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NEWS ROUNDUP

Flooding | Right to sit | No healthcare fix

Thursday, December 11, 2025

 

STRIKES

► From Starbucks Workers United:

 

 

LOCAL

► From the Seattle Times — WA flooding: Evacuations in Skagit, Whatcom, Snohomish, Pierce counties –Counties throughout Western Washington have issued immediate orders to evacuate as catastrophic floodwaters threaten riverside and low-lying communities Thursday. An estimated 100,000 Washington residents could face evacuation orders because of rapidly rising floodwaters, Gov. Bob Ferguson’s office said Wednesday afternoon. Numerous communities in Skagit County on the 100-year flood plain were told to “GO NOW” under a level three evacuation order Wednesday. That area includes Burlington, La Conner, Lyman, Hamilton, parts of Mount Vernon and Sedro-Wooley, and areas along the Skagit River.

► From the Wenatchee World — Flood warnings issued for Chelan County due to increased mudslide risk –As the National Weather Service issues flood warnings across parts of the state, Chelan County Emergency Management is alerting residents to the increased risk of mudslides, especially in wildfire burn-scar areas. Sgt. Jason Reinfeld said this week’s storm — expected to end on Saturday — brings a higher risk for flash flooding and mudslides, particularly in areas damaged by recent wildfires. As the county braces for potential debris flows, officials are encouraging residents to monitor conditions.

Editor’s note: you can sign up for emergency alerts from the state online. 

► From Familias Unidas por la Justicia:

► From the Tri-City Herald — 3 WSDOT workers hit by truck in Hwy 395 work zone in Kennewick  — Three Washington state transportation workers were hurt when a pickup truck veered across Highway 395 and hit them in a work zone in Kennewick on Wednesday…One worker is seriously hurt, and the others suffered minor injuries. The driver, Jerrold L. Williams, 83, of Kennewick, was taken to Trios Health, along with two of the workers, David A. Budau, 40, and Aaron R. Gunter, 41, both of Kennewick. The third worker, Richard S. Garcia, 25, of Pasco, was taken to Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland.

► From OPB — National and state labor leaders call on Portland State University to abide by arbitration decision — Last month, an arbitration decision from an independent mediator ordered the university to reinstate the jobs and provide back pay for 10 non-tenure-track faculty members. But the impacted faculty, who have been out of work since July, learned this week that Portland State has no plans to give them their jobs back, according to PSU’s faculty union, the American Association of University Professors. “It’s not clear to me what strategy PSU is pursuing or what the larger game is, but it doesn’t seem to be a healthy one,” said PSU-AAUP President Bill Knight. “It looks like another instance of bad faith on the part of the university, not respecting the arbitration they agreed to.”

► From the Washington State Standard — Washington’s last coal power plant will transition to natural gas –TransAlta Corporation has signed an agreement with Puget Sound Energy to switch the last coal-fired power station in Washington state to natural gas. The deal, which TransAlta announced Tuesday, comes as the Centralia plant is set to fall silent at the end of the month…State House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon — a key architect of Democrats’ clean-energy blueprint under Gregoire’s successor, former Gov. Jay Inslee — said he supports TransAlta putting a natural-gas facility there for the short-term.

► From KOIN — ‘Issues of brutality’: Vancouver City Council presses police for clarity after ICE arrests –Vancouver city leaders are calling for more transparency and oversight following two highly scrutinized ICE arrests in recent days. These incidents have sparked community protests, fear, and allegations of excessive force. At Monday’s council meeting, councilors questioned Vancouver Police Chief Troy Price about how local officers respond when federal immigration agents operate in the city, especially after video surfaced of an arrest where a person appeared to be injured by an agent’s vehicle and another where someone was attacked by a K-9. The chief confirmed Vancouver Police have launched an internal investigation into the arrest where a car drove over a detainee’s foot.

 

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the Milwaukee Independent — The right to sit down: When spending all day on your feet at work is an occupational hazard — The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which represents about 100,000 workers, has been pushing to include in the contracts it negotiates, including at Barnes & Noble, a guaranteed right to sit during work that can be done seated, said Stuart Appelbaum, the union’s president. During one bargaining session, an employer objected to the demand. Union negotiators used a break that emptied the conference room to underline their position. “The employer came back and saw we had removed all chairs from the negotiating table,” Appelbaum said. “I think the point was made.” In the end, the union got the chairs it wanted written into the contract, he said.

 

ORGANIZING

► From Aftermath — ‘Grand Theft, Not Wage Theft’: Rockstar Protest In NYC Draws Tech Workers, Members Of Multiple Unions — Last Friday evening, despite the bitter cold, around 50 people gathered outside Grand Theft Auto VI developer Rockstar’s office in Manhattan to protest the October firing of 34 workers in the UK and Scotland who had engaged in union organizing activity. Chants like “Steal lambos, not wages” were accompanied by signs that read “No workers, no GTA” and “Bad boss = bad game.” The protest was put on by the Tech Workers Coalition, a labor rights group with chapters around the US.

 

NATIONAL

► From PBS — Judge orders Kilmar Abrego Garcia to be immediately released from immigration detention — A federal judge in Maryland ordered Kilmar Abrego Garcia freed from immigration detention on Thursday while his legal challenge against his deportation moves forward. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ruled that Immigration and Customs Enforcement must release Abrego Garcia from custody immediately. “Since Abrego Garcia’s return from wrongful detention in El Salvador, he has been re-detained, again without lawful authority,” the judge wrote. “For this reason, the Court will GRANT Abrego Garcia’s Petition for immediate release from ICE custody.”

► From Axios — Union support is still surging in local workplaces — Americans’ support of labor unions has surged over the last decade, signaling a shift in workers’ expectations and putting more pressure on employers to deliver better pay, benefits and working conditions. Yes, but: Despite growing support, unionization rates continue to decline nationally and in Ohio, partially due to a shifting jobs landscape. Decades of attacks at the federal and state level have also made it harder for workers to form and maintain unions, the left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute says.

► From People’s World — AFL-CIO joins defense of Somali-Americans after Trump hate attack — Minnesota public officials, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Gov. Tim Walz, both DFLers, jumped to defend both Omar and Somali-Americans. So did state AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham. “In the labor movement, an injury to one is an injury to all. By vilifying our Somali-American co-workers and neighbors and threatening military-style raids in Minnesota’s communities, President Trump is attacking our state’s entire labor movement,” Burnham declared.

► From the Guardian — Tufts student can resume research after Trump officials revoked her visa, judge rules — Rümeysa Öztürk, a PhD student studying children’s relationship to social media, was among the first people arrested as the Trump administration began targeting foreign-born students and activists involved in pro-Palestinian advocacy…Öztürk has been out of a Louisiana immigrant detention center since May and back on the Tufts campus. But she has been unable to teach or participate in research as part of her studies because of the termination of her record in the government’s database of foreign students studying temporarily in the US. In her ruling on Monday, chief US district judge Denise J Casper wrote that Öztürk is likely to succeed on claims that the termination was “arbitrary and capricious, contrary to law and in violation of the First Amendment”.

► From Wired — The DHS Data Grab Is Putting US Citizens at Risk — Combining data from different agencies providing benefits with the aim of ensuring immigrants aren’t accessing them could lead to even further surveillance. With state voter data also part of the mix, “that can include party affiliation and voting history, so there’s a concern that they might surveil people” based on their political affiliations, says Nikhel Sus, deputy chief counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. CREW is helping represent several plaintiffs, including naturalized citizens, that are suing the government, claiming it is unlawfully sharing sensitive data across agencies.

 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the AP — Senate poised to reject extension of health care subsidies as costs rise for many — The Senate on Thursday rejected legislation to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits, essentially guaranteeing that millions of Americans will see a steep rise in costs at the beginning of the year. Senators rejected a Democratic bill to extend the subsidies for three years and a Republican alternative that would have created new health savings accounts — an unceremonious end to a monthslong effort by Democrats to prevent the COVID-19-era subsidies from expiring on Jan. 1.

► From ABC 45 — 13 House Republicans join Democrats to advance bill reversing Trump’s union crackdown — The bill was led by Democratic Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, who forced a vote on the measure using a discharge petition. A discharge petition is designed to force a vote on legislation over what their leadership wants, if the legislation receives the support of a majority of House lawmakers. A motion to proceed with debate and a vote passed by the House, 222 to 200. 13 Republicans, along with all 209 Democrats, voted to advance the bill. If the bill survives a House “rule vote,” the final vote to pass the repeal will take place on Thursday.

► From the Government Executive — OPM says 92% of fed departures this year were voluntary. Those who left disagree — One former National Park Service employee, who, like thousands of their colleagues accepted the Trump administration’s offer for several months of paid leave before leaving government service, said ever since they accepted the “deferred resignation program” has had “pangs of regret.” “I ‘voluntarily’ chose to leave the most amazing job I could ever have as a scientist because of the toxic environment the administration made for us federal employees,” the former worker said.

► From People’s World — Trump’s attacks on Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act bring suffering in Coal Country — Rural communities in Appalachia, particularly in West Virginia and Virginia, were on the verge of breaking ground on green transition projects when the grants funding them were paused or terminated by the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE, led by the billionaire Trump donor Elon Musk. The pursuit of other Trump priorities, like undoing any effort at advancing racial, gender, and economic equality, however modest, resulted in destruction of the $3 billion Environmental and Climate Justice Program created in the IRA to tackle the climate crisis and environmental harms at a local level. The IRA was the largest investment in Appalachia since the 1960s.

► From the Tacoma News Tribune — Tacoma council greenlights controversial changes to tenant protections — The changes amounted to relatively minor updates after an extensive back-and-forth as council members traded amendments and changes to the amendments. Though the final changes don’t radically upset the city’s renter protections, the possibility of that happening drew hundreds of renters, landlords, property managers and affordable-housing providers to turn out to either support or oppose the changes.

► From UFCW Local 367:

► From On Labor — New York’s Fashion Workers Act Sets Industry-Wide Standards — Imagine receiving your paycheck, months after you were supposed to get paid, only to find 70% of your earnings deducted for unexplained “expenses.” On top of that, you signed a contract with an exclusivity provision stipulating that you may not work any other job in the same industry without giving your boss 20% of those earnings. To make matters worse, you learn that you’ve been paying the company you work for five times the market rate to live in a roach-infested apartment with bunk beds you share with other employees. This is the life of a typical fashion model in the United States.

► From AFT & AFT Utah — AFT Utah and the AFT on the Repeal of Utah’s Public Sector Collective Bargaining Ban — Tonight’s repeal is a historic step in the right direction to return respect and dignity to the workers of Utah. Over 5,000 union activists worked hard to collect more than 300,000 signatures to return a voice at work for teachers and other public employees. Because of that effort, we now have a Legislature that has reversed itself and a pathway for collective bargaining in the future.

 

INTERNATIONAL

► From the UAW:

The Stand posts links to local, national and international labor news every weekday morning. Subscribe to get daily news in your inbox. 

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