News Stories for November 30, 2011
AFL-CIO Now Blog
Posted November 30, 2011Time after time this year, congressional Republicans have voted against jobs-creating legislation, telling the fire fighters, teachers, construction workers and jobless Americans—“Don’t worry. We have our very own jobs plan.”
This week in the House, we get to see it in all its disingenuous glory. Here’s how congressional Republicans plan to create jobs—by attacking workers’ rights and gutting workplace and environmental safety and health laws. They really claim this is their jobs package.
The first bill (H.R. 3094) is scheduled to be voted on tomorrow. It would deny workers the right to fair union elections by blocking the modest changes proposed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) earlier this year in the way union elections are conducted.
It gives employers new tools to block workplace elections by establishing several new waiting periods before an election can go forward and giving employers more grounds to appeal pre-election decisions by the NLRB. It also allows employers—not workers and the union they wish to join—a larger role in determining who is part of a bargaining unit.
On Thursday and Friday, House Republicans will set their sights on crippling the government’s ability to enforce current rules and develop new health, safety and environmental laws. The two main bills are the so-called Regulatory Accountability Act (H.R. 3010) and the REINS Act (H.R. 10).Read the source story here.
Think Progress
Senate Democrats yesterday introduced legislation — as they’ve been promising to — that would extend a soon-to-expire payroll tax cut, and pay for it by implementing a surtax on income above $1 million. Republicans, of course, are opposing the plan, reviving their false claims that taxing the very wealthiest Americans will hit small businesses and job creators.
In essence, the GOP is saying that it’s willing to allow higher taxes on middle- and lower-income Americans in order to prevent tax increases on the very wealthy. According to an analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice, provided to the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent, the surtax would affect exceedingly few taxpayers, while a payroll tax cut expiration would wallop more than 100 million households:
The surtax would impact around 345,000 taxpayers, roughly 0.2 percent of taxpayers, or one in 500 of them. Those people would pay on average an additional 2.1 percent of their overall income, or just over 1/50th of that overall income, in taxes.Read the source story here.In a majority of states, only one-tenth of one percent, or one in 1,000 taxpayers, would pay this surtax.
And how many people would benefit from the payroll tax cut? According to the group, around 113 million tax filing units — either single workers or families that include more than one worker — would see their payroll tax cut extended. That’s a lot of people — well over 113 million workers, in fact.
Newsweek's 'The Daily Beast'
Every blessed once in a great while, all artifice is stripped away, rhetoric collapses under the weight of its own absurdity, and we get to see things as they really are. Such will be the case later this week when the Senate tries to vote on extending the payroll-tax holiday. The Republicans will oppose it—that is to say, the Republicans will support a tax increase on working Americans. And why? Because the Democrats want to pay for it with a small surtax on the very top earners. So the choice couldn’t be more direct: which is more important, giving the middle class a tax cut or protecting those who make more than $1 million a year? Republicans are making it clear. This vote alone should destroy them.
Read the source story here.
Greg Sargent, in The Washington Post
What if a top analyst at a major financial firm predicted that failure to pass the payroll tax cut extension would lead to a big drop in that firm’s growth forecast? Would that impact the debate at all?
That’s exactly what happened yesterday, and Dems are about to pounce on it in a big way to boost to their argument in favor of passing the extension.
Michael Pond, the co-head of interest rate strategy at Barclays Plc, went on Bloomberg TV yesterday and made a striking claim: If Congress doesn’t extend the payroll tax cut, it could lead Barclay’s to drop its growth forecast by 1.5 % for the first quarter of next year.Read the source story here.
AFL-CIO Now Blog
Posted November 30, 2011When your job gets shipped overseas, you want help fast. You don’t want to decode reams of fine print to get that help.
The AFL-CIO Working America Institute (WAI) has cracked the code of the highly respected federal Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program and created a new website to help workers devastated by outsourcing get the help they need.
At TAAhelps.org, a simple, engaging animation, introduces TAA’s benefits, including training, health care and income support and job-hunt resources. It’s easy to quickly click through benefit details—and jump to a resource page that breaks down the process of TAA certification.
Short videos of workers who have benefited from TAA bring home the crucial role this program has played for more than 50 years in helping some 280,000 workers start a new chapter in their lives.Read the source story here.
Publicola
Josh has been down in Olympia today covering the opening of the special legislative session in Olympia,
where legislators are working to close a $1.5 billion budget gap. Gov. Chris Gregoire has proposed an all-cuts budget that saves $2 billion (with $500 million of that going into reserve funds) by slashing education, health care for the poor, human services, and corrections.
Protesters affiliated with unions, public schools, state universities and colleges, and the Occupy movement showed up in force to oppose both Gregoire’s all-cuts budget and her proposed half-cent state sales tax, which would allow the state to “buy back” about $500 million of the cuts.
Josh asked the budget committee leaders in the house and senate, Rep. Ross Hunter (D-48) and Sen. Ed Murray (D-43), what they thought about the fact that their party’s progressive base turned out to oppose a sales tax proposed by the state’s Democratic governor. Hunter’s acknowledged that the sales tax, which disproportionately impacts the poor, “is a regressive tax. In fact, I can’t imagine a more regressive tax, unless we did a poll tax.” However, he added, “We’re going to have many discussions on all the revenue options.”
Murray said, “Look, [the protesters] are absolutely right in the long term. We have a structural problem, and [the sales tax] is a regressive tax. But we cannot sacrifice people’s lives on the altar of political correctness. We need a lot of money and we nee d it now. I’ll support any kind of tax we can get through. I’m a tax agnostic. I want revenue.”
Murray predicted that the legislature wouldn’t finish the budget or the revenue package during the special session, and that legislators would wrap up both during a shorter-than-usual regular session, probably by February.Read the source story here.
Crooks and LiarsThousands of protesters greeted lawmakers beginning a 30-day special session to address Washington state's budget woes, and police later using Tasers in a skirmish as a large crowd refused to leave the Capitol building at the end of the day.
Approximately 3,000 people protested at the Capitol throughout the day, though the number of protesters on campus at any one time varied. The protesters came from various groups, including Occupy Olympia, unions and social service groups.
Troopers used Tasers on three people when demonstrators when they tried to enter the Capitol building, and a fourth person was tasered outside on the other side of the building, where the three arrests took place after attempts to enter the Capitol from a different entrance. As clashes broke out between troopers and protesters, one trooper reported that he was bitten in the arm. Two people were arrested for assault, obstruction and resisting arrest, and another for obstruction and resisting arrest.Read the source story here.
Think Progress
For months, major banks have been dealing with the fallout of the “robo-signing” scandal, following reports that the banks were improperly foreclosing on homeowners and, in many instances, falsifying paperwork that they were submitting to courts. Banks have been forced to go back and re-examine foreclosures to ensure that homeowners did not lose their homes unlawfully.
In the latest episode of this mess, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has found that banks — including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup — may have improperly foreclosed on up to 5,000 active members of the military.
Read the source story here.
AFL-CIO Now Blog
Members of Congress got an earful today about the dangerous and often life-threatening conditions workers face at oil refineries and in other oil processing facilities. At a briefing sponsored by the United Steelworkers (USW), Kim Nibarger, a USW health and safety specialist, laid out the issue in stark terms:
When things go bad in a refinery, they go really bad and people die.Since the last round of talks in the National Oil Bargaining program, the industry has reported 25 fatalities and 175 fires in oil industry facilities, according to the USW. A new round of bargaining is expected to begin in January.
In recent years, the oil industry has focused its safety efforts on the individual worker—making sure people wear their goggles and hardhats, for instance —while ignoring the perils of aging and poorly maintained equipment and plants, according to the USW. As Nibarger explained:
BP had a low personal injury rate at its refineries, but the 2005 explosion and fire at its Texas City plant showed it failed miserably in terms of process safety. Fifteen people were killed and 170 were injured in the 2005 accident as a result of this failure.USW Vice President Gary Beevers, who heads the National Oil Bargaining program, also addressed the briefing.
Read the source story here.
Think Progress
House Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), will mark up H.R.1633, the Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act of 2011, protecting Americans from a non-existent threat. This bill blocks the Environmental Protection Agency from issuing new regulations on toxic agricultural dust, even though the EPA is not intending to issue new regulations on toxic agricultural dust. Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), and Rep. John Carter (R-TX) have all falsely claimed the EPA is planning new toxic dust regulations. When asked, their spokesmen admitted they were speaking “hypothetically.”
Read the source story here.
Greg Sargent, in The Washington Post
Okay, so here we are again. Senate Dems are set to hold a vote on extending the payroll tax cut, which independent experts say is necessary to prevent the recovery from stalling. Republicans oppose extending it, partly on the grounds that it would be paid for by a 3.25 percent surtax on income over $1 million.
The dispute is over how to fund the extension. As a spokesman for John Boehner put it, extending the tax cut is a “potential area for common ground,” but it’s a nonstarter if it’s coupled “with a job-killing tax hike on small businesses.”
So it’s time to check in again with the non-partisan Citizens for Tax Justice to determine exactly what this surtax would mean — how many people it would impact, and how much in additional taxes they would have to pay.
Here’s the answer, provided to me by the group: The surtax would impact around 345,000 taxpayers, roughly 0.2 percent of taxpayers, or one in 500 of them. Those people would pay on average an additional 2.1 percent of their overall income, or just over 1/50th of that overall income, in taxes.
In a majority of states, only one-tenth of one percent, or one in 1,000 taxpayers, would pay this surtax.
And how many people would benefit from the payroll tax cut? According to the group, around 113 million tax filing units — either single workers or families that include more than one worker — would see their payroll tax cut extended. That’s a lot of people — well over 113 million workers, in fact.Read the source story here.
The Hill's Congress Blog
These are strange times at the National Labor Relations Board. First, the Board has endured months of relentless right-wing attacks. Now, in an unprecedented move, Brian Hayes, the sole Republican member of the NLRB – which will be reduced to two members and lacking a quorum by the year’s end – is threatening to resign in order to sabotage a long-awaited new rule on union certification elections.
In an op-ed in The Hill, former Bush NLRB chairman Peter Schaumber, a prominent critic of the Board, blames the current shambles on the allegedly shabby way Hayes has been treated by his fellow Board members, both Democrats. But Hayes’ resignation threat has been coming for months.
When Chairman Wilma Liebman’s term ended in late August, right wing groups and prominent Republicans immediately called for Hayes to step down in order to incapacitate the Board. Senator Graham stated that, given the NLRB’s efforts to enforce the law more effectively, “Inoperable is progress,” whereas South Carolina Governor Nikki Halley would “support anything that would disband the NLRB.” Perhaps the only surprise is that Hayes has taken so long to follow their advice.
Read the source story here.
We Party Patriots
This morning, locked out workers picketed the Cooper Tire and Rubber Co. plant in Findlay, OH. Yesterday, plant officials told 1,050 workers they were on “extended holiday shutdown” and then announced they would try to continue on with temporary workers.
The union workers, represented by Steelworkers (USW) Local 207, had been negotiating a new deal in good faith and although they rejected management’s last deal by a two to one margin (305 for, 606 against) they agreed to work while a new deal was negotiated. The union has said they plan to file unfair labor practice charges against Cooper Tire with the National Labor Relations Board. Union Subdirector Patrick Gallagher told the Toledo Blade:
“These negotiations have been hindered considerably by Cooper’s behavior at the bargaining table and the company’s determination to instigate a labor dispute.”Cooper Tire and Rubber Co. is one of the largest employers in the small northwest Ohio town of 41,202. Like many other small Ohio towns its economic liveliness is based on the success of the rubber trade. The Findlay plant made tires for pickup trucks.
The new deal proposed by management could not gain support among union members because it asked for more concessions than they made in their last deal. Previous concessions came at a time when the company’s CEO Roy V. Armes saw his salary rise to $4.7 million, up from $4 million in 2009 and $2.6 million in 2008.
Read the source story here.
AFL-CIO Now Blog
Kudos to Los Angeles union members who helped out those in need over the recent holiday. The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and Labor Community Services, AFL-CIO sponsored the Homeless Heroes Team, with more than 200 union members, their families and veterans taking part in a 5K run/walk and raising $10,000 for homeless vets.
The Los Angeles County Federation and Labor Community Services also provided Thanksgiving dinners for 2,000 unemployed union families, with more than 50 volunteers filling up 2,000 grocery bags with food and turkey certificates.
Says Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation:The continuing hardship our members face in the current uncertain economy has had huge impact here in Los Angeles County. The continuing support of our members to assist others less fortunate than themselves highlights the strength and might of the labor movement.Read the source story here.
Wonkette
There’s suddenly a whole lot of “bipartisan support” for a supposed anti-piracy law that will actually let the U.S. Government force American Internet providers to shut down all access to any website immediately. Why might that be a popular idea, in Congress, right about now? And why are these anti-government Republicans like Congressman Lamar Smith of Texas behind such a heavy handed Big Brother off-switch on the entire Internet? And why is Joe Biden apparently strongly against such legislation, even though the Obama Administration supports it fully? Oh, right, because Biden is talking about how other countries shouldn’t do what the United States is about to do.
