Pope-backed group attempts to make joke out of N.C. protesters

The Moral Monday protests in North Carolina have already resulted in nearly 500 arrests, not including tonight's Statehouse rally. That's scores of real North Carolinians standing up against the gutting of education, health care and the environment and for fairness in the tax code. But for some, it's all just a game.

The Civitas Institute, a state-focused stink-tank largely funded by state budget director Art Pope, decided it would be "fun" to create a "Pick the Protester" game. It lets the user choose among three mug shots of those arrested to answer a question. For instance, it asks, "who's from Raleigh" or "who is 73 years old" or "who is unemployed"? It attempts to make a joke out of those who are standing up for the middle class.

If that's not your kind of humor, you also won't like the website's more insidious roster of arrestees which links their photo to information about each person's name, age, residence, race, occupation, employer and interest group memberships. It reeks of the some of the actions taken to tamp down on civil rights protests in the 1950s and 1960s.

As stated by the Institute of Southern Studies:

Civitas' database brings to mind another troubling episode of mid-20th century U.S. history: how in some Southern cities at that time the white-supremacist White Citizens' Councils (WCC) would publish in local newspapers the names of NAACP supporters and those who signed anti-segregation petitions in order to encourage retaliation against them. The WCCs, like Civitas, also had close ties to powerful government officials.

Thankfully, the plan doesn't seem to be working. Organizers are expecting a huge turnout for tonight's rally, which is focused on labor and economic issues. Union members are expected to be out in force. We stand tall with those who are sticking up for working men and women.

5 reasons unpaid Internships are ruining America

Internships are becoming more important in getting a first job – and they're increasingly unpaid. According to the New York Times, about half of the million-plus internships taken by college undergraduates every year are unpaid. More than 50 percent of current college graduates are estimated to have had at least two college internships. No data exists on how many recent college graduates take internships after college.

What sort of impact is this having? Noah Baron, from the New American Politics PAC, argues: 

A neglected issue … which affects nearly every college student in the United States today is that of unpaid internships…. The problem of unpaid internships affects all but the most wealthy.

Here are five ways unpaid internships are destroying the U.S.:

1. Unpaid Internships Are Ruining College: Researchers from the College Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University find that taking an unpaid internship can harm a student's performance in school.

75% (of students) were also working a second job for pay in order to cover college expenses and the credits for their unpaid internship. Anecdotally, many students report working as many as 40 to 50 hours per week — and some of those are freshman. Their advisors often do not know they are working beyond their federal work study hours, and they are having trouble meeting assignment deadlines in class because they are working so much. When prioritizing their activities, work for pay comes first, internship or career enhancement comes second, and school work comes last. 

Learning to balance academic, work and life responsibilities quickly translates into juggling paid work, unpaid work, and work that you pay to do. Small wonder only half of those lazy college students actually survive until graduation. 

The unpaid internship isn't even that valuable for students who do survive and graduate. The National Association of Colleges and Employers 2013 Student Survey found that “while paid internships increased the likelihood of receiving a permanent job offer, unpaid interns fared only slightly better than students who did no internship at all." 

2. Unpaid Internships Have No Labor Rights: Because they receive no income from the company, unpaid interns are not employees, and are therefore not protected from sexual harassment, workers compensation, or any other sort of employment regulations. Forced to work 10 hour days, or don’t get a lunch break? Nobody cares. Without payment, interns are technically volunteers and have no labor rights. 

However, interns are allowed to sue for negligence. And back pay. And anything else that happens to them. That is, if they can afford it. 

3. Using Unpaid Interns Causes Massive Legal Liability Headaches For Businesses: The Department of Labor internship guidelines are very strict at for-profit institutions; you can’t replace workers or benefit from intern work, and you have to supervise interns with “training which would be given in an educational environment”. The Atlantic observes that: 

• A summer full of filing, data entry, and occasional lunch run would appear to be utterly insufficient to meet this standard. Presumably, a magazine intern wouldn't even be allowed to publish an article, since they'd be helping the publication turn a profit. 

Any internship that doesn’t fulfill these stringent requirements is open to lawsuits from former interns similar to the recent Fox Searchlight, Atlantic City Records, New Yorker and W Magazine cases. Even internships used as college classes are suspect:

• California and some other states require that interns receive college credit as a condition of being unpaid. But federal regulators say that receiving college credit does not necessarily free companies from paying interns, especially when the internship involves little training and mainly benefits the employer. 

4. Unpaid Interns Drive off Good Talen: Research interns at ProPublica argue that unpaid internships replace skilled workers:

...the current arrangement between employers and unpaid interns is neither fair nor sustainable. The set-up — where organizations hire workers under pet names such as “apprentice” or “volunteer” and pass off full-time employees’ responsibilities without compensation — undermines a large pool of people in this country, typically young folks. In this sense, employers who actively recruit and rotate new talent without paying for it are directly hurting a critical sector of their own industries. 

Without a paying job, intelligent recruits are likely to abandon the industry for something more sustainable: flipping burgers at McDonald’s.

5. Unpaid internships stifle job creation: The unpaid college internship has spawned the creation of the barely-paid post-college internship and a new class of perma-interns that roams around for new internship positions every few months in the hope that someday, someone will hire them.

Back in February, the Washingtonian commented on their plight:

• You can find young people languishing at film studios in Los Angeles and magazine empires in New York City. Similarly, Washington’s job pyramid … doesn’t start at entry level; it starts at internship. Our area is now home to one of the largest intern-industrial complexes in the country, one that extends well past the bustling summer months.

These low-paid workers don't have much to spend, and so they aren't supporting the businesses in their community (or any business, for that matter. They aren't buying homes, and they aren't buying refrigerators or carpeting or furniture. 

Turns out, denying a significant section of the population good jobs with good wages hurts us all.

Today's Teamster News 06.24.13

(UPDATES to ADD Detroit march)
The Retirement Savings Crisis: Is It Worse Than We Think?  National Institute on Retirement Security   ...the average U.S. working-age household has virtually no retirement savings...
Employers Test Plans That Cap Health Costs  New York Times   ...Hoping to cut medical costs, employers are experimenting with a new way to pay for health care, telling workers that their company health plan will pay only a fixed amount for a given test or procedure, like a CT scan or knee replacement...
United States of ALEC, A 2013 Follow-Up  Moyers & Company   ...In state houses around the country, hundreds of pieces of boilerplate ALEC legislation are proposed or enacted that would, among other things, dilute collective bargaining rights, make it harder for some Americans to vote, and limit corporate liability for harm caused to consumers — each accomplished without the public ever knowing who’s behind it...
$10 Minimum Wage Would Push More Than Half Of Working Poor Out Of Poverty: Study  Huffington Post   ... nearly 58 percent -- or roughly 6 million -- of the 10.4 million U.S. workers living below the federal poverty level in 2011 would be pulled out by such an increase...
Control over food is at stake with Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)  OpEdNews   ...The agriculture section of the Ecology Branch of the Green Shadow Cabinet opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as the latest Free Trade Agreement (FTA) assault against food sovereignty, where the profits of multinational companies are placed ahead of the food security needs of individual nations...
Tens of thousands march in Rome against unemployment  Reuters   ...Thousands of workers and unemployed people marched in Rome on Saturday to protest against record unemployment and call on Enrico Letta's two-month-old government to deliver more than empty rhetoric on the issue...
Latest Brazil protests bring 250,000 on to streets  Associated Press   ...More than 250,000 anti-government protesters have again taken to the streets in several Brazilian cities and engaged police in isolated intense conflicts. Demonstrators vowed to stay in the streets until concrete steps are taken to reform the political system...
U.S. and Other G8 Governments Move to Prevent Tax Evasion and Avoidance, But Is It Enough?  Citizens for Tax Justice   ...the leaders of the G-8 countries meeting in Northern Ireland released a declaration that included cracking down on the use of shell corporations for tax evasion and principles related to this goal, while the White House released a national action plan to implement these principles...

Cutting wages won’t create jobs (opinion)  The Hill   ...With few supporters on their side, restaurant industry advocates are now appealing to outdated myths about the impact of raising the minimum wage, in order to justify their campaign to block a long-overdue increase...
Martin Luther King Jr. Detroit March Of 1963 Commemorated 50 Years Later With Walk Down Woodward  Associated Press   ...Thousands participated in a Detroit march commemorating the 50th anniversary of one that Martin Luther King Jr. led in 1963...
Asheville group off to Moral Monday protests  Black Mountain News   ...A coalition of groups opposing a state takeover of Asheville’s water system have organized a bus trip to the protests Monday, adding about 100 area residents to into the Moral Monday mix...
NC Gov. McCory Repeals Racial Justice Act, Restores Legal Lynching on Juneteenth Liberation Holiday  Daily Kos   ...North Carolina Governor McCrory secretly signed Republican passed legislation (The Legal Lynching Act of 2013) repealing North Carolina's Racial Justice Act on June 19, Junteenth, the African American holiday of liberation of the enslaved...
Ohio GOP to raise taxes on the poor, elderly  Plunderbund   ...The conference committee for the Ohio budget has reported out a plan with completely different tax provisions than either chamber. It dramatically raises sales taxes and property taxes to finance a tax cut for business investors and an income tax cut for the rich...
Chauffeurs, Teamsters & Helpers speak out against police department allegations  Uniontown Herald-Standard   ...Representatives from Chauffeurs, Teamsters & Helpers, Local Union 491 of Uniontown said they welcome an independent investigation of the Brownsville Police Department...

Today's Teamster News 06.23.13

Dead Being Billed for Life Insurance  ABC News   ... the nation's leading insurance companies continued billing customers for life insurance long after they were dead. The companies--including such household names as AIG, Hartford, John Hancock, Met Life, Prudential, Transamerica and TIAA-CREF-- have agreed to a multi-state settlement under which they will repay some $763 million owed the heirs of the deceased...
The other hacking scandal: Suppressed report reveals that law firms, telecoms giants and insurance companies routinely hire criminals to steal rivals' information  The Independent   ...Some of Britain’s most respected industries routinely employ criminals to hack, blag and steal personal information on business rivals and members of the public, according to a secret report leaked to The Independent...
Firing of 5 Walmart Strikers Condemned by Rep. Ellison: 'Completely Unjust and Illegal'  The Nation   ...Of the roughly one hundred Walmart workers who this month went on strike and traveled to Arkansas this month, OUR Walmart alleges that five have been fired, ten have received disciplinary “coachings,” and one has been suspended...
House GOP ratchets up battle with Senate over student loan rates  The Hill   ...Without congressional action, rates for subsidized Stafford loans will jump from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on July 1...
Brazil: 250K protest against government corruption  USA Today   ...A quarter-million Brazilians took to the streets in the latest a wave of sometimes-violent protests that are increasingly focusing on corruption and reforming a government system in which people have lost faith. A new poll shows that 75 percent of citizens support the demonstrations...
How Currency Wars End in Violence as Brazil Erupts  (opinion)  The Market Oracle   ...Hot money is fleeing, the Real is sinking, inflation is soaring, and Brazil has no idea how to stem the tide (or the protests)...
Food Network Drops Paula Deen  New York Times   ...Paula Deen, the self-proclaimed queen of Southern cooking and a sugary mainstay of the Food Network, was dropped by the network on Friday, after a bewildering day in which she failed to show up for an interview on the “Today” show and then in two online videos begged her family and audience to forgive her for using racist language...
Woot! NY lawmakers vote to crack down on trucking co. cheats  TeamsterNation   ...Here's a real Teamster victory: Both chambers of the New York state Legislatures passed a bill today that cracks down on trucking companies that misclassify their employers. Bad actors like FedEx Ground would pay stiff fines for treating their employees as contractors...
Report Shows Majority Of Proposed Tax Cuts Benefits Those Earning $100K-Plus  Wisconsin Public Radio   ...63.4 percent of the overall tax cut would be paid to people earning more than $100,000...
Panera Bread uses Natl. Labor Relations Review Board dysfunction to exploit bakers trying to unionize  eclectablog   ...Over a year ago, Panera Bread bakers along the I-94 corridor Michigan voted to form a union. The parent company refused to recognize the union, forcing the workers to file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) demanding that the company recognize and bargain with their union, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM). The NLRB ruled for the workers. However, due to a decision in Noel Canning v. NLRB overturning President Obama’s recess appointments to the NLRB, Panera Bread has refused to comply...

Today's Teamster News 06.22.13

Ex-Enron boss Jeffrey Skilling's sentence cut to 14 years  BBC News   ...Jeffrey Skilling presided over Enron when it became embroiled in one of the biggest corporate frauds in US history...Thousands of workers lost their jobs and retirement savings when energy firm Enron collapsed in 2001...
Goodwill pays workers with disabilities as little as 22 cents an hour  Salon   ... In 2010, an Applebee’s in a tony New York suburb hired hearing- and visually impaired employees through a placement program with the Helen Keller National Center and paid them between $3.97 per hour and $5.96, well below the state minimum wage of $7.25. And it’s perfectly legal due to a Depression-era loophole in federal labor law...
Couple Orders Tie From Banana Republic, Gets Folders Full Of Sensitive Employee Info Instead Consumerist   ...When you order clothing online, there’s always the chance you’ll get the wrong size or color. But you rarely get three folders full of sensitive employee documents containing things like Social Security numbers, addresses, and tax forms. But that’s what one couple say happened to them when they placed an order with Banana Republic for a tie and pocket square...
Brazil protests: president to hold emergency meeting  The Guardian   ...Night of protests draws vast crowds in cities across Brazil, with a total turnout estimated at 2 million...
Deflating Minimum Wage Costs Workers Billions of Dollars (opinion)   Huffington Post   ...A single minimum wage worker who has worked continually for the federal minimum wage since 1968 has been deprived of over a quarter million dollars in wages over the course of those 45 years...
U.S., Vietnam still far apart on clothing in trade talks   Reuters   ...U.S. efforts to forge a "21st Century" trade agreement with Vietnam and 10 other countries in the Asia Pacific region are running into problems mired in the past, including a textile trade policy that U.S. industry does not want to give up…
Pressure Pays Off: Obama Administration Finally Lets Congress See Secretive TPP Text (But Still Not the Rest of Us)  Public Citizen   ...for the first known time in the three years that the secretive deal has been under negotiation by the Obama administration, said administration has allowed a member of Congress to view three chapters of the bracketed negotiating text...
Madoff trustee cannot sue big banks, U.S. court rules  Reuters   ...The trustee seeking money for Bernard Madoff's victims suffered a big defeat as a federal appeals court rejected his bid to recover nearly $30 billion from JPMorgan Chase and Co. and other banks he accused of aiding in the swindler's fraud...
7-Eleven deploying immigration inspectors  New York Post   ...7-Eleven is deploying its own team of immigration inspectors to franchises nationwide in the wake of a big illegal-alien scandal where the feds say workers in Long Island and Virginia were given stolen identities and then forced to work up to 100 hours weekly for a fraction of their wages...
Three States Dump Major Private Prison Company In One Month  Think Progress   ...State lawmakers who embraced private prisons as a cost-cutting measure are starting to have trouble ignoring their abysmal conditions. Corrections Corporation of America, the largest and most powerful private prison company in the nation, lost four prison contracts in the past month after extensive reports of abuse, neglect, and even fraud...
Michigan lawmakers vote to change foreclosure rules  Detroit Free Press   ...The Republican-controlled House and Senate on Thursday gave final approval to bills that keep intact the redemption period when homeowners can challenge a foreclosure’s legality. An earlier version of the measure would have reduced the period from six months to 60 days...
New scale bypass system can read driver logs, CSA profile with no stopping  Truck News   ...A new scale bypass system that allows drivers and carriers with good CSA scores to pass through weigh stations without stopping, is generating some buzz in the US...
Diversified drivers reject latest offer  Fort McMurray Today   ...Bus drivers with Diversified Transportation, who are members of Teamsters Local 362, have rejected another contract offer from their employers, even though the majority of the negotiating committee recommended accepting it...
FirstGroup Executives See Big Payouts as Company, Workers Suffer  IBT   ...FirstGroup PLC is under fire for awarding hefty bonus payments to top U.S. executives while workers have been denied fair wage increases and improved working conditions...
Get Text Message Updates That Are Important to YOU  IBT   ...Teamsters, sign up to get personalized text messages from the IBT. Text to 86466 the word MAG and your member ID number – located above the label on the back of your latest Teamster magazine...

Woot! NY lawmakers vote to crack down on trucking co. cheats

Here's a real Teamster victory: Both chambers of the New York state Legislatures passed a bill today that cracks down on trucking companies that misclassify their employers. Bad actors like FedEx Ground would pay stiff fines for treating their employees as contractors.

Great work, Joint Council 16!

The joint council's president, George Miranda, told Crain's New York Business:

This was a tough fight and it took us two years, but it was worth it in the end. We delivered better pay, better benefits and better working conditions for thousands of truckers, and that's how you spell victory when you're a Teamster.

The bill intends to correct the situation in New York where close to 30,000 truck drivers in New york are misclassified as independent contractors. That's $6.3 million in unpaid unemployment insurance taxes every year.

Crain's tells us:

...trucking companies suspect the Teamsters will try to organize them, perhaps with the bill as a selling point. The Teamsters said they were interested in the issue, in part, because companies that employ Teamsters in the air freight industry were having trouble competing with rivals such as UPS and FedEx that the union believed were misclassifying workers. 

The law would force companies to provide currently misclassified employees with benefits such as unemployment insurance and workers compensation, and would subject trucking companies that misclassify employees to penalties.

A similar bill passed the New Jersey Legislature and is sitting on Gov. Chris Christie's desk for his signature.  Let's hope both Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo sign these important pieces of legislation!

Please help these Teamster pilots get a contract

Our brothers and sisters at Local 357 asked us to post this. Please help them out.

IBT Local 357, representing over 2900 pilots at Republic Airways Holdings, has been in contract negotiations for years. 

The pilots are covered by the Railway Labor Act, which means contracts do not expire and they cannot strike without government approval. 

The local's leaders have been working countless hours on getting language inserted into a bill in Congress that funds the National Mediation Board (NMB).  The NMB is the government agency that oversees mediation in the transportation industry when employers and unions are in contract negotiations. No regulation governs the timeliness of the outcome.  

Local 357 needs union brothers and sisters, family and friends to contact federal lawmakers on committees that affect labor relations, transportation and funding, as well as their chiefs of staff. 

Please visit  http://bit.ly/146vBAj for a copy of the suggested letter and list of e-mail addresses.  Local 357 leaders are set to meet with key members of Congress and their chiefs of staff next week. Having as many letters as possible sent prior to those meetings will strengthen Local 357’s position.