WSLC Reports Today -- December 3-7, 2001

UPDATED DAILY M-F by 9 a.m. Pacific
WSLC Reports Today logo 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 are "positive" and some "negative." The intention is to inform. The creation of a link on this page does not constitute an endorsement of the ideas or content of that story.

Reports for December 3-7, 2001

News from previous weeks: November 26-30 -- November 12-16 -- November 5-9

FRIDAY, December 7 -- Bender: We Need to Protect the Minimum Wage
At AFLCIO.org -- Sweeney: House's fast-track vote a "historic low"
— In today's Seattle P-I -- House approves fast-track power for Bush (with Inslee, Baird comments)
...plus -- Boeing job fairs aims to soften blow of first layoffs next week
...plus -- Deadline nears for redistricting panel (GOP wants to move Democrat-leaning Olympia out of the 3rd, Everett out of the 2nd and shift northern King County from 1st to 7th; Democrats don't.)
— In today's Olympian -- Senate GOP floats business plan (No-brainers like bureaucrats "being nicer to people" side-by-side with non-starters like making Washington a "Right-to-Work-for-Less" state.)
...plus -- State building budget unfrozen (and editorial, State building freeze was mishandled)
— In today's UW Daily -- No strike for TAs this quarter
— In today's Tri-City Herald -- Senate bill would block attempts to restart FFTF
— In yesterday's Aberdeen Daily World -- Hoquiam school district talking tough
— In yesterday's Wenatchee World -- Wal-Mart gets no-bell prize for effort to block union access
— In today's Wall Street Journal -- Boeing apparently won't kill 717
...plus -- States take on prescription-drug firms on prices
— In today's N.Y. Times -- House passes fast track ("I'll tell you it was not the smartest vote I've made in my life," said a Republican who abandoned his district's textile interests, voting yes. Indeed.)
...plus -- Hitting the trifecta (Krugman column: President Bush and Enron used the same strategy: Use cooked numbers to justify big giveaways at the top. Then, if things don't work out, let ordinary workers pay the price.)

Late THURSDAY -- FAST TRACK PASSES by a 215-214 vote
Washington's delegation: Voting YES were Reps. Norm Dicks (D), Jennifer Dunn (R), Doc Hastings (R) and George Nethercutt (R). Voting NO were Reps. Brian Baird (D), Jay Inslee (D), Rick Larsen (D), Jim McDermott (D) and Adam Smith (D).

THURSDAY, December 6 -- Agriculture industry attacks state minimum wage law
...plus at WashTech.org -- Disparities within the digital world (Also in today's Seattle P-I, see The earnings gap is wide among high-tech workers)
— In today's Spokesman-Review -- Trial ordered for laid-off Hanford workers (free reg. required)
— In today's News-Tribune -- Tacoma OKs million in tax breaks, angering union reps
— In today's SCJ -- 767 tankers in works, one way or another
— In yesterday's Aberdeen Daily World -- As strike enters Day 10, students ask, "Why?"
...plus -- State law unclear on whether teachers are allowed to strike
— In today's Everett Herald -- County moves ahead on protections for gay workers
— In today's Olympian -- United mechanics (IAM) set Dec. 13 strike vote
— In today's Oregonian -- Nurses union rebuffs OHSU offer
...plus -- Laid-off Freightliner employees (IAM) qualify for more benefits
— In today's L.A. Times -- Labor organizes a comeback (re: AFL-CIO convention)
— In today's WSJ -- White House balking at steel industry bailout
— In the latest American Prospect -- Why Bush is abandoning Social Security reform
— In yesterday's Washington Post -- Wal-Mart changes bell-ringer policy to avoid union contact
...and more on Fast Track:
— In today's Seattle P-I -- Free-trade agenda is not what it seems (an excellent op-ed)
— In today's N.Y. Times -- House GOP backs $25 billion to aid jobless in effort to pass Fast Track (Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, who along with 25 other Democrats met with Mr. Thomas to discuss trade and worker welfare, said the "numbers were right" in Mr. Thomas's proposal today, but that he would not vote yes on the trade bill unless the House first passed more worker aid.)
— In today's Washington Post -- GOP seeks votes for trade bill (Rep. Adam Smith, a traditional supporter of free trade, said Thomas's proposal is "not enough." Noting that a stimulus agreement has yet to be reached, Smith said: "It's good, but he's just talking about it. He's not doing it.")

WEDNESDAY, December 5 -- Fast Track poll: Americans DON'T WANT IT!
At AFLCIO.org -- The latest updates on the AFL-CIO Convention
— In today's N.Y. Times -- During a blue-collar upswing, labor seeks a lift (AFL-CIO convention)
...plus -- As vote nears, Bush pushes for Fast Track trade negotiating authority
— In today's Seattle Times -- Yes to the right Fast Track law (editorial)
...plus -- Put jobless Americans first (op-ed by U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott)
— In today's News-Tribune -- Locke seeks ways to ride out recession
...plus -- AFL-CIO poll ranks Seattle as one of nation's top "Union Cities"
— In today's Seattle P-I -- State big winner if Murray's transportation bill passes
...plus -- Compensation claims slow in coming from Hanford workers
— In today's Bellingham Herald -- Feds extend laid-off G-P workers' benefits
— In today's Olympian -- Union (AFSCME) targets city manager
...plus -- DNR reduces list of job cuts from 60 to 11
— In yesterday's Aberdeen Daily World -- Frustration mounts in Hoquiam teachers' strike
— In yesterday's Spokane S-R -- Working poor line up for state's Basic Health plan (registration required, but free -- to read the article, not for the health plan)
— In today's Washington Post -- Trade test for Democrats (editorial)
...plus -- U.S. Steel seeks to consolidate with rivals
— In today's Salem (Ore.) S-J -- U.S. labor chief criticized for delays in ergonomics ruling

TUESDAY, December 4 -- TODAY is National Call-In Day to Stop Fast Track
(and TOMORROW is National Call-In Day for Worker Relief)
No links to newspapers today so you can focus on calling Congress (and I can take a day off).

MONDAY, December 3 -- WSLC part of coalition seeking to improve children's oral health
At AFLCIO.org -- The latest on the AFL-CIO Convention Monday-Wednesday
— In today's Seattle Times -- Tax-cutting sound bites are not sound policy (Op-ed by AFSCME Council 2 President Chris Dugovich)
— In today's Olympian -- Democrats take reins of power
— In today's Everett Herald -- Transportation a tough job; Dems asked for it
— In today's Salem (Ore.) S-J -- Trade apprenticeships on the rise
...plus -- Oregon revisits limits on campaign contributions (Measure would limit what corporations can contribute, but has no "paycheck deception" language restricting unions' political action.)
— In today's Seattle P-I -- Three times the GOP slapped down the unemployed (Connelly column)
— Today from Reuters -- AFL-CIO leaders meet in city rocked by recession
— In today's Washington Post -- Back to deficits (Editorial: To talk of fiscal responsibility after having pocketed the tax cuts is a sham. Indeed, the Bush administration seeks in the stimulus bill to advance corporate tax cuts, again at the expense of other interests.)
...plus -- Congress' stupid squeeze play (Op-ed: Why did the AFL-CIO cold-shoulder a scheme that would put millions in the pockets of its members?)
— In today's Hartford (Conn.) Courant -- IAM strikes at Pratt & Whitney plants
— In Saturday's Akron Beacon-Journal -- UPS worker fired over (union) flag pin?

News from previous weeks: November 26-30 -- November 12-16 -- November 5-9

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7
Bender: We Need to Protect the Minimum Wage

Rick Bender, President of the Washington State Labor Council, distributes a monthly column on working families issues to weekly community newspapers around the state. (See the President's Column page for an index.) Editors of union newsletters and publications are encouraged to publish these columns, which are posted here every month (email us if you would like a higher resolution photo of Mr. Bender). Here is his latest column:

The next time you go out to dinner, take a minute to think about the person who will serve you your meal. Most likely your server will be a woman. Most likely she will be a single parent. She will probably work part time, maybe on a split shift, pulling down anywhere from twenty to thirty hours of work a week. She will probably have to depend on the tips she gets to make ends meet -- to help pay the rent and put food on her table. When you think about her, consider the tip you might put on the table. That tip is called a gratuity at the fancy restaurants, because we are supposed to give it in gratitude for good service. We lay it on the table and leave, assuming that our server will benefit.

Most waitresses earn the minimum wage. Tips can make the hard job of serving hot meals and keeping customers satisfied a living wage. Our state’s minimum wage is $6.72 an hour. That rate rises slowly, linked to the rate of inflation. When our state’s voters passed Initiative 688 a few years ago, with a 66% “yes” vote, they showed their support for the principle that no one should work full time and still be doomed to a life of poverty. But even with the link to the cost of living, full-time workers in minimum wage jobs just barely make it.

