Thursday, August 7, 2014

Today's Teamster News 08.07.14

Teamster News
Unions No Enemy To Achievement  Worcester Telegram and Gazette   ...Last month, teachers at the Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School in Marlboro voted to join the Teamsters, and in so doing picked the scab of a festering lie — that unions are the enemy of a competitive American business climate...
GET Officials Summoned To City Council Meeting  Bakersfield Californian   ...Tuesday, GET issued a news release spelling out for the first time its weeks-old bargaining position with Teamsters Local 517, the union representing the more than 250 bus drivers and mechanics who walked off the job July 15...
Tentative agreement reached between Sun Tran, Teamsters  Tucson Business   ...Sun Tran officials and representatives of Teamsters Local 104 have announced a tentative agreement on a new contract and assured normal bus service through at least tomorrow...
Teamsters Support Rep. Dan Maffei  Teamsters Locals 294 and 317   ..."Local Teamster Unions 294 and 317 proudly support Rep. Dan Maffei because he is a proven leader for the hardworking men and women of Central New York and someone who has worked tirelessly on efforts to strengthen the middle and grow the economy...
Trade
Trade Gap Shrinks To Five-Month Low As U.S. Imports Drop  Bloomberg News   ...The gap shrank 7 percent to $41.5 billion, the smallest since January, from May’s $44.7 billion, Commerce Department figures showed today...
State Battles
Thousands Attend Mountain Moral Monday In Asheville  USA Today   ...Barber said lawmakers are hurting schools and children by not adequately funding education. They have taken away rights through sweeping restrictions on how people vote, he said. They have raised taxes on working people and cut taxes for the rich and corporations, he said...
Map: Where's Scott Walker?  The Cap Times   ...Since November 2012, the governor has been traveling the country — most recently to Colorado — looking a lot like a 2016 presidential candidate...
Just how accurate are Wisconsin's vote counting machines?  Daily Isthmus   ..."You don't need to understand the intricacies of computer security to understand that if computers managed by the likes of Target and the Federal Reserve Bank can be hacked, computers managed by my municipality or county can be hacked," she says...
Union-Backed City Council Members Clear The Way For Referendum On $12.25 Minimum Wage  Daily Signal   ...Last week, the council voted, 5-3, against a moderate proposal to raise the minimum wage over time and to exempt small businesses in the early stages so they could adjust. The council did so to clear the way for a ballot measure to put before the voters in November that would raise the wage for all businesses to $12.25 beginning in March...
War On Workers
How the Decline of Labor Unions Led to Stagnant Wages  Motley Fool   ...From the years 2000 to 2012, college graduates saw a rise in pay of only 1% . For those with a high school diploma or only a smattering of college, wages actually fell during that time span...
Guitar Center Accused Of Unfair Labor Practices  Huffington Post   ...More than a year after its initial election victory at a Guitar Center store, the union representing the chain's first unionized employees is accusing the retailer of bargaining in "bad faith" and trying to purge the union...
Minn. Restaurant Charging Customers Minimum Wage Fee  CBS News   ...People eating at a Stillwater restaurant Tuesday noticed a new fee added to their bill. Owners of the Oasis Cafe are charging a 35 cent minimum wage fee. They say it’s to offset the cost of an increased minimum wage for tipped employees...
A comprehensive investigation of voter impersonation finds 31 credible incidents out of one billion ballots cast  Washington Post   ...ID laws are not aimed at the fraud you’ll actually hear about. Most current ID laws (Wisconsin is a rare exception) aren’t designed to stop fraud with absentee ballots (indeed, laws requiring ID at the polls push more people into the absentee system, where there are plenty of real dangers). Or vote buying. Or coercion. Or fake registration forms. Or voting from the wrong address. Or ballot box stuffing by officials in on the scam. In the 243-page document that Mississippi State Sen. Chris McDaniel filed on Monday with evidence of allegedly illegal votes in the Mississippi Republican primary, there were no allegations of the kind of fraud that ID can stop...
Part-time workers find full-time jobs elusive  McClatchy   ...The number of unemployed people is 24 percent higher now than it was in December 2007 when the recession began. But the number of people like Alexander _ known as involuntary part-time workers _ is 66 percent higher, more than double what it was back then...
The 1% May Be Richer Than You Think, Research Shows  Bloomberg   ...The 1 percent is literally rich beyond measure, depriving nations of billions in tax revenue and obscuring shifts in global inequality...
AP Source: BofA Nears $16-$17B Settlement With US  Associated Press   ...Bank of America is nearing a $16 billion to $17 billion settlement to resolve an investigation into its role in the sale of mortgage-backed securities before the 2008 financial crisis...
New Statistics: Pregnancy Discrimination Claims Hit Low-Wage Workers Hardest  Washington Post   ...pregnancy discrimination cases show some of the most overt, if unconscious, discrimination of any cases they litigate. Now, new data released by the EEOC show that that discrimination hits virtually every industry and every geographic area of the country...
Highway 101 Worker Killed In Redwood City When Driver Veers Off Road  CBS News   ...A highway road worker was killed Tuesday after a car ran off of Highway 101 in Redwood City and into a crew worksite...
Miscellaneous
Subpoena Could Drag The NFL Into Cheerleader Wage-Theft Cases  Bloomberg Businessweek   ...Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner under scrutiny for his response to domestic violence allegations against a running back, now faces a further potential headache: a subpoena seeking to depose him on the league’s role in cheerleaders’ pay (or lack thereof)...
New Post-Snowden Leaks Reveal Secret Details Of U.S. Terrorist Watch List  Time Magazine   ...The published documents describe government efforts using the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE), a database used by federal state and local law-enforcement agencies to identify and track known or suspected terrorist suspects. The database has been subject to public debate and federal litigation, because of the secretive process that determines inclusion on this list...