Sister of Iron | Ferguson rejects intimidation | Sarah speaks

Wednesday, August 20, 2025

STRIKES

► From the Tri-City Herald — Pasco leader urges contractors, union to talk as strike enters 2nd week — Pasco City Councilman Leo Perales has asked Associated General Contractors to “come back to the table” and negotiate with equipment operators amid a strike that has slowed or idled work in the Tri-Cities and across Eastern Washington. “This dispute is not only halting progress on vital public works projects, it is also impacting the families of the workers who depend on these jobs to provide for their loved ones,” he wrote in a letter made public Tuesday as the strike entered its second week.

LOCAL

► From NW Public Broadcasting — ‘It was a double-edged sword’: Immigrant communities concerned after health data leak — Undocumented immigrants enrolled in Washington’s Apple Health Expansion program are raising concerns after learning that their Medicaid data was shared with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “It was a double-edged sword, where now they have learned that information has been shared with Immigration Customs Enforcement. Some of those community members really needed that healthcare as well. They received some care but on the other hand now their information has been shared,” said Liz Oropeza Palacios, a community advocate at Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.

► From the Seattle Times — WA state employee details three weeks in ICE custody with her son — From spending a night on the floor of a Border Patrol facility in Washington to flying to a detention center in Texas, to spending three weeks in incarceration with her youngest child, the mother of three is dealing with the fallout of being picked up by ICE. “It was a pretty humiliating experience,” Shaw said…ICE still has her driver’s license, Washington state ID and passport, Shaw said, leaving her unable to get to work. An ankle monitor placed on her speaks in Spanish, even though Shaw does not understand the language. “I don’t have anyone to contact about the ankle monitor, because they didn’t give me any details for anything,” she said.

► From Cascade PBS — The controversial medical exams that help decide WA workers’ comp — Independent Medical Exams — assessments done by a third-party doctor to evaluate an injured worker’s symptoms and recovery — carry significant weight in the state Department of Labor & Industries system for workers’ compensation. They are also considered controversial. Opinions from IME doctors can lead to the pausing of treatment or wage-replacement payments. They also determine the size of a worker’s settlement once an injury has reached its maximum medical improvement. Between 2020 and 2024, the state’s workers’ compensation system spent roughly $100 million on these exams.

► From the NW Labor Press — Columbia River Mental Health changes plans for takeover by Cowlitz Tribe — On Aug. 4, CRMHS leadership notified workers via email that the plans had changed. Instead of Cowlitz Indian Tribe taking over all CRMHS operations, it will only take over the opioid treatment program. CRMHS leaders told workers that the nonprofit will continue to operate its other mental health services and will receive money from Cowlitz Indian Tribe to alleviate CRMHS’s poor financial status, OPEIU Local 11 said. “There’s still some question about what will happen for employees at NorthStar (the location dedicated to opioid treatment that will move to the Tribe), but OPEIU Local 11 will continue to fight to ensure the smoothest, fairest transition for all our members,” Local 11 organizer Mallory Gruben told the Labor Press by email.

► From the Everett Herald — Kroger said theft a reason for Everett Fred Meyer closure. Numbers say differently.  — Rick Smith, a spokesman for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 3000, said the Everett store closure raises serious concerns about Kroger abandoning working-class communities while potentially opening stores in areas with higher demographics. He said both the Everett store and the Kent store, according to union research, are located in zip codes whose income ranks below their county’s respective median household incomes. “Our concern is that this will create food deserts in our neighborhoods, making it harder for working-class people to get food,” he said.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the NW Labor Press — Early tremors appear in Kaiser bargaining — In July, OFNHP and Kaiser had reached tentative agreement on successorship language, which would ensure that if Kaiser sold off parts of its operation, the existing union and contract would carry over to the new employer. Some of the OFNHP units already have successorship agreements, but the tentative agreement would have applied to all OFNHP-represented units. A few days after reaching that agreement, Kaiser’s bargaining team walked it back…Oregon Federation of Nurses & Health Professionals (OFNHP) represents nearly 4,500 Kaiser lab professionals, nurses, professional staff, dental hygienists, and technical staff in Oregon and Southwest Washington.

NATIONAL

► From the NW Labor Press — Out of Coffee Creek, a new Sister of Iron — Lautenschlager was serving the final months of a sentence at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, Oregon’s women’s prison, when a new road opened up for her. She signed up for the Union Pre-Apprenticeship Construction Training program (U-PACT) and graduated in March 2024…Lautenschlager was released from Coffee Creek on July 5, 2024. A week later, she got her book number, making her an official Ironworkers Local 29 apprentice. A few days later, she was sent out to her first dispatch, helping construct a low-income apartment building in Portland’s Central Eastside.

► From KUOW — Home Depot keeps quiet on immigration raids outside its doors — Earlier that day, on August 6, federal agents in tactical gear sprung out of a rented moving truck, going after day laborers and food sellers in an immigration raid. Hudson heard about it on the news. “It’s just not right,” Hudson said. “They’re out here trying to make an honest living. They’re not hurting nobody, they’re not bothering nobody.” If there’s a company most caught up in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, it’s Home Depot, after numerous raids near stores around Los Angeles and the country. But the home-improvement giant has largely stayed quiet.

