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NEWS ROUNDUP

Legacy strike grows | Flood updates | GOP in disarray

Tuesday, December 16, 2025

 

STRIKES

► From Oregon Live — Legacy Health strike grows as 80 urgent care, pediatric care providers plan walkouts — Eighty medical providers at Legacy Health plan to hold two-day solidarity strikes to support their Oregon Nurses Association-represented colleagues already on strike. About 50 nurse practitioners and physician associates at Legacy-GoHealth Urgent Care clinics plan to strike from 8 a.m. Dec. 21 to 8 a.m. Dec. 23. Another 30 pediatric nurse practitioners and physician associates who work at Legacy clinics and Randall Children’s Hospital plan to walk out from 8 a.m. Dec. 22 to 8 a.m. Dec. 24. They will join the roughly 140 advanced practice providers — including nurse practitioners, physician associates and clinical nurse specialists — who began an open-ended strike Dec. 2. The workers have been trying to negotiate their first labor contract since they unionized in late 2023.

► From United Farm Workers:

► From Labor on the Line:

 

LOCAL

► From KUOW — Live updates: Pacific, WA evacuating after White River levee breach — Roughly 10,000 people across Western Washington are under evacuation advisories following a series of levee failures and more heavy rain in the forecast. Additional flooding is expected as rain continues to pelt the region and mountain dams release water to free up reservoir space. The city of Pacific, which straddles King and Pierce counties, is under evacuation advisory after a levee breach early Tuesday morning. One person drowned Tuesday morning after driving on a flooded roadway in Snohomish. It marks the first flood-related death since a series of atmospheric rivers moved into the region last week.

► From the Seattle Times — After WA floods, residents scramble for help, insurance to cover costs — Families across Western Washington are grappling with unexpected, overwhelming costs after floods swept through residential areas and farmlands near rivers, forcing widespread evacuations. Many opened their doors and saw water where there used to be solid ground. Others watched as the flood seeped into their homes, the water level along the walls rising inch by inch. Those who evacuated left most of their belongings behind. Beyond the emotional distress, the flooding is already taking a financial toll on Washington residents in the form of lost income, emergency evacuation costs and widespread property damage. It is also leaving them with many bewildering questions about what help they can get from insurance companies and the federal government.

► From NW Public Broadcasting — Remote towns in WA hit hard by floods, mudslides – leaving some residents isolated — An early December atmospheric river brought more than four inches of rain within 48 hours in Stehekin, according to the National Weather Service. That caused mud and debris slides, and flooding that blocked Stehekin Valley Road in multiple locations. The sheriff’s office reports the slides destroyed the National Park Service water treatment facility serving the village, leaving residents with no fresh water…The flooding follows last year’s Pioneer Fire, which burned nearly 40,000 acres along hillsides above Stehekin, leaving the area vulnerable to mudslides. Sheriff Mike Morrison said post-fire conditions contributed to the severity of debris flows.

► From KUOW — Western Washington flood resources: Where to find shelter and supplies — This is a developing list of available flood resources as historic flooding continues to impact Western Washington. Last Updated: December 15, 3:00 p.m.

 

AEROSPACE

► From the Seattle Times — OPINION: The Kent Valley: Region’s aerospace powerhouse is poised to blast off — The valley anchors a regional space economy that produced $4.6 billion in activity in 2021. More than half of Washington’s jobs in the emerging “New Space” subsector sit here, supported by companies designing and manufacturing next-generation propulsion, testing, avionics, composites and spaceflight systems. These jobs are not only high-value — they provide rare economic mobility, offering pathways into the middle class without requiring a four-year degree.

 

ORGANIZING

► From WKU FM — Labor board schedules hearing for contested UAW election at Kentucky EV battery plant — Workers at BlueOval SK (BOSK) in Glendale voted in August to join the United Auto Workers Union by a mere 11 votes, but 41 ballots are being challenged and the results could alter the outcome of the election…Production operator Bill Wilmoth says he feels BlueOval SK tried to pack the unit with votes against unionization. “BlueOval believes this is a good tactical maneuver on their part because they’re convinced there are enough ‘no’ votes on the SERT team to turn the tide of the election to vote down our union,” Wilmoth told WKU Public Radio. Wilmoth says the SERT team’s work is very different from line workers, and feels those emergency employees should form their own bargaining unit tailored to their unique job description.

