Sept. 22—Nearly one-third of the nation’s largest and most profitable corporations paid no federal income tax between 2001 and 2003—yet still received billions of dollars in tax rebates, according to a new study.
Corporate Income Taxes in the Bush Years, released Sept. 22 by Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ) and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, finds 82 of 275 companies CTJ examined enjoyed at least one year in 2001–2003 in which they paid no federal income taxes yet received billions of dollars in outright tax rebates. In 2003 alone, 46 of the companies paid no federal income taxes and in some cases, received tax rebates.
The companies, all on the Fortune 500 list, were profitable in each of the three years analyzed.
General Electric Co., which lobbies extensively for tax breaks, topped the list of corporate tax-break recipients, receiving nearly $10 billion in tax subsidies over the three-year period, according to the report.
Download the Corporate Income Taxes in the Bush Years from Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
Keep an eye on corporate America at the AFL-CIO website.
Track runaway CEO pay at the AFL-CIO Executive PayWatch website.
Author: World Combined Sources
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 09/23/04 14:56
CHICAGO (PAI) — Just months after it tried to ram two “supercenters” through the Chicago City Council, giant anti-worker retailer Wal-Mart has apparently thrown in the towel. The reason, though it denies it: The city’s new living wage law.
Wal-Mart said on Aug. 31 that it would let its contract to build a “big box” supercenter in a poor area of the South Side expire, and that it would not renew it.
The council delayed that store due to concerns, raised by UFCW Local 881, Jobs with Justice and other worker groups, about Wal-Mart’s below-market wages, bad working conditions, job discrimination and lack of quality health care benefits.
They also cited Wal-Mart’s negative impact on communities, driving local retailers out of business and costing workers jobs.
UFCW is campaigning continent-wide to organize Wal-Mart’s 1 million workers, and recently made a breakthrough in Quebec.
The Chicago City Council approved a Wal-Mart supercenter in another poor area, on the West Side, but a Wal-Mart spokesman said it’s reconsidering that store, too. “It’s not about a living-wage issue. It’s about an ordinance that singles out some — not all — businesses in Chicago,” he claimed.
Independent analysts note rising and successful opposition to Wal-Mart in major metro areas, now that the retailer has maximized its traditional rural markets. Opposition has kept Wal-Mart supercenters out of southern Los Angeles, Montgomery County, Md., the entire state of Vermont and elsewhere.
In Chicago, the living wage ordinance may be the key. Ordinance co-sponsor Alderman Joseph Moore pointed out the law applies to all big box retailers of 75,000 square feet or more.
“It requires them to provide decent wages and benefits to their employees, while giving hiring preference to local residents,” Moore wrote to the Chicago Sun-Times
COLUMBUS, Ohio (September 21, 2004) - Wal-Mart Stores, Bentonville, Ark., is "well on its way" to achieving its goal of controlling a 30% market share in every category in which it competes, according to a newly released study by Retail Forward, a management consulting and market research firm based here. A survey of Wal-Mart shoppers indicated Wal-Mart is attracting 30% or more of consumer dollars in several core categories, Retail Forward said, including small personal appliances, skin and hair care products, housewares, small kitchen appliances and toys. Several other categories are "inching their way toward the 30% mark." The study also said 50% of all U.S. primary household shoppers visit a Wal-Mart store monthly and 25% shop at a Wal-Mart supercenter weekly, compared with only 20% of shoppers who visited a SuperTarget store in the past six months who indicated they are weekly SuperTarget shoppers. The study also said two-thirds of Wal-Mart supercenter shoppers shop both sides of the store.
The Union Label went digital today with a new website offering shoppers an array of union-made gifts, from clothing and chocolates to computers, games and greeting cards.
The website, www.shopunionmade.org, launches on the eve of the fall and winter holidays, when shoppers will spend an estimated $1 trillion on gifts, food, drinks and other seasonal items, explained Matt Bates, Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO Union Label & Service Trades Department.
The all-union shopping site, however, will be a year-round operation because that is what consumers demand, he added.
“Shoppers spent $56 billion in Internet sales last year, and on-line spending is doubling every two to three years. Everyday we receive email and calls from people who want to support good jobs by buying union-made goods and services. The website will reach millions of people, 24 hours a day, with a quick convenient way to shop union,” Bates said.
“The public is ready for this. People have seen millions of good jobs disappear and they are looking for ways to take a stand and make a difference,” he added.
The AFL-CIO will target the peak of the holiday shopping season by promoting “Buy Union Week” Nov. 26 through Dec. 5. The newly-launched, all-union shopping site will be a cornerstone of that campaign.
The firm says it may not meet its yearly sales target as it struggles to regain business lost during the area strike.
September 15, 2004
Kroger Co., the nation's largest grocery chain, posted a 25% drop in second-quarter profit and warned that it might not meet its yearly sales target as it struggled to regain business lost during Southern California's grocery strike.
The Cincinnati-based chain's earnings performance fell short of analysts' expectations, sending the company's shares down 4.3% for the day, closing at $15.98, off 72 cents, on the New York Stock Exchange. Kroger's shares have fallen 14% this year.
Net income for the quarter ended Aug. 14 declined to $142.4 million, or 19 cents a share, from $190.4 million or 25 cents, a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call expected Kroger to earn 27 cents a share.
Kroger Chief Executive Dave Dillon estimated that the company's efforts to recapture sales at its Ralphs stores in Southern California through heavier discounting, cut earnings an additional $23.4 million, or 3 cents a share in the quarter. But the discounting also reduced Kroger's gross margins and commodity prices increased.
Kroger's quarterly net income was also reduced $15.3 million, or 2 cents a share, because of debt charges.
Overall, Kroger's sales in the second quarter climbed 5% to $13 billion, up from $12.4 billion.
"They have to invest more than they thought, and are not getting the sales response they thought they would get," said Gary Giblen, an analyst with CL King & Associates.
"The company over-invested in pricing," said Robert Campagnino of Prudential Equity Group in a report.
Kroger, Albertsons Inc. and Vons parent Safeway Inc., have all seen their bottom lines suffer from the lingering effects of the 4½-month-long strike, which ended Feb. 29 when a new contract was ratified by the United Food and Commercial Workers union.
The supermarkets are beginning labor negotiations with grocery workers in Northern California, where the union contract covering 30,000 workers expired Sept. 11.
Kroger said its identical-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, increased 1.1% in the quarter, excluding fuel sales and Southern California's strike-affected stores. Including the strike area, identical-store sales rose 0.6%.
Dillon said the firm was still struggling to balance cutting prices to drive sales with maintaining gross margins. And he warned that with increasing competition from discounters such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Costco Wholesale Corp. and its supermarket rivals, it would be challenging for Kroger to increase identical-store sales 1.3% this year as promised.
"This is the worst condition the supermarket industry has ever been in, and it's getting far worse," Giblen said.
WASHINGTON (AP) - A House vote to overturn new Bush administration rules on which workers qualify for overtime pay was hailed by Democrats trying to convince undecided voters they are the party that better protects worker rights.
In a sharp rebuke to President Bush, the House voted 223-193 Thursday to stop the Labor Department from carrying out the new rules. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called it a "rare victory for middle-class Americans."
"President Bush's overtime regulations will affect 6 million workers," with some losing 25 percent of their incomes, Pelosi said.
Those figures were strongly disputed by the White House and the Labor Department, which said the biggest overhaul of overtime rules in more than 50 years would add more than 1 million mostly lower-paid workers to those eligible for overtime. The new regulations went into effect on Aug. 23.
"I do think the clarity that comes with these new rules will help better protect American workers," said Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, chairman of the Education and the Workforce Committee.
The overtime vote was an amendment to a $142.5 billion spending bill for health, education and job training programs in 2005. The White House has threatened to veto the entire bill if the overtime language is included.
It's unlikely to get to that point. House Republican Whip Roy Blunt, R-Ohio, said he was confident the language would be stripped when the House and Senate, which has yet to consider the bill, meet to work out the final version. By that time, he said, there will be "overwhelming evidence" the new rules are benefiting tens of thousands of workers.
But Democrats and labor unions said the vote was still another milestone in the struggle to stop the rule changes. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said the vote "underscores the bipartisan opposition to George Bush's war on overtime pay."
Twenty-two Republicans joined all 200 voting Democrats and one independent in voting for the amendment sponsored by Reps. David Obey, D-Wis., and George Miller, D-Calif.
The Senate on Thursday also challenged the Bush administration's policy of restricting travel to Cuba. And on Wednesday the Senate disregarded a White House veto threat and voted to prohibit Bush from giving federal immigration jobs to private workers.
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who has led opposition to the overtime rules in the Senate, said it was the fifth time in a year that Congress has voted against the rules. "Clearly, President Bush needs to listen to the message Congress is sending."
The Obey-Miller amendment would protect overtime eligibility for any worker who had it before Aug. 23. It would preserve one provision of the new rules that expands overtime pay to workers earning up to $23,660.
Opponents of the rules and their supporters have presented vastly different scenarios of their possible effects. Opponents warn that the overtime protections of some 6 million workers - chefs, nurses, police officers, journalists, athletic trainers, lower-level computer employees and those who perform small amounts of supervisory work - would be weakened by the rules.
American Federation of Teachers President Edward McElroy said millions, including 30,000 early childhood and Head Start teachers, "stand to lose a significant portion of their income if the Bush administration has its way."
But the Labor Department said 1.3 million workers who earn less than $23,660 a year would become eligible, while about 107,000 white-collar workers making $100,000 or more could lose eligibility. It said increased clarity on who is entitled to overtime would also reduce the confusion that has led to expensive lawsuits.
The department said the amendment would put the overtime rights of millions in jeopardy because the government could no longer protect those making more than $23,660. "Especially hard-hit are police, firefighters, construction workers and others whose overtime rights were explicitly guaranteed for the first time in the new rules," said Alfred B. Robinson, Jr., acting administrator for the Wage and Hour Division.
Republican Rep. Steven LaTourette of Ohio, who voted for the amendment, suggested there was a middle ground. "I would hope this vote, taken together with some votes in the Senate, will let the administration say, `Well, wait a minute, let's go back and revisit this case.'"
MILWAUKEE, Wis., Sept. 7 /U.S. Newswire/ -- UFCW International President Joe Hansen spoke at the 2004 Milwaukee, Wisconsin Labor Day rally. His remarks follow:
I am Joe Hansen and I am happy to be home. I got my first union card as a meatcutter apprentice at a Milwaukee supermarket, I organized my first non-union shop here in Milwaukee and, I ran my first strike to protect pay and health benefits in the Milwaukee grocery industry.
I have come home because we in Wisconsin have a job to do: we have to put decency, honesty and a commitment to working families back in the White House. And, this Milwaukee meatcutter has come back to help you get that job done.
I listened to George W. Bush's speech to the Republican Convention. And there is something I cannot forget or forgive in that speech. There is no dishonor in disagreement about the issues, that why we have elections, but there is dishonor in dishonesty.
When George W. Bush said in his speech that he was proposing comp time as a family-friendly overhaul of labor laws, he lied to the American people. Comp time means no time, no overtime, no family time, no time except work time for as along as the boss wants you to work. Work time should be paid time and, overtime work should be paid overtime pay.
If you take a hard look at any of the Bush proposals, you can find the lie underneath the rhetoric:
-- Privatize Social Security- really means give away billions of dollars in workers money to Wall Street stock brokers.
-- Prescription drug plan for seniors - really means a giveaway to the big drug companies.
-- Medical savings accounts - really means a giveaway to the big insurance companies.
There is an alternative and there is a difference. There is John Kerry and the Kerry/ Edwards ticket. John Kerry means good jobs here at home. John Kerry means affordable prescription drugs for seniors. John Kerry means a secure social security system. John Kerry means health care reform that will protect health care benefits at work for all working families.
UFCW members here in Wisconsin struck for almost a year in Jefferson to save their health benefits. Across the country, UFCW members in California, Missouri, and West Virginia have had to strike to save health care. I believe and John Kerry believes that no worker should be forced to strike to keep family health care. Health care should be there for every worker, for every family everywhere in this country.
It's not going to happen without you. We need you to get active, get involved, volunteer for America's future, and help elect Kerry/Edwards in November. Wisconsin can do it. America can do it.
By Erin Stephenson
ErinStephenson@coloradoan.com
My niece, when she was only 4 or 5 years old, used to give voice to most everyone's biggest gripe. Make a simple demand -- pick up your toys or hang up that towel -- and she would put her little fists on her hips and sputter: "I have to do all the work around here."
Labor is something we all understand.
From the time we're assigned chores as a child to the days we contemplate retirement, we are consumed by where we work, why we work and under what circumstances.
Although I suspect most of us, eventually, find satisfaction -- maybe even enjoyment -- in our work, we tend to focus on the things about it that don't quite fit.
And so there's bargaining and unions.
Growing up, my whole experience with organized labor was a grade school field trip to CF&I in Pueblo and a Colorado Springs teachers' union strike when I was in junior high. I didn't even want to know why the air traffic controllers were striking in 1981; I just thought they should go back to work. In fact, it wasn't until I was an adult, working jobs that would have been improved by a good agitator, that I understood how important it is to be able to take a collective stand.
Local grocery workers are currently involved in negotiations over health care, wages and staffing. The current contract expires next week, and everyone involved has said the goal is to avoid a strike. Last year, a contract impasse led to a four-month strike in California that devastated business. No one wants to see that happen here.
So right now, the emphasis remains on bargaining, not picketing.
And that is a delicate line to walk.
This is not a union shop, but some newspapers are, and a friend of mine was a steward at a Denver paper. It was tough, she said, to keep people interested in the union. Not everyone understood that the purpose was more than a bigger paycheck. Too often the meetings turned into calls for a strike, and too often that tunnel vision undermined the work they were doing to improve conditions and benefits.
Without the union, however, there would have been scant improvement at all. And without its precursors and peers, we would -- every one of us -- be without benefits like the 40-hour workweek and child labor laws.
As companies get bigger and bigger, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep an eye on the little guy. For the most part, the Mom-and-Pop store no longer exists to provide good jobs for the family next door. Now we have corporations that employ thousands, hundreds of thousands, of people; and because they are responsive mainly to their stockholders, they can't know, they don't know, how hard people struggle to make ends meet.
They learn when unions are strong.
This Labor Day finds union members deeply and actively involved in campaigning for a fundamental change in the direction of this country because they, like other working Americans, see the bottom falling out of their basic way of life -- and it’s been falling out fast in the last three and a half years under the policies of President George Bush. They see work being devalued. They see good jobs with health care and pensions becoming rare. And they see forces lined up to give more and more power to corporate interests that are driving job standards down.
As I travel the country, I see what this means for working families. The plant worker whose job went to China and who now works in a grocery store for half the pay and no benefits. The middle-aged couple who both lost their jobs and are doing everything they can to hold onto their house. The I.T. worker who trained her replacement in India, can’t find another job and has exhausted her unemployment benefits. The young couple with a child who work full-time, but don’t have health insurance. I’m sure you know the statistics, but let me just remind you that President Bush promised 5 million new jobs - - and he’s 6 million jobs behind on that promise. He will be the first President since Hoover and the Great Depression to end his term with more people out of work than when he began. But it’s not just about the number of jobs. The fact is that we are losing good jobs, and those we are gaining are not as good.
The new Census Bureau numbers show how bad things have gotten: the typical household’s income is now $1535 less than in 2000, and 45 million Americans don’t have health insurance – 5 million more than when Bush took office. With every major decision he has made, President Bush has catered to corporate interests over those of working families. Cutting the right to overtime pay for up to 6 million workers. Proposing new tax breaks for corporations that move jobs to other countries. Rolling back safety and health protections. Slashing worker training. Opposing a minimum wage increase, refusing to tackle out-of-control health care costs and passing a prescription drug benefit that helps drug companies more than seniors. Proposing cuts in after-school care for children while giving huge tax breaks to wealthy taxpayers. Undermining workers’ rights, from Project Labor Agreements to the right to bargain collectively for better standards. As Bush accepts his party’s nomination tonight, he is likely to repeat his claim that our nation has turned the corner -- but in fact President Bush has turned his back on working Americans.
In a time of a growing gulf between the haves and have nots, the single largest challenge for the American labor movement is to help working people bridge this gap and rebuild our middle class. We need good jobs - - not just any jobs. We need affordable health care and secure retirements. The union movement is leading this fight for working people. This Labor Day, we are strong, determined and stretching in new directions at every step. We’ve got new initiatives, increased efforts to help workers form unions and the most massive grassroots political program in our history to make sure the next President of our nation is one who honors working family values.
Tonight more than 15,000 union volunteers will knock on a million union household doors in swing states as President Bush is accepting his party’s nomination. We’ve never attempted anything at this scale in one major nationwide event. I will join the walks in St. Louis tonight, and more than twenty union presidents will also join the walks. As our political director Karen Ackerman will describe in a moment, our program this year is bigger, broader and more focused than ever before. Our members have never been more engaged and motivated as they see the effects of Bush’s policies on their lives - - our union halls have been overwhelmed by volunteers. Given the voting rights fiasco in 2000, we’re determined to make sure every American’s vote is counted this year. We have begun a non-partisan program called, “My Vote, My Right” which will work with allies in 32 communities in 12 states to educate citizens about their voting rights and help prevent voting rights violations. This program is already in action. We had poll watchers in Florida for Tuesday’s primary - - and will be involved in the primaries on September 7 and 14.
We’ve continued to steadily help workers form unions -- more than half a million workers joined unions last year -- and nearly two million have joined unions since 2000. Last month, 3,300 America West Airlines reservations and gate employees voted to join the Teamsters in the biggest government-run, private sector election in years. Other recent wins include 1500 graduate employees at the University of Illinois, 1000 workers at Thomas Built Bus in rural North Carolina, and hundreds of Comcast workers have formed unions with CWA and IBEW. In fact, our polling has shown a steady increase in the percentage of working people who say they would join a union if they could --- today fully 50 percent of workers in our country would join a union if they had a fair chance. But too many employers continue to routinely deny their workers the basic freedom to improve their lives through forming unions - - that’s why the Employee Free Choice Act is so important. It’s a measure pending in Congress that would allow workers to have a union once a majority sign cards or petitions saying they want one, and would replace the lengthy and flawed National Labor Relations Board election process. Senator Kerry is among the more than 30 Senators - - including Republican Arlen Specter - - and 208 House members who have co-sponsored the legislation.
It is precisely because so many people do want change and because the union “brand” is so valuable that our historic new initiative, Working America, is so successful. Working America was launched a year ago for people who don’t have the benefit of a union on the job, but who want a say in issues that matter to them. Just one year later, we have recruited more than 650,000 members through door-to-door canvassing and on the web --- making Working America the fastest growing progressive organization in the country and a powerful new voice for working people. On the doors, we’ve found that many people are extremely upset about the Bush overtime takeaway. In fact, Working America has sponsored a website called “Ask a Lawyer” where people can get more information on how they will be affected - - it’s at “www “dot” working America.”
The fight to stop President Bush’s overtime pay cut is a great example of how our movement fights for every working American. Up to six million working Americans will lose their overtime rights under this rule, which went into effect August 23, and which slashes much-needed pay for nurses, chefs, line supervisors, team leaders and others. At the AFL-CIO’s leadership, hundreds of thousands of working people sent postcards, e-mails, petitions and faxes to President Bush and the Department of Labor to stop this pay cut. This is yet one more example of how the President puts corporate interests first ahead of working men and women. When Congress comes back next week, there will be huge pressure on them to overturn the Bush rule. Let me now call on the AFL-CIO Political Director Karen Ackerman to update us on our political efforts.
ELBERTON, Ga., Sept 2 /U.S. Newswire/ -- More than 5,000 Pilgrim's Pride workers in four states are preparing for what could be the largest mobilization of poultry industry employees faced by the Texas-based company to date. Workers in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Texas are preparing for the worst, that Pilgrim's Pride continues its attack on workers at the bargaining table. Contracts covering almost 25 percent of Pilgrim's Pride production will expire in the next six months.
The August 27, 2004 expiration of the workers' contract at the Elberton, Georgia, plant and the company's refusal to extend the provisions of the same until a new one is reached has sent clear signals to employees about the company's intention to force them onto picket lines. Workers at the company's Lufkin, Texas facility have been working without a contract for three years, despite the repeated attempts by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) to reach a new agreement. Contracts at four other plants are set to expire within the next six months.
Negotiations for a new contract at Elberton, Georgia, are stalled as Pilgrim's Pride's representatives have failed to offer an agreement that does not undermine its employees' living standards.
Pilgrim's Pride's decision not to extend the provisions of the contract at Elberton, Georgia, and its hard-line approach to bargaining in Lufkin, Texas, contrasts with their willingness to extend the contract during negotiations at three other plants. Elberton's employees are increasingly wary of the company's intentions to force them onto the picket lines. The company supplies food products to Wendy's, Arby's, Whataburger, and Wal- Mart stores among other key customers.
"Pilgrim's Pride is wealthy corporation attacking the livelihood of hard working men and women," said Bill Schmitz, UFCW international vice president and director of the food processing, packing and manufacturing division.
"Pilgrim's Pride's defiance of its workforce will meet the full response of the entire UFCW International Union, UFCW local unions and a working rank and file that is willing to defend the gains they have longed struggled for. Together, with community allies, the public and the solidarity of our union brothers and sisters we will fight for the dignity and respect that these workers deserve," added Schmitz.
Pilgrim's Pride employs over 40,000 people in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico and recorded 2.6 billion dollars in sales for 2003, which has doubled due to the acquisition of ConAgra's chicken division in November of 2003.