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 8

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.

"I'm a strong candidate because I come from the baby-boomer generation; recognizing that we've got to usher in an era of responsible behavior."

George W. Bush, April 27, 2000
Comment from an interview on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

Watching the Iraq Hearings With Petraeus and Crocker

Today the NY Times blog, The Lede, is running a real-time report on the testimony before Congress of General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker. They are posting both a written log of testimony as it happens along with a video feed. Click here to got to the site and listen as all three Presidential candidates and members of Congress question these leaders and the current administration's justification of the Iraq war.

Local News:

• Seattle Times to cut nearly 200 jobs by next month -- Seattle PI --  The newsroom will be hardest hit, losing 49 positions, the memo said. Another 47 positions in circulation and 40.5 in advertising are affected, along with 18 in information technology, 14 in operations, seven in marketing, 6.5 in finance, five in new media and four in human resources. Seventy-eight of the positions affected are represented by the Guild.
• Laid-off Panasonic workers to receive trade act aid -- Columbian -- The 89 Vancouver workers laid off from Panasonic Shikoku Electronics Corp. of America in March will be eligible for extra help through the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, a federal program aimed at helping those who lose their jobs due to global trade. Congressman Brian Baird, D-Vancouver, announced the coverage Monday.
• Mistrial for ex-Boeing inspector -- Seattle PI -- Jurors, who entered their fifth day of deliberations Monday, were split 10-to-2, with the majority leaning to convict Gerald Eastman. He was accused of 16 felony counts of computer trespass, after downloading Boeing documents and providing some of them to a Seattle Times reporter. He also had contact with a Seattle P-I reporter. Eastman, 46, had said that contacting the media was his last resort after Boeing Co. management and the Federal Aviation Administration ignored his complaints about what he said was a shoddy inspection process for new planes. Eastman says that he is a whistle-blower.
• Boeing likely to reveal new 787 delay -- Seattle PI -- The biggest driver of the 787 delays has been Boeing's global partners. They manufacture the composite wings and fuselage of the Dreamliner, and are supposed to install wiring and systems. Boeing is mostly responsible for final assembly of those large sections at its Everett plant.
• Gov't says gas prices could hit $4 -- AP -- High prices and a weak economy are expected to cut demand for gasoline by about 0.4 percent during the peak summer driving season, the department's Energy Information Administration said in a monthly report on petroleum supplies and demand. 
• Group sues to stop school rebuild  -- Seattle PI --  A group of West Seattle parents and community members are suing Seattle Public Schools in a bid to stop the district from rebuilding Denny Middle School on the same campus as Chief Sealth High School. International Operating Engineers Local 609, the labor union that represents the district's classified employees, also has signed on to the lawsuit. It argues that some of its members -- which include custodians, security officers, food service personnel and grounds workers -- could lose their jobs when the co-located school opens.
• 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.
• Everett students learn about police life at academy -- Everett Herald -- During four days, the students were introduced to many facets of police work. The idea was to teach them that being a cop is much different than what they see on TV and in the movies.
•  Grace resolves asbestos claims -- Spokesman Review -- Claims against the chemical company include workers and residents who say they were harmed by asbestos from Grace's Libby, Mont., vermiculite mine. More than 1,200 residents or former mineworkers have died or claimed injury because of the mining operations there. The agreement calls for the company to pay $250 million in cash into a trust fund for asbestos victims, followed by deferred payments of $110 million per year for five years beginning in 2019 and $100 million per year for 10 years beginning in 2024.
• Feds, tribes strike deal on dams, fish  -- Tri-Cities Herald --Under the agreement, the government gets a promise from the tribes to keep the issue out of the courts, including ending current lawsuits and preventing others for at least 10 years. In exchange, the tribes will get approximately $900 million, the majority funded by the BPA, earmarked to help salmon through actions such as hatchery improvements and stream restoration. BPA ultimately would pass the costs on to Northwest ratepayers. 

Political and Legislative:

AFL-CIO Congressional Records Available click here for more

• WA Gov. Gregoire kicks off re-election -- AP -- In hometown appearances that bridged a diner and a high-tech business park, the Democratic incumbent also touted glowing reviews of Washington's business climate, historically low unemployment, and her push to increase state spending on education, health care and the environment. Gregoire didn't mention Rossi by name, but he was her clear target at several points in her speeches. She predicted that Rossi, a former state senator who nearly won the 2004 governor's race, would take the state down a much different path by cutting vital government programs that she and the Democrat-controlled Legislature have plumped.
• Gregoire says she’s ‘delivered results’ -- Tacoma News Tribune -- On unemployment, she emphasized that the state has gone from the highest unemployment rate in the nation – tied with Oregon – to the lowest in the state’s history. “When I came, I set a goal. Let’s put Washington state and its people back to work,” she said. “That goal has been met – 225,000 new jobs have been created over the last four years.”
• Gregoire rallies her troops -- Columbian -- The governor, who had made stops in her hometown of Auburn and in Tacoma earlier in the day, emerged in a black coat, smiling. She stood in front of one of the tapered, white, 120-foot-long wind turbine blades that pass through the port on their way from the factory in Denmark to wind farms in the Columbia River Gorge and beyond. She spoke to a small group of longshoremen who huddled together in a cold wind. They had invited her to have a look at the green jobs created by the 2005 voter-approved renewable energy initiative. “She’s done a lot for organized labor,” said Cager Clabaugh, president of Local 4 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. The union has gained 60 new members with the wind power boom, he said.
• Congressman 401 and the Irresponsible Plan -- Horsesass -- Dave Reichert  traveled to Colombia this weekend with US Trade Representative Susan Schwab and 8 other lawmakers. The reason for the trip is that the folks who tell Congressman Reichert how to vote are eager to pass a Free Trade Agreement with our strongest South American ally.
• Clinton denounces Colombian trade deal -- AP -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton emphasized her opposition to a proposed free trade agreement with Colombia, two days after her chief campaign strategist was forced out of her campaign for his role in supporting the deal. "As I have said for months, I oppose the deal, I have spoken out against the deal, I will vote against the deal and I will do everything I can to urge the Congress to reject the Colombia free trade agreement," the New York Democrat told a Washington gathering of the Communication Workers of America.
• Democrats to change way of nominating -- Spokesman Review --  Democratic State Chairman Dwight Pelz said the conventions are necessary because the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on the state primary initiative took away the influence parties can have in naming their candidates. Democrats will try to regain some control by having precinct officers attend nominating conventions for legislative, county and congressional seats. For statewide offices, delegates to the state convention will be asked which candidate they support.

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:

• Bush Plan to Push Colombia Deal: ‘Outrageous Disregard for Human Rights’ -- AFL-CIO -- President Bush’s decision to send the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to Congress over the strong objections of the leadership of both the House and the Senate “shows an outrageous disregard for basic human and workers’ rights,” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says.
• Olympic Officials May Reconsider Torch Relay -- NYTimes -- The Olympic torch arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday for the latest stage of its worldwide relay as the International Olympic Committee for the first time raised the possibility of cutting short the relay or amending the route after the torch’s stops in London and Paris descended into chaos because of anti-Chinese protests.
• Credit crisis could cost nearly $1 trillion, IMF predicts -- International Herald Tribune  -- The forecast signals the worst of the credit crunch may be yet to come, because banks and securities firms so far have posted $232 billion in asset writedowns and credit losses. Policy makers, concerned that lenders' deteriorating balance sheets will hobble economic growth, are pushing companies to raise capital. "The current turmoil is more than simply a liquidity event, reflecting deep-seated balance-sheet fragilities and weak capital bases, which means its effects are likely to be broader, deeper and more protracted," the report said. The fund warned of the risk of "a serious funding and confidence crisis that threatens to continue for a significant period."
•  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. 
• Aloha Airlines, pilots union talks drag on -- AP -- The union wants Aloha to retain pilots based on seniority. But the company wants to use more junior pilots who have been flying Aloha's cargo service.

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.

Democracy: The Cornerstone of Community

By Paul Lee

           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.