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August 4, 2010 |
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Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Wenatchee
'emergency:' City Council moves to nix convention center union
Wenatchee Mayor Dennis Johnson and the City Council have declared an "emergency." What's the crisis so urgent it required calling a special meeting for Thursday night with very little public notice? They want to rush through a consultant's proposal to replace the Wenatchee Convention Center's unionized food service with a cheaper nonunion contractor. Learn more and TAKE ACTION!
BREAKING NEWS...
► This morning from AP -- Senate jobs bill clears hurdle -- President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies in the Senate earned a long-sought win Wednesday as a $26 billion measure to help states and local school boards with their severe budget problems cleared a GOP filibuster. The bill advanced by a 61-38 tally that ensures the measure will pass the Senate on Wednesday or Thursday. It would then return to the House for a final vote that would deliver it to Obama for his signature. Moderate Maine Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins cast the key votes to break the GOP filibuster.
State government news:
► In today's Olympian -- State to look at agencies' overtime -- Gov. Chris Gregoire's budget staffers are looking into rumors that state agencies have undercut the expected $73 million in savings from planned furlough days by paying overtime to replacement workers. The Washington Federation of State Employees has warned since the Democratic-controlled Legislature debated Senate Bill 6503's furlough plan in the spring that overtime costs threatened any projected savings. The union has pointed out that overtime costs undercut Oregon's effort to save money from temporary layoffs of state workers in 2009.
► In today's Columbian -- Many state workers are on furlough this Friday -- Scores of state offices, including the eight regional offices of the Washington State Patrol, will be closed Friday for the second of 10 state furlough days. A full list of agencies covered under the furlough law is here.
Election news:
► At Politico -- Sen. Patty Murray plows through half her cash -- Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) has plowed through more than half of her $7 million campaign war chest last month in preparation for the most competitive re-election challenge of her Senate career against Republican Dino Rossi. The three-term senator is spending millions to reserve air time for the fall, dropping $3.4 million in July on current and future advertising buys.
Local news:
►
In today's News Tribune -- Union
wants clarity -- not end to volunteer efforts (guest
column by Tracey A. Thompson of Teamsters 117, a WSLC affiliate)
-- In the last few days, some
have accused the Teamsters of opposing community volunteerism within the
county's parks system. This accusation couldn't be further from the truth,
and it's time to set the record straight.
► In today's Yakima H-R -- Yakima council axes subsidies -- In a surprise move, it pulls the plug on subsidies for a host of civic groups, then took it up a notch by rejecting a proposed contract with the firefighters union. The proposed agreement with the IAFF, which the city had been negotiating for months, called for a wage freeze this year, but a 2% increase next year. The council nixed it.
►
In today's Spokesman-Review --
City
of Spokane contemplates pink slips for 120 -- Two
months after proposing a budget with more than 40 layoffs, city officials
warn that more than 120 employees could
face pink slips at the year's end unless city unions agree to concessions or
the council increases taxes.
► In today's Kitsap Sun -- Labor board dismisses latest charge against Kitsap Mental Health -- The National Labor Relations Board has dismissed a charge of unfair labor practices against Kitsap Mental Health Services, but the agency's struggle with the SEIU appears far from over.
► At SeattlePI.com -- Facing foreclosure? Meet a banker, face-to-face -- On Thursday, homeowners will get a chance to meet face-to-face with loan officers thanks to the Sound Alliance -- a coalition of churches, labor unions and community groups -- and the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle. This foreclosure prevention event came in response to concerns voiced by alliance members, said Dusty Hoerler, a plumber with Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 32.
► In today's (Everett) Herald -- Boeing names Laura Peterson top NW lobbyist (brief) -- She will lead the team responsible for the company's political and government activities in Washington and Oregon, succeeding Fred Kiga, who left the company earlier this year.
National news:
►
In today's NY Times --
More
workers face pay cuts, not furloughs --
Local and state governments, as well as some companies, are
squeezing their employees to work the same amount for less money in
cost-saving measures that are often described as a last-ditch effort to
avoid layoffs. The new wage rollbacks feed worries that the economy has
weakened and could even be at risk of deflation. That is when the prices of
goods and assets fall and people withhold spending as they wait for prices
to drop further, a familiar idea to those following the recent housing
market. A period of such slack economic demand produced a lost decade in
Japan, and some policy-making officials are voicing concern about the
possibility because the consequences could be so dire.
► In today's Washington Post -- New Democratic strategy for creating jobs focuses on a boost in manufacturing -- The approach, heralded by Obama last week and sketched out in a memo to House Democrats, is still evolving and so far focuses primarily on raising taxes on multinational corporations that Democrats accuse of shipping jobs overseas.
► In today's NY Times -- Missouri residents reject health law -- Missouri voters on Tuesday easily approved a measure aimed at nullifying the new federal health care law, becoming the first state in the nation where ordinary people made known their dismay over the issue at the ballot box.
► In today's NY Times -- A labor market punishing to mothers -- Many more women take time off from work. Many more women work part time at some point in their careers. Many more women can't get to work early or stay late. And our economy exacts a terribly steep price for any time away from work -- in both pay and promotions. People often cannot just pick up where they have left off. Entire career paths are closed off. The hit to earnings is permanent.
► In the Detroit News -- UAW seeks easier union organizing among foreign automakers -- United Auto Workers President Bob King wants foreign automakers to sign written agreements that include a set of principles that would allow workers to organize without intimidation.
(Keep in mind, that intimidating union supporters is illegal, but that law is not enforced so apparently workers need to ask corporations if they will agree in writing to obey the law.)
► At Huffington Post -- Labor legend Dolores Huerta rips SEIU for worker intimidation -- In an open letter, Huerta wrote SEIU President Mary Kay Henry, thanking her for putting an end to SEIU's "mistaken campaign of aggression" against UNITE HERE, but charging the union with "a coordinated effort by SEIU leaders in California to deny thousands of healthcare workers their federally-protected right to organize with the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW)."
WEDNESDAY,
AUGUST 4, 2010
Wenatchee
'emergency:' City moves to eliminate convention center union
Wenatchee Mayor Dennis Johnson and the City Council have declared an "emergency."
What's the crisis so urgent it required calling a special meeting for Thursday night with very little public notice? They want to rush through a consultant's proposal to replace the Wenatchee Convention Center's unionized food service with a cheaper nonunion contractor.
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Please contact Wenatchee's Mayor, City Council RIGHT NOW!
The convention center is a well-run, profitable operation where local workers get decent pay and benefits. Don't place this profitable business model at risk -- and harm local working families -- by taking the low road and hiring a low-wage, low-benefit contractor. The consultant's merger proposal doesn't consider the loss of business, both at the convention center and at area businesses, that will result from eliminating the convention center union and losing events sponsored by labor and other progressive organizations. Also, download a Pledge of Support that you can sign and fax to city officials TODAY! |
By all accounts, the city-owned convention center is a profitable venture, operated on a contract with Coast Hotels Inc., which runs the attached Coast Wenatchee Hotel and whose employees earn good wages and benefits thanks to their UNITE HERE Local 8 union contract.
But an outside consultant has recommended merging food service operations for the Wenatchee Convention Center and the Town Toyota Center, and in the process, replacing the convention center's unionized food service with a cheaper nonunion contractor. Now, having decided that Coast's bid to retain the contract was "not competitive," the City Council is rushing through authorization for the city to negotiate a new contract with nonunion vendors at a special meeting at Wenatchee City Hall starting at 5:15 p.m. Thursday. Any final agreement would have to be brought back to the Council for approval, which could happen in the next 30 days.
Many
union organizations, including the Washington State Labor Council, conduct
conventions and other events at the convention center specifically because
it is a unionized venue that pays employees good wages and benefits.
For example, the WSLC has two conventions tentatively scheduled there in the
next four years. City officials' efforts to achieve "efficiencies" could very well cost the city and its convention
center a major source of income.
"The City of
Wenatchee stands to lose a large piece of business (estimated at nearly
27%), which it had cornered by using the current Unionized food service
contractor and its superior benefit packet," writes UNITE HERE Local
8 Executive Officer Erik Van Rossum, in a letter to the mayor urging
rejection of the proposal. "Most if not all of this business will likely
go elsewhere in
the state should the convention center lose its progressive
reputation and competitive advantage."
WSLC President Rick Bender has already joined UNITE HERE Local 8 and several other unions in urging rejection of the merger proposal. But in a letter to union leaders this week, Mayor Dennis Johnson writes, "We greatly appreciate and value the business organized labor has brought to the City's Convention Center and community over the years, and we value the opportunity you have provided to the workers at the Convention Center for jobs and benefits... (but a study) indicated there were efficiencies that could be gained" with the proposed merger.
The WSLC urges all union organizations and supporters of good family wage jobs in Wenatchee to attend Thursday night's hearing at 5:15 p.m. at Wenatchee City Hall and/or write the City Council and urge rejection of this proposal and preservation of good union jobs that will continue to attract convention business to the City of Wenatchee. Download a Pledge of Support that you can sign and fax to city officials TODAY!
Copyright © 2010 -- Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO