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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. Disclaimer: WSLC Reports Today  links to all stories of interest to organized labor; some positive and 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 26-30, 2002

Previous weeks' news: Aug. 19-21 -- Aug. 12-16 -- Aug. 7-9

FRIDAY, August 30 -- KCLC Labor Day event Monday at Seattle's Woodland Park
...plus -- Thurston-Lewis CLC to celebrate Monday at Centralia's Washington Park

In the Seattle P-I -- Machinists will get to vote again on contract
For the latest on the IAM-Boeing negotiations and contract vote:  Visit IAM751.org
— In today's Seattle Times -- No Boeing strike Monday; contract talks in disarray
...plus -- So, what happens next?
— In today's News-Tribune -- Many union voters pan Boeing's "final" offer
— In today's Seattle P-I -- Union members worry, plan, fret while waiting for vote outcome
— In today's South County Journal -- Boeing, Machinists talks should proceed (editorial)
In other news... at Teamsters.org -- Teamsters overwhelmingly ratify contract with UPS
...plus at ILWU.org -- ILWU returns to table with proposals
— In today's Olympian -- Care interrupted in one-day walkout at Providence Mother Joseph
...plus -- State faces triple threat -- Re: Impact of potential IAM, ILWU, MLB strikes on state budget.
— In today's News-Tribune -- Clover Park teachers OK strike if deal isn't set by Tuesday
...plus -- Garbage haulers (IBT 313) in Pierce County authorize strike
...plus -- Low prices claim (another) mill: Spanaway Lumber Co.
— In today's South County Journal -- Issaquah teachers vote to strike
— In today's Seattle Times -- SEIU 1199NW lawsuit on closure of maternity unit to be heard today
— In today's Seattle P-I -- Gas-tax dollars also flow to Eastern Washington (Connelly column)
— In yesterday's Wenatchee World -- Contract negotiated; grocery workers set to vote Tuesday
— In today's Yakima H-R -- Yakima-area grocery workers to vote Wednesday on contract
...plus -- Prosser's city employees (IBT and OPEIU) plan to picket at Monday's States Day parade
— In today's Washington Post -- United asks unions for deep cuts
— In today's N.Y. Times -- Judge dismisses braceros' suit to recoup savings -- "Sympathetic" federal judge sides with the Mexican and U.S. governments and banks involved in the suit, ruling either that they had sovereign immunity or the statute of limitations had expired in the 1940s wage ripoff.
...plus in the Reap-What-You-Sow Section -- WTO rules Europe can impose record U.S. sanctions
— In today's Minneapolis Star-Tribune -- New poll: Workers more open to joining unions

THURSDAY, August 29 -- Breaking News:  Feds intervene, order resumed Boeing-IAM talks
A letter from IAM leaders re: today's intervention by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. The IAM still urges members to vote a NO on the contract and YES on renewing strike sanction.
AND NOW from the P-I:  Boeing rejects Feds; refuses to extend IAM contract
For more on today's IAM-Boeing vote:  Visit IAM751.org
— In today's Everett Herald -- Machinists vote on "final" Boeing offer today
— In today's Seattle Times -- Many Machinists still on the fence
— In today's So. County Journal -- Boeing holds strongest hand, outside "experts" say
— In today's News-Tribune -- Boeing learned from Lockheed's experience in Marietta, Ga.
...plus -- Strike threats are all around Sound, and the effects could be long-lasting
— In today's Olympian -- Boeing on verge of walkout
The latest on teacher negotiations:  Bellevue; Clover Park; Issaquah; Snohomish 
In other news: Sweeney: It's high time for America to treat its heroes with respect
— In today's Seattle Times -- It's back to the table for talks on docks
...plus -- Slow sales could cost Paccar 800 jobs in Renton, Tennessee
— In today's Seattle P-I -- Nurses (SEIU 1199NW) seek injunction to stop closure of birthing unit
— In today's So. County Journal -- Federal Way man pleads innocent to killing DOT worker
— In today's Washington Post -- IAM mechanics vote down US Airways pay offer
— In today's Oklahoman -- In huge upset, "right-to-work" sponsor loses State Senate primary
— At CommonSense.org -- What about corporate terrorism? -- At a time when the country is preoccupied with terrorism from abroad and Enron-style corporate abuses at home, it is important to remember that millions of American workers who would like to have a voice on the job have been denied their internationally recognized human rights by corporations who "in too many cases act like real domestic terrorists," in the words of AFL-CIO organizer Stewart Acuff.

