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 7

As we continue to be inspired by the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, remember how far we have come, but also how much work there is left to do. 

We have  a choice between two well-qualified, exciting candidates in the upcoming Presidential race. Both of whom represent minorities and who talk of their determination to help working families succeed in this country.

On the other hand, once our choice is made, that candidate will face John McCain whose record on both equality and working family issues is dismal. Check out our section on McCain Myth Busters today to see a piece on his record of voting against the Martin Luther King holiday  

Tanker News:

• Tanker outsourced or not? -- Everett Herald -- Boeing has said it offered the Air Force a KC-767 tanker made of 85 percent U.S. content with the remaining 15 percent coming from suppliers in Japan, Italy and the United Kingdom. Northrop and EADS aimed to offer the Air Force a tanker comprised of roughly 60 percent U.S. content.
  

• Role of military planes declines in Boeing's defense business -- Seattle Times -- Last month's loss of the Air Force tanker contract to Northrop Grumman and its European partner, if it stands, further weakens Boeing's already diminished role in producing future warplanes. "The Boeing Co. morphed," said Wall Street analyst Joe Campbell of Lehman Brothers. On the defense side, building airplanes "is not even what they're known for anymore," he said. In recent years, Boeing's defense unit has shifted focus from planes to big-ticket electronic-hardware systems: satellites, missile defense, networked warfare and border-surveillance projects.

Local News:

• Confidence in schools chief wavers among educators -- Everett Herald --  Teachers across county consider no-confidence vote against state superintendent. 
• Skycap jobs fly away at Sea-Tac Airport  -- Seattle PI -- A few years ago, some airlines that had traditionally run their own curb check-in decided to contract with third-party companies to do the job, for which they began charging $2 per bag. That money doesn't go to the skycaps -- it goes to the contractors and/or airlines, depending on the arrangement. Many skycaps say that practice has stripped them of the tips they need to survive and pay for the medical benefits they do not get through their jobs. In Massachusetts, a group of skycaps have filed a federal class-action lawsuit against American, seeking restitution for lost wages.
• Animal-control union sides with Sims -- Seattle Times -- Sgt. John Diel, supervisor of the shelters in Kent and Bellevue and second vice president of the Animal Control Officer's Guild, said Nathan Winograd's report to the Metropolitan King County Council "doesn't mention any of the success our program has had." "It's obvious from his report he only reported everything he could find or make something out of that was negative," Diel said.
• The Money Squeeze: Seniors face financial 'quadruple whammy' -- Seattle PI --  And many retirees feel better equipped to weather economic woes than their children or grandkids, who turn up their noses at off-brand sneakers or used toys. "We're used to economizing more than the younger generation and not buying on credit," said Bob McCurdy, 83, who retired as an electrical lineman for the city. "Things could get much worse, and ... older people take the longer view." Still, for those seniors living on truly fixed incomes, there may not be any luxuries left to cut.
• Groups to help downtrodden are hurting too -- Seattle PI -- Last week, the executive director of the Operational Emergency Center just south of Seattle, fresh from watching a long line of people waiting for help with utility bills, was busy fine-tuning a letter to friends of the agency. Consider it an SOS. The center, which provides food, clothing, bus tokens, diapers, baby formula and other emergency assistance to homeless and low-income people from South Seattle to Federal Way, has hit on hard times.
• Cardinal Glass expands to meet demand from solar industry -- Olympian -- The Cardinal Glass plant in Chehalis will expand and more than double its payroll because the company has taken on tempering solar panels as a new business line. The process strengthens the panels, making them more durable. The Chehalis plant will add 30,000 square feet to the 100,000-square-foot plant, and the payroll of 35 employees will expand to 85 by this summer.
• Hanford Advisory Board calls for more cleanup money -- Tri-City Herald -- For 2009, the Hanford Advisory Board wants $200 million added to the budget request proposed by the Bush administration to bring it slightly above $2 billion. The administration request would cut spending at Hanford by $58 million from this year's spending.
• WaMu stock rallies on news of $5 billion cash infusion -- Seattle Times --  Washington Mutual Inc., the country's largest savings and loan, is close to landing a $5 billion cash infusion from private equity group TPG and other investors, according to a report Monday in The Wall Street Journal.
• Abe Osheroff, 1915-2008: He led a rich life of activism -- Seattle PI -- Abe Osheroff's start to more than seven decades of political activism -- fighting the good fight for what the left calls social justice and what he called radical humanism -- started by helping evicted tenants during the Great Depression.

Political and Legislative:

AFL-CIO Congressional Records Available click here for more

Governor Christine Gregoire Kicks off her Campaign Today

JOIN THE GOVERNOR LIVE ON THE WEB AT 11AM
Governor Gregoire will broadcast her campaign kickoff speech and host a virtual kickoff during the bus tour. If you want to join, click here ready to watch, listen and 

ask the Governor about issues that are important to you. 

• Off and running with a global governor -- Seattle Times -- The governor of the state of Washington was certainly energetic and precise. Christine Gregoire is at her best when she is the lawyer and chops apart decisions and arguments with karate thoughts.
• Bush sending Colombia free trade pact to Congress -- AP --  Bush's action will force Congress to take up the proposal under a fast-track process that will require votes within 90 days. Officials said Bush is acting now in order to force a vote before Congress leaves in the fall for the campaign season. The agreement would tear down trade barriers between the two nations but is heavily opposed by Democrats in Congress who contend that Colombia has not done enough to halt violence, protect labor activists and demobolize paramilitary organizations.
• Petraeus to face all 3 presidential candidates -- Washington Post -- When Army Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker travel to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, they might be the ones before the microphones, but the cameras will be trained on three of their inquisitors: Sens. John McCain, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.
• N.J. may OK paid leave for family care -- AP -- Under the plan, which is backed heavily by organized labor, parents could take paid leave anytime in the first year after a child's birth or adoption. Workers would be allowed to take paid leave to care for a sick relative receiving inpatient care in a medical care facility or under continuing supervision from a health care provider. A health provider could also certify a sick relative needs help at home.
• Booth Gardner's campaign is selfless, not self-centered -- Cross Cut -- The former governor's death-with-dignity initiative has been described as the last ego trip of a control freak. But it's really a selfless act that helps restore a basic right.

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.

   

• McCain’s Contorted Position on Federal King Holiday -- ColorsofChange.org -- John McCain headed to Memphis on the anniversary of Dr. King’s death. It’s worth noting his record on the issue of a holiday in King’s honor. When he was a Congressman in 1983, McCain voted against creating a federal Martin Luther King Holiday and his home state rescinded recognition of the holiday in 1987. While he has claimed his position has ‘evolved’ and that his original vote was ‘wrong’ his record of support for racist individuals, and his consistent votes against civil rights legislation belie that claim. And he has employed controversial individuals on his own campaign whose own nasty comments about Martin Luther King undermine McCain’s claims of inclusivity and evolution.
  

• McCain's Purple Cow -- The Atlantic Monthly -- With all the recent focus on earmarks and disclosure in the presidential campaign, it’s worth returning for a moment to the lobbyist scandal John McCain survived en route to becoming the Republican nominee. Most media coverage focused on The New York Times’ implication of a sexual affair between McCain and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman. But the particulars of the business relationship McCain described as a defense of this relationship could still cause him trouble. Understood in their proper context, they add up to something quite different than the champion reformer McCain touts himself as being.

National News:

• Job winners and losers in hard times  -- AP -- Hospitals, schools and the assembly line at an airplane factory look like pretty good places to be with a recession looming and unemployment rising. Construction workers, real estate agents and auto workers aren't expected to fare as well.
• Across the border, "a humanitarian crisis" is brewing -- Seattle Times -- "The money being sent back to Mexico exceeds any U.S. foreign-aid package," said Walter Coleman, pastor of the Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago, which gave sanctuary to an undocumented Mexican woman before she was deported in a highly publicized case last year. He called the remittances "a self-reliant, people-to-people operation that benefits the Mexican government in a big way."
•  Laid Off And Left Out: New Web Source Just in Time  --AFL-CIO Blog -- First launched in the 2001 recession to provide information about the unemployment situation, Laid Off & Left Out helps jobless workers by mobilizing support for extending UI benefits. Click here to visit the site. 

Health Care:

• Food for Your Children or Medicine You Need. What Would You Choose? --  AFL-CIO Blog -- The AFL-CIO 2008 Health Care for America survey is now available. More than 26,000 women and men, insured and uninsured, young and old, union and nonunion took the comprehensive survey, while nearly 7,500 took the time to write about their personal health care experiences. The overwhelming majority, 95 percent, say the health care system needs fundamental change or to be completely rebuilt.

• World Health Day Warns on Health Risks Carried by Global Warming -- EFlux Media --This year’s World Health Day (April 7) highlights the idea that global warming carries more health risks now than ever and the situation is getting worse, as weather experts forecast raised temperature for the years to come. The World Health Organization has already warned that heavy rains and warmer temperatures facilitate the spread of germs such as bacteria and viruses. "The health impacts of climate change are already evident in different ways: more people are dying from excessive heat than before, changes are occurring in the incidence of vector-borne diseases, and the pattern of natural disasters is altering," says the WHO. 

• One in 15 kids hurt by medication in hospital -- AP -- Researchers found a rate of 11 drug-related harmful events for every 100 hospitalized children. That contrasts with an earlier estimate of two per 100 hospitalized children, based on traditional detection methods. The rate reflects the fact that some children experienced more than one drug treatment mistake.
  

World News:

• Egyptians stage nationwide strike, riots over economy -- AP --   Thousands of demonstrators angry about rising prices and stagnant salaries torched buildings, looted shops and hurled bricks at police who responded with tear gas Sunday in this northern industrial town as Egyptians staged a nationwide strike.

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.