NEWS ROUNDUP
Moses Lake strike | Gen Z men ❤️ unions | Healthcare
Wednesday, December 3, 2025
STRIKES
► From the Yakima Herald — Moses Lake teachers on strike as negotiations continue — “We don’t want to be out here,” Larson Heights Elementary Teacher Lana Redal said. “In fact, the last place we want to be is the strike line. We would much rather be in our classrooms, working with our students, but the district keeps taking and taking in this contract and we can’t stand behind that.” This is the third school strike in Washington this year. Evergreen Public Schools classified staff went on strike for three weeks, and the La Center School District teachers struck for one week at the beginning of the school year.
► From the union-busting Columbian — Legacy Health advanced practice providers go on strike — Advanced practice providers at Legacy Health began an open-ended strike Tuesday morning after nearly two years at the bargaining table, according to the Oregon Nurses Association. Strike lines were established at 6 a.m. at Legacy Good Samaritan and Legacy Emanuel medical centers in Portland. Starting Wednesday, picket lines will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week. The union represents 135 advanced practice providers across the Legacy system, including 10 employees who work at Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center…The union said Legacy lags behind what other health care organizations offer their advanced practice providers in total compensation, contributing to a struggle to recruit and retain top frontline caregivers. It also contends many were not compensated for the administrative work they’re required to complete.
► From KREM — WATCH: Moses Lake educators striking for third consecutive day
LOCAL
► From the Cascadia Daily News — Federal backlash to DC shooting sparks fear among Whatcom immigrants –Gabe Harrison, a Bellingham immigration attorney, said since the attack, he’s spoken to the handful of Afghan clients he’s had in recent years. “They’re worried that their cases are going to be jeopardized by the actions of this one person who doesn’t represent them in any way,” Harrison said. “So the general feeling is, ‘What’s going to happen to us now?’”…Harrison, the immigration attorney, said before now he wouldn’t have thought of Afghan clients as at particular risk for enforcement. Their home country doesn’t share a border with the U.S., he pointed out, and many had already served the U.S. in some capacity in Afghanistan. The threat presented by the Taliban is well-known. Now, he is concerned about Afghans in the U.S. being deported to a third country — and, once there, potential removal to Afghanistan. Back in their home country, some could face “death, torture, incarceration,” he said.
► From KING 5 — Inside Tacoma ICE facility, a deacon offers a rare perspective from behind locked doors –His weekly visits come at a time when the number of people held in ICE custody has climbed to its highest level on record nationwide, according to TRAC data. TRAC is a nonpartisan research group that pulls immigration court and detention data directly from the federal government and turns it into easy-to-read reports. The rapidly changing immigration landscape, he says, can test even those grounded in faith. “Gosh, I don’t know if I was in that situation, would I feel the same way?” he said. “I’m not sure I would, to be very honest.” Lezcano is an immigrant himself, and he says it has become harder to hear the people he meets inside portrayed as criminals. Most are awaiting hearings or outcomes in immigration court — a civil, not criminal, process.
► From the Washington State Standard — Trump administration sues WA for not sharing voter data — Secretary of State Steve Hobbs told the Justice Department in September that he would be willing to provide voter names, addresses, genders, years of birth, voting records, registration dates and registration numbers. But he wouldn’t give dates of birth, driver’s license numbers or the last four digits of social security numbers. He wrote that information is protected under Washington law…The Justice Department is asking a judge to order Hobbs to provide the state’s voter registration list, including either voters’ driver’s license numbers or the last four digits of their social security numbers.
► From the Tri-City Herald — Energy secretary to visit Hanford site, PNNL and dam — President Trump’s energy secretary plans his first official visit to the Hanford nuclear site, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Ice Harbor Dam since he was confirmed 10 months ago…On Friday, Wright will visit the 580-square-mile Hanford nuclear site adjacent to the Tri-Cities.
CONTRACT FIGHTS
► From the Hollywood Reporter — ‘The Pitt’ Production Assistants Unanimously Ratify First Union Contract –Just a few months after voting to unionize, the workers on the HBO Max medical drama have unanimously ratified their first contract with the production. The deal will apply to the show’s still-in-the-works second season and a third season if HBO Max renews the series. Representatives from the labor group Production Assistants United announced the news on Tuesday. Principally, the labor contract allows PAs on the show to qualify for the Motion Picture Industry Health and Pension plans like other crew members. Returning PAs for the show’s third season, if it is greenlit, will also receive a $1.22 an hour raise per the deal.
