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IAM called it | Farmworkers & bird flu | AI

Monday, October 28, 2024

 

MACHINISTS STRIKE at BOEING

► From the Seattle Times — OPINION | At Boeing, it’s the strike of the long memories — “For more than a generation, Boeing’s unions have been screaming that management was destroying the company,” said Gautam Mukunda, a professor at the Yale School of Management, in a recent interview. “And at this point, basically everyone looks at Boeing and says ‘well, the unions were right.’ The Machinists have been carrying strike signs that read “No pension, no planes!” That formula seems clear enough. The company counters that pensions are impossible — despite the spectacle in March of its ousted Commercial Division CEO, Stan Deal, leaving with a pension set to pay him more than $315,000 per month. Overcoming gaudy hypocrisy like that demands big gestures.

► From IAM 751:

► From the Seattle Times — Boeing Launches $19 Billion Share Sale to Thwart Downgrade — The infusion of funds would clear one of new Chief Executive Officer Kelly Ortberg’s most urgent tasks. He is grappling with a balance sheet strained by years of turmoil and the fallout from a strike, now in its seventh week, that is crippling manufacturing of the company’s main cash cow, the 737 Max jetliner. Boeing needs the capital infusion to maintain its investment-grade rating and fund its production ramp-up once the walkout ends.

STRIKES

► From The Hollywood Reporter — SAG-AFTRA Video Game Negotiations Extended Amid Strike — SAG-AFTRA and a coalition of video game companies have extended negotiations after returning to talks for three days but failing to reach a deal. The union announced the decision on Saturday, adding that dates were not yet set and would later be announced. Meanwhile, the union’s strike against employers signed to its Interactive Media Agreement -— which is nearing its 100-day mark — continues.

Editor’s note: hotel workers remain on strike across the country. Here in Washington, hotel workers are continuing their fight for a fair contract:

LOCAL

► From the Tri-City Herald — More egg farm workers sick with avian flu. CDC sends help for Eastern WA outbreak — The number of workers at a Franklin County commercial egg farm who have now tested positive for avian influenza has increased to eight, according to preliminary test results. The workers in Franklin County known or suspected to have avian influenza were infected by their work in heavily contaminated environments as they cared for the chickens and then euthanized them at a large egg-producing farm near Pasco. Benton Franklin Health District has set up a makeshift clinic at the Franklin County farm and has taken nasal or eye swabs to test 69 workers, said Carla Prock, senior manager of community health in the district.

► From the Seattle Times — Seattle ranks high on AI hiring, but the job hunt isn’t always easy — Seattle is among the nation’s top AI hubs. Just how high it ranks depends on who is doing the analysis — but no matter how researchers slice it, the city has employers that want workers with AI skills and people who want to work on the latest tech innovation. Chmura Economics and Analytics, a consulting and data firm based in Virginia, found that job postings requiring AI skills in the Seattle metro area grew 166% over the last year, to about 3,200 open positions.

► From the Yakima Herald — Yakima airport officials tout electric aircraft possibilities during Cantwell visit — Hodgman updated Cantwell and her staff members attending Friday’s discussion on efforts of six airports across Washington to obtain a federal grant for airplane charging infrastructure. Besides Yakima, the airports include Chehalis-Centralia, Friday Harbor, Port Angeles, Everett’s Paine Field and Boeing Field in Seattle. This could be the start of point-to-point electric air service between these airports, Hodgman told Cantwell, and the beginning of a regional electric aviation network.

 

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From KMTR 16 — 94% of Benton County union members vote to strike, citing unfair wages and safety — An overwhelming number Benton County workers, represented by the Oregon AFSCME, have voted in favor to strike as of Thursday, October 24, 2024. The decision comes after months of negotiations aimed at better wages and safety measures for county workers. According to the Oregon AFSCME, they’ve been at the bargaining table for months, since February, with the county.

► From the Detroit News — UAW holding strike authorization vote for GM Indiana truck plant — United Auto Workers Local 2209 is holding a vote on Wednesday on whether to strike General Motors Co.’s Fort Wayne Assembly Plant in Indiana that produces full-size trucks, according to a letter from the local’s leadership. The union and Detroit-based automaker have been in a tussle over the use of temporary workers to help build the profit-rich Chevrolet Silverados and GMC Sierras there.

► From the Metro Philadelphia — SEPTA union authorizes strike if no deal reached next week — The contract for Transport Workers Local 234’s City Transit Division expires at 11:59 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7. If no deal is reached by then, more than 4,300 employees are expected to walk off the job, halting service on the Market-Frankford and Broad Street Lines and all city bus and trolley routes. Brian Pollitt, Local 234’s president, said securing safety improvements and increased pay will be key for any agreement.

 

NATIONAL

► From the AP — Autonomous tech is coming to farming. What will it mean for crops and workers who harvest them? — But many small farmers and producers across the country aren’t convinced. Barriers to adoption go beyond steep price tags to questions about whether the tools can do the jobs nearly as well as the workers they’d replace. Some of those same workers wonder what this trend might mean for them, and whether machines will lead to exploitation.

► From the Seattle Times — 1 million+ patients lose coverage as insurers, hospitals drop Medicare Advantage — Medicare Advantage is popular among large employers, many of which are shifting their Medicare-age retirees into these plans. And most states offer Medicare Advantage plans to retired state employees; in 13 states, it’s the only option. In some of those 13 states, retirees forfeit their health benefits in perpetuity if they choose coverage under traditional Medicare.

► From the AP — Researchers say AI transcription tool used in hospitals invents things no one ever said — Tech behemoth OpenAI has touted its artificial intelligence-powered transcription tool Whisper as having near “human level robustness and accuracy.” But Whisper has a major flaw: It is prone to making up chunks of text or even entire sentences, according to interviews with more than a dozen software engineers, developers and academic researchers. Those experts said some of the invented text — known in the industry as hallucinations — can include racial commentary, violent rhetoric and even imagined medical treatments.

► From the New York Times — How Taxpayers Are Helping Health Insurers Make Even Bigger Profits  — From southern Florida to the Pacific Northwest, local governments have paid similar fees, often with little awareness that their taxpayer dollars have become a lucrative revenue stream for some of the nation’s largest insurers, according to a review of documents obtained in two dozen public records requests and interviews with city and county officials and benefits consultants.

 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Guardian — US union members door-knock in swing states for Harris: ‘It’s a no-brainer for us’ — “It’s important that I’m out door-knocking and canvassing because Kamala, she supports a lot of the things that I’m faced with, that a lot of American people are faced with, like ending price gouging, supporting the right to make a decision for your own body, and the tips,” said Morlaina Bruce, a guest room attendant at Circus Circus in Las Vegas, Nevada and member of the Culinary Union for seven years. “I’m concerned about the hatred that Trump has put out there, the division, and the lies that he tells.”

►From the union-busting Columbian — Ballot drop boxes in Vancouver and Portland targeted by arson this morning, hundreds of ballots damaged — First responders pulled hundreds of actively smoldering ballots from the Fisher’s Landing ballot drop box about 6:30 a.m. this morning, according to KATU. Anyone who dropped a ballot in that drop box Sunday can contact the Clark County Elections Office to request a replacement at clark.wa.gov/elections.need-replacement-ballot. Voters can also call or email the elections office.

► From the Seattle Times — Here’s how you can register online to vote Nov. 5 in WA — Monday, Oct. 28, is the last day to register online for the Nov. 5 general election. You can register online at votewa.gov by clicking the “Register to Vote” tab. You will need a current Washington state driver’s license, permit or ID card. If you don’t have any of those, you can use the last four digits of your Social Security number to register.

► From the Spokesman Review — Economists: Higher tariffs would hurt Washington farmers, consumers — Randy Fortenbery, agricultural economics professor at Washington State University, said India was a major apple buyer from Washington before the previous tariffs placed on aluminum and steel under Trump. “Our apple imports to India went to almost nothing,” Fortenbery said. “In a trade war, they will always focus on U.S. agriculture. That’s our surplus sector. We have already seen declines in exports to China this year, but tariffs would exacerbate that situation.”

► From Cascade PBS — Indigenous candidates hope to boost representation in WA state — Tribal leaders have full plates within their own governments, guiding planning for economic development, housing, health care and climate change adaptation. But they say a Native voice on shared issues is important in a state that exists within the historical territories of 29 federally recognized tribal nations. They see tribal nations and the state as partners within a shared geography with challenges that know no bounds.

► From the AP — Philadelphia DA says he is suing Elon Musk’s America PAC over its $1 million giveaway — The suit by Democratic District Attorney Larry Krasner is the first legal action to be brought over the America PAC’s sweepstakes offering $1 million every day until Nov. 5 to a person in a battleground state who has signed a petition supporting the Constitution.

 

INTERNATIONAL

► From the AP — Volkswagen’s employee council says the automaker plans to close at least 3 German plants — The IG Metall industrial union sharply criticized VW’s reported closure plans. “We expect that, instead of cutback fantasies, sustainable concepts for the future be sketched out by Volkswagen and its management at the negotiating table,” regional union leader Thorsten Gröger said.

► From the AP — Blackout hits French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe as striking workers shut down power — Workers on strike shut down power across the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe on Friday, leaving its more than 370,000 inhabitants without electricity, officials said. Unionized workers have been on strike for nearly two months over salaries and other issues.

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