NEWS ROUNDUP

OR strikes | Ferguson’s transition | Organizing wave

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

 

STRIKES

► From the OPB — Oregon State University graduate workers strike for higher wages — After 14 months of contract negotiations, hundreds of OSU’s graduate student employees went on strike Tuesday. The graduate workers, many wearing pink shirts with the word “solidarity” on the front, marched along the quad and chanted sayings such as, “We won’t work, we won’t teach, until we can afford to eat.”

► From Oregon Nurses Association (call to action for our Oregon readers)

 

► From SAG-AFTRA

 

LOCAL

► From the Seattle Times — Former Rainier View principal discriminated against staff for union advocacy, review finds — The Seattle Education Association filed three unfair labor practices cases against the district in 2023, alleging interference and discrimination by Jones. While the decision focused on complaints at the 200-student Southeast Seattle school, the examiner proposed policy changes that would affect union members districtwide. The examiner directed SPS to stop interfering with employees’ right to organize and collectively bargain and to no longer consider employees’ union activities in job evaluations. The examiner also told SPS that it cannot discipline employees for including union representatives and co-workers on emails about wages, hours, working conditions or potential grievances.

► From the Washington State Standard — With WA courts’ online systems down, thousands of firearm sales on hold — The Administrative Office of the Courts announced Nov. 4 that the state’s Judicial Information Systems, Washington courts website and associated networks, and databases were taken offline after detecting “unauthorized activity.” Service is not expected to be fully restored until next week at the earliest.

► From Cascade PBS — Bob Ferguson continues fight against abortion pill restrictions — For years, abortion rights advocates and providers have argued that the restrictions on mifepristone are scientifically baseless and burdensome, pointing out that there are no similar requirements when mifepristone is prescribed for purposes aside from pregnancy termination. The Washington Attorney General’s Office agrees, saying that “The stigma and administrative burdens associated with becoming ‘specially certified’ to prescribe and dispense an abortion medication deters many health care providers and pharmacies from signing up to do so in the first place.” But without the FDA rules, “any qualified health care provider would be able to prescribe mifepristone — just as they can for any other prescription drug, including high-risk drugs such as opioids.”

 

AEROSPACE

► From Business Insider — Boeing begins a new chapter, resuming 737 Max production and giving $350 million to a troubled supplier — Beyond Boeing’s own issues, the aerospace industry as a whole has been hampered by constraints on the supply of both skilled labor and raw materials. That’s left Boeing with a backlog of around 5,400 commercial aircraft worth roughly $428 billion. Boeing’s path forward also includes a commitment to give $350 million in advance payments to Spirit AeroSystems, a key supplier that it plans to acquire next year.

 

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From Hawaii News Now — Thousands of hotel workers ratify new contract at major Waikiki hotels — Over 2,500 workers represented by UNITE HERE Local 5 voted to ratify a new contract at five Marriott-operated hotels in Waikiki. Their union says the contract comes with raises and a management commitment to address workload and staffing concerns.

►From UNITE HERE local 5

 

ORGANIZING

► From Skift — Flight Attendants Union Sees Opening at Delta: Labor Fight’s Next Phase — Flight attendants at Delta Air Lines may soon make another push to unionize as broader public support for organized labor creates momentum, according to the head of the largest U.S. flight attendants union. Nelson said Delta’s recent move to pay flight attendants for boarding time — unique among major U.S. carriers — was a direct response to union pressure. But she said to Skift Editor-in-Chief Sarah Kopit that it was also driven by the airline’s effort to attract and retain Gen Z talent. Many younger workers have different expectations about compensation and working conditions.

► From the Huffington Post — NLRB Bans Anti-Union ‘Captive Audience’ Meetings — In siding with Abruzzo and the Amazon workers, the board members overturned decades-old NLRB precedent that allowed for mandatory attendance under threat of punishment. They also set up what could be a protracted legal fight over the ruling, with employer groups all but certain to challenge the decision on First Amendment grounds.

► From Deadline — Intimacy Coordinators Vote To Organize With SAG-AFTRA — The group voted unanimously to organize with the guild in a National Labor Relations Board election, in hopes that the union will represent them in any dealings with the major studios, SAG-AFTRA announced Tuesday. The next step will be negotiating the group’s first contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

► 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 AP — USDA bans school lunch fees for low-income families — The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that students eligible for free or reduced price school meals cannot be charged processing fees beginning in 2027. School districts currently work with processing companies to offer cashless payment systems for families. But the companies can charge “processing fees” for each transaction. By law, students who are eligible for reduced price meals cannot be charged more than 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch. With processing fees, however, families can end up paying 10 times that amount.

► From the Washington Post — FTC antitrust case against Meta can move to trial, court rules— The renewed case has been widely viewed as a test of Khan’s aggressive enforcement efforts against the tech sector, which have come under fire from tech industry and business leaders but have been hailed by liberal Democrats and some conservatives, including Vice President-elect JD Vance.

► From the AP — Women’s baseball players could soon have a league of their own again — The Women’s Professional Baseball League (WPBL) announced plans last month to launch in 2026 as a six-team circuit for female players. If and when it debuts, it will be the first pro league for women since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League — the one immortalized in “A League of Their Own” — dissolved in 1954.

 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Washington State Standard — Ferguson names 53-person team to assist with transition into governor’s office — There’s representation from the business sector, like lobbyist Denny Eliason, and Dave Mastin, vice president of government affairs at the Association of Washington Business. Labor groups also get space with April Sims, president of the Washington State Labor Council, and Sterling Harders, president of Service Employees International Union 775.

► From the union-busting Columbian — Recounts likely in several Southwest Washington races — A machine recount is required when the difference between candidates is less than 2,000 votes and less than 1⁄2 of 1 percent of the total number of votes cast. The two candidates in the 18th District Senate race are still fewer than 300 votes apart. Democrat Adrian Cortes continues his lead with 41,358 votes (50.05 percent) to Republican Brad Benton’s 41,094 (49.73 percent), a 264-vote lead.

► From the Yakima Herald — House race between Manjarrez and Kennedy tightens; Gloria Mendoza wins seat  — The state House race between Republican Deb Manjarrez of Wapato and Democrat Ana Ruiz Kennedy of Pasco in the 14th District has tightened up, with 573 votes separating the two candidates. Yakima County has an estimated 6,000 ballots left to count, with 4,000 in Benton, 673 in Franklin and 1,153 in Klickitat.

► From the AP — Senate Republicans gather behind closed doors to pick new majority leader — Like McConnell, Thune hails from the Republican Party’s more traditional wing. He has held the Republican whip position — no. 2 in party leadership — since 2019. At times, Thune has countered Trump’s wishes for Congress, and he broke publicly with Trump over the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he called “inexcusable.” But in recent months, Thune has realigned with Trump, visiting him in his Florida home, and the two have been consulting on how to implement the incoming president’s agenda.

► From ABC — What Trump’s reelection means for union workers, according to experts — Such changes would likely make it more difficult for workers to form unions and negotiate workplace improvements, but the labor movement may withstand those headwinds since many of the factors that have driven its growth remain in place, experts said. “It’s going to be a dramatic change,” Paul Clark, professor of labor and employment relations at Pennsylvania State University, told ABC News. “But I don’t think you’ll see that momentum reverse overnight. In the long run, it’s harder to say.”

► From KALB 5 — ‘Social Security Fairness Act’ heads to U.S. Senate after resounding House floor vote — H.R. 82 aims to eliminate two Social Security provisions in the U.S., the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). According to Graves, these two provisions unfairly reduce or eliminate earned Social Security benefits for approximately 2.8 million Americans, who’ve devoted much of their careers to public service, including police officers, firefighters, educators and federal, state and local government employees.

► From the Spokesman Review — ‘Your body, my choice’: Harassment toward women surges online after Election Day — Phrases such as “your body, my choice,” promoted by white nationalist podcaster Nick Fuentes, saw a 4,600% increase on Wednesday, ISD said. Posts calling for repealing the 19th Amendment, which enabled women the right to vote in the U.S. about a century ago, surged 663% compared to the previous week. The post by Fuentes on X now has more than 58 million views since Tuesday. There were also signs that harassment extended into real life, in schools and university campuses. Young girls and parents have been sharing instances where “your body, my choice” were being directed at girls or being chanted by young boys in classes. 

► From the Seattle Times — Dow Constantine will not seek reelection as King County executive  — Constantine’s decision leaves an opening atop King County government next year. Metropolitan King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci immediately announced that she would run for the open executive position. Councilmember Girmay Zahilay also announced that he was “strongly considering” running for the office and would share his plans soon.

 

INTERNATIONAL

► From CNN — Canadian teen in critical condition with suspected bird flu; source of exposure is unknown –It is still unknown how the teen caught this strain of flu, which has been circulating widely in wild birds, poultry and some mammals, including cattle in North America since 2022. There have also been 46 confirmed human infections in the United States as part of the ongoing outbreak this year, mostly among farm workers tending infected animals.

Related: CDC calls for expanded testing for bird flu after blood tests reveal more farmworker infections

 

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