DAILY NEWS
Gap in port talks, Vermont gives up, Warren is wary…
Thursday, December 18, 2014
PORT CONTRACT TALKS
► At Longshore & Shipping News — ILWU recesses caucus, awaits PMA response to contract proposal — Last Thursday, the PMA presented a new contract offer to the ILWU. Union negotiators reviewed the proposal over the weekend, and on Monday returned it to the PMA with the ILWU’s comments. That is where the negotiations stood on Tuesday. A PMA spokesman said employers continued to review the document, and they expect to meet again with the ILWU later this week.
ALSO at The Stand — ILWU frustrated by shippers’ finger-pointing over port delays (Dec. 13) — Citing competitive pressures in the shipping industry, huge multinational corporations already reaping enormous profits are focused on replacing family-wage ILWU jobs with low-wage subcontractors or machines. But in their effort to accomplish this, the shippers have made some big decisions that have had disastrous consequences in terms of congestion problems and delays.
► From KPLU — Port slowdown keeps NW farm exports stuck on the ranch — Produce processors are laying off production line workers. Apples are backing up. And the summer’s premium hay is stacked in sheds and not moving. The longshoremen’s union and the ports are negotiating, and have been since mid-October. Shipments are still being moved, but at a markedly slower pace than usual.
► From Bloomberg — FedEx, others say West Coast port labor dispute causes Christmas congestion — Protracted labor talks at the busiest U.S. container ports are leading to delayed deliveries to some retailers, and may result in a lot of gift cards under Christmas trees in place of absent presents, FedEx Corp. said.
► In today’s NY Times — McDonald’s in Japan is driven to ration fries — McDonald’s began limiting French fry servings at its 3,200 Japanese stores to the smallest of the usual three sizes, blaming a shortage of processed potatoes due to a dockworker dispute on the U.S. West Coast.
STATE GOVERNMENT
► In today’s Olympian — Inslee proposes a carbon-pollution cap and trade system to raise $1 billion a year — The governor’s package includes plans to spend $380 million of that new revenue on K-12 public schools. Another $400 million would pay for transportation projects rather than relying on a gas tax increase, and about $163.5 million is earmarked to assist low-income families and energy-intensive industries that are hurt by higher fuel costs.
ALSO TODAY at The Stand — Inslee’s bold plan addresses ‘common good’ — WSLC President Jeff Johnson says Inslee’s plan “challenges the status quo by putting a price on carbon, putting a price on pollution, and creating a jumping off place for creating economic growth that is more sustainable, more equitable, more accountable, and creates healthier communities.”
► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Inslee carbon tax plan would help complete North Spokane freeway — The proposal, which also would pay for a significant portion of the remaining work needed to complete the North Spokane freeway, was part of a broader package that the Democrat said would help the state meet a 2008 mandate to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.
BOEING
► In the P.S. Business Journal — Boeing engineers unhappy with $12 billion stock buyback — “This is apparently how the company has decided to use some of the $8.7 billion in tax breaks the state of Washington granted them, and that’s shocking,” said Bill Dugovich, spokesman for Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, which represents engineers.
LOCAL
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Budget compromise averts county government shutdown — Snohomish County Council members united on Wednesday to pass a compromise version of the 2015 budget, averting the prospect of a government shutdown.
► In today’s Seattle Times — Ferry crew, nurse’s extensive CPR brings back heart-attack victim — Authorities say a well-trained Washington State Ferries crew and a registered nurse who happened to be nearby swung into action and provided CPR to an 80-year-old man who had an apparent heart attack as he walked onto a state ferry.
► In today’s Seattle Times — Social failures trickle down to our prisons (by Jerry Large) — The Seattle Times prison labor investigation found aggravating problems, but mass incarceration in the U.S. is telling us something much bigger is not right. The failings of our institutions and policies begin a long time before anyone reaches prison.
HEALTH CARE
► In The Hill — Poll: Majority likes employer mandate, dislikes ‘ObamaCare’ — Six in 10 people said they support the employer mandate, which goes into effect next year for businesses with 100 or more workers, according to a poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
► At Think Progress — The more people are told about the ACA, the more they like it — One year into the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act, Americans remain confused about what the law actually does — and public opinion toward the ACA is easily swayed depending on small changes to the amount of information people receive about it.
NATIONAL
ALSO at The Stand — Gov. Inslee wary of expanding investor rights in trade deals (Dec. 16)
► From AFL-CIO Now — Seven reasons ‘right to work’ is wrong for Warren County, Ky. (and everywhere else) — In Warren County, Ky., a fiscal court has given preliminary approval to a local “right to work” for less ordinance. The measure is worded as to prevent any worker covered by the NLRA from being required to join or pay dues to a union as a condition of employment. Since it is already illegal in the U.S. to require workers to join unions, the real focus of the measure is to weaken workers in negotiations with employers for decent wages and benefits.
► From Reuters — How the NLRB may expand responsibility for labor violations — The Board is expected to rule soon on if, and how, companies can be held responsible for labor violations carried out by their contractors or franchisees — a move that could have far-reaching implications for businesses.
► At Slate — Court says Walmart must pay up for inadequately compensating workers — A week after an NLRB judge ruled that a Walmart manager in California could not legally threaten to “shoot the union,” the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled that Walmart must pony up $188 million to employees whom it failed to compensate properly during breaks and total hours worked.
TODAY’S MUST-READ
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.