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NEWS ROUNDUP

CEO pay | Immigrant worker protections | Private prison profits

Tuesday, February 17, 2026

 

STRIKES

► From Cal Matters — Kaiser strike enters fourth week, disrupting patient care — More than 31,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers remained on strike Monday as the open-ended walkout entered its fourth week, disrupting patient appointments, surgeries and treatments across California and Hawaii. Bargaining teams for Kaiser and workers resumed negotiations after weeks of stalemate, but no agreement appears imminent. This is the latest of a number of major strikes to have roiled Kaiser in recent years, including a 10-week strike by mental health workers in 2022 and a 2023 dispute mediated by the then-U.S. Secretary of Labor.

 

LOCAL

► From the Seattle Times — One WA CEO makes 1,794 times his average employee. Here’s why — Starbucks, like most of Seattle’s corporate titans, has taken fire from workers and observers for the yawning pay gap between executives and rank-and-file employees. An upswing in executive compensation has largely been driven by a rising stock market — even struggling Starbucks saw a boost in its share price in late 2024 through early 2025 — as CEO pay gets more closely tied to stock awards. That swing makes a bad look worse for Seattle’s large, publicly traded companies, which have to report pay disparity levels contrasting CEO compensation with that earned by the median employee. For retail employers that rely on low-wage workers like Starbucks and Amazon, the ratios show an extraordinarily wide gap in 2025.

► From the Seattle Times — ICE releases WA detainee after ‘unreasonable failures of care’ — U.S. District Judge Tana Lin granted the release requested in Greggy Sorio’s habeas corpus petition Friday, stating that the Tacoma detention center’s “unreasonable treatment” of Sorio brought about “extreme consequences” for his health. While in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, Sorio — also known as “Kuya G” — developed a bone infection that led to health care providers amputating one of his toes and a portion of his foot. “I just want to say thank you to everyone. I’m speechless,” Sorio, 37, said during a celebration hosted by the Tanggol Migrante Movement, according to a statement from the organization, which described Sorio’s release as “an unexpected announcement.”

► From My Northwest — Man mauled by ICE K9 in Vancouver released from ICE custody — “On November 14, 2025, my constituent Wilmer was mauled by an ICE attack dog even though he has consistently explained that he was not resisting arrest or attempting to flee,” U.S. Senator Patty Murray, D-WA, said. “His wife and two of his young children, ages two and three, all U.S. citizens, were forced to watch helplessly as he was violently attacked and dragged away…Toledo-Martinez is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who’s married to a U.S. resident and father of three young children. He was brought to the U.S. as a 15-year-old, according to The Seattle Times. According to DHS, he has prior arrests for possession of a loaded firearm. His attorney stated that two prior charges against Toledo-Martinez were dropped and that the other two will be dropped soon.

► From the Seattle Times — Seattle Amazon workers, activists rally outside Spheres against DHS ties — Organizers of the rally, led by Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, No Tech for Apartheid, Defend Immigrants Alliance and other community groups, set out their demands on Thursday. Those included Amazon ending its cloud-computing support to ICE and CBP; ending its partnerships with Palantir, a company whose data has reportedly been used by ICE; and ending Amazon-owned Ring’s partnership with Flock, a police surveillance tech company. Though Amazon didn’t say the move was in response to activists’ demands, the company did scrap its involvement with Flock on Thursday.

► From WAISN:

 

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the Willamette Week — OHSU and Research Union Ink Tentative Deal — A strike threat receded at Oregon Health & Science University on Monday, as the medical center reached a tentative contract agreement with its new research worker union. The union, AFSCME Oregon Research Workers United, represents some 1,700 workers at OHSU, and has been negotiating a first contract for well over a year. Pushing for a better offer, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union said earlier this month it would strike beginning Feb. 18 if no deal was reached.

► From Deadline — SAG-AFTRA & Studios End First Week Of Contract Talks In Silence. That’s Probably A Good Thing. — A media blackout doesn’t guarantee that details won’t emerge. However, silence in the first week likely signals a positive start as both parties presented their initial proposals. This is pretty expected, given that Deadline also hears the two groups have been communicating informally for several months to signal priorities and prime the pump ahead of time…As we previously reported, health and pension plans are the biggest priority for all three guilds in this bargaining cycle. The DGA, WGA and SAG-AFTRA plans have all operated in deficits the last few years to cover rising healthcare and essential living costs amid a dramatic decrease in employment.

► From the New York Times’ Athletic — Adam Silver ‘not ready to set a drop-dead date’ on CBA negotiations with WNBPA — Even if he was unwilling to identify a date that would save the WNBA from having to miss games, Silver did indicate that more urgency was necessary in the bargaining process. The league has to conduct an expansion draft for two new franchises, the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo. The WNBA draft is scheduled for April 13, and training camp will likely begin on April 19, giving the WNBA about a two-month window to conduct all of its offseason business.

