Local news:  ▪  Professors at The Evergreen State College vote to unionize -- A 2002 law gave faculty members the right to collectively bargain. Faculty members at Central and Eastern recently negotiated collective bargaining agreements, the first under the new law.
▪  In today's Olympian -- Evergreen faculty forms union -- "We're legal, we're certified, and we're looking to move forward with all our colleagues to form a strong union," says one professor.
▪  In today's Tri-City Herald -- La Clinica employees union files complaint -- A union representing more than 170 employees (OPEIU 8) has filed 15 complaints against the Pasco-based community health center, alleging it has tried to discredit the union and current negotiations.
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- King County delivers pair of foot-ferry plans for Vason Island to governor -- Meanwhile, Kitsap Transit's Dick Hayes says Kitsap County is willing to forfeit the money from the sale of state passenger ferries because it wants to run its boats without the maritime unions.

Boeing news:
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- Loyal Airbus fan goes Boeing with 777 order -- In a deal whose significance goes beyond money, Airbus' largest customer in Latin America, TAM Airlines of Brazil, has for the first time placed an order with Boeing for four 777-300ERs.
▪  In today's Everett Herald -- Boeing sets design for freighter -- Forty-four orders have been placed for the 747-8, while a passenger version awaits a launch customer.
▪  Today from AP -- Boeing doesn't have China plans -- Boeing says it won't follow Airbus in building a China assembly plant, dismissing it as a symbolic step not necessary to win orders.
▪  Today from AP -- Airbus mismanaged, unions say -- Airbus workers' unions say management is irresponsible for refusing to give detail of how the company plans to deal with its current crisis.

Bush & Reichert finger bus driver:
▪  In the King Co. Journal -- Reichert disputes he's just a clone of Bush -- During his fundraising trip for Dave Reichert, President Bush told Sheriff Dave that he saw an Issaquah school bus driver flip him off.  Sheriff Dave promptly called the school district and had the driver fired.  She has filed a grievance claiming wrongful termination.
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Election 2006: Down and dirty (editorial) -- Bush and his handlers have erased all doubt about how desperate they are to retain the Republican majority in Congress. What's next -- "A vote for a Democrat is a vote for the terrorists"?  But wait, that is just what the president was saying. The president has sunk this low.
▪  In The Onion --  Bush: Thousands of Democrats needed for "extremely important" mission -- Bush announces that the U.S. is in "desperate need of thousands of registered Democrats" to conduct what he called an "extremely important mission" to begin immediately and continue at least until next Tuesday, November 7.

More political news:
▪  In today's Olympian -- Spending limits debated at campaign finance hearing -- Major interest groups that spent heavily in the primary and general elections this year -- including the SEIU, WSLC and BIAW (together again!) -- made clear their opposition to limits on political giving.
▪  In today's News Tribune -- What's "privatization" anyway? -- Mike!™ McGavick tries to say his Social Security plan isn't "privatization" because the government would manage the private accounts. Says a PLU dean of economics: That distinction doesn't fly -- it's still privatization.
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- McGavick cuts back TV spots on Seattle stations -- While often a signal of a campaign in trouble, spokesman for Mike!™ says it's no big deal.
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Oregon could portend our land-use destiny -- What's happening in Oregon gives clues to what could happen in Washington if I-933 passes. One vineyard owner, on his neighbor's planned conversion of farmland to a housing complex: "It would just break my heart."

Last throes update:
▪  In today's SF Chronicle -- Bechtel cuts and runs -- Bechtel Corp. went to Iraq three years ago to help rebuild a nation torn by war. Since then, 52 of its people have been killed and much of its work sabotaged as Iraq dissolved into insurgency and sectarian violence. Now Bechtel is leaving.
▪  In today's NY Times -- Military charts movement of conflict in Iraq toward chaos -- A classified briefing prepared two weeks ago by the United States Central Command portrays Iraq as edging toward chaos, in a chart that the military is using as a barometer of civil conflict.
▪  Today from AP -- More than 20 in new Iraq attacks -- U.S. military death toll in October: 104. 
▪  The WSLC's affiliated unions have called for an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq.  Between 44,978 and 49,9938 Iraqi civilians -- roughly the populations of the cities of Olympia or Pasco -- have been killed since the invasion.  Of the 2,816 U.S. troops that have been killed there so far, 2,679 have died since President Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" and an end to major combat operations in Iraq on May 1, 2003, and 2,360 have died since Saddam's capture. More than five years after 9/11, Osama bin Laden is still at large.

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