The Governors are coming... and they are going to get an earful.

The National Governors Association is coming to Seattle on July 17 for its annual meeting, and union and community activists will send them a message that the priorities of the people must come first!  You can help send that message by joining the Put People First Coalition at a 1:30 p.m. rally and march Saturday, July 17 at Westlake Park in downtown Seattle.

Special guest speakers at the rally will include Congressman Dennis Kucinich and AFSCME President Gerald McEntee.

TAKE ACTION:  Please download, distribute and post the rally flier (in PDF format) to spread the word about this important event.  In addition, Jobs with Justice needs volunteers for a rally-turnout phone bank on Tuesday, July 13 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Seattle Labor Temple, 2800 1st Ave., in the AFL-CIO offices on the 2nd floor. Call (206) 441-4969, if you can volunteer.

The Put People First Coalition will support the following priorities:

• Affordable, comprehensive health care for all
• Create educational opportunities for present and future generations
• Stop outsourcing state jobs at taxpayer expense
• Hold corporations accountable for tax breaks and subsidies they receive
• Create budget priorities that assist poor and working families, including immigrants and undocumented workers, and provide assistance to the vulnerable in our communities

For more information, visit www.PutPeopleFirst.org or contact Jonathan Lawson at 1-800-562-6002.

The following news advisory was distributed Thursday by Service Employees International Union District 1199NW:

Community Supporters to Call On Providence St. Peter Hospital
to Commit to Fair Union Election for Technical Employees

Delegation from Jobs With Justice, Olympia Commission on Workplace
Democracy to Deliver Message to Hospital Administrators

OLYMPIA -- Members of Jobs With Justice and the Olympia Commission on Workplace Democracy will visit Providence St. Peter Hospital today (Friday, July 9) to meet with employees and to deliver a message to the hospital administration.

The delegation will urge Providence St. Peter Hospital to commit to guidelines that ensure that a fair election can be held for technical employees to choose whether to form a union. Interference by hospital administrators made it impossible to conduct a fair election during a ballot originally scheduled for November of 2003.

Technical employees asked the National Labor Relations Board to postpone the election and the NLRB continues to investigate management misconduct in pressuring employees to oppose forming a union.  Since 2003, employees at the hospital have been working together to form a union for the hospital's 220 technical workers with Service Employees International Union District 1199NW.

Other Catholic hospitals, including the 41-hospital Catholic Healthcare West system, have agreed to election guidelines that allow employees to make their own decisions about forming a union, without pressure or interference from managers.

WHO:     Jobs With Justice activists, members of the Olympia Commission on Workplace Democracy

WHAT:    Delegation visit to Providence St. Peter Hospital to call for fair union election

WHERE: Hospital campus, 413 Lilly Road NE, Olympia

WHEN:   3:30 p.m., Friday, July 9, 2004

The Olympia Commission on Workplace Democracy is an Olympia-based coalition of religious, community, and academic leaders -- including the Rev. Arthur Vaeni of the Olympia Unitarian Universalist Church -- who joined together to respond to concerns about interference with health care workers effort to form a union at PSPH.

Jobs With Justice is a national network of local coalitions that connect labor, faith-based, community, and student organizations to work together on workplace and community social justice campaigns.

For more information, contact SEIU 1199NW's Carter Wright at (425) 917-1199.

The following news release was distributed today by Service Employees International Union District 1199NW:

Highline Hospital Employees Win Protection of Affordable Health Care,
Group Health Caregivers Step Up Campaign to Maintain Benefits

Nurses and Caregivers Continue Contract Talks at Swedish,
Valley Medical Center , Group Health, Harborview, Other Health Facilities

Over 340 Licensed Practical Nurses, Nursing Assistants and other health care workers who provide care and services at Highline Community Hospital and Regional Hospital have voted overwhelmingly to approve a new contract that protects access to affordable health benefits for the length of the contract.

With Group Health continuing to demand major health benefit cuts, Group Health nurses stepped up their campaign to protect affordable care by launching a new radio spot on local radio. (Click here to hear the radio spot.)

“Everyone deserves affordable health care. It’s troubling that even people who work in health care now have to worry about affording care. So it’s really important that our good benefits are secure for the life of contract,” said Thad Stevens, an LPN in Restorative Care Services at Highline.  

“Highline was able to negotiate a good agreement that respects its caregivers’ hard work. Highline management’s approach differed significantly from Group Health, where management is single-minded about making cuts that will make it harder to attract and retain caregivers,” said Diane Sosne, RN, president of Service Employees International Union 1199NW. Highline and Group Health employees are members of SEIU 1199NW, Washington’s largest union of health care workers.

The Highline contract includes an agreement that the hospital will not reduce health benefits. The new contract also includes pay increases that will help the hospital attract and retain employees, strengthened job security protections, and a premium for working weekend hours. The agreement lasts for two years, expiring on June 30, 2006 .

Over 12,000 SEIU health care workers in Washington are negotiating new contracts this year. SEIU members are working together to improve health care jobs in order to address chronic staff shortages that face Washington hospital and health facilities. 

SEIU members will rally at Group Health Cooperative’s headquarters in Seattle on the evening of July 14 to voice concerns over GHC’s demands to cut health benefits for its nurses and caregivers.

For more information, contact SEIU 1199NW's Carter Wright at (425) 917-1199.

Bureaucrats at the state's Department of Social and Health Services are cutting hours for home care clients and workers, harming some of the most vulnerable and putting the quality of their care at risk.

In union contract bargaining happening now, Service Employees International Union Local 775 -- Washington's Long Term Care Union -- is demanding an end to home-care hours cuts and fighting for quality care for seniors and people with disabilities.  Meanwhile, more than 350 home-care workers and community supporters have e-mailed Governor Gary Locke and DSHS chief Dennis Braddock to demand an end to cuts in hours.

TAKE ACTION:  Please send a fax to Locke and Braddock by visiting: www.unionvoice.org/campaign/hourscutsworkers.  Also, please call DSHS toll-free at 1-800-737-0617 and tell them you want DSHS to stop cutting hours for home-care services.

To keep the pressure on, SEIU Local 775 is also running a radio ad this week on Olympia radio stations. Home-care worker Linda Lee from Vancouver taped the ad, and you can listen to the ad or read the text on the union's website at www.seiu775.org.

SEIU Local 775 has heard from hundreds of home-care workers about hours being cut -- often substantially.  Here are some of the reasons hours are being cut and what the union is doing about it, including taking legal action, coalition building and grassroots political action by members:

• Illegal DSHS Rule-Making.  DSHS proposed a rule limiting the total number of monthly hours a client can hire a single provider to only 184, or 96 for parent providers.  This rule would apply even if the client is eligible for more hours. SEIU Local 775 testified against this rule at a public hearing in December.  The union believes this rule violates its union contract -- DSHS bureaucrats can’t change hours without bargaining with the union first.  A law has been passed that will prevent DSHS from limiting hours of home care workers.  (If you are a home-care worker whose hours were cut because of this rule, please call your caseworker immediately and demand that your hours be reinstated.)
  
• More DSHS Rule-Making.  DSHS also made a rule that live-in caregivers would not be paid for hours spent doing meal preparation, housekeeping, laundry, woodcutting, or transportation to essential shopping.  SEIU Local 775 is exploring legal action to challenge this rule.  The union is demanding in bargaining for the new union contract that DSHS repeal this rule and stop discriminating against dedicated live-in caregivers -- but the state is refusing to bargain over this critical issue.
  
• The new “CARE” assessment tool.  The intent of the CARE tool is to provide a consistent way of measuring client needs, and replaces the old CA or Comprehensive Assessment.  SEIU Local 775 has many concerns about the tool itself, and about inadequate training for the case managers and social workers using the tool.  The union is working with lawyers to get help for clients to file for fair hearings -- more than 500 since the CARE tool went into effect.  The union has also helped publicize the issue, and an article about the problems with the CARE assessment tool featuring SEIU 775 bargaining team member Karen Hammer ran in newspapers across the state (see www.seiu775.org). The union is working with advocates for seniors and people with disabilities to figure out how to address the issue further.

The bottom line is this:  The stronger a voice home-care workers have in Olympia and in Washington D.C., the more they will be able to hold politicians and bureaucrats accountable to protect their hours and our rights and to ensure quality, accessible home care services.

Some case managers have wrongly blamed the hours cuts on raises won by home care workers or on the state budget shortfall.  But if the legislature can afford to choose to give away hundreds of millions of dollars a year to Microsoft, Boeing and other wealthy companies, they can certainly afford to give home care workers a raise AND fully fund the hours our clients need.  It’s a question of priorities; we need to keep forcing politicians to make quality home care a priority.

The following press release was distributed Thursday afternoon by SEIU Local 775:  

SPOKANE -- Dozens of home care workers, some of them with their elderly and disabled clients along, gathered at the DSHS Spokane office today to protest DSHS cuts to home care services. After a rally outside the building, the caregivers entered the DSHS to deliver a letter to DSHS Secretary Dennis Braddock (see letter below).  After refusing to leave until getting a response from Olympia, three home care workers were arrested.

"Bureaucrats up there in Olympia are changing lives and harming the quality of care for our clients with the stroke of a pen," said one of the caregivers arrested, Spokane home care worker Dana Simmons. "We're here to demand that DSHS stop cutting home care services for our clients and ensure quality care for the elderly and disabled." 

Thousands of home care workers are reporting dramatic cuts in hours. Home care workers raised the issue in union contract negotiations with DSHS and the Governor's office but the government has refused to even negotiate with caregivers on the issue. 

The three home care workers arrested were Dana Simmons, a member of the SEIU Local 775 bargaining team who cares for a 64-year old woman with a brain injury; Catherine Byrd, who cares for two developmentally disabled young adults, and Alicia Macks, who provides respite care for a client with a brain trauma. All live in Spokane. 

SEIU Local 775 represents more than 28,000 home care workers across the state, including more than 2500 in Spokane County. 

Following is the text of the letter to DSHS Secretary Dennis Braddock:

Department of Social and Health Services
Secretary Dennis Braddock
 
July 8, 2004
 
Dear Secretary Braddock:
 
Tens of thousands of seniors and people with disabilities rely on home care services to live with dignity and independence in their own homes. These are the very people, the most vulnerable Washingtonians, whom Governor Gary Locke pledged to protect from budget cuts. But your department, DSHS, is cutting hours for home care services—putting those vulnerable seniors at risk, endangering the independence of people with disabilities, and threatening the quality of care for all home care consumers and their families.
 
Thousands of clients have had their hours cut suddenly, despite the fact that there has been no improvement in their health status. And thousands of dedicated home care workers- who make only $8.43 an hour but are unwilling to see the people we care for suffer- end up providing the same amount of care, but with even less take-home pay. Home care workers are taking a big step backwards into poverty, while the quality of care erodes, too.
 
The most insulting home care cut discriminates against caregivers and clients who share a residence. The state has cut the client’s hours drastically, even while the worker is providing round-the-clock care in the client’s residence.
 
Home care workers are fighting back through our Union, to demand that DSHS and the Governor stop cutting hours of care. But DSHS and the Governor are refusing to negotiate in good faith over this critical issue.
 
We demand that you, Secretary Braddock, send the State bargaining team back to the table to respond to our bargaining proposals on hours.
 
From the 26,000 home care worker Individual Providers united in SEIU 775, with support from our friends, allies, clients, and advocates.

The following press release was distributed late Wednesday by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001:

Boeing's third offer approved by SPEEA - WTPU members

WICHITA, KS -- Technical and professional workers at The Boeing Company approved a new four-year contract today, capping four months of negotiations.

The new contract includes the first ever incentive plan for salaried union represented employees, guaranteed pay increases and an opportunity to form a working partnership between the bargaining unit and Boeing.

The approval after four months of negotiations, avoided a strike by the 3,400-employee Wichita Technical and Professional Unit (WTPU) of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001, AFL-CIO.

The contract was approved by 87% of the voting members.  The tally showed 1,024 voting to accept, with 150 voting to reject the contract offer. Two previous offers were rejected by the bargaining unit. The previous contract expired Feb. 19.

"Employees forced the company to improve their offer each time it went to vote," said Steve Smith, chair of the Negotiations Team. "We will keep fighting for what is right for members and all represented employees."

The union held a special meeting for members at the Century II Convention Hall to hear details of the contract before general voting started Wednesday.

 "There are some positive sides of this contract that could only come from a union negotiated contract," said Bob Brewer, Midwest director. "Employees have locked in those gains, which is a very important accomplishment for their futures, families and communities."

Employees will receive a one-time bonus of $1,800. Salary increases come from wage pools of 3.5 percent in year one and 3 percent in years two and three of the contract. Increases in the fourth year will be based on market salaries at that time. This year's increases are retroactive to March 5.  Individual employees are guaranteed increases of $750 in year one, $500 in year two, nothing in year three and $750 in the final year of the agreement.

The offer requires employees to pay 12 percent of the cost of the traditional medical plan in year one and 18 percent starting in year two.  The union also secured a no-premium plan as an option for employees. The contract will also include language that addresses employees' concerns in the event Boeing sells the Wichita Commercial Airplane Division.

SPEEA represents 20,000 engineers, technical and other professional at The Boeing Company.