Fred Meyer boycott | Digital picket line | Farmworkers rally

Wednesday, September 4, 2024

STRIKES

► From Deadline — Writers At The Dodo & Thrillist Stage One-Day Strike Against Vox Media — Writers at The Dodo and Thrillist are staging a one-day walkout against their employers at Vox Media on Wednesday as part of an ongoing an effort to be recognized under the Vox Media Union contract.

Editor’s note: support our WGEA siblings today and don’t cross the digital picket line.

► From Reuters — Unite Here union says hotel workers’ strikes concluded in Baltimore, Seattle — The Unite Here union said on Tuesday strikes by U.S. hotel workers have concluded in Baltimore and Seattle, while 9,376 workers remained on strike in seven cities. The union has urged guests to not visit any hotel that is on strike, until the workers secure a new contract. About 40,000 Unite Here hotel workers across 20 cities face expiring contracts this year.

► From Oregon Live — UPDATE: Portland-area Fred Meyer workers end strike but call for boycott — Grocery workers at Portland-area Fred Meyer stores returned to work Tuesday after a six-day strike but called for a boycott of the grocery chain after reaching no deal on a labor contract.

Editor’s note: update from the union, UFCW 555

► From Reuters — Communications Workers of America withdraws from mediation with AT&T — “The company was using the mediation process as another delaying tactic,” said CWA District 3 Vice President Richard Honeycutt. More than 17,000 Workers represented by the CWA union, which include technicians, customer service representatives, and others who install, maintain, and support AT&T’s residential and business wireline telecommunications network, remain on strike which began last month.

► From Ithaca.com — UAW Members at Cornell Approve New Contract, Ending Strike — The vote, conducted on September 1 and 2, saw 77% of union members favor ratifying the deal, which was reached on August 28 after weeks of negotiations. “The tentative agreement has been ratified, and the strike is officially over,” said Lonnie Everett, UAW International Servicing Representative for Region 9, in the statement announcing the voting results. “Your unwavering solidarity and unity have led us to this historic moment.”

LOCAL

► From the Yakima Herald — Sunnyside mushroom farmworkers rally after more firings in August — Lorena Avalos, a UFW volunteer and organizer, said 13 sanitation workers were fired in August. She had communicated with the fired workers, though they had not publicly affiliated with UFW due to concerns about retaliation, she said. A current Windmill Farms worker, who asked that their name not be published due to concerns about retaliation, attended the rally. They were there to advocate for the fired workers, a less stressful work environment and changes to the disciplinary policy.

► From the Washington State Standard — Opponents of repealing capital gains tax highlight its role funding schools and child care — Repealing the capital gains tax will impact 171 school construction projects across the state: “almost one in each county,” [State Rep.] Orwall said. More than 75% of capital gains tax dollars have gone to school construction so far, according to a report from the Washington State Budget & Policy Center. The capital gains tax also increased state funding for child care programs by over $350 million.

► From the Spokesman Review — WSU receives $4.8M in funding for hydrogen fueling station and research — Coming from a pool of $62 million in grants, the funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy to “accelerate the research, development, demonstration, and deployment of next-generation clean hydrogen technologies,” according to the Department of Energy website. The grant program was announced in support of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda.

► From the Washington State Standard — ‘An ongoing issue’: Local leader addresses food insecurity in rural town — Jose Garza, facility manager and director of the Othello Food Bank, has been partnering with Second Harvest to help reduce food insecurity in Adams County. He said it has improved, but there is still a growing need because of the large agriculture industry in the area.“You have a lot of seasonal workers, farm workers, you have seniors, you know, middle class – and so the food insecurity is always going to be an ongoing issue in Othello,” Garza said.

► From the Tri-City Herald — WA energy council delays for 2nd time vote on huge wind farm south of Tri-Cities — The appointed council was expected to vote Aug. 29 on whether the project should be allowed with most of the turbines as proposed by Scout Clean Energy. It would stretch 24 miles along the Horse Heaven Hills just south of Kennewick.

AEROSPACE

► From Yahoo — Boeing Factory Worker Says ‘Pressure to Make Miracles Happen’ — The Seattle Times reported that at a recent union rally, Patric Boone, a machinist at the Everett plant, said employees are “overmanaged and undersupported.” “The house is on fire, and they’re concentrated on turning the lights off,” he added. “They’re not seeing the problem.”

Editor’s note: the latest from IAM 751

IAM/Boeing Contract 2024 Negotiations Update – September 3, 2024

We hope you enjoyed your Labor Day. Your Union committee was hard at work over the weekend, never missing an opportunity to bring your priorities to the forefront in every discussion with the company.

We are now… pic.twitter.com/kjRu9NU0r6

— IAM Union District 751 (@IAM751) September 4, 2024

► From NBC — Has Boeing shaken your confidence to fly? A new MIT study could restore it — As unnerving as recent headlines about Boeing may be, aviation safety is improving by the decade. The paper, published in the Journal of Air Transport Management in August, states that the risk of dying on a commercial flight globally was 1 per 13.7 million passenger boardings from 2018 to 2022 — a significant improvement from the decade before, and far cry from the one death for every 350,000 boardings that occurred between 1968-1977.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the union-busting Columbian — Vancouver teachers give new contract ‘lukewarm’ support but pass it anyway — The Vancouver Education Association ratified a contract with Vancouver Public Schools over the weekend, officially marking an end to monthslong negotiations that narrowly avoided a teacher strike. Union President Jamie Anderson said while the deal is a strong step for its classroom teachers and special educators, there’s still much work to be done to ensure class sizes can remain manageable amid budget reductions and increased student needs.

ORGANIZING

► From The Hollywood Reporter — Production Assistants Launch Ambitious Bid for Unionization With LiUNA — A veteran Hollywood union is backing an ambitious push to unionize film and television production assistants, a move that has the potential to reshape how many entry-level creatives break into the industry. With around 1,800 active and retired members, LiUNA currently represents utility workers in film and television — including electricians, plumbers, carpenters and sheet metal workers — a range of roles at Universal Studios Hollywood and billboard workers with Outfront Media. The production assistants push represents a bold play from the Local, one that could potentially augment its membership by thousands.

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 Chicago Sun Times — U.S. is falling behind in getting more women into building trades — AFL-CIO building and construction trade unions have found solutions to ensure women have access to the benefits they need to retain careers in the trades. Several building trade unions have adopted maternity leave policies and made it a priority in their collective bargaining process. Others are still negotiating with employers to prioritize parental leave benefits in contracts.

► From the AP — Labor Day hotel strikes reflect the frustrations of a workforce largely made up of women of color — Union President Gwen Mills says the strikes are part of long-standing battle to secure family-sustaining compensation for service workers on par with more traditionally male-dominated industries. “Hospitality work overall is undervalued, and it’s not a coincidence that it’s disproportionately women and people of color doing the work,” Mills said.

► From the St. Louis/Southern Indiana Labor Tribune — Lawmakers unveil federal Warehouse Workers Protection Bill — Alarmed at the safety threats warehouse workers face nationally, especially if they work for Amazon and Walmart, a bipartisan group of four representatives unveiled federal legislation to mandate bosses disclose production quotas and banning production methods that endanger warehouse worker health and safety.

► From the Seattle Times — Federal workers worry about Trump’s plans to uproot many of them — The Republican’s proposals stir anxiety in the midst of an unusually competitive U.S. Senate race in heavily Democratic Maryland that could determine control of the Senate, with even the Republican candidate calling the plans “crazy.” The proposals also could hinder Trump’s chances to win Virginia, a state he lost in 2016 and 2020, where a U.S. Senate seat widely seen as safely Democratic is also on the ballot.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From CNN — Harris to unveil new wave of economic policies for small businesses, communities, in economic speech Wednesday — Harris is expected to argue on the campaign trail that the revenue gained by rolling back certain provisions in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, one of former President Donald Trump’s signature achievements in his first term, should be used to fund community-level investments and other programs that affect Americans in a more targeted way. One close adviser told CNN that Harris believes the federal government should “use those expiring tax cuts to get at issues that affect the bottom line for the average American.”

► From the Seattle Times — WA lands commissioner recount results: Democrat Upthegrove poised to advance to general — King County Councilmember Dave Upthegrove appears to have secured his ticket to a November faceoff with Republican former U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler to become the next state commissioner of public lands. Unofficial results suggest there were no significant changes in the results, with many counties reporting no discrepancies. Every county except King certified their recount results on Tuesday. King had two other local recounts to complete on Tuesday and planned to certify their results Wednesday.

► From the Spokesman Review — Group behind state initiatives accused of violating state anti-corruption laws with discount gas, burgers — The complaint, filed with the state Public Disclosure Commission on Aug. 15, alleges that Let’s Go Washington’s offer of cheaper gas, and in one case food during promotional events for the four initiatives, ran afoul of the state’s anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws. “By giving voters discounts on gas and food, Let’s Go Washington seeks to buy support rather than win it through the strength of the initiatives themselves,” wrote attorneys on behalf of Defend Washington, an advocacy group formed to combat Let’s Go Washington.

Editor’s note: the WSLC, AFL-CIO has endorsed ‘NO’ votes on all three initiatives which seek to undo policies that Labor has fought to secure, like a capital gains tax to fund schools, the climate commitment act that creates union jobs, and long-term care insurance that provides security to working families.

TODAY’S MUST-READ

► From The New York Times — How NAFTA Broke American Politics — The passage of NAFTA remains one of the most consequential events in recent American political and economic history. Between 1997 and 2020, more than 90,000 factories closed, partly as a result of NAFTA and similar agreements. The coming presidential election, like the previous two, is likely to be determined by three of the “blue wall” states — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — which have all been ravaged by deindustrialization. In 2016, Donald Trump won those states, and the presidency, in part by railing against NAFTA (“the worst trade deal ever,” he called it). Exit polls showed that Trump won nearly two-thirds of voters who believe that free trade takes away American jobs.

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