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.

WEDNESDAY,  MARCH 26

Tanker News:

The Boeing Company has taken out full page ads in both the Seattle PI and the Seattle Times to publicize the facts about the Tanker decision. ... and you can check  out their website www.boeingblogs.com/tanker to learn more about Boeing's appeal of the decision...

Local News:

• Seattle may lose four factories -- Puget Sound BJ -- The rising cost of land appears to be driving several of Seattle's remaining large manufacturers out of the city. Though Seattle newspapers reported this week that Korry Electronics had dropped plans to locate a new factory at the Port of Seattle's North Bay site, the company said it wasn't a done deal. Meanwhile, two other Seattle manufacturers, GM Nameplate Inc. and Avtech Corp., are looking for new sites, and may move outside the city. University Swaging Co., one of the largest aerospace suppliers still operating in Seattle, will move from Ballard to a new facility in south Snohomish County.
• Grant fortifies work force training -- Olympian -- Amid dire predictions about the U.S. job market, South Sound has received a $5 million boost for worker training and economic development. A celebration Tuesday at Tumwater's New Market Skills Center focused on the U.S. Department of Labor's grant to a local coalition for worker training and economic development, one of 13 awarded nationwide.
• Tacoma port terminal security group, guards at odds over union -- Tacoma News Tribune -- Securitas Security Services faces charges of unfair labor practices from the National Labor Relations Board after employees said they were threatened with losing their jobs if they supported joining the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents 60,000 dock and warehouse workers on the West Coast, or testified against the company at labor hearings. One security guard says he was fired for promoting the longshore union at work.
• U.S. 2 safety improvements to come this spring --Everett Herald -- A key project aimed at preventing deadly crossover accidents on U.S. 2 is expected to begin in a little more than month, the Washington State Department of Transportation announced Tuesday. 
  Crews are expected to grind divots into U.S. 2 from east of Monroe to Stevens Pass beginning in May. The $3.9 million project is expected to finish this summer.
• Goodbye blues: Third of Tacoma police force eligible to retire soon -- Tacoma News Tribune -- Over the next six years, about one-third of the department’s 387-member force will be eligible to retire. Those 137 men and women include the chief, a majority of the department’s commanders and a sizable chunk of detectives.
• Seattle housing market posts first year-to-year drop since 1991 -- Seattle PI -- Experts are predicting further declines the coming months but still less than in many other parts of the country. The price of a typical house in the Seattle area, including King and Snohomish counties, was down 1.3 percent in January from a year earlier and 1.8 percent from Dec.
• Good pay, steady work, few takers as young people spurn the trades -- Seattle PI -- The shortage isn't confined to carpenters -- it extends to plumbers, stonemasons, electricians, cabinetmakers, welders and a list of other trades that were once sought after. What has some educators and employers puzzled is that many of those professions offer the chance to make upward of $50,000 right away. But they say a negative perception of the trades coupled with a mounting push for college education has dealt the professions a hard blow in the U.S.
• Boeing data theft trial begins -- Seattle PI -- Eastman worked for Boeing for 18 years. He was arrested at his desk in May 2006 after, investigators say, they found that he had been combing Boeing's computer network for sensitive information. He had been working as a quality assurance inspector in the propulsion division.  But his public defender, Ramona Brandes, told a King County Superior Court jury of 14 that Eastman had ethical concerns about Boeing and began to look for evidence to support those concerns.
• Starbucks sued again over tip pools -- Seattle PI -- A week after Starbucks was ordered to refund more than $100 million to baristas in California over a tip pool controversy, the coffee giant was hit Tuesday with a similar lawsuit in Massachusetts. And a Boston lawyer said more lawsuits could be filed in Washington, New York and Minnesota over whether shift supervisors can share baristas' tips.
• Troy Mine may face over $90,000 in fines -- Spokesman Review -- Federal mine regulators have proposed over $90,000 in fines against Troy Mine, based on inspections carried out after a mine worker was killed in a cave-in last summer. The Mine Safety and Health Administration charges that mine managers did not take adequate steps to keep miners safe."We view that as completely false," said Carson Rife, vice president of operations at Spokane Valley-based Revett Minerals Inc., parent company of the mine. "These fines are related to citations we are already contesting."
• Enrollment woes hit Hoquiam -- Aberdeen Daily World -- Hoquiam school Superintendent Mike Parker is seeking permission from the School Board to lay off an undetermined number of school employees, including teachers.
• Glut of blowdown, weak home sales put a damper on timber bids-- Aberdeen Daily World -- An oversaturated timber market combined with a falling demand for new homes means that revenue from the county’s most recent timber sales are down by about 40 percent from a year ago, according to Larry Smith, the county’s forestry director.
• Douglas Fruit employees vote against union effort -- Tri-Cities Herald --  Linda Gruen, organizing director for the United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local 1439, said she couldn't release the actual vote numbers because the election isn't yet certified, but said she was disappointed with the result. "It was significantly less than we expected," said Gruen. "But this is just our first attempt -- we aren't going away."

