NEWS ROUNDUP
Inside ICE detention | SNAP funding | 300% increase
Tuesday, November 4, 2025
STRIKES
► From KSDK — Union: Boeing can end strike by spending $8M more over 4 years — Saying that The Boeing Co. has “backed itself into a corner,” the machinists union said Friday that the strike by its members would end if the aerospace giant accepted its counteroffer to spend $8 million more over four years. “The company keeps saying it will not change the ‘economic parameters’ of its offer. That’s not strength and that’s not bargaining — that’s stubbornness. And it’s a strategy that’s failing fast,” union leaders said in a text message to its 3,200 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 837.
LOCAL
► From KUOW — Inside the black box of ICE detention in Tacoma, she watched her wedding day come and go — Espinoza, 52, is originally from a small town in Sinaloa, Mexico. She came to Seattle 20 years ago on a tourist visa to visit her brothers and felt safe in a way that never seemed possible in Sinaloa. Because she’s gay, she said she faced discrimination most of her life back home, a place known for violence and cartel activity. Xiomara Urán, an immigration an attorney with the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, took up Espinoza’s case in detention and set an idea in motion: What if Espinoza and her partner went ahead with the marriage – but in detention?…Ten days before her hearing date, Urán received the wedding approval. Espinoza and G set the date, again, for a Saturday. Until that day, all their visits for the past seven weeks had been behind a glass window, talking through a phone on the wall. “Just to be able to hug each other, that’s the moment that my heart was like…it was very emotional,” she said, no longer able to hold back her tears.
Editor’s note: click through to listen to the 45-minute audio documentary chronicling Espinoza’s case, and what it’s like to try to get released from the NW Detention Center.
► From KING 5 — Rural counties feeling impacts of government shutdown, SNAP cuts — Rural communities have a higher percentage of people receiving SNAP benefits than in the state’s urban centers, making cuts in Skagit County run even deeper. Nearly 16,000 people in Skagit County depend on federal SNAP benefits. That’s roughly 16% of the population. It’s double the number in King County and well above the state average of 11%. “We see a lot of farm workers, a lot of low income families and a lot of families with a lot of children,” Fox said. While SNAP funding has been partially restored through the end of the month, other programs like SNAP-ED are gone for good. In its 33rd year, the program brought nutritional and financial information to 1.3 million people across the state every year, teaching people how to stretch their benefits to the fullest and make healthy food choices. The program closes permanently at the end of the year.
► From the Tri-City Herald — How Tri-Cities food banks are helping and needing help after SNAP lapse — The White House agreed to release some funding for SNAP food stamps on Monday, but it’s only expected to cover about half a month’s worth of benefits and may take weeks to reach Tri-Cities families. That leaves the 1-in-6 Tri-Cities families served by SNAP in a hard spot with the holiday season beginning and no end to the federal government shutdown in sight. Styer said the food bank’s leaders got together Monday morning to plan for a surge in need when they open their doors Wednesday. Like most area food bank, St. Vincent de Paul has seen a sustained increase in need since the end of extra government funding to help families during the COVID-19 pandemic…Families on SNAP receive an average of just $6 per day, per person in 2024, according to the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities.
► From the (Everett) Herald — ‘On the edge of a cliff’: SnoCo food banks grapple with increased need — Jessica Moore, the vice president of development at Volunteers of America Western Washington, which operates food banks in Everett and Sultan, said the organization has already been seeing an increasing need for food support. This year, Volunteers of America’s food banks served 10,500 people in one month, the highest rate in 25 years, Moore said. “If SNAP benefits aren’t distributed, we expect to see a major surge in families turning to us for help,” she wrote in an email Thursday. Casey Davis, the executive director of the Edmonds Food Bank and president of the Snohomish County Food Coalition, said “people are standing on the edge of a cliff.”
► From the union-busting Columbian — WA SNAP recipients brace for lower benefits after partial funding — “Something’s better than nothing, but it’s going to be rough,” said Amy Roark, a single mother who lives in Vancouver with two of her children. The family normally receives $742 per month, which is their entire food budget. “It’s going to be hard.”…Food banks have faced rapidly rising food costs over the past few years. Schmidt said that people have been bringing food directly to Hopelink in recent days, donations that are immediately redistributed to families. But, he added, “nothing is as successful as having those EBT cards replenished. The Trump administration said on Monday that contingency funds would be exhausted at the end of the month, meaning SNAP benefits could be cut off again if the shutdown continues into December.
► From KIRO — Starbucks workers hold vote to strike after contract negotiations stall — About 12,000 workers at 550 unionized Starbucks stores are participating in the vote, including more than 30 stores in Western Washington. The union said the vote is open-ended and has not announced when it will conclude or when results will be released…The possibility of a strike comes after Starbucks closed hundreds of stores last month as part of a restructuring plan under CEO Brian Niccol.
► From KEPR — Yakama tribal member sues Trump administration claiming tariffs violate 1855 treaty — A federal lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Portland targets several members of the Trump administration over the tariffs levied by President Trump. The lawsuit alleges the tariffs violate the 1855 Yakama treaty with the United States, which exempted tribal members from tariffs, taxes and fees imposed by the U.S. on imported goods.
CONTRACT FIGHTS
► From Oregon Live — 700 OHSU medical professionals vote to authorize strike — The workers, known collectively as advanced practice providers, are newly represented by the Oregon Nurses Association. They work across OHSU’s sprawling health system — including OHSU Hospital and Doernbecher Children’s Hospital and clinics in Portland, Klamath Falls, The Dalles, Astoria, La Grande and Monmouth, among other locations…Union officials said negotiations for the group’s first contract have been underway since May 2024, but the two sides remain divided over pay and working conditions. The workers say OHSU’s offers have fallen short of providing competitive wages and protections against what they describe as unsustainable workloads.
► From NBC Sports — Breaking down the WNBA’s CBA negotiations: Key issues and what’s at stake — With the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the WNBA and the WNBPA (Women’s National Basketball Players Association) set to expire on October 31, the two sides agreed last Thursday to a 30-day extension for negotiations…In addition to six new expansion teams total being added by 2030, the league signed an 11-year $2.2 billion media deal with Disney, Amazon and NBC Universal that will begin in 2026. Other media partners including Scripps and Versant have also signed deals with the league for 2026 and beyond.
► From Trains.com — SMART-TD reaches tentative agreement with Union Pacific — The agreement’s basic terms are the same as in the national agreement just ratified by SMART-TD members [see “SMART-TD ratifies …,” Trains.com, Oct. 30, 2025]. It includes raises totaling 18.77%, compounded, over the five-year live of the contract; accelerated vacation accrual; improvements to health care benefits; and work rule protections. But it also includes some UP-specific provisions, the union said, including some involve disciplinary and grievance practices, as well as increased meal allowances. A 21-day ratification vote will close on Friday, Nov. 28, with results announced the next day.
ORGANIZING
► From WABE — Some Delta Air Lines flight attendants push for union representation — Flight attendants for Delta Air Lines picketed outside Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport Monday in support of unionizing. This comes as the world’s busiest airport is seeing widespread delays and cancellations amid a government shutdown. As some passengers waited for their departures, over a dozen flight attendants waved signs and chanted for union representation outside…Organizer Kara Wargo is one of Delta’s about 29,000 flight attendants. “With our flight attendants and our pilots and our air traffic controllers and our rampers, we are what keeps planes in the air, and these planes don’t leave without our work,” said Wargo. Delta ramp workers are also actively trying to unionize with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). Wargo said organizing efforts will intensify as we head into the holiday season.
NATIONAL
► From ABC News — Obamacare enrollee sees premium spike over 300% as sign-up period begins: ‘This will devastate us’ — Stacy Cox used one word repeatedly as she described how she felt after learning her ACA premium could jump over 300% without the enhanced tax credits: “devastating.” “I don’t know if I’ve ever cried opening a letter from an insurance or before, but it happened this time,” she told ABC News. Cox’s premium this year has been $495.32 for coverage for her and her husband. Without the credit in 2026, she was informed that it’s increasing to $2,168.68. “It’s devastating because we can’t afford that,” she said. “Just that bill right there, that’s more than our mortgage, our insurance, most of our food. That’s what we’re paying per month to live. We can’t afford to double what it costs for us to live just to have health insurance.”
► From Deadline — Teen Vogue To Merge With Vogue Website; NewsGuild Of New York & Condé Union “Strongly Condemn” Layoffs, Consolidation — As Condé Nast announced its plans to fold media brand Teen Vogue into Vogue.com earlier today, the NewsGuild of New York and Condé Union said they “strongly condemn” the merger and related layoffs, slamming the decision as “a move that is clearly designed to blunt the award-winning magazine’s insightful journalism at a time when it is needed the most.”…[Condé Union] blasted the company’s decision to lay off six employees, a majority of whom it said are employees with marginalized identities, continuing a “trend” of firing members who are women, people of color, queer and/or trans. One affected employee is Teen Vogue‘s politics editor, leaving the publication with no writers nor editors who cover the beat.
Editor’s note: For years, Teen Vogue has published labor stories, platforming worker solidarity to a massive audience of young women. Losing that editorial independence to cover worker stories is a real loss for readers, and the movement.
► From USA Today — Flight delays could worsen as government shutdown drags on — So far, flight impacts as a result of the shutdown have been relatively minimal. Many of the delays since the shutdown started have been weather-related, although staffing shortages have triggered isolated delays at some airports as air traffic controllers slowed arrivals rates to keep their flight loads safe and manageable…“Many (air traffic controllers) are already working six days a week, and now they are facing the impossible choice of taking on extra jobs just to feed their families. Meanwhile, Congress is leading us towards what could be the longest shutdown in our nation’s history, and introducing risk into an already fragile system,” National Air Traffic Controllers Association President Nick Daniels said in a statement Oct. 29.
► From the AP — After mistaken deportation, Abrego Garcia fights smuggling charges. Here’s what to know — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken deportation helped galvanize opposition to President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, has hearings Dec. 8-9 in the human smuggling case against him in Tennessee. U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw will hear evidence on motions from the defense asking him to dismiss the charges and throw out some of the evidence. The hearing was originally scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. An order filed Monday explains the government “needs more time to finish collecting and producing documents.” The two sides have been fighting over what documents and testimony the government will be required to provide to Abrego Garcia as he tries to prove the charges against him were motivated by a desire to punish him for the embarrassment of his mistaken deportation.
► From Reuters — US economy at risk of wobble as lower-income consumers get squeezed –The U.S. consumer’s durability as a prop for the economy may be tested in coming weeks as family budgets, particularly among the less affluent, are stressed by rising healthcare costs, the potential loss of federal food benefits, and a wobbly job market outlook that is already taking a toll on earnings…”The American economy is a $30 trillion dynamic and resilient beast, but it’s going to face a test here at the turn of the year,” said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM US, with “adverse policy shocks emanating from Washington and the change in behavior among corporates who hoarded labor for the past four to five years. … That was never an indefinite behavior. We’re going to see migration up in the unemployment rate.”
► From OPB — Federal judge blocks National Guard deployment to Portland through Friday — U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut said late Sunday she would continue to block the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard to Oregon until Friday, Nov. 7 at 5 p.m. The short-term preliminary injunction, issued late Sunday, came at a critical moment: Immergut’s temporary restraining order, which blocked any National Guard troops under the president’s authority from deploying anywhere in Oregon, was about to expire in a matter of hours.
POLITICS & POLICY
► From Politico — House members release bipartisan ‘principles’ for extending Obamacare subsidies — A bipartisan quartet of House lawmakers released a “statement of principles” Monday for a potential compromise on an extension of Obamacare subsidies, which would include a two-year sunset and an income cap for eligibility. The compromise framework from Republican Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska and Jeff Hurd of Colorado, and Democratic Reps. Tom Suozzi of New York and Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, is the first public tangible offering on health care policy since the government shutdown began 33 days ago.
► From the AP — Government shutdown could become longest ever as Trump says he ‘won’t be extorted’ by Democrats — Trump’s comments signal the shutdown could drag on for some time as federal workers, including air traffic controllers, are set to miss additional paychecks and there’s uncertainty over whether 42 million Americans who receive federal food aid will be able to access the assistance. Senate Democrats have voted 13 times against reopening the government, insisting they need Trump and Republicans to negotiate with them first…Trump’s push on the filibuster could prove a distraction for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Republican senators who’ve opted instead to stay the course as the consequences of the shutdown become more acute.
► From the New York Times — Trump Administration to Send Only Partial Food Stamp Payments This Month — The government revealed its plans in a set of court filings on Monday, just days after two judges found fault in the administration’s initial refusal to fund those benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, starting this month. But the roughly one in eight families that receive SNAP may still be at risk of imminent hunger and financial hardship. The Trump administration opted against using its full stable of available funds — totaling into the billions of dollars — to sustain the nation’s largest anti-hunger program. As a result, eligible households may receive only half as much in benefits compared with their usual amounts, officials said. It also remained unclear when food stamp recipients would actually receive their aid.
► From the New York Times — WIC Food Aid Program for Families Gets Funding Stopgap — The White House’s Office of Management and Budget on Friday used customs revenue to fund the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, according to funding records and two Trump administration officials. The administration dipped into the same revenue stream to keep financing the program through October. The additional money for WIC comes as the Trump administration announced it would only fund partial benefits for another food aid program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, for November.
► From Common Dreams — 10 Richest Americans Have Gained $700 Billion in Wealth Since Trump Reelection — Between 1989 and 2022, the report shows, the least rich US household in the top 1% gained 987 times more wealth than the richest household in the bottom 20%. As of last year, more than 40% of the US population was considered poor or low-income, Oxfam observed. In 2025, the share of total US assets owned by the wealthiest 0.1% reached its highest level on record: 12.6%…“Today, we are seeing the dark extremes of choosing inequality for 50 years,” Elizabeth Wilkins, president and CEO of the Roosevelt Institute, wrote in her foreword to the report. “The policy priorities in this report—rebalancing power, unrigging the tax code, reimagining the social safety net, and supporting workers’ rights—are all essential to creating that more inclusive and cohesive society. Together, they speak to our deepest needs as human beings: to live with security and agency, to live free from exploitation.”
► From Bloomberg Law — Fifth Circuit Nixes NLRB Remedial Power, Deepening Court Gap — The National Labor Relations Board lacks the power to order employers to pay for the downstream economic consequences of their labor law violations, a federal appeals court ruled. The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s Friday ruling deepened the split among appeals courts on the NLRB’s remedial authority under its 2022 ruling in Thryv, Inc., which may encourage the US Supreme Court to review the issue. Raising the NLRB’s infamously low capacity to discourage labor law violations was a top focus of the agency during the Biden administration.
► From KUOW — The American dream feels impossible for many young voters, who see no political fix — In communities of all kinds, voters in their 20s and 30s are confronting a financial reality of rising costs, mounting debt and minimal wage growth. But how is this changing their political views? It’s a question that NPR put to readers. We received more than 1,100 submissions from across the political spectrum from almost every state in the U.S. Many described a similar reality — one where economic worries loom large over their everyday lives and erode their faith in the ability of those in power. Taken together, their responses paint a portrait of a generation of voters discouraged by what they see in Washington and who increasingly feel as if they have no political home.
► From KUOW — Washington state Democrats look at imposing income tax on higher earners — Democratic state senators are eyeing an income tax on millionaires as they seek to overcome Washington’s persisting budget shortfall. Individuals and households would pay a 9.9% tax on adjusted gross income above $1 million, and get credit for state capital gains tax payments, according to those familiar with the broad outline. It could generate an estimated $3 billion from a projected 20,000 households subject to the tax…Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, said Wednesday it’s too early to know if the income tax concept solidifies into legislation in the 2026 session that begins Jan. 12.
INTERNATIONAL
► From Wired — “I Sweated So Much I Never Needed to Pee”: Life in China’s Relentless Gig Economy — Hu’s writing first went viral in China five years ago, and he’s now a prolific, established author in the country. While his other books, like Living in Low Places, are more about his internal life, I Deliver Parcels in Beijing is a focused, refreshing, on-the-ground account of nearly a decade of work, set against the slow simmering background of China’s economic rise. In addition to his stint as a courier in Beijing, Hu also recounts his adventures opening a small snack shop, his time working as a bicycle store clerk, and his brief stint as a Taobao seller. Hu’s minimal, hypnotic prose reveals the perverse beauty of tireless endurance in an increasingly precarious economy.
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