Jerry Cornfield, Washington State Standard

Standing on the picket line outside Boeing’s Everett plant on Friday, Phil Westburg said not much has improved for aircraft machinists in the Puget Sound region since 2008, the last time he and other members of his union walked off the job.

“We’re paying more now for a doctor’s visit and we lost our pension,” said Westburg, who was among roughly 33,000 International Association of Machinists workers who went on strike after voting to reject a Boeing contract offer on Thursday.

“What they’ve offered us now, if you’re asking my opinion, was really a poor attempt to get us to accept the contract. We would like to get our pension back,” said Westburg, who worked on the 787 production line before switching roles due to a workplace injury. “They have to make money in order for us to have a job here, but we want what’s fair to us — a better pay increase.”

The failed tentative agreement reached by union and company leaders last weekend contained a 25% wage increase over four years, improved health care benefits, plus a commitment to make the company’s next commercial airplane in the Puget Sound region. Workers sought 40% and argued that a provision eliminating annual bonuses ate into the wage hike.

On Friday, a federal mediator stepped in. The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service said it would convene with the two sides, with meetings early next week.

“FMCS has been in contact with both IAM and Boeing to support their return to the negotiation table and commends the parties on their willingness to meet and work towards a mutually acceptable resolution,” the federal agency said in a statement on Friday.

The strike comes as the aerospace giant is on slippery footing. The company is faced with mounting debt, scrutiny over its safety record after a door plug blew out of a 737 Max earlier this year, and hundreds of millions of dollars in fines over deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019.

Boeing Chief Financial Officer Brian West told attendees of a Morgan Stanley investor conference in California on Friday that, in the near term, the company would “be laser-like focused on actions to conserve cash” and cautioned that the strike “will impact production and deliveries and operations and will jeopardize our recovery.”

“We’ve got a very complex situation that we’re solving,” he said, adding that financial impacts will be “dictated by the duration of the work stoppage.”

‘A strong union and a strong Boeing’

Political leaders responding to the strike Friday signaled support for the workers without casting aspersions on the terms in the latest contract offer.

The machinists’ action “reflects both long simmering tensions and the real desire for recognition that workers have carried Boeing on their backs during the last several years of missteps and failures,” said U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett, whose congressional district includes the company’s assembly plant in Everett.

He encouraged the two sides to resume negotiating.

“The community wants both a strong union and a strong Boeing,” Larsen said. “Those two things have been hand in hand for years despite their differences.”

Support for the strike was decisive. The union said 94.6% of voting members rejected the contract and 96% voted in favor of the strike. Most of the workers covered by the contract are in Washington, but some are based in Oregon and California.

“This is about respect, this is about addressing the past and this is about fighting for our future,” IAM District 751 President Jon Holden said Thursday before announcing the strike vote tally.

Holden accused Boeing of labor practice misconduct leading up to the vote, including coercive questioning, unlawful surveillance and unlawful promises of benefits. “Boeing has to stop breaking the law, it has to bargain in good faith,” he said.

Boeing noted Thursday ahead of the vote that average annual machinist pay would’ve climbed during the four-year contract to $106,350 from $75,608. That sum did not include earnings from overtime or a “zoom” increase to maximum pay that machinists receive after six years.

“The message was clear that the tentative agreement we reached with IAM leadership was not acceptable to the members,” the company said in a statement following the strike vote. “We remain committed to resetting our relationship with our employees and the union and we are ready to get back to the table to reach a new agreement.”

For Boeing, the strike means a major disruption in production. The company says it has more employees in Washington than anywhere else in the world. The strike idled multiple facilities and fabrication sites around the Northwest, including those in Renton, Everett, Auburn and Frederickson in Washington, and Gresham and Portland in Oregon.

Work paused on three commercial airplanes, the 737 Max, 767 and 777, and three military aircraft, the KC 46A Pegasus refueling tanker, P-8 Poseidon patrol plane, and the E-7 Wedgetail, an early warning and reconnaissance plane.

The company’s facility in Everett is the city’s largest employer and a major economic driver in Snohomish County.

“I hope it doesn’t turn into a prolonged strike because it can have a devastating impact on working families and the local economy,” said state Sen. June Robinson, D-Everett.

Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers, a Democrat, echoed that view. “We know a long strike will be hard on workers, the company, and the region’s economy,” he said, adding that he supports “whatever brings about a fair and quick resolution.”

Somers said he hopes the pledge to build the company’s next airliner in the region makes it into a final contract.

‘Enough is enough’

U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., who has been in touch with parties on both sides, wrote in a social media post that striking machinists “decided they need more to continue powering our world-class aerospace industry.”

“It’s my hope that union leadership and Boeing will be able to address members’ concerns and reach a stronger, more acceptable contract offer that all parties can support,” she added.

When the machinists last went on strike in 2008 the walkout lasted about eight weeks and cost the company an estimated $100 million a day.

This time, the halt in airplane production comes as Boeing posted a quarterly loss of more than $1.4 billion in the second three months of the year and saw its debt rise to nearly $58 billion from $48 billion during that time.

In July, the company reached a plea deal with the federal government over plane crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. The agreement called for the company to pay a fine of at least $243.6 million and to invest $455 million in safety, quality, and compliance programs.

Wigberto Bello, an aircraft painter for nine years at Boeing who was on the picket line Friday in Everett, said workers are under pressure to meet production schedules.

“The schedule seems to take precedence over quality at times and so we’re just done, we’re pretty much finished with that,” he said. “Enough is enough. We want to put quality out, we know what it takes to get quality out while still satisfying the customer.”

“Despite what some of the leaders may say,” he added, “we’re the ones who are turning the wrenches, putting the paint on, staying up late and working the hours.”

Washington State Standard is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Washington State Standard maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Bill Lucia for questions: info@washingtonstatestandard.com. Follow Washington State Standard on Facebook and X.

On the eve of the state’s primary, Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs warned voters to be wary of “dubious” election material, expressing concern that “a deluge of manipulated and false information may be inserted into social media from foreign actors and other sources.”

As artificial intelligence gets cheaper and easier to use by those with malicious intentions, the “rest of us must be careful to verify what we see before we take it to heart,” he said in a statement Monday.

While Hobbs’ comments came with Washington voters casting ballots in the Aug. 6 primary, they were aimed at elections in general as this is a year when the nation is choosing a new president.

Hobbs spoke out shortly after he and four other secretaries of state called on Elon Musk in an open letter to “immediately implement changes” to the AI search assistant Grok on Musk’s social media platform X, citing its generating of wrong information that ballot deadlines in Washington and eight other states had passed.

It happened July 21, shortly after President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid, and led to suggestions that Kamala Harris would be unable to get on the November ballot in those states.

The letter notes that the false information was “captured and shared repeatedly in multiple posts” until getting corrected July 31.

In fact, no deadlines had passed and rules in each state allow for changes of candidates for president and vice president. In Washington, the procedural deadline set out in state law is later this month.

“As tens of millions of voters in the U.S. seek basic information about voting in this major election year, X has the responsibility to ensure all voters using your platform have access to guidance that reflects true and accurate information about their constitutional right to vote,” reads the letter signed by Hobbs and the secretaries of state of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and New Mexico.

In his separate statement, Hobbs said, “The owners of social media platforms must take responsibility for safeguarding their audiences against the spread of false information, and this includes stopping their own AI mechanisms from generating it.”

Musk’s sharing on X, formerly Twitter, of a fake ad featuring a manipulated recording of Harris is another example of why voters must be on alert for faked material on social media, Hobbs added. The Associated Press reported the person who posted the ad originally noted it was a parody but Musk didn’t when he shared it.

“It signals to the rest of us that other materials allowed there may not be trustworthy,” Hobbs said of the platform

Since the 2020 election, election officials in Washington and across the country have had to up their defenses against misinformation created with increasingly sophisticated software tools and spread across social media platforms.

In the letter, the state officials urge Musk to direct Grok users with election-related inquiries to CanIVote.org which is run through the National Association of Secretaries of State. Hobbs recommends his office’s website as a resource for Washington-related election data and materials.

In 2023, state lawmakers passed legislation sought by Hobbs to set rules on the use of deepfakes in campaigns including requiring disclosure on any manipulated videos and giving candidates targeted by undisclosed deepfakes a right to sue for damages.

“These bad actors can and will sow distrust with our local elections,” he said. “If something you see raises questions about your access to a fair and trustworthy election here in Washington, please visit a legitimate elections office and learn the truth.”

Washington State Standard is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Washington State Standard maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Bill Lucia for questions: info@washingtonstatestandard.com. Follow Washington State Standard on Facebook and X.

SPOKANE – Semi Bird got his moment. Jaime Herrera Beutler got rebuffed. Dan Newhouse continues to pay a price for his vote to impeach the former president.

And leaders of the Washington State Republican Party will leave Spokane Saturday evening with an endorsed slate of candidates but also continued discord in their ranks.

“This is a family feud. We have to sit around here and figure out how the family comes back together,” said Mathew Patrick Thomas, chair of the King County Republican Party.

Tensions center on whether delegates are backing candidates who might check certain boxes – supporting Donald Trump, eschewing the establishment, committing to more conservative positions – at the expense of electability in a state that’s tilted increasingly Democratic.

Republicans hold zero statewide offices in Washington, are minorities in both chambers of the Legislature, and control just two of the state’s 10 U.S. House seats.

Bird, as expected, got the official party endorsement for governor, garnering 72% of votes cast by the roughly 1,800 delegates. He’s a military veteran and former Richland School Board member, recalled after his opposition to state masking policies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dave Reichert, the other GOP candidate, who served 14 years in Congress before not seeking reelection in 2018, withdrew his name from consideration Friday after blasting his party’s endorsement process as a “chaotic mess.”

Meanwhile, Herrera Beutler and Newhouse failed to get endorsements, a sign there’s no forgiving or forgetting their votes to impeach Donald Trump in 2021.

Sue Kuehl Pederson garnered 86% to beat out Herrera Beutler for state commissioner of public lands.

“We’re confident that the voters of Washington will see this election very differently from the voters of that particular room in Spokane,” said Pam Peiper, Herrera Beutler’s campaign manager.

Jerrod Sessler handily won the endorsement over Newhouse in their battle for the 4th Congressional District seat. Newhouse has held the seat for nearly a decade. Notably, Sessler received a strong endorsement from Trump ahead of the convention.

Any attempt for rapprochement between the party’s newer guard – whose choices swept the endorsements – and the more moderate and traditional flank of the state GOP will have to wait until the August primary, delegates said.

That will be a better gauge of where Republican voters are at.

“There’s the convention and there’s the election,” Thomas said. “We’ll find out at the ballot box if they’re the real true voice of the party or if they are just a loud voice.”

Those loud voices backed Bird in his battle against Reichert to be the GOP torchbearer in the governor’s race. On Saturday, several people expressed concern that if Bird loses in August his most ardent supporters will sit out the governor’s election in November.

“I know a lot of people voting for Bird who say they are not going to vote for Reichert,” said Randy Hayden of Snohomish County, a delegate who has held party leadership roles at the county and state levels. “I do not envy Jim Walsh.”

Walsh acknowledged the concern Saturday.

“I’ve got to figure out a way that people don’t go home, that people still want to vote,” he said.

‘I did sin’

The convention’s final day got off to a rousing start Saturday with Bird delivering a speech to delegates.

It occurred one day later than planned because of a dust-up Friday in which his supporters fended off an attempt to disqualify him from the party’s backing. Reichert, who cited the decision to restore Bird’s eligibility as he walked away from the party endorsement process, never showed up at the convention.

“This is the sound of self-governance coming alive,” Bird proclaimed to a mostly cheering crowd.

He addressed the elephant in the room first.

“I did sin,” he said of his misdemeanor conviction in 1993 for seeking to obtain $1,800 in credit by forging his dad’s name on a bank application. “I take full accountability.

“If you want me to apologize for making mistakes, I will apologize. I will not live in shame for the rest of my life for the sins of my past,” he said, eliciting loud applause.

He pivoted into a mostly stump speech. Describing himself as a “constitutional conservative,” he called for strengthening parents’ role in public schools, bolstering public safety, auditing government agencies, and ending Washington’s self-proclaimed status as a sanctuary state for undocumented immigrants.

He also voiced support for three initiatives on the November ballot. These seek to repeal the state’s Climate Commitment Act and capital gains tax, and would likely undermine funding for the state’s new long-term care support services benefit

Later in the day, Hayden, an early backer of Bird’s, said he’d soured on his candidacy as issues from the candidate’s past have emerged, including the 1993 charge. There’s too much baggage for independent voters who will be the deciders in a close race in November, Hayden said.

“Would Bird make a good governor? I think he would,” Hayden said. “Could Bird win? Probably not.”

Making choices

This year’s convention took place ahead of May candidate filing to prevent primary races where Republicans split the vote in a way that leaves them off the November ballot. This happened in the 2022 secretary of state’s race when an independent slipped past three GOP contenders.

Those running this year were asked to sign a pledge to end their campaigns and unite behind whoever gets endorsed this week. But Reichert and Herrera Beutler are among those who did not sign.

On Saturday, delegates endorsed Raul Garcia for the U.S. Senate – a longshot bid against Democratic incumbent Maria Cantwell who’s held the seat since 2001, and candidates for six statewide offices, including governor and commissioner of public lands.

The biggest surprise might have been Dale Whitaker getting endorsed for secretary of state ahead of state Sen. Phil Fortunato and Bob Hagglund, who ran for the office in 2022. Fortunato and Hagglund both said they would end their campaigns and back Whitaker.

David Olson got the endorsement for superintendent of public instruction in a four-person contest.

Chad Magendanz, a former state lawmaker and one of the other three, signed the pledge and lauded the goal of building unity with the early endorsement process. He ended his campaign Saturday.

“I’m disappointed,” Magendanz said. “I was hoping the delegates would have a longer view and focus on electability versus a purity test.”

He had reported raising nearly $28,000, a sum that will go into his surplus account to use in a future campaign or to help candidates in this election cycle. Maybe Olson.

“I will help him out in ways that I can,” he said.

Pete Serrano received the near unanimous backing for attorney general as did Matt Hawkins for auditor. They were the only ones seeking party support for those offices.

Decisions for congressional candidates occurred Friday and were made by caucuses of delegates in each of the 10 congressional districts.

Ferry County Commissioner Brian Dansel, who served in the Trump administration, received the endorsement in the 5th Congressional District. That’s where a host of Republicans – including state Rep. Jacquelin Maycumber and Spokane County Treasurer Michael Baumgartner – are competing to succeed the retiring Republican Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers.

In southwest Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, Joe Kent snagged an early endorsement from the party’s state committee last August making this week’s affirmation at the convention a formality.

Republicans lost the seat in 2022 when Kent, a Trump acolyte, ousted Herrera Beutler, the incumbent, in the primary then lost to Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in November.

Leslie Lewallen, a Republican, is also vying for the seat. But she did not attend the convention and, in an op-ed for The Columbian, blasted the whittling down process as a “heavy-handed tactic” that risks fracturing the party and losing winnable seats for Republicans.

“Expecting candidates and voters to fall in line with the endorsements made by a self-selected sampling of party representatives is undemocratic and antithetical to the robust electoral process envisioned by our Founding Fathers,” she wrote.

Washington State Standard is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Washington State Standard maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Bill Lucia for questions: info@washingtonstatestandard.com. Follow Washington State Standard on Facebook and Twitter.

A Republican state lawmaker violated legislative conduct rules by repeatedly belittling, berating and swearing at staff members, leaving some “traumatized” by the experience, concludes an investigation released Monday by the chief clerk of the Washington House of Representatives.

Rep. Michelle Caldier, R-Gig Harbor, demonstrated “a pattern of behavior in which she lashes out at people, makes public statements that have the impact of demeaning and embarrassing individuals and is generally disrespectful,” wrote Sheryl Willert, an employment law expert hired by the House to conduct the probe.

Her actions violate a House workplace policy that bans verbal abuse and bullying, which may include threatening, humiliating, degrading, or intimidating behavior, Willert concluded.

