Friday, July 7, 2023

THIS WASHINGTON

► From the Washington State Standard — Reichert’s bid adds an early twist to the 2024 governor’s race — Dave Reichert, a former congressman, is one of the most seasoned Republican contenders for the governor’s office in over a decade. He drew a swift rebuke from Democrat Bob Ferguson. “Dave Reichert represents a profound threat to reproductive freedom,” Ferguson declared, citing Reichert votes and comments opposing abortion while in Congress.

► From the union-busting Columbian — Larch Corrections Center employees talk education, work programs during town hall to keep facility open — Larch Corrections Center staff highlighted the facility’s education and work programs — most notably, its partnership with the Department of Natural Resources to fight wildfires — during a town hall Thursday evening, organized to keep the camp open.

► From the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin — WA agency issues updated heat protections for outdoor workers starting July 17 — The Washington State Department of Labor & Industries — L&I — filed a formal update for heat protections to prevent heat-related illness and reduce injuries for outdoor workers associated with heat exposure.

The Stand (March 27) — L&I proposes permanent rules to protect workers from heat

► From the AP — Transportation secretary stops in Port Orchard on tour of $130 million in federal projects — The federal government is chipping in about $130 million to support several Washington state projects that range from replacing a storm-damaged breakwater at a Port Orchard marina to helping a Native American tribe move from ancestral villages threatened by rising seas on the Pacific Coast.

► From the (Everett) Herald — Buttigieg visits Mukilteo for plans to electrify Washington ferries — U.S. Transportation Secretary: Washington state is ‘leading the way’ with its transition to electric ferries.

The Stand (June 29) — ‘Biden is making good on his promises to workers’ — Washington’s Building Trades unions gather in Seattle and spotlight job creation under Biden Administration.

SOUTH OF THE BORDER

► From the NW Labor Press — Painters agreement raises compensation $9.86 over three years — Members of Painters Local 10 voted by about 90% June 29 to ratify a new three-year agreement with Associated Wall & Ceiling Contractors. The deal aligns AWCC with terms that union members ratified in May with the larger Signatory Painting Contractors Organization. Under the new contract a journeyman painter now makes $33.50 an hour plus $15.46 an hour in health, pension, and other benefits.

EDITOR’S NOTE — How do wages and benefits like that sound to you? 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 NW Labor Press — Still no deal after five-day nurse strike at Providence — Oregon’s first nurses strike in nearly two decades built solidarity among workers, brought a noted national labor leader to Portland, and prompted legal questions about the use of professional strikebreakers. But strikers still have no new union contract. Almost 1,800 nurses and clinicians from Providence Portland, Providence Seaside, and Providence Home Health and Hospice walked out June 19 on a five-day strike. The workers are represented by the Oregon Nurse Association, the state’s largest nurses union. 

► From the Oregonian — Labor unrest spreads in Oregon healthcare industry; some physicians seek to form union — Doctors, researchers, and other healthcare workers and following nurses into labor activism.

► From the NW Labor Press — Union nurse appointed to number two spot in Oregon AFL-CIO — The Oregon AFL-CIO executive board appointed Sarina Roher to the federation’s number two role in a unanimous vote June 21. Roher is a Kaiser Permanente nurse and executive secretary of the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (OFNHP).

EDITOR’S NOTE — For more great labor news in Oregon and Southwest Washington, subscribe to the Northwest Labor Press!

LOCAL

► From the Cascadia Daily News — Retired physician: PeaceHealth ‘losing its way’ (by David Lynch, MD) — Under the direction and leadership of the regional system now known as PeaceHealth, our hospital has declared itself to be a medical center, but at the same time, we are actually seeing the loss of many valuable and important services, such as Adult Day Health, the Parish Nurse Program, stroke rehabilitation, general in-patient rehab services, allergy and immunology and now, the loss of a robust, full-fledged palliative care program.

► From the NW Labor Press — Daily News no longer longer printed daily — The union at the daily newspaper in Longview, Washington, joined nine other NewsGuild locals to condemn extraordinary cuts at Iowa-based Lee Enterprises papers across the country. Lee is reducing the print publication schedule to three days a week at most of its 77 newspapers, and replacing delivery drivers with delivery by the U.S. Postal Service.

