FRIDAY, March 30 -- Sweeney announces Carpenters disaffiliation
...and also --  President Bender: Five WSLC VPs may no longer serve
Today from the AP -- Carpenters Union breaks away from AFL-CIO
In Business Week -- A mutiny at the AFL-CIO: UBC cuts ties with AFL-CIO
LATE NEWS -- Georgia-Pacific permanently closes Bellingham mill
In today's Olympian -- State employees prepare for strike
In today's Spokesman-Review -- Locke hints veto of Democrats' budget
In today's Seattle P-I -- "Sonic Cruiser" reinvigorates engineers
...and also -- Rising power costs mean dark days for aluminum industry
...and finally -- Police chief shrugs of talk of union no-confidence vote
In today's Seattle Times -- Federal aid in jeopardy for light rail
...and also -- Sims cancels new Metro bus service
...and finally -- Sims proposal to merge departments would mean job cuts
In today's Tri-City Herald -- DOE workers' comp may leave Labor Dept.
In today's Everett Herald -- Million-mile bus driver pays tribute to his son
In today's Wichita Eagle -- New SPEEA group rejects Boeing offer
In today's Vancouver (B.C.) Sun -- Health workers plan strike over pay equity
In today's S.F. Chronicle -- State salutes Cesar Chavez with paid holiday  (Chavez is the first Latino and the first U.S. labor leader in history to be honored with a paid state holiday.  Make plans to honor Chavez at events this weekend in the Tri-Cities and in Yakima.)

THURSDAY, March 29 -- State employee: "Sadly but proudly, I'll walk if I have to"
In today's Olympian -- Retirees: Hands off our pension
...and also -- State employees union to continue strike pamphleting
...and finally -- 50-cent raise "better than nothing" for nursing care workers
In today's News-Tribune -- Pension plan members upset over fund's "raid"
...and also --- Ergonomic injuries decline; still account for 1/3 of job injuries
In today's Bremerton Sun -- PSNS union: More pay for asbestos work
In today's Seattle P-I -- Union begins ad drive for P-I, but not Times
...and also -- Boeing cancels jumbo 747X to focus on new, faster plane
...and finally -- Police guild mulls no-confidence vote in Seattle chief
In today's Seattle Times -- State can't guarantee unions quake work
In today's Boston Globe -- Unions to challenge Bush's PLA ban in court
In today's Vancouver (B.C.) Sun -- 65,000 B.C. workers may strike next week
In today's L.A. Times -- Canadians sue over NAFTA bias clause
Today Inside the AFL-CIO -- USWA-Nurses alliance may challenge SEIU on organizing
In today's N.Y. Times -- As Seattle economy slows, many like change of pace
...and also -- Seattle soldiers on (oped by author David Guterson: "That Boeing is leaving should come as no surprise to a town that knows as well as any what globalization and the World Trade Organization portend — namely, the death of local loyalties and the birth of a new order in which Boeing will be everywhere and nowhere simultaneously, elusive and illusory as Big Brother.")

WEDNESDAY, March 28 -- AFL-CIO urges Congress to act on hate crimes
From the Senate Dems -- Budget invests in education, protects services (You decide!)
In today's News-Tribune -- Senate budget would tap LEOFF 1 pension fund
In today's Seattle Times -- Abracadabra! Cutbacks vanish in Senate budget
...and also -- Ferry fares likely to skyrocket by 2006
...and finally -- The real Boeing story: Mortgaging the future (oped)
In today's Seattle P-I -- Is Boeing way behind curve, or in front? (column)
In today's Tri-City Herald -- Latinos to celebrate Cesar Chavez's birthday
In today's Yakima Herald -- Chavez marchers take to streets Saturday
...and also -- A simple matter of justice: Pay the braceros (editorial)
In today's Spokesman-Review -- Farm workers getting housing upgrades
In yesterday's Columbian --- Teachers filling out strike surveys
In today's Bremerton Sun -- Transit puts sales tax hike on ballot
In today's Olympian -- Capitol could be closed until 2004 (PLA mention)
In today's Boston Globe -- Bush firm on PLA ban; costly delays feared
In today's Washington Post -- Weaker campaign reform loses
...and also -- Dangers of an aging federal workforce (Voinovich oped.  A Republican Senator tries this argument on for size: "Reinvented government" and encouragement of attrition has cost the nation so much "human capital" that we may be facing a national security crisis.)

TUESDAY, March 27 -- Chavez-Thompson at Equal Pay rally Thursday
In today's News-Tribune -- Tenure figures show state employees have waited too long for wage parity (an oped by Attorney General Christine Gregoire that is right on the money... literally)
In today's Yakima Herald -- Deccio pitches raises for health care workers
In today's Seattle P-I -- State powerless on Boeing move
...and also -- Republicans misread Boeing move (Shapley column)
In today's SCJ -- Some workers see humor in Boeing move
In today's Olympian -- Gap widens in Narrows bridge debate
In today's Seattle Times -- Slumping economy could derail light rail
...and also -- Injured railroad workers sue over settlement
In today's Vancouver (B.C.) Sun -- Transit union warns of shutdown
In today's N.Y. Times -- Auto workers weather downturn
In today's Washington Post -- Revisiting the killed ergonomics rule
...and also -- Poll: New doubts on economy, Bush tax cuts and policy
Today at AFLCIO.org -- President Sweeney says Bush decision to end Bar Association evaluation of judicial nominees is "an outrage"

MONDAY, March 26 -- UW offers "best practices" ergonomics course
In today's News-Tribune -- Building sites swarm with Hispanics
...and also -- Domestic violence as a business expense
In today's Bremerton Sun -- Narrows project stuck in bill traffic
In yesterday's Olympian -- Clamoring for a bite of small budget pie
In today's Seattle P-I -- Harbor Island cleanup site called unsafe
...and also -- Genetic test used on workers goes from lab to court
In today's Spokesman-Review -- Roadless ban faces hard road
In today's Seattle Times -- Free trade comes in two-by-fours (editorial)
..and yesterday -- Boeing's HQ move fills workers with foreboding
In today's Roll Call -- Senators tackle Cantwell debt
In today's Statesman-Journal -- Senate to retool Ore. pension system
In today's Washington Post -- Comair suspends flights as pilots strike
...and also -- Next steps on ergonomics (editorial)
From the latest In These Times -- FTAA, eh? A bigger, badder trade deal (Read this and then make plans to attend the March at the Arch rally Saturday, April 21 at the Canadian border in Blaine.)

News from previous weeks:  March 19-23 -- March 12-16 -- March 5-9

The following is an open letter to Senate Majority Leader Sid Snyder (D-19th) from Joe Nilsson, Vice President of the Washington Federation of State Employees Local 443 in Olympia, regarding the union's impending strike vote and the reasons behind it:

Dear Senator Snyder:

I was saddened by your comments in David Ammons' column today ("Interest groups clamor for bite of small budget pie" on Monday, March 26).  You indicated that "It's annoying to me" that state employees are considering a strike.

The fact that we are contemplating a strike vote for the first time in 24 years is a measure of our concern both with respect to our ability to provide quality services to our fellow citizens and our ability to provide for our families.  We do not take this action lightly.

The Legislature has collectively failed to provide state employees with the resources necessary to provide the varied and critical services our fellow citizens expect and deserve.  In the aggregate, while state population went up 21 percent in the last 10 years, state employment has only risen 10 percent.

Here are a few specifics.

The average Division of Developmental Disabilities Case Manager is responsible for 140 children and adults while the national mean is 40 individuals.  That is shameful.

The average Worker's Compensation Adjudicator is working with 220 injured workers while the private sector standard is 90 to 125 individuals.

Virtually every state employee on the front lines of government faces a daunting workload that far exceeds that of their private sector peers.  These workloads have all too often become unmanageable.  Sadly, when a state employee can't get to an assignment, real suffering or tragedy often occurs.  We are considering striking to prevent more pain and more suffering.

Nowhere is low staffing more a risk to employee and public safety than in out state mental hospitals yet the Governor's budget called for closing 11 wards at Western State Hospital, eliminating 500 staff, and putting 417 high risk mental health patients on the streets.  How many of your constituents would support that policy?  We aren't just standing up for quality and fairness, state employees are also standing up for public safety and humane mental health services for those most in need.

As the Treasurer of the Washington State Democratic Central Committee and a proud Democrat, I noted with great happiness that the Democrats in the Legislature were standing up for prevailing wage for building and trades workers doing renovations on the Capitol Building.  That was the right thing to do: workers should be paid a fair wage for honest work.

Sadly, neither the Legislature nor the Governor have applied that prevailing wage standard to state employees.  In 1996, state employees were paid an average of 11 percent less that private sector workers doing the same job.  In 2000, state employees were paid about 14 percent less.  Many state employees are up to 37.5 percent behind their private sector peers.  That is shameful.

To make matters worse, the Governor has proposed delinking cost of living increases for state employees from teachers and huge increases in state employees' share of health care costs.  Governor Locke's budget would provide for a 3.7 percent cost of living increase for teachers while limiting other state employees to 2.2 percent.  He also proposed a budget in which the average cost of state employee's share of medical premiums will skyrocket 110 percent. Essentially wiping out much, if not all, of our cost of living increase.  That too is shameful.

Senator, the 19,000 members of the Washington Federation of State Employees are a vital part of Organized Labor in Washington.  We are citizens and we are taxpayers.  We are voters.

Senator, state employees are talented professionals performing vital work.  All too often, we are treated as an afterthought and second-class citizens.  That has got to stop and that is why we are taking a strike vote.

Senator, State Employees are not going to ride on the back of the bus anymore.

Senator, sadly but proudly, I'll walk if I have to.

Joe Nilsson
First Vice President
Local 443, Washington Federation of State Employees, AFSCME/AFL-CIO

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson is scheduled to appear at Thursday's Equal Pay Day rally at noon in Olympia at the Tivoli Fountain on the Capitol Grounds.  Organized by the Seattle Community College Federation of Teachers, the rally will call attention to the ongoing wage exploitation of part-time community and technical college faculty members.

"Got Equal Pay?" is what rally participants will be asking state lawmakers as budget negotiations begin in earnest with the release this week of the Senate Democrats' budget proposal, the first official response to the Governor's proposal released before the session.

Unfortunately, the answer to that question for part-time community and technical college faculty across this state is "no."  On average, they earn $23,000 for a full-time teaching schedule; that's 56% of the average full-time salary for the same number of courses.

The answer to that question is also "no" for our state's employees, in that they lack equal pay with their private sector counterparts.  Recent salary surveys show state employee pay is, on average, 13 percent behind private and other public sector jobs.  Some workers are as much as 25 to 30 percent behind.  State employees are calling on legislators to give them a fair pay raise that ends the erosion of their wage values over the last decade.  (Check out today's wonderful column in the News-Tribune by state Attorney General Christine Gregoire on the issue, Tenure figures show state employees have waited too long for wage parity.)

All union members and other supporters of fair wages are encouraged to attend Thursday's lunchtime rally.  Buses from Seattle are available; call 206-587-5478 for more information.