Americans favor unions over Govs Gone Wild

This just in: A Gallup Poll shows more Americans support labor unions than governors in states trying to strip workers of collective bargaining rights.

Almost half, 48 percent, of Americans agree with workers and their unions. Only 39 percent agree with the governors.

This is just another in a long string of polls showing the public clearly favors maintaining collective bargaining rights for workers.

As expected, the poll shows union members are overwhelmingly against efforts by the Governors Gone Wild to take away their rights. This includes police officers and firefighters. They've traditionally voted Republican, but that's about to change. Politico reports:

Already, rank-and-file police officers and firefighters who long viewed themselves as separate from the rest of the movement are carrying picket signs, signing petitions and standing side-by-side with their labor brethren.

The governors are certainly not winning any popularity contests. Here are their abysmal numbers:

In Wisconsin, 55 percent disapprove of Koch whore Gov. Scott Walker;

In Florida, 55 percent disapprove of Gov. Rick Scott;

In Michigan, 50 percent disapprove of Gov. Rick Snyder; and

In Ohio, 46 percent disapprove of corporate stooge Gov. John Kasich.

ME politicians try to kill child labor laws

It’s bad enough corporate-backed politicians across the country are rolling back workers’ rights when they should be creating jobs. Now Maine's Legislature is looking to turn back child labor laws.

The minimum wage in Maine is $7.50 an hour, but children under the age of 20 will be paid $5.25 an hour for their first 180 days on the job if LD 1346 passes. The bill, otherwise known as, “An Act to Enhance Access to the Workplace for Minors,” also eliminates the maximum number of hours a child over 16 can work during the school year. Rep. David Burns (R-Whiting), sponsor of the legislation, told the Bangor Daily News:

An employer’s got to have employees, so they can decide what they want to pay. The student wants to have a job, and they can decide what they’re willing to work for.

Actually, with this legislation, Rep. Burns and his colleagues get to decide how low businesses can set the bar for paying kids to work. And what business is going to hire adults when they can have children work for $2.25 less an hour?

Sen. Debra Plowman (R-Hampden) is also sponsoring a bill that loosens restrictions on hours that teens can work. The bill, which would allow children to work longer hours and until 11 p.m., is headed for a vote in the Senate. Wingnut Gov. Paul LePage is backing the bill, which comes as no surprise after he recently removed a mural depicting labor history, including child millworkers, from the Department of Labor because it was “anti-business.”

Some good-ish news—an effort to kill child labor laws in Missouri appears pretty much dead. The kids are safe there for now.

But still. Isn't this supposed to be the 21st century, not the 19th?

This'll make your skin crawl

Corporate stooge Ohio Gov. John Kasich answers questions yesterday after signing SB 5 into law.

Govt is broke cuz we cut too many taxes

There were 499,999 others in last weekend's UK march.

Half a million people marched in London last weekend because David Cameron, the UK's version of Koch whore Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, wants to eviscerate government services. Police forces are being slashed, the National Health Service sold off and half a million government jobs eliminated.

In Britain as in the United States, corporate tax evaders are a big part of the reason governments have budget deficits.

Brace yourself, boys and girls, because what happened in the UK is going to happen here. Politicians in thrall to corporate predators are severely cutting government services. Congress is negotiating big spending cuts as Governors Gone Wild are slashing and burning government services in statehouses throughout the country.

Yes, we have budget problems. No, they aren't caused by government workers' gold-plated pensions (which average $19,000 a year). As Frances Fox Piven and Cornel West write in the UK Guardian,

"Austerity" policies falsely suggest that spending on social needs is the reason why governments – at all levels – are facing massive budget short falls. No! Our debt and deficit problems are a direct result of corporate tax breaks and extortionist bank practices that have lead to a scandalous and unprecedented transfer of wealth – from hardworking Americans to the richest segments of US society.

McClatchy News offers a terrific analysis of the failure of tax-cutting fervor in a recent story, "States broke? Maybe they cut taxes too much." Reporter Tom Pugh notes that states cut taxes to create jobs, and it hasn't worked. In Ohio,

Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich calls for extending a generous 21 percent cut in state income taxes. The measure was originally part of a sweeping 2005 tax overhaul that abolished the state corporate income tax and phased out a business property tax.