 

NATIONAL

► From the Appeal — Despite Increased Profits, Private Prison Companies Want to Cage Even More People — CoreCivic’s revenue from contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) skyrocketed in 2025, but some participants on today’s quarterly earnings call  expressed concerns that ICE had not detained as many immigrants as investors hoped…ICE’s detained population is at its highest level since the agency’s creation in 2003. The majority  are incarcerated in for-profit prisons, which has meant millions of dollars in revenue for the private prison industry. Leading for-profit prison companies, including CoreCivic and GEO Group, donated about half a million dollars to Republican members of Congress currently in office, and $57,000 to Democratic congressmembers, from 2021 through 2025, according to an investigation by The Appeal.

Editor’s note: GEO Group runs the notorious NW Detention Center in Tacoma, generating profits for shareholders off the suffering of thousands of people. 

► From KFF Health News — New Medicaid Work Rules Likely To Hit Middle-Aged Adults Hard — Before the coverage changes were signed into law, Republican lawmakers suggested that young, unemployed men were taking advantage of the government health insurance program that provides coverage to millions of low-income or disabled people. Medicaid is not intended for “29-year-old males sitting on their couches playing video games,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN. But, in reality, adults ages 50 to 64, particularly women, are likely to be hit hard by the new rules…Work rules are the largest driver of coverage losses in the GOP budget law, which slashes nearly $1 trillion to offset the costs of tax breaks that mainly benefit the rich and increase border security, critics say. “We’re talking about saving money at the expense of people’s lives,” said Jane Tavares, a gerontology researcher at the University of Massachusetts Boston. “The work requirement is just a tool to do that.”

► From the Huffington Post — Labor Leader Arrested In ICE Raid Says It’s Time To Go ‘On Offense’ Against Trump — David Huerta faces up to a year in prison for allegedly interfering in a federal immigration raid last year in his hometown of Los Angeles. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial, but he is not staying quiet in the meantime…“In Minneapolis, it’s like they took it to another level ― another level of resistance,” he said. “That’s the most shocking part. And I think people see that.” He added, “I firmly believe that the people right now who are in the crosshairs of this administration are going to be the heroes of this democracy.”

► From the AFL-CIO:

 

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Washington State Standard — ‘Absolutely good news’: WA financial outlook brightens as budget talks heat up — Revenue collections are predicted to increase $827 million in the current two-year budget compared to expectations from November, according to a forecast from the state’s Economic and Revenue Forecast Council. This 1.1% increase reflects early proceeds from the slate of tax increases the Legislature approved last year. Monday’s forecast means projected collections for the current biennium are up $438 million from the numbers lawmakers used to craft the state budget last spring. This puts total revenue expectations at $75.3 billion…Monday’s estimates add to a mild dose of good news the state got from the previous forecast in November, which showed revenue projections up $105 million. But even that little expected growth was expected to be offset by worse receipts in the next fiscal cycle.

► From the Seattle Times — WA House passes bill to warn immigrant workers about ICE action — The Immigrant Workers Protection Act, proposed in October by state Attorney General Nick Brown, would require employers to notify workers within 72 hours of receiving notification by federal officials of plans to inspect workers’ immigration documentation. House Bill 2105 would also prohibit employers from interfering with workers’ rights under the new law or retaliating against workers who exercise those rights. Backers say the law wouldn’t interfere with federal immigration enforcement and is only meant to ensure employees know about any planned inspections.

► From the Spokesman Review — Bill would allow paid leave to be shared for state employees detained by immigration enforcement — Salahuddin pointed to a state employee who was detained last year – along with her 6-year-old – by ICE. Her coworkers tried to share their sick leave, but under current law could not. “That gap is what this bill fixes,” he said. Washington Federation of State Employees president Mike Yestramski said the legislation should not be a partisan issue and is simply common sense. “Our state benefits from the labor of workers, some of which were not always U.S. citizens,” he said.

► From Bloomberg — Trump Renews Push to End Union Contracts for Federal Workers — The Trump administration ordered federal agencies to begin the process of formally terminating collective bargaining agreements with public-sector unions, a move the unions argued should prompt a DC court to intervene…In an accompanying document, the OPM instructed impacted agencies to “file decertification petitions or unit clarification petitions” with the Federal Labor Relations Authority. The OPM also required agencies to file monthly status reports for all impacted collective bargaining units until “all termination notices are executed and reported.”

 

INTERNATIONAL

► From the AP — Indian unions and farmers stage a nationwide strike over interim trade deal with US — A coalition of major trade unions and farmers’ groups in India mounted a nationwide strike Thursday to protest an interim trade deal with the United States, saying the agreement undermines the interests of farmers, small businesses and workers…A union leader said that the trade deal with Washington opens the Indian market to subsidized agricultural products, threatening the livelihoods of millions of small farmers. “Cheap American farm produce will be dumped in India, making it difficult for our farmers and small businesses to compete,” said Amarjeet Kaur, general-secretary of All India Trade Union Congress, a prominent union that took part in the strike.

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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