Partial shutdown | Union members protest | Texas stunner

Monday, February 2, 2026

STRIKES

► From the New York Times — After Weeks of Rancor, a Glimmer of Hope in N.Y.C. Nurses’ Strike — On Saturday, the 20th day of the strike, however, there were signs that the two sides were looking for a path forward. The hospitals and the union presented revised proposals and issued statements that sounded less antagonistic than before. “We streamlined and revised our proposals in an effort to bring hospital executives back to the table to negotiate in good faith and settle fair contracts as quickly as possible,” the nurses’ union, the New York State Nurses Association, said in a statement on Saturday.

LOCAL

► From the Seattle Times — Thousands decry ICE in rallies led by Seattle nurses, cyclists, teachers — While Swedish Hospital preoperative nurse Joanie Paskert didn’t know Alex Pretti, she feels connected to the 37-year-old intensive care nurse federal agents killed in Minneapolis last Saturday. “I might not have worked at the same facility as (Pretti), but that’s my co-worker,” she said. “That’s my brother. He’s one of us. So to hear that not only are the patients not safe, but we, who are called to take care of them, aren’t safe, it’s just enraging.” From a memorial bike ride in West Seattle, to a rally of health care workers at Harborview Medical Center, to another rally led by educators at Seattle Central College, to yet another led by tech workers at Cal Anderson Park, thousands took to the streets on Saturday to continue protesting President Donald Trump’s federal immigration crackdown.

► From KING 5 — Seattle VA union holds vigil for Alex Pretti  — A modest vigil honoring the life of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse at a Minneapolis VA hospital, took place late Sunday afternoon outside the Seattle Veteran Affairs Medical Center. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), a union representing over 820,000 federal employees, including VA workers, held the vigil. It was one of several demonsration the union put on across the country. “He was not a domestic terrorist as people have said at the national level. He was an American,” Alton McDonald, president of a local AFGE chapter. “We’re going to continue to keep Alex alive so that the American people will never forget what happened to him,” he said.

► From the Salem Reporter — U.S. citizen injured by federal agents in Salem who demanded to see “papers,” union says — A woman who’s a U.S. citizen needed medical help Thursday, Jan. 29, after federal agents pulled her from her car after demanding to see her “papers,” one of the state’s largest unions said Saturday. Service Employees International Union Local 503 said the woman, a union member, was driving to run errands when four agents stopped her on a Salem street…The woman, identified only as Maria, is a home care worker who had been on her way to pay rent and pick up a cake for her grandson’s birthday, SEIU said. The union declined to give her last name, citing her privacy, and a union spokeswoman did not immediately respond to questions for more information Saturday. Maria feared for her life during the incident, according to union statements, as she has severe asthma and worried about getting tear gassed.

► From OPB — Federal officers’ use of tear gas on protesters, children in Portland set to go before a judge — Both weekend incidents were cited in legal filings submitted Sunday night on behalf of protesters represented by the ACLU of Oregon and other lawyers. Their lawsuit asks U.S. District Court Judge Michael Simon for measures that limit the response by federal agents who have used “excessive force on peaceful protesters at and around the ICE Building.” In its filing late Sunday, the ACLU told Simon that the events at the ICE facility this weekend “follows the same pattern of retaliatory force” that protesters initially described when asking for a temporary restraining order.

► From KOIN — Legacy Emanuel Medical Center sends cease-and-desist to Oregon Nurses Association over ICE concerns — In response to the cease-and-desist letter, a spokesperson for ONA said, “Since late September, nurses represented by the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) have reported that ICE and CBP agents were bringing detainees into Legacy Emanuel Medical Center. Nurses consistently raised concerns that these agents were not following hospital protocols and reported these violations through the appropriate internal channels at Legacy. Despite these reports, nurses saw no meaningful accountability or corrective action.”…ONA also disputed LEMC’s claim about the union’s willingness to meet with LEMC representatives, claiming, “After months without resolution, ONA formally requested a meeting with Legacy leadership to address these issues and propose solutions. On December 10, ONA sent a detailed letter outlining nurses’ concerns and the risks posed to patient safety, privacy, and ethical care.”

► From the Seattle Times — Amazon lays off almost 2,200 Seattle-area employees — Amazon’s local layoffs last week add to the thousands of tech jobs lost in the past year from Seattle-area companies like Microsoft as well as those with large hubs in the region like Meta. Altogether, tech companies have laid off almost 9,800 Washington-based workers since January 2025. That includes 393 employees let go from T-Mobile on Monday, according to a state regulatory filing.

AEROSPACE

► From the Seattle Times — Boeing’s WA employment fell nearly 4% in 2025, while total head count grew — Still, Friday’s data indicates that the job cuts were not nearly as deep as the company had originally warned, and that it has already begun to rebuild. In the fall of 2024, Boeing said it expected to cut 10% of its workforce, or about 17,000 people. But, from the end of 2024 to the end of 2025, its workforce, before factoring in the Spirit acquisition, decreased by less than 7,500 people.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From ESPN — WNBA, players’ union to meet in person Monday to discuss CBA — “I think we’ll learn a lot from this meeting,” Plum said from Philadelphia, where she is participating in a tour stop for the 3-on-3 Unrivaled league. “This is a meeting that, I think, everyone understands what’s at stake, timeline-wise.” Plum, the first vice president of the players’ union, estimated that there has not been an in-person meeting between the league and players since the WNBA playoffs last fall.

NATIONAL

► From People’s World — One year on, Target boycott enters new stage: Opposing ICE — Target stores in the Twin Cities have recently been used as staging grounds for ICE raids, which led to a revived effort from Armstrong and Doty, alongside CAIR-Minnesota and Unidos Minnesota, to boycott all Target stores until the raids end. What began as a struggle against a big corporation that caved to Trump on DEI and racism is joining forces with those fighting Trump’s fascist immigration policy. It’s a development with the potential to deepen theh alliance among Black, Latino, and immigrant communities and set the stage for widening the entire coalition resisting the MAGA agenda.

Editor’s note: MLK Labor endorsed a Seattle action at the Target store downtown in solidarity with the MN labor movement. 

► From CBS News — Judge denies Minnesota’s request to stop Operation Metro Surge — A federal judge denied Minnesota’s lawsuit to halt Operation Metro Surge Saturday morning. The judge stated in court documents that Minnesota had not met their burden of proof. “Because there is evidence supporting both sides’ arguments as to motivation and the relative merits of each side’s competing positions are unclear, the Court is reluctant to find that the likelihood-of-success factor weighs sufficiently in favor of granting a preliminary injunction,” the judge said in the ruling

► From the BBC — Boy, 5, and father detained by ICE return to Minnesota after release — Their return home came after US District Judge Fred Biery granted an emergency request from the family’s lawyer and ordered their release on Saturday. The judge condemned their detention as driven by a “perfidious lust for unbridled power”. “The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatising children,” Biery wrote in his ruling.

► From LA Magazine — Waymo Under Federal Investigation After Child Hit Near Santa Monica Elementary School — Federal safety regulators are investigating Waymo after one of the company’s driverless vehicles struck a child, who sustained minor injuries, near Grant Elementary School in Santa Monica during morning drop-off on Jan. 23. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is now reviewing the incident as scrutiny grows around how autonomous vehicles operate in school-zone conditions.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the AP — Speaker Johnson faces tough choices on partial government shutdown and debate over ICE — Johnson signaled he is relying on help from President Donald Trump to ensure passage. Trump struck a deal with senators to separate funding for the Department of Homeland Security from a broader package after public outrage over two shooting deaths during protests in Minneapolis against Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Under the plan approved by the Senate, DHS would be funded temporarily to Feb. 13, setting up a deadline for Congress to try to find consensus on new restrictions on ICE operations.

► From Bloomberg Law — Widespread Layoffs Reemerge as Threat for Federal Worker Unions — The end of a moratorium blocking the Trump administration from mass firing federal workers exposes legal obstacles for public-sector labor unions trying to stop further layoffs. The prohibition, negotiated as part of the November funding deal that ended the last government shutdown, prevented federal agencies from issuing any reductions-in-force through Friday. Its expiration, coinciding with ongoing funding fights, puts public-sector unions representing federal workers in a bind.

► From Newsweek — More Than 10,000 FAA Workers Face Being Furloughed This Week — Under the plan, which was dated January 29, 10,552 FAA employees would be furloughed while 13,835 air traffic controllers (ATC) would not receive pay, according to the DOT document. As previously reported by Newsweek, agencies affected by the partial government shutdown include the Departments of Defense, Education, Financial Services, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, and Transportation.

► From the New York Times — The Effects of Tariffs, One Year Into Trump’s Trade Experiment — These new surcharges have had a significant impact. They have caused businesses to speed up, delay and cancel purchases, or find new countries to source products from. They have raised a significant amount of revenue for the government, much of it from American businesses. And they have caused the U.S. trade deficit to shrink and prices of American goods to rise. At the same time, they have not yet been the panacea for the factory sector that Mr. Trump had promised. Here are some of the effects.

► From the AP — Texas stunner: Democrat Taylor Rehmet flips Republican state Senate district Trump won by 17 points — Democrat Taylor Rehmet flipped a reliably Republican state Senate district in Texas in Saturday’s special election, continuing a string of surprise victories for Democrats across the U.S. in the year since Donald Trump returned to the White House…Wambsganss was easily trounced in the Fort Worth-area district by Rehmet, a labor union leader and veteran, for a partial term ending in early January. With almost all votes counted, Rehmet was leading by more than 14 percentage points…The showings come as Trump’s approval ratings with the public hold steady at around 40%. A January AP-NORC poll found that a majority of U.S. adults disapprove of the way he’s handling foreign policy, trade negotiations and immigration, as well as the economy.

The Stand posts links to local, national and international labor news every weekday morning. Subscribe to get daily news in your inbox.