WSLC Reports Today -- October 24, 2006

October 24, 2006

THE PAST WEEK:
MONDAY
Friday, Oct. 20
Thursday, Oct. 19
Wednesday, Oct. 18
Tuesday, Oct. 17

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, OCT. 24 ▪ I-933: Don't follow this Oregon trail (Oregonian editorial) -- You can have it, Washington. All of it: The millions of dollars in legal fees, the billions in potential property compensation and the infinite cost of watching precious places, such as Oregon's Steens Mountain, opened to development. You, too, can have all this. All you have to do is pass I-933.

REMINDER of today's events ▪ ARA President Kourpias to discuss retirement security -- Sen. Maria Cantwell and Darcy Burner will also attend this 1:30 p.m. event TODAY at IAM 751 in Seattle to discuss prescription drugs, Medicare, Social Security and pensions.
▪ Workers at Seattle's Westin Hotel plan huge demonstration -- Union activists and community supporters are invited to attend a large informational picket line TODAY at 4 p.m.

Political news:
▪ In today's Olympian -- Cantwell opens up wide lead -- With two weeks to go before the election, the incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator has a 15-point lead over Republican Mike!™ McGavick.
▪ In today's Seattle Times -- Vote "yes" for County bus service (editorial) -- Of all the transportation-related money measures facing voters the next few years, the easiest "yes" vote belongs to King County Proposition 2, which boosts bus service throughout the county.
▪ Today at ABCNews.com -- Wal-Mart: Democrat or Republican? -- WakeUpWalMart.com begins a campaign today to combat what it describes as Wal-Mart's "war on Democrats." (See the ad: "Wal-Mart's policies are good for George Bush and bad for Wal-Mart associates and America.")
▪ Today from AP -- Democrats vow swift action on Iraq, minimum wage -- House Democratic leader -- and speaker in waiting -- Nancy Pelosi has promised to pass within the first 100 hours of a new Congress an increase in the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour.
▪ In today's Washington Post -- Independent voters favor Democrats by 2-to-1 -- Independents now strongly favor Democrats on Iraq and other major issues facing the country and overwhelmingly prefer to see them take over the House in November, according to a new Post/ABC News poll.
▪ In today's Wash. Post -- Solidly Republican, suddenly in doubt -- It may be the political equivalent of hell freezing over in the interior West. Idaho, where conservative Republicans routinely wipe the floor with hapless Democrats, has a Republican running for Congress who just might lose.
▪ In today's LA Times -- Black and Latino voters reassessing ties to GOP -- This central element of the GOP plan to build a long-lasting majority is in danger of collapse amid anger over the immigration debate and claims that Republican leaders have not delivered on promises.

Local news:
▪ In today's Seattle Times -- High-paid Port of Seattle CEO Dinsmore may get raise then retire soon -- He may have a final pay packet of $339,841 a year -- substantially more than his peers at other big ports -- and more than double the $150,995 Gov. Christine Gregoire earns.

National news:
▪ Today from AP -- Wal-Mart to open fewer new stores -- The wage-capping taxpayer-supported retailer will instead focus on rekindling faltering sales and earnings growth at its existing stores.
▪ In the Houston Chronicle -- Houston janitors strike -- Janitors walk off the job, with SEIU targeting a limited number of buildings initially and saying an increasing number of workers will join the effort, until the city's five major commercial cleaning companies return to the bargaining table.

Last Throes update:
▪ Today from AP -- Bush: No big changes in Iraq other than changing how the war is marketed
▪ In today's Washington Post -- Seriously misspoken (Robinson column) -- The truth is that "the job" (in Iraq), to the extent that Bush has been able to define it, almost certainly will never get done. The question is how many more American and Iraqi lives will be lost before the president admits it, drops all the bluster and acknowledges what Americans already know: "I made a mistake."
▪ The WSLC's affiliated unions have called for an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Between 44,661 and 49,610 Iraqi civilians -- roughly the populations of the cities of Olympia or Pasco -- have been killed since the invasion. Of the 2,799 U.S. troops that have been killed there so far, 2,662 have died since President Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" and an end to major combat operations in Iraq on May 1, 2003, and 2,343 have died since Saddam's capture. More than five years after 9/11, Osama bin Laden is still at large.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2006
Initiative 933: Don't follow this Oregon trail

The following editorial appears in today's Oregonian. Our neighbor to the South has experienced first-hand what will happen if the "pay or waive" land-use Initiative 933 passes here in Washington state. They advise against it:

I-933: DON'T FOLLOW THIS OREGON TRAIL
Editorial in today's Oregonian

You can have it, Washington. All of it: The millions of dollars in legal fees, the billions in potential property compensation and the infinite cost of watching precious places, such as Oregon's Steens Mountain, possibly opened to development.

You, too, can have all this. All you have to do is pass Initiative 933.

I-933 is Oregon's Measure 37 land-use compensation law rewritten by the national property-rights movement, rushed to the nearest photocopier and placed on the Nov. 7 ballot in Washington and three other open-initiative states, Arizona, Idaho and California.

Some of the details differ, but all the measures seek to write into law the same "waive or pay" system now forcing Oregon communities to decide whether to exempt a select few thousand property owners from the law or pay them millions to comply with the same land-use rules as everyone else.

Measure 37 has spawned more than 2,000 claims in Oregon, requesting more than $3 billion in compensation. Those are big numbers, but I-933 would surely ring up much, much larger costs for the taxpayers who fund Washington's local and state governments. Washington is dealing with tremendous growth-management problems, and in significant ways I-933 is even more radical than the Oregon law.

For instance, unlike Measure 37, the Washington proposal makes no allowance to enforce federal laws like the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. It also appears to establish a much larger, deeper pool of potential claimants. Further, the Oregon law gives property owners two years to make claims against an existing law, but I-933 sets no deadline. The Washington proposal also is written to force state and local agencies to pick up more of the legal fees and other administrative costs of applying the law.

Altogether, the costs could be enormous. In its official financial-impact statement, the state Department of Finance estimates that I-933 would cost state agencies $2 billion to $2.18 billion over the next six years, and could cost cities and counties as much as $6 billion. In Southwest Washington's Clark County alone, timber claims would cost about $183 million, and other rural claims could reach $122 million in just the first two years, according to an analysis by the Northwest Center for Livable Communities at the University of Washington.

It's not worth it. Oregon's property-rights law hasn't led to a sweeping improvement in the fairness of the land-use system. Instead, it's picked new winners and losers, led to substantial legal and bureaucratic expenses, bitter fights among neighboring property owners and a confusing, chaotic system that can no longer ensure careful growth management.

I-933 would bring all this to Washington state.

We don't recommend it.

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.