Woo-hoo! WA Teamsters reach TA with Fred Meyer
Teamster Nation
Posted October 5, 2011
Good news from Local 117 in Washington. After Teamsters warehouse workers voted to strike Fred Meyer, a Kroger subsidiary, an agreement was reached Monday afternoon. Here's the word from Local 117:

Teamster grocery warehouse workers reached a tentative 3-year agreement with Fred Meyer late yesterday afternoon for a contract affecting 362 workers at Fred Meyer's grocery distribution center in Puyallup.

The Union’s bargaining committee, which consists of nine rank-and-file members and five Union staff, unanimously recommends that the membership approve the proposed settlement. The workers will vote on whether to ratify the agreement on October 15 and October 16.
Teamsters Local 117’s Secretary-Treasurer, Tracey A. Thompson, commented on the tentative agreement:

“We are pleased that Fred Meyer ultimately came to the table yesterday ready to bargain. I want to thank our Teamsters brothers and sisters and our many community partners for their incredible support. In the end, it was the strength and solidarity of the Fred Meyer workers that really mattered. These workers were willing to risk their livelihoods to achieve a fair contract, which is what made this recommended offer possible.”

Read the source story here.

Huge NYC Union March Set to Spotlight Occupy Wall Street Protest
AFL-CIO Now Blog
Posted October 5, 2011
New York area union members will join an expected several thousand labor activists and supporters tomorrow in a Wall Street march and rally in support of the Occupy Wall Street protesters.

The grassroots-grown protest is now in its third week, with a diverse array of people from across the country camping out in the heart of the financial district to demand Wall Street is held accountable for the schemes and reckless games that led to the nation’s economic collapse.

The mostly young Occupy Wall Street protesters are “speaking for the vast majority of Americans who are frustrated by the bankers and brokers who have profited on the backs of hard working people,” says Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) President Larry Hanley.

Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), says Occupy Wall Street “has brought into sharp focus a reality that cannot be denied.”
Read the source story here.

Teamsters are Occupying Everywhere
Teamster Nation
Posted October 5, 2011
Teamsters in droves are joining the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement as it spreads to more than 200 cities and towns from Portland, Me., to Honolulu, Hawaii. Livestreams are up in 10 cities.

New York Teamsters were with the protesters in the first few days of the occupation, and the OWSers have taken several actions in solidarity with Local 814's locked-out art handlers.  More unions are joining in, as AFSCME, CWA, ATU, SEIU Local 1199, TWU Local 100, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and the Professional Staff Congress-CUNY issued statements of solidarity and support.

We understand a New Jersey Teamsters local is getting involved (not sure which one yet). Tomorrow, a bus from Teamsters Local 445 in Rock Tavern, N.Y., will head down to Wall Street.
Read the source story here.

Trumka at Take Back the American Dream Conference: ‘Bring It On!’
AFL-CIO Now Blog
Posted October 5, 2011
At the Take Back the American Dream conference this afternoon, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka described the unequal economic situation in the country today, saying:

Think about it:  Bank of America, which makes about $1 billion a month, announces it’s going to charge customers $5 a month to use their own money to shop with their debit cards. Mind you this is the financial giant that paid its global banking and markets president nearly $30 million last year—and this year turned around and announced it’s going to fire 30,000 workers!

Trumka told the audience that the right wing is “banking on an upside-down America for its path to political power.” He described the right’s four-part plan:

• First, they’ll do everything they can to keep our economy on the rocks—no money for jobs, no way—keep people hurting and angry.  
• Second, they’ll fan the flames of anti-government angst by making sure our government looks dysfunctional—gridlocked and lurching from funding deadline to deadline.  
• Third, they’re ginning up this season’s version of “divide and conquer”—set taxpayers against public employees, jobless Americans against immigrants.  
• And finally, they’re doing their damnedest to make sure the electorate in 2012 looks nothing like the electorate of 2008—disenfranchising new voters with voter ID laws, suppressing student voters and a whole lot more. 

Read the source story here.

Study Shows Income Inequality Severely Hampers Economic Growth
Think Progress
Posted October 5, 2011
Income inequality in the U.S. is higher than at any other time since the Great Depression, and the U.S. is currently more unequal than countries like the Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, and Pakistan. Though Republicans dismiss concerns over the gap as “class warfare,” the ever-increasing level of disparity has tangible consequences, leading to poor work performance and a greater gap in life expectancy. And now, according to a new Finance & Development study, income inequality also “kills economic growth.” Looking at how to sustain economic growth, the research found that “making an economy’s income distribution 10 percent more equitable prolongs its typical growth spell by 50 percent”:
Read the source story here.

Occupy Wall Street protesters to join forces with protest at City Hall over education layoffs
NY Daily News
Posted October 5, 2011
There's another angry rally planned for lower Manhattan Tuesday - this one focused on hundreds of city workers scheduled to be laid off at the end of the week.

Labor leaders, frustrated Department of Education employees and their supporters will vent their rage outside City Hall from 4p.m. to 6 p.m.

