Friday, October 4, 2013

Today's Teamster News 10.04.13

Teamsters Across Washington Support Local Grocery Store Workers  teamster.org   ...The Joint Council of Teamsters No. 28, which represents more than 50,000 members and their families across Washington, Alaska and Northern Idaho, says it will honor a grocery worker strike if one occurs...
Agreement reached with public works, police talks go on  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette   ...Public works and parks employees, who are represented by Teamsters Local 249 in Pittsburgh, have reached a contract with the borough of Franklin Park, Pennsylvania...
Report Suggests Commercial Waste Management Reform  Epoch Times   ...“Growing up, jobs in the sanitation industry were good paying jobs with good pension plans. Now the majority of private owners pay very low wages and little in benefits. Many break the most basic health and safety regulations,” said Sean Campbell, a former garbage truck driver and current president of Teamsters Local 813...
Corporate Profits Are Soaring, But You're Not Feeling It  Huffington Post   ...real wages have declined by nearly seven percent in the past seven years, while, corporate profits have increased by 18.6 percent over the past year...
Democrats Balk at Obama’s Fast-Track on Pacific Trade  Bloomberg News   ...Some Democrats in Congress, whose support Barack Obama needs for trade accords, want to put the brakes on a Pacific-region deal just as the president prepares to meet with leaders of nations drafting the pact...
Sorry Charlie? American-made tuna claim questioned  manufacture this   ...”Foreign flag vessels, using who knows what gear type, no traceability, canned in Samoa. Hilarious..."
FMCSA Taking Comments on Mexican Truck Program Applicant  Transport Topics   ...The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is allowing the public to comment on an application by Transportation and Cargo Solutions S de RL de CV to participate in the Mexican cross-border trucking pilot program...
Thousands march to mark anniversary of infamous Mexico City protest  AFP   ...Protesters clashed with riot police in Mexico City, leaving dozens injured as thousands of people marched to mark the anniversary of the 1968 massacre of students...
Happy 100th Birthday Income Taxes! Or How the Rich Have Gamed the System to Pay a Smaller Share  AlterNet   ...October 3 marked the 100th anniversary of the federal income tax. That is, the income tax that we have today – the first US tax raised on earned incomes was a temporary one imposed to help pay for the War of 1812. Another helped pay for the Civil War, but was allowed to expire in 1872...
Google and ExxonMobil run rings around outdated tax laws  The Conversation   ... ExxonMobil (has a) ... Spanish subsidiary (that) operated for a while from the same address as its auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers. The Spanish company apparently had one employee on an annual salary of €55,000, but it reported net profits of €9.9 billion for the period 2009 to 2011. The key to this was a strategy designed to take advantage of Spanish laws for attracting foreign investment...
Coal Use Falling, Proof of Progress to Low-Carbon Future  Oil Price   ...The vehemence in this pace of growth has led the IEA to project that coal consumption will challenge oil as the top global energy source by 2017. From this point, however, its reign will wane as an increasing emphasis is placed on other more clean-burning fuels...
Now the Government Shutdown Is Stopping Blood Drives  Mother Jones   ... in just two days, four federal agency blood drives scheduled by one DC-area health care system have been canceled. The regional Red Cross has had to cancel six others in the Washington region...
The Republican Hardliners Aren't Conservatives, They're Radicals  The Atlantic   ...The legislators driving the direction of the GOP aren't interested in smart, limited government. They're aiming to eviscerate even the parts that work well...
NSA director admits to misleading public on terror plots  Salon   ...The Vermont Democrat then asked the NSA chief to admit that only 13 out of a previously cited 54 cases of foiled plots were genuinely the fruits of the government’s vast dragnet surveillance systems...
Treasury Says Mere Prospect of Default May Harm Economy  New York Times   ...The debt-limit impasse could cause credit markets to freeze, the dollar to plummet and interest rates to rise precipitously with catastrophic effects, according to a Treasury Department released Thursday...
Apple now hoards 10% of US corporate cash  Money Control   ...After the technology sector, the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry is the next most cash-flush sector, according to Moodys. Pfizer for example, is sitting on a USD 50 billion cash pile...
BP wins appeal of spill claims ruling  Associated Press   ...A federal appeals court on Wednesday revived BP’s claims that a judge’s interpretation of a settlement over its 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could force the company to pay billions of dollars for bogus or inflated claims by businesses...
Florida prison healthcare providers sued hundreds of times  Miami Herald   ...The Florida Department of Corrections awarded a five-year, $1.2 billion contract to provide medical care for thousands of state prisoners in North and Central Florida to a Tennessee company that was sued 660 times for malpractice in the past five years...
New RTW Battles in Michigan and Ontario  Democracy Tree   ...Two new right-to-work threats to report: one in Michigan against the non-union, dues-based State Bar of Michigan, and another across the border in Ontario. Michigan attorneys are firing back against the shadowy forces behind RTW. The Koch brothers should be warned: Don’t piss-off 43,600 lawyers...
Detroit residents cope with bankruptcy in daily lives  USA TODAY   ...Here are some far-reaching effects of the city’s lack of operating funds on both its citizens and workers...
Trade unions rail against non-union worksite  Philadelphia Inquirer   ...Philadelphia Trade unions have taken their dispute with developers Michael and Matthew Pestronk to a new level, producing a sleek documentary that accuses the brothers of safety and health violations at their signature project, the unfinished Goldtex building...