Results tagged “strike”

First the Seattle Public School teachers put a spike in the heart of summer, by agreeing to a one-year contract (not ratified until Monday, August 31, kids, so get out there and lobby). Now Shoreline's teachers have reached a "tentative contract agreement," and will vote on it tomorrow. That leaves Kent facing a strike vote at 5 p.m. today. The teachers want smaller classes, better pay. When do they want it? Now!

Yesterday we thought only a huge idiot would really believe Boeing was going to leave its Northwest workforce behind and move to South Carolina. But then Matt the Engineer commented: "Bad news, or perhaps part of the bluff: I just received an e-mail from Boeing letting me know that an engineering job I had applied for has been cancelled. I went back to their site to see if other jobs are available (there used to be a handful), and found absolutely no engineering jobs posted for Washington."

This morning we were down at the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce breakfast and regional economic forecast discussion, which opened with chair Tayloe Washburn being emotionally overcome while talking about how strapped food banks are for donations. (At which point we sorely regretted suggesting the chamber was "populated largely by jaw-dangling idiots," and wished we'd stuck to the rule of vilifying awful ideas rather than the people whose heads they're stinking up.)

As of yesterday, Boeing machinists have been on strike for 30 days with no end in sight. Workers who have waited out previous strikes are predicting this strike will last longer than the previous record-breaking 69-day strike of 1995. This go around, Boeing machinists are striking for better pensions, benefits and a larger wage increase. Also at the heart of the strike is job security, which decreases every day the strike continues: Boeing has begun to hire temporary workers to fill empty positions.

This photo of the picket line in Bellevue taken by Greg Stonebraker and generously added to the Seattlest Flickr Pool.

Most news reports and editorials that reference the striking Bellevue teachers list salary as the primary motivator for the strike, which is the easy play because it's always about money. Except when it isn't. The striking Bellevue teachers we've talked to (full disclosure: Seattlest's wife is a striking Bellevue teacher) list the current implementation of the centralized curriculum as the primary motivation for the strike.

If you're a teenager, there is nothing better than a few extra days of summer vacation however you can get them. Students in the Bellevue School District are rejoicing (and their parents are scrambling for child care) as the start of school was delayed due to a teacher's strike. Bellevue teachers took the picket line today after a contract negotiations failed Monday night. At the center of the teachers strike are issues regarding salary and curriculum. A mediator will try to bring both sides to the table again today. Bellevue teenagers will be keeping their fingers crossed for failure and a few more school-free days.

magazine claims, "You can't swing a dead cat this time of year without hitting a Top 10 List." Never one to waste a perfectly good dead cat, we decided to take a swing and create a Top Random-Number Shows Seattlest Saw This Year. And now, without any further ado, here's how your favorite bloggers broke down the year:

The Seattle Times is reporting, way at the top in an unlikable breaking news sentence (read: cub reporter with a police scanner), that there has been an accident involving the Mercer Streetcar. According to the bolded sentence paragraph, an SUV ran an intersection and collided with an empty streetcar at the corner of Mercer and Terry.

This fall we are combining our love of the football and our dream of learning to cook. On Sunday morning, following a trip to a local farmer’s market/major supermarket chain, we will be preparing a meal from the city of the Seahawks opponent. Then at halftime we will throw our badly burned hands in the air and make hot dogs.

What a glorious morning! The Sonics have won three of five, Edgar Martinez wasn't in the Mitchell Report, we've got a kickin' holiday party to attend tonight.

While trolling through today's Floor Proceedings of the U.S. House of Representatives for our other job (it's an exciting one), we noticed something that will probably get no coverage anywhere else. However, we think it is important to note when Congress singles out one faith as important. We think it's doubly important to note when the vote is taken while Congress fights with the Bush Administration over funding the government for the next year, haggles...

For a Presidential candidate—especially one who has recently surged in the polls—Barack Obama is kinda a rock star. So it makes sense that he'd host his latest Seattle appearance at a rock club. The Seattle Generation Obama Concert takes place Tuesday night at the Showbox SoDo. Obama will be there, doing his campaigning thing, along with special musical guests the Dusty 45s and (the still-reunited) Brad. Since Obama and company are going after the...

In November, Mike Hamilton adds this racist joke political commentary to his notorious Uncle Sam billboard: In December, massive floods dunk that section of I-5 into suspiciously biblical amounts of water. Co-inkydink? Or is someone "up there" even more displeased with Hamilton's latest message than everyone else who's seen the billboard?...