Restaurants are in a notoriously difficult business. New restaurants fail at a very high rate. The restaurant industry attracts creative, talented people who work very hard to make a living. It’s tough to make a decent profit, and the business is always sensitive to local economic conditions. When consumers cut back spending, the meal out at a nice restaurant on Saturday night is often one of the first cuts made. Even given that set of circumstances, does it make sense that the restaurant owners get to dip into the tips of the waitress who works hard for them?

Misery may love company, but it seems to me that “tip credit” is a device that creates more misery than relief. The Washington State Restaurant Association argues that since the industry is so fragile, and since the minimum wage is linked to inflation, there should be a loophole cut into our state’s voter-backed minimum wage law. That loophole would work like this:

When a waitress adds up all her tips for the day she reports the total for federal income taxes. With a tip credit, her paycheck will have another deduction—for her employer. So for every dollar in tips she earns with her good service and hard work, her employer will pay her one or two dollars less per hour of work. She could end up with a paycheck that zeros out her earnings, and she might end up working just for tips. In states like Texas that have a high tip credit, some employees actually end up “in the hole” when they get their “paycheck.” They actually have to pay their employer to work!

Personally, I find that outrageous.

But there’s more! When a tip credit reduces a waitresses’ paycheck, there’s also a reduction in the Social Security and Medicare premiums that are based on wages. Yet another reduction will be the premium paid for unemployment insurance. These cuts mean if she loses her job, her unemployment benefit check could be reduced. And if she is nearing retirement, her Social Security check might also be lower.

The agricultural industry has now lobbed a similar attack against our minimum wage law. At legislative hearings recently, agricultural representatives promoted a plan to cut out farm workers from the indexed minimum wage. Who will be next to claim their survival depends on reducing their employees’ wages? Retailers? Gas station owners? Day care operators? The hotel industry? You see where this goes.

There’s got to be a better way. In most segments of the economy, when economic distress becomes too severe, the industry turns to its state government for assistance. In the forestry and fishing industries, the state has provided millions of dollars in tax relief and job retraining benefits. The aerospace industry has also lobbied successfully for direct tax relief in past recessions. I am not promoting a tax relief package for the restaurant industry, but I do suggest tax adjustments might make more sense than cutting workers wages, especially the wages of minimum wage employees who depend on tips.

Our state’s minimum wage standard was adopted by the voters just a few years ago. The message from the people was clear: Workers should not be forced to live in poverty when they work full time. Americans area hard working people, we are also a fair people. That’s why we agree that the minimum wage should not be undercut.

Rick Bender is President of the Washington State Labor Council, the largest labor organization in the state.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6
Agriculture industry attacks state minimum wage law

Apparently, the business community’s attacks on Washington state's minimum wage law can’t wait until the 2002 session starts. So working people can’t afford to wait to denounce this unconscionable effort (see "Call to Action" below).

Last year, it was the restaurant association that promoted a "tip credit" bill to create a sub-minimum wage for workers who earn tips -- and they’ll probably be back again this year. But at last weekend’s pre-session legislative committee meetings in Olympia, it was the agriculture industry that launched an aggressive attack on the state minimum wage law as established by Initiative 688.

The struggles of the agriculture industry in recent years have been well-documented and represent a serious problem that needs to be addressed, but the industry’s lobbyists want to do it on the backs of the working poor. They testified at the labor and agricultural committee hearings that the only way to "save" the industry is to exempt agribusiness and farmers from paying workers the full minimum wage and from the requirements of the state’s new ergonomics rules.

Washington State Labor Council Research Director Jeff Johnson countered that the current agriculture crisis was not caused by basic labor standards, many of which are already denied farm workers. Johnson said the blame lies with existing international trade policies that make it harder for family farmers to compete and predatory pricing structures that grant retailers more than two-thirds of every dollar spent on food.

It is unconscionable that agribusiness seeks to solve its problems by denying minimum wages to the most exploited group of workers in our culture. Creating a sub-minimum wage or relaxing workplace safety rules would punish our state’s most vulnerable families while ignoring the real problem. That won’t solve anything.

Initiative 688, which voters approved by a landslide two-to-one margin in 1998, sought to take the politics out of the minimum wage issue by indexing the wage to annually adjust for inflation. In 2001, the minimum wage is $6.72 an hour and beginning Jan. 1, 2002, it goes up to $6.90.

Now the agriculture industry wants to put the politics back by granting themselves a special exemption. The restaurant association will want the same. And you can bet that others suffering during this recession – such as the hospitality industry – will quickly get in line.

We simply cannot allow the will of the people to be subverted by powerful corporate interests who want to use the recession and other economic challenges as an excuse to dismantle our minimum wage law.

Less than $7 an hour is still not enough to keep the family of a full-time worker out of poverty, but at least the annual increases stop the trend of allowing our lowest paid workers' wages to erode over time. It also helps business owners avoid the large incremental increases of the past that can be more difficult to budget.

CALL TO ACTION: So don’t wait for until the session starts in January. Call your state representatives and state senator NOW on the Legislative Hotline at 1-800-562-6000 and leave a message for them to oppose all efforts to weaken our minimum wage law. Remind them that voters were loud-and-clear on this issue and businesses must not be allowed to solve their problems on the backs of the working poor.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5
Fast Track poll: Americans DON'T WANT IT!

It's no accident that supporters of Fast Track trade negotiation authority for President Bush argue that opposition comes only from organized labor and environmental groups. It's much easier to cynically decry congressional opposition as an effort to placate those constituency groups than to acknowledge that members of Congress who oppose Fast Track are representing the thoughts and wishes of the clear majority of Americans on the issue.

The latest poll on where the public stands on Fast Track, which is scheduled for a vote in the U.S. House TOMORROW (Thursday), is unambiguous and unequivocal -- they DON'T WANT IT! Farbrizio, McLaughlin & Associates have released a poll, which sampled 1,000 voters throughout the nation Dec. 2-3, 2001, with a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent, and here are the summary findings:

By a 47-33 percent margin, voters believe that Congress should use normal legislative procedures, not Fast Track, to consider trade agreements. This margin rises to 54-26 percent when respondents are reminded that Fast Track gave us NAFTA and the last WTO agreement.

By 61-23 percent, voters reject the view that without Fast Track, other countries won't negotiate with a market as big as the United States.

By 59-18 percent, voters believe that concrete goals, like boosting American employment and incomes, should be the top priority of U.S. trade policy, not abstractions like "strengthening U.S. leadership in the global economy."

By 66-14 percent, voters believe that new trade agreements should include "strong guarantees of worker rights and environmental protections" -- unlike the Thomas fast track bill.

And by 70-16 percent, they favor "limiting imports if they threaten American jobs" over expanding imports if these jobs may be threatened.

This poll is consistent with other polls conducted since the enactment of NAFTA, and during that period Congress refused three times to grant Fast Track authority to President Clinton. Yet the simplistic "trade is good" pundits continue to insist unions and environmental groups are the sole (and misguided) source of Fast Track opposition (see today's Seattle Times editorial).

Fast Track advocates should take off their blinders and consider that our U.S. Representatives might be swayed by the fact that their constituents oppose the Fast Track that brought us NAFTA by a more than two-to-one margin. And fully four-out-of-five Americans agree that labor and environmental standards belong in new trade agreements -- yet the Thomas Fast Track bill does not.

If Fast Track advocates want to stay cynical about congressional opposition to Fast Track, they should note that U.S. Representatives may fear for their jobs if they vote "yes" on the extremely unpopular measure.

Many in the Washington's labor movement remember the massive effort to mobilize members against NAFTA in 1993, only to have our congressional delegation support it nearly unanimously. The next year our state elected seven Republicans and just two Democrats to the U.S. House to replace the delegation that was eight Democrats and one Republican.

The case can be made that many factors led to the "Gingrich Revolution" that year, but union leaders watched their members -- a linchpin of the Democratic base -- vote in dramatically smaller numbers in 1994 than they did in the non-presidential elections in 1990 and in 1998. Many attribute that to the NAFTA vote.

Please keep the calls to Congress coming: Call your U.S. representative and tell him or her that this is not the time for Fast Track trade authority. While thousands of working families are trying to rebuild their lives, it is outrageous to push controversial legislation that has already cost nearly 1 million manufacturing jobs and promises to cost many more. Call your U.S. representative at 1-800-393-1082. For more information, check out "Fast Track: It's Back" at the AFL-CIO web site.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4
TODAY is National Call-In Day to Stop Fast Track
(and TOMORROW is National Call-In Day for Worker Relief)

Please call Congress to make your voice heard on two urgent working family issues.

TODAY (Tuesday, Dec. 4) -- Join the National Call-In Day to Stop Fast Track. Call your U.S. representative on Dec. 4 and tell him or her that this is not the time for Fast Track trade authority. While thousands of working families are trying to rebuild their lives, it is outrageous to push controversial legislation that has already cost nearly 1 million manufacturing jobs and promises to cost many more. Call your U.S. representative at 1-800-393-1082. For more information, check out "Fast Track: It's Back" at the AFL-CIO web site.

TOMORROW (Wednesday, Dec. 5) -- Make your voice heard again on the National Call-In Day for Worker Relief and help working families who suffer during the widening economic crisis. Call your senators and tell them to support a worker relief package that includes unemployment and health care benefits for laid-off workers. Since Sept. 11 more than 750,000 layoffs have been announced. You can call your senators at 1-800-718-1008. For more information, see the AFL-CIO's "Layoff Tracker."

MONDAY, DECEMBER 3
WSLC part of coalition seeking to improve children's oral health

The release of the U.S. Surgeon General's report on oral health in 2000 sent a clarion call to those who champion children's health in communities across the country. The report linked a child's oral health with overall health, and made it clear that we are not doing enough to ensure our children's well-being by preventing oral disease.

In June 2000 Washington Dental Service provided funding to the FrameWorks Institute to develop and implement a campaign with the goal of raising public awareness of the importance of improving children's oral health in Washington state. Additional support was provided to the Washington State effort by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The overall objectives of this project were:

to put children's oral health on the public agenda,
to frame children's oral health as a problem that requires both individual and societal solutions, and
to engage a powerful constituency that can make an effective case for community action.

The campaign that resulted is a comprehensive, integrated communications campaign. Watch Your Mouth uses coalition development, policy mapping and consensus building, public service advertising, and earned media to raise the salience of children's oral health. Washington state was chosen as the pilot locale, anticipating that a positive assessment of the campaign's impact in one state would allow it to expand to other states as a model.

Citizens' Watch for Kids' Oral Health was formed as the broad-based coalition leading the implementation of Watch Your Mouth in Washington State. This coalition, which includes the Washington State Labor Council, galvanized a diverse group of supporting organizations, secured both public service advertising and earned media placements, and developed a policy agenda.

The Washington state campaign led to dramatic increases in public support for children's oral health. Of particular significance was the finding that, comparing public attitudes before and after the campaign's activities, Washington state residents now strongly support a number of policy proposals:

fluoride protection for all kids (84% favor, 50% strongly favor, +13 points in strong support)
financial incentives for employers to offer dental insurance (86% favor, 49% strongly favor, +10 points in strong support)
Medicaid dental care for low-income children (86% favor, 45% strongly favor, +9 points in strong support)
dental screenings in schools (81% favor, 42% strongly favor, +10 points in strong support)
incentives for dentists to practice in rural & poor areas (82% favor, 38% strongly favor, +7 points in strong support)

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

Phase II of the campaign has three important parts:

Continuing public education efforts on the importance of children's' oral health
Narrowing down the current policy options to two or three key issues and working through the Citizen's Watch group to inform decision makers and the public on the value of these options
Focus educational efforts on elected officials and decision makers on children's oral health issues

Citizens' Watch for Kids' Oral Health in Washington State is currently building on the successes from the first year of the campaign and focusing concerted energy on a sustained effort to advance specific policies for improved oral health in its second year. This effort entails targeting communications activities toward influentials and policy makers, so that the communications aspects of the campaign lend further support to the policy goals. The FrameWorks Institute will again develop campaign products that stay on message and on strategy to achieve these goals.

You can play an important part in promoting children's oral health in your community! Join the Citizen's Watch. Spread the information about children's oral health.

Washington's Citizens' Watch for Kids' Oral Health is being organized by Washington Kids Count/Human Services Policy Center of the University of Washington, the Children's Alliance, Washington Dental Service, and the FrameWorks Institute, among others.

For more information about Citizens' Watch, contact:

Washington Kids Count
Box 353060
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
Phone: 206-616-1833
Contact: Gail Ellenstein, MD, MPH

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.