MLK Day | Strike authorized at Costco | Know your rights

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

STRIKES

► From KGW8 — Providence strike hits Day 10; Sen. Ron Wyden questions company’s bargaining in good faith — “It looks like they just keep recycling the terms that they’ve already given, so I have some real questions about whether they’re bargaining in good faith,” Wyden said. While Providence reports working with mediators at all 11 bargaining tables, workers at Providence Portland said Sunday morning’s meeting yielded little progress.

► From Oregon Nurses Association:

LOCAL

► From MyNorthwest.com — Marches held throughout Western Washington to commemorate MLK Day — On this Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, rallies and marches were held all over Western Washington. In Seattle’s Central District, a huge rally and march got underway at Garfield High School Monday morning.

► From SEIU 925:

► From the Spokesman Review — ‘Our communities are truly at risk’: Washington advocacy groups urge state leaders to defy federal deportation policies following surprise immigration raids in California — Antonio De Loera-Brust, communications director for United Farm Workers, emphasized that even if Border Patrol is prohibited from doing warrantless sweeps in certain areas, the agency can still operate there, making it essential for individuals to stay informed, connect to local organizations and attend workshops that educate them about their rights.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the Tacoma News Tribune — Costco Teamsters, including workers in Pierce County, vote to authorize strike — More than 18,000 Costco workers, including drivers, warehouse and store employees, will go on strike at the end of the month if the union and America’s third-largest retailer fail to sign a new contract by Jan. 31. The union represents around 150 workers in Washington state, according to Teamsters spokesperson Matt McQuaid.

► From the NW Labor Press — Dispute looms at Portland and Seattle shipyards — Negotiations between union shipyard workers and Vigor, a ship building and repair company, are heating up again. Vigor has offered increases of 90 cents in year one, 95 cents in year two, and $1 in year three, which averages around 1.9% each year. The last contract, approved in 2022, gave annual raises of $1.25, $1.30, and $1.40, or around 2.8% each year — significantly higher than the current offer. That contract was approved with 70% in favor, after workers had already voted down an earlier contract proposal and twice voted to authorize a strike.

ORGANIZING

► From the Willamette Week — Technicians at Providence’s Outsourced Lab Seek to Unionize — In a Jan. 17 filing with the National Labor Relations Board, more than 100 technicians at Labcorp gave notice of their intent to unionize. “We decided to unionize because we want to ensure a stable, well-trained, well-staffed medical laboratory is available to our community,” said Allister Brister-Smith, who works at Labcorp’s facility on Northeast Halsey Street. That lab performs the blood, stool and tissue testing that doctors at Providence’s Portland hospital rely on to make treatment decisions.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Washington State Standard — Debate revived in WA Legislature over unemployment benefits for striking workers — Labor advocates say strikes are the last resort and ones lasting for more than two weeks are rare. They also say that employers refusing to negotiate with workers is becoming a more common bargaining strategy. “The notion that having a partial wage replacement through unemployment insurance would incentivize workers to not take the bargaining process seriously is just not one that I think is rooted in reality,” [WSLC’s Joe] Kendo said. “Nobody goes on strike on the whim,” he added. “I mean, these are not decisions that are made at the snap of a finger, they are very disruptive for a family’s budget.”

Editor’s note: SB 5041, granting UI access to striking workers, will be heard at 10:30am this morning in the State Senate. Watch here.

► From the NW Labor Press — Washington labor will push major worker-friendly reforms in 2025 — Washington State Labor Council (WSLC) and its affiliated unions will be promoting an ambitious agenda in the 2025 legislative session that began Jan. 13. With a new union-backed governor and Democratic supermajorities in the state house and senate, union leaders are hopeful they’ll pass some of it before lawmakers adjourn April 27.

► From SEIU 925:

► From the Seattle Times — WA AG calls Trump orders ‘gravely concerning’ — “We will carefully analyze the orders and determine what legal action is appropriate,” Brown said Monday evening. “Some examples, such as the president’s attack on birthright citizenship, are not only unconstitutional on their face, but simply un-American.”

► From Common Dreams — Watchdogs, Unions Target DOGE With Lawsuits Mere Minutes Into Trump Administration — “This fight is about fairness, accountability, and the integrity of our government,” said AFGE national president Everett Kelley in a statement Monday. “Federal employees are not the problem—they are the solution. They deserve to have their voices heard in decisions that affect their work, their agencies, and the public they serve.”

► From Bloomberg Law — Trump Names GOP Labor Board Member Kaplan as New Agency Chair — While Kaplan gains new ministerial authority as chair of the NLRB, the board majority is still controlled by the two Democratic members, Gwynne Wilcox and David Prouty. Kaplan will lead the board’s Republican majority after Trump’s pending nominees for the two open seats win Senate confirmation.

► From the Guardian — Trump reclassifies thousands of federal employees, making them easier to fire — Donald Trump on Monday issued an executive order reclassifying thousands of federal employees as political hires, making them easier to fire if deemed insufficiently loyal to the new president and his aims. One of a promised flurry of measures signed on Trump’s first day back in power, the order effectively reinstates “Schedule F”, which sought to allow for the reclassification of tens of thousands of federal workers. Schedule F changed civil service rules to allow for a broad swath of career federal employees to be fired without civil service protection, reclassifying their jobs as political appointments.

► From the Guardian — ‘You can’t be pro-billionaire and pro-working class’: Biden’s labor chief on return of Trump — “It’s one thing to say you’re pro-worker, and it’s quite another thing to do it,” [former acting-Secretary of Labor Julie] Su said. “You can’t be pro-billionaire and pro-working class. You can’t be pro-Elon Musk and pro-worker.” Musk, who has become one of Trump’s top advisers, is vehemently anti-union and seeking to have the National Labor Relations Board declared unconstitutional. He once said: “I disagree with the idea of unions.”

► From the New York Times — Trump Promises Tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and Paves Way for Further Trade Action — President Trump said on Monday night that he planned to impose a 25 percent tariff on products from Canada and Mexico on Feb. 1 and might impose levies on most American imports, as he signed an executive order directing federal agencies to deliver a sweeping review of U.S. trade policies by this spring.

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