It's safe to assume that Sharon Jones is cooler than you. The current queen of neo-funk/soul grew up in Macon, Georgia and Brooklyn, singing in church before ending up doing session work in the '70s as the anonymous vocals on dance and disco records. Without a solo contract of her own, she left the industry and took odd jobs like corrections officer at Rikers Island and Wells Fargo armored car guard.

Thanksgiving doesn't allow for us Seattlesters to partake in our usual rock and roll lifestyles. Instead it's friends and family and mellow times about the house. Our drinking's liable to be more restrained and coordinated with a heavy meal of rich food. (Seattlest Geoff offered some choice beer recommendations earlier this week for those who've got a pit-stop planned on the way to grandmother's house tomorrow.) And according to the weather report, it's going to be cold but clear tomorrow, with morning to afternoon sunshine to make that drive a little more pleasant.

The snow is falling, our dear Seattle friends, it simply isn't falling here. Whistler just announced it is open for business, bagging the ultimate ski resort coup of cutting powder before we cut the turkey. Of course you want to go, but in fondly recalling the days of 1998 when the US-CA exchange rate swung wildly the other way, you fear you can really only afford to stay home and play Ski Resort Extreme Halo 3. We've learned a thing or six going back and forth with our neighbors to the north for many a year now, and so we offer you our quick and dirty guide to saving at least a wee bit of money and time in your BC powder-chasing adventures.

Being born about three decades too late early to appreciate Go, Diego, Go LIVE: The Great Jaguar Rescue, a musical based on the TV show of the same name, we sent our two-year-old nephew.

Tonight, the nation's hardcore gamblers' eyes will be on Seattle as our fair burgh hosts Monday Night Football.

Meanwhile, over on the New York Attorney General's site, Andrew Cuomo is impersonating a pitbull, if pitbulls knew how to file subpoenas:

“In order to fulfill their duty to consumers and investors, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must ensure that Washington Mutual’s mortgages have not been corrupted by inflated appraisals,” said Attorney General Cuomo. “Our expanding investigation into the mortgage industry has uncovered that Washington Mutual improperly pressured appraisers to provide inflated values that best served the lender’s interest. Knowing this, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac cannot afford to continue buying Washington Mutual mortgages unless they are sure these loans are based on reliable and independent appraisals.”

In an oh-so-scientific survey, a "national emerging health care discount service" we'll decline to name (take that, PR flacks!) discovered that the most caffeinated city in the country out of 20 is ... Chicago!

This fall we are combining our love of the football and our dream of learning to cook. On Sunday morning, following a trip to a local farmer's market/major supermarket chain, we will be preparing a meal from the city of the Seahawks opponent. Then at halftime we will throw our badly burned hands in the air and make hot dogs. Note: This weekend we are injured reserve, so trading in the visor and clipboard for some playing time is Seattlest Courtney.

Even that movie voice-over guy will be unemployed. You have heard of this impending strike, have you not? It may seem unrelated to you, the sad inner workings of Hollywood, but in truth, if you are someone who ever turns on their TV, if 8pm every day marks your celebration in the church of Stewart-Colbert, you best care.

Unconfirmed reports from Halloween night place a Peet's "Coming Soon" sign at Broadway and Denny. Maybe a scary mask obscured someone's vision? Dunno, but we're interested to find out. A Peet's at that intersection would be a preemptive strike in anticipation of a Broadway light rail station.

It's Seattle Shakespeare Company's version of the wandering prince Pericles on Friday night for MvB, followed Saturday night by Britain's accordion-driven, Brechtian street opera trio with neo-castrati Martyn Jacques, the Tiger Lilies at the Moore, ladies and gentlemen.

Will every software guy in the audience who's ever thought about cashing in the badge and putting on a chef's coat raise your hand? Wow, a lot of you, great! Some of you aren't so sure... You there in the front, did you read Kitchen Confidential? Yeah? Did that help push you out the door or keep you in front of the keyboard? OK, keep them up there. Now, keep them raised if you've actually done it. Alright, not so many.

A friend just emailed Seattlest, gushing with glee that our season's passes to the Summit (Alpental, really) grant us 5 free days of skiing at Crystal Mountain. We'd already written about how the ownership of the Summit by Boyne Mountain (who also owns Crystal Mt.) might be a good thing for mountain bikers. So it sounded like it was already working out for those of us that go mostly to Alpental (due to sheer proximity, especially for occasional drinking night skiing forays) yet like to make the trek to Crystal or Baker occasionally.

The Go! Team - "Grip Like a Vice"