Heat kills | Strike votes | Boeing retaliation

Friday, August 16, 2024

STRIKES

► From Pittsburgh Union Progress (August 15) – A start to the end of the strike? Feds file for temporary injunction to return Pittsburgh news unions to work – The rare filing, in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, asks a judge to order the company to follow federal labor law and take striking journalists back to work, at least temporarily, under the terms of their last illegally violated contract while their union and the company negotiate a new contract. The filing also seeks to have the company reimburse other striking workers — in unions representing advertising workers, pressmen and mailers — for health care coverage the company was legally supposed to pay for but did not, as well as for subsequent health care costs. 

Editor’s note: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette workers have been on strike since October 2022. Yeah, **2022**. You can donate to their strike fund here. 

► From Tri-Cities Business Journal (August 16) – More than 1,100 Kadlec workers set to strike – The strike by members of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW will start Aug. 20, the union said in an announcement…Kadlec’s ability to recruit and retain workers is at stake, the union said, noting that Providence executives at the Richland hospital have proposed raises of “pennies over the minimum wage” for the lowest paid job classes in the first year of the contract being negotiated.

Editor’s note: you can donate to the strike fund or RSVP to join the workers on the line here. 

LOCAL

► From Crosscut (August 8) – As teen employment rises in WA, so do youth labor violations – During the three-month investigation period, the agency found that this Jack in the Box in the state’s Northwest corner had violated youth labor laws 149 times for working minors too many hours in a day, too late on a school night and without adult supervision. Brennan knew that the company had broken labor laws only because her dad, who worked construction, was familiar with L&I. 

► From the Yakima Herald (August 14) –  Sunnyside Council tables resolution to support workers at Windmill Farms – Isela Cabrera, a fired Windmill Farms worker who attended the meeting, said she was sad the resolution failed, but hoped city council members would come to an agreement. It was important to support farmworkers across the area, Cabrera said, because there are workers across the region who need more fair treatment.

► From Washington State Standard (August 13) – Rising costs for Washington school districts outpace state funding, report finds – “The Washington State Supreme Court has clearly determined special education and a competitive wage for K-12 staff is part of ‘basic education,’” the report’s authors wrote. “Despite this, many districts use local levy funding to pay staff salaries and to fund special education services for students.”

AEROSPACE

► From MSN (August 8) –  NTSB chair: Boeing reassigning workers to Everett was retaliation – Homendy on Wednesday took issue with Boeing’s decision to move two Renton-based door crew workers to Everett. She described the reassignment as a form of retaliation, despite the company’s assertions that it will not take disciplinary action for unintentional mistakes. Those two workers, who are believed to have worked on the 737 that experienced the blowout, are now on administrative leave.

► From NBC News ( August 14) – NASA offers few answers on astronauts stuck in space, says decision will come in 2 weeks –  NASA is expecting to make a final decision before the end of the month as to when and how to bring home two astronauts who have been stuck at the International Space Station for more than two months. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams launched on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft in early June, on a journey that was meant to last just over a week. 

► From Time (August 15) – NASA Has Some Bad News for Its Stranded Astronauts –  Part of the reason NASA is taking every one of the few days it has left to make that decision has to do with Starliner’s limited reusability. The crew capsule itself is designed to be recovered and reflown, but the faulty thrusters are housed in a section called the service module, which is jettisoned before reentry and burns up in the atmosphere. That makes it impossible to conduct any kind of engineering forensics after the ship comes home, and NASA is thus trying to learn as much as it can from telemetry and data monitoring before the service module is lost forever.

ORGANIZING

► From Willamette Week (August 9) – Shelter Workers at Do Good Multnomah Seek Union Representation –  A majority of Do Good’s 270 workers signed union authorization cards and asked Do Good to voluntarily recognize the new union, according to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers, which is organizing the employees. If Do Good refuses, union cards will be sent to the National Labor Relations Board next week to trigger an election, AFSCME said.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From The Seattle Times (August 14) – Alaska Airlines flight attendants reject contract offer backed by union leaders – According to the union, 68% of members who voted rejected the agreement. Turnout was 94% of eligible voters when voting closed Wednesday. “This is democracy in action and Flight Attendants always have the final say on any contract,” AFA said a in a news release. “There is more work to do.”

► From KOIN (August 11) – New Seasons Market employees from 11 locations to vote to authorize strike – According to an announcement from the New Seasons Labor Union (NSLU), they are currently sending out ballots to around 1,130 workers under their representation to vote whether to authorize the one-day strike.

► From KATU (August 12) – Fred Meyer workers to vote on potential strike –  A local union is set to vote this week on a potential strike against Fred Meyer. The union claims Fred Meyer refused to provide essential information for proper contract negotiations. It represents about 4,500 workers at affected Fred Meyer locations in the Pacific Northwest. The union said it filed a suit against what it said are multiple unfair labor practices.

