WSLC Reports Today
Updated DAILY... Almost Every Day™ 

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.

MONDAY,  APRIL 14

REMEMBER LEE IACOCCA?  HE IS THE MAN WHO RESCUED CHRYSLER CORPORATION FROM IT'S DEATH THROES? HE HAS A NEW BOOK, AND HERE ARE SOME EXCERPTS.
 
'AM I THE ONLY GUY IN THIS COUNTRY WHO'S FED UP WITH WHAT'S HAPPENING?
 
WHERE THE HELL IS OUR OUTRAGE? WE SHOULD BE SCREAMING BLOODY MURDER. WE'VE GOT A GANG OF CLUELESS BOZOS STEERING OUR SHIP OF STATE RIGHT OVER A CLIFF, WE'VE GOT CORPORATE GANGSTERS STEALING US BLIND, AND WE CAN'T EVEN CLEAN UP AFTER A HURRICANE MUCH LESS BUILD A HYBRID CAR.

Local News:

• Construction company sees business double -- Bellingham Herald -- The directional signals at Faber Brothers Construction in Lynden seem stuck pointing one way recently — upward. Nothing to fix there. The design/build company has more jobs and projects going, more diversity of work, more people doing the work and more sales dollars coming from it.
• JOBS 08 -- Bellingham Herald Job Profile -- Our Jobs site details the outlook for job seekers with different levels of training, as well as a look at the hottest job sectors.
• Jury could hear former firefighter’s case -- Aberdeen Daily World -- When an Aberdeen firefighter fell down some stairs while fighting a two-alarm fire back in 2002, was it just a simple accident or the result of inadequate training, lack of manpower and poor leadership at the top?
• Snohomish County, clerks union resume talks  -- Everett Herald -- After three years of discord, labor talks again are under way between Snohomish County Superior Court clerks and the county over a new contract after the two sides were ordered to do so by a state labor relations panel. Last month, the Public Employment Relations Commission upheld a previous ruling that Reardon and Deputy Executive Mark Soine purposely delayed and frustrated negotiations with the clerks' association. The two sides have been negotiating over a new contract for more than three years.
• Layoffs, closures will cost WaMu more than $140 million -- Seattle Times -- Washington Mutual on Friday said that shutting down the rest of its free-standing home-loan offices and eliminating 2,600 to 3,000 workers will cost it $140 million to $180 million, before taxes.
• Forest Service changes studied -- Columbian -- What if you took the entire Forest Service — and its 193 million acres nationwide — out of the Department of Agriculture and instead placed it alongside the National Park Service under the Interior ­Department? That’s the subject of a new study under way by the ­Government Accountability Office.
• Activist shareholders urge investors to vote against WaMu boards -- AP -- Groups representing government and union pension funds say some board members should be held accountable for not acting to protect the company amid mounting evidence that housing prices were set to collapse. And others should be punished for doling out fat bonuses to executives while shareholders lost money, they say. 
• Fired Everett teacher going back to work -- Everett Herald -- A journalism teacher fired for helping students publish an underground newspaper can return to the classroom under an agreement reached Friday with the Everett School District.
• Union's support of teacher is right -- Everett Herald Opinion -- To see that finally someone has taken note of what is going on in the Everett School District concerning Superintendent Carol Whitehead and that possibly something might be done about her "dictatorship" philosophies on the treatment of her faculty. 
• Defying trend, many small companies are adding workers -- Seattle PI  -- While the government has reported job losses in the hundreds of thousands since the start of the year, many small businesses are looking to build their staffs, not cut them. They can benefit when other companies are struggling, or they're preparing for better times ahead.
• Walla Walla port seeks $800,000 for Key expansion -- Tri-Cities Herald -- The request is part of a proposed $9.5 million project that would help the port construct a new 30,000-square-foot building for Key to house its pharmaceutical division and corporate offices. Key is a major exporter and a leading designer and manufacturer of process automation and sorting systems. Key's proposed expansion in the park will create 220 new jobs, paying about $50,000 annually on average, port officials say.

Political and Legislative:

AFL-CIO Congressional Records Available click here for more

• Rossi's rematch is an uphill fight -- Seattle PI -- In the upcoming rematch of an election that Gov. Chris Gregoire won by 133 votes after two recounts, experts say Republican Dino Rossi has stepped onto a field that is much less level than it was when he stepped off three years ago. He likely faces an uphill battle.
• Top-two primary could advance 2 Democrats in commission race -- Olympian -- Voters in November's general election could end up deciding between two Democratic Thurston County Commission candidates with strong political resumes, the result of Washington's new top-two method for primary elections.
• Republicans may benefit from 'top two' primary format -- Yakima Herald -- With three Republicans and just one Democrat in the running, the Yakima County Commissioner District 2 race is shaping up as a potential test case for the state's first use of the "top two" primary. In previous years, one Democrat and one Republican would advance to the general election.
• Obama's Caricature Issue -- Seattle Times -- Explaining his struggles appealing to working-class voters, Obama said they were frustrated with the loss of jobs under both Republican and Democratic administrations over the last decade, adding: "It's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." ...But the damage is done, and Obama has helped rivals paint a picture of a Harvard- education snob deigning to help the poor, misbegotten masses. McCain's campaign called Obama an elitist. Sen. Clinton used that word, too, and added "out of touch and, frankly, patronizing."
• Cantwell urges FTC to investigate petroleum markets -- Tacoma Tribune -- The Washington state Democrat said the Federal Trade Commission should move quickly to implement a provision she inserted in a national energy bill approved by Congress late last year that gives the agency authority to investigate whether excessive speculation and manipulation have driven up prices. “Their response has been tepid,” Cantwell said in an interview last week. “They said they want to work with us, but they need to get in the game.”
• Tech workers favor Democrats, donate more to Obama -- Seattle PI -- The numbers indicate strong Democratic leanings among technology workers. More than 73 percent of the money contributed by workers at the 15 companies has gone to Democratic candidates. That's well above the roughly 60 percent going to Democrats from the general population.

Columbian Trade Deal:

• The Ludlow legacy, Part 1: Colombia -- Seattle Times -- Ninety-four years ago on April 20, America made international news when a government-sanctioned paramilitary unit murdered Colorado union organizers at a Rockefeller-owned coal mine. The Ludlow Massacre was "a story of horror unparalleled in the history of industrial warfare," wrote The New York Times in 1914 — and the abomination was not just the violence, but the way political and corporate leaders colluded on their homicidal plans to protect profits. Sanitized history teaches that our government has since changed. Quite the contrary, as the Bush administration last week moved to legitimize the methods of Ludlow through its Colombia Free Trade Agreement. Colombia resembles Colorado in the early 20th century, only with more frequent slaughters. In the past two decades, more than 2,500 Colombian labor organizers have been assassinated, making Colombia the world's most dangerous place for unionists.
• Union Killings Peril Trade Pact With Colombia -- NY Times -- Lucy Gómez still shudders when speaking of the murder of her brother, Leonidas, a union leader and bank employee who was beaten and stabbed to death here last month. His murder was part of a recent increase in killings of union members in Colombia, with 17 already this year.
• Washington Dems unsure of Colombia trade deal -- Postman on Politics -- Democrats in Washington’s Congressional delegation run from cold to lukewarm on the pending trade deal with Colombia. I wrote yesterday about Republican support for the deal, and efforts to get House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to schedule a vote on the agreement.

McCain Myth Busters: 

• Check out the latest on the AFL-CIO's website:

  McCain Revealed. There you will find the real story about Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the Republican nominee for president. McCain has built a media-friendly reputation as a “maverick” and moderate. But there’s nothing moderate about McCain, a loyal ally of Bush who has consistently and perniciously voted against the interests of working families in his decades-long career in Washington.

   

  Click here to go to a page full of previously posted articles on John McCain. 

• How McCain Promotes “Reform” Through Non-Profit Institute-- Harpers Magazine --  Senator John McCain’s ties to the supposedly independent Reform Institute have recently attracted well-deserved media scrutiny. In 2001, McCain helped found the Institute, a non-profit group whose stated mission is to advance political transparency. But the group’s real goal has often seemed to be the advancement of John McCain.
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• Citizen McCain, Cont'd -- Washington Post -- Back in late February, a New York Times story revisited the question of whether McCain, who was born in the Panama Canal Zone (where his father was serving in the Navy), fit the constitution's requirement that the president be a "natural-born citizen" of the United States. 
• McCain: More Conservative Than His Image -- AP --  The independent label sticks to John McCain because he antagonizes fellow Republicans and likes to work with Democrats. But a different label applies to his actual record: conservative. The likely Republican presidential nominee is much more conservative than voters appear to realize. McCain leans to the right on issue after issue, not just on the Iraq war but also on abortion, gay rights, gun control and other issues that matter to his party's social conservatives.
•   Democrats to ask federal judge to order FEC investigation of McCain's campaign financing -- Dallas News -- A lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission, to be filed today, questions the agency's ability to review Mr. McCain's decision to opt out of the system. The Republican presidential candidate, who had been entitled to $5.8 million in federal funds for the primary campaign, decided to give up that money so he could avoid strict spending limits.

National News:

• Pilots Union Lashes Out at American -- Seattle Times -- The pilots union took out full-page newspaper ads that asked, "Why is American Airlines Failing Its Customers?" Flight attendants have renewed a campaign against stock bonuses for top executives. There's nothing new about rocky management-labor relations at American, but this week's events have driven an even deeper wedge between executives and front-line workers.
• AP poll say pessimism over housing crisis grows  -- AP -- In a vivid sketch of how the sputtering real estate market is causing distress throughout the country, the Associated Press-AOL Money & Finance poll found that more than a quarter of homeowners worry their home will lose value over the next two years. Fully one in seven mortgage holders fear they won't be able to make their monthly payments on time over the next six months.
• Wal-Mart: Everyday Low Behavior --AFL-CIO Blog --Wal-Mart has been laying low, trying to spruce up its image in recent months. But two recent items show that fancy window dressing can’t hide the mega-giant retailer’s ugly anti-worker underbelly. First, Wal-Mart’s unjust treatment of its female workers. Second, a court decision that pretty much lets Wal-Mart proceed with its eight-year battle to bust a union in Texas. 
• SAG rebuffs actors' demand --  LA Times -- Deepening the conflict within Hollywood's biggest union, the Screen Actors Guild's board of directors on Saturday rebuffed a demand by more than 1,400 actors that it immediately move to limit who can vote in upcoming contract negotiations. Kevin Bacon, Glenn Close, Ben Affleck, Ethan Hawke and hundreds of other guild members signed a petition calling on the board to require that only actors who work at least one day a year be allowed to vote on the principal film and TV contract.
• Delta, Northwest again nearing merger -- Seattle Times -- The airlines are forging ahead after earlier plans to get their pilots to draw up a combined seniority list on their own ahead of the merger failed. Delta instead has focused on reaching an accord with its 7,000 pilots. The airline and its pilot leaders came to a preliminary agreement on most issues last week and are ironing out differences on the size of pay increases, two people said. Northwest's 5,000 pilots would be asked to join under a single contract later.
• Study says IRS scrutiny of big firms has plummeted--NY Times News Service -- The IRS's scrutiny of the nation's biggest companies is at a 20-year low, according to the study, conducted by Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC, a research group affiliated with Syracuse University. The study, made public Sunday, points to "a historic collapse in audits." It found that major corporations -- defined as those with assets of at least $250 million -- have about a 1-in-4 chance of being audited, down from about 3-in4 in 1990.

Health Care:

• Co-Payments Soar for Drugs With High Prices --  NY Times -- Health insurance companies are rapidly adopting a new pricing system for very expensive drugs, asking patients to pay hundreds and even thousands of dollars for prescriptions for medications that may save their lives or slow the progress of serious diseases. With the new pricing system, insurers abandoned the traditional arrangement that has patients pay a fixed amount, like $10, $20 or $30 for a prescription, no matter what the drug’s actual cost. Instead, they are charging patients a percentage of the cost of certain high-priced drugs, usually 20 to 33 percent, which can amount to thousands of dollars a month.

From a new report by Families USA -- this is just a snapshot... 

click here for the full report: Dying For Coverage

Democracy: The Cornerstone of Community

By Paul Lee

(Paul is a shop steward at OPEIU Local 8)

           Saturday April 5^th was the date that I discovered the power of democracy and why it is so integral to the formation of community. This year the 37^th Legislative District held their caucus at Cleveland High school , home of the fighting Eagles. The energy was high and people seemed enthusiastic. We heard from party notables and elected officials. Both Clinton and Obama supporters were out in force! But something happened that night that was truly transcendent.  

            It was about 4:30PM and all the festivities had ended, people had already given their speeches, and voted on their ballots. The janitors had arrived and cleared the chairs of the floor. We were instructed to make our way into the lunchroom and wait there for the final votes to be tallied. As time pressed on, we all became tired and anxious. Then suddenly, the caucus chair announces over the microphone that Pat Wright of the Total Experience Gospel Choir was going to share a couple of songs with us. I began to feel the spirit in the room begin to lift as everyone shared in singing some old time hymns. Following Pat were others that shared jokes with us, which also included Dawn Mason former State Representative from our district. Soon people were reciting poems and sharing stories, the kind that are usually reserved for the kitchen table. I don’t think it was just me that noticed what was beginning to happen. Others began talking about what a special experience this caucus process was becoming. By the time the votes were tallied, which was about 11PM I don’t think there was a person in that room that wanted to leave. We all wanted to share what had happened in the room and spread it out to our other neighbors and community.

             As I reflect on what I experienced that day, I realized that democracy is all about giving voice to each and every common man. Perhaps what draws me to the process is this notion that each person’s voice is regarded equally and that this empowers people to stand up and be heard.

Do you want to know how Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) voted on a move to repeal the federal minimum wage?

Are you interested in Sen. Hillary Clinton's (D-N.Y.) vote on a measure to rein in the soaring cost of prescription drugs for seniors and working families?

How about finding out where Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) stood on a bill that would restore the freedom of airport screeners to join a union?

Or maybe you just want to know if your U.S. House member voted with working families last year?

All that information and more about your U.S. senators and representatives is just a click or two away in the AFL-CIO's final 2007 House and Senate Voting Records. The congressional scorecards track 19 Senate votes and 24 House votes from the first session of the 110th Congress.

Workers Memorial Materials Available Online Now -- AFL-CIO Blog -- 

Each year, thousands of workers are killed on the job and millions more are injured or become ill because of their jobs.

This April 28, workers in the United States and around the world will honor those killed and injured on the job and call for improved workplace safety on Workers Memorial Day.

You can start planning and organizing a Workers Memorial Day event in your workplace or community with materials now available online from the AFL-CIO.