NEXT UPDATE -- Monday, May 17 by 9 a.m. (Pacific)

Links to press stories are functional at the date of posting.  In some cases, free registration is required at newspapers' sites.  Links sometimes "expire" when the source would like to begin charging for old news.  WSLC Reports Today  links to all stories of interest to organized labor; some positive, some negative. The intention is to inform.  The creation of a link does not constitute an endorsement of that story's content.

Reports for May 10-13, 2004

Previous weeks' news: May 3-8 -- April 26-30 -- April 19-23

THURSDAY, May 13 -- Darigold lockout nearing end? -- Seattle Times: Teamsters Local 66 representing 200 locked-out local dairy employees says its members have ratified a pair of contract proposals, signaling a possible end to a labor dispute knotted at a stalemate for nearly nine months.
...plus -- McEntee to attend march on Saturday to save Fircrest School, protect health care 
— At ProtectHealthBenefits.org -- WSLC's Robby Stern hauled off by Seattle police during affordable health care rally
— In today's Seattle P-I -- Union official arrested at grocery workers' rally
— In today's Seattle Times -- Seattle Safeway rally takes a tense turn
...plus -- WSLC endorses Hood Canal pit-to-pier project 
— In today's Bremerton Sun -- Officials fear pit-to-pier unfit for here
Boeing news: 
— In today's Everett Herald -- 767 tanker deal takes another hit (AP)
— In today's Seattle P-I -- Boeing optimism for keeping 767 line fading
...plus -- Boeing 767 tanker deal flunking the test (editorial) 
Other local news: 
— In today's Spokesman-Review -- Family mourns "perfect picture of a family man" (AFSCME member killed in wastewater plant blast)
— In today's Seattle Times -- Chemical exposure of farmworkers studied
...plus -- Hanford worker safety needs Senate hearing (editorial)
— In today's Bremerton Sun -- Contractor, union must flex on ferry food 
— In yesterday's Ellensburg Daily Record -- One man's trek for health care
Political news:
Nethercutt (again) back Bush's overtime pay takeaway
— In today's Spokesman-Review -- Both sides: Murray leads Nethercutt
— In today's Olympian -- Gregoire cleared of GOP fund-raising charge
— In today's Yakima H-R -- Candidates Sims, Rossi visit Yakima
— In the Stranger -- Democratic disarray -- Chairman Paul Berendt's missteps come at critical time for the party.
Other national news: 
— In today's N.Y. Times -- Tax relief charade -- Editorial: Middle-class taxpayers should not be fooled. They will either get little if any benefit from the Bush tax cuts, or they will get a deficit that has ballooned beyond anyone's worst nightmare.
— In today's Washington Post -- Trade deficit grows unchecked; gap biggest ever despite declining dollar
— In today's S.F. Chronicle -- Gap Inc. finds problems at thousands of its overseas factories

WEDNESDAY, May 12 -- Don't forget: Grocery workers' rally TODAY at Seattle Safeway
— In today's Seattle P-I -- Grocers keeping eye on other talks -- UFCW's McCann: "Dynamics are different" here compared to Houston, where a deal was just reached, because Texas is right-to-work.
— In today's News Tribune -- Sen. Cantwell loses unemployment benefits vote -- Amendment fails in 59-40 vote (60 votes needed) after Republicans oppose benefit extension.
Boeing News: 
— In today's News Tribune -- Airbus pads lead over Boeing in orders from low-cost airlines
— In today's Seattle P-I -- Stonecipher: Boeing, not Airbus, the risk taker -- Outsourcing CEO: "I don't know how anyone can logically talk about loss of jobs and outsourcing and then say, 'Oh by the way, we are thinking about buying Airbus tankers.' That's a disconnect." (A disconnect, indeed.)
Election news: 
— In today's Olympian -- Gregoire nips Rossi in April fundraising -- Spokesperson responds to criticism about Dino Rossi's atrocious labor voting record: "I think Dino has a very strong record of supporting workers, of trying to get people back to work and improving our economy."
— In today's Seattle Times -- Poll results show Dave Ross is a contender in the 8th, Democrats say
— In today's Seattle P-I -- Legislators crossed ethical lines with fundraising during freeze, some say
— In today's News Tribune -- Charters present valid challenge to soft public schools (Davis column)
— In today's Everett Herald -- Eyman has Port of Everett dashing for cash -- Port scrambles to sell bonds  ensuring money for projects, including Boeing-related improvements, in case Eyman's latest passes.
— In today's King County Journal -- I-892 opponents defend the indefensible (Eyman op-ed)
Other local news: 
— In today Spokesman-Review -- Search for worker's body continues as cause sought in plant explosion
— In yesterday's Columbian -- Letter Carriers collect 63 tons of food
— In the Seattle Weekly -- Firehouse theater -- State fines Seattle, citing interference of Mayor's office in health investigation at Northgate station where many firefighters have contracted serious illnesses.
— In today's Everett Herald -- Citing enrollment plunge, Marysville cuts 50 teachers
— In today's Bremerton Sun -- Our "highest-paid" shouldn't get overtime -- Column: Democrats, unions and trial lawyers (that oppose Bush's overtime pay changes) have an antipathy to upgrading standards in the workplace of the 21st century. They need to nurture their dependent, victim constituencies.
Other national news: 
At AFLCIO.org -- Bush officially rejects AFL-CIO petition on China's repression of workers
— In today's L.A. Times -- AFL-CIO's Sweeney plans trip to China to examine working conditions
— Today from Reuters -- U.S. trade deficit widens 9.1% in March to a record $46 billion
— In today's N.Y. Times -- Some critics of Wal-Mart joining forces to change it -- SEIU President Andrew Stern convenes unusual meeting of union leaders, academics and community activists in D.C. today to begin mapping out a strategy to press Wal-Mart to improve its wages and benefits.
...plus -- Gap Inc. reports on workplace violations at overseas contracted apparel factories
— In today's Bellingham Herald -- U.S. Senate speaks but may not act about uninsured
— In today's Washington Post -- Senate breaks deadlock, OKs cut in corporate taxes, end trade dispute
— Today in The Onion -- Bush vows to pay closer attention to the needs of non-presidents -- Bush said he's so committed to learning more about non-presidents that he has scheduled a fact-finding visit next month: "In June, I'll be visiting my parents in Texas to discuss these issues. As it turns out, my father is one of these non-presidents. I didn't realize that before, because people still call him 'Mr. President' wherever he goes, but as it happens, he's actually been a non-president for years."

TUESDAY, May 11 -- A bad day for workplace safety
— In today's Spokesman-Review -- One worker missing, presumed dead after sewage tank ruptures
— In today's King County Journal -- Construction worker killed by falling granite slabs
— In today's Seattle Times -- State review questions feds' oversight of Hanford worker safety
— In today's Tri-City Herald -- Vapor monitoring near Hanford tanks may be inadequate
...plus -- State fines Pasco construction company for unsafe trench work -- "This is the most dangerous trench work I've ever seen," says local L&I. "We're fortunate nobody was killed or seriously injured."
— In yesterday's Columbian -- Vancouver man (IBEW 46) injured in fire at Home Depot construction site
— At AFLCIO.org -- AFL-CIO decries end of mediated session on asbestos compensation
Other local news: 
— In today's Seattle Times -- As grocery talks continue, Top Food to work under present contract
— In today's Seattle P-I -- Boeing's tanker-lease deal: "If it's not dead, it's coughing blood"
— In today's Bremerton Sun -- Southworth will offer food before other ferries -- Contract talks stalled for Bainbridge, Bremerton and Kingston routes. IBU says the new contractor doesn't want to pay health, welfare or pension, and wants to ignore seniority and bring everyone in as new hires.
— In today's Olympian -- Olympia teachers brace for 96 pink slips
— In today's News Tribune -- Unemployment benefits linked with corporate tax break by Sen. Cantwell
...plus -- Parties, not voters may make the real choices this September (Callaghan column) 
— In today's Yakima H-R -- Sen. Honeyford elected new Republican Caucus Chair
Cover the Uninsured Week news:  (Learn more about local CTUW events.)
— In today's Spokesman-Review -- Uninsured patients cost $35 billion annually, study says
— In today's Oregonian -- NW companies get creative to cool health costs
— In today's Washington Post -- Employers of part-time workers consider insurance pools
— In today's N.Y. Times -- Kerry vows to rein in health premiums -- Accusing Bush of failing to act, Kerry introduces proposal to have the federal government assume the responsibility for catastrophic care.
Other national news: 
— Today from Bloomberg News -- U.S. workers' wages lag while corporate profits soar
— In today's Washington Post -- Across America, war means jobs
...plus -- EU offers to end farm subsidies (Will Bush agree in an election year? Not bloody likely.)
— In today's S.F. Chronicle -- CWA, SBC still talking; 100,000 workers in 13 states are affected
— In today's N.Y. Times -- The mixed-up policies of the deficit -- Robert Reich op-ed: Democrats and Republicans are engaged in the economic equivalent of Nixon going to China: Republican presidents can get away with utterly irresponsible fiscal policies because there's no one to their right who will make too much trouble for them. Democratic presidents can get away with fiscal austerity because there's no one to their left who will make their life too difficult. But the irony should not be missed. John Kerry's promise of fiscal responsibility might just save George Bush's presidency.
— In today's Business Week -- Ralph Nader apologizes for running -- "Dems say, 'We have to beat George Bush.' I'm sorry. We played that game for 20 years. We're not playing it." (Apology not accepted.)

MONDAY, May 10 -- WSLC endorsement results from COPE Convention (posted Saturday)
— In Sunday's News Tribune -- State Labor Council declines to back Gregoire for Governor (AP)
— In Saturday's Seattle Times -- Gregoire fails to win State Labor Council's endorsement
Other local news:
Also today -- "Strategies for Social and Economic Justice" conference May 14-15
— In the P.S. Business Journal -- Business tax breaks under attack -- Talking about evaluating exemptions to see if they really create jobs "is code language for raising taxes," say Dino Rossi's spokeswoman.
...plus -- Competitiveness Council report: 2004 Legislature helped business climate
— In today's Oregonian -- Boeing deal to lease 767 tankers flies into turbulence in D.C.
— In today's Olympian -- Gubernatorial candidates plan changes for DSHS
...plus -- Initiatives may jam fall ballot -- NFIB says labor-opposed I-895, allowing small businesses to offer Health Care Lite™, is hampered by a lack of money: "We're doing our best, but it's all volunteers and no money. You have to have $400,000 to pay signature-gatherers. There's just no way."
— In today's Everett Herald -- Tribes fight Eyman's gambling initiative
— In today's Seattle P-I -- It's a disgrace to mess with voters -- Editorial: The Washington State Council of County and City Employees is backing an anti-initiative campaign slightly less sleazy than its beware-the-identity-thieves scam last month.
...plus on Sunday -- Real tax relief for this Washington -- Editorial: Bent on tax cuts just for the wealthy, Washington's GOP House delegation just passed up a chance to cut taxes for everyone in the state.
— In today's Yakima H-R -- Locke earns title of "Housing Governor" for farm worker projects (editorial)
— In Friday's Walla Walla U-B -- Community rallied to save Walla Walla VA hospital (editorial)
— In Sunday's Columbian -- State policies create health care crisis (op-ed re: Cover the Uninsured Week)
...plus -- 100,000 pounds of food collected by Clark County letter carriers in Saturday's drive
Other national news:
— At AFLCIO.org -- New legislation moves toward SOLVE-ing immigration crisis
— Today from Reuters -- In new offensive, Kerry raps Bush on health costs
— In today's Washington Post -- Mr. Bush and the economy -- Editorial: If Mr. Bush wants to make an economic case for reelection, he needs to give up the idea of making his tax cuts permanent. He also needs to flesh out the other parts of his program, to offer more than the rhetoric that he produced four years ago and then failed to implement.
— From the Center for American Progress -- Outsource this -- The investigation into the Pentagon's hiring of private security firms to conduct interrogations of Iraqi prisoners is only the latest -- and most disturbing -- example of the Bush administration's commitment to take outsourcing into new territory. 

Previous weeks' news: May 3-8 -- April 26-30 -- April 19-23

THURSDAY,  MAY 13
Solidarity march Saturday to save Fircrest, protect health care 

All union members and community supporters are encouraged to attend a Solidarity March this Saturday, May 15 to save the Fircrest School in Shoreline and its programs for developmentally disabled citizens, and to support state employees' efforts to maintain affordable health benefits. 

Gerald McEntee, President of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, will help lead the march beginning at 10 a.m. at Ridgefield Elementary School, 16516 10th Ave. N.E. in Shoreline and will proceed to the Fircrest School. Also scheduled to attend are Washington Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Christine Gregoire and other community leaders.

McEntee is making the trip from Washington D.C. to support not only Fircrest School, but also the seven bargaining teams of the Washington Federation of State Employees, AFSCME Council 28 that are now negotiating the first-ever master contracts under the state's new full-scope collective bargaining law.  McEntee will stress that the fight to save Fircrest is part of the wider fight for quality, affordable health care that WFSE is also fighting for at the bargaining table. 

For more information, visit www.wfse.org.

THURSDAY,  MAY 13
WSLC endorses pit-to-pier project near Hood Canal 

The following press release was distributed today by the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO:

The Washington State Labor Council, the state’s largest union organization, voted last week to support Fred Hill Materials’ pit-to-pier project, capping off a week in which the project also received official support from the Olympic Peninsula Building and Construction Trades Council and the Washington State Building and Construction Trades Council.

The pit-to-pier endorsement from the state labor council, which represents some 550 affiliated unions with more than 430,000 rank-and-file members in a wide range of industries, reflects the urgency of rural economic development and the creation of quality jobs, said WSLC Secretary-Treasurer Alan Link.

“We support the pit-to-pier project because it benefits everyone,” Link said. “Our endorsement of this project should be seen as acknowledgment that all working people in Washington state – not just building trades or truck drivers who will directly benefit – have an interest in rural economic development.  We can’t afford to pass up opportunities like this to create good family-wage jobs, especially in rural parts of the state.”

The council will be contacting all of its affiliated unions around the state and urging them to “get the word out to rank-and-file members that the pit-to-pier project deserves all of our support,” Link said.

Earlier in the week, the Olympic Peninsula Building & Construction Trades Council announced its support of the pit-to-pier project.  “This project is of great value, not only to the local area, but to the Greater Puget Sound region,” said Dan Taylor, OPBCTC president.  He cited the project’s creation of some 130 jobs as well as its environmental benefits.

Delivering much-needed sand and gravel by ship and barge would make regional environmental projects like beach restoration viable throughout Hood Canal and the Puget Sound, Taylor said. Marine transportation, he added, will “keep the number of truck miles in the region much lower, thereby lessening the already burdened highway system.

“Barging gravel products nearer to where they will be used will lower the overall cost of construction,” Taylor added. “Overall, this is a project that is great for the local area and for the region as a whole.”

For more information, contact the WSLC's David Groves at 206-281-8901. 

THURSDAY,  MAY 13
Nethercutt & Co. (again) back Bush's overtime pay takeaway

House Republicans refused Wednesday to allow a debate or vote on an amendment that would protect overtime pay for workers who stand to lose their overtime pay under new rules issued last month by the Bush administration. Unless Congress acts or President Bush backs down, the regulations will go into effect Aug. 23.

In a 222–205 party-line vote, Republican Reps. George Nethercutt, Jennifer Dunn and "Doc" Hastings from Washington state all voted in support of Bush's overtime takeaway, while every Democrat in the state's congressional delegation voted to block the new rules. Nethercutt -- who is now running for U.S. Senate against Sen. Patty Murray -- has voted several times in support of Bush's overtime pay grab, including in support of Bush's original proposal which was later retracted after it became clear that 8 million U.S. workers would lose overtime pay rights and a public outcry ensued.

On Wednesday's vote, Nethercutt had an opportunity to support a motion that allowed the president to "update" and "modernize" overtime regulations, but at the same time guarantee that no worker who currently qualifies will lose the right to time-and-a-half pay. He and every other Republican (save two) refused to support that motion.

The U.S. Senate last week passed a similar amendment by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). However, House GOP leaders are expected to try and delay any direct vote on the Harkin amendment until after the Bush administration regulations take effect. As a result, the vote on Wednesday's motion "may be the only chance for the House to support the Senate overtime amendments and guarantee that workers will not lose their overtime rights,” the AFL-CIO said in a May 11 letter to House members.

The Senate's Harkin amendment, which was attached to the Foreign Sales Corporation tax bill (S. 1627), allows updates to the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA’s) rules that govern overtime eligibility but ensures no currently eligible workers lose their overtime pay and lets stand any provision that actually expands overtime eligibility. It also applies retroactively. If the Bush overtime take-away goes into effect before the legislative process is finalized, the Harkin amendment would halt the overtime pay grab.

For weeks, the White House has conducted an intense spin operation that tried to paint the new provisions of the FLSA as an expansion of overtime eligibility that would not cost workers their overtime pay rights.

“The House leadership passed up an opportunity to allow the Bush Administration to make any needed updates to the rules governing overtime pay, while stopping them from taking away overtime pay from even a single worker,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. “America's workers deserve to at least have a vote on this matter in the House so that they can see where their leaders stand on Bush's efforts to slash their overtime pay.”

After a yearlong drive to take away workers’ overtime pay, the Bush administration published its new overtime rules April 23 and they are due to go into effect in late August.

If they do take effect, it will “mean longer hours and less pay for millions of workers -- and more litigation for our entire economy,” Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing May 4.

Eisenbrey told the committee the Bush administration overtime “final rule and its preamble are rife with ambiguity. Many of the regulatory provisions have been changed without real explanations, even while the [Labor] Department claims -- contrary to the plain language of the rule -- that it is not changing the law.”

Although the Senate and House backed a similar overtime pay protection amendment last year, Republican congressional leaders, working closely with the Bush White House, stripped the amendment from the final version of appropriations bill to which it was attached.

(This report was adapted from a posting at www.aflcio.org.)

MONDAY,  MAY 10
"Strategies for Social and Economic Justice" conference set 

The Labor Center at The Evergreen State College and the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies at the University of Washington are co-sponsoring the conference "From Chaos to Community:  Strategies for Social and Economic Justice," Friday night, May 14, and Saturday, May 15, at the
First United Methodist Church, 423 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma. The Rev. Leslie Braxton, minister of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Seattle, will give Friday's keynote address. The public is invited.

On Saturday morning, a panel of regional activists will discuss the topic of "Building Coalitions:  What We're Good At, What Challenges We Face," followed by break-out groups reflect on issues raised by the panelists. Workshop topics will be "Immigration and Labor," "Labor and Environmental Justice," "Electoral Politics:  Overcoming Wedge Issues," "Creative Organizing," "Organizing for Peace and Justice:  Communities of Faith," and "Organizing for Universal Health Care."

The day will conclude with a demonstration of community/labor solidarity, somewhere in Tacoma. Tacoma and Pierce County residents should find the conference particularly useful and interesting, although it is open to everyone. The conference is prompted by the growing recognition by unions and community groups to make alliances to address sense of national and local crisis of this era.

Registration for Friday evening only is a donation of $5 to $10 on a sliding sliding scale, and for Friday and Saturday, or Saturday only $15.  Lunch on Saturday is included in the registration.

For more information, contact Peter Kardas at Evergreen's Labor Center at (360) 867-6526 (email kardasp@evergreen.edu), or Sarah Laslett at the UW's Harry Bridges Labor Studies Center at (206) 543-7946 (email pcls@u.washington.edu).