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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. 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 Sept. 29-Oct. 3, 2003

Previous weeks' news: Sept. 22-26 -- Sept. 17-19 -- Sept. 1-5

LATE FRIDAY -- Bush's OT "payback:" Burdensome new reporting rules for unions
— In today's Oregonian -- Tax issues lead company to pick site in Clark County -- Washington beats out Oregon and Nevada because of lower business taxes here. Apparently, this firm has yet to get its memo from the AWB Welcome Wagon instructing them to SHUT UP about the low taxes! 
For more info, see Monday's story: Washington ranks 8th in small-business competitiveness
— In today's Daily News -- Kayser, Blake take opposing economic stances -- The ideologues who've taken over the Association of Washington Business endorse Kayser, a right-to-work supporting chicken farmer who got 32% in the last election, over a Democrat with a 57% AWB voting record!

FRIDAY, Oct. 3 -- Bender's latest column:  It's good common sense to keep workers healthy
...plus -- House rejects Bush's OT pay cuts, but not Nethercutt, Dunn and Hastings
— In today's Washington Post -- In switch, House rejects Bush overtime proposal
— In today's Bellingham Herald -- Intalco employees (IAM) cast contract votes
...plus -- "They have us over a barrel" as shutdown looms at aluminum smelter
— In today's News Tribune -- Darigold's Medford plant seeking scabs in case of strike -- Get the latest on the Darigold lockout in Issaquah at Teamsters Local 66's website.
— In today's Salem S-J -- SUMCO loses $1 million tax break -- Corporation loses incentive following mass layoffs.  Accountability for a business tax break?  What a concept!
At AFLCIO.org -- Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride heads to New York
— In today's Washington Post -- Immigrant Freedom Riders make pleas on Capitol Hill
— In today's Seattle P-I -- Starting a new war makes no sense -- Editorial: A proposed "Buy America" bill in the U.S. House would require that 65% of components in items purchased by the Pentagon would have to be made in America, compared with 50% under current law. (But the European Union has threatened a WTO complaint, so we shouldn't do it, says the P-I.)
— A related story in today's Seattle Times -- EU threatens $4 billion in WTO sanctions -- EU says Congress must hasten repeal of tax break worth billions to companies like Boeing. (Ain't sovereignty and self-governance great? Signers of the U.S. Constitution must be doing backflips in their graves.)
— In today's BusinessWeek -- Is the job drain China's fault? -- Analysis: Increased U.S.-China interconnectedness is making it a lot harder for Washington to get beyond anti-China rhetoric. Of China's top 40 exporters, 10 are U.S. companies, including Motorola and Dell.  Wal-Mart alone has doubled its imports from China over the last five years and now accounts for nearly 10% of all Chinese exports to the U.S.

THURSDAY, Oct. 2 -- An open letter, Call to Action from striking Marysville teachers
— In today's Everett Herald -- Talks in Marysville teacher strike end abruptly
At AFLCIO.org -- House delays OT vote; still time to call Congress (...especially Nethercutt)
...plus -- Freedom Riders head for Capitol Hill -- TODAY is National Call-In Day
— In today's News Tribune -- Compensation for sick nuclear workers delayed -- People exposed to toxic chemicals while working at nuclear weapons plants, including many from Hanford Nuclear Reservation, might have to wait at least seven years before getting compensation for their illnesses.
...plus -- Retirement benefits eluding more private-industry workers
— In the P.S. Business Journal -- Restaurant group wants relief from highest minimum wage -- Lead lobbyist promises 2004 legislation to stop inflationary adjustments and 50% sub-minimum tip credit.
— In today's King County Journal -- Business, labor debate minimum wage impact
— In today's Spokesman-Review -- State minimum wage is on the rise
— In today's Seattle Times -- Staff seeks promise on future of Eastside Hospital
...plus -- Washington farmers "fare better than the rest of the nation" in 2002
— In today's Yakima H-R -- Classified staff (PSE), Toppenish district still negotiating
— In today's N.Y. Times -- With time short, Boeing and Air Force push tanker deal
...plus -- Senate committee backs bill to give tax windfall to U.S. companies
— In today's Washington Post -- Unions invest $50 million more in Ullico -- The AFL-CIO and 21 of its affiliates bought the newly issued shares Tuesday to shore up the scandal-plagued insurer.
...plus -- Immigrants in our politics -- Meyerson column: For the first time in American history, we have a huge immigrant population -- the 2000 Census says that 12.4 percent of the national workforce is immigrant -- permanently consigned not even to second-class citizenship but no citizenship at all.
— In today's USAToday -- Globalization hurts USA (op-ed by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney)

