NEWS ROUNDUP

Amazon hurts | Murray and Marie | Poverty by design

Tuesday, May 24, 2022

LOCAL

► From the Seattle Times — Nearly 1 in 5 Amazon delivery drivers get hurt on the job each year, new report says — One in 5 delivery drivers working for Amazon was injured on the job in 2021, a new report says. The same report, released Tuesday by a coalition of labor unions, found 1 in 7 was injured so severely they had to either change their job or take time off following an injury. “Amazon’s delivery quotas and production pressure are contributing to an escalating injury crisis among workers in every segment of Amazon’s delivery system,” the Strategic Organizing Center’s report read. “Amazon claims to have taken several steps to promote safety. Amazon has refused, however, to address the core issue that fuels injuries in its delivery system: abusive delivery production demands.”

EDITOR’S NOTE — Ready for better — and safer — working conditions? Get more information about how you can join together with co-workers and negotiate a fair return for your hard work and a real voice on the job. Or go ahead and contact a union organizer today!

ELECTION

► From the Spokesman-Review — 17 challengers file to run against Murray for U.S. Senate seat — U.S. Sen. Patty Murray will face 17 candidates in the Aug. 2 primary. Washington’s primary ballot is set after last week’s filing deadline. Murray’s senate seat along with a number of local and statewide races will be on the ballot. The top two from each race will move on to the Nov. 8 general election.

The Stand (May 22) — WSLC makes 2022 election endorsements — The Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO — the state’s largest union organization representing the interests of some 600 labor organizations with more than 550,000 members — held its 2022 Committee on Political Education (COPE) Endorsing Convention on Saturday at the Machinists District 751 Hall in Seattle.

► From the union-busting Columbian — State union group presents its support for candidates — On Saturday, the Washington State Labor Council AFL-CIO, a body representing 600 labor groups, announced its endorsements for the 2022 election. In the 3rd Congressional District, the WSLC endorsed Marie Glusenkamp Perez (D).

► From the Kent Reporter — State Labor Council endorses four Democrats in 47th District races — The council recommended Kent City Councilmember Satwinder Kaur for the Senate seat in her race against Kent City Council President Bill Boyce (R) and Kent Democrat Claudia Kauffman, who held the seat from 2007 to 2010.

► From the Yakima H-R — Sen. Jim Honeyford won’t seek reelection in 2022

AEROSPACE

► From the Seattle Times — Boeing gears up to renew its safety culture after two 737 MAX crashes — In response to the two deadly 737 MAX crashes, Boeing’s Chief Aerospace Safety Officer Mike Delaney on Monday outlined how — beyond specific changes to its design practices and its manufacturing operations — the company’s leadership aims to rebuild and improve its entire safety culture. To succeed, the top-down organizational restructuring Delaney outlined will require buy-in and belief from the entire Boeing workforce. “We have to move forward,” Delaney said. “And we’ve got to take 140,000 people with us.”

► From the PS Business Journal — Analyst: Boeing’s survival ‘depends on what they do in the next 12 to 18 months’ — The aerospace market is hungry for Boeing jets, but the manufacturer needs to ramp up its engineering and technology spending immediately if it wants to remain competitive, says Richard Aboulafia, managing director of AeroDynamic Advisory.

THIS WASHINGTON

► From WFSE — WFSE members impact DOL policy on unemployment insurance (by Ashley Fueston) — Thanks to engaged WFSE members and a robust union contract, we don’t have non-merit staff providing unemployment insurance or employment services within our state. We don’t contract out. When the pandemic caused a historic surge in unemployment claims, states that contracted out unemployment services saw a bad situation get worse as people with little or no knowledge of the system and minimal training were thrown into action. A proposed Wagner-Peyser Act rule change by the DOL would ensure that this does not happen again.

THAT WASHINGTON

► From Vox — The profound impact of giving American families a little more cash — The economic impact of the expanded child tax credit was profound. According to one analysis by researchers at Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy, the payments immediately lifted 3 million children out of poverty in July. Congress only approved the expanded payments through the end of 2021. Advocates for the policy hoped that the program would be extended, possibly as part of President Joe Biden’s bigger social and environmental spending proposal, Build Back Better. But Republican senators were uniformly opposed to Build Back Better, as was Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV).

EDITOR’S NOTE — Goal #1 at the United Nations: End poverty in all its forms everywhere. Yet the richest nation on Earth deliberately refuses to do it. Why? Because, against all evidence to the contrary, Republicans and conservatives say people won’t work, if they do. Poverty is a feature of their economic system, not an unintended consequence.

► From the AP — Harris, Surgeon General warn health care workers are burned out from COVID-19 pandemic — “After two years of COVID-19 and more than 1 million precious lives lost, the people we all turn to to keep us safe, to comfort us and help us heal, they have been pushed to their limits.” U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued a new report sounding the alarm over a projected shortage of 3 million “essential low-wage health workers” in the next five years, and nearly 140,000 doctors by 2033.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Make then “essential family-wage health workers.” Problem solved.

NATIONAL

► From NPR — In major video game company first, Activision Blizzard employees are joining a union — Workers in one division of Activision Blizzard, the major video game company behind popular franchises such as Call of Duty, Overwatch, and Candy Crush, have voted to join the Communication Workers of America. The employees unionizing are 28 quality assurance testers at Raven Software, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. The final vote count was 19 votes in favor, 3 against. While the vote directly impacts only a small number of workers, the push for unionization is being watched by many in the games and tech industry. Microsoft announced in January it is planning to buy Activision Blizzard in an almost $70 billion deal, pending a go-ahead from federal regulators.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Ready for a voice at work? 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 NY Times — NLRB seeks unionization at Starbucks where union lost election — A complaint by the agency accuses the coffee chain of illegally intimidating and retaliating against workers in an election that the union lost.

► From ABC News — Nurses, techs at New Jersey hospital stage strike over working conditions — Nurses and technologists at St. Michael’s Medical Center in Newark went on strike at 7 a.m. Monday, citing what they call hospital management’s blatant disregard for the safety of employees and patients. The union, JNESO District Council 1 IUOE-AFL-CIO, also claims that management is unwilling to negotiate in good faith, and that they are demanding “give backs” that defy 42-years of contract history with the hospital.

► From the New Yorker — Flight attendants fighting back — Sara Nelson, the head of the flight attendants’ union, is leading her union’s members through turbulent times. One morning this past March, she walked into Concourse A at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, wearing an AFA T-shirt. The waiting area by Gate A16 was nearly empty but Nelson sat down, and was soon joined by six flight attendants from Delta. Everyone greeted each other with hugs. “Nice to finally meet you!” one told Nelson. These flight attendants are not members of her union, but they hope to be. In the fall of 2019, the AFA announced that it was launching a campaign to organize flight attendants at Delta, the only major airline where flight attendants are not unionized.

► From Forbes — CEO-Worker pay gap widens—and employees aren’t happy about it — If you thought the pandemic might have made a dent in the wealth gap between CEOs and rank and file workers, you’d be wrong. In fact, average CEO pay increased 31% over the last three years and median pay rose 11%. The average CEO-to-median-worker pay ratio as of 2020 is 235:1, up from 212:1 three years before.

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