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January 28, 2009 |
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Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Health
care reform presentations on Thursday
Mathematica, an independent
consulting firm commissioned by the state, will present its analysis of of
five state health care reform proposals to legislative Health Care
Committees on Thursday at 8 a.m. in House hearing room A and again at 10
a.m. in Senate hearing room 4. Mathematica's findings will provide
valuable economic data in which to move forward with health care reform in
our state.
Read more.
Boeing news:
► BREAKING NEWS from SeattlePI.com -- Boeing to cut 10,000 jobs this year -- On a conference call this morning to discuss fourth-quarter earnings, Boeing said it plans to cut about 10,000 jobs, or 6 percent of its work force, this year. Details weren't immediately available about where and when those cuts would come. It appears that would include the 4,500 job cuts the company previously announced in its commercial airplanes division.
► In today's Everett Herald -- Boeing lays off an additional 190 employees -- Roughly 190 employees -- flight services and facilities maintenance workers -- recently received notices from Boeing that they may be laid off in the next 60 days. The move concerns Machinists leaders who say the job cuts could violate the union's labor contract with Boeing.
► In today's Everett Herald -- Boeing reports $56 million quarterly loss -- For the full year, its net income fell 34% from 2007 to $2.7 billion. It estimates the Machinists’ strike cost the company 70 deliveries worth $1.2 billion. Full-year earnings per share fell to $3.71 from $5.28 in 2007.
► In today's Seattle P-I -- Tanker battle will renew dispute over "U.S. made" -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who personally delayed the heated and controversial tanker procurement battle between Boeing and a team of Northrop Grumman Corp. and EADS until a new administration took over, tells Congress he expects a new competition to get under way by spring.
► In today's Everett Herald -- Economy hinges on Boeing, Reardon says -- The Snohomish County Executive says the county's best hope for weathering the economic crisis is to make sure the company keeps production of the 787 in south Everett. He will soon announce members of a new task force that will make recommendations on how to keep 787 production local.
Weyerhaeuser
news:
► In today's Daily World -- Weyco mills go quiet -- The immediate, permanent closures of its sawmill and the Pacific Veneer mill in Aberdeen have put 221 people out of work, and knocked the wind out of the community. "I just feel sick," says Rep. Lynn Kessler (D-Hoquiam). “I’m so worried about our community. We’ve already gone through this with the spotted owl. At least with the spotted owl we could fight; here there’s nothing to fight. There’s just no work.”
► In today's Daily World -- Former millworkers ponder "Life after Weyerhaeuser" -- “My dad worked for Weyerhaeuser,” said Weyco electrician Mike Lignosky, who had been there 38 years. “My grandfather worked for Weyerhaeuser. It’s the end of an era.” His 25-year-old daughter, also a Weyco laborer, and others joined him for a drink at Aberdeen's Northwest Passage tavern.
► In today's Daily World -- Yard workers wonder: "Are we next to be cut?" -- Says Ted Zeigler, president of the IAM Local W-2 who has worked at the sorting yard for 29 years: “Roughly 600 family-wage jobs have left our area in the past couple years,” Zeigler said. “That’s devastating. It’s just all devastation. That impacts everything in the community, resulting in closed stores.”
► In today's Daily World -- Weyco back in talks with Bassett -- The company is again engaging in conversations with Richard Bassett, the businessman who expressed interest more than two years ago in purchasing the Cosmopolis Pulp Mill.Says WeyCo: “We want to find a buyer.”
Federal stimulus news:
► In today's News Tribune -- State expects federal aid of up to $4 billion -- A massive economic stimulus package under consideration could ease Olympia’s budget problems and pump billions into state and local construction projects. But Gov. Chris Gregoire cautions that the money will have plenty of strings attached.
► Today from AP -- U.S. House to vote on economic stimulus plan -- Obama says he's confident that a multibillion dollar plan to kick-start the ailing economy will survive a crucial House vote.
► In today's NY Times -- Relief seen for jobless, states in health care plan -- The stimulus bill before Congress is not just a package of spending increases and tax cuts intended to jolt the nation out of recession. For Democrats, it is also a tool for rewriting the social contract with the poor, the uninsured and the unemployed, in ways they have long yearned to do.
► In today's NY Times -- Plan would provide flood of aid to education -- It would shower school districts, child care centers and university campuses with $150 billion in new federal money.
► In today's NY Times -- Obama, visiting Republicans, is open to some compromise -- He suggests that he was open to some limited revisions that would address their demands for more tax cuts.
Legislative news:
► In today's Spokesman-Review -- Senate Democrats push "green jobs" plan -- Echoing plans in the other Washington, Senate Democrats in Olympia detailed their plans Tuesday to combine “green jobs” with a renewed push for conservation and alternative sources of power.
► In today's News Tribune -- Balancing the budget with liquor a bad idea -- Gregoire's proposal takes the state further down the road of managing its monopoly as a profit center rather than a way to deter abuse. If the original rationale for state control is gone, why not privatize it?
► In today's Everett Herald -- Legislators' job is to make decisions, not to punt to voters (Dick Davis column) -- Legislators should not waste their time or ours designing a budget for the ballot. They should follow the governor's lead, set priorities, and adopt a responsible spending plan within current revenues. (Memo to Dick and the rest of the tassel-toed corporate hacks whose stale Bush-era ideology still rates regular publication in the remaining newspapers: You lost.)
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National news:
► In today's NY Times -- U.S. infrastructure in dire straits, says report -- More than a quarter of the nation’s bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. Leaky pipes lose an estimated seven billion gallons of clean drinking water every day. And aging sewage systems send billions of gallons of untreated wastewater cascading into the nation’s waterways each year. So says the American Society of Civil Engineers, which assigned an overall D grade to the nation’s infrastructure and estimates that it would take a $2.2 trillion investment from all levels of government over the next five years to bring it into a state of good repair.
► In today's NY Times -- Congress relaxes rules on suits over pay equity -- Congress gives final approval to a civil rights bill providing women, blacks and Hispanics with powerful new tools to challenge pay discrimination in the workplace. It is likely to be the first significant legislation signed by Obama. (Republican Reps. Reichert, Hastings and McMorris Rodgers all voted "no.")
► In today's NY Times -- Progress on Fair Pay (editorial) -- After signing the Lilly Ledbetter Act, Obama ought to press Congress to pass a second bill -- the Paycheck Fairness Act -- that would further strengthen laws against gender-based wage discrimination.
► In today's NY Times -- Change at SAG may re-energize talks -- The firing of Doug Allen, the executive director of the SAG, could mean a return to long-stalled talks on a labor contract.
► In today's NY Times -- Caring for the caregivers (editorial) -- Unfortunately, one of the fastest-growing areas within the health care field -- home care for the elderly -- also is one of the lowest paid and most exploitable. Efforts to unionize home care workers in some states also has led to wage gains and better conditions. But the progress is incomplete without a federal law to recognize and protect the home care work force. It is unconscionable that workers who are entrusted with the care of some of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens are themselves unprotected by basic labor standards.
WEDNESDAY,
JANUARY 28, 2009
Health
care reform presentations on Thursday
Mathematica, an independent consulting firm commissioned by the state, will present its analysis of of five state health care reform proposals to legislative Health Care Committees on Thursday at 8 a.m. in House hearing room A and again at 10 a.m. in Senate hearing room 4. Mathematica's findings will provide valuable economic data in which to move forward with health care reform in our state.
Last year, the Healthy Washington Coalition hosted a series of public meetings about the five proposals and heard from hundreds of citizens about which values were most important in fixing our health care system. After Thursday's legislative presentation, the Coalition will meet with its more than 90 members to determine which proposal meets those principles.
"We are dedicated to ensuring secure, high quality and affordable health care to all Washingtonians," said coalition chairman Robby Stern.
The HWC cites two critical reasons that state must be ready to move forward on reform:
- Our present economic crisis
is inextricably bound to the dysfunction of our health care system.
Skyrocketing health care costs are bankrupting families, creating
enormous strains on government budgets, and stifling businesses,
particularly small employers. The personal economic situation of
Washington families is deteriorating and they report one of the prime
reasons for that is the escalating cost of health care.
- Federal health care reform may take many more years to become an actuality. But there have been discussions that Congress may authorize and provide revenue to those states with a comprehensive health care reform plan in place. The HWC wants our state to be ready for this opportunity.
The Healthy Washington Coalition Lobby Day plans a lobby day on March 11.
The Healthy Washington Coalition is made up of more than 90 organizations from across the state, including the Washington State Labor Council. Its members include health care professionals, associations, hospitals, labor unions and community groups.
For more information, visit the HWC web site at www.HealthyWACoalition.org
Copyright © 2009 -- Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO