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Reports for September 10-14, 2001

News from previous weeks:  September 4-7 -- August 27-30 -- August 20-24 

FRIDAY, September 14 -- Don't allow racism to add shame to our grief
— In today's Seattle P-I -- Bush appeals for calm amid incidents of hate
...plus -- Adding insult to the nation's injury  (Column: Why is it so easy for some of us to point fingers, blame Arab Americans and make the evil of a few the burden of an entire people? For the most part, the answer is racism.)
— In today's Washington Post -- N.Y. firefighters grieve for lost brothers
In other news:
At AFLCIO.org -- Sweeney asks IMF, World Bank to cancel upcoming meeting; AFL-CIO withdraws from participation in massive D.C. protest planned for Sept. 30
— In today's Washington Post -- Key GOP leader upbeat on Fast Track for Bush
— In today's L.A. Times -- Skycaps will pay price of new security rules
...plus -- Judge rules in favor of Maxxam, Hurwitz over S&L failure in 1988
— In today's Spokesman-Review -- Kaiser delays Mead restart

THURSDAY, September 13 -- Unions mourn missing, killed members; join relief efforts
— In today's Washington Post -- Helping and hoping, a man resolves to help rescue his wife
— In today's Everett Herald -- Edmonds to dedicate firefighter memorial Saturday
— In today's Seattle Times -- We should all resolve to go on being Americans (Column: Sen. Joseph Biden, Foreign Relations Committee chairman, made a powerful contribution when he insisted within a few hours of the assaults that "if we alter our basic freedoms, our civil liberties, change the way we function as a democratic society, then we will have lost the war before it has begun in earnest.")
ALERT -- Prescription drug bus trip to Canada POSTPONED

WEDNESDAY, September 12
— Honor the public servants -- the fallen and the survivors
— Disaster relief funds established, PLEASE CONTRIBUTE
— AFL-CIO's Sweeney: "No citizen was untouched"
— The welfare of new U.S. citizens must be considered
— Americans: "The most generous people on Earth"

TUESDAY, September 11
— In today's Olympian -- Qwest will lay off 4,000 employees
...plus -- New L&I workplace safety rules readable (editorial)
— In today's Seattle Times -- Wal-Mart suit targets "off-the-clock" work
— In today's Everett Herald -- Parties closely watch 21st District race
...plus -- Rep. Jean Berkey managing own campaign in the 38th
...and finally -- Everett teachers' health care costs increase nine-fold
— In today's SCJ -- Boeing look at DER role isn't sinister (SPEEA)

MONDAY, September 10 -- Community effort to "Shine a Light" on Port of Seattle election
— In today's Olympian -- Initiative 747 has cities on guard
— In today's Everett Herald -- Berkey, Hoglund strong candidates in 38th (endorsements)
— In today's Seattle Times -- Dems' promise of civility strained by rivalry in 21st
— In today's News-Tribune -- U.S. workers feel rights have eroded recently
— In today's Seattle P-I -- Judge orders Western State Hospital to add staff
— In today's Bellingham Herald -- Montigo Del Ray workers to vote on union (LIUNA)
— Last week in the WSJ -- Judge hands Boeing defeat in lawsuit over loss of retiree benefits
— In today's N.Y. Times -- Study: Little has changed on views of working mothers  (Although two-thirds of women with preschool children work, by ratios of three- or four-to-one, Americans say it is best for mothers to stay home with their babies.)

News from previous weeks:  September 4-7 -- August 27-30 -- August 20-24 

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14
Don't allow racism to add shame to our grief

President Bush and countless other political and religious leaders have appealed to Americans not to let their anger be misdirected at Arab Americans.  Yet, police said Seattle-area mosques had received not only abusive calls but several death threats, including, "We will kill you like sheep."  There are also local reports of attempted arson, vandalism and assaults against Arab Americans.

Today's Washington Post puts it succinctly: "The rage and sorrow that have filled the country are no excuse for giving in to ugly stereotypes that label whole communities for the acts of extremists.   This week many Muslims have struggled to remind their neighbors that they are Americans too, shocked and outraged by the slaughter of innocents.  If anger and vengeance are allowed to drown out that message, it will only add shame to the nation's grief."

Please read and circulate the following column that appears in today's Seattle Times:

Muslim and American

By Jafar Siddiqui
Special to The Times

The world changed for all of us on the 11th of September. Those were our brothers and sisters who were killed in New York, Washington, D.C., and in Pennsylvania; those were our children and our parents and the numbers are mind numbing.

Then another fact sank in; I am an American Muslim and I, along with other Muslims in my own country, may be held responsible for this.

All that day I carried the huge knot of grief in my stomach even as I grappled with my own estimate of 10,000-20,000 people who might have been killed that day. I felt as if I had drunk a whole jug of strong coffee at one sitting. Even as I listened to the non-stop news, my mind refused to believe such a calamity could be possible.

Then the phone calls began. American Muslims like myself, who were involved in the Muslim community around the Sound, shared the same worries as I. One asked, "What should we do?" Shall we issue a joint communiqué condemning these horrible acts? Would that be taken as an expression of grief or would people interpret it as an apology?

Later, the imams of different mosques jointly decided to open their mosques for prayer for the thousands who had died and for the many more who would carry the wounds in their hearts for the rest of their lives.

With pain in his voice, a Muslim friend told me that his non-Muslim friend of 20 years had called him from Boston that morning. His friend had presumed that simply by being a Muslim, he must know somebody involved in this catastrophe and told him to report anything he knew to the FBI.

A non-Muslim friend from a neighboring town called to ask if I was doing OK. He was concerned about my safety and offered his home as a place to hide if events grew impossible where I live. Others called to express concern for our safety and to distance themselves from the growing acts of hate in the area.

Like other Muslims in the U.S., I began to assess the challenges we would have to face as the days unfold. As a Christian, my wife was concerned about my safety and our two bi-racial, interfaith children, while I was more concerned for the children.

We considered whether to discuss the possibility with our children, that they may be targets of verbal abuse from other children or even adults simply because of their appearance and their last names. At first, I was against preparing them for the hate that may follow because I do not wish them to feel inferior in their own country. In the end, I believe the kids will fare better if they are aware that some people might behave irrationally.

It broke my heart to face my children — my children born in Redmond, the Girl Scout and the Cub Scout who proudly marched in the last Fourth of July parade — and tell them they can be judged and condemned simply because of their heritage. I struggled to help them work out that they are no less Americans than anybody else and they should be proud of who they are; that the evil that has been committed has nothing to do with them; that while they should avoid antagonistic debates, they should stand tall and proud to be the Americans they are.

My 11-year-old daughter began to cry:, "Why can't we have peace in the world? Why can't people live in peace?"

I told her those are questions that people have been asking for millennia.

"Then why don't they make new answers?"

I had no response for the innocence and the wisdom of her question.

Suddenly, I understood what the many parents of color have suffered and are still suffering; they are likely to be targeted for the color of their skins regardless of the content of their characters. The parents of those children suffer the same struggles that I find so painful.

I recall the numerous times I have gone out of my way to explain that Islam is a peaceful religion and the Koran exhorts tolerance, peace and forgiveness again and again. Yes, extremists have used Islam as a fig leaf for their evil deeds, but that is no different than Hitler using Christianity to support his goals.

As events unfold over the next few days and weeks, I am not sure my fellow Americans will be in a mood to hear me out. With the thousands who are likely to be counted among our dead, the nation will scream for blood and responsibility will be irrelevant.

On individual levels, some people will want to seek revenge and will not care that the person they hurt is innocent. One radio station reported that the stores are running out of flags and gun sales are up. While I continue to grieve for the thousands who lost their lives, I am chilled and fearful for my family.

It is my hope and prayer that the grief and rage we are all experiencing is not misdirected to claim more innocent victims.

Jafar Siddiqui is an American Muslim who lives in the area with his wife and two children. He has been active in human-rights issues.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13
Unions mourn missing, killed members; join relief efforts
What you can do to help

This is a special edition of the AFL-CIO Work in Progress newsletter:

American workers and American trade unions are shocked and angered by yesterday's cowardly acts of terrorism against American citizens. Thousands of workers and their families are scarred and grieving; thousands more are helping with rescue and aid missions in New York City and at the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C.

