UPDATED DAILY  M-F by 9 a.m. Pacific

Links to commercial press stories are functional at the date of posting. In some cases, links "expire" when the source would like to begin charging you 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 August 18-22, 2003

Previous weeks' news: Aug. 11-15 -- Aug. 4-8 -- July 28-Aug. 1

FRIDAY, August 22
WSLC Convention: Immigrant rights, legislative challenges highlight opening day
— In today's Seattle Times -- 430 more from region work their last day at Boeing today -- Since the 9-11 terrorist attacks, 22,797 of Boeing's Washington employees have lost jobs. Nationally, Boeing has laid off 35,410. More 60-day layoff-warning notices are being issued today. Nationally, 1,440 workers will receive notices today; Puget Sound-area employees will get 1,250 layoff notices.
— In today's King County Journal -- President Bush to see a changed Washington (editorial)
— In today's Everett Herald -- House speaker Hastert advocates Boeing tanked lease
— In today's Yakima Herald-Republic -- DSHS chief says austerity is reality
— In today's Bremerton Sun -- Poulsbo Wal-Mart foes vacate one battle, may pursue another
New at AFLCIO.org -- Wal-Mart: "How May We Muzzle You?"
— In today's Washington Post -- Challenger ousts AFGE leader -- Two-term president Bobby L. Harnage Sr. is defeated by John Gage, president of AFGE Local 1923 in Baltimore, who vowed to intensify the largest federal employee union's fight against the Bush administration's labor initiatives. 

THURSDAY, August 21 -- WSLC Reports Today is in Wenatchee for the WSLC's 2003 Convention and will be posting updates on the action so you can follow its progress.  Check back for updates.
Today at AFLCIO.org -- Study: Union construction workers more productive than nonunion
— In yesterday's Longview Daily News -- Blame jobless rate on corporate fraud (op-ed)
...plus -- Kalama teacher: Contract talks at an impasse
— In today's Everett Herald -- Everett teachers ratify deal, but Lake Stevens talks hit a snag
— In today's Seattle P-I -- Patriot Act ready to be rolled back -- Editorial: The USA Patriot Act is in trouble in Washington, D.C. That's because the law is in trouble in Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Detroit, Seattle and even Tonasket.
— In today's Spokesman-Review -- 11 laid off at appeals court due to state budget cuts
— In today's Seattle Times -- Aerospace lobby wants U.S. to push Boeing 7E7
...plus -- Struggling Goodyear, USWA reach deal on 3-year contract

WEDNESDAY, August 20 -- Take Action: Tell Verizon not to cut or export U.S. jobs
...plus in today's Washington Post -- Union (CWA) sues Verizon over media call
— In today's Seattle Times -- Protesters awaiting president's visit -- Learn more.
...plus -- Paine Field, Boeing field on list for air-traffic control privatization
...plus in the Fort Worth S-T -- Union argues against privatizing air traffic control industry
— In today's Seattle P-I -- Now's the time to ask Bush some tough questions (Connelly column)
...plus -- Deregulation turned out the lights (Krugman column)
— In today's Olympian -- Bush prepares to implement new rule to cut overtime pay (AP)
— At Forbes.com -- Overtime pay faces showdown in U.S. Congress
— At BusinessWeek online -- Pensions that discriminate against older workers -- Commentary: Congress needs to step up with clear legislation that would reform federal pension laws... Pension plans that are fair to both long-term older workers and more mobile younger ones should be the goal.
— In The Onion -- Bush diagnosed with attention-to-deficit disorder -- Pointing to massive war-time tax cuts, physicians from the Congressional Budget Office have diagnosed President Bush with attention-to-deficit disorder. "The president exhibits all the symptoms of ATDD: impulsiveness, restlessness, inability to focus on mounting U.S. debt likely to reach $400 billion by the year's end," Dr. Terrence Spellman said. To treat the president's ATDD, Spellman prescribed Ritalin and an introductory course in high-school economics.  

