Trucking Industry, Teamsters Clash Over Owner-Operator Bill
The Journal of Commerce
Posted January 27, 2012
The harbor trucking industry is clashing with the Teamsters union over a bill before the Washington state legislature that would classify owner-operators as employees rather than as independent contractors.

The bill is similar to legislation introduced last year in California. That bill was placed in the “inactive file” last summer when it failed to progress, but since California legislation can continue on for two years, it could be resurrected at any time this year.

Generally, the drayage truck driver classification issue is part of the Teamsters’ strategy to organize drivers at ports across the country. Unions can not organize independent contractors, but if truck drivers are classified as employees of harbor trucking companies, the Teamsters could legally organize the drivers.

The Washington Trucking Association, which opposes classifying drayage truck drivers as employees, told a legislative committee Tuesday in Olympia, Wash., that the bill would violate federal preemption law.

[...] The Teamsters charge that misclassification of drivers as independent contractors denies the drivers normal financial protections such as overtime wages and unemployment benefits that they would receive as full-time employees. Also, misclassification results in lost tax revenue to the state that would normally be paid by employers.

Heather Weiner, the Teamsters political director in Washington State, said the legislation could move quickly due to the relatively short 60-day session of the legislature. If the bill is approved in the House of Representatives and the State Senate, it could go up for final approval in early March, she said.
Read the source story here.

Indiana House Passes a Bill on Union Fees
The New York Times
Posted January 27, 2012
The Republican-held Indiana House of Representatives passed legislation on Wednesday barring union contracts from requiring nonunion members to pay fees for representation, ending weeks of partisan battling and all but assuring that the state will become the first in the Midwestern manufacturing belt deemed a "right to work" state.

Even as the lawmakers in Indianapolis voted 54 to 44, mostly along partisan lines, to approve the measure, legislators and union leaders in other states said they were preparing for similar fights ahead. In some states, Republican supporters of “right to work” provisions said Indiana’s move — the first state to take such a course in more than a decade — had added a sense of urgency to their own efforts.

“I’m disappointed that they beat us to this one,” Mike Shirkey, a Republican state representative from Michigan, said of Indiana, adding that he hoped a similar measure might soon be debated in Michigan.
Read the source story here.

Unions plan to continue fighting anti-union bill in Indiana
Daily Kos
Posted January 27, 2012
Even getting their way on their anti-union right to work free rider bill, Indiana House Republicans found a way to be ungracious scumbags:

Following more than three hours of debate, House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, rushed into the final vote to block a Democratic request for a live roll call vote.

Bosma then shut down the electronic voting machine before every member could vote, recording some lawmakers as voting for the measure when they wanted to vote no, while others didn't get to vote at all.

For five minutes, confusion reigned on the House floor as lawmakers huddled over printouts of the vote record and demanded recognition from the speaker to change their vote.

The votes were ultimately corrected, so we know that the vote was 54-44, with five Republicans joining Democrats in opposition to the bill, which will force union members to pay the costs of union representation for their coworkers who choose not to join the union, a change from current law in which nobody has to join the union, but those who do not pay a fair share of the costs of bargaining contracts, handling grievances and other services.
Read the source story here.

Teamsters Warn Hostess Not To Misuse Bankruptcy Process
Teamster.org
Posted January 27, 2012
The Teamsters Union on Thursday warned Hostess Brands Inc. not to misuse the bankruptcy process in an attempt to bully its way to unnecessary operations changes, saying a consensual resolution with sacrifices by all stakeholders is what is required.

The company filed motions on Wednesday to reject its collective bargaining agreements with its major unions: The International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco and Grain Millers Union (BCTGM).

While such filings are an extraordinary move by the company that has serious ramifications, there are no immediate changes to the collective bargaining agreements. The filing of the motions begins a formal negotiation and legal process. The negotiation phase is intended to bring the parties together to reach a consensual resolution. If that fails, a formal hearing is conducted in bankruptcy court where the judge ultimately decides whether or not to grant the motions.   
Read the source story here.

