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USPS under fire | 271,500 strikers | Optimism x10

Friday, February 21, 2025

 

TODAY’S MUST-READ

► From Common Dreams — 10 Reasons for Modest Optimism in the Fight Against the Trump-Vance-Musk Regime — They want a dictatorship built on hopelessness and fear, but we can take courage from the green shoots of rebellion now appearing across America and the world. Those of you who want the leaders of the Democratic Party to step up and be heard are right, of course. But political parties do not lead. The anti-war movement and the Civil Rights Movement didn’t depend on the Democratic Party for their successes. They depended on a mass mobilization of all of us who accepted the responsibilities of being American.

 

STRIKES

► From the Economic Policy Institute — 271,500 workers went on strike in 2024 — Current labor law doesn’t adequately protect workers’ right to strike. Strikes provide critical leverage to workers seeking to improve pay and working conditions when their employer violates labor law or refuses to recognize their union. Decades of federal policy and court decisions have limited the right to strike under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Further, millions of workers who are excluded from the NLRA either have limited or no right to strike. Despite this, thousands of workers go on strike each year.

 

LOCAL

► From Northwest Public Broadcasting — Washington’s Senator Patty Murray said Hanford safety in jeopardy, she’s ‘really, really worried’ — Hanford and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory account for about 13% of the jobs in the Tri-Cities economy each year, according to David Reeploeg, Vice President for Federal Programs with TRIDEC, the region’s economic development organization. Those jobs represent about 24% of the total income of the area. Murray said her concerns about Hanford stem in part from her efforts to help the site get the resources it needs.  “And number one the safety of the workers and the safety of the people that live around that, all of us in the region, is my number one priority. Taking that in the wrong direction is just frightening.”

► From the union-busting Columbian — How Trump’s mass layoffs raise the risk of wildfires in the US West, according to fired workers — Workers who maintained trails, removed combustible debris from forests, supported firefighters and secured funds for wildfire mitigation say staffing cuts threaten public safety, especially in the West, where drier and hotter conditions linked to climate change have increased the intensity of wildfires. The Washington state Department of Natural Resources said the firings forced them to develop contingency plans to deal with a “degraded federal force this coming fire season.”…“Without those trails being cleared, it means that now firefighters cannot easily and more effectively get to these fires to fight them,” she said.

 

AEROSPACE

► From Leeham News Analysis — Ortberg reaffirms goal of Boeing 777X certification at first appearance at bank’s investors’ conference — Boeing hopes to certify its largest aircraft, the 777-9, late this year or early next year so that it can finally begin delivery of the 425-seat aircraft. Kelly Ortberg, Boeing’s CEO, reaffirmed the certification and delivery hopes during his first appearance since taking his job last August at an investment bank’s investor conference. “We’re going through the flight test program, and we’re planning to get the certification done towards the end of this year or early next year so we can start the delivery.”

 

NATIONAL

► From Politico — ‘Air traffic controllers cannot do their work without us’ — More than 130 of the eliminated workers held jobs that directly or indirectly support the air traffic controllers, facilities and technologies that the FAA uses to keep planes and their passengers safe, according to the union that represents them, the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists. That alone creates reason for concern about the impact of the cuts, people familiar with the terminations said, even if the initial firings spared the air traffic controllers themselves.

► From the Seattle Times — Supreme Court clears the way for a lawsuit over COVID-19 pandemic-era unemployment claims in Alabama  — “Because the claimants cannot sue until they complete the administrative process, they can never sue to obtain an order expediting the administrative process,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the opinion joined by Chief Justice John Roberts as well as the nine-member court’s three liberal justices. The plaintiffs got support from groups across the ideological spectrum, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Requiring people to finish an appeals process before suing would undermine other lawsuits ranging from civil rights claims to businesses’ challenges to state regulations, they wrote.

► From the AP — UnitedHealth shares dive after report of US investigation into Medicare billing — The Wall Street Journal said federal officials have launched a civil fraud investigation into how the company records diagnoses that lead to extra payments for its Medicare Advantage plans. Those are privately run versions of the government’s Medicare coverage program mostly for people ages 65 and over.

 

POLITICS & POLICY

Federal updates here, local news and deeper dives below:

► From the Washington Post — Trump expected to take control of USPS, fire postal board, officials say — Trump is expected to issue an executive order as soon as this week to fire the members of the Postal Service’s governing board and place the agency under the control of the Commerce Department and Secretary Howard Lutnick, according to six people familiar with the plans…Trump’s order to place the Commerce Department in charge of the Postal Service would probably violate federal law, according to postal experts. After this story was published, a White House spokesperson said no such executive order was planned.

► From NALC:

► From HR Dive — NLRB rescinds stack of Biden-era enforcement memos — Other documents have been rescinded pending further guidance, such as a 2021 memo identifying NLRB policies and procedures for assisting immigrant workers whose NLRA rights are violated as well as a 2024 memo explaining the board’s enforcement framework in light of its Cemex decision, which revived a 1949 standard for determining when employers must bargain with unions in the absence of a representation election.

► From Newsweek — White House Signals Medicare Is Not Protected, Despite Trump Promise — On Wednesday, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in an initial statement to POLITICO that “the Trump administration is committed to protecting Medicare and Medicaid while slashing the waste, fraud, and abuse within those programs—reforms that will increase efficiency and improve care for beneficiaries.” Then, after the outlet’s article was published, Desai sent POLITICO an updated statement that removed the mention of Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people aged 65 or older, and for some younger individuals with certain disabilities or conditions.

► From the New York Times — Judge Rules Against Labor Unions Seeking to Block Mass Firings — In the ruling, Judge Christopher R. Cooper, a U.S. District Court judge in Washington, signaled that he was concerned about the upheaval caused by the Trump administration’s actions. But he did not address the legality of the downsizing efforts, writing that the federal court was not the right venue for the dispute.

► From the AP — Unions sue over federal worker firings, alleging Trump administration misused probationary periods — The unions allege in the complaint filed late Wednesday in U.S. District Court in California that the firings “represent one of the most massive employment frauds in the history of this country.” Meanwhile, a federal judge on Thursday refused to temporarily block the Trump administration’s mass layoffs of federal workers while a separate lawsuit brought by five unions moves forward. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper found the unions must bring their claims under federal employment law rather than in district court.

► From the Bellingham Herald — Which federal agencies should be cut? Newly created DOGE is top choice, poll finds — Most Americans do not want to see any government agency altogether eliminated, according to a new YouGov poll. But the agency that the largest share of Americans support axing is the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with one-quarter saying the cost-cutting outfit run by Elon Musk should itself be cut.

 

INTERNATIONAL

► From the AP — Germany votes Sunday for a new government that will shape Europe’s response to an assertive Trump — Germany and neighboring France have traditionally been the motor of the EU, but both heavyweights have been consumed by domestic political instability in recent months.

 

JOLT OF JOY

Big week for worker actions, which gives me the opportunity to introduce an irregular segment I’m provisionally calling, Ain’t-No-Puns-Like-the-Puns-of-the-People-Cause-the-Puns-of-the-People-Son’t-Stop.

 

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