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NEWS ROUNDUP

Honoring Alex Pretti | TA @ Children’s | More calls to impeach Noem

Wednesday, January 28, 2026

 

STRIKES

► From ABC 7 — NYC Nurses Strike: Union resumes negotiations with hospitals after break in picketing due to storm — The two-and-a-half-week-old strike had some signs of progress when the union reached a deal on maintaining health benefits at two hospitals – this was a key sticking point. Nurses union says Mount Sinai and New York Presbyterian have agreed to keep the nurses’ current health plan. Still, the hospitals and nurses must reach final tentative contract agreements.

 

LOCAL

► From the Seattle Times — Health care workers pay tribute to Alex Pretti at vigil outside Seattle VA — The rally and vigil were organized in part by the American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents VA hospital employees like Pretti. In an emailed statement, Local 3197 President Peter Hranek called Pretti’s death shocking and called for justice. “Alex Pretti died as he lived, helping others. By all accounts, he was a good and kind man,” Hranek wrote. “He didn’t deserve to die like that. He didn’t deserve to be called a terrorist. He deserves our respect, and he deserves justice.”

► From KING 5 — Rally on Seattle’s Beacon Hill honors Minnesota nurse killed by federal agents — Jennifer I., a representative of AFGE Local 3197, said Pretti embodied the values of the VA and public service. “He was one of our own,” she said. “He was exemplifying VA values with everything he was doing, and for him to be killed for that is simply abhorrent.” Veterans in attendance said Pretti’s work made his death especially personal. “Because of Alex working for the VA, I just feel really identified with him,” said Tom, a veteran who participated in the vigil. “I know what kind of person he was.”

► From OPB — Nurses and protesters make memorial for Alex Pretti at Portland VA Medical Center — About two dozen nurses and doctors from the Portland VA joined the crowd that was honoring Pretti Tuesday, some in their scrubs on their way into work for an evening shift. Ruby Parco-Magalit, a bedside nurse with the Portland VA, attended the memorial with a small group of friends. She said she had come to support her colleagues and her neighbors, including immigrants. “I need to show my face and have my voice heard,” Parco-Magalit said, “I think I’ve been lurking in the dark.” Other VA staff who attended the memorial held signs denouncing ICE, but didn’t want to give their names. Morale at the federal agency has been low, they said, with little more than a formal email that went out this week acknowledging Pretti’s death.

► From the Burner — OPINION: ICE Abducted A Father In Shoreline In Front Of His Child, En Route To Daycare — The abducted dad was in the back pen of ICE’s Dodge Charger. And in the back seat of the dad’s car, his two-year-old son sat alone, in his car seat, with ICE agents and flashing lights surrounding him. Talking with the ICE agents, we learned that they were awaiting a family member to come pick up the boy. That wait lasted 30 minutes. It was beyond heartbreaking to see this little boy, through the window, darting his gaze around every which way, trying to figure out what was going on. No one was in the car with him. Armed agents surrounded the car. At times, the boy pulled a white fuzzy blanket over his whole body and covered his head. After a while, he’d pull it down again and look around some more.

 

AEROSPACE

► From the Everett Herald — Boeing begins hiring for new 737 variant production line at Everett factory — Boeing is beginning to hire workers for a 737 MAX 10 production line at the Everett factory and expects to start the line later this year, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said Tuesday. Ortberg made the comments during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Tuesday morning. “Facility and tooling upgrades for the production line are now complete, and we’re executing a deliberate staffing plan to support production there,” Ortberg said.

 

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From My Northwest — Washington State Nurses Association reaches tentative agreement with Seattle Children’s — The union represents 2,100 registered nurses at the hospital. “We’ve worked extremely hard and fought very hard for not only the wages that are proposed, but a lot of other protections and things for nurses to have a better nursing career at Seattle Children’s,” nurse Lindsey Kirsch, who is also an officer for the union, said. She said the agreement includes more protections against workplace violence for nurses…Voting on the tentative agreement will be held online from Thursday night through Saturday night, the union said.

► From Pitt News — A look into the WNBA’s possible lockout and CBA negotiations — In practical terms, the status quo is a pause, not a resolution. It allows the league to keep running while negotiations continue, but it also keeps the possibility of a work stoppage as an option. If owners decide to act, they can initiate a lockout, which would prevent players from accessing team facilities and stop pay and benefits. A lockout is typically used as a leverage tool, forcing players to negotiate on the league’s timeline. The players also have leverage. In December 2025, the WNBPA voted overwhelmingly — 98% — to authorize a strike if negotiations fail.

 

ORGANIZING

► From Starbucks Workers United:

 

NATIONAL

► From the American Prospect — Organized Labor Escalates Against ICE Summary Executions — Now union members are organizing to escalate. Over the weekend, workers across sectors met throughout the country to determine their next steps, including striking again for a day, holding an indefinite strike, and building toward a general strike. In 2023, United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain called on unions everywhere to set their contracts to end on May 1, 2028, so that workers across industries could go on strike that day legally. Union contracts often include a no-strike clause that forbids workers from going on strike, forcing workers to strike only after their contract expires. (Workers may also undertake a wildcat strike, which federal law holds is illegal.)

