3 months, no contract | WA floods | SBWU picket lines

Friday, December 12, 2025

STRIKES

► From Truthout — Why Walmart Wants to See the Starbucks Barista Strike Fail — At its highest levels of governance and management, Starbucks’s closest industry ally may be Walmart, the top U.S. corporate employer and a long-time anti-union stalwart. Starbucks and Walmart, along with other corporations represented on Starbucks’s board of directors, also support major industry groups that carry out the retail and service sectors’ wider agenda of weakening unions…All told, striking baristas are not merely up against the executives of a coffee store behemoth, but a broader constellation of corporate power fully networked into Starbucks’s top leadership.

► From Starbucks Workers United:

so anyways here’s Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol running into traffic to avoid talking to one of his baristas

all while 1000s of $SBUX workers across 130+ cities are on ULP strike… pic.twitter.com/9xfhviWrFn

— Starbucks Workers United (@SBWorkersUnited) December 11, 2025

Editor’s note: Join picket lines this weekend at three Seattle locations — details and RSVP at NoContractNoCoffee.org (for SW Washington readers, there are also active picket lines in Portland and Beaverton). 

LOCAL

► From the Seattle Times — Live: WA flooding prompts Burlington evacuation, Leavenworth power outage –The risk is not over. The Skagit River near Mount Vernon crested at a record-breaking 37.7 feet around 12:15 a.m. Friday, presenting the devastated valley with further danger. Snohomish River at Snohomish was still above record high level of flooding as of 5 a.m. Friday. This page will be updated throughout Friday for the latest information on evacuations, recovery efforts, closures, damages, forecasts, river levels and more.

► From Cascadia Daily News — Friday updates: Skagit River receding; Burlington issues evacuation order as slough floods — The Skagit River at Mount Vernon crested at 37.73 feet — setting a record by mere inches — around 12:30 a.m. Friday. It remains in major flood stage. The Skagit River near Concrete crested at 41 feet the day prior at 7:30 a.m. In Concrete, the river has come down significantly and is in minor flood stage Friday morning. But the Gages Slough in Burlington is flooding as of Friday morning, leading the City of Burlington to issue an immediate evacuation order. The National Guard is knocking on doors and alerting residents, according to a social media post by the city. An evacuation order remains in place for Skagit County residents living in the 100-year flood plain.

► From OPB — Nurses union alleges ICE is allowed to dictate patient care at Legacy Emanuel — The union representing more than 24,000 Oregon nurses has called out management at Portland’s Legacy Emanuel Medical Center for jeopardizing the rights, health and safety of patients in custody of immigration enforcement agencies…According to the union, ICE officers have been allowed to stay at a patient’s bedside round-the-clock, including during sensitive exams, mental health assessments and bathroom use. The officers have also allegedly refused to leave when asked to step away by nurses. “The result is that there is a significant risk that detainee patients do not speak candidly, shut down when speaking in front of agents, and thereby withhold critical information about their symptoms, history, and mental health,” according to the letter. “This lack of communication may seriously compromise care.”

► From KIMA — Bureau of Reclamation saving as much rainwater as possible — The waters in the Yakima, Naches, and Tieton Rivers are several feet higher than they usually are due to this years’ atmospheric river storms. Several people have asked KIMA if there’s any way to save this water come irrigation season, and we spoke with the Scott Revell, the Director of the Roza Irrigation District about those concerns. “The most important thing for people to know is that the Bureau of Reclamation has five reservoirs in the Cascade mountains, and those are being operated to maximize the storage,” Revell said. “The only releases of water that are occurring are for minimum fish flows for reaches below the dams.”

► From Labor On The Line & UFCW 3000:

 

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CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the Everett Herald — Edmonds office professionals reach three months with no contract — The 138 members of the Edmonds School District Association of Office Personnel have been working without a contract since Sept. 1. They’ve been negotiating since April…The district has not agreed to the union’s top nine demands, including one additional vacation day and personal day, a minimum of seven hours of office support secretary time per day, and a wage increase consistent with inflation, said Phoenix Horn northwest field representative for the state public school employees union. The wage increase would total $845,848 over four years, according to the union. This year, the district took in $380 million in revenue, 13% more than last year, Horn said.

► From the Washington Post — Some athletic directors are open to collective bargaining agreements for college athletes — The idea of a CBA would have been unthinkable not long ago, but so was name, image and likeness and what is essentially free agency through the transfer portal. Athletes.org, a players association for college athletes, offered a 38-page proposal of what a CBA could look like. The group argued that a CBA would create uniform standards, decrease the risk of litigation and offer legal protections for athletes not covered under current rules.

ORGANIZING

► From the Hollywood Reporter — ‘Abbott Elementary’ Production Assistants Unanimously Vote to Unionize — PAs on the ABC sitcom Abbott Elementary voted in favor of unionizing with Production Assistants United on Tuesday, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Eight eligible PAs participated in a National Labor Relations Board election, with all voting to join the union…The show represents the fourth Warner Bros. Television production that the union has successfully organized this year. Production Assistants United previously unionized The Pitt (where it now has a labor contract) and on Dec. 4 won NLRB elections for the shows All American and Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage.

NATIONAL

► From Variety — Disney’s OpenAI Deal ‘Appears to Sanction’ AI Company’s ‘Theft of Our Work,’ WGA Says — “Disney’s announcement with OpenAI appears to sanction its theft of our work and cedes the value of what we create to a tech company that has built its business off our backs,” the union said in a message to members Thursday. WGA said it will meet with Disney “to probe the terms of this deal, including the extent to which user-generated videos use the work of WGA members. We will continue to fight to protect our members’ creative and economic interests in the context of AI technology.”

