Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Today's Teamster News 05.27.14

Trade
WTO Final Ruling: European Ban on Products from Inhumane Seal Harvest Violates WTO Rules  Public Citizen   ...The WTO today added fuzzy white baby seals clubbed to death on bloody ice flows to dolphins and sea turtles as animals that the WTO has declared cannot be protected by domestic laws because they  violate “trade” rules, which will just fuel public and policymaker skepticism about these so-called trade deals...
W.T.O. Sides With U.S. in Dispute Over Chinese Car Tariffs  New York Times   ... The World Trade Organization sided with the United States on Friday in a dispute over punitive Chinese tariffs on American exports of cars and sport utility vehicles...
U.S. Case Offers Glimpse Into China’s Hacker Army  New York Times   ...Many hackers working directly for the Chinese government are men in their 20s and 30s who have been trained at universities run by the People’s Liberation Army and are employed by the state in myriad ways. ..
War on Workers
Using Jailed Migrants as a Pool of Cheap Labor  New York Times   ...As the federal government cracks down on immigrants in the country illegally and forbids businesses to hire them, it is relying on tens of thousands of those immigrants each year to provide essential labor — usually for $1 a day or less — at the detention centers where they are held when caught by the authorities...
The loss of Memorial Day's meaning is just one way we short-change veterans (opinion)  The Guardian   ...from 2009 to 2011, according to estimates by the Department of Veteran Affairs, 22 soldiers a day committed suicide – an average of nearly one per hour. That means that, in just one year, more than 8,000 veterans take their own lives – more than the total number of OIF and OEF casualties combined...
Atlas hid: Uber has set up a decoy office to keep drivers away from its shiny new HQ  Pando   ...Euphemistically called a “driver center,” one Uber driver told us the second office is actually more of a decoy: allowing the company to fulfill its promise to be more accessible to drivers without, you know, actually having them make Uber’s real office look untidy. …  Uber’s office on Mission Street has been a focal point for protests by drivers...
The US labor market is not working  Antonio Fatas on the Global Economy   ...Among OECD economies, the US stands towards the bottom of the table when it comes to employment to population ratio...
Federal probe into Major League Baseball for illegal pay practices expands  Salon   ...A federal investigation of pay practices in Major League Baseball has been expanded to include two more teams—the Baltimore Orioles and Oakland A’s—bringing to four the number of clubs that have come under scrutiny for possible violations of U.S. wage standards. The Labor Department’s focus is pay for clubhouse and administrative workers and interns...
Chlorine in your chicken: Why poultry is more dangerous than ever  Salon   ... poultry workers, who ... already report an injury rate that’s more than 50 percent higher than the injury rate for all U.S. workers...
New Docs Reveal Extensive Monitoring of Occupy  In These Times   ...The monitoring appears similar to that conducted by the FBI counterterrorism officials...
Miscellaneous
Train accident kills at least 40 in Northern India   Associated Press   ...The Gorakhpur Express passenger train was traveling at high speed and slammed on its brakes in an attempt to stop, but hit the train sitting on the tracks near a railway station in Uttar Pradesh state, district magistrate Bharat Lal said...