"We mourn those who perished as they performed their work, whether in rescue efforts, in offices or on airplanes," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney (see entire statement). "Already union members have gone into action to assist the rescue efforts, and the AFL-CIO and our unions will do everything we can to assist the continued rescue operations and the medical care of those injured."

AT WORK AND IN DANGER
Among the deaths resulting from the airliner crashes into New York's World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., were unprecedented losses of union emergency services workers. The fate of hundreds of other union workers remains unknown.

Firefighters: New York fire officials say 300 firefighters and 85 city police officers who rushed to the World Trade Center to aid workers there may have died when the complex's twin towers collapsed. Fire Fighters General President Harold A. Schaitberger said Sept. 11 will  "undoubtedly be the worst day for line-of-duty deaths in the 83-year history of the IAFF."

SEIU: The Service Employees International Union -- which has hundreds of building services workers at the World Trade Center including security guards, cleaners, building engineers, window washers and others who are still missing and feared dead -- is among the labor organizations that have set up disaster relief funds (see below).  Click here to see the latest on SEIU efforts to account for its members.

Airline workers: The four hijacked airliners used in Tuesday's terrorist attacks carried a total of 233 passengers, 25 flight attendants and eight pilots. Captain Duane Woerth, Air Line Pilots Association president, said his union has "committed all of the resources of the association's security, air safety and accident investigation personnel to assist in this unimaginable tragedy." A Flight Attendants statement said that union stood "ready to assist authorities and families of victims in any and every way possible."

HERE: About 270 members of Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Local 100 worked at the Windows on the World restaurant on floors 106 and 107 of World Trade Center Building 1, according to President Bill Grandfield. The local does not know how many were on duty Tuesday morning.

AFGE: About 235 members of three AFGE locals worked for federal agencies located in the World Trade Center, and members of two additional AFGE locals worked in the Pentagon. AFGE has no information about where these workers were during the attacks or their conditions.

Building trades: More than 30 Electrical Workers, Painters, Laborers and Steam Fitters worked on construction projects in the World Trade Center and are unaccounted for, according to New York City Building and Construction Trades Council President Edward Malloy.

Postal Workers: Postal Workers at U.S. Postal Service facilities in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon all escaped injury, according to the APWU.

AFSCME: Sixty-three state workers are missing from World Trade Center offices, many of whom are members of the Civil Service Employees Association, an AFSCME affiliate.

Other union workers employed at the World Trade Center include three members of Musicians Local 802 at Windows on the World; 120 members of the Public Employees Federation (a joint unit of SEIU and the Teachers) at the National Development and Research Institute; Teamsters, Communications Workers, Electrical Workers and SEIU and IUOE workers at Port Authority Trans Hudson; and 44 Longshoremen members at New York Shipping Association.

MEBA member: John Corcoran, a member of the Marine Engineers, was aboard United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston to Los Angeles that terrorists flew into the second World Trade Center tower, MEBA reported. Corcoran was on his way to board a new ship. He is survived by his wife Diana, 17-year-old daughter Megan and 14-year-old son Jake.

HELPING HANDS

In addition to the teams of union emergency services and medical workers conducting rescue and aid missions in New York and suburban Washington, D.C., union volunteers are contributing their skills, funds and even blood.

Iron Workers: More than 1,000 Iron Workers from the mid-Atlantic and New England area have volunteered their services for rescue, recovery and cleanup in New York, according to the union's national headquarters.

Other building trades workers: The New York City Building and Construction Trades Council reports working around the clock, with about 1,000 people assisting in New York's rescue and cleanup work.

MEBA and Seafarers: MEBA members and Seafarers are aboard the U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort, which is on its way to the scene in New York.

Food and beverage donations: The New York State AFL-CIO and Food and Commercial Workers Locals 342-50 and 1500 arranged and loaded two batches of donated food, water and other beverages for delivery to Fire Fighters on the scene.  And the New York State AFL-CIO has coordinated with the Frito Lay Co.-Burger King, KFC and Taco Bell-to deliver food to rescue workers.

International union organizations: The AFL-CIO and affiliated unions have received hundreds of messages of support from international union federations. Visit www.aflcio.org for details.

Offering prayers in Washington, D.C.: Employees of Washington-area unions and other concerned citizens are invited to join AFL-CIO headquarters staff for a brief memorial moment of silence at noon Wednesday featuring faith leaders from several religious traditions.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

1. Support disaster relief funds. Donations are needed by:

• Union Community Fund: Labor's charity, the Union Community Fund, is putting together a relief fund for our brothers and sisters in need in New York City and the Washington, D.C., area. Please make checks payable to the Union Community Fund, and designate them for the Sept. 11 Relief Fund. Mail to Union Community Fund, 815 16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006. Donations also may be made online at www.unioncommunityfund.org.
  

• New York City Central Labor Council Disaster Fund: Mail checks to NYC Central Labor Council Disaster Fund, 386 Park Ave. South, New York, NY 10016. Call 212-685-9552 for more information.
  

• Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia Disaster Fund: Mail checks to the fund at 1925 K Street, N.W., Suite 410, Washington, D.C. 20006. In D.C., make checks payable to the Community Services Agency.  Call 202-857-0480 for more information.
  

• AFGE's World Trade Center/Pentagon Fund: Make checks payable and send to FEEEA World Trade Center/Pentagon Fund, 8441 W. Bowles Ave., Suite 200, Littleton, Colo. 80123-9501. Call 303-933-7580 for further information.
  

• SEIU Sept. 11th Relief Fund: Send contributions to this special fund for SEIU members to SEIU's headquarters in Washington, D.C., for distribution. The address is SEIU, 1313 L St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005.

2. Give blood. To find out how to donate blood in your community, please call the Red Cross at 1-800-GIVE-LIFE.

3. Stay informed. Visit www.aflcio.org (and return to this site) for developing information and opportunities to help.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12
Honor the public servants -- the fallen and the survivors

Yesterday was a day of unbelievable tragedy and carnage for this nation.  And while we continue to keep the victims and their families in our thoughts and prayers, please remember and honor the public servants claimed in the line of duty as they bravely sought to minimize the deaths.  New York City officials say they believe some 265 firefighters were killed in the World Trade Center rescue efforts.  Some 78 police officers also were reported to have died.  Additional emergency workers were feared dead at the Pentagon.

The four hijacked airliners used in Tuesday’s terrorist attacks carried a total of 233 passengers, 25 flight attendants and eight pilots. Captain Duane Woerth, Air Line Pilots Association president, said his union has “committed all of the resources of the association’s security, air safety and accident investigation personnel to assist in this unimaginable tragedy.” A Flight Attendants statement said that union stood “ready to assist authorities and families of victims in any and every way possible.”

The Service Employees International Union -- which has hundreds of building services workers at the World Trade Center including security guards, cleaners, building engineers, window washers and others who are missing and feared dead -- is among the labor organizations that have set up disaster relief funds (see below). Several other unions -- such as the Operating Engineers with dozens of members feared lost, AFSCME with some 63 members missing, and others -- had members killed in Tuesday's attacks and are seeking to provide relief and comfort to their families.

As rescue efforts continue -- with some success (see today's New York Times report) -- firefighters and other rescue workers from around the country, including Washington state, make their way to New York City to assist in those efforts and provide relief.

Please also remember and honor the next victims -- the survivors.  The courageous fire fighters, police officers, paramedics, doctors, nurses and other public servants of New York City and Washington D.C. who will relive the horrifying moments of yesterday, the efforts since and the efforts to come, for the rest of their lives.  Many will be unable to continue in their line of work.  Many more will suffer unimaginable psychological trauma.

The following is posted at the website of the International Association of Fire Fighters:

We mourn the loss of potentially hundreds of our brothers and sisters in New York City and Washington D.C. as they responded to cowardly terrorist attacks on symbols of our nation’s financial and military power. Our thoughts and prayers are with our brothers and sisters who continue on the front lines, as well as their families and the families of the thousands of civilians who were murdered in these senseless acts of violence.

Public Statement of General President
The flags are flying at half-staff outside the headquarters of the International Association of Fire Fighters, just one block from the White House. We still do not know how many of our members in New York City were killed when the World Trade Center towers collapsed, but we fear that today may be the single worst day for line-of-duty deaths in the proud 83-year history of this union. Read more...

General President Schaitberger Addresses Terrorist Attacks
The multiple terrorist attacks against our nation make this one of the darkest days in American history. September 11 will forever be the nation’s Day of Infamy. At this point, we cannot calculate the enormous loss of life. We do know that our members have responded to the incidents with courage and conviction. Read more...

The IAFF Fallen Fire Fighter Memorial Ceremony, an annual memorial observance honoring IAFF members who have died in the line of duty, will be held this Saturday, September 15 at 1:30 p.m. at the IAFF Fallen Fire Fighter Memorial in Colorado Springs, Colo.  Read more...

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12
Disaster relief funds established, PLEASE CONTRIBUTE

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12
AFL-CIO's Sweeney: "No citizen was untouched"

The following statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney was released Wednesday:

American workers and American trade unions are shocked and angered by yesterday’s cowardly acts of terrorism against American citizens.  We deplore the assault, and we stand fully behind the President and the leadership of our nation in this time of national crisis.  We affirm our full support for American democratic values here and around the globe, and we believe that those responsible, in any way, for this heart-stopping horror must be dealt with.  We will fully support the appropriate American response.

Our hearts and prayers go out to the thousands of our fellow citizens who died or were scarred or injured, and to their families.  We mourn those who perished as they performed their work, whether in rescue efforts, in offices or on airplanes—the hundreds of public safety workers, firefighters, police, rescue and medical personnel, the pilots, flight attendants, office workers and others, as well as the members of the armed forces and other public employees who were targets of these attacks.

Already union members have gone into action to assist the rescue efforts, and the AFL-CIO and our unions will do everything we can to assist the continued rescue operations and the medical care of those injured.

I have called President Bush to express the AFL-CIO’s full support for him in this time of crisis and offer any and all assistance from the labor movement.

I have spoken with union leaders whose members are directly affected by this tragedy.  They share my outrage and determination to give our full support to the immediate rescue and medical operations. 

It is impossible to imagine an event with greater capacity to compel Americans to unity and action.  No citizen was untouched.  Around the country, working people want to know what they can do to help.  Out of the sense of national pain and loss brought on by this heart-stopping horror, we must forge a renewal of our national community. 

The AFL-CIO is urging all its members to assist in any way, especially by giving blood.  We are working with the American Red Cross to facilitate blood donations across the country.   

The AFL-CIO’s Community Services network in New York and Washington, D.C. will be fully engaged in needed assistance, providing support to rescue workers as well as volunteers. 

The AFL-CIO’s national Union Community Fund has issued an appeal to assist those most in need, and has established a special fund to accept donations from American working families.

Even as we denounce this act, we must remember that this was an act of terrorists, not an Arab attack, and reject anti-Arab retaliation or discrimination.  Now is the time to renew the values that bind us together as a nation.

America is a democratic and open society built upon universal values of freedom and human dignity.  No act of terror will undermine those values. No sacrifice is too great for Americans to defend those values.  American workers and citizens are united in our eternal support for American democracy.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12
Welfare of new citizens must be considered

The following Letter to the Editor by the Bellingham Herald's editorial editor appeared in today's Seattle P-I and has and important message to consider and share with others:

As we all sit stunned at our keyboards fumbling for words, I ask you to join me in showing sensitivity, and urging your readers to do the same, toward those Arab Americans who are undeniably going to meet with angry stares, words or worse from their neighbors and schoolmates.

I saw their fear yesterday morning as I gathered around a radio in the small home of a family of Afghan refugees. The family arrived here in Bellingham just a month ago with the aid of World Relief and my church.

I am coordinating their resettlement effort and spend time every day with this amazing family who had been unable to leave their 10-by-10 room for five years because of the father's high-ranking position in the pre-Taliban government.

I cannot tell you how terrified they are for the safety of their children. Bellingham is a fairly homogenous community. They will stand out. They know it.

So while big cities are on high alert, those of us in suburbia must also be on alert for the welfare of our new citizens -- those who came here to escape terrorism, those whose children have never lived in a time of peace, those who will become the targets of misdirected anger.

Carolyn Nielsen
Editorial page editor
The Bellingham Herald

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12
Americans: "The most generous people on Earth"

Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian television commentator, made a remarkable editorial broadcast from Toronto a few months ago, and although it has been widely circulated via email, we thought today was a good time to post his remarks as recorded in the Congressional Record:

America: The Good Neighbor.

This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous -- and possibly the least appreciated -- people on all the earth."

Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of these countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.

When France was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.

When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the United States that hurries in to help. This spring, 59 American communities were flattened by tornadoes. Nobody helped.

The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy pumped billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent, warmongering Americans.

I'd like to see just one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplane. Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tri-Star, or the Douglas DC10?

If so, why don't they fly them? Why do all the International lines except Russia fly American Planes?

Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or woman on the moon? You talk about Japanese technocracy, and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy, and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy, and you find men on the moon -- not once, but several times -- and safely home again.

You talk about scandals, and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everybody to look at. Even their draft-dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, and most of them, unless they are breaking Canadian laws, are getting American dollars from Ma and Pa at home to spend here.

When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose.  Both are still broke.

I can name you 5,000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to help the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.

Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I'm one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them get kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles. I hope Canada is not one of those.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10
Community effort to "Shine a Light" on Port of Seattle election

Commissioners of the Port of Seattle will learn about a new community effort to support workers at SeaTac Airport at a 12:30 p.m. press conference Tuesday on the steps outside Pier 69 where community groups and unions representing airport workers will announce a program to "Shine a Light" on the Port of Seattle Commissioner Elections.

Earlier this website reported that a march would be held at noon Tuesday from the IBEW Hall to Pier 66 to tell Commissioners to stop demanding privatization of family-wage union jobs at the Port of Seattle.  That rally and march, if it is still happening, appears to have been organized by a group of rank-and-file union members concerned about the status of negotiations with the Port.  It is NOT being organized or sponsored by the King County Labor Council, the Seattle Building and Construction Trades Council or the IBEW.

Working together they plan to register at least 1,000 new voters from among airport employees and their families as well as convert another 1,000 already registered voters to absentee voter status. Not only will these groups be registering voters but also they will educate King County residents, union members, and parishioners about the Port of Seattle and how these Commissioners can affect their lives.

Because three of the five Port Commissioners are up for re-election, these groups are taking the opportunity to make their voices heard.  For example, last week APALA and APRI were the airport, manning voter information and registration tables and Washington Citizen Action, which goes door-to-door every day in King County and registers voters, will draw special attention to the upcoming Port Commissioner Elections.

"We believe many King County voters either don’t vote for Port of Seattle Commissioner or vote without understanding the importance of those offices," said Cathy Lowenberg of APALA, the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance which represents Asian American unionists including hundreds employed at SeaTac Airport.

"The Port Commissioners hold our very lives in their hands," said Susie Velie, SeaTac employee and member of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union. "They are about to vote on whether or not to eliminate our union jobs, so we’d better vote on whether or not they keep their jobs."

"I’ve already registered 18 people," said Lourdes Barredo, a concession food service worker at SeaTac, "And I’m not able to vote as I’m not yet a citizen.  But I know my friends and family who can vote will vote for Commissioners who will save my job."

The following organizations are participating in the port election project: Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA); A. Phillip Randolph Institute (APRI); Bureau of Speaking Ministers; The Living Wage Movement; Washington Citizen Action; Washington Association of Churches; Coalition of Airport Unions—HERE Local 8, IAM District Lodge160, IBT Local 117, UFCW Local 1001 and SEIU Local 6; and the King County Labor Council, AFL-CIO.

If you have news items regarding unions or workplace issues in Washington state that you would like to see posted here, please submit them via e-mail to David Groves or via fax to 206-285-5805.

Copyright © 2001  Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO