WSLC Reports Today -- June 20, 2006

EARLIER THIS WEEK:
MONDAY

WSLC Reports Today
Updated DAILY... Almost Every Day™ by 9 a.m.

Links are functional at date of posting, but sometimes expire. Some links require free registration. WSLC Reports Today links to stories of interest to organized labor; some positive, some negative. The intention is to inform.

TUESDAY, JUNE 20 ▪ Contact Congress: Raise the federal minimum wage NOW! -- As the Senate prepares to vote on the first minimum wage increase in more than eight years, it's time for Washington state's Republican U.S. Reps. Reichert, McMorris and Hastings to explain where they stand on this important working families issue. Take action to help us find out!

Also today: ▪ KEEP LEAFLETING! -- This week is the first of several scheduled worksite leafleting events across Washington state. WSLC affiliates are urged to download a two-sided flier -- comparing U.S. Senate candidates and State Supreme Court candidates, and distribute them to members this week. Learn more about this effort, or contact Field Mobilization Director Benjamin Lawver.
▪ A related story in today's News Tribune -- Big donors' last hurrah taints judicial race (editorial) -- John Groen, an attorney for the Building Industry Ass'n of Washington, is the latest beneficiary. In the days before Washington’s new contribution limits went on the books, donors with ties to the construction industry gave him more than $100,000.

Local news:
▪ Today from AP -- Gregoire backs property tax limits -- She pledges to work with the Legislature to pass property tax limits if the courts throw out voter-approved Initiative 747.
▪ In today's Spokesman-Review -- Group's initiative seeks higher wage at Spokane's "big box" stores -- The Peace and Justice Action League will collect signatures on a measure that would require $10.30 an hour if the employer offers health benefits, and $12.58 an hour if it does not.
▪ In today's Everett Herald -- Rule could thwart Medicaid recipients -- Patients will soon be forced to prove their U.S. citizenship for medical treatment. With some 860,000 Medicaid patients in Washington, this is raising alarms among some local health care and immigrant support groups.
▪ In today's Seattle Times -- Care of aging Americans is often in immigrants' hands -- Millions of frail older and disabled Americans find themselves in later life receiving the most personal kind of help from people who often look different from them and weren't raised speaking English.
▪ In today's Olympian -- State Patrol manager on paid leave after "party" -- IFPTE Local 17 says that managers have accused union workers of misconduct while sheltering line supervisors from punishment for incidents like the fake party where employees pretended to snort cocaine.
▪ In today's Tri-City Herald -- Group says DOE should consider restarting FFTF
▪ In today's Bellingham Herald -- City should put surplus in police, fire pensions (editorial)
▪ In today's Wash. Post -- Boeing tanker inquiry finds Rumsfeld's attention elsewhere -- Rumsfeld cited poor memory, loose office procedures, and a general distraction with "the wars" in Iraq and Afghanistan to explain why he was unsure how his department nearly squandered $30 billion leasing several hundred new tanker aircraft that its own experts had decided were not needed.

Political news:
▪ In Saturday's Seattle Times -- SEIU to endorse some Republican candidates -- The union is planning to support as many as two-thirds of the 49 Republican incumbents up for re-election.
▪ In today's Seattle P-I -- King County OKs all-mail elections, but provision could force delay
▪ In today's Washington Post -- Bush raises $27 million in one night for Congressional Republicans

Bad Bosses news:
▪ At AFL-CIO Now -- "Death is No Excuse" and more bad boss horror stories -- The AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America has launched a My Bad Boss Contest, inviting people to write about their tyrannical, egotistical, idiotic and downright mean bosses. The prize for best story is a week’s vacation in a resort condominium and $1,000 for airfare.
▪ Today from Reuters -- Working America seeks best stories of worst bosses

