing number of locally filmed productions have spread out beyond Boston, helping small businesses and tourism in the suburbs from Lincoln to Quincy to Saugus...
Oil at $40 Possible as Market Transforms Caracas to Iran Bloomberg ...Oil’s decline is proving to be the worst since the collapse of the financial system in 2008 and threatening to have the same global impact of falling prices three decades ago that led to the Mexican debt crisis and the end of the Soviet Union...
Online Sales for Girl Scout Cookies Are Approved New York Times ...Girl Scouts are adding digital marketing to their formidable arsenal of charm, cuteness and perseverance to sell millions of boxes of Thin Mints, Samoas and other longtime cookie favorites...
TPP Talks Likely to get Ugly Hoosier Ag Today ...One of the tough negotiations noted for New Zealand is promoting dairy exports into countries like Japan because the deal is so broad-based...
State Battles
Wells Fargo Accused of Predatory Lending in Chicago Area Bloomberg ...Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) targets black and Latino borrowers for more costly home loans than their white counterparts in the Chicago area, helping to prolong a local and national foreclosure crisis, the biggest county in Illinois said...
War on Workers
Tampa homeless program uses unpaid, destitute residents as steady labor force, revenue source Tampa Bay Times ...For years, New Beginnings founder and CEO Tom Atchison has sent his unpaid homeless labor crews to Tampa Bay Rays, Lightning and Bucs games, the Daytona 500 and the Florida State Fair. For their shelter, he's had homeless people work in construction, landscaping, telemarketing, moving, painting, even grant-writing...
Black Friday Fizzles With Consumers as Sales Tumble 11% Bloomberg ...Spending tumbled an estimated 11 percent over the weekend, the Washington-based National Retail Federation said yesterday. And more than 6 million shoppers who had been expected to hit stores never showed up...
“Cyber Monday” Will Ship Even More Wealth Overseas Economy in Crisis ...Thanks to our trade deficit, the money we spend on Christmas is basically shuttled directly overseas, bypassing most of our fellow Americans, while enriching an elite few. 70 percent of our economy is now comprised of consumer spending...
West Virginia Coal Country Sees New Era as Donald Blankenship Is Indicted New York Times ...Deadly coal mining disasters are nothing new to West Virginia, but a 2010 explosion is different in one important respect: A C.E.O., Donald L. Blankenship, is being charged over the 29 lives lost...
I quit: Miseries of an Uber driver Salon ...A terrible GPS system and crummy hourly rate while the company reaps huge profits? No more. I’m out...
ISIS-Linked Ansar Beit al-Maqdis Says It Killed U.S. Oil Worker William Henderson NBC News ...A militant organization with ties to ISIS claimed responsibility late Sunday for the death of an American oil worker in Egypt...
Miscellaneous
Suburban businesses cash in when Hollywood comes to town Boston Globe ...While the latest report from the state Department of Revenue indicated that most of the spending attributed to the Massachusetts film tax credit in 2012 went out of state, proponents of the initiative say that an increasing number of locally filmed productions have spread out beyond Boston, helping small businesses and tourism in the suburbs from Lincoln to Quincy to Saugus...
Oil at $40 Possible as Market Transforms Caracas to Iran Bloomberg ...Oil’s decline is proving to be the worst since the collapse of the financial system in 2008 and threatening to have the same global impact of falling prices three decades ago that led to the Mexican debt crisis and the end of the Soviet Union...
Online Sales for Girl Scout Cookies Are Approved New York Times ...Girl Scouts are adding digital marketing to their formidable arsenal of charm, cuteness and perseverance to sell millions of boxes of Thin Mints, Samoas and other longtime cookie favorites...
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Today's Teamster News 11.30.14
Trade
“Arrogant” UK public didn’t “buy in” enough secret expertise to understand TTIP? (opinion) beliefnet ...Given the concerns about the privatisation of the NHS that have been raised by activists, I, like many other members of the public, believe the deal is far too important to be based on closed-doors decisions...
War on Workers
Child poverty in the U.S. is among the worst in the developed world Washington Post ...Nearly one third of U.S. children live in households with an income below 60 percent of the national median income in 2008 - about $31,000 annually...
'Being homeless is better than working for Amazon' Guardian ... ISS is the temp agency that provides warehouse labor for Amazon and they are at the center of the SCOTUS case Integrity Staffing Solutions vs. Busk. ISS could simply deactivate a worker’s badge and they would suddenly be out of work. They treated us like beggars because we needed their jobs...
Working for Walmart Is Even Worse Than You Think Alternet ...A lot of people were doing the work of three to four people...
Walmart Workers Rally For Higher Wages At Stores Across The Country ThinkProgress ...As Americans rushed to take advantage of jaw dropping deals this Black Friday, thousands of Walmart employees and labor union members protested at 1,000 stores across the country for higher wages and consistent full-time work. At least 11 Walmart workers and supporters were arrested for blocking traffic outside a Walmart in Chicago...
Uber faces a class action lawsuit over use of credit reports during background checks Pando Daily ...Uber’s legal problems are piling up. The company is fighting for regulatory clearance to operate in numerous jurisdictions, including, most recently, Nevada. At the same time, it’s being sued by the National Federation of the Blind for discrimination against blind people and service dogs. Another lawsuit accuses the company of charging bogus surcharges and tolls to passengers traveling to and from Boston’s Logan Airport...
Miscellaneous
Just Plane Ugly (opinion) New York Times ...Immediately following news coverage of a flight that had to be diverted when two passengers scuffled over a Knee Defender’s use, sales of the device reportedly increased...
Inside OPEC room, Naimi declares price war on U.S. shale oil Reuters ...Saudi Arabia's oil minister told fellow OPEC members they must combat the U.S. shale oil boom, arguing against cutting crude output in order to depress prices and undermine the profitability of North American producers...
Black Friday Online Sales Up 8.5% Over Last Year, 20% Of Sales Came From iOS techcrunch ...Amazon was up 25.9% year-over-year, outpacing e-commerce as a whole, but eBay grew just 3.0% over Thanksgiving Day 2013...
Despair: More People Shopped on Black Friday than Voted in Midterms Mediaite ...The number of Black Friday participants comes from the National Retail Federation, which predicted 140.1 million would go shopping this weekend — a slight dip from the 140.3 million who went out last year. According to data collected by the United States Election Project, only 76.9 million people turned out to vote in the 2014 midterm elections — the lowest turnout since World War II, when the population of America was less than 150 million people...
“Arrogant” UK public didn’t “buy in” enough secret expertise to understand TTIP? (opinion) beliefnet ...Given the concerns about the privatisation of the NHS that have been raised by activists, I, like many other members of the public, believe the deal is far too important to be based on closed-doors decisions...
War on Workers
Child poverty in the U.S. is among the worst in the developed world Washington Post ...Nearly one third of U.S. children live in households with an income below 60 percent of the national median income in 2008 - about $31,000 annually...
'Being homeless is better than working for Amazon' Guardian ... ISS is the temp agency that provides warehouse labor for Amazon and they are at the center of the SCOTUS case Integrity Staffing Solutions vs. Busk. ISS could simply deactivate a worker’s badge and they would suddenly be out of work. They treated us like beggars because we needed their jobs...
Working for Walmart Is Even Worse Than You Think Alternet ...A lot of people were doing the work of three to four people...
Walmart Workers Rally For Higher Wages At Stores Across The Country ThinkProgress ...As Americans rushed to take advantage of jaw dropping deals this Black Friday, thousands of Walmart employees and labor union members protested at 1,000 stores across the country for higher wages and consistent full-time work. At least 11 Walmart workers and supporters were arrested for blocking traffic outside a Walmart in Chicago...
Uber faces a class action lawsuit over use of credit reports during background checks Pando Daily ...Uber’s legal problems are piling up. The company is fighting for regulatory clearance to operate in numerous jurisdictions, including, most recently, Nevada. At the same time, it’s being sued by the National Federation of the Blind for discrimination against blind people and service dogs. Another lawsuit accuses the company of charging bogus surcharges and tolls to passengers traveling to and from Boston’s Logan Airport...
Miscellaneous
Just Plane Ugly (opinion) New York Times ...Immediately following news coverage of a flight that had to be diverted when two passengers scuffled over a Knee Defender’s use, sales of the device reportedly increased...
Inside OPEC room, Naimi declares price war on U.S. shale oil Reuters ...Saudi Arabia's oil minister told fellow OPEC members they must combat the U.S. shale oil boom, arguing against cutting crude output in order to depress prices and undermine the profitability of North American producers...
Black Friday Online Sales Up 8.5% Over Last Year, 20% Of Sales Came From iOS techcrunch ...Amazon was up 25.9% year-over-year, outpacing e-commerce as a whole, but eBay grew just 3.0% over Thanksgiving Day 2013...
Despair: More People Shopped on Black Friday than Voted in Midterms Mediaite ...The number of Black Friday participants comes from the National Retail Federation, which predicted 140.1 million would go shopping this weekend — a slight dip from the 140.3 million who went out last year. According to data collected by the United States Election Project, only 76.9 million people turned out to vote in the 2014 midterm elections — the lowest turnout since World War II, when the population of America was less than 150 million people...
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Today's Teamster News 05.25.13
It’s Called Deceptive Price-Gouging Working Life ...AT&T Inc. has added a new monthly administrative fee of 61 cents to the bills of all of its contract wireless lines as of May 1, a move that could bring in more than a half-billion dollars in annual revenue to the telecom giant...
EU oil pricing probe spurs lawsuit against BP, others Reuters ...A Chicago-based commodities trading firm has filed suit against three of the world's largest oil companies, accusing them of colluding to fix oil prices after European authorities opened an investigation last week...
Wall Street Seeks Dodd-Frank Changes Through Trade Talks Bloomberg ....U.S. bankers and insurers are trying to use trade deals, which can trump existing legislation, to weaken parts of the Dodd-Frank Act designed to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis...
It's a "Trade" Pact not "Free-Trade" Pact CEPR ...the pact has to do with a range of regulatory issues, in many cases seeking to impose rules that might not pass muster if they had to go through the conventional political process...
Budget Cuts Get Personal; Those Who Are Hurt, Holler ABC News ... Nearly four in 10 Americans now say sequestration has hurt them personally, up substantially since it began in March – and they’re far less sanguine than others about the economy’s prospects overall...
I-5 bridge collapses over Skagit River; possibly triggered by truck Seattle Times ...A law-enforcement source said investigators believe a truck with an over-sized load heading south struck the bridge, which started bouncing, then fell...
Bangladesh factory collapse probe uncovers abuses BBC News ...It also recommended life sentences for the building's owner and the owners of five garment factories operating there...
Sweden riots spread beyond Stockholm despite extra police BBC News ...In the affected areas themselves, some people say the riots are a response to discrimination and relatively high unemployment. Sweden, once a by-word for equality, has seen a widening gap between rich and poor...
Chief Edward Flynn blasts Scott Walker, Legislature Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ..."I don't know of a governor anywhere in the country who succeeded in turning his state's economy around by actively facilitating the decline of his biggest city," Flynn said...
Ohio unions remain vigilant against anti-worker blitz People's World ...Labor and the huge We Are Ohio coalition have been holding a series of mass meetings across the state, organizing against introduction of three right to work (for less) bills by right-wing GOP Ohio legislators this session...
Maryland Bucks Trend, Expands Prevailing Wage Law AFL-CIO Washington DC Metro Council ...While other states are passing anti-union laws, Maryland passed the largest expansion of the prevailing wage law in the state’s history...
Florida Governor Signs Election Reform Bill Reversing His Own Voter Suppression Laws ThinkProgress ...Though Scott initially insisted he “did the right thing” by implementing these laws, vehement backlash and plummeting approval ratings prompted the governor to embrace election reforms:..
Kansas lawmaker opposes ‘encouraging the behavior of purchasing food’ with lower food taxes Raw Story ...A Republican state lawmaker in Kansas says that he opposes cutting the taxes on groceries because it would be a form of “social engineering” that encourages people to buy food over other items...
EU oil pricing probe spurs lawsuit against BP, others Reuters ...A Chicago-based commodities trading firm has filed suit against three of the world's largest oil companies, accusing them of colluding to fix oil prices after European authorities opened an investigation last week...
Wall Street Seeks Dodd-Frank Changes Through Trade Talks Bloomberg ....U.S. bankers and insurers are trying to use trade deals, which can trump existing legislation, to weaken parts of the Dodd-Frank Act designed to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis...
It's a "Trade" Pact not "Free-Trade" Pact CEPR ...the pact has to do with a range of regulatory issues, in many cases seeking to impose rules that might not pass muster if they had to go through the conventional political process...
Budget Cuts Get Personal; Those Who Are Hurt, Holler ABC News ... Nearly four in 10 Americans now say sequestration has hurt them personally, up substantially since it began in March – and they’re far less sanguine than others about the economy’s prospects overall...
I-5 bridge collapses over Skagit River; possibly triggered by truck Seattle Times ...A law-enforcement source said investigators believe a truck with an over-sized load heading south struck the bridge, which started bouncing, then fell...
Bangladesh factory collapse probe uncovers abuses BBC News ...It also recommended life sentences for the building's owner and the owners of five garment factories operating there...
Sweden riots spread beyond Stockholm despite extra police BBC News ...In the affected areas themselves, some people say the riots are a response to discrimination and relatively high unemployment. Sweden, once a by-word for equality, has seen a widening gap between rich and poor...
Chief Edward Flynn blasts Scott Walker, Legislature Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ..."I don't know of a governor anywhere in the country who succeeded in turning his state's economy around by actively facilitating the decline of his biggest city," Flynn said...
Ohio unions remain vigilant against anti-worker blitz People's World ...Labor and the huge We Are Ohio coalition have been holding a series of mass meetings across the state, organizing against introduction of three right to work (for less) bills by right-wing GOP Ohio legislators this session...
Maryland Bucks Trend, Expands Prevailing Wage Law AFL-CIO Washington DC Metro Council ...While other states are passing anti-union laws, Maryland passed the largest expansion of the prevailing wage law in the state’s history...
Florida Governor Signs Election Reform Bill Reversing His Own Voter Suppression Laws ThinkProgress ...Though Scott initially insisted he “did the right thing” by implementing these laws, vehement backlash and plummeting approval ratings prompted the governor to embrace election reforms:..
Kansas lawmaker opposes ‘encouraging the behavior of purchasing food’ with lower food taxes Raw Story ...A Republican state lawmaker in Kansas says that he opposes cutting the taxes on groceries because it would be a form of “social engineering” that encourages people to buy food over other items...
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Today's Teamster News 05.18.13
In Peru, Talks Resume for New Asia, Americas, Oceania Trade Pact Wall Street Journal ...Another round of talks aimed at reaching an agreement on an enormous new trading bloc linking nations from Asia, the Americas and Oceania officially kicked off Wednesday in Lima...
LIVE FROM LIMA: Our Health, Environment, and Rights are Not Negotiable! Public Citizen ...Several Peruvian organizations have joined together to launch the No Negociable! (Not Negotiable!) campaign to highlight the grave threats that the TPP poses to Internet freedom, the environment, workers' rights, and public health...
Probe begins in commuter train collision USA Today ...60 people were transported to hospitals and five people were hurt critically, one very critically, Friday night near Bridgeport, Conn., after a commuter train derailed and was hit by another train...
Malaria and HIV Spike as Greece Cuts Healthcare Spending The Atlantic ..."Greece is an example of perhaps the worst case of austerity leading to public health disasters...
Senator wants U.S. in oil price-fixing probe USA Today ...The request from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., came after European Union investigators this week raided the offices of global energy giants BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Statoil. The anti-trust probe is examining whether the companies manipulated oil prices by making false reports to Platts, an energy industry data service owned by McGraw Hill Financial...
Elizabeth Warren Slams ‘Dangerous’ Legislation That Would Weaken Wall Street Reform ThinkProgress ...A week after a bipartisan group of lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee overwhelmingly approved a rollback of certain financial reforms contained in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, one of the Senate’s biggest consumer advocates is pushing back...
Protesters decry possible sale of Orlando Sentinel to Koch brothers Orlando Sentinel ...About 40 people gathered in front of the Orlando Sentinel building Thursday evening to protest a rumored sale of the newspaper to billionaire businessmen Charles and David Koch...
Payrolls Increased in 30 U.S. States in April, Led by Texas Bloomberg ...Texas led the gains in payrolls, adding 33,100 jobs last month, followed by New York andFlorida, according to figures released today in Washington by the Labor Department. California, New York and South Carolina were among states with the biggest decreases in joblessness...
Wisconsin sees biggest monthly job loss since 2009 The Cap Times ...the Department of Workforce Development on Thursday quietly released the latest federal figures showing the state losing 22,000 jobs in April...
What You Should Know About the Philly Student Walkout The Nation ...Running a massive deficit of hundreds of millions of dollars, Philadelphia’s school system is planning to eliminate all sports, extracurricular activities, counselors and libraries—beyond which, for schools eviscerated by austerity politics, there’s not much left to lose...
Oklahoma workers' compensation measure signed into law The Oklahoman ... It also allows businesses to opt out of the workers' compensation system as long as they provide equivalent benefits to injured workers...
Ohio Republicans Push Law To Penalize Colleges For Helping Students Vote Talking Points Memo ...Republicans in the Ohio Legislature are pushing a plan that could cost the state’s public universities millions of dollars if they provide students with documents to help them register to vote...
Democrats Demand Revenues Go To Schools, Families, Cities Michigan House Democrats ...House Democratic Leader Tim Greimel (D-Auburn Hills) and state Representative Rashida H Tlaib(D-Detroit), Democratic vice chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, said today the House Republicans and Gov. Rick Snyder should be using the increased revenues the state will take in this year to increase funding for schools, help Michigan’s middle-class families and help cash-strapped cities provide services such as police and fire protection...
EDITORIAL: Buy American steel for federal projects NWI Times ...U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky's legistion requiring the federal government to use U.S.-made steel for public projects makes sense...
Teamsters Applaud Senate Labor Committee Vote To Approve Perez Nomination IBT ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa expressed his hope that the Senate would move quickly to confirm Perez’s nomination...
LIVE FROM LIMA: Our Health, Environment, and Rights are Not Negotiable! Public Citizen ...Several Peruvian organizations have joined together to launch the No Negociable! (Not Negotiable!) campaign to highlight the grave threats that the TPP poses to Internet freedom, the environment, workers' rights, and public health...
Probe begins in commuter train collision USA Today ...60 people were transported to hospitals and five people were hurt critically, one very critically, Friday night near Bridgeport, Conn., after a commuter train derailed and was hit by another train...
Malaria and HIV Spike as Greece Cuts Healthcare Spending The Atlantic ..."Greece is an example of perhaps the worst case of austerity leading to public health disasters...
Senator wants U.S. in oil price-fixing probe USA Today ...The request from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., came after European Union investigators this week raided the offices of global energy giants BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Statoil. The anti-trust probe is examining whether the companies manipulated oil prices by making false reports to Platts, an energy industry data service owned by McGraw Hill Financial...
Elizabeth Warren Slams ‘Dangerous’ Legislation That Would Weaken Wall Street Reform ThinkProgress ...A week after a bipartisan group of lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee overwhelmingly approved a rollback of certain financial reforms contained in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, one of the Senate’s biggest consumer advocates is pushing back...
Protesters decry possible sale of Orlando Sentinel to Koch brothers Orlando Sentinel ...About 40 people gathered in front of the Orlando Sentinel building Thursday evening to protest a rumored sale of the newspaper to billionaire businessmen Charles and David Koch...
Payrolls Increased in 30 U.S. States in April, Led by Texas Bloomberg ...Texas led the gains in payrolls, adding 33,100 jobs last month, followed by New York andFlorida, according to figures released today in Washington by the Labor Department. California, New York and South Carolina were among states with the biggest decreases in joblessness...
Wisconsin sees biggest monthly job loss since 2009 The Cap Times ...the Department of Workforce Development on Thursday quietly released the latest federal figures showing the state losing 22,000 jobs in April...
What You Should Know About the Philly Student Walkout The Nation ...Running a massive deficit of hundreds of millions of dollars, Philadelphia’s school system is planning to eliminate all sports, extracurricular activities, counselors and libraries—beyond which, for schools eviscerated by austerity politics, there’s not much left to lose...
Oklahoma workers' compensation measure signed into law The Oklahoman ... It also allows businesses to opt out of the workers' compensation system as long as they provide equivalent benefits to injured workers...
Ohio Republicans Push Law To Penalize Colleges For Helping Students Vote Talking Points Memo ...Republicans in the Ohio Legislature are pushing a plan that could cost the state’s public universities millions of dollars if they provide students with documents to help them register to vote...
Democrats Demand Revenues Go To Schools, Families, Cities Michigan House Democrats ...House Democratic Leader Tim Greimel (D-Auburn Hills) and state Representative Rashida H Tlaib(D-Detroit), Democratic vice chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, said today the House Republicans and Gov. Rick Snyder should be using the increased revenues the state will take in this year to increase funding for schools, help Michigan’s middle-class families and help cash-strapped cities provide services such as police and fire protection...
EDITORIAL: Buy American steel for federal projects NWI Times ...U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky's legistion requiring the federal government to use U.S.-made steel for public projects makes sense...
Teamsters Applaud Senate Labor Committee Vote To Approve Perez Nomination IBT ...Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa expressed his hope that the Senate would move quickly to confirm Perez’s nomination...
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