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NEWS ROUNDUP

Whole Foods union | NLRB firings | Federal funds

Tuesday, January 28, 2025

 

STRIKES

Photo: Oregon Nurses Association

► From KDRV — ONA nurses hold union solidarity rally at Providence Medford on 18th day of strike — “It’s long,” Whitney Evans, an operating room charge nurse at Providence Medford and the vice bargaining chair for ONA nurses told NewsWatch 12. “(It’s) not anything I ever expected that I’d be doing in my career. This is now the second time. This is our chance to stand up to billion-dollar corporations that pay their CEOs multi-million dollar salaries,” Evans continued. “That needs to trickle down.”

 

LOCAL

► From In These Times — Seattle Vote on “Social Housing” Could Break the Stranglehold of Private Landlords — So after gathering more than 35,000 signatures last year, House Our Neighbors is now running a second ballot initiative, asking voters to approve a new 5% payroll tax on corporations paying salaries of more than $1 million, which would generate an estimated $53 million annually for the new agency. But without sufficient initial funding, advocates worry that Seattle’s experiment won’t get a real shot at success. The business-backed alternative measure would also restrict the income eligibility for social housing residents to those making no more than 80% of the Area Median Income, undercutting its financial sustainability and vision for socially cohesive, cross-class communities.

Editor’s note: Proposition 1A is supported by various labor organizations, including MLK Labor

► From the Wenatchee World — Immigration enforcement sightings in Wenatchee spark fear, community response — Individuals are reminded of their right to remain silent and consult an attorney before speaking with ICE.  They are not required to answer questions about immigration status or nationality. Signing documents without legal counsel could impact an individual’s rights. ICE agents must have a judicial warrant signed by a judge to enter a home, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Organizations like the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project recommend asking ICE to slide the warrant under the door for verification.

 

AEROSPACE

► From the Seattle Times — Boeing CEO Ortberg outlines 2025 priorities after heavy losses — Employees in this region and many in the industry believe a full return of Boeing’s competitiveness will be possible only when the company launches a new commercial jet. “I got a lot of work to do to get the company in a healthy state,” Ortberg said. “We’ve got to be in a positive cash generating position.” He said Boeing should be able to ramp up the 737 MAX production rate with the existing level of staff and, after the recent layoffs, maintain a stable workforce in the year ahead. “I’m not anticipating any further major reductions,” Ortberg said.

 

ORGANIZING

► From the New York Times — Whole Foods Workers Form First Union in Amazon’s Grocery Chain — Employees at the sprawling Whole Foods store, in the city’s Spring Garden neighborhood, voted 130 to 100 in favor of organizing with the United Food and Commercial Workers union, the National Labor Relations Board said. The successful bid to form a union comes against a backdrop of what several workers have described as a campaign of intimidation from Whole Foods. In unfair labor practice charges filed with the labor board earlier this month, U.F.C.W. Local 1776 accused Whole Foods of firing an employee at the Philadelphia store in retaliation for supporting the union drive.

► From SBG Media — EXEC: REI Greensboro Employees Unionize; SoHo Ski Workers Get PPE Agreement — RWDSU said in a statement that REI Greensboro workers first began organizing following the co-op’s October 2023 layoffs, which cut 275 jobs of “the most experienced workers,” known as “leads” or “green vests” from stores across the U.S. Two of the most tenured lead retail sales employees in its Greensboro store were among those whom the retailer laid off.

► From the Machinists:

 

NATIONAL

► From the AP — Norfolk Southern and East Palestine announce $22 million settlement after 2023 derailment — East Palestine and Norfolk Southern have announced a $22 million settlement resolving all of the village’s claims arising from the disastrous 2023 train derailment near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border that prompted a national reckoning on railroad safety.

► From the Labor Tribune — Can you help our California union members, families in crisis? — With union fire fighters on the front line in Los Angeles working incredible hours to save lives and homes of union families as well as thousands of others, the unions are reaching out to our members across America for help for those whose lives have been devastated.

► From the Fire & Safety Journal — IAFF International Burn Camp: A life-changing experience for young burn survivors — The IAFF works with more than 50 regional burn camps across the U.S. and Canada to identify campers and counselors who exhibit leadership potential and community-mindedness. Each participating regional camp selects one camper and one counselor to attend the IAFF International Burn Camp. This year, 41 burn survivors, along with their mentors, gathered for the event. The volunteer counselors, or “Mentors,” are often fire fighters, burn care specialists, or adult burn survivors themselves.

 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From Bloomberg — Trump Ousts Top Labor Board Leaders Who Backed Broader Worker Rights — Jennifer Abruzzo, the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, said she was fired via email late on Monday. Gwynne Wilcox, who was one of the labor board’s two Democratic members, said she was ousted, too. If the agency does not effectively enforce employees’ rights, Abruzzo said, more workers could resort to other tactics such as lawful or unlawful strikes. “I think workers are going to take matters into their own hands,” she said.

► From Reuters — Trump fires US labor board member, hobbling agency amid legal battles — The five-member board already had two vacancies, so the removal of Wilcox leaves the agency without a quorum to issue decisions even in routine cases accusing companies or unions of violating federal labor law. Hundreds of cases are pending before the board, including ones involving Amazon.com, Tesla, Walmart, Apple, and dozens against Starbucks as it faces a nationwide union campaign.

Editor’s note: pretty good return on investment for the billionaire class.

► From the Washington Post — White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion — In a two-page document, Matthew J. Vaeth, the acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, instructs federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligations or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance.” Experts said the memo as written was poised to bring a rapid halt to scores of federal functions, from assistance to homeless shelters to financial aid for college students. Health grants distributed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and state aid for disaster reconstruction, might face delays. Developers expecting federal grants to expand the nation’s energy supply could be disrupted. Questions quickly emerged about whether Medicaid, the health insurance program used by more than 70 million Americans, would see a pause in payments, which are distributed from the federal government to the states.

► From the Guardian — Elon Musk’s Doge accused of ‘illegal’ job posting by federal workers’ union — The page was promoted by Musk on X, the social network he owns, and swiftly drew criticism from a prominent union leader. “This is an application to apply for a corrupt organization to do corrupt things,” said Steve Lenkart, executive director of the National Federation of Federal Employees, which represents about 110,000 federal workers. “This is definitely against federal law if they’re using it as a way to actually give someone a job or deny someone a job. It’s absolutely illegal.”

► From NBC News — Senate Republicans cast a wary eye on Trump’s nominee for labor secretary — “I’m not going to support her,” Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a senior member of the committee that will oversee her nomination, told NBC News on Monday. “I’m the national spokesman and lead author of the right-to-work bill. Her support for the PRO Act, which would not only oppose national right to work but would pre-empt state law on right to work — I think it’s not a good thing.”

► From the Washington State Standard — Ferguson launches WA team to help children whose parents are deported — The “Family Separation Rapid Response Team” will be housed in the state Department of Children, Youth and Families. Members will include officials from the governor’s office, the attorney general’s office, the Washington State Patrol and the Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance. Deportation on the scale Trump has described “means ripping families apart. It means kids losing their parents. It means businesses losing their workers. It means communities being significantly altered,” Ferguson said.

 

INTERNATIONAL

►From the AP — Trains canceled across Bangladesh as rail union goes on strike — Saidur Rahman, acting president of the Bangladesh Railway Running Staff and Workers Union, said the strike was called after a meeting with the interim government headed by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus failed to reach a deal late Monday.

► From the Toronto City News — CN Rail strike averted as tentative deal reached with signal workers’ union — In a statement, CN Rail says details of the four-year tentative agreement will not be released until the deal is ratified. The collective agreement with IBEW expired on Dec. 31, 2024. The union represents approximately 750 signals and communication employees at CN Rail across Canada.

 

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