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Boeing back tracks | SAG-AFTRA strike | Anti-voting GOP

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

 

MACHINIST STRIKE at BOEING

► From IAM 751: “The survey results from yesterday were overwhelmingly clear, almost as loud as the first offer: members are not interested in the company’s latest offer that was sent through the media. Many comments expressed that the offer was inadequate and the company’s decision to bypass the Union was viewed as disrespectful.”

► From the Seattle Times — Boeing gives striking Machinists union more time to vote on latest offer — Boeing’s tactics have also puzzled some longtime observers of the planemaker’s labor relations. “It doesn’t make any sense,” Leon Grunberg, an academic who’s tracked Boeing labor relations for a quarter-century. “I don’t know if it’s a misstep from the CEO or people further down.” IAM District 751 President Jon Holden said in an interview late Monday that the offer was a non-starter. “They made movement, important movement on wages, but our members have higher expectations,” Holden said. “I think it makes it harder to get a deal if they’re going to attempt to go around our members’ elected bargaining committee.”

► From KOMO — Strikers at Boeing criticize company’s public approach to contract offer — John Lentz, a Boeing electrician who joined co-workers in waving strike signs along a side road near the Renton factory, said the way Boeing bypassed union negotiators in announcing the offer “seems to be kind of shady there. We do have people that are in place to negotiate for us.” John Reifel, who has spent nearly 25 years at Boeing, said the company was trying to make the strikers look unreasonable when they are only seeking to negotiate a contract for the first time in more than a decade.

 New IAM 751 hardship fund link added!

STRIKES

► From the Hollywood Reporter — SAG-AFTRA Calls Strike Against ‘League of Legends’ — The union charges one of the multiplayer game’s producers, Formosa Interactive, with attempting to work around its ongoing video game strike by hiring nonunion performers on a union game through a shell company. The union is responding by calling a work stoppage against League of Legends, a game that was not previously struck and is one of Formosa Interactive’s most well-known projects (the brand has also worked on God of War and Madden NFL 24).

 

LOCAL

► From the Washington State Standard — Inslee says opposition to wind and solar projects could slow use of AI –“Look, if you’re going to build a real clean energy economy, you can’t do just one thing. You have to do multiple things, which we’re doing,” Inslee said. He teamed with the Democratic-led Legislature to adopt a clean fuel standard and a policy to phase fossil fuels out of new building construction. Washington enacted a law requiring the state’s electric utilities to generate 100% of their power from renewable or zero-carbon resources by 2045.

► From the Tacoma News Tribune — Here’s something to honk about: Gas prices are down in Tacoma and WA, according to study — The average cost per gallon here was $3.95 as of the Sept. 23 news release. That number is also lower than it was a month ago by about 14.3 cents per gallon, according to the release. It’s nearly a dollar per gallon lower than a year ago, too.

► From The Stranger — Mayor Harrell Sacrifices $200 Million of Affordable Housing Rather Than Taxing the Rich — Mayor Bruce Harrell may pat himself on the back for balancing a $250 million shortfall in his newly unveiled 2025-2026 budget without levying any new taxes, but a broad coalition of 35 community advocacy and labor groups say it’s not the flex he thinks it is. The Mayor cut 159 City jobs, $80 million in City programming, and most audaciously, Harrell raided $330 million from JumpStart revenue, a pot of money earmarked for affordable housing and Green New Deal initiatives, and economic development for small business.

 

AEROSPACE

► From the Seattle Times — FAA boss: Boeing faces yearslong safety culture change — “There must be a shift in the company’s safety culture to holistically address its systemic quality assurance and production issues,” Whitaker said during his prepared remarks. “Our goal is to make sure Boeing implements the necessary changes and has the right tools in place to sustain those changes in the long term.”

► From KOMO — Boeing factory workers pressured to prioritize speed over quality, says FAA — Boeing workers felt a pressure to prioritize production speed over quality, according to the results of a U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee (PSI) special investigation released Wednesday. The report, which also found that Boeing factory workers said they did not receive enough training for work, was published ahead of a hearing Wednesday with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Michael Whitaker.

 

NATIONAL

► From Politico — Labor wants — and gets — a say over the future — The artificial intelligence boom has given new life to the ongoing debate over who gets to decide how new technologies shape society. Organized labor has increasingly elbowed its way into that debate, as some of America’s most prominent unions have used the threat — and potential promise — of AI as a wakeup call for workers whose jobs might be affected by it. In a new partnership with the National Science Foundation, shared first with Digital Future Daily, the country’s biggest labor organization will be involved in the research process for new technologies that could transform service work and other forms of manual labor.

► From the AP — Judge lets over 8,000 Catholic employers deny worker protections for abortion and fertility care — The judge also barred the EEOC from forcing the diocese and association to comply with harassment regulations meant to safeguard workers, writing “in a manner that would require them to speak or communicate in favor of abortion, fertility treatments, or gender transition when such is contrary to the Catholic faith.” The ruling targeted transgender employees who would be restricted from expressing parts of their gender identities.

Editor’s note: this Trump-appointed judge is using a position on IVF that only 13% of American catholics support to undercut workers’ rights. 

► From the AP — Passenger killed when gunman hijacks city bus, leads police on chase through downtown Los Angeles — “This operator continued to operate the bus in as safe a manner as he could under the circumstances, with the police trailing him for an hour before the spike strips finally took effect,” said Deputy Chief Donald Graham told reporters.

From ATU:

► From Common Dreams — Meet the 7 Corporations Doing the Most to Undermine Democracy Worldwide –“This is about power, who has it, and who sets the agenda,” Todd Brogan, director of campaigns and organizing at the ITUC, toldThe Guardian. “We know as trade unionists that unless we’re organized, the boss sets the agenda in the workplace, and we know as citizens in our countries that unless we’re organized and demanding responsive governments that actually meet the needs of people, it’s corporate power that’s going to set the agenda.”

► From the AP — It’s time to roll up sleeves for new COVID, flu shots — You can get your flu and COVID-19 shots at the same time. Don’t call them boosters — they’re not just another dose of last year’s protection. The coronavirus and influenza are escape artists that constantly mutate to evade your body’s immune defenses, so both vaccines are reformulated annually to target newer strains.

 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Washington Post — GOP asks court to change voting rules in one state, with impact for all — The case in Mississippi is one example of a nationwide effort by Republicans to invalidate mail ballots over issues unrelated to whether they were cast by a legitimate voter. Republicans say they want to ensure states strictly follow voting laws, while Democrats and voting rights advocates say Republicans are trying to throw out otherwise valid votes because Democrats have disproportionately embraced mail voting.

► From the Spokesman Review — Group behind Washington ballot initiatives accuses state of violating election rules — Under the state’s landmark climate policy called the Climate Commitment Act, a new rebate program was established to offset energy costs incurred by Washingtonians through sending $200 checks to eligible ratepayers. Let’s Go Washington alleges the Commerce Department planned to send these checks out before state residents vote on Initiative 2117, a ballot measure that would repeal the Climate Commitment Act if passed. State commerce officials denied the allegations Tuesday, saying the political action group took a sentence sent in a longer email thread out of context.

► From the Washington Post — Donald Trump says he will ‘protect’ women. Many don’t see it that way. — Donald Trump portrays himself as a “protector” of women, who as president will safeguard them from inflation, undocumented immigrants, crime and foreign threats he often speaks about in exaggerated terms. Women will “no longer be thinking about abortion,” since states now make their laws unilaterally, he declares, nodding to the end of Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to the procedure. And while American women are “more stressed and depressed and unhappy,” Trump says, “I will fix all of that, women.”

Editor’s note: women don’t need protection from undocumented immigrants. If anything, we need to protect our immigrant neighbors from Trump. 

 

INTERNATIONAL

► From Reuters — Workers at Vancouver grain terminals go on strike, exports could take hit — Workers at the six main grain terminals located in the Canadian port of Vancouver went on strike on Tuesday, a move that could disrupt exports of canola and other crops, government and industry officials said.

The Stand posts links to local, national and international labor news every weekday morning. Subscribe to get daily news in your inbox. 

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