DAILY NEWS
Session opens, Spokane sick leave, cutting off constituents…
Monday, January 11, 2016
STATE GOVERNMENT
ALSO see legislative previews in the (Everett) Herald, (Longview) Daily News, Spokesman-Review, and from the Associated Press.
► In the News Tribune — Statewide minimum wage initiative may answer question: 15 Now what? (by Matt Driscoll) — (Word of a statewide minimum wage initiative) might seem like good news for 15 Now Tacoma, but some in the group say they fear that a statewide initiative won’t go far enough.
► From AP — Lawmakers propose plan to unravel education funding in 2017
► In today’s News Tribune — Forget 2016, lawmakers punt McCleary fix to 2017 (editorial) — State legislators appear poised to push the hardest part of complying with a Supreme Court order all the way to the deadline.
► In the News Tribune — Charter school supporters, lawmakers look to overcome court-issued hurdles — Ever since the court overturned the voter-approved charter law in September, supporters have been scrambling to keep the doors open for the state’s nine charter schools. Three of the nine are in Tacoma.
ALSO at The Stand — Charter schools ruling is a rebuke of the privatization agenda (by Wayne Au, Sept. 17, 2015)
► From KUOW — King County Council appoints Carlyle, Frame to replace Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles — State Rep. Reuven Carlyle has been appointed to serve the remainder of Kohl-Welles’ term in the state Senate and community organizer Noel Frame has been appointed to Carlyle’s seat in the state House.
FRIEDRICHS
ALSO TODAY at The Stand — Court should reject 1%ers’ Friedrichs case (statement by WSLC President Jeff Johnson)
► In today’s Washington Post — The state of the unions (editorial) — It seems to us that the court is really being asked to decide whether public employee unions have become too powerful and need to be reined in. It’s a question worth debate. But it is more of a political than a constitutional issue, best answered on the state and local levels by voters and the people they elect.
► In today’s NY Times — Supreme Court case on public sector union fees rouses political suspicions — The challenge to nearly 40 years of legal precedent on public sector union fees has shined a particular spotlight on a group of libertarian-minded public interest lawyers known as the Center for Individual Rights, which has organized the case but is little known outside Washington and right-of-center legal circles.
► From NBC News — Friedrichs case could prevent workers from organizing (by Rashad Robinson) — The Center for Individual Rights may dress up its attacks in fancy legal arguments or poll tested attacks on unions, but their long-term objective is clear. Stopping public sector workers from using their collective power is about stripping workers of their rights and advancing a racist and anti-Black agenda.
LOCAL
► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Workers in Spokane would get three days of sick leave under proposal to be taken up Monday — The vast majority of workers in Spokane would get paid sick leave under a proposal the Spokane City Council will consider on Monday. The rule, which would require most employers to provide workers with three days of paid sick leave each year, was heavily debated last summer until council members delayed action on it.
► From KPLU — Contract talks resume between UW and doctors in residency programs — The residents say it’s a struggle to get by on what they’re paid, given the cost of living in Seattle and their student loan debt.
► In today’s Seattle Times — KPLU mounts campaign to buy its independence amid UW offer — Nine weeks ago, KPLU learned it might be sold to the University of Washington, so the public-radio station started a fundraising campaign to buy its autonomy.
► In today’s Columbian — Vancouver Police Officers’ Guild contract agreement includes pay hike — After working a year without a contract, the Guild has reached a labor agreement with the city for 2015-16 that includes a wage hike.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
► In today’s NY Times — The Obama Boom (by Paul Krugman) — Dire warnings from Republicans about the effect of President Obama’s policies on employment have simply not come true.
NATIONAL
► From Huffington Post — McDonald’s business model goes on trial — McDonald’s goes on trial at the NLRB in New York City on Monday. The proceedings will set out to answer two fundamental questions: Should McDonald’s be considered an employer alongside the franchisees who run its stores, and if so, did the company violate its employees’ rights amid the mass protests? The hearings are about much more than a few one-day strikes. In a sense, the very franchise model that McDonald’s and most other fast-food companies operate on will be on trial.
► In the NY Times — Doctors unionize to resist the medical machine — An Oregon medical center’s plan to increase efficiency by outsourcing doctors drove a group of its hospitalists to fight back by banding together.
► From Buzzfeed — Philadelphia Uber Black drivers sue over independent contractor status — The suit alleges Uber has misclassified drivers as independent contractors in order to avoid providing them with proper wages and benefits.
► From Buzzfeed — If most of your income comes from on-demand work, you’re probably a racial minority — Of survey respondents who earn more than 40% of their income from on-demand work, a whopping 67% identify as racial minorities.
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.