News Stories for March 26, 2012
Teamster Nation
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is endorsing the 99% Spring, a week of training for direct action to take America back. It's a coalition that includes unions, community groups, faith groups, students, civil rights organizations -- you get the picture. Here's what it's all about:
From April 9-15 we will gather across America, 100,000 strong, in homes, places of worship, campuses and the streets to join together in the work of reclaiming our country. We will organize trainings to:Stay tuned; there'll be lots more!
Tell the story of our economy: how we got here, who’s responsible, what a different future could look like, and what we can do about it
Learn the history of non-violent direct action, and
Get into action on our own campaigns to win change.
Read the source story here.
The New York Times
Wine wholesalers and amateur beer makers want Congress to repeal a law that makes it illegal to ship alcohol by mail.
Giant insurers like Aegon of the Netherlands want to make sure that the United States Postal Service stays out of the insurance business. And medical supply companies like Medco oppose the post office’s plans to cut Saturday delivery, saying the move would delay medicines and could add to the cost of mail-order drugs.
As Congress begins work this week on legislation to shore up the finances of the debt-ridden post office, companies representing a cross-section of American business are spending millions of dollars lobbying lawmakers to oppose or support various proposals to keep the agency afloat.
In total, lobbying disclosure records show that companies and unions with a stake in a postal overhaul have spent nearly $300 million in the last three years as the financial condition of the post office has worsened, though it is not known how much of that was spent specifically on postal issues.
The service is the backbone of a mailing and shipping industry that employs more than 8.5 million people and supports almost $1 trillion in economic activity every year. The service itself employs 574,000 people.Read the source story here.
The Washington Post
There’s less than a week left for Congress to agree to a highway bill of some sorts. Otherwise, come March 31, all federally funded roadwork will grind to a halt. The U.S. government will no longer collect $93 million per day in gas taxes. And construction workers will get laid off en masse. Chaos.
In theory, it shouldn’t be too hard to prevent this apocalyptic scenario from coming to pass. On Monday, the House is planning to vote on a clean, 90-day extension of the current transportation law. Simple enough, right?
Except, as Politico reports, time is running out, so the House bill is being considered under a suspension of the rules. That means it needs a two-thirds majority to pass. And that’s still far from assured. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats would prefer the House just take up their own two-year highway legislation, though the Senate has quietly conceded that it will consider a short-term extension instead to avoid mass layoffs. But that still leaves the risk that even a short-term bill could get caught in the snags, delays, and cloture motions the Senate is famous for.Read the source story here.
The New York Times
NEW statistics show an ever-more-startling divergence between the fortunes of the wealthy and everybody else — and the desperate need to address this wrenching problem. Even in a country that sometimes seems inured to income inequality, these takeaways are truly stunning.
In 2010, as the nation continued to recover from the recession, a dizzying 93 percent of the additional income created in the country that year, compared to 2009 — $288 billion — went to the top 1 percent of taxpayers, those with at least $352,000 in income. That delivered an average single-year pay increase of 11.6 percent to each of these households.
Still more astonishing was the extent to which the super rich got rich faster than the merely rich. In 2010, 37 percent of these additional earnings went to just the top 0.01 percent, a teaspoon-size collection of about 15,000 households with average incomes of $23.8 million. These fortunate few saw their incomes rise by 21.5 percent.
The bottom 99 percent received a microscopic $80 increase in pay per person in 2010, after adjusting for inflation. The top 1 percent, whose average income is $1,019,089, had an 11.6 percent increase in income.Read the source story here.
The Washington Post
Jonathan Chait points us to a remarkable Mitt Romney interview with the Weekly Standard, in which Romney confirms that he intends to eliminate whole departments of the federal government. But he’s reluctant to tell us which ones, because so doing could be politically damaging [...]
Chait sees this as a moment of unintentional political candor, in which Romney is admitting that detailing specific plans for cutting government risks being unpopular. Americans always say they hate government in the abstract, but their anti-government zeal suddenly goes wobbly when specific progams are on the chopping block. So Romney is avoiding detailing specifics that could damage him in the general election.
That’s bad enough. But there’s still another layer to the rhetorical contortions on display here. Romney isn’t just refusing to detail specifics because he’s worried about hurting himself in the fall. He’s also trying to sell conservatives on the idea that he shouldn’t have to detail all the ways he’ll downsize government, because it will weaken him against Obama. Romney’s intended audience here is conservatives who want reassurances that he genuinely intends to pursue a major downsizing of government. He’s basically asking them to let him keep things vague (wink, wink) so Dems can’t use his promises against him.
Read the source story here.
The Hill
A proposal by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to include workers' email addresses and phone numbers on voter lists for union elections could become the next flashpoint in the war between labor and business.
Originally proposed as part of the NLRB's union election rule in June last year, the provision was shelved when the labor board passed other portions of that rule in December. But opposition to sharing workers' contact information has begun to grow on Capitol Hill and among business groups over worries that the NLRB may bring the proposal back.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has launched a campaign to bring more attention to the proposal. Utilizing social media and running online ads in and outside the Beltway, the trade association plans to highlight the proposal and gin up resistance among its members. “It's clearly something the board intends to pursue and we hope this vote will send a strong message to them that it has overstepped its bounds,” Glenn Spencer, vice president of the Chamber’s Workforce Freedom Initiative, told The Hill.Read the source story here.
The New York Times
The Supreme Court's 5-to-4 ruling in Citizens United in 2010 was shaped by an extreme view of the First Amendment: money equals speech, and independent spending by wealthy organizations and individuals poses no problem to the political system. The court cavalierly dismissed worries that those with big bank accounts — and big megaphones — have an unfair advantage in exerting political power. It simply asserted that "the people have the ultimate influence over elected officials" — as if campaigns were not in the business of influencing and manipulating voters.
The flood of money unleashed this election season is a direct consequence of this naïve, damaging view, which has allowed wealthy organizations and individuals to drown out other voices in the campaign. The decision created a controlling precedent for other legal decisions that made so-called super PACs the primary vehicles for unlimited spending from wealthy organizations and individuals. In theory, they operate independently of candidates. In reality, candidates are outsourcing their attack ads to PACs, so financing a PAC is equivalent to financing a campaign.
Read the source story here.
The Seattle Times
Ever since he joined the multistate lawsuit challenging President Obama's health-care overhaul, state Attorney General Rob McKenna has taken pains to say his goal is not to kill the entire law.
McKenna, the Republican gubernatorial hopeful, has voiced support for the more popular provisions — such as allowing children to stay on their parents' health insurance until age 26, and the ban on insurers denying coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions.
The lawsuit will not strike down those patient protections, McKenna has repeatedly said. Its purpose was to challenge the constitutionality of just a couple provisions, he says, chiefly the requirement that most Americans buy private health insurance by 2014 or face a fine.But such statements are at odds with the legal arguments that have been made in McKenna's name, a conflict that Democrats have seized on in trying to poke holes in his image as a moderate Republican.
Read the source story here.
The Stand
The University of California Berkeley Labor Center will host the 31st Annual Western Regional Summer Institute on Union Women 2012 (SIUW) on July 23-27. Sponsored by the AFL-CIO and the United Association for Labor Education, this is a week at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, CA, to honor, strengthen, and support women in the labor movement. The theme for this year’s SIUW is “Campaign School for a New Generation,” which captures our commitment to train, mentor, and inspire new leaders in the labor movement.
The Washington State Labor Council’s Women’s Committee is offering four SIUW scholarships covering tuition, room and board provided at the facility, and reasonable travel expenses. No time loss will be paid. Participants must be able to take vacation or union leave. Download an application form, which is due by May 10, 2012, along with a 100-word or less letter from the applicant. For more information, contact Women’s Committee staff liaison, Kairie Pierce, at 360-943-0608.
Click here for more information, including details on costs and how to register.Read the source story here.
The New York Times
Since 1940, it has been illegal for federal government contractors to contribute to federal political campaigns or parties. But in the new unregulated, unlimited jungle of campaign finance, Mitt Romney's super PAC is allowing some contractors to violate that historic ban, taking yet another dangerous step toward a culture where government business is done on a pay-to-play basis.
[...] The Citizens United decision allowed corporations and unions to contribute unlimited amounts to so-called independent political groups, but it did not address the contractor ban. Given the long history of that ban, most third-party groups wisely assumed that it remained in place. For example, American Crossroads, the conservative super PAC formed by Karl Rove, requires donors to certify that the money does not come “from the treasury of an entity or person who is a federal contractor.” The same requirement is made by the super PACs supporting President Obama, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul.
But not Mr. Romney’s super PAC, Restore Our Future, which does not impose that condition.
Read the source story here.
Talking Points Memo
Former Wisconsin state Sen. Randy Hopper (R) was found not guilty by a jury Friday on a charge of drunk-driving, after mounting a court defense that his arrest in October was the product of a conspiracy by the public employee union members who had successfully worked to recall him from office earlier last summer.
The verdict was delivered Friday afternoon, according to the Fond du Lac Reporter.
Hopper and his attorney Dennis Melowski presented a case that public employee union members in Fond du Lac County, the place Hopper formerly represented and where he was arrested for the alleged DUI, have been out to get him for his support of Gov. Scott Walker’s legislation that eliminated most collective bargaining rights for public employees.Read the source story here.
The Washington Post
The AFL-CIO on Monday called for Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney to dismiss a campaign labor advisor linked to an ethics investigation at the National Labor Relations Board.
AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka said Peter Schaumber, a former Republican member of the NLRB, used his connections to obtain inside information from a current board member.
Schaumber has not been accused of wrongdoing. But a report last week from the agency's inspector general found that current board member Terence Flynn violated ethics rules by leaking details of internal board deliberations to Schaumber and others.