Political and Legislative:

AFL-CIO Congressional Records Available click here for more

• Gov. Gregoire signs state transport budget -- Tacoma News Tribune -- Gov. Chris Gregoire has signed a new state transportation budget that earmarks money for three new ferries and major road and bridge projects. The governor also has approved a plan that allows greater use of road and bridge tolls to help build mega-projects like the new Highway 520 floating bridge.
• States Alter Rules of Game On Safety for Toy Makers  -- Wall Street Journal -- In a last-ditch effort to stop the measure, representatives of Mattel Inc. and Hasbro Inc., the country's two biggest toy makers, met with Gov. Gregoire March 17, according to people familiar with the matter. At that meeting, and elsewhere, these people say, Mattel has told Washington officials that half of the products made by its Fisher-Price unit, which specializes in products for preschoolers, would be barred from the state if the law is adopted. The new restrictions would take effect in July 2009.
• Law protecting stranded passengers is overturned -- AP -- A federal appeals court Tuesday struck down a state law requiring airlines to give food, water, clean toilets and fresh air to passengers stuck in delayed planes, saying the measure was well-intentioned but stepped on federal authority. ...The law was challenged by the Air Transport Association of America, the industry trade group....Assemblyman Michael Gianaris, the prime sponsor of New York Airline Passenger Bill of Rights, said the ruling "is a disappointment to anyone who has suffered at the hands of airlines that care more about profits than their customers."
• Top-two primary system troubles parties -- Olympian -- Washington's political parties are unsure how to handle the state's new top-two primary election Aug. 19, saying they want to see how Secretary of State Sam Reed designs the ballots
• Judge retiring after 25 years  --  Olympian --Thurston County Superior Court Judge Richard A. Strophy will end a 25-year career on the bench, including 23 years as a Superior Court judge, when he retires effective Jan. 10, he announced Tuesday.
• Cantwell supporting Clinton -- for now  -- Columbian -- U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, one of Washington’s 17 Democratic superdelegates, isn’t ready to shift her allegiance from Sen. Hillary Clinton to Sen. Barack Obama — yet. But in an interview with The Columbian’s editorial board Monday, she said the candidate with the most pledged delegates at the end of the primary season in late June will have the strongest claim to the party’s presidential nomination. “I definitely don’t want the superdelegates to be the deciding factor,” she said.
• Telling Bush the truth is costly -- Helen Thomas column -- A salute is due Adm. William Fallon, who tried to prevent a wider war with Iran. ...There is a widespread perception that he was pushed out by the neo-conservatives among President Bush's aides, especially Vice President Dick Cheney, because of Fallon's reluctance to go along with the administration's hawkish moves toward Iran. ....Cheney, who took five consecutive draft deferments to stay out of the Vietnam War, does not mind keeping the U.S. in the Iraqi quagmire he helped create. The same goes for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the presumptive GOP presidential candidate, who said that leaving Iraq is not a U.S. option.

  McCain once said the U.S. could stay in Iraq for 100 years.

McCain Myth Busters: 

• The AFL-CIO has put up a new website - McCain Revealed, a campaign to tell 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.

   

  The AFL-CIO's new McCain Revealed website features an interactive McCain briefing book that answers the questions we need to know before we go to the polls, including where he stands on the economy, jobs, health care, trade, workers’ rights, retirement security and the Bush administration. click here for more or just go directly to the site.

• 2 McCain Moments, Rarely Mentioned  -- NY Times -- There were times when he rose to the occasion and showed himself to be a real pragmatist,” said Tom Daschle, the former Senate Democratic leader who was one of those who met with Mr. McCain in 2001 about switching parties and who is now supporting Senator Barack Obama. “There were other times when he was motivated by political goals and agendas that led him to be much more of a political ideologue.”  Such swings are common in politics, but for Mr. McCain, Mr. Daschle said, “those swings have been far more pronounced and far more frequent.”

• McCain: Working Families to Blame for Mortgage Mess -- AFL-CIO -- Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain must have a plan to address the housing crisis, right? Not so. In fact, the Republican from Arizona blames the millions of America’s working families who have lost their homes. They, says McCain, caused the economic downturn.

National News:

• FAA orders small-plane inspections -- AP -- In a directive that affects about 5,000 general aviation aircraft in the U.S. and an additional 1,000 planes worldwide, the FAA has ordered immediate inspections of all the small planes, after reports that a faulty gasket can cause loss of engine power.
• American Airlines cancels 200 flights to check planes -- Houston Chronicle -- The inspections include checking the wiring in Boeing Co. MD-80s after federal regulators raised questions during a maintenance audit. The cancellations represent about 9 percent of American's daily flights. American is checking whether a bundle of wires was installed and secured according to a Federal Aviation Administration directive.
• Aerospace Notebook: Final, chilling moments of a crash -- Seattle PI -- AS THE ADAM AIR 737 spun toward the Makassar Strait from 35,000 feet at nearly the speed of sound, the co-pilot shouted, "Pull up!"...Five more times he screamed at the pilot: "Pull up!"...But it was too late.
• Orders for Durable Goods in U.S. Unexpectedly Fell -- Bloomberg --  Businesses are cutting back on equipment purchases as the biggest housing downturn in a quarter century hurts sales, and rising fuel costs erode profit. Improving demand from overseas is the only thing preventing manufacturing from declining even more.
• Ford Motor Sells Land Rover, Jaguar to India's Tata -- Bloomberg -- Ford is ending its investment in U.K.-based brands as the U.S. housing slump and job losses curb sales of models such as the $80,000 Jaguar XK. Ford is working to return to profit next year after $15.3 billion in losses in 2006 and 2007. ``Ford's financial situation is so severe it simply can't afford to sustain the two companies any longer,'' said Peter Schmidt, managing director of U.K. consulting firm Automotive Industry Data. ``Jaguar has been nothing but a financial millstone.''
• Why America’s ‘good jobs’ are quickly disappearing -- Tacoma News Tribune -- The Center for Economic and Policy Research defines a “good job” as one with health insurance, a pension plan and earnings of at least $17 per hour. That works out to about $34,000 a year, the inflation-adjusted median income for men in 1979, when U.S. manufacturing jobs numbered 19.6 million, an all-time high. Since then, however, the economy has lost nearly 6 million manufacturing jobs – 52,000 in February alone. Among them were many of the 3.5 million “good jobs” lost from 2000 to 2006, said John Schmitt, a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. As those jobs disappeared, many blue-collar workers had to take jobs with far less pay and benefit security.
• FDIC to add 140 workers to bank-failure division --AP -- Anticipating a surge in troubled financial institutions, federal regulators will increase by more than 60 percent the number of workers who handle bank failures. 
• Probe Begins in Fatal Miami Crane Crash -- ABC -- Authorities are investigating what caused a section of construction crane to plummet 30 floors into a home that a contractor used for storage, killing two people in the nation's second deadly crane accident in 10 days.
• Mexico plans big splash with new Baja California port  -- LA Times -- Mexico's government is preparing to open bidding on the largest infrastructure project in the nation's history, a $4-billion seaport that could transform this farming village into a cargo hub to rival the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach ....Competition promises to be fierce. Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings, a major port developer and operator whose parent company is chaired by billionaire Li Ka-Shing, said it planned to study the bid documents. So will terminal operators SSA Marine of Seattle and Dubai's DP World.
• Hands Off Our Palms, Union Says -- NY Times -- Seventeen NY agencies, including the Fire Department, are using biometric hand geometry technology, known as ‘hand scanners,” or are rolling them out. The scanners are a subset of the CityTime program, a web-based time and attendance system, is now in operation or being rolled out in in 29 offices, said Matthew Kelly, a city spokesman.

Health Care:

• A health-care system that's sick, getting sicker --  Everett Herald Editorial -- America's health-care crisis continues to deteriorate into something worse, something chronic that threatens to be untreatable. Unless we act now. If only all the campaign chatter and promises might actually turn into action that begins to touch this growing national embarrassment.
• Going to bat for health care -- Robby Stern and Bob Crittenden guest columnists Seattle PI -- You hear quality, access and affordability again and again when talking to small businesses, individuals and providers. This session more than 65 groups pulled together and defined priorities that would begin to address the most critical health care needs facing people in Washington. Small businesses, children's groups, seniors' groups and consumer groups banded together with health care providers and labor under the name of the Healthy Washington Coalition. None of the victories this session was a solid home run but we got to first base on all but one.
• Rising Health Costs Cut Into Wages --Washington Post  -- Recent history has not been kind to working-class Americans, who were down on the economy long before the word recession was uttered. The main reason: spiraling health-care costs have been whacking away at their wages. Even though workers are producing more, inflation-adjusted median family income has dipped 2.6 percent -- or nearly $1,000 annually since 2000.
• Many in Snohomish County get too little medical care, report finds -- Everett Herald -- Nearly 15 percent of adults in Snohomish County are going without health insurance, and lack of money often means they delay getting medical care.
  

Need To Know:

• Employers getting nosier about your background -- Everett Herald -- These days, background checks are not limited to job-seeking in the government and financial sector, and since the events of Sept. 11, 2001, they have become commonplace in many areas of the job market. Very few employers actually interview your acquaintances, but plenty of companies and recruiters insist on accessing your private and personal information. The term background check or "consumer report" refers to any number of reports or investigations that an employer may use to verify your experience. Depending on the company, it might encompass your finances, work history and civil-criminal records.
  

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.