► From Crosscut — Maritime v. real estate: Seattle’s decades-long rezoning fight — The city is updating protections for waterfront industrial lands, but a fight over the SoDo ‘Makers District’ development could upend it.

► From Crosscut — Made There: A Yakima printmaker crafts impressions of unsung labor — Drawing on traditional Mexican design, artist Christie Tirado spotlights Washington’s agricultural workers and those who perform essential services.

THAT WASHINGTON

► From Roll Call — Automatic spending cuts would threaten infrastructure funding — The backstop mechanism House Republicans inserted into last month’s debt ceiling package to ensure the completion of full-year appropriations would cause some collateral damage if triggered: cuts to bipartisan infrastructure law funding enacted two years ago. That 2021 measure’s $68.5 billion in advance appropriations, which become available starting on Oct. 1, could get hit by across-the-board cuts starting more than halfway through the fiscal year next May — impacting grants for Amtrak, bridge repairs, clean energy research and drinking water and sewage line upgrades.

► From the Washington Post — Employers add 209,000 jobs in June, a slow but steady gain — The U.S. economy added 209,000 jobs in June, the smallest pickup in jobs since December 2020, signaling a slow but still strong labor market. June’s job gains fell short of economists’ predictions, indicating that the labor market is cooling down from its peak last year.

► From Politico — Navy set to lose out on jets due to row with Boeing — The Navy is set to get only 16 of the last F/A-18 Super Hornet jets Boeing will ever make instead of the 20 appropriated due to a dispute over intellectual property rights that’s dragging out negotiations, says a congressman.

► From The Hill — Worker concerns about EV manufacturing wages could become unlikely fodder for Republicans — Workers are concerned major automakers are using the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) to undercut wages, complicating the politics of an issue that is emerging as a point of contention in the 2024 election.  The powerful United Auto Workers union has so far withheld an endorsement from the president in his ongoing reelection bid, saying they want more backing from the White House amid the shift to more climate-friendly vehicles before they can support him.

► From Bloomberg — Union workers cry foul over safety at GM’s Ultium battery plant — “It’s not just the low pay, these jobs are often dangerous,” UAW President Shawn Fain said. “This is our defining moment. It’s time to build an EV industry that puts workers first.”

NATIONAL

► From Jacobin — Teamsters are close to the largest strike in decades — Today Teamsters are erecting practice picket lines as the July 31 expiration of their contract with UPS rapidly approaches. After negotiations broke down Wednesday, the largest strike at a single employer in U.S. history is a real possibility.

The Stand (July 6) — UPS walks away, Teamsters strike imminent

BIG NEWS!!! A federal judge found that Starbucks ILLEGALLY closed the College Ave. store in Ithaca, NY and ordered that Starbucks IMMEDIATELY reopen it. Another win for workers!

— Starbucks Workers United (@SBWorkersUnited) July 7, 2023

► From the LA Times — Three’s not a crowd. Meet the co-presidents of the union behind the hotel workers’ strike (by Gustavo Arellano) — In a red-shirted sea of hundreds of striking hotel workers marching through downtown Los Angeles on the Fourth of July, Ada Briceño, Susan Minato and Kurt Petersen were just faces in the crowd. They have run UNITE HERE Local 11 — which represents over 32,000 workers in Southern California and Arizona — since 2017 and will be sworn in for their third term later this month. They head what is believed to be the only union in U.S. labor history to have more than one president at the same time.

► From the Washington Post — App makers sue to halt NYC rule setting $18 hourly wage for food delivery — Uber, DoorDash and Grubhub want a temporary restraining order against the measure, which is slated to take effect July 12.

T.G.I.F.

► Happy 83rd birthday to Sir Richard Starkey, better known as Ringo Starr. Fun fact: before he became the world’s most famous drummer, Starr secured an apprenticeship as a machinist at a Liverpool school equipment manufacturer. It was a friend at that job who introduced him to “skiffle” music and… you know the rest of the story. Here’s Ringo getting inducted into the Roll & Roll Hall of Fame in 2015 with a little help from his friends Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Beck, John Legend, Joe Walsh, Patti Smith, Peter Wolf, Dave Grohl, Billie Joe Armstrong, Joan Jett, Tom Morello, Paul Shaffer, and many others. Enjoy.

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