‘Serious anxiety’ | Shutdown blame | Solidarity in STL

Thursday, October 2, 2025

STRIKES

► From St. Louis Public Radio — St. Louis Boeing union members, labor leaders rally as strike continues –Among the speakers was Jon Holden, president of IAM District 751 in Seattle, which went on strike from Boeing late last year. He said his union voted to offer a $32,000 strike check to the St. Louis chapter, which was met with cheers from the members. “I know how hard it is, and I know there’s probably families that are struggling, but we can do this if we stick together,” Holden said. “Our message is simple: Stand together, fight together and win together.”

► From IAM:

Boeing engineers 🤝 Boeing machinists@speea President John Dimas ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/5mxnacBrgN

— IAM Union (@IAM_Union) October 1, 2025

LOCAL

► From KING 5 — WATCH: Federal workers in Washington state brace for financial strain amid shutdown — Tiera Beauchamp, an engineering technician at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton and a union president, said workers are already bracing for financial hardship. “The hardest part is the uncertainty,” said Beauchamp, IFPTE Local 12 President, “We already know now we’re getting a partial paycheck next week, and that right there is very stressful for all of us.” Despite the personal toll, Beauchamp emphasized that she and her colleagues remain committed to their mission, serving their country.

► From the Washington State Standard — WA’s nutrition program for babies and mothers is at risk during federal shutdown — The Women, Infants and Children program, or WIC, has about two weeks’ worth of funding to keep feeding low-income Washingtonians, according to the state Department of Health. But if participation rises beyond current levels, that could be more like one week.  Nicole Flateboe, executive director of Nutrition First, the state’s WIC association, pegged the available contingency funding on Tuesday as lasting one week. She called money running out a “disaster.” “We will have babies being born to low-income women who will not have any breastfeeding support, and they will have no way to get infant formula if they’re not breastfeeding,” Flateboe said.

► From the Seattle Times — Judge rules strict bond policy in Tacoma immigration court is unlawful — Cartwright wrote the Tacoma court’s practice violates the Immigration and Nationality Act as it has long been understood. “If Congress had wished to enact the transformation of the immigration detention system that defendants contend it did — requiring the detention of millions of people currently living and working in the United States — then it would have said so more clearly,” Cartwright said in her ruling. Her ruling is the first to cover an entire class of people, said Matt Adams, legal director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, which filed the lawsuit. It affects all those held at ICE’s regional detention center in Tacoma, the Northwest ICE Processing Center, but does not apply nationwide.

► From the Seattle Times — Tough Tacoma immigration judge named new U.S. attorney in Western WA — U.S. Immigration Judge Charles Neil Floyd, whose court is at the center of a class-action lawsuit over controversially tough rulings on bond for detained undocumented immigrants, has been tapped to be the new U.S. attorney in Western Washington.

► From the Tri-City Herald — What the federal shutdown could mean to Tri-Cities — from Hanford to hungry kids — The Department of Energy made public only an overall plan of fewer than 1,000 words for the entire DOE workforce. No information specific to Hanford was released. The total employment at Hanford is about 13,000, with most of those people working for contractors paid with federal dollars rather than working directly for the federal government. About 300 employees worked directly for DOE as federal employees at the start of the year, although there have been layoffs since then.

ORGANIZING

► From Reuters — Frozen feud: How Trump and the Supreme Court helped put historic Whole Foods union bid on ice — On January 27, workers at a Philadelphia Whole Foods voted to become the first store in the Amazon-owned grocery chain to unionize. When the result was announced that night, produce worker Ed Dupree, who helped organize the monthslong campaign, ran to the produce cooler with his coworkers. Flanked by fresh celery, apples and broccoli, they shared hugs while some cried tears of joy, savoring a victory that showed Dupree that his employer was not, in his words, an “invincible behemoth.”

NATIONAL

► From Cascade PBS — REI appoints new board directors after contentious spring election — The new board appointees are Lisa Bougie, a venture partner at Alante Capital; Eric Sprunk, a former Nike chief operating officer; and John Vandemore, the chief financial officer at Sketchers…REI has faced criticism from some members this year over its approach to labor organizing and other issues. In a survey released last month, REI members listed “organizational values” as a top concern. Eleven stores across the country, including the REI store in Bellingham, have voted to unionize since 2021, but none have secured a contract. In a statement, the REI Union said it is following the co-op’s recently-announced board of directors appointments and strategic plan to “ensure we’re aware of anything that might impact our members.”

► From Variety — SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin Says Union Will Address AI Actress Tilly Norwood With Agents and Continue Fight for AI Compensation — “I appreciate that this story has captured the imagination of people, but it’s not the first shoe to drop. We had a 118-day strike, fighting very hard to put AI provisions and protections in place. The teams at SAG-AFTRA have been in this fight for longer than people might realize. As technology continues to advance at light speed, we’re going to meet the challenge,” Astin said.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Guardian — Government shutdown leaves federal workers ‘on edge’ as Trump eyes more job cuts — The shutdown “hurts federal workers in many ways”, Kirwan, who organizes with the Federal Unionists Network, said. “We want to be working. We want to be serving the public.” During a shutdown, many federal workers, especially those earning less than $100,000 annually, are forced to dip into savings, rack up credit-card debt, or take out loans to survive until they receive back pay when the government reopens, Kirwan said. “And that doesn’t even go into all the emotional and psychological harm too. We are federal workers because we care deeply about the federal government, and we care deeply about serving our constituents and the public,” he added. “To be kept from our ability to serve the American public, it hurts.”

► From the Washington Post — More Americans blame Trump and Republicans than Democrats for shutdown, poll finds  — The Post’s poll finds significantly more Americans blame President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans for the shutdown than Democrats, though many say they are not sure. People express moderate concern about the shutdown’s impact at this early stage, with “somewhat concerned” the most common answer. A large majority support Democrats’ call to extend federal health insurance subsidies in general, though just under half support the party demanding this if it extends the government shutdown.

► From the New York Times — White House Uses Shutdown to Maximize Pain and Punish Political Foes — Taken together, the administration’s actions laid bare the risks and consequences of a protracted fiscal stalemate under Mr. Trump. With an expansive view of executive power, the president has spared no opportunity in his second term to shutter agencies, slim down the federal work force and reconfigure the budget, with aggressive tactics that have tested the courts and, at times, defied Congress…The longer the standoff continues, the greater the chances of financial harm to American families, businesses and the broader economy, a reality that both parties’ leaders acknowledged on Wednesday. Still, they remained far from a resolution, while Mr. Trump’s top aides unfurled the ways they might leverage the standoff to their own ends.

► From Semafor — Trump causes bipartisan alarm by turning shutdown into DOGE 2.0 — Less than 24 hours into a government shutdown, some of the same political faultlines are reappearing in the GOP after billionaire Elon Musk launched the administration’s effort to streamline the federal government. This time, amid the added chaos of a shutdown with little end in sight, Republicans have to be mindful to not overplay their hand in the broader funding talks with their opponents. Trump and conservative lawmakers warned Vought would run wild during a shutdown, and he wasted little time Wednesday, pausing $18 billion of infrastructure projects in New York — which happens to be the home state of Congress’ Democratic leaders — and $8 billion of clean energy projects across 16 mostly blue states.

► From Reuters — White House freezes funds for Democratic states in shutdown slap — President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday froze $26 billion for Democratic-leaning states, following through on a threat to use the government shutdown to target Democratic priorities. The targeted programs included $18 billion for transit projects in New York, home to Congress’s top two Democrats, and $8 billion for green-energy projects in 16 Democratic-run states, including California and Illinois. Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, warned that the administration might extend its purge of federal workers if the shutdown lasts more than a few days.

► From Politico — Vought: Mass firings will begin ‘in a day or two’ — Some Republicans in safe red districts raised concerns Wednesday. Rep. Blake Moore of Utah, a member of Johnson’s leadership team who also represents an Air Force base in his district, raised concerns on the call about firing federal workers, especially given the recent need for the administration to re-hire some fired under DOGE. Rep. Brian Babin of Texas, who chairs the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, echoed similar concerns, and noted the potential impact to the scientific community and national research labs.

► From the Hill — Air traffic controller union warns of ‘weakened’ aviation system — The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) said Wednesday the government shutdown will weaken the country’s airspace system. “When the federal government shuts down it introduces unnecessary distractions and our entire aviation system is weakened,” NATCA President Nick Daniels said in a release. “Congress must restore federal funding so that the safety and efficiency of our National Airspace System is not compromised.”

► From Bloomberg — US to Cancel Billions for West Coast Hydrogen Hubs Amid Shutdown — The Trump administration is planning to cancel billions of dollars earmarked for hydrogen projects in California and the Pacific Northwest as part of its first tranche of funding cuts following the government shutdown, according to an administration official. The move is part of nearly $8 billion in funding eliminations that White House Budget Director Russell Vought flagged was coming for green energy projects in Democratic-leaning states. The administration is also set to cancel spending for unspecified wind, solar and other energy projects, according to the official who wasn’t authorized to speak about the matter on the record.

► From the Washington State Standard — Washington’s minimum wage to top $17 in 2026 — It will rise 2.8% to $17.13 per hour, starting Jan. 1, the state Department of Labor and Industries announced Tuesday…In 2026, Washington employers will need to pay overtime exempt workers at least 2.25 times the minimum wage, totaling $80,168 per year…Minimum wage for ride-booking drivers, for services like Lyft and Uber, is also increasing. For trips in Seattle next year, drivers with passengers will earn 70 cents per minute and $1.63 per mile, or $6.12, whichever is greater. Trips outside Seattle will earn drivers 40 cents per minute and $1.38 per mile, with a minimum of $3.55.

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