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.
SATURDAY,
AUGUST 26 UPDATE: ▪
Concrete Strike Settled! FRIDAY,
AUGUST 25 ▪
Rally,
march against Korea-U.S. trade deal Sept. 6 in Seattle
-- Organizations representing working
families in Korea and United States will rally and march beginning at 12:30
p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 6 at Westlake Center in downtown Seattle and then
march to the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. That week, trade
negotiators from the United States and Korea will hold the final round of
negotiations in Seattle for the Korea-U.S. (KORUS) Free Trade Agreement. State
Employee news:
▪
WFSE
reaches tentative contract agreement (at
WFSE.org) -- It will be mailed to members Aug. 31 and
the mail
ballot with additional summary info goes out Sept. 1. Political
news: ▪
WSLC
delegates make additional election endorsements
Local
news: ▪
SEIU 925
members at UW are blogging for a contract (at
SEIU925.org) Northwest
flight attendant news: National
news:
▪
In Saturday's Seattle P-I
-- Concrete
workers accept new contracts -- The
contracts allow concrete workers to honor the strikes of other trades in
their union and give them a $3.95-an-hour raise. "The
story here is that 88 workers stood for their principles," says
IUOE Local 302's Allan Darr. "They won the right to honor the
picket line of another trade."
▪
Also, today at WFSE.org -- WFSE
Higher Education Coalition reaches tentative agreement -- The bargaining
team representing about 3,000 workers at 12 community colleges and The
Evergreen State College reached tentative agreement on a new two-year
contract early this morning.
▪
In today's Olympian -- WFSE
deal gives state employees a raise -- About 30,000 state workers will
receive raises under an agreement reached Thursday night by negotiators for
the Washington Federation of State Employees and the governor. But no
figures were made public.
▪
In today's Seattle Times
-- McGavick
reveals '93 DUI charge in unusual disclosure of "mistakes" --
The Republican blew a .17 percent on the blood-alcohol meter,
more than double the legal limit.
▪
Today from AP -- Senate
hopeful McGavick admits to DUI -- The Republican was arrested in 1993,
during his insurance industry lobbying days in Washington D.C.
Attempting to air all his own dirty laundry at once, Mike! discusses his
divorce, his dirty political trick against Mike Lowry, and the thousands of
people he laid off at Safeco while collecting millions as CEO.
▪
In today's Yakima H-R -- Union
appeals ruling on Trade Act -- WCIW 2739, representing 225 laid-off
workers at Yakima Resources, is contesting a decision to deny federally
funded aid.
▪
In yesterday's Daily News
-- Outside
forces weighed on Longview Fibre talks -- About 67% of the AWPPW Local
153 members voted "yes" on a contract that provides 2% pay raises
each of the next four years alongside health care costs increases.
▪
Today from AP -- Seattle
Times, union set tentative deal -- The two-year contract
calls for no across-the-board wage increases. A Newspaper Guild officer says
the union's negotiating committee was "strongly divided" on the
proposal, and some might not recommend ratification.
▪
In today's Seattle Times
-- Job
benefits for all couples? -- A former
Honeywell employee is challenging employers' ability to provide
domestic-partner benefits to same-sex couples but not unmarried straight
partners.
▪
In today's Seattle Times
-- Ready
for airport CHAOS -- As of 7:01 p.m., Northwest Airlines flight
attendants could walk off every odd-numbered flight out of Minneapolis. Or
they could pass out pro-labor fliers instead of cold beverages on any random
flight out of Detroit. Or they could continue business as usual. Anything is
possible under Create Havoc Around Our System, a strike strategy trademarked
by the Association of Flight Attendants, now looming at Northwest.
▪
In today's News Tribune
-- Northwest
flight attendants move closer to strike tonight -- Union negotiators
have left town, leaving a federal judge as Northwest Airlines Corp.'s last
hope to block a flight attendant strike that could begin as early as
tonight.
▪
In today's NY Times -- Northwest
and its flight attendants await a strike ruling -- Today in federal
court, an angry flight attendants union threatening to strike faces a
ruling as cost-cutting management and the Bush administration tries to get a
judge to declare the action illegal.
▪
In today's
Everett Herald
-- Airline
should keep its day job (column) --
When Northwest Airlines sent money-saving tips to workers facing layoffs,
some of the advice was as bad as it was insensitive.
▪
In today's Oregonian -- Anti-union
ads appear in media in Oregon -- The Center for Union Facts, a
corporate-funded union-bashing organization run by a
right-wing mercenary and supported
by the Bush administration (and therefore, your tax dollars), is running ads
attacking public employees.
