Early learning | Wildfire season | Civil service

Wednesday, May 28, 2025

STRIKES

► From the Washington Post — Pratt & Whitney machinists end 3-week strike after approving a new contract — About 3,000 machinists at jet engine-maker Pratt & Whitney in Connecticut approved a new four-year contract Tuesday, ending a three-week strike over wages, job security and other issues. Union members were expected to return to work Wednesday after 74% of them voted in favor of the new deal, according to locals 1746 and 700 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

LOCAL

► From the Wenatchee World — Emergency officials stress coordination and preparation for disaster reduction — “Wildfire is our number one threat,” said Rich Magnussen, Chelan County’s Emergency Management Program Manager. “We know we’re going to have wildfires. If we can get people to prepare their homes, we can reduce the amount of damage.” He pointed to vegetation management and defensible space education as critical efforts that help minimize fire damage in the wildland-urban interface. Dense building clusters near open land remain a particular concern.

Editor’s note: this is one of several articles on the Wenatchee World site right now aiming to educate on wildfires as the season starts, worth checking them all out. 

► From the Lynnwood Times — Webinar for federal workers to learn about Washington benefits — More than 120 participants from 13 different federal agencies attended webinars in March and April. Nearly 50 are already registered for the May 29 briefing. There is no limit to the number of participants who can register. Registration is free and is open until the event starts.

Editor’s note: register here.

► From Cascade PBS — Federal and state cuts threaten Washington early learning programs — The first few months of the president’s second term have already disrupted grants and forced temporary closures and layoffs of administrative staff for Washington’s Head Start programs, amid confusing federal guidance…Meanwhile, at the state level, Washington is poised to cut funding and delay a planned expansion of its early learning program, which is likely to worsen an already strained workforce and growing gap in access to early-childhood education. Early learning providers are caught in the middle – anxious, scared and confused about what’s to come.

► From the union-busting Columbian — Facing $13M shortfall, Camas School District to lay off 50 employees — On Friday, Superintendent John Anzalone said the district will cut 69 teaching positions, three school secretaries and the equivalent of 45 full-time classified support positions, but the number of actual layoffs is lower after reconfiguring job assignments and accounting for retirements. In all, 31 teachers and 19 classified employees will lose their jobs, Anzalone said.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From Starbucks Workers United:

It’s time to face the music – CEO Brian Niccol isn’t making the right decisions for Starbucks.

Brian needs to listen to the workers who really know what our stores are like. And finalizing fair union contracts will do just that.https://t.co/2rXWLBAzNx

— Starbucks Workers United (@SBWorkersUnited) May 27, 2025

► From Deadline — IBEW Touts “Landmark” New Tentative Agreement With CBS — The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the largest union representing CBS employees, has reached a new tentative agreement with the network that it calls a “landmark” deal with “one of the most significant wage packages in the nearly 90-year history of the relationship.” “This tentative agreement reflects a new era of partnership and progress that recognizes the important contributions of IBEW-represented technicians while embracing the challenges and opportunities of the future,” IBEW International President Kenneth W. Cooper said in a statement Tuesday.

ORGANIZING

► From the Detroit News — Stellantis battery joint venture workers in Indiana authorize UAW representation — A majority of workers at Chrysler parent Stellantis NV’s electric vehicle battery joint venture in Kokomo, Indiana, have signed authorization cards to join the United Auto Workers, the Detroit-based union said Tuesday. StarPlus Energy, the partnership between Stellantis and Korean battery maker Samsung SDI, has agreed to recognize the union as representing the 420 workers at the site, the UAW said in a news release. The organizing victory is a product of the 2023 contract between the union and Stellantis following a 44-day targeted strike, which paved the way for the card check system at the Kokomo plant by having the maker of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram lease employees to the joint venture.

NATIONAL

► From Truthout — Chemical Plants Near Black Neighborhoods Pollute While Hiring Few Black Workers — A new study confirms what locals and environmental activists across the Gulf South and beyond have said for years: Black, Brown and Indigenous workers do not benefit equitably from jobs offered by the petrochemical industry despite their communities often bearing the brunt of its pollution. In Louisiana, for example, residents and activists say jobs promised to Black communities located near refineries and chemical plants often go to white workers who commute from their homes a safer distance away from the toxic smokestacks, chemical fires, explosions, leaky pipelines and sky-high cancer rates that make the region notorious.

► From St. Louis Public Radio — ‘Bring Carol home:’ ICE snatches rural Missouri mom at immigration check-in — For many who gathered at John’s that morning, Mayorga’s detainment was a step too far by the Trump administration, an administration many at the restaurant say they voted for and support. “Ninety-five percent of the people in here support Trump — I do, too — but this is wrong,” said Bud Garrison, a daily customer at John’s. Dry, the recently elected Democrat on Kennett’s city council, said Mayorga’s arrest has many residents putting politics aside to support one of the town’s own. Still, she said, she sees many in the town struggling with the implications of the soccer mom’s detainment. “I can’t speak for other people, I don’t know what their thoughts are, but I do hear them ask questions,” Dry said. “‘Surely this is a mistake,’ or ‘What did she do wrong?’ or ‘Carol’s not a criminal, why is this happening to her?’”

Editor’s note: a common interpretation of our last election is that folks voted for Trump’s draconian immigration policy. It is increasingly clear that even many of those who voted for the President do not support these extreme actions.

► From CBS News — Maryland congressman says he was denied access to Kilmar Abrego Garcia during trip to El Salvador — “They knew we were coming; they knew why we were coming, and they know we have the right to do this,” Ivey said. “So, they need to just cut the crap, let us get in there and have a chance to see him and talk with him.” Ivey appeared in the video alongside Abrego Garcia’s attorney and a member of a Maryland-based workers’ union, which Abrego Garcia is also a member of.

► From People’s World — Civil service workers: Front-line against union busting and corporate domination –Kelley detailed how, historically, billionaires and the corporate consolidation of power starts with attacking and dismantling the trade unions. “Now, they know unions are one of the last obstacles to complete corporate domination of our economy. They know that a union contract is often the only thing that stands between workers and complete exploitation,” he said. The immediate task of the trade unions, Kelley said to the delegates, who represented 60 different unions, is to rally in defense of the civil service workers to build enough solidarity so that the ultra-right extremists and their billionaire backers will be unable to destroy the whole labor movement.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From KING 5 — Quarter-million Washingtonians could lose health insurance, senators warn — Cantwell, a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, said that “we do not need to steal from Medicaid to give tax breaks to big corporations.” According to a recent analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, about 194,000 people in Washington are projected to lose coverage through Apple Health, the state’s Medicaid program, while another 79,000 would lose coverage through cuts to ACA subsidies. Medicaid currently provides health care for more than 1.9 million Washington residents, including nearly half of all children in the state and more than 70 percent of births in rural counties.

► From the (Everett) Herald — WA delegation urges Trump to reconsider request for bomb cyclone aid — The state’s request detailed more than $34 million in damages across the state caused by the November storm. In Snohomish County alone, damages totaled at least $18.6 million. In December, the Snohomish County Public Utility District estimated $15 million to $16 million in losses. The storm caused an estimated $2 million in damage to the city of Everett. The letter is signed by all 12 members of the Washington delegation, including Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, and Reps. Suzan DelBene and Rick Larsen.

► From the Washington State Standard — Rideshare drivers win more benefits, protections despite industry pushback — Oregon Democratic state Sen. Kayse Jama, who sponsored the bill pending in his state, said drivers told him last summer that their accounts were being deactivated without notice. “A lot of those folks are mainly immigrants and refugees, so they don’t drive Uber as a side hustle or side gig,” Jama said. “This is their livelihood. This is how they feed their families. So, they brought the issue to my attention.” Their stories inspired Jama to introduce legislation that would set a minimum wage for Oregon drivers, require a “just cause” for deactivation — or “lockouts” — of driver accounts, establish sick leave accrual, increase fare transparency, and create a new driver resource center. Neighboring Washington has a similar model, which was enacted in 2022.

► From Yahoo Finance — An Analysis Says DOGE’s Billions in Cuts Will Cost Americans Billions — Biomedical research wasn’t immune to DOGE’s chainsaw on spending. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) saw reduced staff and funding due to DOGE. The agency oversees $48 billion in annual spending, researching various diseases and conditions, according to its website. The cuts may seem insignificant in light of the total NIH budget. Less spending at NIH could result in slower discovery of affordable treatment options. It could also limit access to free or low-cost therapies to cure Americans and provide less support for families with medical conditions.

► From the Valley Labor Report:

► From the Government Executive — TSA union urges judge to block ‘retaliatory’ order outlawing bargaining at agency — Attorneys for the union that represents frontline employees at the Transportation Security Administration on Tuesday argued that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s March determination outlawing collective bargaining at the agency amounted to a violation of the labor group’s First Amendment rights…At a hearing to weigh the labor group’s request for a preliminary injunction to restore the collective bargaining agreement and employees’ rights, Abigail Carter, an attorney for the union, highlighted statements from Noem—as well as the White House in a subsequent effort to outlaw unions across two-thirds of the federal workforce—as evidence that the administration’s stated goals are a “pretext” for attacking a union that has challenged its policies in court.

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