You’re allowed to believe in a god. You’re allowed to believe unicorns live in your shoes for all I care. But the day you start telling me how to wear my shoes so I don’t upset the unicorns, I have a problem with you. The day you start involving the unicorns in making decisions for this country… I have a BIG problem with you.
Matthew Schultz
Category Archives: Action
Tax Evaders
![via @[101165966152:274:AFL-CIO]: "Some of the largest U.S. companies are stashing billions of dollars in profits overseas and avoiding billions of dollars in U.S. taxes.
SHARE so all your friends know just how much profit these tax-dodging companies have stashed overseas."](https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/p296x100/247612_10151697266754655_1485502601_n.jpg)
Putting a Face to Child Labor
Where did all those children go? Child Labor
Fire on the mountain
When Will It Happen Here?
Chrysler freezes pension plan for 8,000 employees
WASHINGTON Chrysler Group LLC said Friday that it is freezing the pensions of roughly 8,000 U.S. salaried employees at the end of the year.
The U.S. automaker said it is making the move to stay in line with industry trends and to comply with IRS regulations.
The Auburn Hills, Mich.-based company declined to detail the specifics of the IRS issue, but said it is currently in compliance. Company spokeswoman Shawn Morgan said the compliance matter is not related to underfunding of the pension.
U.S. companies in general have moved away from traditional, or “defined benefit” pensions due to the cost. General Motors (GM) made a similar move last year when it froze traditional pension benefits for 19,000 salaried workers hired before 2001. Such pensions guarantee a specific payment to retirees.
Chrysler said that all of its affected employees will be shifted to a defined contribution plan. It also lowered the age at which employees can begin claiming all of their retirement savings to 58 from 62.
The company closed its pension plans to new participants at the start of 2004. The freeze does not affect those hired from that point forward or those who have already left the company or retired. All of the benefits accrued through Dec. 31 will remain in place, and employees will not lose what they have earned to that point.
Chrysler, majority owned by Italian company Fiat, has 65,500 employees worldwide
© 2013 The Associated Press.
Local 455
Don’t be afraid to contact your Local Union for information on the UPS contract proposal. Here in Denver that’s Teamsters Local 455 and in the rest of Colorado, it’s Local 17. Local 455 is headed by West Region VP Steve Vairma and some of the BA’s were on the national negotiating committee. so they know what they’re talking about.
Local 455 website or Facebook or 303-458-1600.
Local 455 members ponder the proposal from UPS. More pictures at photos
TDU Will Post the UPS Contract on Tuesday
TDU Hosts Conference Call on the UPS Contract, Thursday
The information brownout will be lifted and the tentative agreement with UPS will finally see the light of day on Tuesday, May 7.
UPS Teamsters have been kept in the dark for months by an information brownout.
On Tuesday, Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) will obtain and post the tentative national agreement.
On Thursday, TDU will host a Conference Call for UPS Teamsters to review the proposed UPS contract.
UPS Teamsters and shop stewards will report on contract changes on key issues, including: pension, healthcare and retiree healthcare, production harassment, excessive overtime, technology, full-time jobs, subcontracting and more.
We’ll review contract highlights and lowlights on the call and take questions and comments from Teamsters. Keep your eyes open as well for upcoming Make UPS Deliver bulletins with contract updates and analysis.
UPS Teamsters will get to vote on the national contract and their supplement (and in some cases a third vote on their local rider).
The TDU Conference Call on the proposed UPS Contract will take place on Thursday, May 9 at 9:30 p.m. Eastern Time.
You will need a Conference Call code to dial in to the call. Space is limited.
Click here to request the Conference Call code and we will send it to you by email.
CEOs Earn 354 Times More Than Average Worker
Chief executives of the nation’s largest companies earned an average of $12.3 million in total pay last year — 354 times more than a typical American worker, according to the AFL-CIO.
The average worker made $34,645 last year, according to the group that represents over 50 trade unions.
Oracle (ORCL) CEO Larry Ellison’s $96.1 million pay package topped the list, followed by $54.3 million earned by Credit Acceptance Corp.’s (CACC) Brett Roberts and Discovery Communications (DISCA) CEO David Zaslav’s $50 million, according to the union’s pay project.
The one stand out was Apple (AAPL) CEO Timothy Cook, whose pay dropped to $4.2 million from $376 million in 2011, when his compensation package got a boost from long-term stock awards.
The dip in Cook’s pay was enough to lower the overall average for CEOs of top companies by 5% from 2011.
The discrepancy in pay between CEOs and the average worker has skyrocketed over the years, peaking in 2000, when the gap was 525 times. In 1980, CEO pay was 42 times that of the average worker.
The AFL-CIO each year highlights the pay disparity between workers and chief executives from companies that are part of Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index.
Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO president, said he hopes the project will remind Washington leaders that most workers “continue to struggle.”
“They struggle every day to make ends meet, their wages are stagnant, their companies are trying to take away their health care and pensions, and they’re angry,” Trumka said. “And very few them know what’s happening with CEO (pay).”
The union wants regulators to enforce an outstanding rule from Wall Street reforms for publicly traded companies to reveal CEO pay compared to their average employees. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has delayed efforts to craft that rule, in part because of heavy lobbying by companies.
The labor group unveiled an updated website database on Monday compiled from 327 companies based on SEC filings. The site will post CEO pay for all 500 companies as the data is made public.
Trumka himself makes $302,000 in total compensation, according to federal records, or 8.7 times the average worker.
Tita Freeman, spokeswoman for CEO lobbying group The Business Roundtable, would not comment on the pay gap. She said CEOs represented by her group support efforts to tie executive pay to performance.
CEO Pay and You
You know the story. While workers’ wages have stagnated, CEO pay has skyrocketed—and their greed has created the economic mess we’re only starting to get out of.
Running out of yacht polish. Having to find a new butler. The dilemma of whether to vacation at your Vail or Hamptons estate. It must be hard to be a super-rich CEO.
Today, we’re adding something truly stressful to their list: the launch of our updated Paywatch website.
We’re exposing the outrageous pay and retirement packages of many of the richest CEOs and showing the absurd tax-dodging tactics their companies get away with, all while many of them push the rest of us to accept cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits.
Let’s make this Tax Day the day CEOs fear. Go to www.Paywatch.org now to check out how corporations and their top executives are running amok, and spread the word to your friends.
They’ve used their power at the corporations they run to ship millions of jobs overseas.
Now, they’re putting their immense wealth into efforts to get politicians to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits—through shady front groups like the Campaign to Fix the Debt and the Business Roundtable—and to keep the lavish tax loopholes for Wall Street and themselves and their rich buddies.
It’s pretty despicable.
This Tax Day, let’s expose the problem of CEOs gone wild and make sure everyone knows corporate greed is to blame for our economic crisis, not working families. Visit Paywatch now.
In Solidarity,
Nicole
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Nicole Aro
Director of Digital Strategies, AFL-CIO
