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WSNA rallies Yakima, Michelle Obama rules, whither Hostess…

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

 


LOCAL

 

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► In today’s Yakima H-R — Yakima Regional nurses rally against corporate owner — Nurses from Yakima Regional Medical rallied Monday to engage with the community prior to heading back into contract negotiations this week. More than 100 turned out for the free barbecue at Milroy Park, where a large blue banner read “Patients Before Profits,” and a speaker from Washington State Nurses Association drew cheers from the crowd of nurses and community members. Together, they can “keep the hope that this hospital will have a new owner that will bring the community hospital back to the community,” sais WSNA’s Christine Himmelsbach.

mythbusters-seattle► In today’s Seattle Times — $15 wage law has little impact on Seattle’s thriving labor market, report suggests — Seattle’s labor market has thrived since the city became the first major metropolis in the country to pass a law setting its minimum wage on a path to $15 per hour. The city’s job-growth rate has been triple the national average, for example. During the period covered in the report, typical low-wage workers in Seattle saw their pay increase from $9.96 per hour to $11.14 per hour. Their employment rate and their number of hours increased, as did their overall earnings, according to the report.

► In today’s Tri-City Herald — Safety equipment shortage sends Hanford workers home — About 65 construction workers have been sent back to their union halls as some work has been cut back at the Hanford tank farms, a fallout of a new policy to protect workers from chemical vapors. Washington River Protection Solutions is requiring workers to wear supplied air respirators inside all Hanford tank farms in response to a stop-work order issued by the Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council.

► In today’s Columbian — Union group plans Burgerville protest — A labor group trying to organize Burgerville workers planned to picket a Vancouver restaurant Monday afternoon at 8320 N.E. Vancouver Plaza Drive. The Portland Industrial Workers of the World group has been trying to unionize the Vancouver-based fast food chain since April.

► In today’s Columbian — Clark County budget faces $20 million shortfall — The Clark County council faces some tough choices this winter, as the county’s Budget Office projects a $20 million shortfall in its general fund over the next two years.

► In today’s Seattle Times — Jury finds Seattle police chief retaliated against 2 officers in overtime pay dispute

 


ELECTION 2016

 

► In today’s Washington Post — Michelle Obama is the Democrats’ best weapon against Donald Trump — Michelle Obama never said Donald Trump’s name during her speech at the convention last night, yet she offered a more effective rebuttal of the Republican nominee and the mantra that animates his campaign than any other Democrat has been able to thus far in 2016. The first lady’s barnburner enters the pantheon of greatest DNC speeches ever.

EDITOR’S NOTE — If you missed it, here it is. Watch it. If you saw it, watch it again.

 

► From Politico — Bernie Sanders: ‘Clinton must become the next president’ — Speaking to an emotional crowd that included many vocal Sanders supporters, the Vermont senator vowed to do “all that I can” to help Clinton reach the White House, offering a strong defense of her progressive bona fides.

► In today’s Seattle Times — Many of state’s Sanders delegates not ready to back Clinton — Washington delegates to the DNC are being asked to unite behind Hillary Clinton. But most delegates are Sen. Bernie Sanders supporters, and many say they aren’t ready to jump ship yet.

► In today’s Bellingham Herald — Gov. Inslee says Clinton ‘is a strong and experienced leader’ — The governor has promised his constituents that if he’s reelected, he’ll bring Sanders’ issues to the forefront in the state.

► From The Hill — Warren: Reject Trump’s ‘hate-filled America’ — Sen. Elizabeth Warren threw her full support behind Hillary Clinton for president.

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► From the Hill — Anti-TPP protesters disrupt Cummings speech — The protests went on for the last few minutes of his speech.

► From NPR — Union leaders contend Clinton, not Trump, is true champion of the middle class — On Monday night, the Democratic National Convention featured speeches from a string of labor leaders. They spoke for different constituencies — teachers, public sector workers, builders — but together they delivered their unifying message: Clinton, not Trump, is the best candidate for American workers. Said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka:

“He thinks he’s a tough guy. Well, Donald, I worked in the mines with tough guys. I know tough guys. They’re friends of mine. And Donald, you’re no tough guy; you’re a phony.”

► From Bloomberg — AFL-CIO’s Trumka, NEA’s García on DNC Day 1 (video)

aflcio-for-hillary-big► From AFL-CIO Now — 10 reasons why Hillary Clinton stands with working people — She believes that paid family leave, earned sick days, fair schedules, equal pay for women and quality affordable child care are critical, as well as the right to come together in union and negotiate for a better life.

► In today’s NY Times — Hillary Clinton’s New Democrats (editorial) — Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992 with an agenda that drove the Democratic Party decisively toward the center. Now, as Hillary Clinton comes to Philadelphia to collect her own nomination, history’s pendulum, with a shove from Bernie Sanders, is pressing her party back the other way. They are hardly satisfied, but supporters of Senator Sanders’s failed campaign for president have scored some victories in framing what is the most left-leaning party platform in many years.


TODAY’S MUST-READ

 

hostess-strike► From Fortune — What Hostess Brands’ return to the stock market says about the state of U.S. workers (by Rick Wartzman) — When Twinkies maker Hostess Brands announced this month that it would soon go public as part of a deal valuing the company at $2.3 billion, it was widely hailed — and correctly so — as the capstone to an amazing three-year financial and operational turnaround. But one question kept eating at me: What happened to the thousands of factory hands who used to work at the company? For most of them, it turns out, things haven’t necessarily been so sweet.

In fact, when you look at the long history of Hostess, you can see five major forces — the pernicious pressures of Wall Street, the decline of organized labor, the rise of contingent work, globalization, and automation — that have left many blue-collar employees in America feeling battered.

 


TODAY’S MUST-SEE (AND HEAR)

 

► From Last Week Tonight — Campaign songs — John Oliver and some of America’s favorite recording artists remind politicians not to use their songs without permission on the campaign trail.

 


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

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