The tax cuts were supposed to stimulate Ohio's economy and create jobs. But that never happened once the economy tanked. Instead, the changes ended up costing Ohio more than $2 billion a year in lost tax revenue; money that would go a long way toward closing the state's $8 billion budget gap for fiscal year 2012...

Governors Gone Wild should take note of this little fact:

...states that cut taxes the most ended up with the largest budget shortfalls and higher job losses when the economy slowed again in 2001, according to research by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities...

1st WI recall petition to be filed; referendum looking bad for Walker

Good morning. Koch whore Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker will be recalled in 276 days, according to the Teamsters recall clock.

In the meantime, Wisconsinites will go to the polls on Tuesday to vote for a Supreme Court justice. The race is viewed as a referendum on Koch whore Walker. And it looks like the incumbent, a Walker clone named David Prosser, could be in trouble.

An internal tracking poll leaked earlier this week showed Prosser and challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg (endorsed by the Teamsters) are neck and neck.  Yesterday, Prosser's campaign co-chairman, former Gov. Patrick Lucey, resigned and endorsed Kloppenburg. Channel 3000 reports that Lucey issued a statement saying,

I have followed with increasing dismay and now alarm the campaign of Justice David Prosser, whom I endorsed at the outset of his campaign and in whose campaign I serve as the honorary co-chairman.  I can no longer in good conscience lend my name and support to Justice Prosser's candidacy. Too much has come to light that Justice Prosser has lost that most crucial of characteristics for a Supreme Court Justice -- as for any judge -- even-handed impartiality. Along with that failing has come a disturbing distemper and lack of civility that does not bode well for the High Court in the face of demands that are sure to be placed on it in these times of great political and legal volatility.

(Must have been that, "I'll destroy you, bitch," comment of Prosser's.)

Here's more bad news for Koch whore Walker: Democrats have enough signatures to recall ethically compromised Republican Sen. Dan Kapanke. According to the LaCrosse Tribune, they will file recall petitions today.

You can bet Wisconsin Teamsters are working hard to get people to the polls.

The Boss slams NJ budget cuts in letter to editor

Bruce Spreingsteen praised his hometown paper for describing how New Jersey's budget cuts were hurting the middle class as well as the poor. In yesterday's letter to the Asbury Park Press, he writes,

...your article shows that the cuts are eating away at the lower edges of the middle class, not just those already classified as in poverty, and are likely to continue to get worse over the next few years. I'm always glad to see my hometown newspaper covering these issues.

(It's a sentiment we share, btw.)

The story that The Boss likes so much (read it here) notes that the state's lard-ass Gov. Chris Christie raised taxes for the poor, cuts services to the middle class and slashes taxes for the rich.

Ironically, Christie is such a Springsteen fan he keeps a collection of ticket stubs from The Boss's concerts. You have to wonder: Does Christie think "Nowhere to run, nowhere to go" is a good thing?

Today's Teamster News 04.01.11

Gov. John Kasich signs Senate Bill 5 as supporters and opponents gear up for huge referendum  Cleveland Plain Dealer   ...opponents of Senate Bill 5...moved quickly with plans to put the issue before voters by launching a campaign organization called "We Are Ohio."...
Judge rules that Wisconsin's union law isn't in effect  Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel   ...State will comply, Walker says; next hearing is Friday...
Removal of mural may have breached contract between artist, Labor Department  Bangor Daily News   ...Critics of Gov. Paul LePage’s decision to remove a mural depicting Maine’s labor history from Department of Labor offices — and then conceal its location — continue to raise legal and ethical questions...
Dems looking to block changes in unemployment benefits  Detroit News   ...Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, on Wednesday described the unemployment bill as the Legislature's greatest achievement...
Extended jobless aid, under fire by 4 in GOP, faces end  St. Louis Post-Dispatch   ...Four conservative Republican senators bucking their own party will likely prevent thousands of Missourians from drawing extended jobless benefits from the federal government...
House Passes Budget As Thousands Rally  WMUR   ...The New Hampshire House passed a budget bill Thursday as thousands protested the measure's cuts to social and health programs, and a move to end collective bargaining in a companion bill...
N.J. treasurer says Christie would veto millionaire's tax  NJ.com   ...setting the stage for one of many potential budget battles in the upcoming weeks...