How to reverse Bloomberg-era inequality in NYC

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's wealth grew to $31 billion during his three terms, while poor people's lives grew more miserable. <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/9/8/nyc-looks-beyondbloombergseraofinequality.html" rel="nofollow">Al Jazeera</a> reports: <blockquote class="tr_bq">After 12 years of Michael Bloomberg, family homelessness has increased dramatically, rents skyrocketed and the minimum wage froze for the past six years – all while the city's controverisal<a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/8/13/stop-and-frisk-rulingbringscatiousoptimismtocitystreets.html">"stop-and-frisk"</a> policy has been criticized for being disproportionatly applied on minorities and the poor.</blockquote><div><a href="http://www.teamstersnewyorkcity.org/" rel="nofollow">New York Teamsters</a> often disagreed with Bloomberg's efforts to increase inequality. They fought his <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/01/nyc-teamsters-to-mayor-do-your-job.html" rel="nofollow">job-killing contract provisions with school bus monitors</a>, his <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-big-teamster-victory-nyc-sugary-drink.html" rel="nofollow">ban on 16-oz. sodas</a>, his tolerance for <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/04/ny-teamsters-now-fight-for-equal-pay.html" rel="nofollow">unequal pay for school safety agents</a>, and his <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/city-council-overrides-bloomberg-veto-paid-sick-leave-bill-article-1.1383764" rel="nofollow">veto of mandatory paid sick leave</a>. <a href="http://www.local831.org/" rel="nofollow">Teamster snowplow drivers</a> bore the brunt of a smear campaign (until members of the <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2011/01/solidarity-from-celebrities-on-sun.html" rel="nofollow">Screen Actors Guild</a> stood up for them) after Bloomberg botched the city's emergency response to a blizzard. And <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2011/12/whoa-nyc-mayor-galpal-trashes-working.html" rel="nofollow">Teamster art handlers at Sotheby's</a> were incensed by his girlfriend's high-handed treatment of them during a months-long lockout.<br /><br />The new mayor, Bill de Blasio, has a chance to change the worship of Wall Street at the expense of ordinary New Yorkers. The <a href="http://wallstreetonparade.com/2013/11/as-wall-street%E2%80%99s-mayor-exits-with-31-billion-in-wealth-bill-de-blasio-must-claim-his-mandate-for-change/" rel="nofollow">Wall Street on Parade blog</a> has some suggestions where he can start. We'll share a few with you here: </div><ul><li>Remove Wall Street personnel from the Lower Manhattan Security Coordination Center. This high tech spy center, monitoring the comings and goings of law abiding citizens in the streets of Manhattan via over 4,000 street cameras is questionable in itself. Allowing staff from Wall Street firms under Federal criminal investigation to sit side by side with law enforcement is an outrage to a democratic society.</li><li>The jailing of peaceful protestors must end and a new era of protecting and enshrining the right to peaceful assembly and protest must begin. This will require a careful and thoughtful vetting of the next Police Commissioner.</li><li>Wall Street’s back-door money coming into the NYPD through its Foundation must end. No more lavish expense accounts for the Police Commissioner; no more $5 million grants from JPMorgan; no more gilded age balls with the social jet set. The NYPD serves the people of New York and its funding must come from all taxpayers with cronyism removed from the equation. The Foundation needs to die a quick death.</li></ul>All good ideas. Read the whole thing <a href="http://wallstreetonparade.com/2013/11/as-wall-street%E2%80%99s-mayor-exits-with-31-billion-in-wealth-bill-de-blasio-must-claim-his-mandate-for-change/" rel="nofollow">here</a>.

Bloomberg NYC Wall Street How to reverse Bloomberg-era inequality in NYC

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's wealth grew to $31 billion during his three terms, while poor people's lives grew more miser...

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Jon Stewart takes on Wall Street (VIDEO)

<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/yPFeylRLJ2w" width="420"></iframe><br /><br />It sounds like a lot of money -- a $13 billion fine -- for JPMorgan Chase's shady dealings  (you know, the crimes that caused the financial meltdown in 2008). But <a href="http://news.firedoglake.com/2013/10/23/taxpayers-to-help-pay-jpmorgans-fine-for-causing-2008-financial-crisis/" rel="nofollow">taxpayers will pick up a big chunk of that fine</a>, and it's really only a small part of the bank's profit.<br /><br />Jon Stewart takes apart the JPMorgan cheerleaders in the news media who don't think the bank should be punished for causing years of misery for untold millions of people. Watch.

JPMorgan Wall Street Jon Stewart takes on Wall Street (VIDEO)

It sounds like a lot of money -- a $13 billion fine -- for JPMorgan Chase's shady dealings  (you know, the crimes that caused the financ...

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Austerity: The real winner of the government shutdown

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCu5-cGsVel-NMCEXXRtxlPbyQriTWDMEjk_uXkXM6XSxV8fHDcUo2EJ5oWRcqaAXqH3tG520wdrl3zVfMsBe6tq9NZcgO6Gc2bj0mrnds_ddqRnBEn5haGfFYrLCcNb6UPW39e_8_TKAx/s1600/austerity_anti_worker_cuts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCu5-cGsVel-NMCEXXRtxlPbyQriTWDMEjk_uXkXM6XSxV8fHDcUo2EJ5oWRcqaAXqH3tG520wdrl3zVfMsBe6tq9NZcgO6Gc2bj0mrnds_ddqRnBEn5haGfFYrLCcNb6UPW39e_8_TKAx/s200/austerity_anti_worker_cuts.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">A popular thing to say on Capitol Hill is that there were <a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/10/watch-live-obama-outlines-what-comes-next/70644/" rel="nofollow">no winners in the government shutdown</a> and debt ceiling crisis that ended last night. </span><br /></span><br />But once again, savage cuts to social spending have won the day. Sure, the conflict may have been a terrible embarrassment for the GOP, but the Wall Street-backed tea party agenda of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austerity" rel="nofollow">austerity</a> came out unscathed.<br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">The <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-austerity-20131016,0,1067125.story" rel="nofollow"><em>Los Angeles Times</em> observed</a>:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As the shadow of the shutdown passes, it's proper to be reminded again that this fight involved spending levels that are materially suppressing economic growth and hampering the recovery.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Specifically, the deal soon to be voted on leaves the sequester in place, at least until Jan. 15….The sequester is merely one manifestation of Congress's love for austerity in the post-recession era. From the inception, recovery programs have never been as large or robust as they needed to be, despite evidence that even harsher austerity regimes kept much of Europe mired in slumps.</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit;">But the deal that was negotiated yesterday to reopen the government and suspend the debt ceiling didn’t just leave the austerity assault in place. It may end up escalating the assault on workers even more. Richard Eskow at the <a href="http://ourfuture.org/20131016/winning-the-peace-the-post-shutdown-challenge" rel="nofollow">Campaign for America’s Future writes</a>:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This deal will bend the next few months’ deliberations along the same misguided lines that have guided our political discourse for years now. House and Senate members will be encouraged to come up with a “deficit reduction plan” -- in other words, to impose another round of cuts just like those which have already wounded the economy and shredded millions of jobs.</span></blockquote>Specifically, Congress’s latest deal opens the door to further cuts that will target working Americans by <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304384104579139881517789174.html" rel="nofollow">establishing a bipartisan committee to deal with budget issues</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yeah, another one of those! And you can be sure that this committee will try to hash out a “<a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/10/truth-behind-grand-bargain.html">Grand Bargain</a>,” which is basically Washington-speak for harsher cuts and “entitlement reform” -- “entitlement reform,” by the way, is Washington-speak for gutting Social Security and Medicare.<br /><br />But austerity was the winner even before that part of the deal was conceived. That’s because the goalposts in Congress’s spending debates have already been moved to austerity’s side of the field.<br /><em>Think Progress</em> <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/10/15/2782911/republican-victory-sequestration/" rel="nofollow">reports</a>:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">It may seem like ancient history, but <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_sequestration_in_2013" rel="nofollow">sequestration</a> was originally designed to be so unpalatable to both parties that the threat of its automatic budget cuts to both defense and non-defense programs alike would be enough to force lawmakers to come to a grand bargain budget agreement. As it first went into effect in March, Republicans tried to pin the blame for any negative consequences on President Obama. But they gradually came out in favor of sequestration’s devastating cuts and have now made it the baseline in the fight over funding the government.</blockquote>According to the <a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/budget/news/2013/09/30/76026/the-senate-continuing-resolution-is-already-a-compromise/" rel="nofollow">Center for American Progress</a>, Obama’s original budget for 2014 was $1.203 trillion. In 2010, Republicans took control of the House and deficit hawk <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2012/08/paul-ryan-premium-wine-for-me-catfood.html">Paul Ryan</a> proposed a 2014 budget of $1.095 trillion -- that's 10 percent <em>more</em> than what Congress just passed to end the shutdown.<br /><br />Outrageously, the justification for all these spending reductions is baseless. The country’s supposedly out-of-control <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/09/deficit-falling-falling-falling" rel="nofollow">debt has been falling significantly over the last two years</a>.<br /><br />But for tea party extremists, austerity was never about getting the deficit under control. It’s about shrinking government in a way that punishes workers and the poor. Even during the shutdown, what was deemed “essential” and “non-essential” gives you an idea of what parts of government right-wing elites think is important. So <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/10/08/2748461/members-only-congressional-gyms-deemed-essential-remain-open-during-shutdown/" rel="nofollow">Congress’s gym – complete with heated pools and a sauna – was essential</a>. Food assistance to low-income mothers and children? Non-essential.<br /><br />Now, the latest agreement sets the stage for another budget and debt limit battle just in time for another round of sequester cuts. As we wrote at <a href="http://www.teamster.org/content/joy-over-proposed-budget-deal-should-be-short-lived">Teamster.org</a>:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">...our government will be funded at a significantly reduced level than it should be... because of sequester cuts that went into effect last year.</blockquote>For now, we’ve avoided default, reopened the government and hundreds of thousands of locked-out government workers are back to work. That’s definitely a good thing. But now anti-worker zealots in Washington are hoping that sharper austerity measures won't seem so bad compared to the pain caused by the shutdown.<br /><br />Don’t be fooled.<br /><br />

anti-worker extremists austerity budget deficit debt ceiling government shutdown grand bargain Sequestration tea party Wall Street Austerity: The real winner of the government shutdown

A popular thing to say on Capitol Hill is that there were no winners in the government shutdown and debt ceiling crisis that ended last nig...

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Today's Teamster News 10.15.13

<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/10/11/2773151/osha-shutdown/" rel="nofollow">Workplaces Go Without Safety Inspections During The Shutdown</a>  ThinkProgress   ...When the government shut down on October 1, 90 percent of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) inspectors were furloughed...<br /><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/jeremy-warner/10378666/The-sun-is-setting-on-dollar-supremacy-and-with-it-American-power.html" rel="nofollow">The sun is setting on dollar supremacy, and with it, American power</a>  The Telegraph   ...A serious alternative to the dollar is still a long way off, but the latest shenanigans on Capitol Hill have given the search for them renewed momentum...<br /><a href="http://www.courierpostonline.com/viewart/20131013/NEWS02/310130056/Normalcy-eludes-many-year-after-Sandy-hit-NJ" rel="nofollow">Normalcy eludes many a year after Sandy hit NJ </a> Courier-Post   ...full recovery from Superstorm Sandy is still elusive nearly a year after the storm pummeled the state Oct. 29...<br /><a href="http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2013/10/wsj-more-homes-for-sales-fewer-sales.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CalculatedRisk+%28Calculated+Risk%29" rel="nofollow">WSJ: More Homes for Sales, Fewer Sales, Slowing Price Increases in Certain Areas</a>  Calculated Risk   ...The sharp home-price rally in some of the hardest-hit housing markets is likely to fade in the coming months amid a pullback in investor purchases and steady increases in the number of homes listed for sale...<br /><a href="http://wallstreetonparade.com/2013/10/banks-are-still-failing-at-ten-times-the-pre-2008-crash-rate/" rel="nofollow">Banks Are Still Failing At Ten Times the Pre-2008 Crash Rate </a> Wall Street on Parade   ...Before Wall Street took a bazooka loaded with credit default swaps and toxic mortgage securitizations and fired it directly at the heart of the U.S. economy, we had a very stable banking system...<br /><a href="http://www.enetenglish.gr/?i=news.en.home&id=1536" rel="nofollow">100,000 applications for 10,000 temporary jobs paying €427-490 a month</a>  ENet   ...At last count, in July, there were 1,374,054 people recorded as unemployed in Greece by the Hellenic Statistics Authority (Elstat). But of the 1,004,000 unemployed on OAED's books, only 145,865 – about 10% – were entitled to unemployment benefit...<br /><a href="http://portside.org/2013-10-13/are-our-parents-stealing-our-kids-no-theyre-not" rel="nofollow">Are Our Parents Stealing from Our Kids? No, They're Not </a> Portside   ...the data suggest that more spending on seniors is associated with more spending on kids...<br /><a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/10/14/garment_workers_held_boss_captive_until_he_paid_promised_bonus/" rel="nofollow">Garment workers held boss captive until he paid promised bonus</a>  Salon   ...Bangladeshi workers on minimum wage held factory boss for over 18 hours after months of tense labor disputes...<br /><a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/10/14/hospital_giant_fails_in_bid_to_swipe_nurses_sick_days/" rel="nofollow">Hospital giant fails in bid to swipe nurses’ sick days</a>  Salon   ...After nine strikes, nurses won the right to keep taking paid sick days rather than spreading disease to patients...<br /><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/feedarticle/11018894" rel="nofollow">Report: NSA collecting millions of contact lists</a>  The Guardian   ... the spy agency intercepts hundreds of thousands of email address books every day from private accounts on Yahoo, Gmail, Facebook and Hotmail. The NSA also collects about a half-million buddy lists daily from chat services and email accounts...<br /><br /><br /><br />

Bangladesh government shutdown Greece home prices paid sick days Sandy social security spying Wall Street Today's Teamster News 10.15.13

Workplaces Go Without Safety Inspections During The Shutdown  ThinkProgress   ...When the government shut down on October 1, 90 percent of ...

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Wall Street's for-profit "cyber schools" rip off kids and taxpayers

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/files/styles/story_image/public/story_images/education_money.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://www.alternet.org/files/styles/story_image/public/story_images/education_money.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>The same anti-worker extremists waging war on the middle class and wringing workers dry are also trying to squeeze profits out of our kids -- and swindle taxpayers in the process.<br /><br />A <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/10/12257/junk-bonds-junk-schools-cyber-schools-fleece-taxpayers-phantom-students-and-faili" rel="nofollow">new report from PR Watch</a> has the details on Wall Street's latest scheme using for-profit "cyber schools" to cash in on the public education "market":<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">The data is in and <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/K12_Inc." target="_blank">K12 Inc.'s </a>brand of full-time public "cyber school" is garbage. Not surprising for an educational model kicked off with a $10 million investment from junk-bond king Michael Milken.</blockquote>As the report explains, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Milken" rel="nofollow">ex-con</a> Milken formed several "education" companies including Knowledge Universe and Knowledge Learning. With $10 million invested in his K12 Inc. scam, Milken let fellow junk bond dealer Ron Packard in on the action. And together they raked in millions:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">The duo prepped to exploit the public education sector, and boy, have they. His various educational ventures have made Milken one of the <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/michael-milken/">richest men in America</a>, and Packard raked in <a href="http://insiders.morningstar.com/trading/executive-compensation.action?t=LRN&region=USA&culture=en-US" target="_blank">over $16 million</a> in compensation from 2008 to 2012 as <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/K12">CEO of K12 Inc.</a> Almost all of that money came from U.S. taxpayers.  </blockquote>Okay, so they're making a lot of money. At least the kids are getting an education, right? Wrong. Most of the kids don't even exist:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Some full-time charter schools charge state taxpayers big bucks for students who may only spend a few days or a few weeks in front of a computer before they decide that "virtual" education is not for them -- but the schools keep the cash anyway. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Here is the trick. In many states, there is an annual "count date" or dates where heads are counted and state funding is distributed per child. Evidence is mounting that for-profit charters spend a massive amount on advertising to pack in students before the count ("enrollment bursts," one education expert calls it), but once they get the cash, things fall apart. </blockquote>A teacher at one of these virtual schools said three-quarters of the students in one of her classes never logged on, completed any work or responded to phone calls -- yet they remained on her class roster. The "schools" hold on to the taxpayer money allocated based on student head counts even when a majority of those kids decide to transfer back to standard brick-and-mortar schools.<br /><br />And as for the students who stuck with Wall Street's cyber-school scheme, they didn't do too well either:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">With rare exceptions, kids don’t learn sitting in front of a computer all day. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Using Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) state data, state performance rankings, and graduation rates, the researchers showed that full-time virtual schools lag significantly behind traditional brick-and-mortar schools. In particular, <a href="http://nepc.colorado.edu/files/nepcrbk12miron.pdf">only 27.7 percent of K12 Inc.</a> online schools met AYP in 2010-2011, compared to 52 percent of public schools.</blockquote>K12 Inc. also specifically targets high-risk students in its recruitment efforts. That's because children who lack homeschool parents with time and motivation tend not to take advantage of the virtual schools or demand more from the service. That means lower costs and more profit for K12 Inc.<br /><br />This is exactly why education doesn't belong in the hands of greedy corporations. But the education racket has some powerful backers -- namely <a href="http://alecexposed.org/" rel="nofollow">ALEC</a>:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">ALEC approved a <a href="http://www.alec.org/model-legislation/the-virtual-public-schools-act/">"model" Virtual Public Schools Act</a> in 2005 at a time when both K12 Inc. and Connections Academy (the second largest for-profit) were corporate sponsors and helped craft the measure.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">K12 Inc. and ALEC have pushed a national agenda to replace brick-and-mortar classrooms and hands-on teaching with computers and "distance learning."  </blockquote>The anti-worker fanatics trying to disempower and impoverish workers are going after our kids, too. Nothing is sacred.

ALEC corporate greed education reform school privatization Wall Street Wall Street's for-profit "cyber schools" rip off kids and taxpayers

The same anti-worker extremists waging war on the middle class and wringing workers dry are also trying to squeeze profits out of our kids -...

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