 

NATIONAL

► From the AP — Abrego Garcia is still hoping to find justice after his wrongful deportation, his lawyer says — “He’s been through a lot, and he’s still fighting,” said his lawyer Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg during an interview with AP following Abrego Garcia’s court-ordered release from detention last week. “What it is he can fight for is circumscribed by the law and by the great power of the United States government, but he’s still fighting.”…After the alleged abuse Sandoval-Moshenberg said Abrego Garcia suffered in El Salvador this year, he thought he would have a “rock solid” asylum case. But, citing the twists and turns of his case and how he’s become a symbol for the administration’s pursuit of immigrants, he’s concerned about his chances of getting a fair trial in immigration court. “I think they’ve already shown that they’re willing to stack the deck,” said Sandoval-Moshenberg.

► From the Guardian — ‘Our industry has been strip-mined’: video game workers protest at The Game Awards — The protesters, who were almost denied entry to the public space outside the Peacock theater (“they knew we were coming,” one jokes), are from United Videogame Workers (UVW), an industry-wide, direct-join union for North America that is part of the Communications Workers of America. “We are out here today to raise awareness of the plight of the game worker,” says Anna C Webster, chair of the freelancing committee, in the hot Los Angeles sun. “Our industry has been strip-mined for resources by these corporate overlords, and we figured the best place to raise awareness of what’s happening in the games industry is at the culmination, the final boss, as it were: The Game Awards.”

► From CBS News — New York accuses UPS of stealing wages from thousands of seasonal workers — New York Attorney General Letitia James accused UPS of violating labor laws by using unlawful timekeeping practices to underpay seasonal help. “UPS built its holiday business on the backs of workers who were not paid for their time and labor,” James said in a statement announcing the charges. “UPS’s seasonal employees work brutal hours in the cold to deliver the holiday packages families across the country count on. Instead of compensating these workers fairly for their labor, UPS has played the Grinch.”

► From Bloomberg — UPS invests $120 million in robots to unload trucks — United Parcel Service Inc. is investing $120 million to purchase 400 robots that will unload trucks as part of its broader $9 billion automation strategy aimed at increasing profits by reducing labor costs, Bloomberg reports…According to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, UPS plans to deploy these robots across multiple facilities during the second half of 2026 and into 2027. The purchase follows years of experimentation to verify that the robots can effectively help lower labor expenses.

► From Wired — Ford Kills the All-Electric F-150 as It Rethinks Its EV Ambitions — The company will no longer make a large all-electric truck, Ford executives told reporters Monday, and will repurpose an electric vehicle plant in Tennessee to build gas-powered cars. The next generation of Ford’s all-electric F-150 Lighting will instead be an extended-range electric vehicle, or EREV, a plug-in hybrid that uses an electric motor to power its wheels while a smaller gasoline engine recharges the battery…The new plans leave Ford with a bunch of excess battery-making capacity, which the company says it will use by opening a whole new business: a battery energy-storage sideline.

► From the New Republic — Inside Chicago’s Neighborhood ICE Resistance — Neither political nor legal interventions have managed to meaningfully interrupt what’s going on. ICE-free zones, residents report, do not stop ICE. And the slow-moving legal system can’t prevent agents from violating residents’ constitutional rights; indeed, the system largely functions to offer redress after the fact. Even when courts have ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement or CBP to cease some violent action, such as lobbing tear gas into residential neighborhoods, agents ignored them. The scores of terrifying arrests continued. The one response that has been genuinely effective has come from community members—ordinary residents who have come together, trained one another, and connected across neighborhoods to form groups like the Southwest Side Rapid Response Team. They have eyes on the street, the trust of their neighbors, and the ability to intervene practically instantaneously, sharing information with the ICE-activity hotline that operates across the state.

