Wednesday, March 1, 2017

LOCAL

► In today’s Yakima H-R — Noel Canning workers end strike — Three dozen unionized Noel Canning workers will return to work after a weeklong strike. The workers, represented by Teamsters Local Union 760, voted to return to work after the company sent a letter to employees agreeing to settle a number of unfair labor practice charges found by the National Labor Relations Board.

► In today’s Olympian — Saint Martin’s faculty union schedules one-day walkout — Using the slogan “Give Up Union Busting for Lent,” some faculty members and students at Saint Martin’s University in Lacey plan to walk out of their classes on Ash Wednesday. In June, members of the private Catholic university’s adjunct and contingent faculty voted to form a union and join Seattle-based SEIU Local 925.

ALSO at The Stand — Saint Martin’s faculty to walk out today over union opposition

► In today’s Seattle Times — Seattle council member has plan to help workers save for retirement — but Congress may kill it — Congress may torpedo Seattle City Councilmember Tim Burgess’ proposal to have businesses without retirement plans automatically enroll their employees in a city plan providing Individual Retirement Accounts.

► In today’s Seattle Times — Boeing discloses 36,000-employee data breach after email to spouse for help (subscription req’d)

THIS WASHINGTON

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Little interest in Olympia to tie Boeing jobs to big tax break — Aerospace workers attempting to claw back some of a multibillion-dollar tax break to the Boeing Co. because of its shrinking workforce in Washington are not getting much traction with lawmakers this year. “I’m optimistic we’ll get a bill introduced,” said Larry Brown of IAM 751, who said most lawmakers are focused on figuring out how to fully fund public schools. “I think the situation with McCleary is sucking up the oxygen. That doesn’t mean that (lawmakers) are not concerned.”

► In today’s Seattle Times — Lawmakers should give Washington a new Voting Rights Act (editorial) — Washington is a few steps closer to a new Voting Rights Act this legislative session, but neither proposal moving through the Legislature is a perfect way to give minority voters the rights they deserve in their communities… Voting-rights legislation is complex and important. Getting it right, without leading to unintended consequences and unnecessary lawsuits, is going to be a heavy lift. The Legislature should finally make it easier.

ALSO at The Stand — Empower inclusive elections with Washington Voting Rights Act

► From AP — Senate approves REAL ID compliance bill — The Senate has voted 45-4 to approve a measure that seeks to bring Washington state into compliance with federal identification requirements.

THAT WASHINGTON

► From The Hill — Trump speech signals shift: ‘Time for small thinking is behind us’ — President Trump told a joint session to Congress on Tuesday night that “the time for trivial fights is over” as he sought to reset his presidency after a chaotic first 40 days.

► In today’s Washington Post — Trump reprises his bleak vision of America — but offers few ideas for fixing it (editorial) — His sunny tone and a laudable condemnation of recent attacks on minorities soon gave way to the same dark and false vision of the country featured in the president’s grim inaugural address — one in which borders are open, drugs are pouring in, illegal immigrants prey on law-abiding Americans and globalization has impoverished vast swaths of the nation. When it came to specific policy proposals, Trump similarly offered a few encouraging signs — but many more reasons for skepticism.

► In today’s NY Times — Visions of Trumptopia (editorial) — The president offered up lots of gauzy promises, but no real ideas of how to pay for them.

► From Huffington Post — Trump calls for paid family leave, affordable child care — He told a joint session of Congress that he wanted to work with them on two policies that are key to gender equality and long the territory of Democrats: paid family leave and affordable child care.

► From Huffington Post — Trump urges unity among all the lawmakers he’s insulted for the past year — There was something bizarre about Trump glad-handing his way through the House chamber like past presidents and imploring Congress to enact his policies: He was appealing to a roomful of people, particularly Republicans, that he’s been insulting and humiliating for the last year.

► From The Onion — Pence passes time during Trump’s speech by mentally baptizing senators

► From The Onion — Ruby Tuesday waiter warns Jill Stein her Green Party response to Trump speech disrupting other diners

NATIONAL

► From Reuters — Illinois governor launches job website in case of union strike — In preparation for a possible strike by Illinois’ largest union of state workers, Governor Bruce Rauner’s administration launched a website on Tuesday encouraging residents to apply for permanent or temporary state jobs.

► In today’s NY Times — Uber chief apologizes after fight with driver — Travis Kalanick, the chief executive of Uber, apologized on Tuesday after a video showing him in a verbal altercation with a driver for the ride-hailing company over drivers’ earnings. Kalanick uses obscenities and generally dismissive of the driver’s complaints.

► In today’s NY Times — Shaky jobs, sluggish wages: Reasons are at home (by Eduardo Porter) — By obsessing over how the manufacturing jobs of the 1970s were lost to globalization, Trump is missing a more critical workplace transformation: the vast outsourcing of many tasks — including running the cafeteria, building maintenance and security — to low-margin, low-wage subcontractors within the United States.

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