TUESDAY, August 19 -- You be the business lobbyist: Help write some new UI rules!
— In today's King County Journal -- Protesters will greet Bush where they can -- Learn more.
...plus -- Bush brings campaign to Washington for $2,000-a-plate fundraiser -- at YOUR expense
— In today's Tri-City Herald -- UFW rally backs dairy workers who want a union contract
— In today's Seattle P-I -- Boeing to outsource 140 more local jobs
...plus -- Latte tax debate whips up strong feelings -- Note: The King County Labor Council has endorsed this ballot measure to help fund preschool programs and continuing education for teachers.
— In today's Seattle Times -- Wanted: A few good engineers for Boeing jet not yet approved
— In today's Everett Herald -- Boeing 767 studied for another military role
— In today's Washington Post -- Bush's Neverland economics -- Ignatius column: When all 50 state governors agree on something, that's a powerful message. Especially when it's a cry for help in dealing with a national fiscal crisis -- invisible at the federal level but ravaging state government.
— In today's N.Y. Times -- Prescription drugs now, day of reckoning later -- President Bush and Congress have agreed to spend $400 billion on drugs for the elderly over 10 years. But they rarely say where the money will come from? Economists have the answer: The children and grandchildren of today's Medicare beneficiaries will have to pay much of the cost through higher taxes.
...plus -- The road to ruin -- Krugman column: The power industry's failure to adequately maintain the grid's control systems and safeguards is a result of faith-based deregulation.
...plus on Sunday -- Help Wanted -- Maybe the talk about jobs and the need for more of them is a way to obscure a darker issue: what globalization will ultimately do to the American middle class.

MONDAY, August 18 -- YOUR union news belongs right here, so send it!
— In Sunday's News Tribune -- Boeing punches, state bounces back (AP) -- In the past two years, Boeing has moved its headquarters from Seattle to Chicago, cut nearly 35,000 workers and last month announced plans to slash 5,000 more. Yet, in Washington state, the epicenter for every Boeing boom and bust, the company's clout seems only to grow.
— In Sunday's Everett Herald -- Boeing jobs assured; Condit says many years of work left in Everett
...plus today -- New budget approach has promise for future (pro-POG editorial)
— In Saturday's Seattle P-I -- Child labor laws fail boys killed on the job
...plus -- Phrase we like: Jobs, jobs, jobs -- Editorial: In this country, the Bush administration should campaign for job creation with zeal, making it clear that this is the national priority... (and) any new global free trade agreements must show sensitivity to worker displacements and fair labor standards
— In Friday's Daily News -- Hard economic facts demand examination of labor costs -- Editorial touting lower wages to attract more jobs: "Longview and Kelso are losing population as workers move somewhere else -- quite possibly to right-to-work states -- to find new jobs. Do we want to grow or decline even more? Should we become a right-to-work state?" (Uh... no.)
— In Sunday's Columbian -- $1.2 billion pension shortfall awaits legislators' attention
— In today's Spokesman-Review -- Fire district volunteers fight for state pensions
— In today's Everett Herald -- Marysville teacher strike looms
— In the Columbia Basin Herald -- PERC mediation sought as teachers talks stall in Moses Lake
— In Sunday's Oregonian -- Weyerhaeuser will shutter two Oregon mills, eliminate 286 jobs 
— In today's N.Y. Times -- For Bush, loss of jobs may erode support in South Carolina
— In Sunday's S.F. Chronicle -- UFW's Huerta to start foundation to promote union organizing
— In Sunday's Chicago Sun-Times -- Clinton's "Living History" silent on support from unions -- In Hilary Clinton's new book, you will find not one labor leader's name, despite all the aid labor in general, and the AFL-CIO and various union presidents in particular, gave to both Hillary and Bill. No John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO; not anyone. For an author conservatives claim is a tool of Big Labor, that absence is striking.

Previous weeks' news: Aug. 11-15 -- Aug. 4-8 -- July 28-Aug. 1

WSLC 2003 CONVENTION: "JUSTICE FOR ALL"
Immigrant rights, legislative challenges highlight opening day

"All working men and women want the same thing, and they are willing to fight for it if we organize them."

So said Maria Elena Durazo, a dynamic labor leader out of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 11 in Los Angeles, in her rousing keynote address at Thursday's opening day of the Washington State Labor Council 2003 Convention in Wenatchee. She focused many of her comments on the issue of immigrant rights and urged delegates to get involved in the upcoming Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride.

