Mead EA | Nurses ‘never safe’ | FEMA guts contracts

Tuesday, August 12, 2025

STRIKES

► From IAM District 751:

Different picket lines, same fight. #IAM751Machinists stand shoulder to shoulder with #IAM837Machinists. One fight, One future! pic.twitter.com/IvkmokQZkc

— IAM Union District 751 (@IAM751) August 12, 2025

LOCAL

► From the Spokesman Review — Fired Sacred Heart nurses file grievance in case regarding suicide of 12-year-old girl — “In less than two months, Providence Sacred Heart fired 15 nurses over allegations of HIPAA violations following the suicide of a 12-year-old patient at the hospital. Another one was disciplined. The union was contacted by these nurses and has filed grievances over the terminations and disciplinary action, arguing that any information accessed pertained directly to the nurses’ duties responding to this crisis,” said WSNA director David Keepnews in a statement. “We reject Providence Sacred Heart’s claims that privacy was violated by nurses who were doing their jobs to assist in efforts to save the life of a 12-year-old girl in the hospital’s care,” Keepnews said. The union and nurses maintain that this alleged breach of privacy was not why they were fired. Instead, they said the nurses were retaliated against for speaking with media outlets about Sarah’s case.

► From My Northwest — Everett mother and 6-year-old son detained by ICE — Shaw is a New Zealand national who is in the process of applying for lawful permanent residency. Shaw currently holds a “combo card,” a temporary immigration document that provides work authorization and advance parole, allowing international travel and re-entry. “I thought we had crossed every ‘T’ and dotted every ‘I,’” Shaw’s friend, Victoria Besancon said, according to KING 5. “Sarah had been waiting on some travel documents to be approved. But once her visa and her children’s visas were cleared, she felt comfortable taking them to Canada. We assumed everything was fine.”

► From the Wenatchee World — Medicaid cuts spell uncertainty for rural hospitals, including those in NCW –According to a study from the University of North Carolina’s Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, 338 rural hospitals nationwide could shut down due to reductions. The report outlined 14 rural hospitals in Washington are at risk of losing services or closing altogether if the cuts go forward. Eight of those hospitals are in the 4th Congressional District, represented by Rep. Dan Newhouse…In Central Washington’s 4th District, 70% of children under 19 are covered by Apple Health. At Columbia Valley Community Health in Wenatchee, roughly 46% of patients depend on Medicaid. Those numbers mean any change in reimbursement rates ripples quickly through the region’s medical system.

► From UNITE HERE Local 8:

Adam, a Lavish Roots worker at Meta, is organizing because he wants to be able to afford a place of his own. pic.twitter.com/L5fxR3P0tG

— UNITE HERE! Local 8 (@UniteHereLocal8) August 11, 2025

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From KREM — Mead School District teachers rally for change, demand support as contract deadline looms — The teachers say it’s a bargaining battle up until the last second and gathered outside the district offices on Monday to rally for support. “The district has yet to bring forth a plan that prioritizes meeting the needs of our students,” explained MEA President Toby Doolittle. “We are working really hard to help the district address the challenges our students and educators are facing in their classrooms, but the district is not responding.” There are 675 educators who make up the Mead School District, and they say they have been waiting since May to negotiate a new teaching contract.

► From Freight Waves — UPS settles Teamster grievances, averts strikes in multiple states — The union representing some 340,000 workers at UPS said shortly after midnight Tuesday that it called off a strike at the global air sortation hub in Louisville, Kentucky, and package terminals in six other states after the company agreed to resolve several outstanding grievances and a local contract dispute. The resolution, however, did little to resolve testy relations as the Teamsters remain upset with UPS for offering drivers a buyout package to reduce labor costs, not hiring the promised number of full-time employees and allegedly not complying with a commitment to purchase more package vans equipped with air conditioning.

► From Hoodline — Hawaii Hotel and Healthcare Workers Enter New Contract Battle — Hawaii’s hospitality and healthcare sectors are bracing for another wave of labor negotiations as thousands of workers across multiple industries push for new contracts. The latest bargaining cycle involves hotel workers at properties including the Ilikai, healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente, and food service staff at state airports.

NATIONAL

► From Women’s Health Magazine — America’s Nurses Say They’re ‘Never Safe.’ The Hidden Health Care Crisis — Two weeks into her emergency department orientation at a Seattle hospital, Kelsey, a 21-year-old nurse, was already starting to worry she might not leave work alive that day. Her patient, bound in six-point restraints, hurled threats at Kelsey, telling her that she was going to come to her house and skin her with a razor blade…In hospitals across the country, nurses are being threatened, punched, kicked, and even killed…Nearly half of respondents in a recent National Nurses United (NNU) survey reported a rise in violence from the previous year, with 26.3 percent saying violence “increased a lot,” yet union occupational health professionals estimate that up to 90 percent of these incidents go unreported, according to Jane Thomason, lead industrial hygienist at NNU.

► From the Guardian — Immigration crackdown causing ‘Trump slump’ in Las Vegas tourism, unions say — “A lot of departments are having a lot of layoffs,” said ​​Norma Torres, a housekeeper for eight years at Mandalay Bay and a member of the Culinary Union, who has worked in the hospitality industry since she was 18 years old. “In the housekeeping department, the people on call are barely called into work.”…“If you tell the rest of the world you’re not welcome, they are going to listen. Our members are telling us that they’re quite nervous, and that’s why they’re calling it a Trump slump,” said Ted Pappageorge, secretary treasurer of Culinary Workers Union Local 226.

► From People’s World — Latino labor organization pushes unity among all workers — People’s World interviewed a number of participants at the convention who shed light on the importance of the work being done by LCLAA. Beatrice Topeta, organizing director for Unite Here, Local 11 in Arizona, said: “We must organize workers in their workplaces. We cannot depend on the government to protect workers. We in labor must organize a lot more shops, a lot of workers.” She said LCLAA has passed 11 resolutions connected to organizing and that it helps pull together Latino communities and workers. The organization has trained and supported members of unions, and, in general, is a good resource for them.

► From the New York Times — 2 Killed in Explosion at U.S. Steel Plant in Pennsylvania — Joshua Pershing, a fourth-generation steelworker who works at the plant, said he had been in another building at the plant and had felt it shake from the blast. “Next thing I knew, guys were running in, saying something just blew up,” said Mr. Pershing, 31. “We don’t know who’s alive and who’s gone,” he said, choking up. “But pray for their families.”…Bernie Hall, who leads the United Steelworkers union in Pennsylvania, said in a statement that the union would seek a “thorough investigation” and provide its members with support.

► From the New York Times — Trump Promised a Golden Age. Then a Montana Lumber Plant Closed Down. — Their plant, which made high-end trim and siding for homes, was a vestige of the wood industry that once dominated western Montana. President Trump promised a “golden age” for American industry, when the sawmills and copper mining industries that built Montana would roar back. But nothing felt golden that morning. The 104 workers at the UFP Edge factory were told that their plant was shutting down. They would all be laid off…They say that many available jobs pay less, as their cost of living — especially their housing — soars. Several Bonner workers said they had applied for jobs that pay $5 an hour less than the $20 to $25 they earned at the siding plant, without similar benefits. The elites are doing great in a Montana buoyed by technology and tourism, they say, but blue collar workers are slipping farther behind.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Washington Post — FEMA joins other federal agencies in canceling union contracts — On Friday, FEMA’s acting administrator, David Richardson, sent a memo to American Federation of Government Employees Local 4060, the union representing the agency, saying that FEMA’s collective bargaining agreement had been terminated, ending a nearly 10-year contract. The Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have also canceled their collective bargaining agreements. The agencies’ actions come after Veterans Affairs, the federal government’s second-largest agency, announced plans Wednesday to end nearly all of its contracts with federal unions.

Editor’s note: AFGE Local 3197 is rallying today at the Seattle VA hospital to protest this stripping of labor rights.

► From the Guardian — US veterans agency lost thousands of ‘core’ medical staff under Trump, records show — The number of medical staff on hand to treat veterans has fallen every month since Donald Trump took office. The VA has experienced a net loss of 2,000 registered nurses since the start of this fiscal year, the data show, along with approximately 1,300 medical assistants, 1,100 nursing assistants and licensed practical nurses, 800 doctors, 500 social workers and 150 psychologists. The numbers are at odds with claims by the VA secretary, Doug Collins, that veterans’ healthcare would not be affected by an agency-wide reduction of 30,000 workers to be completed this year through a combination of attrition, a hiring freeze and deferred resignation program.

► From Bloomberg Law — Federal Workers Should Be Fireable At-Will, HR Chief Says — “Everybody should be at-will employees, quite frankly,” Kupor said during a wide-ranging discussion with Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Law, and Bloomberg Government. “That’s not going to happen, and I know that’s not going to happen, but I think we need to get closer to the point where you can actually, you know, kind of pay for performance and you can manage out people.” Kupor’s remarks came as the Trump administration continues to erode civil servant protections, weaken federal-sector unions, and cut the workforce.

► From Reuters — Trump picks Heritage economist Antoni to lead US labor statistics agency — Antoni is currently the chief economist at the influential conservative think tank Heritage Foundation. He has been critical of the BLS, the Labor Department’s statistical agency, whose monthly figures about the state of the job market and inflation are consumed by a global audience of economists, investors, business leaders, public policymakers and consumers…The nomination of Antoni, who contributed to “Project 2025,” the controversial conservative plan to overhaul the government, was met with reservations from economists.

► From the AP — Trump’s tax law will mostly benefit the rich, while leaving poorer Americans with less, CBO says — The CBO estimates that the 10% of poorest Americans will lose roughly $1,200 a year as they experience restrictions on government programs like Medicaid and food assistance, while the richest 10% of Americans will see their income increase by $13,600 from tax cuts. Overall, American households will see more income from the tax cuts in the legislation, including middle income households, but the largest benefit will go to the top 10% of earners.

► From KUOW — Washington state sues Trump administration for withholding funding to combat climate change — In a statement, Attorney General Nick Brown said the loss of this funding jeopardizes jobs and threatens to undermine the state’s strategy to fight — and cope with the effects of — climate change. “Climate change is here, and Washington communities need to prepare and build resilience,” Brown said. “The federal government promised funding to help local communities adapt, and we’re holding them to it.”

INTERNATIONAL

► From the Globe and Mail — Air Canada flight attendants could serve strike notice if deal not reached by today — The earliest that flight attendants could potentially walk off the job is Saturday at 12:01 a.m. ET. Since the union must provide 72-hours notice if it plans to strike, that means it could declare its plans for a work stoppage by Wednesday at 12:01 a.m. ET.

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