WEDNESDAY, August 28 -- At IAM751.org: Boeing proposal aims for job elimination
— In today's Everett Herald -- Machinists' leaders call for a strike
— In today's Seattle Times -- Boeing makes "final" offer; IAM leaders urge rejection
...plus -- Union priority is pensions, not pay
— In today's So. County Journal -- Union cool to final Boeing offer; members to vote Thursday
— In today's Wichita Eagle -- IAM leaders accuse Boeing of trying to slash benefits, kill jobs
— In today's P.S. Business Journal -- SPEEA fires off letter to Boeing supporting Machinists
In other news -- Providence Mother Joseph staffers to strike, rally Thursday
...plus this must-read op-ed -- Hard-won labor rights are well worth protecting
— In today's Seattle P-I -- West Coast port talks resume after hiatus
...plus -- Cuts to police, fire departments will put public at risk, unions say
...plus -- Metro hit with safety fine after bus driver complains
— In today's Seattle Times -- Union (SEIU 1199NW) tries to halt closure of Group Health birth clinic
— In today's Everett Herald -- Northshore teachers ratify contract, but Snohomish strike looms
— In today's Eastside Journal -- Bellevue teachers to decide today next move in contract impasse
— In today's News-Tribune -- Bethel teachers protest contract offer
...plus -- Let's celebrate Labor Day by focusing on worker needs (Burbank op-ed)
— In today's Washington Post -- New CBO forecast: Deficits to last into 2005
...plus -- Facing the numbers -- Editorial: Throughout the coming decade, income is projected to fall short of spending, meaning that the government will need to tap into those Social Security funds that everyone was promising last year to leave inviolate. The bulk of the surplus forecasters see accumulating by 2012 rests on the assumption that last year's tax cut package will expire as scheduled after 2010, an outcome that President Bush is aggressively campaigning to prevent. These numbers ought to throw cold water on that effort, but there was no sign of that yesterday.

TUESDAY, August 27 -- Who's behind Bush's threat at ports? Wal-Mart (among others)
...plus -- IAM negotiations update: Takeaways, takeaways, takeaways
— In today's Seattle Times -- Machinists slam Boeing offer; see bruising fight ahead
...plus -- Strike might not cause Boeing immediate harm; analysts cite airline woes, low demand
— In today's Seattle P-I -- Lingering divisions make Boeing strike likely, Machinists say
...plus -- Opposition to proposed gas-tax increase declines
...plus -- Police, firefighters won't escape Seattle budget ax
...plus -- Union gives home care workers a voice (op-ed by SEIU 6 President David Rolf)
— In today's Everett Herald -- Signs point to Boeing strike
...plus -- Everett teachers approve contract granting 6% raises
— In today's Eastside Journal -- Bellevue teacher talks at impasse; union seeks mediator
— In today's Tacoma News-Tribune -- Tacoma teachers debate contract offer
— In yesterday's Wenatchee World -- Strike off for grocery workers (UFCW 1439)
— In today's N.Y. Times -- Next big health debate: How to help the uninsured
— Today at MSNBC.com -- US Airways seeks to void existing labor pacts
— In today's Washington Post -- WTO to face openness issue again
...plus -- Immigrants aren't the problem -- Editorial: Bush must make sure the leadership of the new (Homeland Security) department can manage reforms and enhance border protection without losing sight of the core commitment to civil liberties and to fair immigration policies.

MONDAY, August 26 -- Delegates make more WSLC endorsements for fall elections
— In today's News-Tribune -- Boeing workers hit the streets, rally for fair contract
— In today's Seattle P-I -- Pensions remain an issue with Machinists
...plus -- Boeing workers in Kansas ready to walk
— In today's South County Journal -- Machinists rally as Boeing talks enter key week
— In today's Yakima H-R -- Grocery strike averted; contract vote likely after holiday
— In today's Eastside Journal -- Teacher strike talk mounts as school start nears
— In Thursday's Spokesman-Review -- Locke mends fences with labor at WSLC Convention
— In Sunday's Seattle Times -- Teachers' poor timing (editorial) -- The Times' editorial board continues its struggle to identify a potential strike that ISN'T poorly timed.
— In today's Everett Herald -- Compass Health, union (UFCW 1001) seek help from mediator
At AFLCIO.org -- AFL-CIO again hosts Online Labor Day Festival
— In the new Labor Notes -- Bush threatens West Coast dock workers' right to strike
— In today's Washington Post -- States sued for pushing cheaper drugs via Medicaid
— In today's L.A. Times -- History echoes as farm workers rally for binding arbitration bill
— In today's N.Y. Times -- Facing death, founder fights for Labor Party's life
...plus -- A new villain in free trade: The U.S. farmer on the dole
— In today's Boston Globe -- Reforming labor law is still a work in progress -- Op-ed: In the 1930s corporate reform, via the Security and Exchange Commission, was directly followed by passage of the National Labor Relations Act. Today's Congress should also finish the job and follow reforms designed to protect investors with actions that address the legitimate needs of workers and their families. The first step is to finally fix labor law.

Previous weeks' news: Aug. 19-21 -- Aug. 12-16 -- Aug. 7-9

FRIDAY, AUGUST 30
KCLC Labor Day event Monday at Seattle's Woodland Park

The King County Labor Council's Annual Labor Day Celebration will be held Monday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Seattle's Woodland Park in Shelters 1, 2 and 3. This free event will feature hot dogs, ice cream, soda, an animal exhibit, a live union band, clowns and face painting, and much more!

FRIDAY, AUGUST 30
Labor Day celebration Monday at Centralia's Washington Park

The Thurston-Lewis Counties Labor Council is hosting a Labor Day celebration Monday in downtown Centralia at Washington Park featuring music, food and fun for the family. Festivities begin at noon with an honor guard flag ceremony and culminate at 4:30 p.m. with a flower ceremony at the grave site of Wesley Everest, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (known as the Wobblies) who was killed by a mob during the notorious Centralia Massacre on Nov. 11, 1919.

For more information, contact TLCLC President Bob Guenther at (360) 262-3484. The following is a Centralia Chronicle story published Thursday about the event (Chronicle stories are only posted for one day, so we are unable to link to the story):

Labor council hosts celebration in Washington Park

By Amanda Wilber
The Chronicle

On Monday, the Thurston Lewis County Central Labor Council will celebrate Labor Day for the second time in Washington Park in downtown Centralia.

"We alternate between Olympia and Centralia," said Bob Guenther, president of the council. "Two years ago we had around 1,200 people on the day-long program. We hope to have more this year."

"If the public comes they will see history made at Centralia," he said. "This will be the second Labor Day celebration at Washington Park. We had the first in 82 years two years ago — this will be the second. The colors will be presented at noon. We're going to have food and music."

Vendors will be at the park on Monday, as well as entertainment for children.

Guenther listed Chris Guenther and the Chehalis Indian Dance Troupe as performers at the event. Also advertised are Steamers Blues Band and noted labor singer Vance Lelli.

Congressman Brian Baird, representing the federal government; Richard DeBolt, representing the state Legislature; and Chehalis Mayor Bob Spahr are also expected to attend, according to Guenther.

"We have a ceremony where we lay flowers on the veterans' memorial," said Guenther.

At the previous Labor Day celebration in 2000, the section of Locust Street between the post office and the library was closed off to traffic, and Guenther expects the same for this year's celebration. There will also be plenty of restroom facilities, he said.

"We will have a high line strung so that all unions that come that want to bring their banners can bring their banners," Guenther said.

At 4:30 p.m., there will be an additional flower ceremony at Wesley Everest's grave site, at Stricklin Greenwood Cemetery on Reynolds and Johnson roads in Centralia. Everest, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (better known as the Wobblies) was killed by a mob during the notorious "Centralia Massacre" after he allegedly shot and killed members of the American Legion during an Armistice Day parade in downtown Centralia on Nov. 11, 1919.

"All workers, all people are welcome to come," stressed Guenther. "You don't have to be a union member to celebrate Labor Day."

THURSDAY, AUGUST 29
Sweeney: It's time for America to treat its heroes with respect

The following is a Labor Day 2002 statement released today by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney:

One month ago I spoke before a crowd of working men and women on Wall Street, standing across from the New York Stock Exchange, and called for corporations to be accountable to the American people.

In the crowd, laid-off Enron and Worldcom workers stood side by side construction workers who had just completed the grueling Ground Zero clean-up and garment workers who have seen the jobs of former co-workers shipped overseas. Although they are from very different backgrounds, these workers are equally emblematic of the challenges facing working Americans on Labor Day 2002. Together and separately they represent the root values of America - commitment to family, country, neighbors, work, faith and decency. These workers are truly America's working heroes.

Yet this Labor Day, in the shadow of the anniversary of September 11 and corporate scandals, America is not honoring these heroes' priorities - decent jobs, affordable, quality health care and secure retirements. Instead, unemployment stands at an eight year high, wages are stagnant and more than 40 million Americans have no health care coverage at all. Good-paying manufacturing jobs that built our middle class are disappearing. And people who lose their jobs are out of work longer than before.

You'd think this situation would set off alarm bells on Capitol Hill. Yet a majority in Congress refused to add a guaranteed prescription drug benefit to Medicare. Social Security and workers' retirement are under attack. And the House and Senate just voted to send more jobs overseas with Fast Track trade legislation that protects corporate interests but fails to protect workers' rights and human rights.

Meanwhile, trust in corporations has plummeted right along with retirement accounts and college savings. America understands that big corporations and the lawmakers they support have created a system of in's and out's in the nation's regulatory laws that make it easier for corporations to hide losses while still looking pretty to Wall Street investors. Some of the new laws will help, but they are only a start.

And corporate wrongdoing doesn't stop with Wall Street manipulations: CEOs routinely lay off workers, cut health and retirement benefits, slash pay or shut down U.S. plants altogether, frequently just to boost quarterly reports and short-term profits.

That's why unions are escalating our work to hold corporations accountable—holding town hall meetings; pushing new laws, regulations and shareholder proposals; working to rein in CEO pay; providing direct help to workers hurt by corporate scandals; monitoring elected officials who prop up malfeasance—and most of all, helping workers organize together to gain a voice at work.

New research, in fact, shows that more Americans than ever say they would vote for a union if they could. Fifty-four percent of working Americans who could form a union say they would do so if given the chance—up a full eight percentage points from 1996. The research also shows that 66 percent of workers said they have little or no trust that employers will treat workers fairly.

Americans' growing loss of faith in corporations has fueled their interest in forming unions. Doctors, janitors, musicians, home health aides, meat packers, nurses, immigrant roofers, and graduate employees are among some of the workers who have come together in unions this year.

More than 30 million workers say they would like to form a union, but too few ever get that chance because employers routinely violate workers' freedom to choose a union. A quarter illegally fire workers, and more than 90 percent use mandatory closed door meetings to "change the minds" of workers on unions, according to congressionally funded research by Cornell's Dr. Kate Bronfenbrenner.

And even as workers keep our nation secure in thousands of ways—as bag screeners, security guards, firefighters, and nurses—the Bush Administration is trying to keep workers from having a voice through a union in the new Homeland Security department and stalling on bargaining rights for airport screeners. Such attacks are outrageous.

It's high time for America to treat its heroes with respect. Starting this Labor Day, let's make sure working people have their voices heard and their futures secured—and CEOs and big corporations can just take a back seat.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28
Providence Mother Joseph staffers to strike, rally Thursday

Registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, certified nursing assistants, dietary workers, housekeeping employees and clerical staff at Providence Mother Joseph Care Center in Olympia have voted to strike to send a message about the critical need to solve staffing problems at the long-term care facility.

The one-day walkout happens tomorrow (Thursday) and all union activists and supporters are invited to join the picket line and attend a 5 p.m. rally with elected officials and community leaders at 3333 Ensign Road in Olympia. The picket lines go up at 5 a.m. Thursday.

“Every day we struggle with chronic staffing shortages. We simply have too much employee turnover. Our residents are the ones who suffer the consequences,” said Sandy Corman, a LPN at the center.  “We have to take a stand for our residents.” Some of the community’s most vulnerable people rely on Providence Mother Joseph caregivers for quality long-term care.

After four months of negotiations, Providence Mother Joseph management has refused to make improvements that caregivers believe are necessary to fix staffing problems. High staff turnover at the facility is making it harder for caregivers to provide quality care to patients and residents. High turnover also produces costs for the employer. Hiring short-term temporary agency staff is very expensive, as is constantly recruiting and orienting new employees.

To reduce job turnover, PMJCC staff have proposed creating retention incentives that reward employees who remain on staff for the long term.

PMJCC management recently revoked some employees’ incentive pay for working double shifts without negotiating with staff. In response, employees voted overwhelmingly to strike on Thursday. About 180 workers will be involved in the strike.

Providence Mother Joseph Care Center employees are members of the Service Employees International Union District 1199NW, a union of more than 10,000 health care workers across Washington State. On August 16, 25,000 in-home caregivers in Washington voted to join SEIU, the nation’s largest health care union.

