Friday, October 26, 2012

BOEING

► In today’s Seattle Times — Boeing invited suppliers to outsource work to Mexico— Boeing is actively encouraging its suppliers to outsource work to Mexico. Patrick McKenna — no relation :) — director of Supply Chain Strategy and Supplier Management at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, has urged suppliers to attend a Nov. 15 workshop in Chicago to learn how to do business in Mexico.

“We’d think that Boeing CEO Jim McNerney, as chairman of President Obama’s council on exports, would be particularly sensitive to the importance of exporting American products, not jobs,” said IAM 751 President Tom Wroblewski. “We plan on talking to Boeing about this. We believe it is counterproductive to what we are trying to accomplish here.”

EDITOR’S NOTE — Boeing executives: “After all, outsourcing has worked out so well for us.”

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — SPEEA, Boeing ‘making progress’ in talks — After a month of exchanging jabs, leaders for the Boeing Co. and the union representing the company’s engineers and technical workers had two days of “productive” contract talks this week.

STATE ELECTIONS

► At PubliCola — Republicans double down on pivotal state Senate races — The state Senate Republicans donated hundreds and thousands of dollars yesterday in independent expenditures to help the roster of GOP candidates in the party’s effort to win back the senate — $142,000 to be exact. And $75,000 the day before. Grand total in the last 48 hours: $217,000.

► At PubliCola — Seattle Times sent letter urging elected officials to advertise — The newspaper, trying to spin its decision to do and independent expenditure ad for Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna, sent a letter to local, state, and federal officials last week as the controversy was breaking urging them to take out ads in the Times. The letter maligns political consultants as “a stubborn bunch [who] are not just going to take our word that The Seattle Times has changed and is anxious to work with political campaigns.”

EDITOR’S NOTE — As PubliCola previously suggested, The Times’ own “Truth Needle” reports today that the newspaper’s donated McKenna ad wasn’t completely true. Ouch!

► In today’s Tri-City Herald — Clough can be influential from middle of the road (editorial) — We could use a Democrat on our team in Olympia to ensure Eastern Washington concerns are heard in the majority caucus. We think Jay Clough has the right temperament not only to get the attention of Democrats in Olympia, but also to represent the district as a whole. The Herald editorial board recommends Jay Clough for state representative.

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Overturn Citizens United (editorial) — Around the Northwest, the cavalcade of negative political ads wears down the television blab-off, just as it diminishes faith in the electoral process. Ideas are the foundation of a campaign, but defining the opponent — however embellished or out of context — is the scaffolding. Is there a constitutional way to make political speech more civil? No. The difference is the scale of mass communication and one key variable — financing.

LOCAL

► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Gregoire says successors budget proposals won’t work — Gov. Chris Gregoire served warning Thursday to her two would-be successors that the budget plans they’re pushing on the campaign trail won’t work and they’ll need to find some sort of new revenue – usually translated as a tax increase – to balance the budget and meet the demand for better public schools.

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Gregoire on cancelled ferry sailings: ‘Go to work’ — As a cost-saving measure, the ferry system in June cut back the number of staff on some boats to the minimum recommended for safety by the U.S. Coast Guard. Even though it amounts to a reduction of only one employee per boat — in most cases, from 11 to 10 — this has left no margin for error when even one worker doesn’t get to the boat for one reason or another and it’s too late to find an on-call replacement. Asked about the cancellations, Gov. Gregoire tells reporters: “When we decide we want to be public servants, we serve. Go to work. You owe it to the public.”

EDITOR’S NOTE — And you thought the blame-public-employees meme was the other party’s reflexive reaction. Perhaps, asking “public servants” to continually do more with less (and for less) as budgets are cut to the bone, leaving no “margin for error,” might actually affect the quality of service. Perhaps, if our elected servants did a better job explaining this reality, maybe angry ferry riders and other taxpayers wouldn’t take their frustrations out on public employees who are trying to make the best of a bad situation.

► In today’s News Tribune — Union sues Tacoma, Broadnax; says planned layoffs are illegal — A city-employee labor union (Teamsters Local 117) sued the City of Tacoma on Thursday, claiming City Manager T.C. Broadnax’s budget plan that would reorganize several city departments and eliminate scores of jobs violates various laws, due-process rights and collective bargaining agreements.

► In today’s Tri-City Herald — NRC to increase oversight of Richland nuclear power plant— The NRC confirmed that two inspection findings for the Columbia Generating Station’s emergency preparedness program were “white,” meaning they had a low to moderate safety significance.

► In the (Aberdeen) Daily World — Mayor’s budget dips into reserves to avoid layoffs — Aberdeen Mayor Bill Simpson included no major cuts or layoffs in the 2013 budget he unveiled Wednesday night. Simpson once again dives heavily into reserves, saying he just couldn’t bring himself to do any layoffs.

FISCAL CLIFF

► In today’s Washington Post — ‘Fiscal cliff’ already hampering U.S. economy — The “fiscal cliff” is still two months off, but the scheduled blast of tax hikes and spending cuts is already reverberating through the U.S. economy, hampering growth and, according to a new study, wiping out nearly 1 million jobs this year alone.

► In today’s NY Times — Business leaders urge deficit deal, even with more taxes — The partisan rift over taxes has blocked a deficit reduction deal for two years and has spilled into the 2012 campaigns. Yet as Republicans and Democrats continue to brawl, business leaders are increasing pressure on Washington to reach a deal on taxes and spending, even if it raises their own tax bills.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Maybe some of these CEOs should reassess their continuing financial support for increasingly ideological national business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business, which have been absolute cheerleaders for the Grover Norquist, no-taxes-ever, no-compromise, government-is-evil crowd that has taken over the Republican Party. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce strongly supported creating this stupid “fiscal cliff” in the first place! Now, the Chamber is spending millions to elect more intransigent Tea Party blockheads like Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, who apparently think compromise is worse than rape. Just a thought…

NATIONAL

► In today’s NY Times — Michigan vote a test case for enshrining the rights of unions — Michigan’s unions are asking voters to approve a referendum on the ballot this November, known as Proposal 2, that would lock a series of labor protections into the state Constitution, including the right of public sector unions to bargain collectively and a prohibition against the legislature’s enacting a “right to work” law.

► In today’s NY Times — Spending on Medicaid has slowed, survey finds — The annual growth in spending on Medicaid slowed sharply last year as the economy began to improve. Enrollment in the program grew only modestly as well, but that may change as millions of people are due to become eligible in 2014 under the new national health care law.

► At AFL-CIO Now — Sensata tells workers to end protests of ax falls sooner — The workers at Sensata Technologies, who’ve established the tent city “Bainport” across the street from the Bain Capital majority-owned plant that is shutting down and shipping the 170 U.S. jobs to China, filed unfair labor practices charges Wednesday against Sensata.

T.G.I.F.

► With all due respect to The Time, this is the third best band to ever come out of Minneapolis (behind Prince and The Replacements). The entire staff of The Stand, suckers all for some beautiful harmony, presents “Blue” by The Jayhawks.

Have a great weekend — brought to you by the Labor Movement.

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