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May 2, 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,
MAY 2 ▪
Edwards stresses freedom to unionize at Seattle Town
Hall
--
"If we want to build the
middle-class in this country… it is absolutely crucial that we make it
easier, not harder, to organize unions in the workplace,” says the
Democratic presidential candidate. The AFL-CIO Town Hall event was taped by
TVW and will be broadcast Thursday at 9 p.m.
▪ In
today's Seattle Times -- Presidential
contender Edwards courts unions on Seattle trip -- Edwards
was questioned Tuesday by members of AFL-CIO-affiliated unions as part of
the labor group's endorsement process. Candidates chose the city where they
would appear for the first round of questioning. Edwards selected Seattle.
▪ In
today's News Tribune -- Edwards
courts labor in visit to area -- Edwards said Tuesday that the gap
between rich and poor in America is out of control, and unions are the key
to building the middle class. He said he’s been walking picket lines and
helping union organizing efforts.
▪ In
today's Seattle P-I -- Edwards
meets with raucous applause at Seattle stop -- Edwards calls on Congress
to "stand its ground" in its Iraq war funding showdown with
President Bush.
▪ At
KOMOTV.com -- Edwards
renews call for Iraq withdrawal deadlines at Seattle rally (video
clip)
Local
news: ▪
Rally
for federal workers' right to organize Thursday in SeaTac
▪ In
today's Tri-City Herald -- Plans
made for FFTF, unfinished reactors -- New uses are being proposed for
the Fast Flux Test Facility and the unfinished nuclear power plants near the
Columbia Generating Station in a study of recycling commercial reactor fuel
at Hanford.
▪ In
The Columbian -- Workplace
safety a deadly serious matter (Brunell column) --
The 112 husbands, wives, sons and daughters killed on the job last year in
Washington were honored last week.
▪ In
today's Kitsap Sun -- Worker
killed in Bangor accident -- An OSHA investigation is under way into the
circumstances of 23-year-old Brent Larwick's death by electrocution.
▪ In
today's Everett Herald -- Boeing
celebrates 40 years as "a stable presence" in Everett
▪ In
today's News Tribune -- Alaska
Airlines pilots picket in SeaTac as negotiations begin
▪ In
today's Yakima H-R -- Yakima
City Council says OK to Wal-Mart store in West Valley
▪ In
today's Oregonian -- Portland
Development Commission workers vote to unionize -- Employees at
Portland's urban renewal agency vote 63-50 to form a union with AFSCME.
▪ In
today's Everett Herald -- Being
there for each other isn't charity, it's solidarity (Burbank
column) -- Solidarity implies that we all are together
in this society, sharing rights, responsibilities and opportunities. Instead
of looking down or up the social ladder from our own station in life,
solidarity demands shared responsibilities and rights as Americans.
Immigration
news:
▪ In
today's Seattle Times -- Thousands
rally in Seattle to support immigration law changes -- Until lawmakers
fix the nation's immigration laws, protesters say, they want a halt to the
work-site raids that have led to increased deportations and have torn
families apart.
▪ In
today's Yakima H-R -- Calls
for change issue from immigration march -- Carrying signs, chanting and
singing exuberantly, thousands of people march through downtown Yakima.
▪ In
today's Olympian -- Hundreds
fill Olympia streets in support of immigrant rights
▪ In
today's Bellingham Herald -- Waving
U.S. and Mexican flags, 150 rally for immigration reform
▪ Also
see coverage of small rallies in Pasco
and Spokane
Legislative
news:
▪ In
today's Olympian -- Family
leave funding issue shows lack of foresight (editorial) --
All sizzle, no steak. That's how the Democrats' family leave legislation
could best be characterized.
▪ At
Postman on Politics -- Business
lobby still trying to stop family leave bill -- The
Association of Washington Business is urging Gov. Gregoire to gut the family
leave bill by vetoing everything in the bill except the section that calls
for a task force to study implementation of family leave.
Trade
news:
▪ Today
from AP -- Labor
standards not worth possible harm to trade, says Fed chairman --
Bernanke says a move to protect threatened American industries and workers
from foreign competition would be a serious mistake that would jeopardize
the sizable benefits of free trade.
▪ Today
from Reuters -- Columbia
labor killings under scrutiny -- Violence against
Colombian labor activists will be under scrutiny today when President Uribe
meets with Democrats in Congress to convince them to approve a trade pact
and more aid to fight guerrillas and drug traffickers.
▪ Also
see Rick Bender's latest column -- Washington,
let's put the freedom back in "free trade" -- Free-traders'
objections are no longer about America imposing basic labor standards on
other nations. Now, it's about them imposing these minimal, internally
accepted standards on us.
National
news:
▪ In
BusinessWeek -- Wal-Mart's
record on human rights -- Human Rights Watch says the retailer uses
strong-arm tactics and, in some cases, illegal means to stop workers from
forming unions.
▪ In
today's Orange Co. Register -- Union
is in the cards for Kaiser Permanente nurses -- Kaiser's management
remained neutral and agreed to a card-check election in the organizing
campaign.
▪ In
today's Seattle P-I -- Outsourcing
aircraft upkeep criticized -- The leaders of some U.S. aviation unions
say regulators' oversight is not tight enough, especially at overseas repair
stations.
WEDNESDAY,
MAY 2, 2007
Edwards stresses freedom to unionize at Seattle Town Hall
Yesterday's AFL-CIO forum will be broadcast
Thursday at 9 p.m. on TVW
“If we want to build the middle-class in this country… it is absolutely crucial that we make it easier, not harder, to organize unions in the workplace.”
That
was the message presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) delivered
to nearly 1,000 union members who gathered Tuesday at the International
Association of Machinists District 751 Hall in Seattle. The event was the
second of the AFL-CIO’s Working
Families Vote 2008 national town hall forums. Dozens of different
AFL-CIO unions were represented in the packed house, many of them proudly
wearing union T-shirts and creating a patchwork of colors in the audience.
The Town Hall was taped by TVW and is scheduled to air this Thursday night at 9 p.m.
David Freiboth, head of the host M.L. King County Labor Council, welcomed the union members to the event, and Rick Bender, President of the Washington State Labor Council, introduced Sen. Edwards as a man who “brought a positive message of change” to the 2004 campaign as Sen. John Kerry’s running mate.
Before taking questions, Sen. Edwards remarked that Tuesday marked a sad anniversary.
"Four years ago today George Bush flew onto an aircraft carrier and declared “Mission accomplished. Not quite. The Congress was given a mission this past November and that mission has not yet been finished, either. And that mission is to end this war in Iraq," Sen. Edwards said. He urged Congress to stand strong in the face of President Bush’s anticipated veto of their Iraq withdrawal timetable, and to demand it again repeatedly, because “it’s the President of the United States who’s defying the will of the people."
But it was rank-and-file union members who literally took center stage at the Seattle forum as workers told their stories and got to ask Sen. Edwards direct questions. The event was a breath of fresh air compared to the scripted, audience-screened stage shows that President Bush routinely conducts.
Aletha
Johnson, an IAM 751 member who has worked at the Boeing Co. since 1979,
described how the number of good union jobs has dwindled at Boeing and many
other manufacturing companies around the nation. She asked Sen. Edwards, “As
president, how would you protect American manufacturing jobs, and protect
against the outsourcing of our jobs.”
“First of all, we need to get rid of tax laws that create incentives for companies to send jobs somewhere else,” Sen. Edwards replied, earning strong applause. “Then we need to support trade agreements that have real labor standards, real environmental standards, and that we can enforce those standards.”
Paul Lee, an Office and Professional Employees Local 8 member in the audience, asked about immigration reform.
Sen. Edwards mentioned that border security and creating a “path to citizenship” for immigrant workers are important components of comprehensive immigration reform, but got the strongest applause when he said we need to “crack down on employers who are knowingly violating the law.”
Steve Kofahl is a Claims Representative for the Social Security Administration, where he has worked for 33 years, and a member of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3937. He asked Sen. Edwards what he would do to strengthen the delivery of critical social services to the Americans who need them.
Sen. Edwards replied first by thanking Kofahl and his fellow workers in the federal government who he said aren’t thanked nearly enough for their service to the country. He then responded that the chronic understaffing at federal agencies must be address and we need to stop contracting out that work to the private sector.
But Sen. Edwards kept coming back to the freedom to choose unionization as critical for America’s future.
“It’s one thing to say this before a labor audience,” he said. “It’s a different thing to talk to America about how important (union organizing) is to strengthening this democracy. It’s more than being willing to sign the Employee Free Choice Act, I will put whatever pressure is necessary to get it passed (in Congress), and I will make the case to America about why this is so important.
“If we want to save the middle class in America, organizing and unions are a critical component of that.”
WEDNESDAY,
MAY 2, 2007
Rally for federal workers' right to organize
All union members and community supporters are urged to join the American Federation of Government Employees and Washington State Jobs with Justice for an important informational picket to support the right of Transport Security Officers (also known as airport screeners) to collective bargaining. The rally and picketing will be Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at So. 188th St. & International Blvd. (on the N.W. corner, across from Doubletree Hotel) in SeaTac near the airport.
Click here to confirm you'll be there!
The Bush administration claims that national security is at risk when workers are represented by a union. Join TSOs and their supporters to show the public that unions are a check and balance in a democracy, and that workers' rights are consistent policies provide REAL national security and serve the public interest.
Since 9/11, the Bush administration has used that tragedy as an excuse to attack federal workers and their right to organize. Part of that efforts has been the National Security Personnel System, an ongoing effort to deny workers in the Department of Defense the right to meaningful union representation. Another part has been an assault on the rights of TSOs, the women and men who provide screening security at our nation's airports.
The Bush administration stripped TSOs of the right to any union collective bargaining, arguing that national security and collective bargaining are somehow incompatible. This is a horrible insult to the memory of the brave men and women -- almost all union members -- who risked and sacrificed their lives at the World Trade Center. Legislation has passed the U.S. House of Representatives, and is pending before the U.S. Senate, to restore the right of collective bargaining to TSOs. Bush has threatened to veto the legislation.
AFGE reports that, without collective bargaining rights, the Transportation Security Agency has been the subject of more Equal Employment Opportunity complaints than all other federal agencies combined. These are most often gender or disability discrimination complaints, focusing on issues like pay equity and sex discrimination. TSA suffers high attrition rates, due to poor working conditions and military-style management. It's no wonder that the federal Office of Professional Management has found that TSA is at or near the bottom for every employee morale issue.
Please join us to support the organizing efforts of TSA employees, and demand their right to bargain. Join us Thursday at 5:30 p.m. See you there!
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