SPECIAL REPORTS
$15 backlash, bargaining for all, our Tea Party…
Friday, June 6, 2014
WHY?
LOCAL
► In today’s Seattle Times — Small-business group, Eyman challenge Seattle’s $15 wage plan — A group of small-business owners filed for a city charter amendment to raise the minimum wage to $12.50, phased in over five years. Earlier, anti-tax activist Tim Eyman filed a statewide initiative that would require that the minimum wage be uniform and consistent throughout the state.
EDITOR’S NOTE — As SEIU 775 President David Rolf put it, this backlash is “selfish, short-sighted, and stupid.” As Working Washington points out, “When you strike a blow against income inequality, it only makes sense that the top 1% will try to strike back. But it’s not going to work. Seventy-four percent of Seattle voters support a $15 minimum wage because they know that an added $3 billion in the pockets of 100,000 poverty-wage workers is good for those workers, good for their communities, and good for the whole economy.”
Don’t fret… celebrate! And organize! Join the $15 Victory Party with Councilmember Kshama Sawant and 15 Now at 6:30 p.m. Friday, June 6 at Washington Hall, 153 14th Ave. in Seattle. To defend against the attacks of the 1% and to help take this fight nationwide, the suggested donation for the Victory Party (featuring dancing and potluck refreshments) is $15, but no one will be turned away.
► In the (Aberdeen) Daily World — Hoquiam firefighters unanimously approve job-saving agreement — The agreement states the four firefighters who were slated for layoff May 29 will stay through December, at which point the city and the union will review the Hoquiam Fire Department’s financial situation.
► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Geiger Corrections Center omitted meal breaks for officers, lawsuit says — A Geiger Corrections Center officer has filed a class-action lawsuit against Spokane County alleging that he was not given meal breaks as required by law.
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Community Transit to restore some service hours — Community Transit this fall will add 13,800 hours of bus service per year in Snohomish County, but the increase will be far short of the 160,000 hours that were cut from the system in 2010 and 2012.
► In today’s Seattle Times — In India, upscale dairies promise safer milk, happier cows — While cows have long been revered in India, the country’s dairy industry has only recently started buying into the belief that happier heifers breed healthier milk — and potentially bigger profit.
EDITOR’S NOTE — As opposed to here at Darigold.
STATE GOVERNMENT
► In today’s Spokesman-Review — State officials: Companies offering health benefits must cover same-sex spouses — Businesses that offer health coverage to opposite-sex spouses must also offer it to same-sex spouses, state officials said Thursday. Insurance plans must offer equal coverage to all spouses.
ALSO at the Calendar at The Stand — The SPEEA Diversity Committee invites all union members to an LGBTQ Panel Discussion on “What does pride at work mean to me?” from 5:30 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, June 12 at both the Everett and Tukwila SPEEA Halls (click here for address information). It will include SPEEA members, legislators and community leaders. Please RSVP to speea@speea.org with location you’ll be attending.
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Meet the candidates to run the ferry system — The Washington State Department of Transportation has narrowed the pool of candidates for assistant secretary of transportation, Ferries Division, to two — Capt. George Capacci and John Ladenburg — and the public is invited to meet them at open houses Monday in Friday Harbor and Tuesday in Bremerton.
► From AP — New I-5 bridge back on table as Washington & Oregon lawmakers revive talks — A dozen lawmakers from both states and both parties met behind closed doors Wednesday in Vancouver. The meeting was a post-mortem on the failed ___ project and the start of rebuilding relationships.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Just don’t call it the… crossing that shall not be named.
AEROSPACE
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Everett gives green light to Boeing’s new 777X wing plant — The Boeing Co.’s plans for a massive new building to make the 777X’s carbon-fiber-composite wings at its Everett plant have been approved by the city.
► In today’s Seattle Times — A federal nod to Washington’s aerospace workforce (editorial) — Washington’s thriving aerospace industry has earned a special recognition from the feds, but where the state’s manufacturing is concerned, airplanes should be just the beginning.
NATIONAL
► In the WSJ — Union set high goal: Collective bargaining for all workers — Organized labor has embarked on a project to develop legislation that would expand collective bargaining rights of private-sector workers, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said. During and after a meeting with Wall Street Journal reporters and editors Wednesday, Trumka wouldn’t provide specifics about labor’s plan or timing. But he suggested employers should be required to bargain over wages with all private-sector workers — union members and nonunion workers alike.
► At AFL-CIO Now — Walmart Moms: ‘Their fight is our fight’ (by Liz Shuler) — When women succeed in America, we all benefit. When women get a fair wage, entire families are lifted out of poverty and our economy benefits. When women gain basic benefits like health care and sick leave, families are stronger and healthier. When women—like the Walmart moms—organize for change, they are using their voice to give their families a chance at a better future. Let’s help their voices be heard. Let’s help them make their stand. Their fight is our fight. It’s mine and it’s yours. Let the Walmart moms know we stand with them.
► In today’s NY Times — Faces of an immigration system overwhelmed by women, children — Since Memorial Day weekend, about 1,000 women and children have been flown to Tucson from Texas, then driven by bus to Phoenix and dumped unceremoniously, weary and hungry, left to find their families scattered around the nation. Some minors will be housed at a naval base in California, and immigration officials are finding extra aircraft. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been ordered to coordinate efforts to contain the crisis.
► In today’s NY Times — Senators reach accord easing worries over veterans’ health measure — Two senators reached a bipartisan accord on Thursday to give authority to the acting Veterans Affairs secretary to fire senior officials and to expand access for veterans who do not live near medical facilities or have experienced long waits.
ALSO at AFGE.org — AFGE president lauds Sen. Sanders’ legislation
TODAY’S MUST-READ
► MUST-READ at Politico — If the left had a Tea Party… (by David Sirota) — As the Working Families Party formulates plans for a multi-state expansion, two of the biggest questions reach way beyond New York’s labyrinthine state and local politics. How did a loose coalition of liberal activists, community organizing groups and labor unions avoid the left’s penchant for circular firing squads and instead become a cohesive force able to exact serious concessions from elected officials? And with their third-party coalition model, have the WFP’s leaders suddenly unlocked the key to building a national Tea Party of the left? Over the course of the last few months, I found some — but certainly not all — of the answers to these questions by tagging along with the party’s longtime executive director, Dan Cantor. During that time leading up to last weekend’s convention, Cantor had been trying both to maximize his party’s new power in New York and to use that success to forge a national opportunity. His goal, he told me, is nothing less than a resurrection of the powerful progressive coalition that shaped the New Deal era.
T.G.I.F.
► The Entire Staff of The Stand™ notes that it’s beautiful outside.
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