Wednesday, September 9, 2015

TEACHER STRIKES

► In today’s Seattle Times — Seattle teachers go on strike; superintendent is going to court — Seattle teachers will be on strike Wednesday, which was supposed to be the first day of school. In response, the School Board voted to seek legal action to stop them.

► In today’s Seattle Times — Teacher dispute is about more than pay (letter) — Shame on you, Seattle Times, for not reporting the whole story about the Seattle Education Association’s decision to authorize a strike.

► In today’s Tri-City Herald — No court penalties yet for Pasco teachers as strike continues — Sept. 9 marks the sixth day of the strike. Despite the union’s attorney acknowledging during a Tuesday hearing that the ongoing strike disobeys a prior court order, Franklin County Superior Court Judge Alex Ekstrom declined to enforce penalties against the union or its leaders. Instead, he set a Friday hearing and told the union that if the strike is resolved before then, there would be no punishment.

► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Spokane teachers union OKs contract, averts strike — Members of the Spokane Education Association approved a tentative one-year contract on Tuesday, avoiding a possible strike that could have begun today. The Spokane Public Schools board is expected to approve the plan at tonight’s board meeting.

► In The Stranger — Hey parents, here’s what you need to know about the teachers’ strike (hint: it’s the Legislature’s fault) — The Legislature’s unwillingness to comply with the McCleary decision has left teachers — not to mention their schools — falling behind economically, year after year… I’ll encourage (my 14-year-old daughter) to notice that inaction — ignoring a problem — will get you nowhere. And I’ll continue to consider what I, and we as parents, can do to help push the Legislature, too. We can start, I think, with vociferously supporting this teachers strike as long as it continues.

► In today’s NY Times — Strike by Seattle teachers adds to school turmoil in state — The strike promises to throw Washington’s public school system, which was already struggling with a huge fight over funding, into even further turmoil. The state’s highest court declared last week that much of the law underpinning the new charter school system around the state was unconstitutional.

STATE GOVERNMENT

► In today’s Seattle Times — Survival lesson throws parents, charter schools into fundraising, politics — Charter-school advocates are hitting up private donors from around the country to keep schools open while parents lobby lawmakers for a long-term fix to the state Supreme Court’s ruling last Friday that such schools are unconstitutional.

► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Parents, students face uncertain future after charter school ruling — For now, directors at Spokane International Academy and Pride Prep say they’re staying the course, though it’s far from clear where funding for their operations will come from. That’s left many parents feeling anxious.

LOCAL

► In today’s Seattle Times — Struggling Haggen files for bankruptcy protection — Struggling Haggen says it has filed for protection from creditors while it tightens its business into a smaller, profitable footprint, signaling a surprisingly early demise for its unlikely bid to become a West Coast grocery superpower. While the company didn’t specify how many stores it would sell, a statement released late Tuesday said Haggen would focus on profitable “core” stores, and that it’s in talks to sell “many of the company’s remaining assets.”

► In today’s News Tribune — Haggen workers could face hurdles seeking jobs at Safeway, Albertsons — Nathe Lawver of UFCW 367 says that the “noncompete” language in store sales agreements with Haggen is “one of those unfortunate things” that happen when companies “play the corporate consolidation game… We’d like to see that these people can maintain their jobs.” He urged laid-off union members to contact their representatives.

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Snohomish County Deputy Executive Mark Ericks resigns — Ericks was a fierce supporter of County Executive John Lovick, his longtime friend, but clashed with most County Council members. The relationship became poisonous over the past year.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

► From The Hill — House GOP faces shutdown crisis — House Republicans will huddle in a pivotal closed-door meeting Wednesday morning as they face mounting pressure to defund Planned Parenthood — including threats to shut down the government.

► From the Hill — Obama administration to put $175 million toward apprenticeships — The Obama administration is spending $175 million on apprenticeship programs across the country in an effort to grow a skilled workforce.

► From KUOW — Federal requests for immigration holds continue to decline — Federal immigration officials are issuing far fewer detainer requests, also known as immigration holds, to state and local law enforcement agencies seeking immigrants who are in this country illegally.

NATIONAL

► From Huffington Post — Real median hourly wages continue to drop around the country — A new report out by the National Employment Law Project shows declining real median wages for occupations across the income spectrum — and the lowest-paid workers have been hit the hardest.

► From Huffington Post — Five women labor leaders speak their minds on the future of labor (by Leslie Tolf) — In honor of Labor Day, I decided to talk to an impressive group of women labor leaders — Liz Shuler, Secretary- Treasurer of the AFL-CIO; Cindy Estrada, Vice President of United Automobile Workers; Karen Nussbaum, Executive Director of Working America; and Rachel Bryan, the Community Liaison at IBEW Local 595 — to discuss what Labor Day means to them and where they see our future as a movement.

► From AP — German court halts airline strike after 1,000 flights nixed — A German court issued an injunction Wednesday ordering a halt to a strike by pilots at Lufthansa, Germany’s biggest airline, that caused the cancellation of 1,000 flights affecting 140,000 travelers.

The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.