More of the same at Kadlec | Bust union-busting | Starbucks talks

Thursday, May 30, 2024

LOCAL

► From the Tri-City Herald — 1,100 Tri-Cities medical workers vote to strike if fair wage demands aren’t met — Service and technical workers at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland and Kennewick have voted to strike, if needed, to obtain wages in line with other Providence facilities. After eight bargaining sessions since the contract for 1,100 Kadlec workers expired in December 2023, they picketed on their time off Tuesday in front of the Richland hospital and the Kennewick free-standing emergency room off Highway 395. “Same employer, same job, same pay,” workers chanted.

From The STAND (May 28) — Kadlec pickets in Tri-Cities on May 28 to demand fair pay

► From KIRO — Kent School District labor group calls for resignations of district’s top leaders — The Kent Labor Alliance, which is made up of several unions that represent school workers, said it had no confidence in the district’s executive leadership and school board members, according to the group’s written document. It reads:

“This letter is an expression of our ‘Vote of No Confidence’ in Israel Vela and Meghin Margel and their ability to function in leadership roles in the district.”

► A Trickle-Down Economics update from The Stranger — Seattle’s experiencing a millionaire, centimillionaire, and billionaire Boom (by Charles Mudede) — One would expect that the 3,700 millionaires Seattle added in 2023 alone would mean the city as a whole (meaning, the public spirit of the area) would be that much richer. But such is not the case. Indeed, it appears to be the opposite. The Seattle City Council now claims to be broke, the same goes for Seattle Public Library and Seattle Public Schools. And so, the addition of, as Puget Sound Business Journal worded it, “3,700 newly minted millionaires, nine centimillionaires and one billionaire in 2023” is not at all a blessing.

THIS WASHINGTON

► From Crosscut — WA conservative groups are banding together to dump carbon pricing — Washington’s new initiative king Brian Heywood, a Redmond hedge fund manager who financed three anti-tax initiatives destined for the fall ballot, is spending millions to end cap-and-invest. He’s got a web of organizations — and Brandi Kruse — backing him.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Delegates representing unions across Washington voted to oppose all three of Heywood’s initiatives on this fall’s ballot: I-2109 (repealing the capital gains tax), I-2117 (repealing the Climate Commitment Act), and I-2124 (kneecapping WA long-term care insurance). Fun fact: Heywood named his ranch Galt Valley Ranch, after John Galt, a character in author Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged, which promotes the virtues of unfettered capitalism.

► From the WA State Standard — Washington will require insurers to reveal reasons for rate hikes — Insurers will soon have to provide customers a clear explanation for increases in their auto and home insurance premiums at the time of renewal. Beginning Saturday, companies must do so in writing if a policyholder requests it.

AEROSPACE

► From the (Everett) Herald — Union firefighters, Boeing reach new tentative agreement — After reaching another tentative agreement Tuesday night, Boeing’s union firefighters will vote on a new contract offer. Union leaders have endorsed the new offer and are encouraging firefighters to approve it, according to a joint statement from the company and the union. Results of the vote were expected by Thursday afternoon.

From The STAND (May 29) — IAFF I-66, Boeing reach tentative deal to end lockout

► From Reuters — Boeing to detail quality, training improvements in FAA meeting, sources say — Boeing’s outgoing CEO Dave Calhoun and other senior company officials will detail the planemaker’s quality, training and other improvements during meetings with U.S. aviation regulators on Thursday, according to sources.

► From the AP — Boeing reaches deadline for reporting how it will fix aircraft safety and quality problems

THAT WASHINGTON

► From HuffPost — Progressives urge Biden Administration to crack down on ‘union-busting’ industry — Every year, U.S. employers spend millions of dollars on outside consultants who specialize in breaking up union campaigns. Because much of that work is cloaked in secrecy, progressive groups are urging the Biden administration to crack down and make it more transparent. A paper released Wednesday recommends that the Labor Department force employers and their consultants to make greater financial disclosures related to anti-union spending so workers can better understand who’s being paid to lobby them. The authors write that the firms are “deploying increasingly aggressive tactics to dissuade employees from unionizing.”

► From HuffPost — Preparing for a Trump return, EPA workers secure ‘Scientific Integrity’ protections — A new union contract at the Environmental Protection Agency guards against “inappropriate interference in scientific work,” a hallmark of the Trump era.

► From The Hill — Roberts faces calls to press Alito for recusal — House Judiciary Committee Democrats asked Chief Justice John Roberts to detail how the Supreme Court plans to enforce its code of conduct, arguing Justice Samuel Alito violated its policies by raising flags connected to the “Stop the Steal” effort at his two homes.

► From the Washington Post — Samuel Alito has decided that Samuel Alito is sufficiently impartial (by Philip Bump) — That notwithstanding the significant questions that remain about the flag that flew outside the Supreme Court justice’s Virginia home.

► From HuffPost — Texas GOP appears to put death penalty for abortion patients on 2024 wish list — The Texas Republican Party platform calls for an “equal protection of the laws to all preborn children from the moment of fertilization,” and later states that “abortion is not healthcare, it is homicide.” The phrase “equal protection of the law” is used in the anti-choice movement to define abortion as homicide, and criminalizes abortion physicians and patients as murderers.

NATIONAL

► From the Guardian — Starbucks resumes bargaining amid fresh wave of unionized stores — Starbucks has resumed bargaining with union leaders amid a fresh wave of organized stores after the world’s largest coffee chain agreed to open talks over labor agreements. After a long, embittered campaign, the Seattle-based coffee giant jointly announced a new framework with Workers United in February to reach contracts with unionized stores. Bargaining got under way on Wednesday, and is due to continue on Thursday.

► From the AFL-CIO — Legal worker union ratifies contract offer after historic 13-week strike — Last week, 72 percent of participating union members at Mobilization for Justice (MFJ) voted to ratify a new contract, which will end the union’s nearly three-month strike—the longest New York City legal services strike since 1991—upon ratification by the MFJ Board. MFJ Union is part of the Legal Services Staff Association, a unit of the UAW and covers attorneys, paralegals, social workers and other staff.

► From ABC News — Disneyland performers’ vote to unionize is certified by federal labor officials — Federal labor officials have certified an election to create a union for character and parade performers at Disneyland in California.

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.