Oly May Day | Production Assistants | NIOSH layoffs

Monday, May 5, 2025

LOCAL

► From KOMO — Activists emphasized importance of standing in solidarity with union workers — The “All Labor March,” organized by local labor leaders, began at the Tivoli Fountain on the Capitol Campus and concluded at Sylvester Park. “We want to get behind these union folks here too. We depend on them here, they’re bringing a lot of good job and good quality work,” said James Elsner an activist who attended the protest.

► From the Seattle Times — ‘Strippers bill of rights’ has fallen short, WA adult dancers say — Since January, when the law fully went into effect, some clubs across Washington have opted instead for a “revenue share” model that is not subject to the same restrictions on leasing fees…But a growing number of strippers, including Keevy and Zack-Wu, say clubs are using the model to continue unfairly profiting off their labor. “Things have gotten worse in the sense that clubs are greedy and power hungry,” said Zack-Wu. “The way that they are doesn’t change because a law goes into effect.”

► From the Spokesman Review — Man without a country: ICE arrests Spokane resident brought to America as toddler — A series of videos captured the confrontation that started when 35-year-old Martin R. Diaz pulled his SUV in front of his home a few blocks south of Hays Park. Diaz sits in his vehicle for a moment before another vehicle arrives. Diaz then exits his vehicle and runs into his own yard. He ditches what appears to be a coffee mug as a man gains ground and catches Diaz as he tries to enter the fence gate into his back yard. “I caught you, (expletive),” said a man who was later identified as a federal agent, as two more run into the yard to take Diaz into custody. Kendall Diaz said her husband’s family brought him to the United States from Mexico when Martin was a toddler. The family fled persecution and gang violence in their Mexican city and attempted to seek asylum, Kendall Diaz said. Her husband even has a letter from a Michoacan government official explaining the dangers the Diaz family faced.

► From the Seattle Times — WA farmers reckon with Trump’s immigration policies — The foreman knows other hardworking immigrants so afraid of being arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that they are avoiding grocery stores where officers might lie in wait. Other farmworkers tell of curtailing visits to parks, locking a church door and stationing a U.S. citizen nearby, calling in sick when hearing of ICE sightings and sensing hate directed even at immigrants who are legally in the U.S.

ORGANIZING

► From the Hollywood Reporter — Production Assistants, Seeing Work Dwindle, View a Union as Their Future — For a bit less than a year, Production Assistants United has been taking steps to unionize these workers nationwide with the backing of Burbank-based LiUNA Local 724, which represents electricians, plumbers and carpenters on Hollywood productions. Organizers are aiming to increase wages, enshrine turnaround times and provide access to union health benefits — in other words, to give these workers some of the same benefits as their union colleagues on set.

NATIONAL

► From the Bulwark — Labor Goes All In for Kilmar — But rallying against Trump’s economic agenda and immigration policies in the abstract is one thing. Taking up the Abrego Garcia cause specifically is another. Jossie Flor Sapunar, the communications director for CASA, an organization representing working-class minorities that helped organize the Lafayette Square event, said unions were stepping up for Abrego Garcia not because he is unique but because he represents many other “people being grabbed without respect for their constitutional rights, including U.S. citizens and children.”

► From WGRZ — WATCH: Farm workers union says ICE detained worker leaders

► From United Farm Workers:

On May 2nd, in Western NY, federal immigration agents stopped a bus of farm workers from Lynn-Ette & Sons Farms. They had a list of names, including UFW worker leaders who have been organizing to unionize their workplace. Those workers were detained. 1/#WeFeedYou pic.twitter.com/ulQduWEpen

— United Farm Workers (@UFWupdates) May 3, 2025

► From NJ Today — Chaos grips Newark Airport as controllers walk out, exposing FAA crisis — The crisis erupted early Friday when 20% of the FAA-contracted controllers at Newark abruptly abandoned their posts, citing years of unresolved grievances over chronic understaffing, crumbling technology, and what union representatives describe as a “culture of indifference” within the agency. United CEO Scott Kirby revealed that critical air traffic systems failed multiple times in recent days, exacerbating tensions and pushing controllers to their breaking point.

► From CNN — Left in limbo: How federal workers still on the job are coping with chaos — Weeks away from hurricane season, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is set to lose roughly 1,000 workers – 20% of its full-time staff – who took a buyout offer. About 25% of Internal Revenue Service workers, roughly 22,000 people, are planning to take buyouts. The Environmental Protection Agency this week made another offer to all employees – open through May 5 – to quit now and be paid through the end of September. Those left behind now face a highly uncertain future in which a job that once seemed secure could disappear in a flash, leaving them wondering if it makes any sense to stay.

► From KUOW — With disability rights under attack, history offers hope and a possible playbook — When Ari Ne’eman heard Robert F. Kennedy Jr. call autism an “epidemic” that “destroys families,” Ne’eman felt like he had stepped into a time machine — heading in the wrong direction. “This is a throwback to how people talked about autism 25 years ago,” Ne’eman said…”Disability has been foregrounded in both the defense of Medicaid and in the efforts to push back on the elimination of the Department of Education. And the reason for that is kind of a dark reality: There are many people in this country who, when you say, ‘This will hurt racial and ethnic minorities or the LGBTQ community,’ their reaction is, frighteningly, ‘Good. That’s what I intended to do.’ But many of those people can still be influenced [if you say], ‘This will hurt disabled people.’

