Election 2008:
▪  Today from AP -- Governor's race close again -- in money -- Gregoire ends July with about $4.2 million in the bank -- more than $580,000 ahead of the bottom-line balance for Rossi.
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Rossi on right? It's not that easy -- Rossi opposes abortion, gay marriage and stem cell research, among other cornerstones of right-wing politics, but he won't talk about it.
▪  From AP -- AFL-CIO to help dispel rumors about Obama -- The nation's largest labor organization mails 600,000 fliers to swing union voters in four states in an effort to help Barack Obama correct some of the most persistent rumors about him
▪  At JedReport.com -- The most effective anti-smear message of the campaign -- The AFL-CIO mailing is by far the best effort I've seen during the entire campaign to combat the smears.

Economic news:
▪  Today from AP -- Growth weaker than hoped; economy shrinks -- The country didn't get the energetic rebound in economic growth hoped for from the government's tax rebates, and the economy jolted into reverse at the end of 2007, raising new recession fears.
▪  Bust not everybody's suffering. From AP -- Rising oil prices swell profits at Exxon, Shell -- Exxon's second-quarter income rose 14%, to $11.68 billion, the highest-ever for an American company.
▪  At DemocracyNow.org -- The Big Squeeze (interview with author Steven Greenhouse) -- The New York Times labor reporter examines how many of us are working more but earning less. Wages have stagnated, health and pension benefits have grown stingier, and job security has shriveled. 
▪  In today's NY Times -- A hidden toll on employment: Cut to part time -- The number of Americans who have seen their full-time jobs chopped to part time has swelled to more than 3.7 million -- the largest figure since the government began tracking such data more than half a century ago. 
▪  In today's NY Times -- $70 million effort seeks new safety net for workers -- Concerned that thousands of corporations have cut back on health coverage and pensions -- partly because of competitive pressures fueled by globalization -- the Rockefeller Foundation begins an effort to help build a new social safety net for the nation’s workers, especially the poorest and most vulnerable. (Save your $70 million, just pass the Employee Free Choice Act!) 

National news:
▪  In today's SF Chronicle -- CA bill would require paid sick days for most -- Up to 5.4 million working Californians don't get any sick days, and they tend to be sicker and poorer than those who do.
▪  Today from AP -- Layoffs possible to 22,000 California state workers -- Gov. Schwarzenegger threatens to sign an executive order laying off temporary, part-time and contract state workers.
▪  In today's NY Times -- United sues pilots, saying job action cancelled hundreds of flights -- ALPA urged to halt slowdowns that have led to the cancellation of hundreds of flights in the last 10 days.
▪  In The Onion -- Al Gore places infant son in rocket to escape dying planet -- "I tried to warn them, but the Elders of this planet would not listen," said Gore. "They called me foolish and laughed at my predictions. Yet even now, the Midwest is flooded, the ice caps are melting, and the cities are rocked with tremors, just as I foretold. Fools! Why didn't they heed me before it was too late?"

THURSDAY, JULY 31, 2008
What union members should know about Dino Rossi

Meet Dino Rossi. He's a Republican real estate salesman and a former State Senator who ran for Governor in 2004, but lost by 133 votes. Now he's running for Governor again. But this time, given that Washington voters haven't elected a Republican governor in 24 years, Rossi is running as a "GOP" candidate, apparently because about one in four Washingtonians don't know that GOP means the same thing as Republican.

Delegates representing labor unions across the State of Washington voted UNANIMOUSLY in May to oppose Rossi's candidacy and support incumbent Gov. Chris Gregoire for reelection in 2008.  Why?

Similar to his transparent attempt to disguise his party affiliation, Rossi calls himself a "compassionate conservative."  But there's no compassion in his voting record on working family issues.  He voted for a lower minimum wage, voted against letting people use sick leave to care for ailing family members, voted to deny unemployment benefits to victims of domestic violence forced to quit their jobs to flee their abusers, and wrote a budget cutting 40,000 kids in low-income families off health insurance at the same time he renewed -- and expanded -- special interest business tax breaks.

That's just for starters.

Rossi's 6% voting record with the Washington State Labor Council ranks among the worst -- and most partisan -- of any legislator during his 1997-2003 tenure in the State Senate. He managed only five positive votes in 77 chances, and those were on issues with which labor, business and the leadership of both parties were all in agreement. For example, his one positive vote out of 15 in 2003 was to approve the 5-cent gas-tax increase to fund transportation improvements.

On all other labor issues, Sen. Rossi has voted with his party leadership and against the interests of Washington's working families every time, including when other moderate Republicans sided with Democrats to approve legislation.  Here are a few examples (click on the years to see more detail on that year's WSLC Voting Record):

• 2003 -- Rossi voted for changes to the unemployment system that dramatically cut benefits for workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own; for cutting workers' compensation benefits for victims of job-related hearing loss; for repealing the workplace ergonomic safety rule; for freezing the state minimum wage; for adopting federal wage-and-hour standards (in anticipation of the Bush administration proposal to exclude some 8 million Americans from the right to overtime pay); and for authorizing charter schools.

• 2002 -- Rossi voted against granting collective bargaining rights to state employees, 4-year college faculty and UW academic student employees; against the prescription drug utilization bill to create a "buying pool" negotiating lower drug prices in Washington; against allowing use of sick time or other paid leave to care for sick family members; and against allowing dues deduction for home-care workers who choose to join a union.

• 2001 -- Rossi voted against granting unemployment benefits to victims of domestic violence who are forced to quit their jobs to flee their attackers (at an annual estimated cost of just $144,000); against implementation of the state ergonomic safety rule; and against prohibiting public employers from firing or misclassifying employees to avoid providing benefits.

• 2000 -- Rossi voted against the retraining bill designed to assist laid-off Boeing Machinists, timber workers and others; against providing unemployment benefits to workers locked out of their jobs (like those at Kaiser Aluminum); against promoting apprenticeship on public-works projects; and against empowering health care workers to avoid and prevent needlestick injuries. He voted for privatization of certain ferry runs.

• 1999 -- No labor voting record that year.

• 1998 -- Rossi voted against increasing agency home-care workers' wages to an average $8.50 an hour and against a "pay gap" measure designed to grant bigger raises to state employees whose wages lag behind their private sector counterparts.

• 1997 -- Rossi voted for overturning a unanimous Supreme Court decision (Birklid v. Boeing) granting legal immunity to employers that intentionally injure workers; for partial privatization of our state workers' compensation system; for lowering state standards protecting workers from secondhand smoke; and for granting legal immunity to job site contractors who negligently injure workers who are not their employees.

For more information about these and other anti-labor votes taken by Dino Rossi, contact David Groves at 206-281-8901.

Copyright © ^{2008 --  Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO}