Trades fair | No Kings | ‘Do your damn job’

Thursday, October 9, 2025

LOCAL

► From My Edmonds News — HS students explore trade school options at Edmonds College Trade Up event — More than 200 high school students from the Edmonds, Mukilteo and Everett school districts explored the construction trades during the 11th annual Trade Up event at Edmonds College on Tuesday…Several training partners – such as Snohomish County Public Utility District (PUD), Carpenters Local 425 and Port of Everett – were on site, answering questions to students and showcasing what they do. Trade Up was sponsored by the Snohomish & Island County Labor Council and Workforce Snohomish. Executive Board of the Snohomish & Island County Labor Council Charlotte Murry has been overseeing Trade Up since the beginning and said that last year’s event had about 190 students. “We’re definitely seeing more minorities and more diverse gender representation,” Murry said. “All of the trainers that are here today are either representing union apprenticeship programs or they’re representing jobs that are represented as organized labor jobs.”

► From KREM — WSU unveils website to navigate grant impacts amid shutdown — WSU’s Office of Research shows the university has more than 1,000 federal grants from two dozen agencies. Those grants are now displayed on this website through WSU, detailing what funding comes federally, as well as what’s already been pulled. The university hopes the resource alleviates worry among anyone whose jobs rely on federal dollars.

► From the Tri-City Herald — ‘Historic.’ Radioactive waste transferred to massive Eastern WA treatment plant — Some 12,622 gallons of waste were transferred to the vitrification plant, plant workers were told in a message Wednesday evening from Chris Musick, general manager for the Waste Treatment Completion Co., a subcontractor to the vitrification plant contractor Bechtel National. He called it a turning point in the work to vitrify Hanford’s nuclear waste and protect the Tri-Cities community and the Columbia River.

► From the Tri-City Herald — Friday is payday for fed employees. What does it mean for Tri-City workers? –Some federal workers will miss their first full paycheck on Friday amid a government shutdown that began Oct. 1…In Washington, furloughed federal employees are eligible for unemployment payments, but workers who remain on the job are not, according to the state Employment Security Department…It’s unclear how long contractors, who employ nearly 13,000 workers at the Hanford site and more than 6,000 at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, will be able to continue paying employees if the government remains shut down.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the Guardian — The US’s biggest pro women’s sports unions have found strength together — As the WNBA’s biggest stars warmed up for the All-Star Game on 19 July, the message came through loud and clear. All wore shirts reading “Pay Us What You Owe Us,” with the Women’s National Basketball Players’ Association (WNBPA) logo prominently displayed below. The visual immediately went viral, drawing attention to the union’s ongoing negotiations with the league for a new collective bargaining agreement. Had the messaging started and ended with those shirts, it would have been notable, but limited in scope. Instead, a continuing campaign became just one example of the ways the two most prominent women’s players’ unions in the US have worked together to advance their causes.

► From NPR — Talks resume as Broadway actors consider a strike — The union representing Broadway actors and stage managers is resuming negotiations Wednesday in order to try to head off a strike. The main sticking point between Actors’ Equity Association, the union representing performers and stage managers, and The Broadway League, which represents theater producers and owners, is health care. About 900 Broadway Equity performers and stage managers have been working without a contract since it expired on Sept. 28. A strike would shutter about 26 Broadway productions.

NATIONAL

► From People’s World — AFGE urges federal workers to join October 18 No Kings Day protests — “Shutting down the government is another authoritarian power grab by this administration, which has threatened to lay off mass numbers of furloughed workers as part of an ongoing quest to gut federal programs and services the administration finds objectionable,” says AFGE President Everett Kelley, who, like many federal workers, is a military veteran. With a bit more than a week to go before the marches occur, there are 1,650 events scheduled everywhere from Alaska to Hawaii to Florida to Maine—and in Paris, France, plus Venice, Rome, and Turin, Italy, Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto, Canada, Reykjavik, Iceland, and Melbourne, Australia. There’s a U.S. airbase in Reykjavik, with civilian workers, and AFGE members in Rome, too.

Editor’s note: find a No Kings event near you.

► From KUOW — Federal appeals court ruling keeps Oregon National Guard federalized ahead of oral arguments — In a ruling issued Wednesday afternoon, the three-judge panel stayed an order barring President Trump from bringing 200 Oregon National Guard troops under federal control and sending them into Portland. But that order will not in itself allow Trump to send troops to Portland. A second order bars any federalized Guard members – whether from Oregon or another state – from being deployed in Oregon. That order remains in place…The stay is a temporary measure while the court prepares to more fully take up the question of whether National Guard members can be sent into Portland. Oral arguments in that matter are scheduled for Thursday at 9 a.m.

► From the Washington State Standard — Trump called the Digital Equity Act ‘racist.’ Now internet money for rural Americans is gone. — The Digital Equity Act is part of the sweeping 2021 infrastructure law, which included $65 billion to build high-speed internet infrastructure and connect millions without access to the internet…A KFF Health News analysis found that nearly 3 million people in America live in areas with shortages of medical professionals and where modern telehealth services are often inaccessible because of poor internet connections. The analysis found that in about 200 mostly rural counties where dead zones persist, residents live sicker and die earlier on average than people in the rest of the country. Access to high-speed internet is among a host of social factors, like food and safe housing, that help people lead healthier lives.

