Monday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal included two stories about jobs and wages that provide a concise summary of what’s wrong with America and what’s right with Seattle. However, the business-minded newspaper failed to connect the dots between the articles scattered within its pages. Perhaps that’s because doing so would directly contradict its right-wing conservative editorial agenda.
David Groves of The Stand , a project of the Washington State Labor Council ( WSLC ) and its affiliated unions, sends us "‘ Small’ NFIB Gets GOP Funders’ Big Bucks ."
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) promotes itself as a “non-profit, non-partisan organization” that is “the leading small business association representing small and independent business.”
For a business group so focused on “small” it says it twice, the NFIB reportedly gets a lot of its funding from the biggest names in Republican politics, including Karl Rove and the Koch brothers. As for the “independent” part, the NFIB’s political and legislative agendas at both the national and Washington state levels align closely with the Republican Party and big—not small—corporate interests.
United Steelworkers ( USW ) members at the Tesoro refinery in Anacortes, Wash., have voted to accept the company’s latest contract offer. Shortly after USW members protested May 3 outside Tesoro’s shareholder meeting in San Antonio, the company presented a revised “last-and-final offer” that reportedly included some key concessions on workers’ benefits.
It’s been four years since low-wage workers got a raise. Sign the petition to tell Congress it’s time to raise the minimum wage.
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