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Reports for March 20-24, 2000 

FRIDAY, March 24 -- Congress unveils "blank check for China"
...and also -- Town meeting Monday in Seattle on I-695, its successors
In today's Seattle P-I -- Confront (while we reward) China, Albright tells U.N.
...and also -- Steelworkers deserve unemployment benefits (oped by Al Link)
In today's New York Times -- Down to the wire: US Air, attendants try to resolve contract 

THURSDAY, March 23 -- Life at Microsoft: Permatemps get 2 days notice of layoff
In today's Yakima Herald-Republic -- NLRB files charges against Providence Hospital
In today's South County Journal -- What a long, strange strike it's been (SPEEA)
In today's (Vancouver) Columbian -- C-Tran cuts 25 jobs, more layoffs to come (I-695) 
In today's (Spokane) Spokesman-Review -- Criminal probe studied in Kaiser blast 
In today's Olympian -- Chambers at odds on budget 

WEDNESDAY, March 22 -- Online labor communication is focus of Seattle conference
In today's Wall Street Journal -- Rare criminal probe launched in Kaiser plant explosion
In today's (Tacoma) News-Tribune -- Steelworkers cancel weekend protest at Kaiser
In today's Yakima Herald -- Initiative 711 could shut down Yakima Transit
In today's New York Times -- US Airways vows shutdown if attendants disrupt flights
In today's Seattle P-I -- Boeing exec predicts trade with China soon 
In Straight Goods -- Office Depot has union office quarantine 

TUESDAY, March 21 -- Unique new course focuses on world of work, unions 
In today's Olympian -- Steelworkers rally again at Capitol
In today's (Everett) Herald -- Providence workers overwhelmingly reject contract offer
In today's (Tacoma) News-Tribune -- "Changed" SPEEA workers back on the job 
In today's Washington Post -- Electronics lobby focuses on China trade 

MONDAY, March 20 -- House Democrats urged to challenge Ballard, change rules
In today's (Everett) Herald -- SPEEA: Back to work at Boeing 
In today's Seattle P-I -- Strike helped to mold mother into "survivor" 
In today's Seattle Times -- Steelworkers pressure GOP over benefit bill 
... and also -- AFL-CIO program allows lower mortgage payments for homebuyers 
In today's (Tacoma) News-Tribune -- Ruling against state in L&I workers comp case 
In today's Washington Post -- China vote puts some Democrats in a quandary 

News from previous weeks:  Mar. 13-17 -- Mar. 6-10 -- Feb. 29-Mar. 3  

FRIDAY, MARCH 24
Congress unveils "blank check for China" 

Even as Secretary of State Madeleine Albright admonished China before the United Nations yesterday for a human rights record that has "deteriorated markedly," leaders of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee unveiled legislation that would grant China permanent trading privileges in the U.S. market, kicking off the biggest trade battle since the North American Free Trade Agreement. 

This "blank check for China" is just the latest example of Congress thwarting the will of the American people with corporate-backed "free trade" pacts that ignore their impact on basic worker rights and environmental standards. 

In 1993-94, it took form in the NAFTA, which sailed through Congress despite widespread public opposition.  Although free-trade-blinder-induced congressional support for the measure continues to assume ridiculous and embarrassing proportions, many acknowledge that NAFTA's unpopularity with the public (and union members, in particular) played a key role in sweeping Democrats from control in the 1994 elections. 

In 1997-98, it took the form of denying the president Fast Track trade negotiating power because of public dissatisfaction with the kinds of deals we were making.  (Revealingly, Fast Track advocates made many of the same predictions of dire consequences should the measure fail that proponents of the China proposal make today.  Yet our red-hot economy managed to survive Fast Track's defeat and continues to be the envy of the planet.) 

Last November, it took form in tens of thousands of protesters descending on the World Trade Organization meetings here in Seattle, and changing the debate on international trade to include concerns about worker rights and environmental standards. 

Today, its form is the debate in Congress about whether to give China, the most notorious human-rights abusing country in the world, permanent Normal Trade Relations status and bring it into the WTO. 

The impending vote is based on yet another trade agreement rife with detailed concessions for various industries, but not a word about worker rights or environmental protections.  And again, it is wildly unpopular among American citizens, who free-trade advocates and many in Congress must believe don't know what's good for them. 

For its part, China's public-relations campaign for WTO admission includes threatening U.S. businesses, eagerly anticipating the "decline" of America, and threatening to invade neighboring Taiwan.  For their part, U.S. corporate lobbyists are perpetuating the self-serving fiction that permanent NTR for China is necessary for America to benefit from the rogue nation's WTO "ascension." 

The AFL-CIO adamantly opposes rewarding China with permanent NTR status.  But to understand why, one must understand what the fight is really about.  Here's how AFL-CIO President John Sweeney described it in a speech this week at Columbia University: 

"(The fight) is not about a trade deal. The benefits of this deal are, to say the least, oversold.  China has violated the terms of every trade agreement it has signed with us. This one will be no different.  And, as even the U.S.-China Business Council admits, our bilateral agreements insure that we’ll get all the tariff benefits that any other country gets, no matter what we do. 

"The debate also isn’t a Cold War argument.  It isn’t about whether to engage the Chinese, or to isolate them.  This isn’t 1970.  We already sustain a $70 billion annual trade deficit with China.  Whatever happens with the treaty, we will continue to trade with and invest in China. 

"The debate is less about China than about the rules of the global market. Will that market provide preferences to democracies over dictatorships?  Will it enforce core workers’ rights and environmental standards for all?  Or will it allow China to set the standard that others must compete with?" 

Sweeney points out that U.S. workers will certainly lose manufacturing jobs.  But the biggest effects will be on struggling democracies in Thailand, the Philippines, and South Korea where they will have to compete with a nation that forces young children and prisoners to work 16-hour days under abominable conditions, ignoring the most basic worker and human rights.

They, and many other countries, will be forced to join the race to the bottom. 

The debate that begins in earnest today, as one political pundit put it, "symbolizes a money-drenched political system that tramples the concerns of working people" and forces "legislators in both parties (to) choose between their donors and their voters."  (Memo to Democrats: There's evidence this will be a fruitless gesture to Corporate America.) 

NOW is the time for our legislators to hear from the voters!  Please call your U.S. Representative on this issue.  We need to send our representatives a strong message that big business lobbyists may rule the Halls of Congress, but the people rule the streets of this country, and we demand FAIR trade policies that respect us and respect workers around the world.  Tell them: "No Blank Check for China!" 

Here are the phone numbers for Washington's congressional delegation:

And don't forget about the major rally in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, April 12 to tell Congress "No Blank Check for China!"  A delegation of union leaders and activists from Washington state, led by WSLC President Rick Bender, will participate in the rally and then visit members of the Congress from Washington state to ask them to oppose granting China permanent NTR. 

If you plan on attending or want more information contact David Groves at 206-281-8901, and visit the AFL-CIO web page devoted to the rally. 

FRIDAY, MARCH 24
Town meeting Monday in Seattle on I-695, its successors 

KOMO-TV (Channel 4) in Seattle is taping their "Town Meeting" program on I-695 and the recent court decision ruling it unconstitutional, and will also spend time talking about I-711 and I-722, the latest initiatives for which Tim Eyman and company are gathering signatures. 

Audience seats are available to anyone interested in attending; as always, Town Meeting audience members are encouraged to ask questions and make comments during the taping of the program.  This is a great way to air your opinions.

E-mail RSVPs to Kirsteno@pacificpub.com or call Diane McDaniel at 206-281-8901 or 1-800-542-0904.  The taping begins at 8 p.m. on Monday, March 27, but you must arrive at KOMO's studios (at 100 4th N. by the Space Needle) by 7:00 p.m. 

THURSDAY, MARCH 23
Life at Microsoft: Permatemps get 2 days notice of layoff 

The following story from WashTech illustrates once again how life at Microsoft isn't all stock options and happy young millionaires.  It's also long-term permatemps whose hopes of the elusive "blue badge" (full-time status) ends with being given two days to clean out their desks. 

Microsoft will announce today (Thursday) that is going to cease all development efforts on its TaxSaver product. Approximately 100 Microsoft workers -- most of them long-term contractors or "permatemps" -- may lose their jobs in the wake of the product cancellation. The company will also announce that it plans to form a new partnership with H&R Block in order to retain a "foothold" in the tax preparation business.

"After taking a very hard look at the tax preparation category over the last few months and really thinking through what would be required to succeed in this space," wrote Microsoft executive Richard Bray in an e-mail to workers in the company's financial group on Wednesday, "the TaxSaver management team and I have concluded that a partnership strategy is the best route going forward for MSN and the Financial Products Group."

"Essentially, it comes down to a business decision," concluded Bray in his e-mail, "and I am very comfortable that we are making the right one here."

Microsoft permatemps working in the TaxSaver group have been particularly anxious over the past month, after the company announced that contractors who have worked at the company for a year or more would be forced to leave Microsoft for 100 days after July 1 before they could return as contractors. 

The TaxSaver product group relies heavily upon agency contractors.  More than 60 percent of TaxSaver's approximately 100 employees are payrolled through contract agencies, although they work full time, onsite at Microsoft.  Many of them have worked on the project for two years, and hoped that they would be offered full-time "blue badge" jobs when the new rules for contract workers were made public. 

The TaxSaver management team held a mandatory meeting late Wednesday afternoon where it announced the end of the project.  Agency contractors were essentially given two days' notice. According to company sources who attended the meeting, the last day of work for agency contractors on the TaxSaver team will be Friday, 3/24. Regular, full-time Microsoft employees will have six weeks to look for other positions within the company. TaxSaver employees were also told that another local company that is in the tax- preparation software business is hiring. 

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22
Online labor communication is focus of Seattle conference 

"E-Labor.org: Connecting With the New Working Class" will be the theme of the Western Labor Communications Association annual conference May 5-7 at the Edgewater Hotel in Seattle featuring hands-on workshops and discussions with Internet gurus and labor webmasters (including your faithful wslc.org webmaster.) 

Special guests include Elaine Bernard of the Harvard Trade Union Program who will discuss "The New Working Class & Labor Politics;" David Moberg of In These Times, one of America's leading labor journalists; and Kent Wong, Director of the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education. 

All labor communicators, whether you publish a website, a newspaper or a simple newsletter will benefit from the conference and are invited to attend.  The cost is $75 and includes luncheon.  Contact WLCA Secretary-Treasurer Eric Wolfe for registration information at (925) 933-6060 x216 or Fred Glass at cftoakland@igc.org. 

TUESDAY, MARCH 21
Unique new course focuses on world of work, unions 

MONDAY, MARCH 20
House Democrats urged to challenge Ballard, change rules

Hundreds of union members and activists came to a "Rally for Democracy" outside the State Capitol today to protest the failure of the State House of Representatives to vote on two priority labor bills: SB6402, the Civil Service Reform bill that would grant collective bargaining rights to state employees, and SB6368, which would offer extended unemployment benefits to workers locked out of their jobs.

As has been the case at the 24-hour Rotunda sit-in in recent days, Republican House Co-Speaker Clyde Ballard was one of the targets of the anger expressed by rally speakers for his refusal to allow a vote on the Senate-approved measures even though a majority of Representatives has indicated they would pass both. But the House Democratic leadership also was criticized for its failure to challenge Ballard's assertion that the rules allow him to prevent even a motion to pull the bills from committee to the floor for a vote.

"Clyde Ballard has made it clear he's not interested in allowing the democratic process to proceed," said Rick Bender, President of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO. "But we had expected the House Democratic leadership to challenge him on that. The votes are there, let's count them... now!"

Said Duwane Huffaker, President of Council 28 of the Washington Federation of State Employees, AFSCME: "The House Republican leadership is willing to fight against Civil Service Reform. The House Democratic leadership is not willing to fight for it. Citizens of this state know the Civil Service Reform bill would correct many of the problems created by 695. It's time to vote on these bills."

Ballard has said that the rules under which the evenly split House operate allow him to prevent not only a vote on the bills themselves, but also a procedural motion from the floor to pull the bills from committee.

Bender questioned Ballard's authority to stop the procedural motion: "Even if he had a majority in the House and was the only Speaker, he wouldn't be allowed to stop a procedural motion from the floor made by a minority member. Why should he have that power now? We say it's time for Democrats to challenge Ballard or change the rules. We've waited too long for some democracy down here, it's time to give it a jumpstart."

Ron Burke, a locked-out Kaiser Aluminum steelworker who has been in Olympia seeking passage of SB6368 for the last six weeks, said: "I don't understand. We have 52 members of the House who signed a petition that they wanted to vote on the bill. What has happened to democracy?"

Special guest Rich Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO, likened Ballard's philosophical opposition to worker-supported measures to that of another Speaker: We used to have one like that in D.C.  His name was Newt... and we sent him packing back to Georgia!" 

Among the other rally speakers were Jim Woodward, International Representative for the United Steelworkers of America; Diane Sosne, Executive Board member of Service Employees International Union and President of District 1199NW/SEIU (which represents a number of state employees); and Bob Dilger, Executive Secretary of the Washington State Building and Construction Trades Council.

If you have news items regarding unions or workplace issues in Washington state that you would like to see posted here, please submit them via e-mail to David Groves or via fax  to 206-285-5805.

Copyright © 2000  Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO