DAILY NEWS
St. Joe’s faces strike ● Max parking ● Where is our outrage?
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
LOCAL
► From the NW Labor Press — Workers at Portland-area Fred Meyer and Safeway take strike votes — Bargaining between Local 555 and the multi-employer coalition passed the one-year mark June 19, and the two sides remain far apart on wages, health insurance and other proposals.
► From KUOW — Seattle baristas walk out because of ‘toxic work environment’ — After walking off the job on Saturday over missing pay and “discrimination of many kinds,” six former employees of Slate Coffee Roasters in Seattle are now trying to build a movement for coffee worker rights.
BOEING
► In the Seattle Times — The inside story of MCAS: How Boeing’s 737 MAX system gained power and lost safeguards — Extensive interviews with people involved with the program, and a review of proprietary documents, show how Boeing originally designed MCAS as a simple solution with a narrow scope, then altered it late in the plane’s development to expand its power and purpose. Still, a safety-analysis led by Boeing concluded there would be little risk in the event of an MCAS failure — in part because of an FAA-approved assumption that pilots would respond to an unexpected activation in a mere three seconds.
► In the Dallas News — American Airlines CEO: Politics playing role in re-certification of Boeing 737 Max — “I think as much as anything now it may be politics as much as the true certification … safety issue. I don’t think the FAA wants to be alone in doing this,” American Airlines CEO Doug Parker told employees at a town hall meeting last week, according to CNBC.
THIS WASHINGTON
► In the Seattle Times — ‘We are in dire straits’: Even Washington’s wealthiest town can’t make our backward tax system work (by Danny Westneat) — Welcome to the club, Medina! The town of 3,200 is discovering what King County, Seattle and countless other municipalities around here have been screaming for nearly two decades: the math doesn’t work anymore… Blame the 1% limit (on property tax increases that) came courtesy of a Tim Eyman initiative back in 2001. It was thrown out by the courts but rashly reinstated by the state Legislature.
IMMIGRATION
► From the AP — White House threatens to veto bill for improving treatment of detained migrants — White House officials complained the bill had no money for tougher border security, including funds for a border wall.
► In the Seattle Times — Deportation threats don’t fix immigration (editorial) — Give Trump credit for one thing: His ham-handed, bigoted approach to immigration at the southern border has focused national attention on the issue. If only that attention could translate into real policy progress and not just morally bankrupt enforcement.
► In the Washington Post — Despite delay of ICE raids, immigrant communities mobilize for roundups — Trump’s decision to postpone the mass arrests of immigrant families with deportation orders offered a two-week reprieve to shaken cities and towns Sunday, but faith and immigration leaders said they will continue to mobilize for roundups in case talks between the White House and congressional Democrats break down.
► In the Seattle Times — Hard-line immigration policies have our Latino neighbors scared and traumatized (by Ned Delmore) — Our years of experience serving and walking with Latino families have shown us that they want what all Americans hunger for, a job, a home and a family. Their desire for the American dream transcends the fear of going to jail. Giving up their freedom to have freedom, they are willing to risk it all.
THAT WASHINGTON
ALSO at The Stand — Democratic presidential hopefuls agree: No on NAFTA 2.0
► In today’s Washington Post — Former top Commerce aide says he was directed by Ross to add census citizenship question — House Oversight Chairman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) said evidence “points to a partisan and discriminatory effort” behind the push to add the question to the 2020 Census.
► From The Hill — CBO projects ‘unprecedented’ debt of 144 percent of GDP by 2049 — In CBO’s central projection of 144 percent of GDP, the government would spend more on interest payments than the entire discretionary budget, which includes defense and all domestic programs, by 2046.
EDITOR’S NOTE — When do those tax cuts start paying for themselves?
NATIONAL
► From CBS News — Thousands of airline food workers vote to authorize a strike — The people who prepare the food and beverages served on three major U.S. airlines have voted to authorize a strike, calling for higher wages and less costly health insurance. Over the last two weeks, more than 11,000 airline food workers in the last two weeks cast ballots in 28 cities across the country on whether to authorize a walkout, according to Unite Here, a hospitality-industry union representing airline catering employees. The ballots are a first step toward a potential strike. Unite Here is negotiating on behalf of some 3,270 Gate Gourmet employees and nearly 7,700 Sky Chefs employees who service flights for American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines at major hubs. The union is also in talks with United on behalf of 2,600 food workers directly employed by the airline who are not covered by a contract.
ALSO at The Stand — Sea-Tac airline food workers vote by 99.7% to strike
► From the New Republic — The road not taken — The jobs never came back. When GM announced, last November, that the Lordstown plant would be closed as part of a restructuring plan, the community held out hope that the company would decide to retool the plant, and rehire some of the laid-off workers. But the last Chevrolet Cruze rolled off the Lordstown assembly line on March 6—a no-frills white model that workers draped in an American flag and posed behind for a last photo.
TODAY’S MUST-READ
► From HuffPost — Liberal magazine offers non-union, no-benefits job covering inequality — The New Republic is a century-old progressive news outlet, but a job it advertised over the weekend is right at home in the modern gig economy: an “inequality editor” position that offered no benefits, no union eligibility, and, at 29.5 hours a week, was “part time” mainly in the sense that it’s a half-hour shy of some federal definitions of full-time work. It was an opportunity for “raising hell,” the job listing gushed, at a storied news outlet that has been “long a champion of equality in all its guises.”
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.