Tuesday, November 5, 2024
MACHINISTS STRIKE at BOEING
► From the Seattle Times — Boeing Machinists approve new contract, ending strike — “This is a victory, we can hold our heads high,” said Jon Holden, president of the striking Machinists union local. “We all stood strong, and we achieved something that we hadn’t achieved the last 22 years. Now it’s our job to get back to work and start building the airplanes, increase the rates and bring this company back to financial success,” he continued.
► From CNN — Boeing workers vote to accept deal, end strike — Holden acknowledged the pension was likely a major issue for many of the 41% who voted against the deal. “Fifty-nine percent is a lot, but there are definitely those who were not happy with the agreement,” he said. “Many of the members were fighting to get the pensions back. It’s a righteous fight.”
► From the Washington Post — Boeing workers vote to accept contract proposal, ending strike — By the end of the four-year contract, average annual machinists’ pay without overtime will rise to $119,309 from $75,608, according to Boeing. The new contract also includes paid parental leave and restores the annual bonus program that Boeing eliminated in its first offer in September.
► From the AP — Strike at Boeing was part of a new era of labor activism long in decline at US work places — Organized labor has made itself heard over the past couple of years, and the number of actions taken by unions has soared. There were 470 work stoppages (466 strikes and four lockouts) involving approximately 539,000 workers last year, according to Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. The nearly 500 work stoppages resulted in approximately 24,874,522 strike days.
Today at The STAND: Machinists ratify contract, end strike
STRIKES
► From the NYT Tech Guild
ELECTION DAY STRIKE: We are back out on the picket line today. We know this is a hard day to be on strike for our members but we want to be clear: We are here because of the decisions of @NYTimes management. pic.twitter.com/K3ceJn4dHa
— New York Times Tech Guild (@NYTGuildTech) November 5, 2024
► From Hawaii News Now — Hilton Hawaiian Hotel workers end 40-day strike — Workers at the hotel voted to ratify their new contract on ending a 40-day strike that began on Sept. 24. The union says more than 3,200 Local 5 members at seven other hotels are still working without a contract and could strike at any time.
LOCAL
► From the Spokesman Review — Bird flu detected in Stevens, Okanogan counties — Two cases of avian influenza were found in backyard coops in Stevens and Okanogan counties late last week, the state Department of Agriculture said Monday. The case in Stevens County was found Friday in a medium-size backyard flock of mixed bird types in or near Chewelah, according to the department’s avian flu dashboard. Medium flocks range from 100 to 1,000 birds. The case in Okanogan County was found in a small backyard flock with less than 100 birds in Omak the same day.
► From the Seattle Times — Checkpoint 5 at Sea-Tac Airport to close for a year — Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is closing its checkpoint 5 starting Monday night for about a year. The checkpoint’s closure is part of the airport’s $5 billion Upgrade SEA project, which is expected to wrap up by 2026 before Seattle hosts World Cup matches.
ORGANIZING
► From the Huffington Post — Dating App Grindr Accused Of Illegal Union-Busting — Last December, Grindr employees voted 19-13 in favor of joining CWA. But ballots from another 55 voters were challenged by either the company or the union, so the labor board must determine their eligibility before announcing an official result. The NLRB spokesperson said most of those challenged ballots were cast by workers pushed out under the return-to-office policy.
► From the Trib Live — Pennsylvania faculty union joins national AFT — The union representing more than 5,000 faculty and coaches across Pennsylvania’s 10 state-owned universities is the latest to affiliate with AFT, a nationwide union of education and other workers.
READY FOR A VOICE AT WORK? Get more information about how you can join together with co-workers and negotiate for better wages and working conditions. Or go ahead and contact a union organizer today!
NATIONAL
► From the Washington Post — Drought conditions cover a record swath of the U.S. What to know — A remarkable 87 percent of the country had fallen into dry or drought conditions as of Oct. 31. And as a weather pattern shift continues, a swath of the central United States will remain in a transition from drought to flood concerns this week and beyond. Drought is notorious for ending with a flood, as it often takes copious moisture to break a lengthy dry spell. But the quick flips between intense rounds of dry and wet are being exacerbated by human-caused climate change, according to scientists.
POLITICS & POLICY
► From the Washington State Standard — Washington voter turnout is lagging behind four years ago — As of Monday, 56.7% of ballots had been returned statewide, according to the secretary of state’s website. That’s more than 2.8 million ballots returned so far. In 2020, 73.7% of ballots had been returned the day before the election.
Editor’s note: ballots must be dropped off in a drop box by 8 pm tonight to be counted. Here are statewide dropbox locations and WSLC endorsements.
► From the Nation — Sex Workers Are Trying to Warn Us About Project 2025 — “The goal seems to be to cripple the legitimate companies in the adult industry by passing and enforcing burdensome, draconian laws—so that inevitably when the legitimate, legally compliant adult sites lose the majority of their traffic to noncompliant, overseas-based sites that are willing to host any content (even illegal, abusive content), then it will just add more fuel to the conservative argument that all porn is exploitative,” Dahl said. “In my view, they’re doing more to enable sexual exploitation than anybody in the modern porn industry has.”
► From the Spokesman Review — For 40 years, this Washington county has picked the winning candidate for president, the longest streak in the nation — The last time Clallam County voters picked a losing presidential candidate by popular vote was in 1976, when they chose incumbent Republican Gerald Ford who narrowly lost the election to Democrat Jimmy Carter. Since then, the county’s voters have picked the winners in every presidential race. Up until the 2020 election, 18 other counties in the nation had held onto the bellwether status for as long as Clallam County. Seventeen of them were located in the Midwest and Northeast. All 18 of those counties that year voted for Trump, while Clallam went for Biden.
► From the Tri-City Herald — Democrats outraged by ‘horrific’ GOP text messages sent to Central WA Latino voters — The text messages, sent in Spanish on Friday, made false claims that three Democratic Latina candidates in the 14th District want to “eliminate the Spanish language” and “support the chemical castration of your children in school without your knowledge or support.” “What the Washington Republican Party is doing is an attack on our fundamental right to vote and have fair representation,” said Cortez. The Republican candidates from the 14th District issued a joint statement Monday about the messages. “We disavow the text.”
► From the Washington State Standard — It’s Election Day. Officials ask for patience in waiting on the results. — If voters face any problems, they can call 866-OUR-VOTE, a nonpartisan election protection hotline. Volunteer lawyers and members of voting rights groups will work with voters who call and with local election officials to resolve problems. If a voter in any state is questioned about their eligibility, they have the right under federal law to cast a provisional ballot and later prove eligibility. In Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, two states that could seal the race for the presidency, local election officials cannot start opening and counting mail-in ballots until 7 a.m. on Election Day, so many results might not come in until days later, as was the case in 2020.
JOLT OF JOY
We all need a laugh today. See you on the other side.
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