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...

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...

Today's Teamster News 11.09.14

Trade
Japan economy minister says TPP agreement difficult by year-end: report  Reuters   ...Japan's Economy Minister Akira Amari said on Saturday he saw progress in Asia-Pacific regional trade negotiations, although it would be difficult to reach an agreement by the end of the year, according to Jiji press...
US says TPP is its priority, as China touts free-trade zone  AFP   ...A China-backed vision for Asia-Pacific free trade is only a "long-term aspiration", a top US commerce official said Sunday, stressing that Washington remains focused on its own plans for a regional trade agreement...
US rules out major Trans-Pacific trade announcement at APEC  Business Recorder   ...There will be no "major announcement" on a Washington-backed Asia-Pacific free trade deal during a meeting of leaders from the region in Beijing this week, US Trade Representative Michael Froman said on Sunday...
State Battles
Republicans rule in the Missouri and Kansas statehouses, and the consequences could be profound  Kansas City Star   ...Missouri: The GOP is also expected to once again take aim at public employee unions by making it more difficult for them to collect dues from members. However, allowing employees in the private sector covered by union contracts to refuse to pay union dues or fees — more commonly known as right to work — still appears too steep a hill to climb, even with larger legislative majorities....Kansas: There also might be a run at limiting collective bargaining rights for teachers, especially after the teachers unions spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in a failed attempt to defeat Brownback this year...
Nearly half of Indiana's charter schools doing poorly or failing  WTHR   ...nearly half of the state's 76 charter schools are doing poorly or failing...
Common construction wage at risk next year  Kokomo Perspective   ...If the common wage is eliminated, it will result in job loss and lower wages for local workers, according to Chet Fincher, business agent for the Carpenters Local 615...
How Voter Suppression Helped Produce the Lowest Turnout in Decades  The Intercept   ...the evidence is piling up that systematic voter suppression, including voter ID laws and dubious vote-fraud prevention software, played a significant part in keeping people from casting ballots, as well...
War on Workers
5 New Lows for Walmart—Just Last Month  UK Progressive   ...From slashing employee healthcare, to stalling on wage increases, to investing in unsustainable energy and selling offensively labeled Halloween costumes, Walmart has stooped to new lows in October. Walmart workers have been fighting back, such as two weeks ago when hundreds of employees and their supporters ralliedin front of Walmart heiress Alice Walton’s luxury New York City condo. Twenty-six of them were arrested...
A Blank Page in the S.E.C. Rule Book, Four Years Later  New York Times   ...Executives should return compensation earned improperly as a result of accounting shenanigans at their companies. But four years after Congress told the Securities and Exchange Commission to write a rule making it easier to recover unearned pay, that rule remains unwritten...
Lenders Can Now Disable Your Car When You're Driving on the Freeway  Alternet   ...Car dealers and automotive lenders are targeting those with poor credit by installing GPS-based kill switches, or starter-interrupt devices, on the cars that they sell...
Kaci Hickox, boyfriend leaving Maine after Ebola quarantine fight  Portland Press Herald   ...the couple will stay through Monday, after which a state court order expires and Hickox will no longer have to submit to daily health monitoring, inform state officials of travel plans and let them know if her health changes...
Worker killed in fall at Gillette-area power plant  Casper Star Tribune   ... Authorities are investigating after a worker was killed in a fall at a power plant in Gillette...
Worker at Ohio bowling alley dies when clothing gets caught in machinery, authorities say  New York Daily News   ...A maintenance worker at an Ohio bowling alley died Thursday in what a former colleague calls a "freak accident." David Geiger, 53, passed away when his clothing got caught in machinery while he was working on a pinsetter at Northwest Lanes in Fairfield, WCPO reported...

Today's Teamster News 11.03.14

Trade
Republican gains in midterm elections could aid TPP talks  Associated Press   ...Big Republican gains on Election Day would be a blow to much of President Barack Obama’s agenda, but one stymied item on his to-do list might get a fresh chance to move forward: trade. That could breathe life into Asia-Pacific trade talks essential to his efforts to deepen engagement in the region...
U.S. says hard to imagine EU trade deal without investor protection  Reuters   ...European Union lawmakers have said they will reject any Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement that contains investor protections and Germany, the bloc's biggest economy, also opposes such provisions...
State Battles
Taxpayer Dollars Used For Voter Suppression In Milwaukee  Crooks & Liars   ...Republican Milwaukee County Supervisor Deanna Alexander uses taxpayer dollars to falsely inform her constituents that they need photo ID to vote...
War on Workers
Women's Charity Looks into Sweatshop Allegations Over "Feminist" Shirts  Jezebel   ...The Fawcett Society, the women's rights charity responsible for those "This is what a feminist looks like" tees is currently investigating allegations that the shirts were actually made in sweatshop conditions on the island of Mauritius, where workers were paid 62p, about a dollar per hour to make the shirts...
New Wages and Salaries Data from the Employment Cost Index Show Yet Again It’s Not Quite Time To Declare Mission Accomplished  Economic Policy Institute   ... the weak labor market of the last seven years has put enormous downward pressure on wages, and there has been no significant and sustained pickup in nominal wage growth in recent years. Employers still don’t seem to have to offer big wage increases to get and keep the workers they need, when hiring rates and net job creation remain far slower than what’s needed to generate healthy labor market outcomes...
Maine nurse gives ground on Ebola quarantine  USA Today   ...Kaci Hickox also said on NBC's Meet the Press that she would not go into town or into public places during the 21-day incubation period that will end Nov. 10...
Consumers wasted at least $300 million paying for AT&T’s ‘unlimited’ data  Washington Post   ...the Federal Trade Commission is suing AT&T for how it treats its unlimited data customers. Despite paying for an unlimited plan, these subscribers had their mobile Internet slowed to dial-up speeds, or "throttled," once AT&T decided they had surfed the Web too much....Tens of thousands of consumers have complained about the practice...
The New Loan Sharks   Jacobin   ... salary lending has expanded, but under a different name: payday lending, a wildly lucrative industry that occupies more storefronts than McDonald’s and Starbucks combined. These new loan sharks operate under the same logic as salary lenders, but specifically target more vulnerable populations like welfare recipients, and are armed with new techniques to squeeze as much surplus as possible from debtors...
Worker killed in truck accident at dairy plant  WNDU.com   ...Authorities in western Michigan say that a worker was killed when a tractor-trailer ran over him at the loading dock of a dairy plant...

