Three new vice presidents have been elected to the Washington State Labor Council’s Executive Board in a special election to fill the vacancies created by the disaffiliation of the Carpenters Union from the AFL-CIO earlier this year.  All three seats from the WSLC’s 3rd District, representing Southwest Washington, had been held by members of Carpenters-affiliated unions.

In votes tallied by the WSLC Teller Committee on Thursday, the newly elected labor leaders are:

Bob Guenther of Centralia, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 125, who received 5952 votes;
Lynda Hart of Longview, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555, who received 4742 votes; and
Mike Phillips of Vancouver, International Association of Fire Fighters Local 452, who received 4534 votes.

A fourth candidate, Bruce Zeller of Olympia, Washington Federation of State Employees Local 443, trailed the other three for the open seats.

“We are happy to have these three labor leaders join us in our mission to provide real opportunity and fair treatment to all workers in our state, and we look forward to working closely with them and their communities,” said WSLC President Rick Bender.

The winners will be sworn into office later this month at an Executive Board meeting preceding the WSLC's annual convention, but must again stand for election next year when the entire Executive Board, including the president and secretary-treasurer, must run for another four-year term.

Earlier this summer, Sharon McCann of UFCW 1105 and Dale Palmer of UFCW 1439 were named vice presidents to represent the 1st and 4th Districts, respectively.  In those cases, an election was not required because they were the only ones to receive the necessary number of nominations from affiliated unions.

All five new Vice Presidents will be welcomed by delegates to the WSLC convention that gets underway August 22 in Wenatchee.  The Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO is the largest labor organization in the State of Washington, representing some 450,000 union members across the state.

The Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies at the University of Washington is pleased to announce its latest web-based resource: The Labor Press Project.

Coordinated by Professor James Gregory, the Labor Press Project is an important resource for anyone interested in American labor history, Pacific Northwest history, or the story of American journalism.  The site also offers a glimpse of the exciting research being done by undergraduates in Labor Studies courses at the University of Washington.

The project brings together information about the history and ongoing influence of newspapers and periodicals published by unions, labor councils, and radical organizations.  These media have been a critical part of American labor movements since the early 19th century and an equally critical, if largely unacknowledged, part of the history of American journalism.  Today more than a hundred periodicals serve the labor movement.  Thousands more have done so in the past.

The initial focus of the Labor Press Project is the history of labor media of the Pacific Northwest.  The website provides a variety of resources including research reports, photographs, cartoons, and facsimile pages from several dozen periodicals including the Seattle Union Record, The Seattle Socialist, The IWW's Industrial Worker, The Timber Worker, the Washington Teamster, the Philippine-American Chronicle, the Aeromechanic, the Seattle American Postal Workers News, the Third Rail (firefighters), and many others.

Students in History 450 ("Class and Labor in American History") wrote the 28 research reports that are the heart of the project.  The reports narrate the history of important labor newspapers, identifying editors, sponsoring organizations, and examining editorial interests and strategies.  They also provide information about the activities of sponsoring unions and radical organizations.

Extensive bibliographic guides make it easy to further explore both the history of labor journalism in the United States and the labor history of the Pacific Northwest.  And don't overlook the archive of more than 100 on-line historical photographs of workers and labor events that we compiled from the Museum of History and Industry's collection.

Some of the periodicals continue today.  We have web links to many, including SPEEA Newsletter, Puget Sound Energy (IBEW), Voice (SEIU 925), OPEIU Journal, the Mirror (Glaziers 188), 1001 Focus (UFCW).  And a link too to the Western Labor Communications Association which carries on the traditions of labor journalism.

The Labor Press Project is the third in a continuing series of web based resources that the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies has created to explore the labor history of the Pacific Northwest.  It joins the Seattle General Strike Project, and the WTO History Project, all of which can be found at the center's web site: http://depts.washington.edu/pcls/

For more information contact:

James Gregory (gregoryj@u.washington.edu)
Department of History
University of Washington
Seattle, WA  98195

Unions that represent workers at the Port of Seattle will gather TODAY AT NOON for a rally and march from the IBEW Hall's parking lot (2700 1st Ave.) to the Port of Seattle Commissioners' meeting at Pier 69.

The rally and march, organized by the King County Labor Council Port Coalition, will call attention to (and express frustration with) the commissioners' plan to vote at a 2 p.m. public hearing on whether to contract out work that the coalition of unions have performed at the waterfront for more than 30 years.

Two of these unions have filed Unfair Labor Practice charges against the Port of Seattle for failure to bargain in good faith and will seek injunctive relief for this injustice.

Please join us for this important rally and march (and sorry about the short notice).

As those in the King County labor community are probably already aware, Wallie Smith, who has worked at the King County Labor Agency for more than 25 years and now serves as Foodbank Director, recently suffered a severe stroke.  Because her health insurance does not cover all the costs of her rehabilitation, an assistance fund for Wallie has been set up at the KCLA.  Please consider making a contribution.

