FRIDAY, APRIL 20  ▪  Worker Memorial Day commemorations planned for next week -- 
If today turns out to be an average day in America, 152 workers will die as a result of workplace injury and disease. Many of them left for work this morning and will never return home to their loved ones. Next week, Worker Memorial Day events are planned in Bellingham, Everett, Spokane and Tumwater where trade unionists will "Mourn the dead, and fight for the living!" 
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Longshoreman (ILWU member) killed in Port of Seattle industrial accident 
▪  Today from AP -- Coeur d'Alene construction worker dies from nail-gun accident  

Where your taxes go:
▪  In today's NY Times -- Wal-Mart CEO was paid $29.7 million in 2006 -- Big bonuses nearly double H. Lee Scott's pay from 2005, although the retailers' sales grew at the slowest pace in more than two decades.  If he had settled for a mere $11.5 million, Wal-Mart could have reimbursed Washington state taxpayers for the 3,200 Wal-Mart employees who couldn't afford the company health plan in 2006 and ended up in tax-subsidized programs, costing you and me $18.2 million. 

Legislative news:
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Faculty pay: Too little reward (editorial) -- Higher education likely will count some important gains when this legislative session ends. We hope lawmakers' attention to building for the future includes part-time college instructors, who do much for higher education with too little financial reward.
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Backlash over plan to protect Sound -- Lawmakers set on protecting an aquatic sanctuary off Maury Island from a mining expansion nearby are digging in their heels so deeply that they're jamming the final negotiations of the Democrats' $33 billion operating budget for the state. 
▪  At Postman on Politics -- Chopp can't be blamed for failure of liberal agenda -- There is not much on-the-record criticism of Chopp. Some of what is mistaken for that is a more general critique of the corporatist nature of Washington Democrats. That's not new, nor is it exclusive to Chopp. 
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- Olympia owes Bennett a Sonics/Storm vote (editorial) -- The lack of a vote is doubly discouraging because the Legislature is denying a local decision. The legislation would direct the much-used sales-tax credit and extend restaurant, hotel and rental-car taxes that are currently being used to fund Qwest and Safeco fields to pay for $300 million of the estimated $500 million arena cost. All these taxes would be collected in King County. 
▪  In today's Olympian -- Sonics arena lobbying effort was weak, legislators say -- Some say the owners didn’t try as hard as they could have to win support for a new publicly funded arena.  
▪  At Postman on Politics -- Lobbyists have feelings, too -- One legislator's blunt comment that the Sonics' lobbyists "took the money and ran" creates a stir, and an apology to the lobbyists.

Local news:
▪  At Postman on Politics -- John Edwards picks Seattle for union meeting May 1 -- Learn more.
▪  In the Daily World -- A step closer to the harbor? -- It appears that Hoquiam has won -- or at least is winning -- the race for the long-anticipated, job-rich construction project to build the pontoons for a new Evergreen Point Floating Bridge at Seattle. The project would mean about 250 initial construction jobs and 75 to 100 manufacturing jobs, such as fabrication and machine shop work.
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Employee benefits: Fair is fair to all (editorial) -- The gender of an employee's partner absolutely should be a non-issue to the employer when it comes to providing benefits, and we were dismayed to hear that this is not the case with the city of Bellevue.
▪  At the NW Labor Press -- 5,000 attend Carpenters unity rally in Portland -- The Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters rallied last weekend; it has three agreements set to expire May 31 that cover some 11,000 drywall hangers and carpenters in Oregon and Western Washington.

The relationship between international trade and union organizing:
▪  Today from Reuters -- U.S. trade pacts at risk over business-labor clash -- Bush administration efforts to reach a deal with Congress on trade are thrown into doubt as business and labor groups clash over the core issue in the talks. In a letter to the senior Democratic lawmaker trying to broker a deal, the National Association of Manufacturers said it could not accept any provision that would expose U.S. labor laws to potential challenges under trade agreements. 
(In other words, it's not about foreign nations being unwilling to agree to language protecting workers' rights, it's about U.S. corporations and the Bush administration being worried that OUR laws don't adequately protect workers' rights, i.e. freedom of association to form unions.)
▪  A related op-ed in today's Akron Beacon -- Given a choice, workers go union -- The decline in U.S. unionization is not due to a lack of interest. Polls show more than 50% of workers not in unions want to be in one. Rather, this decline is largely due to weaknesses in labor laws that permit employers to use illegal coercive tactics to prevent employees from exercising their free choice.

National news:
▪  At AFL-CIO Now -- Guest workers exploited by recruiters and employers -- A Gallup poll finds 78% believe undocumented workers now in the country should be given a chance at citizenship. Meanwhile, a new report highlights the extent to which the U.S. guest worker program is broken.
▪  At AFL-CIO Now -- Northwest CEOs gain from employees' pain -- Flight attendants, pilots and machinists are livid over the airline executives' decision to reward themselves with $400 million in bonuses after it emerges from bankruptcy. Employees, whose wage and benefit concessions and hard work brought Northwest back from the brink of collapse, are being left out in the cold.
▪  In today's Washington Post -- AFL-CIO goes after 6 Verizon directors -- A campaign is launched to unseat six members of Verizon's compensation committee for rewarding chief executive Ivan G. Seidenberg with generous pay even as the company's stock languished. 
▪  In the Rocky Mountain News -- Change at Colorado AFL-CIO aims to heal rift -- WSLC President Rick Bender, who is serving as trustee of the Colorado AFL-CIO, announces a reorganization.
▪  In today's NY Times -- In organizing fight, union tangles with celebrity chef -- Paula Deen, the Food Network’s ebullient queen of Southern cooking, finds herself in the middle of a dispute involving the UFCW and efforts to organize a Smithfield Foods pork processing plant.