Path for Labor | Boeing strike ends | SNAP scramble

Friday, November 14, 2025

STRIKES

► From the Seattle Times — Starbucks union strike on Red Cup Day hits 2 Seattle stores — In Seattle, workers at the two coffeehouses began their strike Thursday morning. The stores closed for the rest of the day. At the West Queen Anne store, drivers entered and quickly exited the parking lot without their morning doses of caffeine. Shift supervisor Brenna Nendel, 24, said she hoped that drove home the point of the strike. “We are encouraging customers to boycott Starbucks while we’re on strike, just to help us do the most amount of damage to the company as possible and convince them,” she said, as rain fell on her and more than a dozen other picketers. “It’s cheaper for them to settle quickly than it is for us to continue to do this for a long time,” Nendel added. The workers at her coffeehouse unionized in 2022.

Editor’s note: Sign the No Contract, No Coffee pledge and find a picket line to support at NoContractNoCoffee.org

► From St. Louis Public Radio — St. Louis Boeing machinists approve contract, ending 15-week strike — St. Louis-area machinists on Thursday voted 68% to 32% to approve Boeing’s fifth contract proposal, ending a strike that lasted for more than three months — the longest in the company’s St. Louis history…Most employees get an 8% general wage increase in the first year and 4% in each of the following years. For top-paid employees, the new contract carried over a 1.5% general wage increase and a 2.5% lump sum in year four from the previous one. This replaced a 5% lump sum with no wage increase…“We look forward to continuing to fight for fairness and respect for the world’s best defense workers in the contracts to come,” the union said in a statement after the vote results were announced. The ratification of this offer guarantees that no striking workers will be displaced by replacements, whom Boeing said it had started hiring.

LOCAL

► From Real Change News — In defiance of fear, Mexican American Seattleites celebrate Día de Muertos –Mexican American activists have also held Día de Muertos vigils to honor immigrants who have died while in ICE detention, call for better conditions and demand an end to impunity. 2025 has been the deadliest year in decades for people in ICE custody. El Centro’s Día de Muertos event also included an ofrenda exhibit on the third floor reflecting this year’s theme of “Seeds of Justice: Fighting for Dignity and Democracy.” Many of the communal altars were explicitly political and built in collaboration with other groups, including those dedicated immigration justice, victims of police violence and missing and murdered Indigenous people. Mexican American community members turned out and celebrated, in resistance to those who would seek to limit their joy. Real Change contributing photographer Patty Tang captured these moments of levity and unity in the accompanying photo essay.

► From the Seattle Times — Flight cancellations continue at Sea-Tac, even as government reopens — More than 50 flights were canceled out of Sea-Tac on Thursday, spokesperson Katherine Fountain said. It was the seventh day since the Federal Aviation Administration ordered major airports like Sea-Tac to reduce flights by 10% by Nov. 14. The airport has now seen over 300 flights canceled, with 42 on Wednesday, 54 on Tuesday, 49 on Monday, 45 on Sunday, 33 on Saturday and 29 on Friday. The FAA did say Wednesday that it planned to freeze its cuts at 6% so it can “assess whether the system can gradually return to normal.” Alaska Airlines, in a statement Thursday morning, said it has been working to “ramp up” operations quickly.

ORGANIZING

► From the Wrap — YouTube Studio Theorist Media Moves to Unionize With Motion Picture Editors Guild, WGA West — “For more than 20 years, we’ve watched terrific creators and their content shape YouTube into one of the most powerful platforms on Earth,” Nicole Cepeda, who works as a graphic designer at Theorist, said. “Now it’s time for Theorist and other production companies to take it to the next level. By unionizing, our goal is to help raise professional standards and bring them in line with the broader entertainment industry. The work we do is real, and it deserves real protection.” This marks a significant step forward for union representation for employees across the digital sector. Theorist Media is a digital production studio that owns and operates five of the world’s largest YouTube channels, amounting a combined 45 million subscribers and 8+ Billion total views to date.

NATIONAL

► From the Salt Lake Magazine — Utah Ski Patrollers Carve a Path for Organized Labor — Park City ski patrollers’ win has been felt by union workers throughout other industries as well, which Dineen witnessed while attending the annual convention for Communications Workers of America. “We’re carrying ourselves a little bit differently,” says Dineen. “There’s a bravado in the room, almost. We’re learning that our value is only going to be acknowledged if we do it ourselves first.”  In August, Park City Mountain’s bike patrol workers petitioned to unionize. They will join their ski patroller counterparts after their vote on Aug. 28. Park City’s lift maintenance union also reached its second two-year agreement with Vail in August. Solitude’s ski patrollers unionized and struck a deal with their employers in July of this year, securing a 10% increase to their base pay.

► From People’s World — Detroit teachers support immigrant students and families against ICE attacks — A powerful display of immigrant and worker solidarity took place at a Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) board meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 11, led by teachers and community members from one of Detroit’s most vibrant immigrant communities. Despite the school board’s opening remarks affirming their awareness of increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity and their dedication to protecting immigrant students, three Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) members from Western International High School—Kristen Schoettle, Heidi West, and Frank Espinosa—took to the mic during public comments to insist that the district’s existing sanctuary policy was not enough…rank-and-file teachers have been at the forefront of the immigration defense fight, building bridges between their students, families, and the community at large. Their proximity to the community in their roles as educators and caretakers for students offers a unique position in the struggle to build worker and immigrant solidarity.

► From Wired — Airports and Airlines Are Crawling Out of the Shutdown — “Airlines cannot flip a switch and resume normal operations immediately after a vote—there will be residual effects for days,” Chris Sununu, the president and CEO of the airline trade group Airlines for America, said in a written statement. Some residual effects could last longer, as workers in the aviation system grapple with yet another interruption to their work and pay schedule. Federal employees have gone through four shutdowns in the past two decades…“Does this deter from recruitment?” says Kiefer. “There is that potential of [prospective controllers] saying, ‘I don’t want to be subject to the appropriations process every 16 months and not get paid.’” And speaking of pay: It might take weeks for federal workers to be made whole. In 2019, Kiefer said, he didn’t get his complete paycheck until about five weeks after Congress reopened the government.

► From Prism — With democracy under threat, indie bookstores merge activism and literature for collective care — Charis Books is just one in a nationwide network of independent bookstores with a dual focus on books and community-centered support. While the closures of chain bookstores have increased in recent years—intensified by the pandemic and the rise of Amazon—digital exhaustion and a depressed cultural landscape under the Trump administration have led to a dearth of community outreach and educational opportunities. Indie bookstores nationwide are filling the gap.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the New York Times — The Shutdown Is Over. But for Federal Workers, the Anxiety Persists. — Jessie Holwell, a Veterans Affairs employee in the Phoenix region who has been furloughed for weeks, said it would take a while for her life to go back to normal. “The exhaustion, the stress, and the constant uncertainty have taken a toll mentally, emotionally and physically,” said Ms. Holwell, a mother of five…After months of seeking to drastically cut the size of the work force, Mr. Trump used the shutdown to try to lay off more federal employees — an action facing a legal challenge — and threatened not to provide everyone with back pay, even though he signed a law in 2019 guaranteeing such compensation. On top of that, federal workers know that they could be back in the same situation several months from now, since the bill that Mr. Trump signed Wednesday only funds the government through Jan. 30. All of which has underscored a pervasive sense that the federal government is not a stable place to work, many said.

► From the AP — You can end a shutdown overnight — but you can’t reopen a government that fast — That’s a lot of programs, agencies and systems. Reclaiming “normal” won’t be instantaneous. Here’s a guide to what reopening looks like…The Office of Head Start will expedite funding and directly contact the impacted programs to share a timeline of when they can expect federal money, said Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The office is already operating at a reduced capacity after experiencing substantial layoffs earlier this year. But even when programs receive their money, program leaders worry of staffing shortages if too many furloughed employees already found other jobs. Some advocates said it could take several weeks for some of the programs across the country to receive funding and restore operations.

► From the Washington Post — Trump administration prepares to fire worker for TV interview about SNAP — The employee, Ellen Mei, a program specialist at the Food and Nutrition Service, was interviewed on MSNBC on Oct. 2, during the early days of the shutdown, to talk about how the impasse in Washington would impact her team, as well as the work it does. Mei is also president of the National Treasury Employees Union’s Chapter 255, which represents employees at USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service in the Northeast.

► From the AP — States scramble to send full SNAP food benefits to millions of people after government shutdown ends — A back-and-forth series of court rulings and shifting policies from President Donald Trump’s administration has led to a patchwork distribution of November benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. While some states already had issued full SNAP benefits, about two-thirds of states had issued only partial benefits or none at all before the government shutdown ended late Wednesday, according to an Associated Press tally…The legislation to reopen the U.S. government provides full SNAP benefits not only for November but also for the remainder of the federal fiscal year, which runs through next September. Citing that legislation, the Justice Department on Thursday dropped its request for the Supreme Court to continue blocking a judicial order to pay full SNAP benefits.

► From KUOW — Federal special education staff may get their jobs back. But for how long? — The deal Congress reached to re-open the federal government requires the Trump administration to reinstate federal workers who were fired in October, including those charged with overseeing the nation’s special education laws. But it’s not clear how long they’ll be back…”We are concerned special education will cease to exist,” says Jacqueline Rodriguez, CEO of the National Center for Learning Disabilities. The Education Department did not answer specific questions from NPR about whether workers who were cut in October would be allowed to resume their work, as opposed to being put on administrative leave, or if the department would try to fire them again after the deal expires.

► From Common Dreams — ‘Reckless and Irresponsible’: Trump Plans Deep Housing Cuts That Could Leave 200,000 Homeless — The New York Times reported that the administration’s new proposal for Continuum of Care (CoC) funding “shifts billions to short-term programs that impose work rules, help the police dismantle encampments, and require the homeless to accept treatment for mental illness or addiction.” “By cutting aid for permanent housing by two-thirds next year, the plan risks a sudden end of support for most of the people the Continuum places in such housing nationwide, beginning as soon as January,” the Times added. “All are disabled—a condition of the aid—and many are 50 or older. The document does not explain how they would find housing.”

► From the Washington State Standard — With progressive council wins, Spokane swings left — The city of Spokane swung further left in the Nov. 4 election, with progressives capitalizing on apparent dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump to sweep three City Council races…Spokane County, which has about 556,000 residents, contains this urban-rural divide within its own borders. In offices that represent both urban and rural areas, three of the five county commissioners are Republicans, as are six of the nine state legislators. Shasti Conrad, chair of the state Democratic Party, said numerous other cities in Washington elected progressive candidates, including Longview, Sunnyside and Camas. “People don’t want the chaos of the Trump administration,” Conrad said.

JOLT OF JOY

Happy 50th birthday to Travis Barker, one of the best rock drummers of all time (even when he’s got a broken hand)

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