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NEWS ROUNDUP

Hanford | Mungia wins | SAG-AFTRA strike

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

 

STRIKES

► From Game Developer — SAG-AFTRA doesn’t want you to forget about striking workers during awards season — “At this time of celebration, it’s important not to lose sight of the fact that thousands of video game voice and movement performers have been on strike for 116 days, following more than 18 months of negotiations which failed to produce an agreement that includes fundamental consent, compensation and transparency guardrails around the use of AI.

► From KSNV — Culinary Union strike at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas enters fifth day — Aaron Mahan, a Virgin Hotel employee on strike, said, “I am fighting for myself and coworkers to continue the union standard of living. I felt this company wanted me to have that standard when they gave us that choice to be culinary members and now they’re trying to take that standard from us. I am asking for your support for me and my coworkers; we are fighting for the same contract everyone else got.”

 

LOCAL

► From Cascade PBS — Project 2025 calls for massive changes to Hanford nuclear cleanup — One Project 2025 idea recommends reclassifying highly radioactive wastes into something less dangerous so cheaper methods can be used to dispose of them. Another proposal is to speed up the cleanup by rerouting money to Hanford from a couple of huge Biden-era appropriations for jobs and infrastructure programs elsewhere. The third Hanford-related idea in Project 2025 posits that the state of Washington and the legally negotiated cleanup deadlines and standards are obstacles to completing the cleanup faster.

► From the Seattle Times — Seattle Public Schools may withdraw closure plans — Fu and others hope the district will pause the plan and not close any schools. They pointed to the Shoreline School District, which halted school closures because the demographer they hired found new data that didn’t support closures. “We want to fully fund schools,” Fu said. “While we are dealing with this and school closures, we haven’t lost sight.”

► From the Tri-City Herald — Benton County to sue WA after Inslee agrees to one of state’s largest wind farms — Benton County will appeal Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s approval of a wind farm stretching 24 miles along the Horse Heaven Hills after a unanimous vote Tuesday by county commissioners. The county joins Tri-Cities CARES, a nonprofit, which has been raising money with the goal of overturning the decision allowing the wind farm just south of the Tri-Cities or reducing the number of turbines allowed.

 

AEROSPACE

► From the AP — Delta CEO says the Trump administration will reverse government ‘overreach’ seen under Biden  — The airline industry has chafed under consumer-protection regulations imposed by the Biden administration. And Delta is facing a federal investigation into its slow recovery from a global technology outage this summer. Bastian did not specify which Biden regulations he considered overreach, but Delta and other carriers are suing the Transportation Department to kill a rule requiring greater transparency over fees that the carriers charge their passengers.

Editor’s note: breaking news, a CEO does not like accountability or limits on exploitative business practices. What a twist!

 

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From UNITE HERE 8:

► From ABC 6 — Potential triple strike involving SEPTA and Philadelphia city workers could ‘shut region down,’ union presidents say — The potential stoppages could affect more than 700,000 daily transit riders and services in the city of Philadelphia, including sanitation. “We’re going to try to avoid a stoppage, but if we have to draw a line in the sand, we’re going to draw a line in the sand,” said Brian Pollitt, the president of TWU Local 234. “If we all go out, we’re gonna shut the region down.”

Editor’s note: in the words of Philly-based labor reporter Kim Kelly…

 

ORGANIZING

► From the Dayton Daily News — Labor unions are a growing trend in health care industry — While health care has traditionally been an area of low union representation, growth in labor unionization in general has started to reach health care workers who want to have more of a voice in their organization. Nearly 30% of medical residents across the country have now unionized, Solomon said. Even going back just two years that number was around 17%.

► From UAW:

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 New York Times — Robots Struggle to Match Warehouse Workers on ‘Really Hard’ Jobs — Even though robots are starting to take over some repetitive and cumbersome jobs, there are still many tasks they are not good at, making it difficult to know when or if robots will be able to fully automate this industry. Despite the rise in automation, warehouses remain big employers of humans. Federal data show that nearly 1.8 million people work in this corner of the supply chain. While that number is down 9 percent from its peak in 2022, when logistics companies went on a hiring spree to handle the pandemic e-commerce boom, it is still up more than 30 percent since early 2020.

► From the AP — What to know about Transgender Day of Remembrance and violence against trans people — Transgender Day of Remembrance is marked every Nov. 20 and began in 1999 to honor Rita Hester, a trans woman who was killed in Massachusetts. Half the states have banned gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth. The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments next month in a lawsuit challenging Tennessee’s ban. Advocates say the legislation and rhetoric is creating fewer safe spaces for transgender people, and they worry it could spur more violence against trans people.

► From Business Wire — UNITE HERE Calls on Regulators to Investigate Marriott’s Resort Fees — Unite Here filed a request with the California Department of Consumer Affairs, asking regulators to investigate these destination fees, which are forcing consumers to pay for unsolicited goods.

 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Seattle Times — Sal Mungia defeats Dave Larson for open WA Supreme Court seat — Mungia led with just over 50% of the vote Tuesday afternoon, to 49.4% for Larson, a difference of about 21,000 votes out of more than 3.2 million counted. The Seattle Times is calling the race because, while counting continues, the Secretary of State’s office estimates only about 24,000 ballots remain to be counted.

► From the Washington State Standard — Inslee execs heading for exits as Ferguson prepares to take over as WA governor — Washington Secretary of Health Umair Shah said Tuesday he will step down next month, joining other state agency leaders planning to exit before Gov.-elect Bob Ferguson takes office. The other departing agency executives are Jilma Meneses, secretary of the Department of Social and Health Services; Sue Birch, director of the Health Care Authority; Cheryl Strange, secretary of the Department of Corrections; Ross Hunter, secretary of the Department of Children, Youth and Families; and Laura Watson, secretary of the Department of Ecology.

► From the AP — California voters reject measure that would have raised minimum wage to nation-high $18 per hour  — Proponents estimated that the measure would have benefited 2 million workers, including hotel and grocery employees. “Proposition 32’s failure to pass is disappointing for all Californians who believe that everyone who works should earn enough to support their families,” said Kathy Finn, president of UFCW 770, a Southern California union representing nearly 30,000 workers in various sectors.

► From the New York Times — Group Sues Justice Department for Gaetz Investigation Documents — A nonpartisan watchdog group has filed a motion in federal court seeking to compel the Justice Department to release all material relating to its now-shuttered sex trafficking investigation of Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick to be attorney general. The motion was filed on Tuesday night by the group, American Oversight, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

► From the New York Times — Harris Loss Has Democrats Fighting Over How to Talk About Transgender Rights — In a year when voters were so concerned about the economy and unhappy with President Biden, they argue, there is little hard evidence that transgender issues had a significant impact on the results. “I never heard it anywhere on the campaign trail,” said Representative Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, a Democrat. Mr. Pocan said that scapegoating a small and vulnerable group was “the ultimate misdirection” — and that the party instead needed to address its failure to deliver on the economic concerns of working-class voters.

 

INTERNATIONAL

► From the AP — Greece hit by general strike as thousands of workers protest over the high cost of living — Thousands of workers marched through the Greek capital Athens on Wednesday as part of a 24-hour general strike called by labor unions to protest the rising cost of living and timed to coincide with the government submitting the 2025 budget to Parliament.

► From the AP — Ford to cut 4,000 jobs in Europe, cites disruptive shift to electric vehicles, economic headwinds  — Ford said Wednesday most of the job cuts would come in Germany and would be carried out in consultation with employee representatives. Of the total, 2,900 jobs would be lost in Germany, 800 in Britain and 300 in other European Union countries. Ford has 28,000 employees in Europe, and 174,000 worldwide.

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