Primary results | Worker safety | St. Louis Boeing strike

Wednesday, August 6, 2025

STRIKES

► From St. Louis Public Radio — ‘We’re in for the long haul’: Boeing union workers go on strike in St. Louis area — About 3,000 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 837 voted to reject a revised four-year contract proposal from Boeing on Sunday. This came after they rejected the first contract on July 27. Lathaniel Johnson, an assembly mechanic at Boeing in Berkeley, said he is prepared to strike for as “long as it takes” to get a fair contract. “We’re in for the long haul,” Johnson said. “That’s what unions are. Unity.”

LOCAL

► From Cascade PBS — Federal cuts put Washington workplace safety research at risk — Proposed cuts to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the research arm of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, threaten to close three research centers in Washington tasked with keeping safe workers in the state’s most dangerous jobs and training the next generation of safety experts. Two of the centers operate out of the University of Washington. The cuts will also impact the Spokane Research Laboratory and the state’s occupational illness tracking.

► From the Washington State Standard — Suspected tuberculosis cases reported at Tacoma immigrant detention center — The state only receives information if people start treatment for presumptive tuberculosis or when lab reports are positive for the potentially fatal lung infection. “The facility is only required to report known or suspected cases of Tb disease to DOH, so we do not have information about the total number of detainees or the total number of people tested for Tb,” spokesperson John Doyle said in an email Tuesday. The potential infections, first reported by KING 5, add to heightened concerns about conditions at the Northwest ICE Processing Center. The facility, run by the Florida-based GEO Group, already faced concerns of overcrowding that advocates worry could exacerbate medical issues and restrict access to care as President Donald Trump implements his hard-line immigration agenda.

► From KIRO 7 — Juanita High School employee released from Northwest Detention Center — A Juanita High School employee has been released from the Northwest Detention Center after being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) nearly two weeks ago. On Tuesday, an immigration judge granted a $10,000 bond for the release of 45-year-old Fernando Alves-Rocha. “The fact that we have to do it in the first place is terrifying, but being able to do it is gratified. We are very thankful that we’re being able bring him home,” said Alan Bond, Assistant Business Agent with IATSE Local 15.

► From the Washington State Standard — WA’s new work zone speed cameras cite 7K drivers in first 90 days — Officials hope the cameras will get drivers to slow down, and keep workers safe. “While the number of infractions has been high during the first 90 days of operation, we hope to see a reduction of speeding through work zones as the word gets out about this new safety tool,” state patrol Chief John Batiste said. “This isn’t about writing tickets and fining motorists; this is about slowing inattentive drivers down and saving lives.”…The state plans on rolling out as many as 15 cameras in total by 2027. Signs alert drivers to their presence. Cameras are only active when workers are present.

► From the NW Labor Press — Union jobs at risk as Cowlitz Tribe takes over nonprofit — Union rights at tribal enterprises haven’t been considered a settled matter under federal labor law. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has asserted that workers at commercial enterprises that are owned and operated by tribes still have a federally-protected right to unionize under the National Labor Relations Act (NRLA), even if that work takes place on tribal land. But they don’t have union rights at “tribal enterprises that carry out traditional tribal or governmental functions.” In disputes between tribes and the NLRB or labor unions as to whether tribes as employers are subject to the NLRA, federal courts have ruled in both directions. If the Cowlitz tribe tries to assert that it doesn’t have to abide by the National Labor Relations Act, it could be setting itself up for a legal fight.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From Cascade PBS — REI agrees to new union bargaining plan, backpay wage increases — In a joint press release Friday, REI, based in Issaquah, and the union bargaining committee said they had agreed to establish a “national bargaining structure to inform store-level collective bargaining agreements” for its 11 unionized stores, including one in Bellingham. “This agreement is a tremendous step forward in negotiating a first contract,” the REI Union bargaining committee said in a statement.

► From the Wisconsin Watch — These Wisconsin video game workers were first to unionize at a major U.S. studio. Three years later, they have a contract. — Video game testers at Middleton-based Raven Software have ratified their first union contract, more than three years after making local and national headlines by launching the first union at a major U.S. studio. Ratified on Aug. 4, the contract gives employees a 10% raise while limiting mandatory overtime and preserving remote work options. The deal is the latest development in a saga involving some of the video game industry’s lowest-paid workers.

