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Local Labor News
Published in the Everett Herald: Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Fired Everett Teacher 'Delighted' With Deal
Kay Powers Reached a Settlement With the Everett School District That Will Let Her Teach
By Eric Stevick
Herald Writer
EVERETT-- Kay Powers was supposed to be going to a rally of her supporters Friday, but it became a congratulation party instead.
The fired Cascade High School English and journalism teacher informed her friends, colleagues and former students that she had reached a settlement with the Everett School District earlier in the afternoon to return to the classroom.
Otherwise, Powers and her lawyers from the Everett Education Association would have squared off against the district at a three-day hearing that was supposed to begin today.
"I am delighted with the settlement," she said Monday. "To be fired and reinstated is a big deal."
Under the agreement, the 65-year-old Powers will resign effective Aug. 31, 2009, and will not teach journalism.
Powers said the agreement had everything she wanted. She will teach English at Henry M. Jackson High School beginning next week.
Powers also wanted to return to the Everett district where she has worked for 22 years.
School district officials said the settlement provides 10 days for her return. With state WASL testing going on this week, Powers is expected back at school April 25, said Mary Waggoner, a school district spokeswoman.
"I would like to put journalism aside for a while," Powers said, adding "I know it's time for younger people to take over."
It was an issue over a student newspaper that got Powers in trouble with the district.
She was accused of helping students produce an underground paper, The Free Ste¬‚hekin, during school hours and on school computers despite being warned not to do so. She was placed on administrative leave in June and fired in November.
In the firing letter, Superintendent Carol Whitehead outlined several reasons for Powers' dismissal, saying the teacher violated district policies and Whitehead's directives.
After firing Powers, the school district filed a report with the state's Office of Professional Practices, which could have led to the revocation of her teaching credentials. District officials said they were following legal requirements in filing the report.
As part of the deal reached Friday, the district agreed to notify the state agency that the matter has been resolved. Attempts to reach the Office of Professional Practices for comment about what happens next were not returned Monday.
Powers also will receive back pay.
Journalism teachers from across the state were monitoring Powers' situation, said Vince DeMiero, an English, journalism and photography teacher at Mountlake Terrace High School.
The case had "some young journalism teachers thinking, 'Is this what I want to get into?' " he said. "I would qualify it more as a sigh of relief than something you would feel emboldened about. At least this is a step in the right direction."
Powers said she appreciated the help from her union, lawyers and co-workers to get her job back. Many wore buttons and T-shirts and were prepared to use personal leave days to attend the hearing.
Powers said she doesn't know if she will try to teach after next year.
"It's hard to say," she said. "At the age of 67, I might be raring to go again."
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or e-mail stevick@heraldnet.com.
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Posted April 3, 2008
Boeing is Right to Protest the Tanker Decision
By Bob Drewel
Special to The Seattle Times
As a region, we cannot afford to leave these questions unanswered. The balancing effect of military contracts to support our often cyclical civilian aircraft production lines is important. The civilian aviation market is much more susceptible to booms and busts than is the military market. Our aerospace workers need work in both the good times and the rough ones - and the award of the Air Force tanker project would have given them just that.
Without the tanker award, the 767 assembly line in Everett will shut down perhaps as early as 2012. With the award, it will likely continue to 2018 or later and allow the 767 to continue picking up new orders for civilian freighters as the need for midsized reliable freight aircraft continues to grow.
With so many of the suppliers for the 767 based in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, as well as around the state, it is important for the future economic health of both the central Puget Sound region and the entire state of Washington to extend the 767 line as long as possible.
With a Boeing tanker award, the American people would have ended up with a higher quality, lower cost product for the U.S. taxpayers and less military spending on infrastructure; plus, we would be keeping primarily American workers working during good times and bad.
With the Airbus win, we are costing the U.S. taxpayers more, putting billions in new investment capital in Europe and keeping primarily European workers working in good times and bad.
With all this in mind, we in this state need to think long term about our economy. While it is true that we here in Washington are in a healthy time compared to much of the country now, there are many factors that, without work on our part, could lead to hard times ahead. A robust aerospace sector in Washington is much more beneficial to the United States than a healthy aerospace sector in France and other European nations, with a small assembly facility in Mobile, Ala.
Bob Drewel is the executive director of the Puget Sound Regional Council, the chairman of the Aerospace Futures Alliance of Washington, and a former Snohomish County executive.
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Posted April 2, 2008
SPEEA Seeks Information About Boeing's Use of Foreign Workers
SEATTLE -- Concerned about continuing efforts to increase the number of foreign workers allowed at U.S. companies, the union representing engineers and technical workers at The Boeing Company is seeking detailed information about the number of employees working technical jobs at Boeing through federal visa programs.
Today, (April 1) the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001, submitted a formal request for the data to Boeing. In addition to the number of foreign workers, the request seeks information on the process used to renew visas and the treatment of foreign workers by the company.
Today, April 1, is the day the federal government takes applications for the 65,000 H-1B visas issued by lottery.
Supporters for the visa programs claim foreign workers are needed to keep U.S. industry competitive. However, union officials said companies use the visas to bring in workers who will work for lower wages. When the workers return home, they take with them high-tech knowledge, skills and experience that undermines U.S. competitiveness.
According to union records, about 50 workers on H-1B or TN (trade NAFTA) visas perform work that could be done by U.S. citizens. Additionally, about 300 contractors from Russia work under the B-1 (business) visa program.
"We are concerned that the drive to increase the number of foreign workers is based less on need and more on the desire for lower-cost labor," said Ray Goforth, SPEEA executive director. "Moreover, when these visa holders return to their home countries they take key skills and abilities to Boeing's overseas competitors."
In October, SPEEA begins main table negotiations with Boeing for 21,000 employees in Washington, Kansas, Oregon, Utah and California. Negotiations begin in May for 3,000 represented employees at Spirit AeroSystems, Inc. in Wichita, Kansas.
A local of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), SPEEA represents more than 24,000 aerospace professionals at Boeing, Spirit, Triumph Composite Systems, Inc., in Spokane, Wash., and at BAE Systems, Inc., in Irving, Texas.
Posted March 31, 2008
SPEEA tells Boeing to bring back more outsourced 787 work
SEATTLE--The Boeing Company's decision to buy a large stake in a major supplier's U.S. plant for the 787 is a necessary first step to bringing work back to the experienced employees who can get the program back on schedule, according to the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001.
"We are hopeful this is an indication that the company realizes that not just anyone can engineer, design and build these very complex aerospace products," said Ray Goforth, executive director of the union representing engineers and technical workers at Boeing. "Our members have been saying for some time that this global network is not working."
Boeing announced today (March 28) plans to buy Vought Aircraft Industries' interest in Global Aeronautica LLC, owner of the South Carolina plant that will assemble major portions of the fuselage for the 787 Dreamliner. The purchase will make the assembly plant a 50-50 joint venture between Boeing and Italy's Alenia Aeronautica.
Employees working on the 787 program have voiced concerns about unnecessary rework required on parts coming in from outside Boeing. In some areas, employees are working 20 to 40 percent overtime and traveling frequently to help suppliers. SPEEA members at the former Boeing plant in Wichita, now operated by Spirit AeroSystems, Inc., have expressed the same concerns.
"The existing employees know how to do this work and should be doing the work," said Goforth. "If the company does not correct this failed model, they will lose the younger people who are the future of aerospace."
In October, SPEEA begins main table negotiations with Boeing for 21,000 employees in Washington, Kansas, Oregon, Utah and California. Negotiations begin in May for 3,000 represented employees at Spirit AeroSystems, Inc. in Wichita, Kansas.
A local of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), SPEEA represents more than 24,000 aerospace professionals at Boeing, Spirit, Triumph Composite Systems, Inc., in Spokane, Wash., and at BAE Systems, Inc., in Irving, Texas.
Published in the Everett Herald: March 20, 2008. Posted March 21, 2008.
Boeing Machinists Say Tanker Decision is 'Outsourcing Our Future'
Lawmakers are urged to block Air Force Tanker Deal in a Rally in Everett.
By Michelle Dunlop
Herald Writer
EVERETT -- Angry over a Pentagon decision that they say jeopardizes American jobs, Boeing Co. workers plan to "take it to the streets."
They started on Wednesday with a rally supporting efforts to overturn the U.S. Air Force's award of a $35 billion tanker contract to Northrop Grumman and Airbus parent, EADS. Boeing machinists and engineers had hoped to supply the government with KC-767 tanker, assembled in Everett. Instead, they're pushing lawmakers to take up their fight.
"We're going to hold the government's feet to the fire on this one," said Susan Palmer, with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. Palmer was the Machinists' business representative for the 767 line for nine years and serves as district secretary-treasurer.
Boeing Machinists and engineers crammed into a crowded union hall Wednesday afternoon near Boeing's factory in Everett to hear from union officials, Washington's governor and the state's congressional delegation. Carrying signs with slogans like "We build it better" and "Not with MY tax $" Boeing workers took turns answering rally cries of "What do we want? -- Tankers."
"Our government isn't just outsourcing our plane, it's outsourcing our future," Palmer said. Read full story
Published in the Seattle Times: December 16, 2007. Posted Dec. 20, 2007
Pay in Aerospace is Low for Non-Boeing Workers
By Dominic Gates and Justin Mayo
Seattle Times staff reporters
Since March a recruiting banner visible from Interstate 5 has hung on the fence outside C&D Zodiac's airplane-parts plant in Marysville: "Now hiring highly motivated and dependable people."
The hiring drive is fueled by two big contracts for the 787 Dreamliner. C&D will add a third shift and operate 24 hours a day by 2010, said manufacturing manager Ron Spliethof.
Yet the hundreds of assembly jobs at C&D are mostly unskilled, entry-level positions. At the factory earlier this year, a close-knit team of young Asian immigrant women applied the finishing touches to aircraft interior panels. Adjacent production cells were manned by other immigrants and young people not long out of high school.
The pay reflects that. More than two-thirds of C&D's 369 production workers earned between minimum wage and $15 an hour last year, according to data filed with the state. At the top end, that's base pay of about $31,000 a year. Read full story
Published in the Everett Herald: Monday, Dec. 7, 2007. Posted Dec. 10, 2007.
Wal-Mart Retreats From Snohomish County
Mill Creek store scuttled; Arlington, Marysville plans delayed
By Eric Fetters
Herald Writer
Wal-Mart has scrapped plans for a supercenter at a hard-fought location in Mill Creek and is delaying new stores in Arlington and Marysville.
The world's largest retailer doesn't often give up on proposed stores, but the prolonged process to gain final approval for the Mill Creek site took its toll, company officials said.
"When we signed the ground lease with the property owner, we didn't expect to do an environmental impact study. We didn't expect to have this long, protracted process, because we haven't gone through that elsewhere in the county," said Jennifer Spall, Wal-Mart's spokeswoman for Washington. "All of those processes added time to that project."
The Arlington and Marysville stores are being delayed as part of a corporate decision to re-evaluate its national expansion plans, Spall said, adding Snohomish County's fast-growing population still makes it an attractive place to expand.
The chain actually released its lease on the Mill Creek site in September, she said.
Opponents of that project cheered Wal-Mart's decision.
"That is awesome," said Lillian Kaufer of Citizens for a Better Mill Creek, which led the fight against the proposed store on 132nd Street SE. "This group has worked so hard, it's unreal." Read full story
Published in the Wall Street Journal: Monday, Dec. 7, 2007. Posted Dec. 10, 2007.
Boeing Scrambles to Repair Problems With New Plane
Layers of Outsourcing Slow 787 Production; 'Hostage to Suppliers'
Author: J. Lynn Lunsford
(Copyright (c) 2007, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
EVERETT, Wash. -- On Tuesday, Boeing Co. will give Wall Street a progress report on its 787 Dreamliner, as it scrambles to overcome a six-month delay in producing the new jet. A look inside the project reveals that the mess stems from one of its main selling points to investors -- global outsourcing.
When the Chicago aerospace giant set out four years ago to build the fuel-sipping jet, it figured the chief risk lay in perfecting a process to build much of the plane from carbon-fiber plastic instead of aluminum. Boeing focused so hard on getting the science right that it didn't grasp the significance of another big change: The 787 is the first jet in Boeing's 91-year history designed largely by other companies.
To lower the $10 billion or so it would cost to develop the plane solo, Boeing authorized a team of parts suppliers to design and build major sections of the craft, which it planned to snap together at its Seattle-area factory. But outsourcing so much responsibility has turned out to be far more difficult than anticipated. Read full story
Everett Herald: Published December 5, 2007
GUEST COMMENTARY
America's Military Tankers Should Say 'Made in USA'
By Mark A. Blondin
Like many people raised in the Puget Sound region, multiple generations of my family, including myself, have worked for the Boeing Co. For years, my union, the workers who build Boeing aircraft, has appealed to Boeing, "don't export our jobs -- export our airplanes." This demand has not changed.
As many Washington state citizens are well aware, our pleas have fallen on somewhat deaf ears. While we continue to maintain a fairly significant workforce here in the Puget Sound area -- nearly 24,000 Machinists at this time -- it is nowhere near the peak of the 1980s, when our community had nearly 45,000 Machinists constructing aircraft from Auburn to Everett, and building what continues to be the safest, most reliable, and certainly the most technologically advanced aircraft in the world.
Throughout the '80s, '90s and now into the new millennium, Boeing has outsourced work that many feel belongs right here in the Puget Sound region, along with parts that should be manufactured in Washington, Kansas and Oregon. All three regions are involved in a collective bargaining agreement that the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Union has held with Boeing since 1935.
The global environment that has put extreme pressures on Boeing to outsource commercial airplane work overseas in order to sell commercial aircraft abroad has certainly cost many a young person from our communities the opportunity that I had, to share in an industry that was born in our community and that leads the way in economic viability for working families. I have never agreed with this outsourcing philosophy and I have certainly never embraced it. Read full story
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Published Dec. 2, 2007
Even Powerful, Efficient Markets Fail
Stan Sorscher, SPEEA
Guest Columnist
Thirty years ago, capitalism won a historic struggle against communism. Since then, prevailing wisdom has settled into the idea that markets are good and policy is bad. Let markets solve our problems. Shrink government, reduce taxes, deregulate and privatize.
We can all agree that markets are powerful and efficient. Nevertheless, we feel a growing anxiety that the middle class is eroding and shared prosperity is slipping through our fingers.
Markets are powerful and efficient, but markets fail. Read full story
Stan Sorscher is a labor, trade and health care activist who lives in Seattle.
Published in the Everett Herald: Monday, October 22, 2007. Posted Oct. 25, 2007.
Growth key key in partisan County Council race
By Jeff Switzer
Herald Writer
Two former state legislators are locked in a partisan battle for an open seat on the Snohomish County Council, and the race is about to heat up.
About $66,000 worth of TV and radio ads will hit the airwaves soon, opposing Democratic candidate Mike Cooper just as voters get their ballots.
The building industry is bankrolling opposition to Cooper, who has won endorsements from environmental and labor groups.
Builders instead hope that voters will choose Republican Renee Radcliff Sinclair of Lynnwood.
"I think her expertise and understanding of things is a valuable asset for a County Council seat. That's why we're supporting her as a PAC and see the industry supporting her," said David Toyer, spokesman for the Quality Communities political action committee and a vice-president at Barclays North Inc., a Lake Stevens home builder.
The TV and radio ads will "see us pointing out some areas of contrast with Mr. Cooper," Toyer said, declining to elaborate.
Last week, the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties gave $85,000 to the Quality Communities political action committee for the ads. The committee is chiefly made up of local home builders and land developers including Barclays North Inc. of Lake Stevens and Pacific Ridge Homes of Bothell.
"I've been expecting it all along," Cooper said, adding that he expects the campaign will consist of attack ads. "The Master Builders don't want me to be in office. They're nervous. They're concerned I'm the one supported by the environmental community."
Both candidates are former state representatives from the 21st Legislative district. They are chasing votes to succeed Republican Gary Nelson, who is finishing 12 years on the council. Term limits bar him from seeking re-election.
A victory by Cooper could extend the Democratic majority on the council to 4-1. Full story
Posted September 20, 2007
Spirit of Labor Award: Bob Neumann
(Awarded posthumously)
When Bob Neumann was diagnosed with severe emphysema in 1995, he left his job as a structural mechanic on the wing line at Everett's Boeing plant and, on borrowed time, he became a tireless volunteer.
For more than 10 years he volunteered four days a week, encouraging patients in the pulmonary rehab program at Providence Everett Medical Center to exercise. With his union, he headed an adopt-a-highway program and worked on cleaning up Everett's Casino Road. He worked on several other community projects, cleaning up schools, building playgrounds and participating in United Way's Day of Caring.
Neumann worked at the Boeing Company for 29 years and was a union steward with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 751A. Formerly a resident of Mill Creek, he served as sergeant at arms for the Snohomish County Labor Council and was on the council's community services committee.
Bob Neumann dedicated his last years to making life better for others, giving over 5,000 hours to volunteer service. Robert William Neumann died on February 25, 2007 at age 60. He is survived by his wife, Judy Neumann, who accepted the award on his behalf.
The Spirit of Labor Award is presented to a union member for outstanding leadership and community service through the partnership between United Way of Snohomish County and Organized Labor. The recipient demonstrates a commitment to our community through long-term notable volunteer service.
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