ILWU contract win | DHS funding in limbo | Unions sue FEMA

Thursday, January 29, 2026

STRIKES

► From Starbucks Workers United:

Editor’s note: RSVP for the Feb. 2 call online.

► From ABC 7 — NYC nurses strike: Union workers hold day of action to protest ICE in New York City hospitals — Nurses have returned to the picket lines outside Montefiore, NewYork-Presbyterian and Mount Sinai hospitals after the winter storm. The New York State Nurses Association union is calling for increased staffing and protections against workplace violence. On Thursday the nurses were joined by several local congress members at Mount Sinai to also demand that ICE be kept out of the hospitals to protect care for immigrant patients. “We are horrified by ICE interfering with patient care in California and canvassing parking lots at federally qualified health clinics in Chicago, we know that the fear of encountering ICE already caused our Mount Sinai patients to delay or stop seeking care,” said Mount Sinai nurse Lillian Espinoza.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From Labor Notes — Organizing Down the Supply Chain: Logistics Workers Win First Contract  — One hundred and fifty workers at a vehicle processing center in Tacoma, Washington, won their first contract last year, in a huge step for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union organizing down the supply chain…The lowest wages at the facility were less than 40 percent of what ILWU members earned doing the same work for the same company across the street. Other problems loomed even larger: abusive management, dangerous speed-ups, and high turnover…The workers launched their organizing drive in 2024 with a march on the boss. They delivered a majority petition demanding action to address worker injuries, forced overtime, imposed 10- and 12-hour shifts, pressure to violate speed limits, inadequate equipment, and failure to train and certify drivers and forklift operators.

► From Deadline — Slate Editorial Staff Ratifies New Contract With WGA East That Establishes Bargaining Unit’s First AI Protections — Among the notable provisions, the deal introduces a new article establishing both protections against the implementation of AI, as well as guidelines for the development of a public-facing editorial policy on its use. Company management will be required to provide advance notice and details before the introduction of any generative AI tool in an editorial capacity, and members “have the ability to remove their byline from any AI-related editorial asks that they feel would compromise editorial integrity,” the WGA East says. Additionally, the company must work directly in consultation with the union to develop editorial guidelines and review processes for the use of AI in an editorial context.

► From Deadline — SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin Talks AI, Residuals, Pensions & More Ahead Of 2026 Labor Negotiations With AMPTP — “The concept of residuals is reported strangely. The reporting on what residuals are seems to miss that our members are investing their time, energy, skill and talent into a project, and when the project is exhibited, we expect that investment to be realized. Shareholders put their money in. Everybody puts in their sweat equity. But I think that sometimes people look at performers with residuals and wonder, ‘What’s the point?’ And that’s the point. We work very hard over an extended period of time just to get those jobs. That work, that time, and then the actual work we do, needs to be reflected in the full picture of how they exploit the contractual term of these projects [and] how they make their money.”

NATIONAL

► From Wired — ICE Is Using Palantir’s AI Tools to Sort Through Tips — Palantir has been a major ICE contractor since 2011, and it provides a sweeping set of analytical tools for the agency. Until now, however, almost nothing has been known about Palantir’s work processing tips for ICE. This work was mentioned once in the description of a $1.96 million Palantir payment that ICE made in September 2025. The payment was to modify the Investigative Case Management System (ICM)—a version of Palantir’s off-the-shelf law enforcement product, Gotham, which stores information about current or former ICE investigations—to include the “Tipline and Investigative Leads Suite.”…After federal agents shot and killed Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretti on Saturday, Palantir workers pressed leadership for answers on the company’s work with ICE. In Slack messages, reviewed by WIRED this week, workers asked whether Palantir could “put any pressure on ICE at all.” One worker wrote, “Our involvement with ice has been internally swept under the rug under Trump2 too much. We need an understanding of our involvement here.”

► From the AP — Layoffs are piling up, heightening worker anxiety. Here are some of the biggest recent job cuts — Employers have initiated layoffs across sectors — with many pointing to rising operational costs that span from President Donald Trump’s barrage of new tariffs, stubborn inflation and shifts in spending from consumers, whose outlook on the U.S. economy recently plummeted to its lowest level since 2014. Others are still working to downsize their workforces after a pandemic-era hiring boom, particularly in e-commerce. At the same time, more and more businesses are reducing their workforces as they redirect money to artificial intelligence, often baked into wider corporate restructuring.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the AP — Democrats block government funding package in Senate as negotiations continue to avert a shutdown — Thursday’s 45-55 test vote came as Democrats have threatened a partial government shutdown when money runs out on Friday. But Trump said just ahead of the vote that “we don’t want a shutdown” and the two sides were discussing a possible agreement to separate homeland security funding from the rest of the legislation and fund it for a short time…Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York has said that Democrats won’t provide needed votes until U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is “reined in and overhauled” and that this is “a moment of truth.”

► From Politico — Republicans set to make ‘best and final’ Obamacare offer, Moreno says — GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno said that Republicans will make their “best and final” offer after weeks of bipartisan talks to revive lapsed Obamacare subsidies. “It’s going to be in the hands of the Democrats very shortly. … Here’s the exact thing that we think is the maximum we can sell our conference,” Moreno told reporters…But others involved in the negotiations have been surprised by Moreno’s comments about the impending release of a bill, noting that Democrats had not seen or signed off on anything yet, according to two people granted anonymity to speak candidly about the talks.

► From Bloomberg Law — Top NLRB Lawyer Sets Focus on Backlog Over Changing Precedents — The National Labor Relations Board’s new top lawyer broke with tradition and declined to preview her goals for changing federal labor law at the outset of her term. NLRB General Counsel Crystal Carey said in a memo Wednesday that she decided against immediately issuing a directive instructing regional offices to submit to headquarters cases related to specific legal precedents. She said her “priority is to address the backlog of cases, not add to it.” Carey’s memo is a departure from her predecessors, underscoring the challenge presented by the enormous case backlog and understaffing at the NLRB.

► From the New York Times — Unions Sue FEMA Over Work Force Cuts They Say Threaten Readiness — The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, seeks to block the dismissals of hundreds of contract workers at FEMA that began at the start of the year. About 1,000 employees were expected to lose their jobs this month, although the agency paused the cuts last week in anticipation of a winter storm that raged across the country, according to internal FEMA emails reviewed by The New York Times.

► From KUOW — Caregivers for the elderly could lose wage protections under Trump proposal — The Labor Department has proposed rescinding an Obama-era rule that extended coverage of the Fair Labor Standards Act to home care workers. The 2013 rule granted them labor protections most other workers have had since 1938. Those include the right to earn at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and overtime, paid at one-and-a-half times their regular rate when they work more than 40 hours a week.

► From East Pierce Fire Fighters:

► From Commonwealth Times — Faculty union holds out for potential repeal of collective bargaining ban — Democrats have introduced legislation to repeal Virginia’s ban on collective bargaining for public employees. The bills, backed by the United Campus Workers of Virginia (UCW-VA), could dramatically change the way university employment functions in the state…Currently, people employed by the state of Virginia do not have the right to collectively bargain through labor unions, including public universities, and in turn, VCU employees. Virginia’s ban on public-sector collective bargaining was created after an incident in 1943, when 28 Black women who worked as maids in the University of Virginia’s hospital walked out in protest against unfair pay.

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