Tuesday, March 5, 2019

BOEING

► In today’s Seattle Times — Boeing Machinists union wins mid-contract pay raise — Boeing’s Machinists union has negotiated an unusual mid-contract pay raise for thousands of its members, winning a $4 per hour hike of minimum pay rates. More than half of District 751 members, about 16,000 Machinists, will get a pay raise as a result. The agreement comes after Boeing, facing a worker shortage in the region’s tight labor market, raised pay rates for new hires.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Want a raise? Get a union! Union wages are averaging more than 22 percent higher than nonunion wages. Get more information about how you can join together with co-workers and negotiate a fair return for your hard work. Or go ahead and contact a union organizer today.

LOCAL

► In the Auburn Reporter — Guier to seek her second full term as Pacific’s mayor — Leanne Guier said she running for reelection as mayor of the city of Pacific because of her passion for public service. “I am doing all that I can to bring the residents of Pacific all that they deserve,” she said.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Leanne Guier is a pipefitter, community volunteer, and a member of Local 32 Plumbers and Pipefitters (UA) since 1998, where she chairs their political action committee, while also working on legislative affairs for the Washington State Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters. Leanne is a rock star.

ALSO at The Stand — Leanne Guier elected President of Sound Cities Association

► From KING TV — Crews break ground on Tacoma light rail extension in Hilltop neighborhood

THIS WASHINGTON

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Washington pushing presidential primary to March from May — A bill moving up the state’s presidential primary to early March from late May cleared its final legislative hurdle Monday, ensuring Washington voters get a louder voice in determining the Democratic and Republican nominees for president next year.

THAT WASHINGTON

► From The Hill — It’s time for legislators to prove democracy exists by passing Medicare for All (by NNU’s Bonnie Castillo) — U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) has introduced the Medicare for All Act of 2019, H.R. 1384, which builds upon years of a growing, grassroots social movement led by nurses. We nurses know and believe that this is the the best bill at the right time for moving America forward. Jayapal’s legislation is the most comprehensive to date, including all primary care, hospital and outpatient services, prescription drugs, dental, vision, women’s reproductive services, maternity and newborn care, mental health, long-term services and supports for people with disabilities.

ALSO at The Stand — Let’s take health care off the bargaining table (by Larry Brown)

► From The Hill — Labor renews calls for immigration reform — In a letter to Congress, more than 30 labor unions led by the AFL-CIO and Working Families United asked for protections for “Dreamers” — immigrants who arrived in the country illegally as minors — and beneficiaries of two humanitarian immigration programs, temporary protected status and deferred enforced departure. “For the labor movement, these programs have been vital in ensuring that thousands of working people have rights on the job and the freedom to negotiate together for fair pay and working conditions,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

► In today’s NY Times — Border Patrol facilities put detainees with medical conditions at risk — The deaths of two children in Border Patrol custody point to shortfalls in health care provided to migrants, who sometimes arrive with serious illness and injury.

► From Politico — McConnell: Senate will pass resolution blocking Trump’s border emergency — “What is clear in the Senate is that there will be enough votes to pass the resolution of disapproval, which will then be vetoed by the president and then in all likelihood the veto will be upheld in the House,” he said.

► In today’s NY Times — Trump’s grip shows signs of slipping as Senate prepares to block wall emergency — While a veto is highly unlikely to be overturned, the congressional majority that forces it will stand as a powerful rejection of the tactics Trump has used to fulfill his top campaign promise to build a wall on the southern border.

► In today’s Washington Post — Trump’s unhinged CPAC speech should concern us all (by Eugene Robinson) — The president of the United States gave a rambling and incoherent two-hour speech in which he raved like a lunatic and told crazy, self-serving lies from start to finish. If that no longer qualifies as alarming, we’re in serious trouble.

► In today’s Washington Post — House Democrats demand documents from more than 80 people and institutions affiliated with Trump — House Democrats’ far-reaching document request seeking information from President Trump’s sons, his business associates and his political confidants opened a sprawling investigation Monday and cast a spotlight on the ambitious strategy of the committee with the authority to impeach a president.

► From Bloomberg Law — Supreme Court rejects In-N-Out’s union button case — The high court declined to hear In-N-Out’s challenge to a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that it violated labor law by telling a worker to remove his “Fight for $15″ button.

► From HuffPost — Trump’s trade war cost U.S. more than $3 billion a month, economists say — The U.S. “experienced substantial increases in the prices of … goods, dramatic changes to its supply-chain network, reductions in availability of imported varieties, and complete pass-through of the tariffs into domestic prices of imported goods,” noted the study issued Saturday by top economists.  “Overall … we find that the full incidence of the tariff falls on domestic consumers.”

NATIONAL

► From the American Prospect — Can the courts strike down ‘right-to-work’? — Last week, in a move that’s as likely to baffle union activists as it is to encourage them, a West Virginia judge struck down key portions of the state’s “right-to-work” law. The Kenawha County judge’s ruling may amount to no more than a temporary hiccup in West Virginia Republicans’ war to destroy unions. But it’s another example of how hotly provisions of the 1947 federal Taft-Hartley Act are being contested in the courts as it becomes clearer that the anti-union impact of the law has contributed to an era of massive inequality that threatens our democracy.

TODAY’S MUST-READ

► In today’s NY Times — The oppression of the supermajority (by Columbia law professor Tim Wu) — We are told that America is divided and polarized as never before. Yet when it comes to many important areas of policy, that simply isn’t true. About 75 percent of Americans favor higher taxes for the ultrawealthy. The idea of a federal law that would guarantee paid maternity leave attracts 67 percent support. Eighty-three percent favor strong net neutrality rules for broadband, and more than 60 percent want stronger privacy laws. Seventy-one percent think we should be able to buy drugs imported from Canada, and 92 percent want Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices. The list goes on. The defining political fact of our time is not polarization. It’s the inability of even large bipartisan majorities to get what they want on issues like these. Call it the oppression of the supermajority. Ignoring what most of the country wants — as much as demagogy and political divisiveness — is what is making the public so angry.

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