► From Rolling Stone — Lawsuit Against DHS Reveals Pattern of Excessive Force Against Journalists — That violent conduct by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents is “ongoing,” “sustained,” and “officially sanctioned,” plaintiffs claim in LA Press Club v. DHS, which is scheduled to be heard before a judge on August 25. The evidence marshaled in the case shows “serious threats to journalists coming in the form of completely unchecked violence from DHS officers,” Peter Eliasberg, chief counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California, told the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). Eliasberg and other ACLU lawyers are acting as co-counsel in the lawsuit for the Los Angeles Press Club, the NewsGuild–Communications Workers of America (a union representing thousands of journalists and media workers across the country), and individual plaintiffs assaulted or injured by law enforcement officials. 

► From The Hill — Abrego Garcia pushes to toss criminal charges he says amount to ‘vindictive’ prosecution — “Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been singled out by the United States government. It is obvious why. And it is not because of the seriousness of his alleged conduct. Nor is it because he poses some unique threat to this country. Instead, Mr. Abrego was charged because he refused to acquiesce in the government’s violation of his due process rights,” his attorneys wrote. “Rather than fix its mistake and return Mr. Abrego to the United States, the government fought back at every level of the federal court system. And at every level, Mr. Abrego won. This case results from the government’s concerted effort to punish him for having the audacity to fight back, rather than accept a brutal injustice.”

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Washington State Standard — WA ‘will not be bullied or intimidated,’ Ferguson tells Bondi — Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson swiped back Tuesday in response to threats from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to withhold federal funding and potentially prosecute officials if they fail to cooperate with the Trump administration on immigration enforcement. “You are hereby notified that Washington State will not be bullied or intimidated by threats and legally baseless accusations,” Ferguson, a Democrat, wrote in a sharply-worded letter.

Editor’s note: while this article states, “Washington’s Democratic lawmakers” passed the Keep Washington Working Act, which guides local engagement with federal immigration enforcement, an interesting fact is that the 2019 legislation was passed with some votes from Republicans as well, including current House Minority Leader Drew Stokesbary.

► From the Tacoma Weekly — Battle ensues over Workers Bill of Rights — UFCW 367 President Michael Hines characterized the situation as “pretty shocking” and that the city council “completely disregarded the rules.” Hines told the Tacoma Weekly, “We did not expect them to simply not do their job. They could have passed it as is or vote to reject it and push it to the ballot in November for a vote of the people. They decided not to do that.” In a news release, Ann Dorn, chair of Tacoma For All, drew parallels to recent history: “This is deja vu. In 2023, the city tried to sabotage the Tenant Bill of Rights with a sham competing initiative, and the court struck it down as deceptive and illegal. Now they’re back at it, only this time they’re using the county’s delays as cover for their undemocratic actions. The message is clear: when ordinary people organize for change, big business and their allies in government will do whatever it takes to block us. We won’t let that stand.”

► From Wired — Senate Probe Uncovers Allegations of Widespread Abuse in ICE Custody — The accounts of abuse span facilities in 25 states and include Puerto Rico, US military bases, and charter deportation flights. Among the most harrowing: a pregnant woman reportedly bled for days before being taken to a hospital, only to miscarry alone without medical attention. Others described being forced to sleep on the floor or denied meals and medical exams. Attorneys reported that their clients’ prenatal checkups were canceled for weeks at a time…With contracts flowing to private prison companies and military facilities alike, the US is locking in the largest immigration detention network in the country’s history—an infrastructure that critics say is designed not only to hold migrants but to make their suffering invisible.

► From Bloomberg Law — SpaceX Keeps Labor Board Case Frozen With Fifth Circuit Win — SpaceX and two other companies can keep their court orders freezing unfair labor practice cases as they litigate their constitutional challenges to the National Labor Relations Board, a federal appeals court ruled in a case with regional implications for the agency…The decision seems to guarantee that companies in the Fifth Circuit—which covers Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi—can get district courts to block unfair labor practice cases by filing constitutional lawsuits against the agency.

► From WAMU — How Trump has stopped federal workers from challenging their firings — The president has also gone after government workers in a much subtler way: functionally shutting down one of the only venues they have to challenge their terminations. By all accounts, the Merit Systems Protection Board is one of the most obscure corners of the government. A few dozen “lawyer examiners” serve as administrative judges who field complaints from aggrieved federal employees. Whatever happens after a trial can be appealed to a three-person, bipartisan board of political appointees who have a final say. But on Feb. 10, the White House sent the chair of the board, Cathy Harris, an email saying her position was “terminated, effective immediately.”

INTERNATIONAL

► From CBC News — How an act of defiance by Air Canada’s flight attendants was a win for labour rights –The successful defiance of a hotly contested piece of the Canada Labour Code has boosted hope for worker rights in the country, labour advocates say. The union and its thousands of striking Air Canada flight attendants refused to go back to work after the federal government invoked Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code. As a result, Air Canada returned to the bargaining table, and overnight the two parties came to a tentative agreement that the 10,500 flight attendants in the union will soon be able to vote on…Roberts said he was also aware that Air Canada was stalling during talks and had “instead turned its attention to urging the government to trigger 107.”  The labour congress’s president, Bea Bruske, said she believes employers will no longer be able to expect this kind of intervention. “Employers should not ever think that government can bail them out,” she said.

► From the Guardian — Airbus workers vote to strike for 10 days next month in pay dispute — Thousands of Airbus workers in the UK are to go on strike for 10 days in September in a row over pay that threatens to disrupt the production of aircraft wings. A series of two-day strikes are planned to begin on 2 September and continue throughout the month at the company’s factories in Broughton, north Wales, and Filton, near Bristol, according to Unite. The union represents more than 3,000 Airbus fitters and engineers, with 8,500 workers employed across the two sites.

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