June 15th, 2008
(This is an announcement for Teamsters Local 384 members. The most recent updates to this site continue below this post)
As usually occurs at Local 384, the summer membership meetings were suspended via a motion at our May membership meeting. The Local sent out notices that are posted on the workplace Union boards, and if you look on this site’s Meetings page, you’ll notice the June, July and August meetings have been crossed out.
With a three month break from meetings, it gives us all plenty of time to plan on attending the next meeting on September 28, 2008. I hope everyone has a great summer and makes it out to the September meeting.
Filed under: Teamsters Local 384, events and meetings, unionism | No Comments »
June 25th, 2008
CtW Connect posts on some recent analysis of the respective tax plans of Obama and McCain.
Wonder whose policies will actually help you? According to Business Week, McCain’s caters to the rich, while Obama’s actually helps the middle class:
• Senator McCain’s tax cuts would primarily benefit those with very high incomes, almost all of whom would receive large tax cuts that would, on average, raise their aftertax incomes by more than twice the average for all households. Many fewer households at the bottom of the income distribution would get tax cuts, and those whose taxes fall would, on average, see their aftertax income rise much less.
• In marked contrast, Senator Obama offers much larger tax breaks to low- and middle-income taxpayers and would increase taxes on high-income taxpayers. The largest tax cuts, as a share of income, would go to those at the bottom of the distribution, while taxpayers with the highest income would see their taxes rise.
Read the article at Business Week, and ask yourself whose tax policy will benefit you.
Filed under: 2008 Presidential election, politics, poverty and wealth | No Comments »
June 15th, 2008
On Father’s Day, I’d like to wish a good day to all the fathers who may be reading this.
I’d also like to point to an item from the AFL-CIO Now blog about working single fathers. It points out a fact sheet on single fathers from the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
A few of the facts cited:
- Among people living in single-parent families headed by a working father, almost 28 percent are economically insecure. CEPR says economically insecure means their income falls below the “basic family budget”—a measure of the basic goods and services needed to make ends meet for where they live. By comparison, among people in all working families, about 17 percent are economically insecure.
- Public assistance, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, public health insurance (Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program) and food stamps, helps single fathers take care of their families. Before taking public assistance into account, 37.6 percent of people in single-father families are economically insecure.
- About one in four men work in low-wage jobs, which CEPR defines as one that pays less than $11.11 an hour. The typical man working in a low-wage job earned $8.64 an hour in 2005. While women are still more likely to work in low-wage jobs than men, the gap between men and women is narrowing. Regardless of gender, the typical low-wage worker today earns about the same per hour, after adjusting for inflation, as they did in 1979.
Click here to check it out.
Filed under: poverty and wealth | No Comments »
May 21st, 2008
One of our brothers in the feeder department passed this one along to me yesterday. Since it concerns the overall safety of everyone on the road, I thought I’d pass it along to everyone who’s reading this.
The problem is that the government is trying a program that will increase the weight limits of trucks on the road from 80,000 to 97,000 pounds.
Why is this a problem? Because:
“These trucks will have increased stopping distances, are more difficult to control, and will ensure faster deterioration of our nation’s roads and bridges. Some bridges are already in danger of collapsing. Our nation cannot witness a repeat of last summer when the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis disintegrated.”
If you want to add your voice to those telling Congress not to allow this hazardous policy, click here.
Filed under: politics | No Comments »
May 20th, 2008
Our brothers over in the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) are waging an organizing campaign at Wackenhut Security, the firm that furnishes security services at National Parks and monuments like the Liberty Bell.
Incidentally, the Liberty Bell is where two Philadelphia area congressmen, Chaka Fattah and Patrick Murphy (my congressman), rallied with Wackenhut workers and SEIU organizers to launch the Wackenhut Workers Organizing Committee.
Read the story from the Philadelphia Daily News here.
Learn more about what’s going on with the organizing effort at the SEIU’s Eye on Wackenhut website.
Filed under: NLRB, Philly, exposing anti-union propoganda, politics, rights, solidarity, unionism | No Comments »
