Trades fight for the IRA | WSNA TA | VA short-staffed

Monday, May 19, 2025

STRIKES

► From the New York Times — New Jersey Transit and Engineers’ Union Agree to Deal to End Strike — The main sticking point had been the engineers’ demand that they be paid on par with their counterparts who drive trains for other passenger railroads, including Amtrak and New York’s commuter railroads…The engineers’ union had been holding out for a new contract for more than five years and was the only one of 15 unions that represent NJ Transit rail employees that had not come to terms with the agency in recent years.

LOCAL

► From My Northwest — Veterans Affairs staff brace for mandatory overtime mandate — Federal workers with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are now required to work mandatory overtime following recent federal cuts. In an email obtained by KIRO Newsradio, VA leadership in Seattle recently told staff many employees will be subject to mandatory overtime, beginning May 18. This decision comes after the VA announced plans to cut more than 80,000 jobs, equivalent to 17% of its workforce.

► From the Tri-City Herald — Richland farm labor contractor faces record $1.25M fine — State investigators say Pacific Agri-Services failed to provide the farm workers it employed in 2024 with legally required forms that would have disclosed basic information about wages, the type and location of work sites and how they would be transported and housed. The fine includes $1.24 million for failing to provide 4,950 domestic workers and 26 H-2A guest workers with worker disclosure statements, $5,000 for operating without a farm labor contractor license in 2024 and $1,000 for failing to keep, preserve and/or provide records.

► From Investigate West — Spokane hospital where 12-year-old died endangered other suicidal patients, investigators find — In the case of Sarah Niyimbona, whose suicide spurred the state’s investigation and a malpractice lawsuit by her family, investigators also raised alarms over Sacred Heart’s delayed response to her escape from the pediatrics floor…The state’s findings, which InvestigateWest obtained through a public records request, expose a broader pattern of missteps where Sacred Heart staff failed to administer required twice-daily suicide screenings and left at-risk patients unmonitored. One patient had one missed screening, another had 18, and Sarah missed 64 out of 92 screenings she should have received. Another patient hospitalized after a suicide attempt wasn’t screened once in 46 days spent at Sacred Heart.

► From the Tri-City Herald — Trump cuts halt local overnight weather forecasts for Eastern WA, OR — The National Weather Service office providing forecasts and hazardous weather warnings for the greater Tri-Cities area will no longer be staffed at night because of Trump administration job cuts and a federal hiring freeze. The office in Pendleton, Ore., serves one of the largest areas outside of Alaska. Its Washington state service area includes Benton, Franklin, Walla Walla, Yakima, Columbia, Kittitas and Klickitat counties. It also covers 11 counties in Eastern Oregon, including Umatilla and Morrow counties.

► From NW Public Broadcasting — Inside a ‘life changing’ class at the Washington State Penitentiary — Whitman College has tried to offer one of these “inside-out” classes every semester since 2016. They’re part of a network of schools across the globe with such classes, including at least three others in the Northwest: Lewis & Clark in Portland, University of Oregon and University of Idaho…To [William Cyrus Lee, 31, an incarcerated student from Montana], the fact that Whitman students go through “the entire rigamarole” — a background check, security measures and eight gates — to attend class with him is noteworthy in itself. “ It’s like water if you’re dying of thirst, like, ‘Oh wow, people care enough and actually think I have enough value to come in here,’” he said.

AEROSPACE

► From KUOW — DOJ may drop case against Boeing over deadly 737 Max crashes, despite families’ outrage — Boeing agreed last year to plead guilty to defrauding regulators after the crashes of two 737 Max jets, in 2018 and 2019, that killed 346 people. But a federal judge rejected that proposed plea deal. Now the Justice Department is weighing another agreement that would allow Boeing to avoid criminal prosecution. The company would agree instead to a non-criminal settlement that would include $444.5 million for a crash victims’ fund.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the Cascadia Daily News — PeaceHealth nurses to vote on new proposed contract — The previous contract expired at the end of March. Union members will vote on the new proposal May 22 and 23, according to an announcement posted on the Washington State Nurses Association website. “Your bargaining team strongly recommends a YES vote,” the post continued. The nurses’ union represents about 1,100 nurses at the hospital. The new tentative agreement, reached after a day of bargaining on Friday, May 16, would give nurses $4.25-per-hour raises across the board in the first year, 3.25% raises in the second and 3% raises in the third. This is “our highest three-year increase ever,” WSNA wrote in a summary of the changes.

► From the Hollywood Reporter — VFX Workers Behind Marvel, Disney and ‘Avatar’ Ratify First Labor Contracts — Unionized staffers have “overwhelmingly” voted to ratify two labor contracts covering work on these projects, the crew union IATSE announced on Friday, without offering a specific tally. One agreement covers work on Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Pictures titles, while another spans labor for Walt Disney Studios subsidiary TCF US Productions 27, Inc., which collaborates with James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment on the Avatar films. The Avatar deal was ratified in February, while the Marvel/Disney agreement was ratified on Wednesday.

NATIONAL

► From Wired — For Tech Whistleblowers, There’s Safety in Numbers — In September 2024, Scorah cofounded Psst, a nonprofit that helps people in the tech industry or the government share information of public interest with extra protections—with lots of options for specifying how the information gets used and how anonymous a person stays…What makes Psst unique is something it calls its “information escrow” system—users have the option to keep their submission private until someone else shares similar concerns about the same company or organization…Combining reports from multiple sources defends against some of the isolating effects of whistleblowing and makes it harder for companies to write off a story as the grievance of a disgruntled employee, says Psst cofounder Jennifer Gibson. It also helps protect the identity of anonymous whistleblowers by making it harder to pinpoint the source of a leak.

► From the NW Labor Press — Sharing stories of recovery and resilience — Close to 80 union members gathered at the IBEW Local 48 hall May 6 to hear stories of mental health and addiction from fellow trades workers — and a professional athlete. “Substance use and mental health conditions affect our industry like no other,” Oregon State Building Trades Council executive secretary Robert Camarillo told attendees. “We are being beat up out there. It’s affecting us every day.” Construction workers have high rates of alcoholism and fatal drug overdoses. Nationally, the suicide rate for construction workers is four times higher than the general population.

► From the UA:

The construction industry is facing a mental health crisis. UA Pipe PALS is stepping up with peer‑support and suicide‑prevention training that equips every member to listen, connect, and save lives. Watch how we’re building a safer, stronger union together. pic.twitter.com/haGeC3LLu3

— United Association (@UAPipeTrades) May 19, 2025

► From the NW Labor Press — Jury orders $345,000 damages in Franz Baking sex harassment case — Sometimes you just have to sue your employer. Elizabeth Carroll dealt with sexual harassment for more than a decade working on the bun wrap line at Franz Bakery in Springfield. A male relief foreman was one of the offenders, but not the only one. He had a habit of throwing things like bread and dough at female workers, calling them ‘bitches’ and ‘sluts,” telling them they need to take diet pills or Xanax. He asked one woman coworker for her underwear. He called Carroll, who is married to a woman, a “dyke bitch.”…“They’ve been this way for a long time,” says Local 114 recording secretary Brad Currier, who has worked at the plant for more than 20 years. “It would be brought to the company’s attention and get swept under the rug time and time again.”

► From KTVB — Federal workers rally at Boise Airport for TSA union rights — Cameron Cochems, lead transportation security officer and Idaho vice president for the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), said workers are already experiencing negative impacts. He said that includes receiving inadequate advance notice of schedule changes and facing increased costs for uniforms — among other concerns. “Our benefits are getting cut, including our pensions, our health care,” Cochems said. “We’re organizing this rally to show that AFGE and our union is still around, even though the administration illegally took away our contract.”

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Washington Post — Court lifts block on Trump order to strip federal workers of union rights — [The executive order] had been blocked by a federal judge last month as part of the NTEU lawsuit, but that block was lifted Friday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In its order canceling the injunction, the appeals court’s 2-1 majority said the union had not proved it would suffer “irreparable harm” if the executive order was executed while the lawsuit challenging it was ongoing.

► From KUOW — Supreme Court extends pause on deportations under Alien Enemies Act in Texas — It overruled an order from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which had said it didn’t have jurisdiction over the case and said the Venezuelans had appealed too quickly after a lower court ruled against them. But the Supreme Court disagreed. “Here the District Court’s inaction—not for 42 minutes but for 14 hours and 28 minutes—had the practical effect of refusing an injunction to detainees facing an imminent threat of severe, irreparable harm,” the court wrote in an unsigned opinion. “Accordingly, we vacate the judgment of the Court of Appeals.”…”We have long held that ‘no person shall be’ removed from the United States ‘without opportunity, at some time, to be heard,'” the court said in the emergency order, quoting from prior opinions.

► From the AP — Federal judge strikes down workplace protections for transgender workers — Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas on Thursday determined that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission exceeded its statutory authority when the agency issued guidance to employers against deliberately using the wrong pronouns for an employee, refusing them access to bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity, and barring employees from wearing dress code-compliant clothing according to their gender identity because they may constitute forms of workplace harassment.

► From Bloomberg Law — Ending Migrant Parole Would Spell Workplace Chaos, AFL-CIO Warns — The Trump administration’s bid to nix deportation protections for half a million immigrants would cause unprecedented disruption to the US workforce, the nation’s largest federation of labor unions told the US Supreme Court. Employers in the automotive, manufacturing, and airport contracting sectors would face sudden labor shortages if the Department of Homeland Security is allowed to summarily rescind parole grants and work permits for immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, the AFL-CIO said in a brief to the high court Friday.

► From the Washington Post — Trump administration faces court pressure to return deported migrants — A federal judge in Washington on Friday gave the Trump administration one week to identify its efforts to return Kilmar Abrego García, as well as 137 Venezuelan men deported to an El Salvador prison under the wartime Alien Enemies Act — a ruling that came a few hours before the U.S. Supreme Court maintained a block of some deportations of migrants under that law.

► From the Washington Post — Trump’s tax and immigration bill clears hurdle after late-night vote — Four fiscal conservatives — all deficit hawks aligned with the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus — changed their vote to “present,” allowing the legislative package to be recommended “favorably” to the House, 17-16. But their hesitance to vote the One Big Beautiful Bill Act out of committee is a reminder that the far-right flank of the Republican conference remains skeptical.

► From Rolling Stone — 10 Terrible Policies in Trump and the GOP’s Bill to Cut Taxes for the Rich — However, just like the 2017 cuts, this new tax bill would add trillions to the deficit — and it would once again disproportionately benefit the rich. The poorest Americans, meanwhile, could see a tax increase. In order to pay for the legislation, Republican lawmakers won’t look toward the people who are hoarding the vast majority of the wealth in this nation, but will instead take a hacksaw to social services and safety-net programs that help the nation’s poorest families survive, as well as raise taxes on universities, charities, and nonprofits.

► From Colorado Newsline — Gov. Polis vetoes Colorado bill that would have eased union formation — “This veto from Governor Polis is a betrayal of working people in Colorado, but also one we are not surprised about,” Wynn Howell, Colorado Working Families Party state director, said in a statement after the veto. “Given that he is one of the wealthiest men in Colorado, it is no shock that he is woefully out of touch with public opinion on this question.” Howell called on Attorney General Phil Weiser and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, two Democrats in the race for Colorado governor next year, to weigh in on whether they would have signed the bill.

TODAY’S MUST-READ

► From Jacobin — The Building Trades Want to Save the IRA — With its reputation as an ambitious climate bill, it’s easy to overlook the IRA’s role in creating opportunities for unions in the clean energy sector. The building trades, often unfairly portrayed as uniformly opposed to climate action, have seen a substantial number of real jobs materialize for their members. This has translated into more general political support for clean energy development. Key components of this legislation are now under threat as Republicans close in on their goal to extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), a $4 trillion tax cut for the rich.

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