NEWS ROUNDUP

Safe staffing wins | Solidarity with Spirit | Dobbs Goddam

Friday, June 23, 2023

LOCAL

► From the WSNA — MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital nurses reach a tentative agreement — After 20 hours of bargaining, the nurses at MultiCare Good Samaritan reached a tentative agreement around 4:30 a.m. Thursday. They are thrilled. They will be getting 12%-24% raises, ratification bonuses of $3,500, dedicated break nurses, a charge nurse and flex nurse for each unit, and they will be getting staffing plans as part of their contract. Nurses will vote to ratify the contract on June 29.

The Stand (June 22) — Good Sam nurses in Puyallup reach deal to avert strike

► From KING — MultiCare Good Samaritan nurses to get up to 24% raise as part of contract agreement — The tentative agreement came hours after over 95% of the nurses voted to authorize a strike.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Ready for a raise? 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 AP — Clash over LBGTQ+ decor at Starbucks leads to planned strikes at more than 150 stores in days ahead — Workers at more than 150 Starbucks locations across the country are planning to go on strike as the coffee chain and a union representing baristas clash over displays supporting LBGTQ+ causes in stores during Pride month.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Starbucks Workers United tweets: STRIKE WITH PRIDE! Seattle Roastery leads nationwide Starbucks strike over Starbucks’ hypocritical treatment of LGBTQIA+ workers. Over 150+ stores and 3,500 workers will be on strike over the course of the next week.

The Stand (June 12) — The ad Starbucks doesn’t want you to see (by Mike Andrew) — Every year, Seattle Pride publishes a Pride Guide filled with Pride activities and ads by local organizations and businesses celebrating the diversity and strength of the LGBTQ community. But this year’s official Pride Guide will not carry an ad from Starbucks Workers United (SBWU), the union that represents the coffee giant’s employees.

Last night, @SeattleTimesCo publisher @fblethen participated in a forum to discuss saving journalism. Our members gathered out front and shared our ideas — namely, fair pay and equal rights for all members.

Please sign our petition to show your support: https://t.co/JyDrDymMHV pic.twitter.com/oWhilAv9jm

— Seattle Times Union ⛰ (@SeaTimesUnion) June 22, 2023

► From KUOW — Seattle school leaders face tough budget decisions as deadline approaches — Seattle’s contentious school budget season is coming to a close on July 6, when the school board is scheduled to vote on a fiscal plan that will close a $131 million gap. At a school board meeting Wednesday, students, parents, and teachers put in last-ditch efforts to save programs and positions on the chopping block.

AEROSPACE

► From KWCH — Negotiations between Spirit AeroSystems, Machinists union to resume Saturday — Negotiations between Spirit AeroSystems and the International Machinists and Aerospace Workers, IAM Local 839 (District 70) are set to resume on Saturday. It’s the same day the union members are expected to strike after rejecting the aerospace manufacturer’s contract proposal on Wednesday. A federal mediator has been assigned to work with both sides in navigating the next round of negotiations.

► From KWCH — Machinists explain opposition to proposed contract from Spirit AeroSystems — Spirit employee Kathy Dyer said she believes Spirit should do better:

“We’ve been under contract for 13 years. We have not seen any kind of increase that has kept up with inflation at all. Sixteen percent (pay increase), don’t get me wrong, is a good amount, but they can do better. They can do much better.”

► Meanwhile, from Machinists District Council 751…

We support the members of @ll839! pic.twitter.com/fajGE6EdD1

— IAM Union District 751 (@IAM751) June 22, 2023

► From Reuters — Analysis: With U.S. labor tight, union workers make bolder contract demands — Workers at aerospace supplier Spirit AeroSystems were the latest U.S. union employees to reject a contract their leaders negotiated with their employer, joining freight railroad employees, airline pilots and others who are growing more fed up with stagnant pay, high healthcare costs, scanty sick time and uncertain scheduling.

► From Reuters — Boeing to invest $100 mln in infrastructure, pilot training in India — This comes on the heels of Air India signing firm orders of over 200 jets earlier this week from Boeing, which include 20 787 Dreamliners, 10 777Xs, and 190 737 MAX narrowbody aircraft.

