Wednesday, May 25, 2016

GREEN RIVER STRIKE

► From AFT Washington — YOU are invited to End-of-Strike Rally at Green River College — AFT Washington invites union members, community supporters and elected officials to join Green River College faculty for a rally ending their three-day strike and thanking all supporters for the courage, inspiration, and drive. It will be TODAY (Wednesday, May 25) at 3:30 p.m. at the main campus in Auburn, 124th and 320th streets. WSLC President Jeff Johnson will be among the speakers.

ALSO at The Stand:

Strong strike solidarity for faculty at Green River College (by Lynne Dodson)

Three-day strike begins at Green River College in Auburn

JOB CUTS

► In today’s Seattle Times — Boeing plans hundreds of layoffs in local IT unit — Boeing has distributed layoff notices to several hundred people in its Information Technology (IT) unit in the Puget Sound region. Although Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes division is offering voluntary buyouts to reduce the workforce, the layoffs at the IT unit are all involuntary… Although the bulk of the IT staff is nonunion, some are represented by SPEEA. Union spokesman Bill Dugovich said 71 SPEEA-represented IT employees have been laid off since mid-March.

► In today’s P.S. Business Journal — Boeing may be slashing jobs, but there will still be high demand for aerospace workers in Puget Sound area — There may be fewer people working in the aerospace industry across the region, but the fight for talent to replace retiring workers and hire for newly created programming jobs is about to heat up.

► In today’s P.S. Business Journal — Microsoft cuts 1,850 jobs, takes nearly $1B charge related to smartphone business — Microsoft said it was reducing up to 1,350 jobs at Microsoft Mobile Oy in Finland, as well as up to 500 additional jobs globally. Microsoft did not specify where the additional job cuts would take place. The layoffs are more signs of the harsh reality of Microsoft’s failure to turn around the Nokia mobile phone business, which Microsoft bought for $7.2 billion. Microsoft lost billions.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Value of 2015 state tax breaks for these two companies — Boeing: $305 million. Microsoft: $776 million.

LOCAL

► In the UW Daily — UW professors consider forming faculty labor union — For Carrie Matthews, a full time lecturer in the English department, living on her nine month salary from the UW is increasingly difficult. “I’m moving home to live with my parents for the end of July and all of August,” she said. “I’ve done that once before to save money on rent.” Matthews, who has taught classes as a non-tenured professor at the UW for eight years, supports the formation of a faculty labor union due to the increasing pay differentials between adjunct professors and tenured faculty.

► In today’s Olympian — Tentative contract reached for Tumwater teachers — A deal could be close for nearly 400 teachers in the Tumwater School District who have been working without a contract since the the school year began.

► In today’s News Tribune — KPLU supporters’ push to buy station nearing finish line — The backers behind the effort to purchase KPLU are on the verge of reaching their goal: raise $7 million to keep the station out of the hands of the University of Washington’s KUOW.

ALSO at The Stand — Help save KPLU, the state’s only unionized NPR station

ELECTION 2016

► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Washington governor, U.S. Senate races draw heavy interest — Being the U.S. senator from Washington appears to be the most coveted position for would-be politicians, with 17 candidates filing for the office last week. The governor’s race attracted 10 and the lieutenant governor 11.

► In today’s Seattle Times — Trump, Clinton win Washington state primary — Presumptive nominee Donald Trump was taking 76 percent of the Republican votes, while Hillary Clinton was ahead of rival Bernie Sanders, 54 to 46 percent, on the Democratic side. Democrats are ignoring the result and already allocated delegates based on March caucuses. Despite her win with a much larger primary electorate, Clinton won’t amass any more delegates.

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — State GOP leader says Trump can win Washington — “Donald Trump is committed to flipping Washington state. He told me so personally,” Susan Hutchison said. “I believe Donald Trump can win this state and when he wins this state it will affect races down the ballot.”

► In today’s NY Times — Elizabeth Warren turns up the anti-Donald Trump volume — Se. Elizabeth Warren delivered a scalding rebuke of Donald J. Trump on Tuesday night, describing him as a “a small, insecure, money grubber” as she escalated her feud with the presumptive Republican nominee. She assailed him unsparingly as a heartless tax dodger cozying up with Wall Street who preyed on the misfortunes of Americans stricken by the financial crisis.

► From AP — Police ready for protests at Trump California rally after New Mexico chaos — Police in Anaheim, California, braced for protests at a Donald Trump rally on Wednesday, a day after violence broke out at an event for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee in New Mexico.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

► From Public News Service — Workers’ comp alternative probed by U.S. Labor Department — The U.S. Department of Labor is investigating a new method for employers to opt out of state-regulated workers’ compensation plans. Seattle-based retailer Nordstrom is one of the proponents of the opt-out system in which employers provide their own compensation to workers hurt on the job.

► From NPR — TSA union calls for more screeners to alleviate long security lines — AFGE, the union that represents Transportation Security Administration screeners, is calling for 6,000 more screeners to help alleviate long lines at airport checkpoints. It says Congress is to blame for the staffing shortages.

NATIONAL

► From AP —  CEO pay climbs again, even as their stock prices don’t — CEOs at the biggest companies got a 4.5 percent pay raise last year. That’s almost double the typical American worker’s, and a lot more than investors earned from owning their stocks — a big fat zero. The raise alone for median CEO pay last year, $468,449, is more than 10 times what the typical U.S. worker makes in a year. The top-paid CEO in this past year’s survey, Expedia’s Dara Khosrowshahi, made $94.6 million last year.

ALSO at The Stand — State’s CEOs paid 190 times average rank-and-file worker

► From Vice — The women who make H&M’s clothes are fired for getting pregnant — A new report from the Asia Floor Wage Alliance finds evidence of widespread exploitation in H&M supplier factories in Cambodia and India. We spoke to labor activists to find out about how much life really sucks when you’re making a $5.99 tank top.

TODAY’S MUST-READ

► From Fortune — The Occupy movement comes of age — On Tuesday in Washington, a group called Take on Wall Street announced that it was launching a new campaign focused on limiting the power the financial sector exerts over the political process and the economy—very similar goals to the Occupy movement. Unlike Occupy, though, which was almost entirely a grassroots movement, Take on Wall Street has institutional and financial heft behind it. Groups like The AFL-CIO and the American Federation of Teachers are both involved. Take on Wall Street isn’t strictly a protest movement. “We are going to make this an issue in congressional races. No one will be able to run from this,” said Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO.

ALSO TODAY at The Stand — It’s time to fix America’s rigged economy

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