Psychedelic union-busting | State GOP sues for secrecy | Progress at Starbucks

Tuesday, June 4, 2024

LOCAL

► From Talking Drugs — Is Paul Stamets’ union busting setting a dangerous precedent for the psychedelics world? — The company of renowned mycologist and psychedelic advocate Paul Stamets has hired union-busting companies to prevent workers from organizing. First reported by The Stand, Fungi Perfecti workers are organizing with the LiUNA Local 252 to ensure that they can collectively bargain for better wages and stable benefits packages. Their efforts were met with silence from Fungi Perfecti’s executives and intimidating employee meetings.

From The STAND (May 3) — Fungi Perfecti workers joining together with LiUNA 252 — But the Olympia medicinal mushroom company has responded by hiring costly union-busting firms.

► From the Seattle Times — Thousands without power after wind, record rainfall in Western WA — Most people have gotten their power back as of Tuesday morning, a day after powerful winds blew through the region Monday and following an atmospheric river that drenched Western Washington and smashed daily rainfall records on Sunday.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Got power? Thank an electrical lineworker.

AEROSPACE

► From the Guardian — Boeing’s largest plant in ‘panic mode’ amid safety crisis, say workers and union officials — Its site at Everett, Washington is at the heart of Boeing’s operation, responsible for building planes like the 747 and 767, and fixing the 787 Dreamliner. One mechanic at the complex, who has worked for Boeing for more than three decades, has claimed it is “full of” faulty 787 jets that need fixing. Many of these jets are flown from Boeing’s site in South Carolina, where the company shifted final assembly of the 787 in 2021 in what was characterized as a cost-cutting measure. The mechanic, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, said:

“There is no way in God’s green earth I would want to be a pilot in South Carolina flying those from South Carolina to here. Because when they get in here, we’re stripping them apart.”

► From NPR — Inside the factory where a key Boeing supplier builds the fuselage for the 737 — As Boeing works to improve quality, it’s in talks to buy one of its key suppliers. NPR spoke to workers at the Spirit AeroSystems factory in Wichita that builds the 737 fuselage.

► From the Washington Post — While Boeing has struggled with Starliner, SpaceX has soared — Boeing is set to try to fly its first mission with a pair of NASA astronauts Wednesday.

► From Reuters — Boeing’s Calhoun says board will decide his successor

THIS WASHINGTON

► From the (Centralia) Chronicle — GOP-backed lawsuit could prevent voters from seeing potential fiscal impact of state initiatives — A lawsuit filed in Thurston County Superior Court by the chairs of the Washington state Republican Party and the Mainstream Republicans of Washington could prevent the attorney general from disclosing the potential financial impact of three initiatives on the November ballot. The suit comes after fiscal statements prepared by the Office of Financial Management showed proposals to repeal the state’s capital gains tax and the Climate Commitment Act would reduce state revenue by billions, money earmarked for climate projects and public education.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Apparently, Republicans don’t want Washington’s voters to know the consequences of repealing these laws. Delegates representing unions across Washington voted to OPPOSE all three of these 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).

► ICYMI from KING 5 — Group launches site mapping projects funded by Climate Commitment Act — The Clean & Prosperous Institute launched an interactive map Thursday it said details projects paid for by Climate Commitment Act funding. It comes as voters will decide on I-2117, a measure that would repeal the program.

► From the Olympian — State workers, you can win up to $10,000 for your ideas to save Washington state money — State workers can earn recognition and up to $10,000 from the Productivity Board through a state employee incentive program the Secretary of State’s Office has relaunched. The program rewards employee proposals that increase government efficiency and save the state money.

► From the (Everett) Herald — Money well spent on switch to electric school buses (editorial) — A new study is now showing how that switch to electric buses will pencil out for more school districts, making the case to ramp up the transition away from diesel and toward cleaner transportation.

THAT WASHINGTON

► From the Labor Tribune — Biden vetoes bill to overturn NLRB joint employer rule, protecting workers — President Biden has vetoed a Congressional Review Act measure that sought to overturn the NLRB rule preventing corporations from hiding behind a subcontractor or staffing agency when workers want to collectively bargain. The NLRB’s joint employer rule expands bargaining obligations and liability for labor violations for employers that have power over working conditions, even if workers are hired through a third party or by franchisees of a larger franchise.

► From HuffPost — Nuclear testing victims’ compensation program only days away from lapsing — Barring last-minute action by Congress, a program that for more than 30 years has paid survivors of Cold War-era U.S nuclear weapons testing for radiation-related illnesses, which advocates had hoped to expand, will lapse soon.

NATIONAL

► From Bloomberg — Starbucks, union reach tentative agreements for job protections — Starbucks Corp. and Starbucks Workers United have reached several tentative agreements covering guardrails for worker firings and information sharing. The coffee giant and union announced the pacts on Friday as part of their ongoing talks in Chicago to establish a “framework” for each unionized store to build their individual collective bargaining agreements. The agreements focus on issues including “partner accountability,” protections requiring “just cause” for terminations, education for workers seeking union representation, and the sharing of worker information between the company and the union, according to a joint statement.

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 Wall Street Journal — Influencers are driving a new category of unionizing: pharmacists — Pharmacists take to social media, under handles like ‘The Accidental Pharmacist’ and ‘RxComedy,’ to spark unionization drives.

► From the AP — CEOs made nearly 200 times what their workers got paid last year — The typical compensation package for chief executives who run companies in the S&P 500 jumped nearly 13% last year, easily surpassing the gains for workers at a time when inflation was putting pressure on Americans’ budgets. The median pay package for CEOs rose to $16.3 million, up 12.6%. Meanwhile, wages and benefits netted by private-sector workers rose 4.1% through 2023. At half the companies in this year’s survey, it would take the worker at the middle of the company’s pay scale almost 200 years to make what their CEO did.

► From HuffPost — Teamsters memo signals rift between major unions — Teamsters President Sean O’Brien sent a memo to the union’s officers and organizers on May 23 informing them he had nullified their “no-raid” agreement with the IAM. No-raid agreements forbid unions from trying to organize one another’s members so that they defect to the other union. The AFL-CIO has a long-standing policy that bars raiding among its member groups, but the Teamsters are not part of the 60-union labor federation, only the IAM is. An IAM spokesperson said that the union “looks forward to discussions with the IBT and continuing to keep the focus on growing the labor movement.”

► From the AFL-CIO — AFL-CIO president on LGBTQIA+ Pride Month — AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler:

“This June, we celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community, and reaffirm our commitment to ensuring equity, dignity, and inclusion both in life and in the workplace. Collective bargaining remains the best tool against discrimination of any kind, which is why the AFL-CIO fights so that working people of all sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions can enjoy the protections of a union contract.”

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