Labor, Management Partner to Create Jobs in Wash. State
AFL-CIO Now Blog
Posted January 27, 2012
Here’s a bipartisan solution: Labor and management working together to create jobs.

In Washington State, where construction workers are experiencing up to 50 percent unemployment, a labor-management coalition is working to push a jobs bill through the state legislature to alleviate the jobs crisis and rebuild infrastructure.

The Washington State Labor Council, the Washington State Building and Construction Trades Council, the Association of General Contractors are sponsoring the Infrastructure Jobs Bond legislation and have released lists identifying which capital construction work around the state could be funded through the legislation.

Says Dave Myers, executive secretary of Washington State Building and Construction Trades Council:

These jobs will become a reality right away for thousands of laid off constructions workers and returning veterans. The projects will also be targeted toward key sectors of economic development including construction of aerospace training facilities and college research facilities, both of which will spin off other economic development.

Read more here.
Read the source story here.

What would Henry Ford tell Apple?
The Seattle Times
Posted January 27, 2012
Yesterday's post on Apple outsourcing most of its manufacturing to -- how does one put it? -- Chinese workers in serf conditions provoked more comments than anything I've written at the Seattle Times, or any other newspaper for that matter. The loss of our high-tech manufacturing base is not new, Intel's Andy Grove wrote about it two years ago, and it's not confined to Apple. But as America's middle-class continues to decline, seeing itself more and more pushed into low-wage service jobs, the issue becomes more combustible.

Too many of our business leaders have swung 180 degrees from Henry Ford at the start of the 20th century. Before Ford, the automobile was an expensive, rich-man's toy. Using advanced mass production, he made it affordable to most Americans. But he did more, paying his workers good wages so they could buy his products. Ford's insight upset many robber barons of the time, but he wasn't alone. John Henry Patterson of National Cash Register did much the same. With business leaders such as these, the sweatshops of the Industrial Revolution were banished and America was on its way to creating the largest middle-class in history.

What would they say to America's CEOs today?
Read the source story here.

Romney May Have Paid Zero Taxes In 2009
Crooks and Liars
Posted January 27, 2012
I spent some time yesterday going through Willard's 2010 return and 2011 estimates of his taxes, and I agree with David Shuster in this segment. There's every possibility that the Romneys paid no income taxes at all in 2009 and possibly also in 2008. Here's why, starting at about 1:08 in the video above:

SHUSTER: Actually, Governor, if you think a limited release is going to put this issue behind you, you're politically tone-deaf. First, your 2010 return indicates you paid a rate of 13.9 percent. Furthermore, it suggests you paid far lower than that in 2009. You see, the 2010 return reveals you carried over $4.9 million dollars in losses from the previous year. That means you paid no taxes on capital gains in 2009, including no taxes on your carried interest.

So how much did you pay in 2009? Zero? How close to zero was it, Governor? Or how about the 2008 year, where the investment market first crashed?

Taxpayers are limited on the amount of capital losses they can use to offset income. In a year with low capital gains, high capital losses can offset the amount of those gains for a net-zero result. Any losses not used are carried forward to the following year, where they can be used there. The bottom line on Romney's tax return is that he likely paid minimal taxes in 2009, since his charitable deductions probably offset any speaker's fees, dividends and interest he was paid. I'm guessing he paid payroll tax on the speaker's fees up to the cap, and that is about it. Must be pretty nice, eh? Perhaps that's why Ann Romney thinks it's unfortunate that he had to release even 2010, since she's concerned about people knowing how successful he is.
Read the source story here.

Obama: Taxing millionaires about math, not envy
The Raw Story
Posted January 27, 2012
President Barack Obama on Thursday rebutted his Republican critics, like former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who have accused him of having a “politics of envy.”

“Do we want to keep these tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans or do we want to keep investing in everything else?” he said at an event in Las Vegas. “We can’t do both.”

Obama said that those making over a million dollars a year should pay a tax rate of at least 30 percent, his so-called Buffett rule, and noted that Bill Gates had a similar view.

“I promise you, Bill Gates does not envy the rich,” he said. “This has nothing to do with envy, it has everything to do with math.”
Read the source story here.

Kansas Attacks PLAs, Unions with HB2515
We Party Patriots
Posted January 27, 2012
Anti-worker Kansas legislators have renewed the affront to unions that they established last year with the introduction of HB 2515, a bill that aims to ban Project Labor Agreements (PLAs).

Whereas last year’s Kansan War on Workers focused on a Paycheck Deception bill that aimed to strip unions of their involvement in the political process, HB2515 squares off with private sector construction unions under the auspices of a misleading title, The Competitive Bid Protection Act.

We have listed time and again on this site the benefits of PLAs. They include: wage, safety and benefit standards as well as minority, female and veteran hiring requirements, to name a few. When anti-union extremists use the term “competitive” they intend to suggest that PLAs cut non-union contractors out of the bidding process. But, per usual, this is misleading and has been proven false not only in theory but in practice. What is truly “competitive” about PLAs are the workers’ wages and benefits they ensure.
Read the source story here.

Romney Omitted Funds Held In Offshore Tax Havens From Ethics Forms
Think Progress
Posted January 27, 2012
A now-closed Swiss bank account and at least 23 investment funds listed in former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s (R) recently released tax returns were not listed in his most recent financial disclosure forms, which are required to run for office. Among the unlisted funds were 11 based in offshore tax havens like Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, and Luxembourg, the Los Angeles Times reported today, and many are associated with Bain Capital, the private equity firm Romney co-founded. According to the Times, Romney’s campaign dismissed the discrepancies as “trivial” but said they will have to make “some minor technical amendments” to Romney’s disclosure forms.
Read the source story here.

Mr. Gingrich's Deceptions
The New York Times, editorial
Posted January 27, 2012
Newt Gingrich’s victory in South Carolina turned on an almost comically broad deception, an inversion of the truth in which the insider whose personal wealth and political experience are entirely creations of Washington becomes the anti-establishment candidate. That it worked speaks poorly of voters who let themselves be manipulated by the lowest form of campaigning, appealing to their anger and prejudices.

Speaking on “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Mr. Gingrich said he was the only one in the race who understands the level of anger at the “national establishment.” He feels no need to actually define this establishment; it’s simply a blob of elitist others who are trying to tell real Americans “what they’re allowed to think, what they’re allowed to say.” It is clear, though, that both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are in it, as are Wall Street, all bureaucrats and most emphatically the national media.
Read the source story here.

Apple's Profit Skyrockets, Workers Die at Its Factories
AFL-CIO Now Blog
Posted January 27, 2012
Hours after Apple released its first quarter earnings, which showed a mind-blowing 44.7 percent profit, the New York Times published another in a series of articles illustrating some of the reasons behind Apple’s profit margin. Describing the conditions in which Chinese workers assemble iPhones, iPads and a panoply of Apple products, the report states:

Employees work excessive overtime, in some cases seven days a week, and live in crowded dorms. Some say they stand so long that their legs swell until they can hardly walk. Under-age workers have helped build Apple’s products, and the company’s suppliers have improperly disposed of hazardous waste and falsified records, according to company reports and advocacy groups that, within China, are often considered reliable, independent monitors.

More troubling, the groups say, is some suppliers’ disregard for workers’ health. Two years ago, 137 workers at an Apple supplier in eastern China were injured after they were ordered to use a poisonous chemical to clean iPhone screens. Within seven months last year, two explosions at iPad factories, including in Chengdu, killed four people and injured 77. Before those blasts, Apple had been alerted to hazardous conditions inside the Chengdu plant, according to a Chinese group that published that warning.

Read the source story here.

Bus drivers for Alameda County special needs kids speak out about safety, low wages
The Mercury News
Posted January 27, 2012
Bus drivers who transport special needs students in Alameda County spoke out Thursday about safety concerns, low wages and lack of benefits.

"We're trying to bring more safety for the kids," said Linda Aguiar, who has been driving buses for special needs children for 25 years. "The buses are old. There are holes in them, exposed wiring, no air conditioning."

