Boeing’s PR tactics | Fall strike wave | Student loan debt

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

MACHINIST STRIKE at BOEING

► From Reuters — Boeing proposes ‘final’ offer to striking workers; union rejects vote — “Logistically we don’t have the ability to set up a vote for 33,000 people in a few days like that anyway. Plus, it missed the mark on many of the things our members said were important to them,” said Jon Holden, the president of IAM District 751 who is the lead negotiator on the Boeing contract. He said the union planned to survey members on Monday evening to get their views on the latest Boeing proposal. “We are not obligated to vote (on) their offer,” Holden said in an interview with Reuters.

► From KOMO — Boeing sends union leaders ‘best and final offer’ on 11th day of strike — In response, the machinists’ union in a statement sent to KOMO News noted frustration that this latest offer was never discussed with their union before it was made public, even though they’ve been trying to meet with Boeing leaders at the bargaining table. It’s a similar sentiment we heard from workers still on strike, they say, until they get better pay, bonuses and retirement. They added the latest proposal still doesn’t go far enough to address their concerns, and is a sign of disrespect to their members and the bargaining process.

Today at The STAND — ‘This is our fight, and our decision’ — In effect, Boeing offered a deal yesterday that was never negotiated with the union, that failed to meet workers’ needs, and that the workers wouldn’t have been able to vote on anyway.

Here’s how you can support Machinists holding the line. NEW: donate to the IAM hardship fund!

STRIKES

► From Yahoo — Hotel workers across the country keep going on strike — More than 13,500 total hotel workers have walked off the job at some point in the past three weeks in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Hawaiʻi, Washington, and California. At the Hilton San Diego Bayfront, 720 workers have been on indefinite strike since Sept 1.

► From CBS News — Aramark workers go on strike at 3 South Philadelphia stadiums — Workers from all three facilities voted to authorize the strike, which is “part of an ongoing campaign to win family-sustaining wage increases and health care coverage for stadium workers at all three stadiums,” the announcement from the union said.

► From Yahoo — Textron Aviation workers go on strike — On Saturday, the Machinists union voted to strike despite the negotiating committee’s recommendation to approve the company’s new contract offer. Workers on the picket line do not believe the contract is fair and are willing to stay off the job. “I’m willing to go for months…” Jacob, one of the striking workers, said.

LOCAL

► From the Seattle Times — Seattle Public Schools retreats from school closure proposals — “While our financial challenges are real and it’s our fiscal responsibility to resolve them, it is very clear we need more time to listen and earn your trust as we resolve our structural deficit and revisit our timeline,” [Superintendent] Jones said. “I am sorry our proposed options created anxiety for many families who rely on the key programs and innovations within our schools. We are retooling our plans to address these concerns.”

► From the Washington State Standard — Error by state budget writers could cost WA community colleges a bundle — Last month, the Office of Financial Management informed officials at the state Board for Community and Technical Colleges that a $28,527,000 appropriation had been “duplicated” in the current budget and “needs to be unallocated to colleges,” according to a memo to board members. In an Aug. 22 letter, former OFM Director David Schumacher said that “to address the error” Gov. Jay Inslee will seek to get the money back in the 2025 supplemental budget. To do so will ultimately require action by lawmakers and the next governor.

► From the Seattle Times — Income inequality grew in Seattle since the pandemic, new data shows — In this case, the rising tide hasn’t lifted all boats. It seems to have just lifted the yachts. The census data shows that for the 20% of city households at the top of the income ladder, things are going great. Their earnings averaged $439,000 in 2023. That’s up a whopping $82,000 from 2019, or a nearly 23% increase. But for the 20% of households at the bottom, incomes averaged just $21,000. That figure is up just $1,900, or almost 10% from 2019, a small estimated increase that is not statistically significant.

► From the Olympian — Average student loan debt increased in first half of 2024 in Washington — Most generations in the U.S. are still managing student loan balances averaging more than $40,000. Generation X, the eldest of whom turn 60 next year, owe the most on their student loans, on average.

► From the Washington State Standard — Conversion of Washington ferry to hybrid-electric power is delayed – When Washington State Ferries took its Jumbo Mark II vessel, the Wenatchee, out of service last September to convert it from diesel to hybrid-electric power, the plan was for the boat to be back in action sometime around late summer this year. The agency now says it anticipates the project will take until summer 2025 to complete.

► From the Seattle Times — New data shows scale of anti-Asian violence, harassment in Seattle — Nearly two in five Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander residents living in Seattle said they have been a victim of an anti-Asian incident in the past year, according to a new study. Among the most troubling findings: 30% of respondents said in the past 12 months they were called names or insulted, 24% were harassed or threatened and 20% were physically attacked.

► From the Seattle Times — With Kroger-Albertsons merger on the line, CEOs grilled in Seattle court — The state contends that both companies are highly profitable and, based on their own financial statements, would continue to be profitable even if the merger is blocked. Under questioning by Glenn Pomerantz, an outside attorney representing the state, Kroger’s McMullen acknowledged that he had recently told investors that even if the federal judge blocked the merger, “Kroger is operating from a position of strength” and that he was “optimistic about Kroger’s future” and “that Kroger has many ways to drive sustainable growth.”

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From CBS — Port officials brace for potential strike by dockworkers along the East Coast — The ILA has threatened to strike if a new labor agreement with East Coast port terminal and shipping companies represented by the USMX is not reached by the time the current contract expires on October 1. Although the sides continue to negotiate, the odds of a rare strike that threatens to shut down some of the nation’s busiest ports are rising.

ORGANIZING

► From Variety — WGA East President Lisa Takeuchi Cullen Marks One Year Since Writers Strike Ended: We’re ‘Fighting Back Against the Scourge of Unpaid Development’ — “We are navigating the post-strike landscape in film and TV. Our solidarity over the 148-day strike won film and TV writers a groundbreaking contract addressing the existential threats to our profession,” Takeuchi Cullen wrote in the letter to members obtained by Variety. “This summer, we held a series of member gatherings to hear your experiences and concerns over the year since. Members reported benefiting from contract gains including staff-writer script fees, higher pay in pre-greenlight rooms and MBA terms for Appendix A in streaming, but for many the top concern remains getting back to work.”

NATIONAL

► From the New York Times — Government Watchdog Calls F.A.A. Air Traffic Control Systems Critically Outdated — A Government Accountability Office evaluation of the F.A.A.’s 138 air traffic controller systems found that 51 are considered unsustainable, while another 54 are deemed potentially unsustainable, according to a report released on Monday. The accountability office said many of those systems “have critical operational impacts” on air traffic safety and efficiency. Many of them are also facing “challenges that are historically problematic for aging systems,” according to the report.

► From NBC 12 News — ‘Most tragic example of our employer’s lack of transparency’: Wells Fargo union responds to Tempe employee found dead at desk — “We are saddened and outraged by the devastating tragedy and loss of our coworker,” the [union’s] letter said. “This tragedy reminds us why it is so important for us to have a true voice and exercise our rights at work.”

► From the AP — More women are charged with pregnancy-related crimes since Roe’s end, study finds — In the year after the U.S. Supreme Court ended the nationwide right to abortion in its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, at least 210 women across the country were charged with crimes related to their pregnancies, according to the report released by Pregnancy Justice, an advocacy organization. That’s the highest number the group has identified over any 12-month period in research projects that have looked back as far as 1973.

► From the AP — Maryland sues the owner and manager of the ship that caused the Key Bridge collapse — Officials announced a new lawsuit Tuesday that echoes several other recent filings alleging the ship’s Singapore-based owner and manager, Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and Synergy Marine Group, knowingly sent an unseaworthy ship into U.S. waters. Six construction workers were killed when the ship rammed into one off the bridge’s support columns, causing the span to topple into the water. Their families have also sued the companies.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Spokesman Review — ‘We’re not going to stay silent’: Local Haitian immigrants speak out after Trump’s dog-eating comment — Jasmin, the executive director of Creole Resources, and others have been speaking out against the remarks, saying the conversation has raised fear among local community members, especially after bomb threats hit the Ohio city. Jasmin also said multiple members of the Haitian community have approached her, expressing fear about what might happen in the coming months, including concerns about deportation. “I keep telling all the Haitians, ‘You matter. Don’t let anybody put you down,’ ” Jasmin said. “We’re not going to stay silent.”

► From the New York Times — Trump Stokes Fears About Haitian Migrants in Charleroi, Pennsylvania — Former President Donald J. Trump vilified the migrant population of a small western Pennsylvania industrial town during a rally in the swing state on Monday, likening a group of Haitians who have made it their home to those in Springfield, Ohio, another place that was not well-known until he put it onto the political map. “You have to get them the hell out,” Mr. Trump said about migrants in Springfield at his rally on Monday. The crowd responded with chants of “send them back!”

► From the Washington Post — Latest strategy in fighting election skepticism: Radical transparency — “When you know in your soul there is nothing to hide, being open about the process is a no-brainer,” said Pinal County Recorder Dana Lewis (R), who helps oversee elections. “Even when you pull the curtain back, there are still people who lurk in the shadows, but we are going to continue to try with logic, accuracy and reason to combat the narrative of distrust in the elections process.”

INTERNATIONAL

► From Reuters — Canada’s Unifor union ratifies two-year contract with General Motors — “For the first time Unifor has successfully negotiated a two-year contract term that will align CAMI members with the union’s Detroit Three negotiations to combine the future bargaining power of more than 5,600 GM members,” Unifor National President Lana Payne said.

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