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 1 -- State minimum wage will be $7.16 an hour starting Jan. 1
— In today's Seattle Times -- State's minimum wage to hit $7.16, highest in U.S.
— In today's King County Journal -- State to have highest minimum wage -- Features comments from a business lobbyist and -- for balance -- a second business lobbyist who agree $7.16 is too much.
— In today's Olympian -- Minimum wage not so small -- Features comment from a labor economist, a business lobbyist and (gasp) a real live minimum wage earner!
At AFLCIO.org -- House vote TODAY: One more chance to save overtime pay
At IWFR.org -- National Call-In day TOMORROW to support immigrants' rights
— In today's Spokesman-Review -- Timm Ormsby selected to take Gombosky's House seat -- Union members are invited to a reception congratulating Brother Ormsby, President of the Spokane Regional Labor Council, at 5 p.m. this Friday, Oct. 3 at the Laborers Hall, 1330 N. Calispel, Spokane.
...plus -- Don Barbieri is first Democrat to join hunt for U.S. Rep. Nethercutt's seat
...plus -- Migrant workers issues need action (editorial)
— In yesterday's Walla Walla U-B -- Reality check needed to reform policy on farm workers (editorial)
— In yesterday's Longview Daily News -- Group looks to defeat ergonomics initiative
— In today's Seattle P-I -- Don't close the order book on Boeing 717 just yet
— In today's King County Journal -- Sen. Rossi keeps GOP dangling on gubernatorial intentions
At AFLCIO.org -- Sweeney: No early endorsement in democratic presidential primary
— In today's N.Y. Times -- Gephardt won't get early backing of AFL-CIO
...plus -- Slowing stream of new jobs helps to explain slump -- A lack of hiring, rather than a wave of layoffs, appears to be the main problem afflicting the American economy.
— Today as MSNBC.com -- Ford set to cut more than 12,000 jobs; Chrysler will also cut thousands
— In today's Washington Post -- Advocates for immigrant workers take to the road
...plus -- Freedom Riders of 2003 -- Op-ed by bus-rider U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-GA).
...plus -- Women's lower pay tied to fewer work hours; study says men also travel more
— In today's L.A. Times -- Arbitration agreements OK'd -- Federal appeals court rules employers can compel workers to sign arbitration pacts surrendering their right to sue in court over discrimination.
— In the new Onion -- 48-hour Internet outage plunges nation into productivity

TUESDAY, Sept. 30 -- AFL-CIO E-Activist Network -- Tell Congress to protect overtime pay! -- U.S. House vote could happen tomorrow!  Will candidate Nethercutt vote again to cut OT pay?
— In today's Washington Post -- Fighting over overtime -- Editorial: Despite Bush's veto threat, the House should vote to block the new overtime rules. While the regulations need updating, Bush's proposal tilts too far in the direction of employers. It ought to be redrawn in a more balanced way.
— In today's Seattle P-I -- Foes of Initiative 841 vow to put up a tough fight
...plus -- Let's avoid headlong rush into trade deals -- Virgin column: A growing number of Americans generally are moving toward the viewpoint that they've been asked to give away too much of their employment base as it is, never mind what more trade pacts might do.
— In today's Olympian -- Free-trade opponents takes message across U.S.
— In today's Seattle Times -- Grading globalization: Principle vs. prejudice (Dionne column)
...plus -- More green-light words for 7E7 -- Mulally's sunny outlook has received vital endorsements from Boeing's corporate headquarters recently that suggest the company's board of directors is all but certain to give a green light to the 7E7 when it votes later this year.
— In today's Bremerton Sun -- New flexible PSNS funding kicks off next week -- The shipyard's labor unions previously expressed concern about the change, but now are taking a wait-and-see approach.
— In today's Everett Herald -- Parents enter fray in 29-day Marysville teacher strike
— In today's King Co. Journal -- Safeco announces 500 layoffs, intention to sell off 1,400-worker unit
— In today's N.Y. Times -- Big increase seen in people lacking health insurance
...plus -- Boiling brew: Politics and health insurance gap -- The plight of the uninsured is now more of a middle-class issue, a symbol of real close-to-home insecurity and thus more politically potent.
— Today at MSNBC.com -- America's disappearing factory jobs: Will they ever return?

MONDAY, Sept. 29 -- Washington ranks 8th in small-business competitiveness index
...plus, more good economic news in Sunday's News Tribune, as Sen. Jim Honeyford, GOP chair of the Commerce & Trade (but not Labor) Committee officially upgrades state business competitiveness from poor to "mediocre" with his op-ed: Minimum wage, workers comp leave state at disadvantage
— Sunday's Seattle Times -- Immigrants on the road in a quest for rights
...plus today -- Support nonprofit agencies that help workers, employers (op-ed)
...plus -- Sen. Murray's efforts key in keeping Amtrak on track
...plus -- Boeing 767 tanker deal grounded by debate
— In today's Tri-City Herald -- Study reveals farm workers' concerns about pesticides, other issues
— In today's Everett Herald -- Boeing to use 7E7 technology in new 747
— In the P.S. Business Journal -- Everett, Renton react differently to Boeing (Pascall column)
— In today's Seattle P-I -- Boeing workers turn Harley interest into new careers
...plus on Saturday -- Locke meets with students, urges end to Marysville teacher strike
...plus -- Alcoa postpones closing of Ferndale smelter
— In today's Bremerton Sun -- Martha and Mary awaits ruling on union's (UFCW 381) status
— In today's Olympian -- Sen. Rossi keeps state GOP guessing for Governor
— Sunday's Bellingham Herald -- Area's state legislators: Raising taxes not an option
— In today's News Tribune -- Foot ferries' demise sends pedestrians to clog car ferries (AP)
— In today's Oregonian -- Congress lowers H1-B visa cap for foreign tech workers
Plus, a related story at WashTech.org -- Rep. Adam Smith: H1-B is a "positive program"
— In today's Washington Post -- Transportation funding hits gridlock -- The impasse over the massive reauthorization of a six-year transportation bill underscores the financial pressures lawmakers are experiencing in an era of ballooning deficits. Faced with costly international commitments and a decline in tax revenue, Congress is delaying action on popular domestic initiatives that proponents consider critical to future economic development.
— In today's L.A. Times -- Supermarkets, clerks gird for possible Southern Calif. grocery strike

Previous weeks' news: Sept. 22-26 -- Sept. 17-19 -- Sept. 1-5

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3
Bush's OT payback: Burdensome new reporting rules for labor

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

The Bush Administration's announcement today that it will force overly-burdensome new financial reporting rules on unions is yet more evidence of the Administration's blind determination to weaken workers' organizations and is clearly political payback for workers' overtime pay win yesterday in the House.  The announcement is yet another Friday afternoon release of actions they hope to shield from scrutiny.

While unions support reasonable financial disclosure requirements for all types of organizations, the Bush Administration's rules are craftily designed to weaken unions -- the strongest advocates for American workers -- as our nation prepares for the 2004 elections.  The rules target unions and go far beyond what is required of
corporations or other not-for-profit organizations.

After first issuing its proposed rules in December of 2002, the department received 35,000 comments, the overwhelming majority of which were against the rule, and heard from members of Congress from both parties that the rules were punitive and not helpful for accurate disclosure.  Today's rules include no substantive changes from their original proposal, despite the fact that 30 Republican House members, in addition to Democrats, urged the department to start over to make them more meaningful.

Bush's reporting rules require unions to dump massive amounts of minute information into the Labor Department's database at huge expense, yet they will not create a coherent picture of unions' finances.  The rules will burden over 5000 labor organizations -- only 70 of which are large, international unions - - with extensive new reporting requirements requiring filling out huge numbers of forms, thus leaving less time for contract negotiations, grievance handling, organizing and other core union activities.  One union, the Airline Pilots Association, estimates that the reporting under the new rules would result in five and a half feet of paper each year.  In addition, the Bush rules will reveal the details of workers' organizations' finances to employers, thus putting workers at a disadvantage at the bargaining table.

The Bush agenda is made even more evident by the fact that Newt Gingrich issued a memo in 1992 to then Secretary of Labor Lynn Martin calling for the same reporting changes for unions as those issued today.

America's workers deserve better from their President than political back-room gaming at their expense.  President Bush should recall the rules and go back to the drawing board to create financial reporting rules that work for working people. 

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3
House rejects Bush OT pay cuts, but not Nethercutt, Dunn and Hastings

In the face of polls showing President Bush's plan to restrict overtime pay is opposed by three out of four Americans, several Republicans switched their positions Thursday and sided with House Democrats -- and a bipartisan Senate majority -- in rejecting Bush's plan by a 221-203 vote.  However, Washington's Republican delegation, Reps. Jennifer Dunn, "Doc" Hastings and U.S. Senate candidate George Nethercutt, voted again to support Bush's overtime pay cuts.  All of the state's Democratic delegation voted against.

The Republican-controlled House voted 213-210 in July to allow Bush to impose new rules exempting an estimated 8 million more working Americans from the right to overtime pay.  But on Sept. 10, the Senate voted to reject the plan and deny the Labor Department funding for the plan's implementation.  Thursday's House "revote" is technically non-binding but essentially overturns the previous vote because House-Senate negotiators resolving differences in the Labor Department appropriations bills will now have difficulty allowing the proposed overtime changes to go forward.

The question is, will President Bush follow through with his threat to defy the will of Americans and the Republican-controlled Congress by vetoing the entire appropriations bill in order to preserve the new overtime pay restrictions. 

"We call on President Bush to withdraw his assault on overtime and withdraw his threat to veto any legislation that protects overtime," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney in a statement released Thursday. (Also see Call to Action below). "Both houses of Congress have now spoken -- and they have directed President Bush not to take away overtime pay from working families.  America’s workers and their families hope the president is listening."

Rep. Nethercutt sure isn't. The Spokane Republican had reportedly been reconsidering his support of the unpopular Bush overtime plan, especially given his announcement since his first vote supporting the plan that he will seek Sen. Patty Murray's seat next fall. Nethercutt apparently decided to accept what is certain to become an election liability in order to maintain his loyalty to President Bush. The Bush administration aggressively recruited Nethercutt to run against Murray and is rumored to have offered him a political appointment should he lose the election. (Nethercutt must give up his House seat in order to run for the Senate.)

Republican Reps. Dunn and Hastings, not only voted again Thursday to support the OT pay cuts, they were both co-sponsors of H.R. 1119, which would have allowed employers to give workers compensatory time off rather than time-and-a-half pay for every overtime hour worked. (The bill was pulled in June by House Republican leaders after it became clear they didn't have the votes necessary for passage.)

Former computer industry executive Alex Alben of Mercer Island has announced his bid to unseat Dunn in 2004. No candidates have step forward yet to challenge Hastings.

CALL TO ACTION:  Please take a minute to send a message to President Bush urging him to withdraw his overtime pay take-away. Click here: http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/bushcutsot.

Over the past six months, tens of thousands of people like you have joined together to protect overtime pay, the 40-hour workweek and the weekend by sending similar messages to Congress.  Together, we have succeeding in urging Congress to block attacks on our right to overtime pay, and now we have to do the same at the White House.  Please speak out by sending Bush a message and ask your friends, family and co-workers to contact the president as well by visiting http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/bushcutsot/forward/ to help spread the word.

BACKGROUND:  Some of the most important employment protections for working families today are part of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which sets minimum standards for wages and overtime. Under the FLSA’s overtime rules, some 80 million workers must now be paid time-and-a-half in cash when they work for more than 40 hours a week. Millions of these workers depend on cash overtime pay to make ends meet.

The Bush overtime proposal to change overtime regulations would deny overtime pay and the protections of the 40-hour workweek to millions of workers. It would affect a wide range of the approximately 80 million workers currently protected by making it much easier for employers to claim that these employees are exempt from overtime pay.

Under Bush's plan:

• Millions of salaried workers making between $22,101 and $65,000 who now are eligible to receive overtime pay could be reclassified as executives or administrative or professional employees -- and would no longer qualify for overtime pay.

• Relatively low-salary earners who have supervisory responsibilities or management-related responsibilities would be penalized, as would workers with advanced education or specialized training. Some of the jobs affected are police, firefighters, nurses, retail managers, insurance claims adjusters and medical therapists.

• Employees not covered by the new rules also could be hurt: By reclassifying many of their workers as exempt from overtime pay, employers most likely would assign overtime only to them and eliminate overtime for other workers. Police and firefighters are among those potentially affected.

• Anyone making $65,000 or more a year likely would lose overtime pay, effectively eliminating many middle-income wage earners’ much-needed extra pay.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s own estimates, the Bush administration’s proposed rule changes could mean between 2.1 million and 3.3 million workers would face unpredictable work schedules because of an increased demand for extra hours for which employers would not have to pay time-and-a-half.

The Bush administration claims its plan would give overtime protections to more workers by allowing anyone who earns $22,100 or less to automatically qualify for overtime pay. But many of those workers, such as fast-food employees, already are covered.

Many working families depend on overtime to pay bills—especially during the current economic recession that has resulted in stagnant and declining wages, increasing costs of health care, prescription drugs, child care and other essential expenses. The Bush proposal would cut into many of those families’ paychecks.

The Marysville School Board hasn’t budged an inch on three critical issues since last April, even though Marysville teachers are willing to compromise.

Six people are keeping 650 teachers and 11,000 Marysville students out of their classrooms. Since the first day of contract negotiations the five members of the Marysville School Board and the superintendent have stubbornly refused to change their stance on three basic issues:

1. Moving from a locally controlled schedule for salaries to the state salary schedule.
2. Demanding eight additional administrator-controlled work days for no additional pay.
3. Refusing to offer locally funded pay and benefit improvements.

The school board and superintendent have known from the first day of contract negotiations that a move to the state salary schedule is unacceptable to Marysville teachers.  What’s wrong with moving to the state salary schedule?

• It turns over control of local teacher salaries to politicians in Olympia. Political winds, rather than our local educational needs, would determine the salary schedule.
• It is inequitable: some teachers would get higher pay while many would be frozen at their 2002-03 salary levels, some for the entire duration of a three-year contract.
• It wastes resources that could be used for pay improvements for all teachers. The district would have to pay more than a quarter-million dollars to teachers who are paid more on the current local schedule.

The school board and superintendent have known from the first day of contract negotiations that demanding eight additional administrator-controlled workdays is unacceptable to Marysville teachers.  Working additional days amounts to a pay loss for teachers.

• The district offers no pay increase for the additional eight days of work. This is really a pay loss for teachers.
• Teachers already spend considerable additional time to fulfill their regular responsibilities to do the best instructional job possible for their students. Adding another unpaid eight days spent in administrator-controlled in-service and staff development meetings is not in the best interest of students. Teacher time should be spent on self-directed activities aimed at directly helping their students learn.

