In Endorsement, IBEW 1837 States, “Bernie Sanders Has The Best Labor Record Of Any Presidential Cand
Source: NH Labor News
MANCHESTER, N.H. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1837 today endorsed U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders for president in the NH Democratic Primary and the Maine Democratic Caucus, citing his long-standing commitment to addressing the needs of working families. IBEW 1837 represents more than 1,600 workers at electric utilities and broadcasting stations across Maine and New Hampshire. The Dover-based unions endorsement builds on growing momentum for Sanders New Hampshire campaign, which has also secured the support of SEIU 1984, IBEW 490, the American Postal Workers Union Local 230 and SEIU 560.
Bernie Sanders has a 35-year record standing shoulder-to-shoulder with workers and supporting the labor movement, said IBEW Local #1837 President Bill Tarallo. How our members vote is their personal decision but our E-Board wanted to recognize the tremendous work that Senator Sanders has done supporting the right of unions to organize, fighting against unfair trade deals and in support of higher wages for working people. He has the best labor record of any presidential candidate in more than a generation.
The Unions E-Board is made up of rank and file workers elected by the members to represent them. They also applauded Bernie Sanders support of IBEW and CWA union members during the recent successful strike at FairPoint in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont, where he joined striking workers on the picket line and demanded the company agree to a fair contract.
Beyond his stellar labor record, Bernie Sanders has defended Social Security and stood up to Wall Street, Tarallo continued. His support of public education and our nations veterans also deserves our recognition.
FULL story at link. NH Labor News is run by DUer Matt murry. Last I knew he leans Hillary.
About NH Labor News
The New Hampshire Labor News is a group of NH Workers who believe that we need to protect ourselves against the attacks on workers. We are proud union members who are working to preserve the middle class. The NHLN talks mostly about news and politics from NH. We also talk about national issues that effect working men and women here in the Granite State.
Read more: http://nhlabornews.com/2015/12/50491/
happynewyear
(1,724 posts)840high
(17,196 posts)dana_b
(11,546 posts)PatrickforO
(14,593 posts)Bernie has been a supporter of unions and American workers in general for 40 years. Good for IBEW Local 1837.
RoccoR5955
(12,471 posts)will kill pension funds, because some investment accountant says so. Meanwhile they don't understand that their healthcare costs would go way down, nor do they wish to accept it.
So yes, there are stupid rank and file union members who do not support Bernie.
PatrickforO
(14,593 posts)Here's the real deal about the transaction tax:
I don't know how basic your understanding is, so forgive me if I'm telling you something you already know.
Since the deregulation of Wall Street, investment houses, banks and insurance companies can now all 'play' the market, meaning they can speculate using other people's money on things like derivative bundles, which are very risky. So, there are two things about this tax that actually are a good idea:
First, think of all the people you might listen to for investment advice. They will generally tell you to 'buy and hold' but the real money is made once schmucks like us lay down their money and buy shares. Because the big house holding our shares for us can make money from trading them every day and we'll never know the difference.
OK, now that we've established that, how do they do it? Well, the big houses all have 'bots. These 'bots are basically computer programs that buy and sell securities (stocks) and commodity futures so the investment house can realize an incremental profit from arbitrage. Let me explain. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) for instance, is located on - you guessed it - Wall Street. The big houses have 'seats' on this exchange (and others). So each big house sends traders to the floor of the exchange and they basically yell at each other all day making trades. Seriously. I've seen this on video and it looks like the most hellish job that ever was...utterly without any existential meaning...
Anyway, for each transaction there is an 'ask' price and a 'sell' price. Usually they are very close, in the tenths of a penny difference. But when shares in a company are moving down or up, there's a real opportunity, if they do it really fast, to make a narrow profit on the difference between 'ask' and 'sell' prices. This is called arbitrage. For instance if a company bought 100,000 shares of X at $10.00 a minute ago, but now the 'sell' price is $10.01, the 'bot will signal a 'sell' order and in nanoseconds the trade will be complete - 100,000 shares of X bought a minute ago at $10, and sold just now at $10.01 per share for an arbitrage profit on that one trade of $1,000.
Thousands of these transactions take place per minute, and as I say, schmucks like us don't have any clue. All we did was buy the stocks, and then years later when we sell them we will have to pay a 'capital gain' tax on the difference in what we paid way back when (the basis) and what we sold it for. But all this time the company where we have our trading account has made thousands of dollars in profit trading up and down the whole time. In fact, the 'volume' (total number of trades) on the exchange is inflated because of these 'bots, and the market (value of stocks) can actually be artificially changed by all these trades. So, instead of the market moving on the value the companies behind the stocks re actually creating, it moves based on a bunch of greedy traders trying to suck the uttermost drop of blood.
Scummy, right? I mean, there's just something that feels dirty about that - almost like a sucker eating scum from the bottom of a pond just to eke out that final few pennies of profit. Bernie's tax wouldn't affect that this happens - we'd just be collecting a tiny tax on each transaction. This is the money he wants to use to pay for free college at state schools to the bachelor's level. Great for our kids and only a microscopic reduction in profit for companies that are already like giant bloated mosquitoes that are ready to explode from sucking too much blood.
OK....now here's the second reason, the one that actually affects pension funds:
Second, as if the above isn't enough, the big exchanges gamble even MORE aggressively with our money without us ever knowing. Their method of choice is the derivative bundle. Basically, a derivative is a 'contract that derives its value from the performance of an underlying entity. This underlying entity can be an asset, index, or interest rate, and is often called the "underlying."'
So, how does this egregious scum sucking look on the ground? Let's take the example above. Because hey, $1,000 every few seconds isn't anything right? Just chump change for these greed heads. What if the quantitative analysts for the big trading house decide stock for company X is a winner long term.
They can make money off this two ways:
1. They can bundle it as a derivative package with other 'winners' and sell it to other investors at a price that takes into account the estimated 'win' amount. So the investors put up money that belongs to other people, usually, and buy this bet that these stocks as a group are all going to go up Z amount. Since they bought it for Z-Y, they stand to make Y profit on the bundle. And, if the stock does BETTER than Z then they will make even more. Now the funny thing about derivatives is that that's all they are, just bets. You aren't buying anything really, you're just putting money into a big slot machine.
Because if the stock doesn't go up enough to cover your cost, then the derivative owner is upside down. This is what happened to Lehman Brothers in 2008, basically.
So how does this affect pensions? Well the company that holds your pension may have 'enjoyed' this nice deregulation, so now they can REALLY gamble...with your money. Now, and here's the nuance...it would be OK if they sold derivatives to other investors based on what they think will happen with YOUR money because that way you wouldn't lose your money even of those bets went bad.
But.......................oh SHIT!
What if the company that holds your pension mortgages the value of the pension and uses your money to buy derivatives from someone else???
Oh, oh.
And then, what if those bets go south? Well, that company has to use other assets to cover the value of your pension, and if they can't then YOU lose YOUR money. Bernie's tax on these transactions MIGHT prevent the big houses that make these arbitrage trades every nanosecond from moving the market artificially quite so much. And it certainly would stop most of this kind of arbitrage trading with bundled derivatives.
See, this is why Bernie is so RIGHT. He wants to reinstate Glass-Steagall, which basically says, hey, if you're a commercial bank then you can only do X. If you're an investment bank then you can only do Y. If you are an insurance company, you can only do Z. This is why Wall Street is so fucked up and immoral...well, one reason.
The other reason is the Fed. See, people think the Fed is 'quasi' governmental. Bullshit. The Fed is primarily owned by two big banks: JP Morgan Chase and Citibank. So this national debt? It's money we owe to ourselves. So why are we paying interest on that money to Wall Street?
What pisses me off, just burns me is that NONE of these slimeballs like Jamie Diamon have gone to trial let alone jail for their fucked up betting that ruined so many lives.
Last, cause this was a long post, let me say that if you are a working American, you should be for Bernie, period, because our interests have NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING in common with those of the greed heads on Wall Street.
SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)That money doesn't come out of the air, it come from the pension funds that are being "managed". Sanders wants to tax that money getting skimmed off to get some of it back to the 99%. The effect may be to reduce this unnecessary trading which would actually save the pension funds money. In Wall Street wealth is zero-sum. What profits the "traders" take home comes from the rubes.
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)liberalnarb
(4,532 posts)AzDar
(14,023 posts)mikehiggins
(5,614 posts)where are the rest of you guys?
Mike Higgins
Proud RETIRED member of the IBEW.
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)the quick endorsement by their leaders. Seems like there were two large unions that did that and a lot of their members were Bernie supporters.
As the Unions go, that represented much of the Middle Class that's been left behind. Especially when your Union Management rushes to stay with the Status Quo...with the candidate who doesn't want to give them a working wage.
Might I dare believe that these last ones somewhat give cover for more Bernie endorsements from unions, or even locals to endorse and work.
RoccoR5955
(12,471 posts)Haven't heard back from them yet though.
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)RoccoR5955
(12,471 posts)libdem4life
(13,877 posts)of the 1%...why? Because We Can. The gap gets wider...especially those who support a much lesser Living Wage...and union leadership...shame on them. But it unfortunately makes Bernie's point.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)don't support the Establishment candidate.
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)I'll admit I wanted more information when he says "bring the people together in a revolution" means. But the unions are a fantastic way to start...working class people who have lost big time (union or not) in this New Economy. Maybe some more Locals will endorse...that would be good.
Betty Karlson
(7,231 posts)Bubzer
(4,211 posts)WillyT
(72,631 posts)bvf
(6,604 posts)Thanks, Steve!
CharlotteVale
(2,717 posts)Punkingal
(9,522 posts)Great news!
TIME TO PANIC
(1,894 posts)Duval
(4,280 posts)Thanks Omaha Steve for the great news!
Uncle Joe
(58,426 posts)Thanks for the thread, Omaha Steve.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Response to Omaha Steve (Original post)
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