Covid-era strikes | Lelo ‘targeted’ | Big billionaire bill

Monday, July 7, 2025

STRIKES

► From CPR News — Safeway strike ends as Albertsons and local union reach agreement — The two sides held an all-day bargaining session on Friday, according to a post on the union’s Facebook page. Early Saturday morning, it posted the tentative agreement. “Attention UFCW Local 7 Safeway/Albertsons members: We have reached a fully recommended tentative agreement! The strike is over,” the post said. The union said the agreement, which must be ratified by union membership, included fully funded healthcare benefits, fully funded pension benefits for the cycle of the contract, “strong” wage increases and several other provisions. No date has been set for the ratification vote.

► From CBS News — Philadelphia strike hits Day 7 as latest negotiations between union, Parker administration end without deal — DC 33 and the Parker administration negotiated for hours Saturday but were unable to reach an agreement. In a Facebook post on Sunday, DC 33 announced that it was setting up a website for its existing strike fund and thanked supporters “during this challenging period.” “Let’s maintain our strength and support each other during this difficult time,” the union wrote in part. “Stay safe and watch out for each other on the lines!”

► From Rolling Stone — LL Cool J, Jazmine Sullivan Cancel Philadelphia Festival Gig in Solidarity With Striking City Workers — “I understand there’s a lot going on in Philadelphia right now, and I never, ever, ever wanna disappoint my fans, especially in Philadelphia…but there’s absolutely no way that I can perform, cross a picket line and pick up money when I know that people are out there fighting for a living wage. I’m not doing that,” LL Cool J said.

LOCAL

► From Cascade PBS — In Yakima, COVID-era farmworker strikes continue to have impact — It was workers’ rights activism on a scale not seen in decades in the Yakima Valley, and it galvanized public goodwill and support. Five years later, it’s still having an effect. More farmworkers now realize how influential their voices can be, said Edgar Franks, political director of Familias Unidas Por La Justicia, a farmworker union based in the Skagit Valley. Franks and his union colleagues assisted Yakima-area workers during the 2020 strikes. “We always understood policy isn’t enough,” he said. “Sometimes you need people on the ground to make things happen.”

► From The Guardian — Ice ‘politically targeted’ farm worker activist Juarez Zeferino, colleagues say — In May, an immigration court judge ruled that she had no jurisdiction to grant bond to Juarez Zeferino – a decision [his lawyer] VanDerhoef quickly appealed. VanDerhoef said the judge’s ruling was based on an unusual legal interpretation by Tacoma judges, who routinely argue that they lack jurisdiction to issue bonds to immigrants who entered the country without a visa. He signed his client on to a class-action lawsuit focused on the issue. He also filed a motion to terminate the case against his client. In June, a court denied the motion, so the next step will probably be to apply for asylum in the US. “We’re basically weighing what other options he has, what he can apply for,” VanDerhoef said. Aaron Korthuis, an attorney at the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, who is representing Juarez Zeferino in the class-action lawsuit, said he did not doubt the activist was a political target.

► From the Stranger — Why Is Bateau (Temporarily) Closed, Though? — Two days before Sea Creatures dropped the press release, the city’s restaurants and social media accounts wondered if the impending closures had something to do with the company’s recently formed union…Nickel raises yet another concern around the hiatus: the status of the union itself. “Creating a situation where [Bateau and Boat Bar are] gonna have an entirely new set of employees makes it very easy for Sea Creatures to decertify the union’s representation of that bargaining unit. Especially if they extend it to six months, which already gets them halfway to a place where they can file for a decertification petition after suppressing the deadline.“

► From the Washington State Standard — With approval of GOP megabill, Washington state braces for food stamp cuts — About 170,000 Washingtonians stand to lose food stamp benefits under the Republican megabill that passed Congress Thursday, state officials estimate. Of those, 137,000 face obstacles from more stringent work requirements in the bill, and the other 33,000 are refugees and asylees who would also no longer be eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP. Washington would also be on the hook for about $88 million in added administrative costs annually, according to estimates the governor’s office sent out Thursday. And unless Washington reduces its already-low payment error rate, it could have to shoulder upward of $100 million a year in new costs the feds previously paid.

AEROSPACE

► From Business Insider — “Something Has Shifted” Boeing Stock (NYSE:BA) Gains With Reinstated Engineers — Several engineers, who had roles similar to non-union workers elsewhere in the company, were reinstated at Boeing. Reports noted that the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) believed that previous layoffs actually violated a union contract between the union and Boeing. SPEEA pointed out that several non-union workers performing similar tasks were kept, while union employees were let go. SPEEA director of strategic development Rich Plunkett noted, “It appears finally something has shifted and there’s at least an appetite to see if we can work together.”

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From UFCW Local 367:

► From People’s World — Teamsters at nation’s largest Tyson Foods beef plant OK strike — That doesn’t necessarily mean the 3,100 workers are going to walk, Teamsters Local 577 says, but it serves notice on the company that workers are serious about a new contract that produces higher wages and benefits and better working conditions in the sprawling beef processing plant. The Amarillo plant is one of the largest beef plants in the U.S., and Tyson is one of the handful of agribusiness giants dominating the U.S. food supply chain, so a strike could have a big impact not just on workers but on grocery shelves.

ORGANIZING

► From the Nation — Inside One of the Largest Student Worker Strikes Ever — “By and large, our union is made up of first-generation, marginalized people who need to work to go to school, who have never [been told that] they are worth a contract,” said Robin Bailey, a journalism major and UOSW organizer with two campus jobs. Students in large workplaces (dining halls, dorms, libraries) had many coworkers and worse working conditions, which made organizing easy. They have been the most militant while those in isolated workplaces (academic departments, labs) would rarely see their coworkers and had better conditions, which made it exceedingly difficult.

NATIONAL

► From the Hill — UPS offering buyouts to delivery drivers — The International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Sean M. O’Brien said UPS’s buyout plan is “an illegal violation” of the contract the union struck with the company and undercuts its agreement to create 22,500 more jobs. “UPS is trying to weasel its way out of creating good union jobs here in America by dangling insulting buyouts in front of Teamsters drivers,” he said in a statement.

► From Wired — This Is Why Tesla’s Robotaxi Launch Needed Human Babysitters — There are plenty of humans involved in this driverless service. Tesla has a safety monitor in the front passenger seat of its robotaxis, who, according to online videos, seems poised to intervene if the technology makes a mistake. And Tesla has been less than transparent about its use of human teleoperators, who can either remotely drive or remotely assist its driverless technology. (The former is likely much safer than the latter, experts say, but Tesla hasn’t said which approach it uses.)

► From Reuters —Solid US job growth masks loss of labor market momentum — U.S. job growth was unexpectedly solid in June, but nearly half of the increase in nonfarm payrolls came from the government sector, with private industry gains the smallest in eight months as businesses battled rising economic headwinds.

► From the Washington State Standard — Idaho banned abortion. Three years later, minors and seniors struggle to get routine care — Of all the outcomes Rachel Castor could have predicted from Idaho’s abortion ban, her teenage son being denied hospital admission during an asthma attack wasn’t on the list..Her 17-year-old son spent several hours in the Bonner General emergency room, before the staff informed her if his breathing didn’t improve enough for discharge by the morning, he would need to be transferred an hour south to the hospital in Coeur d’Alene. Bonner General had no pediatricians…[a spokesperson] also said in recent weeks, a candidate for a pediatrician position declined their offer because of the restrictive obstetrical care environment in Idaho. She said the difficulties in recruiting extend to every specialty of physicians because young families hesitate to move in.

POLITICS & POLICY

Federal updates here, local news and deeper dives below:

• US court says Trump can remove Democrat from labor board, for now (Reuters)
• E.P.A. Suspends 144 Employees After They Signed a Letter Criticizing Trump (New York Times)

► From the New York Times — Trump Signs Signature Policy Bill at Independence Day Event — Accompanied by a flyover of B2 bombers, the same aircraft used in the recent bombing of Iran, Mr. Trump touted the massive tax cuts included in the bill and downplayed the unpopularity of the legislation in polls and the potential impact of spending cuts.

► From News from the States — How the megabill allows Trump to expand mass deportations, curb immigrant benefits — President Donald Trump’s massive tax and spending cut bill cleared Thursday has as its centerpiece $170 billion for the administration’s immigration crackdown, helping fulfill the president’s 2024 campaign promise of mass deportations of people without permanent legal status…Immigrants with a lawful status, including asylum, under the bill would be ineligible to receive food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Immigrants without legal status or authorization to be in the country are already ineligible for SNAP benefits, which roughly 42 million people rely on. The bill could also cut off tax benefits from mixed-status families, in which family members have different immigration statuses.

► From 8 News Now — Culinary Union cites need for permanent tax relief on tips, blasts anti-worker policies — When President Donald Trump announced his intention of a “no taxes on tips” policy last summer in Las Vegas, it took the Culinary Union about a month to get on board. Now, a year later, the leader of the union sees more negatives than positives in Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill,” which delivers on Trump’s campaign promise to tip earners. “The Culinary Union supports tax relief for working-class tip earners. In the Reconciliation bill that Congress just passed, unfortunately tax relief for workers is temporary, while windfall tax cuts for billionaires and the rich are permanent,” Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge said in a Friday statement.

► From Common Dreams — ‘Evil and Cruel’: GOP Lawmaker Shamed for Unloading Medicaid-Related Stock Before Voting to Gut Program — Republican Congressman Robert Bresnahan of Pennsylvania got publicly shamed by many of his congressional colleagues on Thursday after it was revealed he unloaded a Medicaid-related stock before voting for a massive budget package that enacted historically devastating cuts to the program.

► From Bloomberg Law — Axed Federal Workers Poised for Class-Action Salvo Against Trump — Advocates of fired federal workers are poised to pivot to class actions following the recent US Supreme Court ruling that curbed universal injunctions, realigning the legal battle lines over the federal workforce. If the Trump administration succeeds in convincing courts to remove existing injunctions, opponents are expected to counter by forming nationwide class actions— with the goal of securing secure reworked versions of the court orders that initially blocked Trump’s policies.

► From the Washington Post — The Supreme Court and Congress cede powers to Trump and the presidency — In a striking dynamic of the Trump era, analysts say, the judicial and legislative branches have been steadily transferring many of their powers to the executive — or at least acquiescing in the transfers. That has shaken up a system that depends on the three branches of government jostling sharply as each jealously guards its own prerogatives, many critics contend.

► From the NW Labor Press — Big legislative wins for Oregon labor, but frustrations too — When the Oregon Legislature ended its 2025 session June 27, labor lobbyists looked back on significant policy wins, but also on months of frustration as dozens of labor-backed proposals died without becoming law. After picking up seats in the November 2024 election, Democrats went into the session with a 36-24 majority in the Oregon House and an 18-12 majority in the Oregon Senate, and yet it took a Republican vote to pass one of labor’s priority bills.

► From the Washington State Standard — Smaller nuclear reactors spark renewed interest in a once-shunned energy source — In New York, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul last month directed the New York Power Authority to build a zero-emission advanced nuclear power plant somewhere upstate — her state’s first new nuclear plant in a generation. In Colorado, Democratic Gov. Jared Polis in April signed legislation redefining nuclear energy, which doesn’t emit a significant amount of planet-warming greenhouse gases, as a “clean energy resource.” The law will allow future plants to receive state grants reserved for other carbon-free energy sources. But no state is more gung-ho than Texas, where Republican Gov. Greg Abbott last month signed legislation creating the Texas Advanced Nuclear Energy Office and investing $350 million in nuclear expansion.

The Stand posts links to local, national and international labor news every weekday morning. Subscribe to get daily news in your inbox.