Friday, February 14, 2014

Today's Teamster News 02.14.14

Teamster News
Teamsters Celebrate, Remember James R. Hoffa  teamster.org   ...“I shook his hand!” “He remembered my name.” “He was always one of us.” “He changed my life.” These comments and hundreds more like them still can be heard at Teamster retiree meetings held at union halls and truck stops all across the country...
Teamsters Local 542 and United Food and Commercial Workers 135 representatives meet with National Beef employees  Imperial Valley Press   ...National Beef workers met with their respective union representatives throughout the day Wednesday to discuss what they can expect to happen as the April 4 scheduled plant closing draws nearer...
Teamsters' 4-year contract with Allegheny County doesn't include retroactive raises  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette   ...Members of Teamsters Local Union 249, whose salt and plow truck driving members threatened to strike last week as a snow storm loomed, have signed a new contract with Allegheny County...
The elephant in the room  New York Daily News   ...Now that NYCLASS members expect Mayor de Blasio to banish the horses, as he promised, they have moved on to considering new wrongs to right. Next up? The circus...
Carriage horses focus of cruelty debate  USA Today   ..."What would be abuse is if we go out of business – we can't keep these horses," Hemingway said, standing next to a massive Belgian draft horse named Duke. "I guarantee you, we go out of business, they'd be in a bag of dog food in a month..."
State Battles
Whose vote is it? Move over politicians: This is a union vote  timesfreepress.com   ...It's a union election. It concerns more than 1,500 hourly workers and Volkswagen in Chattanooga. But with politicians wildly gesticulating on every podium from here to Nashville, you would think it was government business. It isn't...
John Doe investigation records to be released Feb. 19  Channel 3000   ...Thousands of emails and other documents uncovered during a secret investigation into a former aide to Gov. Scott Walker will be released Feb. 19...
Critics blast Arizona superintendent for promoting private schools  azcentral.com   ...John Huppenthal, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, made an automated call to families promoting a program that uses taxpayer dollars to send kids to private school...
Gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer vows to repeal right-to-work law  Michigan NBC News   ...The gubernatorial candidate is making a lot of promises including a repeal of right-to-work. “Governor Snyder cannot point to one job that's been created as a result of right to work,” says Schauer...
Report: Missouri voter-ID bill could disenfranchise 220,000  MSNBC   ...A proposed voter ID bill in Missouri could disenfranchise 220,000 registered voters, according to an impact report released on Tuesday by Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander...
New Hampshire low-wage workers: We need help to buy basics  Associated Press   ...Anita Mendes, 67, who lives in the Monadnock region, told a House committee she supplements her Social Security income with a minimum-wage job 18 hours a week, despite having a master's degree in social work. She also said her 90-year-old mother helps her make ends meet...
Koch brothers bombard vulnerable Senate Democrat Kay Hagan  Politico   ...Americans for Prosperity, a group co-founded by the conservative billionaires, has already dropped $8.2 million on TV, radio and digital ads in an effort to defeat the North Carolina Democrat. According to sources tracking media buys, the group has so far spent more in North Carolina than all Democratic outside groups in every Senate race in the country — combined...
Trade
As Obama Meets Neighbors, Nafta Critics Warn Over New Trade Deal  Wall Street Journal   ...Veteran critics of the North American Free Trade Agreement warn that some of the negative effects of the 20-year-old deal could be repeated in a larger trade bloc that spans the Pacific Ocean...
NAFTA’s 20-Year Legacy and the Fate of the Trans-Pacific Partnership  Public Citizen   ...NAFTA proponents’ projections of broad economic benefits from the deal have failed to materialize. Instead, millions have suffered job loss, wage stagnation, and economic instability from NAFTA...
War on Workers
Cold weather chills retail sales, jobless claims up  Reuters   ...U.S. retail sales fell unexpectedly in January and more Americans filed for jobless benefits last week, the latest signs the economy started the year on softer footing as unseasonably cold weather took its toll...
How Comcast Buying Time Warner Cable Could Impact You — And The Entire Entertainment Industry  Think Progress   ...this deal only means that Comcast is buying Time Warner Cable, rather than the suite of Time Warner entertainment businesses, which includes a number of magazine properties, cable networks like HBO, CNN, TNT, and CBS...
How ALEC Helps Big Telecom Change State Laws for Corporate Gain  Center for Media and Democracy   ... At closed-door ALEC meetings, state legislators sit down with lobbyists for corporations like AT&T, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, Comcast, and News Corp to be handed changes to our laws that further the right wing agenda and directly benefit the corporate bottom line...
Communities With More Walmart Stores Also Have More Crime  Jezebel   ...The study looked at annual crime rates in 3,109 counties between 1991 and 2009. Wolfe was especially focused on the 1990s, when crime rates plummeted nationwide and Walmart experienced dynamic growth. The study found that the crime reduction was slowed in communities where Walmart expanded, a trend that continued in the 2000s...
Opinion: Walmart Is Far From A Victim Of 'Partisan' Labor Board  Forbes   ...the Board’s General Counsel was simply upholding the law. The real victims here are Walmart employees who, according to the NLRB’s complaint, face retaliation and even termination if they speak out against poverty wages and poor working conditions...
Unemployment rate crosses 28% threshold, reaching new high  Enet English   ...Crossing a new threshold, the unemployment rate (in Greece) hit another historic high in November, with 28.0% of the workforce without a job, acccording to the Hellenic Statistics Authority (Elstat)...