UI helps workers, economy | NHLPA joins AFLCIO | Musk’s blitz

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

LOCAL

► From the Seattle Times — King County Metro unveils latest idea for keeping bus drivers safer — Drivers could open the new gates when needed, for instance to leave their seat to strap a customer’s wheelchair in place, or reset a dislodged trolleybus pole to the outdoor power wires. “If nothing else, it brings some operators some peace of mind,” said Greg Woodfill, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 587 president. “Some of them are terrified to go to work. … It’s not the total solution, but it’s a start.”

► From KIRO 7 — City of Seattle refuses to cover former Seattle firefighter’s treatment for cancer caused by job — William Boynton, who goes by David, a former lieutenant who served as a Seattle firefighter for nearly 26 years, said he was diagnosed with cancer last year. According to documents KIRO 7 News received, the State Department of Labor and Industries approved Boynton’s medical treatment for Myelofibrosis last year, confirming his disease was work-related. However, when he filed a workers’ compensation claim with the City of Seattle, which is self-insured, his claim was denied after the city confirmed his illness was work-related.

► From Cascade PBS — Tacoma ICE center company sues to block inspection records release — The GEO Group Inc. filed for an injunction on Jan. 22 to prevent the state Department of Labor & Industries from releasing the inspection materials in response to a public records request from Cascade PBS. Court records show L&I had concluded that approximately 215 unique images from its July 2024 workplace inspection were subject to disclosure under state records law. GEO Group later argued that releasing photos from the inspection could undermine the security of the immigration enforcement detention center and L&I had conducted its inspection under improper authority.

AEROSPACE

► From the Wichita Business Journal — Spirit AeroSystems shareholders approve Boeing’s acquisition move — There are still multiple hurdles to clear for the Boeing-Spirit acquisition to become official. That includes federal regulatory approval, and Spirit needing to finalize the offloading of its Airbus program work to the French planemaker. Boeing leaders have said reintegrating Spirit is a key 2025 priority, as they work to turnaround the company, and on Tuesday Ortberg praised Spirit’s improvements in Wichita.

ORGANIZING

► From ESPN — NHL Players’ Association announces it has joined AFL-CIO — Their membership brings the number of unions involved in the AFL-CIO, the biggest labor federation in the U.S., to 63, representing more than 15 million workers. It comes as collective bargaining talks are ongoing at multiple levels of the sport. The NHLPA represents roughly 750 players across 32 teams, while the PHPA has 1,800 members in the American Hockey League and ECHL.

► From the Economic Policy Institute — Corporate union busting in plain sight: How Amazon, Starbucks, and Trader Joe’s crushed dynamic grassroots worker organizing campaigns — Workplace organizers at Starbucks, Amazon, and Trader Joe’s report that union busting has had a devastating impact: Workers have been scared out of supporting unions; elections have been lost that otherwise would have been won; workers have stopped organizing after witnessing anti-union discrimination at other stores; and unlawful union busting has created a powerful chilling atmosphere when it comes to support for unionization. Corporations want workers to believe that the real choice they are facing is not between a union or no union, but between a union or their job.

NATIONAL

► From CNN — Exclusive: NTSB scrambled to retain employees after Trump’s federal worker resignation offer — NTSB, an independent and apolitical agency that does not report to the executive branch, investigates transportation accidents, provides aid to those affected by them and recommends safety measures. Multiple sources confirmed to CNN that all 400 of its staffers received the email titled “Fork in the Road.” That message, dated 9:41 p.m. ET Tuesday, went out barely 23 hours before an American Airlines regional jet operated by PSA Airlines and a US Army Blackhawk helicopter collided in a tremendous fireball. One source said the initial message came as a shock to staffers, including highly specialized investigators, many of whom are nearing retirement. “It’s not like we have an easy time finding people,” the source said.

► From the Hill — EPA tells 1,000 employees they could be fired ‘immediately’ — The email, sent Wednesday by EPA mission support official Kimberly Patrick, notifies impacted employees that they are “likely on a probationary/trial period.” Nicole Cantello, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local Local 704, which represents EPA employees in the Midwest, said that more than 1,000 employees nationwide received the email. Cantello said she fears that this is a “prelude” for firing newer workers who have less than a year of federal service.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Economic Policy Institute — Unemployment insurance for striking workers: A low-cost policy that’s good for workers and state economies — EPI estimates that the cost of extending employment insurance to strikers would represent between 0.04% to 0.96% of a given state’s total UI expenditures—an almost negligible share. These policies don’t only impact striking workers; they also help stabilize the economy by keeping dollars flowing to communities where a strike is taking place. The need for states to take decisive steps to protect their workers’ rights is particularly urgent in the face of the incoming administration and corporations’ brazen attacks on labor rights.

► From People’s World — Teachers unions mobilize for fund cuts battle — Both Teachers/AFT President Randi Weingarten, a New York City civics teacher, and National Education Association President Becky Pringle anticipate Trump will issue yet another executive order mandating cuts in federal funding for public schools, with the money, via taxpayer-paid vouchers, going to private school parents instead.

► From Politico — Unions sue to block Musk team’s access to Treasury payments — Federal employee unions on Monday sued to stop Elon Musk’s team from accessing a sensitive government system that controls the flow of trillions of dollars of payments as top Democrats stepped up their attacks on what they said was the billionaire’s “hostile takeover” of the Treasury Department. The Alliance for Retired Americans, along with the American Federation of Government Employees and Service Employees International Union, claim that Musk’s efforts may have illegally exposed the personal data of millions of federal employees — as well as any other individual who does business with the federal government — to unauthorized Department of Government Efficiency personnel.

► From the New York Times — Elon Musk’s Blitz Shakes U.S. Government as He Sweeps Through Agencies — Mr. Musk, the world’s richest man, is sweeping through the federal government as a singular force, creating major upheaval as he looks to put an ideological stamp on the bureaucracy and rid the system of those who he and the president deride as “the deep state.” The rapid moves by Mr. Musk, who has a multitude of financial interests before the government, have represented an extraordinary flexing of power by a private individual. One Trump official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said Mr. Musk was widely seen as operating with a level of autonomy that almost no one can control.

Editor’s note: “level of autonomy that almost no one can control” is also how I would describe the “self-driving” capabilities of his cars.

► From the AP — China counters with tariffs on US products. It will also investigate Google. — China announced retaliatory tariffs on select American imports and an antitrust investigation into Google on Tuesday, just minutes after a sweeping levy on Chinese products imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump took effect. American tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico were also set to go into effect Tuesday before Trump agreed to a 30-day pause, as the two countries acted to address his concerns about border security and drug trafficking. Trump planned to talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the coming days.

► From the Washington Post — Trump preps order to dismantle Education Department as DOGE probes data — The draft order acknowledges that only Congress can shut down the department and instead directs the agency to begin to diminish itself, these people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about internal issues. At least some DOGE staffers have gained access to multiple sensitive internal systems, the people said, including a financial aid dataset that contains the personal information for millions of students enrolled in the federal student aid program. The DOGE probe, which began last week, is a prelude to a more dramatic effort to make good on one of Trump’s campaign promises: eliminating the Education Department altogether.

► From the New York Times — Judge Further Blocks White House Spending Freeze — The restraining order by the judge, Loren L. AliKhan of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, came hours after the Justice Department told a federal judge in Rhode Island who issued a similar order on Friday that the government interpreted his order as applying to all spending nationally, not just to funds for the states that brought that case. The Trump administration’s “actions in this case potentially run roughshod over a ‘bulwark of the Constitution’ by interfering with Congress’s appropriation of federal funds,” Judge AliKhan wrote in a 30-page opinion, adding, “Because the funding freeze threatens the lifeline that keeps countless organizations operational, plaintiffs have met their burden of showing irreparable harm.”

► From the Washington Post — CFPB halts work after Trump appoints Bessent as acting head — Shortly after assuming the post, Bessent and his aides ordered the bureau’s staff in an email to cease crafting regulations, enforcing rules, conducting probes or providing “public communications of any type,” according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post, which said he had instituted the ban “effective immediately.” Under President Joe Biden, the CFPB was active and aggressive: Its leader, Rohit Chopra, issued a wide array of rules to crack down on predatory lending, reduce the burden of medical debt and cut fees that customers pay when they fall behind on their credit card bills or overextend their checking accounts.

► From the Washington State Standard — Trump names Washington’s Joe Kent to lead counterterrorism agency — “He’s a destructive choice to lead the National Counterterrorism Center,” Washington state Democratic Party chair Shasti Conrad said in a statement on Monday. “Someone who called for defunding the FBI and promotes conspiracy theories cannot be trusted with our national security.” Washington state Republican Party chair Jim Walsh applauded Trump’s selection of Kent. “Excellent news!” he posted on social media.

The Stand posts links to local, national and international labor news every weekday morning. The next edition of the News Roundup will be Friday, February 7. Subscribe to get daily news in your inbox.