The school board and superintendent have known from the first day of contract negotiations that reasonable locally funded pay and benefit improvements are a necessity for a new contract.

• The state has failed to fund cost-of-living pay improvements and has failed to keep pace with the rising costs of health care.
• Teachers need to keep up with the continual rise in the cost of living rather than falling further behind.
• Reasonable locally funded pay improvements have been negotiated in Everett, Granite Falls, Lake Stevens, Monroe, Mukilteo, Snohomish and Sultan. Your Marysville School Board is refusing to keep pace. Marysville’s locally funded salaries are already behind five of the previously mentioned districts and will fall further behind over the next three years unless the Marysville School Board changes its position.

Teachers are willing to compromise. It’s time for the Marysville School Board to negotiate in good faith.

The teachers’ bargaining team has made it clear that we are willing to compromise from our current formal proposal involving an 11 percent increase over the next three years. The school board won’t budge an inch on its three unreasonable demands. Once these three issues are on the table and the school board begins bargaining in good faith, we’ll be on our way to an agreement that everyone can live with. And kids will be back in school.

It will take a school board willing to act responsibly to end the strike.

The school board must act responsibly and authorize its bargaining team to withdraw the demand for the state salary schedule, to withdraw its demand for eight additional administrator-controlled workdays for no additional pay, and to come to an agreement that includes reasonable locally funded pay and benefit improvements for all teachers over the next three years.

Six people – five school board members and the superintendent – have the authority to resolve this dispute. If they refuse to exercise that authority, then the responsibility for this strike will continue to rest squarely on their shoulders.

Call your Marysville School Board members and the superintendent. They must compromise and change their unreasonable position.

• Helen Mount, President, Marysville School Board, 425-345-2785 (W)
• Ron Young, Vice President, Marysville School Board, 360-652-0832 (H)
• Erik Olson, 425-334-3417 (H)
• Mark Johnson, 360-659-7270 (H)
• Cary Peterson, 360-653-5888 (H)
• Linda Whitehead, Superintendent, Marysville School District, 360-653-0800

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1
State minimum wage will be $7.16 an hour starting Jan. 1

The Washington state minimum wage will increase 15 cents to $7.16 an hour starting Jan. 1, 2004, the state Department of Labor and Industries announced Tuesday. The state's lowest legal hourly wage is recalculated each September as a result of Initiative 688, filed by Washington State Labor Council President Rick Bender, supported by the state labor movement and dozens of community organizations, and ultimately approved by voters by a two-to-one margin in 1998.

The initiative set out to take the politics out of the minimum wage issue by requiring an annual cost-of-living adjustment based on changes in the federal Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). For the 12 months ending August 2003, that nationwide index increased 2.1 percent. The new wage applies to workers in both agricultural and non-agricultural jobs; 14- and 15-year-olds may be paid 85 percent of the adult minimum wage.

"It's great news for minimum wage earners every year that they will be getting the cost-of-living raise they deserve," said Bender, "but $7.16 an hour is still poverty wages for thousands of Washington families. Every year, we should congratulate ourselves that the law is working as voters intended, and then rededicate ourselves to the fight for maintaining and creating good family-wage jobs."

Washington was the first state to approve a state minimum wage increase that included annual inflationary adjustments, but the idea has caught on in other states. Oregon voters last year approved an initiative similar to Washington's that raised their minimum wage and requires annual cost-of-living adjustments. Oregon's minimum wage will rise to $7.05 an hour on Jan. 1.  In Alaska, the current minimum wage is $7.15; California's is $6.75. (State minimum wage rates are posted at the DOL website.)

As reported in Sunday's New York Times, city governments are getting into the act as well. San Francisco has a proposition on the November ballot asking voters for approval of an $8.50-an-hour minimum wage. Santa Fe, N.M., has already approved a $8.50 minimum, effective Jan. 1.

The reason state and municipal governments are raising the minimum wage is that the federal minimum wage remains at a shameful $5.15 an hour.  The wages of the lowest paid workers in the country have been allowed to stagnate -- and be eroded by inflation -- for more than six years now, but there is no sign the Republican-controlled Congress intends to address the issue any time soon.

Although Washington's indexed minimum wage has prevented the state rate from becoming mired in politics, the powerful restaurant and agriculture industries continue to pressure to the state legislature every year to try to exempt their industries' workers from the wage requirement or stop the annual adjustments. Sen. Jim Honeyford (R-Sunnyside), chairman of the Senate labor committee, wrote an op-ed in Sunday's News Tribune that claimed the state minimum wage is costing the state jobs.

"Working Well in Washington: An Evaluation of the 1998 Minimum Wage Initiative," a 2003 study by the Economic Opportunity Institute, demonstrated that Washington's indexed minimum wage is helping the state's lowest-paid workers as intended with no demonstrable negative effect on employment in retail, restaurant and other minimum-wage paying industries.

The labor movement has aggressively opposed efforts to weaken our state's popular minimum wage standards, and so far, attempts to create sub-minimum wages for agriculture workers or workers who earn tips have been unsuccessful.

The WSLC's fight to protect the voter-approved standard extends to every campaign season, and will do so again in 2003.  Candidate-comparison fliers distributed to union members statewide often include the candidates' position on whether minimum wage exemptions should be created.  This is an issue that resonates very strongly with working people and often provides a clear distinction between candidates and their priorities.

For more information, visit our minimum wage page. For more information about the shamefully low federal minimum wage, check out the Economic Policy Institute website.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 29
Washington ranks 8th in small-business competitiveness index

— Also see in the Oct. 3 edition of the Oregonian -- Tax issues lead company to pick site in Clark County -- Washington beats out Oregon and Nevada because of lower business taxes here. Apparently, this firm has yet to get its memo from the AWB Welcome Wagon instructing them to SHUT UP about the low taxes! 

Washington state ranks 8th in the nation for friendliness to small business, according to the 2003 rankings released Sept. 26 by the Small Business Survival Committee (SBSC), a national non-profit organization in Washington D.C.

The ranking runs counter to the wave of recent political rhetoric sweeping the state that suggests Washington does not have a competitive business environment.  The SBSC's index is calculated by grading 21 major government-imposed or government-related costs -- from business tax rates to workers' compensation rates and unemployment insurance costs -- affecting small business owners and entrepreneurs.

The SBSC is itself a conservative business lobbying organization; states rise in the rankings for having "right-to-work" (for less) laws, fewer "bureaucrats" and low minimum wages.  Washington finishes 2nd among states with no right-to-work law.

"This is more proof from sources outside the state that debunks the notion that our state is not competitive," said WSLC Rick Bender, who challenged the notion that Washington is anti-business in his January 2003 column.

"Hopefully, more policymakers and pundits will begin telling the positive story about our state, its quality of life and its good business environment," Bender said.  "That way our critically important economic development efforts can rise above the destructive din of state corporate lobbyists who continue their 'Washington Is Bad for Business' campaign."

For more information on that campaign -- and its 2004 legislative agenda -- see the op-ed in Sunday's News Tribune by Sen. Jim Honeyford, Republican chair of the Commerce and Trade (but not Labor) Committee: Minimum wage, workers comp leave state at disadvantage.

In terms of their policy environments, the MOST entrepreneur-friendly states under the “Small Business Survival Index 2003” are: 1) South Dakota, 2) Nevada, 3) Wyoming, 4) New Hampshire, 5) Florida, 6) Texas, 7) Tennessee, 8) Washington, 9) Michigan, and 10) Mississippi.

The two West Coast states with which Washington competes for business investment find themselves among the LEAST entrepreneur friendly states: 41) Iowa, 42) Oregon, 43) New Mexico, 44) Vermont, 45) New York, 46) California, 47) Rhode Island, 48) Maine, 49) Minnesota, 50) Hawaii, and 51) District of Columbia.

Check out the Small Business Survival Index 2003 at www.sbsc.org.