Election news:

►  At Washington State Wire -- Could I-1100 liquor privatization already be over the top? -- The signature-gathering tables for I-1100 have vanished at Costco stores across the state. Nobody’s saying a word, but there’s an obvious conclusion to be drawn -- that in just two weeks’ time, the giant wholesale-retailer may have collected enough signatures to place I-1100 on the ballot and force a public vote on liquor-store privatization for the first time since 1972.

►  At Huffington Post -- Americans want Democrats to control next Congress, poll finds -- The reeling economy remains people's top concern, according to an AP-GfK Poll, making public attitudes about it crucial for both parties' election hopes. The good news for Democrats: By a margin of 47% to 42%, people trust them more than Republicans to guide the economy.

National news:

►  At UAW.org -- Sen. Harkin vows to keep up fight for EFCA -- Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa promised UAW delegates Tuesday that they can count on him to help make the Employee Free Choice Act law. The Democrat who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee said: “Right now, there are a lot of naysayers here in D.C. who are counting out the Employee Free Choice Act. I’ve got a simple message for those people: We are going to keep fighting for EFCA -- for as long as it takes. And we are going to prevail.”

►  At Politico -- GOP health care repeal attempt fails -- The vote was 187-230, with 21 Democrats voting to roll back the individual mandate. (All Democrats from Washington state voted "no" and Republican Reps. Reichert, Hastings and McMorris Rodgers voted to repeal health reform.)

►  From Reuters -- Labor updating petition on China workers' rights -- Amid reports of increased unrest among workers in China, the largest U.S. labor group is considering asking the White House to investigate whether China gains an unfair trade advantage by denying workers' rights, a top union official said on Monday.

►  In today's Washington Post -- China's workers learn to speak up -- but carefully (Harold Meyerson column) -- For the moment, strikes are okay in China; spontaneous collective bargaining is fine. Independent unions, however, are not. I wonder if the declining power of American workers over the past 40 years hasn't increased U.S. union leaders' understanding of the constricted options that Chinese workers confront. In both countries, workers who agitate for unions or for better conditions are frequently fired. In China, to be sure, the consequences seldom stop there; in the United States, employers' penalties for such nominally illegal firings are negligible. No other major industrial nations are as hostile to independent unions as China and the U.S. Chinese communism and American capitalism may be two very different systems, but under both, workers assert their rights at their peril.

►  In today's Washington Post -- Congress should let states handle their own labor relations (editorial) -- Senate Majority Harry M. Reid is pushing the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act to require all states to give police and fire unions "adequate" collective bargaining rights. States deemed inadequate could wind up in federal court. Long sought by public-safety unions, the bill also has support from Republicans and has a good chance of passing if the Senate can fit it on its busy calendar. But, we in the commercial media, think that granting first responders these rights risks them attaining good pensions, which might cost us too much, so we oppose giving them these rights. (OK, we wrote that last sentence, but that's pretty much what it says.)

►  In The Hill -- Former House Dem leader Gephardt hired as lobbyist by firm battling SEIU -- Gephardt and his former chief of staff have registered to lobby on “labor/management related matters” by Sodexo, the French-owned food services company that has been embroiled in a battle with the Service Employees International Union over a labor organizing campaign.

("Those are my principles, and if you don't like them ... well, I have others." -- Groucho Marx)

There was one board member who did declare her support for I-1053 -- although she says she wasn't at the May 13 meeting either. The Courage of Her Convictions Prize™ goes to... (drumroll, please)... Cherie Myers, Director of Public Affairs for Safeway! 

Myers responded, "I was not there to vote, but I would support this initiative." 

We assume this means that Safeway supports I-1053 since the whole point of the AWB and its election endorsements is to represent the interests of employers, and not just the personal politics of individual business lobbyists, right?

BUT SERIOUSLY FOLKS... all kidding aside about AWB's lightly attended sunshine-deprived corporate conclaves, the gradual strangling of state government services is a serious threat not only to our quality of life in Washington, but also to our state's business climate. 

Our biggest private-sector employers report that one of their greatest challenges is the insufficient number of skilled workers available. Microsoft regularly argues that more H-1B visas are needed to meet its demand for engineers. Boeing's aging workforce -- of both machinists and engineers -- is considered a looming crisis.

This problem has been exacerbated by the recession. Plummeting state revenue has resulted in college and university budgets being slashed; University of Washington reports that its state funding was cut by one-third in the past 15 months. College instructors are being laid off, departments eliminated, class sizes sharply increased, and double-digit tuition hikes imposed. And all this is happening as Boeing laments its demand for engineers consistently exceeds the state’s production by a two-to-one ratio, a supply gap that is widening as its aging work force retires in droves.

"There aren’t enough seats in the university here to be able to generate that many students," says Adam Bruckner, a 38-year UW professor of aeronautics engineering. He notes that Beihang University in China has about 26,000 students focusing solely on aeronautical engineering. UW now has just 240 aeronautics students.

Given all this, you might think that Washington's biggest employers would share the perspective of angry college students protesting state budget cuts and of prospective students who say a college education is being priced out of reach for middle-class families. Hundreds of them joined other advocates for public services at the State Capitol this year -- and at campus rallies across the state -- to call for additional state revenue to avoid such cuts, revenue that would be almost impossible raise under I-1053.

California, a state that has lived under I-1053-like supermajority legislative requirements for years, is the national poster child for government budget dysfunction: 

Last year's state budget had to cut roughly 30 percent of the General Fund, slashing health, welfare, education, transit and more. California's once-unparalleled system of "free" higher education had to hike student fees (32 percent at the University of California) and force faculty layoffs. The state's celebrated roadways are ranked second-worst in the nation. Its credit rating tanked.

It's gotten so bad that corporate executives in Silicon Valley have put "state government dysfunction" and California’s budget problems near the top of their concern list, according to this year’s CEO Business Climate Survey. 

Is that what we want in Washington? 

Apparently so, if you were one of the elusive representatives of Corporate Washington who attended the AWB board meeting May 13 in Spokane.

IN ADDITION to the aforementioned Washington companies, here are the prominent state businesses and organizations represented on AWB's board that we attempted to contact. It's anybody's guess whether they are part of the business community's "unanimous" support for I-1053... 'cause they ain't sayin'.