► From the Hollywood Reporter — Los Angeles Times Journalists Ratify New Labor Contract, Averting Strike — “It should not have taken this long to get here,” Guild unit chair and Times reporter Matt Hamilton said in a statement. “But despite management’s repeated attempts to stonewall talks and sow division, our members endured and came out stronger on the other side. This contract is proof of our tenacity.” The deal offers members thousands of dollars in raises. Employees at the Times will receive $3,000 in wage increases in the first year of the contract, $2,750 in the second year and $2,500 in the third year. Those who work at Times Community News will receive $5,000 raises in the first year of the deal and $4,000 in the second and third years.
NATIONAL
► From the Center for American Progress — Why Gen Z Men Are the Most Pro-Union Generation in History: Unions Build Stable Finances — Young men are struggling to achieve financial independence. A 2023 Pew Research Center study found that 36 percent of 25-year-old men have not achieved financial independence yet, a larger proportion than in 1980. Fewer Gen Z men are participating in the labor force compared with older generations at their age, and concern is growing that young men are falling behind in the job market. The result is high anxiety among young men about whether they will be able to afford important life goals, including buying a home and especially having children…Unions offer substantial economic gains for all workers, but the boost for young men is especially large. In 2022 the union wage premium, or the amount more that a worker could expect to earn if they were a union member, other things being equal, was 11.3 percent for workers between the ages of 18 and 34. For men younger than 34, union membership increased wages by 17.6 percent.
► From the Nonprofit Quarterly — How Worksite Outreach Can Protect Immigrants — Working in collaboration with CLEAN Carwash Worker Center, Organized Power in Numbers, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 770, and Warehouse Worker Resource Center, we launched an eight-week, multi-industry Know Your Rights outreach program. In our organizational history, we had rarely engaged in direct organizing with small businesses; we found a surprisingly receptive audience. Small-business owners, it turns out, are often as interested in learning about their Fourth Amendment rights as immigrant workers themselves.
► From In These Times — Despite Trump’s Threats, Labor Leaders say They’re Not Going Anywhere — Everett Kelley: We as a union, especially in the federal sector, have to reimagine this moment and how the union fits into this moment. This is a different environment than what we’re used to. We’ve been working with various groups to talk about imagining and restructuring AFGE to fit the moment. This guy came at us with an intent to break us, but we took the opportunity to reorganize our dues structure, and in less than three months, we put 150,000 employees on a new system that belonged to AFGE. We’ve been here for 93 years, fighting these fights, and we’ll be here long after this administration has gone.
► From NBC News — Driverless Waymo vehicle goes through tense police stop in L.A. — This trip was Waymo dangerous than it needed to be. The robotaxi operated by Waymo was driven just a few feet away from a Los Angeles police felony stop downtown following a vehicle chase early Sunday — a brief brush with danger that was caught on video by incredulous onlookers and ended with nobody hurt, according to video and police…Immediately, police officers could be heard yelling at the vehicle to get away. But instead of splitting, the Waymo appeared to slow down briefly and signal it was turning right. “Go to your left! Go to your left!” a police officer was heard yelling at the wayward Waymo. “Go through.”
POLITICS & POLICY
► From the Hill — GOP pessimism grows over any deal to extend expiring health care subsidies — Senate Republicans don’t see a bipartisan deal to extend enhanced health insurance premium subsidies coming together before the Christmas deadline, given the complexity of the issue and a growing fight over abortion, an issue that deeply divides both parties…Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), another member of the Senate Democratic leadership team, said neither Senate Republican leaders nor the White House have presented any substantive proposals to keep the enhanced subsidies from expiring. “There are no Republicans willing to negotiate over this. None. Where is Donald Trump? Where is the Republican leadership in the House or the Senate? None of them want to talk about health care assistance for American families,” she said.
► From the New York Times — Trump Calls Affordability a ‘Con Job’ as His Edge on the Economy Slips — After Democrats won decisive victories in state and local elections last month, in part powered by a focus on prices, the Trump administration has been rolling out new affordability policies and recasting its economic messaging to match…But on Tuesday, Mr. Trump turned his ire back to his political foes, saying they had seized on the issue for political gain. Mr. Trump reprised his attacks on former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who he said had left him a failing economy and high inflation. But in dismissing stubbornly high costs, Mr. Trump risks finding himself in the same trap that Mr. Biden did — insisting that Americans are not experiencing the sticker shock that polls have consistently shown they are feeling.
► From Notus — Stalled Cases and Strained Staff: Trump’s NLRB Gives Workers Little Recourse — President Donald Trump fired board member Gwynne Wilcox in January — before her term was set to expire in 2028 — leaving the board without a three-member quorum necessary to resolve cases. Now, those stalled cases are adding to the NLRB’s backlog, former employees of the agency said. Appealing an unfavorable order from the agency’s lower courts has become a way to delay cases indefinitely. “Anyone who wants to get a case stuck right now can get that case stuck,” said Lauren McFerran, a former board member and the NLRB chair during the Biden administration.
► From the Hill — Scalise says GOP leaders ‘looking at other places’ for AI preemption as NDAA push stalls –House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said Tuesday that Republican leaders are “looking at other places” to include a measure that would block state AI laws after running into difficulties adding the provision into an annual defense bill. The push to include AI preemption in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), an effort backed by President Trump, has split Republican lawmakers in recent weeks amid final negotiations over the legislation.
► From the Washington Post — Trump administration will block SNAP management funds for blue states — The Trump administration plans to block Democratic-controlled states from accessing billions of dollars they need to run their food stamp programs unless governors turn over benefits rolls to federal officials, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Tuesday. In May, Rollins ordered states to submit information on enrollees of SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps, so administration officials could verify the eligibility of the more than 42 million monthly participants. It’s unclear if Rollins has the authority to demand that data, and the request could violate recipients’ privacy rights.
► From the Washington Post — Corporations to claim $16B from retroactive GOP tax break, federal report says — Corporations are expected to claim $16 billion in new tax breaks this year for purchases they had already made and put into use before the July passage of the Republican tax law, according to an analysis from the Joint Committee on Taxation…The JCT, responding to a letter from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), estimated deductions over those five months will cost $16 billion in federal tax revenue. The committee is a nonpartisan panel that produces independent analysis of tax policy and assists lawmakers in writing legislation. “This blatant corporate handout will do nothing to encourage additional investments, as it is impossible to incentivize economic activity that has already happened,” Warren wrote in the letter.
► From the Washington State Standard — WA Gov. Bob Ferguson says he’s drafting a cuts-only budget — Gov. Bob Ferguson warned Tuesday that the budget proposal he’ll release this month will rely solely on spending cuts and not higher taxes to overcome what he says is a multi-billion dollar shortfall. “That’s the plan,” Ferguson told reporters at the state Capitol. “I don’t plan on balancing the budget with revenue.”…Shortly before Ferguson made his comments, state Rep. Shaun Scott, D-Seattle, held a press conference on the Capitol steps about payroll tax legislation he is sponsoring that would target larger companies with higher-paid employees. He pointed to billions of dollars in spending reductions lawmakers made this year, as they also pushed through upward of $9 billion in new and higher taxes. Since then, estimates have shown tax collections falling below expectations. “The question I would ask is: How many cuts is enough?” Scott said. “Revenue is the way that we solve many of the problems that are posed in front of us.”
► From KOMO News — Tacoma City Council considers changes to renter protections amid concerns — Groups like Tacoma for All oppose the changes, fearing it will force more families out onto the streets. “If this goes through it is very likely that we will see an increase in homelessness and displacement,” Kiss’Shonna Curtis, vice chair of Tacoma for All, said. “A lot of these things are helping families prepare if they need to move, to stay housed.” The amendments are up for a first reading at city council Tuesday night, with a second reading scheduled for next week’s council meeting.
TODAY’S MUST-READ
► From Wired — DOGE Isn’t Dead. Here’s What Its Operatives Are Doing Now — The DOGE ethos—characterized by cutting contracts and government workers, consolidating data across agencies, and importing private sector practices—remains fully in force. While several media reports have suggested that DOGE has all but fizzled out, DOGE affiliates are scattered across the federal government working as developers, designers, and even leading agencies in powerful roles. “That’s absolutely false,” one USDA source says of reporting that DOGE has disbanded. “They are in fact burrowed into the agencies like ticks.” DOGE has “just transformed,” an IRS employee tells WIRED. While DOGE is no longer moving across the government in a move-fast-and-break-things blitz, DOGE affiliates appear to be digging in for the long haul—and Silicon Valley–shaped fingerprints remain all over the way agencies continue to be run.
The Stand posts links to local, national and international labor news every weekday morning. Subscribe to get daily news in your inbox.