BPA layoffs save $0 | UFW sues Border Patrol | Starlink & slavery

Thursday, February 27, 2025

LOCAL

► From Cascade PBS — Experts, WA reps question rationale for BPA and Hanford layoffs — “They are creating complete chaos across many regions and are not being responsive to Congress,” Murray said at a virtual press conference Wednesday. Another big unanswered question: Why lay off 400 of the BPA’s roughly 3,100 employees? Consumers of the BPA’s electricity pay their salaries, not the federal government, so the Trump administration is not trimming the federal budget with these layoffs…In fact, the 87-year-old BPA sends any surplus revenue money to the federal government, said Scott Simms, executive director of the Public Power Council, an association of consumer-owned utilities serving the Columbia River Basin.

► From the Spokesman Review — Union representing Spokane VA workers accuses Trump administration of ‘psychological warfare’ after Musk asks workers to justify their jobs — In a hearing before a House subcommittee on Monday about the rollout of the electronic health record system the VA began testing in Spokane in 2020, the head of the program told lawmakers that his team – which is tasked with fixing the problems that have contributed to thousands of cases of patient harm according to the VA’s own data – had lost about eight employees in the mass firing of probationary workers with relatively short tenures in their current jobs, plus another 16 people who had accepted offers to quit and be paid through September. The National Federal of Federal Employees, whose Local 1641 represents workers at [Spokane’s VA Medical Center] Mann-Grandstaff, said in a statement that the ultimatum is “illegal and amounts to disrespectful psychological warfare.”

Editor’s note: in related news, Washington veteran family says nationwide VA layoffs have already hurt their quality of care

► From MyNorthwest.com — Fired federal workers in Washington struggling to get unemployment, Sen. Murray says — “We are hearing from literally hundreds of people … that they got this letter that said they were being fired for poor performance,” Murray said. “That has impacts beyond just the emotional ones you’re hearing and the fact that they’ve lost a job — but in many of those who are trying to collect unemployment, it is hampering them from collecting unemployment.”

Editor’s note: check the Politics section for details on a lawsuit unions have filed to challenge these supposed performance-related firings

► From the Seattle Times — Burien sues to halt adoption of voter-approved minimum wage initiative — The city filed its lawsuit Tuesday against the advocacy group Transit Riders Union and its general secretary Katie Wilson. The group was among the community organizations and labor unions that supported the Raise the Wage Burien campaign. Raise the Wage Burien organizer Artie Nosrati said…”This is a concerted effort to stop workers from getting a raise,” Nosrati said in a statement. “We’re confident the courts will uphold our initiative and do what’s right for Burien workers.”

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From Technically Media — How AI is infiltrating labor union contracts, in Pittsburgh and beyond — Workers in industries with strong unions, meanwhile, are recognizing the necessity of proactively addressing potential threats AI poses to job security by leveraging their bargaining power. “Having workers at the table is very important upfront, and we always encourage that,” [USW staff] Miller said. “I will say that in the best-case scenario, we are working with the employer well before any technology is implemented.” Union strategies to protect workers in the face of new technology aren’t from an entirely new playbook. Technological changes are constantly changing labor dynamics.

NATIONAL

► From Yahoo News — Federal lawsuit by UFW, ACLU targets agencies involved in January immigration actions — The 71-page filing says victims were stopped regardless of reasonable suspicion, arrested irrespective of their flight risk and expelled without explanation. It alleges examples of longtime local residents, including a permanent resident and a U.S. citizen, who became stranded in Mexico after they were misled into signing agreements to leave the United States voluntarily.

► From CBS News — Steelworkers’ union accuses U.S. Steel of discouraging workers from speaking out against company sale — The United Steelworkers union has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board and is accusing U.S. Steel of undermining the union and discouraging workers from voicing skepticism about the potential sale of the company. The union says it has raised concerns since the sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest steelmaker, was proposed in 2023. The union says U.S. Steel initiated a coordinated attack to silence those views.

► From US Glass — Mass Timber, Robotics & AI: How Ironworkers Are Embracing the Future — Jake Tyler, an instructor at Iron Workers LU No. 736, Hamilton, Ontario, says robotic total stations are advanced surveying instruments that integrate electronic theodolites with a distance-measuring laser. The stations feature user-friendly interfaces, data storage and connectivity that help simplify tasks. Once the station knows where it is, it can measure any object or point in the line of sight or layout any object from a drawing within the line of site.

► From CNN — The US Postal Service is more efficient than you think. Privatizing it could cause problems for many — “This is an attempt of an illegal hostile takeover of a government institution,” said Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union. “The right wing think tanks have always had their sights on the public postal service. They clearly have a plan. The Post Office takes in about $82 billion a year in revenue. That’s not chump change. That’s what Wall Street wants. This is just about shifting it from the public sector to the private sector.”

► From the AP — Pending US home sales slide to all-time low in January on rates, prices, maybe weather  — The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that its Pending Home Sales Index, which is an indicator of home sales based on contract signings, declined 4.6% to 70.6 last month. Pending transactions fell 5.2% from the year-ago period.

POLITICS & POLICY

Federal updates here, local news and deeper dives below:

• US judge in San Francisco will hear request by unions to halt mass firings of probationary workers (AP)
• Musk says federal workers should expect another round of ‘pulse check’ emails (NPR)
• Trump plans tariffs on Mexico and Canada for Tuesday, while doubling existing 10% tariffs on China (AP)
• Senate committee recommends Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s confirmation as Trump’s labor secretary (AP)

► From the Spokesman Review — Medicaid could be on chopping block after Northwest Republicans help pass House budget measure — The two congressional districts in Washington state whose residents are most reliant on Medicaid, both east of the Cascades, are represented by the only Republicans in the Evergreen State’s delegation: Rep. Dan Newhouse of Sunnyside and Rep. Michael Baumgartner of Spokane. “We are not going to vote to kick low-income kids off of health care,” Baumgartner said…In Baumgartner’s 5th Congressional District, 54% of children and 22% of adults are insured by the program. Lisabeth Kelly, a family physician at CHAS Health in Spokane, estimated that 90% of her patients rely on Medicaid.

► From the New York Times — What Can House Republicans Cut Instead of Medicaid? Not Much. — Even if all of these cuts, revenues and rule cancellations from outside health care can pass muster, the committee will still be left with hundreds of billions of dollars to cut to hit its goal. Mathematically, the budget committee’s instructions mean the committee would need to make major cuts to either Medicare, Medicaid or both.

► From the New York Times — Trump Says E.P.A. Layoffs Will Cut Staff by 65 Percent — The fossil fuel industry, which includes petrochemical manufacturers, donated heavily to Mr. Trump, who campaigned on a pledge to remove regulations that add to their costs. He has populated the senior ranks at the E.P.A. with people who have served as lawyers and lobbyists for the oil and chemical industries, many of whom worked in his first administration to weaken climate and pollution protections.

INTERNATIONAL

► From Wired — Elon Musk’s Starlink Is Keeping Modern Slavery Compounds Online — The use of Starlink comes as officials in Thailand, Myanmar, and China have recently attempted to crack down on scam compounds, freeing thousands. However, support services for trafficking victims have faced USAID funding cuts from Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

► From the AP — A two-day strike at Munich Airport results in most flights being canceled — The ver.di service workers’ union called the “warning strike,” a tactic often used in German pay negotiations, on Monday as it seeks to step up pressure in ongoing talks with the federal government and municipal authorities on wages and working conditions for public-sector employees.

The Stand posts links to local, national and international labor news every weekday morning. Subscribe to get daily news in your inbox.