Today's Teamster News 09.28.14

Teamsters
East Bridgewater DPW workers align with Teamsters  The Enterprise   ... Fourteen members of the town’s Department of Public Works have secured their first three-year contract with Teamsters Local 653, after changing union affiliations last year...
Trade
Despite Bold Japan Trade Pledges, U.S. Still Wonders: ‘Where’s the Beef?’  Wall Street Journal   ...Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe began and ended a trip to New York this week with bold pledges to help advance stalled talks on an ambitious pan-Pacific free-trade pact. But mid-week, his chief negotiator walked out of a Washington session with his American counterpart, after U.S. officials accused Tokyo of moving too timidly on opening up Japan’s agriculture market, leaving the agreement’s fate as uncertain as ever...
Want To Find Out Where Your Fruit Was Grown? Good Luck.  Trade Reform   ...What’s required by law in terms of transparency in produce sourcing is minimal: Only country of origin need be shared. Any information shared publicly beyond that is entirely voluntary...
State Battles
5 Tech Companies That Surprisingly STILL Fund ALEC  Common Cause   ...eBay remains a member and funder of ALEC; its biggest competitor, Amazon, cut ties with the organization in 2012...
Court urged to let Ohioans vote early  SCOTUS Blog   ...Arguing that early voting is necessary to continue to deal with the “unprecedented disaster” at the polls in Ohio in 2004, several civil rights advocacy groups urged the Supreme Court on Saturday to permit Ohioans to start casting their ballots next Tuesday for this year’s general election...
Blame Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax cuts for revenue woes in Kansas (opinion)  Kansas City Star   ...the excessive, Brownback-supported tax cuts were to blame for much of the state’s lower-than-predicted revenues...
War on Workers
Miss a Payment? Good Luck Moving That Car  New York Times   ...Ms. Bolender was three days behind on her monthly car payment. Her lender, C.A.G. Acceptance of Mesa, Ariz., remotely activated a device in her car's dashboard that prevented her car from starting...  
Walmart Targets The Poor With New Checking Accounts  Huffington Post   ...Walmart needs that money. Sales at U.S. stores open a year, an important retail metric, have been flat or negative for six straight quarters. Food stamp cuts in November hurt the company's bottom line, executives said...
Worker dies at Moncure wood products company  The State   ...Authorities with the Chatham County Sheriff's Office say a worker at a wood products company died when a piece of machinery fell on him...
Miscellaneous
Team bus/truck collision leaves 4 dead and more than 15 injured  NewsOK   ...Four members of a Texas college softball team are dead after a tractor-trailer crossed over the center median on Interstate 35 and collided with the team’s van Friday night just south of Turner Falls...

Today's Teamster News 07.28.14

Trade
Report: Germany To Reject EU-Canada Trade Deal  Globe and Mail   ...Germany is to reject a multi-billion free trade deal between the European Union and Canada which is widely seen as a template for a bigger agreement with the United States, a leading German paper reported on Saturday. Citing diplomats in Brussels, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung said Berlin objects to clauses outlining the legal protection offered to firms investing in the 28-member bloc. Critics say they could allow investors to stop or reverse laws...
Apocalypse Preview: Chinese River Turns Blood-Red  zero hedge   ...An inner city waterway in the eastern city of Wenzhou was found to have been inundated by an influx of blood-red water this morning...
The Factory in the China Food Scandal Is Foreign-Owned. That Could Have Made It a Target  Time   ...An undercover investigation by a Chinese TV station, which aired on Sunday, claimed that a factory in Shanghai owned by Illinois-based OSI Group was shipping the fast-food giants expired meat. Later, coffee-shop chain Starbucks in China and McDonald’s outlets in Japan got dragged into the mess, as they, too, had meat from the suspect factory in their products...
State Battles
Ohio Has Lost 25,000 Local Government Jobs Under John Kasich  Plunderbund   ...Ohio has seen “nearly 25,000 jobs lost in local government” since John Kasich has been governor of Ohio.  And “median incomes in Ohio have fallen about $7,000 over the past decade...”
City seeks $2M from unions  Racine Journal Times   ...Looking for help to close a projected a $4.6 million deficit next year, administration officials at City Hall are seeking $2 million in concessions from police and fire unions...
War on Workers
Steel jobs have plummeted by a third since 2000  NWI Times   ...Northwest Indiana's steel industry, which once drew immigrants from the world over and put bread on many tables for generations, has lost a third of its jobs since 2000...
Corporate Artful Dodgers (opinion)  New York Times   ...The federal government still gets a tenth of its revenue from corporate profits taxation. But it used to get a lot more — a third of revenue came from profits taxes in the early 1950s, a quarter or more well into the 1960s...
World of Resistance Report: IMF, World Bank, Giant Consultants Admit the Storm is Coming  truthout   ...three issues are prevalent in terms of assessing the fears and threats facing the global elite: 1) growing inequality, 2) decline of public trust in institutions of all kinds, and 3) the resulting social unrest...
Financial Predators Move On From Foreclosure Rescue, Enter Student Debt, Military Lending Spaces  naked capitalism   ... These scams are basically all the same: empty promises about obtaining a modification in exchange for up-front cash, with all the promises broken down the road. In this case, the offending parties happen to be law firms, who made the impression on the victims that they would provide legal representation in securing a modification...
Mike Mathieu: Big Data is Watching You  Next New Deal   ...In a darker turn, we begin to see a loss of human freedoms as behavior is increasingly predicted, tracked, and incentivized according to data models...
NSA Helps Crush Dissent at Home and Abroad  Washington Blog   ...The National Security Agency last year significantly expanded its cooperative relationship with the Saudi Ministry of Interior, one of the world’s most repressive and abusive government agencies. An April 2013 top secret memo provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden details the agency’s plans “to provide direct analytic and technical support” to the Saudis on “internal security” matters...
Auto shop worker killed when car falls on him  WIVB   ...The accident happened Friday afternoon at Yuya Complete Auto Repair on Skillen Street in Buffalo...
Miscellaneous
Outside money drives a deluge of political ads  New York Times   ... An explosion of spending on political advertising on television — set to break $2 billion in congressional races, with overall spots up nearly 70 percent since the 2010 midterm election — is accelerating the rise of moneyed interests and wresting control from the candidates’ own efforts to reach voters...  

Today's Teamster News 07.14.14

Teamsters
Teamsters Nominate Bob Davidson To YRCW Board Of Directors  teamster.org   ...After thorough consideration, TNFINC has nominated William R. “Bob” Davidson to serve on YRC Worldwide’s Board of Directors to fill a seat that was vacated earlier this year...
'Revolutionary Teamsters: The Minneapolis Truckers' Strike of 1934,' by Bryan D. Palmer  Minneapolis Star-Tribune   ...This cadre of drivers steered the city’s truckers through three strikes between February and July 1934...
Events to commemorate 80th anniversary of 1934 strike  Workday Minnesota   ...Events planned for four days July 17-20 will commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Minneapolis Teamsters strikes of 1934. considered the most significant single labor event in Minnesota history...
Trade
TPP-ing over?  New Straits Times   ...TRADE negotiators from a dozen countries, including Malaysia, are gathering for their 20th official meeting in Ottawa, Canada, but all signs are that talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) won’t get very far, if anywhere at all...
TPP: A Thoroughly Predatory Pact  Dissident Voice   ...U.S. transnational corporations are working behind the scenes to change the rules governing them. You may say ‘big deal, this doesn’t affect me’. However if you use the internet, view movies, take pharmaceuticals, want a clean and safe environment, believe in democracy, etc., you likely will be negatively impacted...
State Battles
New Jersey law would bar donations from recipients of subsidies  The Guardian   ...A new law to prevent political contributions by corporations that receive multi-million dollar public subsidies in New Jersey has been proposed in the state senate, following reports by the Guardian on awards made by governor Chris Christie’s administration...
War on Workers
Samsung suspends factory in China after finding evidence that it used child labor  Quartz   ...Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone maker, has temporarily closed one of its factories in China after finding evidence that its supplier, Dongguan Shinyang Electronics, was using child labor. The moves comes after China Labor Watch (CLW) accused Dongguan of hiring underage workers, forcing them to work as long as 11 hours a day, and denying all overtime pay...
How property tax lenders prey on the state’s most vulnerable homeowners.  Texas Observer   ...These high-interest loans are part of a multibillion-dollar industry native only to Texas and Nevada. ... But there’s growing concern that homeowners take on unnecessary risk with property tax loans. And while demand is apparently high, their usefulness may be limited, especially after a recent change in the law that requires counties to offer payment plans to homeowners with delinquent taxes...
Companies That Offer Help With Student Loans Often Predatory, Officials Say  New York Times   ...federal and state regulators are spotting new instances of abuse as the companies shift away from their traditional targets — credit card and mortgage debt — to zero in on student loans. The companies are coming under fire for potentially questionable tactics...
Home, hacked home  The Economist   ... “If my PC is hit by a cyber-attack, it is a nuisance; if my car is attacked, it could kill me...”

Today's Teamster News 06.12.14

Teamster News
Teamsters: THUD Amendments Will Weaken Highway Safety Standards  TheTrucker.com   ...Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa Monday denounced two potential floor amendments to the Transportation Housing and Urban Development (THUD) FY ’15 Appropriations bill that the Teamsters say will weaken highway safety standards by putting fatigued drivers on the road in bigger, heavier trucks...
Teamsters come out against hours changes, ATA still supportive  Overdrive   ...The Teamsters Union has voiced its opposition to recent Congressional action to roll back the 2013 changes to federal hours-of-service restart provisions, but American Trucking Associations head Bill Graves is holding strong on the group’s support for suspending the changes...
Official Statement of the Teamsters Union on the Worldwide Taxi Drivers' Protests Against Uber  teamster.org   ..."I express our solidarity with today’s protests by taxi drivers in city after city across Europe. The drivers are calling for fairness and asking that if the private sedan services are allowed to operate that they do so on a level playing field. Uber is currently operating without having to comply with the same rules and regulations that taxi drivers do..."
Teamsters Local 142 Wants To Bid On Chesterton Police Officers' Health Care  Chesterton Tribune   ...The officers of the Chesterton Police Department and their brothers in Teamsters Local 142 filled the meeting room of the town hall on Monday night, to hear a union attorney accuse the Town Council of fiduciary irresponsibility. At issue: the Teamsters is interested in bidding its healthcare plan to CPD officers...
Teamsters Against HoS Restart Charges  Truck News   ...The accident involving a Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. driver and comedian Tracy Morgan’s entourage has yet another industry organization weighing in about potential hours of service changes. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters sent an open letter to the US House of Representatives saying any steps to “delay, revise or replace the current hours of service 34-hour restart provision” or allow increases in truck size and weight, “especially they size of double trailers from the current 28-ft. to 33-ft.” should be opposed...
Coral Gables Employees To Get One Time Bonus  Miami Herald   ...The Coral Gables City Commission approved a two-year contract with the city’s general employees union Tuesday that includes a one-time bonus and lower pension contributions from employees during the first year...

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/06/10/4169720/coral-gables-employees-to-get.html#storylink=cpy

Trade
Comment: Shrouded in secrecy, opposition to TPP mounts  SBS   ...They want to reassure us that we don’t need to worry about spiralling drug costs or curtailed internet freedom, but they’re not willing to let us see the text of the deal to back up their claims...
Livestock Groups Show Concern for TPP During D.C. Hearing  Farm Futures   ...Japan's TPP requests to exempt certain "sensitive" products – including pork and beef, dairy, sugar, wheat and barley, and rice and starch – from tariff elimination has big impacts on future trade deals and the ag industry's ability to benefit from the agreement, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association said during a hearing before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee...
Anger by US farmers threatens ambitious Pacific trade pact  Reuters   ...U.S. farmers are in an uproar over signs Japan will maintain some barriers to agricultural exports under a Pacific trade pact, which threatens to unravel a deal that is central to U.S. efforts to retain economic and security influence in the region...
State Battles
Repeal the pension tax on Michigan seniors  Detroit News   ...a retired couple born after 1952 with more than $50,000 in income, including $48,000 in pension benefits, paid $1,930 more in taxes than they would have if pensions weren’t taxed...
New Jersey's soaring subsidy program doing little to boost struggling economy  The Guardian   ...Study says New Jersey badly trailing other states' economic recovery despite corporate credits rising sevenfold under Christie...
Council Votes Again To End Collective Bargaining  Fort Wayne Journal Gazette   ...City Council members again voted along party lines Tuesday to end collective bargaining for all city workers except police and firefighters...
San Francisco Voters Will Weigh In On A $15 Minimum Wage  Think Progress   ...A question on San Francisco’s November ballot will ask city residents whether they want to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by July 2018...
Why that ruling against teacher tenure won't help your schoolchildren (opinion)  Los Angeles Times   ... one should be "suspicious of wealthy and powerful individuals and groups whose advocacy for children leads to 'reforms' that won’t cost a cent, but will weaken labor."...
Numbers put lie to state growth strategy (opinion)  Journal Gazette   ...Light taxation and regulation haven’t raised living standard (in Indiana)...
War On Workers
Walmart Associate: 'Give The Workers Dignity And Respect We Deserve'  WBUR   ...Charmaine Givens-Thomas ... is a sales associate who has worked at Walmart for eight years. She makes $23,000 a year and has trouble paying rent and putting food on the table. She says Walmart should pay its employees a living wage...
Cantor’s Loss a Triumph for Anti-Corporate Right-Wing Populism  naked capitalism   ...conservative economics professor David Brat succeeded in channeling a strain of right-wing populism to target Cantor, and plausibly so, as a corporate stooge and progenitor of crony capitalism...
Clauses That Hurt Workers  New York Times   ...Many businesses have long required that executives and other important employees agree not to work for a competitor for a year or two after they leave. Now some employers are unfairly imposing that requirement on all kinds of workers, including lower-wage employees like camp counselors, interns and yoga instructors...
Here's Why Amazon Is More Brutal Than Walmart  Time   ...The recent dustup between Amazon and publisher Hachette reminds us that retail is a brutal business — tough on employees, really hard on suppliers. Walmart, the largest physical retailer, and Amazon, the largest retailer online, illustrate the pain produced in the effort to make consumers’ prices as low as possible...
Miscellaneous
Occupy Wall Street Protesters Win Lawsuit Over Arrests  Washington Post   ...New York City has agreed to pay nearly $600,000 to settle allegations that police wrongfully arrested a group of Occupy Wall Street protesters, marking what their lawyers Tuesday called the largest settlement to date in a single Occupy-related civil rights case...

