Union informational pickets marched outside two Joint Base Lewis-McChord gates today to draw public attention to their yet-unsuccessful negotiations with a private base contractor.

The International Association of Machinists have been negotiating with Strategic Resources Inc. for seven months for an initial contract. The union has filed several unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board. The board is reviewing those charges.

“The company has repeatedly shown up at the bargaining table unprepared to negotiate, failed to coherently respond to legally submitted information requests, refused to meet at agreed times, refused to discuss unsafe working conditions, and have …

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Non-union workers at the Port of Tacoma will receive a 2.68 percent raise this year under a policy approved by the Port of Tacoma Commission last week.

A previous story said those workers would receive a 2.46 percent cost-of-living raise.

Both union and non-union workers last year received a lump sum payment last year of $1,000 for meeting port-wide goals. The port missed meeting those goals this year, so there will be no such raise this year.

Construction employment is moving upward in Washington albeit at a modest pace, new figures from the Associated General Contractors of America show.

The Washington construction industry added 2,300 workers in the year ending in January, the AGC said. That’s a 1.7 percent annual increase. At the end of January, 140,500 workers were employed in construction in the Evergreen State.

The 1.7 percent increase puts Washington mid-pack among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in construction workforce changes. At the top of the list was North Dakota with a 16.1 percent gain in its construction workforce. That state’s construction …

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Boeing’s Washington payroll, propelled by production pace increases and new aircraft development projects, grew by nearly 9,000 workers since the end of 2010 hitting at level that hasn’t been equaled in more than a dozen years.

The company reports it employed 82,325 workers in Washington at the end of last month. That compares with 73,617 Washington employees the company reported just 14 months ago.

Company-wide, the lion’s share of Boeing’s hiring in that period was in Washington, where its commercial airplane production and design work is centered. Of the 11,155 Boeing added to its payrolls nationwide since the end of …

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Here ‘s the text of the Port of Seattle’s statement about the move of one of its biggest customers to the Port of Tacoma:

The Grand Alliance, a shipping consortium comprised of the Hapag-Lloyd, NYK, and OOCL shipping lines that currently calls at Terminal 18 in Seattle, announced today their intention to move to the Port of Tacoma when their contract expires later this year.
It is important that the business remains in Washington. Unfortunately, though many of the jobs will be preserved, others may not. Some who work in the Seattle harbor could see their livelihood impacted severely

…

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A consortium of three major shipping lines has picked Tacoma over Seattle as its Northwest port-of-call, Tacoma maritime officials said today.

The move of the Grand Alliance shipping lines, NYK Lines, OOCL and Hapag-Lloyd, to Tacoma’s Washington United Terminal on the Blair Waterway could boost Tacoma’s critical container business by 25 to 30 percent and make Tacoma Puget Sound’s largest container port.

An official announcement of the decision has yet to be issued, but both Port of Tacoma commission President Dick Marzano and Longshore Union Local 23 President Scott Mason said they’ve been told the shipping alliance has picked …

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The biggest prize of the year in the shipping business in the Northwest is due to be awarded soon, and both the ports of Tacoma and Seattle are holding their breath in anticipation.

That prize is the container shipping business generated by Japan’s NYK Line and its shipping line partners, OOCL and Hapag Lloyd. All three now call at the Port of Seattle’s Terminal 18. The three lines share capacity throughout the world to cut duplication of routes and to provide more frequent service for shippers.

The three, known as the Grand Alliance, issued a request for proposals last September …

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Two specialized employment events, one for students and job seekers with disabilities and the other for prospective part-time workers at Cheney Stadium during the upcoming baseball season, are on tap this month in Tacoma.

The first, scheduled for Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Cheney Stadium’s Summit Club on the ballparks third level, will offer prospective workers 150 part-time jobs at the stadium during the Tacoma Rainiers’ season.

“The Rainiers are searching for hardworking, customer service-oriented individuals to fill part-time game day positions in areas that include concessions, hospitality services, security, parking and janitorial services,” the ball club …

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