National news:
▪ At Counterpunch.org -- Outsourcing smarts: The death of U.S. engineering -- When employers allege a shortage of engineers, they mean that there is a shortage of American graduates who will work for the low salaries that foreigners will accept. Americans are simply being forced out of the engineering professions by jobs outsourcing and the importation of foreigners on work visas.
▪ Today from Reuters -- Employers, unions anxious about pension talks -- Behind closed doors, Congress is negotiating a proposal to redefine when pension plans are in such bad financial shape they must add cash. Critics warn it could drive some companies out of the pension system entirely by cracking down on plans that don't deserve it.
▪ Today in Newsday -- Pay workers to take care of their kin (op-ed by president of the NY State AFL-CIO) -- Paid leave for family care is what workers need, and it's good for business, too.
▪ In today's NY Times -- The golden revolving door (editorial) -- There's one area in which the Homeland Security Department has excelled beyond anyone's expectations: creating a giant, expensive crop of government-trained consultants and lobbyists.

Last Throes update:
▪ Today from AP -- Bodies of missing U.S. soldiers recovered; they were "killed in a barbaric way"
▪ In today's Washington Post -- Cheney stands by his "last throes" remark
▪ At Daily Kos -- Why DO we fight? -- It's safer dodging bullets and IEDs on the streets of Iraq than trusting America's broken health care system to take care of your family. A news report describes several who are re-upping because they believe their families are more in danger from an increasingly failing American health care system than from their own possible demise.

Earlier this week: MONDAY, 6/19
Last week: MONDAY, 6/12 -- TUESDAY, 6/13 -- WEDNESDAY, 6/14 -- THURSDAY, 6/15 -- FRIDAY, 6/16

TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 2006
Contact Congress: Raise the federal minimum wage NOW!

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on a federal minimum wage increase this week, possibly as soon as TODAY, but opponents may try to block it with phony proposals that actually hurt workers. Meanwhile, the Republican House leadership has refused to schedule a vote, even though an increase to $7.25 an hour won a solid majority vote in committee.

Here in Washington state, voters took the politics out of the minimum wage back in 1998, passing an initiative to index our lowest legal wage to automatically adjust for inflation. As Washington State Labor Council President Rick Bender recently pointed out, our $7.63 an hour minimum wage -- the highest in the nation -- has not led to unemployment and inflation as right-wing conservatives suggest. Nor has that happened in the many other states that have picked up Congress slack and raised their minimum wages.

So, what possible excuse can Washington state's congressional delegation have for not supporting a federal minimum wage increase? It's been frozen at a shameful $5.15 an hour for more than eight years now. Meanwhile, members of Congress voted themselves nine raises -- the most recent vote just last week -- totaling $34,930 a year and boosting their salaries to $168,500 a year in 2007. Compare that with the $10,712 earnings of a full-time minimum wage worker. Now add in the billions in tax breaks Congress has handed over to the rich.

Both Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray are on record as supporting a minimum wage increase, as are Washington's entire Democratic delegation to the U.S. House.

So where are Reps. Dave Reichert (R-8th), Cathy McMorris (R-5th) and Doc Hastings (R-4th) on this important issue? (None of the three serve on the House Appropriations Committee, upon which seven Republicans broke ranks and voted to raise the minimum wage.) Do they support raising the minimum wage, or oppose it? And if they support it, do none of them have sufficient influence in Congress that they could urge a fair vote on raising the minimum wage?

Let's find out.

TAKE ACTION: Click here to send an e-mail to your U.S. Representative and both Senators urging their support of a federal minimum wage increase.

It is especially important for you to take action if you live in one of our Republican representatives' districts. Plus, if you get an e-mail or standard mail response from your representative, please share it with us.

A Senate vote on increasing the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour could happen as soon as today. Opponents are likely to try to replace it with a much smaller increase loaded with amendments that would hurt workers -- in the past, anti-worker senators have tossed in measures to eliminate overtime pay eligibility and take minimum wage protection from millions of workers. That's why we have to take action and call upon our senators vote to raise the wage to $7.25 an hour, and reject any amendments that would hurt workers.

Thank you supporting efforts to help give our nation's lowest-wage workers a raise.

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.