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January 17, 2007 |
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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.
WEDNESDAY,
JAN. 17 ▪
Protect
the Family & Medical Leave Act... in other states
Jobs
news: Local
news: Legislative news: National
news: Last
throes update:
▪ In
today's Seattle Times -- State's
strong job gains in '06 leave dot-com bust behind -- Last year was the
best year for job creation in Washington in nearly a decade.
▪ In
today's Everett Herald -- Led
by Boeing, aerospace firms' hiring, county job growth stay hot
▪ In
today's Kitsap Sun -- PSNS
to host job fair Friday, Saturday; 400 hires planned in '07
▪ In
today's Tri-City Herald -- Trees
OK, but farmworkers feel weather's pinch -- The biting cold has hampered
winter pruning work across the Mid-Columbia, reducing farmworkers' paychecks
and forcing them to make difficult decisions about which bills to pay first.
▪ In
today's Spokesman-Review -- State
workers try to oust unions -- A few dozen gather to launch what they
hope will become a statewide decertification campaign to ditch their union
contracts.
▪ In
yesterday's Daily News -- BP
failed to emphasize safety before deadly explosion, report says
▪ In
yesterday's Bellingham Herald -- BP
refinery rates high in safety review -- A study of BP’s five U.S.
refineries finds the Cherry Point plant appears to do the best job of
emphasizing safety.
▪ In
today's Seattle Times -- Former
police chief testifies that city didn't order WTO protestors' arrest
▪ In
today's News Tribune -- Kill
the school-levy supermajority -- and the levy lid lift (editorial)
▪ In
today's Seattle Times -- Nickels
backs "tunnel lite" -- A 4-lane tunnel would shave $1.2
billion from the $4.6 billion estimated cost of the 6-lane tunnel but still
carry as much traffic, says the city. Nickels wants it on the ballot. Chopp
is not impressed. Clibborn's not on board either.
▪ In
today's Olympian -- Medicare
gaps must be filled (editorial) -- Physicians
who treat sick and injured kids ask whether it's realistic to put another
32,000 children on state Medicaid rolls when those children already on state
assistance can't get in to see a doctor. The problem: doctors are refusing
Medicaid patients because the state's reimbursement rates don't even cover
their costs.
▪ In
yesterday's Columbian -- Build
on success to solve health-care woes (column by
AWB's Brunell) -- Association-sponsored health plans
(like, say... ours!) are a vital part of the solution. The governor and
Legislature need to enhance their ability to insure more people.
▪ At
AFL-CIO Now -- Unions
aim for more conservation efforts -- Union members who fish and hunt and
want to protect and preserve wildlife habitat and access to public lands now
can join an alliance that includes 20 AFL-CIO unions and the Theodore
Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.
▪ In
today's LA Times -- Unions,
hunters form wildlife group -- Outdoors enthusiasts and union members
form group and bring new faces -- and new muscle -- to conservation efforts.
▪ In
today's NY Times -- Interior
Dept. oil chief knew of error, report asserts -- A top official was told
three years ago about a legal blunder allowing companies to avoid billions
of dollars in payments for oil and gas pumped from publicly owned waters.
(Bonus points: She lied to Congress and when confronted, said she “did not
remember putting a great deal of thought into the matter.”)
▪ Today
from AP -- Libby
seeks jurors who trust Cheney -- (Insert your own joke here.)
▪ In
today's Chicago Sun-Times -- Illinois
AFL-CIO president Margaret Blackshere to retire
▪ Today
from AP -- Baghdad
car bomb kills 17 -- Yesterday, a blast targeting students killed 70.
▪ In today's Seattle
P-I -- Redmond
High grad killed by bomb in Iraq
▪ In
today's Seattle Times -- In
a rare public display, troops collect signatures against buildup in Iraq
-- "We will not be silent while thousands
die," said Sgt. Liam Madden, 22, an active-duty Marine and Iraq war
veteran who is helping lead the effort to organize resistance to the war
from inside the military. (Their statement, at AppealforRedress.org,
has been signed by 1,124 troops so far.)
▪ Of the
3,020
U.S. troops killed in Iraq so far, 2,883 have died (see
a list) since President Bush declared "Mission Accomplished"
and an end to major combat operations on May 2003; 2,554 have died
since Saddam's capture. More than 5 years after 9/11, Osama bin Laden is at
large.
▪ The
WSLC's affiliated unions have called for an end to the U.S. occupation of
Iraq.
Protect the Family & Medical Leave Act... in other states
The AFL-CIO's community affiliate, Working America, is urging union members and supporters to contact lawmakers and urge them to protect the federal Family and Medical Leave Act from the Bush administration's efforts to weaken it. (See the Action Alert posted at AFL-CIO Now.)
The federal Family and Medical Leave Act, which covers employers with 50 or more workers, ensures those employees may take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for birth, adoption or serious illness. Leave can be taken for the serious illness of a spouse, child or parent. The key issue here is job security.
Much as it did with overtime pay, the Bush administration plans to change the rules -- which doesn’t require congressional approval -- to weaken the FMLA. They plan to redefine "serious illness" and other changes that make it harder for workers to qualify for FMLA leave. In 2005, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups launched a campaign to weaken the FMLA. Michael Eastman, the chamber’s head of labor policy, said at the time, "Changing FMLA…is our No. 1 priority right now in terms of labor issues. Business executives struggle continuously with the law’s requirements... what conditions qualify as 'serious'."
Thankfully, last year, state legislators in Washington state said, "Not in our state!" They passed and Governor Gregoire signed legislation -- sponsored by Sen. Karen Keiser (D-Des Moines) and Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson (D-Seattle) -- that codified the FMLA into state statute, and protects Washington workers from the White House’s tampering.
But we must stand up and speak out on behalf of workers throughout the country who face the loss of their job security when someone in their family gets sick.
ACTION ALERT: Right now, the Labor Department is asking for comments on the law. (Many workers’ advocates believe that is just a first step toward revising the rules the way they intend to anyway.) Click here to tell your story about what the FMLA has meant to you, and Working America will send the information on to the Labor Department.
Here’s what C.J., a Working America member from Pennsylvania, had to say about Family and Medical Leave:
As a working woman, I have worked for 35 years caring for the elderly. I have raised a son and am now finding that my parents need more time and help with getting to medical appointments. As with many other workers in the same situation, this means missing work to help. We need laws to help us keep our jobs when illness happens.
Please take a moment to share your thoughts about the importance of the FMLA.
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 © 200
7 Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO