NEWS ROUNDUP

Standing for safety | No Kings | U.S. citizens detained

Friday, October 17, 2025

 

STRIKES

► From KGW — WATCH: Kaiser health care workers continue to strike for better wages

► From OFNHP:

► From the St. Louis Labor Tribune — Boeing CEO to striking Machinists: ‘More time on the picket line will not result in more money’ — Despite a letter sent to striking Boeing Machinists from the company’s CEO saying that more time on the picket line will not result in more money, members are still standing strong…In a strong show of solidarity, IAM District 751 in Washington state has donated $32,000 to the IAM District 837 strike fund to support members on strike against Boeing. “District 837 members are standing up for the respect and dignity every Boeing worker deserves,” said IAM Union District 751 President and Directing Business Representative Jon Holden. “Our members in the Pacific Northwest know firsthand the power of solidarity. This contribution is about standing shoulder-to-shoulder with our union family in St. Louis. Boeing can afford to do the right thing, and it’s time they come to the table and bargain in good faith.”

Editor’s note: supporters can donate to the IAM strike fund online.

 

LOCAL

► From My Northwest — WA federal workers file 79 unemployment claims per day — As the federal government enters its 16th day of a shutdown, the number of Washington’s federal workers applying for unemployment benefits has grown substantially. As of Wednesday, 1,184 federal employees in Washington have applied for unemployment benefits, resulting in approximately 79 applications per day, the Employment Security Department (ESD) announced.

► From the Seattle Times — What to know about ‘No Kings’ protests this weekend in WA — In the news release, organizers, which include political advocacy groups such as Seattle Indivisible and local unions like SEIU 775, said they demand Trump pull the military out of cities and stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement from “terrorizing our workers.” They also called to “End the genocide” in Gaza. Organizers also called for the continuation of health care subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, which democrats have demanded as a condition to reopen the government. Dozens of protests are planned across Western Washington, including in Everett, Tacoma and Olympia, according to the No Kings website. Indivisible Vashon, for instance, plans to rally at the Seattle Ferry Terminal at 11 a.m. before marching to the Seattle Center.

► From KING 5 — Inside Seattle’s bridge towers: Meet the operators who keep the city moving — Automation has transformed countless industries, but Seattle’s bridges remain firmly in human hands for a reason. When something goes wrong, the response has to be immediate. During a recent lift, a driver tried to beat the gates and ended up triggering a malfunction, shutting down the bridge and snarling traffic for hours. Beckwith calmly intervened. “Hold on, stop,” he told the driver. “Drive over to that other gate and wait for me to open. Understand? Thank you so much.” The Seattle Department of Transportation studied automation years ago but concluded that while technology could assist, it couldn’t replace human judgment. “Computers can help,” Beckwith said, “but it’s people who keep these bridges safe.”

 

AEROSPACE

► From the Planetary Society — 4,000 gone: Inside NASA’s brain drain — Now, many of NASA’s most experienced workers are gone. This means that they are, for the first time, able to speak out about the brain drain and its impact on the agency. What follows are exclusive interviews between The Planetary Society and several ex-NASA scientists, as well as one researcher whose job is currently on the chopping block. Though each of their stories is different, they paint a common picture: one of pointless waste, discarded expertise, and haphazard decisions.

 

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From Labor Notes — Tennessee Volkswagen Workers Collect Strike Pledges as Company Stalls at Table — Volkswagen has dug in its heels in first-contract negotiations at its assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where workers won a landslide victory in last year’s union drive. “We’re still waiting for the company to agree to a proposal that simply affords us a fair share,” auto worker Steve Cochran testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on October 8. “We are living with health care that forces people into bankruptcy. We are living with no protection from inflation.” In March, Volkswagen cut shifts, sowing fear and uncertainty during contract negotiations. In late September it presented its “last, best, and final offer,” and issued threats about job and benefit losses if workers authorized a strike. The union is gathering pledge cards for a potential strike.

► From PIX — NJ security officers prepare for strike vote after contract expires — Security officers working at some of Newark’s largest buildings, including Prudential Tower, University Hospital, and Audible’s headquarters, are voting on whether to strike after their union contract expired in September. The labor union Local 32BJ the Service Employees International Union made the announcement on Wednesday.

Editor’s note: security officers in Seattle repped by SEIU6 voted to authorize a strike in September

► From Daily Kos — One Year After UFW Majority at Brooklyn Grange Farms, Stalled Negotiations Move to State Mediation — “We look forward to the mediation process, and signing the first ever UFW union contract within New York City limits” said UFW Secretary Treasuer Armando Elenes. “Workers at Brooklyn Grange deserve to be able to afford life in the city they help feed. The future of urban agriculture must be one of safe, dignified, union jobs for the workers who make it possible. We hope management at Brooklyn Grange – and all New Yorkers – will agree.”

 

NATIONAL

► From KUOW — ‘No Kings’ organizers project a massive turnout for this weekend’s protests — Organizers of the “No Kings” protests are projecting that millions of Americans will demonstrate against the policies of the Trump administration on Saturday, amid ongoing ICE arrests and the deployment of National Guard troops to several Democratic-run cities around the country. “The purpose here is to stand in solidarity, to organize, to defend our democracy and protect each other and our communities, and just say enough is enough,” said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group that is one of the protest organizers…When asked about the planned protests and accusations that Trump was behaving like a monarch, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson replied, “Who cares?” She had no further comment.

