DAILY NEWS
UW Postdocs ratify ● Stand by Boeing ● Jon lets ’em have it ● Nick was wrong
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
LOCAL
► Via Twitter…
ALSO at The Stand — UW Postdocs reach tentative deal on historic first contract (May 31)
► From KUOW — Two Puget Sound Energy coal plants in Montana closing earlier than expected — Two Puget Sound Energy coal plants will close in December because of financial challenges. The two coal producing units are co-owned by PSE and Talen Energy and are part of the larger Colstrip, Montana power plant. Puget Sound Energy, Washington’s biggest electrical utility, gets an estimated 38 percent of its power from Colstrip’s plants. That comes from four coal facilities, the oldest two of which are now set to close.
BOEING
► From HuffPost — Boeing reports zero new plane orders for second straight month — Boeing has reported zero new commercial plane orders for May ― the second month in a row that the world’s largest plane-maker has announced such an abysmal order tally. Boeing’s order and delivery totals have plummeted since its 737 Max jet was involved in the deadly Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes.
THAT WASHINGTON
► In the Michigan Advantage — AFL-CIO president hosts NAFTA town halls in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania — Trumka announced Tuesday that he will hold a series of town halls about “union members’ struggles under NAFTA, and what working people want to see from the administration’s proposed USMCA [United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement].”
ALSO at The Stand — Making sense of NAFTA and its replacement (by Stan Sorscher)
► BREAKING from The Guardian — Trump asserts executive privilege over 2020 census documents sought by Democrats — The documents sought relate to the decision to insert a citizenship question, which the census bureau itself acknowledges will reduce participation.
► From the Federal News Network — NIFA employees vote to unionize on heels of USDA relocation — Employees at a second Agriculture Department subcomponent on Tuesday have overwhelmingly voted to unionize amid the agency’s plans to relocate the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the Economic Research Service out of the national capital region. NIFA employees voted 137 to 2 to unionize under the American Federation of Government Employees.
TODAY’S MUST-SEE
► From CBS News via YouTube — Former “Daily Show” host and activist Jon Stewart gave emotional testimony Tuesday expressing his anger with Congress for not addressing 9/11 first responders’ health issues. Watch the whole thing.
NATIONAL
ALSO at The Stand — From insulting to illegal: IAM files charges against Delta Air Lines (May 20, 2019) — Headquartered in the “right-to-work” state of Georgia, Delta has aggressively fought off efforts by its employees to unionize as it has expanded outside the anti-union South, including to Seattle.
► From Labor Notes — On eve of union vote, Chattanooga VW workers describe rampant workplace injuries — “I’m only 33 and I can’t see myself working here for another 10 years,” said Ashley Murray. “I would be disabled by then. We need a union because they are a multibillion-dollar company and they treat us like shit.” Murray works at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., one of 18 hourly employees there I interviewed for this story. Comments like hers were almost universal. According to these workers, on-the-job injuries are among the top issues at the sprawling plant. The union authorization election runs Wednesday through Friday this week; 1,700 workers are eligible to vote.
► From Art Forum — Workers at NY’s Guggenheim Museum move to unionize
► From the AP — States sue to stop $26.5 billion Sprint, T-Mobile deal
► In today’s Washington Post — The U.S. women’s national team is an American treasure. Pay them a bounty. (by Sally Jenkins) — Just imagine how that record-setting 13-0 victory over Thailand will play at a jury trial. It’s going to be a lot of fun watching lawyers for the soccer federation try to justify why the U.S. Women’s National Team, with their air rifles for legs, are paid 38 cents on the dollar compared to their male counterparts and had to sue for fair wages. It’s going to be pure entertainment listening to federation president Carlos Cordeiro stammer out an explanation on the witness stand of why this team, which is nothing short of an American damn treasure, isn’t worth equal coin to a men’s squad that can’t beat Jamaica.
TODAY’S MUST-READ
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.