Teamsters Local 174 Labor News Feed

Thank a Union: 36 Ways Unions Have Improved Your Life

20 May 2012 18:35:28 GMT

This is repost of a blog I wrote in winter of last year when the protests against Governor Walker and union busting were gearing up.

Way beyond my wildest expectations, this post actually went viral.

I've decided to post this again here, not to try and prolong the success of it or recycle it, but because I feel it is still very relevant and can't be said enough. Especially with the Wisconsin recall elections less than a month away.

The right has made unions the boogeymen of our time. It is our duty to set the record straight.

Please share this with everyone you know. I don't care about credit. You can put your name on it for all I care. I just want the message out.

Unions are not a bad thing. In fact, we should thank them everyday of our working lives.

God Bless Unions!

Solidarity Forever!

Wisconsin recall slipping away from Democrats

20 May 2012 18:35:12 GMT

Just two and a half weeks remain in the recall of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), and momentum seems to be firmly on the GOP’s side.

All three polls out this week show Walker leading Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D) by between 5 percent and 9 percent. Perhaps more illustrative, though, are the candidate’s personal favorability and approval numbers.

Despite all the attempts by Democrats and organized labor to turn him into the bogeyman, Walker’s job approval and favorable rating both remain in positive territory, at right around 50 percent.

Barrett, meanwhile, has no such luxury. The latest Marquette University Law School poll of this race showed his favorable rating at just 37 percent, compared to 45 percent who view him unfavorably.

As of late March, the same pollster showed Barrett, the 2010 Democratic nominee against Walker, was viewed favorably by 34 percent and unfavorably by just 27 percent.

That’s a massive shift, with his unfavorable rating jumping 18 points in just seven weeks. It reflects both the difficult primary that he just emerged from (in which labor backed his opponent) and Republicans’ sustained early effort to define him.

NLRB Administrative Judge Upholds Local 25 Victory at Central Parking

20 May 2012 18:34:56 GMT

An administrative law judge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Region 1 in Boston has upheld the February 8 organizing victory at Central Parking in the Boston area, paving the way for 334 workers to join Local 25.

The company had held up the certification process by challenging some of the ballots that were cast. The judge ruled that 28 challenged ballots were not eligible to be counted, while seven ballots were.

“Accordingly, based on the forgoing, as the challenged ballots of the seven voters found eligible herein are insufficient to affect the results of the election, I recommend that the Board certify the results of the election in favor of the Union,” the judge ruled.

“We are very pleased that the judge saw through the company’s stonewalling,” said Sean M. O’Brien, President and Principal Officer of Local 25 in Boston. “Since February 8, the workers at Central Parking have been in limbo. Now they are members of Local 25 and we will work hard at negotiating a strong first contract that addresses their concerns.”

Artists disrupt boardroom for Sotheby's Teamsters

20 May 2012 18:34:38 GMT

New York's prestigious Whitney Museum of American Art didn't get what it was expecting when it invited artists Rene Gabri and Ayreen Anastas to perform at its Biennial Exhibition. Gabri and Anastas are from the 16 Beaver Group, a political artist collective. They treated art lovers to a brave piece of performance art that gave patrons a rare look into union-busting inside the corporate boardroom.

The two artists linked up with Teamster art-handlers who have been locked out by the Sotheby’s auction house since last August. The workers have been pressing museums like the Whitney to stop working with Sotheby’s, which was also a sponsor of this year’s Biennial.

Teamsters and activists from Occupy Museums joined the artists in the fifth floor boardroom of the museum for their performance dialogue, “The Indivisible or Inadmissible Committee.” Gabri and Anastas vaguely billed the event as a kind of conversation about decisions made by the elite in boardrooms versus struggle, strikes, and “art as a form of strike.”

Little did the Whitney know that this performance would be a conversation about the Sotheby’s lockout and why the museum would do business with such an anti-worker auctioneer corporation. Nor did the museum know that the conversation would be videotaped and projected on to four large screens in the huge fourth floor galleries.

At Big U.S. Companies, 60% of Cash Sits Offshore: J.P. Morgan

20 May 2012 18:34:22 GMT

Large U.S. companies are holding at least 60% of their cash overseas with some keeping nearly all of their cash balances offshore, according to a study from J.P.Morgan accounting analysts published Wednesday.

In a review of disclosures, the bank’s analysts found that out of the $974 billion in cash on the balance sheets of 602 U.S. multinationals, at least $588 billion, or 60%, is sitting in foreign accounts.

“Foreign subsidiaries are becoming much more important in a lot of businesses, especially with companies that have substantial amounts of intellectual property,” JP Morgan accounting analyst Dane Mott told CFO Journal, noting that many of the companies with significant overseas cash stockpiles were in the technology and pharmaceutical industries.

How the 1% hijacked the U.S. courts

20 May 2012 18:33:47 GMT

Alternet has a terrific story about how the Benedict Arnold Koch brothers and their pals have taken over the courts -- for their own benefit, of course, and to the detriment of the 99 percent.

The main point:

A 30-year campaign to push America's courts sharply to the right has borne abundant fruit for those in the top 1 percent.

We see it reflected in today's Supreme Court, which, having unleashed a flood of super-PAC cash into our political campaigns in a decision that was one of the most brazen examples of judicial activism in the court's history, now stands poised to overturn not only the Democrats' healthcare bill, but much of the jurisprudence that supported the welfare state developed since the New Deal.

A study by the Constitutional Accountability Center found that the Chamber of Commerce had won 65 percent of its cases heard by the court under Chief Justice John Roberts, compared to 56 percent under former Chief Justice William Rehnquist (1986-2005) and just 43 percent of the cases that came during the Burger court (1969-1986).

The Campaign Against Women

20 May 2012 18:33:32 GMT

Despite the persistent gender gap in opinion polls and mounting criticism of their hostility to women’s rights, Republicans are not backing off their assault on women’s equality and well-being. New laws in some states could mean a death sentence for a pregnant woman who suffers a life-threatening condition. But the attack goes well beyond abortion, into birth control, access to health care, equal pay and domestic violence.

Republicans seem immune to criticism. In an angry speech last month, John Boehner, the House speaker, said claims that his party was damaging the welfare of women were “entirely created” by Democrats. Earlier, the Republican National Committee chairman, Reince Priebus, sneered that any suggestion of a G.O.P. “war on women” was as big a fiction as a “war on caterpillars.”

But just last Wednesday, Mr. Boehner refuted his own argument by ramming through the House a bill that seriously weakens the Violence Against Women Act. That followed the Republican push in Virginia and elsewhere to require medically unnecessary and physically invasive sonograms before an abortion, and Senate Republicans’ persistent blocking of a measure to better address the entrenched problem of sex-based wage discrimination.

Made in PA underwear co. expects to grow

20 May 2012 18:33:16 GMT

Remember when we told you about that new company that's selling men's underwear made in America? ABC News liked the story and did a feature on it, adding information about the Pennsylvania company that manufactures the boxers and briefs. It's called Fessler USA, in Orwigsburg, and it expects to add jobs this year.

The manufacturer told ABC that they were impressed with the energy and vision of Jake Bronstein, the New York designer who wanted to sell underwear made in the USA.

A key Romney argument crashes and burns

20 May 2012 18:32:53 GMT

As you know, Mitt Romney has settled on a key counter-argument in the battle over his Bain years: his Bain restructurings, at bottom, are really no different from what Obama did to rescue the auto industry. As I and several others have noted (see Steve Benen), this argument rests on a comical rewriting of the history of the auto-bailout, and an equally absurd series of shifting assertions about his Bain years.

Romney’s latest: he has revived the claim that he created 100,000 jobs while at Bain, after spending months employing a constantly-changing Bain “job creation” figure. He’s now added another twist: not only did he create 100,000 jobs at Bain, but a comparable number were lost under Obama’s restructurings of the auto companies.

Today Post fact checker Glenn Kessler weighs in with a definitive piece that does a total demolition job on Romney’s entire argument. There’s a lot to chew on here, but this is the key conclusion:

Romney appears to be saying it is okay to count jobs created after he left Bain, but it’s not okay to count jobs lost after he left Bain...Not only is his claim of creating 100,000 jobs at Bain untenable, but also his assertion that 100,000 jobs have been lost in the auto industry “on the president’s watch” does not add up.

Yes, there were some painful cuts in the auto industry at the start of Obama’s presidency, largely because tough choices had to be made. One could argue whether those choices were necessary or effective, but the bottom line is clear: No matter how you slice it, jobs overall have grown substantially in the auto industry under Obama. In fact, it is one of the bright spots of today’s economy.

This loony billionaire hates government spending unless it's for him

20 May 2012 18:32:33 GMT

Joe Ricketts is contributing a small fortune to attacks on President Obama, alleging his "overspending" of taxpayer money. Note: deficit spending under President George W. Bush was three times as high as under Obama.

One guess as to where Ricketts does want the government to spend taxpayer money. Hint: he owns the Chicago Cubs.

Yup, Ricketts think taxpayers should pony up for a new ballpark for him rather than roads, schools or police protection.

