The heart of Sacred Heart | Boeing offloading | Starbucks v. NLRB

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

LOCAL

► From the Spokesman-Review — ‘We are the heart of Sacred Heart’: Providence technical workers are now on strike — With chants of “We are the heart of Sacred Heart,” the Providence hospital strike launched Monday afternoon. Jubilant picketers lined up outside of Sacred Heart around 2 p.m. – some coming directly off their shift to grab a sign and put their yellow UFCW 3000 shirts over their hospital scrubs or uniform. “I’m pumped!” yelled cardiovascular tech and bargaining team member Derek Roybal when asked how he was feeling minutes before the strike began. “Hopefully finally Providence will hear us!”

► From the Yakima H-R — USPS to move some mail processing to Spokane, will update Yakima post office — Ryan Harris, president of the Washington State American Postal Workers Union, said some jobs would be excessed eliminated — career employees would be offered different positions within 50 miles if their jobs were affected cut.

► From KIMA — Yakima community speaks out on school district cuts, meeting suspended — At today’s Yakima School District Budget meeting, students, parents, and staff members commented about the recent cuts.

► From the Cascadia Daily News — Blaine School Board delays vote on proposed staffing cuts — Plan to eliminate over 30 positions will now be considered April 29.

AEROSPACE

What could possibly go wrong?

► From the Atlantic — Boeing and the dark age of American manufacturing (by Jerry Useem) — For nearly 40 years the company built the 737 fuselage itself in the same plant that turned out its B-29 and B-52 bombers. In 2005 it sold this facility to a private-investment firm, keeping the axle grease at arm’s length and notionally shifting risk, capital costs, and labor woes off its books onto its “supplier.” Offloading, Boeing called it. Meanwhile the tail, landing gear, flight controls, and other essentials were outsourced to factories around the world owned by others, and shipped to Boeing for final assembly, turning the company that created the Jet Age into something akin to a glorified gluer-together of precast model-airplane kits. Boeing’s latest screwups vividly dramatize a point often missed in laments of America’s manufacturing decline: that when global economic forces carried off some U.S. manufacturers for good, even the ones that stuck around lost interest in actually making stuff.

► From the Oregonian — Delta Air Lines, facing another attempt to unionize flight attendants, raises pay — Delta Air Lines, the most profitable U.S. carrier, is raising pay for nonunion employees as it gets ready for another attempt by a union to represent its flights attendants.

READY FOR A VOICE AT WORK?  If just talking about organizing a union gets you a raise, imagine what you’ll get with an actual union! Find out 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!

THIS WASHINGTON

► From the Seattle Times — In WA and beyond, a child care crisis is holding parents back — High-quality child care programs can be prohibitively expensive, government assistance is limited and day care openings are sometimes hard to find. In 2022, more than 1 in 10 young children had a parent who had to quit, turn down or drastically change a job because of child care problems. And that burden falls most on mothers, who shoulder more child-rearing responsibilities and are far more likely to leave a job to care for kids.

► From the Wenatchee World — Hawkins withdraws from Senate race, running for Chelan County commissioner — The two-term Republican senator cited recent changes to the legislative maps, which split the Wenatchee Valley into three districts and prompted Hawkins to move from East Wenatchee to Wenatchee, as reasons for the pivot.

THAT WASHINGTON

► From the AP — Starbucks takes on the federal labor agency before the U.S. Supreme Court — After Starbucks fired seven workers who were trying to unionize their Tennessee store, a U.S. government agency obtained a court order forcing the company to rehire them. Now, Starbucks wants the Supreme Court to curb the government’s power in such cases. On Tuesday, justices are scheduled to hear Starbucks’ case against the National Labor Relations Board, the agency that protects the right of employees to organize. If the court sides with Starbucks, it could make it tougher for the NLRB to step in when it alleges corporate interference in unionization efforts.

► From NPR — What the Starbucks case is all about. Hint: It’s not coffee

► From the Public News Service — SCOTUS hears Starbucks case, implications for unions on the line — David Groves, communications director with the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO:

“We already have weak labor laws in this country that have such minor penalties for breaking union organizing laws that companies routinely do it, and this is another opportunity for them to weaken labor laws even further.”

► From NPR — After 26,000 public comments, FTC to vote on rule banning noncompete agreements — The five members of the Federal Trade Commission are set to vote Tuesday on whether to issue a final rule banning noncompetes, declaring them an unfair method of competition. A noncompete agreement typically blocks a worker from going to work for a competitor or starting up a competing business of their own. The FTC estimates about 30 million people, or one in five American workers, from minimum wage earners to CEOs, are bound by noncompetes.

► From the Washington Post — Biden administration imposes first-ever staff minimum for nursing homes — The Biden administration set a first-ever minimum staffing rule for nursing homes Monday. The final rule, proposed in September, requires a registered nurse to be on-site in every skilled nursing facility for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It mandates enough staff to provide every resident with at least 3.48 hours of care each day. And it beefs up rules for assessing the care needs of every resident, which will boost staff numbers above the minimum to care for sicker residents.

► From Politico — Patients are being denied emergency abortions. Courts can only do so much. — Doctors say they fear that following their medical judgment could cost them their license or land them in jail.

► From the Washington Post — You don’t want immigrants? Then tell grandma she can never retire. (by Catherine Rampell) — The Trumpy right argues that greedy, freeloading immigrants are simultaneously stealing both our jobs and our precious tax dollars. In reality, they’re beefing up both.

NATIONAL

► From the AFL-CIO — AFL-CIO holds inaugural climate, equity and jobs launch — On Monday, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond hosted a climate, equity and jobs event for Earth Day. The event featured workers who have been directly impacted by the effects of climate change, Biden administration representatives, and racial justice, environmental and environmental justice groups. This event marked the launch of a series of discussions among labor, racial justice and environmental justice organizations aimed at addressing the impacts of climate change on working people and our communities.

► From Newsweek — Fighting for a fair wage in Texas (by Jeff Pruitt, line mechanic at Molson Coors) — Every day for more than two months, we’ve been on the picket line in Texas. No matter the weather or time, we’re out there. We were forced to strike by our employer, Molson Coors, a company that made $12 billion last year from our hard work. In return, Molson Coors offered us Teamsters at the Fort Worth brewery an insulting wage increase of 99 cents per hour. After more than two months on the line, the company’s greedy, shameful position hasn’t changed.

► From the Guardian — ‘Workers end up paying the price’: Laborers call for safer building sites — Falls, slips and trips accounted for 865 worker fatalities in 2022 – more than 400 of whom worked in construction.

From The STAND — 2024 Workers Memorial Day events set for April 24-29

► From the Guardian — Volkswagen ‘the first domino to fall’ after union vote, says UAW president — Shawn Fain tells the Guardian he expects ‘more of the same to come’ after celebrating union’s historic victory at Tennessee plant.

From the AP — Tennessee’s GOP governor says Volkswagen plant workers made a mistake in union vote — Ahead of the vote, Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee and five other Southern Republican governors spoke out publicly against the UAW’s drive to organize workers at factories largely in the South, arguing that if autoworkers were to vote for union representation, it would jeopardize jobs.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Because everybody loves it when a politician lectures them about how to vote and then criticizes their choice.

► From the Washington Post — Google fires more workers after CEO says workplace isn’t for politics — Some employees protested the tech giant’s contract with the Israeli government. They’ve been let go.

► From the Washington Post — How to fix college finances? Eliminate faculty, then students. (by Gary Smith) — Colleges do not need traditional students or professors. In fact, these are generally a drain on resources in that student revenue does not cover faculty salaries. The elimination of professors and students would greatly improve most colleges’ financial position.

► From The Onion — Tesla fans explain why Elon Musk deserves $56 billion payout — “Who else are you going to give all that money to? The workers?”

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