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.

Local news: 
▪  In today's Olympian -- State cuts 1,100 manager positions -- Shortly after taking office, Gregoire called state management “bloated.” So 1,100 middle-manager positions have been cut in the past two years. The percentage of agencies’ staff in middle management will be capped at the current level of 7.9%, down from 9.2%. WFSE applauds Washington Management Service cuts.
▪  At ShiftBreak.com -- Carpenters strike and grocery bargaining (4:39 audio file) -- A Carpenters union strike of 1,300 drywallers in Oregon and SW Washington has been met with indifference and hostility by other building trades unions; Low wages in the unionized grocery industry force some workers to turn to food banks.
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Workers have given grocers big boost in profits, and Improved sick leave policy better for workers, patrons (scroll down) -- Two Letters to the Editor in response to Monday's P-I story: Best contract or worst? Grocery workers' union to decide -- Grocery contract talks for more than 20,000 Safeway, QFC, Fred Meyer and Albertsons employees in the Puget Sound area are focused on proposed wages, health care, sick leave and scheduling.
▪  In the Daily News -- Wollenberg to step down as Longview Fibre CEO -- The move ends three generations of family stewardship and marks the third top manager to leave since the company's sale. Officials seek to reassure workers, though they said some near-term job cuts are likely.
▪  In today's Olympian -- Sales agreement gives new hope for brewery -- The family-owned Benaroya Co. of Seattle has agreed to buy the former Miller brewery, pending bankruptcy court approval.

Immigration news:
▪  In today's Oregonian -- Work complaints hang over Del Monte plant -- Former workers describe abysmal conditions at the giant North Portland food-processing plant where an immigration raid rounded up 167 workers. Employees worked closely together in frigid temperatures wielding sharp knives, many without protective gear. Some stood in pools of water without boots near submerged electrical cords. Many were forced to work up to 18 hours shifts with no OT pay.
▪  In today's Oregonian -- Portland raid sends illegal immigrants underground -- Young and old drop out of sight as fears and rumors of more roundups spread. Also: Raids included people's homes
▪  In today's NY Times -- Security is focus of revised effort on immigration -- The White House and senators from both parties map out bill changes  so they could better portray it as a way to bolster national security rather than to grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants. The changes would include a guarantee of several billion dollars for tougher border security.

National news:
▪  At AFL-CIO Now -- "Congress must defeat Korea free trade deal" -- Korean workers join a bipartisan group of members of Congress to say that unless the Bush administration reworks the agreement to include basic protections for workers in both countries, the deal will not pass.
▪  In today's LA Times -- Actors face stricter rules to rejoin Screen Actors Guild -- New rules aimed at discouraging actors from taking nonunion jobs, quitting will be considered permanent. Members can be reinstated only if they successfully petition a disciplinary review committee.
▪  Today from AP -- Big Three automakers' priority: Cutting labor costs -- Contract talks between the U.S.-based automakers and the UAW begin next month, but the key issue is already clear: Eliminating the roughly $25-an-hour labor-cost gap between Detroit and its Japanese rivals.
▪  In today's NY Times -- In health care, cost isn't proof of high quality -- A survey of hospitals that perform heart bypass surgery finds prices ranging from $20,000 to $100,000, but patients at the cheapest and most costly hospitals had comparable lengths of stay and death rates.

How we treat heroes:
▪  In today's News Tribune -- Local VA hospitals in trouble -- Area Veteran Affairs hospitals are in danger of losing their accreditation after inspectors discovered an “immediate threat to life” in the health care system in May. The finding came during routine inspections of the American Lake VA Hospital in Tacoma, the VA Medical Center in Seattle and Bremerton's VA outpatient clinic.
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Better health care for vets (editorial) -- We need to improve mental health care for our veterans in the worst way. It seems that even if our armed forces survive their tours of duty, returning home is no guarantee of survival. Sen. Patty Murray says a new bill will address health care transition issues between the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. 

THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 2007
Senate to begin EFCA debate Monday, could vote Wednesday

The following was posted this morning at AFL-CIO Now:

The Senate is expected to begin debate on the Employee Free Choice Act (S. 1041) on Monday, with a vote to come as early as Wednesday, June 20.

Across the country, momentum is building for passage of the bill. Workers have been delivering thousands of messages via e-mail, phone calls or in rallies urging Senate support for the act. The Employee Free Choice Act would improve the nation’s labor laws to give workers greater freedom to make their own decisions about joining a union and bargaining for better wages, benefits and working conditions.

You can act today to let your senators know you want the Employee Free Choice Act to become law. Sign the online card to let your senators know you support the Employee Free Choice Act. Our goal is to collect 1,000 signed online cards in each state, combine them with the thousands that are being collected in communities across the country and deliver them all to the U.S. Senate.

On June 19, thousands of union members and workers who want to join a union will rally in nearly 60 cities nationwide to urge their senators to vote for the Employee Free Choice Act. More than 3,000 people are expected to rally on Capitol Hill in the middle of the debate to make it clear that giving workers a free choice is a priority.

Meanwhile, more and more elected officials are backing the Employee Free Choice Act. More than 45 state and local legislative bodies have passed resolutions supporting the legislation and urging their members of Congress to vote for it. Legislators like Maryland state Sen. Jamie Raskin (D), who says:

The union-busting and union-prevention campaigns of the last three decades have wrecked the dreams of millions of working people, and we need a new movement to safeguard the right of citizens to organize at the workplace.  I totally favor the card-check majority plan and will do whatever I can to help it pass.

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), along with 46 co-sponsors, introduced the bill in late March. The Senate co-sponsors include presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd and Joe Biden. The other Democratic presidential candidates, former Sen. John Edwards, Gov. Bill Richardson and Rep. Dennis Kucinich, all support the bill as well.

The House passed the Employee Free Choice Act on March 1 by a margin of 241–185. The legislation would rein in the employer harassment, intimidation and anti-worker tactics tens of thousands of workers encounter every year when they try to form unions.

Currently, employers decide if workers can choose a union by majority sign-up or by the longer National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election process, which many employers exploit to threaten and intimidate workers who support the union.

The legislation would help workers such as Cathy Kahn. When she and other employees started talking to their co-workers about organizing into the Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU), management fought back hard.

Kahn recalls:

They used scare tactics. They had staff meetings that were really captive audience meetings. They made people afraid by predicting that the bargaining process could result in layoffs. Even if it’s illegal to threaten people, the management still gets it in their minds and they don’t forget. After a while, there were a lot of employees who were reluctant to support the union because they were afraid of what would happen to them if they stood up and spoke out.

Despite everything management had done, however, a majority of the employees voted in an NLRB election in December 2004 to organize into OPEIU—but then, management went to the NLRB and filed objections to the election, trying to get it invalidated. The NLRB heard management’s objections and overruled them all because they had no impact on the vote, but it took months for that to happen.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says with the Employee Free Choice Act, the Senate has “a historic chance to make sure that America works the way it should for everyone.”

A union card is the straightest ticket into a middle class lifestyle with a decent standard of living and the ability to provide for your family. But for too long now, working people have been denied the opportunity to have a union because corporations flagrantly and routinely violate workers’ freedom to form unions, and the law is helpless to stop them.