DAILY NEWS
Gloomy forecast, SeaTac suit, 3/5ths of a president…
Thursday, February 18, 2016
BOEING
ALSO at The Stand — SPEEA units at Boeing OK 6-year extension
MORE coverage in today’s (Everett) Herald, KPLU, and Seattle Times.
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Boeing’s South Carolina workers aren’t just building 787s — In a rural area just outside North Charleston, a few hundred Boeing engineers are finding new ways to automate production, inspection and testing to squeeze time, labor and other costs out of commercial airplane assembly.
► In the P.S. Business Journal — Muilenburg blunt about 787 past, bullish about its future — Boeing’s CEO was open about the $28 billion in deferred costs on Boeing’s books due to the 787’s difficult early years. But he said he’s not looking back.
STATE GOVERNMENT
► From KUOW — School funding conundrum may have just gotten harder — Democrat Hans Dunshee, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said existing taxes aren’t going to produce enough money for schools: “I mean there’s no way you get to that $4 billion in McCleary out of the existing bucket of stuff.”
► From AP — House passes bill aimed at reducing state teacher shortage — HB 2573, passed on a vote of 92-6, would require the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to create a statewide plan to bring in more teachers.
► In the (Everett) Herald — Olympia campaign finance reforms languish in election year
► In today’s Columbian — House bill on bistate bridge dies in Legislature
LOCAL
► From AP — SeaTac workers sue over $15 minimum wage — Workers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport filed more than a dozen lawsuits on Wednesday, claiming they have not been paid a $15 minimum wage. Their lawyers estimate the employees are owed as much as $20,000 each in back pay since the higher wage went into effect more than two years ago. They say about 5,000 airport workers are affected by the minimum wage ordinance, which now requires an hourly wage of at least $15.24. An estimated 1,500 workers have not been paid the correct wage, the attorneys said.
MORE coverage in today’s Seattle Times.
► In today’s Seattle Times — Space Needle operator pays to settle labor-organizing case — The firm that manages the Space Needle agreed to pay former employee Fernando Jimenez $24,000 to settle a complaint alleging he was fired last March for taking part in union activities.
ALSO at The Stand — Space Needle settles, pays illegally fired union supporter
MORE coverage in today’s P.S. Business Journal.
TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP
► In today’s News Tribune — Demonstration against TPP in downtown Tacoma (video)
► From AFL-CIO Now — New AFL-CIO TPP report highlights lack of worker protections — “The consistency plans fall woefully short of ensuring that all 12 TPP countries will be in full compliance with the TPP’s labor standard on Day One of the agreement,” says AFL-CIO Director of International Affairs Cathy Feingold. “Vietnam will get a five-year free pass to deny freedom of association and there is no plan for Mexico at all.”
► From The Hill — Lawmakers eye crackdown on illicit trade — Lawmakers are seeking to crack down on the billions of dollars that flow through illicit trade ahead of a potential vote later this year on President Obama’s massive Asia-Pacific agreement.
SUPREME COURT
► From TPM — Outside groups warn GOP: Don’t even think about holding a SCOTUS hearing — Outside conservative groups with influence on Capitol Hill — and particularly those that inhabit its far-right flank — were quick to cement the line Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) drew.
► From Think Progress — Poll fails to support McConnell’s motivations for blocking Supreme Court nominees — A new poll from Rasmussen Reports, which is known to lean conservative in its results, finds that voters would prefer Obama to fill the vacancy rather than waiting until after the next presidential election.
CAMPAIGN 2016
► From The Hill — AFL-CIO withholding Clinton endorsement, report says — Many of the nation’s top unions have thrown their weight behind Clinton, but AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told members the federation is staying out of it. The AFL-CIO is likely to endorse a Democratic presidential candidate in the general election, he said, but doesn’t want to pick sides yet.
► From Huffington Post — Big win for Bernie: AFL-CIO holds off on presidential endorsement
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
► From Vox — Moderate Democrats helped Wall Street avoid regulation in the ’90s. They’re doing it again. — A few moderate Democrats — like Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) — are working on legislation that would severely curtail regulators’ power and make it easier for banks and other financial organizations to escape scrutiny, a move Elizabeth Warren and other liberal reformers are fighting.
NATIONAL
ALSO at The Stand — Initiative 1433 campaign kicks off on Saturday, March 5 — I-1433 would raise Washington’s minimum wage incrementally to $13.50 and allow all workers to earn up to seven days of paid sick and safe leave per year.
► From Bloomberg — The Walmart case that could expand gay rights at work — Is anti-gay discrimination a form of sex discrimination? Walmart Stores, the biggest private employer in the U.S., is the target of a lawsuit that might soon provide an answer to that question.
► In today’s NY Times — Racial gerrymandering in North Carolina (editorial) — Republicans in the state have used various machinations to disenfranchise voters.
► In today’s Oregonian — Hooters employee fired for cussing at work? Report says companies use swearing as a scapegoat — A new study shows that workers are often fired for cussing as an excuse to get rid of employees deemed troublesome by management. In one instance, a Hooters waitress is canned on the grounds she cussed out the winner of a wet T-shirt competition she thought was rigged.
TODAY’S MUST-READ
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.