NEWS ROUNDUP

Boeing roundup | CCA: What’s at stake | Guilty x 34 | The end is near

Friday, May 31, 2024

AEROSPACE

► From ABC News — Boeing firefighters ratify a contract with big raises, which will end a three-week lockout — Boeing firefighters ratified a new contract with major pay increases and expect to return to work this weekend after a lockout that has lasted more than three weeks, their union said Thursday. The deal covers about 125 fire and emergency-service workers in the Seattle area, who were locked out by Boeing when their previous contract expired May 4.

Today from The STAND — Fire fighters ratify contract to end Boeing lockout

MORE coverage from The (Everett) Herald, Seattle Times, and Q13.

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!

► From the WA State Standard — Boeing pays $11.5M to employees owed wages for work travel — Boeing has paid $11.5 million in unpaid wages to nearly 500 employees after an investigation by the state Department of Labor & Industries into the company’s travel pay practices. It’s the largest amount of back pay returned to workers in the state agency’s history. The investigation found Boeing did not pay or account for all overtime and paid sick leave during travel to out-of-town worksites. Under state law — unlike federal law — all travel time related to work is considered work time.

► From KING — Jury awards potential damages of $250 million in trade secrets lawsuit against Boeing — Boeing found guilty of stealing trade secrets from a Redmond-based aerospace startup.

► From Reuters — FAA will not allow Boeing to boost 737 MAX production yet — The Federal Aviation Administration will not immediately allow Boeing to increase 737 MAX production as it addresses ongoing safety issues, its administrator said on Thursday, after a meeting with outgoing CEO Dave Calhoun and other executives. The FAA’s enhanced oversight of Boeing will continue in the coming months, with weekly meetings and quarterly exchanges between the heads of the company and the U.S. regulator.

► From the Seattle Times — Alaska Airlines buys former Boeing building in Renton’s Longacres — A Puget Sound property that once housed Boeing’s state-of-the-art training facility is set for a revival under the ownership of Alaska Airlines.

► From Reuters — Aircraft shortages turn into cash bonanza for some airlines — The dearth of supply is allowing carriers to sell new planes to leasing companies at much higher prices than they paid.

► From Reuters — Airbus faces new output delays amid parts shortages

THIS WASHINGTON

► From KING — Group launches site mapping projects funded by Climate Commitment Act — The Clean & Prosperous Institute (CPI), a group that works with government agencies and the private sector on behalf of measures meant to address climate change and reduce carbon, launched an interactive map Thursday it said details projects paid for by Climate Commitment Act (CCA) funding. It comes as voters will decide on I-2117, a measure that would repeal the program. What’s at stake? CPI executive director Michael Mann:

“Forest health projects to prevent wildfires, bicycle lanes, transit service, electric vehicle charging stations, culvert removal so we can ensure salmon and steelhead thrive in the Pacific Northwest. What’s at risk is billions of dollars in investments that are going to help make our air quality better, water cleaner, and our communities able to thrive in a low carbon economy.”

EDITOR’S NOTE — Delegates representing unions across Washington state have voted to oppose Initiative 2117.

► From the WA State Standard — State ferry system goes out to bid for new hybrid-electric vessels — Deliveries will begin in 2028 if all goes well. Delays and escalating costs have bedeviled the procurement process up until now.

► From Cascade PBS — New Central WA districts spark drama as the 2024 election revs up — The Latino-majority 14th Legislative District has created new opportunities for some candidates and attracted criticism from others.

THAT WASHINGTON

► From the AP — Guilty: Trump becomes first former U.S. president convicted of felony crimes — Donald Trump became the first former American president to be convicted of felony crimes Thursday as a New York jury found him guilty of all 34 charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actor who said the two had sex. Trump sat stone-faced while the verdict was read as cheering from the street below could be heard in the hallway on the courthouse’s 15th floor where the decision was revealed after more than nine hours of deliberations.

► From Reuters — Trump supporters call for riots, violent retribution after verdict

► From the Washington Post — Even as the judicial system finds Trump guilty, his attacks take a toll — For months, top advisers to Trump expected that he would be convicted by a New York jury on all 34 felony counts. So Trump and his team waged an all-out war against the judicial system before the verdict came in, hoping to blunt the political damage and position him as a martyr. Whenever a politician is brought up on charges, “every single time that leader will scream up and down that this is a politicized process and his political enemies are out to get him,” said Steven Levitsky, a professor of government at Harvard University:

“What’s notable here is that the entire Republican Party is marching in lockstep, along with right-wing media, claiming that the legal process has been weaponized, and therefore eroding public trust in a really vital institution.”

► From Vox — Why the ludicrous Republican response to Trump’s conviction matters — Republicans are busy attacking the legitimacy of the American legal and political system. We’ve seen where that leads.

► From Axios — Biden’s dealmaker: How Julie Su helped broker a union contract in hostile South — Acting Labor Department secretary Julie Su just helped secure a labor contract for more than 1,500 newly unionized workers at a school bus manufacturer in Georgia — a region typically hostile to unionization. The contract at Blue Bird Corp., ratified last week, shows how the administration’s pro-labor stance, along with the money pouring in from its signature legislation, is changing how some U.S. businesses operate.

► From the Wenatchee World — 21 states join Biden administration in bid to modernize nation’s aging grid, including WA — In exchange for federal technical and financial assistance opportunities, participating states will “prioritize efforts that support the adoption of modern grid solutions to expand grid capacity and build modern grid capabilities on both new and existing transmission and distribution lines.”

► From the Washington Post — IRS Direct File is here to stay. All 50 states are invited. — The Biden administration hopes to eventually make the free tax filing site an option for most Americans.

From The STAND (March 13) — Washingtonians: File taxes for free with IRS Direct File

► From Politico — The Alito scandal is worse than it seems (by Ankush Khardori) — Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has been infuriating his critics for years. He has gone on undisclosed luxury vacations with conservative donors who have business before the court. He appears to have leaked the result of a major case to conservative activists before the decision was announced. And that doesn’t even get into his jurisprudence, including the opinion that threw out Roe v. Wade. But the revelations concerning the political flags flown at Alito’s homes have pushed Alito’s behavior into an entirely different realm, one that raises serious questions about Alito’s partisanship, his ethics and the integrity of the court.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Let’s not forget that Alito was also the architect of the Janus decision intended to defund and cripple labor unions that represent public employees.

NATIONAL

► From the Atlanta Civic Circle — Warnock weighs in, as Delta employees’ unionization campaigns heat up — Union organizing campaigns by Delta Air Lines flight attendants, mechanics, and ground workers gained ground last week when Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock asked the Atlanta-based airline’s CEO, Ed Bastian, to remain neutral towards unionization. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) is trying to unionize Delta’s 28,000 flight attendants, while the Teamsters and the International Association of Machinists (IAM) are conducting union campaigns for the mechanics and ground workers, respectively.

► From HuffPost — Feds sue Hyundai, alleging ‘oppressive child labor’ in Alabama supply chain — A 13-year-old worked up to 50-60 hours a week producing parts for Hyundai SUVs, according to labor officials.

► From Truthout — Bird flu testing isn’t reaching the farmworkers who face high-risk exposure — Just 40 people connected to US dairy farms had been tested for the virus as of May 22, according to federal officials.

► From the AP — Degree attainment rates are increasing for U.S. Latinos but pay disparities remain — While the number of Latinos — the nation’s largest minority group — graduating college has increased in the last two decades, they remain underpaid and underrepresented in the workforce, a reality that may require more Latinos in positions of power to facilitate change.

T.G.I.F.

► If you’ve read this story today, you know there is about to be a new Entire Staff of The STAND. Although the Old Guard will continue to edit this website for one more week until June 7, we want to go ahead and thank all of our regular readers (and listeners) for using this “newsstand about taking a stand.” Please continue using it as the new ESOTS keeps you informed about working people standing together in Washington state and across the nation. As for us…

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