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.

THURSDAY,  APRIL 17

"You know, when you give a man more money in his pocket -- in this case, a woman more money in her pocket to expand a business, it -- they build new buildings. And when somebody builds a new building somebody has got to come and build the building. And when the building expanded it prevented additional opportunities for people to work." --George W. Bush, Lancaster, Pa., Oct. 3, 2007

Tanker Deal:

• Lawmakers, unions protest tanker deal -- AP -- Washington state members of Congress are joining labor leaders to protest the massive Air Force tanker contract that Boeing Co. lost to a European rival. Organizers of the Capitol Hill rally are calling on the government to protect jobs by investing in the U.S. aerospace defense industry.

• Air Force leaders under fire for $50 million contract -- AP --  The Associated Press has learned that a Pentagon investigation scheduled for release this week will be highly critical of Air Force leadership in connection with efforts to steer a $50 million contract. A report compiled by the Defense Department's Inspector General will find that the decision to award a publicity contract for the Air Force's Thunderbirds aerial stunt team did not appear to be a fair and open competition. Several defense and congressional officials say the report will find that improper influence was used to choose a particular bidder who had ties to a retired general.

Local News:

• State, union wade into negotiations -- Olympian -- "You'll find what state employees want is what every American wants: decent, living wages, health care for their families," Washington Federation of State Employees president Carol Dotlitch told them. Shortly after those opening ceremonies, negotiations for a new two-year contract started. Other unions will start the process in the coming weeks, the third round of bargaining for about 60,000 unionized state workers.
• Longshoremen to close ports on West Coast to protest war -- US Labor Against War -- dockworkers of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union have decided to stop work for eight hours in all U.S. West Coast ports on May 1, International Workers' Day, to call for an end to the war.
• Washington's jobless rate jumps to 4.9% in March --Seattle Times -- Although the overall employment level held mostly steady, an influx of new entrants into the labor market pushed up the jobless rate. All in all, the March jobs report showed Washington's jobs engine downshifting into first gear. But Employment Security economist Evelina Tainer said she didn't think the state was necessarily heading into reverse.
• Yakima-area recreational vehicle manufacturer closes -- AP -- Western Recreational Vehicles Inc. has shut down after a failed merger attempt and worker layoffs because of a slumping market, throwing 220 employees out of work....In other recent RV industry woes, Country Coach of Coburg, Ore., laid off 100 workers, about 8 percent of the work force. Winnebago plans to lay off 225 workers this year in Forest City, Iowa, and hundreds of workers have lost are expected to lose their jobs at companies in northern Indiana.
• Providence Centralia Nurses Turn Down Hospital’s Latest Offer; Vote To Strike-- The Chronicle -- Providence Centralia Hospital nurses have voted to reject a final offer put forth by management and approve a strike, according to the union that represents the nurses. The vote took place at the Ferryman Inn and Suites in Centralia Tuesday, which was open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. according to a union official. The nurses voted 90 percent ‘no’ on whether or not to accept the latest offer from hospital management, and 89 percent ‘yes’ on approving a strike.
• Work-zone speeders to be caught on camera -- Everett Herald -- Speeders along highway work zones in Washington soon may find themselves caught by new traffic cameras -- and they will get tickets in their mail boxes later. "It's a safety issue. We've had people killed," said Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, who is chairwoman of the House Transportation Committee.
• Kansas talks set tone for Boeing union -- Everett Herald -- Boeing Co. engineers in Everett will keep an eye on how their union negotiates salaries and bonuses when it meets with a supplier this summer. The labor group heads into talks with Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems in June to hammer out pay issues. The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace recently laid out its initial contract proposal to members at Spirit in Kansas. SPEEA will negotiate a new three-year contract with Boeing for Puget Sound area members this fall.
• Richland firm wins $9 million subcontract for Hanford cleanup -- Tri-Cities Herald -- Federal Engineers & Constructors of Richland has been awarded a $9 million subcontract by Washington Closure Hanford to dig up debris buried during the Cold War near Hanford's H Reactor. The subcontractor, FE&C, has considerable experience digging up waste sites along the Columbia River at the Hanford nuclear reservation, including remediation of the burial grounds near F Reactor and the B and C reactors. It also has done work to clean up the 618-4 and 618-5 burial grounds just north of Richland.

Political and Legislative:

AFL-CIO Congressional Records Available click here for more

• Rossi's transportation plan would replace Seattle viaduct with tunnel-- Seattle Times -- Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi says he can solve Washington state's transportation problems with a tunnel, two bridges and $15 billion in taxpayer cash. His critics say that with a price tag like that, he'll need a little magic, too. Mark Hallenbeck, director of the Washington state Transportation Center at the University of Washington, said Rossi's numbers are "completely divorced from reality....He lowballs almost all the estimates and never says where all the funds are going to come from. It's a political statement. It's complete silliness," Hallenbeck said.

• More on Rossi's plan -- Everett Herald -- Much of Rossi's plan is not new. His call for widening Highway 9 in Snohomish County was in the Proposition 1 ballot measure rejected by voters in November.
  
  He also backs building a tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct and making a new Highway 520 bridge eight lanes wide, two other much-discussed ideas (that were rejected).
  
  On U.S. 2 specifically, one of Rossi's proposals is grinding rumble strips in the center median on a 15-mile stretch between Monroe and Gold Bar. The state is already paying to grind that stretch plus 30 miles more of the highway.
  
  He vows to overhaul the running of the state ferry system. He said new car and passenger ferries slated for construction will be built on time and on budget and the work contracted to non-Washington firms ... "I think his plan is bogus," said Aaron Toso, a Gregoire campaign spokesman. "He's taking $10 billion out of the general fund. He'll either be raising taxes or cutting education and health care."
  

• Eyman initiative could stop red-light cameras -- Wenatchee World -- "Quite frankly I have no problem with the money being used locally for traffic-congestion projects," Johnson said Tuesday night. "But there is no way the city of Wenatchee will become a tax collector for the state of Washington. It certainly is not acceptable from my point of view."
• Battle for lands commissioner goes urban  -- Spokesman Review -- Peter Goldmark’s campaign for state lands commissioner is heavy on his man-of-the-land roots. His Web site video shows the longtime wheat grower and cattle rancher at ease on horseback and piloting his small Cessna over the thinly populated high country of north-central Washington.  But as he tries to unseat two-term Republican commissioner Doug Sutherland, Goldmark, a Democrat, is navigating a different kind of terrain: the urban canyons of Seattle, rich in campaign donors and votes.
• Darcy Burner continues torrid fundraising pace in first quarter -- Northwest Progressive -- It's been a good month for Darcy Burner. After releasing her Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq, to great accolades, Darcy is continuing to set the fundraising pace, not only against her opponent, Congressman Dave Reichert, but among challengers nationwide.
• Rep. McDermott Leads Legislative Drive to End Misclassification of Workers -- Press Release  --  The legislation would level the playing field for honest businesses that abide by the rules, ensure that employees receive the workplace benefits to which they are entitled, and make certain that every business properly pays its fair share of taxes to the Treasury. “Today, millions of American workers are incorrectly or deliberately misclassified as independent contractors, and the shock wave of abuse that ripples through the economy harms everyone and everything in its path, from an innocent worker to the honest business to the U.S. Treasury,”  Rep. McDermott said.

Regional:

• New abuse detailed at slaughterhouse --AP -- When an animal with untrimmed horns got stuck in a chute at a California cattle slaughterhouse, employees electrically prodded it repeatedly to get it to move, according to a congressional report on a case that led to the largest beef recall in U.S. history."

Columbian Trade Deal:

• Unions, Rights Leaders Vow to Keep Fighting Colombia Trade Deal -- AFL-CIO Blog -- AFL-CIO President John Sweeney reiterated the union movement’s opposition to a deal with Colombia: 

  Until our brothers and sisters can exercise core worker rights without fear of intimidation, threat or murder, we cannot seriously consider passing a trade agreement with Colombia. The test of trade should not be how much profit it generates. Should the Colombia FTA come up for a vote this year, we will mobilize our members and the resources of the federation to defeat it. 

• Union Killings Peril Trade Pact With Colombia -- NY Times -- More than 2,500 union members in Colombia have been killed since 1985, with fewer than 100 cases resulting in convictions, according to the National Labor School, a labor research group in Medellín....400 union members have been killed since 2002, and dozens of Mr. Uribe’s supporters in Congress and his former intelligence chief are under investigation for ties to paramilitary death squads, which are classified as terrorists by the United States and responsible for some of the union killings.

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. 

• Under McCain, Every Day Would Be Tax Day -- AFL-CIO Blog -- McCain has proposed a health care plan that would force working families to pay taxes on more than just our wages. His plan would tax our health care benefits.

   

  But while millions of us would find it harder to pay for our health benefits under McCain’s plan, the same would not be true of the top 10 insurance companies: They would rake in nearly $2 billion in tax cuts. Just five oil companies, meanwhile, would see nearly $4 billion in tax cuts.

   

  What’s more, McCain’s changes to the tax code could lead employers to drop health care benefits altogether, leaving working families at the mercy of a private health care market plagued by high costs, bias against pre-existing conditions and outright denials.

  . 

• Murtha says McCain too old to be president -- AP -- Murtha is 75, four years older than McCain. He says they are nearly the same age, and the rigors and stress of running the country is too much for guys their age. ''I've served with seven presidents,'' Murtha told a union audience. ''When they come in, they all make mistakes. They all get older....This one guy running is about as old as me,'' he said, drawing laughter and applause. ''Let me tell you something, it's no old man's job.''

National News:

• Conflict Between 2 Unions Intensifies -- NY Times --  The A.F.L.-C.I.O. president, John J. Sweeney, denounced on Tuesday what he said was “a violent attack orchestrated” by the Service Employees International Union against members of other unions at a conference on Saturday in Michigan....The service employees’ union sent busloads of members from Ohio to the labor conference in Dearborn to confront leaders and members of the California Nurses Association. The service employees say the nurses sabotaged a major service employees’ unionizing drive last month.....Others at the conference said the fighting began when service employee members and officials tried to barge into the conference in a hotel banquet hall. Chris Kutalik, editor of Labor Notes, a magazine sponsoring the conference, said a retired member of the United Automobile Workers was pushed, banged her head against a table and was taken to a hospital for a head wound.
• Harley-Davidson cuts 8 percent of workforce -- AP -- Chief Executive Jim Ziemer says he hopes employees will take retirement packages. He says there will be 370 union production jobs cut in the next few months. That's because the company is reducing bike shipments due to sales declines in the weakening U.S. economy.
• Raid rounds up workers -- Everett Herald -- No criminal or civil charges have been filed against Pilgrim's Pride, which has about 55,000 employees and operates dozens of facilities mostly across the South and in Mexico and Puerto Rico, supplying the KFC restaurant chain and other customers. ICE said nearly 300 were arrested, but Pilgrim's Pride officials said about 400 hourly, nonmanagement employees were arrested.
• Airline executives and regulators often switch places -- AP -- Throw in millions of dollars in campaign and lobbying money, and factor in the airlines' importance to lawmakers' home cities and states, and it adds up to a powerful industry that even some of the nation's most frequent fliers - members of Congress - can be reluctant to tackle. Broad deregulation and multibillion-dollar government bailouts are among the industry's major victories in recent decades.
• Witnesses Say Congress Must Act to End Slavery in Tomato Fields  --AFL-CIO Blog -- The mostly immigrant workers who pick tomatoes for the fast-food industry are among the most exploited workers in the country, Lucas Benitez told the committee. Benitez, co-founder of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), said the workers sometimes are held against their will, beaten and forced to work for little or no pay. Thousands more are trying to survive on poverty wages with no sick leave and no freedom to join unions for a better life....The work is hard and dangerous, and workers suffer not only from the physical effects of the back-breaking work, Benitez says, but also from mental abuse, as multiple supervisors shout at them all day. And for a week of hard labor, many of the workers receive as little as $20 after they pay for their housing and transportation. 
• Unionized Atlantic City casino dealers still lack contract --  AP -- Union, yes. Contract, no. That's the reality right now in Atlantic City, where dealers at four casinos have won elections allowing them to form unions over the past year. But none of the unions has succeeded in getting a contract with any of the gambling houses.

Health Care:

• Seattle scientists accuse Merck of misrepresenting Vioxx  -- Seattle PI -- Two Seattle researchers have completed a scientific analysis that they say shows Merck misrepresented, and minimized, the risk of death in studies the international pharmaceutical company performed in 2001 exploring the use of Vioxx for people with Alzheimer's disease.
• Union Plus Offers Prescription Savings for Union Members -- AFL-CIO Blog -- A new prescription drug program from Union Plus could save union members and their families an average of 20 percent on brand-name drugs and up to 55 percent on generics. The new online prescription discount card—part of the Union Plus Health Savings program—is free for union members and its benefits apply to all family members in your household.
• Drug companies to reveal grants they give doctors -- Seattle Times -- For years, the nation's largest drug and medical device manufacturers have courted doctors with consulting fees, free trips to exotic locales and sponsoring the educational conferences that physicians attend. Those financial ties in most cases need not be disclosed and can lead to arrangements that some say improperly influence medical care. Now, under the threat of regulation from Congress, the two industries are promising to be more forthcoming about their spending.

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

click here for the full report: Dying For Coverage

War News:

• 300,000 vets have mental problem, 320,000 had brain injuries -- Only about half have sought treatment, said the study released Thursday by the RAND Corporation. "There is a major health crisis facing those men and women who have served our nation in Iraq and Afghanistan," said Terri Tanielian, the project's co-leader and a researcher at the nonprofit RAND. "Unless they receive appropriate and effective care for these mental health conditions, there will be long-term consequences for them and for the nation."
• Pentagon records detail prisoner abuse by US military -- AP -- Detainees at the Gardez Detention Facility in southeastern Afghanistan reported being made to kneel outside in wet clothing and being kicked and punched in the kidneys, nose and knees if they moved, according to the documents. A 2006 Army review concluded that the detainees were not abused but that the incident revealed "misconduct that warrants further action."

   

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.