Category: Economic Security

Posted inEconomic Security, Policy Topics, Series & Special Reports

Progressive Ideas We Need: Paid vacation leave as part of every job

by Gael Tarleton

Edi­tor’s Note: Today and through­out this week­end, NPI is run­ning a spe­cial series here on the Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate called Pro­gres­sive Ideas We Need, high­light­ing pro­pos­als that would raise qual­i­ty of life in our region and in the Unit­ed States as a whole. Each post is con­tributed by an NPI staff, board, or advi­so­ry coun­cil member. […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Policy Topics

Familias Unidas por La Justicia ends Sakuma Farms boycott, unionization vote scheduled

by Andrew Villeneuve

Read­ers, here’s some very encour­ag­ing news from our broth­ers and sis­ters at Famil­ias Unidas por La Jus­ti­cia that we just received min­utes ago: Dear Sup­port­ers: As of today, Saku­ma Broth­ers Farms and Famil­ias Unidas por La Jus­ti­cia have mutu­al­ly agreed to con­duct a secret bal­lot elec­tion with­in the next 8 days. The elec­tion will deter­mine if the […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

Eyman’s I‑1366 is buried; now the Legislature needs to get back to work on school funding

by Andrew Villeneuve

Yes­ter­day, Wash­ing­ton’s Supreme Court gave Tim Eyman’s I‑1366 a prop­er and fit­ting bur­ial, rul­ing 9–0 that the mea­sure was uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. In affirm­ing Judge William Down­ing’s deci­sion strik­ing down Tim Eyman’s I‑1366 in its entire­ty, the high court both did its job and res­cued the Leg­is­la­ture from hav­ing to wor­ry about los­ing $8 bil­lion in funding […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Litigation, Policy Topics

Labor movement finally catches a break as Supreme Court deadlocks in Friedrichs case

by Andrew Villeneuve

A right wing attempt to severe­ly weak­en pub­lic sec­tor unions end­ed in fail­ure today when the Supreme Court announced in a one-sen­­tence rul­ing that it would not over­turn its 1977 deci­sion allow­ing such unions to charge non-mem­bers agency fees to cov­er the cost of rep­re­sent­ing them in col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing nego­ti­a­tions. Pre­sum­ably, the remain­ing mem­bers of […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

How would WA Republicans like it if *these* bills needed a two-thirds vote to pass?

by Andrew Villeneuve

Any­one who has spent time attempt­ing to under­stand the pol­i­tics of the Wash­ing­ton State Repub­li­can Par­ty knows that Repub­li­cans spend an awful lot of time lis­ten­ing to (and tak­ing their cues from) mil­i­tant, right wing ini­tia­tive prof­i­teer Tim Eyman, who has become obsessed late­ly with gut­ting Wash­ing­ton’s cher­ished tra­di­tion of major­i­ty rule and replac­ing it […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Education, Policy Topics

Emerald City teachers overwhelmingly ratify new contract with Seattle Public Schools

by Andrew Villeneuve

Teach­ers in Seat­tle have vot­ed over­whelm­ing­ly to approve a new con­tract with Seat­tle Pub­lic Schools, which means class­es will be held as sched­uled tomor­row and in the months beyond, the Seat­tle Edu­ca­tion Asso­ci­a­tion announced tonight. The agree­ment had three com­po­nents. All were rat­i­fied with large mar­gins. “Today was a great day for uni­ty in Seattle […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Elections, Policy Topics

Former Republican state party chair Chris Vance launches challenge to Patty Murray

by Andrew Villeneuve

Last week, rumors sur­faced that for­mer Wash­ing­ton State Repub­li­can Par­ty Chair Chris Vance would be launch­ing a cam­paign for U.S. Sen­ate in 2016, seek­ing the seat cur­rent­ly held by Pat­ty Mur­ray. Yes­ter­day, to the relief of cur­rent state Repub­li­can Chair Susan Hutchi­son, Vance made it offi­cial: He’s in. Vance, fifty-three, has a his­to­ry of run­ning for […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Policy Topics, Public Planning

State Supreme Court rules that SeaTac’s Good Jobs Proposition applies to airport workers

by Andrew Villeneuve

Work­ers at Seat­­tle-Taco­­ma Inter­na­tion­al Air­port must be paid a min­i­mum wage of $15/hour in accor­dance with the City of SeaT­ac’s Good Jobs law (Propo­si­tion #1, enact­ed by vot­ers in 2013) the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court ruled today. In a 5–4 deci­sion authored by Jus­tice Susan Owens, the Court held the air­port is not exempt from […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Live Coverage

#NN15: Ending Inequality For All

by Rennie Sawade

This pan­el, led by Charles Cham­ber­lain, is a dis­cus­sion on the issues of inequal­i­ty in the work­place and how pro­gres­sives can tack­le these issues. Pan­elists include: Elba Diaz, Rep. Don­na Edwards, Rep. Kei­th Elli­son, Analil­ia Mejia, Aman­da Mon­roe The coun­try has turned a crit­i­cal eye toward the his­toric gap between the 1 per­cent and the rest of […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Economic Security, Education, Live Coverage

Netroots Nation Panel: Student Debt Crisis

by Rennie Sawade

This pan­el dis­cuss­es the issues around stu­dent debt. The pan­elists are Robert Cruick­shank, Natalia Abrams, Melis­sa Byrne, Angela Peo­ples and Kay­la Wing­ber­muehle. Some of the main issues: Wealth trans­fer prob­lem. Wealthy stu­dents can afford col­lege, not go into debt, and not have to work a part-time job, so they can con­cen­trate more in class­es, do better, […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Education, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

Lake Washington teachers latest to walk out in protest of inadequate education funding

by Andrew Villeneuve

Teach­ers in the Lake Wash­ing­ton School Dis­trict — which serves 26,700 stu­dents in NPI’s home­town of Red­mond along with the neigh­bor­ing cities of Kirk­land and Sam­mamish — have vot­ed to walk off the job on Wednes­day, May 6th in protest of the Leg­is­la­ture’s com­plete­ly inad­e­quate response to the Supreme Court’s McCleary deci­sion, and its refusal […]

Posted inBreaking News, Economic Security, Policy Topics

House of Representatives passes bills to raise minimum wage and provide sick + safe leave

by Andrew Villeneuve

In a sig­nif­i­cant vic­to­ry for work­ing peo­ple, the Wash­ing­ton’s House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives tonight adopt­ed leg­is­la­tion to raise the state’s min­i­mum wage to twelve dol­lars an hour by 2019. Fifty-one rep­re­sen­ta­tives vot­ed to pass HB 1355, while forty-six vot­ed against pas­sage. One rep­re­sen­ta­tive was excused. The roll call was as fol­lows: Vot­ing Yea: Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Apple­ton, Bergquist, […]

Posted inBreaking News, Economic Security, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Port dispute at an end? ILWU says tentative agreement reached on new contract with PMA

by Andrew Villeneuve

A dis­pute between the Inter­na­tion­al Long­shore and Ware­house Union (ILWU) and the Pacif­ic Mar­itime Asso­ci­a­tion (PMA), a group of West Coast ter­mi­nal oper­a­tors, is at an end fol­low­ing suc­cess­ful nego­ti­a­tions on a new con­tract, the par­ties say. “After more than nine months of nego­ti­a­tions, we are pleased to have reached an agree­ment that is good for […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

U.S. Senate passes $1.1 trillion, giveaway-stuffed “cromnibus” bill in late night vote

by Andrew Villeneuve

Ear­li­er this evening, fol­low­ing in the foot­steps of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, the Unit­ed States Sen­ate passed the mas­sive appro­pri­a­tions bill that has become known as the CRom­nibus, send­ing the leg­is­la­tion to Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma, who is pre­pared to sign it with­out delay. The final vote was fifty-six to forty; four sen­a­tors did not vote. The […]