Boeing’s confusing strategy | ‘Click to Cancel’  | Amazon

Thursday, October 17, 2024

MACHINISTS STRIKE at BOEING

► From Fortune — Boeing’s strategy of cost-cutting in face of major strike and talent shortage confuses experts — A historic round of cost-cutting measures at Boeing has left experts perplexed and wondering whether the aviation giant, plagued by a month-long strike, is sacrificing its future. “I’m not sure I see the bigger plan here,” Richard Aboulafia, a consultant with AeroDynamic, told AFP. Melius Research suggested that the strike is not really a surprise, as it is “a symptom of a bigger problem.” Workers feel they have made many sacrifices for Boeing over the past 20 years. Meanwhile, between 2010 and 2019, the group paid out $68 billion to shareholders in dividends and share buybacks.

► From The Hill — Washington lawmakers press Boeing, union to resolve monthlong strike — “A growing number of elected officials have recognized that given the history of excessive CEO compensation at Boeing, company executives should be able to return to the negotiating table, and do right by their workers who have made incredible sacrifices to keep the company afloat,” Bryant said. Last week, Jayapal led a letter signed by members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), urging both sides to “bargain in good faith to reach a fair contract in a timely manner.”

STRIKES

► From FOX News 13 — Watch: WA hotel workers rally against resort fees — Hundreds of hotel workers in western Washington are once again on strike, demanding better wages and working conditions.

LOCAL

► From the Seattle Times — Amazon accused of violating WA’s ban on noncompete agreements — Two Amazon employees in the retail and warehouse sector said in a lawsuit filed this month that the company restricted their options for work after Amazon, violating a Washington law banning noncompetition agreements. The lawsuit, a proposed class action that seeks to represent dozens of current and former Amazon employees, alleges Amazon required workers at its warehouses and retail stores to sign a noncompete agreement, tucked into its lengthy offer letter, in order to get the job.

► From the Spokesman Review — As housing crisis ravages Washington, a state agency says it needs $1.2 billion to address the problem — A worker must make $40.32 an hour to afford a “modest” two-bedroom apartment in Washington, according to a new report released by the state. This means a person working a minimum-wage job must work more than 80 hours a week to afford a home for their family. The state Department of Commerce released its Homeless Housing Strategic Plan to the public this week. One of its goals is the construction of 18,000 new shelter beds over the next four years across Washington. When asked how the massive plan would be funded, commerce department spokesperson Penny Thomas said the state agency has requested $1.2 billion be carved out of the governor’s capital budget for affordable housing construction.

► From the Seattle Times — Amazon scores another victory in WA warehouse safety trial — “We disagree both with the judge’s characterization of the facts and interpretation of the law,” L&I spokesperson Matt Ross said Wednesday. “State law and the Washington Constitution establish a worker’s right to a safe workplace, and Amazon’s injury record shows they have not protected their workers.”

► From the Washington State Standard — 70% of Washington public school students now have access to free meals — Nearly 800,000 kids are eating free meals in school after the Legislature expanded access — but the state will need to come up with more money if it wants to continue the program. That’s according to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, which announced on Tuesday that 70% of Washington’s kids now have access to school meals at no cost to students or families.

ORGANIZING

► From the Nation — Grad Students Are Unionizing in Droves. Can Postdocs Lead the Next Wave? — Unionization across higher education has surged over the past decade, with graduate student employee union representation up by over 130 percent since 2012, according to a recent report by the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions at Hunter College. But within this landscape of labor organizing, postdocs are often overlooked. At the beginning of January 2024, the report found that 10 separate bargaining units exclusively for postdocs represented a total of 11,471 employees across the country. But since then, at least seven more units became certified with United Auto Workers.

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 Washington Post — As hospitals get bigger, medical debt is harder for patients to shake — One surprising risk: living in a community where hospitals have consolidated — an increasingly common development as health systems merge or large systems gobble up smaller hospitals. “While medical debt on credit reports declined across most U.S. counties between 2012 and 2022, increases in hospital market concentration prevented such improvements in many areas of the country,” they wrote.

► From Reuters — Stellantis should deliver on investment commitments, White House says — The deal reached in 2023 between the UAW and Stellantis “included a commitment to reopen and expand production in communities that were devastated by previous plant closures,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said. “What we want to see is Stellantis certainly deliver on those commitments to the UAW and to the communities.”

► From Variety — SAG-AFTRA Steps Up Advocacy Efforts for Disabled Performers With ‘Time to Get Real’ Video Series — The goal is to demonstrate how people with disabilities are underrepresented in TV and film, and when they are on screen, they are often misrepresented. In 2022, people with disabilities accounted for 8.8% of screen time, but those with visible disabilities made up only 0.4%, according to a Nielsen study.

► From the AP — California health care workers get a pay bump under a new minimum wage law — “Today’s victory belongs to the workers who spoke passionately about the grueling work and the impact on patients when workers cover two or three jobs, whether on short-staffed nursing home floors, in hospital operating rooms, or at the front desks and phone lines of community clinics,” state Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, a Democrat who authored the law, said in a statement.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the AP — US agency adopts rule to make it easier for consumers to cancel unwanted subscriptions –The “click-to-cancel” rule will prohibit retailers and other businesses from misleading people about subscriptions and require them to obtain consumers’ consent before charging for memberships, auto-renewals and programs linked to free trial offers. The FTC said businesses must also disclose when free trials or other promotional offers will end and let customers end recurring subscriptions as easily as they started them. Most of the provisions take effect effect 180 days after the rule is published in the Federal Register, the agency said.

► From CNN — Biden has approved $175 billion in student loan forgiveness for nearly 5 million people — Another round of forgiveness was announced Thursday, bringing the total amount of student loan cancellation to more than $175 billion for nearly 5 million people since President Joe Biden took office. That’s roughly equal to 11% of all outstanding federal student loan debt. More than 1 million of these student loan borrowers received debt relief through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which promises loan forgiveness to public-sector workers – like teachers and nurses – after they’ve made 10 years of qualifying payments.

► From CNN — Elon Musk and other billionaires invest staggering sums into electing Trump, plus other takeaways from third-quarter filings — Musk, the world’s richest person, gave nearly $75 million to a pro-Trump super PAC that he helped form over the summer – a massive cash infusion aimed at helping turn out voters in key battleground states. Adelson, a staunch Trump backer and heir to a casino fortune, gave even more, plowing $95 million into another outside group backing the former president…Altogether, just three billionaires – Musk, Adelson and Midwestern packaging magnate Richard Uihlein – donated roughly $220 million in a three-month period to groups backing the Republican’s candidacy.

► From the AP — Electoral battleground North Carolina starts early in-person voting while recovering from Helene  — But despite the catastrophic damage, all but four of 80 sites in the 25 western counties hardest hit by the storm were set to open Thursday for the 17-day early vote period — a tremendous achievement according to State Board of Elections Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell, who credited emergency management workers, election officials and utilities.

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