POLITICS & POLICY

Federal updates here, local news and deeper dives below:

• Trump turns to Supreme Court in bid to allow DOGE access to Social Security data (Reuters)

► From the Lynnwood Times — Bill protecting youth from unscrupulous employers signed into law — “With more minors entering the workforce than ever before, it’s our responsibility to ensure that our laws protect them from harm and exploitation,” said Rep. Fosse. “This legislation modernizes outdated systems, holds bad actors accountable, and puts safety first for our youngest workers.” Governor Ferguson signed the bill on International Workers’ Memorial Day, April 28, at the Western Washington Sheet Metal Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee’s DuPont campus.

► From the Seattle Times — 13 lawsuits in 100 days: WA AG Nick Brown takes on ‘lawless president’ — Just as Trump has moved more aggressively in his second term, the Washington attorney general’s office has been preparing to counter when they deem he has overstepped the law… “We have a lawless president and I don’t say that lightly at all,” Brown said. “And it saddens me, frankly, that so much of our time is protecting Americans from their president, but I really, truly believe that that is the moment that we are in.”

► From CBS News — Worker safety agency NIOSH lays off most remaining staff — Nearly all of the remaining staff at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health were laid off Friday, multiple officials and laid-off employees told CBS News, gutting programs ranging from approvals of new safety equipment to firefighter health. New requests for investigations of firefighter injuries and workplace health hazards had already stopped being accepted. A CDC plan to help Texas schools curb the spread of measles infections was also scrapped due to the layoffs.

► From the Government Executive — Proposed retirement cuts cast renewed pall over deferred resignations — The advancement of a series of proposals to cut federal workers’ retirement benefits in the House this week has revived long-simmering worries about the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program among employees who have accepted or are still considering the so-called ‘fork in the road.’ Several federal workers told Government Executive that they are scrambling to adjust their retirement date in an effort to protect their benefits. “If it’s signed before I retire under the DRP in September, I will not receive the [FERS] supplement,” one federal employee said. “I based my decision to retire on a forecast that included this entitlement. Eliminating it reduces my retirement by 32%!”

► From the Guardian — Mass resignations at labor department threaten workers in US and overseas, warn staff – as more cuts loom — Remaining workers fear further cuts are on the way, as the threat of a mass “reduction in force” firing looms large after a February order from the White House for agencies to draw up “reorganization” plans. “The department has gotten 20% smaller, before any formal reductions in force are announced. A lot of people headed for the exits because so many different components of the Department of Labor have been threatened by reduction in forces [Rifs],” said an employee at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), a key government data agency, who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. “God only knows how much smaller it will be when the Rifs are announced.”

► From Politico — Public media executives push back against Trump targeting NPR and PBS: ‘Blatantly unlawful’ — Patricia Harris, the president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, wrote that the organization is not “subject to the President’s authority.” “Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government,” she wrote. CPB is already embroiled in a battle with the Trump administration. Earlier this week, the organization sued after Trump asserted he was removing three of the organization’s five board members.

► From the New York Times — Trump’s Budget Calls for Deep Cuts to Public Health Programs and Research — President Trump used his budget blueprint on Friday to forge ahead with his assault on the nation’s public health and biomedical research enterprise, proposing draconian cuts to the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that experts warned would upend decades of progress in advancing human health, well-being and longevity. In hard numbers and biting words, the budget wipes out a string of programs, including one that helps low-income people living in cold climates pay heating bills.

► From the New York Times — Funds for K-12 Students Are on the Chopping Block in Trump’s Budget — Mr. Trump would save $1.6 billion by cutting programs aimed at supporting low-income students and preparing them for college. The administration said these programs, known at TRIO and GEAR UP, were “a relic of the past” because access to college was not “the obstacle it was for students of limited means.” Other significant cuts come from slashing nearly $1 billion from federal work-study programs.

► From Slate — America’s labor unions are souring on Trump. — Shuler said a new AFL-CIO poll found that a majority of union members say the country is moving in the wrong direction, with many complaining that Trump has done nothing to reduce inflation. “We’re seeing the most unified labor movement we’ve seen in a long time,” Shuler said. “The best organizer is a bad boss.”

TODAY’S MUST-READ

► From the Guardian — OPINION: Why is America sleeping as autocracy approaches? — my more important experience is decades watching a courageous citizenry force its federal government to change course. In the 50s and 60s, the government was forced to change, thanks in large part to a woman refusing to sit in the back of the bus. In the 70s, the Vietnam war ended only because thousands marched, including myself, proving the ability of committed people, though unelected, to compel change. In the 80s it was private citizens who forced the federal government to start treating HIV patients like humans. In each of these decades, small acts of defiance led to national change as courage rippled outwards. The benefit of having lived these decades during the American experiment is learning that leaders in civil society who resist should be exalted, joined, and followed.

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