Connect with us

NEWS ROUNDUP

Megabill heads to House | Economy shrinks | Childcare costs

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

 

STRIKES

► From the Philly AFL-CIO:

► From the AP — Thousands of city workers are on strike in Philadelphia but judge orders some back to work — “We are still very, very far apart. All this, it’s not all about money, but it’s largely about money, but there are a lot of work rule situations that we still have not worked through,” Greg Boulware, District 33 president, said Wednesday morning outside a designated trash drop-off site along the Delaware River. The union represents many of the city’s blue-collar workers, from trash collectors to clerks to security guards. A judge has meanwhile ordered some emergency service dispatchers and essential water department employees back to work for health and safety reasons. Police and firefighters are not on strike.

 

LOCAL

► From My Northwest — Study: WA families spend third-highest percentage of income on child care — The median married couple in Washington spends 12.61% of their family income on center-based child care. Just New York and New Mexico have a higher percentage of income dedicated to child care on average, with Oregon ranking No. 4 in the study…For a single parent? The median one-parent family spends an average of 32.60% to 41.08% of their income on child care. Across the country, single-parent households spend 38.4% to 44.7% of the median income on child care.

► From the (Everett) Herald — Everett could levy fines for non-emergency lift assists at care facilities — The ordinance is not intended to be a revenue stream for the fire department, he added, rather an incentive for care facilities to keep enough staff on site to perform non-emergency actions. “In no case will somebody be left on the floor,” DeMarco said. “If they need us to come and do the lift, we will always come and do the lift. But if they call us often enough, it’s going to become expensive enough that they’re going to decide to hire more staff, and that’s the direction we’d want them to head.”

► From the union-busting Columbian — Camas schools on the verge of balancing the budget; leaders propose forgoing employee salary increases — “All of this is based on basically no increase in salaries as we move into next year,” Clint Williams, the district’s interim director of business services, told Camas school board members June 23. “Outcomes in negotiations can change that.” The district is in contract negotiations with the Camas Education Association, the union representing more than 400 Camas educators. The two groups met for seven hours June 24 to exchange counter proposals and work through issues related to wages, special education stipends and substitute teacher pay.

► From the Seattle Times — OPINION: WA is the No. 1 target in the GOP’s health care slashing bill  — Washington is set to lose the largest share of its federal Medicaid spending, at 17%, according to an analysis of the Trump administration’s budget and tax cut bill that’s moving through Congress. That adds up to a $36 billion loss here over 10 years, according to KFF, a health policy research outfit. Washington also ranks No. 1 in the share of its Medicaid recipients who stand to lose coverage, more than double the national average. The No. 2 state isn’t all that close.

► From the Seattle Times — ICE transfers back detained immigrants sent from WA to Alaska — Sean Quirk, a Washington, D.C., attorney representing a Peruvian asylum-seeker held in Alaska and returned to Tacoma, said he received no information that his client would once again be transferred. “Since the start of this process, we have not been notified a single time about these transfers, which I understand to be a violation of ICE’s own regulations,” Quirk said…Quirk’s client could not call him because the asylum-seeker was not allowed to take his belongings to Tacoma, including legal papers that had the attorney’s phone number. Quirk finally reached his client 10 days after the transfer. The asylum-seeker was particularly upset he had been “aggressively strip-searched” at the Anchorage facility, according to Quirk. “He said that was humiliating for him.”

► From My Northwest — Microsoft confirms largest layoffs since 2023 — Microsoft is laying off approximately 9,100 employees, including 2,290 local employees based in Redmond, the tech giant confirmed Wednesday. It’s the largest round of job cuts since 2023, The Seattle Times confirmed, equivalent to 4% of Microsoft’s workforce…Microsoft stated the cuts were not related to performance, but instead an effort to reduce layers of management as it continues to heavily invest in artificial intelligence (AI).

► From Washington Beer Blog — No-Li Brewhouse and Spokane FireFighters Local 29 Unite — No-Li Brewhouse and Spokane FireFighters Local 29 are uniting to donate 100% of sales to support fallen firefighters, their families, and first responders impacted by the Canfield Mountain tragedy in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. This effort honors the service and sacrifice of these firefighters while providing support to their families during this difficult time…You can also directly donate to the Canfield Incident fund HERE, and No-Li will have a cash donation bin in the Bier Hall.

 

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the Washington Post — No negotiations expected until next year on 18-game NFL season, CBA issues — That target of next spring or beyond for the onset of bargaining is later than some had expected, leaving it unclear when an 18-game season could be implemented. Lloyd Howell, the NFLPA’s executive director, told The Washington Post last July that the union had been involved in informal, high-level discussions with the NFL on the issue.

 

ORGANIZING

► From the Editor & Publisher — Snopes workers announce intent to unionize, citing majority support — The Snopes Guild seeks voluntary recognition from CEO Chris Richmond, CFO Drew Schoentrup, Executive Editor Doreen Marchionni and Director of Accounting Amber Marsowicz after 80% of eligible staffers — and counting — signed union cards authorizing representation by the Media Guild of the West.

 

NATIONAL

► From Wired — The Online Tools That Fueled ‘No Kings’ and the Trump Resistance — The change from a top-down movement to a much more decentralized one is key to understanding what’s happening, says Dana Fisher, a professor of sociology at American University and author of American Resistance: From the Women’s March to the Blue Wave. “This is what we who study social movements call a moment of tactical innovation, where there are going to be all these innovative ideas about ways to break through and to get people to mobilize and work together in these very dark moments,” Fisher says.

► From the AP — A day outside an LA detention center shows profound impact of ICE raids on families — On a recent day, dozens of people arrived with medication, clothing and hope of seeing their loved one, if only briefly. After hours of waiting, many were turned away with no news, not even confirmation that their relative was inside. Some relayed reports of horrific conditions inside, including inmates who are so thirsty that they have been drinking from the toilets.

► From the AP — US economy shrank 0.5% in the first quarter, worse than earlier estimates had revealed — The January-March drop in gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — reversed a 2.4% increase in the last three months of 2024 and marked the first time in three years that the economy contracted. Imports expanded 37.9%, fastest since 2020, and pushed GDP down by nearly 4.7 percentage points. Consumer spending also slowed sharply, expanding just 0.5%, down from a robust 4% in the fourth-quarter of last year. It is a significant downgrade from the Commerce Department’s previous estimate.

 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From KUOW — Reeling, cheering, still deciding: WA lawmakers react as Trump’s megabill gets closer to passing — “Pleased to see the big beautiful bill pass the Senate,” Spokane Congressman Michael Baumgartner posted on X Tuesday, followed by an American flag emoji, as Baumgartner signs all his posts on X Twitter. His colleague in the middle of the state, Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Sunnyside), will review the legislation before determining how to vote, his spokesperson said…A number of Republicans in the state legislature urged Washington’s congressional delegation not to pass the Medicaid cuts in May. The Medicaid cuts those Republicans were worried about in the House version of the bill “only got worse” in the iteration that passed the Senate, said Cassie Sauer, CEO of the Washington State Hospital Association, who worked with Republicans on the letter.

► From the Washington Post — What to know as Trump’s tax bill heads to the House — Now that the Senate has passed President Donald Trump’s massive tax and immigration bill, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act must pass the House. But House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and his lieutenants have a bumpy road ahead to meet their self-imposed July 4 deadline. Here’s what to watch as the House begins debating Trump’s agenda.

► From the New York Times — Poorest Americans Dealt Biggest Blow Under Senate Republican Tax Package — Millions of low-income Americans could experience staggering financial losses under the domestic policy package that Republicans advanced through the Senate on Tuesday, which reserves its greatest benefits for the rich while threatening to strip health insurance, food stamps and other aid from the poor.

► From States Newsroom — Trump administration tells states it’s freezing $6.8 billion for K-12 school programs — The agency informed states on Monday that it would be withholding funding for several programs, including before- and after-school programs, migrant education and English-language learning, among other initiatives. But the agency notified states just a day ahead of July 1 — the date these funds are typically sent out as educators plan for the coming school year.

► From the Washington State Standard — Washington, Oregon sue Trump admin for sharing Medicaid files with immigration enforcement — Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield and Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, alongside 13 other Democratic state attorneys general, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday challenging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for sharing Medicaid patients’ files with the Department of Homeland Security, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, is housed…The state attorneys argue that sharing personal health data violates federal administrative procedure laws and federal privacy laws.

► From Reuters — Despite last-minute changes, US Senate bill deals big blow to renewable energy — But overall, the Senate bill will make it too challenging to move forward with many new wind and solar energy projects, likely depriving the United States of added electricity capacity at a time of soaring energy demand, critics said. That could mean higher consumer bills and lost jobs around the country at project sites dependent on the credits. The Senate bill effectively phases out renewable energy tax credits after 2026 if projects haven’t started construction. Otherwise, wind and solar projects whose construction starts after that must be placed in service by the end of 2027. Community solar project developers warned that the bill would stop in their tracks thousands of projects already under development.

► From the American Prospect — Social Security Offices Brace for Birthright Ruling Fallout — The administrative nightmare comes as Trump has already sought to crush the agency through a “significant workforce reduction,” despite it already operating at a 40-year staffing low, as the Prospect’s David Dayen has reported. The regime must cut another 3,000 workers to reach its goal of no more than 50,000 workers to administer benefits for more than 73 million Americans, said American Federation of Government Employees Social Security Council 220 president Jessica LaPointe in an interview. “We’re basically herding the public through like cattle and then we don’t get the back-end processing time to make sure the applications are processed accurately,” said LaPointe, who had been a bilingual claims specialist since 2009 before her election as president in 2022. “It’s lots of stress for the workers and long service delays for the American people.”

► From Common Dreams — Trump CFPB Cancels $95 Million Settlement With Credit Union Accused of Charging Illegal ‘Junk Fees’ — According to an order published Tuesday, the country’s top financial protection watchdog nixed a $95 million settlement reached in 2024 with Navy Federal Credit Union, which serves military servicemembers, veterans, Department of Defense employees, and their families. Adam Rust, director of financial services at the Consumer Federation of America, a non-profit association of pro-consumer organizations, wrote on X Twitter on Tuesday that “it doesn’t square when the CFPB gives a free pass to Navy Federal for charging illegal overdraft fees AND claims it cares about servicemembers.” “How many millions did this CFPB just take from servicemembers?” he asked.

 

JOLT OF JOY

The Entire Staff of The STAND loves some good union swag. So I was extremely stoked to see Starbucks Workers United drop some new t-shirts to support their strike fund AND stick it to the boss, who has tried to impose a restrictive dress code on baristas without bargaining this change in working conditions. A sick fit and a middle finger to an overbearing boss? Now that definitely sparks joy.

The STAND posts links to local, national and international labor news every weekday morning. Subscribe to get daily news in your inbox. The next edition of The STAND will be Monday, July 7. 

Related Topics:

CHECK OUT THE UNION DIFFERENCE in Washington: higher wages, affordable health and dental care, job and retirement security.

FIND OUT HOW TO JOIN TOGETHER with your co-workers to negotiate for better wages, benefits, and a voice at work. Or go ahead and contact a union organizer today!