Wednesday, August 3, 2022

ELECTION

► From the Seattle Times — U.S. Senate election results: Murray, Smiley advance in WA — U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat seeking a sixth term, led Republican challenger Tiffany Smiley by about 22 percentage points in primary election results Tuesday night. “I’m grateful to all of the voters who have placed their trust in me to be their voice in the Senate,” Murray said after results were reported, warning that Republicans like Smiley are trying to “undermine our rights and our democracy.”

TODAY at The Stand — Pro-worker candidates fare well in primary

► From Crosscut — Schrier holds large lead for WA’s 8th District

► From the union-busting Columbian — Herrera Beutler, Perez lead in 3rd

► From the Tri-City Herald — Newhouse beating 6 Republicans in primary

► From the (Everett) Herald — DelBene, Larsen cruise through primary

► From the News Tribune — Strickland to face Constitutional conservative in Nov.

► From the Seattle Times — Democratic SecState incumbent Hobbs trounces field

► From the Kitsap Sun — Randall tops Young in closely watched 26th District Senate race — Preliminary results show that incumbent Democrat Sen. Emily Randall leads the race for the 26th District Senate seat, with 53.32% of the votes to Republican Rep. Jesse Young’s 42.6% in the primary.

► From the Seattle Times — Key state legislative outcomes for the 2022 primary

MORE local election coverage from the Bellingham Herald, (Everett) Herald, Cascadia Daily News, (Longview) Daily News, Olympian, Peninsula Daily News, Skagit Valley Herald, (Spokane) Spokesman-Review, Tri-City Herald, Yakima Herald, and from the union-busting (Vancouver) Columbian.

► From the Seattle Times — That big red wave? It didn’t reach the shores of WA state (by Danny Westneat) — Overall, voters in this state seemed to be repudiating the conventional wisdom that this would be the first good year for Republicans around here since 2014. If anything, voters were signaling they just want a break from all the insanity.

► From the AP — Kansas voters resoundingly protect their access to abortion — Kansas voters sent a resounding message about their desire to protect abortion rights, rejecting a ballot measure in a conservative state with deep ties to the anti-abortion movement that would have allowed the Republican-controlled Legislature to tighten restrictions or ban the procedure outright. It was the first test of voter sentiment after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in June that overturned the constitutional right to abortion, providing an unexpected result with potential implications for the coming midterm elections.

► From The Hill — Five takeaways from primaries in Arizona, Missouri and beyond — Kansas gives new momentum to abortion rights. Republicans successfully shut out former Missouri Gov. Greitens in the race for the Senate. It was a mixed night for Trump. Pro-impeachment Republicans were dealt differing fates. And progressives fell short.

► From the NY Times — Election victories by Trump allies showcase his grip on the GOP base — Primary victories in Arizona and Michigan for allies of Donald J. Trump on Tuesday reaffirmed his continued influence over the Republican Party, as the former president has sought to cleanse the party of his critics, install loyalists in key swing-state offices and scare off potential 2024 rivals with a show of brute political force.

LOCAL

► From the PS Business Journal — Teamsters reject latest offer from Seattle-area concrete companies — Teamsters Local 174 said Tuesday that members again have voted overwhelmingly to reject the latest offer from concrete companies. This is the first news about the strike since April, when 300-plus concrete mixer truck drivers in the Seattle area agreed to go back to work as negotiations continued with help from federal mediators. It’s a tenuous situation as the union could walk off the job again and cause another major shutdown of public and private construction projects.

The Stand (Aug. 2) — Teamsters reject latest proposal from concrete companies

► From the Seattle Times — Seattle City Council ends COVID hazard pay for grocery stores — After a year and a half, the Seattle City Council has voted to end COVID-19 hazard pay for grocery stores. The council voted 5-2 on Tuesday, with Councilmembers Lisa Herbold and Teresa Mosqueda absent, to repeal a policy passed in early 2021 which required grocery stores to pay employees an additional $4 per hour in hazard pay. The hazard-pay requirement will end 30 days after the bill is signed by the mayor, likely early September.

► From the Stranger — Seattle ends hazard pay for grocery workers — UFCW 3000 wanted to fight for wage increases in its new contract to avoid a patchwork approach to wage increases in a “permanently hazardous” industry, according to the union’s Secretary-Treasurer, Joe Mizrahi.

AEROSPACE

► From ABC News — After calling off strike, 2,500 Boeing workers to vote on contract Wednesday — Nearly 2,500 Boeing workers at three St. Louis-area facilities will vote Wednesday on a contract offer from the plane manufacturer after calling off a strike planned for earlier this week. The IAMAW is recommending that workers approve the new offer and expects the contract to be ratified, said Jody Bennett, chief of staff of the IAMAW Aerospace Department, told ABC News:

“We didn’t get everything we wanted where we wanted it but I believe we got everything out of Boeing that we could. It’s time to live to fight another day.”

THAT WASHINGTON

► From The Hill — Caps on prescription drug prices most popular element of reconciliation bill: poll — A provision that limits the price of prescription drugs included in Democrats’ climate, health care and tax deal is the most popular piece of the legislation, according to a new poll. Other health care provisions in the bill also polled favorably.

► From the Washington Post — Democrats scramble for Sinema’s support on climate, health and tax bill — Senate Democrats are discussing whether to dial back some of their proposed taxes targeting wealthy investors and billion-dollar corporations, part of a new scramble to win the support of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and advance their broader economic agenda swiftly.

► From the AP — Biden to sign executive order to protect travel for abortion — President Biden on Wednesday will sign an executive order aimed in part at making it easier for women seeking abortions to travel between states to obtain access to the procedure.

► From HuffPost — Senate Republicans fold, help pass veterans health bill after blocking it — The Senate on Tuesday passed a bill to expand health care and disability benefits to millions of veterans — less than a week after more than two dozen Republicans blocked it and drew outrage from the veterans’ community, comedian Jon Stewart and others.

NATIONAL

► From the Washington Post — ‘Never seen it this bad’: America faces catastrophic teacher shortage — Rural school districts in Texas are switching to four-day weeks this fall due to lack of staff. Florida is asking veterans with no teaching background to enter classrooms. Arizona is allowing college students to step in and instruct children. The teacher shortage in America has hit crisis levels — and school officials everywhere are scrambling to ensure that, as students return to classrooms, someone will be there to educate them.

Why are America’s schools so short-staffed? Experts point to a confluence of factors including pandemic-induced teacher exhaustion, low pay and some educators’ sense that politicians and parents — and sometimes their own school board members — have little respect for their profession amid an escalating educational culture war that has seen many districts and states pass policies and laws restricting what teachers can say about U.S. history, race, racism, gender and sexual orientation, as well as LGBTQ issues. AFT President Randi Weingarten said:

“The political situation in the United States, combined with legitimate aftereffects of COVID, has created this shortage. This shortage is contrived.”

► From The Guardian — Delta flights attendants race to unionize: ‘We’re the people behind the profits’ — Flight attendants at Delta are currently pushing to form a union at the only major airline in the U.S. where flight attendants are not unionized. Workers are racing to gather union authorization cards signed by a supermajority at Delta to trigger a union election over the next few months, as signatures are only valid for one year. The aim is to allow the airline’s 23,000 flight attendants to vote on whether to unionize with the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) and will face fierce opposition from an airline that has fought previous efforts.

► From M Live — Museum, library workers form new University of Michigan union — More than 200 workers who staff University of Michigan museums and libraries have formed a new union. The workers are employed in the information resource departments at all three UM campuses, according to a release from the American Federation of Teachers.

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 WTOP — Striking MetroAccess drivers turn down latest offer; no new negotiations before next week — When a striking D.C.-area MetroAccess driver showed up to meet with Transdev negotiators Tuesday morning, he was optimistic. “I thought there would be a different proposal put on the table, maybe a little increase,” said that driver, Tim Hollingsworth of ATU Local 689. “But it was the same thing as prior.”

► From the Hollywood Reporter — SAG-AFTRA, Netflix reach tentative deal on new contract — SAG-AFTRA and Netflix have reached a tentative deal on a new contract to replace the novel agreement they penned in 2019.

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