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SBWU đŸ€ IBT | ICE | Poverty wages

Wednesday, November 26, 2025

 

STRIKES

â–ș From The Daily — Ave Starbucks baristas continue picketing, Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies faculty weigh in on union activity — Rachel Erstad, the research director at the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies, explained that the nationwide action represents an exciting collaboration in the field of labor studies. According to Erstad, an open-ended strike generally represents when a union has exhausted all their options, and where employees sacrifice a standard paycheck to bring their employer to the bargaining table. “They did not go from forming their union and then jumping into an open ended strike,” Erstad said. “They have put a lot of time and effort into both developing their own power as workers, and their own communication and their own networks. “It isn’t just something that’s happening in Seattle, it’s happening across the country 
 Going on an open ended strike isn’t an easy thing for anyone to do.”

â–ș From Starbucks Workers United:

â–ș From the Los Angeles Times — Unionized Starbucks baristas bring ‘Red Cup Rebellion’ to CEO’s Newport Beach office — Unionized Starbucks baristas rallied Monday outside the Newport-Beach office of the Seattle-based company’s chief executive to demand better pay, staffing and scheduling — continuing a “Red Cup Rebellion” unfair labor practice strike that includes stores in Orange County. Carrying picket signs that read “Now Brewing: Corporate Greed” and chanting, “No Contract, No Coffee” rallying workers accused the coffee retailer of refusing to respond to employees’ demands after an offer by company negotiators was rejected by bargaining delegates in April, according to a union news release Monday.

 

LOCAL

â–ș From the NW Labor Press — Yes, you can hire a union plumber — Need a plumber? A new program from United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters (UA) Local 290 offers a $200 instant rebate to homeowners in Oregon and Southwest Washington who use a Local 290 contractor. Homeowners who need plumbing or HVAC work done can fill out a form at savewith290.com and get the discount voucher sent via email. The website also includes a list of participating contractors. Homeowners submit the voucher to the contractor when they pay for service, and the contractor forwards it to Local 290 for reimbursement. The union and contractors worked together to develop the program over the past year. It’s funded by Local 290’s industry advancement program, which helps union contractors capture more market share.

â–ș From KUOW — As reports of ICE emerge in Seattle, the suburbs already feel its presence — The Burien neighborhood where Juan spent time growing up is quiet…ICE arrested Juan’s uncle in late October, on a freeway on-ramp while he was on his way to work early in the morning, around 5 a.m. Juan said his uncle’s arrest — and that of several others — sent a chill through the neighborhood…Photos, videos, and news reports show unidentified federal agents making arrests on roads and parking lots in cities as far north as Everett, edging into Seattle on Aurora Avenue, and seen on the Eastside, in Redmond. Local police have verified that some of these were ICE arrests. It’s unclear if there’s been an actual uptick. ICE did not respond to questions about arrest numbers.

â–ș From the Stranger — Zahid Chaudhry Could Be Home by Thanksgiving — His eyesight is fading. And if he stays untreated in the stressful, dirty conditions of the detention center for much longer, it might never return. The decorated, disabled veteran and legal permanent resident suffers from thyroid eye disease, a degenerative condition that can result in blindness if not treated. He’s originally from Pakistan, and has lived in the US for more than 25 years. He’s married to Melissa Chaudhry, a US citizen who ran for Congress against Adam Smith last year. The pair has two young children together…In addition to lack of proper treatment, Zahid is also subject to the conditions of the NWDC, Romero noted in her declaration on Zahid’s behalf. As La Resistencia has extensively detailed through direct testimonies of those inside, these conditions include extremely dirty spaces, inadequate and spoiled food, and medical neglect.

â–ș From Oregon Live — Oregon representative barred from visiting constituents at Tacoma ICE center — Although she did get a tour of the facility, their meetings with detainees were canceled, Salinas said, because there was a lack of rooms to hold them as hundreds of people detained in the facility compete for time and space to meet with their lawyers. “While you have theoretical access, you don’t really have access in the way that you need to,” she said of detainees’ ability to talk with their lawyers. “And we as members of Congress don’t really have access to see our constituents in the way that we need to.”

â–ș From KOIN — Washington nonprofits offer rent assistance for people impacted by ICE detention, deportations — On Monday, the Council for Homeless announced its partnership with the Southwest Washington League of United Latin American Citizens Council 47013 and Latina Leadership NW to offer financial help to families after the detention or deportation of a family member by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. With this partnership, the Council for the Homeless allocated $50,000 from its budget to help families who have lost income because of the detainment or deportation of a primary wage earner, the organization announced.

 

CONTRACT FIGHTS

â–ș From OFNHP:

 

ORGANIZING

â–ș From Reuters — JetBlue ground workers seek union vote, IAM says — The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) said on Tuesday it will file for union representation election covering about 3,000 JetBlue (JBLU.O) ground workers. JetBlue workers voted against unionizing in 2023, after what the IAM described as an anti-union campaign by the airline’s management.

 

NATIONAL

â–ș From Progressive Magazine — Even with SNAP, Workers Face Food Crisis — Despite re-opening, the federal government is neglecting its legal and moral responsibility to American workers and families by failing to fully fund the SNAP program. We are living in an affordability crisis created by the leaders who swore to protect us, and by business groups such as the powerful corporate lobby National Restaurant Association, which continues to block efforts to raise the minimum wage. Politicians are churning out rhetoric about how food stamp recipients must learn to make their own way without government support. “Bottom line, the well has run dry,” the Department of Agriculture stated in a memo posted on its website. But the fact that more than twenty-two million households in this country rely on food stamps can be chalked up to poverty wages, not irresponsible individuals.

â–ș From the NW Labor Press — The late great union label — Today, fewer than six in 100 private sector American workers are in a union — the lowest level in over a century. Yet public approval of unions has been hovering around 70%, the highest level of support in 60 years. What if there were a way to mobilize that broad public support to fuel a union comeback — by tapping consumer purchasing power? It’s not a new idea. Boycotts (refusing unfairly produced goods and services) and buycotts (favoring union-made goods) are tools that go back to the earliest days of the American labor movement. But they’ve been largely left to rust in labor’s toolbox.

â–ș From NBC Los Angeles — Labor union leader David Huerta pleads not guilty in LA immigration protest arrest — Huerta, 58, pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction, resistance, or opposition of a federal officer. The misdemeanor carries a statutory maximum sentence of one year in federal prison…Huerta, president of the Service Employees International Union California, was arrested June 6 during a protest outside a business in Los Angeles where federal agents were investigating suspected immigration violations. Huerta called the case “baseless” and insisted he was exercising his First Amendment rights when agents detained him outside Ambiance Apparel, the site where dozens of undocumented workers were arrested.

â–ș From In These Times — Labor Solidarity Defends Against Deportations — In 1978, amid deportations of undocumented workers in East Los Angeles, one raid at the Sbicca shoe factory went differently: Lawyers brought in by the AFL-CIO, which had been organizing at the factory, were able to halt many of the deportations on Fourth Amendment grounds. Larry Remer, for In These Times, detailed how the raids impacted Mexican-American communities and how, in the Sbicca case, labor solidarity helped in their defense. The events described sound awfully familiar. Nationally, immigration sweeps are still a common form of union-busting. And the labor movement is still one of the strongest allies for undocumented immigrants, helping organize anti-ICE responses in L.A., Chicago and other cities.

â–ș From Reuters — US judge orders Trump administration to provide bond hearings to detained migrants — A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that President Donald Trump’s administration cannot impose mandatory detention on thousands of migrants held by U.S. immigration authorities without first giving them an opportunity to seek release on bond. U.S. District Judge Sunshine Sykes in Riverside, California, certified a nationwide class of individuals who were already living in the United States when they were detained and are legally entitled to a hearing to determine whether they can be released on bond while their deportation cases proceed.

 

POLITICS & POLICY

â–ș From the New York Times — Once Foes of Obamacare, Some Republicans Push to Protect It — Representative Jen Kiggans, Republican of Virginia, once called for eliminating the Affordable Care Act. Representative Mike Lawler, Republican of New York, has repeatedly called it “a disaster.” But the two are part of a small group of G.O.P. members of Congress — most of them facing tough re-election races next year in competitive districts — who have broken with their party to push for a temporary extension of a crucial piece of the law: subsidies, currently slated to expire at the end of the year, to help Americans afford their premiums. Their eagerness to vote for an extension, which was Democrats’ main demand in the weekslong government shutdown fight, underscores how entrenched the health care law has become, even among Republicans who once fought to kill it.

â–ș From the New York Times — Fired Employees Say Government Won’t Rehire Them After Shutdown — Thirty-five former employees of the General Services Administration argue that they should have been reinstated under the spending law that ended the shutdown, which included a provision that reversed any layoff that occurred during the lapse in federal spending that began on Oct. 1. The provision was one of the major concessions that a small clutch of Democrats extracted from Republicans this month in exchange for agreeing to end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. But while the Trump administration reinstated thousands of laid-off federal workers within five days of the government’s reopening, it did not include those whose termination had been set in motion before the shutdown began.

â–ș From the Hill — Attorneys general call on Congress to reject ban on state AI laws — Nearly 40 attorneys general across the country sent a Tuesday letter to congressional leaders urging them to reject a ban on states’ ability to enact artificial intelligence laws. “While AI promises to be a transformative technology in numerous fields, it also poses significant risks—notably to the most vulnerable among us, our children. States must be empowered to apply existing laws and formulate new approaches to meet the range of challenges associated with AI,” a group of 36 attorneys general wrote in the letter.

â–ș From the Government Executive — Correctional officers sue for restoration of union rights — Shortly after a federal appeals court put a broad preliminary injunction on pause in August, agencies began formally cancelling collective bargaining agreements, though the Bureau of Prisons did not follow suit for another seven weeks. That delay is at the heart of the lawsuit filed earlier this month by the American Federation of Government Employees’ Council of Prison Locals 33. While other agencies had already ceased honoring the provisions of their union contracts months prior to formally terminating them, BOP continued to fulfill its collective bargaining obligations, even after the Office of Personnel Management updated its guidance greenlighting the cancellation of CBAs.

â–ș From the Seattle Times — WA Cares Fund: What WA workers need to know about 2026 rollout — Starting Jan. 6, the program will be piloted in four counties for a small group of applicants and beneficiaries: Lewis, Mason, Thurston and Spokane. Jessica Nelson, a spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, said the pilot will test the system before a full launch in July to ensure a smooth statewide rollout. Screening has already begun, she said. Next, on April 1, eligible workers and recent retirees who contributed to the fund will be able to create online accounts to review their contributions and prepare to apply for benefits. DSHS will begin accepting applications in mid-May, and approved beneficiaries can begin using benefits starting July 1.

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