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...

How the last lousy trade deal increased the trade deficit with S. Korea

The fact that America's last bad trade deal cost tens of thousands of American jobs won't prevent advocates of the next bad trade deal from trying to ram it through Congress.

The trade deal with South Korea went into effect in March 2012. Advocates promised it would create tens of thousands of American jobs. It didn't. In the first year, the deal increased the U.S. trade deficit with South Korea by $5.9 billion. That cost 40,000 U.S. jobs, mostly in manufacturing.

Now we're hearing similar claims about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a corporate power grab very similar to the South Korea trade deal. The administration tells us it will create jobs.

Hardly anyone believes that anymore. , the strategy to pass the TPP is to convince Congress to give itself  'fast track' authority. Call it authority to rubber stamp bad trade deals.

According to U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, a Florida Democrat, fast track would allow each member of Congress '88 seconds of debate per member'  That means there would be no meaningful debate on this trade deal carved out by the lawyers of 50 or so of the most powerful corporations in the world.

So before Congress decides to grease the skids for the TPP, it's a good idea to remember the damage caused by the Korean trade deal. It has been especially hard on the U.S. auto industry. According to Public Citizen, exports to Korea of U.S.-made Fords, Chryslers and General Motors vehicles increased by fewer than 3,100 vehicles annually in the first two years of the deal.

In each of the two years following the Korea trade deal, more than 184,000 additional Korean-produced Hyundais and Kias were imported and sold in the United States, compared with the two years before the deal.

As Public Citizen points out,

The tiny gains in U.S. exports have been swamped by a surge in auto imports from Korea that the administration promised would not occur.

Today's Teamster News 01.05.15

Teamsters
NYCLASS flyers aim to convince New Yorkers that horse-carriage ban supports Bill de Blasio’s ‘progressive agenda’  New York Daily News   ...“There’s nothing progressive about taking away jobs for 300 families,” said George Miranda, the head of Teamsters Joint Council 16...
Trade
A New Threat Looms on the Horizon: TISA  Economy in Crisis   ...The Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) covers 50 countries and 68.2 percent of world trade in services. The U.S. and the European Union (EU) are the main proponents of the agreement. If enacted, the agreement would severely limit the ability of the U.S. to regulate the financial sector...
War on Workers
Why New Credit Cards May Fall Short on Fraud Control  Wall Street Journal   ...Big U.S. banks are steering clear of an advanced security measure used in credit cards around the world, opting for a system that is more convenient for shoppers but may leave them vulnerable to fraud...
Tax Inversion Remains (Huge)  naked capitalism   ...The recent Treasury measures raised legal obstacles, but the heart of the problem remains unaddressed...
Coca-Cola’s anti-American outsourcing scheme: How Big Soda gets the public to shoulder its costs  Salon   ...“Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola capitalism,” traces the history of Coke’s empire through the company’s reliance on offloading its costs and risks in precisely this way, tapping into public goods like curbside recycling and municipal water systems while eschewing ownership of the resources and infrastructure needed to produce its iconic beverage...
Anti-terror plan to spy on toddlers 'is heavy-handed’  The Telegraph   ...Nursery school staff and registered childminders must report toddlers at risk of becoming terrorists, under counter-terrorism measures proposed by the [British] Government...
U.S. health worker arrives in Nebraska for Ebola evaluation  Reuters   ...An American health care worker possibly exposed to the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone arrived at a hospital in Omaha on Sunday for evaluation and any necessary treatment, an official said...
Miscellaneous
Jaguar Demos a Car That Keeps an Eye on Its Driver  Technology Review   ...An Australian company called Seeing Machines is turning sensing inward with technology that focuses on drivers themselves in hopes of reducing distracted and drowsy driving...
Auto Industry Galvanized After Record Recall Year  New York Times   ...More than 60 million vehicles have been recalled in the United States, double the previous annual record in 2004. In all, there have been about 700 recall announcements — an average of two a day — affecting the equivalent of one in five vehicles on the road...
The Future of Getting Arrested  The Atlantic   ...Several cities have recently put in place networks of microphone-based gunshot sensors, and others are likely to adopt similar systems. When a sensor picks up a suspicious noise, a computer program analyzes the sound and, if it resembles gunfire, determines its point of origin to within a few yards...
Princeton graduate, 30, 'who shot dead his $200m hedge fund founder father, 70, in NYC apartment' arrested after he 'went on the run and barricaded himself in his Manhattan home'  Daily Mail   ...A Princeton graduate has been arrested after he allegedly executed his multimillionaire hedge-funder father at the family's Manhattan apartment on Sunday...

