NEWS ROUNDUP

SPEEA-Boeing talks, Kalama to hire local, GOP sides with rich…

Thursday, August 2, 2012

WASTE MANAGEMENT STRIKE

► From AP — Trash drivers voting on ending Seattle-area strike — The picket signs are gone, so the Waste Management garbage trucks are rolling Thursday in the Seattle-Everett area. The drivers of yard waste and recycling trucks vote Thursday morning at 9 a.m. on a tentative agreement the Teamsters union is recommending. The agreement likely means more than 200,000 customers can expect the return of regular service to dump garbage, yard waste and recycling bins that have been drawing flies since a strike began July 25.

ALSO TODAY at The Stand — Tentative deal to end Seattle garbage strike— (This post will be updated with news of the vote result.)

BOEING

► In the PS Business Journal — Boeing, SPEEA spar over retirement cuts in contract talks — On July 26, Boeing gave SPEEA the company’s first solid proposal: moving new hires from being able to count on pensions to the equivalent of a 401(k). It amounted to what the union considers a 40% cut in retirement benefits. The proposal didn’t go down well with union leaders. “At the table we told them it wasn’t a serious proposal. They know it’s unacceptable, and we’re frustrated they’re wasting our time,” said SPEEA Executive Director Ray Goforth.

► In Leeham News — SPEEA, Boeing contract: Don’t expect another ‘IAM breakthrough’ — SPEEA and the company appear to be at odds in the early stages of contract negotiations and there appears virtually no chance of a surprise breakthrough similar to the IAM 751-Boeing contract last December. People familiar with the situation on both sides say they are hunkered down for traditional contract negotiations in advance of the October 4 amendable date.

ALSO TODAY at The Stand — SPEEA seeks contract recognizing members’ role in Boeing success (by The Professional and Technical Negotiation Team for SPEEA)

LOCAL

► In the NW Labor Press — Kalama grain terminal will employ some union labor — Union officials are reporting that Temco has awarded a $50 million grain silo expansion project at the Port of Kalama to general contractor Borton LC of Kansas. That’s good news for union construction workers, because JH Kelly will do 85% of the work as a sub-contractor. Kelly is signatory with several building trades locals in Washington and Oregon.

PREVIOUSLY at The Stand — ‘Hire Local Labor’ rally June 29 in Kalama

► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Spokane mayor’s budget cuts 100 positions — Spokane Mayor David Condon on Wednesday rolled out a preliminary city budget for 2013 that cuts 100 positions, including police and fire jobs, but allows him to take a full salary of $169,000.

► In today’s Columbian — Clark County’s labor dispute with deputies settled — An arbitrator has settled a long-running dispute between Clark County and the Deputy Sheriff’s Guild. The guild’s 129 deputies and sergeants had been working under the terms of a contract that expired in 2008.

STATE GOVERNMENT

► At TheOlympian.com — Postscript on CTS agency restoring workers’ rights — Rep. Sam Hunt said Gov. Chris Gregoire played a role in changing the rules. He also said settlement between CTS and Washington Federation of State Employees is a good result and corrects what he and other House Democrats regarded as an error in the original state-agency merger legislation of 2011.

► In today’s Seattle Times — No state money for parks: what next? — Lawmakers have given Washington’s parks system an unprecedented mandate: Begin operating with no state funding in 2013. But the linchpin of the plan, the Discover Pass parking permit, has brought in less than half the $32 million expected during the last year. Now the parks are under the gun to adapt.

► In today’s Yakima H-R — School districts across state using reserves, savings to balance budgets — It is the first time in four years that the Legislature didn’t cut money for K-12 public education. Even so, most school districts across the state are adopting budgets that include taking money from their fund balances — reserves and money leftover from the previous year — to balance the books.

CONGRESS

► At AFL-CIO — House Republicans vote to keep Bush tax cuts for richest 2% — In a reverse of last week’s Senate action, the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved (256-171) a bill to extend the Bush tax cuts for the nation’s wealthiest 2% — about $160,000 a year for the average millionaire. The House defeated (257-170) a Democratic alternative amendment to maintain the cuts for the middle class but end the tax breaks for the rich.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Washington’s Congressional delegation voted on strict party lines with Republicans Reps. Herrera Beutler, Hastings, McMorris Rodgers, and Reichert voting with the millionaires, and Reps. Larsen, Dicks, McDermott, and Smith voting with the moms.

► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Senate deal would extend sales tax deduction — Taxpayers in Washington could save an average of $500 a year on their federal taxes under a bipartisan deal announced Wednesday by a Senate committee. The Senate Finance Committee is expected to vote today on a bill that would extend dozens of tax breaks, including the deduction for sales tax for residents of eight states that don’t have an income tax. Said U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash)., a member of the committee: “Unless the sales tax is made deductible, taxpayers in Washington and other states without an income tax bear a disproportionate share of the federal tax burden.”

NATIONAL

► At AFL-CIO Now — Laborers honored as apprenticeship trailblazer, innovator — Wednesday marked the 75th Anniversary of the signing of the National Apprenticeship Act and at a ceremony marking the historic job training act, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis honored the Laborers’ apprenticeship programs with a 21st Century Trailblazer and Innovator award.

► At TPM — Witness at GOP’s ‘English only’ House hearing has racist ties — A Republican witness at today’s House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on legislation making English the official language of the United States is from an organization with ties to racism.

► In the Hollywood Reporter — SAG-AFTRA receives AFL-CIO charter

TODAY’S MUST-READ

► In the NW Labor Press — BrucePac’s immigrant workforce says “no” to union — At a pair of cooked meat and poultry processing plants in Woodburn and Silverton, Oregon, a group of 284 mostly immigrant workers will remain nonunion. A July 26 election resulted in 57 votes for joining Laborers Local 296, and 189 against. To oppose the campaign, BrucePac employed the nationally-known anti-union law firm Jackson Lewis, and held over a month of workplace “classes” which were led by Spanish-speaking anti-union consultants. Ironically, BrucePac was the test case in a 2010 federal court lawsuit in which the U.S. Chamber of Commerce tried to strike down the Worker Freedom Act — a 2009 Oregon law which bans mandatory anti-union meetings.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Union members and leaders followed and filmed. Union supporters fired and their property vandalized. Another day in the life of American workers trying to exercise their freedom to choose a union without employer threat and coercion.

The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 9 a.m.