Educators strike | Security officers | Historic hotel strike

Wednesday, September 3, 2025

STRIKES

► From KATU — School cancelled in La Center as teachers hit the picket line over contract dispute — According to a news release from the La Center Education Association, following another round of unsuccessful bargaining, teachers are striking starting this morning. According to the release, teachers are seeking reasonable class sizes, higher wages and better work conditions and support for students. Teachers plan to picket at three schools, La Center Elementary, La Center Middle School, and La Center High School from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

► From KOIN — No deal: Strike at Evergreen Public Schools continues — Union leaders said they are also available to bargain both Wednesday and Thursday. But they recommended their 1400 members vote no on the most recent proposal by the district. “We can’t continue bargaining against ourselves,” said Evergreen PSE President Mindy Troffer-Cooper said in a statement. “This strike is not just about wages and respect — it’s about protecting the quality of Evergreen’s schools. The bargaining team is recommending a NO vote because the District’s proposal fails to address the safety, stability, and fair pay Evergreen students and staff deserve.”

► From Houston Public Media — Hilton Americas-Houston workers go on strike in demand of higher wages — What’s planned as a nine-day strike began on Monday, Labor Day, after the Hilton workers’ contract expired earlier this year. According to UNITE HERE Local 23, a union that represents Houston hospitality workers, the hotel staff had been in negotiations for a new contract with Hilton since the previous contract expired June 30, but they’ve yet to come to an agreement. The workers are calling for at least $23 per hour, “fair schedules, fair workloads, and respect.”

Editor’s note: per the Texas AFL-CIO, this is the first hotel worker strike in Texas in modern history.

LOCAL

► From Cascade PBS — Okanogan County protests highlight rural impact of Trump policies — Okanogan County, which borders Canada, is the state’s largest county by area — at more than 5,300 square miles, nearly equal to the state of Connecticut. By population — the county had nearly 45,000 residents based on a 2024 estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau — it’s smaller than a few dozen Washington cities…Those protesting in Okanogan County want to call attention to how Trump’s policies from the other Washington will affect one of the state’s poorest counties: As of 2023, Okanogan County’s personal income per capita was $52,446, putting it in the bottom 28% of all counties statewide, according to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

► From the Cascadia Daily News — Medicare pilot program will use AI to review eligibility for select procedures in WA state — Private artificial intelligence companies will soon have a say in determining traditional Medicare patients’ eligibility for certain procedures in Washington state under a pilot program launching next year. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) program, which the federal government hopes will reduce “wasteful and inappropriate” Medicare procedures, is set to determine patients’ coverage for some procedures in five states in addition to Washington: Ohio, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Jersey and Texas.

► From Cascade PBS — Washington looks to resume ICE center inspections after federal ruling — State representative Lillian Ortiz-Self, D-Mukilteo, who sponsored both inspection bills, lauded the recent court decision, calling it an act of “justice” and a step toward holding the NWIPC accountable for its numerous alleged human rights abuses. “We certainly should not be letting a private facility come in and profit off the backs of our most vulnerable people,” she said. “And that’s what’s been happening — with no accountability — very little from the federal government, if any, and none from the state. They’ve been able to do whatever it is that they want, but they’re doing it in our state, and I think that’s the difference.”

► From KOIN — Lawyers struggle to reach Oregon firefighter detained by ICE — Following his arrest, attorneys from the Innovation Law Lab, who represent one of the men, said they had been unable to locate their client. Since then, attorneys have located the man and say he is now being held at the Tacoma, Washington facility, but they are still struggling to connect with him. “He hasn’t had his access to counsel,” said Innovation Law Lab Attorney Rodrigo Fernandez-Ortega, who is representing the man.

AEROSPACE

► From the Seattle Times — WestJet Makes Huge Boeing Order, Citing Canada and US Benefits — WestJet, Canada’s second-largest airline, will purchase 67 Boeing Co. aircraft with an option for more, placing its biggest-ever order in a push for future growth even as trade tensions with the US persist. The record deal includes 60 737-10 MAX narrowbody aircraft, with options for 25 more of the yet-to-be certified model, and 787-9 Dreamliner widebody jets, also with options for four more, according to a news release. Delivery is expected by 2034.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

►From KING 5 — Thousands of King County security officers poised to strike, raising transit safety concerns — Nearly 5,000 security officers across King County — stationed at the airport, on public transit, and in local tech companies — are preparing for a possible strike, according to their union. Leaders of SEIU6, the union representing the workers, warn that a strike could have serious consequences for public safety, particularly on Seattle-area transit systems. “It’s workers that kind of go unnoticed, right? And unseen… until you need them,” said Greg Ramirez, deputy director of SEIU6.

► From the Washington State Standard — A new agreement could get Washington state workers the wage hikes they lost — Thousands of state government and community college employees in Washington are considering a new pact that would secure raises they lost out on in July when state lawmakers did not fund their contract…Now, association members are voting on a revised accord that, if ratified and funded by the Legislature next year, would boost their salaries 3% retroactively and provide a year’s worth of back pay. The ratification vote began Aug. 22 and will end Sept. 14. Union officials said they would wait to see the results before commenting.

► From Trains.com — SMART-MD ratifies new agreement with Union Pacific — The agreement, based on terms of deals with other freight railroads, includes annual wage increases totaling 17.5% (more than 18.75% compounded); paid vacation for new-hire employees and accelerated accrual of vacation for tenured employees; improved vision and dental benefits; an optional high-deductable health plan with lower employee contributions; and an opt-out payment of $200 per month for those who choose not to have health insurance.

NATIONAL

► From Bloomberg Law — Starbucks Ban on Union Flyers Violated Law, NLRB Judge Rules — Starbucks Corp. illegally instructed workers at a Missouri cafe to stop posting pro-union materials in the back of the store, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled. Administrative Law Judge Christine Dibble on Tuesday rejected Starbucks’ argument that NLRB lawyers engaged in improper serial litigation because it raised the same allegation against the company in an Arizona-based case.

► From the Seattle Times — US job openings slip in July, adding to evidence that the American labor market is cooling — The Labor Department reported Wednesday that job openings fell from 7.4 million in June and came in modestly below what economists had forecast. Healthcare and social assistance companies cut openings by 181,000 and retailers by 110,000. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) showed that layoffs rose slightly. The number of Americans quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in their ability to find better pay, opportunities or working conditions elsewhere — was unchanged from June at 3.2 million.

► From the New York Times — WATCH: What We Saw at a Job Fair for ICE — As ICE ramps up for more deportations under President Trump, Nicholas Nehamas, a Washington correspondent for The New York Times, talks with applicants at an ICE recruitment fair in Texas.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From KUOW — Oregon, Washington, California form health care alliance to protect vaccine access — The partnership, called the Western Health Alliance, will develop its own immunization guidelines “informed by respected national medical organizations,” according to a press release Wednesday from Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. “The CDC has become a political tool that increasingly peddles ideology instead of science, ideology that will lead to severe health consequences. California, Oregon, and Washington will not allow the people of our states to be put at risk,” the governors said in a joint prepared statement.

► From Common Dreams — RFK Jr. Is ‘Compromising the Health of This Nation,’ Say 1,000+ Staffers Demanding Resignation — After a deadline passed for the nation’s top health official to pledge to protect the federal public health workforce, more than 1,000 current and former employees of the US Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday that “it’s time for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to resign” from his position leading the agency. The employees addressed their letter to Kennedy, President Donald Trump’s health and human services secretary, as well as members of Congress, warning that since HHS staffers spoke out in a previous letter last month about a shooting at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Kennedy has continued “to endanger the nation’s health.”

► From the New York Times — Appeals Court Blocks Trump’s Use of Alien Enemies Act to Deport Venezuelans — The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, was the first time that federal appellate judges had weighed in on the substantive question of whether Mr. Trump had properly invoked the law, the Alien Enemies Act, as part of his aggressive deportation agenda. While the ruling by a divided three-judge panel of one of the most conservative courts in the country was a defeat for the administration, the issue was still likely to be heard by the Supreme Court.

► From the Federal News Network — Commerce Dept unions sue over rollback of collective bargaining rights –Richard Hirn, general counsel for NWSEO and POPA, said the administration continues to target unions that have challenged its polices, but has allowed unions that support its policies to remain in place. “Basically, the president’s threat didn’t work with these two unions and the others that have recently been impacted. And I think that’s why he’s continued to expand the list,” Hirn said. “If letting these people have collective bargaining really was a threat to national security to begin with, they would have been covered in the first group.”

► From Higher Ed Dive — GOP-led House panel proposes 15% cut to Education Department — The plan would advance several of Trump’s key budget proposals, including deep cuts to the Education Department and certain federal student aid programs. However, the plan would reject some of the Trump administration’s proposals, including by preserving the maximum Pell Grant at $7,395. House lawmakers will need to eventually square their proposals with the Senate, which is considering a different proposal that would largely maintain the Education Department’s current level of discretionary funding. Lawmakers face a government shutdown if they don’t fund the government or pass a stopgap budget measure by Oct. 1.

► From the Hill — Senate GOP zeroes in on plan to end Trump nominee blockade — Senate Republicans are zeroing in on a rule change, which would be enacted through the “nuclear option,” that would allow them to expeditiously confirm scores of President Trump’s executive branch and judicial nominees. The Republicans are hoping to move quickly and home in on a plan on Wednesday, when they convene for a special conference meeting specifically to address the issue after weeks of discussion.

► From the Seattle Times — Trump admin must restore health data, websites, per WA lawsuit settlement — The settlement requires the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to recover any information it deleted from government websites since January, which mainly includes guidance around LGBTQ+ health, trans youth, pregnancy and reproductive care, vaccines, opioid-use treatment, and racism in health care, among other topics. Federal agencies began to remove the webpages following two of President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 executive orders on gender identity and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

► From In These Times — OPINION: Trump to Coal Miners: Drop Dead — Last week, the Trump administration approved yet another delay in the implementation of a Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) rule to lower miners’ exposure to deadly silica dust…coal industry interests have been allowed to kick the can down the road yet again and secured yet another delay, this time until at least October, while the lawsuit proceeds. Meanwhile, one in five veteran coal miners in Appalachia are suffering from black lung, an incurable respiratory disease that kills its victims slowly and painfully. Black lung cases have been on the rise due to widespread overexposure in crystalline respirable silica, which is 20 times more toxic than coal dust and has been impacting a younger generation of workers. “This delay is simply a death sentence for more miners,” United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) International President Cecil E. Roberts said in a statement.

Editor’s note: I highly recommend this 2023 piece, also by Kim Kelly, for a more in-depth look at the rise in black lung in today’s coal miners.  

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