The conveniently rare bipartisan supporters of the SOPA/Protect IP censorship bills claim it’s to protect Republican interests such as “Hollywood movie studios” and “Hollywood media companies,” but in fact the “Protect IP” and “SOPA” bills actually let the government order any website accused of illegal distribution of intellectual property to be shut down by all American Internet service providers. Hey, is there a Kuwaiti guy putting a spam link to his Russian movie download site in the comments of, say, OccupyWallSt.org? Well just shut down OccupyWallSt.org, it’s that easy.
We’ve written about this before, and it just keeps getting worse. The interesting thing is that Google and Facebook and other such Internet giants are against the law, they say because there’s so much insane potential for abuse that a big Internet company would suddenly be forced to have a whole division to shut down sites as fast as whatever government agency demands it.
Take a Moment To Help Defeat the Senate’s Internet Censorship NonsenseRead the source story here.
The News Tribune
The toll in the first two days of the Legislature’s emergency budget session:
- Six troopers and one state employee hurt in scuffles with protesters.
- Fifteen arrests, and at least six demonstrators hit with shocks from troopers’ stun guns.
- $12,000 in overtime costs for troopers on Monday alone and $8,200 for their first-day travel to Olympia.
- Two hearings on the budget that were held up by demonstrators.
- Two votes taken on legislation – neither of them on the state budget that has brought lawmakers to Olympia to fix a $2 billion problem.
Demonstrators demand the gap be bridged in part with tax increases, not just with cuts to social services, schools and the like. The State Patrol says most have expressed those sentiments peacefully. But there have been confrontations with a few in the Occupy movement.
Of 11 people arrested Tuesday, six are accused of disorderly conduct, most for disrupting a budget hearing.Read the source story here.
Main Street
“For companies, these are boom times. For workers, the opposite is true.”That’s how New York Times economic columnist Floyd Norris describes the latest reports on the state of the economy. According to the federal Bureau of Economic Statistics, as a percentage of the GDP – the overall size of the economy – corporate profits are at a record high, while the percentage of the GDP made up by wages and salaries is the lowest it’s been since 1929. Clearly, something is broken.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with companies or very wealthy people doing well, but in recent years their success has become completely disconnected from the economic health of the rest of us. And public policy, rather than helping alleviate that gap and lift everyone up, is often pushing in the direction of expanding the gap. In Washington D.C. and state capitals, we’re seeing efforts to strip away protections from workers, roll back the social safety net and push tax rates on the very wealthiest even lower than their current low levels.
These shifts are accentuated by the fact that a money-driven political system rewards those who can spend the most on campaign contributions, TV ads and lobbying. More and more, the political system responds not to the concerns of the majority but to the narrow financial interests of those who already have economic power. The political system is overzealously responsive to the top 1% of earners. And the rest of us? Left behind – without a safety net, in communities that can’t provide the services we depend on.Read the source story here.
- In These Times:
Congressman Calls for Investigation Into Potential NLRB Shutdown - Politico:
Poll: It's still the economy, stupid - NW Labor Press:
Occupy moves to banks and bridges - Crooks and Liars:
Lobbyist Behind $850,000 Kill Occupy Wall Street Plans to Co-Host Romney Fundraiser - Think Progress:
Wall Street Banks Earned Billions In Profits Off $7.7 Trillion In Secret Fed Loans Made During The Financial Crisis - The Washington Post:
How Europe could drag down the United States, in one chart - Politico:
GOP worried about losing jobs message - Crooks and Liars:
Rick Perry Forgets the US Voting Age, Election Date - The washington Post:
The decline of congressional oversight, in one chart - The Seattle Times:
White House threatens veto of GOP regulatory bills - Think Progress:
GOP Lawmaker Behind Pennsylvania’s Election Rigging Scheme Is Considering A Run For U.S. Senate - Crooks and Liars:
Gingrich to Obama: Repudiate the Concept of the 99% - The Washington Post:
Millionaire’s surtax would hit the top 1 percent of small businesses - The Seattle Times:
Support for tea party cools off everywhere - The new York Times:
As public sector sheds jobs, blacks are hit hardest - The Progressive:
Wisconsin's Recall Signatures Pouring In - We Party Patriots:
Indiana Dem: Party Members “Don’t Want To Get All Into This Issue of Right-to-Work” - Daily Kos:
Republican moves to block regulation are about corporate power, not jobs - The LA Times:
Chinese factories hit by strikes amid manufacturing slowdown - Firedog Lake:
Pepper Spray Developer: It Has Become Fashionable to Use Chemicals on People with Opinions