DAILY NEWS
Jim’s Cheap Jets™, Ed’s minimum, Arne’s waiver…
Thursday, April 24, 2014
BOEING
► In the P.S. Business Journal — Demise of pensions makes Boeing more competitive, McNerney says — Boeing CEO Jim McNerney said the share of Boeing workers not covered by a traditional fixed-pension plan soon will reach 80 percent, up from 15 percent last year. He tied the labor changes to other company moves such as distributing engineering work around the country, saying: “The changes are strategic and fundamental to the way we are restructuring the company — to reduce risk, ensure the health of our balance sheet and enhance competitive position.”
MINIMUM WAGE
► At KUOW — Seattle mayor to announce plan for raising minimum wage — Seattle Mayor Ed Murray is expected to announce his proposal for a minimum wage increase Thursday afternoon after his advisory committee was unable to reach a consensus. It will likely include some phase-in period and exceptions for small businesses and nonprofits. Supporters of a $15 minimum wage are watching closely — some have vowed to take the issue to voters directly if they don’t get what they consider an acceptable package.
► In today’s Seattle Times — Mayor’s panel fails to reach consensus on wage recommendations — The committee trying to craft a $15 minimum-wage recommendation for Seattle broke up without reaching an agreement between business and labor on Wednesday afternoon, the deadline Mayor Ed Murray had set for it to do so.
► From CNN Money — Many low-wage workers not protected by minimum wage — President Obama’s push to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, coupled with recent state-level increases, is welcome news for many people getting by on small paychecks. But not every low-wage worker has to be paid the minimum wage.
LOCAL
► In today’s News Tribune — Tacoma’s St. Joseph Medical Center is site of informational picket line — Several dozen people marched through the day Wednesday outside Tacoma’s St. Joseph Medical Center in a picket organized by SEIU HealthCare 1199NW. Contract negotiations continue with St. Joe’s parent company, Franciscan Health System, after the contract for about 800 licensed practical nurses and support staff at the hospital expired Oct. 31.
► In today’s News Tribune — Multinational group proposes $1.8 billion gas-conversion plant in Tacoma — A multinational consortium of energy, chemical and investment concerns is planning the largest financial investment — $1.8 billion — ever made to create a Tacoma industrial facility if the Port of Tacoma Commission next week grants it a long-term lease on a key Tacoma Tideflats tract.
► In today’s Columbian — ILWU, United Grain deny agency’s allegations — In their long-running contract dispute, the ILWU and United Grain Corp. at the Port of Vancouver agree on at least one thing: The National Labor Relations Board’s allegations that both sides have engaged in unfair labor practices are off base.
► In today’s Seattle Times — Group seeks property-tax hike to preserve Seattle bus routes — An initiative to raise Seattle property taxes will be filed this week to pay for bus service within the city, after King County voters rejected a ballot measure for transit and roads.
► At Think Progress — Meet the companies that just promised to pull $60 million from private prisons — Three investment groups announced this week that they will divest from the two major private prison corporations that constitute a massive share of America’s prison-industrial complex. Scopia Capital, DSM, and Amica Mutual Insurance have all pledged to remove their collective investments of about $60 million from the Corrections Corporation of America and the GEO Group — the two prison companies that own 75 percent of the nation’s private prisons.
COLLEGE EMPLOYEES
► In the Chronicle of Higher Education — Contingent faculty at Seattle U. can vote on union, NLRB official rules — The NLRB’s director for the Seattle region rejected the Roman Catholic university’s argument that it is too religious to fall under the federal labor board’s jurisdiction as a result of contingent faculty members’ drive to form a collective-bargaining unit affiliated with the SEIU.
MORE coverage in today’s Seattle Times.
STATE GOVERNMENT
► In today’s Seattle Times — Arne Duncan reaches decision on state’s waiver from No Child law — Federal education chief Arne Duncan has made his decision on whether to revoke Washington state’s waiver from many requirements of the federal education law known as No Child Left Behind. State officials would not confirm on Wednesday what that decision is, but over the last few weeks they have been telling school districts to prepare their budgets, assuming the U.S. Department of Education would revoke the waiver. That possibility has focused national attention on Washington, which would be the first state in the country to lose the waiver.
► In today’s Olympian — Health exchange reports 164,062 signed up for private plans — More than 164,000 state residents signed up to buy private-sector health plans under the Affordable Care Act before enrollment for coverage in 2014 ended last month. A new report said enrollees’ average plan cost was nearly $107 per month for those plans receiving a tax credit from the federal government, and tax credits averaged $276 a month.
► In today’s Tri-City Herald — State initiates dispute resolution over Hanford consent decree — The state has triggered dispute resolution for Hanford’s court-enforced consent decree after the Department of Energy rejected its proposal Friday for new deadlines and requirements.
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Haugen named to Public Works Board — Former state Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen (D-Camano Island) is joining the state board which oversees distribution of millions of dollars in loans for public works projects in Washington.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
EDITOR’S NOTE — A similar rally was held April 10 in Burien.
► In The Hill — Obama: Time is now to reach trade pact — The president said he and and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe were “closer to agreement” on major issues like automobiles and agriculture blocking the completion of a major Pacific trade pact.
► At Politico — Obama trade push gets thumbs down from Democrats — President Barack Obama’s in Asia this week pushing a deal that almost none of his allies at home want. On the Hill, most of the pushback is coming from the president’s fellow Democrats, who say it undercuts the economic fairness argument that’s a central focus of his midterm strategy.
► In the LA Times — The Trans-Pacific Partnership: Who wins, who loses, why it matters — With President Obama set to arrive Wednesday in Tokyo for a summit with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, thorny issues in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations will be a key subjects. Here are the basics on the TPP.
► In today’s Washington Post — AFL-CIO’s Trumka meets with immigrants, calls deportations ‘unacceptable’ — AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka delivered a pep talk Tuesday to immigration advocates who arrived in Washington, D.C. this week to stage a hunger strike, pledging that the nation’s largest collection of labor unions will fight to stem deportations so immigrants can stop “feeling like your community is under attack, under siege, all the time.”
► In today’s WSJ — Black lung disease spurs new coal-mine rules — Federal officials announced tougher rules Wednesday designed to fight an uptick in black lung disease in some pockets of coal-mining country. The move represents the most significant changes to dust-control practices in mines since the 1969 Coal Mine Health and Safety Act.
NATIONAL
► In today’s Missourian — Right-to-work bill divides Missourians as it moves through legislature — In almost any other country, an individual’s right to work means a guaranteed job, often furnished by the government. In the 24 U.S. states that have right to work laws, the phrase means something else entirely: A person employed by a company that has a union does not have to join it or pay any form of dues. That’s the heart of the matter in Missouri: Union leaders say such a law weakens their organizations and their ability to negotiate good contracts for workers.
► In the Washington Post — The Volkswagen case shows why American labor law is broken (by Lydia DePillis) — Why did UAW build up the NLRB appeal so much only to yank it at the last minute and leave the question unresolved? The real answer says a lot about the state of the law that governs the relationship between workers and employers in America.
TODAY’S MUST-READ
Since the Rana Plaza disaster, 54 people have died or been injured at garment factories in Bangladesh, according to data compiled by the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center staff in Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital. The Rana Plaza tragedy closely followed the deadly Tazreen factory blaze, which killed 112 garment workers in November 2012. Survivors and the families of workers killed in both disasters have received little, if any, compensation, and many are struggling to survive.
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.