Today's Teamster News 03.20.14

Teamster News
CCTA Strike Continues, Management Awaits Offer  Vermont Public Radio   ...Two days into their strike, Chittenden County Transportation Authority bus drivers represented by Teamsters Local 597 said Tuesday they have prepared a counter-offer for management...
Amboy School District Workers Ratify Teamster Contract  Teamsters Joint Council 25   ...Secretaries, aides, cooks and custodians with Amboy Community School District 272 in central Illinois, who are members of Teamsters Local 722, recently ratified a new three-year agreement that includes better wages, paid holidays and stronger contract language...
Teamsters Union: Hernando violated hiring process for fire chief   Hernando Today   ...Dan Oliver, a steward for Teamsters Local 79, said Hernando County violated its own hiring policy by not posting a job opening for public safety director in-house before seeking outside candidates...
Teamsters Union: More rail workers needed to solve grain transportation backlog  The Canadian Press   ...A cold winter and a record crop have been blamed for a grain transportation backlog, but a Teamsters spokesman says that’s not the whole story...
Trade
Obama's Trans-Pacific Partnership Deal Would Deepen Income Divide  Truthout   ...“Those at the top have never done better,” President Obama ruefully acknowledged in his January 28 State of the Union speech. “But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened.”...
China Keeps Moving Forward While America Falls Behind – and We Are Doing Nothing About It!  Trade Reform   ...Our political leaders often deemphasize the downturn in American manufacturing by touting a focus on areas such as new, high tech manufacturing and alternative energy, but it appears China has the same goals and is taking targeted steps to meet them...
Korea Trade Agreement – Exports Actually Decrease  Trade Reform ...Michael Froman, the U.S. Trade Representative, never talks about balance of trade. But the USTR is embarrassed that our exports to Korea actually decreased since the Korea trade and global government agreement was passed. Yes. Exports (not net exports) decreased...
State News
“Right to Work” bill trying to gain steam in Missouri  KBIA   "...I’ve seen folks go down to parts of Mississippi and were working for $12 an hour, union jobs, while up in Missouri they’re making $28 an hour at the time..."
Right-to-work is dangerous fraud (Opinion)  St. Louis Post-Dispatch   ..The right-to-work proposal being considered in the Missouri Legislature is a dangerous fraud.As American citizens, we already have the right to seek employment and to work. But under a right-to-work law, we would continue to work — for less money and fewer benefits than we already have...
Gov. Cuomo Signs Bill Extending Effective Date of New Independent Contractor Law in New York  Independent Contractor Compliance   ...After months of uncertainty, the law of independent contractor misclassification in New York State will change on April 10, 2014. The new law affects transportation and delivery companies in New York that classify certain drivers that deliver commercial goods in the state as independent contractors...
Thirty-nine Moral Monday Georgia activists arrested in daylong Medicaid expansion protests at the Gold Dome  Creative Loafing   ...Nearly 40 Moral Monday Georgia activists today were arrested for interrupting proceedings throughout the Georgia Capitol in an effort to urge Gov. Nathan Deal to expand Medicaid - and block legislation that would strip him of the authority to do so...
Wisconsin Republican Legislator Tears Into His Own Party For Voter Suppression  ThinkProgress   ...it ought to be abundantly clear to everybody in this state that there is no massive voter fraud. The only thing that we do have in this state is we have long lines of people who want to vote. And it seems to me that we should be doing everything we can to make it easier, to help these people get their votes counted...
Costly Loans Are Drawing Attention From States  New York Times   ...States are increasing efforts to shield vulnerable Americans from short-term loans with interest rates that can exceed 300 percent...
Minnesota GOP Lawmaker Says Sick Leave, Equal Pay Bills Make Women 'Look Like Whiners' Huffington Post   ...A package of bills in Minnesota that would enhance women's economic security by raising the minimum wage, providing paid family and sick leave and addressing the gender pay gap makes women "look like whiners," said State Rep. Andrea Kieffer (R) last week...
War on Workers
McDonald's Reviews Wage Theft Claims As Workers In 30 Cities Protest For Overtime Pay  Forbes   ...Tuesday’s protest in midtown Manhattan was one of dozens planned in 30 cities across the U.S., coming as McDonald’s faces class-action lawsuits in New York, California and Michigan for what workers describe as “wage theft...”
Fast-food workers get new ally in New York City fight for fair pay  The Guardian   ...A hotline for fast-food workers to anonymously report allegations of illegal or unjust pay practices by their bosses would be set up in New York under plans to build on a national campaign to improve conditions for American workers...
Supremes Could Decide Sky's the Limit for Campaign Donations  Public News Service   ...Another major Supreme Court decision on campaign finance could come as early as next week. In McCutcheon v. Federal Elections Commission, Alabama businessman Shaun McCutcheon said his First Amendment rights are violated when he cannot give a $2,600 donation to as many parties and candidates for federal office as he pleases. Many groups working to get money out of politics hope the high court rules against McCutcheon...
Reports of the Death of a National License-Plate Tracking Database Have Been Greatly Exaggerated  The Intercept   ... the databases are growing at a furious pace due to rapidly improving technology and ample federal grant money for more cameras and more computers. Tens if not hundreds of millions of observations per month are streaming into bulging electronic archives, often remaining there indefinitely, for a vast array of clients in both the public and private sector...
Expand Overtime Pay? GOP Says No  In These Times   ...Republicans apparently don’t believe that Americans who work longer hours should get paid more...
Meet the ‘Missing Workers’  In These Times   ...More than 5 million Americans have given up hope of a job. Who are they?...
7-11 Clerk Says She Was Fired For Giving Freezing Homeless Man A $1 Cup Of Coffee ThinkProgress   ...The worker felt compelled to help him after her own recent brush with homelessness...
Woman Whose Boss Told Her ‘It’s Best You Go Home With Your Babies’ Won’t Get Discrimination Trial  ThinkProgress   ...Angela Ames was on her first morning back from maternity leave and couldn’t gain access to the lactation room when her department head told her, “I think it’s best that you go home to be with your babies,” handing her a pen and paper and dictating the contents of a resignation letter...
Hershey Investors Suing Over Child Labor Can Pursue Files  Bloomberg   ...Hershey Co., the largest chocolate maker in the U.S., was ordered to face a lawsuit by investors seeking to force it to turn over records about cocoa from African farms that may use illegal child labor...
The Law that Launched a Boondoggle: Gold for Executives, Contempt for Taxpayers  CounterPunch   ...Jamie Dimon took high heat over his 74% mega-raise, but he’s not at fault. The blame goes to a 1993 boondoggle for bigwigs—a boondoggle that’s cost taxpayers by the billions ever since. Congress should call a halt, and the country’s mood could push it to do just that...
Miscellaneous
IRS says security breach affected 20,000 employees, but no taxpayer records  Reuters   ...The personal data of about 20,000 U.S. Internal Revenue Service employees going back to 2007 or earlier may have been exposed on the Internet, but no general taxpayer information or records were part of the security breach, the agency said on Tuesday...
Toyota and Justice Department said to reach $1.2 billion settlement in criminal case  Los Angeles Times   ...Toyota Motor Co. and the Justice Department have agreed on a $1.2-billion settlement to close a criminal probe into whether the automaker handled cases of sudden acceleration...
Google Won’t Face Group E-Mail Privacy Lawsuit: Judge  Bloomberg News   ...Google Inc. won a major victory in its fight against claims it illegally scanned private e-mail messages to and from Gmail accounts, defeating a bid to unify lawsuits in a single group case on behalf of hundreds of millions of Internet users...