All her life, Wallie has dedicated herself to assisting those in need in our community.  Her selfless activism has inspired many of us to do the same.  And now, in her time of need, we should all contribute what we can to help our Union Sister.

Please send your contribution payable to the King County Labor Agency, 2800 First Ave. #126, Seattle, WA, 98121.  And make sure you let them know it is for the Wallie Smith Assistance Fund.

Thank you.

WSLC Secretary-Treasurer Al Link has sent the following letter to the editor of The Seattle Times in response to Monday's editorial calling for (deep breath here) cuts in unemployment insurance benefits, private "three-way" workers' compensation insurance, review of "mandated coverages" on health insurance, lower prevailing wage rates, and abandonment of the state's ergonomics rule:

To the editor:

Your two-part editorial (Aug. 5-6), on the question "Is Boeing Going?" missed on several counts:

— By advocating a private insurance takeover of workers’ compensation, your newspaper apparently prefers the higher premiums and lower benefits in place in states such as California.  Our state’s workers’ compensation system boasts of lower premiums and higher benefits.  In fact a performance audit in 1998 found our state premiums below the 25th percentile in costs charged compared to all other states.

— The Boeing Company itself brags that its ergonomics program has been successful, and has no quarrel with the state’s ergonomic standards.  By reducing workplace injuries, the ergonomic safeguard saves millions of dollars annually, for Boeing, and other large industrial companies.  Weyerhaeuser documents a 40% reduction in industrial injury costs; GTE cut costs from $9 million to $3 million with its ergonomics program.

— Lowering the prevailing wage rates in rural areas is one great way to insure rural poverty remains entrenched, but it begs credulity to link that mean-spirited action to Boeing’s decision about future production.  Prevailing wage rates have repeatedly been proven as the most efficient, lowest cost method of public works construction, as studies in both Oregon and Utah have shown.

— Employers such as Boeing pay unemployment insurance premiums of about 2˝ cents an hour worked, or for a full time employee, about $50 a year.  That’s hardly a large part of the cost of doing business in our state!  That unemployment insurance benefit goes a long ways towards maintaining consumer spending during economic slowdowns and recessions, helping many a main street business stay afloat.

Your editorial broadside was skewed with a "Fairview Fanny" viewpoint on the two essential questions for Boeing’s future:

— Will we provide the education and training to provide enough highly skilled machinists, technicians and engineers who can design and produce the best airplanes in the world?

— Will we provide the financing and revenues necessary to provide a world-class transportation system that efficiently provides mobility for people and freight?

Any objective review of the facts shows the folly of your wrong-headed approach to economic retention and development policies. Treating the workforce as a disposable commodity instead of as an invaluable asset is the first problem. Your prescription would end Seattle’s role as the premier Northwest city that powers the economic heartbeat of our region.

Sincerely,
Alan O. Link, Secretary-Treasurer
Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO

Earlier this summer, after The Seattle Times published editorials calling for repeal of prevailing wage laws and opposing union organizing by University of Washington teaching assistants, we suggested readers (especially subscribers) contact the largest newspaper in Seattle Most Liberal Town™ and express their feelings about the hard-right, anti-worker turn the paper has taken.

Today, things go from bad to worse as the Times has apparently decided that one anti-worker position per editorial isn't cost-efficient use of space.

In today's editorial, "A solid industrial base to keep high-tech jobs," the Times offers up its enlightened prescription for ensuring local production of Boeing's Sonic Cruiser and other industrial economic opportunities.  It calls for cuts in unemployment insurance benefits, private "three-way" workers' compensation insurance (offering the irrefutable reasoning: California does it!), review of "mandated coverages" on health insurance, and abandonment of the state's ergonomics rule.

For some background information and arguments on both sides of these issues -- since none is offered in today's Times piece -- see our Legislative Issues page.

Some have suggested that Times recent anti-labor positions can be traced to the level of acrimony that existed and still exists between management and the Newspaper Guild because of last year's 7-week strike (reminisce with the still-posted Seattle Union Record classic "Strike, Lies and Videotape").  More specifically, some cite the public dispute between labor leaders and the Times editorial editor over whether public figures should refuse interviews with the scab-run paper during the dispute (see WSLC President Rick Bender's take on that one.)

Others argue that Times publisher/estate-tax-repeal-crusader Frank Blethen, who recently threatened to move the Times because Seattle is too "pro-labor," has brought his iron dog-shooting fist down on the editorial board.  (When this anger-management course candidate found out which company was handling printing for the strikers' Union Record, he fired of a one-line email to its owner: "F--- you to death.")

Regardless, it is increasingly clear that the Times editorial board is not responsive or sympathetic to the political and social leanings of the community it purports to serve.  If you still read this newspaper, please write the Times (again) and remind them Seattle is a UNION town, and that its blind acceptance of business associations' regulatory wish-list, without even bothering to support its case, is a disservice and an insult to the working families who live here.