IAM, Boeing meet | WOC lead Labor | AI

Monday, October 7, 2024

MACHINISTS STRIKE at BOEING

► From Financial Times — ‘They’re just mad’: Boeing strikers prepare for long haul — Among a collection of labour movement paraphernalia on display at the Seattle union hall, one pin stands out: the machinists’ emblem, printed with the words “We cower to no one!” With wages having risen 4 per cent between 2016 and 2024, Boeing’s latest offer to lift them 30 per cent over four years is “just offering me a loss”, said Chris Cerovich, a union steward and quality assurance lead at Boeing’s spare parts centre in Seattle. “Who wants to accept a loss?”

► From KOMO — Boeing, union of striking machinists to resume negotiations Monday — This will be the third time Boeing and IAM District 751 have met to negotiate since 33,000 workers went on strike Sept. 13. The machinists have demanded a 40% pay increase and to have their pensions reinstated. Pensions were removed as part of contract negotiations in 2014. On Friday, SPEEA, the union for aerospace professionals at Boeing, approved sending $16,500 to IAM District 751’s hardship fund every two weeks to support workers who are going without a paycheck. The funds will be sent for the next three months if the strike lasts that long, up to $99,000 total.

► From IAM 751:

Day 23 – Strike Update
October 5, 2024

Holding the Line Overnight!

It’s always a challenge to fill the strike line for the overnight and weekend shifts. That’s why when we hear about someone like 751 Member Rachel, who has been consistently walking the overnight picket shift… pic.twitter.com/wXpHVbhEWA

— IAM Union District 751 (@IAM751) October 6, 2024

STRIKES

► From WHYY News — Philly stadium workers end strike for Phillies playoffs, but continue call for Aramark boycott — Unionized concession workers at Citizens Bank Park will be back on the job this weekend after ending a four-day strike just in time for the start of the Phillies’ playoff run. Workers still don’t have a contract with concession operator Aramark, and they’re calling for fans to boycott the merchandise shops at the ballpark. The retail boycott is part of what the union describes as an “ongoing campaign to win family-sustaining wage increases and healthcare coverage for stadium workers at all the sports-complex facilities.”

LOCAL

► From the Washington State Standard — As federal funding for crime victims plummets, advocates ask WA lawmakers for help — Sherrie Tinoco has never been more frightened about the future of her work helping survivors of domestic violence than she is right now. That’s because the main funding source for victim services in Washington is projected to be cut in half before the end of next year. It’s called the Victims of Crime Act State Plan, and it funds services for around 52,000 crime victims a year.

► From Cascade PBS — As gun violence increases in the PNW, so does its toll on doctors — For those who witness firearm injuries over and over again while on the clock, these acts of violence are a major source of psychological strain, vicarious trauma and frustration. Many feel powerless in the face of injuries and deaths they believe should never have occurred in the first place. Seattle may not be known as an epicenter of gun violence, but it is one for treating injuries caused by guns, especially at Harborview, the state’s only level-one trauma center and a destination for patients throughout the Northwest.

► From the Spokesman Review — Inflation rate is slowing. So why isn’t it making a difference for so many Spokane residents? — While prices for goods, like groceries, have stabilized, the numbers show that the cost of services, which includes car insurance, doctor visits, utility costs and the price of fixing homes and automobiles, continues to rise. “Those problems aren’t going to go away, because the problems in insurance markets are tied to increasing risk because of climate,” he said. “You can have a situation where the insurance market in big parts of the country simply fails. It’s bad when you can’t afford it, but it’s worse when you can’t find it at all.”

► From Cascade Daily News — Whatcom, Skagit counties among first in state to include climate change in comp plan updates — In the face of worsening droughts, increasingly smoky summers, devastating floods and rising sea levels, local governments in the region must plan for climate change, thanks to a new state law adopted in 2023. Skagit and Whatcom counties and their resident cities will be some of the first jurisdictions in Washington to include climate-related hazards and emissions reduction in their comprehensive plans.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From LAist — AI is again at the center of Hollywood labor negotiations. This time with animators — The union — a chapter of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees — is seeking protections from generative AI, as well as pay equity and guardrails from subcontracting. Like the writers and actors strikes of last year and the ongoing video game performer walkout, the 6,000 artists, technicians, writers and production workers say this negotiation is critical to the fate of their industry.

