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May 18, 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.
FRIDAY,
MAY 18 ▪
Thank Sens. Cantwell,
Murray their strong support of EFCA
▪
At AlterNet --
Fair labor laws would benefit all Americans
(op-ed)
-- It's do-or-die time for the American labor
movement. In the next decade or two, unions will either make a comeback or
become marginal players in society and politics. If labor stumbles towards
irrelevance, our overall society will become nastier, more unequal and
individualistic than it already is.
▪ In today's Bellingham
Herald --
Anti-union activities prevalent (letter) --
Forming a union is an American right and a human
right. I am lucky to work for a good union company doing work that has to be
done to keep life going good for others: hauling away your trash.
Immigration
news:
▪
Sweeney: Deal " does not address roots of immigration
crisis"
▪ In today's NY
Times --
Senators in bipartisan deal on immigration --
At the heart of the bill is a significant
political trade-off. Democrats got a legalization program. Republicans got a
new “merit-based system of immigration,” intended to make the
U.S. more competitive globally.
▪
From Bloomberg --
Senate Democrats resist bipartisan immigration accord --
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says
he has "serious concerns''
and questions whether
"we're going to be able to pass it.'' Some
Republicans call the plan thinly disguised amnesty
for illegal immigrants.
▪ In today's Seattle
P-I --
Fears greet immigration accord -- Several
local immigrant rights groups show little optimism
about the agreement, fearing
the compromises would create more problems than they solve by tearing apart
families and doing little to establish worker protections.
▪ In today's Yakima
H-R --
I-966 supporters irked by petitions that disappeared --
People gathering
signatures for a proposed initiative to end
welfare benefits for illegal immigrants are ruffled over the disappearance
of some petitions from several Yakima businesses during the past month.
Local
news:
▪ Today
from AP --
Critics seek to halt Eyman measure -- An
environmental group and SEIU 775 announce
ask the King County Superior Court to block the state elections
office from handling Eyman’s Initiative 960 petitions or placing the measure
on the statewide ballot.
▪ In yesterday's
Olympian --
State workers' union sues over contracting rules --
The rules, part of the
same changes that allowed unions to bargain for pay and benefits, seldom are
used directly, but WFSE officials say state
agencies often try to replace state workers with private companies
▪ In today's Olympian
--
TransAlta mine workers get training, jobs --
Many of
the 600 Centralia mine workers laid off last year have found new jobs
or are getting retrained, according to a new report.
▪ In today's Seattle
P-I --
Federal budget cuts to hit job training --
The Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King
County says that $3.2 million was lost, a
reduction of almost 25%.
▪ In today's Kitsap
Sun --
Builders may team to build new ferries -- Three
▪ In today's Everett Herald -- "Something for everyone" -- Officials praise the Port of Everett's
$400 million waterfront development at Thursday's groundbreaking ceremony.
National
news:
▪ In today's LA
Times --
Shipping lines, ILWU agree to early talks --
The dockworkers' union and shipping lines
say they have agreed to
early labor contract talks in hopes of reaching an early settlement and
avoiding the rancor that had shut down West Coast ports for 11 days in 2002.
▪
Today from AP --
Boeing Machinists in St. Louis
will vote on contract Sunday
-- The company says the tentative
three-year deal calls for an average 9.5%
compensation increase over the life of the contract, as well as a 17%
increase in pension benefits.
▪ In today's NY
Times --
Judge: U.S. wage laws apply to foreign workers --
Workers brought
here by companies facing labor shortages are
covered by federal minimum wage laws, he rules. It
appears to be the first federal ruling on
the issue, which could affect thousands nationwide.
▪ In today's NY
Times --
Appointed hobblers of government (editorial) --
President Bush's
nomination of a lobbyist for
the National Association of Manufacturers to lead the Consumer
Product Safety Commission must surely take the fox-in-the-henhouse
statuette.
▪ In today's
NY Times --
SEIU plans advisory tool for young workers --
The nonprofit, Qvisory Tools for Life, will provide
health insurance and financial advice beginning
this fall to workers age
18-35.