► From OPB — Portland State University violated labor law, state employment board rules — In a ruling earlier this month, the Oregon Employment Relations Board found that PSU had violated state labor law when it withheld certain funds meant for Portland State University Faculty Association members over the summer. PSUFA represents more than 1,200 adjunct faculty and researchers at Portland State. Union leaders estimate the university withheld about $100,000 in previously agreed upon professional development and emergency financial assistance funds. The ERB’s decision orders PSU to immediately release that funding, plus a 9% prorated interest.

► From the Nation — “We Have a Common Enemy—and It’s Not Your Immigrant Neighbor” — Unions are fundamentally built on one-on-one relationships in a workplace. You can move people politically. You can give people a real political education that you can’t do through TV, or ads, or newspapers, or anything like that, in the actual worksite, because you have organic leaders there. So, you might have someone that you know that is a real xenophobe or a real racist, and you figure that they can’t be moved on something like immigration justice, but if anybody can do it, it’s the union steward who sits with them through a disciplinary hearing and saves their job. Or it’s the on-the-ground worksite leader who rallies the rest of the workplace to get a better raise or better rates on the health insurance premiums in a contract. These people can see real leaders, who can then give them a political education.

► From ProPublica — We Found That More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days. — When the Supreme Court recently allowed immigration agents in the Los Angeles area to take race into consideration during sweeps, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that citizens shouldn’t be concerned. “If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States,” Kavanaugh wrote, “they promptly let the individual go.” But that is far from the reality many citizens have experienced. Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents. They’ve had their necks kneeled on. They’ve been held outside in the rain while in their underwear. At least three citizens were pregnant when agents detained them. One of those women had already had the door of her home blown off while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem watched.

► From the Washington State Standard — National parks, public lands feared at risk of long-term harm as shutdown drags on — Adjustments to park staff meant to “front-load visitor services” hide some of the long-term harms, said John Garder, the senior director of budget and appropriations at the advocacy group National Parks Conservation Association. The NPS furloughed more than 9,000 of its roughly 14,500 workers, according to a planning document published just before the shutdown began on Oct. 1. That has left the people responsible for protecting “irreplaceable resources” and trail management workers needing to instead clean visitor centers and oversee parking, Garder said. “What that’s done is created this facade for the visitors, so that in many cases they don’t see the damage that’s happening behind the scenes,” he said in a phone interview Wednesday.

► From WCPT820 AM:

 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From E&E News by Politico — Interior planning layoffs despite court order, unions say — Despite a court order temporarily blocking the Trump administration from issuing mass firings during the government shutdown, the Interior Department plans to “issue widespread reduction-in-force notices” Monday, unions representing federal employees said in court documents filed late Thursday. Attorneys representing the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO and other plaintiffs told the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California that “multiple credible sources” informed them of Interior’s plans “to terminate thousands of employees” beginning Monday.

► From Axios — Unions sue Trump over surveillance and allege First Amendment breach — Three labor unions sued the Trump administration Thursday in New York federal court for “scouring” non-U.S. citizens’ social media accounts to revoke the visas of those who expressed views critical of the administration. The lawsuit, alleging First Amendment breaches, targets the State Department’s “Catch and Revoke” program, which “includes AI-assisted reviews of tens of thousands of student visa holders’ social media accounts.” The Electric Frontier Foundation represented the United Automobile Workers, the Communication Workers of America and the American Federation of Teachers in the suit.

► From the New York Times — As Trump’s Federal Hiring Freeze Expires, He Puts New Restrictions in Place — President Trump issued an executive order on Wednesday that directed federal agencies to restrict hiring across the government, though with exceptions for political appointees, positions related to immigration enforcement, national security and public safety and other positions cleared by the Office of Personnel Management. The executive order came as Mr. Trump’s hiring freeze, in place since Jan. 20, expired. The terms of the new order indicate that the agencies will be hiring only with the approval of his political appointees.

► From the Washington Post — Senate blocks military spending bill as shutdown drags on — Senate Democrats blocked a $852 billion bill that would fund the Defense Department through September, rejecting Republican efforts to approve individual full-year spending bills as the government shutdown stretches into its third week. The vote was seen as a litmus test for Democrats, who have been pushing Republicans to agree to extend health care subsidies in exchange for reopening the federal government. Just three Democrats voted with Republicans to advance the bill: Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire), John Fetterman (Pennsylvania) and Catherine Cortez Masto (Nevada).

► From the Spokesman Review — State health officials outline impacts of federal Medicaid cuts — The cuts to Medicaid, Fotinos said Thursday, are part of the changes made to the “three-legged stool” that shapes the state’s Affordable Care Act marketplace. Coupled with the potential expiration of enhanced premium tax credits, which could result in 80,000 people being priced out of the market, and a Marketplace Integrity and Affordability rule adopted in June, Fotinos said the changes could reduce enrollment in qualified health plans in Washington by up to 50%. “There’s already likely an increase of 15% of premiums above the baseline, and these effects will ripple across the healthcare system, as people choose to either forgo care and become uninsured and then seek care when they have to in an emergency department or a hospital,” Fotinos said. “Putting more pressure on the hospitals for uncompensated care.”

► From CNBC — Student loan forgiveness lawsuit on hold during government shutdown — what borrowers need to know — In its lawsuit, the AFT accused the U.S. Department of Education of denying federal student loan borrowers their rights to an affordable repayment plan and to the debt forgiveness opportunities mandated in their loan terms. The stay on the union’s legal challenge could further prolong the long wait times borrowers are already facing, consumer advocates say. What’s more, a law shielding student loan forgiveness from taxation expires at the end of 2025, meaning borrowers who get the relief after that point may be hit with a bill from the IRS.

 

JOLT OF JOY

I learned this week that Redbone was the first Native American-led band to have a Billboard Top 10 hit, back in 1974. This live performance of “Come and Get Your Love” is cool as hell:

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