Best Government Money Can Buy
Recently, a new meme has been making its way around the conservative blogosphere and has been picked up by those in the mainstream media. Basically, conservatives are trying to push the story that the Koch brothers are not overly influential on the political process and that labor unions spend far more in campaign contribuions and donations to political organizations than the reclusive billionaires. They’ve used data from the Center for Responsive Politics to make their case for them.
The fact is, that the CRP only shows disclosed and direct campaign contributions made by organizations, companies and individuals. On that level, the Kochs only show up as #59 overall for the past 25 years and contributed a total of $4.9 million in the previous election cycle. However, when you take into account all of the ‘dark’ money that the Kochs spent during the 2012 election, that figure balloons to a whopping $412 million. In comparison, the top ten labor unions combined spent a total of $153 million when counting all political contributions.
Can you finish your day?
A Country With a Short Memory
It ain’t over till it’s over
State’s UPS workers in contract fight Citing changes to health plans that would force UPS employees to shoulder more expense, unions in Philadelphia, Western Pennsylvania and Louisville, Ky., have refused to accept separate contracts covering workplace rules, wages and benefits. UPS said it continues to make progress with the Teamsters and expects to resolve the issue. “It remains business as usual,” UPS spokesman Dan McMackin said in an email. “We remain confident that the local contracts will be finalized.” Everyone hopes to avoid shutting down a facility because of a walkout, said Gary Piso, UPS alternate steward of Teamsters Local 249, but that option remains if UPS refuses to continue health benefits at the current level. “Nobody wants a strike,” Piso said. “If it’s necessary, there are a lot of people willing to go that route. That’s the one muscle we have.” The situation has not affected operations, though it delayed wage increases for employees. Until a five-year agreement goes into effect, UPS employees are covered under the old contract, which was extended indefinitely upon its July 31 expiration. A national master contract covering 240,000 full- and part-time UPS employees was approved in June. But before that can take effect, union members must approve region-specific supplemental contracts. They have approved all but three of the 28 supplements. Ohio union members approved their supplemental agreement on Wednesday, but the contracts covering nearly 12,000 workers in Western Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and Louisville remain unapproved. Louisville is an air-shipping hub for the company and critical to UPS operations. Ballots were mailed to the 7,000 union employees, and the vote will be counted on April 10, said Fred Zuckerman, president of Louisville Local 89. Nearly 90 percent of Louisville union members rejected the contract in October, and Zuckerman said they probably would defeat it again. “It’s going to go down big,” he said. “Everybody knows it.” The holdout caused some tension between local unions and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The national organization wants the Pennsylvania and Louisville workers to sign off on the contracts, saying that UPS employees still would enjoy better benefits than most Americans. “This is excellent health care coverage,” said Leigh Strope, an international Teamsters spokeswoman. “At a time when most Americans are worried about health care, this provides certainty.” Chris Fleisher is a Trib Total Media staff writer. Reach him at 412-320-7854 or cfleisher@tribweb.com.
UPS Inc. workers in Pennsylvania are in a contract dispute with the national package shipping company, and union officials say they may push the Teamsters to strike if the company doesn’t address their concerns about health benefits.
It’s What They’re Counting On
The Right to Protest
What Brown Can Do TO You: Workers say that the company’s abrupt termination of Reyes. without due process is in violation of the “Innocent Until Proven Guilty” clause in workers’ contracts. After making their voices heard for 90 minutes, the employees returned to work and did their jobs.
UPS Fires 250 Drivers For Protesting Colleague’s Termination
February 26, 250 United Parcel service drivers organized a protest against a former colleague’s firing. Workers at the UPS facility in Maspeth, NY walked off the job last month to voice their disapproval with the termination of Jairo Reyes, a 24 veteran of the company for allegedly clocking in early.
“They delivered their message, then they delivered the packages,” a union source told the Queens Tribune.
UPS says that the firings were justified. “The employees in question abandoned their jobs and staged a protest after encouragement from the local union official, who chose to pre-empt the grievance procedure and organize a walk-out, rather than allowing a dispute to be resolved through mutually agreed upon contractual provisions,” the company said in a statement.
The union maintains that the mass firing was in violation of the contract between the union and the company, and is fighting for the jobs of all 250 workers.
A petition started by the Working Families Party has accumulated over 45,000 signatures to date.
“The tens of thousands of signatures on our petition reflect the strong disapproval of UPS’s underhanded tactics,” Bill Lipton, State Director for the Working Families Party, said in a statement.