► From CNN — Alex Pretti was in earlier confrontation with federal agents who tackled him, broke his rib, sources say — Federal immigration officers have been collecting personal information about protesters and agitators in Minneapolis, sources told CNN – and had documented details about Alex Pretti before he was shot to death on Saturday. It is unclear how Pretti first came to the attention of federal authorities, but sources told CNN that about a week before his death, he suffered a broken rib when a group of federal officers tackled him while he was protesting their attempt to detain other individuals…Some Trump officials have spoken publicly about the idea of creating a database of protesters, though it’s not clear what ICE has done with the information collected through the form circulated to agents in Minneapolis.

► From the Washington State Standard — Democratic AGs stress importance of citizen-generated evidence in challenging ICE — Cellphone video has emerged as a powerful rebuttal to Trump’s version of events, at a time when the federal government has restricted state and local investigators from accessing potential evidence to pursue their own investigations into excessive force and fatal shootings by immigration agents in their jurisdictions…Constitutional limits make it difficult, although not impossible, for states to prosecute federal officers for violations of state law, said Bryna Godar, a staff attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. But there are some successful cases in which states have pursued officers who are alleged to have gone beyond the scope of their federal duties or have acted unreasonably in carrying out those duties, she said.

► From the Chicago Sun Times — Woman shot by Border Patrol in Chicago asks judge to let her release evidence — The woman who survived five gunshots from a Border Patrol agent in Chicago last fall, only to be criminally charged and then cleared, now wants a judge’s permission to share evidence that shows how the feds respond when “their agents use deadly force against U.S. citizens.”…Border Patrol agent Charles Exum shot Martinez Oct. 4, during the immigration campaign in Chicago known as Operation Midway Blitz. Exum fired five shots at Martinez resulting in seven wounds and later bragged “put that in your book boys” in a text message.

► From the AP:

► From the AP — UPS looks to cut up to 30,000 jobs this year — UPS is planning to cut up to 30,000 operational jobs this year as the package delivery company continues with its turnaround efforts and reducing the number of Amazon shipments that it handles. Last year, UPS started on a plan to reduce dependency on its largest customer, Amazon, and focus on higher-profit areas such as healthcare customers. Chief Financial Officer Brian Dykes said during the company’s conference call on Tuesday that the job cuts will be made through a voluntary buyout offer for full-time drivers and through attrition.

 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the AP — Trump signals interest in easing tensions, but there’s little change in Minneapolis — Trump said he and Gov. Tim Walz, whom he criticized for weeks, were on “a similar wavelength” following a phone call. After a conversation with Mayor Jacob Frey, the president praised the discussion and declared that “lots of progress is being made.” But on city streets, there were few signs of a shift. Immigration enforcement operations and confrontations with activists continued Wednesday in Minneapolis and St. Paul…Associated Press journalists were in the neighborhood covering the enforcement actions. When the journalists got out of their car to document the encounter, officers with the federal Bureau of Prisons pushed one of them, threatened them with arrest and told them to get back in their car despite the reporters’ identifying themselves as media.

► From the Washington State Standard — Here’s the list of US House Democrats who want to impeach Kristi Noem — At least 164 members — more than three-fourths of all House Democrats, who total 213 — backed an impeachment resolution against Noem as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the office of Illinois Rep. Robin Kelly, who authored the measure…Kelly’s three articles of impeachment against Noem accuse the secretary of obstruction of Congress, violation of public trust and self-dealing. The resolution came after the Jan. 7 fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good by a federal agent in Minneapolis.

Editor’s note: Washington’s Reps. Delbene, Jayapal, Randall, Smith, and Strickland are in support 

► From the AP — Judge rules Massachusetts offshore wind project halted by Trump administration can continue — At U.S. District Court in Boston, Judge Brian Murphy halted the administration’s stop work order for Vineyard Wind, citing the potential economic losses from the delays and the developers’ likelihood of success on their claims. Vineyard Wind is one of five big offshore wind projects on the East Coast that the Trump administration froze days before Christmas, citing national security concerns — and the fourth that has since been allowed to go forward.

► From the Cascadia Daily News — For third time, WWU student workers attempt to get union recognized — House Bill 1570 would allow Western’s operational student employees, who have already voted to unionize three times, to join the educational student employees’ union, WAWU-UAW 4929. The more than 1,000 operational student employees fill roles as resident advisers, event assistants and more…In 2026, it’s been amended to only apply to operational student employees at Western. Staff estimated this will reduce the cost of the bill to about $200,000 annually. Emily Myers, with UAW Region 6, spoke in support of the bill on Monday, saying that the “change in scope is supported by a number of student organizations as well as labor unions across the state.” Representatives from the Washington Student Association also spoke in favor.

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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