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Boeing’s ill will, two-thirds fail, Koch-Manson…

Thursday, February 6, 2014

 


BOEING

 

Boeing-IAM-777► In today’s Seattle Times — Aerospace analyst lauds 777X, berates Boeing for creating ‘ill will’ — Top aviation-industry analyst Richard Aboulafia said Wednesday that Boeing’s 777X program could give the jet-maker a significant lead over rival Airbus in the decade ahead. But he also warned that Boeing management is running big risks with a “penny-wise and pound-foolish” strategy of squeezing its labor unions and suppliers. He said Boeing’s strategy of forcing major labor concessions on the Machinist union in exchange for building the 777X in Washington “reeks of some sort of psychological exercise rather than an economically driven process.”

“Congratulations,” he said sarcastically. “They saved the cost of a 777 or two per year, and lost the opportunity to work together with the workforce to be innovative and productive… That seems really foolish.”

MORE coverage in the (Everett) Herald and the PSBJ.

Boeing-McNerney-thanks► MUST-READ in the Huffington Post — Dear Boeing: Next time, try benevolence (by Carla Seaquist) — Prior to the final (Machinists) union vote, public officials and editorialists bent over backward not to use the g-word — greed — to describe Boeing’s actions, so as not to offend. But one has to ask: In light of recent banner years of profit and the prospect of more with a $400 billion backlog in orders — each big contract headlined by local media — what else but greed explains why Boeing cannot be more generous and more humane with its workers? What galls workers most is being held hostage by their employer, treated with a high hand, shown little regard. Given the anxiety of layoffs and the sundering of proprietorship with outsourcing, working for Boeing is now just a job, not the point of pride it once was.

► In the Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier — Newspaper slams S.C. Boeing plant for ‘poorly done work’ — Citing unnamed sources, a Seattle Times’ story Tuesday detailed serious flaws in Boeing 787 Dreamliner production at the North Charleston plant, further damaging the operation’s image. The newspaper reported the work in North Charleston is “poorly done” and “getting worse” and causing Everett workers to make up for mistakes being made at the South Carolina 787 assembly plant.

 


STATE GOVERNMENT

 

► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Minimum wage bills move forward in Legislature — The state’s minimum wage would go up for some workers and down for others under proposals moving through the Legislature this week. It would go up to $12 an hour by 2017 for all hourly workers under a proposal approved Wednesday by the Democratic-controlled House Labor and Work Force Development Committee. It would go down to as low as $7.25 an hour for teenagers under a proposal approved by the Republican-controlled Senate Commerce and Labor Committee.

► In today’s Seattle Times — Bill to restore two-thirds vote to increase taxes fails — The Republican-led majority in the state Senate tried and failed on Wednesday to pass a measure that would send voters a constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds vote in the Legislature to increase taxes. SJR 8213 got 25 votes in the Senate, which is a majority. But it takes a supermajority vote of two thirds in both the Senate and House to send a constitutional amendment to voters.

► In today’s Olympian — Fall elections hover over Legislature, creating polarity — Washington’s Legislature is suffering from election-year mood polarity. The Senate votes to the right, the House to the left — often on the same day and sometimes in the same moment at opposite ends of the state Capitol.

 


LOCAL

 

► In today’s Seattle Times — Seattle Salutes its Super Heroes

st-seahawks-parade

► In today’s NY Times — ‘Chill’ Seattle savors its Super Bowl moment in the sun — Seattle paradegoers like Keith Jefferson said he thought the city’s goody-two-shoes image was not quite true to begin with anyway. A strain of radical militancy — seared into local memory here especially by WTO riots in 1999, when anarchist groups arose in violent protest, but dating back through decades of labor strife before that — runs somewhere in the city’s soul, too, he said. “We invented the labor riot.”

► In today’s Seattle Times — Fast-growing school districts seek more money from voters — Several districts in King and Snohomish counties will be asking voters to pass bond measures next Tuesday to accommodate rising enrollment.

► In today’s Oregonian — Portland Public Schools teachers vote to authorize a strike; walkout set for Feb. 20 — Portland Public Schools teachers have authorized the first strike in the history of Oregon’s largest school system and set a walkout date: Feb. 20.

► At Geekwire — Here’s how much Microsoft is paying its new CEO — Microsoft’s new CEO, Satya Nadella, will receive between $14.4 million and $18 million in annual compensation.

 


FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

 

► At AFL-CIO Now — NLRB issues ‘commonsense’ union election rule — The National Labor Relations Board issued a proposed rule that would alleviate the delays, inefficiencies, abuse of process and unnecessary litigation that plague the current system for workers who want to vote on whether to have a union.

immigration-rally► From AP — House conservatives rule out immigration this year — Conservative Republicans on Wednesday ruled out any immigration legislation in the House this year, insisting that the GOP should wait until next year when the party might also control the Senate.

► At Politico — White House faces revolt on deportation policy — Already facing a mutiny from the left over the administration’s continued deportation of undocumented immigrants, the White House is trying to assure immigration reform advocates that President Barack Obama still supports a path to citizenship — a key part of any liberal-backed immigration plan.

► At AFL-CIO Now — Trumka: Failure to extend unemployment insurance is ‘shameful’ — On Tuesday, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka joined Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) to call on the Senate to pass Reed’s bill that would reinstate extended unemployment insurance benefits for three months, retroactive to December. In the 38 days since the benefits lapsed for workers who have been unable to find jobs for more than six months, 1.7 million job seekers are without much-needed payments.

► In The Hill — Sen. Wyden says not so fast on trade — The next chairman of the Senate Finance Committee is making it plain to President Obama that he will not rush forward with “fast-track” legislation that would spur on the White House’s trade agenda. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has no plans to take up the fast-track bill written by outgoing Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who was nominated by Obama to be U.S. ambassador to China.

► At AFL-CIO Now — The many shortcomings of the U.S. NAFTA-style trade model

 


TODAY’S MUST-SEE

 

► At Huffington Post — Daily Show turns into Music Man to sell Koch brothers to small town — “It was kind of like being endorsed by Charles Manson.” That’s how City Councilman Chris Turner of Coralville, Iowa, described the support of the Koch brothers in his small town election on Wednesday’s “Daily Show.” Correspondent Jason Jones headed to the city of 20,000 to investigate why the Koches and their Americans for Prosperity super PAC have been propping up conservative candidates in small towns.

 


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