► From The Ithaca Voice (August 15) – Cornell workers voting on strike authorization – On Thursday evening, the UAW announced that 94% of workers voted yes to a strike if necessary…Union officials have said they will strike on move-in day as thousands of students prepare to arrive on Cornell’s campus for the start of the fall semester. About 1,200 workers at the Ivy League institution are represented by the union, the majority of which are custodians, food service workers, and groundskeepers.

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!

NATIONAL

► From The Washington Post (August 10) – Heat killed a Baltimore sanitation worker. Pending safety rules may have saved him – Maryland is poised to become just the sixth state to adopt heat protections for workers. Such protections include training on how to recognize and prevent heat-related illnesses, and requirements that employers offer shaded breaks and provide each worker at least 32 ounces of water per hour. But worker advocates said Silver’s death underscores how, across most of the United States, oversight is failing to keep up with surging levels of global heat, the most deadly type of extreme weather. 

► From The Hollywood Reporter (August 14) –  SAG-AFTRA Deal Paves Way for Actors to License Voice Replicas to AI Advertising Marketplace – Under the new pact, union performers who wish to offer their digital audio replicas on Narrativ can set their own wage rates, as long as they meet or exceed the union’s commercials minimum rate. Performers signal what kind of ads they want their voices to appear in and can greenlight or deny offers for those commercials that come their way. For every use of a performer’s voice in an ad, the actor must consent to that use.

► From The Nation (August 8) – For Amazon Workers, $30 Is the New $15 – Unionized logistics workers have fought hard to secure better pay and benefits in bargaining, most recently with last summer’s UPS contract fight. But unless the labor movement mounts a herculean effort to help Amazon workers win, then workers throughout the logistics sector and beyond—everywhere that Amazon can reach—will face an accelerating economic race to the bottom.

► From Politico (August 15) – ‘Turn A/C off and drive them out,’ USPS says to force workers into heat – One year after it was accused of falsifying heat-safety training records for thousands of letter carriers, the Postal Service is now facing allegations that it is pushing employees to rush mail deliveries in sweltering conditions. Letter carriers in locations across the country say that for a second year they have not received essential safety training on how to stay healthy in the heat, even as their personnel records say otherwise. 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From PBS News (August 15) – WATCH: Biden and Harris announce deal to cut Medicare prices of popular drugs – After months of negotiations with manufacturers, list prices will be reduced by hundreds — in some cases, thousands — of dollars for 30-day supplies of popular drugs used by millions of people on Medicare, including blood thinners, diabetes drugs and blood cancer medications. The reductions, which range between 38 percent and 79 percent, take effect in 2026. 

Photo: Rhonda Churchill/Getty

► From USA Today (August 14) – Kamala Harris leads Donald Trump in 5 battleground states, tied in Georgia, poll finds – The Cook Political Report survey of seven key swing states found Harris leading Trump in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Arizona, and tied with Trump in Georgia. Nevada is the only battleground state that Trump still leads, the poll found.

► From The Washington Post (August 15) – Republicans practically beg Trump to change it up. He’s not listening. – At a rally Wednesday in Asheville, N.C., Trump called Harris “crazy,” “stupid” and a “lunatic,” adding that “she’s not smart, she’s not intelligent.” He repeatedly derided her laugh, including saying that it’s “career-threatening. That’s a laugh of a person with some big problems.” And while the event was billed as a speech on economic policy, Trump made clear that wasn’t really his preferred topic.

► From The Hill (August 14) – Watch: Walz gives remarks at labor union convention in Los Angeles – Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz addressed members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union at their convention in Los Angeles Tuesday afternoon.

► From The Stranger (August 9) – Labor Organizer Melissa Demyan Could Unseat One of Washington’s Most Conservative Democrats – Demyan said she’s lobbied Springer over labor issues in her role as an organizer at IAM. The two have talked face to face, but the times Springer didn’t show up stand out to her the most. Demyan recalled a rainy afternoon last year that she spent on the steps of the state Capitol Building, advocating for legislation to guarantee unemployment insurance for striking and locked-out workers. Several House Democrats came out to show their support, but not Springer. Springer joined Republicans as one of five Democrats to vote against the bill, which later died in the Senate.

Editors’ note: The WSLC solely endorsed Demyan in May.

INTERNATIONAL

► From Reuters (August 13) – Samsung Electronics’ main South Korea union to strike over pay from Thursday – Samsung Electronics’ biggest workers’ union in South Korea said on Tuesday it would begin a four-day strike from Thursday to pressure the company over higher wages and bonuses after talks with management fell through in July. 

► From Vox (August 15) – Mpox never stopped spreading in Africa. Now it’s an international public health emergency. Again. – A new and deadlier version of mpox is spreading internationally. In recent months, cases and deaths were being detected only in parts of central and east Africa, but on Thursday, Sweden confirmed its first case. The announcement comes just one day after the World Health Organization declared mpox an international public health emergency for the second time in two years.

JOLT OF JOY

SEIU 6 held a Back to School celebration for union families over the weekend. Worker solidarity + cute kids = 🥰

The STAND posts links to Washington state, national, and international news of interest every Friday morning.