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NEWS ROUNDUP

IAM says ‘NO’ | Tradeswomen for Harris | JD Vance, scab

Thursday, October 24, 2024

 

MACHINISTS STRIKE at BOEING

► From the New York Times — Boeing Union Workers Approve/Reject Contract — “There’s much more work to do. We will push to get back to the table, we will push for the members’ demands as quickly as we can,” said Jon Holden, president of District 751 of the union, which represents the vast majority of the workers and has led in the talks. He delivered that message at the union’s Seattle headquarters to a room of members chanting, “Fight, fight.”

► From the Seattle Times — Boeing Machinists reject offer with no end in sight for strike — “Today’s vote is a culmination filled with many emotions. We have made tremendous gains in this agreement in many of the areas our members said were important to them,” Machinists District 751 President Jon Holden said immediately after the vote. “However, we have not achieved enough to meet our members demands today. We remain on strike.”

► From the Washington Post — Striking Boeing workers vote to reject deal as company’s losses grow — Boeing had hoped the sweetened deal, which included a 35 percent pay increase, enhanced health and retirement benefits and a $7,000 signing bonus, would be enough to end the walkout by 33,000 machinists, but some observers say they may have underestimated the mistrust and lingering resentment that remains among rank-and-file workers, particularly those who have been through previous rounds of contract negotiations.

► From the Washington State Standard — Strike will continue as Boeing machinists reject another contract offer — “Bring the pension back,” Jim Thul, an inspector at Boeing for 35 years, said Wednesday outside the Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett, where hundreds of machinists were casting votes on the contract. “You got a lot of people that hired into Boeing and took pay cuts coming from different jobs just because it was one of the last companies that had a pension,” Thul said. “And when they took the pension away, they’re no longer getting those people that want a secure job and a pension.”

 

STRIKES

► From Games Industry — SAG-AFTRA says “more than 120 games from 49 companies” have signed agreements — With 49 companies signing up to the terms, SAG-AFTRA said that as these new contracts “contain the same common-sense, foundational AI protections that SAG-AFTRA members are asking for in the Interactive Media Agreement,” this “demonstrat[es] that the provisions are fair and achievable, and provid[e] employment opportunities to members during the work stoppage.”

► From Vice — SAG-AFTRA Resumes Talks to Protect Voice Actors in Games — “Humane protections for actors against A.I. exploitation are not an unreasonable ask — and the success of these contracts shows that most companies agree,” Elmaleh stated. “They are happy to embrace fundamental, ethical guidelines around this tool — alongside equitable accommodation of it — in order to collaborate with professional talent. And talent are likewise eager and delighted to partner with companies that respect them.”

 

LOCAL

► From the Cascadia Daily News — ‘Era of the Pacific’: Port of Bellingham’s growth impacted by millions in federal funds — “I don’t think everybody always thought about port infrastructure as a key economic development tool for our country,” Cantwell said. “We’re in the era of the Pacific.” Rob Fix, the port’s executive director, told Cantwell that having the railroad to shipping terminal connection would allow for the port to do more business. The $17.9 million project, fully funded by federal dollars, will connect the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe mainline to the shipping terminal. It is expected to be in service by 2028.

► From the Puget Sound Business Journal — Tech jobs gained during pandemic have vaporized in Seattle –Tech hiring boomed in the early part of this decade, but over the past two years, it has been the fastest-shrinking industry in the region. Seattle’s tech industry has shed 6,100 jobs so far this year — a 4.4% drop, according to data from the Washington state Employment Security Department. Since hitting a record 148,200 jobs in June 2022, almost 16,900 tech jobs have been wiped out from the local labor market. The fluctuations bring today’s tech workforce to essentially the same level it was in March 2020.

► From the South Seattle Emerald — As Washington State Adopts Medicaid Coverage for Doula Support at Birth, a New Study Shows How Critical It Can Be —  The study compares health outcomes between pregnant patients on Medicaid who had doula support at birth to those who did not, using Medicaid claims data. The researchers found that for patients who’d had access to a doula, the risk of cesarean delivery fell by 47%, and preterm birth risk dropped by 29%. Birthing patients who were supported by a doula were also more likely to receive follow-up care after delivery.

► From Cascade PBS Union:

 

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From Becker Health It — Nurses secure AI protections from HCA — Nurses have recently protested the growth of what they call “untested technology” such as healthcare AI that they say harms patient safety and takes clinicians out of the decision-making process. The three-year contracts in six states with HCA Healthcare mark a big step in gaining AI-related safeguards for nurses, as the health system is one of the country’s largest nursing employers.

 

NATIONAL

► From the AP — Apple and Goldman Sachs must pay $89 million for mishandling Apple Card transactions, CFPB orders — The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau orders point to “customer service breakdowns and misrepresentations” around Apple and Goldman’s credit card partnership. Apple failed to send tens of thousands of Apple Card disputes to Goldman, and when such customer disputes were reported, the investment bank did not follow federal requirements for investigating, the agency said. As a result, many consumers faced long waits to get their money back from disputed charges and, in some cases, saw incorrect negative information added to their credit reports, the CFPB added.

► From CBS News — American Airlines to pay record $50 million fine over its treatment of disabled passengers — “The era of tolerating poor treatment of airline passengers with disabilities is over,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement Wednesday. “With this penalty, we are setting a new standard of accountability for airlines that violate the civil rights of passengers with disabilities. By setting penalties at levels beyond the mere cost of doing business for airlines, we’re aiming to change how the industry behaves and prevent these kinds of abuses from happening in the first place,” he said.

► From the AP — ​Average rate on a 30-year mortgage in the US rises again to highest level in nearly 3 months — “The continued strength in the economy drove mortgage rates higher once again this week,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “Over the last few years, there has been a tension between downbeat economic narrative and incoming economic data stronger than that narrative. This has led to higher-than-normal volatility in mortgage rates, despite a strengthening economy,”

► From the New York Times — Biden Administration Outlines Government ‘Guardrails’ for A.I. Tools — President Biden is expected to sign on Thursday the first national security memorandum detailing how the Pentagon and the intelligence agencies should use and protect artificial intelligence technology, placing “guardrails” on how such tools are employed in decisions on nuclear weapons or who is granted asylum.

 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From The 19th — Modern-day Rosie the Riveters are backing Kamala Harris — She, like other women The 19th spoke to, said she’s voting for Harris because she feels like her job security depends on it. She’s currently working on a project to expand the Chicago Transit Authority’s light rail that was funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. “We are supposed to directly go from that job to another,” she said. But some companies, she said, have put projects on pause until after the election. If Trump wins, there are fears that funding might not materialize for some of these slated plans.

► From the Huffington Post — JD Vance Crosses Picket Line With Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Op-Ed — Jon Schleuss, president of the NewsGuild-CWA, told HuffPost that there was no excuse for Vance, the running mate of former President Donald Trump, not to be aware of the strike that just entered its third year. “JD Vance has crossed a very obvious picket line by striking Americans,” Schleuss said. “And JD Vance is a scab just like anybody else who crosses a picket line.”

► From UAW:

► From the Washington Post — GOP candidates embrace Trump’s call to abolish Education Department — In Montana, Republican Senate challenger Tim Sheehy says he wants to do away with the agency by “throwing it in the trash can,” the Daily Montanan reported. “We have a Department of Education, which I don’t think we need anymore,” Sheehy said. “We formed that department so little Black girls could go to school down South, and we could have integrated schooling. We don’t need that anymore,” he said.

► From the Seattle Times — Los Angeles Times editorials editor resigns after newspaper withholds presidential endorsement — The L.A. Times Guild Unit Council & Bargaining Committee said it was “deeply concerned about our owner’s decision to block a planned endorsement in the presidential race. We are even more concerned that he is now unfairly assigning blame to Editorial Board members for his decision not to endorse,” the guild said in a statement. “We are still pressing for answers from newsroom management on behalf of our members.”

 

INTERNATIONAL

► From the Washington Post — UN says only a ‘quantum leap’ can keep global climate goals within reach — This year’s report reads like a pep talk for world leaders and policymakers who’ve made a tough task vanishingly more difficult by allowing greenhouse gas emissions to continue to rise; by so far setting national goals that are insufficient; and by not fulfilling even those pledges.

► From the AP — LinkedIn hit with 310 million euro fine for data privacy violations from Irish watchdog — The watchdog said it carried out an investigation that found LinkedIn did not have a lawful basis to gather data so it could target users with online ads, which is a breach of the privacy rules known as General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR. It ordered LinkedIn to comply with the rules. Processing personal data “without an appropriate legal basis is a clear and serious violation” of the right to data protection in the EU, Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said in a statement.

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