NEWS ROUNDUP
Simply the best ● Doug: Quit it or quit ● Blaming pilots ● Dems go PRO
Thursday, May 16, 2019
THIS WASHINGTON
EDITOR’S NOTE — But just in case we tire of having a great state…
ALSO at The Stand — Spokane community decries think tank for bringing Walker to town
► From KNKX — Washington’s 100% clean electricity law touted as nation’s strongest — but how will it work? — “I think the idea that by 2030 we will be carbon neutral in our electricity is on a timeline very aggressive compared to the other four states that have 100 percent clean energy,” said Daniel Schwartz, the director of the University of Washington’s Clean Energy Institute. He says there also are social justice provisions in the law that incentivize high labor standards for jobs in the field.
► In the (Everett) Herald — Long term care costs are about to get a little less painful — Gov. Jay Inslee signed a law Monday pioneering a first-in-the-nation effort to lessen the financial blow of long-term care costs for thousands of residents. It creates a new program, funded by workers through a payroll deduction, that will provide eligible recipients with a maximum lifetime benefit of $36,500 — money they can spend on expenses from in-home care to getting a wheelchair ramp constructed at their house.
► In the Seattle Times — State lawmakers move to address housing affordability and homelessness — They passed bills intended to reduce evictions and require landlords to give longer notice to tenants being told to move. Legislators approved proposals to make it easier for developers to build condominiums, and for cities to site tiny-house communities and encourage more density.
LOCAL
► In today’s News Tribune — Tacoma Public Schools announces more layoffs — The district announced Wednesday that it will lay off 31 people due to a budget deficit in the 2019-20 school year. Nine administrative staff, nine certificated staff and 13 classified staff received layoff notifications this week. One teacher is included in the certificated staff.
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Teachers start receiving pink slips in Edmonds district — Board directors voted 3–2 to approve the layoffs, which total 25.2 full-time equivalent teacher positions — down from the 45 that was initially reported.
► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Spokane lays off 10 dispatchers as it considers joining new emergency communications center — The city of Spokane gave layoff notices to more than half of its fire dispatchers Tuesday after many of the fire departments it provides services for said they would switch to a new emergency communications center.
BOEING
► From Bloomberg — Boeing’s oversight of 737 Max drew rebuke of FAA unions in 2017 — Three unions representing aviation safety inspectors said in a sharply worded report months before the Boeing Co.’s 737 Max was approved for use that the planemaker was given too much authority to oversee itself and that the new jet had safety flaws.
► In today’s Washington Post — After two faulty Boeing jets crash, the Trump administration blames foreign pilots (by Dana Milbank) — The Trump administration’s top aviation official, goaded by some Republican lawmakers, informed the world Wednesday that the problem isn’t that Boeing put a faulty aircraft into the skies, nor that the FAA’s lax oversight kept it flying. The trouble, they argued, comes from lousy foreign pilots — particularly the ones on Ethiopian Airlines and Indonesia’s Lion Air who died struggling to pull the Max jets from death plunges. “I’m trying to be respectful because they’re deceased,” Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-Mich.) said of the doomed crews. But, “do we not have concerns not only with the training of pilots in other nations, but the reliability of their logs?” … Yep. Nothing makes foreigners want to buy Boeing jets like a little jingoism.
THAT WASHINGTON
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told members of Congress earlier this month that the public shift in favor of unions and taking back power from corporations is real: “Something is happening in America. Workers are embracing collective action with a fervor I haven’t seen in a generation. It is time for our laws to catch up.”
ALSO at The Stand — State’s Democrats in Congress aim to shore up union rights (May 3, 2019) — Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, and Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Adam Smith joined colleagues in the Senate and House to introduce the PRO Act.
► From the People’s World — Infrastructure push starts, but hits roadblock: dollars — The U.S. needs $2 trillion to bring its crumbling roads, creaky railroads, aging airports, 100-year-old water pipes, and crowded subways up to snuff. It needs $2.5 trillion more to get ahead of the game and build projects to handle people, business, and growth in the 21st century, studies calculate. But whether it will get the cash, much of it from the federal government, and spend it, is largely up to one man: Donald Trump… “We need a major infusion by the federal government to do a massive infrastructure rebuild and build out,” which would also produce tens of thousands of well-paying construction jobs, said Sean McGarvey, the president of North America’s Building Trades Unions.
EDITOR’S NOTE — But apparently, there’s plenty of money for this…
► From Politico — Trump’s new NAFTA back from the dead — Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team were upbeat about the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement as they left a meeting with Robert Lighthizer, Trump’s top trade official, saying he finally seemed to take heed of their demands to modify the trade deal after weeks of the two sides mostly talking past each other.
► In today’s Washington Post — Trump prepares to unveil broad immigration plan but shows no signs of tempering hard-line rhetoric — Trump will throw his support behind a plan developed with his son-in-law and White House adviser, Jared Kushner, to move U.S. immigration toward a “merit-based system” that prioritizes high-skilled workers over those with family already in the country.
► From Bloomberg Law — Top labor official to exit after White House probe — DOL Chief of Staff Nicholas Geale is leaving after a White House investigation into complaints about mistreating staff and misleading Trump administration personnel.
NATIONAL
EDITOR’S NOTE — If quiet internal campaigns don’t win you respect on the job, get a union! 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!
► From the Guardian — New York aims to fight climate change by creating green union jobs — An innovative new labor-environmentalist effort in New York – to build offshore wind turbines to power up to 6m homes – is a sharp departure from all traditional feuding and shows that these two groups can work together to advance renewable energy and reduce dependence on carbon-based energy.
► From NBC News — As stores replace cashier jobs with self-checkout, what happens to employees? — There are more than 3 million cashier jobs in the United States, but 50,000 of those jobs have gone offline in the last five years. It’s a trend that’s expected to continue, leaving some concerned.
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.