► From America’s Workforce Union Podcast — LISTEN: Firefighter Leaders Speak Out on Fall River Tragedy and Staffing Crisis — Mike O’Reagan, President of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1314 and Jason Burns, District Vice President of the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts, discussed the devastating Fall River Gabriel House fire, critical staffing shortages and the urgent need for policy changes on the America’s Work Force Union Podcast…He emphasized how staffing shortages severely hampered rescue efforts, with only two out of ten frontline apparatus meeting the national standard of four firefighters per vehicle. This shortage resulted in eight fewer firefighters on scene, significantly impacting their ability to save lives.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the New York Times — Federal Workers’ Unions Call for Compromise on a Shutdown Deal  — “Do your damn job, and pass a budget that’s going to require a little compromise,” Randy Erwin, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, said. His union represents more than 110,000 federal employees across the country who work at agencies including the National Park Service, the Defense Department and Health and Human Services. Mr. Erwin said many members lived paycheck to paycheck and could not go for any period without pay. (Some government workers will receive their final checks next week if the shutdown continues.)

► From AP News — IRS will furlough nearly half of its workforce as the government shutdown enters a second week — The IRS will furlough nearly half of its workforce on Wednesday as part of the ongoing government shutdown, according to an updated contingency plan posted to its website. Most IRS operations are closed, the agency said in a separate letter to its workers…The agency’s initial Lapsed Appropriations Contingency Plan, which provided for the first five business days of operations, stated that the department would remain open using Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act funds. Now, only 39,870 employees, or 53.6%, will remain working as the shutdown continues. It is unclear which workers will remain on the job.

► From the Guardian — Democrats introduce bill to help federal workers cover childcare costs during shutdown — Parents would be reimbursed for fees paid to childcare facilities during the shutdown under plans initiated by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Any federal employee who has been furloughed, or remains working through the shutdown without pay, would be entitled to support under the Federal Worker Childcare Protection Act of 2025. The bill authorizes the General Services Administration to receive official documentation for childcare expenses from federal workers to apply for reimbursement.

► From the Washington Post — Trump threatened shutdown layoffs. So far, he hasn’t followed through. — While those plans and others still might come to fruition — the White House budget office recently floated an argument that furloughed workers might not get back pay they’re legally entitled to receive when they return to the job — there’s a growing belief among some in Washington that Trump is getting trigger-shy about adding to the massive disruption and federal workforce cuts that he has already put in place in his second term…He has reason for caution: Layoffs within the federal government could dramatically weaken the power of the presidency by shrinking the executive branch, and many of the agencies ripe for cuts were already deconstructed by the U.S. DOGE Service, Elon Musk’s cost-cutting task force, earlier this year.

► From the Government Executive — Federal employee appeals board gets quorum after Senate confirms new member — MSPB had been without a quorum since the spring when the Supreme Court temporarily permitted President Donald Trump’s firing of Democratic board member Cathy Harris. The justices are scheduled during their current term to consider a related case, which could expand the president’s power to remove leaders of historically independent agencies with leaders from both parties, over the firing of Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission. The Senate on Tuesday, however, confirmed the nomination of James Woodruff to be a member of the MSPB. He was considered in an en bloc package of nominees that was approved in a 51-47 party-line vote.

► From the New York Times — OPINION: The Trump Bump on Your Energy Bills — Energy prices are likely to rise the most in states that have not prioritized clean energy, including Kentucky, Missouri and Oklahoma, experts say. The repeal of the tax credits alone may push electricity prices almost 10 percent higher than they would be otherwise by 2029, according to National Economic Research Associates, a consulting firm. Gas prices will also increase over the next decade, according to Rhodium Group, a think tank, as consumers who would otherwise have driven electric cars continue using vehicles that burn fossil fuels.

► From NW Public Broadcasting — Thurston County commissioner pushes for changes in response to Bear Gulch Fire arrests — On Aug. 27, while actively deployed as firefighters on the Bear Gulch Fire, federal agents stopped and demanded identification from over 40 firefighters and eventually arrested two. The Bear Gulch Fire, located on the Olympic Peninsula, has now grown to over 20,000 acres in size. “ It was dangerous to do, and it made things more dangerous when these firefighters were taken out of the equation,” said Wayne Fournier, a Thurston County commissioner. Fournier is working on a county ordinance to prevent this from happening again…Leaders from multiple counties in Washington are working to determine whether similar ordinances could be replicated in their counties. Megan Dunn, a Snohomish County councilmember who is working with Fournier and other elected officials on this matter, said she is concerned that the arrests at the Bear Gulch Fire could have a chilling effect, preventing people from becoming first responders.

TODAY’S MUST READ

► From Common Dreams — New WSJ Report is Proof Trump is Waging Campaign of ‘Malicious’ Prosecution, Warn Critics — As the Journal reported on Wednesday night, Trump last month posted a message his social media platform, Truth Social, calling for the prosecution of New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and former FBI Director James Comey that was actually intended to be a direct message sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi…”Trump believed he had sent Bondi the message directly, addressing it to ‘Pam,’ and was surprised to learn it was public,” the Journal reported. “Bondi grew upset and called White House aides and Trump, who then agreed to send a second post praising Bondi as doing a ‘GREAT job.’”…”It’s tempting to laugh at this because it’s all so buffoonishly incompetent,” wrote Sarah Longwell, a former Republican pollster and current publisher of The Bulwark. “But we shouldn’t be numb to what this means: Trump is directing the head of DOJ to prosecute his political enemies via his janky social media property’s DMs. This alone would end a regular presidency.”

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