NEWS ROUNDUP
Tradeswomen | Multicare strike | AI in PNW news
Wednesday, February 4, 2026
STRIKES
► From 509 News:
► From the New York Times — Nurses Face Horrific Violence at Work. We’re Striking to Change That. — More than 80 percent of nurses experience workplace violence each year, according to one industry survey. The rate of violent incidents is reportedly increasing, too. Almost all of these assaults are perpetrated by patients, though patients’ family members can also threaten our safety. People don’t realize that hospitals are increasingly dangerous places to work in. Because nurses spend more time than anyone else with patients, we often get the brunt of their anger with the health care industry, lack of adequate services and long wait times.
LOCAL
► From the Tri-City Herald — Franklin Co. must pay $55K, allow Teamsters union access to jailers — Franklin County and the union representing its jailers have reached another settlement in a dispute that began nearly six years ago. The county will pay about $55,000 in attorneys fees to the union and agree to a series of steps to ensure representatives are able to meet with corrections officers as allowed by state labor laws…“The mere suggestion that the Teamsters could have asked to meet with employees on-site and that the County would have graciously granted permission distorts the reality of the relationship between the Sheriff and the Teamsters,” the PERC decision said. The commission upheld an earlier determination that found that the sheriff’s office and the county disrupted the conditions for a fair election, unlawfully assisted the FOP in its bid to take over for the Teamsters and interfered with employees’ rights to freely select their collective bargaining representative.
► From OPB — Judge limits federal officers’ use of crowd control munitions at Portland ICE building — The decision Tuesday applies only outside the federal facility in Portland. U.S. District Court Judge Michael Simon’s ruling blocks federal officers from using “chemical or projectile munitions,” including pepper balls, tear gas and other crowd control munitions “unless the specific target of such a weapon or device poses an imminent threat of physical harm to a law enforcement officer or other person.”
► From NBC Nonstop Local — Kennewick educators to rally for school levy support — Members of the Kennewick Association of Educational Support Personnel (KAESP) and the Kennewick Education Association (KEA) will gather on Thursday, February 5, to rally support for the Kennewick School District’s replacement levies. The sign-waving event will be held along Columbia Center Boulevard and Rio Grande Avenue from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Participants will encourage voters to support the two replacement levies that fund essential educational services and operations across the district.
CONTRACT FIGHTS
► From NW Public Broadcasting — McClatchy is using AI content on Northwest news sites. Its reporters are trying to put up guardrails — Washington and Idaho journalists who work for newspapers owned by McClatchy Media are negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement. One of their biggest priorities is how the company uses artificial intelligence. That’s because McClatchy has been using AI for content generation. “ We can’t stop AI from happening, and we can’t stop the company from trying to use it, but we can ensure that it’s done in a fair and ethical way that aligns with our journalistic integrity,” said Kristine Sherred, the food reporter for the Tacoma News Tribune and co-chair of the Washington State NewsGuild. That’s the union that represents journalists who work for McClatchy-owned papers in Washington.
► From the Seattle Times — Seattle Children’s nurses ratify new 3-year contract, avoiding strike — Kara Yates, who’s worked at Children’s for 16 years and served on the WSNA bargaining committee, said she felt “overwhelming relief and excitement” this week. “This is a great contract,” Yates said. “We achieved a lot through this process and it was incredibly difficult and took a ton of work, but we did finally get to something that I’m really proud of.” Negotiations took about three times longer than they did during the last round of bargaining, which ended in the fall of 2022 after 12 sessions, Yates said. This time around, it took about nine months and 36 bargaining sessions — and a strike authorization vote, she said. “It was the first time in Seattle Children’s history we’ve ever had to do strike assessments (and) had a strike vote,” Yates said. “I think that really helped us kind of get things across the finish line.”
► From Deadline — Hearst Magazines Union Stages Series Of Walkouts After Failing To Reach Contract Deal — Unionized staffers at Hearst Magazines are taking to the streets for half-day walkouts today after a month of contract negotiations with management has failed to reach a deal. The WGA East-repped union has been working without a contract since Saturday, and Wednesday is the last scheduled day of bargaining talks.
ORGANIZING
► From the Northern Light — UA staff to vote on union representation — The Coalition of Alaska University Staff for Equity — or CAUSE — union representation vote will be held from March 18 through March 31, according to a news release from University of Alaska Human Resources on Jan. 23…“A strong turnout of YES votes for CAUSE-UAW will enable us to quickly certify our union and show we’re serious about bargaining for better working conditions,” according to the CAUSE website.
NATIONAL
► From NPR — Women in the Skilled Trades Face New Hurdles — President Trump has a vision for the American workforce. Forget expensive college educations. His eye is on the skilled trades. The U.S. Department of Labor has adopted the slogan “Make America Skilled Again.” But who gets to be part of this renaissance? Since the 1980s, women have made small but meaningful gains in the construction trades. Now there are concerns that President Trump’s campaign to end diversity, equity and inclusion will stall that progress — setting back both women and the construction industry.
► From the AP — Trump’s border czar pulling 700 immigration officers out of Minnesota immediately — About 700 federal officers — roughly a quarter of the total deployed to Minnesota — will be withdrawn immediately after state and local officials agreed over the past week to cooperate by turning over arrested immigrants, Homan said. But he did not provide a timeline for when the administration might end the operation that has become a flashpoint in the debate over President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts since the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
► From the Washington Post — Kennedy Center workers still in the dark as orchestra scouts other venues — None of the unions associated with the Kennedy Center — including the Actors’ Equity Association, the American Federation of Musicians, the American Guild of Musical Artists, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society — have heard from executives about the upcoming closure and how it would affect the center’s workers…That has left workers to be concerned about layoffs. “A pause in Kennedy Center operations without due regard for those who work there would be harmful for the arts and creative workers in America,” the Kennedy Center Arts Workers United, an umbrella group that includes the various unions active at the center, said in a statement to The Post.
► From NPR — Bezos orders deep job cuts at ‘Washington Post’ — “This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations,” former Executive Editor Marty Baron said in a statement Wednesday. “The Washington Post‘s ambitions will be sharply diminished, its talented and brave staff will be further depleted, and the public will be denied the ground-level, fact-based reporting in our communities and around the world that is needed more than ever.”
► From the Washington Post Guild:
— Washington Post Guild (@PostGuild) February 4, 2026
POLITICS & POLICY
► From the AP — Trump signs bill to end the partial government shutdown — The vote Tuesday wrapped up congressional work on 11 annual appropriations bills that fund government agencies and programs through Sept. 30. Passage of the legislation marked the end point for one funding fight, but the start of another. That’s because the package only funds the Department of Homeland Security for two weeks, through Feb 13, at the behest of Democrats who are demanding more restrictions on immigration enforcement after the shooting deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal officers in Minneapolis…House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries quickly warned Democrats would not support any further temporary funding for Homeland Security without substantial changes to its immigration operations., raising the potential of another shutdown for the department and its agencies.
► From the New York Times — Congress Reins In Drug Middlemen in Effort to Lower Prescription Prices — The spending package passed by Congress on Tuesday includes an effort to drive down drug prices, by imposing new restrictions on some of the most controversial practices of the giant companies that oversee prescription benefits. The legislation represents a significant political defeat for the companies, known as pharmacy benefit managers, or P.B.M.s, which for years had largely escaped public attention, regulation and oversight. And it represents a win for drugmakers, which have long lobbied to deflect blame for high drug prices toward the P.B.M.s.
► From the Guardian — ‘Our family feels deep distress’: Renee Good’s brothers plead for Democrats’ help at hearing — With Republicans conspicuously absent, the forum of senators and representatives heard from Luke and Brent Ganger, the brothers of Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three who was shot dead by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minneapolis on 7 January as she tried to drive away from agents. Luke Ganger said he and his brother were there “to ask for your help” and suggested the sense of loss his family felt had been deepened by subsequent events in Minneapolis, where Alex Pretti, also aged 37, was shot dead by two border patrol agents on 24 January. “The deep distress our family feels at Renee’s loss in such a violent and unnecessary way is complicated by feelings of disbelief, distress and desperation,” he said.
► From the Seattle Times — OPINION: Pro: Income tax would fix WA’s broken, unfair system — It’s painfully clear too many Washingtonians are struggling to make ends meet, and our broken tax structure is failing to keep up with the needs of working families. Washington families with income in the bottom 20% pay 13.8% of their total income in taxes, while those with income in the top 1% pay only 4.1%. Only Florida has a tax structure that favors the rich more.
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