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DC plane crash | Child care | Firefighter pay

Thursday, January 30, 2025

 

LOCAL

► From Northwest Public Broadcasting — Mid-Columbia farmers cautiously optimistic about second Trump administration, farmworkers feel differently — In one orchard in the Columbia Basin, workers had a different set of worries. The aluminum ladders rattled and clanged as workers lopped off high branches. One bundled up farmworker said he’s definitely watching changes to the immigration rules. “Let’s say, for instance, if I get deported and my wife gets deported, then my kids are left alone with nobody,” the farmworker said. This farmworker said his coworkers are all immigrants like him – he said he’s never seen a white person working alongside him. “I’ve been here for 40 years and I’ve never seen it,” he said. “I’ve seen them driving tractors, I’ve seen them punching cards when you’re harvesting — which is a different kind of work. But picking berries or apples or any kind of fruit? Not yet.”

► From the Seattle Times — What to know about immigration in WA as Trump issues executive orders — Among Trump’s pledges and directives: mass deportations (not yet carried out in Washington), punitive measures against “sanctuary” jurisdictions like Washington (also not yet taken), ending birthright citizenship (blocked by a Seattle federal judge) and, announced Wednesday, opening an immigrant detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to hold up to 30,000 migrants. We asked some immigration experts to help make sense of it all.

► From the Seattle Times — Amazon lays off dozens of corporate workers in latest round of job cuts — On Wednesday, Amazon said it was laying off dozens of employees in its communications and corporate responsibility department, which includes its sustainability team. The announcement comes shortly after Amazon cut 200 people from its stores division, the part of the business responsible for Amazon’s online marketplace. Some employees speculated that the new [RTO] mandate that took effect earlier this month was another way to trim head count by encouraging some employees to quit rather than forcing layoffs.

► From Northwest Public Broadcasting — Local authorities in Sunnyside confirm ICE operations in city –Video shows people with [Police ERO] vests appear to detain two people at a Fiesta Foods grocery store parking lot in Sunnyside. Lorena Avalos, with United Farm Workers, UFW, said the two people who appeared in the video of the Latino grocery store parking lot were Peruvian nationals and farmworkers.

 

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the OPB — More than 1,000 Portland city employees prepared to strike next month — On Tuesday, nearly 90% of all AFSCME members voted to authorize a strike. That gives union leaders the ability to call a strike at any time. The union must give the city notice of strike 10 days in advance. Another public union may beat them to the picket line. The District Council of Trade Unions, which represents about 200 city employees, gave the city a strike notice earlier this week. That union’s members could walk off the job as soon as Feb. 6.

 

NATIONAL

► From TIME — Passenger Plane, Helicopter Crash Near Washington, D.C. — The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA), a union of over 50,000 flight attendants across 20 airlines, said in a statement that two of its members were working in the flight. “We ask the public to keep the families in your thoughts and respect efforts to get information to loved ones first as everyone clings to hope for survivors,” the statement read.

Editor’s note: in a statement Thursday morning, the AFA-CWA said, “Officials have declared the Flight 5342 and helicopter rescue operation in the Potomac has been moved to a recovery operation and that there are no survivors. This is gut wrenching for our entire flying family. We must continue to support the families and respect their ability to get information about their loved ones before we share the names of crew who tragically died.”

► From the AFA-CWA:

► From the UA:

► From ABC — Fed holds interest rates steady, defying pressure from Trump — The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday, just days after President Donald Trump called on the central bank to lower them. Powell also said a recent resurgence of inflation influenced the Fed’s expectations, noting that some policymakers considered uncertainty tied to potential policy changes under Trump.

 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Washington State Standard — WA child care advocates push for higher pay and more support for providers — Many child care providers in Washington, like Fitzgerald, face low pay, minimum benefits and difficult working conditions. Some leave the field altogether, leading to more empty classrooms and a worsening of the state’s child care shortage. Kim Davies Lohman, a parent from Port Angeles, said she was shocked when she heard how little child care providers make. “I don’t know anywhere else that makes near minimum wage where you have so many requirements, so many out-of-pocket costs upfront and then have to do this really hard work with such high stakes,” Davies Lohman said.

► From NBC News — Trump signs sweeping executive order to expand school choice — Critics of school choice, which provides vouchers allowing families to pick schools for their children, argue that it hurts public schools. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said at the union’s annual convention last year that research shows vouchers “negatively affect achievement.” “Today, vouchers subsidize wealthy families who already send their kids to private and religious schools,” she said. “Privatizers fund those giveaways by defunding and destabilizing public schools.”

► From WUSA 9 — Federal worker unions sue to block Trump order rolling back civil service protections — Two labor unions representing more than 2 million government employees nationwide filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging an attempt by the Trump administration to reclassify thousands of federal jobs as at-will positions. “… The recently issued Schedule F Order announces President Trump’s intent to reclassify many career civil servants into a new category of federal employees and strip away their civil service protections so that they can be more easily fired,” attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote. “This scheme seeks to put politics over professionalism, contrary to the laws and values that have defined our career civil service for more than a century.”

► From Axios — Scoop: GOP fight coming over labor unions — Hawley has been quietly circulating draft legislation that would prevent employers from stalling union contract negotiations — keeping the process to months, not years, according to a copy obtained by Axios. GOP leaders see an opportunity for a new, working-class coalition, which includes more union outreach. It’s a major shift, and fault lines are already forming over President Trump’s pro-labor Cabinet nominee, former Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer.

► From the Guardian — Some US firefighters are paid as little as fast-food workers. Will Congress change that? — Firefighters from across the US fought side by side to quell the firestorm in Los Angeles this month, working tirelessly together in dangerous and chaotic conditions. But there was one glaring difference among them: federal firefighters are paid just a fraction of what state and local crews make doing the same work.

 

TODAY’S MUST-READ

► From 404 Media — Declassified CIA Guide to Sabotaging Fascism Is Suddenly Viral — It is impossible to say why this book is currently going viral at this moment in time and why it may feel particularly relevant to a workforce of millions of people who have suddenly been asked to agree to be “loyal” and work under the quasi leadership of the world’s richest man, have been asked to take a buyout that may or may not exist, have had their jobs repeatedly denigrated and threatened, have suddenly been required to return to office, have been prevented from spending money, have had to turn off critical functions that help people, and have been asked to destroy years worth of work and to rid their workplaces of DEI programs.

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