Today's Teamster News 01.06.14

Better Than Expected US Economic Data  The Big Picture   ...Generally, the data supports the view that US manufacturing should improve this year...
Meet the Americans Who've Lost Their Unemployment Benefits: "I'm Thoroughly Petrified"  Mother Jones   ..."When you apply for a job at 50 people laugh at you. When you apply for a job at 65 people just look at you like you are crazy..."
The New Financial Scam Driving Workers Deep Into Debt  Alternet   ... there is a new game in town. It’s called “workplace loans” but in many cases they should be called “company store loans...”
Once Upon a Time We Were Winning the War on Poverty  CEPR   ...The rise in inequality over the last three decades explains the lack of progress on reducing poverty...
How Many Constitutional Rights Have Americans Lost?  Washingtons Blog   ...This post explains the liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights – the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution – and provides a scorecard on the extent of the loss of each right...
The Exciting New Trend In Citizenship Programs  Q Experts' Blog   ...Citizenship by Investment, also known as Economic Citizenship, has gained popularity in recent years as a means of acquiring a second passport. One of the achievements of the “immigration consultancy” business as a whole has definitely been to make the whole process more respectable...
Proof that offshore banking is the key to embezzling billions  Quartz   ...Four countries’ legal systems are trying to recoup billions from Ablyazov, who used his position as chairman of the bank to make more than $1.7 billion in loans to holding companies in the British Virgin Islands that were never repaid. Those companies are allegedly controlled by Ablyazov...
TAFTA: 'The Global Corporate Coup', Part Two  The BRAD BLOG   ...Don't care for the secretly-negotiated Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal? You're not gonna like the Trans-Atlantic 'Free Trade' Agreement (TAFTA) much better...
Chinese dam builders rush to Latin America  China Business   ...China's growing involvement in hydropower development in the region boosts clout but also leads to allegations of poor corporate responsibility...
Right-to-work laws do nothing to increase jobs (opinion)  Statesman-Journal   ...How inevitable is a right-to-work fight in Oregon? Our sense is that it is almost as if a big red X has been affixed to a map of our state by outside influences who have decided in secret that we are to be the next target in their misinformation campaign...
Oregon County Won't Raise Taxes, Resorts to Posse  Economic Populist   ...These people do not have the money to pay more taxes and if you want to blame anyone, blame Congress for stopping timber payments to rural regions where jobs are scarce.  It's no surprise areas with poverty rates above 20% reject an increase in mandatory taxes under these circumstances. Bottom line, these rural areas are returning to the wild west and vigilante justice is sure to follow...

Payday lender gets tagged with huge fine

The Teamsters strongly support the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to protect American workers from predatory banks -- and the agency has done exactly what we hoped it would. The CFPB is cracking down on financial companies that cheat and lie to their customers -- like Cash America, a payday loan company that rips off active servicemen and women.

Here's the latest from Credit Slips:

The CFPB just settled an enormous enforcement action against payday lender Cash America. Under the settlement, Cash America will pay $5 million in penalties and $14 million in refunds to overcharged customers. 

The Washington Post reported the disgusting details about Cash America:

For five years, employees at Cash America, one of the country’s largest payday lenders, were told to stamp a lawyer’s signature on court documents used to sue customers for past-due debts. 

This “robo-signing” helped the company improperly squeeze money out of at least 14,397 Americans, who are entitled to millions of dollars in restitution... 

The bureau also discovered instances of Cash America charging active-duty service members and their families more than 36 percent interest on payday loans in violation of the Military Lending Act, according to the enforcement order. 

The CFPB found that Cash America or its affiliates robo-signed documents in debt collection lawsuits, made loans to military servicemen in violation of the federal Military Lending Act, and even destroyed documents during discovery.

The good news is that Cash America probably would have gotten away with it had the CFPB not been created in 2011. Check out its website here.

Today's Teamster News 08.07.13

Keolis Paratransit Workers Choose Teamsters Union  IBT   ...Paratransit drivers and mechanics with Keolis, a global transportation group in Long Beach, Calif., have voted overwhelmingly, 74-2, in favor of Teamster representation...
SCI Regressively Bargains With Striking Funeral Directors As Negotiations Continue  IBT   ...More than a month after Chicagoland funeral directors and drivers were forced to strike over unfair labor practices, Service Corporation International (NYSE: SCI) resumed negotiations with Teamsters Local 727 only to regressively bargain...
Teamster Nurses Voting on New Contract  WKBN News   ...Nurses at Northside Hospital, who are members of Teamsters Local 377 in Youngstown, Ohio, began voting on a new contract Tuesday...
Hernando commissioners, Teamsters set to meet on CBA  Bay News 9   ...A collective bargaining session will be held later this month between Hernando Commissioners (Florida) and Teamsters Local 79...
L.A. Story  The American Prospect   ...The Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy: a new model for American liberalism?..
FBI Pressuring Internet Providers To Allow Government Surveillance Software  Fire Dog Lake   ...The FBI is pressuring Internet service providers to install software inside their networks to allow real-time government spying on users. The FBI claims real-time collection of information is suddenly necessary for the agency to do its job...
TEN THOUSAND turn out to protest GOP in Asheville, NC  DailyKos   ...There are plans for future protests in other cities (Charlotte is tentatively August 19) and it appears some smaller satellite protests are happening around the country...
Walmart retaliates against striking workers (opinion)  Digital Journal   ...In June, Walmart workers around the country walked off the job in a coordinated strike to protest working conditions at the nation's number one private employer. In a fit of revenge wreaking of a Hollywood sequel, Walmart has begun terminating employees...
SEIU backs $15 an hour minimum wage  MSNBC   ...“We support the workers demand for $15 an hour and want to hear from the most profitable multinational companies in the world, why not?” said SEIU President Mary Kay Henry...
The Magical World Where McDonald's Pays $15 an Hour? It's Australia  The Atlantic   ...Even in countries with a high minimum wage, the golden arches manage to turn a profit. Here's how...
What it costs to replace a twenty-something  Washington Post   ...Oh, those pesky millennials. They’re been called entitled, lazy and over-confident. They seem to put social media right up there with food, water and shelter. They have–gasp–tattoos and piercings and sleep with their cell phones. Oh my! And now, it turns out, they’re also quite costly to replace on the job...
How cheap 'Made in China' products hurt the US economy in multiple ways  New York Times   ...Here is a symbol of China's assault on the US economy: the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which connects Brooklyn and Staten Island. This landmark, which opened in 1964, is North America's longest suspension bridge. It's also in urgent need of renovation. Unfortunately, $34 million in steel production and fabrication work has been outsourced to China...
How predatory payday lenders pop back up even after states crack down  Pro Publica   ...In 2008, payday lenders suffered a major defeat when the Ohio legislature banned high-cost loans. That same year, they lost again when they dumped more than $20 million into an effort to roll back the law: But five years later, hundreds of payday loan stores still operate in Ohio, charging annual rates that can approach 700 percent...
US gov’t accuses Bank of America of civil fraud in sale of $850M of mortgage bonds in 2008  Associated Press   ...The U.S. government has accused Bank of America Corp. of civil fraud, saying the company failed to disclose risks and misled investors in its sale of $850 million of mortgage bonds during 2008...
Stat of the Day: US Has Enough Empty Houses to Hold All of Britain  treehugger   ...According to the latest data, the number of vacant U.S. homes touched 18.7-million in the second quarter...
Chevron to pay $2 million for refinery violations  Contra Costa Times   ...Chevron Corp. will pay $2 million in fines and restitution after pleading no contest Monday to six misdemeanor criminal charges stemming from a fire at its Richmond refinery last year...
Groups Charge ALEC with Tax Fraud over Secretive "Scholarship" Fund  PRWatch   ...The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is running a secretive, multi-million dollar slush fund that finances lavish trips for state legislators and has misled the Internal Revenue Service about the fund’s activity, two government watchdog groups charged...
State employees get some protections in bill, but grievance procedures shortened  News & Observer   ...North Carolina’s Gov. Pat McCrory is expected to sign a bill that speeds up the employee grievance process for state workers but backs away from earlier efforts to sharply curtail their civil service protections...
Judge Strikes Down City Council's Prevailing Wage Bill  NY1   ...The mayor had vetoed the legislation that requires businesses which receive at least $1 million from the city to pay workers at a rate higher than the state's minimum wage...

Today's Teamster News 07.13.13

Iowa Supreme Court: It’s OK To Fire A Woman For Being Too Attractive  ThinkProgress   ...Standing by a December decision, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday that a male dentist who fired a female assistant because she was too attractive and threatened his marriage did not commit sex discrimination...
Brazil protests: Tens of thousands in union-led strikes  BBC News   ...Ports and motorways were blocked, banks and schools stayed closed, and crowds marched through Rio de Janeiro, where riot police deployed tear gas. The unions want improved working conditions and better public services...
US Treasury delays offshore tax-dodging law by six months  Economic Times   ...The US Treasury Department said on Friday it will postpone enforcement of a new law that cracks down on offshore tax avoidance by Americans by six months to give foreign banks more time to figure out how to comply...
Sen. Brown urges Obama administration to press China on trade, currency issues  BankCreditNews   ...Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) urged the Obama administration on Monday to press China on a number of issues that affect American jobs and businesses, including currency manipulation, illegal trade practices, cyber-attacks, human rights abuses and intellectual property theft...
Changing Wal-Mart? Respect our rights, workers say  Sacramento Press   ...As of July 8, nine Wal-Mart workers in California have been fired for standing up and speaking out publicly to improve labor conditions at the large retailer. The company is saying the employees were let go due to violating attendance policy or for other reasons, and not because of any “specific protest.”...
Smithfield workers conflicted over Chinese buyout  Virginian-Pilot   ...What’ll happen to workers at Smithfield Foods Inc. if the pork company is taken over by Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd.? The workers feel mixed about the buyout...
Union head threatens 'bloodiest' BART strike in years  KTVU News   ...Rhetoric remained fiery as BART negotiators and union heads returned to the bargaining table Thursday, with one union head threatening the "bloodiest, longest strike" in decades if a permanent deal isn't reached in less than a month...
Silicon Valley’s Anti-Unionism, Now With a Side of Class Warfare  Daily Intelligencer   ...Since BART workers went on strike last week, shutting down the Bay Area's primary mass transit system and interrupting millions of commutes, the relationship between the Silicon Valley tech community and labor unions has come under the microscope...
NH's Hassan signs jobless benefits bill  Associated Press   ...Gov. Maggie Hassan signed a bill Thursday creating a new program that will allow a small percentage of jobless workers to continue to get unemployment benefits while they start their own businesses. Under the new law, which took effect immediately, only 2.5 percent of unemployed workers can participate in the program at any given time...
Christie Vetoes Bill That Would Check His Power to Privatize  Teaneck Patch   ...The Christie administration made privatizing dozens of state programs and services a priority shortly after taking office, announcing it was a way to save millions of dollars during economically tough times. But recently, Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a bill whose purpose was to ensure that government privatization actually saved money...
New Jersey approves incentives for firm that oversaw 1,100 New Jersey layoffs  Star-Ledger   ...The state Economic Development Authority yesterday approved nearly $530,000 in two incentive packages to a New Hampshire-based distributor for supermarket chains whose New Jersey subsidiary laid off its entire work force and shuttered all six New Jersey locations in 2011...
Challenge to union contract that goes around 'right-to-work' dismissed  Michigan Radio   ...A judge in Wayne County has dismissed a lawsuit challenging a school union contract designed to skirt the Michigan’s new right-to-work law...
California Governor Eliminates Enterprise Tax Zones  KPBS Radio News   ...A swipe of the governor's pen wiped away California's enterprise tax zones and created a new job strategy focused on sales tax exemptions for companies that buy manufacturing as well as research and development equipment...
Minnesota sues online lender, alleging illegally high payback rates  Pioneer Press   ...Minnesota is suing Internet lender CashCall Inc., which offers personal loans with annual interest rates as high as 342 percent. The lender claims the loans are OK because the company is governed by tribal law, not state law...
Chicago Funeral Director Speaks Out Against SCI  The Bill Press Show   ...Funeral director and Teamsters Local 727 member Angela Anello joined Bill Press yesterday to discuss the ongoing strike against Service Corporation International (SCI). Fifty-nine funeral directors have been on strike since July 2 to fight for a fair contract. Visit www.integrityinillinois.com for more information...
Midwest Teamsters Detail Good Works of Union  Rick Smith Show   ...Rick and the gang spoke with several Teamsters during stops in St. Louis and Detroit about how the union is working to help workers and the local community. Listen here. Visit the People's Tour of America section to get the highlights....

Today's Teamster News 05.09.13

Court Bars Notice to Workers on Right to Unionize  New York Times   ...A federal appeals court on Tuesday struck down a National Labor Relations Board rule requiring most private sector employers to post a notice informing employees of their right to unionize...
US Under Fire over Privatization of Prisons  PressTV   ...Outside a correctional facility just a few miles from the US Congress, prison guards and rights activists gathered to speak out against the continued privatization of prisons throughout the US...
Death Toll Passes 900 In Bangladesh Factory Collapse  Associated Press   ...The death toll from a garment factory building that collapsed outside the Bangladesh capital has climbed past 900, as recovery workers continue pulling bodies from the wreckage more than two weeks after the disaster...
Study: U.S. taxpayers employ more low-wage workers than Wal-Mart, McDonald’s combined  Washington Post   ...Federal taxpayers employ more low-wage workers than Wal-Mart and McDonald’s combined, a new study calculates...
Elizabeth Warren: Trade talks could weaken bank oversight  Politico   ...Elizabeth Warren raised concerns Tuesday that negotiations over new trade agreements could be used as a backdoor way to water down financial regulations. Speaking at a Senate confirmation hearing for Export-Import Bank President Fred Hochberg...
Sanford victory could spell trouble for House GOP leadership  The Hill   ...Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) is heading back to Congress — and that may not be good news for House GOP leadership...
Legislative package seeks to weaken derivatives provisions of Dodd-Frank law  Washington Post   ...Nearly three years after Congress passed the Dodd-Frank financial law to limit risky activities on Wall Street, a series of bills could weaken regulation of derivatives — the exotic securities that helped fuel the crisis...
California set to fine utility $2.25 billion for deadly pipeline failure  CNN   ...California regulators recommended a record $2.25 billion fine for the state's largest utility Monday in the 2010 gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people in a San Francisco suburb...
California Farm Workers Fired for Leaving Fields During Wildfire  NBC4   ...More than a dozen farm workers in Southern California were out of a job after walking out of the fields last week, forced indoors because of heavy smoke from a massive wildfire burning nearby...
TSA knife rule: would an airborne fistfight been worse?  Washington Post   ...Seems a serious fistfight broke out in the first-class section of an American Airlines flight last week. “They were actually throwing punches,” Army Brig. Gen. Jason T. Evans told a local television reporter. “It was actually a fight,” Evans said. Might have been worse if they’d pulled out their knives, but of course knives aren’t allowed on airplanes...for now...
Washington State Has Third Fewest Workplace Deaths for 2011 NBC KNDO 23   ...Washington state ranks third in the nation for having the fewest workers killed on the job in 2011...
Minnesota Senate approves 'modest' minimum wage hike   Star Tribune   ...The Minnesota Senate on Wednesday approved a minimum wage hike that could give 200,000 a raise. The measure, passed on a 39-28 vote, would raise the minimum wage to $7.75 an hour by 2015...
Pa. high court upholds redrawn legislative maps  Associated Press  ...A revised plan to redraw the boundaries of Pennsylvania's legislative districts won the unanimous approval Wednesday of the state Supreme Court, which rejected renewed appeals by citizen challengers and Democrats who argued the plan...
Surprise fast food strike planned in St. Louis  Salon   ...For the third time in five weeks, non-union fast food workers in a major American city are scheduled to strike for higher wages and the chance to form a union without intimidation... 
NY officials vow attack on predatory debt-fixing  Associated Press   ...Federal authorities announced a crackdown Tuesday on predatory businesses that cheat "desperate and vulnerable" people harmed by the 2008 financial crisis with phony promises to consolidate their debt...
Iowa Senate rejects voter ID proposal  Des Moines Register   ...The Iowa Senate Tuesday night rejected a Republican-sponsored amendment to require Iowa voters to show a photo identification when they are voting. The effort failed on a 26-24 vote with Democrats against and Republicans in support...
NM legislators receive pensions, but no salary  Associated Press   ...Voters booted Republican Dan Foley from office after a decade in the New Mexico Legislature, and within months he began collecting taxpayer-financed pension benefits — even though he was only 39 years old...
$667M in business tax cuts advances in Texas House  Associated Press   ...A major tax bill proposing $667 million in breaks for Texas businesses cleared the state House on Tuesday night against the backdrop of Gov. Rick Perry demanding muscular tax relief as the Legislature enters a furious final three weeks...
Teamsters Honor 150 Year Anniversary Of The Brotherhood Of Locomotive Engineers And Trainmen   IBT ...The following is a statement by Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa and General Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen...