SW Ed. strikes | Subsidizing Big Tech | Fred Meyer closures

Thursday, September 4, 2025

STRIKES

► From the union-busting Columbian — La Center teachers strike demanding ‘a fair contract and language that protects our cost of living’ — The La Center Education Association is the second school-based union to go on strike in Clark County this school year. Evergreen’s classified staff went on strike Aug. 26, delaying the first day of school. Vancouver’s classified education support staff plan to vote Sept. 11 on whether to strike…Negotiations continue today for La Center. Meanwhile, Evergreen classified staff are voting Thursday on the district’s “best, last and final offer.” If the offer is rejected, picket lines will continue, the union’s Tuesday news release stated.

► From KSDK — Boeing workers on strike lose their health insurance — A shift tonight for striking Boeing workers now facing their fifth week on the picket line. After 29 days, they’re now without health insurance coverage…Miller has worked at Boeing for 17 years and is now facing the reality of no health insurance. “I’m glad I had the surgery before this all happened but right now I just leave it in God’s hands,” Miller said.

LOCAL

► From the Kent Reporter — Crime stats show theft dropping at Kent East Hill Fred Meyer — Ohio-based Kroger will close the Fred Meyer on the East Hill in Kent Oct. 17 for reasons the company partially blamed on “a steady rise in theft.” The actual statistics, however, show a significant decrease in crime incidents and thefts at the store, 10201 SE 240th St., over the last four years. The number of crime incidents dropped 38% (158 to 98) from 2022 to 2024, according to Kent Police case reports obtained by the Kent Reporter through a public records request. The number of thefts dropped 48% (62 to 32) over the same period…“Kroger’s statements to reporters blaming closures on ‘a challenging regulatory environment’ and ‘a steady rise in theft’ do not appear to comport with reality, so far as we can tell,” according to a Sept. 2 email from UFCW 3000 spokesperson Rich Smith.

Editor’s note: and as previously reported in the Everett Daily Herald: Kroger said theft a reason for Everett Fred Meyer closure. Numbers say differently.

► From KOMO — Legal team demands release of fire crew member detained at ICE processing center — Jordan Cunnings, legal director at Innovation Law Lab, said she and her team were only able to meet with the detained crew member on Monday, more than a week after his arrest..”He’s an Oregonian. This is the only country and home he’s ever known,” said Cunnings. “He has a unique level of community support and outrage, and I know he really feels that and is grateful for that.” Lawyers at the Innovation Law Lab also criticized suggestions from Homeland Security that the detained crew member is not an actual firefighter. “He was clearly engaged in active wildfire response, and any attempt to paint his work otherwise is a cowardly attempt to distract from the real issues here,” Cunnings told KOMO News.

AEROSPACE

► From the Seattle Times — Families of Boeing crash victims urge judge to reject deal sparing company from prosecution — U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor is weighing whether to approve the federal government’s motion to dismiss its criminal case against Boeing. The judge said Wednesday after hearing from the relatives and attorneys for both the Justice Department and Boeing that he would issue a decision at a later date. In exchange, the company said it would pay or invest another $1.1 billion in fines, compensation for the crash victims’ families, and internal safety and quality measures.

NATIONAL

► From KTBS — Employees organize to combat increasing workplace violence — After Muhammad Jawaid, a Chicago rideshare driver, was assaulted by two riders this spring, he changed — in more ways than one…When Jawaid asked Uber to cover the cost of his injuries, he said, the company offered a fraction of his medical costs alone. Because Jawaid is not considered an employee but an independent contractor — a status both Uber and Lyft have fought hard to preserve for their drivers — he does not qualify for workers’ compensation…Frustrated by the company’s response, Jawaid did something new: He reached out to the Chicago Gig Alliance, a rideshare driver group that has been pushing for a city ordinance that would have required the rideshare companies to verify all passenger accounts and provide identity verification to drivers as they pick up passengers.

► From the New York Times — If Trump’s biggest tariffs get thrown out, companies could get a refund – but not consumers — Two courts have now ruled that his biggest and boldest import taxes are illegal. If the Supreme Court agrees and strikes them down for good, the federal government could have to pay back many of the taxes it’s already collected from companies that import foreign products into the United States…Ordinary Americans, who’ve had to pay higher prices on some products because of the tariffs, are unlikely to share in the windfall. Any refunds would go instead to the companies that paid the levies in the first place.

► From the AP — Moms’ careers and personal time are hit hard by school drop-off demands, a poll finds — About one-third of parents say taking their kids to school has caused them to miss work, according to the poll. Roughly 3 in 10 say they’ve been prevented from seeking or taking work opportunities. And 11% say school transportation has even caused them to lose a job. Mothers are especially likely to say school transportation needs have interfered with their jobs and opportunities.

► From the AP — Transgender federal employees say they face fear and discrimination under Trump — A San Francisco-based Army veteran, Seawright is one of 10 transgender and gender nonconforming government employees across federal agencies who spoke with The Associated Press about their workplace experiences since Trump regained office, describing their fear, grief, frustration, and distress working for an employer that rejects their identity — often with no clear path for recourse or support. Several requested anonymity for fear of retaliation; some, including Seawright, have filed formal discrimination complaints.

► From More Perfect Union —  We Found the Hidden Cost of Data Centers. It’s in Your Electric Bill — “The big problem is we’re all subsidizing the wealthiest corporations in the world in their pursuit of artificial intelligence”

POLITICS & POLICY

► From MyNorthwest — Thurston County proposal would restrict immigration agents’ access to firefighters — Federal immigration agents would be kept out of areas where firefighters are battling wildfires, under a local ordinance just introduced by Thurston County Commissioner Wayne Fournier…“I’ve been in the fire service for almost 30 years, and this is not business as usual,” Fournier told KIRO Newsradio. Fournier pushed back against claims that the fire crews were not actually involved in fighting the fire at the time, because they were cutting logs. “That’s alarming to me.” He said clearing brush, logs, and other potential fuel for the fire is a critical part of the battle. “You can’t say that they aren’t firefighters. Everybody plays an integral part, so anybody that you remove is going to have an effect on the operation.”

► From Maryland Matters — Maryland, 22 other attorneys general file brief supporting federal unions against Trump cuts — Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said federal workers “deserve a voice in the workplace,” which is why he joined 22 other attorneys general in support of labor unions trying to block an administration push to end their collective bargaining rights. Besides Maryland, other jurisdictions signed on to the brief include the District of Columbia and the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.

► From the Washington Post — Trump’s war on wind just got much bigger — “This administration’s senseless attacks on new, clean energy just keep coming,” said Kit Kennedy, managing director for the power division at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group, in a statement. “The Trump administration is cutting the feet out from under the fastest growing sources of energy, driving up utility bills and depriving us of the energy we need now more than ever,” she added.

► From the Government Executive — More unions sue following second edict banning them, alleging retaliation — The latest suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., comes from the National Weather Service Employees Organization, which represents workers in three National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration offices targeted by last week’s order, as well as the Patent Office Professional Association, which represents U.S. Patent and Trademark Office employees. The National Treasury Employees Union, similarly filed suit on behalf of its USPTO employees’ bargaining rights Wednesday afternoon.

► From KUOW — How the Education Department is using civil rights laws to bring schools to heel — The country’s federal civil rights laws, written to protect marginalized groups from discrimination, have become an unlikely tool in the Trump administration’s efforts to end targeted support for students of color and protections for transgender students…“What I find curious is that an administration that campaigned on eliminating [the Education Department] to return rights back to the states is now saying states don’t have the right to decide whether or not they want to actually protect their most vulnerable students,” says Sheria Smith, a former civil rights attorney in OCR’s Dallas office and president of the AFGE Local 252, a union that represents many department employees.

► From the New York Times — Watchdog Warns Trump’s Cuts at FEMA Pose a ‘Major Challenge’ — The report released on Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office found that the number of active FEMA employees dropped to 23,350 on June 1 from about 25,800 on Jan. 1, a decrease of about 10 percent, a decline that was heavily attributed to the Trump administration’s staff reduction efforts. If the United States were to experience a hurricane season this year similar to last year’s, when Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton delivered a one-two punch along the Eastern Seaboard just weeks apart in September and October, FEMA would not have the staffing or resources to adequately respond, the report said.

► From the Washington Post — The group behind Project 2025 wants a ‘Manhattan Project’ for more babies –The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank headquartered a stone’s throw from the U.S. Capitol, wants lawmakers to create new government-seeded savings accounts — for married people only. It hopes to steer funding for child care away from programs like Head Start and toward individual families — specifically to encourage parents to stay home and rear children. And the group wants Trump to issue executive orders requiring all proposed policies and regulations to “measure their positive or negative impacts on marriage and family” — then overhaul or end programs that score poorly.

► From the AP — A notorious Louisiana prison was chosen for immigrant detainees to urge self-deportation, Noem says — The prison traces its history back to a series of wealthy slave traders and cotton planters who built an operation known as Angola Plantation. An 1850s news report said it had 700 slaves, who historians say were forced to work from dawn to dark in Louisiana’s brutal summer heat.

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