Walker Gets Key Endorsement

20 May 2012 18:32:13 GMT

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel endorses Gov. Scott Walker (R) in next month's recall election:

"No governor in recent memory has been so controversial. No governor in America is so polarizing. Everyone has an opinion about Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin. Here's ours: We see no reason to remove Walker from office. We recommend him in the June 5 recall election."

Nurses Lead NATO Protest for 'Robin Hood Tax'

20 May 2012 18:31:56 GMT

In the labor movement's main contribution to protests at NATO's meeting in Chicago this weekend, a thousand members of the National Nurses Union--joined by several thousand supporters--rallied Friday on behalf of their campaign to "heal America." They urged governments around the world to tax financial sector speculation, which caused the ongoing crisis, and use the proceeds to preserve and expand government's role in reducing inequality, providing for health and other public needs, and creating a healthy economy with full employment.

Overcoming efforts by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to prohibit their demonstration in the central Daley Plaza, the NNU called for implementation of a tiny tax on financial transactions, like stock and derivative sales, that would yield many billions of dollars to reverse the austerity budgets imposed at all levels of government and to increase spending on health care, education, infrastructure and vital public services and investments.

Another Romney firm got subsidies (then closed a plant)

20 May 2012 18:31:34 GMT

Cross-posted from Middle Class Political Economist:

The Tampa Bay Times reports (via Jed Lewison) that another Bain-owned company, Dade Behring, was a recipient of $7.1 million in subsidies from Puerto Rico and the federal government the year before it laid off 300 workers there. A common problem with many subsidized projects, it took the money and ran without any consequences

As I have pointed out before, another Bain-owned company, Steel Dynamics, received at least $95 million in incentives from state and local governments in Indiana, for two separate investments. In fact, this exceeds the $85 million Bain made in profit from the firm.

Now we have a third example of Bain-owned companies getting government subsidies. For a candidate who claims to be about private enterprise, Romney clearly doesn't walk the walk. As Jed Lewison has noted before, it's clear that when Romney talks about crony capitalism, he's talking about himself.

Scott Walker says if he wins Wisconsin recall it'll be more of the same, but more inclusive. Honest.

20 May 2012 18:31:19 GMT

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is telling reporters that if he survives his June 5 recall election, he'll be more inclusive. Just not that much more inclusive, y'know?

"I still think people elected me before in November 2010 and they'll elect me again because they want me to fix things," Walker said. "They want me to keep the focus and attention on fixing things. We're just going to make sure we've got a more comprehensive and inclusive process to get there."

What about further anti-union legislation, like a Right to Work (for Less) bill? Walker won't comment on whether he'd sign or veto such a bill if the legislature passed it.So, basically, Scott Walker is saying that if he wins the recall he'd be kinder and gentler about doing the exact same stuff he's been doing.

Local labor fight hits national stage

20 May 2012 18:31:01 GMT

For nearly eight decades, Yakima-based Noel Corp. has operated with little fanfare.

The family-owned company has been quietly growing its beverage and distribution business, including a major warehouse expansion in the last year.

But in recent months, the company has lost its low profile because of an otherwise obscure dispute with 35 unionized employees that has landed it in litigation with the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C.

Now, Noel is at the center of a heated, partisan national debate over President Barack Obama's policies at the NLRB. The company's case has attracted the attention of pro-business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which filed a request to serve as a co-petitioner with Noel Canning.

"The NLRB has been implementing an incredibly aggressive pro-union agenda, and the agency's credibility has suffered greatly as a result," Randy Johnson, the Chamber's senior vice president of labor, immigration and employee benefits, wrote in an email to the Yakima Herald-Republic.

Noel Corp. employs about 360 workers across several different divisions, including beverage distribution and vending machine operations.

The dispute between Noel Canning, its beverage manufacturing plant and Teamsters Local 760, which represents production workers, is an otherwise unremarkable employer-union disagreement. The Teamsters argue that the two parties agreed on a new bargaining contract in December 2010. Noel Canning said there was no such agreement, and so the dispute went to the five-member NLRB in February.

Walmart may face fallout as bribery investigations expand

20 May 2012 18:30:45 GMT

Walmart's Mexican bribery scandal may not just be Mexican. Stephanie Clifford of the New York Times sifts through a regulatory filing by the company, finding suggestions that Walmart's internal investigation has widened to other countries, acknowledgment of investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department. Also:

[W]hile Wal-Mart said in December that it did not expect the bribery accusations and their fallout to hurt the company, it backed away from that assertion on Thursday.

“Although the company does not presently believe that these matters will have a material adverse effect on its business, given the inherent uncertainties in such situations, the company can provide no assurance that these matters will not be material to its business in the future,” the filing said.

All these allegations and investigations could have repercussions for the executives in charge of the company and ultimately responsible for wrongdoing ...