Don't Drink the Tea. Think With the WE.
May
2013
21
According to a Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report issued Monday, Apple has avoided paying tens of billions of dollars in U.S. taxes by shifting money to offshore tax havens. Apple has been able to cut some of its tax rates as low as 0.05% by using a complicated web of offshore entities. Of ...
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May
2013
21
In an interesting and well-crafted op-ed for The Huffington Post, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) International President Edwin Hill asks all workers in America to stand with low-wage workers in the fast food and retail industries to demand an end to exploitative pay practices. Hill notes the similarities between the...
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May
2013
21
Sheet Metal Workers from Local 33 in Parma, Ohio are taking action against 12 major banks who they say have restrained competition for credit default swaps (CDS) between 2008 and 2011. Local 33′s Cleveland District Pension Plan has filed a lawsuit pursuing a jury trial and class action status to determine if the banks violated ...
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May
2013
21
New regulations surrounding dangerous silica dust have been swirling in a bureaucratic black hole for years. Now, Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal is asking the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to move forward in the name of workers and families. The AFL-CIO and its affiliate unions have long urged President Obama to move forward with ...
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May
2013
20
A recent landmark verdict which awarded $240 million to 32 mentally disabled plant workers in Iowa has been almost entirely wiped out due to federal caps regulated under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The new total is $1.6 million, according to the Associated Press: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Henry’s Turkey...
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May
2013
20
A bill requiring prevailing wages on all projects built on Oregon college campuses passed the state senate last week. House Bill 2646 flew through the House in a 27-2 landslide despite attempts from Nike founder and University of Oregon donor Phil Knight to have the bill pulled. State prevailing wage laws already cover publicly ...
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May
2013
20
Illinois-based Phoenix Industrial Cleaning has been fined $77,200 and issued 28 citations by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) following the death of a worker who was overcome by toxic vapors while cleaning a storage tank. The 6,000-gallon tank had previously been used to store Methylene chloride. The accident occurred...
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May
2013
17
The potential sale of the Los Angeles Times (LAT) to the Koch Brothers’ empire has sparked outrage from a wide array of onlookers with the newspaper’s employees apparently leading the charge. Both right-leaning Hot Air and the Washington Post write that at a recent in-house awards ceremony, LAT columnist Steve Lopez asked his fellow...
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May
2013
17
A brilliant piece of investigative journalism from Andrew Martin of Bloomberg News exposes the dangers of global trade agreements and how they affect the sovereignty of nations. As the U.S. pushes forward with the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) it is important to understand how such agreements allow multi-national corporations to...
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May
2013
17
When something goes terribly wrong in Los Angeles, citizens call 911. But who does 911 call when they have an emergency of their own? Union workers, that’s who. A new video highlights this fact with International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 45 members describing their work to keep 911 running at maximum efficiency...
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May
2013
17
Kentucky-based cable installer Bowlin Group, LLC has been ordered to pay $1,075,000 in back wages and damages to 196 employees after the Department of Labor (DOL) obtained a consent judgement from a federal court. The decision concludes an investigation which found that 77 of Bowlin Group’s workers were misclassified as independent...
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May
2013
16
We are shocked that a recent New York Post piece about rich Manhattan mothers hiring handicapped tour guides in order to shorten amusement park wait times for their kids isn’t getting more attention. Perhaps the NY Post‘s credibility has something to do with it? In hiring these “black market Disney tour guides” the wealthy...
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