Aguiar works for Durham School Services, which provides bus transportation for about 2,700 special needs students in school districts in Castro Valley, Dublin, Fremont, Hayward, Livermore, Newark, Pleasanton, San Leandro, San Lorenzo and Sunol. The 180 drivers work out of bus yards in Livermore and Hayward.

Durham bus drivers and union organizers gathered Thursday night in San Leandro at the Teamsters Local 853 building on Merced Street in an attempt to have their voices heard by the public and by Durham.

The drivers will be voting Feb. 17 whether to join the Teamsters Joint Council 7, based in San Francisco. "They want better wages," said Doug Bloch, the political director for Teamsters Joint Council 7. "They want better health care. They want sick days and vacation days. They want safe buses."
Read the source story here.

South Carolina's "Right-to-Work" Act of 1954 Is Apparently Not Good Enough for 2012
We Party Patriots
Posted January 27, 2012
The news this week that the South Carolina House Caucus, along with Governor Nikki Haley, had signed the “Right-to-Work Act of 2012″ was a bit confusing. After all, South Carolina has been a “Right-to-Work” (RTW) state, and a proud one at that, since 1954 [...]

But apparently the old “Right-to-Work” law was not good enough for Governor Haley who issued a statement saying, “unions are not needed, wanted, or welcome in South Carolina.” The new ‘ramped up’ RTW law, as the viciously anti-union lobby group Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) described it, would prohibit striking workers from collecting unemployment and ban Project Labor Agreements (PLAs), the pre-hire construction contracts that seek to enforce wage and safety standards as well as diversity requirements for hiring. But hey, who needs wages, safety and diversity in South Carolina, right?
Read the source story here.

Nearly One Quarter Of American Workers Are In Low-Wage Jobs, More Than In Other Developed Nations
Think Progress
Posted January 27, 2012
According to data from the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation that was highlighted by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, nearly 25 percent of American workers are in low-wage jobs, defined as “earning less than two-thirds of the national median hourly wage.” This is higher than many other industrialized nations, including the U.K., Canada, and Australia. CEPR found that the developed world’s high number of low-wage jobs “may contribute to broader income and wealth inequality and constitute a threat to social cohesion.”
Read the source story here.

Walker's State of the State Rings Hollow to Many Wisconsinites
AFL-CIO Now Blog
Posted January 27, 2012
Amid John Doe investigations into former staff and a recall election imminent, Gov. Walker delivered his second State of the State address last night. In one year in office Gov. Walker has torn our state apart, attacked workers’ rights and dismissed our democracy. As job loss continues to plague Wisconsin, Walker’s actions speak louder than words.

“Gov. Walker lied to the electorate last November, concealing his plans to attack Wisconsin workers and slash funding for local schools and communities. [Last night], his State of the State speech rang hollow to too many Wisconsinites who are living with the everyday realities of the current Wisconsin economy,” said Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO. “Six months of job loss show that Gov. Walker’s policies are not working. It is time to change course, stop rewarding special interest allies at the expense of the working people of Wisconsin, and get Wisconsin back on track.” 

“In the last year Gov. Walker has cost Wisconsin job after job.  First, by rejecting high-speed rail initiatives than by enacting a job-killing budget and attacking the rights of Wisconsin workers,” said Stephanie Bloomingdale, secretary-treasurer of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO. “The people of Wisconsin are smart and see through the rhetoric and half-truths. We look forward to recalling Gov. Walker in the coming months.”
Read the source story here.

TransCanada's Dirty Keystone XL Jobs Claims Draw Complaint To SEC
Think Progress
Posted January 27, 2012
ThinkProgress Green has learned that TransCanada, the foreign tar sands company behind the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, is facing a potential inquiry into whether it deliberately deceived investors by inflating the job-creation potential of the project. Greenpeace has filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over TransCanada’s “false or misleading statements about the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project.”

In the complaint, Greenpeace shows evidence from TransCanada’s Canadian filings and the State Department that the project would involve fewer than 1000 in-state jobs, and around 6000 total jobs. This evidence is contrasted with TransCanada’s (TRP) repeated public pronouncements that pipeline construction would involve 20,000 American jobs.
Read the source story here.