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

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28
Hard-won labor rights are well worth protecting

The following excellent op-ed appeared in last Friday's Seattle P-I and was written by Michael Honey, the Harry Bridges Chair of Labor Studies at the University of Washington and a professor of labor and ethnic studies and American history at the University of Washington, Tacoma: 

Hard-won labor rights are well worth protecting

By MICHAEL HONEY
PROFESSOR

Nothing is more fundamental to America's conception of itself than the freedom of speech and assembly. Unions, declared illegal in the early years of the republic, have fought for those rights for three centuries. But unionists have still not entirely won the most basic right: to organize at the workplace and to protest bad conditions by refusing to work.

Ever since President Reagan terminated 11,000 striking air traffic controllers, existing unions have been under attack and workers organizing on the job have faced harassment and firing. The worker's right to freedom of speech and action, won in the Wagner Act of 1935, has been nearly shredded.

The new political context makes the weakening of labor rights even more alarming. After 20 years of smashing unions and massive profit taking by CEOs, followed by tax cutting that has turned government surpluses into deficits, workers are fighting back. But we will now undoubtedly be told that some unions are too strong and we can't afford their demands.

Most worrisome, the Bush administration seems to have the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, and perhaps other unions, in its sights. Not since Reagan has anyone threatened such a bold attack on unions as we are hearing about during ILWU negotiations for a new contract with shippers. Abrogating the right to strike through federal intervention, breaking up the unified bargaining pattern of ILWU contracts or simply making unionists work at the point of a gun all seem to be government options if ILWU workers are locked out by employers or go on strike.

The administration's threat to use the law or troops to abort a longshore strike before it even happens -- justified, as is everything else, in the name of "homeland security" -- effectively undercuts collective bargaining. It comes in the wake of chilling police violence against people protesting the programs of global economic elites in Seattle, Genoa, Washington, D.C., and Toronto.

A successful attack on the ILWU, we can be sure, would be another heavy blow to the entire American labor movement and add a frightening new element to the president's increasingly anti-democratic "war on terror."

The struggles of this particular union are especially important. In the 1930s civil war over the battle for worker rights, police shot down longshore workers in San Francisco when they organized and went on strike.

Yet, under the leadership of Harry Bridges, the ILWU turned abused and poverty-stricken workers considered "wharf rats" into proud, well-paid workers.

Its success opened up the right of workers to organize throughout the West Coast region. The ILWU subsequently helped employers modernize the waterfronts, maintained an independent stance toward government and sustained worker democracy within its own ranks. It is a powerful union, and its members do very well as a result.

Those gains can be wiped out, however. The government and even the AFL-CIO itself nearly destroyed the ILWU by persecuting it during the Communist scare and trying for some 20 years to deport Bridges as a subversive. The ILWU not only survived, but also became one of the strongest unions in America. It is too strong for the taste of George Bush.

I don't speak for unions, only for myself. But I think people today will not be silent in the face of attacks on union rights, as too many were when Reagan destroyed the air controller's union. Already, thousands of us have joined in demonstrations all over the West Coast to support the ILWU's right to free collective bargaining without government interference.

In the Pacific Northwest -- home to the free-speech fights of the Industrial Workers of the World ("Wobblies") in Spokane, Centralia and Everett, to the Seattle General Strike of 1919 and to the massive WTO protest of 1999 -- people are especially aware that upholding labor rights is at the heart of maintaining and expanding democracy.

What happens on the waterfront, at Boeing or at any number of other labor hotspots is important to all of us. Whether one belongs to a union or agrees or disagrees with a particular strike, it is in the interest of the great majority of us to protect hard-won labor rights.

Martin Luther King Jr. explained that there is no such thing as partial freedom: Either you have it or you don't. As he told us, the right to organize is "the right to protest for right."

If the government undercuts that right by chopping down one individual or group, the rest of us will ultimately pay the price in lost liberties. King died to protect labor rights, in a worker's strike for union recognition and better conditions in Memphis.. As we approach Labor Day, we should remember that we can't afford to lose our labor rights, for without them we may also lose our freedom of thought, speech, political action and other democratic rights.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 27
Who's behind Bush's threat at ports?  Wal-Mart (among others)
Wednesday is a National Day of Action to tell Bush, retailers to BUTT OUT

Members of the Bush Administration have even threatened to introduce legislation to take away the longshore workers' right to strike, or to break up their industry-wide contract.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 27
IAM negotiations update: Takeaways, takeaways, takeaways

MONDAY, AUGUST 26
Delegates make more WSLC endorsements for fall elections