Today's Teamster News 01.04.15

Trade
Alan Grayson Explains Why We Need To Stop The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement  Crooks and Liars   ..."Each member of Congress will get 88 seconds apiece to debate this bill."...
The Trans-Pacific Trade (TPP) Agreement Must Be Defeated  Op-Ed News   ...The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a disastrous trade agreement designed to protect the interests of the largest multi-national corporations at the expense of workers, consumers, the environment and the foundations of American democracy...
TTIP Update XLVI  ComputerWorld UK   ...Not much has been happening on the TTIP front during the holiday break, but there's one extremely important report that came out a little earlier ... it's about an aspect of the ISDS mechanism that has so far been overlooked: the fact that the EU has *already* suffered as a result of the inclusion of ISDS in other agreements...
State Battles
Minimum Wage Increases Breaking Out All Over!  Huffington Post   ... 29 states will exceed the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour at the beginning of January, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The initial changes will enhance minimum pay by as little as a few pennies to as much as $1.25 an hour, affecting about 3.1 million employees...
War on Workers
California colleges see surge in efforts to unionize adjunct faculty  Los Angeles Times   ...…A wave of union organizing at college campuses across California and the nation in recent months is being fueled by part-time faculty who are increasingly discontented over working conditions and a lack of job security…
Exposing the charter school lie: Michelle Rhee, Louis C.K. and the year phony education reform revealed its true colors  Salon   ...Charter schools promised new education innovations. Instead, they produced scam after new scam...
The Economics (and Nostalgia) of Dead Malls  New York Times   ...Since 2010, more than two dozen enclosed shopping malls have been closed, and an additional 60 are on the brink … With income inequality continuing to widen, high-end malls are thriving, even as stolid retail chains like Sears, Kmart and J. C. Penney falter, taking the middle- and working-class malls they anchored with them...
Chain restaurants are killing us: Billionaire bankers, minimum-wage toilers and the nasty truth about fast-food nation  Salon   ... Journalists have been replaced with bloggers and crowdsourcing. Factory hands have been replaced with robots. University professors are being replaced with adjuncts and MOOCs...
Mediator brings FairPoint, unions back to table  Associated Press   ...FairPoint Communications says it's willing to negotiate with striking workers but doesn't want to budge on the employees' core issues: hiring contractors, changing pension plans and reducing health care benefits...
Worker killed at Paulsboro refinery  Louisville Courier-Post   ...A 63-year-old man working for a sandblasting contractor at the Paulsboro Refinery in Gibbstown died Friday when an air compressor line broke and struck him in the head about 9:30 a.m., according to the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office...
Miscellaneous
The Senate's 46 Democrats got 20 million more votes than its 54 Republicans  Vox   ... "the 46 Democratic caucus members in the 114th Congress received a total of 67.8 million votes in winning their seats, while the 54 Republican caucus members received 47.1 million votes."...

Today's Teamster News 01.03.15

Teamsters
Dunkin' Donuts Delivery Drivers in Chicago Join the Teamsters  Teamsters Joint Council 25   ...By a 2-to-1 margin, approximately 30 drivers who make deliveries to Chicago-area Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants recently voted to join Teamsters Local 734...

BLET reaches tentative agreement with Norfolk Southern  BLET   ...The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) has reached a tentative contract agreement with Norfolk Southern (NS) governing rates of pay and work rules for more than 4,500 locomotive engineers...
Inaugural Toledo Walleye Winter Brewfest is a hit  The Blade   ...Toledo firefighter Jenny Hill fist-bumps Mark Sobczak, vice president of Teamsters Local 20, as she dispenses beer during the inaugural Toledo Walleye Winter Brewfest...
McGrain to head Ingham Board of Commissioners  Lansing State Journal   ...In other business, the board … Approved a 2015 wage reopener that calls for a 2.5 percent boost to the current salary schedule of members of Teamsters Local 580, the Potter Park Zoo supervisory unit...
Trade
Obama’s Trade Chief, Undaunted by Odds, Pushes for Trans-Pacific Partnership  New York Times   ...the deal’s completion is certainly not guaranteed. Republicans inclined to give the president trade-negotiating authority are still seething at his executive action deferring deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants. Many conservatives are in no mood to give Mr. Obama anything, said Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, and a former United States trade representative in the George W. Bush administration...
The President Set a Goal of Doubling Exports by 2014—Why Haven’t We?  Economic Policy Institute   ...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...
Trade's big breakout  Politico   ...Republicans and President Barack Obama are both eager to act on a massive Asia-Pacific deal, an even bigger agreement with the European Union and legislation that would fast-track their approval by Congress — all of which have a shot of moving next year...
TTIP: Chemical corporations against safety protections  Ecologist   ...Under the TTIP US-EU trade agreement, the world's largest chemical corporations would be able to attack US states' attempts to regulate for chemical safety, writes Patrick Gleeson. In both the US and the EU, corporate rights - asserted in secret courts - would trump democracy and attempts to raise health, safety and welfare standards...
State Battles
EBay parts ways with controversial political group ALEC  Reuters   ...Critics fault ALEC, a coalition of state lawmakers and companies, for promoting measures to deny the existence of climate change, defund public services, oppose Internet neutrality and limit workers' protections...
Sweatshops in California Guilty of Wage Theft  Law Firm Newswire   ...lothing made in California for outlets such as Macy’s, JC Penney and Kohl’s, actually comes from local sweatshops where some employers routinely unplug the clock intended to keep track of worker’s hours...
War on Workers
Koch-Funded News Outlet Defends Dark-Money Organizations  Media Matters for America   ...Conservative news outlet Watchdog.org released a six-part series defending dark-money organizations -- politically focused groups that conceal the identities of their donors -- but failed to disclose its own funding from the Koch brothers and other conservative dark-money players...
Pay-disclosure advocates chafe at SEC rule delays  MarketWatch   ...Supporters of a rule that would require public companies to disclose the ratio between executive and median employee pay say the Securities and Exchange Commission should move soon to enact the regulation....
Worker dies after falling into well  WESH.com   ...Thomas Wood, 41, was working at a gas station under construction on U.S. 1 and Beville Road when he fell into the 6-foot fuel tank well...
Refinery worker dies in accident in Gibbstown  Associated Press   ...An air compressor line broke and struck 63-year-old Gary Grimming, who was sandblasting a tank at the time. Grimming was employed by a Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based company...
Miscellaneous
U.S. slaps new sanctions on North Korea after Sony hack  CNN   ...The United States is hitting North Korea with a new set of economic sanctions after determining the country was behind last month's computer hack at Sony...
Why Airlines Want to Make You Suffer  The New Yorker   ...In 2013, the major airlines combined made about $31.5 billion in income from fees, as well as other ancillaries, such as redeeming credit-card points...
Falling oil prices both good and bad for manufacturers  Fortune   ...On one hand, a steep decline in the cost of oil leads to lower expenses. But on the other, business may suffer because of lower spending by oil and chemical companies on big-ticket items like computers and new machinery...