She said there are those who declare hard-working tax-paying immigrant families as "illegals."  "Brothers and Sisters, how many times have that term been used against us?" Durazo asked. "Our strikes are called illegal, our picket lines illegal... It used to be illegal for black man to sit at same counter of rest of us.  What’s really illegal is a boss that pays a workers less that what they deserve."

Durazo’s own family immigrated from Northern Mexico. One of 10 children, she joined them as a field worker in the migrant trails from Southern California to Oregon. The family’s hard work enabled her to go to college and inspired her to become a leader in the fight for immigrants’ rights and the political empowerment of the immigrant community.

WSLC President Rick Bender opened the convention with a summary of legislative and political developments during the past year, and laid out the challenges facing organized labor in the coming years.

Bender cited the convention theme of "Justice for All" as a "lofty goal" but "we have a long way to go before we achieve it... and we just took a detour in this last legislative session." He described the dramatic benefit cuts in our unemployment insurance and workers' compensation, and urged delegates to hold their legislators accountable for their positions on these issues.

Elaine Bernard, Director of Harvard University's Trade Union Program, had a few things to say about the past legislative session as well. She held up the WSLC's 2003 Legislative Report with headlines like "Banner year for business" and "Unemployment system gutted" and said it reads like a Stephen King horror novel. She got delegates laughing with her depiction of the "zombies" who support legislative and political attacks on working people.

"They're zombies and you cannot kill a zombie, they’re already dead.  A good argument won’t change that," Bernard said.  "You must go after the zombies’ masters. They are in Olympia, in Washington D.C., and in the corporate board rooms."

Two Democratic gubernatorial candidates for 2004, King County Executive Ron Sims and State Supreme Court Justice Phil Talmadge, also made their early pitch for support from organized labor. Both drew applause by committing to funding state home care workers' contract and touting other pro-labor positions that contrasted with those of Gov. Gary Locke.

Another gubernatorial candidate, Attorney General Christine Gregoire, will speak at Friday's convention banquet and U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee (D-1st), who may also enter the race, is on the agenda to speak Friday as well.

The WSLC will not make endorsements for 2004 elections until its spring COPE Convention (Committee on Political Education).

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20
Take Action: Tell Verizon not to cut or export U.S. jobs

More than 75,000 workers at telecommunications giant Verizon are fighting for a contract to protect their jobs. The company has moved U.S. jobs overseas recently -- bragging this spring to The Wall Street Journal about work it outsourced to India and last week trying to deny the boast to The Boston Globe. Workers at Verizon and their union want to keep jobs here in America -- even nonunion jobs. They're asking people like you to speak out and let Verizon know how you feel about keeping jobs in this country.

During the past two years, more than 3 million private-sector jobs have been lost in America -- many of them were moved overseas as employers took advantage of new unfair trade schemes like those implemented through the World Trade Organization. The strength and unity of Verizon workers through their union has kept the company from cutting more U.S. jobs.

At the same time, corporate executives like Verizon's Ivan Seidenberg took home millions. Seidenberg's pay, stock and options take-away were worth more than $67 million last year. Over the past couple years, Verizon executives took home more then $400 million from the company.

TAKE ACTION: Please take one minute right now to send Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg a message. Click here to send him a fax telling him how you feel about this and show him that corporate greed has consequences. (Visit www.unionvoice.org/campaign/verizonjobs/.)

These outrageous executive pay practices are only matched by Verizon's demands of its workers. The company wants cuts in health care and benefits and it wants to cut or move jobs -- ripping apart families and communities that depend on those jobs. The company had more than $4 billion in profits last year.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 19
You be the business lobbyist: Help write some new UI rules!

A stakeholders meeting is planned for Thursday, Sept. 4 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Worthington Conference Center, 5300 Pacific Ave. S.E. in Lacey.  If you are a union officer or staffer who assists laid-off members, or a rank-and-file member who may one day lose your job through no fault of your own... congratulations, you're a stakeholder!   We hope to see you at the meeting.

Download an agenda (in MS Word format), which comes complete with Ground Rules like "Please be courteous. The purpose of this meeting is to provide input on the content of the rules, not to debate one another."

For more information, contact Juanita Myers, UI Rules Coordinator at the Department of Employment Security, (360) 902-9665.

MONDAY, AUGUST 18
YOUR union news belongs right here, so send it!