The United Farm Workers of Washington invites all members of the labor, religious and community-based organization -- and the general public -- to come to Yakima on Sunday, August 11 for a Farmworker Festival for Justice and Legalization from 2 to 6 p.m. at Miller Park (corner of N. 3rd Street and East "D" Street). The event will feature important speakers, live music, workshops and other educational opportunities.

Get on the Justice Bus from Seattle!  It departs at 10 a.m. from the Park 'n' Ride at I-5 and 65th. There will be various return times. A $25 is requested to cover the cost of the round-trip bus, lunch, educational materials and other event costs (please consider making a larger donation for folks unable to pay). Please RSVP to Mark at the Washington Association of Churches at (206) 625-9790 x17.

Among the issues to be addressed are:

• Joining the Million Voices for Legalization postcard campaign calling on President Bush to grant a JUST legalization for hardworking immigrant workers.
• Learning about the Fair Trade Apple Campaign (see 2001 WSLC resolution on the subject) and how YOU can get involved.
• Showing your solidarity with farm workers struggling for respect, dignity and justice in the workplace.
• Renewing your spirit and gaining strength for the struggle from the examples of our farmworker Brothers and Sisters.

Don't miss this event, your presence counts! For more information, contact the UFW of Washington at (509) 839-4903 in Sunnyside, or Rebecca Saldaña in Seattle at (206) 789-1947.

The following press release has been distributed by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, IFPTE Local 2001:

Members of the labor union representing engineers, technical workers and other professionals at The Boeing Company have recalled their recently elected president and treasurer.

Thomas E. Day, an engineer at Boeing’s Auburn plant, who was elected in March to president of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) IFPTE Local 2001, is no longer in office. Recalled as treasurer of the union in the special referendum election was Michael Dunn, an engineer at Boeing’s Kent plant.

The final tally showed the referendum to recall Day passed by a vote of 4,118 to 3,156, or 56.6% for recall.

The recall of Michael Dunn passed by a vote of 4,023 to 3,250, or 55.3% for recall.

Since taking office on March 27, and as cited in the referendums, the pair angered members by circumventing the desires of the union’s Executive Board and the SPEEA Council when they took a group to meet with Boeing Commercial Airplane President Alan Mulally. Some on the council said the meeting harmed negotiations for upcoming contracts. Day was also criticized for linking Internet web sites he maintained to other sites that some felt were inappropriate. Day and Dunn also drew disfavor from some members by supporting a web site that often criticized SPEEA, other union leaders and SPEEA staff. As outlined in SPEEA’s governing documents, the president and treasurer, along with other members of the Executive Board, work with the union’s paid staff to administer union activities. The board is separate from the union’s contract negotiating teams.

A total of 7,281 votes were returned in the election for a return rate of about 40%. A total of 18,249 ballots were mailed to members earlier this month. The voting package included pro and con statements written by member committees.

The recall of both officers take effect immediately. SPEEA Secretary Jennifer MacKay, an engineer at Boeing’s Spokane facility, assumed the office of SPEEA President with the certification of the election results by the SPEEA Tellers’ Committee.

"This has been a difficult process, but we will be stronger for going through it," said President MacKay. "The membership recognized the concerns and used the processes that exist to take care of the situation."

SPEEA Executive Director Charles Bofferding said the election is a reminder that members stand ready to deal with anything they think may harm their chances of securing a good contract with The Boeing Company.

"This is an issue that could only be settled with a membership vote," Bofferding said. "The members voted. It’s settled. Now it’s time for all of us to pull together and focus on the three upcoming contract talks that will affect tens of thousands of SPEEA members."

SPEEA will negotiate new contracts for three bargaining units this year. When last negotiated in 1999, two of those bargaining units struck Boeing for 40 days in the largest white-collar strike against a corporation in the history of the United States.

"Now we need to focus on negotiations and getting the best contract for members possible," Bofferding said. "We will find a way for all SPEEA leaders to work together and focus our efforts on the upcoming negotiations."

Removal of the two officers creates two vacancies on the SPEEA Executive Board. The two officer spots on the Executive Board will now be filled from the remaining five members. The newly created vacancies on the Executive Board will be filled by a nominating and election process from within the 140-member SPEEA Council.

SPEEA represents 23,500 engineers, technical and other professional workers at Boeing in Washington, Oregon, Kansas, California, Texas, Utah and Florida.