Surprise! 2014 is over, and the U.S. did NOT double exports from 2009

Probably.

You won't hear much these days about the National Export Initiative to double U.S. exports from 2009 to 2014. That's because the initiative failed miserably. U.S. exports increased only 44.9 percent over those four years, while imports (the other part of the story) rose by 48.4 percent. Our trade deficit rose by $117 billion.

Here's one person who predicted failure: Palm Desert resident Irving “Pete” Vigdor. Vigdor astutely noted that multinationals account for 50 percent to 60 percent of U.S. exports -- and they're happy if exports increase as much as 6 percent annually. Which doesn't get us to a doubling in four years.

Here's another reason the National Export Initiative failed: currency manipulation. Rob Scott at the Economic Policy Institute recently wrote,

The most important reason behind the failure to double U.S. exports over the past five years has been our inability or unwillingness to address currency manipulation. Ending currency manipulation would have reduced the U.S. trade deficit by between $200 and $500 billion. It would have slowed the growth of imports and increased goods exports alone by more than $1 trillion, enough to achieve a real doubling of exports. Better yet, it would have created between 2.3 and 5.8 million net new jobs, increased GDP by between $288 and $720 billion (2.0 to 4.9 percent) and reduced the budget deficit, at no cost to the government. 

Despite this, Congress has failed to pass legislation to end currency manipulation, such as Rep Sander Levin’s Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act (HR1276) and Sen. Sherrod Brown’s Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act (S. 1114), the Obama administration has not designated China as a currency manipulator (or any of the other 20 countries that have followed similar policies since at least 2001), and the administration’s has failed to take more meaningful steps to stop currency manipulation, such as instituting withholding taxes on government assets held by the foreign central banks of currency manipulators.

Another reason imports didn't double: bad trade deals like the one with Korea. Dave Johnson notes at Op-Ed News,

According to Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, exports to Korea are down 11 percent and the trade deficit with Korea has gone up 47 percent since this agreement was signed. According to the Economic Policy Institute 60,000 American jobs have been lost (mostly in manufacturing), exports to Korea are down 7.5 percent and the trade deficit is up 59.6 percent.

And now the same people who pledged to double exports and failed are trying to grease the skids in Congress for another bad trade deal: the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Vigdor  points out in the The Desert Sun why that, too, will fail to increase exports: 

Brunei has already started to build clothing manufacturing factories for export to the U.S. The only business this tiny island country does with us is to buy parts for its oil rigs. Malaysia, a large country, does no business with us at all. Yet, our president is happy to open our markets to them which historically, has cost us jobs. 

Our trade agreements largely benefit our trading partners, whose exports into our huge consumer markets surged dramatically. Sure, our exports increased a bit, because our relatively small trading partners could not possibly absorb the quantities we need to export to get anywhere near parity. 

The end result of these trade agreements is that we literally exported millions of American jobs. It’s no secret that some Americans who lost jobs due to imports receive stipends from the government that, in one sense, actually subsidize low-cost manufacturing countries.

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...