And now it looks like some of the Occupy Wall Street protesters will be heading over to join the crowd.

While I'm not sure if the Wall Street "zombies" will make a guest appearance, here's what we do know: More than 700 people who work in school support-staff positions are losing their jobs.
Read the source story here.

Memo To The Media: It’s Not ‘Anti-Capitalist’ To Protest An Industry That Was Saved By Trillions Of Taxpayer Dollars
Think Progress
Posted October 5, 2011
The occupation of Wall Street has now entered its third week and protests are spreading like wildfire throughout the country.

As the protests continue to grow, the media is increasingly taking notice. Yet many of these media outlets are insisting on referring to the protests as “anti-capitalist.”

[...] But the actual organizing principle of the demonstrations is to speak with moral clarity of the economic inequality of our current system. The purpose is not to attack capitalism but rather an industry whose wealth was guarded to the hilt by government intervention — backed up by trillons of dollars of taxpayer money through programs like the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and near-zero interest Federal Reserve lending — a form of government intervention that the banking industry received but millions of foreclosed on homeowners and debt-laden students did not get.

During a teach-in at Zucotti Park, the site of the occupation, Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz explained that what Wall Street is practicing is “not capitalism.” “We are bearing the costs of their [bankers'] misdeeds,” he said. “There’s a system where we socialize losses and privatize gains. That’s not capitalism. That’s not a market economy. That’s a distorted economy, and if we continue with that, we won’t succeed in growing.”
Read the source story here.

Cozy relationships and ‘peer benchmarking’ send CEOs’ pay soaring
The Washington Post
Posted October 5, 2011
[...] This is how it’s done in corporate America. At Amgen and at the vast majority of large U.S. companies, boards aim to pay their executives at levels equal to or above the median for executives at similar companies.

The idea behind setting executive pay this way, known as “peer benchmarking,” is to keep talented bosses from leaving.

But the practice has long been controversial because, as critics have pointed out, if every company tries to keep up with or exceed the median pay for executives, executive compensation will spiral upward, regardless of performance. Few if any corporate boards consider their executive teams to be below average, so the result has become known as the “Lake Wobegon” effect.

It wasn’t until recently, however, that its pervasiveness and impact on executive pay became clear. Companies have long hid the way they set executive pay, but in late 2006, the Securities and Exchange Commission began compelling companies to disclose the specifics of how they use peer groups to determine executive pay.
Read the source story here.

Free Trade Standoff Is Resolved
The New York Times
Posted October 5, 2011
The Obama administration moved Monday to complete free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, submitting the deals for Congressional approval after resolving a standoff of months with Republicans over the details of a package both sides said they favored.

The White House is depending on Republican support for the trade agreements to overcome the passionate opposition of Democrats concerned about the loss of American jobs to foreign competition. But it agreed to submit the deals to Congress only after receiving what administration officials described as sufficient assurances that House Republicans would also approve an expansion of benefits for displaced workers. The Senate approved an expansion of the benefits program last month.
Read the source story here.

Labor Protections in Trade Deals Are a Cruel Joke
Labor Notes
Posted October 5, 2011
It’s a cruel joke that Democratic politicians are trotting out language about “labor standards” to defend imminent trade agreements with Colombia, Korea, and Panama.

President Barack Obama sent Congress all three deals Monday, and lawmakers are expected to move quickly to approve them before the Korean president arrives October 13.

If legislators OK the deals as they stand, they will have learned nothing from previous trade pacts. Just look at the labor rights requirements in the 2001 U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement.

These “protections” include boilerplate “core labor standards” on non-discrimination and rights to organize and bargain.
Read the source story here.

Romney On Wall Street Protests: ‘It’s Dangerous, This Class Warfare’
Think Progress
Posted October 5, 2011
Ongoing protests on Wall Street are in their third week, as demonstrators continue to speak out against corporate greed and growing income inequality. Several labor unions have lent their support to the protests, with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka saying that “being in the streets and calling attention to issues is sometimes the only recourse you have.” When White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was asked about the protests, he replied, “to the extent that people are frustrated with the economic situation, we understand.” However, 2012 GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney does not approve of the protests. “I think it’s dangerous, this class warfare,” said Romney — who has become a favorite of Wall Street donors — when asked about the protest.
Read the source story here.

'Is this Occupy Wall Street thing a big deal?'
The Maddow Blog
Posted October 5, 2011
Andrew Ross Sorkin, chronicler of Wall Street, pays a visit to the occupation:

“Is this Occupy Wall Street thing a big deal?” the C.E.O. asked me. I didn’t have an answer. “We’re trying to figure out how much we should be worried about all of this,” he continued, clearly concerned. “Is this going to turn into a personal safety problem?”

As I wandered around the park, it was clear to me that most bankers probably don’t have to worry about being in imminent personal danger. This didn’t seem like a brutal group — at least not yet.

But the underlying message of Occupy Wall Street — which spread to Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles on Monday — is something the big banks and corporate America may finally have to grapple with before it actually does become dangerous.

