SPS sued | No to furloughs | Overriding the NLRB?

Wednesday, April 16, 2025

LOCAL

► From KUOW — Seattle Public Schools sued by Washington AG over alleged ‘illegal’ treatment of pregnant, nursing employees — The civil rights lawsuit, filed in King County Superior Court on Tuesday, claims Washington’s largest public school district routinely failed to provide reasonable accommodations to pregnant and nursing staffers as required by state law — including flexible bathroom breaks, modified work schedules, and the ability to sit down more frequently. The lawsuit also claims the district lacks a policy for handling pregnancy accommodation requests, and accuses the district of retaliating against employees who requested such accommodations with negative performance reviews, and by “admonishing” employees for having doctors appointments and removing them from “preferred classroom assignments.”

► From KUOW — Peruvians in the Yakima Valley on edge after couple deported by ICE — Julia and her kids, like many Peruvians who’ve fled their country in recent years, have requested asylum. That means they’ve told the U.S. government that they’re fleeing persecution and are asking for protection — that is, permission to stay — under international law. Asylum seekers like Julia are legally allowed to stay in the U.S. at least until their immigration hearing. But now, despite that legal protection, many asylum seekers are scared. Shortly after President Trump’s inauguration, ICE picked up and deported a Peruvian couple in Sunnyside. Friends say they were asylum seekers who had missed a hearing. Now, the whole community is on edge.

► From Cascade PBS — New federal policy leaves NOAA scientists to clean up the mess — Trash is piling up at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, staffers told ProPublica. Ecologists, chemists and biologists at Montlake Laboratory, the center’s headquarters in Seattle, are taking turns hauling garbage to the dumpster and discussing whether they should create a sign-up sheet to scrub toilets. The scientists — who conduct genetic sampling of endangered salmon to check the species’ stock status and survival — routinely work with chemicals that can burn skin, erupt into flames and cause cancer.

Editor’s note: join Cascade PBS workers for an info picket tomorrow and help them secure a fair contract so they can continue to provide local, accessible reporting just like this.

► From the AP — FEMA denies Washington state disaster relief from bomb cyclone, governor says — “This is another troubling example of the federal government withholding funding,” Ferguson, a Democrat, said. “Washington communities have been waiting for months for the resources they need to fully recover from last winter’s devastating storms, and this decision will cause further delay. We will appeal.”

► From NW Public Broadcasting — Multiple students at University of Idaho, Washington State University have student visas revoked — Students from both schools were part of campus protests after movements across the country called for a ceasefire in Palestine and for the universities to divest from corporations with financial ties to Israel. When asked if student visas were being revoked because of their involvement in pro-Palestinean protests, Secretary of state Marco Rubio said, “They’re here to go to class. They’re not here to lead activist movements that are disruptive and undermine our universities.”

AEROSPACE

► From CBS News — China orders its airlines to stop accepting deliveries of Boeing jets, report says — China is also instructing its carriers to stop buying airline parts and other components from U.S. companies, according to Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the situation. The order to stop accepting Boeing jets comes after China boosted its retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods to 125%. That matches the level of tariffs that President Trump has placed on Chinese imports, although those taxes can rise as high as 145% for some products.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From Bloomberg Law — Commercial Actors Union Reaches Agreement on New Labor Contract — The labor union representing around 133,000 commercial actors and singers reached a tentative agreement with advertisers and advertising agencies for a new collective bargaining agreement.SAG-AFTRA and the Joint Police Committee announced their tentative deal April 12 after the union extended its contract deadline several times. SAG-AFTRA said in its statement that the agreement would go up to the union’s national board for review and then to a ratification vote for members.

► From Yahoo Finance — UAW members at General Dynamics’ electric boat unit authorize strike — The union represents over 2,400 marine drafters, who design submarines at the unit and are fighting to win cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) to keep up with inflation, along with affordable healthcare. The union members are also seeking the restoration of pensions, as they argue that General Dynamics is pushing for increases of 52% to 161% in weekly medical insurance costs.

► From Trains.com — BNSF and SMART Yardmasters reach tentative contract agreement — The tentative agreement provides a 3.5% average wage increase per year over the next five years, more vacation time earlier in yardmasters’ careers, and improved health care benefits. This latest tentative agreement follows the recently announced national tentative agreement with International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). Including the eight agreements already ratified through this bargaining round, more than 42% of BNSF’s workforce is covered by either ratified or pending tentative agreements.

► From the AP — Chicago teachers reach contract deal for the first time in more than a decade without a strike — Perhaps the main reason negotiations didn’t devolve into a strike, as was the case in 2019 and 2012, was union ally Mayor Brandon Johnson. A former teacher and CTU organizer, the union helped elect him in 2023. CTU President Stacy Davis Gates celebrated the contract as a win that protects students, particularly those who are vulnerable under Donald Trump’s presidency. “It’s big, it’s complex and it is certainly a step in the right direction,” she said.

ORGANIZING

► From the Hollywood Reporter — Production Assistants’ Union Drive Gets Boost From Bernie Sanders Rally: “Studios Will Push Back” — Echoing the event’s ethos of challenging corporate interests and billionaires, labor organizers focused on one of the entertainment industry’s most crucial but unglamorous roles made a fiery unionization pitch to the reported 36,000 attendees. Thousands of production assistants are “sick and tired of being underpaid, overworked and unprotected,” said LiUNA Local 724 business manager Alex Aguilar, whose Local is heading up the union-organization effort, in a speech. “That stops!”

NATIONAL

► From People’s World — SMART union demands return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, worker illegally deported by Trump — The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART) is calling on Americans to contact their representatives and senators to demand the Trump administration facilitate the immediate return of a Maryland man wrongfully deported to El Salvador. Sean McGarvey, the president of North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), which represents more than three million workers in the U.S. and Canada, demanded Abrego Garcia be returned to the U.S. during his federation’s legislative conference last week in Washington.

► From the AP — Live updates: Judge holds Trump administration in criminal contempt — A federal judge on Wednesday said he has found probable cause to hold President Donald Trump’s administration in criminal contempt of court for violating his orders to turn around planes carrying deportees to El Salvador. U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg warned he could refer the matter for prosecution if the administration does not “purge” its contempt. Boasberg said the administration could do so by returning to U.S. custody those who were sent to the El Salvador prison in violation of his order so that they “might avail themselves of their right to challenge their removability.”

► From the AP — Abrego Garcia’s Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen visits El Salvador — Van Hollen, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a video posted to X before he boarded his flight that he hopes to meet with Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who was living in Maryland. He said he also hopes to meet with high-level officials to press for his return to the United States. “The goal of this mission is to let the Trump administration, to let the government of El Salvador know that we are going to keep fighting to bring Abrego Garcia home until he returns to his family,” Van Hollen said.

► From Bloomberg Law — Student Unions Short on Options as Trump Targets Protesters — Only six months ago, unions had been emboldened to file labor law charges against higher education employers. But now they’ve grown more hesitant under the Trump administration and a hobbled National Labor Relations Board that will eventually have a conservative majority, academics and attorneys say. “This is going to create a chilling environment,” said Michael Duff, a labor law professor at Saint Louis University. “When individual employees are not sure that what they’re about to do is protected by the law, you’re going to have trouble producing solidarity.”

POLITICS & POLICY

Federal updates here, local news and deeper dives below:

• Unions Sue to Reverse Trump’s Dismantling of Labor Mediation Agency (The City)
• Democratic senators press Social Security Administration on reports of ‘dangerous’ employee cuts (CNBC)
• US labor groups sue over ‘ignorant’ cuts of programs fighting child labor abroad  (The Guardian)

► From NW Public Broadcasting — Washington state workers voice opposition to proposed budget cuts — “ We appreciate the awesome task that the legislature and the governor face with this budget deficit,” said Dan Hsieh, who serves as assistant attorney general for the state. “But history has shown us that cuts and furloughs actually do long-term harm to the economies, to state employees, especially for recruitment and retention, so it was bewildering at best.” Hsieh said Gov. Bob Ferguson likes to tout his track record of winning cases against policies in the first Donald Trump administration, “ So that’s why we were very disheartened and very disappointed when one of his first budget priorities was to defund a lot of the divisions that do that work,” said Hshieh, who is also president of the Washington Federation of State Employees Local 5297.

► From the Washington State Standard — WA House OKs unemployment benefits for striking workers, but adds four-week limit — Senate Bill 5041 passed the House on a 52-43 vote with seven Democrats joining Republicans in voting against the measure. The Senate must now decide if it will agree with the revisions or insist on its position. When the bill came up for a vote last month, Senate Democrats narrowly defeated an amendment for a four-week limit before passing the bill 28-21.

► From the Washington State Standard — Democrats in Washington Legislature reveal sweeping new tax plan — There are hikes in business and capital gains taxes, new sales taxes on services and greater property tax collections by the state and local governments. Other selections include an increase in a surcharge on technology companies, an expanded tax on nicotine products, and a mandate for some large businesses to make a one-time pre-payment of sales tax owed to the state.

► From NPR — A whistleblower’s disclosure details how DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data — “If the underlying disclosure wasn’t concerning enough, the targeted, physical intimidation and surveillance of my client is. If this is happening to Mr. Berulis, it is likely happening to others and brings our nation more in line with authoritarian regimes than with open and free democracies,” wrote Bakaj, his attorney, in a statement sent to NPR. “It is time for everyone – and Congress in particular – to acknowledge the facts and stop our democracy, freedom, and liberties from slipping away, something that will take generations to repair.”

► From the Washington Post — Inside DOGE’s push to defy a court order and access Social Security data — At the same time, Dudek mistakenly let one of the DOGE representatives into a Social Security database last week, violating the court order, according to a person familiar with events who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. That error led a federal judge to summon Dudek for a hearing Tuesday at federal court in Baltimore, but the Trump administration said in a filing late Monday that he would no longer appear.

► From Politico — Federal judge orders immediate thaw of climate, infrastructure funds — McElroy said she wanted to be “crystal clear” that the president is entitled to enact his agenda. However, “agencies do not have unlimited authority to further a President’s agenda, nor do they have unfettered power to hamstring in perpetuity two statutes passed by Congress during the previous administration.” The lawsuit was brought by six conservation and community groups that received grants under the Inflation Reduction Act that was enacted in 2022 and the bipartisan infrastructure law enacted in 2021.

► From the Washington Post — DOGE pulling data from federal agencies to remove immigrants from housing — The result is an unprecedented effort to use government data to support the administration’s immigration policies. That includes information people have reported about themselves for years while paying taxes or applying for housing — believing that information would not be used against them for immigration purposes. Legal experts say the data sharing is a breach of privacy rules that help ensure trust in government programs and services.

► From the Economic Policy Institute — A coalition of hundreds of employers is asking the Trump administration to override the NLRB and dictate labor law — The decisions in question address important issues like which workers have the right to form and join a union and what remedies are available to workers who are illegally fired in retaliation for exercising their rights in the workplace. Like all decisions issued by the NLRB—a multi-member body that acts as a court to adjudicate labor disputes—they were issued after full briefing and consideration of the issues and are treated as precedent governing subsequent cases.

► From the Labor Tribune — Unions sue Trump administration over executive order stripping federal employees of their union rights — The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that Trump’s executive order is a retaliatory attempt to punish federal employee unions that have been engaging in constitutionally protected speech. Unions have repeatedly scored court victories after suing in opposition to actions taken by the Trump administration targeting federal workers.

► From In These Times — Trump Just Escalated His War on Coal Miners. Their Unions Are Fighting Back. — The astonishing impracticality of this plan did not appear in any way to be a factor in Trump’s decision, which was still applauded by people who should know better (even if they’d never admit it) like coal industry honchos and U.S. Sen. Shelley Capito (R​-​W​.Va). As much as Trump likes to posture toward saving the coal industry, his administration’s actions this April have made it clear that they — and he — don’t actually care about coal miners themselves.

► From Reuters — Trump signs healthcare executive order that includes a win for pharma companies — U.S. President Donald Trump directed his health department on Tuesday to work with Congress on revamping a law that allows Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, seeking to introduce a change the pharmaceutical industry has lobbied for. Drugmakers have been pushing to delay the timeline under which medications become eligible for price negotiations by four years for small molecule drugs, which are primarily pills and account for most medicines.

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