Caldier, who did not return a phone call or emails Monday, appealed the findings on Friday. She has 30 days to submit additional information to the House Executive Rules Committee, the panel of four Democrats and three Republicans that can uphold or override the findings.

First elected in 2014, Caldier represents the 26th Legislative District which encompasses parts of Kitsap and Pierce counties and includes Bremerton, Port Orchard, Purdy and Gig Harbor.

Caldier could face discipline by the executive rule committee, her caucus or House Administration because some of the affected employees worked for other areas of the chamber operation. Punishment could range from a letter of reprimand to reduced staff or loss of committee assignments.

Through a spokesperson, House Minority Leader Drew Stokesbary, R-Auburn, said he would not have any statement until the appeal is completed.

Bernard Dean, chief clerk of the House, said he’ll wait for the process to play out.

Caldier told the investigator she was unaware of concerns cited by those interviewed. And the lawmaker alleged on multiple occasions she suffered discrimination when the state – specifically her caucus and the Office of the Chief Clerk – failed to accommodate her disability of declining eyesight.

But Willert wasn’t buying it, writing in a footnote that this was “an effort to either deflect attention from her own conduct which was the subject of the investigation or alternatively to suggest that it was because of her disability that she acted in the manner in which she did.”

‘A horrible person’

An incident in a woman’s bathroom at the Spokane Airport on Nov. 18, 2022 set the investigatory wheels in motion.

A meeting of House Republican Caucus and staff had ended and several people headed to the airport to fly to Seattle. Caldier was in the bathroom doing something with her makeup when a person identified as Individual 1 entered and greeted her.

When the lawmaker didn’t respond, the person repeated themself and identified themself when Caldier asked who was speaking. At that point, Caldier is reported to have called Individual 1 “a horrible person” and added “we are done.” There were witnesses.

Caldier, in an initial interview, said she was “startled.” Later said she didn’t know if the person came in to speak with her or use the bathroom and at one point told Willert, “Everyone knows I can’t see so why come and speak to me.”

On Dec. 8, Caldier had her access to staff, including her legislative assistant, restricted “due to a pattern of communications challenges with staff,” according to a redacted email in the report.

Six days later, the formal investigation began.

It took awhile. Willert interviewed 15 people. She spoke with Caldier in May, June and July, each time with a lawyer present.

The report contains 35 pages of investigative narrative and 52 pages of documents, mostly emails. Some date back several years and concern Caldier’s claims of a lack of accommodation for her disability.

Those who worked with Caldier on a fairly regular basis described her as being “unpleasant” and “a yeller,” and someone who is generally unappreciative, according to the report.

One of those interviewed said she had churned through 10 legislative assistants between 2015 and 2022.

Caldier said some left to work for those with political views more closely aligned with theirs. Others moved on because they were not qualified, she told the investigator.

Some interviewees said Caldier often used profanity in general conversation. She also directed profane language at employees.

Caldier didn’t deny using profanity in some circumstances, telling the investigator, “the reason there are swear jars is because there is a significant amount of swearing in politics, that she usually pays ahead of time and that is supposed to take care of all of your sins.”

Warning sign

Caldier’s combustible behavior is well known among her legislative colleagues.

She reportedly lost her caucus leadership position in February 2022 as a result of incidents with the staff. Republican Rep. Joel Kretz, the then-deputy minority leader, reportedly told her she needed counseling.

Peer mentoring was suggested that summer but Caldier balked at the use of formal mediation, the person who brought the original complaint told the investigator.

In November, Caldier left the caucus in a very public way and stayed out during the 2023 session. The report contains an email from December 2022 in which she tells the recipient, whose name was redacted, she got out because of “the poor treatment under your leadership.”

Caldier aired concerns and frustrations with caucus leadership to the investigator, telling her every member “has to navigate landmines because leadership is really in it for themselves.”

Rep. J.T. Wilcox, R-Yelm, served as House Minority Leader in November 2022. He declined to comment on the specifics of the investigation.

“There was no caucus action that prevented her from coming into the caucus room,” he said.

Washington State Standard is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Washington State Standard maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Bill Lucia for questions: info@washingtonstatestandard.com. Follow Washington State Standard on Facebook and Twitter.