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.

THURSDAY, MAY 1

Two important events occur Today, May 1st in Seattle. 

The Longshoremen are sponsoring an anti-war demonstration at the dock at Noon and..

There is also an Immigration rally to be held at 4 p.m. 

Click here for more information on both events.

Local News:

• Spying, intrigue surround election of machinists at Boeing -- Seattle Times -- Someone furtively shoots secret surveillance photos as a well-connected political lobbyist arrives for a meeting. Inside, a mole takes notes and snaps quickly with a cellphone camera. A third person drops documents and photos at a newspaper office. No, it's not a John le Carré spy novel. It's election time at the Machinists union, representing 25,000 Boeing workers in the Puget Sound area and 2,500 more in Portland and Wichita, Kan.
• Longshore union strikes against war -- Seattle PI -- On Thursday, May Day, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union will declare an eight-hour strike to protest the war in Iraq. Since the ILWU controls every port along the U.S. Pacific Coast, including Seattle and Tacoma, this strike demonstrates the collective power of workers willing to use it. The ILWU is demanding "an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East." Although the majority of Americans repeatedly have expressed their desire to end the war, President Bush has not obliged us, so it drags on. Because our leaders refuse to listen, ILWU members are taking the next logical step for workers: Strike.
• Arbitrator steps in to avoid West Coast port slowdown -- Seattle PI -- An arbitrator has ordered the union that represents dockworkers at West Coast ports to tell members they must report to work on Thursday and not take the day off to protest U.S. military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. A wide enough walkout could cause a slowdown at the West Coast ports - the nation's major gateway for cargo from the Far East. Arbitrator John Kagel issued his decision Wednesday after holding a hearing by phone with the employers' group, the Pacific Maritime Association, and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, according to a document outlining the ruling.
• May Day march expected to draw hundreds of illegal immigrants  -- Seattle Times -- Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of illegal immigrants are expected to join supporters in a four-mile march through downtown Seattle at the height of rush hour today, proclaiming they're not illegal or undocumented — but workers. And at the same time, many more are expected to stay away, fearful of drawing the attention of immigration authorities or frustrated by the failure of Congress to fix the immigration system even as raids and deportations continue.

Political and Legislative:

AFL-CIO Congressional Records Available click here for more

• Eyman mortgages house to pay for initiative -- Seattle PI -- Faced with lackluster donations and the indefinite loss of his main financier, citizen initiative sponsor Tim Eyman is for the first time putting his money where his mouth is. After more than a decade of working on socially conservative and anti-tax initiatives -- and turning the campaigns into personally profitable ventures -- Eyman has been forced to mortgage his home for $250,000 to keep his latest effort going.

• Serious flaws in Rossi's plan -- Seattle Times Editorial -- MORE traffic, more taxes and fewer choices are what Dino Rossi's transportation proposal would mean for area commuters. Rossi's proposal has two serious flaws — among many — that would have drastic consequences for the future of transportation in our region, particularly for East King County.

• Cheney blocks rule to protect whales -- Washington Post -- The documents, which were mailed to the environmental group by an unidentified National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration official, illuminate a struggle that has raged between the White House and NOAA for more than a year. In February 2007, NOAA issued a final rule aimed at slowing ships traversing some East Coast waters to 10 knots or less during parts of the year to protect the right whales, but the White House has blocked the rule from taking effect.

• Reichert’s real record on the environment -- Horsesass -- Reichert sure talks up his environmental credentials, but since introducing his bill back on November 8, 2007, he has managed to secure exactly zero co-sponsors in the House. Zilch. Nada. Bupkis. He hasn’t even persuaded a single Republican colleague to sign on, and it’s not at all clear that he’s even tried. I’d say that speaks volumes both about the seriousness of his efforts to push this bill forward, and his ability to actually do so.

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.

   

  Click here to go to a page full of previously posted articles on John McCain. 

• McCain’s Health Care Plan: Increases Taxes, Decreases Coverage -- AFL-CIO  -- Sen. John McCain gave an address his advisers claimed would “unveil” his health care proposal —but he essentially offered the same tired proposal he’s been touting for months. Most policy analysts agree this plan won’t cut costs, won’t cover more people and won’t fix the real problems in the health care system. McCain wants to address our nation’s health care crisis by merely shifting costs around—and millions of people would pay higher health care costs as a result. McCain would tax health care benefits as income and push more people out of group insurance pools and into the often-predatory private market. In short, McCain would increase our taxes and ensure fewer of us could afford quality health care.
• How to Talk About Health Care -- AlterNet -- John McCain will be spending the week promoting his health care scheme. The crux of the plan is to abolish employer-based health insurance and throw middle class working Americans to the wolves. It is market fundamentalism at its worst. But I'm not here to talk about the policy details. I want to discuss message framing. During an election campaign, when our ultimate audience is persuadable voters, how do we talk about health care?

Regional News:

• Mayday for undocumented workers -- SF Chronicle -- Millions of people have come to this country to work, not to break its laws. Some have come with visas, and others without them. But they are all contributors to the society they've found here, not people who mean it harm. Again this May Day, immigrant workers are filling the streets, making the same point. Yet today, the federal government is taking actions that make holding a job a criminal act. Some states and local communities, seeing a green light from the Department of Homeland Security, are passing measures that go even further. These actions need a reality check.

National News:

• House votes on requiring combustible dust rule changes -- AP -- House Democrats are pushing for new standards to protect workers from combustible dust explosions and fires after 13 people were killed in a Georgia sugar plant blast in February. The Democratic-controlled House was expected to pass a bill Wednesday requiring new safety standards for workplaces in danger of having large levels of dust that can become fuel for fires and explosions.
• For Striking Factory Workers, U.S.-First Pledge Falls Flat -- Washington Post -- The America-first chief executive says he can no longer afford the $73 an hour his employees cost. Without worker concessions, he said American Axle's five major U.S plants could be forced to close. His employees aren't buying it. They walked out Feb. 26 after rejecting the company's demands that the union said would cut wages in half. The job action has idled not only the 3,650 striking employees but also tens of thousands of workers in related industries. "This is not a trivial effect," said Brian A. Bethune, an economist with Global Insight.
• Labor in Colorado -- Denver Post --Thanks to Gov. Bill Ritter's gold-plated invitation, union leaders are on the verge of taking a major role in state government. Taxpayers and dissenting workers should pay attention.
• Girder falls, kills worker at steelmill --Post Tribune --A 60-year-old millwright from Portage, Indiana, was killed Wednesday morning when a girder dislodged in the spare-machinery storage area at ArcelorMittal's Burns Harbor plant, according to United Steel Workers Local 6787 President Paul Gipson.
• Home Depot Cuts Back On U.S. Expansion -- Wall Street Journal -- Home Depot Inc. said it halted plans to open about 50 U.S. stores, some that have been in the pipeline for more than 10 years, and will close 15 underperforming stores as it cuts capital spending to improve returns. The moves by the home-improvement retailer come amid little if any expectation of a quick rebound in the housing market. Home Depot has been hoping that its yearlong turnaround efforts -- a plan that has included layoffs and mending its poor reputation for customer service -- will position it for when a rebound finally occurs.
•  Studios not willing to accept contract demands by actors  -- AP -- Major Hollywood studios said Wednesday they won't accept pay hikes sought by the Screen Actors Guild in contract talks, suggesting a deal is unlikely before the talks temporarily end later this week.
• A ‘Confessions of a Sweatshop Inspector’ Shows Need for Standards in Trade Dealspenalties -- AFL-CIO -- In this month’s Washington Monthly magazine, T.A. Frank, a former sweatshop inspector or “corporate social responsibility monitor,” describes what it’s like on the ground for those who are charged with enforcing codes of conduct. In 2002 and 2003, Frank inspected foreign factories for clients such as K-Mart, Ann Taylor and Home Depot to see the extent to which suppliers were complying with codes of conducts and local laws. In the process, he says he learned the tricks local factories use to get around the inspection system and how to spot which corporations want their products to be made ethically.
• Indian company buying West Virginia steelmaker Esmark -- AP -- Esmark now enters a 52-day "right to bid" period required in the collective bargaining agreement with the United Steelworkers, which has the right to reject any deal that changes control of twice-bankrupt Wheeling-Pitt, the steelmaker Esmark initially seized control of in a proxy fight in the fall of 2006.

Health Care:

• A new report by Families USA --  Dying For Coverage gives great stats on state of WA health care.

• Health coverage: Who’s driving? -- Columbian -- Automobiles were used as an unlikely comparison for health care coverage at a forum Tuesday. State Rep. Eileen Cody, D-West Seattle, said people want the Cadillac of health care. Cody, chairwoman of the state Health Care and Wellness Committee and a nurse, said she’s never heard a patient who was diagnosed with cancer or involved in a serious accident say, “Can you send me to the cheapest doctor?”

• Loss of health care agency will cost more than it saves -- Tri-Cities Herald -- In all, more than 2,000 low-income, uninsured people in Benton and Franklin counties have been helped by Access to Care since it opened in 2004. The agency's task was to find health care for people who might otherwise go without. Sometimes that meant connecting clients to doctors willing to donate their time. Just as critical to the health of its clients, the agency found drug companies or other sources willing to fill prescriptions at deep discounts for people without insurance or enough money to pay full price.

World News:

• Cuba labor leader calls for more efficiency, harder work -- Seattle PI -- The head of communist Cuba's powerful labor union called for more efficiency and harder work in the face of rising world fuel and food prices as hundreds of thousands of workers joined the traditional May Day march on Thursday. The secretary-general of the Cuban Workers Confederation, Salvador Valdes Mesa, also exhorted workers massed in Havana's broad Revolution Plaza to adhere to the principles of ailing ex-president Fidel Castro, the founder of the island's 50-year-old revolution.

War News:

• Still no 'mission accomplished' -- BBC -- President Bush did not say "Mission Accomplished" on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln off San Diego on 1 May five years ago. But the banner above him did. And the picture of those two words said more than the 1,829 words of his speech.
• ACLU: Pentagon documents highlight interrogation methods -- AP -- The military continued to use abusive interrogation methods on detainees after a 2003 directive meant to end such practices, the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday after reviewing newly released documents. The Department of Defense documents shed light on the use of psychologists in military interrogations and the failure of medical workers to report abuse of detainees, the ACLU said.

A True Labor of Love

Saturday, April 26 dawned beautiful and sunny in Southwest Washington . The day was all the more beautiful because about 200 trade unionists and democratic party members showed up at the Baw Faw Grange in Curtis, Washington to volunteer to help clean up debris strewn fields for farmers they had never met. Curtis is tucked into the Willapa Hills in the bucolic Boisfort Valley . Last December the Chehalis River flood devastated this picturesque valley spreading water four and five feet deep over these farm fields, littering them with the remains of clear cut hillsides.  

The volunteers set out at 9:00 am in crews of 30 to 40 to seven different farms in the valley and walked through soggy fields picking up debris (from four inch long sticks to logs that took six people to lift). Aided by tractors and front loaders the crews worked until 4:30 pm carting tons of wood and rock away from the fields. At the end of the day a lot of sun-burnt and back-weary folks sat down to a wonderful barbeque feast and, of course, stories of who had worked the hardest and who had hardly worked and just a whole lot of union pride for what had been accomplished for these farmers, who we  would probably never see again in our lives.

Proud contingents of union members came from: IBEW, led by Bob Guenther; WFSE, led by Carol Dotlich; Laborers, led by Pete Lahmann; and AFT, led by Bob Markholt who brought a contingent of ten pre-apprentices and staff from Seattle Vocational Institute. Other unions represented were: OPEIU 8, Teamsters, United Food and Commercial Workers, Sheetmetal Workers and Railroad Workers. Others in attendance were: the Reverend Art Venei from the Universalist Unitarian Church in Olympia , Jody Robbins, Peter Goldmark (candidate for Lands Commissioner), Grace Cox from the Olympia Food Co-op who brought three visitors from Nicaragua ; and Zach Smith (member of WFSE, chair of the State Democratic Labor Caucus and also a co-coordinator of this event).  

But the real applause goes to the mastermind behind this event, Bob Guenther. Bob, who is the head of the Thurston-Lewis-Mason County Central Labor Council and who is an executive board member of the WSLC, is a humble man who avoids the spotlight but who makes things happen. Bob, with the help of a planning committee, raised nearly $ 10,000 for this event and lined up the farmers and volunteers. Bob wanted to show the community what the collective power of labor could do when we stand together to help one another out. Bob told the crowd that this was a union/community event, right down to the box lunches put together by UFCW members. Thank you, Bob! Without you this event would never have happened.  

[Note: We know that many local unions and union members spend countless time volunteering in their community making all of our communities’ better places to live. We would like to shine a light on you. So please e-mail your stories to Communications Director, Kathy Cummings at kcummings@wslc.org.]

In Solidarity,

Jeff Johnson

Special Assistant to the President

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.