For more information, contact Bill Dugovich, SPEEA Communications Director, at 206-674-7368.

Vashon Community Care Center, facing a strike deadline and mounting calls for fairness from community members, elected officials and family members of the nursing home residents reached a contract agreement Tuesday with its 35 caregivers, members of Service Employees International Union, Local 6.

Caregivers unanimously approved a contract that provides:

• A strong voice for caregivers, with caregivers represented on the facility's Quality of Care Committee.
• Fully-paid health insurance for caregivers.
• Immediate wage increases averaging more than 7.4%, and shift and weekend differentials that will help attract and retain more staff.
• Fair treatment and strong protection of caregiver rights through an effective grievance procedure.
• Union security through a union shop.

SEIU Local 6 invites all labor and community supporters to a celebration (instead of a picket line) on Saturday, July 27 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Ober Park, Vashon Highway, Vashon.

Caregivers said they won this contract because they were ready to strike, they were united as a bargaining team, and they enjoyed tremendous support from community members, elected officials, and other union members, who wrote letters, sent hundreds of faxes to VCCC management, called VCCC Board members, and came out to the informational picket lines.

SEIU Local 6 members at Group Health last Friday marched on the president of the VCCC Board, who is a manager at Group Health Central Campus, to demand that she stop union-busting. SEIU Local 6 members at Mt. St. Vincent Nursing Home in West Seattle circulated petitions saying they would refuse to be used as strikebreakers. The King County Labor Council and the Teamsters Joint Council sanctioned the strike, pledging to honor the picket line.

Washington State Jobs with Justice is organizing a protest at SeaTac Airport at 9:30 a.m. this Saturday, July 27 on immigrant workers' right to organize a union. (Participants should meet at the Metro bus stop at the south end of the airport near baggage claim.)

During union bargaining with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union, Sky Chef management conspired to hold a phony employee meeting, disguise immigration agents (INS) in Sky Chef uniforms, and arrest union members on company property," says the WSJwJ rally announcement. "All of the arrested union members are Latino or Asian, had worked up to 10 years for Sky Chef, and many are now separated from their young children and spouses.  Neither the INS nor Sky Chef claim that arrested workers pose any real security threat.  Sky Chef workers make airplane meals, which are subject to an independent and thorough security check."

“We all have a right to a voice at work and we will not let port employers use disguised federal agents to silence us,” said Cathy Malia Lowenberg, of the Seattle branch of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance-Seattle, AFL-CIO.

Saturday's rally is endorsed by the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance-Seattle, United Food & Commercial Workers Local 1001, International Longshore & Warehouse Union Local 19, Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters, Teamsters Local 763, Out Front Labor Coalition/Pride At Work, LELO, Lutheran Public Policy of WA State, State Rep. Velma Veloria (11th), Casa Latina, Sen. Adam Kline (37th), American Friends Service Committee, State Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos (37th), Refuse & Resist-Seattle, Hate Free Zone Campaign of WA, Not In Our Name Project-Seattle.

None of the above are endorsing any work stoppage.

Jobs with Justice demands the following of Port employers:

• Stop attacks on workers’ right to organize under the excuse of national security and “Operation Tarmac;”
• No lies to employees about immigration procedures;
• No cooperation with INS beyond that required by law, including bringing INS agents on company property without a warrant signed by a federal judge; and
• Immediate notice to employees’ unions of any INS audits or raids

Directions:  Metro 194 bus from downtown Seattle (3rd & Union bus tunnel) leaves at 9:04 a.m. and arrives at 9:35 a.m. Cost is $1.25 exact change one-way, or all-day-pass for $2.50.  Buses depart airport to downtown every half hour.  Click here for more bus schedules.

For more info call JwJ at 206-441-4969.

On Saturday, The Olympian newspaper broke a front-page story about the Republican Party’s failure to properly report millions of dollars of political campaign money funneled from the national to the state party organization.

Sound familiar?  Perhaps, because the state Democratic Party faces similar charges.  But there’s a big difference. A $4.8 million difference. That’s how much money the State Republican Party should have to forfeit to the state General Fund if the Public Disclosure Commission enforces the law as written.

The C-3 form the Democrats filed late (or in some cases not at all) subjects them to a PDC penalty of a maximum of $2,500, unless the case is referred to the Attorney General’s office, which could impose a stiffer fine.

The C-5 form the Republicans filed late subjects them to forfeiture of the campaign money involved — all $4.8 million. The C-5 form clearly states: “CAUTION: Failure to report transactions within ten days will cause the funds to forfeit to Washington State.”  That’s the law: RCW 42.17.090.

And that law has been strictly enforced in the past… at least against unions.

Last fall, 54 state legislators and elected officials, including Gov. Gary Locke, were forced to turn over some $37,000 to the state after the PDC found that two unions had made contributions in that amount using funds from their national union, which like the Republican National Party, failed to fill out the C-5 form.

Although an investigation has not yet been conducted, in Saturday’s Olympian article the PDC conceded that, yes, the GOP filed their C-5 forms one or two years late and, yes, the reason they filed them at all is because a PDC auditor made a “courtesy call” reminding them to fill out their C-5.

But stunningly, a PDC spokesperson has already decided the agency is unlikely to force the Republicans to forfeit the $4.8 million!

Many questions are raised by all of this. Here are just a few:

Since when does the PDC make “courtesy calls” to remind organizations of the law?  The unions that failed to submit C-5s never got a courtesy call.

Perhaps, courtesy calls are reserved for the most egregious multi-million dollar violators of PDC laws. But why, then, didn’t the Democrats get a courtesy call with a heads-up about their C-3 problem?  Is it because the PDC wasn’t aware they had a problem until a complaint was filed against them? 

If that’s the case, then the PDC must have known the Republicans were in violation.

But in Saturday’s article, PDC spokesman Doug Ellis asks us to believe that the PDC was not aware the national GOP was $4.8 million behind on their paperwork, and that a “PDC auditor” randomly decided to call them in D.C. with a reminder of their obligation to fill out C-5 forms.

That conversation is documented in the cover letter that accompanied the party’s eventual C-5 filing in March 2002 for its 2000-2001 cash transfers to the state: “Thank you for recently bringing to our attention (via a phone call) the requirement…”

If the PDC decided it was important to periodically remind its biggest customers of their obligations, why didn’t it do so in writing?  That way it wouldn’t seem as if they were playing favorites with a discreet phone-call tip.

Perhaps we all deserve some more disclosure about who at the PDC made that call to the Republican Party, and what exactly was said.  But regardless of what we find out, courtesy calls do not replace the PDC’s mandate to enforce the terms of the law.

Why does a complaint have to be filed first before the law can be enforced?  The PDC’s Ellis says the agency usually looks for a remedy that doesn’t include punishment or fines when the guilty party steps forward before a complaint is filed.

But it was the PDC that clued the Republicans into the fact that they were in violation -- or, excuse me, that they shouldn’t forget about a law for which, coincidentally, it turns out they had $4.8 million in exposure.

“We’re about compliance,” said Ellis.  

No, Mr. Ellis, the PDC is about public disclosure and enforcing the law. As many newspapers around the state have been quick to point out in the case against the Democrats, it’s too late just to comply.  The public has already been denied the opportunity to know where candidates got their out-of-state money in the 2000 and 2001 elections.

All the two-year-late “compliance” prompted by PDC “courtesy calls” amounts to a hill of beans as far as the public is concerned. The law was broken, and the punishment for breaking it is forfeiture. Period.

If the Republicans want to make their case for being granted a special exception or for changing the law retroactive to 2000, let them.  That’s not the PDC’s job.

Why does it matter whose fault it was?  GOP Chairman Chris Vance, knocked Saturday from the high horse he’s been riding for weeks as he lambasted Democrats for their PDC problem, made a point of reminding us all that it wasn’t his fault.

Unfortunately for him and his bank account, that doesn’t matter.

The law says the money must be forfeited.  It may appear as though the recipients of the unreported money – in this case, the State Republican Party and just about every one of their candidates in 2000 and 2001 – were not at fault because they could not have known the money was “tainted.”

Well, guess what?  The PDC didn’t care that the governor and the 53 other candidates couldn’t have known their union check was unreported in 2000.  But last fall, all of them had to come up with thousands of dollars to forfeit to the state, even though they spent that money long ago on their campaign.

The law is clear.  Past enforcement action is clear.  GOP chairman Chris Vance can whine all he wants that it was the national Republicans who dropped the ball on this $4.8 million “nuance” of the law (his word), but they must come up with this money unless the state is going to make new exceptions to the law for organizations that violate it on a grand scale.