► From the Washington Post — Dockworkers union asserts ‘absolute, airtight’ anti-automation stance — Ports along the East and Gulf coasts reopened on Friday, after the ILA and an employers group announced the wage deal Thursday night. But the pay fight was just half of the battle. The two sides agreed to extend their previous contract, which expired Sept. 30, through Jan. 15 to allow talks to continue on the remaining issues. None looms larger than automation.

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!

ORGANIZING

► From The Nation — Ballet Dancers’ Next Move: Union Organizing — Griff Braun, AGMA’s National organizing director and a former ballet dancer, has seen younger dancers passionate about a good career leading that push. “Forming a union is an act of love in a sense,” Braun said. “If you hated the place you worked you would just leave. It’s people who want to stay that want to make it better who form a union. I think that’s an important thing for people to keep in mind and I wish some of our employers would recognize that sooner that these artists are doing this not to hurt the company but to help the company.”

► From Reuters — Ex-Starbucks CEO Schultz’s comment to union supporter was illegal, NLRB rules — Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz violated federal labor law by telling a barista in California who criticized the coffee chain’s response to a nationwide union campaign to “go work for another company,” the National Labor Relations Board has ruled. “Schultz’s generic assurances against retaliation at the opening of the meeting hardly lessened the objective tendency of his invitation to quit to have a coercive effect on … the employees in attendance, particularly given his surrounding explicit references to the Union,” the board said.

NATIONAL

► From the AP — As affordable housing disappears, states scramble to shore up the losses — While Americans continue to struggle under unrelentingly high rents, as many as 223,000 affordable housing units across the U.S. could be yanked out from under them in the next five years alone. It leaves low-income tenants caught facing protracted eviction battles, scrambling to pay a two-fold rent increase or more, or shunted back into a housing market where costs can easily eat half a paycheck.

► From the AP — US court to review civil rights lawsuit alleging environmental racism in a Louisiana parish  — The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans is reviewing a lawsuit filed by community groups claiming St. James Parish “intentionally discriminated against Black residents” by encouraging industrial facilities to be built in areas with predominantly Black populations “while explicitly sparing White residents from the risk of environmental harm.”

► From the Charlotte Observer — Helene fact check: Here are the rumors and the reality in Western North Carolina — “Misinformation can spread quickly after a disaster, causing confusion and distrust within communities struggling to recover,” the Red Cross said in a statement. “Unfortunately, we’re seeing this during our response to Hurricane Helene.”

Editor’s note: while leaping lords of industry push conspiracy theories to misinform, you can find accurate, local coverage of the ongoing disaster relief efforts in western NC from the Charlotte Observer and the Asheville Citizen-Times. 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the AP — The Biden administration isn’t extending a two-year program for migrants from 4 nations — The program began in 2022 with Venezuelans and was an effort to provide an alternative legal pathway for migrants who were increasingly coming to the U.S.-Mexico border while the administration simultaneously cracked down on illegal crossings. It later expanded to Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans — the nationalities of the migrants who most frequently tried to cross the border. The program allowed them to live and work in the U.S. for two years while they sought other legal status.

► From the Washington Post — Vance says Trump administration would end funding to Planned Parenthood — Ending federal funding for Planned Parenthood “would only deepen and expand the public health crisis we’re already in thanks to Donald Trump, causing more people to suffer and die for lack of basic reproductive care,” Lawson said in a statement.

► From The New York Times — Trump’s Plans Could Increase U.S. Debt While Raising Costs for Most Americans — The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group that seeks lower deficits, found that Mr. Trump’s various plans could add as much as $15 trillion to the nation’s debt over a decade. That is nearly twice as much as the economic plans being proposed by Vice President Kamala Harris.

TODAY’S MUST-READ

► From the AP — More Black and Latina women are leading unions — and transforming how they work — Black and Latina women are starting to gain ground, landing top positions at some of the biggest unions in the U.S. That has translated into wins at the bargaining table that focus more attention on family-friendly benefits like parental leave and health care coverage, as well as protections against sexual harassment. Often when people think about unions, “they think of a white guy in a hard hat. But in fact, studies show that about two-thirds of working people who are covered by a union contract are women and/or people of color,” said Georgetown University labor historian Lane Windham.

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