NEWS ROUNDUP

Contract wins | Tacoma docs unionize | Ai @ Amazon

Tuesday, May 27, 2025

STRIKES

► From the Hollywood Reporter — Will Smith Music Video Makes Union Deal With IATSE After Strike — The shoot, which was taking place at Quixote’s West Hollywood studios, fired workers on Thursday night after they attempted to unionize the project, sources told The Hollywood Reporter. The workers responded by picketing the Breathe Entertainment production on Friday morning. Non-union crew members that had been brought in to replace the dismissed workers also joined the picket line…[Later] the union and the producers reached a deal allowing the 35-member crew to continue work under a contract that allowed for health and pension benefits.

LOCAL

► From Cascade PBS — Seafarer’s death in Columbia River reveals murky maritime oversight — “AJ’s death is arguably a product of negligence, so in addition to the why, we’d also like to know who will be held accountable?” Emma Martinez, a member of the Pacific Coast Coalition of Seafarers, wrote in an email. Like 10 million or so other Filipinos, Meraña left home seeking better job opportunities and higher wages. He found work aboard a bulk cargo ship owned by a Norwegian company, placing him under a patchwork system of offshore safety regulations under which it’s not always clear who is responsible for ensuring safe working conditions for these foreign seafarers.

► From Cascade PBS — The Newsfeed: La Resistencia monitors King County deportations — The system of moving people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement often operates behind closed doors.   “That’s the whole thing about ICE detention is so much of it is hidden from view,” said Stan Shikuma, a volunteer with watchdog organization La Resistencia. Yet those flights haven’t escaped notice. La Resistencia volunteers monitor them week after week, and have since 2023. Having those counts allows La Resistencia to track the number of folks detained in the Northwest ICE Processing Center. Based on those numbers, Shikuma said, they believe the center is nearing its almost-1,600-person capacity.  “In November, before the elections, [there were] probably 800 to 900 people inside. And now we believe that there’s probably at least 1,400 people, maybe more, on the inside,” Shikuma said.

AEROSPACE

► From the Seattle Times — Justice Department reaches deal to allow Boeing to avoid prosecution over 737 Max crashes — Under the “agreement in principle,” which still needs to be finalized, Boeing would pay or invest more than $1.1 billion, including an additional $445 million for the crash victims’ families, the Justice Department said. In return, the department has agreed to dismiss the fraud charge against Boeing, allowing the manufacturer to avoid a possible criminal conviction that could have jeopardized the company’s status as a federal contractor, according to experts…Some relatives of the passengers who died in the crashes, which took place off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019, have been pushing for a public trial, the prosecution of former company officials, and more severe financial punishment for Boeing.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the Bellingham Herald — PeaceHealth nurses vote to ratify contract after four months of bargaining — “Our new contract includes important wins — wins that only came because nurses took action,” the union bargaining team said in a news release about the vote. “From historic raises and the elimination of ghost steps to guaranteed pharmacy access and stronger protections for hospice nurses, the new language in this agreement moves us forward. It’s not perfect. No contract is. That’s why we’re not going to stop pushing for more.”

► From the Olympian — IT ratifies labor deal with bus drivers. ’This has been a long, difficult process’ — “It provides for a general wage increase, a signing bonus, a full year of family and wellness allowance paid up front, longevity pay, in addition to other negotiated benefits, such as increased deferred compensation plan contributions and additional paid leave,” said Heather Stafford-Smith, administrative services director for IT. Of the union members who voted, 196 said yes to the new contract, two voted against it and there was one contested vote because that person didn’t understand how you were supposed to vote, a union shop steward told the authority. “Membership has approved it wholeheartedly,” he said.

► From CNBC — United Airlines reaches ‘industry-leading’ labor deal with flight attendants, union says –The deal includes “40% of total economic improvements” in the first year and retroactive pay, a signing bonus, and quality of life improvements, like better scheduling and on-call time, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA said. The union did not provide further details about the deal. United flight attendants have not had a raise since 2020. The cabin crew members voted last year to authorize the union to strike if a deal wasn’t reached.

ORGANIZING

► From the Tacoma News Tribune — These Tacoma hospital physicians vote to unionize ahead of move to new campus — One hundred physicians at Mary Bridge voted Wednesday to organize with Northwest Medicine United “so they can formally engage with hospital administrators through a collective bargaining agreement on decisions that will improve patient care,” according to the release. “We came together to have a voice in the decisions that impact our patients. In a time of growing challenges, physicians must be at the table to advocate for the children and families we serve,” Dr. Andrea Gravatt, emergency medicine physician, said in a statement.

NATIONAL

► From the New York Times — At Amazon, Some Coders Say Their Jobs Have Begun to Resemble Warehouse Work — When technology transformed auto-making, meatpacking and even secretarial work, the response typically wasn’t to slash jobs and reduce the number of workers. It was to “degrade” the jobs, breaking them into simpler tasks to be performed over and over at a rapid clip. Small shops of skilled mechanics gave way to hundreds of workers spread across an assembly line. The personal secretary gave way to pools of typists and data-entry clerks…Something similar appears to be happening with artificial intelligence in one of the fields where it has been most widely adopted: coding.

► From the Washington Post — As a boy in El Salvador, Abrego García feared gangs, avoided recruitment — A Salvadoran boy who was old enough to speak into a cellphone was old enough to work for a gang. Before their voices had even changed, the students knew who among them had joined. Abrego García was not one of them, his teachers and a classmate said. But toward the end of his time at the school, his friends began to worry he might be having problems at home. “He seemed sad, like his mind was on something else,” said a former classmate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of security concerns. There were gang threats to him and his family, Abrego García would later say in court. Fearing for his safety, at 16 years old, he fled to the United States.

► From People’s World — ‘Unbought, Unbossed, Unstoppable’: Coalition of Black Trade Unionists convention opens in Orlando — With Donald Trump’s ongoing attacks on the labor movement and Black elected officials in mind, along with his recent display of racist disrespect toward South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, chants of “We have nothing to lose but our chains!” echoed through the convention hall as over 800 delegates from 60 unions gathered for the CBTU convention in Orlando. This year’s theme—Unbought, Unbossed, Unstoppable—set the tone for a fiery opening session on Thursday, where labor leaders condemned the Trump administration’s attacks on workers and called for unified, worker-led resistance.

► From KUOW — Corporate America’s retreat from DEI has eliminated thousands of jobs — This Sunday, May 25, marked the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s murder by a white police officer and the start of a national reckoning over systemic racism. Corporate America rushed to join in, loudly proclaiming that businesses should and would do more to fight discrimination and create more opportunities for workers of all backgrounds. However superficial some of these promises turned out to be, big companies spent a lot of money on them — and hired thousands to implement them. By early 2023, U.S. companies employed more than 20,000 people focused on DEI. That was more than double the number of such jobs five years earlier, according to Revelio Labs’ analysis of 8.8 million employers.

► From the Washington Post — E. coli outbreak sickened more than 80 people but details didn’t surface — The E. coli bacteria that ravaged Colton’s kidneys was a genetic match to the strain that killed one person and sickened nearly 90 people in 15 states last fall. Federal health agencies investigated the cases and linked them to a farm that grew romaine lettuce. But most people have never heard about this outbreak, which a Feb. 11 internal Food and Drug Administration memo linked to a single lettuce processor and ranch as the source of the contamination. In what many experts said was a break with common practice, officials never issued public communications after the investigation or identified the grower who produced the lettuce.

POLITICS & POLICY

Federal updates here, local news and deeper dives below:

► From the Guardian — Republicans are dodging fired federal staff: ‘They will not even look in our direction’ — Sabrina Valenti, a former budget analyst for the Coastal Wetland Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), was fired in February, then reinstated, and fired again weeks later. She started contacting Republicans in the Senate and the House of Representatives to express concern. “They represent hundreds of thousands or millions of people and those people deserve a safe and healthy life,” said Valenti. “They are allowing the people who create that safe and healthy life to be fired.”…Senators Josh Hawley and Chuck Grassley “just will not even look in our direction” in the hallways, she said. Hawley and Grassley’s offices did not respond to requests for comment.

► From Newsweek — Veterans Group Attacks Trump Cuts in Memorial Day Message — “Gutting VA will result in delayed appointments and substandard care, leading directly to more veteran deaths. In fact, as reports and internal documents now prove, Elon Musk’s wrecking ball is causing systems to fail, putting veterans at risk,” Kayla Williams, Iraq Veteran and senior policy advisor at VoteVets, said. “It’s a slap in the face to all who have worn the uniform in defense of our nation.”

► From the Washington Post — Prove citizenship to vote? For some married women, it might not be so easy. –Not everyone has access to citizenship documents, and the measure does not specify how officials should handle records that don’t match because of name changes. Some other states with similar laws require those who change their names to submit marriage certificates or divorce decrees, which voting rights advocates say amounts to an additional barrier to casting ballots. “The likely outcome of this bill [in Texas] is that in pursuit of keeping a very small number of noncitizens from being able to vote, they’re almost certainly going to exclude a much larger number of eligible citizens from voting,” said Daniel Griffith, a senior policy director with Secure Democracy USA, a nonpartisan group focused on building confidence in election systems.

► From the Tri-City Herald — Hanford nuclear site was on the brink of layoffs. Then this happened in D.C. — Money was made available to prevent subcontractor employee layoffs at the Hanford nuclear site in Eastern Washington the day after Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., faced off with Energy Secretary Chris Wright about the Hanford budget. The hearing with the new energy secretary was called by the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee on Wednesday to discuss the Trump administration’s fiscal 2026 budget request for the Department of Energy.

► From the (Everett) Herald — Everett City Council approves apprenticeship ordinance — The city already had mandates for certain city construction or renovation projects to use apprentices for at least 15% of a project’s labor hours. Those requirements were in place for all projects on city buildings with a cost exceeding $1 million, or any other public construction or renovation project with a cost exceeding $5 million. But in 2023, the state Legislature passed a law bringing that threshold down to $2 million. Under the law, that threshold will drop to $1.5 million by July 2026 and $1 million by July 2028. The new ordinance, approved unanimously by the council, accelerates that timeline set by state law.

► From Reuters — Trump supports Nippon Steel’s bid for US Steel, shares jump 21% — A Nippon Steel spokesperson in Tokyo declined to comment on the $14 billion investment and the 14-month timeline that Trump cited. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the announcement. It is unclear whether Trump’s term “partnership” refers to the full acquisition Nippon Steel has been pursuing…Following an earlier CFIUS-led review, then-President Joe Biden blocked the deal in January on national security grounds. The companies sued, arguing they did not receive a fair review process. The Biden White House rejected that view. The United Steelworkers were against the deal as recently as Thursday when they urged Trump to block the deal despite the $14 billion investment pledge from Trump.

TODAY’S MUST-READ

► From the New York Times — Since George Floyd’s Murder, Police Killings Keep Rising, Not Falling — Derek Chauvin, the officer who knelt on Mr. Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes as he gasped for air, was convicted and sentenced to prison, along with three other officers who were on the scene. But even as the number of police killings has risen in the years since, it has remained exceedingly rare for officers to be charged with crimes for those deaths…Last year, for example, 16 officers were charged with either murder or manslaughter in a fatal shooting, the same number as in 2020, according to data tracked by Philip M. Stinson, a professor of criminal justice at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Mr. Stinson said that given “all of the promise of five years ago, in terms of the promises of police reform, from where I sit, the reality is that policing hasn’t changed.”

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