DAILY NEWS
Boeing hiring | Starbucks organizing | Tech bosses crack the whip
Monday, January 30, 2023
AEROSPACE
► From the PS Business Journal — Boeing meets hiring goals at Renton factory with lots riding on 737 production — Boeing’s fortunes for the coming year will rely heavily on its ability to deliver jets from its 737 line in Renton. Washington remains the largest outpost for Boeing, with over 60,000 of its 156,000 employees. That includes more than 4,400 workers added in the state last year. On Friday, Boeing said it aimed to hire another 10,000 employees across its business units this year.
► From Reuters — Boeing’s 747, the original jumbo jet, prepares for final send-off — The last commercial Boeing jumbo will be delivered to Atlas Air in the surviving freighter version on Tuesday, 53 years after the 747’s instantly recognizable humped silhouette grabbed global attention as a Pan Am passenger jet.
► From the Seattle Times — This ‘incredible’ dad built Boeing’s first 747. His son finished the last. — Kelvin Anderson is an Incredible, one of the original mechanics who built the first 747s in the 1960s. His son Vic has worked on 747s for the past 34 years and, as team lead on the center fuselage, helped finish the last one. The pair’s close bond was touchingly apparent as they bantered in November about their Boeing careers and the 747, then toured the assembly line.
► From the Seattle Times — Look at how the Boeing 747 has changed since 1968
LOCAL
Partners at the Highway 99 & 185th Starbucks in Shoreline won their union election 18-1 with 100% turnout last night! They are the 1st store in Shoreline to unionize and the 10th store in the Seattle area!
Welcome to the union besties ✊? pic.twitter.com/qzCWo5kqxb— SB Workers United Seattle (@SeattleSBWU) January 27, 2023
► From Reddit — Starbucks store manager: You should all unionize as quickly as you can — “Unionize quickly so they can’t take more from you, it’s all threats and together you are stronger. They want to stall so unions lose momentum but, it’s just a game to them and replacing you is easier than treating you right. Good luck partners.”
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!
The Stand (Jan. 25) — Strike averted at UW Libraries and Press — With three hours until strike, tentative agreement reached in marathon negotiations.
THIS WASHINGTON
► From NPR — WA lawmakers debating ways to address surging traffic fatalities — State lawmakers in Olympia are debating a suite of possible new responses. Those include authorizing photo radar in highway work zones, prohibiting right turns at many red lights, and lowering the breathalyzer limit to convict for drunk driving.
► From the Spokesman-Review — Legislature considers a bill that would prevent pre-employment cannabis testing — A bill sponsored by Sen. Karen Keiser (D-Des Moines) would prevent testing for cannabis for pre-employment, though employers still would be able to test workers while they are employed.
► From the Seattle Times — Inslee wants WA to borrow $4B to build housing and shelter. How would that work?
THAT WASHINGTON
entitlement programs. White House spokesman Andrew Bates:
“For years, congressional Republicans have advocated for slashing earned benefits using Washington code words like ‘strengthen,’ when their policies would privatize Medicare and Social Security, raise the retirement age, or cut benefits. House Republicans refuse to raise revenue from the wealthy, but insist they will ‘strengthen’ earned benefits programs.”
► From the AP — Biden, McCarthy to discuss debt limit in talks on Wednesday — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Sunday he is looking forward to discussing with President Joe Biden a “reasonable and responsible way that we can lift the debt ceiling” when the two meet Wednesday for their first sit-down at the White House since McCarthy was elected to the post.
NATIONAL
Our hearts break for Tyre Nichols, those who loved him, and a community in pain, in light of his death during a violent encounter at the hands of five Memphis police officers during a traffic stop on Jan. 7.
— AFL-CIO (@AFLCIO) January 27, 2023
► From the Washington Post — Black Memphis police spark dialogue on systemic racism in the U.S. — The race of the five officers charged in the Nichols killing has prompted a complex grappling among Black activists and advocates for police reform about the pervasiveness of institutional racism in policing. Nichols died three days after he was pulled out of his car Jan. 7, kicked, punched and struck with a baton on a quiet neighborhood street by Black officers, whose aggressive assault was captured on body-camera videos released Friday.
The Stand (Jan. 25) — Strike averted at UW Libraries and Press — With three hours until strike, tentative agreement reached in marathon negotiations.
► From Vice — Managers are already trying to bust eBay’s first union, organizers say — Workers at eBay-owned trading card seller TCGPlayer filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge on Friday, claiming that management at the company had for the past two weeks been violating federal labor law. The charge comes just two days after workers at the company filed to unionize with CWA with a proposed unit size of 282. It’s the first unionization effort by any group of eBay workers.
“Controlling labor costs via periodic layoffs is like breathing for Silicon Valley: cyclical, necessary for life. (The layoffs) very little to do with long- or even medium-term strategy except as it pertains to cultivating an insecure workforce.”
► From Bloomberg — Big Tech layoffs are hitting diversity and inclusion jobs hard
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.