WEDNESDAY, JULY 2

Sprinkler Fitters' strike shuts down construction sites
A strike by Sprinkler Fitters Local 699 has shut down construction projects all around King and Pierce counties, including major projects in downtown Seattle and Bellevue, as other building trades workers have refused to cross the Local 699 picket lines. About 250 people were picketing Wednesday and were scheduled to do so again Thursday. The strike began after Local 699's contract expired at midnight Tuesday. An 85% majority of members had voted to reject a proposed contract. Read this afternoon's coverage from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Election 2008:

▪  In today's Seattle Times -- Congressional candidate Darcy Burner's home destroyed by fire -- Her family escapes safely. "We may have lost our home and our possessions, but for the most part they can be replaced, and I feel like a true tragedy was narrowly avoided today," she says.
▪  At AFL-CIO Now -- McCain's Colombia trade policy hurts workers here and abroad -- McCain plans to meet with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. In his meeting, McCain should ask Uribe what he is doing about finding the killers of the more than 2,500 trade union members who have been murdered in Colombia since 1986, including 39 murdered in 2007 and another 24 killed so far in 2008 -- at a rate of more than one a week.
▪  At the Huffington Post -- McCain heads to Colombia, already tied to country by lobbyists -- McCain's position as an independent arbitrator on Colombia is undermined by a bevy of advisers who have earned large amounts lobbying for the Colombia Free Trade Agreement or representing corporations that do business there. Some of these companies have been linked to the killings of union workers and other civilians, sometimes in collusion with Colombia's government.
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Eyman traffic initiative looks likely to make the fall ballot -- The Initiative 985 campaign has now turned in about 299,000 signatures. It needs about 225,000 valid ones.

National news:
▪  In Time Magazine -- Big Labor goes global -- The United Steelworkers (USW), America's largest private-sector union, is joining up with Unite, Britain's largest national union, to form the world's first transatlantic union. The deal, set to be inked Wednesday at the USW Convention in Las Vegas, will create the grandiosely named Workers Uniting: The Global Union. Says USW President Leo W. Gerard: "We're creating a new union here, with a constitution, a mission and staff."
▪  In today's NY times -- Deepening cycle of job loss seen as lasting into 2009 -- Automakers have dropped their latest batch of awful sales numbers on the market, reinforcing the gloom spreading across the economy, and seeming to intensify the the troubles confronting American workers.
▪  In today's NY Times -- Wal-Mart faces huge fine in Minnesota suit involving work breaks -- A judge rules the company violated state laws on rest breaks and other wage matters more than two million times and as a result could face more than $2 billion in fines.
▪  In today's LA Times -- Former NYSE chief Grasso wins fight to keep his $187.5 million pay package
▪  In today's Washington Post -- Globalization requires safety net, U.N. says -- Pointing to food riots in poor countries whipsawed by soaring prices for wheat and other staples, and to the rising income inequality that has become a too-common feature of economies in the developed world, the report says global economic forces sometimes have cruel consequences. Governments should do more, both individually and collectively, to protect people from their harshest impacts, it says.