Port Angeles strike continues | New whistleblower | Extreme surveillance

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

LOCAL

See more photos from the picket lines at the PAPEA Facebook page.

► From the Peninsula Daily News — School closed Wednesday; district gets temporary injunction in strike — The Port Angeles School District received a temporary injunction Tuesday in Clallam County Superior Court to force paraeducators back to work, but members of the Port Angeles Paraeducators Association still intend to strike Wednesday. There will be no school on Wednesday, and the paraeducators plan to strike until a deal is reached, a representative with the Washington Education Association said.

► From PubliCola — Retroactive pay increase for city employees delayed until fall — Many city of Seattle employees were startled to learn on Monday that the city won’t cut checks for their retroactive annual wage increases in 2023 and 2024 right away, as the city has in the past, but will wait until at least October—a minimum of six months after the mayor and city council finally signed off on wage increases for more than 10,000 city workers last month. “It’s completely unreasonable,” said PROTEC17 director Karen Estevenin, whose union represents more than 6,000 city workers. “City workers have been waiting too long already for these wages. We are hopeful to work with the city to speed this timeline up.”

AEROSPACE

► From the Seattle Times — New Boeing whistleblower alleges serious structural flaws on 787 and 777 jets — A Boeing quality engineer went public Tuesday with damaging allegations that the jet-maker took manufacturing shortcuts to increase production rates that leave potentially serious structural flaws on its 787 and 777 widebody planes. The Boeing engineer, Sam Salehpour, alleged that almost 1,000 787s and about 400 777s currently flying are at risk of premature fatigue damage and structural failure.

► From the Herald — Boeing whistleblower: Dangerous ‘shortcuts’ at Everett plant

► From the AP — Congress summons Boeing’s CEO to testify on its jetliner safety following new whistleblower charges — The panel said it will hold a hearing next week featuring a Boeing quality engineer, Sam Salehpour, and has summoned Boeing CEO David Calhoun to testify. Boeing would not say whether Calhoun plans to attend the April 17 hearing.

► From Reuters — Boeing deliveries drop by half in March due to increased quality checks — Boeing said on Tuesday it had delivered 29 airplanes in March, down more than half from the 64 delivered in the same month a year ago, as 737 MAX production slipped on increased quality checks and audits by regulators.

THIS WASHINGTON

► From KUOW — Short on staff and ships, can Washington’s new ferry chief navigate out of troubled waters? — Beneath cold, blustery skies on Tuesday, Steve Nevey said his job is to take the state’s beleaguered ferry system into the post-pandemic future. It’s his turn at the helm of Washington State Ferries, a system that often has trouble keeping boats running and fully staffed. Short-staffing over the past few years has also been a persistent hurdle for Washington Ferries, but Nevey said Tuesday that hiring new people has been mostly resolved. The challenge now, he said, is getting new-hires trained and qualified to work on large vessels.

► From the Seattle Times — State GOP chair files 3 new initiatives to WA voters — State Rep. Jim Walsh (R-Aberdeen), who is chair of the state’s Republican Party, hopes to get three more initiatives on Washington’s November ballot. They deal with immigration, “squatters” on residential property, and efforts to phase out natural gas.

► From the Seattle Times — State imposes corrective action against Why Not You charter school — After a challenging start to the school year, the Russell Wilson-backed Why Not You Academy charter school is facing corrective action from the state because of its financial status.

► From the WA State Standard — How Washington’s local governments have moved to allow for denser housing — A new study looks at about 100 communities that received state planning grants to see what actions they took to get more homes built in more places.

THAT WASHINGTON

► From the AP — Arizona can enforce an 1864 law criminalizing nearly all abortions, court says — Arizona will soon join 14 other states that have banned abortion at all stages of pregnancy after a state Supreme Court ruling Tuesday found that officials may enforce an 1864 law criminalizing all abortions except when a woman’s life is at stake. The law provides no exceptions for rape or incest.

Today from The STAND — They are “ripping away the right to choose” — Arizona ruling criminalizes nearly all abortions as post-Roe healthcare landscape continues to deteriorate.

► From Vox — The Supreme Court will decide if states can ban lifesaving abortions — A federal law requires hospitals to provide abortions when necessary to prevent serious health consequences. The justices could neutralize that law.

► From UPI — Biden promotes ‘care economy’ spending in speech to care workers — President Joe Biden called for increased pay for care workers, and guaranteed paid leave for those who care for family members, in a speech Tuesday at Washington, D.C.’s Union Station. Biden highlighted his administration’s investments in what he called the care economy, before a group of caregivers that included representatives from the AFL-CIO, AARP and National Domestic Workers Alliance.

“If we want the best economy in the world, we have to have the best caregiving economy in the world.”

► From the Guardian — ‘No way’: NLRB refuses to bow to SpaceX, Amazon and Starbucks — The U.S.’s top labor lawyer has said her agency will not “succumb” to Amazon, Starbucks and SpaceX’s attempts to legally challenge the National Labor Relations Board and its ability to enforce federal labor law. Jennifer Abruzzo, the NLRB general counsel:

“These esoteric arguments came about why? Because we dared to issue a complaint against SpaceX after it unlawfully fired eight workers for speaking about their workplace concerns. And then Amazon jumps on the bandwagon, Starbucks jumps on the bandwagon, Trader Joe’s, others get in on the action just because we’re trying to hold them accountable for repeatedly violating workers rights to organize and collectively bargain through representatives of their free choosing.”

NATIONAL

► From Business Insider — Amazon and Walmart warehouse employees are so surveilled that they’re worried about breaking to use bathroom: Oxfam report — Amazon and Walmart both use over-the-top surveillance in their warehouses — and the “concerning” practice not only undermines the rights of the megacorporations’ massive amount of employees, but puts their health and well-being in jeopardy, international anti-poverty organization Oxfam said in a new report. The report quotes several unidentified warehouse workers for the retail giants describing harsh labor conditions, including one Amazon worker who likened their experiences on the warehouse floor to “slavery.”

READY FOR A VOICE AT WORK? Get more information about how you can join together with co-workers and negotiate for better wages and working conditions. Or go ahead and contact a union organizer today!

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