|
March 4, 2009 |
|
|
|
RSS
2.0 feed
|
Updated DAILY... Almost
Every Day!™ by 9 a.m. Pacific
Links are
functional at date of posting, but sometimes expire.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Urge
legislators to vote on Worker Privacy Act!
The Worker Privacy Act is ready for floor votes in
both the state House and Senate, and the Washington State Labor Council is
urging all supporters to contact their legislators (again) to urge a vote.
Business lobbying groups that oppose it are hoping to block a vote because
they know the legislation has the support to pass. Read more.
Other legislative news:
►
At TheOlympian.com -- Higher
state health premiums, other benefit bills move --
SB 5930 lets the state charge nonunion state workers a
different premium (15% of the cost) than union workers (12%).
► In today's News Tribune -- An actual compromise for payday lending bills? (editorial) -- Sometimes, the surest sign that lawmakers have found a reasonable resolution to a seemingly intractable fight is the lukewarm reception coming from both corners of the ring.
► In the Walla Walla U-B -- Can Democrats keep 16th District seat? (editorial) -- The selection of Rep. Bill Grant's daughter to fill the seat left open by his death seems to increase the chances.
Class Warfare update:
► In today's Washington Post -- Obama officials defend budget -- The administration says it would finance a historic investment in critical economic priorities while restoring balance to a tax code tipped in favor of the wealthy. Rebutting Republican charges that the plan would raise taxes on a broad swath of Americans. (The "broad swath:" those making more than $250,000 a year.)
► In today's Washington Post -- Who you calling socialist? (must-read column by Harold Meyerson) -- Conservatives attacked FDR as a socialist as they are now attacking Obama, when in fact Obama, like FDR before him, is engaged not in creating socialism but in rebooting a crashed capitalist system. Conservatives have never bashed socialism because its specter was actually stalking America. Rather, they've wielded the cudgel against such progressive reforms as free universal education, the minimum wage or tighter financial regulations. Their signal success is to have kept the United States free from the taint of universal health care.
► In today's LA Times -- Obama skews battle lines in "class war" (Michael Hiltzik column) -- GOP squawks, but Obama's proposed "redistribution of wealth" only reverses a longstanding trend.
► In today's Wall St. Journal -- Obama gets strong support in poll -- President Barack Obama enjoys widespread backing from a frightened American public for his ambitious, front-loaded agenda, a new poll indicates. He is more popular than ever, Americans are hopeful about his leadership, and opposition Republicans are getting drubbed in public opinion.
Employee Free Choice Act news:
► In today's Wall St. Journal -- Obama to AFL-CIO: Employee Free Choice Act will pass -- President Obama tells AFL-CIO union leaders in a videotaped address that the controversial EFCA will pass, signaling his full backing for legislation that makes union organizing easier.
►
Today at AFL-CIO Now -- Employee
Free Choice Act on the move -- Thanks
to a strong pro-worker majority in Congress, the support of President Obama
and a unified movement of union members and grassroots allies, the EFCA is
closer to becoming a reality than ever. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph
Stiglitz is the latest to throw his support behind the bill.
► At AFL-CIO Now -- Writing, rallying, podcasting for EFCA -- When every single employee in a workplace asks to be represented by a union, it should be a simple matter. They should get a union and be able to bargain for a better life. But for workers at one Minneapolis company these basic freedoms were thwarted by their bosses (see video). Too often, what happened there takes place across the country when employees seek to form a union. That's why we need the EFCA.
► At Examiner.com -- Case study for EFCA: Nurses still waiting 3 years after union vote -- The NLRB's general counsel has directed government attorneys to petition a federal court seeking a rare bargaining order compelling the privately owned hospital to get back to the table.
► At HorsesAss.org -- Darcy Burner challenges Colorado senator to support EFCA -- The former congressional candidate urges recently appointed U.S. Sen. Mike Bennett to support it.
Local news:
► In today's Seattle Times -- Emmert says his salary on the table as UW makes cuts -- Responding to one of the toughest crowds he's faced in nearly five years as UW president, he says he's willing to take a look at his own salary as the UW prepares for substantial cuts.
► In today's Seattle Times -- Report: Health-care disparities shortchange minorities, poor -- Area hospitals called upon to examine their roles in perpetuating health-care disparities.
► In today's Everett Herald -- Jet orders not so solid for Boeing, Airbus -- This economic downturn is robbing them of their recession-proof customers. -- P-I: Delta may pull back on 787 orders
► In today's Daily News -- Cowlitz County will tap capital fund -- For the first time in 30 years -- and possibly the first time ever -- Cowlitz is borrowing to make payroll and other expenses.
► In today's Everett Herald -- Retirement security mustn't just be a memory (John Burbank column) -- We have an opportunity now, indeed a responsibility, to figure out how Social Security could make up for the failure of the private retirement schemes.
► In the Seattle Times -- Microsoft responds to Sen. Grassley on H-1Bs, layoffs -- The company does "not expect to see a significant change in the proportion of H-1B employees."
National news:
► In today's NY Times -- AFL-CIO to support nationalizing banks -- Its executive council will call on Obama to speed the nationalization of problem banks to stimulate lending and lift the sagging economy. The AFL-CIO will thus become one of the first groups -- and certainly the most powerful -- to call for moving more aggressively on nationalization, both to counter Republican and business cries against it and to press Obama not to vacillate.
► In today's Boston Globe -- Obama thanks, praises unions -- "I do not view the labor movement as part of the problem. To me, and to my administration, labor unions are a big part of the solution. We need to level the playing field for workers and the unions that represent their interests – because we cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor movement."
► In today's LA Times -- Conflict erupts inside IATSE union -- Leaders defend benefit cuts in a proposed pact with Hollywood film and TV studios, but critics say they go too far.
WEDNESDAY,
MARCH 4, 2009
Urge legislators to vote on Worker Privacy Act!
As reported in Friday's
WSLC Legislative Update newsletter, the Worker Privacy Act is
ready for floor votes in both the House and Senate, and the Washington State
Labor Council is urging all supporters to contact their legislators (again)
to urge a vote. The deadline for floor votes is Thursday, March 12.
The legislation has very strong support among state legislators, with 47 sponsors in the House and 21 sponsors in the Senate, and plenty of votes to pass, according to vote counts by WSLC staff who have discussed the issue with legislators. It has already inspired thousands of emails, phone calls and letters of support to legislators.
TAKE ACTION: Even if you've previously contacted them on this issue, click here to send an email your your state legislators and the governor urging not only their support, but a floor vote for the Worker Privacy Act! Business lobbying groups that oppose it are hoping to block a vote because they know the Worker Privacy Act has the support to pass.
|
Download a fact sheet (pictured above) on the Worker Privacy Act. Previous Worker Privacy Act news: Seattle
Times misrepresents WPA (March 2) |
The beauty of freedom of speech is that it necessarily includes the freedom not to listen. If we grow weary of the rants of political commentators with whom we disagree, we can change the channel. If a movie unexpectedly takes an offensive turn, we can walk out. If a telemarketer calls, we can hang up. If an unwanted email arrives, we can delete it without reading it.
Take away the freedom not to listen and the only alternative to avoiding offensive speech is censorship.
But under current law, your employer can legally force you to sit down and be indoctrinated regarding his or her opinion about how you worship, how you vote, and other issues of private individual conscience.
The Worker Privacy Act (SB 5446 and HB 1528) would allow workers in Washington state to choose whether or not to participate in employer communication on issues of individual conscience, including politics, religion, charitable giving, and unionization.
Business lobbying groups that oppose the bill -- and hope to avoid a vote because they know it will pass -- are calling the Worker Privacy Act an "Employer Gag Rule" and deliberately misrepresenting it as an illegal infringement on employers' free speech.
Absolutely NO employer communication is banned under the Worker Privacy Act. Employers can still hold meetings, send emails, insert letters into paycheck envelopes, post fliers and communicate in a host of other ways their opinions about ANY issue, including issues of individual conscience. Employers can still hold mandatory meetings on issues that are work-related, regarding job performance, training and lawfully required employee action, such as work safety, discrimination, etc.
The Worker Privacy Act simply grants employees the right not to listen when employers seek to impose their personal opinions on religion, politics, unionization and charitable giving. It is the employer act or threat of firing or disciplining employees who "opt out" to retain their privacy on those matters -- not the employers' speech -- which is banned.
Why should employers have the right to force their opinions on their employees? No one else in America has that right!
TAKE ACTION: Even if you've previously contacted your legislators on this issue, click here to send an email your your state legislators and the governor urging not only their support of the Worker Privacy Act, but for a floor vote.
Copyright © 2009 -- Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO