Thursday, January 14, 2016

LOCAL

► In today’s Seattle Times — Boeing, SPEEA unveil surprise 6-year contract deal for 21,000 engineers — The deal guarantees average 5 percent compensation increases for 5 years, slows growth in members’ traditional pensions from 2019 on and adds new provisions for SPEEA members whose jobs are moved elsewhere.

ALSO at The Stand — Boeing, SPEEA reach tentative contract deal

MORE coverage in the (Everett) Herald, P.S. Business Journal, and KPLU.

► In today’s Tri-City Herald — Kadlec, nurses reach tentative deal — Kadlec Regional Medical Center management and nurses have reached a tentative contract agreement, the Richland hospital announced Wednesday evening. The terms of the new three-year pact aren’t being released pending ratification by the nurses. The Washington State Nurses Association, which represents the nurses, confirmed that a tentative pact is in place. The contract covering about 800 registered nurses expired Nov. 30.

► From PubliCola — Amazon blasted for security contractor’s union-busting (scroll down) — Several employees from Amazon’s security contractors, Security Industry Specialists (SIS), testified at the hearing on the company’s request to receive a city-owned alley right-of-way, condemning Amazon for union-busting bullying.

► In the P.S. Business Journal — Port of Seattle joins other organizations, announces new paid parental leave plan — The Port of Seattle has established a new paid parental leave plan for employees. The benefit gives employees up to four weeks of leave.

STATE GOVERNMENT

► From IAM 751’s blog — IAM 751 President Holden: Legislature should act now to fix incentives — “The intent of the original (aerospace) tax incentive language, which this union supported, was to maintain and grow good aerospace jobs,” said IAM 751 President Jon Holden. “Yet rather than growing with that prosperity, our state’s aerospace workforce has been reduced by more than 4,000 jobs.”

ALSO at the Stand — WSLC outlines 2016 Shared Prosperty Agenda

► In the P.S. Business Journal — Boeing under international pressure: ‘We need to be more of a partner in China, Japan and the Middle East’ — Boeing has been criticized for moving jobs out of Washington while taking advantage of huge tax breaks. When asked about that issue, (senior VP of global sales and marketing) John Wojick turned that into another question about competition: Why did Airbus go to Alabama for its U.S. plant and not Washington? “The biggest reason was that they got a better deal in Alabama than they did in Washington state,” he said. If Washington state wants to win deals like that, it has to be competitive with every other deal out there, he said. That includes the international options manufacturers now have.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Lower Wages + Bigger Public Subsidies = More Competitive

► In the Capital Press — Washington AG opens probe into farmworker wage survey advice — The Washington attorney general has opened an investigation of a farm labor contractor whose advice to growers on answering a wage survey drew the ire of unions and workers-rights groups.

ALSO at The Stand — WSLC, others seek state probe of farm wage manipulation

► In today’s Columbian — Gov. Inslee: New I-5 bridge is critical — Gov. Jay Inslee spent Wednesday afternoon in Vancouver to tout the multibillion dollar transportation deal struck last legislative session, but he also took a moment to reflect on a project that wasn’t included in the package.

► In today’s Columbian — Gov. Inslee meets with local labor leaders — Surrounded by walls covered with political signs, a man who has produced more than a few of his own visited Vancouver on Wednesday to say he’s lived up to his bumper-sticker claims of job creation.

► From AP — Lawmakers blame psychiatric hospital managers for problems — The head of a legislative accountability committee blamed a state health agency Wednesday for the crisis at Washington’s largest psychiatric hospital. The agency blamed the hospital’s problems on its inability to hire enough staff, and hospital employees blamed the Legislature for cutting funds over the years. “The only problem with Western State Hospital is the house is burning down,” WFSE’s Matt Zuvich told the Senate panel.

► From KPLU — Carbon initiative a key issue as lawmakers reconvene in Olympia — Dozens of legislative proposals have been submitted on the topic, some with multiple versions that use very minor changes in wording in attempts to see which proposals would have the best chances of passing.

► In the Peninsula Daily News — Port Townsend paper mill already below carbon cap proposed by state — Proposed state regulations requiring the state’s largest industrial emitters to reduce carbon emissions by 5 percent every three years would not affect Port Townsend Paper Corp., because the factory is already within acceptable levels, according to the company.

CAMPAIGN 2016

► In today’s Columbian — Tim Probst to run for state Senate again — Clark County voters could see a familiar matchup on their November ballots: Tim Probst (D) versus state Sen. Don Benton (R).

► From Variety — IATSE endorses Hillary Clinton for president — The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. The below-the-line union, which has about 125,000 members, cited “her long record of fighting for workers’ rights and working families.”

► In the Las Vegas Sun — At union confab, all eyes on 2016 — Union members from across the state came together Tuesday for a summit on the minimum wage hosted by the Nevada AFL-CIO. The policies that union leaders discussed were nothing new, but the summit foreshadowed something else — the significant push that Nevada unions plan to before the 2016 election.

NATIONAL

► In the W.Va. Metro News — ‘Right to work’ one of 1st bills out of gate; opposition organized — Republican legislative leaders in West Virginia are making “right to work” legislation a top priority for the 2016 regular legislative session.

► From AFL-CIO Now — Your 2016 UAW vehicle buying guide — Are you in the market for a car? Want to make sure that you buy a good union-made vehicle? The UAW has you covered. Check out their list of UAW-made vehicles.

► In the American Prospect — Friedrichs: Son of Bush v. Gore (by Harold Meyerson) — For Supreme Court conservatives, the Friedrichs case, which they heard Monday, presents them with a twofer: They can both smash unions and defeat Democrats.

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