You can help commemorate 10 years of marching for justice and dignity for all farm workers by joining in the 10th Annual Farm Worker Solidarity March this Sunday, May 3 in Burlington. 

The day's events begin with an Ecumenical Prayer Service at 10 a.m. leading into a rally at 11 a.m. in Maiben Park.  Participants will march from there to Skagit Valley College for a 2 p.m. fiesta featuring food, music and dancing.

The march, organized by the Farm Worker Solidarity Committee of Skagit County, will support local workers by demanding an end to inhumane race-based INS raids and by encouraging workers to organize with the United Farm Workers of Washington State and get contracts that will win the justice and respect they currently lack.

Event sponsors include the Central Labor Councils of Whatcom and Skagit/San Juan, OCAW 1-591, the United Farm Workers, Skagit Valley College, Skagit Friends of Central America, WWU's CESAR, and MECHA of Skagit County.  For more information, call (360) 299-4598 for more information.

Directions to Burlington for the rally:  Take Exit 230 off I-5.  Turn right off the off-ramp; turn left at the first light onto Burlington Blvd.; turn right at the first light onto Fairhaven Ave., and pass through downtown, crossing the railroad tracks.  Maiben Park is behind the Burlington Police Station, on the right, between Regent and Skagit streets.

The International Association of Machinists District 751, representing some 38,000 workers at The Boeing Co., endorsed Republican Jack Metcalf for re-election in Washington's 2nd District this week.  The union also reaffirmed its opposition to 1st District Republican Rick White and will likely endorse former Congressman Jay Inslee, when he formally announces his bid to unseat White.

"Congressman Metcalf has been there for workers and we have always said we will endorse those candidates who support our issues regardless of party affiliation," said IAM 751 President Bill Johnson.  "We have always told our members we are a non-partisan organization, and this proves it."

During his current term, Metcalf opposed many of the most anti-worker bills considered in Congress, including imposing administrative hurdles for unions to participate in the political process (the so-called "Paycheck Protection Act"), legalizing a new form of company unions (the Team Act), making it easier for employers to give comp time in lieu of overtime pay (the "Workplace Flexibility Act"), barring "salting" in union organizing campaigns, and granting the Clinton Administration Fast Track Authority to negotiate more anti-worker trade agreements like NAFTA.

White, on the other hand, supported all of those measures, earning himself a 0% voting record from the AFL-CIO during the same period.    Unofficial reports are that Inslee, a former Democratic U.S. Representative from the 4th District in Eastern Washington who now lives in Bainbridge Island, will formally announce his candidacy in the 1st District soon.

The Washington State Labor Council, the largest labor organization in the state representing some 400,000 rank-and-file union members, will hold its political endorsing convention on Saturday, May 30.  Some 500 delegates representing affiliated union locals all over the state will vote on which candidates will receive the WSLC's endorsement for Congress, State Legislature and some judicial races, and will also consider ballot initiatives.  It takes a two-thirds majority of the delegates present to receive endorsement.  The support of IAM 751, the WSLC's largest single affiliate, will weigh heavily on whether Metcalf and Inslee win that endorsement.

Childcare workers in King County will make history on Friday as they celebrate May Day, an international holiday for working people, by launching the Childcare Union Project (CUP), the first-ever industrywide organizing campaign in this area for these important, but woefully underpaid and underappreciated, workers.

A march is planned from Freeway Park to Westlake Center beginning at 11:30 a.m., followed by a rally at Westlake at noon.  All childcare teachers or providers are encouraged to attend.  All parents of children in child care are encouraged to attend.  All concerned citizens who would like to support childcare workers are encouraged to attend.

CUP, a partnership between the Worthy Wage Coalition and Service Employees Internation Union District 925, is building a coalition of parents, directors and advocates to support childcare teachers and providers.  The goal is not only to raise public awareness and concern about the crisis in child care, but to invite teachers and providers to organize a union at their workplace that will help them fight for better wages and working conditions.  The CUP coalition will also push for a legislative agenda of more public funding for compensation of childcare workers.

In addition to CUP, Friday's march and rally are being sponsored by Washington State Jobs With Justice and the King County Labor Council. 

For more information, contact the Childcare Union Project at (206) 328-7275 or by writing CUP at 2900 Eastlake Ave. East, Suite 230, Seattle, WA, 98102.

This spring, all fourth-graders and many seventh-graders will take new tests that are different than any other standardized exam.

Are we talking about another meaningless, fill-in-the-bubble exam designed 20 years ago by a company from New Jersey?  Definitely not.  In fact, the new tests have been developed especially for our state.  They are the only tests designed to measure how well students meet a set of rigorous, locally developed academic standards.

The tests are part of Washington's larger school improvement strategy to enable all students to meet higher academic standards.  Standards make clear what knowledge and skills young people ought to be learning in school.  When fully in place, the tests measure how well fourth-, seventh- and tenth-grade students are meeting important standards in reading, writing, listening and mathematics.

To help parents better understand these new tests, Partnership for Learning — a non-profit organization formed to build awareness of the new standards and tests — offer these points:

1.  The tests will not help, nor hurt, your child.  These tests won't affect your fourth- or seventh-graders academic standing.  They are designed to help map your child's academic strengths and weaknesses.  The tests might show, for example, that your child has a good vocabulary but doesn't organize essays effectively.  This insight can guide you, your child and your child's teacher in charting a path to improvement.

Eventually, however, the tests will play a direct role in your child's advancement.   To ensure they master important skills by the time they graduate from high school, students in the class of 2006 will need to pass the state's new tenth-grade exam.

2.  Your child may not score well.  Only 21.5 percent of fourth-graders met the state standard in mathematics on the 1997 tests; 14 percent met the standard in all subjects tested.  While this information is distressing, it is vital because it lets parents and educators know exactly where local schools stand — and where improvement efforts should be targeted.  We should anticipate initial difficulty as teachers, parents and students adjust to higher expectations.

When you receive the test results later this year, you'll see where your child needs to improve academically and how, working with your child's teacher, you can make it happen.

3.  The new tests ask more of your child.  The tests include multiple choice, short answer and essay questions.  They measure skills and knowledge we haven't asked children to demonstrate before — writing descriptive essays, comparing information from different texts, and using math skills to solve complex problems, for example.  The difficulty of the tests reflects the rigor of the state's new academic standards.

You can help your child by assuring him or her that the tests measure skills and knowledge needed for future success.  Encourage your child to take the test seriously and to work hard on each question.

To get a booklet on what Washington state is doing to improve schools and how parents can help, contact Partnership for Learning at 1-800-550-KIDS or visit the organization's web site.

The following is a letter from workers at El Centro de la Raza in Seattle who have tried to organize a union at the "rights" agency, but been thwarted by management and Executive Director Roberto Maestas: 

Subject: Status of the El Centro de la Raza Union Organizing Campaign

We, the workers at El Centro de la Raza, came to Office and Professional Employees Local 8 asking to be unionized because we had serious concerns:

— Being forced to do excessive hours of mandatory overtime without just compensation in violation of wage/hours laws.

— Unjust termination for those who dared to complain or point out problems.

— No sick leave for any employee.

— An abusive, disrespectful atmosphere for workers.

On October 20, 1997, the Union Organizing Committee of fourteen workers at El Centro signed a letter to our employer requesting voluntary recognition of our union.  The Committee was prepared to prove that a majority of workers signed authorization cards to become Union.

El Centro management immediately launched an anti-union campaign.  When faced with this surprising reaction to unionizing from our employer, the Committee reached out to the community for support. Every other week since November, workers and our union have been meeting with representatives from various groups concerned about worker rights such as CBTU, LCLAA, Downtown Human Services Coalition and some original founders of El Centro de la Raza to work on solutions to this unfortunate situation.

In December, after our request for voluntary recognition was finally denied by the El Centro Board, the Organizing Committee asked El Centro to at least agree to a neutral election conducted by a mutually agreed upon third party.

Soon after, a group of anti-union employees and volunteers signed a petition requesting a vote and presented it to the El Centro Board.

Throughout February, labor attempted through mediators to negotiate a neutrality and election agreement with El Centro.  This failed when El Centro continued to escalate anti-union actions designed to diminish Union support.

Today, over half of the Organizing Committee no longer works at El Centro.  We have seen many of our co-workers leave in the last few months.  These hard working, dedicated professionals who contributed a great deal were laid off, fired or forced to leave by the hostile work environment created by management over our Union organizing.

As a result , there is no longer enough support to build a Union at El Centro.  We believe El Centro management destroyed Union support by systematically and consciously engaging in anti-union behavior. We believe the National Labor Relations Board will find some of these actions to be illegal and in violation of the National Labor Relations Act.

We all know most employers go to great lengths to prevent workers from organizing. Many times workers prevail despite the actions of their employers.  What makes this situation so discouraging is that our employer purports to be a friend to labor. We now know this is not the case.  We’re not interested in perpetuating rifts among community groups or in bringing about the downfall of an important agency like El Centro as some have suggested.  But, for those of us who remain at El Centro and for those who risked our jobs in trying to create a Union, we must hold El Centro management accountable for engaging in anti-labor practices abhorrent to us all.

Any questions, please feel free to contact any of us on the Organizing Committee.

Antonio Medina
Nancy Matta
Irma Hernandez
Chris Kondo
Alexis Meyners Fabio Guevara
Michelle Peria
Hilda Sappenfield — (206) 431-1205
Julio Sanchez — (206) 720-0270

(To read a previous account of the El Centro organizing campaign, click here.)

Each year thousands of workers are die on the job.  And each year on April 28, we honor these who went to work but didn't return home to their families not only by honoring their memory, but by rededicating ourselves to promoting safer workplaces.