DAILY NEWS
Workers Memorial Day, Fast Track angst, our everyday heroes…
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY
► From AFL-CIO Now — Honor the dead, fight for the living — Today, on Workers Memorial Day, working Americans are gathering to commemorate those who have lost their lives due to workplace-induced illnesses and injuries and to demand stronger safety protections on the job.
ALSO at The Stand — Workers Memorial Day events honor fallen — Events today in Tacoma at 11 a.m. at Western State Hospital, in Bellingham at noon at the Workers Memorial Monument, and in Tumwater at 2 p.m. at the state Department of Labor and Industries office.
► From Reuters — Marathon Galveston Bay workers back leadership’s rebuff of offer — More than 800 striking workers at Marathon Petroleum Corp’s Galveston Bay Refinery voted on Sunday to back their leaders’ rejection of a last, best and final offer from the company to end a three-month work stoppage.
FAST TRACK/T.P.P.
► From Reuters — U.S. senator sticking by ‘poison pill’ tweak to trade bill — U.S. Democratic Senator Robert Menendez said on Monday he would strongly resist any attempt to override a human-trafficking amendment to trade legislation that some say could derail a Pacific trade pact.
► From The Hill — Obama wrong on TPP (by Bill Press) — Obama’s not just siding with Republicans, he’s doing their dirty work for them.
► From Huffington Post — The battle over the TPP, Fast Track gets hot (by Dean Baker) — The Obama administration could have made currency rules front and center in a trade deal, but that would have only made sense if its main concern was jobs and workers. Instead we have a deal that is a piñata for the corporations who were at the table, and who the Democrats are counting on to give generously in the 2016 campaign.
LOCAL
► In today’s News Tribune — North Thurston teacher ‘would step up in any situation’ — Teacher Brady Olson’s actions to derail a gun-toting student as school started Monday didn’t surprise his students or coworkers at North Thurston High School in Lacey.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Which brings us to…
STATE LEGISLATURE
► In today’s News Tribune — Teachers’ local collective bargaining targeted by Senate Republicans — A proposal by Sen. Bruce Dammeier (R-Puyallup) seeks to determine teacher salaries at the state level, and do away with local bargaining of pay entirely. The WEA, which calls the Senate Republican plan “draconian” and “punitive,” is opposing efforts to eliminate teachers unions’ ability to bargain salaries with their school districts.
► In today’s News Tribune — State asks for more time for lawmakers to comply with McCleary education funding order — The state Attorney General’s Office is asking the state Supreme Court to wait until the Legislature has completed its work before deciding whether to impose contempt sanctions in an education funding case.
► In today’s News Tribune — 4-day break between legislative sessions means fundraising time in state House race — Shortly after the Legislature adjourned Friday, Democrats began working to raise money for a state House race that threatens to erode their already slim majority in that chamber.
NATIONAL
EDITOR’S NOTE — Damn straight. And if more workers were in unions, we’d ALL have a greater share of this country’s considerable prosperity. Join the party!
► From Huffington Post — Democrats take aim at ObamaCare ‘Cadillac’ tax — A group of House Democrats are pushing to repeal ObamaCare’s so-called “Cadillac tax,” which they say unfairly targets people in more expensive areas like the Northeast and West Coast.
► From Reuters — Truckers strike four shipping companies at Southern California ports — Tractor-trailer drivers who haul freight from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach went on strike on Monday against four trucking companies, a Teamster union official said, in a move that could revive labor tension at the nation’s busiest cargo hub.
► From Reuters — Nurses union plans short strikes in California and Illinois — A union representing nurses in California and Illinois said on Monday 6,400 members planned to walk off their jobs later this week for a series of one- and two-day strikes amid contract negotiations.
► In today’s NY Times — Muting friends’ political views on Facebook as simple as clicking ‘unfollow’ — Many users are whittling away adverse viewpoints, resulting in the kind of polarization experience more often associated with MSNBC or Fox News.
EDITOR’S NOTE — You people have all liked us on Facebook, right? RIGHT?
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.