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NEWS ROUNDUP

100s protest ICE raids | Costco Teamsters TA | Tariffs

Monday, February 3, 2025

 

STRIKES

► From OPB — Providence reaches tentative deal with some striking doctors and nurses — Providence has reached a tentative agreement with striking doctors, midwives and nurses at the Providence Women’s Clinic, it announced jointly with the Oregon Nurses Association late Sunday. It’s the first sign that intensive mediation that started last week is producing results and could bring an end to one of the largest health care worker strikes in state history. The tentative deal is for two contracts and two bargaining units. One is for physicians and other advanced providers at the Women’s Clinic, and the other is for nurses.

► From the Oregon Nurses Association:

 

LOCAL

► From the Yakima Herald-Republic — Hundreds rally in downtown Yakima against Trump’s immigration raids — At Saturday’s rally, protestors countered Trump’s accusations, holding up signs urging Trump and his supporters to “not bite the hands that feed you,” a reference to the immigrants to work in the area’s agriculture, “Sí se puede” (Yes, you can) and “A united town cannot be defeated.” “This is the only way for people to see how we feel,” said Paulina Mendez, a Yakima resident who participated in the rally.

► From the Wenatchee World — Protest against ICE raids draws hundreds in Wenatchee — Many attendees shared emotional testimonies about the impact of ICE raids on families and the community. “It’s very saddening,” Cuevas said. “They can take away the parents, and the kids are sometimes left behind. As Latinos, we are very family-oriented, and we like to stick together.” Gabby Martinez, another protester, stressed the urgency of the demonstration. “We all, one way or another, have family members who came here for a better life,” she said. “It’s time our generation stands up and becomes the voice for those who can’t speak up.”

► From the union-busting Columbian — WA hospitals issue guidance on what to do if ICE arrives — “Without a lawfully executed summons or warrant, an ICE agent has no more access to the patient or their information than any member of the general public who enters your workplace,” the Washington State Nurses Association, one of the largest nurse unions in the state, wrote in their own set of reminders for members. Without a subpoena or warrant, ICE ofcers cannot force staffers to answer questions, open the door or provide any documents, WSNA told members.

► From the Seattle Times — This historical union in Ballard represents fishermen — and a way of life — The Deep Sea Fishermen’s Union, founded in 1912, is one of the original (and the sole surviving) independent labor unions representing commercial fishermen in the United States. The northern Pacific is the largest and most productive fishing region in the world, but the DSFU’s bailiwick is very specific, representing just under 100 longline men and women who fish for sablefish and halibut as contractors, mostly with hooks and lines, although some pots also are used to keep whales from stealing their catch.

► From the Seattle Times — WA businesses fear higher costs, tougher exports due to Trump tariffs — Both Canada and Mexico export about $10 billion of aerospace products a year to the U.S., Michaels said. For Canada, that’s divided roughly half and half between Bombardier business jets and intermediate parts for other planes. The Toronto area, for instance, is “the landing gear capital of the world,” Michaels said. It makes the landing gear for the 787, the 777 and the 777X, he said. “It’s items like that that Boeing is going to have to pay more for,” Michaels said. “Someone’s going to eat that and it’s not going to be the airline, it’s going to be Boeing or its extremely fragile supply base.”

 

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From CBS News — Costco, Teamsters reach tentative contract agreement and avoid a strike — Costco and the Teamsters union have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, avoiding a strike, the union said Saturday. Teamsters spokesman Matthew McQuaid confirmed the agreement, which will have to be approved by members. Details of the agreement weren’t immediately available.

► From the Teamsters:

► From Railway Age — NCCC, IBEW Reach Tentative National Agreement — This agreement is the latest in a series of national pattern agreements forged between railroads and unions in the first three months of the national bargaining round; it follows a tentative pact between the NCCC and Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division of the Teamsters Rail Conference that was announced Jan. 23. The agreement for IBEW, which represents approximately 3,500 freight railroad workers, is subject to ratification.

 

ORGANIZING

► From the AFL-CIO:

 

NATIONAL

► From Axios — Air traffic controllers union hits back at Trump DEI comments — “Air traffic controllers earn the prestigious and elite status of being a fully certified professional controller after successfully completing a series of rigorous training milestones,” Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said in a statement on Friday. “The standards to achieve certification are not based on race or gender.” Daniels praised controllers’ work to ensure “safety and efficiency of the national airspace system, while working short-staffed, often six days a week, and in facilities long overdue for modernization.”

► From the People’s World — Trump blames ‘diversity’ for fatal plane crash, investigators cite short staffing — Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said this morning that under the advice of Elon Musk, Trump, when he took office, immediately fired everyone on the FAA’s safety committee and that, after the crash, the president was desperate to divert attention away from what he did. How much the chaos at the FAA sparked by Trump contributed to the accident remains to be seen. According to a report by the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) Inspector General, 77% of air traffic control towers face labor shortages due to the retirements of exhausted controllers during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Last May, the FAA reported a shortage of 3,000 air traffic controllers.

► From the New York Times — Amid Trump’s Anti-Diversity Effort, Black History Month Takes On New Meaning — “Black History Month existed long before presidents endorsed it, and it will continue, even if presidents do not,” said Martha Jones, a professor of history and a presidential scholar at Johns Hopkins University. Nonetheless, she added, “there’s a great deal to lament and even to decry” about the suppression of American history. “I find it cowardly, the idea that we would shrink from our past,” Ms. Jones said. “I believe we are strong enough as a nation to know that past, to make it part of our histories, to teach it, to read it, to learn it, and to still be a nation.”

► From the Seattle Times — Costco raises pay to over $30 an hour for most store workers — Workers at the bottom of the scale will get raises of 50 cents to $20, according to the memo. The changes apply to employees at nonunion locations. Matthew McQuaid, a spokesman for Costco Teamsters, said in an email that while the union is pleased that workers will make more money, it was the group’s pressure that led to the increase.

From the AP — Lawsuit alleges first deaths from disastrous 2023 train derailment in Ohio — The new lawsuit announced Monday morning contains the first seven wrongful death claims filed against Norfolk Southern railroad — including the death of a 1-week-old baby. It also alleges the railroad and its contractors botched the cleanup while officials at the EPA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed off on it and failed to adequately warn residents about the health risks. Many of the other parties in the lawsuit cite lingering, unexplained health problems along with concerns something more serious could develop.

 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the New York Times — Trump Moves to Invalidate Recent Labor Agreements With Federal Workers — It was unclear if the memo would survive legal pushback initiated by federal employee unions, though it appeared to anticipate legal challenges, noting that it should remain in force if a portion alluding to prohibited bargaining agreements from the Biden administration is found to be invalid. “Federal employees should know that approved union contracts are enforceable by law, and the president does not have the authority to make unilateral changes to those agreements,” Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement.

► From the New York Times — Elon Musk’s Team Now Has Access to Treasury’s Payments System — The new authority follows a standoff this week with a top Treasury official who had resisted allowing Mr. Musk’s lieutenants into the department’s payment system, which sends out money on behalf of the entire federal government. The official, a career civil servant named David Lebryk, was put on leave and then suddenly retired on Friday after the dispute, according to people familiar with his exit. One of the people affiliated with DOGE who now has access to the payment system is Tom Krause, the chief executive of a Silicon Valley company, Cloud Software Group, according to one of the people familiar with the situation.

► From NBC News — Union official says Education Department employees were placed on leave after taking diversity training during Trump’s first term — Dozens of employees who attended a diversity training course that former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos encouraged during President Donald Trump’s first administration have been placed on paid leave as part of Trump’s targeting of DEI programs, a union official told NBC News. Sheria Smith, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, which represents hundreds of Education Department employees, said that at least 55 employees had been placed on leave as of Friday evening and that she expected the number to grow as she learns more.

► From the Washington Post — Trump removes Rohit Chopra as director of CFPB — In dismissing Chopra, the president took advantage of a favorable Supreme Court ruling from his first term, which made it easier for him to fire the head of the independent financial watchdog. The dismissal appeared to set the stage for a radical change to the CFPB, an agency formed to protect Americans from unfair and deceptive financial practices following the 2008 financial crisis.

► From the Washington State Standard — Federal judge sides with state AGs, agrees to temporarily block federal funding freeze — [Judge] McConnell’s order blocks Trump and the 26 other federal cabinet heads named in the lawsuit from freezing federal funds until “further order of this Court,” calling for a preliminary hearing to weigh the request for a longer-term ban. A hearing had not been scheduled as of Friday afternoon. Anticipating that McConnell may grant a temporary restraining order regardless, [US DOJ] sought to limit the scope of the block, arguing it should not apply to the president himself nor to executive orders, among other limits. McConnell’s Friday order, however, aligns almost exactly with what the AGs proposed. One difference: The temporary restraining order lasts until further court order; the AGs had asked for a 14-day block, with a potential 14-day extension.

► From the AP — Trump and Trudeau speak and plan to do so again before tariffs start on Tuesday — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday that after a conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump that the planned tariffs are on hold for a month. [She] added that the two countries would continue talks on security and trade and that “the tariffs are put on pause for a month from now.” The pause added to the drama as Trump’s tariffs against Canada and China are still slated to go into effect on Tuesday. Uncertainty remains about the durability of any deals and whether the tariffs are a harbinger of a broader trade war as Trump has promised more import taxes to come.

 

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