Monday, June 26, 2023

LOCAL

► From the News Tribune — Tacoma Art Museum board and workers differ on who’s eligible to join union — Tensions between Tacoma Art Museum’s board and its employees heated up Friday after the board announced progress in negotiations with an employee union. In a public statement Friday, the museum’s board said it, “… approved a proposal to voluntarily recognize TAM Workers United through a private arbitrated election process.” But the union called the announcement misleading:

“Their vote is not an approval of our proposal for voluntary recognition of a wall-to-wall union and we cannot agree this is a positive step forward.”

The Stand (May 16) — Tacoma Art Museum board opts for more union-busting

► From PubliCola — Union says homelessness agency has failed to negotiate over wages, workplace safety — Unionized staff (PROTEC17) at the King County Regional Homelessness Authority say the homelessness authority has failed to come to the bargaining table to negotiate their first contract, canceling five out of eight scheduled bargaining sessions and refusing to discuss proposals for increased wages amid a “toxic work environment” that has driven at least 17 people to leave the agency, which recently surpassed 100 employees, since 2021.

► From the Washington Post — Starbucks workers at 150 stores launch strike over Pride decor — Starbucks workers at more than 150 stores launched a week-long strike, alleging that employees at dozens of U.S. locations were restricted or barred from putting up Pride decorations, a claim the company has denied. Starbucks Workers United said the walkout involving more than 3,000 workers in at least 28 states began Friday at the company’s flagship store in Seattle.

Out here with a huge @MLKLabor crew in solidarity with Starbucks workers today! pic.twitter.com/YZEf4aE2Fe

— UNITE HERE! Local 8 (@UniteHereLocal8) June 25, 2023

The Stand (June 12) — The ad Starbucks doesn’t want you to see (by Mike Andrew)

► From KOMO — Thousands march downtown for 49th annual Seattle Pride Parade — Thousands gathered downtown Sunday for the 49th annual Seattle Pride Parade, donning outfits for this year’s “galactic love” theme on a day of celebrating the LGBTQ community.

► From the Spokesman-Review — Spokane City Administrator Johnnie Perkins placed on administrative leave — Spokane City Administrator Johnnie Perkins has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into concerns from city employees.

► From the Cascadia Daily News — Minimum wage initiative qualifies for Bellingham ballot — Bellingham voters will decide in November whether to raise the city’s minimum wage by $1 over the state minimum on May 1, 2024. Initiative 1 also calls for raising the minimum wage to $2 over the state’s minimum wage in May 2025.

AEROSPACE

► From KWCH — Spirit AeroSystems strike enters third day — Monday represents the third day of the strike among union members at Spirit AeroSystems. Spirit union workers overwhelmingly rejected the company’s last offer and began the strike at midnight Friday, though Spirit opted to shut down production on Thursday.

► From Reuters — Spirit Aero flags progress in talks with the union — Spirit Aerosystems said on Monday it had held “constructive and positive meetings” with the Machinists union through the weekend, indicating progress in negotiations for a new contract.

THIS WASHINGTON

► From the union-busting Columbian — Oregon Legislature approves funding state’s share of replacement I-5 Bridge — On the last day of its 2023 session, the Oregon Legislature passed a bill containing $1 billion in funding for the Interstate 5 Bridge Replacement Program, passing one of the last major hurdles for the program to break ground in late 2024 or early 2025. In 2022, the Washington State Legislature authorized $1 billion to fund their portion.

THAT WASHINGTON

► From the Washington Post — It’s almost like the House GOP never cared about deficits after all (by Catherine Rampell) — In the weeks since threatening to cause a global economic crisis over their avowed desire to reduce deficits, Republican lawmakers are again pushing legislation that would increase deficits. By billions upon billions of dollars… At least Biden has some kind of budget, a general statement of what gets funded and how much. Republicans, on the other hand, still do not. Unless you count the “blueprint” released recently by the Republican Study Committee, a subset of the House coalition. Note that the document includes some policy changes (including to Social Security and Medicare) that Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had explicitly ruled out early this year.

► From Politico — A debt deal twist is shifting Congress’ shutdown gameplan — It’s only June, and already Congress is threatening to ruin New Year’s Eve. The debt deal forces a 1 percent cut to government spending on Jan. 1 if a short-term funding bill is in place. So, lawmakers say, that’s the REAL deadline to pass new spending bills.

► From The Hill — GOP senators want Roberts to take action on Supreme Court — Republican senators are leaning on Chief Justice John Roberts to do something about the Supreme Court’s appearance problem in the wake of reports that conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito accepted luxury vacations from conservative donors.

The Stand (June 21) — Supreme Court’s ethical lapses are a call to action

NATIONAL

► From the Washington Post — McDonald’s child labor audit demanded by some shareholder groups — A coalition of McDonald’s shareholder groups is demanding the fast-food giant conduct a third-party human rights assessment, in response to a string of child labor violations found at the company’s U.S. franchises.

► From LA Magazine — All major L.A. film productions officially shut down by writers’ strike — Film Production in Los Angeles has been hit hard by the 2023 writers’ strike as zero FilmLA permits have been issued in the last two weeks.

► From Deadline — SAG-AFTRA leaders say contract talks have been ‘extremely productive’ as they ‘remain optimistic’ a fair deal can be achieved

► From the Wall Street Journal — Green-card backlog fuels shortage of nurses at hospitals, nursing homes — Foreign nurses can’t get green cards to work in the U.S., alarming hospitals, nursing homes and other medical providers who have relied on them to help alleviate staffing shortages.

INTERNATIONAL

► From Vox — Why strikes might disrupt your summer Eurotrip — Inflation in Europe and the United Kingdom is prompting a wave of labor action across the continent. Many of these stoppages are happening in the transport and travel sectors — pilots and baggage handlers and train and public transit workers.

► From the AP — H&M workers strike for higher pay across Spain, shutting down stores — Hundreds of retail workers on Monday walked off the job across Spain in a new round of strikes against the fashion giant H&M Group, extending a series of store closures in the middle of the summer sales season.

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