DAILY NEWS
‘Prepared’ IAM, tips ≠ wages, getting trade right…
Monday, April 21, 2014
AEROSPACE
► In the P.S. Business Journal — SPEEA members win $47M in arbitration with Boeing — A group of 484 current and former Boeing engineers and technical workers have been awarded $47 million, in a union victory after a 10-year battle with the company. The victory reverses a Boeing position that a group of Boeing workers at Edwards Air Force Based in California were not covered by contracts negotiated by SPEEA.
ALSO today at The Stand — SPEEA helps Boeing employees win $47 million in back pay
ALSO in the PSBJ — Boeing is just the start for Machinists 751 organizing and New Machinist 751 President Jon Holden lives by union values
MINIMUM WAGE
► From AP — Seattle minimum wage increase on track, but business group weighing in — The business community remained fairly quiet as the drumbeat for a $15 an hour minimum wage in Seattle grew louder last year after the election of a Socialist City Council member and a new mayor. But as Mayor Ed Murray’s advisory group finalizes its recommendations on how to increase the minimum wage, businesses — big, medium and small — are launching coordinated lobbying efforts to sway the public’s mind.
ALSO TODAY at The Stand — Help surround City Hall this Wednesday — The M.L. King County Labor Council, AFL-CIO is urging all union members and community supporters to attend a $15 for Seattle Coalition action at 4 p.m. this Wednesday, April 23 at City Hall, 600 4th Ave., to express to the mayor and city council members that our community supports a $15 minimum wage for ALL workers in Seattle.
► At PubliCola — Sawant supports $15 minimum wage vote as ‘backup’ if deal proves unsatisfactory — City council member Kshama Sawant supports a public vote on the $15 minimum wage if labor, business, and political leaders can’t come to an agreement.
STATE GOVERNMENT
► In the Olympian — Program pushes wellness for state workers — Six months after Gov. Jay Inslee’s executive order gave it a push, Washington’s new wellness plan for state workers is under way. With the promise of a $125 cut in medical insurance deductibles next year, employees have incentives to get fit — or at least eat more vegetables, quit smoking, get 90 minutes of cardio exercise a week, join a diabetes prevention program, or engage in other healthier activities.
► From KPLU — New state rules could limit cheaper health plans with ‘narrow networks’ — The practice of offering relatively inexpensive health plans with bare-bones provider networks has created tension between making health care affordable and keeping it accessible. It’s set to come to a head this week in Olympia.
NATIONAL
► In today’s NY Times — 50 years into War on Poverty, hardship hits back — A half-century after President Lyndon B. Johnson declared “war on poverty,” McDowell County, W.Va., is a reminder of how much is still broken, in drearily familiar ways and utterly unexpected ones.
► From AP — UAW withdraws appeal of VW union vote — In a statement released one hour before the scheduled start of a NLRB hearing in Chattanooga, Tenn., UAW President Bob King said the union decided to abandon the challenge because it could have taken months or even years to come to a conclusion.
► In today’s Washington Post — Senate postal bill would cut workers’ comp for feds across the government — If the Senate legislation becomes law, its reach will extend well beyond the postal facilities and those who work there. The measure could have a significant impact on many federal employees, particularly those who are injured. That worries feds across the government.
► In today’s Washington Post — Lies, damned lies, and Obama’s deportation statistics (by Anna O. Law) — Somehow, the Obama administration is simultaneously responsible for the highest rate of deportation in 20 years and a 26 percent drop in deportation. What is going on here? As it turns out, changes in immigration law, terminology and classification are causing this confusion.
► From AP — Fracking foes cringe as unions back drilling boom — Local construction trade workers and union members in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia say they’re now benefiting in a big way from the Marcellus and Utica Shale oil and gas boom. That vocal support from blue-collar workers complicates efforts by environmentalists to limit the drilling process known as fracking.
► In The Hill — Obama seeks boost for flagging trade agenda in Asia-Pacific trip — President Obama is heading to the Asia-Pacific next week to try and build support for a massive trade deal (TPP) that is central to his economic agenda and America’s strategic pivot toward the region.
TODAY’S MUST-READ
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.