Tuesday, August 23, 2016

BOEING

► In the P.S. Business Journal — Internal sales forecast points to possible cuts ahead for Boeing’s Everett facilities — Boeing expects to sell only 535 jets this year, Aviation Week reports, citing an internal sales forecast that featured a number 27 percent below what the aircraft maker told investors. The report adds to speculation that, barring an unlikely fourth quarter sales surge, Boeing will announce production cuts affecting employment at its Everett jet-making facility.

LOCAL

► In the Seattle Times — Seattle turns up the heat on its business experiment (by Jon Talton) — As the Seattle City Council continues its attempt to impose social democracy in its 84 square miles of America, does a tipping point come? A point where it’s impossible to run a small business in the city? Or where overregulation drives out a major one? Where unintended consequences undercut the promised outcome of a law? The evidence from highly regulated San Francisco and New York supports the progressive view. Indeed, blue states generally have stronger economies than red ones. Regulations don’t automatically kill jobs. Often they provide economic benefits.

► A related story from Bloomberg — Worker hours are more unpredictable than ever — Today’s hourly workers not only make less money, but they have much less predictable schedules than hourly workers had before the recession, according to a new study from the University of California, Davis. The research also found that union participation helps workers get the schedules they want. Union members are less likely to report variability in the hours they get from week to week, but only in states with a high degree of unionization.

► In the (Longview) Daily News — Workers at Cowlitz Family Health Center vote to unionize — Workers at the Family Health Center voted to unionize following an unrelated rash of labor complaints earlier this year. Matthew McKinnon of the IAMAW said support staff employees in the center’s behavioral health division unionized in response to unfair treatment from management, explaining that some people in leadership roles yelled, screamed and berated employees.

► In the Seattle Times — At Microsoft contractor, union win is a mixed result — A group of temporary workers at Microsoft contractor Lionbridge has signed its first union contract, a rare feat in a technology industry typically unfriendly to organized labor. But the deal, sealed after almost two years of contentions talks, comes at a cost.

TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP

► In today’s Huffington Post — Why the TPP deal won’t improve our security (by Clyde Prestowitz) — The president often speaks of the TPP as a tool that will prevent China from writing the rules of trade for the future. But it’s already clear that the TPP is not going to stop China from writing some of the future rules of world trade… Until America can come close to matching China’s dynamism, it has no hope of countering its economic and geopolitical influence with old-fashioned trade agreements, no matter how monumental they are said to be.

ELECTION 2016

► In today’s Columbian — Local GOP officials largely for Trump — Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-3rd) continues to say she is waiting for Donald Trump to “earn her vote.” Among the Southwest Washington elected officials who say they are voting for Trump are Reps. Liz Pike (R-Camas), Brandon Vick (R-Felida), and Paul Harris (R-Vancouver), and Clark County Councilors David Madore and Marc Boldt.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Rep. Lynda Wilson (R-Freedom Foundation) says she’s undecided.

► From Huffington Post — Trump ally Roger Stone says GOP nominee should release tax returns ‘immediately’ — Roger Stone, a longtime Republican political operative and current ally of Donald Trump, said the GOP nominee should release his tax returns right away. Trump and his campaign have offered myriad excuses for not making the records available to the public — a tradition followed by major party nominees for decades.

ALSO at The Stand — Tax-free Trump says his returns are ‘none of your business’ (by Leo W. Gerard)

► In the NY Times — Affordable child care: The secret to a better economy (editorial) — High-quality child care is a win-win, helping to raise earnings now and increase productivity over the long term while enriching the lives of children. Only Hillary Clinton, who has long focused on the needs of children, has a realistic plan to make this long overdue investment in families.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

► From AFL-CIO Now — The Federal Reserve and black unemployment — While it is good the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee notes the damage its policies may be doing to the African American community, it unfortunately appears too simplistic in understanding the dynamics of the market and how the growth in labor demand affects the African American community.

NATIONAL

► From Politico — America’s worsening retirement problem — People aged 50-64 are supposed to be building wealth and getting ready for retirement. But the CBO released a new report on wealth that found that median family wealth dropped for Americans aged 50-64 from around $250,000 in 2007 to just under $200,000 by 2010 — and then, troublingly, continued to fall to around $150,000 in 2013. That’s a 40 percent drop in six years.

► In today’s LA Times — In a major win for teachers unions, state Supreme Court lets teacher tenure ruling stand — Monday was the end of the line for a landmark California case challenging tenure and other traditional job protections for teachers — and the teachers won. The outcome left some union opponents looking for a different battlefield in the ongoing wars over public education. The case, Vergara vs. California, was closely watched across the country as a test of whether courts would invalidate employment rights of teachers on the argument that they violate the rights of students.

► From AP — Foes: South Dakota ballot measure circumvents right-to-work — A coalition of business groups recently launched a campaign against a labor-backed ballot measure going before voters in November, arguing that the plan would allow unions to circumvent South Dakota’s right-to-work law.

TODAY’S MUST-SEE

► From Last Week Tonight — Charter schools are privately run, publicly funded, and irregularly regulated. John Oliver explores why they aren’t at all like pizzerias.

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