FRIDAY,
MAY 18, 2007
Thank Sens. Cantwell, Murray their
strong support of EFCA
Big Business is mounting
an all-out campaign to kill labor law reform in the Senate
Powerful business lobbying groups in Washington D.C. are throwing everything -- including the kitchen sink -- at the Employee Free Choice Act and its supporters in Congress in an all-out effort to maintain a rigged system that allows employers to prevent American workers from forming unions.
Back in February, Bill Miller of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned members of Congress to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act -- or else. He threatened: "The price is having thousands of dollars of radio run in your district... It's going to be even bigger and nastier with the whole kitchen sink."
He wasn't lying. Corporate front groups ran hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of television and newspaper ads to try to confuse the public about the legislation.
But despite their negative campaign, the new Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed the Employee Free Choice Act on March 1 by a margin of 241–185. Voting YES and co-sponsoring the EFCA were Reps. Rick Larsen, Brian Baird, Norm Dicks, Jim McDermott and Adam Smith. Voting NO were Reps. Dave Reichert and Cathy McMorris Rodgers. (Rep. Jay Inslee, who co-sponsored the EFCA and was a vocal advocate for its passage, missed the vote because of a family emergency back home, and Rep. "Doc" Hastings was also absent.)
Now that the legislation has moved to the Senate, Big Business is again mounting an all-out campaign to kill the EFCA, again spending thousands on deceptive, misleading television ads targeting certain U.S. Senators. This week, The Hill reports that some business groups have threatened to make the EFCA vote a litmus test for who gets their PAC money.
So now is the time to thank Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray -- both of whom have co-sponsored the EFCA -- for their efforts in support of working families in Washington state.
TAKE
ACTION!
Thank Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray for their strong support of the EFCA and restoring the freedom to choose unionization. We need to acknowledge their efforts and let them know it's good to have U.S. Senators like them who recognize the significance of reforming our nation's labor laws and carrying this fight for working families on Capitol Hill.
(If you live in a state other than Washington, click here.)
Why we need the Employee Free Choice Act
America’s working people are struggling to make ends meet these days and our middle class is disappearing. The best opportunity working people have to get ahead economically is by uniting to bargain with their employers for better wages and benefits. Recent research has shown that some 60 million U.S. workers would join a union if they could.
But the current system for forming unions and bargaining is broken. Every day, corporations deny workers the freedom to decide for themselves whether to form unions to bargain for a better life. They routinely intimidate, harass, coerce and even fire workers who try to form unions and bargain for economic well-being.
The Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800, S. 1041), supported by a bipartisan coalition in Congress, would level the playing field for workers and employers and help rebuild America’s middle class. It would restore workers’ freedom to choose a union by:
-
Establishing stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations.
-
Providing mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes.
-
Allowing employees to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation.
Please take a moment to thank Sens. Cantwell and Murray for their strong support of the EFCA -- or to contact your Senators outside Washington state. For more information about the EFCA, visit the AFL-CIO website.
Thank you!
The following statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney was released Thursday:
Unfortunately, the immigration deal announced today does not address the roots of the immigration crisis. And it abandons long-standing U.S. policy favoring the reunification of families and protecting workers by limiting the size and the scope of guestworker programs which frequently amount to virtual servitude, where workers' fates are tied to their employers and their workplace rights are impossible to exercise. The proposal unveiled today includes a massive guestworker program that would allow employers to import hundreds of thousands temporary workers every year to perform permanent jobs throughout the economy.
Without a real path to legalization, the program will exclude millions of workers and thus ensure that America will have two classes of workers, only one of which can exercise workplace rights. As long as this two-tiered system exists, all workers will suffer because employers will have available a ready pool of labor they can exploit to drive down wages, benefits, health and safety protections and other workplace standards.
We intend to work with our allies in Congress and in the immigrant community to pass comprehensive immigration reform that will protect all workers in a humane and just manner.
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