If you’ve ever seen the movie Casino, there is some dialogue about how the Teamsters’ pension fund was a piggy bank for the mob and how said piggy bank helped build the Vegas Strip.
In real life, that pension fund is known as the Central State Pension Fund (CSPF) and, while it did help build the Strip, it is severely underfunded today–due to mismanagement and trucking company closures–and may become insolvent.
Needless to say, as employers realize that the last man standing rule is a disaster waiting to happen, more and more employers are pushing hard to leave under-funded pension funds like the CSPF. Some employers are even willing to withstand a strike in order to get out from under that sinking ship.
It’s Thursday, March 28, 2013 and these are your Union Briefs:
More than 100,000 customers could see a delay in curbside pick up if a strike initiated by workers at Allied Waste in Youngstown is not resolved.
[snip]
The union rejected a proposal to extend their contracts with Allied in October but drivers continued working.
The company offered to fund employee 401Ks rather than pay into the union’s pension fund, which they claim could run dry in the next 10 to 15 years.
Elsewhere, but relatedly…
Today, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance announced that over the weekend more than 300 Teamsters representing Locals 247 and 332 in Detroit, Pontiac and Flint, Michigan voted to leave the financially troubled Central States Pension Fund.
David Williams, President of The Taxpayers Protection Alliance said, “We applaud the actions of the local rank and file Teamsters who voted themselves out of Central States – a pension fund that is most known for being $14 billion in debt, losing $6 billion in the stock market in three months, and investing in a Russian bank that went bankrupt.”
Added Williams, “After the International Brotherhood of Teamsters made these financial blunders with Central States, Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa asked Congress for a bailout in 2008 to pay for these mistakes.”
Liar, liar, pants on fire…!
The radical leftist leader of the Chicago Teachers Union, Karen Lewis, is known for her rather…er…robust rhetoric. However, even though she may distort facts, it is somewhat surprising to hear Lewis admit that would outright lie to parents. [Hat-tip: Breitbart.]
UAW is United Against Workers?!?
In an unusual case where the United Auto Workers union is bargaining as an employer, about 74 workers at the UAW-General Motors Center for Human Resources rejected the union’s latest contract proposal.
[snip]
The employees have been working under the terms of their previous deal, which expired March 31, 2012, after rejecting the latest proposal Tuesday by a vote of 58 to 4.
Relatedly…
Estrada believes that Right-to-Work means that wages and benefits will be affected, and that it is an attempt to destroy the sense of community. Estrada wants that sense to return to Michigan, and even shared a heartfelt story of how a man signed over his pension check to her father because he’d paid for the funeral years before.
Have pickets, will travel…
When work crews arrive at Saginaw’s biggest current development project, they’re being met by workers carrying picket signs.
The project manager of Bancroft Project Saginaw LLC, Luann Stockfleth, says in a news release “I am in complete shock that the laborer’s union is picketing in front of this vital and important project to the City of Saginaw. We have hired local residents on this project and we are committed to creating long term employment for the local economy.”
Immigration reformer or derailer…?
The toughest issue to resolve in the negotiations will be construction, said Geoff Burr, vice president of federal affairs for Associated Builders and Contractors. The AFL-CIO is demanding that some immigrant construction workers be paid from 40 percent to 60 percent more than what similarly qualified U.S. workers are paid, Burr said, a claim the labor group disputes.
“While the unions say publicly they want a guest-worker program, their actions and their demands make clear that the only program they’d support is one employers would never use,” Burr said.
Relatedly…
Until tomorrow, these have been your Union Briefs for Thursday, March 28th.
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“Truth isn’t mean. It’s truth.”
Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012)
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