▪
In today's LA Times -- Wal-Mart
reaches out, gets slapped -- Joining the board of a national gay and
lesbian group and other efforts to reach out to more
diverse shoppers to keep expanding beyond its Southern rural roots, Wal-Mart
risks alienating loyal and long-standing patrons.
▪
In today's LA Times -- Hotel
workers in Honolulu OK strike -- Strike authorizations were also
approved by hotel workers in Chicago on Wednesday and by Toronto workers two
weeks ago.
FRIDAY,
AUGUST 25, 2006
Rally, march against
Korea-U.S. trade deal Sept. 6 in Seattle
The AFL-CIO, the Washington State Labor Council, the Martin Luther King Jr. County Labor Council and organizations representing working families in Korea will conduct a rally and march beginning at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 6 at Westlake Center in downtown Seattle. A march will then proceed to the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. Download, post and distribute a rally leaflet, and attend this important rally.
That week, trade negotiators from the United States and Korea will hold the final round of negotiations in Seattle for the Korea-U.S. (KORUS) Free Trade Agreement. By all indications, it will be little more than a carbon copy of other failed trade agreements like NAFTA, which provide weak or no protections for workers' rights and the environment, and undermine public services while creating strong protections for multinational corporate investment and profits.
Without KORUS, South Korea is already the United States' seventh largest trading partner and the largest economy with which we have negotiated a trade agreement since NAFTA. In 2005, the U.S. ran a $16 billion trade deficit with South Korea, with imports including vehicles, telecommunications equipment, electrical machinery, computers and steel. In fact, prefabricated steel is being imported from South Korea for the construction of the second Tacoma Narrows bridge because it was cheaper than buying from companies here in America and Washington state.
Why? Because union and worker rights are not protected in Korea.
Especially problematic is the newly established Kaesong industrial zone in North Korea -- reminiscent of the Maquiladora zone established in Mexican, but worse. Not only are North Korean workers denied all freedom of association and collective bargaining rights, they also lack any right to free speech or dissent. According to press reports, businesses in the Kaesong zone pay $57.50 per worker per month, and the workers only receive a fraction of that, with the North Korean government -- a nation that poses an active nuclear threat to the United States and other free nations -- keeping the rest. It is a situation that borders on indentured servitude.
There is no reason to believe that Bush administration negotiators will take worker and environmental considerations any more seriously with the KORUS than they have with other failed trade agreements they have negotiated. Instead, KORUS will simply protect corporate rights and profits, making it easier for companies to take advantage of Korea's lax environmental standards and worker abuse, like in the Kaesong zone, and manufacture cheaper goods that cost more and more good jobs in the United States.
CALL TO ACTION: Enough is enough! It's time we send the Bush administration and trade negotiators a message: No more "free trade" agreements that ignore the PEOPLE! Make plans to come to Seattle on Wednesday, Sept. 6 and stand beside representatives of Korean workers who share our opposition to KORUS. Bring your co-workers, bring your family, bring your union signs and banners.
The last time these "free" traders came to Seattle, we were able to deliver a message the still echoes throughout the world. But we had a year to plan for that demonstration, this time we have only a couple weeks. Please do everything you can to encourage people to attend this important rally on Sept. 6.
Learn
more about the KORUS at the AFL-CIO
website.
FRIDAY,
AUGUST 25, 2006
Concrete suppliers try to
break solidarity in IUOE strike
Management wants to take away
workers' federal right to honor picket lines
|
Help on the picket lines! IUOE Local 302 is asking for help in staffing the picket lines. There are about 100 members on strike at several locations and the picketing is stretched thin. The Union would welcome any help from unions inside or outside the building trades. An injury to one is still an injury to all! Picketers can meet at Glacier Northwest site, 5975 E. Marginal Way (by the 1st Avenue Bridge in Seattle), any time. IUOE Local 302 members will be there to welcome you every morning starting at about 6 a.m. Come join us for an hour, a day, or however long it takes. Click here for more information or a list of other locations being picketed. |
Today is the 25th day of a strike by International Union of Operating Engineers Local 302 members against Cadman, Glacier Northwest, Salmon Bay and Stoneway. These companies are the main suppliers of rock, sand, gravel and concrete to King County construction projects. The walkout that began at midnight July 31 is now delaying projects across the county.
In a news release distributed Thursday, IUOE Local 302 urged management: Don't dictate... negotiate! The union said Glacier and Cadman are foreign-owned subsidiaries that are "the Bully Boys of these negotiations," and their latest proposal seeks to punish striking workers by offering even lower wages than what their already-rejected "last, best and final offer."
"Choosing to dictate rather than negotiate, the suppliers, led by Glacier Northwest and Cadman, have crippled the economy of greater King County in a time of unprecedented construction activity," reads the release. "In their attempt to starve out 88 Local 302 members, Glacier Northwest and Cadman should be seen for what they are: bad corporate citizens."
Federal mediation has failed to resolve one of the biggest issues of the strike -- contract language that retains Local 302 members' right to support other crafts that are forced to go out on strike. Barry Meade, vice president and general manager of Cadman, told the Seattle P-I that management has offered "limited sympathy-strike language," adding "there needs to be, I think, some compromise there."
"We don't limit our federal rights and our ability to show solidarity with our fellow workers," said Allan Darr, Business Manager for IUOE 302. "We should have the right given us under federal law to honor picket lines."
All other unions at the struck plants have contract language allowing them to honor picket lines, and so have IUOE members in their previous contracts. The union estimates that about 10,000 collective bargaining agreements in the construction industry throughout the Pacific Northwest contain the solidarity language, for which the union is standing strong.
Darr said that the union provided five different proposals during mediation, all of which have been dismissed out of hand.
"It appears the union is the only side that wants this strike settled," said IUOE picket captain John Downs. "Frankly, I'm embarrassed and disappointed by the behavior of the employers. It appears they are in no hurry to reach an agreement."
Contractors around King County whose projects are being delayed or shut down by the unavailability of concrete, sand, rock and gravel have begun laying off construction workers, said Chris Elwell, executive secretary of the Seattle/King County Building and Construction Trades Council. But he added that his office and individual unions continue to strongly support the striking IUOE members.
The employers' refusal to drop their demand on honoring other unions' picket lines prevented the mediated talks from ever advancing to the other big issue in the strike -- wages.
This strike is unnecessary," Darr said. "With the cost of living at an all-time high creating an undue burden on our members, coupled with unprecedented growth in commercial, residential and heavy highway construction enhancing the companies bottom line, this strike is not necessary.
He says the union remains
willing to return to the bargaining table.
FRIDAY,
AUGUST 25, 2006 Union
delegates at this week's 2006 Convention of the Washington State Labor
Council voted to make some election endorsements, supplementing those taken
in May at the WSLC COPE Convention. At both conventions, a two-thirds
majority of delegates present and voting was necessary for endorsement of a
candidate or ballot measure. Following is
a list of candidates and ballot measures that have been endorsed by the
Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO: CONGRESS: Senate
Maria Cantwell
JUDICIAL: STATE SUPREME COURT COURT OF APPEALS BALLOT
MEASURES: *
Initiative
917 ($30 car tabs) Vote NO
Initiative
920 (repealing state estate
tax) Vote NO
Initiative
933 ("pay or waive" land-use system)
Vote NO
Initiative
937 (renewable energy resources) Vote
YES **
Initiative 946
(anti- immigration) Vote NO
**
Referendum 65 (civil
rights legislation) DECLINE TO SIGN *
May have failed to qualify for ballot, pending signature
verification **
Failed to qualify for the ballot STATE
LEGISLATURE: 1st DISTRICT 2nd DISTRICT 3rd DISTRICT 4th DISTRICT 5th DISTRICT 6th DISTRICT 7th DISTRICT 8th DISTRICT 9th DISTRICT 10th DISTRICT 11th DISTRICT 12th DISTRICT 13th DISTRICT 14th DISTRICT 15th DISTRICT 16th DISTRICT 17th DISTRICT 18th DISTRICT 19th DISTRICT 20th DISTRICT 21st DISTRICT 22nd DISTRICT 23rd DISTRICT 24th DISTRICT 25th DISTRICT 26th DISTRICT 27th DISTRICT 28th DISTRICT 29th DISTRICT 30th DISTRICT 31st DISTRICT 32nd DISTRICT 33rd DISTRICT 34th DISTRICT 35th DISTRICT 36th DISTRICT 37th DISTRICT 38th DISTRICT 39th DISTRICT 40th DISTRICT 41st DISTRICT 42nd DISTRICT 43rd DISTRICT 44th DISTRICT 45th DISTRICT 46th DISTRICT 47th DISTRICT 48th DISTRICT 49th DISTRICT Two additional candidates --
Skip Priest (30th-House, Pos. 2) and Sharon Tomiko-Santos (37th-House, Pos.
1) -- were granted "conditional endorsements" at the WSLC's COPE
Convention in May; conditional on their filling out and returning of a
candidate questionnaire, which is required of all candidates who receive the
WSLC endorsement. To date, neither has.
WSLC
delegates make additional election endorsements
1CD Jay Inslee
2CD Rick Larsen
3CD Brian Baird
4CD Claude Oliver
and Richard Wright (dual)
5CD Peter Goldmark
6CD Norm Dicks
7CD Jim McDermott
8CD Darcy Burner
9CD Adam Smith
Pos. 2 Susan Owens
Pos. 8 Gerry Alexander
Pos. 9 Tom Chambers
Div. 1, Dist. 3, Pos.
1 Mary Kay Becker
Div. 2,
Dist. 3, Pos. 1
Joel Penoyer
House 1 Al OBrien
House 2 Mark Ericks
House 1 no action
House 2 Tom Campbell
House 1 Alex Wood
House 2 Timm Ormsby
House 1 no action
House 2 Edward Foote
House 1 no action
House 2 no action
House 1 no action
House 2 Don Barlow
Senate Chris Marr
House 1 Jack Miller
House 2 no action
Senate Chris Zafares
House 1 Shirley
Hankins
House 2 Larry Haler
Senate no action
House 1 Caitlin
Ross (limited endorsement)
House 2 no action
House 1 Chris
Strow
House 2 Tim Knue
House 1 Zack Hudgins
House 2 Bob Hasegawa
House 1 no action
House 2 no action
House 1 no action
House 2 no action
Senate Lisa Bowen
House 1 Donald
Hinman
House 2 Ron
Bonlender
House 1 no action
House 2 no action
Senate Tomas Villanueva
House 1 no action
House 2 Bill Grant
Senate no action
House 1 Jack Burkman
House 2 Deb Wallace
House 1 Richard
Curtis (limited endorsement)
House 2 Julianne McCord
House 1 Dean Takko
House 2 Brian Blake
House 1 Mike Rechner
House 2 no action
House 1 Mary Helen
Roberts
House 2 Brian Sullivan
Senate Paull Shin
House 1 Brendan
Williams
House 2 Sam Hunt
House 1 Sherry
Appleton
House 2 Christine Rolfes
House 1 Kevin
VandeWege
House 2 Lynn Kessler
House 1 Jonathan
E. Bristol
House 2 Dawn Morrell
House 1 Patricia
Lantz
House 2 Larry Seaquist
Senate Derek Kilmer
House 1 Dennis
Flannigan
House 2 Jeannie Darneille
House 1 Troy Kelley
House 2 Tami Green
House 1 Steve Conway
House 2 Steve Kirby
Senate Rosa Franklin
House 1 Mark Miloscia
Senate Tracey Eide
House 1 Karen Willard
House 2 Christopher Hurst
Senate Pam Roach
House 1 Maralyn Chase
House 2 Ruth Kagi
Senate Darlene Fairley
House 1 Shay
Schual-Berke
House 2 Dave Upthegrove
House 1 Eileen Cody
House 2 Joe McDermott
Senate Erik Poulsen
House 1 Kathy Haigh
House 2 Bill Eickmeyer
Senate Kyle Lucas
House 1 Helen Sommers
House 2 Mary Lou Dickerson
Senate Jeanne Kohl-Welles
House 2 Eric Pettigrew
Senate Adam Kline
House 1 John McCoy
House 2 Michael Sells
Senate Jean Berkey
House 1 Scott
Olson
House 2 no action
House 1 Dave Quall
House 2 no action
House 1 Fred Jarrett
House 2 Judy Clibborn
House 1 Jaspar
MacSlarrow
House 2 Kelli Linville
Senate Jesse Salomon
House 1 Lynne Dodson
House 2 Frank Chopp
Senate Ed Murray
House 1 Hans Dunshee
House 2 John Lovick
Senate Steve Hobbs
House 1 Roger
Goodman
House 2 Larry Springer
Senate Eric Oemig
House 1 Jim McIntire
House 2 Phyllis Kenney
Senate Ken Jacobsen
House 1 Geoff Simpson
House 2 Patrick Sullivan
House 1 Ross Hunter
House 2 Deb Eddy
House 1 Bill Fromhold
House 2 Jim Moeller
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 © 2006 Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO