DAILY NEWS
Death at Sarbanand, capital budget layoffs, Cathy to appear, what’s broken
Tuesday, August 8, 2017
DEATH AT SARBANAND
We were working in the fields and it was really hot. He started having headaches. He reported back to the supervisor. He was ignored by the supervisor. He couldn’t take it anymore so he went back to his cabin to rest. Then the supervisor went to the cabin and made him go back to work. And when the shift ended the next day, he went back to work also still with headaches. And the weather was hotter that day. He told again the supervisor how he felt. Again the supervisor ignored him in his request. He went back to his cabin. He couldn’t take it anymore. And he asked the manager for a favor: to take him to the airport because he wanted to go back to his family. This staff person responded by saying he couldn’t take him because that would mean abandoning the work.
ALSO see coverage by KUOW and the Lynden Tribune.
FROM the Calendar at The Stand — Farmworker Justice: Facts, Flaws & Abuses of the H-2A Program –TONIGHT from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Leopold Crystal Ballroom, 1224 Cornwall Ave. in Bellingham. Join Community to Community Development and Familias Unidas por la Justicia for a panel discussion and community dialogue about the H-2A program and farmworker justice. The panel will also include workers currently striking at Sarbanand Farms in Sumas, due to abhorrent working conditions.
LOCAL
ALSO at The Stand — Facebook cafeteria workers unite in Seattle — Mari Duncan, a line cook for Flagship in the Facebook Seattle cafeteria: “I’ve worked in food service for 18 years and I finally feel like I can have a real future for me and my son. We all deserve stability and respect for the work we do — that’s why we’re unionizing.”
LEARN MORE ABOUT FORMING A UNION — If you don’t have a union at your job, learn more about how to organize one. Today’s economy is so out of balance — with all the economic gains going to the top — forming a union is how workers can stand together and negotiate for better wages, working conditions, and a voice on the job. You can make it happen at your workplace! Click here to get started.
► From Teamsters 117 — Teamsters at SeaTac rental car facility are standing strong — Members at Fleetlogix are in the midst of a tough contract fight. They spend their workdays transporting vehicles around the facility and the region, north to Everett and south to Tacoma, for the Avis Budget Group. These members have been working without a contract since the middle of March as their employer continues to make substandard proposals at the bargaining table.
► In today’s Yakima H-R — Yakima City Council plans special meeting to discuss supporting “Dreamers” — The Yakima City Council is poised to take a public step in expressing support for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals during a Tuesday special meeting.
THIS WASHINGTON
► In today’s News Tribune — Threat of state employee layoffs still real as capital budget impasse persists — An dispute in the Legislature over a rural water-rights court ruling has put hundreds of jobs paid for by the state’s construction budget at risk. Many agencies have temporarily kept those workers employed, but how long that can last is unclear.
► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Spokane residents face longer waiting times at driver licensing office — The state DOL recently made changes to its licensing operating system that have resulted in longer wait times, said a DOL spokeswoman. The DOL chose a new system to provide better security and to prevent fraud amid preparation to meet a REAL ID deadline next year.
TRUMPCARE
ALSO at The Stand — Unions to McMorris Rodgers: Shame on you (May 9, 2017) — Unions in Washington state that represent people who work in the health care industry bought a full-page advertisement in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review — headlined “Shame on you, Cathy” — to criticize Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ vote last week in favor of the controversial Republican bill to overhaul Medicaid and the U.S. health care industry. McMorris Rodgers was the only member of Washington’s delegation who voted “yes” on the American Health Care Act (AHCA), which narrowly passed 217-213 on May 4.
► In today’s NY Times — Facing Trump subsidy cuts, health insurance officials seek a backup plan — State insurance commissioners are frustrated with the gridlock in Washington, which they say threatens coverage for consumers and the solvency of some insurers. Without the payments, they say, consumers will face higher premiums in 2018, and more insurers will pull back from the individual insurance market.
► In today’s Washington Post — Trump administration won’t answer how it will handle upcoming Obamacare enrollment — The six-week sign-up period that begins Nov. 1 will be the first handled exclusively by an administration that’s hostile to the Affordable Care Act.
► A related story from The Hill — Trump’s approval hits low in new CNN poll — Just over a third of the country approves of the job President Trump is doing as commander-in-chief.
CLIMATE CHANGE
► In the Seattle Times — Think it’s hot now? Here’s what climate models say about the future of the Pacific Northwest — Some parts of Washington state, like Walla Walla County, could see dozens more 95-degree-plus days if only modest action is taken on climate change, according to an analysis of climate models.
► In today’s Seattle Times — Seattle is going to break the record for most consecutive dry days
THAT WASHINGTON
► In today’s NY Times — What real tax reform could be (editorial) — Republicans just want deep cuts for corporations and the wealthy. Real change would make taxation fairer.
NATIONAL
► In today’s Washington Post — ‘Apply by fax’: Before it can hire foreign workers, Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club advertises at home — briefly — Typically, this attempt to recruit U.S. workers is a ritualized failure. Its outcome is usually a conclusion that there are no qualified Americans to hire, justifying the need for the government to issue the visas. In the past few days, that ritual began again at Mar-a-Lago. The club’s request for visas stood out because it came in the middle of “Made in America Week” at the White House, as Trump and his administration sought to highlight his push to remake U.S. trade policy. Even as Trump urged other U.S. businesses to “hire American,” his business was gathering evidence to prove that it couldn’t.
► In today’s NY Times — Journeymen ply their trades in Europe, medieval style — Men and women, mostly from German-speaking countries, spend years traveling and working in exchange for room and board, following the customs of a centuries-old practice.
TODAY’S MUST-READ
► In the NY Times — Our broken economy, in one simple chart (by David Leonhardt) — Only a few decades ago, the middle class and the poor weren’t just receiving healthy raises. Their take-home pay was rising even more rapidly, in percentage terms, than the pay of the rich. The post-inflation, after-tax raises that were typical for the middle class during the pre-1980 period — about 2 percent a year — translate into rapid gains in living standards. In recent decades, by contrast, only very affluent families — those in roughly the top 1/40th of the income distribution — have received such large raises. Yes, the upper-middle class has done better than the middle class or the poor, but the huge gaps are between the super-rich and everyone else.
The basic problem is that most families used to receive something approaching their fair share of economic growth, and they don’t anymore.
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.