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IAM, Boeing talks continue | Childcare | Tiktok sued

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

 

MACHINISTS STRIKE at BOEING

► From IAM 751 — “Although we met with Boeing and federal mediators all day, there was no meaningful movement to report. We will be back at it tomorrow, continuing to push the critical issues you’ve told us matter most.”

► From the Seattle Times — Boeing deliveries lag amid ongoing Machinists strike — With work at its factories in Renton and Everett temporarily paused, Boeing will continue to see the impact of the strike on its October delivery rates. Even before the labor dispute, Boeing had slowed work at its factories for most of this year after a panel blew off a 737 MAX plane midflight in January.

► From Barron’s — Boeing Strike: Why Every Day It Lasts Is a Bigger Problem for the Stock — Boeing can make money. It just needs to build the planes. It isn’t building many right now. No matter how secure Boeing’s backlog is no company can run through billions a month indefinitely.

 

STRIKES

► From Boston.com — More Boston hotel workers are on strike, this time indefinitely — On Sunday, close to 600 hotel workers at the Hilton Boston Park Plaza and Hilton Boston Logan Airport began an open-ended strike, demanding higher wages and better working conditions. The UNITE HERE Local 26’s strike impacts two of Boston’s busiest hotels. In a press release, the union said the strikers will not return to work until they reach an agreement with the hotel companies.

Editor’s note: support striking hotel workers in Boston, Hawaii and elsewhere by signing their pledge.

 

LOCAL

► From the union-busting Columbian — Washington among states suing TikTok, claiming its platform is addictive and harms the mental health of children — At the heart of each lawsuit is the TikTok algorithm, which powers what users see on the platform by populating the app’s main “For You” feed with content tailored to people’s interests. The lawsuits also emphasize design features that they say make children addicted to the platform, such as the ability to scroll endlessly through content, push notifications that come with built-in “buzzes” and face filters that create unattainable appearances for users.

► From the Washington State Standard — Child care subsidies expanding for some WA families — The expanded assistance will be available under a state law approved earlier this year and will be open to families enrolled in subsidized state child care programs for children under 3 and to staff at state-run preschools to cover care costs for their own kids. Washington’s programs for infants to 3-year-olds provide full-day care for eligible children paid for by the state or federal government.

► From the Spokesman Review — Spokane, Airway Heights earn state grants to speed up housing construction — The state Department of Commerce doled out $3 million to local jurisdictions to expedite the permitting process in an effort to increase housing supply – and therefore affordability. “The hope is there will be a shorter and more transparent permitting process at the local level, which will then help build more houses across the state,” said Valerie Smith, who oversees grant administration as the commerce department managing director for growth management services.

► From KOMO News — Ferry workers presented Life Ring Awards for 100+ lifesaving efforts — Just in the last year, 103 WSF employees assisted in dozens of 100 lifesaving events. “And having served at sea for half of my life I know there’s nothing more rewarding than sticking your hand out to help somebody in distress,” Capt. Mark McDonnell, Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound Commander who is also on hand for the award presentation.

► From the Tri-City Herald — Huge Tri-Cities warehouse fire cost taxpayers +$1 million. Law changes considered — The lessons learned from the Lineage cold storage warehouse fire in Finley could help not only in the Mid-Columbia region where increasingly massive industrial buildings are being built, but also in other areas in Washington and nearby states, they said after the recent meeting organized by the Benton Franklin Health District.

► From KOMO News — Dozens more first responders leave western Washington to help with hurricane aftermath — Pierce County Department of Emergency Management officials said 50 people will be heading to Atlanta, Georgia on Monday. A four-person K-9 search and rescue team is also going with the team. About 30 members from Pierce County arrived in the southeast region on Saturday. The two groups of first responders will meet in Atlanta on Tuesday and will either be deployed to Florida or North Carolina.

 

AEROSPACE

► From Wichita Business Journal — Spirit AeroSystems, SPEEA contract talks pause due to ‘chasm,’ Boeing strike-related uncertainty — Last week, SPEEA and Spirit exchanged contract proposals containing details on pay and other economic aspects. The current six-year agreement expires Dec. 1, and a new deal would cover more than than 1,000 SPEEA-represented engineers at Spirit’s Wichita plant. The union’s negotiating team was “disappointed by management’s valuation of the engineering workforce,” said Rich Plunkett, SPEEA’s director of strategic development, in a news release.

 

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From In These Times — After Historic Chattanooga Win, the UAW Is Bargaining for Better Conditions at Volkswagen — The VW workers and the UAW have plans, though, to make that process look a little different than it has in the past, and hopefully get to a solid contract that can be an example for autoworkers across the South and the country. Renee Berry has been at VW for 14 years, since the German managers brought over to open the plant still ran the shop floor. She’s worked ​“everywhere” in the plant in that time, from the body shop to assembly, logistics. She recalled falling on her knees when the third union election, this past April, was successful, when more than 2,600 of her coworkers, 73% of the workforce, voted to join the UAW.

 

ORGANIZING

► From the Hollywood Reporter — Chippendales Dancers Look to Unionize With Actors’ Equity — “We love Chippendales and value being a part of this incredible institution,” said the dancers leading this unionization effort. “But we also believe our situation here isn’t keeping up with industry standards. In order to continue providing the world-class entertainment that has always been the Chippendales calling card, we need to have a world-class workplace – and that means fair pay, decent benefits, safety and accountability.”

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 Common Dreams — Investing in Childcare Would ‘Massively Increase’ Parents’ Earnings: Study — The paper the researchers published with the National Bureau of Economic Research shows that parents whose children were selected in New Haven’s lottery had 11 more hours of childcare than those who weren’t able to benefit from the tuition-free universal pre-K program—enough to increase the parents’ earnings by 21.7% even after their kids moved on to elementary school.

► From the AP — Judge rules the FTC can proceed with antitrust lawsuit against Amazon, tosses out few state claims  — The order, issued last week by Judge John H. Chun and unsealed on Monday, is a major defeat for Amazon, which has tried for months to get the case tossed out in court. A trial in the case is slated to be held in October 2026. “We are pleased with the court’s decision and look forward to moving this case forward,” FTC spokesperson Doug Farrar said in a prepared statement. “The ways Amazon illegally maintains its monopolies and the harm they cause—including suppressed competition and higher prices for shoppers and sellers—will be on full display at trial.”

► From Yahoo — US Supreme Court denies Uber, Lyft bid to avoid California driver suits — The justices turned away appeals by the two companies of a California state appeals court’s ruling that let the Democratic-led state’s attorney general and labor commissioner pursue claims that Uber and Lyft owe money to drivers who were misclassified as independent contractors rather than employees.

► From the AP — Woman accusing Vince McMahon of sexual abuse asks WWE to waive confidentiality agreements — Grant says she was pressured into leaving her job with the WWE and signing a $3 million nondisclosure agreement. The lawsuit also seeks to have the agreement declared invalid, saying McMahon breached the deal by giving her $1 million and failing to pay the rest. Four other women — all formerly affiliated with WWE — signed agreements with McMahon that bar them from discussing their relationships with him, the Wall Street Journal reported in July 2022, citing people familiar with the deals and documents it reviewed.

 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From Politico — Kamala Harris to propose new Medicare home care benefit for seniors — The vice president will propose establishing a home care benefit through Medicare focused on helping families afford the cost of caring for seniors at home instead of in nursing facilities, according to a senior campaign official granted anonymity to share details of the proposal.

► From the Center for American Progress — 4 Lessons on Creating Good Manufacturing Jobs Through the Biden-Harris Administration’s Industrial Investments — The Biden-Harris administration’s industrial investments mark a turning point for economic policy that can help the United States regain competitiveness in several emerging sectors and create jobs across the economy. These investments include creating hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs that, at their best, provide routes to the middle class and offer a new generation of American workers decent wages and benefits and the freedom to unionize.

► From the Washington State Standard — California’s rent control ballot measure could reverberate across the US — If passed, the measure would give authority back to local governments to enact or change laws on rent control. For advocates, passing Proposition 33 would be a critical opportunity to address California’s housing crisis head-on. For the real estate industry, defeating Proposition 33 would mean maintaining the status quo in a market that has made billions for corporate landlords.

► From Common Dreams — 25 Islamic Clerics Urge Muslims Across US to Defeat Trump — “We are taught by our beloved Prophet Muhammad to ‘resist becoming angry,’ for it eats up goodness and overrides rational thinking,” the letter states. “Our lives in these United States of America are not in a vacuum, and as such the election choices, the decisions that we make are not either. They don’t just affect us, but all American citizens for years, maybe decades to come.”

 

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