DAILY NEWS
We give & Boeing takes, Kadlec RNs rally, livestream for 15…
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
STATE GOVERNMENT
► From IAM 751 — Give and take: We give billions, Boeing takes jobs — IAM President Jon Holden on Monday:
The aerospace industry itself is not shrinking. We are seeing record revenues and record production right now. Our aerospace workers are delivering more airplanes a year at levels previously thought unattainable. However, Boeing has made a series of purposeful decisions to move jobs out of Washington state because that was the easy way for it to meet job “creation” targets that other states have required Boeing to meet in order to receive their tax incentives.
Other states did it right. Missouri, Oklahoma, Alabama and South Carolina already require a specific amount of jobs and capital investment for the tax incentives they were willing to spend. This was responsible of them. We need our state to be responsible as well.
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Unions blast Boeing for paring jobs since 2013 tax break extension — Two years ago state lawmakers rushed into special session to extend a suite of incentives to the aerospace industry worth billions of dollars in tax savings to the Boeing Co. And that move helped convince the aerospace giant to build its new 777 passenger jet in Everett. Yet since then Boeing has shed 3,669 jobs in Washington, union leaders and an Everett lawmaker said Monday.
► From AP — Unions seek link of aerospace tax breaks, state workforce
► In today’s Olympian — Burned twice by wildfires, bill is due (editorial) — The bill for fighting Washington wildfires in 2015 is $137 million more than what the Legislature provided
LOCAL
► In today’s Tri-City Herald — Kadlec nurses, supporters rally as contract talks continue — Hundreds of Kadlec Regional Medical Center nurses and their supporters rallied at John Dam Plaza in Richland on Monday afternoon, chanting, waving signs and calling for a fair contract after months of negotiations have failed to yield a new pact. “There was a time when Kadlec chose to value its RNs,” said Kelsi Duncan, a neonatal intensive-care nurse and part of the negotiating team. “They chose to reward their nurses with competitive pay and compensation in the way of time off. Because there was a time when Kadlec realized how important time away from the hospital was.”
ALSO at The Stand — Stand united with Kadlec RNs at Nov. 9 rally in Tri-Cities
► In today’s Bellingham Herald — Auction process begins for Haggen’s non-core stores — The auction began on Monday and is scheduled to go through Wednesday. Many of the Washington and Oregon stores up for auction are scheduled to be auctioned off Wednesday.
► From the P.S. Business Journal — Albertson’s tries to buy back stores it sold to Haggen — During bankruptcy auction action this week, Albertsons is now the bidder for 36 of the stores in Washington, Oregon and Arizona.
► From The Onion — Housing prices spike as tech employee takes stroll through neighborhood
FIGHT FOR 15
ALSO at The Stand — “It’s Our Time!” See livestream of workers’ day of action TODAY — “It’s Our Time” livestreaming of workers’ rising up in Seattle, Spokane, Yakima, Olympia and across the state. Watch at WorkingWA.org.
► From Al Jazeera America — Fast-food workers plan nationwide rallies with eye toward 2016 — Protesters also plan to rally at the site of the latest GOP presidential debate in Milwaukee, scheduled for Tuesday evening. The day’s protest is, in part, focused on bringing Fight For $15’s demands to the fore in the 2016 election.
JOB, JOBS, JOBS
NOTE: The Stand doesn’t generally post job openings — except for staff positions at the Washington State Labor Council :) — but we’ve been receiving a number of them of late, so we thought we’d make an exception:
► From WFSE — WFSE seeking Labor Advocates, Council Reps — The Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE), AFSCME Council 28 is seeking Labor Advocates responsible for grievance arbitrations and contract and mid-term negotiations, and Council Representatives responsible for daily member contact and activation.
► From WSLC — Wash. State Labor Council seeks Legislative and Policy Director
MORE union staff opportunities in Washington state can be found HERE.
► From USAJOBS.org — FAA seeking electronics specialists — The Federal Aviation Administration has immediate federal government job opening for electronics specialists locally and across the country who, once hired, will belong to the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists bargaining unit.
TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP
► In the San Francisco Sentinel — The TPP is the most brazen corporate power grab in American history (by Chris Hedges) — When I reached him by phone in Washington, D.C., Ralph Nader told me:
The TPP, along with the WTO [World Trade Organization] and NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement], is the most brazen corporate power grab in American history. It allows corporations to bypass our three branches of government to impose enforceable sanctions by secret tribunals. These tribunals can declare our labor, consumer and environmental protections [to be] unlawful, non-tariff barriers subject to fines for noncompliance. The TPP establishes a transnational, autocratic system of enforceable governance in defiance of our domestic laws.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
► In today’s Washington Post — Appeals court rules against Obama’s immigration plan — A federal appeals court on Monday ruled against President Obama’s plan to shield up to 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation, dealing another blow to the administration’s effort to remake immigration laws and likely setting up a final battle in the Supreme Court next year.
ALSO at The Stand — Recess! Tell your Representative what you think about ‘Cadillac tax’
► From The Hill — Firefighters union presses GOP candidates on 9/11 health benefits — The IAFF will run a political advertisement Tuesday, pressuring the presidential candidates to extend healthcare benefits for 9/11 first responders who have been diagnosed with cancer and other diseases.
NATIONAL
► From Bloomberg — Ford UAW workers to vote on pact with $30,000 more in pay, benefits — Ford Motor Co. employees represented by the United Auto Workers will begin voting on a proposed four-year contract that includes $30,000 in additional wages and bonuses and $9 billion in factory investments expected to create or secure 8,500 jobs, the union said.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Union Yes!
► From AFL-CIO Now — Trumka applauds Missouri students’ collective action against racism — Said the AFL-CIO president:
We applaud the courageous actions of students and faculty at the University of Missouri who have come together to demand change in response to racism and discrimination on campus. In particular, we commend the university’s football players for their brave stand at a time when college athletes receive too little credit for their enormous contributions to their universities.
► From Huffington Post — This global study shows why people go to work sick — new research finds people around the globe are prone to working when they should be home in bed, most likely due to a combination of high job demands and low job security.
► In the Washington Post — Some retirees are making a terrible mistake with their pensions — Pension advances are complex products that offer retirees a lump-sum cash advance in exchange for all, or part, of their future pension payments.
► In today’s Washington Post — Scott Walker is a diminished figure — except in the state he governs — Although his days of lofty foreign policy speeches are gone, Walker is back to what propelled him to the national stage in the first place: street battle with Wisconsin’s Democrats. And he has reemerged on the state stage as powerful as ever.
► From TPM — The decline of labor, the increase of inequality (Part 1 of the 4-part special series: The March to Inequality: How Did We Get Here?”) — America’s labor unions, once a stalwart of the American economy, are now in danger of fading into oblivion, and with them, America’s defense against increasing income inequality.
TODAY’S MUST-READ
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.