Employee Free Choice Act news:

►  In The Hill -- Labor targets Wall Street in EFCA fight -- The new ad suggests the fierce battle over the Employee Free Choice Act is not ending despite Sens. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Blanche Lincoln (D-Wal-Mart) announcing they will not support it unless it is changed.

Immigration reform news:

►  In today's NY Times -- Obama to push immigration reform despite risks -- Although the recession makes the political battle more difficult, President Obama plans to begin addressing the immigration system this year, including looking for a path for illegal immigrants to become legal. Obama will frame the new effort -- likely to rouse passions on all sides of the highly divisive issue -- as “policy reform that controls immigration and makes it an orderly system.”

►  In today's Seattle Times -- Report disputes immigrants' drain on state and local economies -- The OneAmerica report examines the economic contributions of Washington's estimated 778,501 foreign-born residents -- legal and illegal. Seeking to debunk claims that immigrants are an economic drain on the state and local governments, the report notes that immigrants use public assistance at rates that are the same or lower than native-born households. 

Legislative news:

►  In today's News Tribune -- Health care groups begin to push for higher tax -- Voters might be asked this fall to increase the state sales tax from 6.5% to 6.8% for two years to restore some $650 million the Legislature is expected to cut from health care programs. A coalition of health care advocates behind the proposal began running TV ads Wednesday that its members hope will alert the public to the magnitude of cuts the Legislature is considering. The coalition does not include the WEA, the WSLC or the WFSE because education won’t be the focus of any ballot measure.

►  In today's Seattle Times -- Closing prisons, slashing sentences eyed to balance budget -- Some Democrats want to close the 1,300-inmate McNeil Island prison to save about $16 million over two years. The Senate budget would close Green Hill School, the lockup for violent and gang-entrenched juveniles; downsize the jail population by 1,900 inmates; and drop probation for low-level felons. The House budget would cut probation time for violent felons and sex offenders; allow for home detention instead of prison in some cases; close the medium-security Naselle Youth Camp; and eliminate parole for nearly a third of juvenile offenders.

►  At Publicola.com -- Progressive legislators show their colors -- Legislators who consider themselves labor Democrats and those who consider themselves environmental Democrats have begun wearing blue-green lapel pins. Traditionally, both groups held separate informal get togethers. But lately, the Blue/Green legislators have been meeting together, and now they’re getting organized (must have been the labor influence). The Blue/Green coalition hopes to pass bills that they don’t have the numbers to pass as individual blocs. Most notably: The now infamous Workers Privacy bill that leadership squashed earlier this session under a “manufactured scandal,” as Blue/ Green Democrat Rep. Geoff Simpson called it.

►  In today's Olympian -- Home care workers' union warns of shortfall -- Democrats are not offering enough money to provide the training required under I-1029. That means workers still will need the training to be certified, but there will not be an avenue to receive it, says SEIU Local 775.

►  At SeattlePI.com -- Will federal aid mitigate huge tuition hikes? -- In the wake of Gregoire's proposal to raise college tuition by 30% over two years, UW students and administrators are hoping federal economic-stimulus tax credits can blunt the financial impact on families.

►  In today's Everett Herald -- Bargaining isn't the answer (editorial) -- A bill giving collective bargaining rights to private child-care center directors and their workers is gaining renewed traction in Olympia. This is more about expanding union membership and political clout than improving the quality of child care. (Feel free to write The Herald and tell them that the freedom to choose unionization is not just "a new layer of red tape," as this editorial states.)

Local news:

►  At SeattlePI.com -- Kids at risk over $60 million in cuts at Children's Hospital -- The Northwest's largest pediatric hospital stands to lose nearly $60 million in Medicaid funding over the next two years -- possibly the largest proposed budget cut to any hospital in the state.

►  In the Kitsap Sun -- More Bainbridge city workers get pink slips -- Eight more lose their jobs in the second round of layoffs in less than two months. Nine others will work reduced hours.

►  In the Kitsap Sun -- Bremerton firefighters agree to pay cuts -- IAFF Local 437 says members agreed to 2% wage cuts and to postpone five new hires and promotions until next year.

►  In today's Daily News -- Cowlitz employees' union OKs voluntary furloughs, benefit cuts -- AFSCME Local 1262 members can volunteer to take time off to help with the budget crisis.

National news:

►  In today's Detroit News -- Bonior call for labor unity -- The former Michigan congressman is heading up an effort that could transform organized labor, seeking to unify the nation's largest unions under a single banner. Bonior says the goal is to build a labor group powerful enough to reverse what he called decades of lost ground for middle-class workers. Bonior says the union organization involved have settled major issues such balancing political efforts and workplace organizing. Those issues prompted the split-off of several former AFL-CIO unions into the Change to Win coalition. If they can settle the financial and administrative issues that remain, a new, the broader coalition could have a bigger impact in Washington and in workplaces.

►  In today's LA Times -- Deadline extended for H-1B visas because of low demand -- Surging unemployment have tamped down the usual frenzied rush of companies filing requests to hire skilled temporary foreign workers, so this week's application deadline has been extended. 

Layoffs As Entertainment news:

►  From AP -- Fox to make reality TV show out of company layoffs -- In a new reality TV series, "Someone's Gotta Go," the Fox network is letting employees of some troubled small businesses decide which one of their colleagues will be laid off.