NEWS ROUNDUP
Dropping ranks, 787’s market discipline, Jaime’s hostage…
Thursday, January 24, 2013
UNION MEMBERSHIP
YESTERDAY at The Stand — Union membership drops; Washington state still No. 4 — Washington state remains ranked No. 4 in terms of union density in 2012, with the state’s 513,000 union members accounting for 18.5% of the overall workforce. Only New York (23.2%), Alaska (22.4%) and Hawaii (21.6%) and have higher unionization rates than Washington. Neighboring Oregon ranks 9th in union density (15.7%).
► At AFL-CIO Now — Trumka reacts to latest union membership numbers — Says the AFL-CIO leader: “We enter 2013 with our eyes open and understand that these challenges offer real opportunities for working people to reshape the future. Working families are building community alliances, engaging with young workers and immigrants, fighting right-wing politicians and organizing in innovative ways. From taxi workers to teachers to nurses to Wal-Mart workers to port workers to freelance writers, working Americans are committed to building a new movement for the future and to creating good jobs and an economy that works for all.”
BOEING
At this point, I don’t see how you can argue that the 787 business model is more “efficient” than the strong integrated teams we had in earlier programs.
► In today’s Seattle Times — Top regulators defend grounding of 787 — The top two federal regulators who grounded Boeing’s 787s over battery problems vigorously defended their decision Wednesday amid uncertainty about when the jetliners will be cleared to fly again.
► In today’s NY times — Boeing’s battery problems cast doubt on appraisal of new technologies — The 787 grounding raises fundamental questions about how federal regulators certify new technology and how they balance advances in airplane design and engineering with ensuring safety in commercial flying.
► In today’s Seattle Times — 787 battery blew up in ’06 lab test, burned down building — The Air Line Pilots Association raised concerns about Boeing’s battery-fire-protection plan in the course of the FAA certification process. During the public-comment period in 2007, the pilots union stressed that “a fire from these devices, in any situation, is unacceptable.”
► From Forbes — What went wrong at Boeing? — While Boeing’s CEO was in Chicago, strategizing about the future of Boeing and discussing civic goals with CEOs from other companies, the managers back in Seattle were making business decisions about tiresome “how-do-you-design-an-airplane stuff” that would determine whether there would be a firm to strategize about.
STATE GOVERNMENT
► At PubliCola — This week in Rodney Tom’s Olympia (by Brendan Williams) — Week two of the Rodney Tom era in the Senate opened with efforts to dismantle our state’s century-old industrial insurance protections for workers. And so much for bipartisanship.
TAKE A STAND — Protect the safety net for injured workers!
► From AP — Lawmakers looking at buying ferries from out-of-state — State lawmakers may reconsider the law that requires new ferries to be built in Washington in light of an audit suggesting that they could be built cheaper at shipyards out of state.
EDITOR’S NOTE — As previously editor’s noted, this audit failed to include any kind of cost-benefit analysis of the advantages of having ferries built locally by local businesses and local workers who inject that money into our local economy. More on this in next week’s WSLC Legislative Update.
► In today’s Columbian — State to weigh in on light-rail petition controversy — At the request of Sen. Don Benton (R-Vancouver), the state Attorney General’s Office will weigh in on a controversy surrounding a petition that fell just short of the required number of valid signatures to get the Vancouver City Council to put light rail to a public vote.
LOCAL
► In today’s Seattle Times — Highway 99 tunnel machine damage could delay dig — The mammoth Highway 99 tunnel machine will start its journey under Seattle a few weeks late, after workers at the Japanese assembly site found damage to the rotary drive that spins the cutter head. Instead of a June 3 launch, the boring machine will embark from Sodo to South Lake Union sometime this summer.
► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Hanford construction needs to slow down (editorial) — It’s time for a timeout that reduces work to a minimum that would sustain the core of highly skilled engineers, technicians and workmen on the project. A study analyzing what is known and what needs to be known for final design will not be completed until August 2014.
CONGRESS
EDITOR’S NOTE — The threat of refusing to pay the nation’s bills every three months is doing real harm to our economy and killing jobs right here in Washington state. Our fragile economic recovery cannot afford to keep lurching from one Republican debt-ceiling hostage crisis to another. Stop tanking our markets and killing jobs with your threats to default on America’s commitments and shut down the government. Pay your bills! That’s the bare minimum of responsibility and competence we expect from Congress.
► At AFL-CIO Now — House postpones debt-limit deadline to May 18 — This is good news — no doubt about it — and it shows the power of working people when they make their voices heard. But don’t think for a second that Republicans have given up trying to tank the economy to get their way. Or trying to cut Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare benefits. Or trying to cut taxes for Wall Street and rich people. Because they haven’t and they won’t. This fight is still on.
► In today’s NY Times — A debt crisis averted — for now (editorial) — House Republicans dropped their extortion over the debt ceiling, but a three-month extension is too short.
► At Huffington Post — Business lobbying soared in 2012 — Leading the pack in annual spending was the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Its spending topped $125 million, an 88% increase from the previous year. The lobbying figure doesn’t include more than $36 million the group spent influencing the 2012 elections ($28 million of which funded attack ads against Democrats).
TODAY’S MUST-SEE
► Jon Stewart takes down Paul Ryan…
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 9 a.m.