► From Sportico — Fenway Park Workers Warn of Indefinite Strike Against Aramark — Concession workers at Fenway Park may go back on strike—potentially indefinitely—if food and beverage vendor Aramark doesn’t offer a new labor contract. On Wednesday, ahead of the Boston Red Sox’s series finale against the Kansas City Royals, Unite Here Local 26 will give Aramark a formal notice of a potential strike. It comes over a week after the unionized concession workers walked off the job on July 25 for three days during the series against the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

ORGANIZING

► From Alabama.com — Union election coming up this week at Alabama auto plant — Workers at an Alabama auto plant this week will decide whether to join the United Auto Workers. International Motors/Navistar Huntsville will hold a union election on Thursday…The North Alabama Area Labor Council (NAALC), a federation of about a dozen unions within the AFL-CIO, is calling on workers to vote yes, saying union members have better pay and benefits than non-union workers. “These benefits don’t happen by magic,” the organization said in a statement.

NATIONAL

► From In These Times — The Growing Fight for Green Economic Populism  — But at a time when the federal government is dismantling the social safety net and climate investments, working class movements are not sitting back and waiting for their bosses, landlords or politicians to act. Instead, labor and tenant unions are taking matters into their own hands, creating a blueprint for how to organize around both the climate and cost of living crises at the same time. In Chicago, tenants, workers, and climate advocates have united to improve homes and schools. In April, the Chicago Teachers Union ratified a contract that includes repairs and decarbonization investments, including upgrading HVAC equipment and installing heat pumps.

► From the NW Labor Press — CEO pay now 285 times the average worker’s — According to the report, 2024 was a good year for the CEO class: CEOs in the S&P 500 took home $18.9 million in total compensation on average — a 7% pay raise from the previous year. Of all 500, Starbucks had the greatest disparity between its CEO and its average worker. Brian Niccol received $97,813,843 in total compensation, 6,666 times more than the median Starbucks employee. Bear that in mind as you wonder why Starbucks still doesn’t have a union contract 43 months and hundreds of labor law violations after the first Starbucks stores started unionizing in 2021.

► From Reuters — Rail customers urge regulators to block Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern deal, FT reports — U.S. railroad customer groups have demanded regulators block or put onerous conditions on the proposed merger of Union Pacific (UNP.N), opens new tab and Norfolk Southern (NSC.N), opens new tab, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. Seven associations of shippers have expressed concern the planned deal would significantly increase the power of the merged railroad to raise prices or reduce service standards, the report said…Previously, the transportation division of SMART, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, said it plans to oppose the merger when it comes before the Surface Transportation Board for review.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Washington State Standard — Results roll in for 9 legislative races in Washington’s primary election — State Sens. Victoria Hunt and Vandana Slatter, and Rep. Edwin Obras, were all ahead following Tuesday’s vote tally. More votes will be counted in the days ahead, and the top two finishers in each race will move on to the general election. But Democratic state Sen. Deb Krishnadasan found herself trailing Republican state Rep. Michelle Caldier by 89 votes in what is one of the must-watch legislative battles this year.

► From Common Dreams — State Labor Federations Team Up to Fight ‘Corrupt, Rigged Redistricting’ by Trump’s GOP — State labor federations across the U.S. issued a joint statement Tuesday expressing solidarity with those fighting Trump-backed GOP gerrymandering efforts in Texas, warning that similar anti-democratic schemes could spread nationwide if they’re allowed to succeed in the Lone Star State. “We are at a pivotal moment in our country—the future of our unions, our democracy, and our freedoms is at stake,” said the Texas AFL-CIO, California Federation of Labor Unions, Florida AFL-CIO, Illinois AFL-CIO, Missouri AFL-CIO, New York State AFL-CIO, Ohio AFL-CIO, and Washington State Labor Council.

► From the AP — In rejecting the jobs report, Trump follows his own playbook of discrediting unfavorable data — Trump has a go-to playbook if the numbers reveal uncomfortable realities, and that’s to discredit or conceal the figures and to attack the messenger — all of which can hurt the president’s efforts to convince the world that America is getting stronger…The Republican president’s strategy carries significant risks for his own administration and a broader economy that depends on politics-free data. His denouncements threaten to lower trust in government and erode public accountability, and any manipulation of federal data could result in policy choices made on faulty numbers, causing larger problems for both the president and the country.

► From the NW Labor Press — Public scrutiny of contractors grows after Rotschy accidents — Vancouver City Council directed city staff to draft new bidder criteria so that in the future, a contractor’s safety record would be considered. Nearby Ridgefield, Washington, kicked off what could become a wave of new safety standards in May when its public works department added safety to the list of what qualifies a contractor as a responsible bidder. For City of Ridgefield projects that cost $500,000 or more, a bidder can’t have had any serious or willful health or safety citations, violations, or penalties issued in the past three years unless there are extenuating circumstances that the city evaluates. After Ridgefield added its new language, Laborers District Council organizer Deken Letinich started proposing that other cities, counties, ports, and school districts in Southwest Washington adopt the same criteria.

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