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April 23, 2009 |
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Thursday, April 23, 2009
"We
suck" echo chamber is getting tiresome
Yet another member of the corporate echo chamber bashes Washington state's
"business climate" in a deliberately timed effort to advance an
anti-working family legislative agenda. (APRIL 27 UPDATE: This report
erroneously attributes recommendations to cut unemployment and workers'
compensation benefits to aerospace consultant Scott Hamilton; see
correction.)
►
In today's Everett Herald -- Could
Boeing fly away from Washington? -- An aerospace analyst says, in order
to keep Boeing, the state needs to improve its business climate by cutting
unemployment insurance and workers compensation rates. Regardless
of what lawmakers do to pacify Boeing, the company remains committed to
increasing its use of outsourcing, he says: "Even if Boeing stays,
you're going to have fewer jobs in the Puget Sound region."
► In today's Everett Herald -- Preserving our aerospace industry: Two positive steps to take (editorial) -- Lawmakers must reject (benefit improvements in the Unemployment Insurance bill), and Gov. Gregoire should be prodding them in that direction. Boeing and its unions could forge the beginnings of a more constructive, long-term relationship by finding a concrete way to avoid work stoppages. One way would be for Boeing and its key unions to enter into a long-term (say, 20-year) no-strike agreement, sending any contract impasses to binding arbitration.
► At SeattleTimes.com -- Is Boeing looking for an exit? (by columnist Jon Talton) -- Obviously these reports are aimed at pressuring lawmakers. But are they objective assessments? I'm a skeptic. ... The burden of competitiveness can't all fall on the working stiffs. If cheaper labor, less of an unemployment safety net for workers and a Mississippi-style tax base are the only way to compete, Washington and America have bigger problems than losing Boeing.
Legislative news:
►
In today's Everett Herald -- Lawmakers
reach deal on budget cuts -- House and Senate
negotiators agree on slashing $4 billion from schools, colleges and medical
care and cutting thousands state workers' and teachers' jobs. But budget
passage may not come easy.
► At Publicola.net -- Senate will not expand unemployment insurance -- The unemployment insurance bill to expand benefits (as the House wants) or not (as the Senate wants) is going the Senate’s way. Jeff Reading, a spokesperson for Senate Democratic leadership, says the Senate will vote against the House amendments. (But still no vote, so keep the calls coming.)
► In today's Seattle Times -- House OKs plan to replace viaduct with tunnel -- After years of study and debate, legislation that calls for replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a deep-bore tunnel appears headed for state law. The state House passed it by a 53-43 vote. It is expected to pass the Senate and Gov. Chris Gregoire also supports the measure.
► In today's News Tribune -- Early release bill approved by House -- Criminals convicted of some violent, drug or property crimes could be released from community supervision programs early under SB 5288. The House passed it, 51-45. The bill could save the state $30 million for the 2009-11 biennium. It could cut about 175 government jobs. Republicans were highly critical.
► From AP -- Payday lending bill passes -- After two close votes, the legislature approves a bill to limit the size of a payday loan to 30% of a person’s monthly income or $700 -- whichever is less. It would also bar people from having multiple loans at different payday companies.
► In the Kitsap Sun -- Olympic College students rally against higher education on lower budget -- A crowd of about 100 stood in a silent circle outside the Olympic College student center on Wednesday, a gesture of mourning for what organizers called "a college getting dismantled."
► At TheNewsTribune.com -- Will vote for labor leader hurt Sen. Hewitt back home? -- The Senate Minority Leader jokes that his vote to confirm WSLC President Rick Bender's reappointment to the Workforce Training Board could hurt him back home in Walla Walla. (Wah-haaa. That's rich!)
► In today's Seattle Times -- Legislature unwise to promise future restoration of teacher pay (editorial) -- When the House suspended I-732's pay raises for teachers, it shouldn't have also promised to pay back the money lost over the next four years. (Which reminds us...)
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Local news:
►
In today's Yakima H-R -- State
DOT to remember fallen road workers
--
Anyone passing the state DOT's regional headquarters in Union
Gap today can expect to see 56 bright-orange vests hanging from the front of
the building. For the people inside the building, the vests represent
something poignant and painful -- the 56 state transportation employees who
have lost their lives in work zones. (Also see, next
week's Worker Memorial Day events.)
► At SeattlePI.com -- Unemployed workers struggle with job-search requirement -- With Washington's unemployment rate at 9.2%, many unemployed workers feel the state Department of Employment Security's job-search requirement has become a fruitless exercise in applying for jobs they can't do, don't want, won't get, and wouldn't take.
► In today's Tri-City Herald -- DOE defends Hanford, other cleanup spending -- A top DOE official defended spending stimulus funds at Hanford and other cleanup sites Wednesday as an Alabama senator questioned whether environmental cleanup was worth the high cost.
► In today's Olympian -- State employees' 4-day work week saves a bit -- It has proved popular with state employees, but it didn’t save as much money as hoped for during a six-month test.
► In today's Columbian -- County budget woes get more dire -- In unincorporated Clark County, tax revenue fell 21% in the first three months of 2009 -- a faster drop than the budget predicted.
► In the Kitsap Sun -- Plan to merge three Kitsap fire districts on hold -- Citing economic turbulence, planners shelve a vote to merge Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue, South Kitsap Fire and Rescue and the Bremerton Fire Department into the new West Sound Fire and Rescue.
More Boeing news:
► In today's Seattle Times -- After delays and fixes, Dreamliner almost ready to roll -- Within the next week, one of the huge doors at the Everett plant will open and the first of the new 787 Dreamliners will roll out onto the flight line by the Paine Field runway.
► Today from AP -- Boeing's willing to share deal on Air Force tanker -- Boeing's top defense executive says the company will support splitting a $35 billion contract with rival Northrop Grumman Corp. for new Air Force refueling jets if the Pentagon chooses that approach.
► In today's LA Times -- Boeing, Northrup earnings show shifting fortunes -- Boeing's first-quarter profit falls 50%, hurt by lower demand for commercial aircraft. Northrop, highly reliant on military pacts, sees sales and net income climb. It also raises its 2009 forecast.
National news:
► At Cleveland.com -- Sen. Sherrod Brown predicts EFCA rewrite -- The Ohio Democrat says he expects that the legislation that would make it easier for workers to unionize will undergo a major rewrite before the U.S. Senate considers it this year.
► From AP -- Americans high on Obama, direction of U.S. -- For the first time in years, more Americans than not say the country is headed in the right direction, a sign that Obama has used his first 100 days to lift the public's mood and inspire hopes for a brighter future.
► In today's NY Times -- Drivers may not form union at FedEx home, court rules -- Thousands of drivers for FedEx's home-delivery subsidiary do not have the right to join a union because they are independent contractors and not employees, a divided federal appeals court rules.
► In today's NY Times -- Democrats consider bypassing GOP on health care plan -- With solid majorities in both houses of Congress, Democrats are tempted to use their political muscle to speed its passage with minimal concessions to the Republican minority. That approach may be the only way they can fulfill Obama's campaign promises, but it carries high risks as well.
► In today's NY Times -- After losing freedom, some immigrants face loss of custody of children -- Crackdowns against illegal immigrants across the United States are thrusting local courts into transnational custody battles, leaving thousands of children in limbo.
► Today from AP -- American workers stalling retirement -- (That's a real shocker, ain't it?)
THURSDAY,
APRIL 23, 2009
This
"We
Suck" echo chamber is getting tiresome
Another corporate
consultant bashes state, touts Boeing legislative agenda
---------------------------------------------
By DAVID GROVES
WSLC Publications Director
---------------------------------------------
CORRECTION (April 27, 2009): This report inaccurately states that aerospace consultant Scott Hamilton of Leeham Co. called for the state to cut unemployment and workers' compensation benefits so that Boeing and other aerospace companies in the region can lower their taxes. That report was based on The (Everett) Herald's coverage of Hamilton's speech the previous day before the Economic Development Council of Snohomish County. That Herald report and, therefore, this report are inaccurate. Hamilton did not say he supports cutting workers' compensation and unemployment benefits. See the full correction.)
Scott Hamilton is Leeham Co., an aerospace consulting firm whose clients include Boeing customers and contractors. Yesterday he jumped on the bandwagon of Boeing Legislative Logrollers by giving the same "We Suck" speech we've been hearing for years from the business lobbyists in Olympia.
Hamilton told the Economic Development Council of Snohomish County that Boeing's presence in Washington state could be a "mere ghost of itself" by 2020 or be gone entirely if the state doesn't take immediate steps to improve the state's business climate. And how do we do that? You guessed it -- by cutting benefits for laid-off and injured workers so Boeing can pay less taxes for unemployment insurance and workers' compensation.
And yet again, the hand-wringing commercial media has treated Hamilton's comments as some kind of independent expert analysis and has echoed his calls for cutting workers' safety nets. (See today's Everett Herald editorial.)
All this begs the question, should Hamilton's opinion carry such weight?
His Leeham Co. web site offers this warning/disclaimer:
Current holdings include a long-term stock investment in The Boeing Co. ... Client relationships have in the past and may in the future require coordination and/or cooperation with Airbus and/or Boeing to achieve Client objectives.
Rest assured that Hamilton's "Clients' objectives" include things like cutting business taxes, union avoidance and just about everything else that Boeing and the rest of Washington's business community so aggressively pursues in Olympia. So why should his opinion be treated like its an objective analysis from a disinterested party?
It shouldn't, of course.
Imagine if Hamilton had stood up yesterday in front of the assembled business leaders of our state and had been openly critical of Boeing's legislative and lobbying objectives. Imagine if he were to suggest that cutting benefits for struggling working families might actually have some negative effects.
Imagine if Hamilton were to disagree with the business community's deliberate, self-interested and counter-productive "We Suck" mantra about our state's business climate. Imagine if he were instead to agree with Forbes magazine, the Tax Foundation, the Small Business & Entrepreneur Council, and the other assessments of out-of-state organizations that rate Washington as a great place to do business.
He wouldn't. He couldn't. If he did, he would immediately start losing his clients. And you can bet that would be his last invitation to speak before the Snohomish EDC.
Everybody, including Hamilton, is entitled to an opinion. But the media, state lawmakers and the general public are also entitled to know that these business consultants, like Hamilton and Deloitte Consulting, are not objective observers. They are card-carrying members of Washington's corporate echo chamber.
Yesterday's meeting/press event was deliberately timed to coincide with the closing days of the legislative session and to give Boeing's anti-worker legislative agenda a little extra push toward the finish line. One significant vote that still looms today is the Senate's vote on whether to concur with the House-approved version of SSB 5963, the unemployment insurance bill. At least one blogger is reporting that Boeing will succeed in having all benefit improvements stripped from the bill.
If so, it's Mission Accomplished for our friends at the Snohomish EDC!
Copyright © 2009 -- Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO