DAILY NEWS
DOC Teamsters vote NO! ● Teachers weigh strikes ● We are winning
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
LOCAL
► BREAKING from the Seattle Times — Construction engineers, crane operators strike after union rejects labor deal — Operating Engineers Local 302 representing Washington state construction engineers and heavy equipment operators has gone on strike after its members rejected a new contract proposal on Monday.
ALSO TODAY at The Stand — IUOE Local 302 on STRIKE in Western Wash.
► In today’s Tri-City Herald — Amid smoke, workers sent home — At the Hanford vitrification plant, union construction workers assigned to outdoor jobs or to jobs in indoor areas without filtered air were sent home Monday morning. Workers at the Hanford nuclear reservation’s environmental cleanup contractor, CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co., were being assigned to work indoors, if possible.
THIS WASHINGTON
► In today’s Seattle Times — State lawmaker on public-records task force calls journalists ‘those dirty, godless, hateful people’ — State Rep. Matt Shea (R-Spokane Valley) has long had a contentious relationship with the news organizations that report on him. But this time the situation is unique: Shea is one of eight lawmakers appointed to a task force to figure out how the Washington Legislature should keep and disclose public records.
PREVIOUSLY at The Stand — It’s up to Republicans to hold Rep. Matt Shea accountable (March 2016) — Now that there are reports that Rep. Matt Shea aided and abetted domestic terrorists, one wonders if any Republicans in Washington state will muster the courage to call him out.
PAY OUR TEACHERS!
► In today’s (Longview) Daily News — Longview teachers consider strike — The Longview teacher’s union is prepared to take a strike vote Wednesday pending Tuesday’s negotiations with the Longview School District. The union is asking for a 12 percent base pay raise, while the district’s latest offer is 4 percent.
► In today’s Yakima H-R — Yakima School District employees may hold vote to strike Tuesday afternoon — Yakima School District employees could vote Tuesday afternoon to go on strike if they’re not happy with the result of this morning’s scheduled contract negotiation session between administrators and union representatives, said Steve McKenna, president of the Yakima Education Association, which represents the district’s workers.
► In today’s Tri-City Herald — Kennewick teachers approve pay their raises. Richland teachers reach possible deal. — Kennewick teachers approved a new salary deal Monday night. Teachers will get a raise of 8 percent or more, some in to the double-digits, depending on where they land on the salary schedule. Richland appears headed toward a similar resolution. The district and its teachers union reached a tentative contract agreement over the weekend. Teachers will vote on the three-year pact at a meeting Wednesday.
THAT WASHINGTON
► In today’s Washington Post — Microsoft says it has found a Russian operation targeting U.S. political institutions — The effort by the notorious APT28 hacking group, which has been publicly linked to a Russian intelligence agency and actively interfered in the 2016 presidential election, underscores the aggressive role that Russian operatives are playing ahead of the midterm elections in the United States.
NATIONAL
► In today’s Charleston Post and Courier — Union, Boeing at odds over whether North Charleston workers are being targeted — Boeing Co. is warning employees that union organizers are “working in the shadows” to recruit workers at the 787 Dreamliner campus in North Charleston, but the International Association of Machinists says the claim is not true.
► From Rewire.News — Planned Parenthood drops its fight against unionizing workers in Colorado — The health-care organization had appealed to President Trump’s NLRB to halt a unionization effort by its workers.
► From The Onion — Emotional Elon Musk recalls spending entire birthday working on concepts for mistreating employees — “When you’re the CEO, the responsibility of developing innovative new ways of underpaying the workers falls to you, as does compromising their safety or punishing them for not meeting unrealistically high unit quotas, and sometimes that means sacrificing your personal life—even your own birthday,” said Musk.
TODAY’S MUST-SEE
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The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.