DAILY NEWS
Dock space, clawbacks, septuagenarian Rastafarian…
Friday, February 6, 2015
PORT NEGOTIATIONS
► In today’s Tri-City Herald — Lingering export woes continue to hurt Columbia Basin industries — The port slowdown is holding up exports along the West Coast is causing economic losses and export backlogs to accumulate. It’s hitting many industries hard, from agriculture and food processing to retailers and manufacturers.
► In today’s News Tribune — Port slowdown hurting Chehalis frozen food plant — A Chehalis frozen food company says the slowdown at Puget Sound ports has cost it nearly 20 percent of its business.
REFINERY STRIKE
► From Bloomberg — Oil union’s Shell talks suspended as White House urges deal — Talks to end the first national walkout of U.S. oil workers in more than three decades were suspended after the United Steelworkers union rejected an offer from energy companies. The White House urged a resolution to the impasse. The latest offer from Royal Dutch Shell Plc, representing companies including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp., shows “minimal movement,” USW said in a text message distributed to members, adding that bargaining will resume next week.
► From Al Jazeera America — Amid fraught negotiations, Shell refinery workers picket in Texas — Workers in Texas and elsewhere are preparing for a potentially long action. Protesters outside the Shell refinery had no idea how long the work stoppage would last, but they know the 1980 strike dragged on for three months.
LOCAL
► In the P.S. Business Journal — Labor dispute rages on at Seattle’s most famous landmark — Union employees say the labor tension has created a stressful work environment at the 605-foot-tall landmark that is the symbol of the city. UNITE HERE says the Space Needle sent letters to employees encouraging them to resign. The NLRB panel ruled this violates federal labor laws, and ordered the Space Needle to stop. The panel also said the Needle has to re-hire two employees with back pay. One of the employees is a union supporter.
ALSO at The Stand — NLRB: Space Needle illegally opposed union
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Boeing, Machinists close to announcing performance payout — Boeing and the Machinists union are reportedly close to an agreement for union members’ performance bonus for 2014.
STATE GOVERNMENT
► In today’s Seattle Times — Inslee a student of California’s carbon-cap lessons — California has the nation’s most ambitious system to reduce carbon emissions. It’s the model for Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s carbon-reduction legislation in this state.
► In today’s News tribune — Cost shouldn’t prevent humane mental health care (editorial) — Washington state’s reluctance to order the mentally ill into psychiatric care isn’t about compassion, except the false kind. It’s really about trying to treat grave illnesses on the cheap — and pretending that we protect people’s freedom by letting them live on sidewalks in rainstorms while suffering crippling psychoses.
► In today’s Oregonian — Paid sick days supporters make another push in Oregon, while employers mostly push back — Supporters of paid sick leave hope a wave of political momentum and large Democratic majorities in the Oregon Legislature will result this year in a new state law requiring paid sick days for all private sector workers.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
► In today’s NY Times — Democrats exercise ‘no’ power in Senate, to GOP’s dismay — The tactics that had served them well when they were in the minority are now being effectively exploited against them.
► At Huffington Post — Here’s the biggest problem with Obama’s new trade push (by Zach Carter and Dana Liebelson) — Of the 11 nations negotiating with the U.S. over the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, none has a closer relationship with China than Vietnam. Like China, which is not participating in the talks, Vietnam has a one-party communist government with a long record of human rights abuses. It has also some of the world’s weakest labor standards. As a consequence, Vietnam has become as an increasingly popular offshoring destination for businesses headquartered in China.
► Meanwhile, from AP — U.S. trade deficit jumps 17% to $46.6 billion — The U.S. trade deficit in December jumped to the highest level in more than two years as American exports fell and imports climbed to a record level. The politically sensitive deficit with China set a record for 2014, rising 23.9 percent to $342.6 billion.
NATIONAL
► In today’s NY Times — U.S. economy added 257,000 jobs in January; unemployment rate at 5.7% — With the new figures, 2014 turned out to be the strongest year for job gains since 1999. Average hourly earnings rose 0.5 percent in January, the biggest monthly gain in more than six years.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Wall Street will take care of this…
► At AFL-CIO Now — Talk shop and dream big at the National Organizers Workshop (Registration deadline Is Monday, Feb. 9) — Four hundred of the best organizers in the country will gather in Washington, D.C. on March 6-7 to talk shop and dream big at the National Organizers Workshop. If you’re working for economic justice and passionate about organizing, there’s still time to sign up; online registration closes Monday, Feb. 9.
T.G.I.F.
► Today, Bob Marley would be celebrating his 70th birthday had cancer not taken his life at the young age of 36. In the final eulogy at Marley’s 1981 funeral, Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga said: “His voice was an omnipresent cry in our electronic world. His sharp features, majestic looks, and prancing style a vivid etching on the landscape of our minds. Bob Marley was never seen. He was an experience which left an indelible imprint with each encounter. Such a man cannot be erased from the mind. He is part of the collective consciousness of the nation.” Written for his wife, Rita, this song was Marley’s first hit outside of Jamaica. Enjoy!
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.