The message of Occupy Wall Street, Sorkin decides, is that people want the financial industry held accountable for what has happened to the American economy, and they're willing to go all the way to "civil unrest" to get it.
Read the source story here.

Eric Cantor: Job Creation Dead on Arrival
AFL-CIO Now Blog
Posted October 5, 2011
Last week, we had a great Twitter campaign pointing out how House Speaker John Boehner is failing to create jobs.

Looks like Rep. Eric Cantor has now joined the Republican jobs fail crowd, saying President Obama’s American Jobs Act is “dead on arrival.” As AFSCME President Gerald McEntee put it:

Rep. Cantor just doesn’t get it. The country needs jobs, not another out-of-touch politician.

Enough with the grandstanding, Rep. Cantor needs to get to work.  Get his party to work, to do the job they were elected to do, stand up for their constituents.  It is time for politicians in Washington to come together and rebuild our economy and pass the American Jobs Act now.    

Yesterday, the Republican Majority Leader in Congress, Eric Cantor, said that right now, he won’t even let the jobs bill have a vote in the House of Representatives.  He won’t even give it a vote.

Read the source story here.

GOP Budget Proposal Cuts Pell Grants For 1 Million Students, 10 Percent Of Those Eligible
Think Progress
Posted October 5, 2011
House Republicans unveiled their draft budget proposal for labor, health, and human services last week, which includes major cuts to education, women’s health, and job training, among other things. The GOP particularly takes aim at low-income and working students with their proposal to severely restrict eligibility for Pell Grants, barring grants to students who attend college less than half time. Terry W. Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education, estimated that the bill would eliminate Pell grants for about 1 million students, or roughly 10 percent of those now eligible. Many public colleges and universities have already raised tuition costs, which means middle and low-income families now face the prospect of paying more with less student aid.
Read the source story here.

Charts: Regulation, taxes not to blame
The Maddow Blog
Posted October 5, 2011

Republicans have been making two main arguments about the economy -- that taxes are killing business, and that regulation is killing business. With regard to regulation, former Reagan and elder Bush adviser Bruce Bartlett runs the data today from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and finds companies blaming lack of demand, not surfeit of regulation, for layoffs.

Another report shows that regulation as the primary complaint by businesses has ticked up under the Obama administration, but is still lower than under the first President Bush.
Read the source story here.

Paid Sick Days: A Model Economic Security Issue
Working America.org
Posted October 5, 2011
At the Take Back the American Dream conference, one of this morning’s panels focused on the economic security needs of women and their families, and it illuminated how significant paid sick leave is as an issue.

Among the thousands of people we at Working America talk to, paid sick time is an issue that immediately connects. It’s about the top issue on every family’s mind: keeping a job and a paycheck. It shows how ordinary working people are too often disempowered compared to corporations. And it’s an issue that is the right size to tackle and win on.

Working America’s Executive Director, Karen Nussbaum, said that, as our canvassers talk to 20,000 people every week in working class neighborhoods, they learn a lot about what issues matter. “The main lesson we draw from the field is that people feel isolated, desperate and powerless,” Nussbaum said, and paid sick days is “just the right level of possible.” – it’s a *winnable* issue, and that excites people. “It’s about people beginning to feel that you can win, that you can fight back against corporations. We have to give people a reason to hope that it’s possible to fight back.” Asking our members to take action on paid sick leave is the most successful action we’ve put forth, and it’s a first step to building power generally among these working class families.
Read the source story here.

American Dream Movement Will ‘Shake Up Politics’
AFL-CIO Now Blog
Posted October 5, 2011
Speaking at a noon press conference at the Take Back the American Dream conference, Robert Borosage, co-director of Campaign for America’s Future, said his organization plans to move the American Dream movement by engaging activists across the country to push a “Jobs not Cuts” agenda and to partner with organizations to identify, recruit and support 2,012 American Dream candidates up and down the ballot, from the school board to U.S. Senate. Borosage also announced a commitment to launch 100 major state and local actions engaging 100 leaders across the country over the next year. 

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker noted that “Americans are dreaming about jobs because America wants work,” and said the AFL-CIO is “committed to fighting alongside all working people whether they are in our union or in our communities.”
Read the source story here.

Poll: 1 in 3 vets sees Iraq, Afghan wars as wastes
AP/The Seattle Times
Posted October 5, 2011
One in three U.S. veterans of the post-9/11 military believes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were not worth fighting, and a majority think that after 10 years of combat America should be focusing less on foreign affairs and more on its own problems, according to an opinion survey released Wednesday.

The findings highlight a dilemma for the Obama administration and Congress as they struggle to shrink the government's huge budget deficits and reconsider defense priorities while trying to keep public support for remaining involved in Iraq and Afghanistan for the longer term.

Nearly 4,500 U.S. troops have died in Iraq and nearly 1,700 in Afghanistan. Combined war costs since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have topped $1 trillion.
Read the source story here.