Food banks brace| SBWU strike authorization | Kicked off Medicaid

Thursday, October 23, 2025

STRIKES

► From the KSDK — Union leaders call latest Boeing offer ‘disrespectful,’ say they won’t bring it to a vote — “The company made an offer that had no meaningful improvements in the areas our members have told us and the company they care about – retirement security, ratification bonus and top-of-scale wage growth,” the union said in a statement. In a message sent to represented employees, Gillian said the offer included ratification and retention bonuses and GWI increases for employees at the top of the payment scale. The offer reduced annual attendance progression from $0.50 to $0.25. The union said the offer made “no meaningful improvements” in retirement security, ratification bonus and top-of-scale wage growth.

LOCAL

► From KIRO 7 — Over 930k people could lose SNAP benefits on Oct. 31 if government shutdown persists  –On Oct. 31, families who rely on benefits like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will no longer have those benefits if the shutdown continues. “I’ve been stacking up my food and making use of the little EBT I have because they also said they might take that away,” said Tatiana Martinez, who relies on SNAP benefits for her family. In September 2025, more than 540,000 households in Washington state, representing nearly 930,000 people, received more than $173 million in food benefits, according to the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS). “We’re very concerned about November and that is going to be a big issue for the folks that we serve. I mean I think many folks don’t even know that that’s looming potentially. So we are just trying to be prepared,” said Fran Yates, the executive director of the West Seattle Food Bank.

► From KUOW — Bremerton food bank launches extra hours for federal employees working without pay — A food bank in Kitsap County has opened its doors to some new shoppers. Last Wednesday, Bremerton Foodline launched a two-hour shopping period exclusively for military and federal employees. Kitsap is home to more than 21,000 federal workers who have gone without pay since the government shutdown began Oct. 1…”On a weekly basis, we normally serve about 1,000 households. In our first extra hours session, we served 52 households in a two-hour period.”

► From KREM — Spokane food banks expect surge of need as federal funding for SNAP benefits set to run out by November — Washington DSHS says nearly 1 million people receive food assistance benefits. In Spokane County, DSHS says 108,000 people receive food benefits. But those people may soon be looking to local groups for help. Partners INW says its food banks serve up to 16,000 people a month, and that the government shutdown is threatening programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).  “We are stretched pretty thin without any temporary crises,” said Cal Coblentz, the CEO of Partners Inland Northwest. “We’ve already increased 500% since COVID for customers. So we are already at capacity. Food that comes in flies out.”

► From KING 5 — Free transit access for federal employees as shutdown continues — All federal employees can ride public transit for free in Kitsap, Pierce and Mason counties starting Friday, Oct. 24, as the government shutdown enters its fourth week. Transit authorities in the three counties announced the temporary fare waiver to help federal workers who have been unable to reload their transit passes since the shutdown began on Oct. 1. Federal employees will need to present their government-issued ID to ride fare-free on all eligible services.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From CNBC — Starbucks Workers United set to vote on strike authorization — Starbucks Workers United is kicking off a strike authorization vote Friday, as the union representing baristas makes a bid to secure a contract with the coffee giant. The union also said it is planning a wave of rallies and pickets across the country with its baristas and allies. Voting on authorizing a strike at unionized cafes will be open for several days. If approved, the strike itself would be open-ended, with specifics to be determined. As the voting occurs, seventy rallies and pickets will take place from Friday through Nov. 1 across 60 cities, the union said.

► From SBWU:

Make sure you sign our No Contract No Coffee pledge to get updates on calls to action in your area! https://t.co/oaQnPZw4w6

— Starbucks Workers United (@SBWorkersUnited) October 23, 2025

► From the New York Times — Broadway Averts Strike as Musicians Reach Deal With Producers — Broadway has averted a strike that could have done serious damage to an already challenged industry. Early Thursday, after an 18-hour bargaining session aided by a mediator, the labor union representing musicians reached a tentative deal with the Broadway League, a trade association for producers and theater owners. The union, the American Federation of Musicians Local 802, had threatened to walk off the job later Thursday if no contract agreement was reached. “United in solidarity, Local 802 Broadway musicians are thrilled to announce that we reached a tentative agreement at 4:30 a.m. with the Broadway League that will avert a strike scheduled to begin later today,” the union’s president, Robert Suttmann, said in a statement.

► From ESPN — What we’re hearing on the WNBA’s CBA negotiations — During the playoffs, Las Vegas Aces guard Chelsea Gray said negotiations are “not where we thought and wanted to be at this point in time. It’s market share, it’s salaries, it’s player safety, it’s everything.” But the biggest holdup for the players in negotiations has always revolved around the different ways each side believes salaries should be determined. The WNBPA is pushing for a system where the percentage of revenue going toward salaries grows with the business. In the NBA, for example, the salary cap is determined by the basketball-related income (BRI), with players taking in about half of that mark as dictated by their CBA.

ORGANIZING

► From WOODTV — Plumbers union pickets outside Wyoming business, demanding recognition — In a social media post, the union — West Michigan Plumbers, Fitters and Service Trades Local Union No. 174 of The United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada — said an “overwhelming majority” of plumbers and plumbing apprentices at the Grand Rapids-area facility signed authorization cards designating the union as their representative. “We have a majority of the workers at the plumbing division of the Grand Rapids office that want a union right there,” Johnny Ortiz, organizer for Local 174, told News 8.

NATIONAL

► From the New York Times — ‘Medicaid Cut Me Off’: A Rural Health Center Faces New Pressures — Insurance was on the mind of one patient, Johnie Williams, 64, who shifted uncomfortably in his wheelchair as Dr. Blue entered his exam room in early September…Also, he said, “Medicaid cut me off.” He had received a letter about the change in his coverage in July, although he noted that he still had health care coverage through Medicare. (He’d previously had both.) “They said by me and my wife being in the same household, the same address, that our income was a few dollars over the limit,” he added…At Delta Health Center, some staff members worry that, without Medicaid, their patients will put off getting treatments they need. People without medical insurance are three times as likely than people with insurance to forgo needed care, according to research from KFF, a health research group.

► From NBC News — ‘It’s only gotten worse’: As ACA premiums are set to climb, some Americans opt to go uninsured — Ginny Murray says she and her husband, Chaz, are out of options for health insurance. In January, their premiums are expected to rise higher than they’ve ever gone up before, putting the cost out of reach. The Arkansas couple plan to drop their coverage, betting their savings will be enough if unexpected illness strikes. “Our plan is to keep putting the money we’re already paying towards health care in savings,” said Murray, whose insurance is covered through the Affordable Care Act, “and really just hoping that we don’t have a stroke or we don’t have a heart attack.”

► From Reuters — US government shutdown: 60,000 aviation safety staff face financial strain as crisis deepens — The 60,000 men and women responsible for keeping American skies safe have gone unpaid throughout the government shutdown. Without a funding agreement soon, many will be forced to dip into savings, rack up credit-card debt, or take on part-time jobs to make ends meet, several federal employees said. The shutdown is now three weeks old, and rapidly approaching the time when the tens of thousands of government employees who keep security lines moving and air traffic safe will miss a full paycheck. Those workers last received paychecks in mid-October, and those checks were missing up to two days’ worth of pay.

► From Common Dreams — ‘No CEO Is Worth a Trillion-Dollar Pay Package’: Unions Target Outrageous Elon Musk Tesla Deal — Musk is already the richest person on the planet, with an estimated net worth of $458–485.9 billion as of Wednesday. His previous 10-year proposal, worth $56 billion, was invalidated by a judge. He’s now on an interim plan that has not been approved by shareholders, who are set to vote on the $1 trillion package at the company’s annual meeting next month…Top unions, such as the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and Communications Workers of America (CWA), joined groups including Americans for Financial Reform, Ekō, People’s Action Institute, Public Citizen, and Stop the Money Pipeline for the new campaign against “Musk’s money grab.” As part of it, they launched the website TakeBackTesla.com.

► From Reuters — US shipbuilders, ports take knock-on hit from Trump assault on offshore wind — Jim Strong of the United Steelworkers union, which has a deal to supply workers for US Wind’s facility, said he was optimistic that Trump would see how investments in offshore wind can reverberate through industries that he cares about. “He showed a tremendous amount of passion in his campaigns in talking about steel,” Strong said of Trump. “I want to believe that once the story is out there, that there could be a change of positions.”

► From Wired — AI Models Get Brain Rot, Too — The results are important for the AI industry, Hong says, because model-builders might assume that social media posts are a good source of training data for their models. “Training on viral or attention-grabbing content may look like scaling up data,” he says. “But it can quietly corrode reasoning, ethics, and long-context attention.” The fact that LLMs suffer from brain rot seems especially worrying when AI is itself increasingly generating social media content, much of which is seemingly optimized for engagement. The researchers also found that models impaired by low-quality content could not easily be improved through retraining.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From ABC — As shutdown becomes 2nd longest ever, Johnson hints at changes to GOP’s strategy — On Day 22 of the government shutdown on Wednesday, even as House Speaker Mike Johnson rehashed talking points he’s repeated for a month – putting the onus on Democrats to reopen the government — he acknowledged the GOP’s messaging is getting “old” and a change in strategy might be necessary. Johnson was pressed on Texas Republican Rep. Beth Van Duyne’s remarks on a earlier GOP conference call, during which she reportedly requested that Johnson call the House back to Washington.

► From the New York Times — Trump Empowers Election Deniers, Still Fixated on 2020 Grievances — Election officials from nearly all 50 states gathered on a call last month with the Homeland Security Department’s point person on “election integrity,” eager to hear how the woman filling a newly created Trump administration position might help safeguard the vote ahead of next year’s midterms. But many of them left alarmed. Rather than offering assurances that the federal government’s election protection programs would continue uninterrupted, the new official, Heather Honey, instead used portions of the meeting to echo rhetoric that has infused the right-wing election activist movement that emerged since President Trump falsely claimed that his 2020 defeat was the result of widespread fraud, according to five people with knowledge of the call.

► From KING 5 — West Seattle constituents seek answers as federal shutdown enters third week — U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal heard directly from West Seattle residents Tuesday night as the federal government shutdown entered its third week, with no resolution in sight. The Democratic congresswoman hosted a town hall at The Hall at Fauntleroy on California Avenue Southwest, giving constituents a chance to voice their concerns and ask questions about the 21-day impasse that has tied for the second-longest government shutdown in U.S. history. “There’s been so much anxiety every day… just not knowing when we’re gonna get furloughed. Are we still getting paid? Where are the funds coming from?” one attendee said during the packed event.

► From the Seattle Times — Trump shadow hangs over race in one of WA’s most purple districts  — Although the 26th District is older and whiter than the country as a whole, “It’s such an interesting snapshot,” including pricey waterfront neighborhoods, mobile home parks, rural pockets and a naval shipyard, said Randall, a Democrat whose congressional election last year triggered this year’s state Senate race. That’s why the outcome of the showdown between Caldier and Krishnadasan may indicate more broadly how American voters are responding in this unique moment, exactly 12 months after Trump’s second election. Voters like Alice MacArthur, who didn’t pay much attention to politics until recently, when threats and maneuvers by Trump’s GOP alarmed her so much she joined and spoke at a ‘No Kings’ protest in June in Bremerton. “I don’t want my daughters’ rights to be wiped away,” said MacArthur, 46, describing her fears. “What’s happening today feels like backtracking.”

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