SOUTH OF THE BORDER

► From KGW — Providence nurses continue picketing on fourth day of strike — On day four of a planned five-day strike by Providence Health nurses and clinicians, strikers got a boost on the picket line from the leader of a national union. Altogether there are about 1,800 nurses and other medical workers on strike, with the vast majority being nurses at Providence Portland, and also at Providence Seaside, along with in-home and hospice nurses. AFT President Randi Weingarten joined picketers in Portland, saying:

“We, every single one of our members is standing behind you and supporting you and having your backs, because you have all of our backs.”

► From the Oregonian — Minimum staffing mandate for Oregon hospitals approved by lawmakers — Oregon nurses scored a major victory in Salem Thursday as lawmakers approved a new minimum staffing mandate for hospitals. House Bill 2697, approved by the House last week and the Senate late Thursday, could give nurses a powerful new tool to fight back against what they claim is chronic understaffing by Oregon hospitals. Nurses’ slow burn over staffing heated to the boiling point during the pandemic, when many felt they were being asked to work too many hours in dangerous conditions.

THIS WASHINGTON

► From the Wenatchee World — After prodding by Cantwell and Schrier, India agrees to resolve tariffs that ‘all but shut down’ American apple imports — The Indian government has agreed to remove a retaliatory tariff that Washington farmers say resulted in drastically reduced apple exports for the past four years.

THAT WASHINGTON

► From CNBC — New Senate legislation seeks to revise national labor law, targeting port union workers — The legislation, sponsored by Sen, Jim Risch (R-Idaho), would amend the National Labor Relations Act and the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 to deter labor slowdowns and prohibit labor organizations from blocking the modernization of ports. Worker “no shows,” unfilled port orders for union labor, and worker productivity issues — some of which led port management to relieve labor from daily shifts — led to backups of vessels, containers and trucks at ports across the West Coast in recent weeks.

► From Politico — Group seeks boost to labor organizing in Senate — A group of Democratic senators who want to give Senate staff the green light to unionize and collectively bargain introduced Thursday evening. The move launches an uphill battle for labor organizing in the narrowly divided upper chamber. The effort is led by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), and cosigners include:

Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and Bob Casey (D-Pa.)

► From Politico — ‘I underestimated the depth of outrage’: A year in post-Roe America — Overturning a half-century of constitutionally protected rights is not something that most of us have experience with and the gap between what the experts could imagine last year and what they watched actually unfold reflects that.

The Stand (June 24, 2022) — WSLC decries overturning of Roe v. Wade

The Stand (June 27, 2022) — Amid attacks on abortion rights, unions must fight back (by Shaunie Wheeler James and Cherika Carter) — We have the tools to transform protests into concrete actions defending bodily autonomy.

► From Roll Call — Biden order aims to protect, expand contraception access — Action comes ahead of anniversary of ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade.

► From the NY Times — Does Justice Alito hear himself? (by Jesse Wegman) — If the justices are confused as to the reason public trust in the court is in free fall, they need look no further than Justice Alito’s smug, defensive reaction to a very fair criticism. As long as the court refuses to accept significantly stricter ethics rules, either adopted by themselves or imposed by Congress, that trust — and with it the court’s legitimacy — will continue to erode until it’s not worth a seat on a private jet.

The Stand (June 21) — Supreme Court’s ethical lapses are a call to action — Justices’ inappropriate coziness with billionaire benefactors is another reminder of what’s at stake in re-election of President Biden.

T.G.I.F.

► American singer/pianist/legend Nina Simone wrote the 1964 song “Mississippi Goddam” in response to the murders of Emmett Till and Medgar Evers in Mississippi, and the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed four Black children. A year ago, in the wake of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, scholar Shana Redmond told NPR this about the song:

“I think there’s only a sense of continuity that we can take from its legacy, from its usage in this very moment. The structures to which Nina Simone was responding have continued to face us in the future that she hoped would be free and clear and beautiful. So the rage that she brought to the production of that song, the moment at which she said, ‘I’m either going to take up arms, I’m going to buy a gun, or I’m going to write this song,’ is precisely where so many people see themselves fitting in today.”