► From the AP — Kilmar Abrego Garcia freed from federal immigration detention on judge’s order and returns home — Abrego Garcia returned to his home in Maryland wearing a white shirt and orange hat hours after his release at 5 p.m., the deadline the judge gave the government for an update on Abrego Garcia’s release…His attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said he’s not sure what comes next, but he’s prepared to defend his client against further deportation efforts. “The government still has plenty of tools in their toolbox, plenty of tricks up their sleeve,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said, adding he fully expects the government to again take steps to deport his client. “We’re going to be there to fight to make sure there is a fair trial.”

► From the AP — US jobless benefit applications jump to 236,000 last week as concerns about labor market persist — U.S. jobless claim applications for the week ending Dec. 6 climbed by 44,000 to 236,000 from the previous week’s 192,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s more than analysts’ forecast of 213,000 new applications.

► From the Washington State Standard — Unemployment rose in half the states in September — September unemployment rates rose in 25 states and fell in 21 compared with last year, the government reported Dec. 11 in a shutdown-delayed analysis. The largest increase compared with September 2024 was in Oregon, where the rate rose from 4.2% to 5.2%, followed by the District of Columbia, increasing from 5.3% to 6.2% and Delaware, up from 3.6% to 4.5%.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From Wired — Trump Signs Executive Order That Threatens to Punish States for Passing AI Laws — The push for sweeping federal preemption of state AI laws has largely been fueled by AI investors, conservative policy shops, and tech industry trade groups. These groups have argued that a patchwork approach to AI regulation could stunt Silicon Valley’s AI boom and reduce America’s competitiveness on the global stage. White House AI and crypto adviser David Sacks has been one of the most vocal proponents of a light-touch approach to AI regulation…While the order may set a national tone for AI regulation, Trump does not have the authority to bar states from continuing to pass their own laws. Civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have called the order “unconstitutional,” and it’s likely to be challenged in court.

► From Bloomberg Law — Republicans Begin Bucking Trump on Government Union Rights — While some have tried to attract the support of organized labor, Republicans have been reluctant to embrace public-sector unions which conservatives have often claimed are enablers of waste and bureaucratic dysfunction. “In the government, it is, I think, a different situation,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican who has sought support from private-sector unions by backing collective bargaining legislation. “The Teamsters versus Amazon, that’s a David and Goliath situation,” while federal workers “have a powerful employer, but you also have numerous additional protections that government workers get, that private-sector unions do not get.”

Editor’s note: Well that’s a major asterisk next to Hawley’s claim to be “pro-worker”

► From In These Times — The Trump Administration Ramps Up Its War On Coal Miners — The November 26^th update reveals that Secretary Chavez-DeRemer ​“will engage in limited rulemaking to reconsider and seek comments on portions of the Silica Rule impacted by this appeal,” which means that Trump’s administration now has the opportunity to re-do parts of the silica rule with much more input from its friends in the mining industry (and presumably, much less from the miners’ unions, public health experts, environmental groups, and workers themselves who helped shape the initial rule under Biden)…Essentially, it’s dead in the water — and in the meantime, as workplace safety expert Jordan Barab’s Confined Space notes, the delay is ​“condemning about 19 mineworkers every week to preventable deaths.” Under the Trump regime, ​“America first” means ​“workers last.”

► From the Seattle Times — Amid historic flooding, WA scores win over Trump administration on federal disaster funds — While the Skagit Valley and other areas across Western Washington were being inundated with floodwaters, a federal judge ruled Thursday against the Trump administration’s efforts to shut down an emergency program to protect infrastructure against natural disasters…“The devastating flooding hurting communities across Western Washington right now underscores why these kinds of mitigation grants are so vital,” Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said in a news release Thursday. “This administration illegally canceled a longstanding bipartisan program, leaving communities more vulnerable because they have been unable to fortify against disasters.”

► From the New York Times — What Could Thwart the Texas G.O.P. From Picking Up 5 House Seats in Midterm Elections — With Hispanic voters showing signs of souring on President Trump in special elections this year and concerns mounting over the cost of living, Democrats believe they could hold on to as many as three of the redrawn seats in Texas, two in the Rio Grande Valley and possibly a third centered in and around San Antonio. The party is also looking at flipping a Republican seat in the Valley, little changed in its partisan makeup by the new map, where a popular Tejano music star is running as a moderate Democrat.

► From Deadline — New York Enacts Landmark AI Law Requiring Ads To Disclose Use Of Synthetic Performers — The New York bill requires anyone producing or creating an ad to provide a disclosure if it includes AI-generated synthetic performers. A separate but related piece of legislation requires consent from heirs or executors if a person wants to use the name, image, or likeness of an individual for commercial purposes after their death…SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland has been advocating for tougher protections against AI for the past several years. The issue is certain to be central to negotiations with studios and streamers for a new contract in 2026.

JOLT OF JOY

Pattie Gonia, environmental advocate and drag artist, hiked 100 miles to raise $1.1 million for outdoor nonprofits — executing a *flawless* drag the entire time. Laying a wig by the light of a campfire? What a legend.

 

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Now, do I find this particularly impressive because–despite having a desk job–I can still only make a manicure last a week tops? …No comment.

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