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.

TUESDAY,  APRIL 29

Bush Administration Policies Making Work Less Safe -- Rinf.com -- Monday, April 28, however, is one day set aside to concentrate on saving workers’ lives. It is Workers Memorial Day. It is an occasion on which we mourn the dead and strive for better conditions for the living.

Under the Bush Administration, this has been nothing but a struggle.

Here’s a telling statistic: the number of workplace deaths increased from 2005 to 2006, the last full year for which figures are available. By 106. The total for 2005 was 5,734 dead in the U.S. The next year, it rose to 5,840.

During the six years of the Bush administration for which there are statistics, the number of deaths rose four times. The deaths climbed so high from 2003 to 2004 that the rate actually increased, the first time that has occurred — during either a Republican or a Democratic administration — since 1970 when Congress passed the act creating the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to improve workplace safety.

Death on the Job Report: More Workers Killed, Fewer Employer Penalties -- AFL-CIO -- More workers are being killed on the job, but employers who are found to have violated federal safety laws in fatality cases are paying as little as $750 in penalties for each death, according to the latest edition of the AFL-CIO’s annual report Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect.

This weekend WSLC Special Assistant to the President, Jeff Johnson, joined WSLC Executive Board Member and head of the Thurston-Lewis-Mason County Central Labor Council Bob Guenther, along with many other union leaders and rank and file members, to pitch in and help farmers who are still struggling in the wake of devastating floods last Fall. Jeff has written a wonderful account of the day that is both heartwarming and inspiring. Read his account here and click through for more. 

A True Labor of Love

Saturday, April 26 dawned beautiful and sunny in Southwest Washington . The day was all the more beautiful because about 200 trade unionists and democratic party members showed up at the Baw Faw Grange in Curtis, Washington to volunteer to help clean up debris strewn fields for farmers they had never met. Curtis is tucked into the Willapa Hills in the bucolic Boisfort Valley . Last December the Chehalis River flood devastated this picturesque valley spreading water four and five feet deep over these farm fields, littering them with the remains of clear cut hillside. read more....

Nearly 200 Gather to Help Clear Farmland of Flood Debris -- Centralia Chronicle -- The idea to rally union workers to pitch in came about a month ago at a meeting of the Washington State Labor Council, according to organizer Bob Guenther. Guenther said he sat down with some of the landowners and learned what kind of help they needed. “Dave and Dan Fenn, they’re natives,” Guenther said. “They know the people, they knew where the most good could be done.” The Washington State Labor Council has a program called Labor Helping Neighbor, which usually goes to work assisting with political campaigns.

Local News:

• Immigration march set for Thursday -- Seattle PI -- Hundreds or thousands of demonstrators are expected to march through downtown Seattle during afternoon rush hour Thursday with a basic message: "We are not undocumented. We are not illegal. We are workers." Or, as a bilingual flier for the event states in Spanish, "No somos ilegales. No somos indocumentados. Somos trabajadores." While "nativists" who oppose illegal immigration want all those without documents to be deported, that is not a realistic solution, said Jeff Johnson, research director of the Washington State Labor Council. Removing the estimated 12 million undocumented individuals in the U.S. would be akin to eliminating the population of the Northwest, he said.
• $1 billion timber slush fund or fair trade deal? -- Seattle PI -- The deal had its roots in the administration's decision six years ago to slap tariffs on Canadian lumber. Echoing the U.S. timber industry, the administration contended that Canadian timber companies were selling their wood in the United States at unfairly low prices. Over the next five years, the tariffs collected and held by the United States grew to more than $5 billion, including interest. The Canadians fought back in U.S. and international courts, winning most of the decisions in a drawn-out process. The U.S. lost before NAFTA panels, and two rulings by the U.S. Court of International Trade. Rulings at the World Trade Organization were mixed. But despite the largely favorable rulings, the Canadians were being starved into submission by the continuing U.S. tariffs, said Elliott Feldman, a lawyer representing Canadian timber interests.
• Rebuilding Together crews pitch in to help -- Aberdeen Daily World-- More than 200 volunteers renovated eight homes belonging to veterans in Grays Harbor County. The volunteers are from the non-profit organization, “Rebuilding Together Grays Harbor.” The organization does home repairs for low-income families year-round, but this past weekend it teamed up with Sears as a part of the “Heroes at Home” program to make home repairs for local veterans, such as Lindberg.
• New trial sought for former Boeing worker -- Seattle Times -- King County prosecutors will seek a second trial for a former Boeing worker after a jury earlier this month deadlocked over charges alleging he improperly accessed sensitive company computer files, according to the man's attorney.
• L&I hearing targets heat-related illness  -- Bellingham Herald -- The Washington state Department of Labor and Industries proposal is intended to protect workers from heat-related illness while working outdoors in hot weather. It would require employers to: Update their safety programs to include preventive measures to reduce the risk of heat-related illnesses.
• Metal thieves put fire districts on high alerts  -- Columbian -- Heat and toxic smoke are spreading, and people are choking and crawling on the floor. Firefighters rush to the scene, haul out their heavy hoses and run — using all their strength — to attach a hose to the heavy brass connection on the building’s ground floor.  But the connection is gone. A metal thief with a large pipe wrench has twisted or broken it off, maybe weeks earlier, and disappeared.
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• Blethen Maine Newspaper Guild Battle May Impact Sale -- Cross Cut -- Before Frank Blethen can sell his four-daily Blethen Maine Newspaper group, he may have to quell a growing labor problem at one of the foursome's smallest papers. The 19,000-daily circulation Morning Sentinel in Waterville has quietly been harboring a growing union fight that has included a five-month byline strike, a statewide labor petition supporting the guild and, this week, word that the newspaper is threatening to pull recognition of the union.
• State to keep leasing ferries for Port Townsend and Whidbey Island -- Everett Herald -- A deal announced Monday won't change how ferry riders now travel between Port Townsend and Whidbey Island but may avert future problems for taxpayers. Gov. Chris Gregoire endorsed the agreement allowing Washington State Ferries to continue leasing 50-car vessels from Pierce County for use on the run rather than proceeding to build its own boat of the same design.

Political and Legislative:

AFL-CIO Congressional Records Available click here for more

• Serious flaws in Rossi's plan -- Seattle Times Editorial -- MORE traffic, more taxes and fewer choices are what Dino Rossi's transportation proposal would mean for area commuters. Rossi's proposal has two serious flaws — among many — that would have drastic consequences for the future of transportation in our region, particularly for East King County.

• Democrats Divided Over Gas Tax Breaks -- NY Times  -- As angry truckers encircled the Capitol in a horn-blaring caravan and consumers across the country agonized over $60 fill-ups, the issue of high fuel prices flared on the campaign trail on Monday, sharply dividing the two Democratic candidates. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton lined up with Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, in endorsing a plan to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for the summer travel season. But Senator Barack Obama, Mrs. Clinton’s Democratic rival, spoke out firmly against the proposal, saying it would save consumers little and do nothing to curtail oil consumption and imports.

• In a 6-to-3 Vote, Justices Uphold a Voter ID Law -- NY Times -- The 6-to-3 ruling kept the door open to future lawsuits that provided more evidence. But this theoretical possibility was small comfort to the dissenters or to critics of voter ID laws, who predicted that a more likely outcome than successful lawsuits would be the spread of measures that would keep some legitimate would-be voters from the polls. Voting experts said the ruling was likely to complicate election administration, leading to both more litigation and more legislation, at least in states with Republican legislative majorities, but would probably have a limited impact on this year’s presidential voting.

• Supreme Court Ruling on Indiana Voter ID Law the ‘Wrong Decision’ -- AFL-CIO -- AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says the decision, known as Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, puts the Supreme Court’s “seal of approval on what is in essence a poll tax.”   

  It’s the wrong decision for our country, and the wrong decision for America’s working men and women. For many Americans, the cost of processing the paperwork for a government ID is so daunting they may not vote. The logistics of tracking down documents, traveling to offices and even just knowing where to begin can be extremely daunting for the elderly, the disabled, the poor and voters in rural communities.

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. 

• Bush Made Permanent --Paul Krugman Columnist -- As the designated political heir of a deeply unpopular president — according to Gallup, President Bush has the highest disapproval rating recorded in 70 years of polling — John McCain should have little hope of winning in November. In fact, however, current polls show him roughly tied with either Democrat.  In part this may reflect the Democrats’ problems. For the most part, however, it probably reflects the perception, eagerly propagated by Mr. McCain’s many admirers in the news media, that he’s very different from Mr. Bush — a responsible guy, a straight talker....But is this perception at all true? During the 2000 campaign people said much the same thing about Mr. Bush; those of us who looked hard at his policy proposals, especially on taxes, saw the shape of things to come. And a look at what Mr. McCain says about taxes shows the same combination of irresponsibility and double-talk that, back in 2000, foreshadowed the character of the Bush administration.

National News:

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• More Potentially Deadly Moves by Bush’s FAA -- AFL-CIO Blog -- The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)—under fire for failing to meet inspection deadlines for the nation’s passenger air fleet—is now putting off inspections of equally vital ground-based equipment such as radar and instrument landing systems.
• On Capitol Hill, a focus on the middle class -- Christian Science Monitor -- In a significant shift, Democrats are targeting new government programs to include a higher range of incomes – and ease leading middle-class fears: losing a home, losing health coverage, losing a job, and losing educational opportunity. If successful, this bid to win back middle-class voters could secure a majority in the November elections to last at least a generation, say leading Democratic strategists.
• Union and states try recruiting farm workers from Mexico -- AP -- Weary of waiting for Congress to overhaul the nation's immigration laws, the United Farm Workers hopes to recruit Mexican laborers to pick crops on U.S. farms. The union's efforts to import temporary workers under an existing government program follows similar moves by lawmakers in Arizona and Colorado, who are also trying to create new pathways to bring in foreign field hands without approval from Washington.
• GM to lay off 3,550 at 4 pickup truck and SUV factories -- Seattle Times -- The company announced Monday that it plans to cut one shift each at pickup truck and large sport utility vehicle plants in Flint and Pontiac, Mich.; Janesville, Wis.; and Oshawa, Ontario, resulting in about 3,550 layoffs. The world's largest automaker by sales said the cuts, to take effect this summer, were brought on by weak demand due to high gasoline prices and an economic downturn.
• Is There Any Way to Stop Wal-Mart & Co. from Sweatshop Profiteering? -- Alternet -- Presidential candidates are calling for tougher labor standards in trade agreements. But it's doubtful they could be enforced.
• United Said to Restart Talks With US Airways -- NY Times --  Mr. Tilton’s push for consolidation may be hampered by more than its finances. The airline also has a difficult relationship with its unions — another reason Continental officials shied away from a deal, according to an executive who declined to be identified because the situation was sensitive. On Monday, United’s pilots issued a statement denouncing Mr. Tilton’s 2007 compensation, disclosed Friday: $10.3 million, including salary, stock awards, stock options and a bonus. The union called on Mr. Tilton and other United managers to reject their compensation in light of the first-quarter results and “this management group’s inability to find a suitable merger partner.”
• Mourning Construction Workers, and Fearing More Shutdowns -- NY Times --  While several thousand union laborers and contractors mourned 13 people killed in construction accidents this year during a special Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Monday, they also talked about the new rules and the delays and work stoppages that have ensued. NY city accelerated its implementation of new rules for tower cranes and a citywide inspection sweep of job sites largely in response to a crane collapse that killed seven people on March 15.he recession
• Quest Diagnostics to pay $688,772 in overtime wages to employees -- Forbes --  The agency said its investigation found that Quest employees working in the positions of client systems analyst and senior client systems analyst were misclassified as being exempt from the FLSA's overtime requirements. 
• Panel questions factory-like farms -- AP -- American agriculture must move away from its focus on large, industrial farms to reverse environmental and human health problems, a private commission reported Tuesday. The report examined the impact of what it called the widespread use of industry-like facilities, where large numbers of cattle, pigs and chickens are concentrated, often in very close quarters, for rapid growth and preparation for slaughter.
• $81 Million for Reserve of Teachers --NY Times -- New York City is paying $81 million over two years in salaries and benefits for teachers without permanent teaching jobs, according to a report being released on Tuesday. The teachers are part of the so-called reserve pool, which holds teachers whose positions have been eliminated, but who have yet to secure a new permanent teaching position at another school.

Health Care:

• A new report by Families USA --  Dying For Coverage gives great stats on state of WA health care.

• "Healthcare NOT Warfare" -- Progressive Democrats of America -- “Nearly one in six Americans has no health insurance, and tens of millions of others are woefully under-insured--while the war in Iraq continues to further skew the U.S. government's budget priorities.” We say “Healthcare NOT Warfare” and ask you to join our campaign. The time has come to redirect unnecessary and wasteful military spending to meeting human needs. Among  those needs is the healthcare crisis and we're focusing our attention on the Democratic Party by gathering signatures on a petition  to prioritize "Healthcare NOT Warfare." The signed petition will be distributed to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democratic Committee Chairman Howard Dean, and your member of Congress.
   House.

World News:

• Ford Canada and Union Reach Deal -- NY Times -- The pact would not create a lower wage rate scale for newly hired employees but would impose wage freezes and reduce some benefits. “It made more sense to concentrate on the company we thought showed the most indication they wanted to try to resolve the problem,” Basil E. Hargrove, the president of the union, said at a news conference.

A True Labor of Love

Saturday, April 26 dawned beautiful and sunny in Southwest Washington . The day was all the more beautiful because about 200 trade unionists and democratic party members showed up at the Baw Faw Grange in Curtis, Washington to volunteer to help clean up debris strewn fields for farmers they had never met. Curtis is tucked into the Willapa Hills in the bucolic Boisfort Valley . Last December the Chehalis River flood devastated this picturesque valley spreading water four and five feet deep over these farm fields, littering them with the remains of clear cut hillsides.  

The volunteers set out at 9:00 am in crews of 30 to 40 to seven different farms in the valley and walked through soggy fields picking up debris (from four inch long sticks to logs that took six people to lift). Aided by tractors and front loaders the crews worked until 4:30 pm carting tons of wood and rock away from the fields. At the end of the day a lot of sun-burnt and back-weary folks sat down to a wonderful barbeque feast and, of course, stories of who had worked the hardest and who had hardly worked and just a whole lot of union pride for what had been accomplished for these farmers, who we  would probably never see again in our lives.

Proud contingents of union members came from: IBEW, led by Bob Guenther; WFSE, led by Carol Dotlich; Laborers, led by Pete Lahmann; and AFT, led by Bob Markholt who brought a contingent of ten pre-apprentices and staff from Seattle Vocational Institute. Other unions represented were: OPEIU 8, Teamsters, United Food and Commercial Workers, Sheetmetal Workers and Railroad Workers. Others in attendance were: the Reverend Art Venei from the Universalist Unitarian Church in Olympia , Jody Robbins, Peter Goldmark (candidate for Lands Commissioner), Grace Cox from the Olympia Food Co-op who brought three visitors from Nicaragua ; and Zach Smith (member of WFSE, chair of the State Democratic Labor Caucus and also a co-coordinator of this event).  

But the real applause goes to the mastermind behind this event, Bob Guenther. Bob, who is the head of the Thurston-Lewis-Mason County Central Labor Council and who is an executive board member of the WSLC, is a humble man who avoids the spotlight but who makes things happen. Bob, with the help of a planning committee, raised nearly $ 10,000 for this event and lined up the farmers and volunteers. Bob wanted to show the community what the collective power of labor could do when we stand together to help one another out. Bob told the crowd that this was a union/community event, right down to the box lunches put together by UFCW members. Thank you, Bob! Without you this event would never have happened.  

[Note: We know that many local unions and union members spend countless time volunteering in their community making all of our communities’ better places to live. We would like to shine a light on you. So please e-mail your stories to Communications Director, Kathy Cummings at kcummings@wslc.org.]

In Solidarity,

Jeff Johnson

Special Assistant to the President

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.