 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Hill — Amendment to extend ObamaCare subsidies hits roadblock — An agreement between moderate Republicans and GOP leadership in the House to allow a vote on extending expiring Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies is on the rocks as the two sides squabble over the contents of the amendment. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and other GOP centrists are planning to introduce an amendment in the House Rules Committee on Tuesday that pairs a two-year extension of the subsidies with eligibility reforms, according to a House GOP staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

► From Politico — ‘Our message is simple’: Democrats unite as GOP again struggles to address health care –With key Obamacare tax credits set to expire within weeks, Democrats have unified behind a simple message: extend the subsidies and keep health insurance premiums from spiking for more than 20 million Americans. Republicans, meanwhile, have engaged in a wide-ranging blame game while scrambling to coalesce behind an easily digestible plan to lower health care costs…Now rank-and-file Republicans in both chambers are privately strategizing about how to pull off an unlikely 11th-hour deal to avert a health care price shock that has triggered significant anxiety throughout the party about the political blowback they could face in the 2026 midterms.

► From Politico Pro — DC Circuit leans toward Trump in federal union ban case — The Trump administration appears likely to prevail on a procedural matter in a legal battle over an order revoking collective bargaining rights for workers at nearly a dozen federal agencies, including EPA and the Energy and Interior departments. During a Monday hearing, federal judges in Washington zeroed in on whether unions’ challenge against the directive belonged not before a federal court but instead before a quasi-judicial body that handles disputes between federal agencies and employees…If the Federal Labor Relations Authority reaches a conclusion unfavorable to federal workers, unions would still have the option to eventually fight that determination in court, said Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, during Monday’s oral arguments.

► From the New York Times — Trump’s Cuts Hobbled US Labor Board, Leaving Festering Disputes and a Power Struggle — “The inability of the board to function for the last year has highlighted, for people who care about labor relations in this country, how broken the system is,” said Lauren McFerran, a Democrat and former chairwoman of the N.L.R.B. “Anyone could have seen this coming, but a year of nonfunctional labor law is a crisis point.”…In one case, which grew out of unfair labor practice claims against SpaceX and two other companies, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in August that the N.L.R.B.’s structure was unconstitutional, and granted the companies an immediate hold on the cases against them. This means that labor law is effectively unenforceable in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, which make up the circuit.

► From Safety & Health Magazine — Union pushes FAA to broaden efforts to address airport ramp worker safety — In another comment submitted to FAA, Greg Regan, president of AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department, called on FAA to network with labor organizations to distribute the survey to a wider base. “Tragically, in the last few years, there have been injuries and fatalities among ramp workers directly attributable to inadequate training and faulty equipment,” Regan wrote. “Every day, airport ramp workers encounter serious hazards, including jet blasts, engine ingestion, tire explosions and various vehicular accidents, often with limited protective measures in place.Ramp workers’ jobs are physically and mentally demanding, and their risks are exacerbated without proper training.”

► From Black Press USA — The Voting Rights Act Is Under Threat. So Are Workers’ Rights. — In our workplaces, in our communities and in our government, the right to vote is how working people make our voices heard. The late Rep. John Lewis (Georgia) proclaimed, “Your vote is precious, almost sacred.” The Supreme Court’s recent decision allowing Texas to use a racially discriminatory congressional map threatens that precious right once again—and with it, the foundation of worker power itself…When Black voter turnout surged, so did worker power, especially in the South, where the [Voting Rights Act] helped create a diverse coalition of working-class voters. According to research from the University of California San Diego, the VRA narrowed the wage gap between Black and White workers by 5.5% between 1950 and 1980. Another study found that high-turnout communities saw more paved roads and streetlights; better access to city and county resources; and easier entry into public sector jobs such as police, firefighters and teachers.

► From the Seattle Times — OPINION: Proposal to notify workers of ICE audits worth the cost to WA budget — Washington lawmakers’ proposed legislation designed to help employers combat the aggressive, and in some cases illegal, actions of federal immigration officials could help protect employees and the state’s economic interests…The bill is intended to lessen the chances of raids on workplaces where unsuspecting workers are snatched up and detained by immigration officers, often without due process. Such practices have been all too common in the 11 months of the Trump administration, resulting in families being torn apart and businesses negatively impacted.

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