The inspector general's report has been referred to the Justice Department for further investigation.Read the source story here.
The Stand
Posted March 26, 2012At its 2011 Convention, Washington State Labor Council delegates approved a resolution calling for the WSLC to create a month-long celebration of workers’ culture in May 2012 to honor of the 100-year anniversary of the Lawrence, Mass., textile strike — the “Bread and Roses” strike.
As part of this celebration the WSLC has launched a You Tube film competition (3- to 5-minute films) under the theme of “work” or “we do the work.” The three best short films from around Washington State will be shown at the SIFF Theater as part of the 2012 Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle over Memorial Day Weekend (May 25-28). In addition, the top three filmmakers will receive prizes $250, $150 and $100, respectively.
All film entries should be submitted to the local Central Labor Councils around the state. April 20 is the deadline for submissions. The CLCs will review the film entries in April and each council will submit its best three to the WSLC, where a panel of judges will evaluate the films and decide the winning three that will be shown at the Northwest Folklife Festival at the end of May in Seattle.Read the source story here.
We Party Patriots
Wisconsin Lieutenant Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch accused the Democratic candidate who is hoping to beat Gov. Scott Walker in the upcoming recall election of having to get a “sugar daddy” to run for office.
“Kathleen Falk has spent pretty much her entire adult life in politics, so you would think she might rely on her own record or values or grassroots support to propel her in her desperate race for progressive recall glory,” she said on her campaign website. “But instead of pulling out the greatest hits of her own resume, or digging into a reserve of grit and resilience, instead of building a campaign around her own ideas, Kathleen got a sugar daddy.”
She claimed Falk, the first female County Executive of Dane County, exchanged her political platform for union money and endorsements. Falk has said she would veto the next state budget if it did not restore public unions’ collective bargaining rights.
“It is scandalous, and it reeks of the dependent, fragile woman leaning on a big, strong arm because she doesn’t believe she can do it on her own,” Kleefisch stated. “Kathleen Falk is setting women back 50 years.”Read the source story here.
Paul Krugman, New York Times columnist
Florida's now-infamous Stand Your Ground law, which lets you shoot someone you consider threatening without facing arrest, let alone prosecution, sounds crazy — and it is. And it's tempting to dismiss this law as the work of ignorant yahoos. But similar laws have been pushed across the nation, not by ignorant yahoos but by big corporations.
Specifically, language virtually identical to Florida's law is featured in a template supplied to legislators in other states by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate-backed organization that has managed to keep a low profile even as it exerts vast influence (only recently, thanks to yeoman work by the Center for Media and Democracy, has a clear picture of ALEC's activities emerged). And if there is any silver lining to Trayvon Martin's killing, it is that it might finally place a spotlight on what ALEC is doing to our society — and our democracy.
Read the source story here.
- We Party Patriots:
Georgia's Anti-Picketing Law (SB469) Passes Committee. Atlanta Tea Party Issues Call to Action Invoking (GASP!) Martin Luther King - AlterNet:
3 Ways Women Workers are Fighting Discrimination, Wage Theft, and Abuse on the Job - Teamster Nation:
Why are Chinese companies building U.S. roads and bridges? - The News Tribune:
McKenna challenges Inslee to 15 debates - AFL-CIO Blog:
Supreme Court Begins Hearings on Republican Challenge to Affordable Care Act - Huffington Post:
Senate Democrats Unveil Business Tax Breaks - The Washington Post:
We can't afford another 18 years of health-care drift - We Party Patriots:
John Doe Update: Walker Aides Used "Secret Router" to Have Private Conversations on County Time - Teamster Nation:
Republic sympathy strike disrupts Buffalo waste and recycling pickup - In These Times:
Labor Joins Losing Fight Against Bogus, Dangerous 'JOBS Act' - AFL-CIO Blog:
T-Mobile Takes the Low Road, Closes U.S. Call Centers with 3,300 Workers - Broadcast Union News:
Newspaper Guild to Protest S&P Outsourcing Thousands of Jobs to India - We Party Patriots:
VIDEO: AFGE Local 3258 President Gives Fantastic Anti-Spending Cut Presentation - Broadcast Union News:
Guild Represented Employees to N.Y. Times: Without Us It's Just White Space - AlterNet:
How Ronald Reagan Broke the Air Traffic Controllers Union--And Why That Fight Still Matters - AFL-CIO Blog:
Shrinking Middle Class and Crumbling Infrastructure Have Ties That Bind - In These Times:
Grad Student Workers Plan Counterattack After Michigan Gov. Signs Law Denying Rights - Politicus USA:
Debunking the GOP Propaganda: Only 34% Want Obamacare Repealed - We Party Patriots:
Cuomo Threatening to Privatize NY Infrastructure Investment - AFL-CIO Blog:
Labor Department Honors Farm Worker 'Pioneers'