Paras protest | Boeing layoffs | Fewer voters

Thursday, November 14, 2024

STRIKES

► From the Eugene Weekly — Local Labor Unions Rally and Support Statewide Strikes — The labor unions gathered in the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza in front of the county courthouse to rally support for the ongoing strikes against Franz Bakery and Bigfoot Beverages and call attention to other possible strikes. The Teamsters Local 206 and 324 — entering their 54th day on the picket line in front of Bigfoot Beverages locations across Oregon — were joined by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 114 who began their strike against Franz Bakery on Oct. 31.

LOCAL

► From the Tri-City Herald — ‘Hung out to dry.’ Paraeducators pack meeting after Richland schools pause layoffs — Paraeducators packed the Nov. 12, 2024, meeting of the Richland School Board to protest an initial plan to cut 34 positions. Richland’s school superintendent apologized this week for a hastily announced plan to cut 34 paraeducator positions to help correct a looming budget shortfall this school year.

AEROSPACE

► From the Seattle Times — Pink slips arrive for laid-off Boeing workers as company begins 10% cut — The full scope of the layoffs may not be clear for some time. An internal slide deck shared with The Seattle Times said Wednesday’s notifications were the first round of layoffs, with a second wave of workers expected to be notified in December, “if needed.”

► From KIRO 7 — Boeing employees brace for impact amidst first day of layoffs — Workers say the layoffs were focused on “white collar” and salaried positions. According to the union, IAM workers who were on strike earlier this month will not be affected by this round of layoffs. The union representing engineers and technical workers, SPEEA, says they have not been told about layoffs for its members, but anticipates them coming and is working to support anyone who does lose their job.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the AP — Flurry of contract deals come as railroads, unions see Trump’s election looming over talks — The flurry of contract agreements announced early this fall — including two more Wednesday — offer evidence that major railroads and their unions are working to avoid the standoffs that led them to a brink of a national strike two years ago.

► From the Everett (Herald) NewsGuild:

Carpenter Media presented the NewsGuild with a new wage proposal today, the company’s first in about six months.

It is, frankly, insulting.

Perhaps most egregious, the company proposed $1.00 an hour bonus for “meeting newsroom minimum standards of 2-3 bylines per day.”

— Everett NewsGuild ✊ (@EverettGuild) November 12, 2024

► From Denver 7 — Frontier Airlines pilots picket outside of corporate office in Denver, say they are ready to strike — Pilots have been negotiating a new contract with Frontier leaders for about a year after the current contract expired in January. The last time Frontier’s 2,200 pilots received a new deal was nearly six years ago. With the holiday travel season looming, the pilots said they don’t want to strike but are ready to do whatever it takes to reach a fair deal.

► From Reuters — US East Coast, Gulf Coast port union and employers still at odds over automation — That divide must be bridged before Jan. 15 to avoid a second port strike that would disrupt the nation’s flow of goods as importers and exporters prepare for potential upheaval from President-elect Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs on a broad swath of goods from China, Mexico and other countries. Leaders of the International Longshoremen’s Association union are dogged foes of automation, saying it will kill jobs.

ORGANIZING

► From the Oregon Capital Chronicle — Oregon’s largest union, SEIU 503, rejoins labor federation AFL-CIO after nearly 20 years — The partnership comes as the majority of SEIU’s members prepare to bargain for new contracts and as the labor movement braces for anticipated attacks from the federal government under Republican president-elect Donald Trump, who in his first term appointed anti-union officials to the Department of Labor and National Labor Relations Board and limited overtime protections.

NATIONAL

► From the Spokesman Review — Amazon makes it harder for disabled employees to work from home  — Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy says the return-to-office requirement will strengthen the company’s culture, which he believes has suffered since the pandemic and become overly bureaucratic. But the policy made Amazon a tech industry outlier and is seen by some employees as a way to get people to quit and shrink the workforce. Amazon has denied having an ulterior motive and says the new disability policy reflects its broader return-to-office philosophy. In 2023, after the rise of remote work, 22.5% of people with disabilities were employed, the highest percentage since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking the metric in 2008.

► From Yahoo Finance — Household Debt at New Record Is Squeezing Low-Income Americans — Higher debt levels for mortgages, auto loans, credit cards and student loans last quarter drove overall consumer debt to a new record of $17.9 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Households in the aggregate saw incomes rise more than their debt, but younger consumers and lower earners faced more strain, Fed researchers said.

► From the AP — Ford agrees to pay up to $165 million penalty to US government for moving too slowly on recall — The agency says Ford was too slow to recall vehicles with faulty rear-view cameras, and it failed to give the agency complete information, which is required by the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Act.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Washington Post — Democrats make last stand for unions ahead of Trump administration — In a final push to bolster union rights ahead of a Trump presidency, the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday banned employers nationwide from forcing workers to attend antiunion meetings. Separately, Democrats are also deploying a last-ditch effort to try to get the Senate to reconfirm NLRB Chair Lauren McFerran in the last December session, allowing the agency to maintain a Democratic majority and continue its labor-friendly rulings into the next Trump administration.

► From the Seattle Times — WA’s 2025 legislative session will feature new faces, big budget gap — The exact partisan makeup of the state Legislature is still fuzzy as ballots continue to get counted, but Democrats are expected to hold on to strong majorities when legislators convene in Olympia in two months. They might even pick up a seat or two. The session ahead won’t be smooth sailing. Lawmakers could face a budget shortfall of between $10 billion to $12 billion over the next four years.

► From Cascade PBS — WA voter turnout dropped for all ages — especially young people — As of Nov. 13, turnout for all age groups in Washington was 79.09% this year, about 5.7 percentage points lower than 2020. About 64% of registered voters 18 to 24 cast ballots this year — a decrease of about 8.5 percentage points from 2020.

► From the Washington State Standard — Poll contends most Latino men stayed loyal to Democratic candidates in 2024 — Henry Fernandez, CEO of the African American Research Collaborative, said “this election was not about one group moving towards the Republican Party, but instead a shift of virtually every group towards the GOP by relatively small but consistent margins, largely due to concerns about the cost of living. While voters of color voted majority for Harris and white voters, majority for Trump, this shift towards the GOP occurred across almost all groups, even those like younger voters that the Democratic Party has relied on for its future success,” Fernandez said.

► From the New York Times — What a Trump Presidency Could Mean for Social Security Benefits — President-elect Donald J. Trump has pledged to protect the program, but many policies he proposed on the campaign trail would weaken its already frail finances, depriving it of much-needed revenue. And plenty of influential Republicans have long called for cuts to the program.

INTERNATIONAL

► From CTV News — Labour minister pushes for ‘deal at the table’ after Canada Post union issues strike notice — According to a statement from the union representing Canada Post workers, it’s undecided whether job actions will take place immediately, though they’ll legally be in position to strike as of Friday. Next steps will be determined based on Canada Post’s actions at the bargaining table, the statement reads.

JOLT OF JOY

The Onion announced this morning that it acquired Alex Jones’ Info Wars in a bankruptcy auction, a move both righteous and deeply funny. Their announcement:

Today we celebrate a new addition to the Global Tetrahedron LLC family of brands. And let me say, I really do see it as a family. Much like family members, our brands are abstract nodes of wealth, interchangeable assets for their patriarch to absorb and discard according to the opaque whims of the market. And just like family members, our brands regard one another with mutual suspicion and malice. Read more. 

The Stand posts links to local, national and international labor news every weekday morning. The next edition will be Monday, November 18. Subscribe to get daily news in your inbox.