Wednesday, August 10, 2016

LOCAL

► In today’s Seattle Times — Judge tosses Chamber’s suit against Seattle over Uber law — A federal judge has dismissed the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s lawsuit over Seattle’s new ordinance giving Uber drivers the ability to unionize, calling the suit premature. U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik said the Chamber and its members, such as Uber, don’t yet have standing to challenge the ordinance because they haven’t yet been harmed by it.

► In today’s Skagit Valley Herald — No new meeting set in Sakuma Bros. Farms negotiation — Sakuma Bros. Farms and a labor group met nearly a month ago to discuss the potential unionization of farmworkers, but have yet to schedule a second meeting. Sakuma Bros. announced in July that it would negotiate with Familias Unidas por la Justicia on holding a vote of farmworkers on whether they want the group to represent them. The two groups met once on July 14.

ALSO at The Stand — Another Sakuma walkout, then union negotiates pay increase

► From The Stranger — Seattle is getting serious about secure scheduling — The bill comes after months of worker organizing, mostly led by the union-funded group Working Washington, city council discussions, and a stakeholder group convened by Mayor Murray’s office. Workers have described how not knowing when they’ll be scheduled to work can make it hard to go back to school or get a second job and how not knowing how many hours they’ll get per week can make it hard to budget.

ALSO at The Stand — Seattle council hears secure scheduling policy

► From PubliCola — In defense of getting s— done (by Josh Feit) — As I sat through a joint press briefing from mayoral and council member staff yesterday afternoon about the the latest big deal proposal to come out of city hall — a super progressive policy recommendation to protect low-wage, hourly service industry employees from unpredictable and mostly truncated schedules — I was struck by the fact that the old Seattle Process was being replaced by a new one: Getting shit done.

► In today’s Washington Post — So far, the Seattle minimum-wage increase is doing what it’s supposed to do (by Jared Bernstein) — Relatively high minimum wages in Seattle and in Washington more broadly have had their intended impact and have been perfectly compatible with a strong economy, one that’s handily beating national averages.

► In today’s Seattle Times — Black Lives Matter demonstrators stage protest in downtown Seattle — Several hundred Black Lives Matter demonstrators gathered in Seattle’s Westlake Park Tuesday evening. Signs bearing the names and faces of people of color who were killed by the police in recent years were distributed among the crowd.

STATE GOVERNMENT

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — School districts ask court to halt Dorn lawsuit — Five of Washington’s largest school districts, including Everett, want to put the brakes on a lawsuit by state Superintendent for Public Instruction Randy Dorn that challenges their use of local levies on teacher salaries and basic education services for students.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Although the WEA (and the rest of organized labor in Washington state) strongly supports legislative action on McCleary, the teachers’ union does not support Randy Dorn’s suit and would prefer that he let the existing court process play out instead of interfering now. There are concerns that the lawsuit could hurt local communities’ abilities to make the best decisions for their students and to attract and keep qualified staff amid an ongoing teacher shortage.

► In today’s Seattle Times — Inslee appoints Roger Millar as transportation secretary — Millar has been serving as acting secretary since February, when he replaced Lynn Peterson, who was ousted by the Senate when majority Republicans took the rare move of rejecting her gubernatorial appointment.

ALSO at The Stand — Senate Republicans shame, harm state with Lynn Peterson’s firing (by WSLC President Jeff Johnson — Feb 8, 2016)

ELECTION 2016

► From the News Tribune — Tony Ventrella promises full-fledged campaign after surprise primary win — The former Seattle-area sportscaster, having dropped out of the U.S. House race in the state’s 8th Congressional District in July, finished in second place and advanced to the general election. Now he says he needs to raise a reasonable amount of money to employ staff, buy yard signs and pay for other basic needs of a campaign, even if he avoids costly things such as television ads. He’s just not sure exactly how he’ll go about it yet.

► From The Hill — Progressives pressure Clinton on TPP ahead of economic speech — The grassroots liberal groups Democracy for America and CREDO will begin circulating petitions urging Clinton to make a public statement “urging the White House and Democratic congressional leadership to oppose any vote on the TPP, especially during the post-election lame duck session of Congress.” The groups would like Clinton to make that declaration in her policy address on the economy this Thursday outside of Detroit.

TAKE A STAND — Sign the petition today!

► From The Hill — Liberal groups to Clinton: Steer clear of Wall Street — Liberal groups are mounting a preemptive effort to discourage Hillary Clinton from tapping Wall Street veterans as she fills out her potential administration.

► From The Hill — Trump: ‘Second Amendment people’ could stop Clinton — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump appeared to joke about the possibility that gun owners could take action against Hillary Clinton in remarks at a campaign rally Tuesday in Wilmington, N.C.

► In today’s Washington Post — Trumponomics: Workers get the words, the wealthy get the money (by E.J. Dionne) — Trump’s wholesale embrace of the old conservative tax religion is splitting the party into two factions. There are those who are willing to settle for big tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy (Paul Ryan seems to be in this group) and those who see Trump’s weaknesses as so glaring that they will not be appeased by lower tax rates.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

► From BarackObama.com — Editorial boards across the country agree: The Senate must do its job and give President Obama’s nominee a fair hearing.

► In today’s NY Times — ACA appears to be making people healthier — A few recent studies suggest that people have become less likely to have medical debt or to postpone care because of cost. They are also more likely to have a regular doctor and to be getting preventive health services like vaccines and cancer screenings.

EDITOR’S NOTE — We know, Tea-baggers. “Let ’em die.”

NATIONAL

► From AFL-CIO Now — Union-made car quiz: Two union members will win $5,000! — In honor of Labor Day, Union Plus is celebrating with a sweepstakes so nice, you can enter twice. Here’s how it works:

●  There are two entry periods: Aug. 1-17 and Aug. 18-Sept. 5.
●  One lucky union member who takes the What Kind of Union-Made Vehicle Are You? quiz from each entry period will win $5,000.
●  That’s enough cash to put down on your very own, union-made vehicle purchased through the Union Plus Auto Buying Service!

► In today’s LA Times — Grocery contract yields small pay raises, as workers stave off higher retirement age — Clerks, meat cutters and stockers who staff some of Southern California’s largest grocery chains are voting on a contract that includes modest pay increases and cements current health and pension benefits.

► From Think Progress — Undefeated Olympic U.S. women’s soccer team is still fighting for equal pay — Their  victorious streak so far comes amid their continuing fight to be paid equally with the U.S. men’s team, which didn’t even qualify to participate in this year’s summer Olympics.

► In today’s WV MetroNews — Organized labor ready to challenge ‘Right to Work’ in court — Six months since the West Virginia Legislature passed Right to Work legislation, organized labor is ready to go to court to seek an injunction to block the measure.

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